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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Father Forgive Us - For We have ALEC Sinned

The question has arisen multiple times across tweetdom lately

Do we forgive someone after they spent time or money doing the evil deeds of the American Legislative Exchange Council?
If a legislators drops ALEC - do they get to repent?
If a corporation quits in 2012 - does that automatically wipe clean the slate of  financial support they have given to ALEC - financial support that got us to where we are today in relation to the evilness of ALEC.

The topic came up again today in a tweet roll.



Stace Nelson was elected in 2010.

Stace Nelson was not just a run of the mill ALEC member - he was a task force member on the Civil Justice Task Force in 2011 .

The Madville Times notes in 2013:
Rep. Nelson appears on Sourcewatch's list of ALEC-affiliated South Dakota politicians. Rep. Nelson did indeed join ALEC during his freshman term in 2011, as he says is expected by leadership of their rookie legislators. After his first year of Pierre rough-and-tumble opened his eyes to the crony-capitalist machinations of ALEC and the SDGOP, Nelson says he canceled his ALEC membership and did not re-up after his 2012 re-election. He says he has discouraged others from joining ALEC.
Forced to join.  Something like my ten year old use to say - back in the day - "They made me do it"
Really?

Well - Mr. Nelson wants you to review his record and his reputation and forget about the ALEC stuff - cause he was forced to do that, because of peer pressure.
Nelson describes himself as "probably the most conservative elected official in the state of South Dakota, and...probably the least partisan."  
Source:  His wiki page
The most conservative elected official in SD - does not belong to ALEC, the most conservative political organization in the United States.

My skepticism of ALEC members (past and present) makes me ask the question - Did he quit ALEC  before or after he decided to run for US Senate?

If a legislators drops ALEC - do they get to repent?

Mr. Nelson wants you to review his record and his reputation and forget about the ALEC

If a legislators drops ALEC - do they get to repent?
Each person will have their own response to that

But
Mine is
    NO!
    As long as they keep the ALEC secrets, secret - they are still aiding and abetting ALEC.

    Maybe - if
    They come clean - in public - about their involvement with ALEC and why they
    quit and why others should quit - - - - publicly - - - -
    then maybe.
    If they are willing to bring ALEC out of the shadows - then maybe.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Best Practices of ALEC Legislators

ALEC legislators are always telling the press they get together to share best practices.

ALEC BEST PRACTICES - just a few
  • financial de-regulation
  • privatization of government goods and services
  • sale of government lands and buildings to corporations
  • the elimination of unions
  • privatization of public pensions
  • the disenfranchising of student voters
  • the disenfranchising of senior citizens voters
  • the disenfranchising of minorities voters
  • the elimination of the minimum wage
  • the elimination of a living wage
  • the elimination of pay equity
  • promoting climate change denial
  • de-regulation related to fossil fuel industries 
  • de-regulation of telecommunications industries
  • Kill at Will, Shoot First
  • denying healthcare benefits
  • removing the rights of women to determine their own healthcare
  • the destruction of public schools
  • the merger of state and corporate power
The nastiness of the ultra-conservative, pro-corporate, extremist American Legislative Exchange Council policies can not be emphasized enough.

ALEC legislators are always saying they get together to share best practices - which includes
  • not representing the living, breathing, bleeding homo sapiens who actually vote with their hearts and hopes and pay ALEC legislators salaries with their hard-earned taxpayer dollars

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Better Life Thru Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals

Got out of the house and away from the computer for a bit, the last couple of weeks- and I was amazed at what I've repeatedly heard and thought I would expound on it a bit.

Did you know that 70% of Americans take at least one pharmaceutical per day?
This absolutely astounds me.

When I was little I lived on a farm - we were dirt poor - farm dirt poor.  We had an outhouse, brought our water to use in the house from a pump out by the barn - heated our water for use in a special container that was built onto the wood stove we used for cooking.  People died every year when I was a kid - family, neighbors - whomever - from "natural causes".  Everyone around us were dirt poor farmers and we didn't go to the doctor - until you were dying and then the doctor came to the house, to tell you they were dying.  Most all of my aunts and uncle died of "natural causes".
That being said - I don't understand people's obsession with doctors and drugs.
What I'm about to write may be interpreted as judgmental - it's not meant to be - that's not the focus or the intent.  I honestly and truly can not understand people's obsession with doctors and drugs.
Most days at work, can't stand to go into the breakroom just to socialize - all they talk about is their illnesses, their medical tests and the medications they are on.

Our society has bought into the drug company ads and the societal pressure - Better Life Thru Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals

Couple of examples.
Drugs vs talk therapy and learning new coping skills
About ten years ago I had a friend who was having horrible marital problems.  Caused her to be depressed.  Instead of dealing with the marital problems to get rid of the depression - she went on anti-depressants.  That didn't work as the marriage didn't improve - so eventually she ended up in the hospital for shock treatment to fry her brain into thinking her marriage was okay.  I have no idea what happened after that - cause I literally could not deal with what had transpired and didn't see or talk with them again. 
Surgery is the answer
I have a friend who had horrible back issues awhile ago.  After many months of MRIs and neurological exams - many months - it was decided that they would have surgery on their back.  I did research on the internet about back fusion surgery and begged them repeatedly - Please go to a chiropractor - see if that would help - you will lose nothing cause you have the surgery scheduled.  They wouldn't go to the chiropractor - had the surgery and now almost two years later the pain from the back surgery is so bad on a daily basis that even pain meds can't help them - because they can't function on the pain meds (and they need to function!).  Again - I am begging them - please go see an acupuncturist to see if they can help you manage the pain - and they won't listen.  I worry every day that the stress from that pain will kill them with a heart attack or stroke. 
Being so Busy it makes you sick
I have a friend who has two kids.  Their schedules after school and on weekends are insane.  And they are sick, all the time.  Rather than re-scheduling their life to include "down time" for rest and recuperation - they just keep pushing themselves and pushing themselves.  Always sick - always at the doctor, always on some type of medication. 
Allergies and Medication
I have allergies - bother me in the spring and fall.  Many years ago I was introduced to netty pots and now I simplify that with a saline nasal spray.  I manage my allergies with this simple process and I don't suffer any longer than other people I know who are medications for their allergies ( which by the way, don't provide 100% relief anyway). I often recommend to people that they try a saline nasal spray to alleviate some of the annoying allergy issues - they won't listen.   They would rather take meds and spray chemicals up their nose.
Drugs vs Life Style Change
Can't tell you how many people I know who take medications for high blood pressure, cholesterol and other types of these kinds of diseases - rather than going for a daily walk, changing their diet, going to a massage therapist or taking a meditation class.
The most recent example has been a friend who recently found out they are in the early stages of arthritis. Suggested they see an acupuncturist to see if they could manage and slow down the symptoms (wish I could have told them to lose some weight but I'm not one to say something like that out loud).  But no - next thing I know I'm hearing about cortisone shots and regular visits to some type of specialist. 
The last one
I saw a woman in the grocery store one day with the most beautiful healthy platinum silver hair I had every seen.  I walked up to her and complimented her on her hair.   About fifteen minutes later the woman sought me out and asked me if I had been "forced" to let my hair go silver and I told her no - it was a personal choice.  She told me a story about how she had started to lose her hair from  the chemicals used to color it - so she quit coloring it and now her family was asking her to start coloring her hair again - cause her beautiful platinum silver hair - made her look older.

Some people who have bought into the chemicals and pharmaceuticals for better living are pretty pissed off at me right now - that's not the purpose of this entry.
The purpose is to question "a better life thru chemicals and pharmaceuticals" - are there other things you can do - that can help other than chemicals and pharmaceuticals?
The other question in why aren't people doing this?

May sound judgmental - not meant to be - that's not the focus or the intent.
I just don't understand why people choose to do this to themselves, really I don't.
I simply do not understand why people believe that drugs and chemicals are the best answer.
And one day - I will die of natural causes and I'm okay with that.

Did you know that 70% of Americans take at least one pharmaceutical per day?
This absolutely astounds me.
Our society has bought into the drug company ads and the societal pressure - Better Life Thru Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals







Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Are ALEC Corporations Really That Damn Dumb?

ALEC corporate members never cease to amaze me.
ALEC corporations may have all the money in the United States - it's evident that they don't have all the smarts.
It's evident that none of them took a logic class in college.
It's evident that they never learned that if A is B and B is C then A is C.

They argue that the money that they give to ALEC - has a specific use - bullshit.
There is no special bank account that ALEC corporate member money goes into - to fund only this or only that.
The money that ALEC corporate members give to ALEC go into one a general fund - THAT FUNDS EVERYTHING ALEC does.

Most recent case in point:
Microsoft


Bernard argued that Microsoft’s membership in ALEC “is not an endorsement” of the group’s anti-environmental agenda:


Did Microsoft get a special contract with ALEC that says that the money Microsoft gives to ALEC will not be used for climate denial legislation - Hell No!

If corporations are going to give money to ALEC - they are part and parcel of EVERY piece of nastiness that comes out of ALEC.
Corporations that fund ALEC can not say that they don't support something ALEC is doing - when all the money ALEC receives funds everything that ALEC does.

It's kinda like saying

Our membership in the KKK “is not an endorsement” of the group’s agenda:

Bullshit!

Corporations need to distant themselves from the extremist policies of the American Legislative Exchange Council.  Defunding ALEC is the only way to do that.

It's time for ALEC corporations to give up the gravy train to ALEC state legislators for the purpose of introducing pro-corporate legislation, written by corporate lawyers, that intentionally manipulates the "free market".

Corporations must DUMP ALEC!
 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

ALEC Legislators Should be Canned!

Well, folks - we gotta real problem and unless you get vocal - like everything associated with ALEC - this issue- will spread from state to state to state to state.

The Center for Media and democracy has requested ALEC documents from multiple ALEC legislators across the US and in two states - WI and TX - the attorney general in those states is saying that the documents that ALEC legislators receive from ALEC are private and privileged.

Problem folks - big problem here - HUGE!
ALEC is really putting on the secretive - hiding - mentality here.
If that doesn't tell you that ALEC is a real problem in our country - then you should quit making believe you are politically savvy.

The documents received by ALEC legislators are directly relate to the job they do - AS YOUR LEGISLATOR.
Thus the documents - every single one - should be available to you or anyone else who requests them - because the documents are being used by ALEC legislators to do their job.
The job that YOU pay for with YOUR taxpayer dollars.

Let's see:
You go to work one day and your boss asks you for the documents that support a contract you are negotiating.
You say - No. that's private and privileged.
YOU get canned.

You got to work and your boss asks you for the blueprints you used to manufacture a specific part.
You say - No. that's private and privileged.
YOU get canned.

YOU work for your boss - your boss rents your body and mind by paying you a salary and everything you do in relation to your job - belongs to YOUR BOSS.

ALEC legislators work for YOU - YOU rent their body and mind by paying them a salary and everything an ALEC legislator do in relation to your job - belongs to YOU.

ALEC legislators are telling THE PEOPLE that they now longer report to THE PEOPLE
ALEC legislators are telling THE PEOPLE that they report to ALEC. 
- - - IT IS TIME FOR ALEC LEGISLATORS TO BE REMOVED FROM PUBLIC OFFICE.

Legislators who belong to the secretive and private American Legislative Exchange Council they should no longer be allowed to be PUBLIC servants.

ALEC does not pay the salaries of the ALEC legislators
- TAX dollars pay their ALEC legislators salaries
- and if legislators of the American Legislative Exchange Council don't want to report to the public
- they should be canned.

ALEC is really putting on the secretive - hiding - mentality here.
What is ALEC hiding.
Be afraid American - be very afraid!







Thursday, September 12, 2013

Koch's Continue their Path to Destroy Democracy in America

Well the Koch brothers aren't done scsrewing around with America - yet.

They started another new nonprofit - that is funding all kinds of crap.

And they wonder why American hates them.

The members of this new venture want to
Short says his members are “concerned that the nation that they grew up in and that their businesses have flourished in will not be there for their children and grandchildren,” and are “committed to trying to restore what they view are free markets in a free society in America.”

Interesting approach - since whoever belongs to this NEVER had a view of freemarkets - that would need to be restored.
And by the way - the only free-market society - that actually did kinda exist during these a$$hole$ lifetime - was under the dictatorship of Pinochet in Chile' and that didn't work so well for the Chilean people.
AND
Interesting approach - since it is the movements of these RW a$$holes$ that has cause the predicament that we are in that is threatening their kids and grandkids.  Interesting how they are blind to the problems they create
AND
cretae a new nonprofit to create more problems
for EVERYBODY'S kids and grandkids.

Now I get an instant 100 hits - from the Koch Brothers data mining companies.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Corporate Article Proves Why ALEC Must Be Destroyed.



First let start with the author of this whiny article in Forbes:
Tiger Joyce is president of the American Tort Reform Association, based in Washington, D.C.
The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) – an ALEC member – is behind the ALEC legislation that intentionally takes consumer rights away from you in litigation – because they think you are lying and you are milking the system if you sue an ALEC corporation for cheating, maiming or killing you.

The American Tort Reform Association is a major component behind ALEC tort reform legislation that protects corporate revenues/profits - malicious ALEC legislation that takes away the rights of citizens to recourse when ALEC corporations screw them.

That being said I want to pull a couple of sentences from the Forbes whiny article - ALEC members still incessantly whining - six weeks after the Durbin letter was written.

When CORPORATIONS are stepping forward to defend ALEC for SIX WEEKS and legislators ARE NOT - there is a HUGE problem in our system.


There they go again in the title – defending ALEC’s free speech rights while ALEC intentionally and maliciously tries to strip those 1st amendment rights from activists – through ALEC ag-gag laws and the current expanded iterations of Ag-Gag law.

The American Tort Reform Association  has NO qualms about introducing or supporting ALEC legislation distributed that takes away YOUR rights - but BY GOD, their rights are sacred and the rights of ALEC are sacred.

Then, next in the article
you have two photos
– one of Durbin
– one of Joe McCarthy.

Side by side - how incredibly intolerant and disgusting!

Maybe it’s time to start putting a picture of Mussolini or Pinochet in every article we write about ALEC.
Famous fascist and famous free-market dictator  - as symbols of ALEC.

LIMITED SNIPS 
Though ALEC dropped from its lengthy list of model state legislation more than a year ago a controversial stand-your-ground bill, Durbin’s August 6 letter nonetheless demanded to know whether recipients “support ‘stand your ground’ legislation” and if they “served as a member of ALEC or provided any funding to ALEC in 2013.” 
Her reasoning, that because ALEC can now backed away from the fact that ALEC proliferated Stand Your Ground across the US – using ALEC legislators –
THAT NOW – they can claim, no harm,no foul is spurious at best.
The death of Trayvon Martin, AND OTHERS due to Stand Your Ground (SYG) – makes the proliferation of Stand Your Ground bills – by ALEC legislators -Harmful and Foul!
ALEC CAN NEVER back away from their responsibility in this issue - ALEC educated ALEC legislators  - how to carry it back to their state and introduce it - on how to sell SYG on the floor of the statehouse - and repeatedly tells their legislators, the ALEC office staff will help you with ALEC legislation.

The organizations who finance ALEC and were there at the ALEC meetings - listening to the NRA - hearing people talk about Stand Your Ground - can not now put their fingers in their ears, now and go la-la-la-la-la-la-lal.  
ALEC corporations that were at ALEC meetings where this horrific , murderous bill allowing people to randomly kill other people based on perceived threat – ARE EQUALLY TO BLAME – they paid for this legislation to happen, by funding ALEC.

As a letter recipient, I’m hard-pressed to disagree with these editorial characterizations of Durbin’s motives, especially since a cursory review of ATRA’s website makes clear that our agenda exclusively comprises issues of civil, not criminal law. 
CIVIL LAW - ATRA is behind the ALEC legislation that intentionally takes consumer rights away from you in litigation – because they think you are lying and you are milking the system if you sue an ALEC corporation for cheating, maiming or killing you.
Durbin summons not-so-faint echoes of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy,
And ALEC summons not so faint echoes of the late Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini champion of fascism, as dictator and Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, champion of imposing the free-market concept onto Chile, as dictator.
Meanwhile, ATRA will continue to work with ALEC and countless additional allies to advance our civil justice reform agenda in the states. 
CIVIL JUSTICE REFORM – ATRA is behind the ALEC legislation that intentionally takes consumer rights away from you in litigation – because they think you are lying and you are milking the system if you sue an ALEC corporation for cheating, maiming or killing you
In any case, rather than trying to undermine and silence with implicit threats those advocating policies he disagrees with, Mr. Durbin should welcome robust debate on the important issues of the day. 
WHY?
You hypocrite!
ALEC DOESN’T.
I'm assuming you want Drubin to do this publicly
- OR
 do you want Durbin to come within the secret confines of a private ALEC meeting for this robust debate - behind closed doors?

There is NOTHING public about what ALEC does in relation to policy.
Hypocrite!

There's no robust public debate when it comes to lobbyists meeting behind closed doors with ALEC legislators.
In fact - ALEC intentionally eliminates robust debate by limiting the reporting that is done on ALEC meetings.

ALEC (and its members) want openness, transparency and robust debate from others - but ALEC does not have to apply the same standards to its behavior and neither do their members.
Hypocrites!

There is no robust public debate when ALEC legislation is introduced - cause the public does not KNOW it is ALEC legislation.

Everything ALEC does, in relation to advocating policies, is done behind closed doors, in secret. 

Not only that – ALEC legislators do NOT acknowledge when they are sponsoring or introducing ALEC legislation in part or in whole – because they KNOW ALEC LEGISLATION IS THE WRONG thing to do to their constituents.!

Almost every ALEC member hides their membership – because of shame or guilt felt through their association with ALEC.

Tiger Joyce – don’t talk about open dialogue, when your precious ALEC undermines the democracy of the United States through secrecy and implicit threats against the citizens of the United States through the pro-corporate, anti-citizen legislation manufactured at ALEC.

Tiger Joyce – don’t talk about the threat to ALECs 1st Amendment rights - when the organization that you support is trying to take those same 1st amendment rights away from citizens.

Another corporate example of why 
ALEC needs to be DESTROYED!
Because the corporations come to ALECs defense
because the corporations can not even imagine 
how they would further their agendas 
without ALEC's help.

When corporations repeatedly come to the defense of the pro-corporate, extremist right wing American Legislative Exchange Council - this is a warning to citizens that what happens at ALEC is NOT in the best interests of the United States or it human citizenry.


Sunday, September 1, 2013

Just my two cents - since they monitor any site with this name

David Koch: Attacking Syria Would Be 'Dead Wrong'

 

Who gives a damn what David Koch thinks.

He hasn't been elected by anyone.

He even lost a presidential bid with all his money.

David Koch is a rich old megalomaniac narcissistic anti-democracy jack@$$ and that's all.