Bettencourt (NH-R) Resigns - He LIED

From the ALEC Rich States Poor States Report 2011

Whichever state eliminates its income tax

first will send a blaring message to the rest of the

country: Our state is open for business.

State corporate income

taxes are low hanging fruit for tax reformers

looking to make a bold statement and declare

their states open for business.

Who can forget this ALEC Alum standing behind his ALEC Profit Sector Sign?

Or ALEC Member Brian Bosma in Indiana when he said this:

"This announces, especially in the Rust Belt, that we are open for business here," Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said of the right-to-work proposal that would ban unions from collecting mandatory representation fees from workers.

Or Arizona ALEC Alum – Jan Brewer telling her folks

“Together, just like last year, let’s continue to lower taxes, to cut regulation and tell all employers that Arizona means business,” Brewer said to applause from the Republican-led Legislature. “Arizona is open for business.”

Or ALEC ALUM and person who was “involved with ALEC in its formative years of ALEC”  John Kasich of Ohio

Kasich pointed out that “four different companies changed their minds about leaving the state.    …   But the business community here knows things are beginning to change and that the Kasich administration gets it.  We’re open for business now.”

Then there is the story of DJ Bettencourt of New Hampshire

Can’t prove he is ALEC – yet

“We passed dozens of pieces of legislation that will keep the ‘Open for Business’ sign up in New Hampshire,” Bettencourt said.

Coincidence - probably not!

And then you have this report:

New Hampshire State House Introduces a Shocking 7 ALEC Corporate-Written Pieces of Legislation in One Week Alone

HB 1607 "Education Tax Credit"

SPONSORS: Rep. Bettencourt,

HB 1560 Health Care Compact

SPONSORS: Rep. Bettencourt,

SB 372 "Education Tax Credits"

SPONSORS:; Rep. Bettencourt,

Coincidence - probably not! 

 And then you have these Tweets from Bettencourt:

Source: MiscellanyBlue

Coincidence - probably not! 

Wouldn’t you agree if it walks like a duck – quacks like a duck –

It is probably a duck???????

Can’t prove he is ALEC – yet

Maybe we won’t have to –

Bettencourt resigns amid law school scandal

Majority leader admits to misrepresenting himself to UNH law school

SNIPS (my emphasis)

The announcement comes after state Rep. Brandon Guida called on Bettencourt to resign immediately -- alleging that Bettencourt had fabricated law school internship reports he needed to graduate. Giuda said he agreed Bettencourt could do an externship at his law office, but said Bettencourt only showed up once and performed only about an hour of legal work

Guida said if Bettencourt did not resign, he would have gone public with documents he said show Bettencourt lied to officials at the University of New Hampshire law school.

"This is what I was praying for. I worked this whole week to do it, and in fact, at 1 this morning, I emailed him and laid it out again," Guida said.

According to Guida, Bettencourt approached him and asked for help to complete his graduation requirements for law school.

The representative said he later learned that Bettencourt lied on the documents he gave the school. He said Bettencourt submitted 11 weeks of detailed reports to UNH School of Law and had never done the work, only showing up in his office once.

Liars – Liars – Liars

Secrets – Secrets – Secrets

Arthur Laffer and His Laffable Statistics for ALEC

This morning in the Tennessean – you will find an article on ALEC’s beloved Arthur Laffer - "author of annual ALEC “Rich States, Poor States” report, which features the ALEC/Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index".

For the most part – even though it is skewed in it’s reporting – the article is informative – although wrong in the fact that it spends more time praising Laffer than investigating Laffer.

The Tennesean put this article in their "business section" - I would put it in the "laffable section".

But then – that is what today’s citizen journalist is supposed to do - investigate, show both sides of the story – even when we don’t get paid for it.

You can read the whole thing if you like  >>>HERE<<<

But the interesting part of the article that I found was how ALEC ALUMNI bring in Laffer through the back door – to destroy their states in an ALEC-supported type of way.

Snips from the Tennesean (my emphasis): 

Politician's economist

Laffer’s return as the tax-cutting politicians’ favorite economist closely corresponds to  the tea party revolution that swept a wave of stridently fiscal conservative Republicans to power in statehouses nationwide in 2010.

Days after being elected, Florida Gov. Rick Scott named Laffer to a team of six economists who would help him devise his first budget. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback similarly hired Laffer to advise him as he worked to reduce that state’s income tax, a plan that Brownback signed into law last week.

Laffer also contributed papers and research for think tanks in Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Those papers have echoed his annual “Rich States, Poor States” report, which features the ALEC/Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index.

The index ranks states based on 15 policy variables. States with low taxes and business costs, small public sectors, little debt and laws that make it harder for workers to unionize rank the highest.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallon, a Republican, wrote the foreword to the latest edition. Brownback calls the report “required reading for governors.”

And by the way - Rich States Poor States is not HIS ANNUAL REPORT - it is the ANNUAL REPORT DISTRIBUTED BY ALEC.

Rich States, Poor States

ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index

© 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United

States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may

be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means,

or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior

permission of the publisher.

Published by

American Legislative Exchange Council

I really hate it when they use the phrase tea-party to refer to what happened in 2010.  What really happened is ALEC legislators got a strong foothold in our legislatures.  That is the real issue – not the pee tarty.

The article is not without criticism of Laffer – you will find one or two sentences of cirticism in what would probably be four or five pages type-written.

Among those limited statements is this.

But Carl Davis, a senior analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says Laffer’s research is hokum.

“People just like the idea of tax cuts,” Davis said. “A lot of it is his saying things that people want to hear.”

Davis – noted above is with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and has release multiple reports that debunk the ALEC-Laffer report (my emphasis).

Three New Critiques of Arthur Laffer’s Supply-Side Model Show Tax Cuts as Junk Economics

The reports analyze Laffer's underlying model that claims to show how his tax cutting proposals boost economic growth. The first takes on the misleading measures of economic health that Laffer uses and the second shows the distorted variables he includes in his regression analysis in looking at state income taxes. The third report breaks down Laffer's false claim that eliminating the estate tax can lead to job creation.

Too bad the reporter at the Tennessean didn’t bother to look a little bit deeper.

BUT like all reporters they are enthralled with the fact that they are sitting with a “nobility of our society” and forget about doing anything except reporting their encounter with greatness.

They wouldn’t have had to read the entire report at the  Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy either – Progressive States Network reported earlier this week:

Progressive States Network

For the fifth edition of their annual Rich States, Poor States report, the increasingly controversial corporate-backed group has once again partnered with notorious supply-side economist Arthur Laffer to rank the 50 states based on their “economic outlook.” To do so, ALEC once again uses a set of criteria intended, the authors write, to “highlight the policies that contribute to economic well-being in the 50 states.”

Yet one look at some of the criteria used to generate this survey reveals that ALEC largely values the “well-being” not of families or state economies, but of the very same corporate interests that fund ALEC.

For instance:

•Despite study after study showing that increasing the minimum wage provides an economic boost to state economies, ALEC and Laffer rank the state with the highest current minimum wage – Washington, at $9.04 – 50th out of 50 in one policy category comprising the rankings. States with no minimum wage laws at all share the number 1 spot.

•Analyses of the recovery continue to show state and local government job losses to be an unprecedented drag on the economy. Yet states including Maine, Alabama, and Pennsylvania that saw their legislatures turn in conservative directions in 2010, resulting in public sector jobs being slashed at a rate far outpacing the national average in 2011 (according to a recent report by the Roosevelt Institute), were rewarded by ALEC if those policies succeeded in decreasing the number of public sector jobs per capita.

•Indiana dropped from number 16 to number 24 in this year’s rankings. But Hoosier one-percenters need not fear. They are set to rebound, the authors predict, noting that Indiana did not “get the benefit of its corporate income tax reduction or right-to-work legislation as of this publication.” Once these newly enacted fiscally irresponsible, anti-worker policies are accounted for, Indiana is expected to “recover from its steep drop” this year – and be deemed “richer” for it by ALEC in 2013’s report.

So while the Tennesean is giving you a glowing biography of Laffer they are misleading you with their one-sided  reporting just like Laffer misleads you with his rigged and laffable numbers and statistics.

misleading measures of economic health that Laffer uses

and the second shows the distorted variables he includes in his regression analysis in looking at state income taxes.

The third report breaks down Laffer's false claim

Oh my…………………….
America - be careful what you believe when you are reading the paper.

Reports on nobility are not always well-reported.

ALEC - Drugs - Immunity from Liability

TV advertisements luring people in to use drugs just drive me nuts.
Let's get everyone to go to their doctor and say I need these or I want this.

I've written about the nasty side affects of some of them previously - as noted by the FDA.

The one that has been on TV the most lately that is driving me nuts is ABILIFY®

At the end of the ABILIFY® advertisement they spend at least more than a minute on the warnings of taking ABILIFY®- yet they are still advertising that you may need it.

If you go to ABILIFY®'s webpage - they are even offer a free trial.
A free trial of a drug that has the following serious side affects (my emphasis) - as noted on the Abilify webpage.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION:

Elderly people with psychosis related to dementia (for example, an inability to perform daily activities as a result of increased memory loss), , are at an increased risk of death compared to placebo.

Serious side effects may include:

·        •An increased risk of stroke and ministroke have been reported in clinical studies of elderly people with dementia-related psychosis

·        •High fever, stiff muscles, confusion, sweating, changes in pulse, heart rate and blood pressure may be signs of a condition called neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS), a rare and serious condition that can lead to death

·        •Increases in blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia) can happen in some people who take ABILIFY. Extremely high blood sugar can lead to coma or death. If you have diabetes, or risk factors (for example, obesity, family history of diabetes), or have the following symptoms: increases in thirst, urination, or hunger, feel weak or tired, sick to your stomach, or confused (or breath smells fruity), your blood sugar should be monitored

·        •Changes in cholesterol and triglyceride (fat, also called lipids) levels in the blood have been seen in patients taking medicines like ABILIFY

·        •Weight gain has been reported in patients taking medicines like ABILIFY so your weight should be checked regularly

·        •ABILIFY and medicines like it have been associated with difficulty swallowing which may lead to aspiration or choking

·        •Uncontrollable movements of face, tongue, or other parts of body, as these may be signs of a serious condition called tardive dyskinesia (TD). TD may not go away, even if you stop taking ABILIFY. TD may also start after you stop taking ABILIFY

·        •Orthostatic hypotension (decreased blood pressure) or lightheadedness or fainting when rising too quickly from a sitting or lying position has been reported with ABILIFY

·        •Decreases in white blood cells (WBC; infection fighting cells) have been reported in some patients taking ABILIFY. Patients with a history of a significant decrease in WBC count or who have experienced a low WBC count due to drug therapy should have their blood tested and monitored during the first few months of therapy

·        •Seizures (convulsions) have been reported with ABILIFY. Tell your healthcare provider if you have a history of or are at risk for seizures

·        •ABILIFY and medicines like it can affect your judgment, thinking, or motor skills. You should not drive or operate hazardous machinery until you know how ABILIFY affects you

·        •Medicines like ABILIFY can impact your body’s ability to reduce body temperature; you should avoid overheating and dehydration

·        •Tell your healthcare provider if you are pregnant or intend to become pregnant. Also tell your healthcare provider about any other medical conditions you have and about all prescription and non-prescription medicines you are taking or plan to take since there are some risks for drug interactions

While taking ABILIFY, avoid:

•Drinking alcohol

•Breast-feeding an infant

Most common side effects (≥10%) from all clinical trials involving adults:

•Nausea,

vomiting,

constipation,

headache,

dizziness,

an inner sense of restlessness or need to move (akathisia),

anxiety,

insomnia, and

restlessness

It is important to contact your healthcare provider if you experience prolonged, abnormal muscle spasms or contractions, which may be signs of a condition called dystonia.

Why does this bother me so much?

Bristol Myer knows these conditions exist - but because they don't affect a large enough percentage of their "clinical trial groups" - they figure that they can take the chance on 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 percent of the population taking ABILIFY® to have any one or multiple of these side affects.

AND
Because most of the companies that manufacture drugs - this one in particular - are members of the American Legislative Exchange council (ALEC).

What do they get from their membership in ALEC?
The ability to write laws that destroy consumer rights when a company does something that is heinous to the people who take their pharmaceuticals.

As of 2009 - Bristol Myers is confirmed as an ALEC member.
Their membership can be documented back as far as 1992.
For at least 20 years - Bristol Myers has been affecting legislation - that affects consumers - through their participation in ALEC.

They help wine and dine state legislators at fancy resort locations - and then Bristol Myer probably sits down at a table with the state legislators and suggests what should be written into legislation that takes away consumer protections against the very side affects that are listed above.

They help wine and dine state legislators at fancy resort locations - and then Brystol Myer probably sits down at another table with state legislators and suggests what should be written into that reforms tort law - so that if you are even able to get a case to court - you end up getting screwed anyway - because of the ALEC "model" legislation.

Evidence of this can be found in an excellent  new report by the CMD about ALEC’s Influence in Wisconsin where they document the following (my emphasis):

2011 Assembly Bill 13 and the ALEC Drug Liability Act

This bill would give drug and medical device manufacturers almost complete immunity from lawsuits based on strict liability if the product at issue were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and complied with FDA regulations, despite the fact that numerous FDA-approved drugs and devices are recalled each year after causing injury or death to Americans. The FDA approval process demonstrably and routinely fails to weed out dangerous products. The bill would prevent Wisconsin families from holding corporations accountable for prescription and over-the-counter drugs that kill or 22 seriously injure themselves or a parent, spouse, or child. The Wisconsin version of this bill goes further than ALEC’s “Drug Liability Act” by extending its bars against suits to injuries or death caused by medical devices. Last Action: Did not pass.

AND NOW
- ALEC members like Brystol Myers are trying to get legislation passed that will take away the ability of your state attorney general to file lawsuits against companies like Brystol Myers.

Directly from a 2009 ALEC State Factor Report entitled “The Impact of Federal & State Safety Regulations on Liability”

The key question for state legislators is: should decisions about the health and safety of patients in the state rest with a single plaintiff’s experience or the drug’s benefits to society as a whole?

Are you willing to let ALEC and their pharmaceutical profit sector members put your life, your parents lives, your spouses life, your childrens lives, on the line?

No?????
Well ALEC pharmaceutical profit sector members are willing to roll the dice
- and leave you with no legal recourse
- becausetheycan - through their ALEC membership.


For over 20 years
- ALEC has been looking out for their Corporate Profit Sector members
- because ALEC Corporate Profit Sector members pay 98% of ALEC's bills.


Tell me folks - who do you really think ALEC legislators work for?

ALEC - Who Gets Screwed?

And who do you think gets screwed?

Beard (MN-ALEC) Attends Oil Conference

The perfect storm:

High unemployment - people hurting

Oil companies - corporate greed

This leads to states and cities opening up their states to the unknown dangers of fracking because of the financial opportunities – to hell with the environmental issues.

Most of the time – most people associate fracking with gas exploration – but I think it’s important to bring this up also:

March 2, 2011

The technique called hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) that is increasingly being used to extract natural gas is drawing widespread attention, concern, and media coverage across the country. Next up: oil fracking.

As fracking for gas has proven successful from an industry perspective, companies extracting oil are jumping on the fracking bandwagon. Their method is very similar to that used for natural gas, and therefore may pose some of the same health and environmental risks.

 

The other thing that people think is that this fracking is necessary for the US Energy market.

WRONG.

A statement from an interview this week regarding the fracking in North Dakota (my emphasis):

He said North Dakota is a learning laboratory for oil development here and in other states.

 “What we need is pipeline to get oil to water so we can export it. People ask me which pipeline I support and I say I’m going to support all the pipelines to get rid of that differential,” Hamm said.

 

I’m guessing they aren’t talking about Lake Superior – so the nearest water to EXPORT the North Dakota fuel – would be the Gulf of Mexico.

To read some more about the Bakken fracking issues I would strongly suggest this blog.

BAKKENWATCH

Reason being, is that other cities in North Dakota (and outside of North Dakota) want to get in to the oil greed as noted in this article (my emphasis):

May 01--A three-man committee of the Grand Forks City Council quickly approved a plan Monday to spend $75,000 in unspent city sales tax collections to woo businesses in the Oil Patch to expand to Grand Forks.

Snip

The first spending of the Bakken Initiative's funds -- about $17,000 -- will be to send several city officials and local business leaders to the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck on May 22-24, Gershman said.

Already, the city has leased a booth at the conference for $10,000, using money from city administrator Rick Duquette's budget.

"We are not talking re-location, we are talking expansion," Gershman said, emphasizing Grand Forks is not trying to "cannibalize" business from western North Dakota.

The potential is much greater to create jobs here for business rooted in the oil boom, he said.

As of Monday, a record 210 rigs were drilling new oil wells in North Dakota, according to state officials. Oil production has been setting records every month for three years and is expected to match Alaska's output this spring and make North Dakota the nation's second-leading crude-producing state behind Texas.

The Williston Basin is the hottest oil play in North America and expected to last 20 years or more, oil company officials and state regulators say.

"These companies can expand into Montana or Canada," Gershman said. "We want to keep them in North Dakota."

I’m probably pretty sure that the residents of the City of Grand Forks could have found any other way to spend that "$75,000 in unspent city sales tax collections".

Which companies is he talking about?

A little more about the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck [my notes]:

Top executives from Continental Resources [ALEC member], Whiting Oil and Gas and Marathon Oil [ALEC member], were headliners Thursday the final of the three-day Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.

A little bit about ALEC member Continental Resources:

Continental Resources is a multi-billion dollar company that is involved in a huge fracking operation in North Dakota.

And this little piece is another example of tax payer money being used to increase corporate profit.

According to Ed Shadid, Continental Resources  grew 40% in 2010.

 “These jobs are going to be created anyway,” Shadid insisted.

The state is also giving economic incentives to Continental Resources.

Shadid stated that this economic incentive had nothing to do with this move from Enid to Oklahoma City.

 “This $7.2 million is just a token,” he said

State Economic incentives - eh?

For a company that saw 40% growth in 2010?

Not bad!!!!  

Only $7,2 million that Oklahoma probably needs for their roads or schools.

And a little bit about Whiting:

Whiting Petroleum Corporation is a Denver-based, independent oil and gas company that explores for, develops and acquires crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids primarily in the Rocky Mountain, Permian Basin, Mid-Continent, Michigan and Gulf Coast regions of the United States. The Company’s largest projects are in the Bakken and Three Forks plays in North Dakota and its Enhanced Oil Recovery (“EOR”) fields in Oklahoma and Texas.

And from the literature of ALEC member Marathon Oil

Hydraulic fracturing, or"fracking," has been safely used to stimulate production in more than one million oil and gas wells over the past 60 years. Recent advances in the method have helped free oil and gas locked in tight shale rock formations across the U.S. These include the Bakken (North Dakota), Eagle Ford (South Texas), Haynesville (East Texas) and Anadarko Woodford (Oklahoma) shale formations where Marathon has operations.

North Dakota is our neighbor to the west.

I wonder if Minnesota is now stepping into line for the fracking greed.

I wonder what Minnesota and fracking will have in common.

I wonder what Minnesota, fracking and the American Legislative Exchange Council will have in common.

ALEC has several pieces of  legislation either supporting fracking or then – may favorite - legislating keeping the chemical makeup of the fracking substance secret.

Some of the chemicals in fracking mixtures are known or suspected carcinogens. In order to protect the industry from disclosure, ALEC has crafted legislation that would provide large loopholes for companies wanting to protect “trade secrets.”

Another thing related to fracking is - fracking sand mines - which look like this on the landscape of Minnesota - The beautiful "Land of 10,000 Lakes":

For more great info on fracking sand mines and the issues associated with them – check out this story, and be sure to watch the video at the bottom.

And handing over Minnesota lands to fracking companies or a subsection of fracking is closer than you think.

And then you have this:

I see the Minnesota Senate has turned down the anti-local control bill, which would have prevented local governments from enacting moratoria on proposed development in their locales.  If the bill had been approved, recent county decisions by Goodhue, Wabasha and Winona to pass moratoriums on silica sand fracking until they studied options would no longer be allowed if the Governor had signed the bill into law

That snip is talking about:

House File 389 is authored by Reps. Beard (R-Shakopee), Quam (R-Byron), Nelson (DFL-Brooklyn Park), Sanders (R-Blaine)

That legislation might be considered unimportant, since it didn't pass - BUT :

I wonder how long it will be before  ALEC member Beard resubmits that piece of legislation?

AND 

Minnesota State Rep. Michael Beard was in to attendance of the Bismarck Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck.

AND

Rep. Michael L. Beard (R-35A), ALEC Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force Member

AND

Snips from Beards legislative news webpage:

For my part, I have introduced two de-regulatory reforms

At the end of the day, the Legislature’s prime concern is to provide our private sector job creators with a competitive business climate.

Now that Beard is back from the oil conference, I wonder when we will hear Beard (MN-ALEC) say:

What we need is pipeline to get oil to water so we can export it. People ask me which pipeline I support and I say I’m going to support all the pipelines

"We are not talking re-location, we are talking expansion,"

"These companies can expand into Montana or Canada,"  -  . "We want to keep them in Minnesota."

Oh, my……………………

Homeless Children - ALEC's Jeffersonian Belief?

I am a strong believer that ALEC "cuts and pastes" and twists around  

bits and pieces of Jeffersonian philosophy 

until they have skewed what Jefferson said 

to match ALEC's distorted, extremist right wing view of what they want the United States to be.

From the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) history webpage

The ALEC Formula for Success

For more than 35 years, ALEC has been the ideal means of creating and delivering public policy ideas aimed at protecting and expanding our free society. Thanks to ALEC’s membership, the duly elected leaders of their state legislatures, Jeffersonian principles advise and inform legislative action across the country.

This Jeffersonian Principle?

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies..."

the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered

Probably – the underlying principle of ALEC.