Maintain the "Move Your Money" Campaign

Don't think because you missed November 5th that you shouldn't move your money.

Here is an excellent diary at Daily Kos that will remind you that every dollar you put into a credit union or a local bank - goes back to the community and not the the Wall Street Banksters.


IN ADDITION -
Please SHOP LOCALLY for the holiday season
- give ALEC members like- Walmart,, Walgreens, Amazon
and all the others the Big Heave Ho Ho Ho for the holidays.

#Occupy

The "Move Your Money" project is big... and it will hurt Wall Street vastly more than most people realize. This is because for every $1 moved out of the Wall Street banks, $20 is moved out of the Wall Street casino.

Wait... what??? It's true. You think your $1,000 savings account is too small to matter? Think again. Say you move your $1,000 out of a Wall Street bank, and into a local bank or credit union. You're immediately injecting $1,000 of capital into your local economy,

Republicans to Obama - Please Step In

the Super Committee needs you......................

From The Hill this morning:

Republicans are calling for President Obama to jump into the deficit-reduction talks gripping Washington, reflecting the widespread view that the congressional supercommittee is now headed for a failure.

“Unless the leadership, including the president, steps in and saves this thing, I think the consensus is, in terms of coming up with a credible package, all is lost,” Coats added.

I'm not surprised the Republicans are asking for him.

Yeh - so he can come in and fold - again (he calls it compromise)
- give the Republicans everything they want - again.

It's not a misstep that the Republicans are specifically asking for Obama.
They know he will treat them well.

ALEC / Norquist Success at the Village Level

Last night I saw what - to me – was one of the sadder things on TV – and it led the 10pm broadcast. 

One of the discouraging things about being politically informed – is you can see the underlying themes in story on the news, that no one bothers to tell the audience.  The general audience watches the news piece and says – “Isn’t that great?” and you say “How sad.” ‘cause you can see the whole story.

The first thing they put on the broadcast on the 10pm news was how a city in Minnesota was proposing saving $600,000 and cutting taxes in the city by 18%.  The TV newsperson repeated over and over again how other cities could learn from this example and implement it.  Over and over again – the background message was – Grover Norquist’s “no new taxes” works – it is a success! -  and other cities in Minnesota should implement it.

In Minneapolis we only have right wing TV – and this particular news item was on Channel 5 – which is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting.  Hubbard Broadcasting is owned by Stan Hubbard – who is a regular guest at the Koch private meetings in Aspen and Rancho Mirage. 

Afterthought told me it probably wasn’t coincidence that this particular item led the broadcast.

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Many of you may be unaware that the American Legislative Exchange Council has infiltrated our city governments.  During my research I have found ALEC in cities and counties across the United States.  For example, the mayor of Chandler Arizona is an ALEC member.  Another example is the Village of Howard WI where a village trustee not only is an ALEC member but was the state private sector co-chair at one point.  The list of ALEC city and county members is larger than this – but the main point is - not only has ALEC infiltrated the state and federal level, but is alive and doing well at the city and county level.

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Welcome top Oak Grove Minnesota - an ALEC / Norquist success story.  Do I know thaty anyone on the Aok Grove staff is an ALEC member - No.  But I do know that Oak Grove City has drank the ALEC / Norquist coolade and the story is sad - - and yes, the mayor is a Republican.

Taxes are a big issue in the Minneapolis Metro area right now – that is a story in and of itself, so having a story about taxes lead the news would not be that odd. Having this story lead the news was disheartening.

Oak Grove Minnesota is cutting $600,000 from their budget and is lowering the city taxes to residents by about 18%. Oak Grove's budget for 2010 was $3.1 Million. Oak Grove has a little under 9,000 residents, a mayor and eight city staff. Last night on the news they announced the proposed $600,000 savings.

These savings include

• Fire the City Manager
• Fire the Finance Director
• That service has been privatized,
  using the SAME person
  (based on comparison of LinkedIn and the City webpage)  – which reeks of possible FLSA violations.
• Renegotiate public safety contract with the county
• Reduce City Staff wages
• Reduce City Staff benefits
• Mayor already works as mayor AND as city administrator

And this is reported as a huge success.

The community of Oak Grove will have lower taxes.

The community of Oak Grove will also have:

• An unemployed City Manager in their community
• A requirement to do on-going audits on the expense incurred
     by using a privatized Finance Director service
• Less policing (aka safety)  being done by the county in their community
• City staff with lower wages and less disposable income
• City staff with fewer benefits

Why not just un-incorporate the city – or merge with another village – then everyone’s head is on the chopping block.

WOW what a success! 

This is what the ALEC and Grover Norquist model of government looks like

– no new taxes and

– privatization of government services

– and eventually “no government”.

Oh, yeh - Oak Grove – you can remove the “Jobs” page from your website.

North Dakota - Has ALEC Members in Hiding

North Dakota

State Motto  “Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable”

Something scary about that.

Each person on the list has been compiled and cited using the web and you can also find the proof by researching through ALEC documents, reports and magazines, and various other webpages.

John	Andrist
Wesley R	Belter
Rick	Berg
LeRoy G	Berstein
Alan H.	Carlson
Bette	Grande
Jim	Kasper
Kim	Koppelman
Karen	Krebsbach
David	Monson
Gary J	Nelson
Donna	Nalewaja
David	Nething
Darrell	Nottestad
Bob	Skarpol
Bob	Stenehjem
Ken	Svedjan
Blair B.	Thoreson
Francis J	Wald

More North Dakota legislators can be found at ALEC Exposed– because they access to leaked documents that I don’t have.  Since I don’t have these documents on file – I won’t list those people in my blog.

AND if your legislator is not on either list – contact them and ask them, “Are you a member of ALEC?  There’s quite a few people on this ALEC list – I’d ask if I were you.

Really - that list - combined with the list from ALEC Exposed is too skimpy
- call your legislator
- 'cause North Dakota
- probably has more ALEC Members hiding in the bushes.

So what – what if people had a list – what does that accomplish? 

What would happen if people had a list - what will it accomplish? 

Does it really hurt ALEC if a list were available or would ALEC just go on – business as usual?

How would this information be used in a constructive way?

What is next – we HAVE TO REMOVE all ALEC members from state and federal government.  It is our role to make sure that they don’t get re-elected.  Now is the time for “boots to the ground” to use the information we have compiled on ALEC members and ALEC “model legislation” to prove to others that ALEC members MUST be removed from public service at any and all levels. 

ALEC just completed their four day conference where ALEC Corporations told your legislators what legislation they wanted to have passed and what legislation they did not want to have passed.

ALEC members are not serving the public – they are serving the ALEC corporations.  It does not matter how ALEC or their members spin this story over the next couple months it is important for you – to remember and to talk about the following fact:

When was the last time YOU got to sit with your legislator for two or three days and tell your legislator what YOUR needs are and help your legislator write legislation that benefited YOU?

Your ALEC legislator does this multiple times a year with corporations – so when push come to shove – it is evident who your legislator is representing – the ALEC corporations.

Past members are important – because they may come up for a state or federal appointment.

Campaign reports – report campaigns – so someone may be on the list that did not win  - but you can bet your boots they will try again.

ALEC members and those affiliated with ALEC in any manner

MUST NOT BE RE-ELECTED.

Without state and federal legislators ALEC will cease to exist and it will implode.

As a courtesy -
please don't take credit for this list or
post it anywhere on the web as your original work and research.
This blog - in whole and part - is copyright protected.

For more information on ALEC –

Please read this or this or this

or this series of six articles.

This is what ALEC is About  - An Interview with Mark Pocan about the ALEC Annual Meeting.

Charles Koch - Greasing Palms Leads to "Receiving Homage"

Sometimes “progressive media” publishes something that is so incomplete, you could drive a truck through the missing storyline.  All it would take is an hour more of research and ten more minutes of writing to make the story more noteworthy.

That is the case with a story that was written and posted on Huffington Post – excerpts below:

This week, a few hundred people who lead foundations will gather in Scottsdale, Arizona., for the annual meeting of Philanthropy Roundtable, an organization that promotes independent giving to solve America's challenges while encouraging laws and regulations that make it easy for wealthy people to engage in private philanthropy with little oversight.

At this meeting, the organization will pay homage to Charles Koch who, along with brother, David, is owner of Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in America.

Given his self-interested giving, Charles Koch seems an odd choice to become philanthropy's poster boy. It says a lot about the Philanthropy Roundtable that they chose Koch over the many other outstanding philanthropists in the country to receive this year's award.

Big Deal? – Charles Koch getting recognition for his “philanthropy” – Not really! when you look at the makeup of the Philanthropy Roundtable – the organization that gave Charles the award.

Let’s take a really quick look at the Philanthropy Roundtable and Koch ties:

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC):  . The organization was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, who also founded the Heritage Foundation.

Heritage Foundation:  Charles Koch foundations donated $3,497,000 to the Heritage Foundation.

Reason Foundation: David Koch is a trustee on the board; the Koch’s donated over $2,436,212 to the Reason Foundation.     ...   Dr. Adrian Moore, Vice President of Public Policy of the Reason Foundation, is an Advisor to the American Legislative Exchange Council's Commerce, Insurance & Economic Development Task Force.[6] Reason Foundation representatives have also advised ALEC Task Forces on issues such as state budgets [7], and health reform. [8]  …  The Reason Foundation's Director of Government Affairs, Mike Flynn, was previously policy director for ALEC   

From the Philanthropy Roundtable webpage

Adam Meyerson joined The Philanthropy Roundtable as president in 2001.   From 1993 to 2001, Adam was vice president for educational affairs at the Heritage Foundation.

Chairman of the Board - Michael W. Grebe is the president and CEO of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

Fred Koch and Harry Bradley were founding members  of the John Birch Society

The Bradley Foundation donated $14,500,702 to the Heritage Foundation

   

The Bradley Foundation donated $283,000 to the American Legislative
                 Exchange Council  

Provided $962,500 funding to the Reason foundation

Claude R Lambe Foundation (aka Charles Koch)

                has provided funding to the Bradley Foundation

Grebe chaired Scott Walker’s campaign 

Vice Chairman of the Board - James Piereson is president of the William E. Simon Foundation, and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York. 

Provided $527,500 funding to the Heritage Foundation 

Provided $90,000 funding to the Reason foundation 

Another example of greasing palms and

it’s not what you know that really counts or

it's not what you do that really counts.

– It’s  who you know or

– how much you can pay them.

ALEC Members Love Fracking and De-Regulation

Just because we "can do something" - doesn't mean we "should do it".

And that is my stance on "fracking".  Just because the technology exists - doesn't mean we should be using it - if it is unsafe. 

But , the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) would disagree with me on that because my stance gets in the way of the ALEC Corporate Sector / Private Enterprise members raking in obscene amounts of money.

ALEC Corporate Sector / Private Enterprise members raking in obscene amounts of money - while our water supplies are destroyed and people's health is put at risk - but that is the ALEC "free market" philosophy.

Right now there is a big #Occupy push for the Delaware River Basin because on Nov. 21, the Delaware River Basin Commission will vote on a plan to allow over 20,000 gas wells in the Delaware River Basin. The process to be used is called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.”

Fracking and the support of fracking is a big deal for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Corporate Sector / Private Enterprise members.  They have written "model legislation" and given that legislation to legislators to implement -  that promotes fracking.

Regulations and specifically, getting rid of regulations is a big deal for the American Legislative Exchange Council Corporate Sector / Private Enterprise members.  They have written resolutions - and given those resolutions to state and federal ALEC  legislators to implement to get rid of Federal regulatory agencies.

This story illustrates why ALEC's "free market philosophy" is WRONG! 
Here are some excerpts - but the whole story is worth reading.

A pair of environmental monitoring wells drilled deep into an aquifer in Pavillion, Wyo., contain high levels of cancer-causing compounds and at least one chemical commonly used in hydraulic fracturing, according to new water test results [2] released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The findings are consistent with water samples the EPA has collected from at least 42 homes in the area since 2008, when ProPublica began reporting [3] on foul water and health concerns in Pavillion and the agency started investigating reports of contamination there.

Last year -- after warning residents not to drink [4] or cook with the water and to ventilate their homes when they showered -- the EPA drilled the monitoring wells to get a more precise picture of the extent of the contamination.

The Pavillion area has been drilled extensively for natural gas over the last two decades and is home to hundreds of gas wells.

The gas industry -- led by the Canadian company EnCana, which owns the wells in Pavillion -- has denied that its activities are responsible for the contamination. EnCana has, however, supplied drinking water to residents.

…the chemical compounds the EPA detected are consistent with those produced from drilling processes, including one -- a solvent called 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE) -- widely used in the process of hydraulic fracturing. The agency said it had not found contaminants such as nitrates and fertilizers that would have signaled that agricultural activities were to blame.

The wells also contained benzene at 50 times the level that is considered safe for people, as well as phenols -- another dangerous human carcinogen -- acetone, toluene, naphthalene and traces of diesel fuel.

The hazardous affects of compounds like benzene and phenols is what ALEC has historically and currently refers to as "junk science".

ALEC supports fracking and deregulation - on behalf of ALEC Corporate Sector / Private Enterprise members.

More money for ALEC Corporate Sector / Private Enterprise members - unsafe water, air and food for the people.

Oh and by the way....................

EnCana was a "Director" level sponsor of

2011 American Legislative Exchange Council Annual Conference.

UPDATE - Think Progress January 2, 2012

Ohio Earthquake Linked To Fracking Injection Wells | On New Year’s Eve, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck northeastern Ohio, the second quake to strike the region in a week. Saturday’s earthquake, which occurred in an area not typically known for this type of natural disaster, is being traced back to fluid injection wells at a Youngstown fracking site. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, “the quake was the 11th over the last eight months in Mahoning County, all within two miles of the injection wells.” They also point out that injection wells have been linked to earthquakes in other states as well, including Arkansas, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas. Two of the Ohio injection wells in question are now being shut down.

–—–—

We must stop ALEC!

All legislators who are ALEC members at the state and federal levels

- MUST NOT BE RE-ELECTED!

Without ALEC legislators - ALEC will implode.

For more information on ALEC –

Please read this or this or this

or this series of six articles.

This is what ALEC is About  - Mark Pocan - About ALEC

Please do your part in educating people about ALEC

by sending them the links to the articles and reports listed just above.