ALEC Private National Chair - Misleads Public with Opinion Piece

An interesting thing happened this morning – I found a total plagiarism of one of my entries when I was researching this story.  There is nothing – absolutely nothing that pisses me off more than when people claim my stuff as their own.  NOTHING PISSES ME OFF MORE!

I knew I had written about this ALEC slimeball before -  so I just Googled his name - and lo & behold  - I found an article that was a complete plagiarism of one of my entries – with no link back to me, no reference to me, no credit to me – they just stole my whole article  – in fact the person who posted it had the balls to put his byline on my writing - and they know me and they know I HATE IT when people steal my work.  I am livid right now!!!  Put his byline on my work - that is not a minor mistake - he knew it was my work - there goes what had been a cordial relationship.

Anyhow enough venting.  But I had to put that out there.

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Back to what I am here for:

First before we start you need to know this:

    Steve Seale named as national Chairman of Private Enterprise Advisory Council for ALEC

 Steve Seale,former Mississippi State Senator and former Chief Counsel to US Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, has been named 2013-2014 National Chairman of the Private Enterprise Advisory Council of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In his role as Private Enterprise Advisory Council Chairman, Seale will coordinate interaction between ALEC private sector member companies and their representatives with the more than 2000 ALEC state legislative members from around the country.

Then this morning I found this response to an editorial.
The response if written by Mr - Steve Seale, National Chairman of Private Enterprise Advisory Council for ALEC.

Note to Bill Minor- Exchanging ideas produces positive results for Mississippi

Exchanging ideas produces positive results for Mississippi

In a recent opinion column, Bill Minor, a regular contributor to your paper, suggests there is something wrong when legislators seek research and analysis from think tanks and that informative dialogue between the public and private sectors is inherently wrong. In his criticism of the American Legislative Exchange Council Mr. Minor is misinformed or misguided.

ALEC legislators don’t seek research and analysis from think tanks!
Think tanks are the smallest membership group in ALEC - get a life!
  Research and analysis on what - pray tell - legislation written by ALEC Corporations?

If only it was - "informative dialogue between the public and private sectors"
ALEC legislators seek pre-written pro-corporate legislation authored by ALEC corporate members.
Corporate members come to the meetings with pre-written pro-corporate legislation to introduce to ALEC state legislators and then the think tanks do presentations telling the ALEC state legislators why this corporate legislation is a good thing.

Mr. Seale’s first paragraph is misleading and erroneous.

Democracy is a participatory process where ideas are shared, and the best ideas are advanced. Legislators are not experts on every public policy issue upon which they are asked to vote and most don’t pretend to be. Good legislators, in order to effectively represent their constituents, seek information from a variety of sources. Our state legislative process is specifically designed to provide a forum whereby citizens make their voices heard, expert advice is received and everyone can debate the issues before lawmakers reach a decision and cast a vote.

ALEC meets behind closed doors; ALEC does not seek public input on their so-called “model legislation” . No one affiliated with ALEC should be talking about a "participatory process" – unless they think that state legislators participating with ALEC corporate members is all the “participatory process" that is necessary in the US.

“Our state legislative process is specifically designed to provide a forum whereby citizens make their voices heard,"

"OUR state legislative process"
Doesn't happen at ALEC meetings!

Where in the hell does that happen in ALEC!!!  
 Unless corporations are now – not only “people”, but also considered “citizens”,

ALEC operates the same way, closely imitating the state legislative process. Resolutions are introduced and assigned to an appropriate task force based on subject and scope. Meetings are conducted where experts present facts and opinion for discussion just as they would in legislative committee hearings. Following parliamentary procedure, discussions are generally followed by a vote. All adopted ALEC model policies are published at http://www.alec.org to promote the open exchange of ideas across America.

Steve Seale
4/26/13

NO! 
"ALEC operates the same way, closely imitating the state legislative process"
ALEC is a private secretive organization for state legislators that does whatever they want to behind close doors with ALEC corporate lobbyists footing 99% of ALEC's bills and ALEC corporate lobbyist writing 90% of the "model legislation" that ALEC state legilators bring back to their state.
That, my friend is fascism.

THIS IS NOT how we do the legislative process in the states.
That, my friend is fascism.

“Resolutions are introduced and assigned to an appropriate task force”  - - resolutions and legislation is introduced by corporate lobbyists at ALEC meetings.

Meetings are conducted in absolute secrecy.

"discussions are generally followed by a vote"
 – one vote for the ALEC state legislators,
 – ONE VOTE FOR THE CORPORATE LOBBYISTS.

NO, “All adopted ALEC model policies are published”  THIS IS A LIE!  Your own public relations direct noted the SOME of the the policies are published.

"We really believe in transparency," ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling told The Huffington Post. "We believe that more eyes on our model policies will create better policies. We are hoping to engage with the public."

Meierling said the entries are drafted by ALEC task forces, which consist of legislative and corporate members, and they are meant to be samples of what ALEC considers positive legislation in other states

And the list on their webpage only has 12 pieces of ALEC "model legislation" on education which proves - it is only a "sample of their nastiness. 

“promote the open exchange of ideas across America”  
 CAN NOT BE DONE in an atmosphere of secrecy – that intentionally is hidden from the general public – who in turn have to live with the consequences of ALEC legislation.

Evidently Mr. Seale,“Chairman of Private Enterprise Advisory Council for ALEC”, has not been reading the missives from the ALEC PR office - one of which told members:

You may have noticed we are limiting the use of the acronym 'ALEC,'” wrote Bill Meierling, ALEC's recently-hired Senior Director of Public Affairs in a March 13 email sent to ALEC members and obtained through an open records request.

“Over the past year, the word 'ALEC' has been used to conjure up images of a distant, mysterious, Washington alphabet organization of unknown intentions,” he continued. “The organization has refocused on the words 'Exchange' and 'Council' to emphasize our goal of a broad exchange of ideas to make government work better and more efficiently.”

ALSO NOTE:  Nowhere in his OPINION piece does he mention that he is the “Chairman of Private Enterprise Advisory Council for ALEC” NOWHERE.  He figures he will just mislead the reader by making it look like he is an impartial response to the previous editorial.

By the way, Mr. Seale, are you so embarrassed of you position in the American Legislative Exchange Council, that you cannot acknowledge it in the opinion piece you wrote?  I would be embarrassed to if I belonged to an extremist organization that was hell bent on the destruction of the US democratic republic - representation of, for, and by the PEOPLE.