Kiffmeyer: 30 Minnesota legislators are ALEC members

What is the difference between belonging to ALCE or being in a union’s back pocket. It looks to me that each have there own agenda.

Thanks for these write-ups on ALEC, Jon. People in Minnesota need to know which of their elected official are simply tools of right wing plutocrats and serve only their interests.

I find the secretive part of this very odd. Nonprofit organizations should be public as they are tax exempt. To me that should mean full disclosure for all incomes including dues.

A tea bagger by any other name is still a tea bagger. This also explains a lot about the Koch’d up GOP in our state. So much for the IR party and personal freedoms and all that other nonsense. Doesn’t the GOP need to actually live by their own talking points about freedom, liberty and the pursuit of cash? Shouldn’t they start with “the ability to think for one self” before pushing their agenda on the rest of us?

Lyle,
The main difference between belonging to ALEC and a union is: ALEC is out for Corprorate control of our economy and society making the world safe for miliionaires and billionaires and working hard to separate money from ordinary people and add to rich peoples bank accounts. Unions are looking out for the everyday worker and employee.

Remember it wasn’t the people at ALEC who brought us the weekend.

Simple.

“So we understand that some Democrats like [Sen.] Linda Berglin might not have found this an agreeable organization to pay with her money, or her campaign money, because she doesn’t see the world in Jeffersonian principals.”

WOW!! Really Kiffmeyer!???

I think the lady might want to revisit those Jeffersonian principles before she talks out the side of her neck. What a hack!

Kiffmeyer and her doublespeak again. Jeffersonian my ass. Orwellian is more like it. If these policies the corporations are pushing are so good for the people of Minnesota why do they have to hide behind a front group?

Well, anyone who says Dayton is in the Teacher’s Union back pocket is a moron since the balancing the budget on the backs of kids was pretty staunchly opposed. Good try with the union boogeyman though. In addition, the unions have about 1/100th of the money, power, and influence these organizations.

A great “Jeffersonian principal” :

“I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations.” Thomas Jefferson

Gee, Lyle, how dare we try to make things better for workers, especially since 99% of us are workers, or were until our jobs were sent overseas.

“If you’re believing in socialism . . . you might not be so interested in ALEC,” Kiffmeyer said. “So we understand that some Democrats like [Sen.] Linda Berglin might not have found this an agreeable organization . . . .”

Is she calling Senator Berglin a socialist? There’s nothing like name-calling to clarify a discussion.

She’s got Thomas Jefferson rolling in his grave fast enough to wind copper around him and generate electricity:

“The property of this country is absolutely concentred in a very few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year downwards… I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on.”
–Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, October 28,1785. ME 19:17, Papers 8:682

Lyle, the issue is transparency. Lobbying is supposed to be open (that’s why lobbyists are required to register). ALEC is trying to fly below the radar.

@Colin – You hit the proverbial nail on the head sir!

Lyle Meyer
Comment posted August 5, 2011 @ 7:16 am
What is the difference between belonging to ALCE or being in a union’s back pocket. It looks to me that each have there own agenda.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unions proudly and publicly support their elected officials.

ALEC and the rest of the groups the republicans align themselves with are …secretive…just like cowards who hide behind their sheets.

Everyone knows that in a free country if any group must be kept “secret”…..they are up to no good.

If ALEC is such a great idea, they would be proud to be part of it, not skulking around like the cowards they are.

Rep. Sondra Erickson (R-Princeton) is on the ALEC “Education Task Force.

She is also the MN State House Education Reform Committee Chair.

So if you look at the ALEC goals and bills on Education “reform” you can see how they seem similiar to the bills that Rep Erickson authored and was able to get passed. School Vouchers. Moving the tax dollars per student from the public schools to “Private Schools” .

If I was in her district, I would definately be calling to find out more.
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?id=10168

Reform Education Committee
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committee.asp?comm=87006

Here aer some examples of the title’s she authored:
Alternative compensation revenue made available to school principals and assistant principals.
Commissioner of education prohibited from adopting common core standards.
Alternative teacher pay system modified.
Annual evaluations for principals established, and a group of experts and stakeholders convened to recommend a performance-based system model for these evaluations.
Alternative teacher professional pay system modified.
School districts required to pool active and retired employees separately for health coverage, and new commitments to subsidize premiums for retired employees prohibited.
School district January 15 deadline repealed by which school districts must reach a collective bargaining agreement or face a state aid penalty.

***
and how about this one: She is against children’s rights. (amazing)

U.S. Senate urged to oppose ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Republicans no longer believe in the constitution. They no longer believe that they represent people – because the supreme court has ruled that corporations ARE people? Tell me why Eric Canto – Virginia Representative went to Las Vegas to promise a bunch of hedge fund managers he would repeal Dodd-Frank? Because he DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE 17th AMENDMENT! (or the 14th for that matter – but that’s a story about hating Mexicans)

How the heck are we supposed to convince our legislators that they don’t work for ALEC or for corporations profit margins. THEY WORK FOR US!!! the people?

These ALEC corporate sponsors can give more to a legislator then I – an actual American citizen can hope to make in 10+ years working an honest job.

Amazing. MN ALEC member and committee Chair of Education is against the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.
here is her bill.
http://wdoc.house.leg.state.mn.us/leg/LS87/HF0402.0.pdf

Here is the Wikipedia info Convention on the Rights of the Child
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child

As of November 2009, 194 countries have ratified it,[1] including every member of the United Nations except Somalia and the United States of America.[4][6] Somalia’s cabinet ministers had announced plans to ratify the treaty.[7]

Rep. Ron Shimanski (R-Silver Lake) seems to have followed the ALEC policy on charter schools. (aka tax dollars used for private schools vs public schools).

He authored HF 1624: Charter school property tax exemption status modified.

Thank you to Jon Collins for all your reports on ALEC in Minnesota. Good job!

ALEC has one purpose. Help the Rich get Richer

Sure does look like we’re going to have to re-do the 20th century all over again.
Starting with the Pullman Strike, the mining wars, and Coxey’s Army I suppose.

Oh cripes. Here we go again.

What did I do with my IWW membership card, anyway? The one I got from the undercover FBI agent in Chicago in 1967.

These ALEC people are vermin – roaches – and they do what all vermin do when the lights come on – they scurry for cover under the refrigerator or cupboards – they run and hide. That’s who these people are. We need to keep exposing them for the traitors they are.

I read this article and come away with, SO WHAT? Your Leftst demonization of business doesn’t work anymore. This is just Saul Alinsky 101.

Perhaps you’ve noticed it as well. It’s an increasingly common pattern among today’s conservatives to label anything they disagree with as ‘socialism’ or ‘fascism’ or ‘communism.’ Instead of intelligent argument or analysis–that requires too much work apparently–there’s an increasing reliance on meaningless labels that are intended not to clarify, but to silence, to render a different point of view invalid before reasons and evidence are heard.

It crops up all the time. My latest sighting:

“Such is the fate of Kim Simac, a tea party leader founder and Republican party choice to win the Wisconsin state Senate recall election against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jim Holperin. Simac was last seen scrubbing the web of her past writings comparing the public schools to Nazi Germany.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/wisconsin-dems-attack-tea-partier-for-outsourcing.php

It’s as though a cognitive underclass is in revolt against thought itself.

We can’t forget Michele Bachmann’s contribution to this rhetorical circus when she was referring to a loss of “economic liberty”:

“”I tell you this story because I think in our day and time, there is no analogy to that horrific action,” she said, referring to the Holocaust. “But only to say, we are seeing eclipsed in front of our eyes a similar death and a similar taking away. It is this disenfranchisement that I think we have to answer to.”"

In the same damn sentence, the same thought in her mind, she contradicts herself. There is “no analogy” she claims, but then says that there is one when she writes of “a similar death.” Aside from the blatant self-contradiction, what could she possibly mean by the ludicrously exaggerated statement of “a similar death”? Taxes are concentration camps? Single-payer health care is the same as exterminating a class of people? This is a level of crazy that’s bizarre in any circumstance. She’s also one of the favored presidential contenders among conservatives.

With this and other Bachmann statements one repeatedly gets the sense of a mind that doesn’t know itself, that can lie to itself and not know it, that floats atop of a churning sea of slogans, half-understood notions, urban legends and easily correctable misunderstandings.

This is the mind of contemporary conservatism it seems.

If you enjoy living in a dream world where imaginary ” Socialist” threats lurk in every nook and cranny of your largely unused brain- then ALEC Konspiracy Klub is for you!

Democrats are invited to join? A dues paying Democrat from WI was kicked out of the New Orleans conference Aug 4. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/05/289753/wisconsin-dem-kicked-out-alec/

CULTS are also secretive. CULTS also don’t want the general public to know about their little manipulations of control. CULTS also try and convince others they are doing what is “the greater good” for others.

So this is where Drazkowski got his Arizona-style illegal immigrant legislation from…

ALEC is all about Prisons for Profit,and Prison FREE labor…..thats thier bottom line. The more people they can Get locked up – the more $$$$$$ they get…..and the more $$$ they line pockets of the politicians.

Thank you for pursuing this!

I get pleasure from, cause I discovered exactly what I was looking for. You have ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye

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