A MUST READ is this speech by Bill Moyers is a very good refining of the narrative and storyline in which ALEC plays a role. Clearly Moyers and his research team/contributors have been doing some reading of the ALEC materials including the blog content and various tracking sites, and included a number of references to such content. Love that Jefferson quote... "monied corporations"... "defy our laws" can't get enough of that one.
Bill Moyers: "Our Politicians Are Money Launderers in the Trafficking of Power and Policy"by: Bill Moyers, Truthout | Speech at Public Citizen Gala October 20, 2011
Thursday 3 November 2011
TRANSCRIPT
http://www.truth-out.org/how-did-happen/1320278111VIDEO (Speech shorter than ‘prepared remarks’ which included ALEC):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOIQ5-W1EpwUploaded by PublicCitizen on Oct 25, 2011
Journalist Bill Moyers delivers the keynote address at Public Citizen's 40th Anniversary Gala. For more information, visit
http://www.citizen.org/40gala.RELATED ARTICLE in The Nation:
How Wall Street Occupied AmericaBy Bill Moyers
This article appeared in the November 21, 2011 edition of The Nation and includes much of the content (including ALEC) of Bill Moyers speech at the Public Citizen 40th Gala October 20, 2011.
November 2, 2011
http://www.thenation.com/article/164349/how-wall-street-occupied-americaSPEECH CLIPS (Remarks as Prepared for Delivery):
“The great American experience in creating a different future together – this “voluntary union for the common good” – has been flummoxed by a growing sense of political impotence – what the historian Lawrence Goodwyn has described as a mass resignation of people who believe “the dogma of democracy” on a superficial public level but who no longer believe it privately. There has been, he says, a decline in what people think they have a political right to aspire to – a decline of individual self-respect on the part of millions of Americans”
“Let’s name this for what it is: hypocrisy made worse, the further perversion of democracy.
Democratic deviancy defined further downward. Our politicians are little more than money launderers in the trafficking of power and policy – fewer than six degrees of separation from the spirit and tactics of Tony Soprano.
Why New York’s Zuccotti Park is filled with people is no mystery. Reporters keep scratching their heads and asking: “Why are you here?” But it’s clear they are occupying Wall Street because Wall Street has occupied
the country.”The Powell Memo and formulation of the "Replace the Left" (Newt language) Strategy:
“ Powell imagined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a council of war. Since business executives had “little stomach for hard-nose contest with their critics” and “little skill in effective intellectual and philosophical debate,” they should create new think tanks, legal foundations, and front groups of every stripe. It would take years, but these groups could, he said, be aligned into a united front (that) would only come about through “careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and united organizations.”
You have to admit it was a brilliant strategy. Although Powell may not have seen it at the time, he was pointing America toward plutocracy, where political power is derived from the wealthy and controlled by the wealthy to protect their wealth. As the only countervailing power to private greed and power, democracy could no longer be tolerated.”
NOTE: the Powell Memo was reposted by Greenpeace back in August 2011 in “The Lewis Powell Memo - Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy” in a Blogpost by Charlie Cray – August 23, 2011 at 11:20 AM (referenced by Bill Moyers)
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/campaign-blog/the-lewis-powell-memo-corporate-blueprint-to-/blog/36466/AND by Jim Hoggan in “40th Anniversary of the Lewis Powell Memo Launching Corporate Propaganda Infrastructure” (also referenced by Bill Moyers)
August 23, 2011 13:07 PM
http://www.desmogblog.com/print/5671ALEC and Related ORGS Reference HERE:
“Within two years the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce formed a task force of 40 business executives – from U.S. Steel, GE, GM, Phillips Petroleum, 3M, Amway, and ABC and CBS (two media companies, we should note). Their assignment was to coordinate the crusade, put Powell’s recommendations into effect, and push the corporate agenda. Powell had set in motion a revolt of the rich. As the historian Kim Phillips-Fein subsequently wrote, “Many who read the memo cited it afterward as inspiration for their political choices.”
Those choices came soon. The National Association of Manufacturers announced it was moving its main offices from New York to Washington. In 1971, only 175 firms had registered lobbyists in the capital; by 1982, nearly twenty-five hundred did. Corporate PACs increased from under 300 in 1976 to over twelve hundred by the middle of the l980s. From Powell’s impetus came the Business Roundtable, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy (precursor to what we now know as Americans for Prosperity) and other organizations united in pushing back against political equality and shared prosperity.* They triggered an economic transformation that would in time touch every aspect of our lives.”
What’s missing still? See also previous post.
Still not linking 1) in the Heritage Foundation/CNP (also Koch and cabal funded) and their 2) vast network of State-level think tanks AND the 3) role of ALEC Alumni in Congress AND the 4) support strategies of the Republican Governors Association AND the 5) US House initiated “State Solutions” (Mike Rogers R-MI)
For more on the GOP “State Solutions” Project:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/04/house_gop_promotes_state_solut.asphttp://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/governors-and-congressional-republicans-smart-and-critical-alliance_522025.htmlVIDEO:
"Rep. Mike Rogers Introduces the GOP State Solutions Project"
Uploaded by JohnBoehner on Apr 8, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwyR9k4MhD4“GOP State Solutions is devoted to Congressional Republicans working with reform-minded GOP governors and state legislators to fight Washington bureaucracy, inefficiency, and waste and to promote better solutions to the challenges facing the American people.”
The original LINK to “State Solutions” is now dead:
http://states.gopleader.gov/NOTE: One of the earliest references to the GOP national strategy, in which ALEC plays a major supporting role was found in “The Republican Strategy” by Robert Reich on Thursday, February 17, 2011
http://robertreich.org/post/3353591266
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(121 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
