Politico reports,
Responding more aggressively than in the past, Koch Industries’ political arm on Friday accused President Barack Obama and his allies of “trying to intimidate into silence those who may disagree with them.”Obama had changed his mind and decided to accept money from Super PACs because the Koch brothers contribute so much money to his opponents. But, as readers of this blog know, there's way more to the Kochtopus than contributions to presidential candidates.
ALEC is a big part of their conspiracy. Here's what we've learned in the past 24 hours about ALEC's activities:
- Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a series of bills making it harder to sue corporations for wrongdoing. Dayton said the bills were the canned product of ALEC. According to Hometown Source, "Holding aloft a publication from the American Legislative Exchange Council — a conservative, business-oriented think tank — Dayton panned the Republican bills...Minnesotans do not want their laws written by Big Business, Dayton said."
- The Center for Media and Democracy reports Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) has been circulating the "ALEC Accountability Act," a bill that would require ALEC to register with the state as a lobbyist and report the funding sources for the “scholarships” funding legislators’ travel. ALEC has written laws in Wisconsin that eliminate worker and environmental protections. As you can guess,
Koch whoreGov. Scott Walker is an ALEC alum. - In New Hampshire, the Center for Media and Democracy reports, 14 pieces of anti-worker ALEC legislation have made their way through the House and Senate in the past three weeks. One was a right-to-work-for-less bill.
- ALEC wrote bills to turn public education over to corporations in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado. (Here's a good criticism of the Iowa plan.)
