What is ALEC? Where is ALEC? Vinnie Barbarino from Welcome Back Kotter couldn't ask it any better. Most people haven't heard of ALEC, but if any large group has, I'd expect to find it here. I was introduced to ALEC (A.L.E.C.) back in January, and I no like-y.

For the uninitiated, you can first read about the innocuously named American Legislative Exchange Council on their own site. Now I can't say they're clandestine, cause they have their very own website! To be fair, it is pretty revealing. In the History section, you can read about the up and coming politicos who founded ALEC: Henry Hyde, Paul Weyrich, Lou Barnett, Robert Kasten, Tommy Thompson, John Engler, Terry Branstad of Iowa (I leave this in for personal bias), and John Kasich. If you've noticed a common thread among these men, give yourself 10 points. This is not anything like the National Council of State Legislatures, an actual 501c3 organization, which is largely bi-partisan. Yes, there are current Democratic who are members of ALEC, but they are in a tiny minority of the legislative membership. So, the legislatures make up one faction of ALEC, and corporations and their lackeys comprise the legislation writing faction.

Seems fishy? Why yes! You'll get more of the low-down on this 50 headed hydra that has been extending its tentacles into state legislatures since 1973 by heading over to ALEC Exposed. This isn't for the faint of heart. The corporations write legislation and distribute it to legislators at special meetings, held in favorite corporate locations such as Scottsdale, AZ and Amelia, FL. For a mere $50 a year (free if you're in the Iowa House, so you need to opt out if you don't want "in"), you too can be wined, dined, play golf, and have your kids' daycare taken care of while you attend meetings - some closed and some not - where corporate representatives hand you model legislation. Well, nowadays, it's probably given to lawmakers via email or some computer file, but sometimes the reps forget to edit the documents! Some of these fools are as bad as students who copy papers from the internet and just print directly from the web page. Yeah, it's that blatant.

Here's the deal: corporations were frustrated with the inability to move some of their ideas through U.S. Congress and Senate, and they realized that the state legislatures were more easily manipulated. Not only that, but once state lawmakers were groomed for the task, they could take this amazing work ethic with them as they climbed the political ladder. You might've noticed some of the founders moved up the political ladder in the past 38-39 years.

Here are the subjects of ALEC's model legislation:

Democracy and Voting (voter ID bills? ALEC) Privatizing Education (Connections Academy? Most charter schools? ALEC) Repealing Labor Rights (Open ballot union voting? ALEC) Health and Tobacco (you name it: ALEC) Limiting Environmental Protections (we can't have corporations burdened by regulations on the environment can we?) ALEC and Climate Change (rinse, repeat) Immigration Corporate Prisons

Some of the legislation is more subtle than others, but the premise is consistent in that they are pushing to privatize as much of out lives as they can. Even if you agree with some of the bills, ask yourself 1. If the diversion of tax dollars away from the public service to give tax breaks to the corporations or even to "help" the subject of the bill is worth it and 2. If you think it's ethical for corporations to be writing the bills. Shouldn't legislation be the idea of we the people? If you don't think there are paybacks, think again: corporations sponsor their active legislators, either directly, or more likely hidden in PACs. ALEC also has other ways to rate states, such as the ALEC report card for education. Think this is based on education or test scores (hah! I don't consider those 2 to necessarily be the same)? Think again. A comparison of the ALEC report card with legislation passed in the stated will reveal how the assessments were made.

This Wednesday, February 29th, lovely leap day, there will be a national call to action. At least 76 cities have actions planned to expose ALEC to the general public. Des Moines and Minneapolis are scheduled to happen simultaneously. This is designed to be only the beginning, because the task of dismantling and dismembering this pernicious entity is Herculean.