A federal appellate court has used the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United v. F.E.C. decision to strike down a Wisconsin law limiting how much a person can donate to "independent expenditure" political groups.
The NAACP is calling the wave of Voter ID laws passed in 2011 a "coordinated and comprehensive assault" on the right to vote for people of color and the poor, singling out the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as the source of the outbreak. The organization is taking its case to the United Nations this week.
Rev. William Barber, President of the NAACP North Carolina State Conference, says "Jim Crow used blunt tools. James Crow, Esquire uses surgical tools, high paid consultants and lawyers to cut out the heart of black political power."
I did exactly what the doctor told me to do. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling a bit better. Maybe even a little worse.
Last week, Dr. Michael C. Burgess, tweeted this directive: "Mark your calendars: Rick Perry will join Health Caucus' Thought Leaders Series next Wednesday, December 7 @ 5 p.m."
Eager to hear what thought leadership the Texas governor and presidential candidate would be imparting, I marked my calendar as Dr. Burgess prescribed. Imagine my dismay when I learned yesterday morning that Perry would be sharing his thoughts behind closed doors. The media and public, it turns out, had been disinvited.
The "Occupy Wall Street" movement is providing a real-time case study of the difference between a true grassroots movement and a corporate-backed astroturf movement.
Americans in recent years have been besieged by industry-funded astroturf efforts masquerading as real grassroots movements. One example is the "Hands off my Healthcare" national roadshow, which was backed by the Koch-funded group, Americans for Prosperity. Another is the Tea Party, which got a corporate-sponsored media boost from the Fox News Channel and benefitted from the the efforts of a Sacramento, California-based Republican PR firm, Russo Marsh & Rogers. Astroturf uses manufactured spin and messaging that requires real money for things like media buys, front groups, mass-broadcast faxes, telemarketing-generated petitions, glossy postcards, form letters and talk radio-inspired phone calls.
An American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member is defying Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules limiting the sale of rat poisons that pose dangers to children and the ecosystem. ALEC representatives say that kids eating rat poison is an "acceptable risk" that does not justify government intervention in the market.
As state legislators and corporate lobbyists from around the country convened in Scottsdale Wednesday for an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting, Arizona residents impacted by ALEC policies raised their voices in opposition to the organization's corporate agenda.
Last year, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) attracted attention when reporters revealed Arizona's SB1070 anti-immigration law was pre-approved by ALEC corporations that stood to benefit from its passage. As ALEC's legislative and corporate members descend upon Arizona for meetings this week, a new report (pdf) shows that ALEC's influence in Arizona goes beyond SB1070 to include bills that suppress voting, attack worker's rights, privatize public education, and limit environmental protections.
Egyptians took to the polls with a massive turnout this week, and few reported problems in the first round of elections since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
This week's initial parliamentary elections will collect votes in the main city centers, like Cairo and Alexandria, as part of what will be a four-month voting process. From these elections, Egypt's first democratically-elected parliament will be created, which will be tasked with crafting a new constitution for the nation and laying the groundwork for a presidential election in 2012. The elections are occurring after a series of violent clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square with the interim military government. Protesters fear the military government is trying to manipulate the process to retain power. Some 40 people have been killed, and 2,000 injured.
The grassroots group United Wisconsin announced today that the effort to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has gathered 300,000 recall signatures in the first 12 days. Organizers have 48 more days to reach the minimum number of 540,208 certified signatures.
United Wisconsin reported that Wisconsinites signed the petitions at a rate of 1,040 signatures per hour. The group's press release featured numbers from counties that had voted for Walker in 2010. For instance, 10,033 residents from Columbia County signed recall petitions, over 45 percent of the total gubernatorial vote in 2010. Organizers also collected 4,713 signatures in rural Pierce County and 3,698 signatures in rural Oneida County.
This is a guest op-ed by Greg Colvin, a partner at the firm Adler & Colvin, originally published at OurFuture.org.
As the struggle in the streets intensifies, and Occupy Wall Street refuses to remain silent, it's good to know there are champions in Congress who have stepped up to the challenge of amending the US Constitution. It's called OCCUPIED: Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy, here.
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