1. Komen/Planned Parenthood smackdown. Supporters of comprehensive (and that includes reproductive) women’s health care pushed back hard on the Komen Foundation’s ideologically driven decision to pull breast cancer screening grants to low income women from Planned Parenthood and came out the winners. For some good national-level analysis on it, check out the excellent work Amanda Marcotte and Lauren Kelley have done. If you still doubt the extent of the victory, look no further than Arizona’s own Cathi Herrod of the socially conservative Center for Arizona Policy, who is very miffed about what she sees as Komen’s “waffling” and the pro-choice movement’s refusal to back down on women’s health.

Planned Parenthood has activated their base and is in full attack mode. We need to send a positive message to the Komen Foundation and pray they have courage and boldness during this time.

In that same blog post Herrod grouses about the Obama administration standing strong against the attempts of theocratic reactionaries to deny women contraception in private health plans. The moral of the story is that when we fight back, we win. And it hacks off Cathi Herrod, which is always a worthy endeavor.

2. Goldwater Institute exposed. The AZ legislature dropped a spate of bills designed to break public sector unions and cut the pay of teachers and first responders. It’s been described as “Wisconsin on steroids” and already the response is rivaling what happened in Wisconsin with educators, public safety workers, and advocates for working families amassing protests and press events to fight back. The Goldwater Institute was instrumental in drafting the anti-worker legislation, having feted WI Governor Scott Walker back in November at a fundraiser. GI is getting national exposure for this and much of it is not flattering. EJ Montini of the Arizona Republic called foul on both the Legislature and the (unelected) Goldwater Institute, whom he describes as “waging war on children, on sick people, on poor people, on teachers and on unions.” Kudos for the Mother Jones reference, EJ.

The moral of the story here is that the Goldwater Institute, which has presented itself for years as an objective academic organization serving lofty libertarian principles, is being exposed for what it really is – a big business lobbying group pushing ALEC legislation. Like the radical “pro-life” zealots who have finally gone too far by going after breast cancer screenings and birth control, GI has gone too far with this attack on highly regarded public servants.

Arizona progressives, let’s have a toast with the beverage of our choice over the nice victories of the past week and brace ourselves for next week.

ci·pher noun, often attributive \ˈsī-fər\

Definition of CIPHER

1
a : zero 1a
b : one that has no weight, worth, or influence : nonentity

So much going on today! Hard to pick what to write about. Let’s see: The independent redistricting outrage (public meeting going on in Scottsdale as we speak, with many of my East Valley peeps in attendance). Russell Pearce recall (ABC15 announced a poll tonight showing a dead heat between Jerry Lewis at 46% and Pearce at 43%). Mitt Romney endorsed Mississippi’s Personhood Amendment today (putz). More harassment allegations against and evasion by Herman Cain (putz). All GOP Reps voting against infrastructure funding (putzes extraordinaire).

But I’m going to write about Channel 12′s Brahm Resnik reviewing Governor Jan Brewer’s magnum opus, Scorpions for Breakfast. My hero! He read it (in an hour he says) so the rest of us would be spared.

So obsessed, that Jan Brewer created a Google alert for “Jan Brewer.” It’s a wonder that alert didn’t crash the state e-mail server — or crash the governor herself.

“I couldn’t help myself,” the governor writes of her Web watch.

The book provides a meticulous accounting of the red-hot hate directed at Brewer (“Hitler’s daughter,” “Satan’s (inappropriate term),” “brainless blond bimbo”). She read many of the insults and slurs on blogs, she writes, even as her staff implored her not to pay attention to “losers.”

Brewer describes the personal attacks as “torture” the equal of waterboarding. “I could barely breathe,” the governor writes.

By now you know the rest of the book doesn’t revisit the infamous 13 seconds of silence during Brewer’s 2010 debate with Democratic opponent Terry Goddard. The governor does write about headless bodies — but they’re not in the Arizona desert.

I can actually empathize with that since you wouldn’t believe some of the comments I’ve gotten from angry conservative troll-men in my queue. It’s jarring. And look, I don’t cotton to gender slurs, whether they’re against my kind of woman or Jan Brewer’s. Opponents of Brewer and SB1070 haven’t done the cause any favors by calling her ugly names based on her being female (I include myself in this because I’ve made references to her being a “witch” on Facebook a time or two and I’m going to stop doing it henceforth). It’s cheap, too easy, and needlessly counterproductive.

That said, I don’t think Jan Brewer is tough. Or smart or principled. That’s not because she’s a woman. It’s because she’s a modern-day Republican politician. Of course she sits on the internet all day googling her name, when she’s not making appearances before adoring throngs. She does so for the same reason that Russell Pearce trawls white supremacist sites for hours on end and another Republican Arizona state legislator whom I didn’t name on this blog can spend hours on Facebook kvetching about how slutty 14 year old girls are these days. And Trent Franks can indulge his non-stop abortion obsession. They have lots of time to dwell on those things because they have no reason to become anything resembling policy experts. That work is done for them, via innumerable right wing think tanks, lobby shops, PACs, PR firms, etc. All they have to do is repeat the talking points while looking stern, concerned, excited, or maudlin about them as the situation requires.

So they fill their gobs of extra time up with what really interests them – which in most cases is sadly embarrassing narcissism or reactionary authoritarian narcissism, or a combination of both. This is why the GOP is having so much trouble with their Presidential candidates. They’re ciphers, not leaders.

Let me start by saying that the “non-denominational Bethany Bible Church is enormous. It’s a large campus with several buildings, including the spacious auditorium where the Tour was held. It staggers me when I consider that Bethany Bible is but one of many similarly ostentatious mega-churches in the Valley. There are at least four I can think of right off the top of my head within the North Central Phoenix corridor. There were three within a five mile radius of my house when I lived in Ahwatukee. Gleaming monuments to tax exemption.

I arrived at 9:20 and parked my car in the huge parking lot. Hundreds of people had already arrived and I saw many late-model expensive cars and SUVs. I checked in at the registration table and entered the event. Outside the auditorium were the inevitable exhibitors and here they were the usual assortment of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, missionary groups, and hawkers of (expensive) religious training materials. I got two free DVDs as I walked around the displays. One was for the Truth Project and the other was a Dr. Del Tackett lecture.

I took a seat inside. It was a nearly sold out crowd. Let me say that I didn’t go intending to poke fun at the facilitators or the attendees. Which is probably a good thing because I certainly didn’t find anything amusing there. The whole thing filled me with disgust from the get-go. The crowd was easily 95% lily-white and affluent looking. They had that smug sanctimonious air about them that turned me off from organized religion at a very early age.

The program started with some local CAP dude laying out the agenda and telling what I suppose were jokes, since they drew peals of laughter, but I couldn’t understand them because they were in evangelical code language. Then there was an inspirational video about something or other. And then Cathi Herrod got up and said some things and then it was time for Dr. Tackett.

Del Tackett is “the author, architect and teacher for Focus on the Family’s The Truth Project” according to his website. CAP enthusiastically pushes the Truth Project in its work here in Arizona. Tackett’s speech to the Faith in Action crowd was mostly hokey platitudes and he reminded me of every scam artist motivational or snake oil pusher I’ve ever listened to. I looked around at the smug affluent white people in the audience around me, who were nodding in rapt agreement at everything he said, and thought “You have GOT to be kidding me. You guys are really falling for this charlatan?” There was a theme to Tackett’s sales pitch, though. He emphasized the need to “love thy neighbor” and stressed the importance of small groups within the larger church. This has been an important strategy for right wing theocrats. Small groups make people in them feel more connected and also more obligated and accountable. This is also how cults and pyramid schemes operate.

Tackett loaded his talk with personal anecdotes of international travel and they always ended well, with the people he encountered receiving whatever Biblical wisdom he wanted them to receive. What a phony. Oh, and “God loves freedom” and numerous references to The Enemy, as in “God loves to empower. The Enemy does the opposite.” “The Enemy wants to suck all power.” Woo, that sounds scary.

Tackett was finally done and it was Cathi Herrod’s turn to speak. That, of course, was preceded by a hagiography video about CAP and Cathi Herrod. Herrod describes herself as a “former pro-choice feminist” who came to Jesus while in law school. She is very glib and really lays on the faux folksy and maternal schtick. The Faith in Action Tour billed itself as getting Christians involved in the community. Herrod made it clear that involvement meant political. Really strong pitch to get the audience motivated to pressure politicians to enact “family values” legislation. Which means banning abortion, getting the gays back in the closet, and tax dollars going to religious schools, among other things. Herrod got big applause when she claimed that a reduction in the number of abortions in Arizona was due to CAP sponsored laws limiting access to abortion. And when she praised “crisis pregnancy centers”.

When she was done State Senator Rick Murphy and his wife Penny got up and talked about the many children they’ve adopted and fostered. Which is laudable, except for the part where they emphasized how important it is to inculcate the young charges with “Christian Values”.

Next up was the Q and A panel featuring Herrod, Dr. Tackett, and some woman named Carmen Pate. They each did some opening remarks. In hers, Herrod spoke of being concerned about religious liberty – being able to “practice religion in the public square”, as she put it. She resents the expectation that the practice of religion should be “confined to the four walls of church”. Yeah, no shit, Cathi. She also said something that really made me want to line up to ask a question (unfortunately I couldn’t stay past noon because I had other obligations). She said CAP had to “watch our rhetoric” and that “we’re involved with every issue except immigration”. Now isn’t that special? It’s not like the issue impacts, you know, families or anything, right? Yeah, don’t want to piss off your lily white Republican followers, do you Cathi?

I stayed around to a few questions but it was getting close to noon and I was going to throw up if I stayed any longer. But I did hear a couple. Okay, so I’m not a religious or spiritual person at all but I do know plenty of people who participate in organized religion or their own version of faith and they seem to derive something positive from it. Fine with me. They seem happy with their lives, are not assholes in general, and are not pushing anything on me. The audience at this CAP thing is a whole nother breed. They seem to find neither comfort nor exaltation in their beliefs. Their lives are of hard struggle and martyrdom. And what so besets these well-fed white Mercedes driving Christians? Well, one lady was terribly upset about a porn shop opening near her! Another, a school teacher, was terribly worried about her students who carried Bibles feeling awkward about it. Then there was the gentleman who faced the terrifying trauma of having to work for a company with anti-discrimination policies which make it impossible for him to pester uh “witness” to his homosexual co-workers.

Yeah, these people have such big problems, don’t they? These are your “values voters” right here. And this is the stuff they value. They make me sick.

Center for Arizona Policy responded swiftly with a press release denouncing the hold and weeping into their hankies about “the heath and safety of Arizona women.”

Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit endangers the health and safety of Arizona Women

Statement from Center for Arizona Policy’s Legal Counsel Deborah Sheasby
PHOENIX – “Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit filed yesterday against House Bill 2416 and Senate Bill 1030 is an outrageous affront to the women of Arizona. With this suit, the nation’s largest abortion provider proves once again they are more concerned with selling abortions than protecting vulnerable women with crisis pregnancies.

Medication abortions are not a safer alternative to surgical abortions, and clinics dispensing abortion medication should be properly licensed and equipped to handle complications. Planned Parenthood is challenging these basic provisions of HB 2416.

The Arizona Legislature considered the many medical risks of medication abortion in passing HB 2416 and SB 1030. Dr. Allen Sawyer, an experienced and respected Arizona ob-gyn, submitted written testimony that women are at a ten times greater risk of death from infection from medication abortions than surgical abortions.

The pill’s own FDA label states that nearly all women who take the medication will experience an adverse reaction, and at least eight women have died from complications of medication abortion. Based on all of the medical evidence, the Legislature acted within its constitutional authority to protect the health and safety of Arizonans.

In their lawsuit, Planned Parenthood also says it is “medically inappropriate” to provide women with a physical examination before an abortion, keep intravenous drugs available in case of an emergency, and give women a follow up phone call twenty-four hours after taking the abortion pill. Planned Parenthood claims that they will have to shut down rather than offer women the same standard of care that they receive for every other medical procedure. These are unconscionable examples of their “quantity over quality” business model.

Arizona women deserve better, and Center for Arizona Policy is committed to seeing these important health and safety standards enforced.”

Everyone paying attention to social conservatives the past few decades understands that the war on women’s reproductive freedom is being waged with the goal of imposing religion-based rigid gender roles and sexual standards on us. But it’s not like they can come right out and announce that. So the activists wave their hands around and scream about killing babies while the leaders in the organizations pretend to care about women, who are apparently too stupid and weak-willed to make our own decisions.

The gentle folks at CAP would probably never call abortion patients murderers openly but others who identify proudly as anti-abortion are less constrained. Here’s a guy with a little radio program weighing in on the Casey Anthony not guilty verdict:

“You know, what I don’t understand about it is, they’re all card-carrying liberals… when does the death of a child bother them?” Limbaugh asked. “I’ve never seen them get so upset over the death of a child.”

Limbaugh continually invoked abortion, advising that those distraught over the trial outcome, particularly those in the media, should “…just tell yourselves that [Anthony] just waited a couple of years to get an abortion and you’ll feel better.”

“If the child had died in what, two years earlier in the womb, this woman would be a star, she’d be a hero,” he also said. “And folks I don’t think that’s a cliche to say, and I don’t think it’s a cheap attempt at humor. I think that while it may be uncomfortable to hear one of the reasons its uncomfortable to hear is there is an element of truth in it.”

Rush is at least being consistent here, in conflating abortion with the murder of a two year old child. It’s like pulling hen’s teeth to get a professional anti-choicer to even acknowledge that they think abortion is murder let alone a straight answer from one on what they think should happen to women who get them. They rattle off rehearsed lines about protecting the poor, dear, weak women from the trauma of abortion. But say we knew for a certainty that women would face prosecution and jail for the death of a fetus, do you think those who oppose abortion (and in many cases contraception) out of their alleged concern for women would abandon their cause? Not on your life. And we do know for a certainty that prosecutions will happen because they are happening.

Idaho Woman Charged For “Unlawful Abortion,” Turned In By Anti-Choice Advocate

Outcry in America as pregnant women who lose babies face murder charges (15 year old faces life in prison for stillbirth)

And then there’s that Arizona statute still on the books that criminalizes abortion and calls for one to five years in jail for the woman, which goes into effect the second Roe v Wade is overturned.

First there’s Rep. Steve Montenegro (R-Litchfield Park), who seems to be unaware of the contradictions in the anecdotes he related:

First story: Unemployed constituent pounding the pavement for a job, unsuccessfully, yet adamant that Reps. Montenegro et al. stop with all the unemployment benefits and focus on job creation. Second story: Small business owner who is threatening to move his business to Texas because – wait for it – he can’t find workers because people are getting all those generous unemployment benefits! I don’t suppose it occured to Rep. Montenegro to introduce his unemployed constituent to the small business owner. Match made in Tea Party Bootstraps heaven, if you ask me.

Then here’s Nancy McClain, a Republican from Bullhead City who made an impassioned plea for the people in her community, who have been hit by disproportionately high unemployment:

Scottsdale Republican Rep. Michelle Ugenti is having none of that. In high patriotic dudgeon, she basically told the unemployed in Bullhead City and Yuma and everywhere else in the state to suck it.

Besides, why should she care? Things are just fine where she lives.

Gov. Brewer offered a deal wherein unemployed people getting the extension would be required to prove they are looking for work at least four days a week and take the first minimum wage job offered. That wasn’t enough to persuade the Republicans to extend the lifeline that would keep 15000 jobless Arizonans from slipping into utter penury.

Pearce said there still is a chance lawmakers could approve the plan on Monday – but only if the governor agrees to add provisions he said would prevent fraud. And House Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, wants the package to also include tax breaks for business he said are needed to stimulate job growth

Well, not that they’d ever consider it, but why not add a provision to stop employers from dismissing unemployed people outright from consideration for positions?

One prominent example surfaced last year, when mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson announced that it was relocating its headquarters — with 180 new jobs — to an Atlanta suburb. A posting for a marketing/public relations job read, in part, “No unemployed candidates will be considered at all.” Under fire, Sony Ericsson blamed a recruiter and quickly pulled the exclusion.

But similar ads are cropping up in job postings for everything from restaurant managers to forklift operators to medical device salespersons. An ad last month specified that a pet-sitting service in Woodbridge, Va., would only deign to consider pet-sitting assistants who were “temporarily unemployed,” as if no dog could be subjected to a sitter whose skills were not utterly up to date…

…The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has received so many complaints about bias against the jobless that officials consider it an “emerging issue.” At a commission hearing in February, even industry representatives were hard-pressed to come up with a business necessity that would require such an exclusion.

Meanwhile, two states are acting on their own. A New Jersey law, which took effect June 1, makes it illegal to exclude the unemployed in help-wanted ads and carries fines of up to $10,000 for repeated violations. New Jersey Assemblyman Peter Barnes told us one reason he pushed for the measure was learning from his constituents that “to not have a job and then see an ad saying the ‘unemployed need not apply,’ breaks people’s spirit.” In New York, several lawmakers are pushing a measure that would prohibit employers from denying jobless applicants an interview or a job solely because they are unemployed.

I’m sure our Republican friends in the lege would decry such a measure as a horrific socialistic commie intrusion upon our glorious job creators. Who don’t appear to want to give a job to anyone who has been out of work for an extended period of time. But maybe a Democrat could propose it?

Contrast that with ALEC-backed legislation being pushed in Iowa, Florida, and Minnesota:

Iowa, Florida and Minnesota are all considering bills that specifically target anyone who documents the mistreatment of animals. In Minnesota, for instance, the bill criminalizes the recording, or mere possession, of an “image or sound” of animal suffering in a sweeping list of “animal facilities” and “crop facilities.”

Behind the scenes, the supporters of these bills have financial interests in seeing them become law. The Iowa Poultry Association helped draft the Iowa bill, and Iowa State Representative Annette Sweeney, one of its proponents, is the former executive director of the Iowa Angus Association. Simpson Farms, Florida’s second biggest egg producer, helped draft the bill in that state. And Minnesota’s bill is co-sponsored by Representative Rod Hamilton — past president and current member of the Minnesota Pork Producers.

Whether these special interests like it or not, distributing video and audio footage of factory farms, animal experimentation labs, and other facilities is protected by the First Amendment. If any investigators have trespassed or destroyed property, there are already laws on the books to charge them. To the proponents of these bills, though, these videos are not free speech, nor are they petty crime. As Florida state senator Jim Norman has said of undercover investigators: “It’s almost like terrorism.”

These Big Ag business interests want to make filming the operations on farms a felony punishable by several years in jail. And they appear to have the support of many Republican legislators in that endeavor along with model legislation support from ALEC. If you don’t think cruelty to animals is a big deal, realize that some investigators will undoubtedly capture unsanitary conditions that threaten human health and unscrupulous labor practices toward workers (many of whom are undocumented) as well. There are a lot of reasons factory farm and meat processing plant owners don’t want you to know what’s going on in them. Unlike Planned Parenthood, which takes great pains to follow the rules, the farms and plants have a massive and well-funded corporate legislative machine (ALEC) behind them to make it so they can break the rules in secrecy and with impunity.

But she does this thing that a lot of political observers here do which is starting to drive me up a wall:

Arizona’s race to the bottom isn’t going unnoticed. Last month, former Intel Chief Executive and board Chairman Craig Barrett warned that “cutbacks don’t bode well” for the quality education essential to attracting companies like his. If Intel were site-hunting now, “I hate to say it, but I think Arizona would not be in the top 10 locales to make that investment.”

Business leaders must be part of setting the state back on course. They successfully united to oppose the Legislature’s latest package of misguided, counterproductive immigration measures.

(facepalm)

It’s not as if these business leaders were helpless passive bystanders to the debacle. They orchestrated it. Everything. They sent the armies of lobbyists to get the tax cuts and the loopholes for their industries. Craig Barrett, whom liberals are swooning over because of his statement on education, was CEO of Intel in 2005 when the company demanded, and received, a massive break called Single Sales Factor. Intel threatened to relocate a planned Chandler factory expansion (a hollow threat since doing so would have been incredibly expensive for the company) to another state if Arizona didn’t give them a 95% cut on their corporate sales tax. The JLBC projected that the move would cost Arizona $100 million.

As for the business community opposing the recent immigration measures, that made for impressive kabuki theater I suppose, but I will never forget how SB1070 went down last year. Contrary to popular lore, SB1070 wasn’t something Russell Pearce dreamed up with nativist Kris Kobach and then foisted on an unsuspecting business community. SB1070 was model legislation from ALEC and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), which is a board level member of both ALEC and the AZ Chamber, played a big role in crafting it. After Pearce stripped employer unfriendly language out of the bill, the Chamber went publicly “neutral” on SB1070. They went on to endorse pro SB1070 Republicans for every statewide seat. The biggest industries in Arizona were hardly innocent bystanders. SB1070 came straight from business and was intended to benefit a certain business (private prisons) and Republican politicians. Mission accomplished, as the Republicans swept the 2010 elections and prisons were one of few areas of state spending to get a budget increase.

Speaking of ALEC, I’ve been meaning to do a longer post about them and hopefully I’ll get to it but here’s a useful link that shows the GOP/Big Business blueprint for state legislatures – ALEC Budget Toolkit. It’s scary stuff and Arizona has been a breeding ground for it.

I became aware of ALEC back in 2006 when I was researching for my State Senate race. I was struck by how similar Republican bills in Arizona were to those in Utah, South Carolina, and several other GOP majority legislature states. I found this Progressive States Network report that explained it all. ALEC brings the multi-national corporate agenda along with a truckload of corporate money to (mostly) Republican legislators, providing them with model legislation.

HOW ALEC AND THE RIGHTWING OPERATE IN THE STATES At its heart, ALEC is little more than a tax-exempt recipient and front for some of the nation’s largest corporations, as companies ranging from Enron, ExxonMobil, Coors Brewing, Pfizer to Phillip Morris have paid for ALEC’s expansion and success:
•Corporate-dominated task forces of ALEC and other non-profit groups provide industry with, in the words of one former industry co-chair, ‘a channel to express its interests to a majority of the states’ speakers of the house and presidents of the senate.’
•A key to ALEC’s success is that it coordinates the introduction of legislation with national experts, local political operations, state-based think tanks, national issue-based lobbying networks and direct corporate lobbying in the statehouses.
•States are vulnerable to rightwing takeover because most state legislatures are made up of poorly paid, part-time lawmakers with few if any staff to research or evaluate the laws they are asked to approve. There are therefore few staff who can challenge the expertise presented by conservative operatives or to uncover the hidden payoffs for corporate interests contained in the legislation.
•By setting the agenda in the statehouses, even a legislative defeat gives ALEC’s legislative allies an issue to run on at the next election, with progressives always reacting and often having little to say in response.

THE ALEC AGENDA: THE IMMEDIATE PAYOFF TO ITS CORPORATE BACKERS The rightwing network fronted by ALEC gives a “public interest” sheen to the raw special pleading of corporate interests that have bought a slot on the organization’s board. Some examples of its recent agenda items includes:
•Defending Oil Companies from Global Warming Legislation: Backed by the oil industry, ALEC lined up legislators to ‘temporarily’ lower taxes on gasoline to divert attention from record oil company profits. ALEC has also worked to undermine regulations aimed at curbing the carbon dioxide emissions leading to global warming.
•Serving Big Pharma: Fighting the Importation of Prescription Drugs: ALEC and its drug company backers have mounted a full-scale campaign to defeat initiatives by cities and states to promote importing prescription medicines from Canada.
•Protecting Low-Wage Employers: Rolling Back Labor Rights: ALEC has promoted legislation to block local governments from raising local minimum wages or even requiring government contractors to pay a fair wage to their employees.
•Telecoms: Blocking Municipal Broadband at Expense of High Tech: ALEC has worked to block or hamstring cities trying to build cheaper or even free Internet services for their residents.
•Helping Insurance Companies Fight Off Corporate Accountability: ALEC has been promoting a campaign to stop state insurance commissioners from requiring insurance companies to meet the same accountability and auditing rules that were imposed on publicly-traded corporations in the wake of the Enron debacle.
•The Bankers Payoff from Long Term Health Care ‘Reform’: ALEC has been advocating cracking down on seniors who shelter income in a home while using Medicaid to finance long term care, a campaign to undermine health care for seniors and force them to buy ‘reverse annuity mortgages” from ALEC’s financial industry patrons.

That was back in 2006. Republicans have taken large majorities in Red States across the country since then, giving ALEC a clearer path to successful implementation of their pro-corporate, anti-worker, and anti-consumer agenda. Janet Napolitano’s departure from the Arizona’s Governor’s office and Jan Brewer’s subsequent appointment to that office and ushered in SB1070, which was not (contrary to popular belief) the brainchild of Russell Pearce. Last October NPR reported that it was model legislation drafted in a hotel conference room by an ALEC task force of which Corrections Corporation of America was a key participant. Also from that NPR piece.

But first ALEC has to get legislators to the conferences. The organization encourages state lawmakers to bring their families. Corporations sponsor golf tournaments on the side and throw parties at night, according to interviews and records obtained by NPR.

Bowman says that’s nothing special: “We have breakfasts and lunch. They’re at Marriotts and Hyatts. They’re normal chicken dinner. Maybe sometimes they get steaks. Yeah, we feed the people. We think that it’s OK to eat at a conference.”
Videos and photos from one recent ALEC conference show banquets, open bar parties and baseball games — all hosted by corporations. Tax records show the group spent $138,000 to keep legislators’ children entertained for the week.

But the legislators don’t have to declare these as corporate gifts.

Consider this: If a corporation hosts a party or baseball game and legislators attend, most states require the lawmakers to say where they went and who paid. In this case though, legislators can just say they went to ALEC’s conference. They don’t have to declare which corporations sponsored these events.

$138K to entertain kids? Dude, that’s a lotta Chuck E. Cheese. And clearly it’s pretty easy, if you’re a corporation, to persuade lawmakers whom you’ve wined and dined and whose kids you’ve placated – and who don’t even have to report it as corporate gifts – to be very obliging about pushing legislation that you’ve written for them.

I’ll have more about ALEC a little later.

Which Wisconsin Republican politicians are members of ALEC? Good question. How would we know? ALEC doesn’t provide this information on its website unless you’re able to log in as a member. Maybe we need to ask our representatives. One might think that Republican legislators gathered at a national ALEC meeting could be sufficiently numerous to trigger the “walking quorum rule” that makes it illegal for public officials in Wisconsin to meet unannounced without public notice of their meeting. But they’re able to avoid this rule (which applies to every other public body in Wisconsin) because they’re protected by a loophole in what is otherwise one of the strictest open meetings laws in the nation. The Wisconsin legislature carved out a unique exemption from that law for its own party caucuses, Democrats and Republicans alike. So Wisconsin Republicans are able to hold secret meetings with ALEC to plan their legislative strategies whenever they want, safe in the knowledge that no one will be able to watch while they do so.

Our open meeting lawis pretty clear.

“All meetings of any public body shall be public meetings and all persons so desiring
shall be permitted to attend and listen to the deliberations and proceedings.” A.R.S. § 38-
431.01(A).

“It is the public policy of this state that meetings of public bodies be conducted openly
and that notices and agendas be provided for such meetings which contain such
information as is reasonable necessary to inform the public of the matters to be discussed
or decided.” A.R.S. § 38-431.09.

A meeting is a gathering, in person or through technological devices of a quorum of a
public body at which they discuss, propose or take legal action, including deliberations.
A.R.S. § 38-431(4). This includes telephone and e-mail communications.

But alas, Arizona legislators carved themselves out a similar loophole to the one in Wisconsin! Isn’t that special!

38-431.08. Exceptions; limitation

A. This article does not apply to:

1. Any judicial proceeding of any court or any political caucus of the legislature.

No other non-judicial public body in Arizona enjoys the same privilege to hold closed meetings where they discuss public business as political caucuses of the Legislature do. What is discussed at ALEC conferences? Legislation. Legislation that often makes it’s way to the Arizona State Capitol, with citizens being unaware that it was crafted by DC political operatives in order to advance the interests of multi-national corporations. Why are Arizona legislators allowed to belong to a secret organization that does not disclose its membership or who attends its meetings? Don’t we have a right to know that, particularly if there might be enough legislators in attendance at these ALEC shindigs to comprise quora of legislative committees or the Legislature as a whole? Blog for Arizona’s David Safier covered ALEC’s meeting last December, where our GOP legislative delegation was rumored to be well represented.

A reliable source told the Arizona Guardian how many Arizona legislators were there: More than 30, according to Bob Burns, who said it was the largest delegation from any state.

Expect ALEC-based legislation to be a big part of the next session.

Indeed. The fact sheet I linked about Arizona’s Open Meeting Law explains why it’s so important:

Why do we have an Open Meeting Law?

1. To protect the public.
a. To avoid decision-making in secret.
b. To promote accountability by encouraging public officials to act responsively and
responsibly.
2. To protect public officials.
a. To avoid being excluded (notice).
b. To prepare and avoid being blind sided (agenda).
c. To accurately memorialize what happened (minutes).
3. Maintain Integrity of government.
4. Better informed citizenry.
5. Build trust between government and citizenry.

Exactly how are secret meetings in DC with Newt and Grover, attended by who knows how many Arizona lawmakers, conducive to openness, accountability, and transparency in government? Answer: They’re not.