ALEC

Republican state legislatures: Guns, gays, and forced child-bearing

Submitted by scharrison on

Forget DC, we need to clean these houses:

Ms. Baker said that a new frontier in gun rights involves laws that let people over 21 carry concealed weapons without permits. In West Virginia, Republican lawmakers passed such a law this month after overriding a veto from the Democratic governor, Earl Ray Tomblin. In Georgia, Republican legislators passed a bill allowing people over 21 to carry concealed weapons onto public college and university campuses. Mr. Deal has indicated that he has concerns about the bill but has not said definitively if he will veto it.

That's a new "frontier" all right, one where walking out your front door exposes you to dangers not evident in most civilized societies. I wonder what twisted logic NC's concealed-carry advocates will cook up to explain this away? You know, the ones who are always harping about how "well-trained" these people must be to obtain said permit. Put your gun away for the moment, so we can see how these intrepid Republican legislators are protecting you from Teh Gays:

Gutting renewable energy still on ALEC's menu

Submitted by scharrison on

NC's budget will simply have to wait:

Nine Republican House members, including Speaker Tim Moore, and Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, are attending the annual conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council in San Diego, which runs through Friday.

Better known as ALEC, the conservative nonprofit sometimes comes under fire for giving business executives direct access to lawmakers, who often return to their states with model legislation favored by those corporate interests. In North Carolina, legislation modeled upon ALEC proposals includes attempts to repeal the state's mandate for renewable energy production, tort reform, malpractice reform, providing immunity from civil penalties to companies that report their own environmental violations and a push to teach the gold standard in schools.

ALEC's agenda for the week includes the usual suspects of pushing for balanced budgets via debt ceilings, the ubiquitous "Convention of States" mildly treasonous sales-pitch, making more inroads in school privatization, and of course continuing the war against renewable energy:

ALEC Whistles; NC Officials Show Up

Submitted by Vicki Boyer on

You, too, can scroll through the agenda ALEC has set for its annual meeting late this week in San Diego.

At this web site you can wonder about such things as:

Who is 'exhibiting' and what are they showing??

Is ALEC really interested in 'consumer protection?' Or is the discussion on how to get rid of it?

ALEC resorts to bullying tactics to silence environmental groups

Submitted by scharrison on

When your bottom line is bottoming out:

Attorneys for ALEC sent letters to Common Cause and the League of Conservation Voters asking them to immediately “cease making false statements” and “remove all false or misleading material” suggesting that ALEC does not believe in global warming.

The legal demands from ALEC follow an exodus of some of its best known corporate members, including Google, British Petroleum, Facebook, Yahoo and Northrop Grumman.

While cutting off the flow of corporate dollars to ALEC is a critical step in marginalizing the organization, a much more important goal should be for voters to show their disgust for legislators who engage with the group and bring home cookie-cutter bills to be passed. Every such lawmaker and every such bill need to be exposed by the Capital Press Corps before they get anywhere near the floor of the General Assembly for a vote. Only then will we be able to "take back our state" and do the people's business.

Breaking: The end of marriage in North Carolina

Submitted by James on

RALEIGH - In a shrewd legislative maneuver, Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger today ushered North Carolina into a new post-coital era. The end of marriage is upon us.

"We're letting any public official who wants to opt out of marrying queers do just that," says Berger. "Unfortunately, they'll also have to opt out of marrying anybody else too. But whatever. At least queers won't be getting hitched."

The new law promises to decimate marriage in North Carolina. Magistrates, county clerks, registers of deeds, and everyone else involved in marriages can now say, "Thanks, but no thanks," knowing they have job protection no matter how little work they actually do.

"That's fine by me," says Berger. "I'm all for white Republican Christians getting paid to sit on their asses. It's only darkies that get under my skin."

In response to the action, a spokesperson for the North Carolina ACLU shook her head and laughed. "Here we go again," she said. Extremists passing laws that won't pass any constitutional smell test. So now the state will be spending millions of taxpayer dollars defending this crap in court."

UPDATE: Read the bill itself. And then encourage every public official you can think of to "just say no" in enabling any marriage.

A North Carolina Bridgegate?

Submitted by Tom Sullivan on

As corporate-carpetbagger friendly as the NCGOP has made North Carolina since taking control of the legislature in 2010, they keep surprising. This latest revelation Monday from North Carolina echoes the billion-dollar, Hudson Lights real estate deal thought connected to Gov. Chris Christie's Bridgegate scandal. WCNC-Charlotte has video here.

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