Senate Might Investigate ALEC

It’s about time.  Senator Dick Durbin will be heading a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council).  ALEC’s corporate membership is trying frantically to stay hidden under its rock and out of the public eye.  Jillions of ALEC-sponsored rightwing laws have been popping up simultaneously in all of the red and swing states, and the lowly public doesn’t need to know which corporations and wealthy individuals have been pulling the strings.

The linked article talks mostly about Shoot First laws — aka Stand Your Ground — which have been springing up like weeds in state after state.  But the ALEC cesspool runs so much deeper.

Who wrote the “Ag Gag” laws that have been passed in some of the farm states?  You know, where it’s perfectly legal for factory farms to keep their animals paralyzed in tiny cages and feed them nothing except excrement and antibiotics, but if you report or photograph these abuses, you go to prison.  ALEC, that’s who.

How about that ongoing Block The Vote campaign in so many swing states?  No more early voting, extended voting hours or same day registration.  And for God’s sake, get rid of those commie Voter Registration drives!  Yup,  ALEC.

And the fossil fuel industry’s boundless determination to sabotage renewable energy sources?  Three guesses.

One sign that Dick Durbin is on the right track:  Ted Cruz — i.e. the 24 Billion Dollar Man — is shedding crocodile tears about this hearing being “an inappropriate governmental intrusion into the personal and political views of American citizens and businesses.”

Dick Durbin:  Dig.  Dig Deeper.  Still Deeper.  Drain that cesspool.