The Capital Times commits three full pages of its Wednesday print edition to its so-called expose of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. All the B-Blogge need do is drop a document into your hands. That, in the next segment. But first, onto the Left's Follies:
"Shadowy group thinks for Walker, Fitzgerald," headlines a piece from John Nichols, at his most conspiratorial. (He could give lessons to Dan Brown.)
You get two -- yes, 2 -- liberal tropes in one brief headline. First, note that it is a "shadowy group." The stuff of secret oaths, incantations, hoods, and flickering candles.
The second shibboleth is that our elected governor and legislative leaders are really idiots -- just like that George W. Bush, they have to order take-out for brains. They are just empty vessels, Manchurian Candidates that nefarious interests operate by remote control. "Real people" are not conservative -- only multi-billionaires. (Well, not George Soros or Ted Turner.)
Yes, ALEC is so shadowy is toots its own horn on this big, brassy web site.
The big scoop in Wednesday's CT, however, comes to us from the Center for Media and Democracy. One could say it is the real "shadowy group." None of its people have ever been elected dog catcher, unlike the members of the American Legislative Exchange Council.
This liberal front group "tracks ALEC's vast legislative influence" thanks to a supposedly providential document dump of WikiLeaks proportions. Here we find that Tommy Thompson was an early ALEC member and supporter. Well, yes he was. That scary man, Tommy Thompson.
Anyone for re-establishing AFDC, aka "the welfare dole," raise your hand.
The Center for (liberal) Media and Democracy outlines several policy initiatives cooked up within the Hades hot ovens at ALEC: school vouchers enabling disabled kids to use their government aid at private schools. ALEC is big on voter I.D. Another initiative would allow Wisconsin residents to shop for health insurance from any provider in the nation. Sinister, this stuff.
Stop the presses! Conservative legislators in those laboratories of democracy (aka "the states") are sharing good ideas and best practices. What a concept! The Capital Times had not posted either of the two articles as of this posting. But here's the Center for Media and Democrats website.
[UPDATED: Nichols' "Shadowy group thinks for Walker" has now been posted. The Center for Media and Democracy "expose" is here.]
This just in
Democrat majority in Rhode Island approves voter I.D.
Shadowy effluence
You want shadowy influence? Here's shadowy influence. It's the SEIU union organizing manual, a page from which is reproduced above. This tome follows the Rules for Radicals handbook with such helpful tips as:
- Escalating Pressure Tactics
- Outside Pressure
- Political/Legislative Pressure
- Using the Media
- Helping Reporters do their Job
- Creating News
The Service Employees International Union was all over the Siege of the Capitol, including last month's Tent City. As were the International Socialists.
Let me ask you this: do you really think Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi could have made such a colossally bad decision if the streets had not been full of cursing, chanting, and menacing protestors? Do you really think old hands like Fred Risser and Tim Cullen would cool their heels in a motel room for six weeks because Mark Miller said so? Mark Miller?
Who really pulled the strings? My guess is he wore the union label and is paid in six figures.
