Private Prisons: Payoffs, Profits & Failures

I’d like to point out that in the first article I link below, the author states that it is Republican-controlled legislatures who are responsible for private prisons…this is only partially the truth. Yes, organizations like ALEC and the prison industries they represent generally bribe, er…give campaign contributions to Republican legislators…BUT… they are not at all above bribing contributing to Democratic lawmakers when it suits their purposes. Our very own former Democratic Guv’ner Bill Richardson received more campaign contributions from private prisons than any other policlown in the country at one point. Great shock that as soon as he was in power, private prison contracts in NM expanded, eh? (The REAL shock comes in the 2nd article linked here that talks about the fines our Republican Gov’ner Martinez just slapped our private prisons with.)

Bottom line is that private prisons and all of the various twisted off-spring of the industry are willing to do whatever it takes, work with whoever it takes and pay nearly whatever it takes to keep expanding their slave trade industry and profit margins. It isn’t a matter of Right or Left anymore folks, it’s all about who can be bought and sold…both in our legislative bodies…and out here in our so-called ‘free’ society. 

Over 18 Months, Nation’s First Privately Owned State Prison Has Declined Rapidly

Think Progress, “In an unprecedented experiment fueled by budget concerns, Ohio sold a state prison to Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest private prison corporations in the country, in 2011. Within a year, a state audit of Lake Erie Correctional Institute, the nation’s first privately owned state prison, found rampant abuse and abysmal conditions well below state standards. The CCA prison was given another chance to pass, but flunked another inspection four months later.Independent reports continue to illuminate filthy, broken facilities, as well as much higher rates of crime and violence in and around the prison. On Tuesday, the ACLU of Ohio sent Ohio lawmakers a comprehensive timeline of the prison’s decline since CCA took over.

The Lake Erie prison is now reportedly overcrowded at 130 percent capacity, with single-person cells holding 3 inmates each, according to internal documents obtained by the ACLU. Assaults on guards and other inmates have skyrocketed by 40 percent.

In fact, on the same day the ACLU released their timeline, the Lake Erie prison had to tamp down a series of inmate fights that lead to the confinement of 500 inmates.

Private prison companies have been repeatedly caught cutting corners on space, sanitation, and staff in order to maximize their profits. As a result, deadly riots frequently break out at these facilities, sparked by poor food quality, lack of health care access, and unsanitary conditions.

Despite Lake Erie’s multiple violations of state standards, Ohio has stubbornly maintained its infatuation with private prisons. The state plans to outsource prison food to Aramark, a private vendor already under investigation in Kentucky for multiple contract violations, including serving old food that had not been stored properly and overbilling the state.

Republican-dominated state legislatures are all too eager to ignore the private prison industry’s dismal record. CCA and other companies like GEO are paying well to maintain their massively profitable government contracts; the industry spent $45 million on lobbying in the past decade. CCA has done especially well for itself, rebounding from near bankruptcy in 2000 to rake in a net income of $162 million in 2011.” Think Progress

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New Mexico Slaps Private Prison Companies with $1.4 Million in Fines

Prison Legal News – “The departure of Bill Richardson as New Mexico’s governor has changed the previously lax business environment for the state’s private prison contractors. The new administration of Governor Susana Martinez is taking a more aggressive tone in demanding contractual compliance at privately-operated facilities that house state prisoners.

In March 2012, the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMDOC) imposed nearly $300,000 in fines against GEO Group, which operates three private prisons in the state. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was also hit with $11,779 in fines for failing to properly staff the women’s prison in Grants.

Those fines were on top of another $1.1 million in penalties assessed in November 2011 due to GEO’s failure to adequately staff the Lea County Correctional Facility (LCCF). According to Shannon McReynolds, inspector general at the NMDOC, GEO Group agreed to pay the $1.1 million fine but was “not completely happy” about it. Additionally, the company agreed to spend $200,000 over the next year to recruit more employees at LCCF.

The penalties imposed against the company in March 2012, also for inadequate staffing, resulted from GEO’s failure to have enough guards in staffed positions at LCCF. There were also noncustodial positions, such as counselors for substance abuse and mental health treatment, that had remained vacant for more than 60 days.

Part of the $11,779 penalty against CCA came from not having enough guards at the New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility. The largest part of the fine, $7,964.46, was due to CCA’s failure to release 15 prisoners on time. Records indicated that 13 of the 15 were released more than 30 days past their release date.

“These are taxpayer dollars that we are spending here,” McReynolds said. “When we spend these taxpayer dollars on these services, we need to make sure we’re getting those services.” New Mexico currently contracts with GEO Group and CCA to operate four facilities that hold state prisoners.

It was only after Governor Martinez took office that GEO and CCA had to worry about penalties for failing to fulfill their contractual obligations.” Full Article on PLN

CORPORATE PRISON RAP SHEETS

American Police Force
Aramark
Cornell
Corrections Corporation of America
DynCorp
Emerald
GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut)
Keefe Commissary Services
Management & Training Corporation
Maranatha Corrections LLC
PsychSolutions
TransCor
US Extradition

Monsanto’s Poisonous Seeds In The White House

So, folks still think we have two major political parties who are quite different from one another, eh? People think the world would be a much different or better place “If Only…” their candidate and party of choice had won the election of 2012…or 2008…or well, you get the point. Hell, even thought I had found a “purist” party this time around when I jumped on the Libertarian train. Figures that I’d find out only a few short weeks after the election that my beloved Savior Party has been working with the corpo-legislative whores known as The American Legislative Exchange Council…ALEC. There is no place, no party and no politician that the huge agra-giants like Monsanto cannot sink their poisonous roots into…

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CLN  “The roots of the relationship between Monsanto and the White House go back for decades. Bush senior’s administration was responsible for deeming GMO crops substantially equivalent to non-GMO crops, opening the flood gates for the industry to take over the food supply with little room for the opposition.

Mitt Romney was intimately involved with Monsanto’s transition into biotechnology.  During the presidential primaries, Romney named an 11-member agricultural advisory committee that was full of Monsanto connections.”

After promising to label GMO’s during his 2008 campaign, President Obama has opened the doors for the following GM crops during his administration:

Monsanto GMO alfalfa
Monsanto GMO sugar beets
Monsanto GMO BT soybean
Syngenta GMO corn for ethanol
Pioneer GMO soybean
Syngenta GMO BT cotton
Bayer GMO cotton
GMO papaya strain

This is not surprising given the fact that Obama has appointed the following people to regulatory bodies that are supposed to be responsible for the safety of our food (click on the links to see the announcements of Obama’s appointments):

Roger Beachy, director of the USDA, is a former director of Monsanto
Michael Taylor, the USDA food safe czar, is a former VP of Monsanto
Ramona Romero, a USDA council, was previously on Dupont’s corporate council.
Islam Siddiqui, the US agriculture trade representative, who pushes GM exports to other countries, is a former Monsanto lobbyist.” Full Story Here

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By Connor Adams Sheets | March 27 2013 3:03 PM

International Business Times – “The “Monsanto Protection Act” is the name opponents of the Farmer Assurance Provision have given to this terrifying piece of policy, and it’s a fitting moniker given its shocking content.

President Barack Obama signed a spending bill, HR 933, into law on Tuesday that includes language that has food and consumer advocates and organic farmers up in arms over their contention that the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” is a giveaway to corporations that was passed under the cover of darkness.

There’s a lot being said about it, but here are five terrifying facts about the Farmer Assurance Provision — Section 735 of the spending bill — to get you acquainted with the reasons behind the ongoing uproar:

1.) The “Monsanto Protection Act” effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future. The advent of genetically modified seeds — which has been driven by the massive Monsanto Company – and their exploding use in farms across America came on fast and has proved a huge boon for Monsanto’s profits.

But many anti-GMO folks argue there have not been enough studies into the potential health risks of this new class of crop. Well, now it appears that even if those studies are completed and they end up revealing severe adverse health effects related to the consumption of genetically modified foods, the courts will have no ability to stop the spread of the seeds and the crops they bear.

2.) The provision’s language was apparently written in collusion with Monsanto. Lawmakers and companies working together to craft legislation is by no means a rare occurrence in this day and age. But the fact that Sen. Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, actually worked with Monsanto on a provision that in effect allows them to keep selling seeds, which can then go on to be planted, even if it is found to be harmful to consumers, is stunning. It’s just another example of corporations bending Congress to their will, and it’s one that could have dire risks for public health in America.

3.) Many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the “Monsanto Protection Act” even existed within the bill they were voting on. HR 933 was a spending bill aimed at averting a government shutdown and ensuring that the federal government would continue to be able to pay its bills. But the Center for Food Safety maintains that many Democrats in Congress were not even aware that the provision was in the legislation:

“In this hidden backroom deal, Sen. [Barbara] Mikulski turned her back on consumer, environmental and farmer protection in favor of corporate welfare for biotech companies such as Monsanto,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, said in a statement. “This abuse of power is not the kind of leadership the public has come to expect from Sen. Mikulski or the Democrat Majority in the Senate.”

4.) The President did nothing to stop it, either. On Tuesday, Obama signed HR 933 while the rest of the nation was fixated on gay marriage, as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument concerning California’s Proposition 8. But just because most of the nation and the media were paying attention to gay marriage doesn’t mean that others were not doing their best to express their opposition to the “Monsanto Protection Act.” In fact, more than 250,000 voters signed a petition opposing the provision. And Food Democracy Now protesters even took their fight straight to Obama, protesting in front of the White House against Section 735 of the bill. He signed it anyway.

5.) It sets a terrible precedent. Though it will only remain in effect for six months until the government finds another way to fund its operations, the message it sends is that corporations can get around consumer safety protections if they get Congress on their side. Furthermore, it sets a precedent that suggests that court challenges are a privilege, not a right.” Full Article Here on IBT

Related Articles:

Top 10 excuses for Obama signing the Monsanto Protection Act (thesurvivalplaceblog.com)
Obama Signs Monsanto Protection Act Into Law After Promising GMO Labeling in 2007 (naturalsociety.com)
Top 10 excuses for Obama signing the Monsanto Protection Act (jonrappoport.wordpress.com)
FOCUS | Monsanto and the Seeds of Suicide (readersupportednews.org)
Farmers and food safety advocates lead Monsanto backlash (salon.com)
‘Monsanto Protection Act’ slips silently through US Congress (rt.com)
Monsanto Required (Nutrition Optional) (factgammon.wordpress.com)
Obama Betrays Americans Again…with the “Monsanto Protection Act” (thedailysheeple.com)
Monsanto, DuPont bury the lawsuit hatchet, set to make more GMO (EndtheLie.com)
Monsanto is up to no good… AGAIN! (thebubbaeffect.wordpress.com)

ALEC Pushes “Ag-Gag” Laws To Silence Whistleblowers

Anti-whistleblower bills supported by the animal agriculture lobby would criminalize essentially anyone who tries to expose the conditions at factory farms and slaughter plants. The goal: to keep Americans in the dark about the rampant animal abuse in the world of factory farming.

Excerpts, The Raw Story “Bills being shopped in six states by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) would make it a crime to film animal abuse at factory farms or lie on job applications, in hopes of shutting down animal rights activists who infiltrate slaughterhouses to expose ghastly conditions.

“The meat industry’s response to these exposes has not been to try to prevent these abuses from taking place, but rather it’s really just been to prevent Americans from finding out about those abuses in the first place,” Paul Shapiro, spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), told Raw Story. “What they’re doing is trying to pass laws throughout the country that don’t just shoot the messenger, they seek to imprison the messenger.”

The proposals mandate that evidence of animal abuse be turned over to law enforcement within 48 hours, or face a financial penalty. Several of the bills bills also make it a crime to lie on slaughterhouse job applications, which activists commonly do in order to get footage like the content of a video published by the HSUS, embedded below…”

“Those bills appear to be spreading with the help of ALEC, a conservative business advocacy group that encourages lawmakers to “exchange” legislative ideas from state to state…”

“…The bills to block animal rights activists are in California, Nebraska, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press. Three other states — New Mexico, Wyoming and New Hampshire — have already rejected similar bills this year, and HSUS told Raw Story that three more — Minnesota, Vermont and North Carolina — are yet expected to take them up.

Several states already have laws similar to what ALEC is pushing, and virtually all of them were triggered in response to shocking videos produced by animal rights activists, who some critics have taken to calling propagandists.

In one such recent case, undercover video from an Iowa factory farm produced by a group called Mercy for Animals caused the Iowa legislature to support a so-called “Ag-Gag” law that makes it a crime to lie in order to infiltrate a farm’s staff. That act is now a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $1,500. Lawmakers in Utah passed a similar law in 2012 that bans unauthorized photography in farms. Missouri also has an older law that accomplishes effectively the same thing…” Full Story The Raw Story

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Not familiar with ALEC, yet? Here’s a 5 minute clip that explains who and what they are…

Private Prisons; Policies & Profits

“…three of the largest private prison companies have spent approximately $45,000,000 combined on lobbying and campaign contributions over the past decade.

Would they be spending so much money if those companies did not believe that it was getting results?”

 Excerpts,  The Economic Collapse Blog, “How would you describe an industry that wants to put more Americans in prison and keep them there longer so that it can make more money?  In America today, approximately 130,000 people are locked up in private prisons that are being run by for-profit companies, and that number is growing very rapidly.  Overall, the U.S. has approximately 25 percent of the entire global prison population even though it only has 5 percent of the total global population.  The United States has the highest incarceration rate on the entire globe by far, and no nation in the history of the world has ever locked up more of its own citizens than we have.  Are we really such a cesspool of filth and decay that we need to lock up so many of our own people?  Or are there some other factors at work?  Could part of the problem be that we have allowed companies to lock up men and women in cages for profit?  The two largest private prison companies combined to bring in close to $3,000,000,000 in revenue in 2010, and the largest private prison companies have spent tens of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions over the past decade.  Putting Americans behind bars has become very big business, and those companies have been given a perverse incentive to push for even more Americans to be locked up.  It is a system that is absolutely teeming with corruption, and it is going to get a lot worse unless someone does something about it…”

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“…At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions…”

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“…But of course some of the biggest profits for private prisons come from detaining young people.  Today, private prison companies operate more than 50 percent of all “youth correctional facilities” in the United States.

And sometimes judges have even been bribed by these companies to sentence kids to very harsh sentences and to send them to their facilities…” Full Article Here

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With well over 2 million people in jail – the U.S. has the world’s biggest prison population. But some are seeing the inside of a cell because dodgy judges are getting payback from the private sector…

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“For more than 30 years, ALEC has been the ideal means of creating and delivering public policy ideas aimed at protecting and expanding our free society. Thanks to ALEC’s membership, the duly elected leaders of their state legislatures, Jeffersonian principles advise and inform legislative action across the country. Literally hundreds of dedicated ALEC members have worked together to create, develop, introduce and guide to enactment many of the cutting-edge, conservative policies that have now become the law in the states.  Since its founding, ALEC has amassed an unmatched record of achieving ground-breaking changes in public policy. ALEC’s far-reaching national network of state legislators that crosses geographic and political boundaries, and affects all levels of government, is without equal. [Emphasis mine] No other organization in America today can claim as many valuable assets – both people and ideas – that have influence on as many key decision-making centers.” Learn More About ALEC

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Prisons of Poverty

“Raymond V. Liedka, of Oakland University in Michigan, and colleagues have found that the crime-fighting effects of prison disappear once the incarceration rate gets too high. “If the buildup goes beyond a tipping point, then additional incarceration is not going to gain our society any reduction in crime, and may lead to increased crime,” Dr. Liedka said.”

There is nothing unintentional about what has happened with our incarceration rates and prison system in this country over the past 2 decades or so. Since the latest scheme of enslaving people has taken root in this country, everything has gone exactly according to the plans of the slave-owners, a.k.a. the private prison industry- which is supported and funded by the very legislators we elect.

To call the current system a ‘poverty trap’ is an understatement…it isn’t an accidental trap; it is intentional and well planned. Every time something is proven to reduce recidivism rates, that *something* is magically removed from the equation. Strong outside ties help prisoners? Well then, let’s move prisoners farther from home, charge outrageous rates for phone calls and then…ah yes…let’s go ALL out and mandate that prisoners only be allowed to receive 1 postcard a month instead of long letters from home…

And if poverty increases incarceration rates well by all means…let’s make it impossible for anyone even arrested to ever rise above the poverty and earn their way out of the system via legal employment. There is no profit to be made by allowing people to serve a short, fitting sentence for actual crimes (vs non-crimes such as drug use) and then letting them return to the free world and get on with the business of earning a real living wage and becoming part of productive society and our legislators (you know, those folks who own stock in prison companies or at the very least, accept bribes campaign contributions from prison companies) damn well know it.

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US incarceration timeline (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Excerpts, NYTimes- “The shift to tougher penal policies three decades ago was originally credited with helping people in poor neighborhoods by reducing crime. But now that America’s incarceration rate has risen to be the world’s highest, many social scientists find the social benefits to be far outweighed by the costs to those communities.

“Prison has become the new poverty trap,” said Bruce Western, a Harvard sociologist. “It has become a routine event for poor African-American men and their families, creating an enduring disadvantage at the very bottom of American society.”

Among African-Americans who have grown up during the era of mass incarceration, one in four has had a parent locked up at some point during childhood. For black men in their 20s and early 30s without a high school diploma, the incarceration rate is so high — nearly 40 percent nationwide — that they’re more likely to be behind bars than to have a job.

No one denies that some people belong in prison. Mr. Harris, now 47, and his wife, 45, agree that in his early 20s he deserved to be there. But they don’t see what good was accomplished by keeping him there for two decades, and neither do most of the researchers who have been analyzing the prison boom.

The number of Americans in state and federal prisons has quintupled since 1980, and a major reason is that prisoners serve longer terms than before. They remain inmates into middle age and old age, well beyond the peak age for crime…

…Epidemiologists have found that when the incarceration rate rises in a county, there tends to be a subsequent increase in the rates of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy, possibly because women have less power to require their partners to practice protected sex or remain monogamous.

When researchers try to explain why AIDS is much more prevalent among blacks than whites, they point to the consequences of incarceration, which disrupts steady relationships and can lead to high-risk sexual behavior. When sociologists look for causes of child poverty and juvenile delinquency, they link these problems to the incarceration…” Full Story Here

Restoration vs Revenge

~ HT to Prison Photography for the link to Unlikely Friends ~

The world needs more thinking and more medicine like what is accomplished with projects like Unlikely Friends.

Restorative Justice instead of Revenge-based Justice. 

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“The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world with one out of 32 Americans under criminal justice supervision. The rest of the world is intrigued by the paradox that the leading democracy in the free world imprisons so many of its citizens, 25% of the total prisoners worldwide.

UNLIKELY FRIENDS documents victims of brutal crimes who, through forgiveness, unexpectedly become friends with their perpetrators.

Finding a criminal justice system that has left them empty and unsupported, these victims of unspeakable crimes forgive out of a deep need to heal themselves, which in turn motivates the perpetrator to fully account for their actions and thereby begin the process of true rehabilitation.

These relationships, so unfathomable for most of us, open our thinking to new possibilities of how to transform a system ensconced in punishment and retribution to one of restorative justice that is based in humanity.”

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Hate begets hate; healing begets healing…it is not a difficult concept to grasp but it isn’t one that is promoted nearly enough. All of the ridiculous fear-based propaganda like “TOUGH ON CRIME” has taken root in our society’s thought process and we are just now beginning to see and feel the ramifications of that school of thought…More prisons, more abuses, more crimes, more violence…more, more and more of everything that is unhealthy and damaging to us all. 

Politricksters who stand to profit from the private prison industry have no reason to reverse anything they have accomplished so it is once again up to US – The People – to instigate the change. I don’t care if you are a ‘bleeding heart liberal’ that thinks we can abolish prisons entirely or an ‘uber-conservative rightwinger’ that is simply fed up with the exorbitant amount of your taxes being spent on prisons…it behooves all of us to do whatever is necessary to halt the revenge-based and profit-driven prison system from rooting itself even more deeply into our societies. (Yes, plural…ALL societies are at risk of being over-run and destroyed by this cancerous growth; it is NOT just an American problem.) 

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Proliferation, Paul Rucker

 Animated mapping of the US Prison system set to original music.
Timeline:
Green Dots: 1778-1900
Yellow Dots: 1901-1940
Orange Dots: 1941-1980
Red Dots: 1981-2005

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The only way to make an idea take hold and start to grow is to keep promoting it so please help spread the word (Loudly, repetitively and often!). The intent of this project is health-based and healing-based…but unless more people hear about it, there is little hope of the spark becoming a wildfire. If you also think it is time to stop the hate and turn towards true healing then fan the flames of forgiveness and share the message(s) and help promote projects like Unlikely Friends as much as you can…social media is our most powerful tool right now, I think and here is another opportunity to use it for good!

Connect with and support Unlikely Friends -

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Private Prisons Move Into Public Schools

lock·down /ˈläkˌdoun/

Noun:  The confining of prisoners to their cells, typically during a riot.

“At 9 a.m. on the morning of October 31, 2012, students at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande were settling in to their daily routine when something unusual occurred.

Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton ordered the school — with a student population of 1,776 — on “lock down,” kicking off the first “drug sweep” in the school’s four-year history. According to Hamilton, “lock down” is a state in which, “everybody is locked in the room they are in, and nobody leaves — nobody leaves the school, nobody comes into the school.”

“Everybody is locked in, and then they bring the dogs in, and they are teamed with an administrator and go in and out of classrooms. They go to a classroom and they have the kids come out and line up against a wall. The dog goes in and they close the door behind, and then the dog does its thing, and if it gets a hit, it sits on a bag and won’t move.”

Read Full Story “Corrections Corporation of America Used in Drug Sweeps of Public School Student” By Beau Hodai, PRWatch | Report

How many parents imagine when they send their child off to school in the morning that there is a possibility of that child being placed on lockdown, unreasonably searched & exposed to drug dogs – as if they were a convicted criminal?

In the case above, there was no spike in drug use on campus and no justifiable reason for the school to bring in prison canine units to search the students. When asked about the raid, Principal Hamilton stated that, outside from this desire to send a “message to kids,” he had no knowledge of any particular drug use problem on his school’s campus.

Why disrupt classes to bring in prison employees simply to ‘deliver a message’? What is the REAL message Mr. Hamilton is sending here?

Most school districts ended the practice of sending kids to the principal’s office for a paddling years ago…general consensus was that violence begets violence and corporal punishment has no place in the school system. But now…we allow police stations and drug dogs in our schools and no objections are raised? Amazing…

Not only are we indoctrinating kids into believing that it is normal for police forces to march through the hallways conducting unjustifiable searches – we are allowing CHILDREN to be searched by PRISON EMPLOYEES.

Nationwide Presses for Distance from ALEC

Source – PRWatch – Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, a “mutual” insurance and financial services company, published a press release last week distancing itself from the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In the release, the company said it had not funded ALEC for over a decade.

However, a review of ALEC materials by the “2old2care” blog, verified by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), revealed that a Nationwide employee received an ALEC award for corporate lobbyists and special interest group representatives four years ago.

Susan Valauri, who is currently Nationwide’s senior director of government relations, won ALEC’s “Private Sector Member of the Year Award” in 2008.

Alan Smith: Nationwide, ALEC, and Heartland

Ms. Valauri received the award from ALEC, when it was led by Alan Bronson Smith. He was Nationwide’s head of government relations from 1978 to 2002. Smith not only represented Nationwide on ALEC’s corporate “Private Enterprise” board a decade ago, but also a few years after leaving Nationwide he became the Executive Director of ALEC from 2008 to 2009.

Nationwide’s current Director of Public Relations, Dace de la Foret, told CMD: “I spoke to Susan Valauri, and she confirmed that based on Nationwide’s decision not to continue its affiliation with ALEC she resigned from her position as Private Sector Chair at ALEC prior to 2002. The 2008 award was for past service, and at the time she was not a member nor did she have any affiliation with ALEC.” The date of her award overlaps with the period that her former colleague, Smith, was managing ALEC’s day-to-day affairs.

After leaving ALEC, which is now led by former Verizon lobbyist Ronald Scheberle, Smith took a post with ALEC’s long-time partner, the controversial Heartland Institute. Heartland gained notoriety with its billboard campaigncomparing Americans who believe the climate is changing to the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. Like ALEC, Heartland has lost corporate donors due to its controversial positions.

In his role at Heartland, Smith advanced corporate agenda items such as changes to the rules for using car parts after a car crashes, a long-standing item on the ALEC wishlist. Nationwide has backed similar legislation, among other items on its legislative agenda. Smith was part of Heartland’s “CFIRE” project, which stands for “Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate.” Full Story Here

RoBamney & DuSanto

“During the presidential primaries this past March, Romney named an eleven-member Agricultural Advisory Committee that was packed with Monsanto connections, including its principal Washington lobbyist Randy Russell, whose firm has represented Monsanto since its founding in the 1980s and has been paid $2.4 million in lobbying fees since 1998.”

“…This history matters not just because of the light it sheds on Romney’s self-ballyhooed business experience but because of the litany of Monsanto corporate objectives that clash with planetary concerns. If Romney is elected, this bête noire of environmentalists will have a very old friend in a very high place.

…The romance between Romney and Monsanto began back in 1977, when the recently minted Harvard Law and Business School graduate joined Bain, the Boston-based consulting firm launched in 1973, the same year Monsanto became one of its first clients. One of Bain’s founding partners, Ralph Willard, described to the Boston Globe in 2007 how “Romney learned the technical aspects of the chemical business so thoroughly that he sounded as if he had gone to engineering school instead of business school,” and that Monsanto executives soon began “bypassing” him to go directly to Romney…

…John W. Hanley, the Monsanto CEO at the time, has said how “impressed” he was with the 30-year-old Mitt. Hanley became so close to Romney that he and Romney’s boss Bill Bain devised the idea of creating Bain Capital as a way of keeping Romney in the fold. Unless Mitt was allowed to run this spin-off venture firm, Hanley and Bain feared, he would leave. Hanley even contributed $1 million to Romney’s first investment pool at Bain Capital. Monsanto’s Hanley is in fact the only business executive outside of the Bain founding family to so shape Romney’s career—jumpstarting the two companies, Bain & Company and Bain Capital, that account for all but two years of Romney’s much-ballyhooed business experience. Bain and Romney whispered in Monsanto’s ear until 1985, when Hanley’s successor Richard Mahoney says he “fired” them and when Romney moved on to Bain Capital…

“Romney won’t answer our questions, or anyone else’s, about where he stands on the two pending farm bills—the Senate version backed by Obama that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, or the House bill that made it through the agriculture committee with two Republican amendments dubbed “Monsanto riders.” 

… Monsanto has so far spent $4.2 million to defeat a labeling referendum on the ballot in California this November, more than any other opponent, and several of the organizations connected to members of Romney’s advisory council have also opposed the referendum. President Obama supports a labeling requirement, though he’s done nothing to make it happen, while Romney’s campaign declined to respond to The Nation’s questions about his position on labeling or the California referendum…”

Read the (fantastic) full article here on Truth-Out

As if I didn’t already have enough reasons for not liking Mitt Romney, this latest little tidbit of information regarding his extensive ties to Monsanto would have definitely eliminated any chance there ever might have been for him to get my vote.

THIS is the man people claim is going to *save* America?

This blatantly obvious corporate whore is going to SAVE us?

How is he going to do so, exactly?

By stuffing us all with government subsidized GMO corn crops when all other foods are too expensive for people to buy?

Oh…but wait..! There’s more…! I HAVE A CHOICE!

If I vote for Obama things will be so much different!

Just so long as we ignore HIS connections to Monsanto…

Meet Monsanto’s number one lobbyist: Barack Obama

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 by: Jon Rappoport

“The new president filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA:

At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center.

As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.

As commissioner of the USDA, Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack. Vilsack had set up a national group, the Governors’ Biotechnology Partnership, and had been given a Governor of the Year Award by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, whose members include Monsanto.

As the new Agriculture Trade Representative, who would push GMOs for export, Islam Siddiqui, a former Monsanto lobbyist.

As the new counsel for the USDA, Ramona Romero, who had been corporate counsel for another biotech giant, DuPont.

As the new head of the USAID, Rajiv Shah, who had preciously worked in key positions for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major funder of GMO agriculture research.

We should also remember that Obama’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, once worked for the Rose law firm. That firm was counsel to Monsanto.”

Source – Natural News

Trying to choose between Obama & Romney is the equivalent of being forced to eat Monsanto’s GM Corn…or DuPont’s GM Soybeans.

Both choices are unsatisfying…and both make me ill.

RoBamma, BoRamney…

DuSanto…MonPonto…

There really is no difference.

ALEC Teams With Foreign Interests To Promote Bills In US Congress

As full members, the foreign representatives have full rights of voting and discussion on ALEC’s proposed legislative bills and resolutions.

ALEC CROW – 21st Century Disenfranchisement (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

From PolicyMic – The Voters Legislative Transparency Project, Inc. announced this week they had uncovered documents demonstrating that 17 representatives of seven foreign nations have been secretly involved in creating legislative bills and policies meant to become laws of policy in the U.S.

This includes the writing of proposed “model bills,” resolutions sent to Congress and the President in support of key policies they wish the U.S. to adopt. All of this is allegedly being done outside the protocols and provision of the U.S. State Department – and possibly without that Department’s knowledge or approval.

Sixteen of these officials are Members of the European Parliament or foreign governments including: the United Kingdom, Poland, Australia, Belgium, Brussels, Punjab, and the Czech Republic. The 17th is the former U.K. Minister of Defense, Liam Fox, who resigned earlier this year following a scandal involving the Atlantic Bridge Charity and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Article Continues

Learn More

 The American Legislative Exchange Council 

• Pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. to leave ALEC (nj.com)
• This government doesn’t want to clean up lobbying | Jon Trickett (guardian.co.uk)
• GOP’s corporate front group (salon.com)
• ALEC-Inspired Bills Could Bar Defective Drug Lawsuits (blogs.lawyers.com)
• Five more corporations abandon the ‘bill mill’ ALEC (rawstory.com)

Go Directly To Jail – And Die There

“An inmate with a history of seizures was denied emergency care by a prison nurse who overrode a doctor’s orders for an ambulance, and within an hour the man suffered irreversible brain damage that led to his death, according to documents obtained by the Star Tribune.“ 

Stories like the one here are what lead to my interest in working for the prison reform cause several years ago. My one concern over the privatization of state industries stems from stories like this where a for-profit entity causes abuse or loss of life in an effort to cut corners and increase profits. With more and more people being locked up for non-crimes, we should all be concerned about the simultaneous rise and increase in the use of private prison corporations and all of the subsidiaries of the prison industry.

Not only was this man effectively murdered by the state, his death came only 3 months prior to his expected release date. Whatever money the state may have saved by choosing to hand over the responsibility of incarcerating its citizens can now be spent on a settlement or fighting the lawsuit being brought against them.

And lest anyone think this was a fluke, accident or possibly a freak, one-time event – you can see a list of wrongdoings committed by Corizon here. Every single for-profit prison & prison health provider, have rap-sheets stretching over a mile long…per each company. This is not simply one wrong-doing or mistake by one company operating in just one state…Corizon has had problems from Alabama to NM, up to MN and in numerous other states. This is standard operating procedure – NOT an accident committed by one employee in one place.

More from the article, “…events in the hours before Johnson was found “pulseless” in his cell raise questions about denial of care because of the rationed-care philosophy of the for-profit contractor Minnesota has hired to care for the state’s 9,400 prisoners. Corizon Inc., formerly known as Correctional Medical Services, has had a contract with the state since 1998, worth $28 million this year.

One of the contract’s major cost-saving provisions says that Corizon is not required to provide overnight medical staff in the state’s prisons, except Oak Park Heights and Faribault, where medically complicated, elderly and terminally ill prisoners are held.

No doctors, who are all Corizon employees, work in the state’s prisons after 4 p.m. or on weekends. Corrections nurses, who are state employees, work seven days a week, but their last shifts end at 10:30 p.m. The last time the Rush City prison had 24-hour medical coverage was in 2002….” Full Story Here on Star-Tribune

It may be easy enough to dismiss this story and think, “oh well, if you want decent medical care you shouldn’t commit crimes and land in prison” but please don’t be so quick to cast this off  as something ordinary folks shouldn’t care about. As I stated in the beginning of this article, more and more people are landing in prison for NON-crimes…laws are tightening around our necks every day and it is getting harder and harder for average Americans to avoid thinking about those in prison as more and more have family members or friends getting caught in the net.

Consider the arrests made every day that are not only unjust, but often times, outright illegal or without just cause. Film an officer while standing in your own yard? Go directly to jail. Argue for your rights during a traffic stop? Go directly to jail, do not pass Go. Defend your family against armed intruders parading in SWAT uniforms who might have the wrong address? Off to jail with you, criminal!

And heaven help you if you fall ill while in one of their cages…because no one in the prison – not even the paid staff – will be there to help at all…

Tip of the hat to Wesman Todd Shaw for the original link to this story.

BP, ALEC & The Mutation of Our World

I really, truly wish I could say that this report is surprising, but sadly, it doesn’t surprise me after what I learned and read about the chemicals used to ‘clean up’ the BP oil spill. If you don’t already know, you can read more about them here – Synthia’s Sin.

I’m also not very surprised to learn that folks are now beginning to question BP’s alliance with ALEC; this is EXACTLY what ALEC was designed to do…promote ties between corporations and lawmakers. In other words, ALEC exists to help corporations buy politicians cooperation so they may operate however they wish with no fear of real punishment or repercussions.

Two years since the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history, we look at its impact on the Gulf of Mexico’s residents and wildlife even as no BP officials have faced criminal prosecution for the disaster. Eleven workers died when the Deepwater Horizon well exploded and almost five million barrels of crude oil leaked into the ocean before the well was plugged after 51 days. BP maintains the Gulf is rapidly recovering thanks to the company’s efforts, but Al Jazeera reporter Dahr Jamail describes how scientists say shrimp, fish and crabs in the Gulf of Mexico have been deformed by oil and chemicals released during the spill clean-up effort. Meanwhile, ProPublica’s environmental reporter Abrahm Lustgarten says the company failed to learn from past mistakes that could have helped avoid the explosion. He is the author of the new book, “Run to Failure: BP and the Making of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster.”

Democracy Now

ALEC Gets Dumped

I personally don’t have any issue at all with “Stand Your Ground” laws and I sure wouldn’t pull my business from any company that supports them. I do think it is rather amusing to watch ALEC members scramble and duck in a lame effort to avoid bad publicity & fallout from the shooting case in FL so this story about Coca-Cola withdrawing made me chuckle – if for no other reason than I am happy to see folks getting wise to the ways of ALEC.

For anyone getting too happy over the companies that are ending their involvement with ALEC, check yourself – (A) I wouldn’t bet on the dis-entanglement lasting very long and (B) just because a parent company is publicly withdrawing, it doesn’t mean that all of the subsidiary feeder branches that stem from it are also dropping out of ALEC.

Excerpts from (Reuters) – “Coke Withdraws from advocacy group that backs gun laws”

“Coca-Cola Co is dropping its membership in a conservative national advocacy group that supports “Stand Your Ground” laws…

…The move by the world’s biggest soft drink maker comes as corporate America faces increased scrutiny from consumers and shareholder activists over lobbying and political spending.

PepsiCo Inc ended its relationship with the group – the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – in January.

In a statement on Thursday, Coca-Cola made no direct mention of the controversial self-defense law pushed by ALEC that provides shooters with wide latitude for claiming self defense when they perceive a threat.

“The Coca-Cola Company has elected to discontinue its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),” the statement said.

“Our involvement with ALEC was focused on efforts to oppose discriminatory food and beverage taxes, not on issues that have no direct bearing on our business. We have a long-standing policy of only taking positions on issues that impact our company and industry.”

…ALEC’s private enterprise board includes executives from companies including Pfizer Inc and Reynolds American, which stood by the group on Thursday along with Procter & Gamble Co, a member company.

“We don’t agree with every ALEC position, but we participate in ALEC’s healthcare forums because state legislators that are the members in ALEC, they make decisions that impact our business and the country’s business every day,” said Peter O’Toole, a spokesman for the world’s largest drugmaker.

Pfizer reviews its membership in outside organizations regularly, he said.

Reynolds, the maker of Camel cigarettes, said ALEC provides “a valuable forum for sharing of ideas and fostering better understanding of a broad range of both legislative and business issues.”

Cigarette-maker Altria Group, which has an employee on the ALEC board, said its involvement is focused on business-related issues.

Exxon Mobil Corp declined to comment as did Diageo Plc, which makes Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka.

Companies that were not immediately available for comment include: Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, United Parcel Service Inc, among others (here)…”

Read the Full Story Here on Reuters

Anti-Choice ALEC

A special thanks to Wesman Todd Shaw for the heads-up on this story.

March 8, 2012 Source Care 2 

“Republicans insist there is no war on women, yet a new report from the Sunlight Foundation confirms a deliberate, concerted strategy to push ultrasound legislation across the states.

And the anti-abortion Americans United for Life (AUL) proudly confirms it’s behind the assault.

The group authored a model bill called “The Woman’s Ultrasound Right to Know Act” that serves as the “inspiration” for many of the ultrasound bills currently under consideration in over a dozen states. Sound familiar? It should. It’s the same exact strategy the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) employes in pushing its privatization legislation.

Read more: Meet The Anti-Choice ALEC  by Jessica Pieklo

Learn More About ALEC’s Work HERE

And Here At -

The United States of ALEC

TheBigPictureRT on Feb 6, 2012 - A few times a year, ALEC gathers lawmakers, corporate CEOs, and lobbyists together in the same high-end resort-hotel ballrooms to present to the elected officials model legislation written by ALEC and voted on by the corporations. If the corporations approve, that legislation then gets carried back to state legislatures – or even the US Congress – by the lawmakers in attendance, who submit it as new laws. And it’s long been speculated – because identical laws keep popping up in state after state – that Republican lawmakers who attend ALEC conferences are taking their orders directly from ALEC – and therefore legislation dealing with everything from Voter ID laws, to harsher prison sentences for drug offenders, to dismantling EPA regulation have their roots in ALEC. Now there’s proof…

Republican Florida Rep. Introduces Bill With Paragraph Exposing ALEC As The Bill’s Creator

February 2, 2012

By Stephen D. Foster Jr.

Usually, legislators remove the paragraph before introducing the bill but sometimes they forgot. And it’s very embarrassing to ALEC. So when Rep. Burgin realized that she has submitted a bill with ALEC’s name on it, she swiftly withdrew the bill and replaced it with a new one.

ALEC’s Education “Academy”

My oh my, I would dearly love to be a fly on the wall during this luxury ‘education’ conference. A fly with a video camera and tape recorder, of course..!

Do you know where YOUR state legislators will be this weekend?

Excerpt from PR Watch

Submitted by Dustin Beilke on February 2, 2012 – 8:18am

The non-profit group Fund Education Now intercepted one of ALEC’s invitations to legislators in Florida delineating the junket’s deluxe (and gratis) accommodations and summarizing the opportunity to learn more about school privatization and giving teachers their comeuppance.

“You are cordially invited to attend ALEC’s K-12 Education Reform Academy, February 3-4, 2012 at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida. For invited legislators like you, ALEC will cover your room for up to two nights at the host hotel. ALEC will also reimburse up to $500 for travel expenses, which includes coach airfare, cabfare, and a reimbursement of 55.5 cents per mile driven.“

“This event will address the top reforms in K-12 education that ALEC believes each state must have to ensure the successful and productive education for all American students. We will discuss what you as a state legislator can do to address a variety of issues surrounding K-12 education reform, including charter schools accessibility, accountability and transparency, standards for teacher excellence, open enrollment, vouchers, tax credits, and blended learning options.”

Fund Education Now co-founder Kathleen Oropeza says the “academy” is closed to the press and the public and Amelia Island itself is secluded from the outside world and heavily policed. The meeting’s agenda is so secretive that Oropeza has been unable to track one down.

Full Story Center for Media and Democracy.

The Eldorado Incident: Occupy vs ALEC

 

I may not be a fan of the Occupy movement but I’m even less of a fan of ALEC. Nice to know so many of our good legislators here in New Mexico were enjoying a cozy dinner with their corporate owners last night…so sorry that their little party was crashed and ruined…

The protest of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) dinner at the Eldorado apparently turned violent last night after a small group of Occupy Santa Fe protesters went inside the hotel and disrupted the dinner.

According to several legislators who were there, a female guest of Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuquerque, was struck in the eye by a piece of cardboard  – actually a satirical dinner menu and program created by the protesters. According to legislators, her cornea was scratched.

Rehm declined comment, but a spokeswoman for House Republicans who talked to him said Rehm’s guest’s eye is being monitoring and is improving today.

The incident was denounced by members of both political parties, including some who have expressed agreement with Occupy’s positions on issues. Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe said the incident made the protesters look like their opponents’ caricature of the Occupy Movement.

Jeff Haas, a spokesman for the protesters, said in an email to The New Mexican, “While Occupy believes that confrontation and civil disobedience are often effective as demonstrated by Dr. King and Rosa Parks, we regret that anyone was injured last night by either flying paper or rough treatment by hotel security or ALEC members. Fortunately the injuries were minor compared to the devastation to people and the environment caused by ALEC legislation”

Full Story & Video on ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: THE BLOG: The Eldorado Incident: Occupy vs ALEC.

Deep In The Bowels of Texas

This is what happens when religious beliefs and influence seep into the legislative process. The state has no business inserting *laws* such as this into the private meetings between women and their doctors. Aside from the obvious attempt to discourage women from obtaining abortions as is our right in a *Free* country, what is there to be gained from this invasive nonsense? 

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A federal appeals court cleared the way Friday for the immediate enforcement of a new abortion law in Texas requiring doctors to conduct a sonogram before the procedure.

The three-judge panel on Tuesday lifted a temporary stay issued by a district court judge who found the new law potentially unconstitutional, but did not issued a legal mandate. On Friday, the judges agreed to a request by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to cut short the typical three-week waiting period between a ruling and its implementation.

The new law requires doctors to conduct a sonogram before performing an abortion, to show the woman the image, to play the fetal heartbeat aloud and describe the features of the fetus at least 24 hours before the abortion. There are exceptions in the case of rape, incest, fetal deformities and for women who have to travel great distances to reach a doctor.

The most recent order does not give time for doctors fighting the law to appeal Jones’ decision, which under normal circumstances would not have gone into effect until Jan. 31. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which supports the doctors, did not have an immediate reaction to Friday’s order.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals order clears the way for the Texas Department of State Health Services to issue rules for complying with the law and to prosecute doctors who do not obey it…

As with most new regulations that are pushed through in the dark of night, there is no time for folks to fight or stop it. How ‘convenient’ that the judges agreed (on a special request from the AG, Greg Abbott*) to waive the standard waiting period before the new law is implemented. I’m sure there were no favors or golf-course deals that influenced this decision at all…

The article goes on to state - 

One of the conservative supporters of the law, the Liberty Institute, welcomed the court’s decision not to delay the law any further.

“This court order means that the Texas sonogram law is to be enforced effective immediately, as it should be,” said Jonathan Saenz, the institute’s legislative director.

Read the full story here.

In case you’re not familiar with the Liberty Institute, here is a snippet from the “About” section of their website,

The ‘Tools’ of Tort Reform

Looks like ALEC is once again using legislative tools in order to protect global corporations that screw American citizens. Not surprisingly, ALEC is pushing to have  the liability of corporations that harm us limited and want to restrict our ability to hold careless and unscrupulous corporations responsible for their misdeeds. These bills not would not only protect harmful corporations but save insurance industry a small fortune in legal settlements at the same time.

Beautiful arrangement, (for those who benefit from our system of cronyism, at least) isn’t it?

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians VOTE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS to change the laws to limit the rights and remedies of Americans injured or killed by corporations. These so-called “model bills” erode the rights of an injured person, or that person’s family, who files a complaint alleging that a corporation caused injury or death and should be held responsible for all the damages its actions caused.

Read the *Model Bills* on ALEC Exposed

Prison Industry ‘Banking On Bondage’

The Spoils of Mass Incarceration

ACLU – The United States imprisons more people — both per capita and in absolute terms — than any other nation in the world, including Russia, China, and Iran. Over the past four decades, imprisonment in the United States has increased explosively, spurred by criminal laws that impose steep sentences and curtail the opportunity to earn probation and parole. The current incarceration rate deprives record numbers of individuals of their liberty, disproportionately affects people of color, and has at best a minimal effect on public safety. Meanwhile, the crippling cost of imprisoning increasing numbers of Americans saddles government budgets with rising debt and exacerbates the current fiscal crises confronting states across the nation.

Leading private prison companies essentially admit that their business model depends on high rates of incarceration. For example, in a 2010 Annual Report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company, stated: “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by . . . leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices . . . .”

Click to read full report in pdf -

As incarceration rates skyrocket, the private prison industry expands at exponential rates, holding ever more people in its prisons and jails,