Dan Lederman Defends ALEC Because He Doesn't Want You To Know Who Bought His Support!

Recently Dick Durbin has announced that he is going to go after ALEC like Republicans on an ACORN bender.  He sent a letter out to over 300 businesses to try and find out if they support ALEC legislation that people like Senator Dan Lederman bring back and force on the South Dakota population.  This letter has made many ALEC bag-persons unhappy.  One of those is our very on ALEC poster boy: Dan Lederman.  He posted "his" open letter to ALEC like any true-blue ALEC supporter would do:  Copy and paste.

He states the following:

We understand letters from your office were recently sent to a variety of private companies and citizen groups requesting information about their participation in the American Legislative Exchange Council-information no group is required to disclose. 

Our Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or assembly, including participation in organizations including labor unions, trade associations and 501(c)3 educational nonprofits, like ours....

While you may disagree with our organization’s policies, members of the American Legislative Exchange Council have the right to discuss them. Additionally, the Tenth Amendment ensures those powers not specifically enumerated in the Constitution be reserved for the states. As such, ALEC brings together state legislators to discuss state-based policies....

The contents of your letter are eerily similar to the questions asked by the Internal Revenue Service of other citizen groups the IRS deemed as politically conservative. Questions such as the individual donors, purposes of organizational events, contents of meetings and subjects of prayers are clearly a violation of the First and Tenth Amendments and the general jurisdiction of a federal office holder. 

You can read the rest of ALEC's letter to Durbin here.

Unless Dan Lederman is now ALEC, this is the worst type of copying I have seen since May.  He could have at least changed the plural pronouns to a singular pronoun.  Now that we have more confirmation that ALEC simply uses legislatures as tools, here is some of the legislation you can look forward this winter.

Electricity Freedom Act

Summary: The Electricity Freedom Act repeals the State of {insert state}’s requirement that electric distribution utilities and electric services companies provide _____ percent of their electricity supplies from renewable energy sources by ____. 

The Occupational Licensing Relief and Job Creation Act

SummaryOccupational licensing increases unemployment by about 1%, raises prices by about 15%, and offers no incremental consumer protection over a competitive market.  This Act ensures that an individual may pursue lawful occupation free from unnecessary occupational regulations, and protects against the use of occupational regulations to reduce competition and increase prices to consumers. When enacting future occupational regulations, this Act requires state legislatures to find real harm, and select the least-restrictive regulation to address that harm. The Act also protects entrepreneurs by shifting the burden to the government to show in court and administrative hearings that it is enforcing occupational laws for health-and-safety reasons, and not solely as a barrier to entry.

State Council on Competitive Government Act

Across the country there is a growing interest in making government more efficient, cost-effective, and competitive. This model legislation creates a {insert state} Council which represents key members of {insert state} leadership, with the statutory empowerment to take projects from concept to contract. The Council advances projects that reexamine the method of delivering services in ways that improve efficiency, effectiveness, and results that are relevant to citizens.

You can find out more about the ALEC agenda and should look for other laws we have on our books thanks to the corporations.