Power & People - The Koch Brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

*Updated November 4: Salon.com "The Third Koch Brother?" (VIDEO)

There’s a cancer spreading through Alabama--a cancer that's poisoning our political and judicial process with the ideologies of the Koch Brothers. It advances unchecked through their legislative arm known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the ubiquitous Koch political heavy Grover Norquist, author/enforcer of the "No New Taxes Pledge" signed by overwhelming amounts of republican and Tea Party candidates.

Alabama has 35 confirmed signers of Norquist's 'I own your political future' oath.

The Koch's, Norquist and ALEC disseminate their ill ideas primarily through the Tea Party, but the GOP frequently acts in conjunction with the metastasizing of this sickness through the powerful political kingmaker and Jack Abramoff associate Norquist.  

The sweep of the Alabama state house and all three branches of Alabama's government by the republicans in 2010 was not a fluke. Maybe the best question to ask is : Was it a Koch induced event?

Let's review on who these forces are that are dominating the US and state political landscapes:
"ALEC and the Kochs often pursue parallel tracks. Just as ALEC “educates” legislators, Koch funding has helped “tutor” hundreds of judges with all-expenses-paid junkets at fancy resorts, where they learn about the “free market” impact of their rulings. But ALEC also operates like an arm of the Koch agenda, circulating bills that make their vision of the world concrete. For a mere $25,000 a year, Koch Industries sits as an “equal” board member with state legislators, influencing bills that serve as a wish list for its financial or ideological interests.

It’s a pittance for the Kochs but far out of the reach of working Americans. Ordinary citizens rely on our elected representatives’ efforts to restore what’s left of the American Dream. But through ALEC, billionaire industrialists are purchasing a version that seems like a real nightmare for most Americans."

The Nation--August 2011 "ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection"

Here's another glimpse of ALEC's 2011 New Orleans Convention, at least as much as they would allow anyone to see that is:

Democracy as we know it faces a grim prognosis. Alabama's fate of true representative government fares no better with the explosion of these forces in our political system.

ALEC's Alabama Influences

In the early 2000's, state political members of ALEC were low (at least in the public eye) and confined to the verification of the only two confirmed members: State Senator Jabo Waggoner-R and previous Alabama State Representative Bob McKee-R (former ALEC State Chair.) There were probably others in that time frame, like ALEC lifetime member *"the Godfather" State Representative Victor Gaston AL-D 100 and Steve French-R, the former senator from Mt. Brook, but for the most part, ALEC's presence in the state seemed to really explode in the mid to late 2000's.

*(section three--"Victor Gaston to Mike Hubbard: Shape Up"

That's right about the time the republicans, through House Speaker Mike Hubbard and the ALGOP, began to concentrate their efforts in earnest to unseat the state house from 136 years of democratic rule. The birth of the Tea Party in 2004 aided these often clandestine maneuvers by aligning themselves with (and essentially taking over) ALGOP operatives to ensure that Tea Party minded candidates dominated the 2010 state elections.

It was a plan that was years in the making and executed with all the precision of a well-honed (and funded) political machine that had phenomenal payoffs. It also heralded in a quick buyer's remorse--voter dissatisfaction has steadily increased with the newly anointed kings in the state house fast and loose playing with accountability.

Taxpayers are feeling shorted on the new state ethics laws. They don't believe they got what they paid for when former Governor Riley tapped their tills to the tune of an estimated $500,000 for a special session to enact this legislation in his waning days of office.

Ethics and Alabama politics wouldn't recognize each other if both of them were wearing  foot-high name tags. We take our corruption seriously here in Dixie and it's the way things have always been--pay to play, misbehave, violate the public's trust and you'll go far. Governor Riley became the first governor in the history of Alabama to become a federal lobbyist, and his client list includes some of the same interests he passed millions to while in office.

Another story broke in October of 2011, based on a report from the Center For Responsive Politics, that the Poarch Creek Indians (the only Indian gaming in the state) had funneled $550,000 to the state Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) for the 2010 state elections. $200,000 of that sum was donated in January of 2010, after the "platinum standard" new ethics laws were passed, supposedly outlawing that kind of political persuasion.

Were these new ethics laws an attempt to conflate republican and Tea Party public personas and enacted solely to further erode democratic power in Alabama? Judging from the after-the-fact movements of the new republican majority, the answer, in true Koch philosophy, seems to be 'yes.'

The republicans wasted no time de-fanging the political clout of the state teacher union (AEA), and ending numerous programs to Alabama's disadvantaged, cutting funding to child advocacy groups, while stumping for special interests wants. They gifted more tax credits to big business, and set about growing government through governor appointed committees galore, adding additional 'friends and donors' to the state payroll.

(And let's not forget that one big trick that House Speaker Hubbard and Senate President Pro Tem Leader Del Marsh tried, in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, proposing to disallow citizens in the state house when the legislature was in session that really riled Alabamians. So much so, that Hubbard and Marsh were forced to quickly abandon the idea, but it was fine with them if the people were cut off from access to lawmakers.)

Former State Finance director David Perry echoes the words that the Koch's love to hear:

Perry defended the governor’s choice of appointees to the Commission on Improving State Government, which includes several CEOs and business figures, but no representatives from education or anti-poverty groups.
Some of “these CEOs have done more to help the poor than some of those advocates that have devoted 100 percent of their lives to helping the poor,” he said.

The new ethics laws also made sure that the AEA could no longer draft union fees from its member's paychecks. Republican control in Alabama had a nemesis in the form of former AEA head Paul Hubbert and he had to be neutralized. The republicans went a step further and forced out one of the most powerful men in Alabama politics. Hubbard later revealed he had debilitating health problems that played a large role in his "early retirement."

We think it's compelling to examine two of the players, who went along with that expensive special session, and rewriting the ethics laws, for the purposes of our discussion on ALEC and Koch influence.

Shelby County--Root of All ALEC?

State Senator Cam Ward-R AL-D 14 and the Alabama Policy Institute (involved with ALEC since 1992) both praised the calling of the special session by Bob Riley. Senator Ward is a confirmed ALEC member and the Alabama Policy Institute is a Koch brothers think tank, offering summer fellowships in the name of Charles G. Koch. Something interesting about the Alabama Policy Institute that we also discovered was their ties to the State Policy Network, Donors Trust and an affiliated group Donors Capital, Inc.

Senator Ward and Texas Governor Rick Perry getting acquainted in the Alabama State House 2011

The group that is helping Shelby County, Alabama *pay for their redistricting fight, the  Project on Fair Representation, receives money from Donors Trust. An affiliated group, Donor's Capital Fund, contributes to the Alabama Policy Institute, (IRS 990 filings amounts received by API from DCF: 2008-$315,000 2009-$170,000) which is under the umbrella of the Koch influenced State Policy Network:

*(NYT--"Is Anybody Watching?" paragraphs 5 & 6)

State Policy Network (SPN), which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation. Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, and his wife and children, along with long-time Koch employee Richard Fink, comprise the board of this foundation

Shelby County is Senator Ward's home district. Shelby County is also home to one of Alabama Power's five coal fired utility plants. Through the Alabama Power Foundation, Inc. 501(c)(3) 2010 IRS filing, we note a donation of $21,387 to the Alabama Policy Institute. What was that for exactly? Only "general operating" is noted as a purpose. (2008 amount from APCO APF, Inc. to API: $27,024.00, 2009--$16,300.00)

Southern Company, the parent company of Alabama Power, counts itself among the ALEC membership according to Sourcewatch.org records "ALEC Corporations." Alabama Power is also the go-to money source for Alabama politicians and lobbyists--they spend millions of dollars in campaigns, influence peddling and are as firmly entrenched in the political and economic structures of the state as kudzu is on the southern landscape.

No matter which way you turn in this tangled labyrinth all roads lead back to a Koch.

Senator Ward is also on the Alabama Senate leadership committee that voted to keep the controversial Senator Scott Beason, sponsor of the Koch DNA infused HB-56, the harshest anti-immigration law in the country, in his position as head of state legislative agenda.  US District Judge Myron Thompson excoriated Beason and his other wire wearing politicos as 'racist and opportunistic' in an October 20th ruling issued in the wake of the Alabama bingo trial earlier this year

The state chair for ALEC lives in Shelby County: Representative Mary Sue McClurkin, who was appointed to that position, following Representative Jim Carns departure for the infamous Jefferson County Commission.

L-R: Charles Koch, Mary Sue McClurkin, David Koch

McClurkin's voting record reflects a true believer of the radical beliefs instilled in her by the brothers Koch and ALEC. She even voted against repealing the food tax on groceries, an unfair tax burden that hits low-income Alabamians the hardest. It's been a topic of scorn for years, adding fodder to the critics decrying of Alabama's regressive tax system which works against the disadvantaged in favor of the advantaged.

When you live in a gated community that's 98% Caucasian, with a median home price of $341,879 dollars, it's not difficult to imagine how you may become a little out of touch with the average working stiff. But it's tragic nonetheless that Ms. McClurkin is so consumed by ideological thinking, that her self-professed strong Christian principles don't allow her a bit more empathy for her fellow man when voting on legislation that has real consequences for a large segment of the population.

Financial Planning--Corporate Alabama Is Covered. Are you?

We're curious about McClurkin's ALEC corporate co-chair, Rosemary Elebash, State Director of the National Federation of Independent Business--what's the relationship between Elebash, Greg Powell and wealth growing? It seems a tad off-putting and odd that a state employee is involved with a financial planning outfit.

Perusing Fi-Plan Partners Greg Powell's "giving back" list we see a few obligatory feel-good entries: Camp Smile-A-Mile, Special Equestrians are among them. It's what's above the fold that's troubling: Birmingham Business Alliance and Business Council of Alabama to name two of them. Both of these groups have strangleholds on federal, state and community purse strings (and politics) and exert far too much influence over local elected leaders for most Alabamians comfort levels. 

Still, it's not unexpected these two, Elebash and Powell, would align themselves together. Alabama's "Big Mule" team always has room for more governor appointed lackeys and lock-step mules to join the state economic swindle development team. Especially when they get to get their picture taken with the governor on the steps of the capital to boot, touting the "Full Employment Act of 2011" which provides "tax credits and tax incentives to NFIB/Alabama members."

Governor Bentley introduces the Full Employment Act of 2011 at a press conference at the State Capitol today.  From L to R, Rosemary Elebash, State NFIB Director; Greg Powell, President and CEO of fi-Plan Partners; Governor Bentley; State Representative Blaine Galliher; State Senator Arthur Orr.

It's a great concept, but with Alabama's Right to Work status who really benefits in this scenario? Governor Bentley claims that "small businesses are the backbone of Alabama's economy." It's almost obscene that giant corporations like Thyssen-Krupp and Alabama Power are among the businesses that qualify as 'small.' Both of these companies have received millions in "corporate welfare" from Alabama, and now they'll get a little more if they throw the folks a $10.00/hr job here and there.

Are we beginning to see a repeating pattern here?

Who else in Alabama administers the bad medicine of the Koch's and ALEC?

According to Sourcewatch, these members are confirmed:

Alabama House of Representatives:
Former Rep. Greg Canfield (R-58; resigned July 11, 2011 to accept an appointment to Governor Robert Bentley's administration)

Rep. Richard Laird (D AL-D-37)    

Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin (R-AL-D 43), State Chairman    

Rep. Jack Williams (R-AL-D 47)  Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force

Rep. Greg Wren (R-AL-D 75)    

Rep. Howard Sanderford (R-20) Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force
Alabama Senate:

Sen. Steve French-R

*(Thanks to sourcewatch for updating the page on Nov. 2 with additional Alabama legislators!)

We've located the additional members of Victor Gaston and Cam Ward (mentioned previously) and three other members listed on the ALEC Alumni page:
US Senator Richard Shelby-R
US Representative Spencer Bachus-R
AL State Senator Michael "Mike" J. Rodgers-R AL--D 3 

Why should we be afraid of ALEC? 

An article published by The Nation from July 2011 gives us enough clues to make proponents of citizen's rights shudder: 

In the world according to ALEC, competing firms in free markets are the only real source of social efficiency and wealth. Government contributes nothing but security. Outside of this function, it should be demonized, starved or privatized. Any force in civil society, especially labor, that contests the right of business to grab all social surplus for itself, and to treat people like roadkill and the earth like a sewer, should be crushed.

ALEC believes that anything the government does is wrong and everything private enterprise can do is better--so privatize everything--and "starve the beast" of government to brittle bare bones. Anyone who is dependent on the government for anything is out of luck because "it's their own fault they aren't rich" according to Tea Party madman and republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain.

A bespectacled and (maybe begrudging) Bill Armistead (ALGOP Chair) peers out from Cain's tour bus (on Cain's R shoulder) at a recent stop in Homewood, Alabama. Credit: Linda Stalter

ALEC's National Chair also has southern roots and comes from the hugely successful money machine of the Southern Governors Association, who has an ALEC economic report from June of 2011 displayed on their site. Southern governors are skilled loot raisers (i.e. Haley Barbour, Rick Perry, Bob Riley etc.) and the only thing that gets them more excited than money is economic development schemes (read: more money.)

NPR's Fresh Air correspondent Terry Gross interviewed John Nichols of The Nation magazine on July 21, 2011 about ALEC:

"Legislators in ALEC pay a minimal fee to join the group, while corporations pay much more — up to $25,000," Nichols says.
"But once they're in, they sit at the same table," he says. "On the board of ALEC, you have an equal number of legislators and corporate members. ... They then set up task forces to deal with topics like health care, education, election law, and you have an equal number of legislators and corporate and/or interest groups [and] think tanks in each grouping. They have to agree on any model bill or model resolution."

Terry Gross conducted a follow-up interview with ALEC's National Chairman, La. State Representative Noble Ellington, who came to the defense of ALEC and took issue with The Nation's report:

"I work for the taxpaying public, so don't assume that they're not [at the table] because they are. And we represent the public and we are the ones who decide. So the taxpaying public is represented there at the table because I'm there."

Mr. Ellington repeats the idea of a 'mandate to legislate'-something we often hear from our own elected officials, whether they are local community politicians or state leaders. The problem with that thinking is that politicians in Alabama really believe that the voter's gave up their right to complain or speak out once they pulled the lever in the voting booth.

Numerous readers of our site have told us of the great difficulties they experience trying to reach their representatives, especially if it's to complain about their representative's stance on an issue. Emails go unanswered, phone calls are serially ignored, etc. More than one citizen has relayed to us that after taking the time to visit Montgomery, once they are in their representative's office, they have had to compete with television stations blaring Fox News as they sat in front of their elected official trying to communicate with them about a concern.

(On the subject of unanswered emails: Why do Alabama politicians use their personal and business email accounts for citizen correspondence, and refuse to use a state email address, claiming they "don't have one?" Is this their way of avoiding traceable public record electronic communications that can be examined at a later date?)

One especially troubling account that we've heard was from a citizen who took the day off from work, and drove over 200 miles to meet with their representative in their state office. A television was on the entire time. When asked to turn off the television so the conversation could proceed without distraction, the newly elected senator stated: "I have to have the background noise" right before he cut the meeting short to attend a meeting with a lobbyist.

We know the people don't have much of a voice in legislation, and they surely do not have the voice that corporate and business interests enjoy, including their lobbyists, despite what Mr. Ellington claims. We genuinely hope, through this article, that people have a better understanding of what else is adding to that problem.

John Nichols has it exactly right--"the people deserve to know where the ideas for legislation come from"--whether it's a turkey blind Kansas--or an upcoming ALEC Arizona Conference in November 2011--the secrecy employed by ALEC suggests there's more to hide than reveal to the public. Nichols also says that "politicians like to be put in the same space with folks who have the ability to give money." The average citizen doesn't have the buying power of corporate interests, and as a consequence, their 'value' to politicians is relegated to election cycles.

It makes us sick as a collective whole, Alabama. Terribly, horribly and pervasively. And we may never recover if we don't excise these peddlers of Koch cancer before it's too late.

Plain talk isn't always straight talk

Our Governor, the former dermatologist, is quite the fancier of folksy sayings, and he believes, as most politicians do depending on the audience or region they're addressing, it endears him to the masses. 'Kitchen table issues' and plain talk are hard to disagree with, they fit comfortably in most ears and politicians are keenly aware of the power of the right presentation.

Governor Bentley has been schooled on the ability to appear simpler in his public persona--he carefully plays up his 'country doctor' demeanor for full effect. He's especially enamored with one phrase that he repeats, (ad nausea) to disarm his listeners, and play up his physician background giving him cover for snake oil peddler he really is: "Alabama needs a doctor and I am going to be that for the citizens of this state." 

Governor, if only the citizens of Alabama had known what your brand of medicine really was, before we elected you and your team of interns, we may have gotten a second opinion first.

* Note to readers--We realize this is a lot of information and 'heavy sledding.' 

Please bookmark, return and absorb the material. These issues are important!

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Dr. Bentley's Rx: Deception--Costs and In-Depth Details of Elevated Highway 280 Plan Remain Hidden

Works of "art" or outdated concrete behemoths?

August 11, 2010 Stan Diel Birmingham News--Dr. Robert Bentley, the Republican candidate for governor in the November election, today said he favors building an elevated toll road over U.S. 280 to relieve congestion.

Governor "Dr. Dr." Bentley prides himself on his medical curriculum vitae and claims to be the "smartest man ever elected governor of Alabama." He's convinced himself he's just what Alabama needs and will cure all of our ills with his own brand of corporate-infused republican medicine. Especially our so-called current state budget crisis that's resulted in deep cuts to education, slashed social services and a gutting of numerous programs that directly affect regular folks who are struggling just to get by.

“Alabama is hurting, and we need a doctor,” Bentley, a former dermatologist from Tuscaloosa, told voters in last year’s campaign. Once he took office in January and looked at the patient — the budget — he said: “We’re a lot worse off than you think.”

Predictably, the usual suspects joined in the chorus of misery: Speaker of the House Mike 'Road Man' Hubbard and Senator Jabo "Clueless" Waggoner. Neither of these two political animals experiences life by the drop as most of Alabama does. The same public who did not create the mess are the ones being asked to bleed for the good of the state's insiders economic prosperity--i.e. private profit equals public pain.

The 'Dr. who can't' seems oblivious to the practice of good-for-the-folks medicine, because he refuses to end cronyism, despite promises to the contrary, and he's created a public-private merger through ADO and EDPA that in effect allows wealthy private corporations an all access pass to the state till and taxpayer's money. In addition to allowing the appointing of like-minded players to power positions within the framework of the organization and to state offices.

Creating a public-private partnership, and placing it in the hands of Alabama schemers, won't remedy our politician and corporate inflicted ills--in fact, they'll only worsen the sickness of corruption that got us into the state we're in now by allowing more insiders to walk away with millions in taxpayer money and leave communities holding the bag. Corruption, theft and abandonment of long-standing public policy are real possibilities in PPPs as they give rise to entities larger than the original government: they can become monstrous-sized power structures with a full stranglehold on democracy and public good.

“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” - Benito Mussolini

We're on a slippery slope that isn't going anywhere near the smaller government republicans swear they support.  Road building and economic development are the breeding grounds for these unholy alliances of state and corporate power. Foreign entities get in on the act too with groups like Cinta and Macquerie, who have been "nosing around in Alabama" looking for roads and bridges (Macquerie has one in Alabama already) to privatize and toll.

Will one of these two foreign investors own the Elevated Hwy 280 toll road? How can Alabama claim to pay for the project when the lion's share of toll fees will go out of the country? Isn't this selling off the state's infrastructure to the highest bidder? If the county a toll road runs through gets their hands on toll fees then Harris County, Texas should serve as a clear warning of the potential for misuse.
*(Must watch video at a republican campaign event in Texas of an audience member asking about PPP's and toll roads. The candidate sits down, a yes man jumps up, and with great animation addresses the audience member's query. Watch how quickly he evades real answers, executes a classic political bait and switch, and turns the argument into those "socialistic democrats" are the real problem lady!)

So many questions. So few demanding honest answers.

The special interests involved in the the antiquated Elevated Highway 280 plan are made up of some of these types of caballers: deep-pocketed campaign donors and selectively hand-picked beneficiaries of Alabama's supposedly hard-to-come-by greenbacks. Interests like the *road gang for one.
(*Section II-- "Who Is The Road Lobby?")

They're connected to Alabama's purse strings by way of Governors Riley and Bentley and consist of groups like: cement companies (ACPA SE, Cemex), an out-of-state engineering firm (Figg), and the strategically located likely road material supplier, White Rock Quarries (WRQ), who's set to blow the smithereens out of small town Vincent, Alabama. WRQ also just happens to be a subsidiary of the stinking rich Vecellio Group. Vecellio's subsidiaries include road building (Vecellio & Grogan is one of the largest in the nation) and asphalt companies among its corporate pool.

The coziness of certain players involved with the 280 idea and sheer coincidence of 'we do that too' is a bit too handy to discount as chance. Add to the mix that the second biggest take of the WRQ quarry profits goes straight into Shelby County's coffers, and their palpable disappointment that the project may not have gone forward starts to make a lot more sense to even a casual observer.

In March of 2010 ALDOT halted all work on the 280 project due to "a lack of consensus from local governments." Shelby County took a counter view to the Birmingham News and cried foul over the abrupt stoppage. (It's important to note that unchecked development by Shelby County created much of the traffic woes that exist on 280 today.) By the summer of 2010, after a full court press by certain entities working behind the scenes in all the cities that counted, from Jefferson to Shelby County, the project roared back to life as the must-build toll road to 'breathe life into our cities.'

Vincent's Mayor claimed the "town of Vincent cannot survive without the highway" and he used that claim to push through a fast vote on a resolution supporting the project. Does WRQ's Vincent Hills Quarry have anything to do with his fervent support and was he repeating instructed propaganda from BARD, who's creator and former Bentley transition team member, Stephen E. Bradley (Bradley & Associates), represents White Rock Quarries? Were Mr. Bradley and his BARD legal sidekick, Balch & Bingham lawyer Rob Fowler (also representing WRQ), the ones who led the charge to get as many cities on board as possible through those so-called supportive resolutions?

One other notable thread seems to run throughout the road gang and their high-minded ideas in Alabama: Figg Engineering.

CEO Linda Figg, who has close ties to Vecillio, suitably "impressed" former Governor Riley so much he put her company on the state dole in 2005. Figg has been raking in the megabucks from state coffers on projects around Alabama ever since, including the Hwy. 280 plan. She's a mover and shaker who carries substantial clout according to Concrete 2011:

Linda Figg: CEO Figg Engineering Group, Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.A. The Figg Group is a relatively small but highly influential consulting firm specialising in bridge engineering, with a portfolio of inspirational structures which have realised the company’s philosophy of ‘creating bridges as art.’

We would like to know why these special interest's projects, including the far from economically challenged Ms. Figg, don't seem to be suffering from the same "debridement procedure" that the good doctor governor is applying to programs that deeply hurt average and low-income Alabamians.

And why is ALDOT being evasive with their figures to Figg and others?

Queries have been made to ALDOT by numerous individuals asking for the full amount to date spent on (the now double its initial estimate of $800 million) the Elevated Highway 280 plan. So far, ALDOT is avoiding an honest answer. John Cooper, Director of Transportation for ALDOT, recently received the green light from Governor Bentley's ATRBTA board to "talk privately with an engineering company that (allegedly) came up with a lower cost estimate."

“Governor Robert Bentley believes transparency in government is critical to earning the trust of the people it serves.”

Bentley campaigned on that issue of transparency too. Yet, the board he chairs (and John Cooper sits on) thinks it's appropriate to conduct state business "privately" about a public use road project. Trust is gained through open transparency throughout a process and quickly lost by selectively applying transparency at will, Dr. Governor. Why is the cloak of unaccountability being thrown around your appointee Mr. Cooper?

What else is ARTBTA, Governor Bentley and ALDOT not telling us about this project?

And why can't the press get it right on what the actual figure is?

Birmingham News' transportation reporter, "Driving Miss Crazy" Ginny MacDonald, has stated in her online "Live Chat" that ALDOT has "paid out $316,000.00 on the Highway 280 study" as of early summer 2011. Where is she getting her low-balled information? From ALDOT's press chat room?

Ms. MacDonald has cited difficulty in obtaining the figure because of "ALDOT in-house work, private contractors, etc." but assured readers in the "Live Chat" forum she "will get the information" from ALDOT. 

We haven't experienced the degree of difficulty she claims to have encountered. In fact, without much effort, the VAC has a memo (displayed below) to ALDOT's Finance and Audits Department, dated June 8, 2010, requesting payment of a Figg Bridge Engineers invoice in the amount of $1,143,915.00.

That's just ONE invoice--from 16 months ago! And it's a much higher figure than Ms. MacDonald has been parroting to the public through the news media forum on a subject she claims to be knowledgeable about.

This one invoice is more information than has been reported in any news agency in the state on what has been charged to ALDOT --and state taxpayers-- by the company that has been working on the elevated toll road for years!

Transparency anyone?
Figg Eng. Invoice to ALDOT

More on this topic in a subsequent post about Governor Bentley recently repeating the Riley era mantra and asking the feds for sooner-than-agreed-to increases in Alabama's share of offshore oil and gas royalties. Road building and O&G royalties--yes, they are connected.

photo credit: David Johnstone

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Long-time Alabama Lobbyist Massey Admits "I Am A Criminal"

Tweet from BingoTrial coverage Kyle Whitmire/Second Front

Lobbyists call their profession "honorable and responsible" despite what the public overwhelmingly thinks about the industry. Alabama lobbying is a cottage industry of huge monetary proportions and undue influence on an epic scale. No one trusts these paid mouthpieces and suspect they play fast and loose with the law as a rule, not the exception.

Jarrod Massey admits what he is and what he has been doing as a lobbyist.

Massey's revelation on the stand in the gambling trial may only apply to his actions involving bingo corruption, but since he has other clients and he admits acting "corruptly" on behalf of one client, was he doing the same with all the others? It's a fair question.

Whether or not the indicted Jarrod Massey can be considered a credible witness is open for debate, but what he admits to confirms the impression of Alabama lobbyists by most of the general public--they're probably closer to being paid crooks and liars than they are honorable representatives who operate above board in their endeavors.

Many of them have been paid with state dollars i.e. taxpayer funds, which is all the more reason they deserve much harsher scrutiny than the legislature is willing to implement on their activities. 

The same old brand new goats on the hill had a chance to rein in the monetary persuading by passing a reporting requirement on lobbyists funds and expenditures when they enacted the "toughest ethics laws in the nation" last December. Predictably, and likely at the urging of the lobbyists, that requirement was removed from the final version of the ethics laws.

This sounds like a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at Jarrod Massey and his clients for at least the last decade. In fact, let's go one step further and examine the entire system of Alabama lobbyists while we're at it and see how just deep the criminality runs.

Our guess is any honest examination of the system would overload the courts with cases in subsequent indictments. It would be money and time well spent considering the potential benefit on our political process. Isn't "rooting out corruption" one of the grand promises our lawmakers told us they went to Montgomery for?

If they cannot or will not do this, then as far as we are concerned the "Handshake with Alabama" is not "a promise kept" it's a promise denied.

So Say We The Opinion Board of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

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Churnalism, Inc. and the North Birmingham Walter Coke Contamination

In an editorial from the Birmingham News on July 9, 2011, once again the editorial board missed the mark of accuracy, and either failed to gather the known facts or purposefully spun the the issue of the Walter Coke contamination in north Birmingham. Either way, the idea of verify first and print second is absent in our state media.

The editorial started out in the right direction and raised the importance of testing new and proposed school sites before construction begins. It's unthinkable that the Birmingham School Board and the City of Birmingham would embark on erecting a new school, especially in an area of years of heavy industry, without doing an environmental assessment first. They were forewarned about the existing problems as far back as 1989.

An ounce of prevention would have been well worth the proverbial pound of cure for students attending the Hudson K-8 school in Collegeville. The CBS 42 series "Deadly Deception" (DD) has been following the Walter Coke contamination story in north Birmingham for months now, and once again, print media is slow to catch up to the fast moving train of hard-hitting investigative reporting that CBS 42 has led with.

What makes the mistakes by the BNED so disappointing is that CBS' series has done the work for them, and all it takes to run an accurate editorial is to spend a little time looking through the video reports from Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass, lead reporters for the DD series. We wonder if they even bothered, based on their editorial, and hope that they did not rely too heavily on press releases and conversations with Walter Coke and Birmingham officials in forming their print opinion.

Here's what they got wrong:

"Walter Coke has been under an EPA enforcement order since 1989, so the agency can require Walter Coke to perform testing and cleanup, which the company is doing voluntarily now."

When you are under an enforcement order, clean up is not voluntary. It's ordered, as in you have to do this. Walter Coke has spit out the same angle; "we are doing the remediation on our own motivation to be a good neighbor." 

"-- arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or benzo(a)pyrene -- are associated with Walter Coke," said the EPA's Brian Holtzclaw, although a spokesman for the company said they can come from a number of sources, "even nonindustrial sources, other than us."

Still, Walter Coke is doing its part and voluntarily paying to replace soil at Hudson K-8 and residential properties in the area where high levels of contamination were found. 

'Voluntarily doing their part' is a repetition of repeating the illusion that the company is 'doing the right thing just because.' It's interesting they allow the company to slip in the possibility that 'something else' may be causing the contamination besides the coke plant that has been operating at that site since 1967. Walter Coke even went so far as to blame the residents in the area for some of the contamination in previous correspondence with the EPA, read: "non-industrial sources." CBS included those documents in their series, all it would have taken to find them was for someone on the BNED to bother to look.

While Birmingham school officials said they didn't know about the contamination and didn't conduct environmental tests, they should know better now.

Yes they should, but they did know and CBS 42 made that clear in their previous segments on DD. Birmingham School Superintendent, Dr. Craig Witherspoon knew about the contamination in 2010, according to a document from the EPA, and he did nothing to inform the parents despite being asked to do so. The City of Birmingham also had to know prior to construction because of the 1989 order from the EPA documenting the contamination in the area. Why is the editorial board unable to put two and two together and report it decorously?

The most recent soil tests at Hudson showed "unacceptable levels" of contamination, said Holtzclaw, which led Walter Coke to strip out six inches of soil, put down a vapor barrier, fill in with new soil and resod the contaminated area. Soil testing will continue. 

The contaminated soil can and should be replaced we agree, but if the source of the contamination persists recontamination of the 'new soil' is certain and inevitable. Considering that it took decades for action to begin on any remedial action, it's not a stretch to presume additional remediation will not be timely.

 "If the pollution is coming to the soil...you can clean up that individual soil. but it's still going to be getting dirty and polluted so you gotta look at the source of the air pollution."---Dr. Anne Turner-Henson. 

Despite the residents calling for the school to be closed, the EPA is incredulously claiming that's not necessary, and the residents remain unhappy with the over-their-heads technical speak coming from the Jefferson County Department of Health:

The level of chemicals found at Hudson doesn't warrant closing the school, Holtzclaw said, but the testing will continue. Meanwhile, the county health department is monitoring air quality to make sure the school and surrounding areas are safe. 

Completely glossed over and absent from the editorial was the statement of EPA official Holtzclaw who said he was "shocked" that the Hudson K-8 school was built on ground that the EPA had already deemed contaminated. As far as the surrounding areas being safe, that's wide open for debate too, and we'll put that monkey squarely on the back of the EPA who has a nasty habit of raising the levels of acceptable exposure to allow big polluters leeway.

Birmingham News writer Marie Leech included in her story the glaring problem that happens in Alabama and other states, about the lack of a federal mandate that cities test for contamination before building new schools:

For most states, including Alabama, "EPA has recognized over the years that there were no guidelines or oversight when it came to the safety of building school properties," Holtzclaw said.
That led the EPA in November to establish a set of voluntary guidelines for school sites that suggests site reviews, environmental reviews and public involvement.
Environmental testing before schools are built is not required in Alabama, officials say, which could lead to more problems like the one at Hudson. 

The BNED did take issue with the nonsense of not testing first, but why did they let the city officials who knew off the hook? If there is something upsetting in this whole ordeal that ought to rank high on the list, although the EPA and ADEM are the most deserving of harsh criticism because they knew first and did nothing for decades. The EPA added insult to injury and failed miserably in making recommendations "voluntary" not federal requirements. However, even if there had been mandatory guidelines, Alabama would have found some way to challenge the legality of it, preventing adoption of the rules until the lengthy legal battle ran it's course.

 

Bob Morgan director of capitol projects for city schools gets dangerously close to sounding like an utter incompetent when he feigns 'whadda ya want from me, nobody said anything': 

Morgan said several community meetings were held when plans for the new school were being drafted, and nobody raised any concerns.
"In fact, everybody in the community said they wanted a new school," he said. "As long as we have people living in the community and sending their children to school, we have to provide them a school to go to." 

No one in the community knew they were living in a carcinogenic soup Mr. Morgan or they would have raised the same concerns (and hell) they are raising right now. But the city and state knew. Did you know too? Is it appropriate for you to assign any blame to parents for wanting new schools for their children to attend? We cry foul on that and you too, sir.

The worst transgression continues to be the blase attitude of our media who fail to get the facts straight and present honest stories on matters of tremendous public interest in a timely manner. The information was there since 1989 why didn't anyone in the print media find it?

The new motto of the Birmingham News is "this is our story" and they've taken some flack from some who felt the motto would have been better suited to 'this is your story.' Many are now distrustful of the News and their trend in recent years of filtering news stories with a biased interest, slanted in favor of business, established politicians and deference for certain advertisers endeavors.

Their position seems to have shifted to a predetermined discourse on particular issues  that doesn't rock the boat too hard and create a spillage of revenue dollars. Or political tempers. 

What took them so long to offer an opinion about the contamination in north Birmingham, and once they did, why does the BNED 'voluntarily' swing at the issue with velvet gloves and allow Walter Coke, the Birmingham School Board and city leaders some leeway? We suspect it's rooted in the bending of news stories and editorials to fit news values, political interests and media logic--the new norm in the age of press releases from governmental and corporate propagandists permeating news rooms.

The end result is more 'churnalism' than journalism.

Children continually being exposed to deadly toxins and city leaders acting dangerously irresponsible is not an issue to come late to reporting on, and if you are going to be tardy, at least make every effort to be 'dressed appropriately' in accuracy.

Anything less is not the real story.

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CASE STUDY: Dr. Willie Soon, a Career Fueled by Big Oil and Coal (and the Southern Company)

Story excerpt by Kert Davies for GreenPeace USA June 28, 2011

Of all the climate deniers, one scientist has been particularly closely involved in the campaign against the climate science consensus for the majority of his career: Dr. Willie Soon. 

Since 2001, Willie Soon has received direct funding for his research of $1.033 million from Big Coal and Big Oil interests. In contrast, he received $842,079 from conventional government or university funders in the same period. The last grant he received from a funder with no ties to dirty energy interests was in 2002 (a grant that carried through to 2006). Since then, he has been entirely funded by the fossil fuel industry.

The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation gave two grants to Dr. Soon totaling $175,000. The 2005-6 grant for $110,000 from the “Koch Foundation” is titled  "Koch/Mobile [sic] Charitable foundation." This two year grant came from the Charles G. Koch Foundation according to Media Matters Transperancy.

Beginning in 2002, Soon's funding mostly came from oil companies, including Southern Co., one of the largest coal burners in the United States, and the American Petroleum Institute, according to documents uncovered in a Freedom of Information Act request by Greenpeace and seen by Reuters.

"A campaign of climate change denial has been waged for over twenty years by Big Oil and Big Coal," said Kert Davies, a research director at Greenpeace US.

"Scientists like Dr. Soon who take fossil fuel money and pretend to be independent scientists are pawns."

Read more here 

 

FOIA requests revealed a "previously unknown" money source and the presence of a 'Southern player' in the investigation: The Southern Company (SOCO). This should come as no surprise to informed watchers of the company, and it's something to keep in mind whenever you hear SOCO's and Alabama Power hired guns propagandizing climate change to suit their end of the equation.

Sometimes they rely on elected 'pawns' like Ms. Cavanaugh for assistance.

In an editorial from the Anniston Star earlier this year, Alabama Public Service Commissioner, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh railed against increased environmental regulations on APCO and other heavy polluters with a gusto. She referred to global warming as "medicine show tonic" and carried the water for Alabama Power Company (APCO) by claiming "more stringent regulations would increase power bills by 30-40%."

BamaFactCheck.com dismantled her claims one by one and revealed that Ms. Cavanaugh made these claims based on information from APCO:

Public Service Commissioner Twinkle Cavanaugh says she attended a December presentation by Alabama Power at the PSC’s Montgomery offices. The power company outlined its costs for compliance with EPA regulations.
Cavanaugh, whose job is to regulate Alabama Power and other electrical suppliers, was upset by what she heard.
“I literally got so incensed by what was going on, I wrote something that was maybe 10 or 12 pages handwritten,” she said. Cavanaugh said she later whittled the piece down to the op-ed that ran in The Star and other papers. 

Clearly, Ms. Cavanaugh is a malleable sort who blindly accepts one-sided propaganda as fact to rant about publicly, and we no longer wonder why she became a member of the Alabama PSC. She's a perfect fit in this industry apologist agency. Maybe the next time she decides to attend presentations by industries her agency is charged with regulating, she will think first and become "incensed" second instead of the other way around.

In the meantime, it might be helpful for the PSC to be aware of what the Southern Company has been paying for. This might assist them in making more thoughtful decisions about serious issues under their authority, and hopefully dissuade any other members from taking to the editorial pages and coming off like industry shills rather than informed, non-biased and responsible regulators.

Big polluters know that if they buy 'experts' to prop up their claims of 'no harm from our industry' who give false credence to their scare tactics of 'jobs will be lost, costs will rise' they'll gain ground with the uninformed. It's one of their oldest and most frequently used tricks because it works. So does the money that pours into the expert's pockets.

Dr. Soon does not deny that he received the money from these industry groups, but he claims it had "no influence on his research and findings"-- the standard defense when the dirty tricks get exposed. Soon can claim his results are unbiased, but it's difficult to escape the traceable money trail of a career fueled by big coal and oil.

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Show Us The Money Boys--Lawmakers and Their Side Deals Hidden From the Public

How much do our legislators and top republicans really earn from their elected offices and where is the line of ridiculous in the sand?

It raises the question of why we are paying lawmakers a taxpayer based salary, with all the extra income and benefits they receive on the side from lobbyists, business interests, PR firms and state and national political party’s handing out credit cards to top republicans. 

How much extra is enough?

Being elected to office is no longer public service on a modest, civic pay scale. Holding office leads to all types of enormous monetary benefits, and our politicians have become very adept at gaming the system. Their desire to affect change for the public good lands dead last behind their own financial interests. 

Is this what we vote for? Is this the type of party representation we envision?

Former RNC head Michael Steele came under a barrage of fire when it was revealed that donor money was being spent on lavish dinners, strip clubs and a whole host of personal enrichment monetary favors. The firestorm ended in his stepping aside as RNC head after public outcry became too loud for the RNC to ignore.

Why don’t we get this angry when it goes on at state levels?

Both sides of the aisle play the blame game over money—republicans point the finger at democrats on federal spending, and the democrats turn around and blame republicans for being far too lenient with big business in tax breaks and loopholes. But there is a big difference in our opinions—federally spent money is much more open and traceable than hidden money doled out by political party organizations.

How many voters are aware of the credit cards being handed out to select lawmakers?

The GOP has been doing this in all 50 states and until they get caught by a media source that is savvy enough to catch on to the game, they’ll keep doing it. No lessons were learned from the fairly recent scandal to the national GOP party that brought down Steele and others in shame.

It’s incumbent on our media sources to unearth these schemes and expose them to the public at large. We have a right to know the financial behavior of our elected politicians that we entrust with the power to handle our state affairs. If politicians will waste donor money on lavish dinners and expensive haircuts, then that tells us a lot, which we should know, about their fiscal attitudes in general.

The way we learn of these back room deals is through our media informing us and keeping an eye out for these types of charades. That will not happen unless they are willing to set aside their political leanings and act as a public watchdog rather than a political lapdog. Who do they really serve, us or their advertisers?

The media was paying attention in Florida

In 2010, controversy swirled around the use of state GOP issued credit cards to high ranking lawmakers who used them for anything but party related expenses—the intent behind handing out the cards. When demands from the media for access to the statements from the FLGOP on the credit card activity grew louder, the party responded in predictable fashion and circled the wagons around the transgressors. Lawmakers refused to grant access to the statements. What were they trying to hide from their voters?

The fountains of free flowing money aren’t confined to GOP issued credit cards

Last week’s testimony in the bingo gambling trial opened up a can of worms when it was revealed that Representative Barry Mask-R Elmore County has been receiving $10-50K per year for a single client referral to lobbyist Steve Windom. Windom, a former Alabama legislator and party switcher from democrat to republican, gained notoriety for using the senate floor as his personal men’s room in 1999 when he urinated in a jug behind his desk while presiding over the senate fearing if he left the floor he would be stripped of his powers by the democratic majority. 

Windom is one of those politically bendable characters that wouldn’t necessarily be a boost to any lawmaker’s good association list, but Mask, a self-professed upright Christian and would be good steward of the people’s money, sees nothing wrong with his arrangement with Windom. He admitted in testimony this past week that what he is doing is “perfectly legal” even though does basically nothing of consequence for the tens of thousands in yearly ‘thank you’ money from Windom.

The Alabama Ethics Commission seems to be in agreement with this cozy deal. 

How many other Alabama lawmakers have a Representative Mask style deal or party issued credit cards? Why isn’t the state press asking the questions and demanding that the state party admit this is going on in Alabama?  

It's time to put an end to these on the side deals and name the names of who is doing it. If what they are doing is legal as written in Alabama Code, but it's considered very distasteful to the public, then maybe it's time to end the legality of it.

Our ‘new day republicans’ refer to themselves as ‘morally upright and fiscally responsible’ so let’s take them at their word and ask them to release the statements and records to the public view. 

Representative Mask can go first by naming what high value client he referred to Steve Windom that is netting him tens of thousands of dollars per year in addition to his taxpayer based legislative pay. Perhaps he also has a handy explanation for the amounts increasing by ten fold once he took elected office. And maybe Mr. Windom can tell us, during his tenure of public service, if he was approached by a big money bag source who promised a Beason style PR position once he left office for a favorable vote during his career. 

At the very least Windom is a prime example of the reprehensible revolving door practice, so what else did legislative office afford him? We don't send representatives to Montgomery to get rich on the side, we send them to represent us, the people. They all seem to have forgotten what their real purpose is and made political office-holding a career move that pays off better and faster than any private sector job ever would.

If you are going to talk the talk, then walk the walk.

The Alabama republicans stated more than once during their campaigns that “Alabama’s government should have more transparency and accountability.” We think there’s no better place for them to begin than with themselves.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential 

*NPR Truth in Media

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