(Photos: I Stand With Alec, Not ALEC)
While I was off the grid last week, it seems that another company joined the now long list of those companies cutting their ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (Better known as ALEC.) The pharmaceutical company Johnson and Johnson gave into pressure from progressives pushing back against ALEC which churns out model legislation for mostly Republican and Conservative legislators around the country. Two types getting widespread attention lately are voter suppression laws and the Stand Your Ground law used in the Trayvon Martin shooting, both having a big impact in Florida right now.
While ALEC used to operate in the shadows for the most part, pushback against their right-wing agenda and cookie cutter legislation has been thrust into the spotlight, and now far right wing-nuts and bloggers are going out on a limb to defend ALEC. They're not even keeping up the pretense anymore after ALEC sent out a cry for help from conservative bloggers earlier in the year. They recently put up a website called "I Stand With ALEC" that says: "Fight the left-wing assault on free enterprise, limited government, and individual liberty." The site is filled with the typical ALEC and Koch Industries propaganda in the hopes of coaxing people to "fight back" due to the loss of corporate members who are finally doing the right thing and bailing on ALEC.
One problem though. The group didn't bother to register all the appropriate urls.
Oops.
The result? Well, this: "I Stand With Alec, Not ALEC."
The site compares ALEC crafted legislation to the liberal leanings and movie roles of actor Alec Baldwin, for example, comparing Baldwin's scholarships for low income students to the "scholarships" handed out by ALEC which are really just perks given to legislators who pen their ideas into law. In another example, they compare the real life ALEC Stand Your Ground laws that are more like "shoot first and no need for questions later" to those of the actor playing with fake guns in movies and television. Each example provides links to the appropriate ALEC legislation.
Once again, the left picks up where the right stumbles off using parody that almost writes itself to shine a light on what ALEC doesn't want you to know.
The truth hurts. Literally.
Nothing funny about that.
