Will Oregon 'Fly With Own Wings'?
Will State Agencies Overlook Now-Demanded Duty To Seek Out Corporate Influence as Claim

Rep. Whisnant's Own ALEC-article states he followed ALEC-Model for Oregon-budget "reform", for other proposed legislation. Part 6 in a continuing series.

Rep. Whisnant Photo courtesy: Mr. Renz's Fourth Grade Class mrsrenz.net

(SEASIDE, Ore.) - SO NOW --after national full exploration and combined national organization exposure of "undue influence" by corporate cash-expenditure for "chairs at the table" and for "entertaining" Oregon's ALEC-member legislators-- can we any longer claim "She Flies With Her Own Wings" ?

We DO NOT know how much --if any-- of recent-session Oregon law has been "very closely modeled" on legislative-drafts proposed by Alec-member legislators .

We DO KNOW how much law has been influenced in many other states, in a now-proven pattern so obnoxious that the groups responsible for ALEX EXPOSED, our basic source, have won the very prestigious Hillman Award for their work.

See Part Three for comprehensive direct links to major authoritative ALEC-coverage.   Here's link-direct to ALEC Exposed:  www.alecexposed.com/wiki/ALEC_Exposed.

Further horrendous details concerning damages-done in other major areas of modern life and in several other states is fully available in an investigative report from the American Associates for Justice, world's largest group of specializing law professionals, titled "Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America".

AAJ is a broad-based, international coalition of attorneys, law professors, paralegals, and law students. AAJ promotes justice and fairness for injured persons, safeguards victims' rights—particularly the right to trial by jury—and strengthens the civil justice system.

Significant main areas where deep damage is extremely well-documented and known to originate with ALEC-influence include:

Tobacco, Big Oil, Medical Negligence, Health Care Reform and Asbestos.

"Here's direct one-click link to that basic. completely unchallengeable document via the AAJ homesite, of true historic significance because of its unbiased and highly qualified origin: For a full copy of the report, “ALEC:  Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America," click here."

We know that more than THIRTY states are already living with recent laws "reforming" access to the voting booth, brought about by ALEC-influence on an obvious common attack via redistricting, a ten-year necessity in most states.

Experience with ALEC-influenced "reform" in those states shows heavy impact on working class and middle class voters as well as the disabled and those now on welfare.

We also know that more than TWENTY states now have "right-to-work" laws, commonly recognized as first step in anti-union actions.

A dozen Republican Governors are actively engaged in pursuing attacks on public sector workers, especially via the areas of collective bargaining and pensions --long known as major ALEC-influence targets.

There remains no question that this is one consequence of years of ALEC preparation and current great effort, led by these governors, most of whom are prominent ALEC-alumni, with the same "get it done" record as now clearly exhibited in Oregon by Rep. Whisnant.

See single-click links on ALEC Exposed homesite, via link under lead pgh. We know that for more than twenty years ALEC leaders have claimed hundreds of legislation models as the major substantive content used by many legislators --with all credit in the legislator's name, and no mention whatsoever made of ALEC.

(That statement cometh from ALEC-description at the HOME website, albeit not in such direct language as we use in S-N.)

Recently more than EIGHT HUNDRED models prepared  by ALEC were content-analyzed by experts and findings reported in our sources.

NATION  devoted a special edition  (click the link !) of its magazine to breaking the story on ALEC Exposed, featuring expert analysis by CMD's Lisa Graves and Wendell Potter and by John Nichols, Joel Rogers, Laura Dresser, Julie Underwood, Mike Elk, and Bob Sloan.  A team effort among the national group of trend-reporting agencies working as one on ALEC-influence, it was deeply rooted in Wisconsin, where ALEC politicians like Scott Walker have succeeded in jamming dozens of ALEC provisions through the legislature.

SO NOW  YOU "can see with own eyes" what ALEC and its supporters have been doing to our Constitutional process, at state level, for careful, conscientious, comprehensive and cooperative creation of the kinds, levels, types and intensities of the laws which govern our daily lives.

Here's comprehensive summary re ALEC from award-winning report: www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F

Do Americans want that process distorted, adulterated, perverted and  projected into our future with CORPORATE DOLLAR POWER as the pivotal piece of a whole system for shaping our very foundation of life --our vaunted American legal system--to private interests driven by the necessities of corporate-mode business construction, which forces them ALWAYS to "put profit motive first" by their own legal structure ?

How would it ever be possible for Oregon's life and legal system to "Fly With Its Own Wings", if we allow our foundation legislation to be so shaped and driven, rather than conceived, concentrated and consummated by the local brain power of our very own people ?<

Most of us believe Oregonians understand our own state far better than doth any corporate-driven, powerful law/firm-guided, manipulated, "command-attitude" group process --as clearly revealed in these materials.

NOW it may be time for our state-level leaders, from Governor Kitzhaber right on across the list --not overlooking Attorney John Kroger --to determine what action may now be demanded to make double dead sure that none of this pernicious ALEC-influence has permeated into our Oregon system.

Given the ongoing and recent-past activities across the nation via the ALEC-actions we now know as underway for a number of years, that's the very least we dare do to protect ourselves from what is most surely a malign and extremely pervasive impact, well proven by these well-documented, award-winning situations set so solidly in the ALEC Exposed pattern.

Perhaps one of the first places they will wish to start is with Rep. Whisnant's article State Budget Reform Toolkit Bills in Oregon, describing in detail his own role in what the Legislature undertook in this past session, and also his revealing statement to the Eugene WEEKLY, in which he states he felt the ALEC-approach his best choice of the three we have discussed. (http://www.salem-news.com/files/alec-budget-toolkit.pdf)

Here's the link so you "can see with own eyes" what he laid on us as Oregonians. (http://www.salem-news.com/fms/ALEC-Article%20to%20Tim.pdf)

Here's the link to the Eugene Weekly story pointing to the attack on our Oregon laws: ALEC TARGETS OREGON LAWS http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2011/09/08/news.html"."

It was published in that inimitable journal "Inside ALEC".  Here's the link so you "can see with own eyes" what he laid on us as Oregonians. (http://www.salem-news.com/fms/ALEC-Article%20to%20Tim.pdf)

We seem to have some difficulty in avoiding hampering and harming and hateful affect and impact of what some Oregonians have allowed to be imposed on our world-famed Big Bird.

We may need to remove whatever we find hampering those famous wings.

Part One: ALEC' UN-Elected, Writing U.S. Legislation Under Koch-Influenced Direction In Many States

Part Two: Corporate Interests Imposed On State Law/Drafts With Veto Power 'Worth King's Ransom' to Whole Crowd of Corporate Powers

Part Three: Oregon's ALEC Leader Rep. Whisnant Reluctant to Dialog On His Reasoning

Part Four: Op Ed: ALEC Proven Corporate-Dominated: Two Other State-Oriented Groups Bar Private-Interest Membership Influence

Part Five: 'Command' Approach Damages Legislature Role in Building State-Needs/Based Laws, Major Rules

At 21, Henry Clay Ruark was Aroostook Editor for the Bangor, Maine DAILY NEWS, covering the upper 1/4 of the state. In the ‘40s, he was Staff Correspondent, then New England Wires Editor at United Press-Boston; later Editor for the Burlington, Vermont 3-daily group owned by Wm. Loeb, later notorious at Manchester, New Hampshire UNION LEADER for attacks on Democratic Presidential candidates.

Hank returned to Oregon to complete M. Ed. degree at OSU, went on to Indiana University for Ed.D. (abd) and special other course-work; was selected as first Information Director for NAVA in Washington, D.C.; helped write sections of NDEA, first Act to supply math, science, foreign language consultants to state depts. of education; joined Oregon Dept. of Education, where he served as NDEA administrator/Learning Media Consultant for ten years.

He joined Dr. Amo DeBernardis at PCC, helping establish, extend programs, facilities, Oregon/national public relations; moved to Chicago as Editor/Publisher of oldest educational-AV journal, reformed as AV GUIDE Magazine; then established and operated Learning Media Associates as general communications consultant group. Due to wife’s illness, he returned to Oregon in 1981, semi-retired, and has continued writing intermittently ever since, joining S-N in 2004. His Op Eds now total over 650 written since then.