american legislative exchange council are coming for your kids elementary school a new report from the center for media democracies p.r. watch says that the american legislative exchange council the conservative lobbying group more commonly known as alec has ramped up its campaign to corporate ties our public schools during the first half of this year since january conservative lawmakers across the country have attached to their state's budget bills one hundred thirty nine different alec drafted education proposals thirty one of those proposals have been signed into law disguised with pleasant sounding names like the virtual schools act and the special needs scholarship act these proposals chip away at the most fundamental of american rights the right to free and effective educate . all under the guise of buzz words like parental choice the aforementioned special needs scholarship back for example gives money to families of students with learning disabilities of their kids going to role in local for profit somebody makes a box schools only problem with those nice sounding policy is that the for profit institutions are often exempt from federal and state standards for special needs education so while corporate schools participating in

tonight on the big picture in the wake of the george zimmerman not guilty verdict the american legislative exchange council alec is back in the news again but while you probably know about that support for stand your ground and shoot first laws you're likely haven't heard of its plan to end the public school as we know it more on that would happen tony just a moment also if they really believe their own rhetoric the n.r.a. and its your friends in the republican party would start talking about giving people like trayvon martin easier access to firearms tell you why in tonight's really take.

tonight on the big picture in the wake of the george zimmerman not guilty verdict the american legislative exchange council alec is back in the news again but while you probably know about that group support for stand your ground and shoot first laws you're likely haven't heard of its plan to end the public school as we know it more on that would happen tony just a moment also if they really believe their own rhetoric the n.r.a. answer friends in the republican party would start talking about giving people like trayvon martin easier access to firearms i'll tell you why in tonight's believes a ad well might.

american legislative exchange council. alec in 2003, they gave $10,000 to the organization and in exchange they get a seat at the table in drafting legislations. those bills are taken and introduced where the colleagues have no idea that the legislation was written by smith-klein, monsanto, the others. this animal and terrorism act was written by these industries. the model includes things like undercover investigations and really dangerous language about materially or financially supporting people who are doing things like this in order to prepare, plan, carry out or promote these activities. this is not just about undercover investigators, about arsonists or the animal liberation front. it's about people like us. make absolutely no mistake about the intent of this language. it's about people who are sharing the information on line, writing about it, and people like me who are speaking out in defense of political prisoners. this all has to be viewed in the post-9/11 context. this is from the freedom of information act document

real purpose of voter id laws take a look at what paul weyrich co-founder of the american legislative exchange council alec which promotes these laws in the states and the heritage foundation tailor what he said back in one thousand nine hundred. seventy of a christian have what i call a goose and grow good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote elections are not won by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now at the matter of fact our leverage in the election why can't it like go up owning populace go down only roods here is the conservative talking point that voter fraud is a real problem it's not and the very very ugly warren green the spirited debate host is under fire. today in the wake of the following exchange she had with philo genres hours logged on friday during a discussion about his new book on the life of jesus take a. listen interesting book now i want to think clear why you're a muslim so why did you write a book about the founder of christianity. well to be clear i am a scholar of religions with four deg

eighty one of the guys helping run ronald reagan's campaign and who co-founded the american legislative exchange council alec out of which all these are many of these voter suppression idea laws are coming into being put into place now in texas in these other states and one of the co-founders a guy named paul weyrich and here is what he had to say before a group of republican activists who were working on the reagan campaign in one thousand nine hundred eighty. one i call them draw good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote. elections are not won by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not. leveraging the elections quite candid like. voting. driving down the voting papas this is been going on for a long long time in a lot of different ways and now eric holder says he's going to he's going to do something about it how is it couple things for us that is un-american suggest we don't want every eligible american to be able to cast that unfettered vote and have it count it is undemocratic it should not happen that way so you wond

the other part is the american legislative exchange council, alec, in part responsible for stand yourund laws. george zimmerman did not present a stand your ground defense. you point out that's why the police believed him, let him go. how do we think of the justice tem in the broadest sense. not about having faith but shaping changing the laws themselves that lead to these tragedies. >> i want to take off on the point of the earlier statement we're going to leave it in god's hands. this is something that every day you hear from clients and from people who have lost resolve. my response is, unless god has a law degree, he's not going to help you. you have to trust me and let me do my job. i'm so saddened that these relatives are just -- they have just let it go. they are putting it in god's hands. we shouldn't respect the jury's verdict. to your point you're saying, okay, now, what can be done? it's not just stand your ground law that has given us this tragic verdict. it's also the rule of the six jurors. that's an essential problem that happened in florida. >> instead of having 12. >>

. >> for more on the stand your ground laws and now the secretive right-wing american legislative exchange council, or alecused its network of money and influence to push for the law, we are joined in addition to fill up and reverend jesse jackson, by lisa graves, video stream. she's executive director for the center for media and democracy and publisher of pr watchdog.org . she has written extensively about the history of the nra alec done agenda. welcome back to democracy now! stand yourk about ground? most people probably think that was the defense of george zimmerman in the trial, though in fact, it wasn't written why is it significant? >> even though the defense in the zimmerman case did not ask for the legal grant of immunity that that law would have intentionally given him, the fact is the nra through changing that law in florida, through getting stand your ground and acted in florida in 2005, the jury instructions changed. popular to sayis it was not an issue in the case, in fact, it was. the jury instructions were that zimmerman had no duty to retreat and a right to stand his ground including usin

the campaign to fight for justice for trayvon, we also led a campaign against the american legislative exchange council, aleczation behind stand your ground laws. and we've gotten 52 corporations to lead alec but mobilizing calls, taking over facebook pages, show up to shareholder meetings -- all with the power of black folks and allies of every race, saying that we can make a difference in these moments of crisis. >> thank you so much for being here today as we talk about what your organization does as well as what we're hearing from the president yesterday. thank you, rashad robinson. >>> coming up, music's missing link. the demo tapes that bridged hard rock and punk rock. now the new film that answers why the band called death was so visionary. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can he

systematically pushed by a powerful big business group, the corporate-backed american legislative exchange council known as alecare ways to fight back. today activists in florida helped show the way, staging a peaceful protest at governor rick scott's office, demanding that stand your grand be overturned. and that's why we're standing together in 100 cities this saturday. joining me now is zachary carter, former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of new york, and joy reid, an msnbc contributor and managing editor of thegrio.com. thank you both for being here. >> great to be here. >> good to be here. >> joy, you covered the stand your ground law extensively. will this trial be enough to change that law? >> well, rick scott put out a statement today saying that he recognizes that there were protests, and he said that's great. people have the right to protest, acknowledging he created a task force after the trayvon martin shooting and the task force recommend nod changes, and he supports the task force's finding. right now there is no momentum at least in the legislature or the governor's mansion to change the

: wanted to bring back the issue about the american legislative -- the american -- let me get it right, the american legislative exchange council which is alecll since the president became president, we have had issues -- the race issue has never gone away but then we have this black man in the white house, and we have these rulings come undown from the supreme court of the united states but we have this alec -- >> stephanie: yeah. >> caller: and there was a great website, i was watching melissa or rachel, and they came up with the alexexposed.org, and it is talking about the corruption of the corporations of this country. >> stephanie: right. >> caller: and our listeners -- let's just call them ours -- >> stephanie: yes. >> caller: the alexexposed.org, papa john's and state farm and all of these big corporations that are donating and are supporters of -- >> it's alec exposed.org. not dot-com. >> stephanie: thank you. aldis. >> caller: hey, a lot of people who are happy with george zimmerman coming away not guilty are pointing to the not presumed innocent until proven not guilty. and trayvon martin was not pre presumed not innocent. >> steph

ever since, members of the right-wing organization, the american legislative exchange council, also known as alecbeen pushing versions of bills like it in state capitols across the country. 21 states have followed suit. to understand what's happening, read this important new book, "the last gun: how changes in the gun industry are killing americans and what it will take to stop it." the author is tom diaz. he's a veteran, former n.r.a member, and worked as an assistant managing editor at the conservative "washington times." trained as a lawyer, he served as a senior policy analyst at the violence policy center before turning to full-time writing and speaking on guns and their impact on america. tom diaz, welcome. >> thank you so much. >> i heard you say earlier that the real winners in the florida tragedy are the nra and the gun industry. how so? >> well, for two reasons, i think. one, it, in their eyes validates the whole concept of this, what they call stand your ground law. look, zimmerman stood his ground and nothing bad happened to him, so that validates the idea that you're going to need th

alec. the american legislative exchange council, which is largely corporate supported organization that createslaws on things like voter i.d. on things like the collective bargaining rights that get passed at the state level. scott walker embraced an entire slate of alec reforms. these are laws being written in washington, d.c. >> john: then they cut and paste them. >> exactly and they pass them at the state level. the state where they make the rules, that dictate how the democracy actually functions is where people decide, where you register to vote, the hours the place you register to vote is open, i.d. all that. >> beyond that, education and things that relate directly to our kitchen. >> john: the struggle of this republic since the independence. >> john: what is there to worry about. >> false positive. both the democrats and republicans are guilty of taking money from corporate interest. >> john: thank you. >> this is not a democrat reserved issue. this is 99% versus the 1%. this is what our movie looks at. the strongest voices condemning citizens united and scott walker were republicans. t

from something called alec, stand your ground, defend your castle laws may have been an nra priority. the way the nra pushed them was through the american legislative exchange council. a.l.e.c. for short. see the legislative scorecard from a.l.e.c. for model legislation. the castle doctrine, stand your ground, is right there on the a.l.e.c. list. this chilling marquee case in florida attracts enough outrage that the big mainstream corporate interests that belong to a.l.e.c. started to get embarrassed to be associated with the law, right? the uproar was not just about florida. once people realized what this law was and how it had spread, it was not just about the nra or the stand your ground law. it's about the way the law had been written as model legislation by this group that the nra and all of these corporations were part of. and the corporations, these other constituent members of a.l.e.c. beyond the nra, they started to get embarrassed about being associated with this. why on earth does kraft foods want to shoot first and ask questions later bill on its legislative agenda? so kraft foods, yeah, drops their membership from a.l.e.c. which had been pushing these