The Koch brothers and their fellow conservatives finally find a tax they can support. They want to tax the sun.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

At long last, the Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels. 

For the last few months, the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive. 

Oklahoma lawmakers recently approved such a surcharge at the behest of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative group that often dictates bills to Republican statehouses and receives financing from the utility industry and fossil-fuel producers, including the Kochs. As The Los Angeles Times reported recently, the Kochs and ALEC have made similar efforts in other states, though they were beaten back by solar advocates in Kansas and the surtax was reduced to $5 a month in Arizona. 

But the Big Carbon advocates aren’t giving up. The same group is trying to repeal or freeze Ohio’s requirement that 12.5 percent of the state’s electric power come from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2025. Twenty-nine states have established similar standards that call for 10 percent or more in renewable power. These states can now anticipate well-financed campaigns to eliminate these targets or scale them back.

The reasons that they are giving for wanting this ridiculous tax is that the ability of the solar panel users to sell back unused energy to the utilities "would hurt older people on fixed incomes by raising electric rates."

But of course that's just bullshit. And even if it WERE true there is no way the Koch brothers give a shit about anything that does not provide a profit for them.

No these assholes simply know that once renewable energy catches on in this country that their businesses are going to take a serious hit, and that scares the crap right out of them.

Cracker Barrel pulls some Duck Dynasty merchandise off shelves over concerns it "might offend guests." Isn't Cracker Barrel one of those places where conservatives really like to shop? Why yes it is. Update!

Courtesy of Fox News:

Cracker Barrel said it pulled some Duck Dynasty merchandise from its stores over concerns it might offend guests, a move that infuriated thousands of customers and confused many others. 

"We removed selected products which we were concerned might offend some of our guests while we evaluate the situation," Cracker Barrel said in a statement posted on its Facebook page. 

The full statement read: 

“Cracker Barrel’s mission is Pleasing People. We operate within the ideals of fairness, mutual respect and equal treatment of all people. These ideals are the core of our corporate culture. We continue to offer Duck Commander products in our stores. We removed selected products which we were concerned might offend some of our guests while we evaluate the situation. We continually evaluate the products we offer and will continue to do so.” 

Cracker Barrel's statement led to confusion among some customers who wondered if the restaurant was removing Duck Dynasty products owned by A&E or products owned by the Robertson family's Duck Commander business. 

Cracker Barrel did not return phone calls seeking clarification or comment.

By the way Cracker Barrel is a member of ALEC:

Cracker Barrel is a member of right-wing front group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), according to the website ALEC Exposed. ALEC has been facing an exodus of corporate members in recent months, with at least thirty groups -- including food companies Kraft, Wendy's, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo -- having renounced their membership amid criticism over ALEC’s involvement in the proliferation of “stand your ground” laws, voter ID legislation, and other problematic bills. Cracker Barrel is reportedly a member of ALEC’s Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force, which, according to the website PR Watch, "is the primary source of anti-worker and anti-consumer legislation such as the ‘ Paycheck Protection’ and ‘ Right to Work’ Acts and other ‘model’ bills that limit workers' rights and drain labor unions of resources for protecting employees, undermine consumer protections, favor the Wall Street financial agenda, and limit the ability to cap exorbitant interest rates on credit cards and big bank fees." 

So you know this is going to cause all kinds of friction within the Right Wing fringe.

Boy this Duck Dynasty thing is causing me to run very low on popcorn.

Update: Looks like Cracker Barrel has caved under pressure from the crackers who like their homophobia and chicken and dumplings just the way they are:

Less than 48 hours after Cracker Barrel announced plans to pull Duck Dynasty items off its shelves in the wake of cast member Phil Robertson's anti-gay comments, the Southern country store and restaurant chain has reversed its decision. 

Cracker Barrel's reversal of its former position was posted this morning to Facebook, following a flurry of negative responses from customers and fans who showed support to the patriarch of the "Duck Dynasty" family. 

"When we made the decision to remove and evaluate certain Duck Dynasty items, we offended many of our loyal customers. Our intent was to avoid offending, but that's just what we've done," the company wrote. "You flat out told us we were wrong. We listened." 

"People weren't shy. They wrote, called and took to social media," company spokesman Jeff Eller told ABC News about the company's decision to go back on its original pledge to ax "selected products" from its stores.

Yeah I personally did not hold out much hope that an organization which works hand in hand with ALEC was going to be able to hold onto the high ground for long.  So color me unsurprised.

Rachel Maddow discusses in depth the influence of ALEC in this country and how they are trying to recreate themselves in response to blowback after the Trayvon Martin case.

Click image to play video

Does anybody doubt that much of the criticism aimed at Jimmy Carter was the result, not of his problems with the hostages in Iran, but instead due to his attempt to take the country away from fossil fuels, and toward renewable energy sources?

The fact that this group has had such a significant, and negative impact on our politics, is deeply troubling, and should inspire us to keep an eye on them moving forward. 

Shadowy conservative lobbying network which works behind the scenes to impact policies, ALEC, has fallen on hard times following the furor over the Trayvon Martin shootings.

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

An influential US lobbying network of Republican politicians and big businesses is seeking to avert a looming funding crisis by appealing to major donors that have abandoned it over the past two years following criticism of its policy on gun laws. 

The Guardian has learned that the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), which shapes and promotes legislation at state level across the US, has identified more than 40 lapsed corporate members it wants to attract back into the fold under a scheme referred to in its documents as the "Prodigal Son Project". 

The target firms include commercial giants such as Amazon, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Kraft, McDonald's and Walmart, all of which cut ties with the group following the furore over the killing of the unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in February 2012. 

Alec was embroiled in the controversy surrounding Florida's 2005 "stand-your-ground" law under which George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot and killed the 17-year-old Martin, initially claimed self-defence. The Florida law was picked up by Alec, and, working in partnership with the National Rifle Association, used as a template for one of its "model bills", which was then taken up by other states across the country. 

The Guardian has learned that by Alec's own reckoning the network has lost almost 400 state legislators from its membership over the past two years, as well as more than 60 corporations that form the core of its funding. In the first six months of this year it suffered a hole in its budget of more than a third of its projected income.

I find it interesting that such a powerful group found themselves so terribly damaged by an association with Trayvon Martin's shooting and the Stand Your Ground law. It almost makes it seem that Americans really are ready for tighter gun control laws, and that ALEC and the NRA are losing their influence over lawmakers they have put in place to stop them. 

But fear not their influence is by no means completely dried up.

Alec reconvenes for its next nationwide meeting, described as a "states and nation policy summit", on Wednesday in Washington. The three-day event will be attended by hundreds of state legislators and corporate representatives. 

In a sign of the influence the network holds with Republicans, it will be addressed by rising stars of the party including US senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who led the push for the recent government shutdown, and the party's budget guru, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. 

The network also counts among its former members the two highest ranking Republicans in the House of Representatives, John Boehner and Eric Cantor, as well as prominent Republican governors such as Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio.

Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz, well isn't that interesting?

So the organization loses support from the establishment conservatives and simply lures in the new kids on the block to replace them. Everything old is new again.

How laws are passed in 2012. School House Rock gets a somewhat frightening update.

You only thought you knew how a bill becomes a law. In this Fiore creation, “ALEC” ( representing the American Legislative Exchange Council) explains the ways corporations and politicians collude to create self-serving, self-enriching legislation — steamrolling democracy in the process.

So much for democracy.

(Source)