'Retaliation Isn't a Word; It's a Sentence. plus: The DiLorenzo Tour of ALEC's 'Smoke-filled Room'

evergreen_web_banner.png

KBOO is open to the public! To visit the station, contact your staff person or call 503-231-8032.


Produced by: 
KBOO
Program:: 
Air date: 
Tue, 07/26/2011 - 12:00am
Interviews with Peaceful Uprising on DeXChristopher sentencing & the AAJ's Ray Di Lorenzo on ALEC.

John Nichols, a political reporter for The Nation, recently wrote the introduction and co-authored two in a series of articles  about the relationship that state-based legislators have with a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is a group that brings together state legislators and representatives of corporations to draft model bills that can then be introduced at the state level of government. An archive of ALEC documents was recently leaked to the Center for Media and Democracy.  What can an average engaged citizen do to monitor the group and identify its “spore”? Ray

DiLorenzo with the American Association for Justice takes us deeper into the “smoke-fillled back rooms.”  DiLorenzo  will be back tomorrow to continue the tour of theose “smoke-filled back rooms.”

www.justice.org/cps/rde/xchg/justice/hs.xsl/3618.htm

 

www.peacefuluprising.org/

DeChristopher was convicted of two felonies in March of 2011 after registering as a “good faith” bidder and outbidding oil and gas energy giants without intention or means to pay for the parcels he won. The auction was later overturned by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who ruled that the majority of parcels (including land adjacent to recreation areas, national parks and private residences) had not undergone adequate review. Despite cancelling the auction, the Obama administration proceeded to indict DeChristopher, whose trial and sentencing has continually been rescheduled for the last two and a half years. Judge Dee Benson ruled early on that Salazar’s dismissal of the auction and DeChristopher’s motivation would not be admissible in court during his trial.

 

And Get This:

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is blasting away at the "radical" a Republican proposal to open up more than 50 million acres of public lands to logging and other development.   Babbitt was Interior secretary for eight years under President Bill ‘Roadless Rules’ Clinton, and caught flack aplenty for a number of rather questionable acts himself.  But Babbitt’s star is ascendant now and he has clearly come out fighting for the last of America’s wild lands.  He says the GOP bill would virtually repeal the 1964 Wilderness Act and open an area the size of Wyoming to development.

The bill is sponsored by Representative  Kevin McCarthy, a  Republican from California.  Babbitt calls it, " the most radical, overreaching attempt to dismantle the architecture of our public land laws that has been proposed in my lifetime."

Essentially the bill  trades protection of wildlife habitat, clean water and clean air for corporate profits. It is nothing more than a giveaway of our great outdoors.

McCarthy, the third-ranking House GOP leader, said the bill would increase Americans' access to national forests and other public lands, while creating jobs and reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires.

A host of industry groups, including the American Loggers Council, the California Cattlemen's Association and the Independent Oil Producers' Agency, support McCarthy's bill, while environmental groups oppose it.

Babbitt, who recently criticized President Barack Obama for failing to lead on environmental issues, said he was speaking out against McCarthy's bill "so that the American people can see and clearly understand the threat it poses to our public land heritage."

Audio by Topic: