ALEC is now boasting that it "Triumphs" on Twitter

[highplainsdem]

I was checking Google News this evening for the latest on ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, whose corporate-puppet legislators and model legislation have been creating so much trouble across the country.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230

And I ran across this news story from Illinois:

http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/health-51930-care-applause.html

Opponents attack health care reform one year later

-snip-

Opponents to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ventured online to post tweets bashing "#ObamaCare," a moniker that came about after President Barack Obama signed the health care reforms into law last year.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as ALEC, took its campaign against health care reform to Twitter on Wednesday. Spokeswoman Raegan Weber said 43 states have introduced legislation to allow for legal challenges to parts of the law, including the requirement to buy health insurance.

ALEC is a nonprofit organization that touts the Jeffersonian principles of free markets and favors "limited government, federalism and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America's state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government and general public," according to its website.

"We are tweeting messages on the successes of the states and pushing back against the unconstitutional federal mandate, as well as the damaging effects of the Obamacare legislation on the states," Weber said.

-snip-

So I checked to see what they were doing. Their Facebook page lists http://twitter.com/ALEC_States as their Twitter account, but the single tweet there directs people to a different account:

@ALEC_Triumphs

http://twitter.com/ALEC_Triumphs


You could never accuse them of modesty.

OR intelligence.

There are already tweets about ALEC on Twitter, but the #ALEC hashtag isn't very useful since it's too general.

And with the Twitter limit of 140 characters, typing out "American Legislative Exchange Council" is a problem, since that takes up 37 characters.

But the boastful Twitter name @ALEC_Triumphs is only 14 characters, leaving 126 characters to tell people about ALEC and link to articles about ALEC.

For instance:

If @ALEC_Triumphs, your state legislation will be written by corporations.

That leaves 66 characters to add more comments, links, and hashtags to the audience you might want, such as:

#p2 (the hashtag for progressives)
#wiunion
#union
#hcr

And so on. (A #StopALEC hashtag might be useful, too, since #ALEC is too generic.)

If @ALEC_Triumphs, state property including parks might be privatized.

72 characters left there.

If @ALEC_Triumphs, the #Kochs will have even more power.

That leaves 84 characters.

Lots of possibilities here.

And lots of information about ALEC in the articles I linked to in that topic. Many of them are long links, but you can always use http://bit.ly/ or http://ow.ly/ or http://tinyurl.com to shorten the links.

[NYC_SKP]

1. K/R and thanks for the quick lesson on compositions to Twitter! nt

[highplainsdem]

3. You're welcome, and thanks for the rec!

:hi:

[and-justice-for-all]

2. Oh how they distort Jefferson and history...

we are required to have car and home owners insurance, but I do not hear them bitching about that..

[highplainsdem]

4. The ALECWatch link would be a good one to share on Twitter:

http://alecwatch.org/

It hasn't been updated in a long time, but it's good general background.

[highplainsdem]

5. So would the Progressive States Network's page on ALEC:

http://www.progressivestates.org/content/57/governing-the-nation-from-the-statehouses

Very long link. Good thing there are link-shortening sites. I just used Bit.ly and shortened it to this:

http://bit.ly/gBjybv

[highplainsdem]

6. Fortune article on ALEC could also be shared on Twitter:

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/01/10/the-big-political-player-youve-never-heard-of/

There's a link right on that page for tweeting it, or if you're going to include the link in a tweet like the ones I suggested in the OP, this is what Bit.ly shortens it to:

http://bit.ly/h8lLSm

[highplainsdem]

7. Miles Mogulescu's article on ALEC's fight against the middle class:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/alec-states-unions_b_832428.html

which can be tweeted from the link at HuffPo, or via this shortened link:

http://huff.to/gXGx3s

[highplainsdem]

8. By the way, if anyone wants to do any tweeting like this, please

keep the tweets polite and factual, especially if you're including that ridiculous @ALEC_Triumphs name as part of the tweet.

The entire point of doing something like this is to educate people and let them know what ALEC is really up to and what ALEC "triumphing" would mean. Clear statements and links to articles and information about ALEC will do that.

Which reminds me... I wouldn't recommend linking to my mega-topic about ALEC. It's too jumbled, since I've been cobbling together links and information as quickly as I find them, and it's way too much of a mess to go well with a medium like Twitter. Links to specific articles or websites would be much, much more helpful, if anyone wants to let people on Twitter know what ALEC is really doing and who's behind it.

[highplainsdem]

9. Another good link -- ALEC: Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate Amerca

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-tarricone/alec-ghostwriting-the-law_b_579962.html

Again, you can tweet directly from the link on that page, or if you want to tweet a message with the link, use Bit.ly to shorten it:

http://huff.to/afKDP8

[highplainsdem]

10. Another: The Secret World of ALEC’s Hacks

http://washingtonindependent.com/100341/the-secret-world-of-alecs-hacks

which shortens to

http://bit.ly/ajhdJ9

[highplainsdem]

11. Koch-funded group mounts cut-and-paste attack on regional climate initiatives

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-16-koch-group-alec-cut-paste-attack-regional-climate-initiatives

http://bit.ly/huQCYg