The Nation: How ALEC Took Florida's 'License to Kill' Law National

[seafan]

How ALEC Took Florida's 'License to Kill' Law National

By John Nichols
March 21, 2012 - 11:57 PM ET

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush endorsed Mitt Romney Wednesday, earning national headlines as an elder statesman of a Grand Old Party that is still trying to wrap its head around the concept of Romney as a presidential nominee.

It is a measure of the extent to which media and political players absolve those who make laws from any responsibility for the impact of the legislation they enact and sign that Romney—who has so meticulously avoided discussing the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida—would casually accept the backing of the signer of the “Stand Your Ground” law that so many reasonable observers believe played a role in Trayvon’s death.

.....

The “Stand Your Ground” legislation was sponsored by Florida state Representative Dennis Baxley and state Senator Durell Peadon, both Republican ally of Jeb Bush. The governor quickly signed the measure into law—despite explicit and repeated warnings that this law would encourage shootings of innocents like Trayvon Martin. And despite explicit and repeated warnings that people of color and young people would be unreasonably and disproportionately harmed by the law.

Peadon worked closely with NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer to pass the Florida law, and Hammer appeared with Bush at the signing ceremony.

But he did not stop there. Baxley and Peadon served in the Florida House and Senate as an active member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the shadowy Koch brothers–funded network that brings together right-wing legislators with corporate interests and pressure groups to craft so-called “model legislation.”
.....

And, according to this article, getting "Stand Your Ground" model legislation salted through state legislatures and pushed into law has been on ALEC's agenda for seven years.


What we in Florida have been shouting from our rooftops to the rest of the country since December 12, 2000 is that Florida has been the petri dish for radical conservatives to cook up a poisonous brew of laws, with the intent to seize a springboard to pillage the rest of the country.



For the first time in a century, Republicans took over the Florida Senate in 1994. Then followed the Republican takeover of the Florida House in 1996. Then came Jeb Bush as governor in the election of 1998 for the final descent into a place as dark as Florida has seen in our lifetime.


There is an election in Florida this November.

We must vote out every one of these people crouching in our state government, who have robbed and pillaged this state and left the people severely weakened and vulnerable, along with Florida's environment, economy. health care and public education, all of which have been systematically dismantled and the extracted profits shunted into the hands of a wealthy few.




Strip them of power by visiting the ballot box this November.

[mercymechap]

1. This law is specifically tailored for racists to be able to

shoot a minority, specifically black persons without having to worry about being accused of murder. Jeb Bush just wants to give people in Florida what they want so he can remain in their favor.

[KoKo]

2. Somebody needs to do a book titled: "What's the Matter With Florida!"

..."WHY DO THEY SHOOT THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT!"

I have relatives down there. It boggles my mind what goes on there and it's still tolerated..but then ...It Boggles my mind that every other state in the union tolerates what's going on. :eyes:

[No Elephants]

3. FAT

Florida, Arizona, Texas.

Those are the names that keep popping up in various stories that make my jaw drop.

Yes, some other states as well, but those seem to be the names I see most while my jaw is resting on my chest.

[No Elephants]

4. We're so screwed.