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Mary Boyle, VP of Common Cause, exposes the conservative legislative lobby group called ALEC, and challenges their tax exempt status; Larry Hancock reveals new angles and players to the plotting that led to Dr. King’s murder in 1968Boyle, a former print journalist, details the work of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate funded lobby group whose bills get passed in many state legislatures. Recently exposed as the promoter of the NRA’s “stand your ground laws” like the one in Florida related to the Trayvon Martin shooting, ALEC has been active for more than 20 years, and came into view last year as the source of union busting and voter ID laws in many states. Boyle talks about the collaboration between Common Cause, Center for Media and Democracy, and Color of Change that has led to more than a dozen major corporations severing ties to ALEC. We talk about New Jersey’s Gov. Chris Christie, who has embraced many ALEC ideas, and the exposure in the Star-Ledger, here, with a special shout out to reporter Salvador Rizzo. We also talk about this story about copycat laws requiring drug testing of welfare and unemployment recipients.
At 28:11, we talk with Hancock, co-author with Stuart Wexler of the new book, The Awful Grace of God: Religious Terrorism, White Supremacy, and the Unsolved Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. This new investigation uncovers the network of Christians and Klansmen who plotted repeatedly to kill Dr. King, and the many failures of the FBI to follow important leads at the time. We examine some of the early plots, and talk in detail about events leading to the April 4, 1968 killing in Memphis. In addition to the new information on white radicals who were hoping to ignite a national race war, the book also shows that convicted killer James Earl Ray was much smarter than he was given credit for, and pokes many holes in the notion that he acted alone. Book info here.
And at 1:18:22, Will Durst talks about Obama’s new embrace of marriage equality rights.