Bad Deeds for 11-21-2011

 

Republicans Try to Reduce Postal Service, Kill Postal Workers’ Union – Last month, anti-worker Republicans quietly pushed H.R. 2309 through Committee vote, mandating $3 billion in cuts to the U.S. Postal Service. The bill would close facilities, end door-to-door mailbox delivery service for 90 percent of American households and businesses, and lay off as many as 200,000 workers. Like the actions taken by extreme right-wing legislators in Wisconsin and Ohio, H.R. 2309 would also gut postal workers’ collective bargaining rights.

This bill fails to address the true cause of the Postal Service’s financial woes – the 2006 Congressional mandate to pre-fund future retiree health benefits, a burden faced by no other government agency or firm.

The bill is headed for a vote in the full House of Representatives any day now, and that’s why it’s critical Congress hears from you TODAY (House switchboard: (202) 224-3121).

The clock is ticking – please make your phone call now to stop H.R. 2309!

 

Fox News Gets Court’s Okay to Misinform Public – On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station’s pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was “a false, distorted, or slanted” story about the widespread use of growth hormone in dairy cows.

The court did not dispute the heart of Akre’s claim, that Fox pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broadcaster from having to defend the truth in court, as well as suffer the ire of irate advertisers. Fox argued from the first, and failed on three separate occasions, in front of three different judges, to have the case tossed out on the grounds there is no hard, fast, and written rule against deliberate distortion of the news.

The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.

 

96% of Oil Violations Unpunished in Texas – A study of 80,000 violations for gas and oil drillers shows that no penalties or fines were levied on 96 percent of them in the state of Texas. West Virginia, a state with 56,000 wells, issued 19 penalties last year. And Wyoming, the center of Rocky Mountain energy, collected $15,500 in fines in 2010.

Pennsylvania, the most aggressive about fining violators, sought penalties for more than a quarter of the violations found last year. It levied fines for 4 percent of the violations, with the penalties totaling $3.7 million. The largest of those was a $900,000 fine against a drilling company that contaminated the water of 16 homes.

That was less than the profits the company makes in three hours.

Some states don’t even track key enforcement data, so regulators don’t know which companies have already been fined repeatedly.

 

Texas College Republican Calls Assassinating Obama “Tempting” – The same day authorities arrested a 21-year-old Idaho man for allegedly firing a semi-automatic rifle at the White House, the leader of the University of Texas College Republicans tweeted that the idea of assassinating President Obama was “tempting.”

Lauren Pierce authored the offending tweet and quickly backtrack calling it a “joke.” She should have stopped talking right there, but didn’t. In an interview with ABC News she continued that an attempted assassination would “only make the situation worse.”

The rest of the College Republican leadership doubled-down on the remark. Vice President Cassie Wright said “I don’t really see anything wrong with it.”

 

Federal Prosecution Of Financial Fraud Falls To 20-Year Low, New Report Shows – Public mistrust for banks may be at an all-time high, but federal prosecution for certain financial crimes is down to a 20-year low.

The federal government is on track to file just 1,365 prosecutions for financial institution fraud in fiscal year 2011, according to a new report from a watchdog group. That would be the lowest number of such prosecutions in at least two decades.

The falling number of fraud prosecutions is striking given what many claim is a strong pattern of financial-sector misconduct in recent years, culminating in a housing crisis characterized by alleged rampant mortgage fraud and improper foreclosure, as well as the weakening of the national and global economy.

The TRAC report, which compiles Justice Department data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, notes that 2011’s relatively low number of financial fraud prosecutions is only the continuation of a trend spanning more than a decade.

 

A Short History of Gingrich’s Influence Peddling –

• Helping To Secure Health IT Earmarks For GE, Microsoft, IBM
• The Ethanol Lobby’s “Consulting” Contract With Gingrich
• Lobbied To Deregulate Insurers, While Accepting Hundreds Of Thousands From Health Insurance Corporations
• “Sharing Resources” With The Oil Industry’s Top Lobbyists
• Sold His “Strategic Advice” To Lobbying Giants Like The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce

 

Education Cuts are Hurting Our Kids – Three months into the school year, lawmakers and parents are angry about the effects of the $5 billion cut from schools by the Texas Legislature.

The cuts have resulted in fewer teachers and larger classes.

About 6,500 waivers were sent to the Texas Education Agency to exceed the 22-to-1 student-teacher ratio for kindergarten to fourth-grade, almost triple last year’s number, said state Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, vice chairman of the public education committee.

Classes are even larger in the older grades, which aren’t subject to the cap.

Regards,

Jim