Bad Deeds for 6-23-2011

 

Texas House GOP Caucus Head Plays Hooky in the Bahamas – The leader of Republican Caucus, Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, admitted Wednesday that he’s been missing work while on a family vacation in the Bahamas as the Texas House struggles to make quorum during the Legislature’s special session. Taylor missed a Republican Caucus meeting Tuesday where party lawmakers argued among themselves over abortion language in a key health care bill. That fight has kept the measure from a full House vote. On Monday, the House adjourned after less than two hours, when a record vote showed just 99 of its 150 members were present.

 

Critical Weather Satellites To Lose Funding – The nation’s weather satellite program is threatened by [Republican-driven] federal budget cuts which could rob the U.S. of critical satellites. This would mean less accurate advance warnings about blizzards and tornadoes that seem to be becoming more frequent and deadly.

According to officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the potential loss of satellites that orbit the poles will make predicting weather trends in advance of more than a couple of days impossible. For instance, satellite information that allowed forecasters to alert Alabama and Mississippi about the tornado threat back in April came five days earlier than would have been possible without the satellite information.

 

Marketing Research Shows: If You Don’t Make At Least $100K in Your 20’s, No One Cares About You – The wake of the global economic recession has shown a spotlight on the yawning divide between the richest Americans and everyone else — inflation-adjusted incomes of most American workers have remained more or less static since the 1970s, the income of the rich (and the very rich) has grown exponentially. The top 1% alone control nearly 40% of the wealth.

And while the social and political effects of this inequality may be cause for concern, the accrual of wealth among the very few is of great consequence for marketers, since 10% of U.S. households “account for almost half of the consumer spending” and represent about one-third of total GDP, according to the American Affluence Research Council.

Simply put, a small plutocracy of wealthy elites drives a larger and larger share of total consumer spending and has outsize purchasing influence — particularly in categories such as technology, financial services, travel, automotive, apparel and personal care.

(Doesn’t that also mean that the economy is limited by the number of people in the wealthy elite? The majority don’t have money to spend or anything other than essentials. And doesn’t that set a mood that makes it easy for people to identify with the Republican hogwash about cutting back government spending? – JLV)

 

Fox News Sunday edits out Jon Stewart criticizing Fox Execs over Bill Sammons email ‘marching orders’ – Speaking with host Chris Wallace, Stewart referenced emails from Fox News vice president and DC managing editor Bill Sammon to bolster his case that Fox News resembles “ideological regimes” who receive “marching orders.” Stewart told Wallace that Fox News “reminds me of, you know — you know, ideological regimes. They can’t understand that there is free media other places. Because they receive marching orders.” Stewart then said “and if you want me to go through Bill Sammon’s emails” but was cut off by Wallace.

Stewart was referencing a series of leaked emails that Media Matters released showing Sammon slanting his bureau’s reporting. In one email, Sammon ordered his news staff to cast doubt on established climate science. In another, Sammon directed staff not to use the phrase “public option,” but instead the GOP-friendly “government option” and similar phrases. Sammon also sent emails highlighting “Obama’s references to socialism, liberalism, Marxism and Marxists” in his 1995 autobiography and slanting Fox’s coverage of President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech.

But viewers watching Fox News Sunday on-air wouldn’t have heard Stewart’s reference to Sammon because it didn’t appear on air.

 

How a Right-Wing Future Supreme Court Justice and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Conspired Against the Middle Class – If you want to know how the messaging about how corporations and billionaires need everything we can give them began, check out this article about The Powell Memo, which was authored in 1971. It set the stage for everything we see today.

In 1971, Lewis F. Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell’s legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell “might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice…in behalf of business interests.”

Though Powell’s memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration’s “hands-off business” philosophy. …. read the whole thing.

Regards,

Jim