Day: January 10, 2006

Poll: Going Off On Abramoff

Buck Banks

Scandals and scoundrels: Today’s PollTrack from National Journal features three new surveys focusing on the ever-widening Jack Abramoff scandal(s) and what they mean for our dedicated leaders in Congress.

ABC News/Washington Post pollsters found that nearly 60% of respondents think the Abramoff case is indicative of widespread corruption in the capital; 34% said corruption was limited to just a few individuals.

Nearly 75% of ABC/Post respondents said there isn’t much difference in ethics and honesty between the two parties, but two other new surveys suggest that the GOP might feel more of the Abramoff Effect.

Among CBS News respondents, 23% said they thought Abramoff’s testimony would involve mostly Republicans; 1% said it would deal mostly with Democrats. And 38% of a half-sample in a new CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll said the GOP would be hurt the most as more details of the case became public knowledge; 6% said Democrats would be most hurt.

Majorities for both questions, however, said the scandal would impact both parties equally, so Democrats are not off the hook and many legislators’ images will likely take a big hit.

The CBS poll put Congress’ job approval at 27% and disapproval at 57% — its lowest level since 1996.

The ABC/Post poll put the split at 41/55, close to mid-December’s 43/53 split and more favorable than the 37% approval of last summer and fall.

Despite Cancellation at Theatre Owned by Homophobe, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Tops Sales at Two Other SLC Theatres

Jon Ponder

Shot in foot: You have probably heard by now that, in an extremely unusual move, a movie theatre in Salt Lake City canceled the scheduled run of “Brokeback Mountain.”

The theatre – the poetically named Megaplex 17 – is owned by car dealer Larry H. Miller, and the movie’s run was canceled, of course, because “Brokeback Mountain” is a love story about two ranch hands who fall in love.

What you may not know is that while “Brokeback Mountain” was canceled at the Megaplex 17, it played at three other SLC theatres where it did strong business. According to Box Office Mojo:

On the four-day New Year’s frame, Brokeback Mountain earned $46,300 at the Broadway, landing among the top nationwide per-screen averages that weekend. For the weekend ending Jan. 8, the movie took in $18,823 there, still No. 1 in the complex… At the Century 16, Brokeback Mountain was also No. 1 with $12,741.

While Miller cancelled “Brokeback Mountain” assumedly on moral grounds, he had apparently no problems with “Hostel,” a (het) sex-drenched, violent horror film, for which the theatre grossed about $10,000 over the weekend.

As noted, theatre operators rarely cancel movie runs. A rep for Focus Features, the distributors of “Brokeback Mountain,” sounded outraged:

“It’s the most despicable practice that any exhibitor can do,” Focus’ head of distribution, Jack Foley, told Box Office Mojo. “It was a flagrant dismissal of a commitment, and without even a phone call. So I’m not in business with him anymore. It’s a breach of contract. It’s unethical. We can sue him.”

While a cynical observer might note that Larry Miller’s violation of his contract with Focus Features is part of a larger picture – that conservativism has a corrupting effect on its adherents that makes them put their own judgments and benighted moral positions above the law – why not focus on the positive: All the ink given this one cancellation out of 484 theatres nets out to be more free publicity for the film.

This leaves us with a win-win for the movie – nobody in Salt Lake City who wanted to see “Brokeback Mountain” was prevented from seeing it and the distributor got a lot of free publicity – and a loss Larry Miller, who lost ticket sales to other theatres in his market and comes off looking a big ol’ homophobe.

Americans — World’s Biggest Spenders

Buck Banks

The real political capital: According to a new study released today by American Demographics, Americans are the world’s biggest spenders. Indeed, collectively, what we spend in a week is equivalent to Finland’s gross national product. It’s kind of hard to say what’s good news and what’s bad news in the report, but here are some excerpted highlights for your consideration:

  • The average American household’s economic outlays for all goods
    and services reached $1,500 a week in 2005.
  • Real—after inflation—consumer spending in the U.S. rose 23% in the past 10 years, while the number of households was up only 14%.
  • The Census Bureau recently reported that 37 million people in the U.S. lived in poverty in 2004. That’s 5.4 million more than in 2000—a 17% increase in a period when the number of people who weren’t living in poverty edged up 2.5%.
  • A record 45.8 million people in the U.S. had no health insurance in 2004, 6 million more than in 2000. That’s a 15% increase compared with a tiny 2% increase for people with health insurance.
  • The highest-income 20% of U.S. households has an average annual income of $151,600. But the majority—60%—of U.S. households lives on a little more than one-fourth of all consumer income, an average of about $27,000 each.
  • Baby boomers have created more wealth than any preceding generation in part because of their cohort size (78 million Americans born 1946-64; 26% of the population), but in large part because so many of them went to college.
  • The U.S. population is predicted to hit 300 million on Sept. 15, 2006.

Gov. Schwarzenegger: Bodybuilder, Actor, Politician – Contortionist?

Jon Ponder

As bodybuilders go, Arnold Schwarzenegger was an okay actor. As actors go, Gov. Schwarzenegger is a terrible politician.

The governor is gambling the support of the state’s conservative minority on the hope he can curry favor once again with the liberal majority. Good luck.

In fact, if you look at his record since he’s been in office, you might surmise that in his former career he was gymnast or sideshow contortionist.

On Monday, when he delivered his annual “State of the State” address, Schwarzenegger unveiled his latest trick: the 180 degree backflip. In this trick, the governor announced a plan to spend $222 billion on the state’s infrastructure over the next decade.

During the 2003 election to recall Gov. Gray Davis, the defining tenet of Schwarzenegger’s campaign for governor was fiscal responsibility in light of the state’s staggering $14 billion debt. In particular, he lambasted Davis’ plan to borrow money to solve this problem. Among other things, he also promised to fix California’s broken education system.

Once in office, not only did Schwarzenegger borrow money to resolve the debt – basically enacting Davis’ plan – he also to $2 billion out of the education budget which he has yet to pay back.

So now he’s proposing a spending spree. Granted, after 30 years of Republican governors, the California infrastructure is in terrible shape. But, as the Los Angeles Times reports today, the governor’s plan would create a mountain of debt as high as the Sierras:

Brad Williams, director of fiscal forecasting in the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, said that is the kind of ongoing spending — with no new revenue to pay for it — that can lead to budget problems when the economy falters.

“We are concerned about what these proposals will do to the state’s [deficit] problem,” he said.

“We had been making progress in bringing the budget into balance. Big spending increases and ongoing commitments would reverse some of that.”

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