Politics, Society

Reach Out And Touch Someone: AT&T Purchases Hundreds of Books By Gov. Rick Perry To Hand Out Free To State Legislators

While it has been generally panned as superficial and little more than expanded soundbites, Gov. Rick Perry’s Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington clearly has one big fan: AT&T. AT&T purchased hundreds of the books to hand out free.

State legislators, lobbyists and activists will be receiving the book as part of a conservative policy summit luncheon — courtesy of AT&T and, by extension, its customers. They insisted on hardcover books, presumably for the book to be cherished by generations.

AT&T’s political action committee has also donated $494,740 to Perry during his nine years in office.

I would have the same discomfort with AT&T distributing copies of President Obama’s book. Once again, there is a disconnect between corporate leaders and their customers who cover the entire political spectrum from liberal to conservative. It also shows the myriad of ways for corporate money to support politicians.

Source: Dallas News

19 thoughts on “Reach Out And Touch Someone: AT&T Purchases Hundreds of Books By Gov. Rick Perry To Hand Out Free To State Legislators”

  1. Just One Week Into His Campaign, Rick Perry Disavows His Nine-Month-Old Book
    By Ian Millhiser on Aug 22, 2011
    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/22/300479/rick-perry-disavows-fed-up/

    Excerpt:
    Last November, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) published Fed Up, a 240-page ode to tentherism, which argues that everything from child labor laws to the Clean Air Act to Medicare violates the Constitution. As it turns out, however, claiming that America’s entire social safety net is unconstitutional isn’t a very popular position — so Perry’s now trying to take it all back just one week into his presidential campaign:

    [Perry’s] communications director, Ray Sullivan, said Thursday that he had “never heard” the governor suggest [Social Security] was unconstitutional. Not only that, Mr. Sullivan said, but “Fed Up!” is not meant to reflect the governor’s current views on how to fix the program. […]

    In an interview, Mr. Sullivan acknowledged that many passages in Mr. Perry’s “Fed Up!” could dog his presidential campaign. The book, Mr. Sullivan said, “is a look back, not a path forward.” It was written “as a review and critique of 50 years of federal excesses, not in any way as a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto,” Mr. Sullivan said.

    The campaign’s disavowal of “Fed Up!” is itself very new. On Sunday evening, at Mr. Perry’s first campaign stop in Iowa, a questioner asked the governor to talk about how he would fix the country’s rickety entitlement programs. Mr. Perry shot back: “Have you read my book, ‘Fed Up!’ Get a copy and read it.”

  2. Gene,

    If they are advanced enough for pop-up books then they are old enough to be potty trained and should no longer have shit for brains!

  5. What’s so damned hilarious about all this is that they actually think the recipients can read.

  7. We are “fortunate” to have a choice among AT&T, Time Warner, and WOW cable. Until Wow goes fascist like the other two, we’ll stick with them.

  9. I, for one, would like to commend AT&T for its respectful treatment of one of its long time employees. I find this most refreshing to hear in a time when most corporations are screwing their employees and throwing them under the proverbial bus. This compassionate treatment of a loyal employee should set the standard for other corporations to follow in their ongoing quest to reward their loyal non-union employees with a standard of living well above the poverty line in some countries.

  10. RC what is really sad is that this paradise already exists on Earth! No taxes, no regulations and no government oversight the whole Gaultian nirvana is avaliable to each and every one of the teabaggers in sunny Somalia. If only they would all move there we all would be happier.

  12. The teabaggers’ vision of a better America is having tens of millions of people out of work with no income and no prospects, seniors at the grip of for-profit-health care insurers while millions have no coverage at all, no regulations on air, water, mining, drilling, financial services, collapsing infrastructure and electrical grid and no investments for the future—–but the lowest personal and corporate income taxes in the world. To them, that defines a great nation.

  13. ahhhh, the Masters and Slaves are outed…..

    for what it’s worth, most of the peeps I know have long stopped using AT&T because of shoddy service, poor (and therefor costly) record keeping, and incredibly rude customer service. Plus, it’s a tad skeezy in light of the recent events regarding phone hacking, tapping, surveillance and on and on to have private, telecommunicoms so brazenly bedding our elected officials….
    or perhaps I’m a tad over sensitive?

  14. According to John Fugelsang, the correct title was supposed to be “F’ed Up!” Incorrect punctuation in the title.

  18. Wasn’t that the devise that took my friend Jim Wright down and then the Contract on America guy down…..

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