April Posts from WordPress

Guess Which Nevada Politicians Made the Time List?

April 30, 2010 at 5:08 PM (Uncategorized) (Jim Gibbons, John Ensign, politics) · Edit

The list of “least influential people of 2010″ list, that is.

Disgrace is not a four-letter word in Nevada:

Jim Gibbons
Governor of Nevada
He had a 10% approval rating. He had too many scandals for Nevada to handle.

John Ensign
Nevada Senator
His sex scandal is so confusing — he gave a job to the husband of the woman he was cheating on his wife with (I think) — that it’s taking forever for him to be thrown out of office.

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It’s Time to Keep a Close Watch on What Congress Does

April 30, 2010 at 1:33 PM (Uncategorized) (extended unemployment compensation) · Edit

about Tier V EUI;

Huffington Post:

Both the House and Senate have passed measures extended eligibility for existing benefits through the end of the year, but the measures need to be reconciled and voted on again in each chamber. Reid’s office has said that that will happen before the end of May, which is when the current stopgap extension will expire. When asked about adding a Tier 5, members of Congress typically say they need to focus on getting the the full-year extension finished before adding extra weeks.

Aside from Baucus’s insistence that it shouldn’t be done, the most definitive statement about Tier 5 has come from Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who in the name of deficit reduction obstructed the most recent effort to reauthorize the existing 99 weeks of benefits.

“We have 99 weeks of unemployment compensation out there right now — and we’re gonna move that to 103, and then we’re going to move it even further,” Coburn said in March. Congressional leaders declined to comment on adding weeks.

Every utterance about Tier 5 is closely tracked by the unemployed, who have formed several communities online where they analyze what’s happening in Washington — and discuss how they might influence it. One enterprising layoff victim has been encouraging her fellow unemployed to bombard D.C. offices with faxed resumes.

“The number of people exhausting all levels of benefits is increasing every single week,” said Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project. “This is a highly motivated group of people who are making their political and financial needs known to their representatives.”

Things are truly desperate out here. Congress needs to quit playings games with our lives.

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Good for the Central Falls, Rhode Island, Teachers

April 30, 2010 at 1:18 PM (Uncategorized) (education) · Edit

to file a lawsuit against their superintendent who speared their firings to be effective after the end of the school year:

The teachers union filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court to block the mass firing of high school teachers ordered by School Supt. Frances Gallo.

Her action violates constitutionally guaranteed rights to due process and freedom of speech, as well as federal education law that prohibits states or local school districts from altering collective-bargaining agreements, according to the complaint filed by Marc Gursky, lawyer for the Central Falls Teachers Union.

The lawsuit alleges that Gallo conspired with Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist to violate the teachers’ rights. Gist, who approved the action, was named as a defendant with Gallo and the Central Falls School District.

Union president Jane Sessums said late Wednesday afternoon that the union turned to the courts only after Gallo began accepting applications on Monday from high school teachers who want to be rehired in the fall.

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More Than a Million Jobless, Including Yours Truly,

April 30, 2010 at 10:41 AM (Uncategorized) (extended unemployment compensation, joblessness) · Edit

are on the verge of losing the maximum of 99 weeks if they haven’t exhausted all of their alloted UI already. Congress, however, prefers to sweep this growing problem under the rug because of phony concerns about the “deficit.” Providing EUI as long as the economy remains crappy helps infuse MORE money into the economy, which helps to CREATE jobs. Not that Congress understands simple economics or logic.

BusinessWeek:

Since the U.S. recession began in December 2007, Congress has extended the length of unemployment benefits for the jobless three times. Now, the lawmakers may have reached their limit.

They are quietly drawing the line at 99 weeks of aid, a mark that hundreds of thousands of Americans have already reached. In coming months, the number of those who will receive their final government check is projected to top 1 million.

It’s a deadline that has rarely been mentioned in recent debates over jobless benefits, in which Republicans have delayed aid because of cost concerns. The deadline hasn’t been lost on Teauna Stephney, a 39-year-old single mother from Bothell, Washington, who said she could become homeless once her $407 weekly checks stop in June.

“What are people like me supposed to do?” said Stephney, who said almost two years of benefits haven’t proved long enough for her to find work after she lost her last job in August 2008. Referring to lawmakers, she said, “I would like them to come and talk to me and spend a day in my shoes.”

Since she and the other unemployed don’t contribute to these corrupt politicians’ campaigns, why should they care she is suffering?

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The Draconian Legislation Against Illegal Immigration

April 30, 2010 at 10:37 AM (Uncategorized) (immigration, joblessness) · Edit

in Arizona is just a response, no matter how ill-advised, to the worsening economic plight in this country. Nobody in Washington wants to seriously deal with the problem; after all, why should they since they are bought off by the very interests profiting from high unemployment.

Lawsuits and boycotts against Arizona may or may not work, but our elected officials need to take our worsening economy seriously.

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Congress Fiddles While the Long-Term Unemployed

April 30, 2010 at 10:19 AM (Uncategorized) (extended unemployment compensation, joblessness) · Edit

go without.

Even so-called Democrats appear to be heartless, joining the Republicans in their fake concern for the deficit the Republicans created:

The first news from main stream media about extending unemployment benefits past the 99 week current maximum is not good news. Bloomberg is out with a report More Than a Million May Lose Jobless Aid Due to Deficit Concern

That story indicates senators and congressional representatives from both parties, as well as a Goldman Sachs economist believe that capping the total number of weeks at 99 is a given.

“You can’t go on forever,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, of Montana, whose panel oversees the benefits program. “I think 99 weeks is sufficient,” he said.

“There’s just been no discussion to go beyond that,” said Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat….

Here you have two senators from two states with a population less than the metro area of Rochester, NY telling those on long term unemployment that they are finished dealing with the issue of long term unemployment. They might as well say “we don’t care about the millions of people who will suffer the consequences of our actions.” I’m sure the Democrats used Dorgan and Baucus as point men to see what kind of reaction their statements will bring. You don’t hear senators from high unemployment states saying that right now. Don’t give these small state (and small minded) senators your silence; make sure you blast them with emails, faxes and phone calls as soon as you can. These guys are carrying the torch for those who would rather bail out incompetent and corrupted banks, insurance companies and brokerage houses than the working American. You didn’t hear these “cut them off and damn them all” when those banks and insurance companies came begging for relief. You, the taxpayer, put up $180 billion dollars to bailout one insurance company – AIG. Yet when it’s time to help the unemployed, your representatives say “too bad” tell them to get a job that doesn’t exist. Both parties, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly, are more concerned about campaign contributions than saving millions of Americans from financial disaster.

Where was all of that concern when they gave bailouts to Wall Street? Oh, I forgot: Those crooks provide them with plenty of money in campaign contributions so they can continue to do these crooks’ bidding.

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Public School “Tenure”

April 30, 2010 at 8:55 AM (Uncategorized) (education) · Edit

is under attack, and NPR is pushing the privatizer talking points about how “shitty” teachers are protected from being “fired,” even though it is laughably easy for districts to get rid of teachers they don’t want, especially those who are too old or cost too much money.

The problem isn’t with “tenure” but with a system that doesn’t hold principals accountable for their actions. Teachers can easily have their careers destroyed, they can lose EVERYTHING, because of an asshole or negligent principal.

It’s ISN’T “hard” to get rid of teachers–it is EASY–but the way school districts typically get rid of them is to force them to “voluntarily” resign, with the teachers thinking this helps them in future job searches. It doesn’t. All resigning does is save the districts money on hearings and unemployment insurance.

Teacher resignations in lieu of firings are FAR more common than outright firings. Or they simply deny tenure to probationary teachers, which is another form of firing. School districts typically lie and say they very rarely “fire” teachers, thus creating more outrage from the public, who in turn have NO idea the office politics of public education.

Just think if “tenure” didn’t exist–teachers would be at the total mercy of not only principals, but parents who try to throw their weight around to principals and other administrators. Working conditions, already horrible in public schools, would be worse.

Abolishing or “reforming” “tenure” is just another way to deskill the teaching profession.

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Hard Times

April 30, 2010 at 8:41 AM (Uncategorized) (joblessness) · Edit

Money magazine took a look at seven people who have exhausted all of their unemployment insurance to see how they are coping.

Short story is they are not coping very well at all.

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Of Course Millions of People Will Be Destitute

April 29, 2010 at 7:26 PM (Uncategorized) (extended unemployment compensation) · Edit

because this fucking Congress, and note the L.A. Times makes excuses for their inaction and quotes some asshole from the Cato Institute, which would LOVE for there to be millions of people on the street, won’t do shit about adding more tiers to unemployment benefits.

Will people put pressure on these assholes:

The “deficit” “argument” is a bunch of bullshit. The Republicans created this mess with the deficit and the economy, and now they are bitching about money for extended UI compensation? And people believe this shit?

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Oklahoma is NOT O.K.

April 29, 2010 at 1:46 PM (Uncategorized) (abortion) · Edit

The state is getting a lot of criticism over a law passed which tries to make it more difficult for women to go through with abortions. There are two provisions of this legislation:

The first provision has to do with forcing women to view an ultrasound so as to scare them into thinking they are “killing a baby” if they opt for abortion.

The second provision says doctors are immune from lawsuits if they deliberately don’t tell pregnant women the fetus they are carrying is deformed in some manner.

While the governor vetoed these bills, the legislature, by huge margins, have overruled the vetoes.

I don’t think the legislators are losing any sleep over their actions.

Snip from opinion piece:

But a woman in Oklahoma no longer gets to exhale. Because now, when a doctor says, “Everything looks fine,” she has to wonder; does it really? Oklahoma politicians have now said that she can no longer count on the sacred trust that always existed between her and her doctor. A doctor may now lie to her face and, in doing so, deny a woman what is quite possibly the most important piece of information she will ever receive in her life.

The very thought makes my breath catch even now. The information you get on those visits matters to every woman getting prenatal care, regardless of what she decides to do based upon the results. The legislators have decided that a woman, when she becomes pregnant, loses the right to full, honest information from her doctor.

It is her right to know this information. It is how she and her family determine what to do next, not only to decide if they want to continue a pregnancy, but also to consider how they will prepare to care for a special needs child.

What specialist will they turn to? What support will they require? Who will hold their hand in the delivery room if a child is born who will only live an hour, or a day? Does she want to call her own mom in from across the country or does she want to grieve silently with her partner? What will they tell the children they already have?