Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Bush Economy, Unemployment and Suicide

For a host of reasons, I have made it my policy for now not to go public with my own personal situation.  At least not yet. I deal with my own personal pain and suffering mostly by focusing on making a change and fighting for the countless numbers of others whose plight is far worst than my own.

Last night I was in a DM chat with a twitter friend of mine when it suddenly got quite personal for both of us. It turned out that this twitter friend and I share many of the same challenges in life much of which is caused by the severe devastation of the Bush Economic Policies. Our chat went on for quite some time until late into the night. Finally, I told him I was feeling exhausted and need some sleep. I did my best to encourage him and told him to be strong and keep fighting for the change we ALL desperately need.

This morning I woke up and checked in on the twitter front. In my ‘Mentions’ column was two tweets directed at me from two different people. One contained a letter the other a video. Both were in essence companion pieces relating to the quiet desperation of the unemployed.  I did numerous versions of ‘ReTweeting’ them both, before combining them together in one tweet. I sent that tweet out in various forms; some to the general twitter community and some directed at particular friends asking them to consider posting them on their blogs and websites.

Before I show you the video and letter, I want to first have you take a look at this graph I got from Netroots Nation 2010 in Las Vegas. It was one of several graphics that AFL-CIO President Richard L.Trumka used during his address to the convention.

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Real World Politics: The Bush Economy, Unemployment and Suicide

If only more Liberals would get the spine to call out those who would work against the benefit of the average American middleclass we would have a more humane and fair society. The reality is the average American has very few politicians, whether Democrats or Republicans that are on their side mostly because the average American is not engaged and truthfully educated on policies that materially affect them. Disengage and mis-vote at your peril.

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Last night Jon Stewart responded to Barack Obama’s much talked about appearance on "The View," or as Stewart refers to it, "a daily show about the misadventures of the world’s unluckiest couch." While Obama made criticisms about the media during his coffee talk, the media also lashed out at him for appearing on the show, calling it inappropriate and undignified. Other more specific criticisms revolved around the President missing a semi-annual Boy Scouts Of America conference.

Stewart defended Obama’s appearance on the show in two ways, first by showing a clip of former president George W. Bush and his wife in an interview with Dr. Phil wherein he asks, "were y’all spankers? Did you spank him?" Secondly, he came to the conclusion that if Obama had ditched the "View" appearance for the Boy Scouts, the conservative media would have skewered him for missing a candid conversation with women on national television, saying "nothing Obama does will ever make you f**king happy."

Speculating on whether or not either presidential appearance was really warranted, Stewart then asked if a "campfire sing-along or couch-side coffee klatch are the really the President’s only two options?"

Stewart To Media: ‘Nothing Obama Does Will Ever Make You F**king Happy’ (VIDEO)

For several days now, Senate Republicans have ridiculed their Democratic counterparts for prioritizing campaign finance legislation over a bill that would benefit small businesses, arguing that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was putting electoral advantages over jobs for everyday people.

On Tuesday, the DISCLOSE Act failed to get the needed votes for cloture, in the process providing the Senate the time needed to move on to other business. But when leadership brought a revised version of the small business bill to the floor on Thursday morning, they were met with united Republican opposition.

Despite complaining about the delay in consideration, Republicans filibustered the measure by a vote of 58 (in favor of cloture) to 42 (against). GOP leadership argued that it wasn’t against the aims of the bill per se. They objected mainly to Reid’s refusal to allow consideration of amendments to the legislation.

"It’s not going to die," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spokesman Don Stewart, who noted that another vote could be held as early as today. "We just want to have amendments considered. They made a start, allowing three — so we’re making progress."

But as the GOP noted when chastising the consideration of DISCLOSE, the window for considering legislation is close to closing. As it stands now, Democrats are set to put energy legislation on the legislative calendar Friday and consider the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court next week. After that, they will head out of town for August recess. Allowing a lengthy amendment process could derail the remainder of what the party was hoping to consider

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GOP Filibusters Small Business Bill After Criticizing Dems For Delay

If we are serious about the budget deficit we will allow the Bush tax cuts on those making in excess of $200,000 per year to expire. The false talking point that this would affect a large number of small businesses was debunked by factcheck.org the first time McCain made this argument (http://bit.ly/c3JMGA).

By simple experience, President Clinton had higher marginal tax rates with a robust economy and much more employment than Reagan. President Bush had one of the worst performances with some of the lowest tax rates and largest budget deficits.

The WallStreet Journal article at http://bit.ly/afeNTH is telling. Carter in four years had more jobs created than BushII in 8 years.

If one simply looks at the numbers, it would seem that while Republicans talk a good game, performance seem to occur under Democratic Presidents. I simply do not understand why Democrats are so poor at selling their virtues and why the American population seems so content to be uninformed.

America owes much gratitude to Andrew Breitbart. He opened the racism door so wide that doubtful whites were able to see in real time proof of a calculated racist attack by a Right Wing blogger and the established news organization FoxNews.

Prior to Breitbart’s release of the doctored tape of Shirley Sherrod’s speech at a banquet at the NAACP in March 2010, FoxNews and the Right Wing echo chamber had been successful in creating a false narrative of rampant reverse racism by the Obama administration.

• They successfully used doctored tapes with racial overtones to force the community group ACORN out of business.
• They successfully forced Van Jones an Obama appointee, to resign with subliminal racist and communist overtones.
• They are attempting to make white America somehow a victim of an inconsequential group, The New Black Panthers, by accusing the Obama administration of not prosecution them for a perceived voter intimidation charge that even the conservative Bush appointee Abigail Thernstrom calls “fantasies”.
• They had all guns firing on Shirley Sherrod doctored tape.

They were so sure that the Shirley Sherrod story was the one that would give them permanent inoculation on their racist proclivities that they threw caution to the wind. This mistake back fired and instead opened the door for real unbiased media to explore the entire Sherrod history which put racism in the proper context. First in no way could the so called reverse racism implied or assumed compare with the systemic racism of the past or present. Mostly it showed the resilience with which those who were the most affected by America’s racist past and present have reflected and taught themselves that irrespective of the evil faced, reciprocity in racist treatment is counterproductive and downright unrewarding.

Mr. Breitbart, thank you very much. You have successfully helped us ensure that America sees the evil, irrelevancy, and inconsistency of your movement.

DailyKos

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This story touched me for one specific reason.  The systemic unemployment will affect those over 45 years of age more that anyone else; this specifically because of the oversupply of young unemployed citizens as well as rampant outsourcing. Unfortunately many of those over 45 years old are the same people who are buying into the less government programs / low taxes paranoia which effectively hurts them whether unemployed or not.

If you are over 45 years of age and unemployed, your prospect for employment at any level you expect going forward is grim. Your only option is self employment so find a passion and get on with it. Luckily with the passage of healthcare reform, employment by a major corporation to ensure healthcare is no longer necessary as you can no longer be denied the purchase of healthcare insurance.

If you are 45 years of age and employed prepare yourself to be replaced by a younger less expensive employee or outsourced, so act as if you are unemployed. It is imperative that that we are cognizant that America is going through a profound paradigm shift and we grasp for the past at our peril.

Most importantly it is imperative that you become an informed voter as opposed to misinformed voter adept to rhetoric and sound bytes.

Until 18 months ago, Maria Ortiz says she never had to search for a job in her life. As a highly skilled bilingual Ph.D. and the first ever Mexican-American woman to be admitted into Brigham Young University’s graduate school of management, Ortiz was always the kind of woman universities would beg to come work for them.

After working and teaching in California for 20 years, Ortiz was recruited in 2007 for a highly specialized job at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She left her stable situation to take a chance on a new program she believed in, but the program folded due to budget cuts less than two years later in January 2009, right in the middle of the recession.

Ortiz frantically applied for jobs for the next 18 months, running through all $15,000 of her savings, exhausting all 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and eventually having to draw from Social Security and accept financial aid from her local church congregation to help pay the rent. Monday morning, on her 63rd birthday, Ortiz says she received yet another job rejection phone call, and she felt like she could no longer hold it together.

"I cried the whole day on Monday," she told HuffPost. "It’s painful. It’s embarrassing. I worked so hard. I have all this experience and education. I was careful and prepared. I kept savings — I did everything right. Why am I living on handouts? I always felt like there were needy people out there that needed the help more than I did, but now I am turning into one of those people. Look at this. This is how the middle class is evaporating."

Ortiz lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the unemployment rate is currently the highest in the country. She says that while people often think of higher education jobs as being in a different category than most others, like construction or health care, she has experienced the same frustrations applying in her field as anyone else.

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Disappearing Middle Class: Bilingual Ph.D. Accepts Rent Money From Church

Usually, high-powered insurance company lobbyists in Washington, DC takes a long, luxurious August vacation – but not this year.  This year the lobbyists have turned their sights to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) in a blatant attempt to hijack reform.¹

After spending millions of dollars and employing thousands of lobbyists only to lose the battle against reform the insurance companies are desperate for any opportunity to weaken the new health care law.²  That’s why the lobbyists are targeting the NAIC – the new law tasks them with making recommendations on regulations to HHS Secretary Sebelius.

Click here to call your Insurance Commissioner and tell them you support tough regulations that make health care affordable and hold the insurance companies accountable.

Now is a critical time.  The detailed rules and regulations written in the upcoming months will determine whether or not the new law fulfills its promise and the insurance companies know it.  They don’t want anything to stand in the way of their profits and fat CEO salaries. The insurance companies have moved to a full court press to influence the NAIC and water-down reform.

We must fight back.  Tell your Insurance Commissioner you support strong regulations that control costs and check the rampant insurance company greed.

Today HCAN held a press conference with Senator Al Franken (MN) and Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. (NJ-08) to shine a light on the need for regulations.  HCAN released a report on how insurance premium rules will control costs for businesses and families.³  In May we delivered 30,000 of your public comments on insurance regulations to Secretary Sebelius and now we have to keep up the pressure.

The insurance companies are determined to subvert reform every step of the way.  We have to tell the NAIC and show HHS that we want strong regulations that keep down costs and hold the insurance companies accountable.

In Solidarity,
Melinda Gibson
Health Care for America Now

1. Wendell Potter, Center for Media and Democracy, "State Insurance Commissioners Take Baton From Congress,"

2. http://www.healthreform.gov/newsroom/naicletter.html

3. http://healthcareforamericanow.org/newpremiumrules