I must disagree with the President on freezing Civil Servants/Government Worker Pay. I am all for streamlining government and firing those that are unproductive, lazy, and ineffective.

Freezing the pay of the middle class however continues the class warfare that has been in effect for over 30 years. We are constantly taking away the little perks left to those in the middle class while we find excuses as the titans of finance continue to pilfer.

If we want to get serious about the deficit we would stop subcontracting our wars. I have relatives and friends in the military that make a fraction of the cost of the “mercenaries” we have over there. They are privy to the obscene profits the corporations make by charging upward of $30.00 for every soldiers meals as they purchase the products at low prices and pay third world servers at less than minimum wage. Our soldiers can take care of themselves cheaper. This type of corporate welfare transfers wealth/income from the middle class to the wealthy.

Removing farm subsidies, depletion allowances, specialized depreciations, private health insurance, and many other loopholes would save orders of magnitude more. A portion of that saving could be reinvested in America, not exporting it to foreign workers & products where its multiplicative effect on the economy would be negligible.

The upper classes make no sacrifices. The middle class and lower classes fight the wars to keep commerce flowing, use their intellect, blood, sweat, and tears to create the products and services that affords those with capital the ability to profit with no active involvement. Capital is inert. It is the middle class that made America the bastion of the earth.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Federal Pay Freeze: Obama Administration Announces Plan To Freeze Salaries Of Federal Employees

Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting
First Posted: 11-29-10 11:09 AM

The Obama administration announced on Monday an ambitious plan to freeze the salaries of federal employees for two years in an effort to address massive deficits and get a handle on the country’s unsustainable fiscal path.

The proposal calls for a two-year pay freeze that would save the country $28 billion in the next five years and $60 billion over the coming decade. It would be applied to all civilian federal employees, including those at the Pentagon, but not to military personnel

"Clearly this is a difficult decision," said Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director for Management Jeffrey Zients. "Today, the president is clearly asking [federal employees] to make a sacrifice. We believe it is the first of many difficult steps ahead that we will be taking in the upcoming budget to put our nation on sound fiscal footing."

The announcement comes amid an intensifying political focus on ways for the government to scale back spending and close the deficit. It is the second time in as many weeks that the president has found himself reading from the same "fiscal responsibility" script as his Republican critics. Last week, the White House and congressional Republicans both reiterated their support for a moratorium on earmarks — the pork-barrel projects that are a tiny portion of federal spending but serve as an invitation for influence peddling.

Last week, likewise, the two chairs of the president’s deficit commission proposed a three-year cross-agency freeze on federal pay as part of their plan to reduce government expenditures. Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) and former White House Chief of Staff Erskin Bowles also recommended that the government eliminate 200,000 federal jobs over the next decade in addition to cutting 250,000 non-defense private contracting positions.

The utility of skinning the fat off federal payrolls, however, is contested. While the money saved presents a notable figure — and has been cited as an important symbolic gesture towards fiscal sanity — there is concern that it’s a disincentive for talented workers to pursue government jobs. That may be offset by the fact that inflation is low, noted Rob Shapiro, a former Clinton Commerce official.

"But it’s not a policy about how best to run and manage the federal government: It’s a symbolic gesture to communicate that the president’s on the side of those intent on cutting government — another olive branch to independents and the GOP."

Story continues below

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According to USA Today, the number of federal employees who make more than $150,000 a year has grown ten-fold in the past five years and doubled since Obama was inaugurated. A good chunk of that, however, are doctors at veterans hospitals whose workload has increased due to two ongoing wars.

Similar plans have been tried during previous economic slumps, with not much success. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced an economic bill that slashed government spending by $500 million, largely by reducing scheduled payments to federal employees and veterans. The results, economist argue, prolonged the depression rather than shortening it.

Federal Pay Freeze: Obama Administration Announces Plan To Freeze Salaries Of Federal Employees

I received the following email from the Consumers Union; an organization that worked hard to get legislation passed that was consumer and middle class friendly.

When you hear that the current Democratic administration and congress accomplished little in the twenty two months since the election of President Obama, rest assured it is misinformation with the intent to slow down are reverse substantive accomplishments. Let me be clear, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives, and Harry Reid’s Senate has accomplished more substantively in 18 months than most presidents have accomplished in 8 full years sans Franklin D Roosevelt.

What has the Right so distraught is that these accomplishments were mostly middle class and consumer centric. By expansion, this means that the top 2% will ever so slightly be required to be more responsible for carrying their relative weight given what the middle class has afforded them.

After all, it is the middle and lower classes that fight the wars to maintain the freedom and open seas for the commerce that enrich. It is the middle class that consumes the services and goods for which they profit the most. It is the middle class that have mostly created the product and services for which many of the wealthy have only provided capital without work, sweat, or blood equity.

Many of the Liberal Wealthy has acknowledged this (e.g., Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, etc.) and are reinvesting their wealth back into the society and the world that have rewarded them. Many of the wealthy however are under the false belief that they are innately entitled to the wealth without realizing that were it not for the defect in capitalism that favors capital appreciation over work and favorable taxation of capital their wealth disparity would not be as pronounced.

It is imperative that the middle class be vigilant. The middle class must not allow the recent election of an incompetent Republican House of Representatives to derail the positive achievements thus far. There is a lot left to be done.

See some of the last two years accomplishments here.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Today is about giving thanks. And we couldn’t let this day pass at Consumers Union without thanking you, for all you’ve done to contribute to our mission of a fairer, safer and more just marketplace for all Americans.

It’s been quite a year, and you were there with us every step of the way. We know that we ask a lot, and your time is valuable. But every email you sent, phone call you made, personal experience you shared with us, or donation you gave made a difference. 

Take a moment to celebrate what we accomplished together:

• Americans with pre-existing conditions can now get health coverage.  No longer can insurance companies drop you if you get sick, or limit the amount of medical care you or you family needs.  Insurers must cut bloated bureaucracies and spend more of your premium dollar on medical care. And in three years new rules will make sure you can get good coverage at a reasonable price – especially middle class families squeezed by the recession. 
• Finalized new rights for your credit cards and bank accounts. Banks must follow a new set of rules that prohibit sudden credit card rate hikes and ridiculous fees. And now you – not the banks – decide whether you want costly overdraft protection on your checking account.
• Nearing passage of a law to hold food producers accountable for safety. The first overhaul of our outdated food safety laws in 70 years passed the House, and will be voted on next week in the Senate. Instead of wasting time and money chasing outbreaks after they happen, rules will focus on prevention and making sure imports meets U.S. safety standards.
• Created a new financial watchdog to look out for you, not the big banks. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will make preventing rip-offs and fixing your problems with credit cards, banks and mortgages its only priority.
• Made public the rates of deadly infections at every hospital in the nation.

Starting next year, even if your state doesn’t have a law, you will be able to find out through a national website how your local hospitals stack up when it comes to preventing certain infections – pressuring them to clean up their act.  

• Launched efforts to give you clean energy alternatives. We took a giant step forward by beating back the oil companies’ attempt to kill California’s clean energy law, which is viewed as a national model. Our goal is to make sure Americans have the choice of getting more of their energy from sustainable, renewable sources.

Simply put, without you, we wouldn’t have had these major victories. By standing up together, raising our voices and demanding fair treatment, we can take on the special interests. We can change how corporations and government do business. We can make things better.

Thank you again for joining us in the fight.

Happy Thanksgiving,

On Tuesday March 23^rd, Republican Representative of Missouri Todd Akin revised the history of Thanksgiving. He made the following statement:

It might be helpful to think back and say, there’s more to Thanksgiving than the Pilgrims. They were a group of people who were willing to change the system, to think of different ideas. They came here and separated civil and church governments. They came here and created the model of a written constitution, the idea that the government should be the servant of the people. […] They came here with the idea that after trying socialism that it wasn’t going to work. They realized that it was unbiblical, that it was a form of theft, so they pitched socialism out. They learned that in the early 1620’s.

Republican Representative Akin’s statement is simply a lie. The pilgrims came to America to flee religious persecution not to embrace capitalism. Nowhere in the bible is capitalism embraced nor is middle class centric policies rejected.

This type of propaganda and revisionist history is the same tactic used by the oligarchs and plutocrats in third world countries to control the population’s minds that ultimately convinces them to vote for politicians and policies against their own interests. Republican driven supply side economics and lax regulation has incentivized corporations to outsource a large percentage of America’s manufacturing base. This has caused millions of middle class Americans to be unemployed or under employed.

Republican instituted policies that we are still living with are being challenged by the Obama administration to level the playing field. This presents an affront to the corporations, oligarchs, and plutocrats. They are intent on either changing the narrative or creating a new history even attempting to use the bible and/or revisionist history to lie and make their point of view seem plausible as they demonize the policies that would actually help the middle class.

Going forward it is imperative that false information, that lies, that revisionist history be exposed and actively refuted. We fail to do this at our own peril and existence as a real prosperous democracy.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Rep. Todd Akin: The Pilgrims Came To America To Flee ‘Unbiblical’ Socialism In The 1620′s

Today, millions of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving with their families. To mark this holiday, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) took to the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday to explain its history. At one point, he opined, “It might be helpful to think back and say there’s more to Thanksgiving than the Pilgrims.” He explained that they were “a group of people who were willing to change the system, to think of different ideas.” Akin continued, “They came here with the idea that after trying socialism that it wasn’t going to work. They realized that it was unbiblical, that it was a form of theft, so they pitched socialism out. They learned that in the 1620s”:

AKIN: It might be helpful to think back and say, there’s more to Thanksgiving than the Pilgrims. They were a group of people who were willing to change the system, to think of different ideas. They came here and separated civil and church governments. They came here and created the model of a written constitution, the idea that the government should be the servant of the people. […] They came here with the idea that after trying socialism that it wasn’t going to work. They realized that it was unbiblical, that it was a form of theft, so they pitched socialism out. They learned that in the early 1620’s.

Of course, the Pilgrims did not come to America to flee socialism and embrace capitalism “in the early 1620′s.” Socialism as an idea didn’t really even come into popularization until the 18th century and socialist political parties did not start to gain power and influence policies until more than a century after that. And it is difficult to see how socialism is unbiblical, given that the concept did not exist at the time of the writing of the Bible.

The real reason the Pilgrims came to the New World was to flee religious persecution. Thanksgiving is based around remembrance of the tale of how, in 1621, Native Americans helped the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony survive harsh conditions by sharing their food with them. In other words, Thanksgiving is a parable about how people should take care of eachother and not just look out for themselves.

CONTINUED

ThinkProgress » Rep. Todd Akin: The Pilgrims Came To America To Flee ‘Unbiblical’ Socialism In The 1620′s

Rush Limbaugh is not only a racist and revisionist of history, he is a social terrorist. What makes Rush Limbaugh dangerous is that he has a following that is on the brink of desperation not because of any of President Obama’s policies, but because of policies instituted by the same Right Wing he represents.

The demise of the middle class was written when America adopted Reagan’s supply side economics, also known as Reaganomics, or Voodoo Economics (GHW Bush’s term for it).. By providing relatively low progressive taxes to the richest and gutting regulations on corporations, a corrupt climate was created that shifted income and wealth to the top 2% and encouraged the outsourcing of America’s manufacturing base for further marginal profits.

President Obama’s goal to even the playing field is at the heart of the manufactured hatred the Right Wing puppets of the oligarchs and plutocrats like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Fox News are expounding at both Progressives and the president. For the first time in our recent history, a large percentage of white blue collar men are unemployed with very little prospect for future meaningful or comparable employment.

The President presents all the requisites necessary to be scapegoated. He is a somewhat less than typical ethnic American with views that corporations and the wealthy must do their part. He is steward to an underperforming economy that was destroyed by the Right Wingers which should require sacrifice mostly by those who pilfered it in the first place but are resisting by using Rush Limbaugh & other puppets to revise history and divide to take American’s eyes off the real enemy.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Rush Limbaugh Rips Obama’s Thanksgiving Proclamation (AUDIO)

Adam J. Rose First Posted: 11-25-10 08:00 PM  

If the Christmas shopping season can start before Thanksgiving, so can "bah humbug" season.

Rush Limbaugh tried to rain on Barack Obama’s Thanksgiving Day parade, lashing out against a proclamation issued by the president to honor the national holiday and the story behind it.

He also went on the war path against Native Americans, calling for a look at the "scoreboard" of number of people killed since European settlers arrived, and insisting that "a bunch of Native Americans scammed us" in the deal to purchase Manhattan.

As found in the show’s transcript, Limbaugh interprets Obama’s version of events:

We were the invaders. The Indians are minding their own business. We were incompetent idiots. We didn’t know how to feed ourselves. So they came along and showed us how, and that’s what Thanksgiving is all about. Now, he says nothing about the Constitution in his Thanksgiving proclamation, because he’s got a problem with it … Every cliche that is wrong about Thanksgiving shows up in his proclamation

Obama did acknowledge George Washington, who declared the first nationally recognized Thanksgiving when the Constitution was enacted. Limbaugh didn’t further clarify why the document from 1787 required a mention, even though the holiday’s roots are generally traced back to at least 150 years earlier and it wouldn’t become a regular national holiday until more than 75 years later.

Insisting that he thought the presidential proclamation seemed like a "phony," "parody," "hoax" and "prank," Limbaugh then offered his own interpretation of the holiday’s significance:

[Obama] said that Thanksgiving is about the Indians saving us, with their agriculture and everything else. The true story of Thanksgiving is socialism failed. Of course we showed them gratitude! We shared our bounty with them, not because we didn’t know how to make it. It was because we first failed as socialists. Only when we turned capitalists did we have plenty. The Indians didn’t teach us capitalism.

CONTINUED

Rush Limbaugh Rips Obama’s Thanksgiving Proclamation (AUDIO)

Many on the Right’s irresponsible rhetoric, lies, and misinformation has metastasized in the minds of the ill, the weak minded, and low information news consumers. The result of this type of spewed hate is that many will act violently based on the misinformation and lies they hear.

Those who claim to so love the country must tone down their visceral hate for our President. If at any time their lies and misinformation causes someone to act with violence against our President, it will surely mark the beginning of the end of our republic.

I would hope that all so called evangelical leaders that claim to be moral will actively, vociferously, and consistently warn their congregations and followers of their responsibility to their God and the country. After-all one of the bastions of misinformation of many of President Obama’s policies that have triggered much of the hate show origins in statements by the leaders of the evangelical movement.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Michael Stephen Bowden, an elderly veteran, has been arrested after threatening to kill President Obama, according to multiple reports. Bowden was detained in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.

According to WYFF, a Secret Service affidavit alleges that Bowden told a Veterans Affairs nurse that he felt suicidal and that he was "thinking of traveling to Washington, D.C., to shoot the president because he was not doing enough to help African Americans."

WLOX reports that Secret Service agents followed up with Bowden at his home, at which point the elderly veteran wrote a harrowing sworn statement in which he claimed, "If I had the opportunity to put Obama against the wall and shoot him, I would."

According to the affidavit (PDF link), Bowden also "admitted to telling the Veterans Administration clinic nurse he had suicidal thoughts at times, and if he could kill anyone ‘I would kill, if possible, the President, for what he has done to this country."

The affidavit also alleges that Bowden had three semi-automatic handguns and a semi-automatic rifle near his bed.

WYFF reports that Bowden, a former New York City policeman and firefighter, has been charged with threats against the president.

Michael Stephen Bowden Arrested For Threatening To Kill President Obama

From “Dancing With The Stars” with hopefully “Dancing With The Inmates”. Tom Delay represents one of the lowest forms of political deviancy that this country has seen. His corrupt process of influencing Texas redistricting as well as the fraudulent manner he raised money has been unparalleled until this year’s Karl Rove.

The very citizens that Tom Delay thought he owned have seen the light. Many Americans may not realize the magnitude of this conviction. For a Texas jury to convict Tom Delay, one of the most revered politicians in Texas and the country should put fear in Karl Rove and other political operatives that operate by bending election laws to distribute the windfall from the Oligarchs and Plutocrats that are the puppeteers of the Republican Party.

While the Oligarchs and Plutocrats were able to purchase a substantial portion of the Supreme Court, this particular conviction seem to be outside of the domain of the “Citizen’s United” decision that overturned McCain Feingold and many other laws that protected corporations from involving themselves directly into politics. Tom Delay is claiming that the current jury did not understand the case. He claims that their verdict is tantamount to the criminalization of politics.

The “criminalization of politics” was a phrase used often in the 2006 elections when a barrage of Republicans suffering ethics violations and criminal indictments needed a form of cover. This phrase is simply an attempt to make it appear that in politics what most Americans can smell as fraud is morphed into standard political operating procedures. Americans must not and will not allow this to occur.

Tom Delay’s conviction must only be the beginning. It is times to hunt all those that have compromised the body politic of America.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Tom DeLay GUILTY: Jury Convicts Republican In Money Laundering Trial

JUAN A. LOZANO | 11/24/10 07:18 PM

AUSTIN, Texas — Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay – once one of the most powerful and feared Republicans in Congress – was convicted Wednesday on charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.

Jurors deliberated for 19 hours before returning guilty verdicts against DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to life in prison on the money laundering charge.

After the verdicts were read, DeLay hugged his daughter, Danielle, and his wife, Christine. His lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said they planned to appeal the verdict.

"This is an abuse of power. It’s a miscarriage of justice, and I still maintain that I am innocent. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system and I’m very disappointed in the outcome," DeLay told reporters outside the courtroom. He remains free on bond, and his sentencing was tentatively set to begin on Dec. 20.

Prosecutors said DeLay, who once held the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives and whose heavy-handed style earned him the nickname "the Hammer," used his political action committee to illegally channel $190,000 in corporate donations into 2002 Texas legislative races through a money swap.

DeLay and his attorneys maintained the former Houston-area congressman did nothing wrong as no corporate funds went to Texas candidates and the money swap was legal.

The verdict came after a three-week trial in which prosecutors presented more than 30 witnesses and volumes of e-mails and other documents. DeLay’s attorneys presented five witnesses.

"This case is a message from the citizens of the state of Texas that the public officials they elect to represent them must do so honestly and ethically, and if not, they’ll be held accountable," Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said after the verdict.

Prosecutors said DeLay conspired with two associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to use his Texas-based PAC to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee, or RNC. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can’t go directly to political campaigns.

CONTINUED

Tom DeLay GUILTY: Jury Convicts Republican In Money Laundering Trial

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

$1.66 trillion dollars of corporate profits as the middle class tread water. American corporations have no incentive to invest in America. They have a substantially reduced payroll which adds to the bottom line as above and beyond wages, they actually get increased productivity from the employees left who are scared to complain lest they find themselves on the unemployment line. The employees left working can easily be replaced from the pool of the unemployed willing to work at a fraction of the cost.

How did we get here? Laissez Faire Capitalism is the culprit. Corporations have no loyalty to employees. Corporations have no loyalty to families. Corporations have no loyalty to country. Yet, it is our country, the United States of America that has invested in the education, infrastructure, and a military that have afforded their success.

While Republicans want yet more tax cuts for corporations under the pretext that they will create jobs with said continued windfall, the evidence is clear that that would be fool’s gold for the middle class as corporations will maximize their profits by their continued commoditization of labor. Either Americans accept a new normal of third world corporate imposed wages or they will continue their outsourcing mantra.

It is time to bias our policies to the individual, to the middle class. Corporations have become our cancer. They have taken control of the main stream media, the politicians, and the minds of many in the middle class that they are actually hurting.

Free Enterprise must once more reign. But it will take methodical reeducation of the middle class and a change in paradigm. The answer will be self-reliance and inter-individual commerce where possible excluding corporate commerce wherever possible. Formation of corporations should be for the good of society and not for the pilfering of those not incorporated. Subsequent articles will detail.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Published: November 23, 2010

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms.

Corporate profits have been going gangbusters for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history.

This breakneck pace can be partly attributed to strong productivity growth — which means companies have been able to make more with less — as well as the fact that some of the profits of American companies come from abroad. Economic conditions in the United States may still be sluggish, but many emerging markets like India and China are expanding rapidly.

Tuesday’s Commerce Department report also showed that the nation’s output grew at a slightly faster pace than originally estimated last quarter. Its growth rate, of 2.5 percent a year in inflation-adjusted terms, is higher than the initial estimate of 2 percent. The economy grew at 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter.

CONTINUED

U.S. Corporate Profits Rose in Third Quarter – NYTimes.com

The unemployed justifiably worry about whether they will get a job or if they do not get a job if they will lose unemployment and any public assisted safety net. The under employed worry if they are living a new miserable normal. The still employed worry that they will become unemployed or under employed. Given the structural defect of our new economy they must all worry.

I’ve asked many in the three above mentioned groups since the election if they voted and if they did how they voted. I found the answers fascinating. Firstly, many did not vote. Of those who did not vote most would have voted Democratic. Of those who voted, most voted Republican. Granted I live in a very conservative area in a fairly conservative state, I was most amazed that those at most risk tended to vote Republican because they thought things needed to change to help their situation or perceived possible bad situation forthcoming.

If I had hair on my head I swear I would be bald from hair pulling as opposed to my daily head shaving ritual. That these people cannot understand that the destruction of our economy was caused by 30 years of Republican led supply side economics is befuddling. Further that they cannot understand that it would take over a decade to correct is tantamount to a toddler seeking instant gratification. Worst of all that many of those most in need would put those with policies whose outcome is surely the continued destruction and pilfering of the middle class and by design will have a negative material effect on them is a sure sign of insanity created by misinformation causing mass indoctrination.

My Book: As I See It: Class Warfare The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
Book’s Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com – Twitter: http://twitter.com/egbertowillies

Unemployment Extension Standoff Makes N.C. Woman ‘Feel Like A Pawn In A Chess Game’

Arthur Delaney

arthur@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting

Cathy Millen doesn’t appreciate the way Congress toys with the unemployed whenever it’s time to reauthorize long-term jobless aid.

"Every time it comes up for renewal, it’s like being on a roller coaster that’s way out of control," she told HuffPost. "Every time it comes up I feel like a pawn in a chess game."

Extended unemployment benefits will begin to expire at the end of November absent a congressional reauthorization. House Republicans defeated one attempt last week before Congress adjourned for its Thanksgiving break. Lawmakers will have one more day in session to prevent a lapse, which is widely expected.

"My last check will be the week ending Nov. 30 unless they come back on Nov. 29 and miraculously vote an extension," said Millen, who lives in Charlotte, N.C.

State agencies are warning claimants that there will be no more Emergency Unemployment Compensation or Extended Benefits, which combined provide up to 53 weeks of federally-funded benefits for people who exhaust 26 weeks of state benefits without finding work. Millen is in the same boat as two million people who could lose their benefits by the end of December.

Millen, 60, said she lost her job as a sales rep with a home building company in September 2009. She said she’s burned through her savings during a dismal job search.

"It’s so frustrating," she said. "You have to fill everything out online. Nobody talks to you in person. You’re just shooting resumes out into a black hole."

CONTINUED

Unemployment Extension Standoff Makes N.C. Woman ‘Feel Like A Pawn In A Chess Game’

It’s time to end "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell".

For the first time since 1993, we have a real chance to end the shameful anti-gay policy called Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The President and Democrats in Congress promised the American people that they would repeal "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" before the end of the year — this is their last chance to deliver on that promise before Republicans officially take control of the House of Representatives just over a month from now.

Earlier this year we seemed to be making progress. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen testified before Congress in support of repealing the ban. Then in September, after repeal passed in the House of Representatives, Republicans in the Senate killed it. They saw this as a chance to play politics with the civil rights of American men and women just before the midterm election. It was disgusting.

This is not a tough one. In poll after poll — two more released just last week — a clear majority of Americans have said they think Don’t Ask Don’t Tell should be repealed. More than 70 percent of active duty and reserve troops have said that the effect of repealing the policy would be "positive, mixed or nonexistent".

The American people know repealing the ban is the right thing to do because requiring someone to lie about who they are, in order to serve their country goes against our values. As General Mullen said during his testimony before Congress, "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is the right thing to do. It is a matter of integrity."

This is one of the most important civil rights issues of our time. To get this done, Democrats must stand up to Republicans in Congress and fight for the rights of America’s gay service members. It’s time to declare once and for all that they will no longer be treated as second-class citizens. It’s time to allow all Americans to serve the country they love, regardless of who they love.

When Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva stepped on the landmine outside of Basra that broke his arm and resulted in the amputation of his leg, he became the first person wounded in President George W Bush’s Iraq war. Sgt. Alva is also gay.
Now, if someone is brave enough to take a bullet for the United States of America, then they ought not have to lie about who they are. They deserve the right to serve openly.

Please join me in calling on the Senate to repeal "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" before the year of 2010.

Senator Carl Levin — Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee — is set to start hearings on "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" first thing in December. Join us today and we’ll deliver each and every one of your signatures to that committee hearing to let Democrats know where the American people stand and now’s the time to act..

Thank you, when we work together, we’re unstoppable.

-Howard

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
Founder, Democracy for America

Democracy for America relies on you and the people-power of more than one million members to fund the grassroots organizing and training that delivers progressive change on the issues that matter. Please Contribute Today and support our mission.