Here we are again.

Day 2 of the unemployed held hostage and the 99ers are ignored. Again. For the third time this year.  At least extending tax cuts will continue to spur the economy.  What? Unemployment benefits are more effective than tax cuts? So why do we continue to engage in counterproductive economics? It's the American way.

99ers should not be surprised at our current plight.  99ers have been ignored since (before) Jim Bunning staged his one man show of arrogance. Sen. Bunning's show was so successful, it reappeared in summer stock. As we approach Christmas,"Waiting for Congress" has been made into a winter holiday special. The common theme of these three extravaganzas? Nothing about the 99ers, which means nothing for the 99ers. This is like going to the Emergency Room for a cough. The Triage Nurse mentions your intestines are hanging out and you choose to treat just the cough. How did we reach reach this nadir of lunacy? There are many directions to point a finger, I am aiming at NELP, UCubed and Working America.

99ers should not be surprised we have reached this point. Except for occasional whispers to the contrary, Congress has been shouting opposition to TierV since spring. It's easy to suggest 99ers should have organized more effectively. There have been great grassroot groups, UWAG and Unemployed Friends are just two of many. These are primarily volunteer organizations. NELP, UCubed and Working America have professional staff and budgets. The staff may be small and the budget limited, but 99ers budget? 99ers are trying to keep the utilities on in a house they might lose to cook food they can't afford to buy. NELP, UCubed and Working America should have been doing more this whole time.

The One Nation Working Together rally was great.  That rally was two months ago.  Since then there have been call rallies, fax rallies, email campaigns. Obviously these attempts have been ineffective and done nothing to generate public opinion. 99ers are told time is dear and unemployed between 26 and 99 weeks need all efforts to continue to fund their benefits. NELP, UCubed and Working America should have never let it come to an either/or decision. As soon as Jim Bunning started his one man show in March, NELP, UCubed and Working America should have been screaming every day that 99ers be included in any extensions. These professional organizations were neglectful and now claim they must concentrate their efforts for those with extensions previously approved.  Okay, what about the rest of us.

I don't know how this will wind up.  I fear it will end with discord between 99ers and less than 99ers. Unemployed eating their own.  Which makes sense, because it's the only food many of us can afford.

Mignon Veasley-Fields, Role Model, Hero but only half right.

When I got a chance to review email Friday night, I found another outstanding article from Donalee King. Donalee reviewed an exchange between Ed Schultz and Mignon Veasley-Fields. Ed Schultz has been the strongest media voice advocating on behalf of the 99ers. Ms. Veasley-Fields, a 99er has also been an advocate for the unemployed, consistently available to educate about the plight of the 99ers.  When Ms. Veasly-Fields (I know her as @agape122) speaks for the 99ers, she speaks for me.


In conversation with Ed, Ms. Veasley-Fields laid blame for the failure of S3706 on both parties in Congress.

"Well Ed, yes, we have committed that we are going to encourage our fellow 99ers to vote for either party that their choice. However, ??Ed, yesterday was very disappointing for us. And even though we are trying to tell them to vote, many of them are not going to vote even though the No NOVO says to go ahead and do this. They were disillusioned by what they saw on the Senate floor yesterday. We were grateful for Senator Stabenow for her effort, but we thought it was just sort of put together really quickly like a dog and pony show in order to get us to vote for them. This is a sentiment across this nation." Ms. Fields told Ed.


Schultz countered: "But if the Republicans, but Mignon, if the Republican Senator had not stood up, this would have gone through, and you would have had the votes, and you would have gotten an extension. It's the Republicans. Why take it out on the Democrats, the majority Party that time and time again has been there for the unemployed?


"To which Mignon replied: "Well you know, Ed, we have gone back in the history of the tiers. We as 99ers have tried to figure this out ourselves. What has happened is we can remember the time in which the Republicans said, "Sure, get another tier. Use the stimulus funds. And the Democrats said, 'No, we need to find sourcing for unemployment.' So now we're thinking back on that, and we're realizing it's not the Republicans. It was the Democrats that caused us to be in the situation that we're in. We want the Democrats to come back before this election, and we want them to come back and rectify this, Ed."


I don't need to comment on the actions of the Republican caucus, their actions are self-declaratory. So I am going to concentrate on the Democrats and their total mismanagement of  the legislative process.


Even before Senator Bunning blocked benefits in February, the Republicans made their strategy obvious: Party unity to block everything.  Still the Democrats attempted to include the Republicans in the legislative process.  Memo to Charlie Brown (as played by Harry Reid): No matter what Lucy (as played by any Senate Republican) says, nor how much you want to believe her, as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, Lucy will pull the football away.  You will always land flat on your back, every time. As long as the Dems continue to play Charlie Brown, progressive agenda items (extended unemployment benefits) will remain blood battles. Until the Democrats approach the unemployment safety net and job creation together as a long term issue the results will be substandard.


Use of  "dormant" stimulus funds to pay for any Tiers of unemployment benefits is questionable politics and curious policy. Politically, I doubt the Republican's sincerity (see memo to Charlie Brown above) in voicing this suggestion. Ignoring Tea Party crazy candidates,  Republican Senators are the party of David Vitter, John Ensign and Jim DeMint; hypocrisy and arrogance defined.  As for policy, the "unspent" stimulus funds are already allocated to specific projects. Spending these funds on a safety net today makes them unavailable for job creation tomorrow. Without continued job creation there will be a greater need for the same safety net in the future, merely shifting burden within the same demographic. This type of "Darwinism" is often replicated in a laboratory experiment: Starve some mice,  put 1 or 2 pieces of cheese in their common area and watch the mice fight it out. As policy this tactic is a favorite of the wealthy. Keep the disadvantaged fighting amongst themselves. While competing against each other for limited resources the disadvantaged won't organize for their common good. The result maintains the status quo, a primary goal of well healed conservatives and totally contrary to a progressive agenda. 
Hungry and homeless are neither progressive nor conservative issues. Hunger and homelessness are human issues. Unfortunately the current conservative responses to these social issues are...? I don't know the conservative response to hunger and homelessness because I haven't heard any. Clearly, I disagree with using unspent stimulus funds to pay for extended unemployment benefits. But it's okay to disagree with someone, even a hero like Mignon Veasley-Fields. It's counterproductive to squabble like hungry lab rats.

Do you agree or disagree about using stimulus funds for unemployment? What about unity of message for the 99ers?