Gov. Haley Barbour won't oppose a proposal from the Sons of Confederate Veterans to honor Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest on a commemorative license plate. Barbour is a former national chair of the Republican party. Forest is a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Rep. Allen West, are you listening?
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday's Twitter Brainstorming.
Tuesday night's #99erAid Twitterchat was a 1 hour+ brainstorming session for thoughts on helping and supporting the 99ers. Due to the nature of Twitter the ideas came through randomly and quickly with multiple conversation threads during the hour. Some takeaways:
- 99ers must continue support for H.R.589 by any means possible. Even though another legislative roadblock for H.R.589 has emerged 99ers must continue to phone, fax, email and educate elected officials from both parties to create groundswell support.
- Advocacy must reach beyond Congress. There was a debate on the merits of local vs. national demonstrations. Some proposed reaching out to business and celebrity sponsorship for subsidized transportation to D.C. for a mammoth rally. Others favored multiple local rallies while acknowledging the challenges of locating and connecting with local 99ers and unemployment advocates.
- All pretty much concurred that press coverage was at best sparse and inconsistent.
There appears to be a demand to continue the conversation. 99erAid II is scheduled for Tuesday, February 22, 2011 8 PM EST. The hashtag will again be #99erAid and there is also a Facebook event page, #99erAid. Please mark this on your calendar and join the conversation.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
H.R.589, Job Creation and Rape.
On Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 Representative Barbara Lee introduced H.R.589, "The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2011." The bill calls for an additional 14 weeks of Tier I unemployment compensation to be made available to those currently receiving unemployment compensation and to those that have previously exhausted all benefits. Rep. Lee introduced similar legislation (H.R.6556) at the end of the 111th Congress, which failed to pass the resolution.
In other Congressional unemployment related news, the 112th Congress has to date put forward 23 bills regarding jobs. 10 call for investment to create jobs, 4 deal with repealing health care reform, 3 concern the effects of federal regulation stifling job growth and 2 propose suspending environmental regulations to protect jobs. Less than 50% of the legislation for job creation actually involves job creation. Why does this matter? Without significant job creation, the additional 14 weeks of unemployment benefits proposed aren't any more helpful than a lottery ticket.
In other Congressional news, on Feb. 8, 2011 Rep. Christopher Smith introduced H.R.3 "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act" which among other things further victimizes rape victims. The bill would limit federal funds for rape victims to cases of "forcible rape" thereby excluding victims of "casual rape", "recreational rape" and the ever popular "consensual rape". The bill has 205 cosponsors. Why does this matter? You can't talk the common sense of job creation and safety nets to 206 bat crap crazies that would take ownership of a bill using the term "forcible rape".
Simply put, all 99ers need to get behind H.R.589 via fax, phone, email and/or carrier pigeon. Beyond that it is incumbent on 99ers both individually and collectively to have a plan in place to go beyond H.R.589, so that the work Rep. Lee, 60 cosponsors and countless advocates is not wasted. In this light, please join Jason Tabrys and other for 99er Aid tonight at 8 PM EST for the #99erAid Twitterchat.
In other Congressional unemployment related news, the 112th Congress has to date put forward 23 bills regarding jobs. 10 call for investment to create jobs, 4 deal with repealing health care reform, 3 concern the effects of federal regulation stifling job growth and 2 propose suspending environmental regulations to protect jobs. Less than 50% of the legislation for job creation actually involves job creation. Why does this matter? Without significant job creation, the additional 14 weeks of unemployment benefits proposed aren't any more helpful than a lottery ticket.
In other Congressional news, on Feb. 8, 2011 Rep. Christopher Smith introduced H.R.3 "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act" which among other things further victimizes rape victims. The bill would limit federal funds for rape victims to cases of "forcible rape" thereby excluding victims of "casual rape", "recreational rape" and the ever popular "consensual rape". The bill has 205 cosponsors. Why does this matter? You can't talk the common sense of job creation and safety nets to 206 bat crap crazies that would take ownership of a bill using the term "forcible rape".
Simply put, all 99ers need to get behind H.R.589 via fax, phone, email and/or carrier pigeon. Beyond that it is incumbent on 99ers both individually and collectively to have a plan in place to go beyond H.R.589, so that the work Rep. Lee, 60 cosponsors and countless advocates is not wasted. In this light, please join Jason Tabrys and other for 99er Aid tonight at 8 PM EST for the #99erAid Twitterchat.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Time for UCubed to stop chillin'.
UCubed is an unemployment advocacy group organized under the auspices of the IAM. The organizational skills and resources Unions can offer the unemployed are (to borrow a marketing campaign) PRICELESS. I can only imagine the assistance UCubed can provide once they actually start.
I apologize, the above is a cheap shot. This is not intended to be a condemnation on UCubed, merely a strongly worded critique. Simply put, the 99ers and the soon to be 99ers desperately need UCubed to reach it's potential beginning today.
We are a week+ beyond the State of the Union Address. President Obama deftly avoided any mention of the 99ers and the ongoing unemployment crisis during the State of the Union. The UCubed response was a strongly worded "Shame on you, Barack Obama" (thanks, Hillary). I ask, "Is this the best the power of 31 million can offer?"
99ers are fighting and losing a major public relations battle. Just yesterday @ReThePeople tweeted
"# 99ers have to realize they are playing a suckers game. Since you are only fighting for #TierV benefits, only your little group is affected". @ReThePeople appears to be in tune with current events, but in this case he is so wrong. First the agenda of the unemployed has always been and continues to be jobs, jobs, jobs but until there are sufficient jobs, a safety net is necessary. Second, the argument for extending unemployment insurance beyond 99 weeks has as much to do with sustaining the economic recovery as it does with sustaining the unemployed. 99ers are not fighting for themselves alone, they are fighting for today's economic stability and the future of our country. Still the need for UCubed to get aggressive goes beyond PR.
On Sunday Donalee King asked if the violence in Egypt is merely a foreshadowing of events in the USA. Well Donalee, yes it is.
I have been a proponent of aggressive but peaceful demonstrations in the street. Organized, time limited displays with a specific purpose. Be it cardboard box villages in front of an elected officials office or blocking access to a public building at 5 PM, it is vital to involve/educate the entire community about the plight of the 99ers. UCubed has the best ability to arrange these type of protests and keep them peaceful. If peaceful protests are not arranged angry people will take to the streets. (I'm assuming the current strategy of call/fax/email/tweet/angry,astonished posts will continue to yield the same results: NOTHING.) When that anger boils over, violence will follow. Violence often has random results and a corresponding violent response in an effort to quell the violent outburst will result in even more random results. This is one of many reasons why it is important to channel the growing anger of the unemployed now, and UCubed (or another funded, staffed advocacy group) needs to take the lead.
Their have been many suggesting that each homeless, hungry or dead 99er is the responsibility of a President and Congress that fail to react to this crisis appropriately. We know the Congress and President will continue to respond in their ostrich like manner. The next group of hungry, homeless or dead 99ers is our responsibility and it starts with our advocacy organizations that know better. UCubed, I'm talking to you.
I apologize, the above is a cheap shot. This is not intended to be a condemnation on UCubed, merely a strongly worded critique. Simply put, the 99ers and the soon to be 99ers desperately need UCubed to reach it's potential beginning today.
We are a week+ beyond the State of the Union Address. President Obama deftly avoided any mention of the 99ers and the ongoing unemployment crisis during the State of the Union. The UCubed response was a strongly worded "Shame on you, Barack Obama" (thanks, Hillary). I ask, "Is this the best the power of 31 million can offer?"
99ers are fighting and losing a major public relations battle. Just yesterday @ReThePeople tweeted
"# 99ers have to realize they are playing a suckers game. Since you are only fighting for #TierV benefits, only your little group is affected". @ReThePeople appears to be in tune with current events, but in this case he is so wrong. First the agenda of the unemployed has always been and continues to be jobs, jobs, jobs but until there are sufficient jobs, a safety net is necessary. Second, the argument for extending unemployment insurance beyond 99 weeks has as much to do with sustaining the economic recovery as it does with sustaining the unemployed. 99ers are not fighting for themselves alone, they are fighting for today's economic stability and the future of our country. Still the need for UCubed to get aggressive goes beyond PR.
On Sunday Donalee King asked if the violence in Egypt is merely a foreshadowing of events in the USA. Well Donalee, yes it is.
I have been a proponent of aggressive but peaceful demonstrations in the street. Organized, time limited displays with a specific purpose. Be it cardboard box villages in front of an elected officials office or blocking access to a public building at 5 PM, it is vital to involve/educate the entire community about the plight of the 99ers. UCubed has the best ability to arrange these type of protests and keep them peaceful. If peaceful protests are not arranged angry people will take to the streets. (I'm assuming the current strategy of call/fax/email/tweet/angry,astonished posts will continue to yield the same results: NOTHING.) When that anger boils over, violence will follow. Violence often has random results and a corresponding violent response in an effort to quell the violent outburst will result in even more random results. This is one of many reasons why it is important to channel the growing anger of the unemployed now, and UCubed (or another funded, staffed advocacy group) needs to take the lead.
Their have been many suggesting that each homeless, hungry or dead 99er is the responsibility of a President and Congress that fail to react to this crisis appropriately. We know the Congress and President will continue to respond in their ostrich like manner. The next group of hungry, homeless or dead 99ers is our responsibility and it starts with our advocacy organizations that know better. UCubed, I'm talking to you.
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