Tag Archives: unemployment

Political Rants

E Pluribus BBQ.

Me thinkst the Democratic party has missed a real opportunity here to show the American people how committed they are to the well-being of working and poor families, their supposed constituency. Extension of unemployment benefits have been stopped yet again by the Republicans (joined by some particularly execrable Democrats), whose threat of a filibuster is enough to weaken the knees of the ruling party. As I’ve mentioned before, the filibuster is never actually joined, just threatened, and in the gentleman’s club that is the U.S. Senate, that is enough for the majority to stand down. So having fallen short of their 60-vote supermajority, the majority has declared the holiday weekend to be underway. That’s for Congress, not for the millions of unemployed. How’s that for solidarity?

Hey, Harry Reid – time to take the gloves off. If the Republicans threaten a filibuster over benefits for the long-term unemployed, hold them to it. Make them stand there, hour after hour, day after day, through the bloody holiday weekend, defending their obstructionism and showing the entire country how little they care about those on the losing side of our economy. What a great opportunity for you to demonstrate that your pro-working stiff rhetoric isn’t just a lot of hot air. (Unless, of course, it is.) There would be those who call you partisan, divisive, etc. Let them! They say that anyway. Slug it out on behalf of workers, both poor and middle class, and you’ll end up with something a lot more valuable than a weekend barbecue.

Besides, the Republicans are always complaining that their ideas never get a fair hearing. So let’s hear ’em. Trouble is, we’ve heard them all before. Cut taxes. Cut spending. Expand the military. Balance the budget. Invade another country. Anything new there? For chrissake, their “idea man” is Paul Ryan (a.k.a. Eddie Munster), and he’s just dedicated to rescuscitating Bush’s plan to eviscerate Social Security and Medicare. I overheard him on “Morning Joe” the other day saying that Keynesiansim doesn’t work. Well, Paul… yeah it does. Of course, you haven’t tried it yet – your party convinced the Dems to strip most of the infrastructure spending out of the stimulus before voting against it.  Think Keynesian spending is ineffective? Try cutting the defense budget or the prison industrial complex and see what happens. For something that “doesn’t work”, it sure has a lot of defenders.

Hey, look… I come from a community that would barely be breathing if it weren’t for government spending. If our local Republicans think money from Washington or Albany is a bad thing, I’ve yet to hear about it.

I encourage you to remind your congressperson and senators that the jobless still need help… and they shouldn’t be made to wait until Congress’s 2 week vacation is over.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

War fog.

Big story this week about Afghanistan. In fact, a remarkably big story. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by that flap over the ambitious general, McChrystal, who I can only think must have been very tired of his posting. (What the hell – not enough detainees to abuse, like in Iraq?) Far more interesting than this tawdry act of insubordination was the release of a congressional report confirming Aram Roston’s story in The Nation some months ago that detailed how our military resupply operations are actually generating a revenue stream for the Taliban, through bribery (the basic system of exchange in Afghanistan). Forget about the personalities involved here. We are, in essence, arming both sides. Shouldn’t this be of greater concern? Hello?

Most of the reporting on Afghanistan – the Rolling Stone article included – includes a kind of embedded imperial perspective. There’s an underlying assumption that we should be in Afghanistan, that there is some legitimacy to our enterprise there, and that it’s largely a matter of getting it right. This attitude is a formula for remaining in that country for the rest of any of our lives (particularly with respect to anyone who is sent to fight there). Unfortunately, our foreign policy is driven by domestic politics and the need for leaders to act “tough” and project an image of American exceptionalism. That is what makes generals like McChrystal so attractive to our leaders and the mass media that fawn on them (until they say the wrong thing).

Some talking heads have expressed gratification that McChrystal’s criticisms were mostly about personalities, not the actual strategy. This is good news? So what we’re doing over there is right, or “working” even? Here’s the strategy we need, in three words: Get. Out. Now. Not sure how ambitious a general you need to implement that one. As George McGovern once said, the best way of doing that is to put the troops onto trucks and head for the border.

Job Security. I see that the Senate has blocked any action on unemployment benefits and extended medical insurance to those millions without work. Once again, the tyranny of the minority is somehow keeping us from doing the right thing. What will it take to get the Democratic leadership to face off with the GOP on their perpetual filibuster strategy? Are we going to simply accept that it takes 60 votes in the already undemocratic senate to pass anything? What the fuck – people are hurting, damn it. Time to call your congressmember and Senators and tell them to push this through even if it means depriving Ben Nelson of his hair hat.

luv u,

jp