Tom DeLay knows the American worker and he knows why the unemployment rate is so high.  It is because Americans are lazy ass mother fuckers.  The reason the unemployment rate is so high is because some workers have had unemployment benefits.  That is why there are almost 10% of Americans with out jobs.
  Tom DeLay and the Republicans have the answers.  Let the unemployed get hungry and have their children crying because they need food and those lazy ass fat Americans will go out and get a job.
  The Republicans have been cutting taxes on the rich for years so that those people could create jobs for those workers.  The Republicans have been giving tax breaks to the corporations to create jobs for Americans. 
  What does the American worker want?  He wants full time jobs.  He wants a job with health benefits.  He wants a wage that he can live on.  Some of the worst (mostly communist) want a union.  
  Thank God for men like Tom DeLay.  A great Republican that knows what the American worker needs and deserves.  Tom DeLay knows that you cut taxes and give more money to the rich and that they create the jobs. 
  You want to get people back to work?  Do away with unemployment benefits. 

Popularity: 1% [?]

  CNN has had a news story posted on their site for the last few days.  If you read the story it tells that the Medicare doctor is making very little money.  If you are not careful when you read it you will come away with the idea that the doctor they are using as an example is making the "equivalent of a minimum wage job."

 
   Some key words in this CNN story are "…After the costs of my own benefits are deducted, that will leave me with the equivalent of a minimum wage job…"
   The story does not tell you what his OWN BENEFITS are or how much they are."  
  This story was a CNN Money report and how they could let him get away with this I am not sure.  If he did not want to tell them that amount then they should not have written and posted the story because they have no story.
 

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Popularity: 1% [?]

  You know I am an ex-union member. My father and mother were both union members.  My father was a union official.  I have a daughter that is a union organizer.
  I have always been a big supporter of the labor union movement.
  But in recent years I have just got sick and tired of unions.  They just seem to not have the ability to do anything. 
  They are not willing to fight and not willing to take a beating.

"The Unemployed Now Have Their Own Union, and It’s Catching on Quickly

An ingenious grassroots union for the unemployed is only a month old — and its numbers are growing.

February 24, 2010  | 

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

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It’s been only a month that a union for the unemployed has come into existence through an ingenious grassroots organizing campaign. In case you haven’t heard about it, the union’s name is "UR Union of the Unemployed" or its nickname, "UCubed," because of its unique method of organizing.
UCubed is the brain-child of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), whose leaders feel that the millions of unemployed workers need a union of their own to join in the struggle for massive jobs programs.
The idea is that if millions of jobless join together and act as an organization, they are more likely to get Congress and the White House to provide the jobs that are urgently needed. They can also apply pressure for health insurance coverage, unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits and food stamps. An unemployed worker is virtually helpless if he or she has to act alone.
Joining a Cube is as simple as it is important. (Please check the union web site:www.unionofunemployed.com). Six people who live in the same zip code address can form a Ucube. Nine such UCubes make a neighborhood. Three neighborhood UCubes form a power block that cntains 162 activists. Politicians cannot easily ignore a multitude of power blocks, nor can merchants avoid them.
The union is built from the ground up. Cube activists will select their own leadership in each cube, neighborhood, block and higher group as well.
Jobless Union’s Encouraging Progress in One Month
The UR Union of Unemployed (or UCubed) already has members in over 300 zip code addresses and 43 states, reports Rick Sloan, acting executive director of the union. Seventy-five cubes are up and running. For the first month, 19,998 people visited the site and viewed over 138,000 pages of content.
The union’s Op-Ed article appeared in 62 newspapers, ranging from the "Black News" to the "Mexican American Sun," and from the "Las Vegas Tribune" to the "Senior Life of Northern Indiana." Total circulation exceeded 12 million readers,
UCubed put out three press releases last month, informing politicians in Washington that the union of unemployed will be watching–and reacting–to their vote on the latest job proposals of the Obama administration.
* * * * *
It is to the advantage of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to encourage their unemployed members to participate in the UCubed organizing campaign. It is important for organized labor to display meaningful sympathy and solidarity with those who have been without a pay check for many months. A large union of unemployed workers can be an important ally in political campaigns and a source of legions of volunteers. When those unemployed workers finally get back to their jobs, we want them to have a favorable memory of how unions stood by their side.
Let’s give the unemployed the support they need to be effective in their own defense."

  I do not know what to think about this…  Not even sure what to say..

I know …You have never come to ShowMeBlog or Howard’s Notebook and had me not know what to say.. This time I will just wait and see what happens.

Popularity: 1% [?]

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Snail mail might soon get even slower.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to propose Tuesday an adjusted mail service schedule, which will likely cut Saturday delivery. The agency will also suggest closing some branches and expanding its use of self-service kiosks in grocery stores and other popular retail spots, as part of its effort to work its way out of a mountain of debt…" 

  Times change and things change.  It will have some effect.  There are people that get medications by mail.  There are people that sell stuff and ship it via the U.S. Post Office.
  It will effect me.  I just signed up for the one DVD Netflix plan again.
 
  But knowing how the government and the post office works I wonder if this will even have any effect on their $3.8 billion loss in 2009.  I think fewer people will use the USPS.  I suspect that management will do stupid things (hay they hired me to work for them part time and full time back in the 60s). 
  I only worked part time for a couple of Christmas's for them.  I only worked full time for them for a month or two and then I told them to take their job and shove it.
  But I bet their management has not improved.  We will see if the loss comes down.
  They need to get modern and cut down the number of employees.  I hate to say that because those are good paying jobs.  Most of all I hate to say it when the unemployment rate is 9.7% and the Republicans are keeping Congress from passing a bill to aid those getting unemployment pay.

Update:  02/02/2010 1700 Hours:  USPS to cut 30K jobs and cut overtime pay

Popularity: 1% [?]

"Washington (CNN) — Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has notified Congress of plans to allow women to serve aboard submarines, a Defense Department official said Tuesday.

Letters of intent were sent Monday to Congress, which has requested briefings on the matter, said the official, who asked not to be identified. There will be no vote on the matter in Congress.

The change was recommended by the chief of naval operations and the secretary of the Navy in addition to Gates, the official said, adding that there was no opposition to the move among Navy leaders.

A phased approach is being considered under which officers — who already have separate living quarters — would be the first to go co-ed, followed by crews, with the women bunking together, the official said. Crew space would have to be modified prior to that happening, the official added.

The submarines expected to carry women initially would be the larger ones — nuclear-power, missile-carrying submarines known as SSBN and SSGN, the official said…" 

   If you know me then you know I am a big bleeding heart left wing liberal.  If it is a left wing cause then I am for it right?  I do not know about putting women in sub crews.  I was never in the navy or even the military but I have seen a couple of TV shows on CSpan and other stations about subs.  There is not much living space. 
  I guess I got to go with what the military experts say about the issue but I worry about it. 
  I also have seen reports on the news about the problems woman are having in the military and that is not even on a small ship out at sea for a long time.  I think this will be an issue that some on the right wing get upset over because many of them do not even think a woman should be working…They think she should be at home following the orders of her husband and home schooling the kids so that government does not turn them into Communist. 

Popularity: 1% [?]

“This spring has a hot new job: census worker. The Census Bureau is looking to fill some 1.2 million part-time positions as the government gears up for its once-a-decade count of every person living in the U.S. Most of those openings are for enumerators — people who go door to door to collect information from the roughly 35 million households that won’t return their Census forms by mail. Considering the unemployment rate stands at 10% — much higher than in any other Census year since 1940 — prospective workers are turning out in droves. "The numbers who are applying are just phenomenal," says Census director Robert Groves…”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1951980,00.html#ixzz0bvbpd1Mp

  I worked the 2000 census and it was a great job.  I was streaming live video from my Belton home at the time.  So some of you saw me at home working on paper work at the time and getting paid for it.
  If I had a car I would look into working the 2010 census. I met so many nice people and learned the area that I worked in and I found that fun. 

  The job is limited.  It is only going to last a short time but it will be a good job for some people and help a lot of people out.

Popularity: 6% [?]

  This CNN video is about reasons to be counted in the 2010 census.  I worked the 2000 census (in Cass County Missouri).  It was a great job.  I loved getting out and meeting people.  If I had a car I would have worked the 2010 census.

  All the people that I met with the exception of one were great people.  The one exception was not some drunk red neck living in a trailer but a guy with a suit living in a very nice home. 
 

Popularity: 5% [?]

  What is more scary than a guy in a wheelchair pissed off and with half a pound of highly sensitive explosives in an apartment building?  He had TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide).  It is the stuff that suicide bombers in Israel have used and it was the detonator in the "shoe bomber" bomb.
  John D. Raymond (53) in Spokane Valley (Washington) was angry about how his divorce case was being handled.
  See the CNN story for details. 

  This could have been bad.  No telling where he might have used the explosives.  There was a good chance that they might have gone off by accident in the apartment building.
  It is getting harder and harder to be a police officer, fire fighter, EMT etc. 
  We all are in danger, it seems, more and more from nuts. 
  I am not sure what we do about people like this … They get ideas from the news… They have access to get what they need from the Internet. They can look up information from the Internet.

  I think we need good education in the United States.  We need to teach people right and wrong.  You do not have to teach religion but teach kids how to be good, decent citizens.  We need health care for all Americans.  We need mental health services for all Americans.  We need social services for all Americans.  
  If someone is dealing with anything there should be services (human) that can contact and work with and help the person.  The person should not just get court papers in the mail or have to deal with  a telephone system.  
  There should be someone that can contact the person and be a human and understand human dealing with them.  Tell them what to expect and how the system works and how to work with the system.  Plus they would be in position to see if things are getting out of hand and there is some danger.

  It is not going to happen… Because I think something like this is going to be objected to by many.. They will not like the idea of "social services" and government employees etc.  In the court system were it is needed I can see objections form all the lawyers. 
  When something like this happens I think we more than just the legal system taking the person to court and then to jail or the mental hospital I think each time we need a review/study done.  What can we learn from this case.  What can we do to prevent something like this from happening again.  I do not think we do that… We put the person in jail and we say one less nut off the street and that the person going to jail will be a warning to the next person.  I do not think that works.
 
 
 
 

Popularity: 4% [?]

"(CNN) — A man who lost a recent Social Security claim opened fire with a shotgun in a federal courthouse Monday, killing a court security officer and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal, authorities said.

Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity identified the man as Johnny Wicks, a Las Vegas resident. The FBI said the black-clad man walked into the lobby of the Las Vegas federal courthouse, pulled a shotgun from underneath his jacket and began shooting.

The shootout ended after federal marshals chased Wicks out of the courthouse and across the street, where he was shot and killed. He died among the bushes in front of an old school that once housed a temporary police headquarters…"

    There are a lot of shootings, it seems, at courts or caused by court cases. 
This guy filed a claim against Social Security in 2008 and a federal judge ruled against him in September.
 
    The security officer that was killed, Stanley W. Cooper, was a contract employee of Akal Security.  He had worked at the security at the court house since 1994.  Before he went to work for Akal he worked 26 years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.
      Akal is the largest provider of contract judicial security in the United States.
     
      In this shooting I am not sure what could have been done.  People in all sort of court cases get very upset.  In a case like this the shooter always has the upper hand to start with…He chooses the time and place.  Often he has been there many times in the past.
      Sometimes they have a history of making threats.  That may be the area that needs to be worked on.  What do you do when a person makes threats?

Popularity: 3% [?]

  CNN has a report “Obama jobs plan: Bailout for Main Street.”  We need to fix the mess that the Republicans and President Bush caused.  If it takes spending more money now then we just got to to do it.
  Of course the Republicans to a man say no do nothing.
  What gets my attention is the $250.00 payment to seniors.  Obama also wants to give $250.00 to veterans.  He also wants to give money to states to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers and firefighters.
  Seniors need the money… Well this senior sure needs the money… But I am not sure what is the point in changing the amount of money they give to the Medicare insurance companies…They are giving them a little less… Then the insurance companies make me pay to see a doctor and pay for more for my medications.  It just seems like it is taking it out of one pocket and putting it in the other pocket.
  I do not know what it is going to take to fix things..  Let us face the facts … It was much more easy for the the fat cat (Republicans) to break the bank/system then it is to repair and fix it.
  But the Republicans are just saying do nothing.  They should come up with some answers.  They are just sitting on their fat GOP asses and praying that things do not get better and do not get fixed before the next election. 

Popularity: 7% [?]

  It seems we have so few heroes.  I happen to believe that we all need heroes.
OK, I am not a fan of golf.  I never watch it.  But I sure as hell heard of Tiger Woods. 

"(CNN) — State troopers arrived at the home of Tiger Woods on Saturday to interview the pro golfer and his wife about a car crash near his home, but were told the couple was not available to talk as scheduled, a spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol said.

The troopers were asked by Woods' agent to postpone the interview until Sunday, spokeswoman Kim Miller said.

State troopers had tried to speak to Woods on Friday as part of a routine car accident investigation, but his wife said he was sleeping, said Kim Miller, a spokeswoman for the Florida highway patrol.

Woods was treated and released from a hospital after suffering minor injuries in a car accident early Friday in his neighborhood in Windermere…"

  He has an accident at 0225 hours … A single-vehicle accident… Pulling out of his driveway at 2AM and he hits a fire hydrant and then a tree?  Something does not smell good to me. 
  Then on top of that the highway patrol officers have been trying to interview him and he is not able to talk to them about the accident.  One time the officers are told  he can not talk to them because he was sleeping. 
  I do not like the way this is all looking and sounding.
  Did he have a fight with this wife and then leave pissed off and crashed his car?
  She is reported to have been standing over him with a golf club and said she broke out the back window and pulled him from the car? 

Popularity: 11% [?]

"THREE MILE ISLAND – November 21, 2009 (WPVI) — A radiation leak at Three Mile Island contaminated about 100 employees Saturday afternoon, according to a TMI official…"   6ABC.COM 

  How many of you were alive in 1979?  How many of you remember the event at Three Mile Island in 1979? 

  Nuclear power sounds like a good idea but the truth is it is not…It is a major accident waiting to happen.  The event yesterday is just 200 or so workers…My guess is most of them were boilermakers or pipe fitters. 
  The 1979 event could have been death for thousands and could have ended up with an area in Pennsylvania that no one could live in for thousands of years.
  The problem with nuclear power is accidents like this but the real problem is getting rid of the waste from nuclear power stations. 
  I hope all of the workers are going to be OK.  I hope the truth comes out about the accident and about any harm that could have taken place to people.

Popularity: 26% [?]

  The Senate passed the bill that will extend unemployment benefits for up to 20 weeks.  The vote was 98 to 0.  Russell, my grandson, is one of those people that had his benefits come to an end.  He will have to apply again but I think he will start to get benefits again.
  We will be moving to Fort Worth in 9 days and, I think, he can get a job in Fort Worth.  One reason, I think, he could not get a job here is that he does not speak Spanish.

  You can tell by the vote, 98 to 0, that this is the right thing to do.  We got people that have lost jobs and are looking for work and can not find a job and they have no money coming in or they have unemployment benefits that are going to run out soon.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

  Tonight is the night that we set our clock back one hour.  At 0200 hours it becomes 0100 hours.  I hate DST.  I think it is stupid.
  I guess it does not matter a great deal to me now that I am not working but it was a royal pain in the ass in the past.
  I read a great book about Daylight Savings Time.  I can not remember the name of the book but it was very interesting. 

  For years I worked at a small hospital as the only officer on duty and I worked two 12 hour shifts and two 8 hour shifts.  I worked every weekend and those were the 12 hour shifts. So I was working when the clock went ahead or back for almost 11 years.
  In fact I had to adjust the time clock for the hospital each time.  Sometimes it made report writing a pain or even just filling out the daily activity sheet.
  The worst was when I had to work an extra hour.  When you work 12 hours you are ready to go home after 12 hours and an extra hour is a killer.
  I did not mind it when I only had to work 11 hours … of course I lost one hour of pay.  But that was never a problem for me.
  I think we should just leave the clock alone.  Let the seasons happen.

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Popularity: 1% [?]

  TMZ is reporting that “Levi’s Going ‘Full Johnson’ for Playgirl.”  Here is what I had to say here in September:

Levi Johnston nude in Playgirl

  It is a crazy funny world.  Levi Johnston the father of Bristol Palin’s baby is going to appear nude in Playgirl magazine. 
  God, I wish I was good at using PhotoShop.  I would make a photo of Sarah Palin looking at the center fold of Levi Johnston.  I think it would be funny.
  There has got to be a lot of funny jokes in this entire event.  Remember Sarah Palin and her family AND Levi Johnston at the GOP convention?  Them going around the United States…family values and everything.
   Do not get me wrong … I do not think this is going to hurt Sarah Palin or the GOP I just think it is funny as hell.
   Levi Johnston will get a lot of money for this ….  Plus he could end up doing a TV show or in movies.  

   I was just reading on the Internet.  There is no printed Playgirl magazine.  It is an on line publication only now.
   So I am not sure how much money he will get for that…  Plus not sure how many people will see his Johnston if it is just online.  If it was a magazine I think you would have a lot of people going and buying the magazine.  I am not sure how many are going to brother to go to the Playgirl online site and I suspect access is not free.
  OH MY GOD… This just gets better and better…

It looks like Playgirl magazine online is a gay site.  I do not know what to say now…  I suspect he does not know that…  What do you think?

Popularity: 13% [?]

“Attention coffee addicts (and non-addicts!) COFFEE-MATE is giving you a new way to Make Every Cup Count, only on SocialVibe. They’re donating a generous $50,000 to Dress For Success , an organization that assists disadvantaged women by providing clothes, support and career skills to help them reach their goals. It gets better. With your help, they’ll donate another $100,000!
How can you help? Complete the COFFEE-MATE activity on your SocialVibe Dashboard or on our Facebook app , then invite your friends on your social networks to do the same. Each time you or a friend sends a note of encouragement, $.50 will be donated to Dress for Success. Plus, by publishing the feed on your Facebook Wall, you’ll raise ANOTHER $.50!
We have an opportunity to help women in need by sending a simple note of encouragement, resulting in a possible $150,000 donation. The program ends December 31, 2009, so get started today!
The Dress for Success mission is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
Thanks for being awesome,
The SocialVibe Team “

  If you can help out please do so..seems like an excellent cause.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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“As thousands of jobless Americans lose their weekly unemployment checks, Congress is still debating who should qualify for a benefits extension. The House passed a bill last month extending benefits by 13 weeks. But the proposal has languished in the Senate. CNMoney reports Sen. Max Baucus is pushing legislation that would lengthen benefits for the jobless nationwide by four weeks… “ full story..

  My grandson is one of those people that has had his unemployment money come to an end.  It is extra hard for him to find work because he does not speak Spanish.  He also does not have a car.  It is not as hard here in Miami to find a job without a car because bus and rail service is pretty good.  (Except from 0100 to 0500 hours.  Smile)

  I think they should keep the unemployment money going until the end of the year and then I think they should keep it going in areas with very high un-employment. 

Popularity: 1% [?]

  I got my first money from today from Google AdSense.  It took me months to earn enough for them to send me money.  I think I will now get money from them about six times a year.  I am going to work to increase the amount that I earn with them and it would be great to get money each month from them.
  I have never got a penny from Amazon and I have been signed up with them for years.
  The content of my blog comes first and how it looks matters.  I do not get enough from them to let them effect the content or how the blog looks.

  What I should do with the small amount of money that I earn from Google is use that money to pre-pay my hosting sites and pay for domain fees and things like that… My other idea is that I should get some hardware item that I would use all the time and that way it would make me think… That I got it because of my work on the blog and that I should work harder.

Popularity: 1% [?]

“WASHINGTON — With no end in sight to the country’s job market woes, the House has agreed to give the jobless in a majority of states another 13 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits.

The bill, which passed the House 331-83 , approves the extra three months of benefits for those jobless living in 27 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with unemployment rates topping 8.5 percent. Similar legislation is pending in the Senate. The longtime unemployed in states with lower levels of joblessness would not get the extension.

The job market appears to be the last to recover from a recession that officially began in December 2007. Jobless benefits have already been extended to record lengths through federal intervention.

States offer 26 weeks of benefits, with the average payment about $300 a week. But with federal help, including provisions from the economic stimulus bill, the unemployed in states hardest hit by the recession can receive up to 79 weeks of assistance…”  AP News by Jim Abrams

  Great news and great report by Jim Abrams of AP.  Read the complete story for full details. 

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