Georgia’s long-term unemployed about to be abandoned
Unless the state Legislature reverses course quickly, 22,000 Georgia households are going to be stripped of badly needed long-term unemployment benefits by the end of June.
The money may not seem like much — an average of $244 a week per household. But for Georgia families that already have had to survive months without a regular paycheck in the worst economic environment in 80 years, it’s at least something. It helps put food on the table.
But with only four days left in the 2011 session, state leaders are oddly reluctant to take action that would save those benefits.
It ought to be a no-brainer. The money at stake — Georgia’s share would come to an estimated $175 million — has already been appropriated by Congress. Other states with high unemployment rates have already taken steps to accept their share. Georgia leaders have to demonstrate their own willingness to accept it by passing a small, technical change in state law, but so far, they’ve balked.
The question is why.
Brian Robinson, a spokesman for Gov. Nathan Deal, notes that as a member of Congress, Deal voted against extended unemployment benefits and is philosophically opposed to them. As governor, Robinson says, Deal is “studying the issue very closely” but hasn’t decided yet whether he would sign the necessary bill into law.
“We’re fine with the Legislature moving forward on it” while the governor makes up his mind, Robinson said. But Deal will neither champion nor oppose the move.
As head of the state Department of Labor, Labor Commissioner Mark Butler is responsible for administering unemployment benefits and looking out for Georgia workers. But through spokesman Sam Hall, Butler is also taking an oddly passive position.
“The commissioner would support whatever the governor and the Legislature decide to do on the matter,” Hall told me Wednesday.
Of course, it’s not just the long-term unemployed who would benefit from the program. The $175 million at stake would be used to buy groceries at local stores. It would be used to pay rent to landlords, or perhaps fend off foreclosures that in turn would help keep neighorhood property values from plummeting. It would also generate millions of dollars in state income tax revenue.
If the money is rejected, none of that happens.
Despite all that, neither the governor nor the labor commissioner want to be seen as supportive of the idea. They don’t want to be perceived as opposing it; that would make them look heartless and cruel. But given the ideology that dominates their party, they also can’t be seen as advocating assistance for the long-term unemployed.
So they choose to “study the issue” or pretend they have no role. They dump the responsibility on legislators, many of whom are no doubt making the same sort of political calculation as their leaders have. They too don’t want to be seen as killing the program, but many may be perfectly willing to let it die.
Choosing to do nothing is still a choice, however. And it will still have consequences, both for those who can’t find jobs and for the politicians who lacked enough courage and spine to take action.
If legislators follow the example set by the governor and labor commissioner and no action is taken before the session ends, 22,000 hard-up Georgia families in communities across the state will lose their financial lifeline come June 30. They and their extended families and friends will have every right to feel betrayed by state leaders who were elected to serve them, but who chose to serve themselves instead by doing nothing.
– Jay Bookman
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590 comments Add your comment
Adam
March 30th, 2011
4:08 pm
FIRST
Joe Cool
March 30th, 2011
4:08 pm
1st
godless heathen
March 30th, 2011
4:09 pm
Almost time to pick the Vidalias.
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:10 pm
“They and their extended families and friends will have every right to feel betrayed by state leaders who were elected to serve them, but who chose to serve themselves instead by doing nothing.”
As I’ve said: time to move (to another country)
Handouts forever aren’t the answer. If you’re not an entrepreneur, go where the jobs are.
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
4:10 pm
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?
What's My line
March 30th, 2011
4:11 pm
Choosing to do nothing is still a choice, however.
Did md put you up to this.
Joe Cool
March 30th, 2011
4:11 pm
They’ll choose to do nothing, then when the outcry happens, thats when they’ll blame everybody else and the same fools who voted them in (one rec’n these benefits) will vote them in again.
@@
March 30th, 2011
4:13 pm
“We’re fine with the Legislature moving forward on it” while the governor makes up his mind, Robinson said. But Deal will neither champion nor oppose the move.
Deal and Obama have a lot in common.
From downstairs:
@@ @ 1:31: I won’t be pulled into jay’s race baiting, so last comment on this thread.
jay @ 1:37: What absolute nonsense from @@:
How does that work exactly?
Talking to yourself, jay?
How? By associating guilt with success. If enough guilt can be applied, mediocrity for ALL will be the “prize”.
For years, I’ve witnessed politicians (dems) claiming voter intimidation against “their people”. Now, there is evidence of voter intimidation by black activists and everyone is being encouraged to ignore it…it’s of no consequence.
It’s public perception, jay. I’ve got a neighbor (Black Tea Party) who’s pithed about the black panther incident Why? Because he was called a racist sell-out at a rally in Atlanta. Called a racist by one of his own!!??!!
He just wants to be seen as an equal, and…
it looks like your team doesn’t want it that way.
It’s good for thee but not for he or vice versa. It gets confusing.
What's My line
March 30th, 2011
4:13 pm
jm,
you keep talking about greener pastures in other countries but I’ll bet you’re still here in the USofA. I hear Ireland is a conservative’s paradise.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
4:14 pm
Think of the new Mercedes that those checks buy. Why no wonder I heard yesterday that the Mercedes dealership laidoff a number of people.
Time to sell Whole Foods. [snark]
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:14 pm
What’s My Line 4:11 – he stole it from a Democratically appointed federal judge ruling on the Insurance Mandate.
md
March 30th, 2011
4:14 pm
Yes, money has been appropriated, but if I’m not mistaken, it is in the form of loans………the question then becomes “where does the money come from to pay it back?”.
The States are already cutting to the bone to balance their budgets……now this adds more they don’t already have.
It is not a simple answer……..giving to one will be taking from another…………
@@
March 30th, 2011
4:14 pm
8th.
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:15 pm
What’s My line 4:13 – funny you should mention that. Long shot discussion tomorrow AM with a company with plenty of offices in Asia….
What's My line
March 30th, 2011
4:16 pm
@@ sure is carrying a lot of excess baggage. Does Jay charge extra for all those carry-ons.
Jay
March 30th, 2011
4:17 pm
you are mistaken, md. It is an outright appropriation; no loans involved.
Rich Dude
March 30th, 2011
4:17 pm
When the State stops paying benefits, the unemployed can start cutting my lawn at what I deem fair market value. $5/hr.
md
March 30th, 2011
4:17 pm
“President Obama, in his new budget plan, called for suspending for two years the interest payments states must make on their federal unemployment loans. But it then would raise the unemployment tax on employers responsible for paying back the federal money.”
And how many jobs will be lost with those tax increases??
Sounds like a circle………….
@@
March 30th, 2011
4:17 pm
WML:
Just looking out for jay. Didn’t want readers only to think he was daft…talking to himself and all.
Let it go
March 30th, 2011
4:18 pm
@@ – it’s a new blog, give it a rest from downstairs already….
md
March 30th, 2011
4:18 pm
“you are mistaken, md. It is an outright appropriation; no loans involved.”
Have a link for that?? I see the money coming as loans…………
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
4:19 pm
“…22,000 Georgia households…”
Not to worry.
I suspect that 21,998 of those households are in College Park…
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:20 pm
1,000+ pages of health-care rules?
Health care lobbyists and advocates are bracing for six pages of the health care reform law to explode into a phonebook-sized federal regulation when the Department of Health and Human Services releases its long-delayed accountable care organization rule expected this week.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52170.html#ixzz1I7GYbOPV
oh goody
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:20 pm
If we incented the illegal aliens to go back home, via HB 87, that would open up some jobs for the long term unemployed.
Just sayin’…………….
Jay
March 30th, 2011
4:20 pm
The loans from the feds to the states cover the first 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, which states are supposed to finance. Many, such as Georgia, have exhausted those funds, in Georgia’s case because years ago we stopped collecting the taxes needed to build a surplus.
The $175 million in question is federal money for the longterm unemployed in states with a high unemployment rate. Again, it is not a loan.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:21 pm
AmVet,
“I suspect that 21,998 of those households are in College Park…”
Of course that is the total population of College Park…
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:21 pm
Maybe the long-term employed are tired of supporting the long-term unemployed.
Just sayin’…………..
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:21 pm
“What, you expected less than a thousand pages for legislation that only took a page and half?” a staffer with one of the current proto-ACOs asked.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52170.html#ixzz1I7Gqk236
WOW
March 30th, 2011
4:22 pm
“The question is why.”
Better question. Where are all the jobs Obama promised back in 08?
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:22 pm
At one point, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Don Berwick had suggested the rules would be out by Jan. 15. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who had promised that the regulations would be out by the end of March, said last week that they’d be out “in the next couple weeks.”
The silence has left room for plenty of speculation. Several industry sources have told POLITICO that they’re expecting at least 1,000 pages of regulations to emerge from the process.
One of them is John Gorman, a former official with the predecessor office to CMS who is now CEO of the Medicare/Medicaid consulting firm Gorman Health Group. He said he expects the rule to come out on Thursday, March 31—because he doesn’t think HHS will want to deal with releasing the regulation on April Fool’s Day.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52170.html#ixzz1I7H5br2h
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:22 pm
“Many, such as Georgia, have exhausted those funds, in Georgia’s case because years ago we stopped collecting the taxes needed to build a surplus.”
When did that happen? I had to pay unemployment insurance when I employed a nanny.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:23 pm
Does anybody know if the employers of illegal aliens are paying unemployment insurance?
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:23 pm
Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) launched a petition Wednesday calling on President Barack Obama to oust General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the head of the White House’s jobs panel, if the executive doesn’t step down voluntarily.
Feingold’s complaint stems from recent revelations that GE will pay no taxes this year, despite making more than $5 billion in the United States in 2010.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52240.html#ixzz1I7HBXbge
Evil tax dodgers….
WOW
March 30th, 2011
4:23 pm
“Georgia’s long-term unemployed about to be abandoned”
Jay and the Democrats want people to be unemployed. If Jay really wanted people in Georgia to have jobs, he’d have sense enough to ask to the guy who currently resides in the White House and makes economic policy.
NIght Train
March 30th, 2011
4:23 pm
So if the state stops paying the benefit, my employer can stop paying the unemployment payroll tax, right!
Jay
March 30th, 2011
4:23 pm
md, I’ve been on the phone all day with the governor’s people, the Labor Department, employment attorneys, etc. There are no loans involved.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:23 pm
“Better question. Where are all the jobs Obama promised back in 08?”
Same place as his birth certificate.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:24 pm
Harry Callahan,
“Maybe the long-term employed are tired of supporting the long-term unemployed.”
I suspect the great majority of those long-term unemployed would really rather having a job. How many jobs bills has the House passed since the Republican’s have taken over again. I forget…
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
4:24 pm
Would someone please tell Bookman that the Feds and the states DO NOT have any money. The word is BROKE! That is why talking about borowing money that is borrowed is wrong, crazy, needless, mindless, unproductive, financially foolish, etc. etc.
Liberals seem to love a tsunami debt. Now ask WHY????
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
4:24 pm
Maybe the long-term employed are tired of supporting the long-term unemployed
Yea that’s it. $244 a week of support, but millions in tax breaks and credits to corporations who are not paying taxes already and making billions…..
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:24 pm
WOW 4:22 – he only promised Hope and Change, not JOBS.
He delivered hope, people found out its not worth much. And he delivered change, the kind they don’t like.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:25 pm
“How many jobs bills has the House passed since the Republican’s have taken over again. I forget…”
Same number as Obama passed when the Democrats controlled both houses. That help you remember?
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
4:26 pm
jcb, shhhh!
As long as this corporate foisted economic meltdown continues to affect no Republicans, everything is copasetic. (eye roll)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAmPIq29ro
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:26 pm
“Yea that’s it. $244 a week of support, but millions in tax breaks and credits to corporations who are not paying taxes already and making billions…..”
Your people have been in charge since Jan 2009. Are you hoping for a change in tax policy?
Joe Cool
March 30th, 2011
4:27 pm
“Same place as his birth certificate.”
HAHA….Harry, dont be mad you guys lost. Maybe 2016 might be ya’lls year. Doubt it though.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:28 pm
Harry Callahan,
“Same number as Obama passed when the Democrats controlled both houses.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/us/politics/19jobs.html
Really…hmmm. Democrats did not control both houses in March 2010?
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:28 pm
Any corporation, GE included, has the responsibility to pay as little tax as the law allows, thereby maximizing profits. Shareholders demand this and rightfully so.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
4:29 pm
“he only promised Hope and Change, not JOBS.”
I seem to remember him saying that the stimulus package would create shovel ready jobs.
“How many jobs bills has the House passed since the Republican’s have taken over again.”
I love how left wingers don;t have any answers to their failed cult leaders economic agenda.
Hey, whatever happened to Obama’s “laserlike” focus on jobs?
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:29 pm
JC…so where’s the jobs from that awesome jobs bill?
Can't We All Just Get Unemployed
March 30th, 2011
4:30 pm
Obama’s doing all he can to help with unemployment. He thought he could create more jobs without complaints from the Republicans by starting new wars, since Republicans generally love wars, but even that effort has met opposition from the GOP. Now, job creation is in Boehner’s hands. He did campaign on that and now he must deliver or else he must force states such as Georgia to accept the federal handouts that they would normally take without question (from a Republican president) and use them to support the near-terminally unemployed.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
4:30 pm
Screw the long-term unemployed!
If you can’t find a freakin’ job that pays AT LEAST $225 per week in more than a year, you’re either aiming too high, or your just hopeless.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
4:31 pm
Now THAT comment ought to be a shining beacon on the top of the page!
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:31 pm
WOW 4:29 – it got scattered in that crystal skull of his.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
4:32 pm
“Maybe 2016 might be ya’lls year. Doubt it though.”
Sucks to be you, Joe.
Poll: Obama’s approval hits new low
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52208.html
Sure does
March 30th, 2011
4:32 pm
Harry said it best – neither side has delivered on jobs. Makes you wonder – are they capable of delivering jobs? Is it even their role to deliver jobs? I thought the free market would dictate job growth.
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
4:32 pm
The $175 million at stake would be used to buy groceries at local stores. It would be used to pay rent to landlords, or perhaps fend off foreclosures that in turn would help keep neighorhood property values from plummeting. It would also generate millions of dollars in state income tax revenue.
Jay, how 20th Century of you to try using rationality and a straightforward appeal to common morality and decency to an economic problem. Haven’t you heard? The market is all. So if it means feeding up our children to the machine, then we just do it dutifully. Besides, haven’t you heard such Keynesian ideas as a multiplier effect of such infusion of cash into the economy is wild-eyed socialism which we decent Georgians mustn’t compromise with?
@@
March 30th, 2011
4:32 pm
Let It Go:
@@ – it’s a new blog, give it a rest from downstairs already….
Permission to be rude?
Alrighty din!
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
4:32 pm
Harry, not true but don’t let reality get in the way. You may also posit that corporations have a responsibility not to make charitale contributions and should pay that money to shareholders, but others disagree. Corporations who lobby for tax loopholes and who fail to pay fair share of US taxes may find that they face a backlash. Some corporate leaders consider it their responsibility to pay appropriate taxes fairly.
Jay
March 30th, 2011
4:33 pm
“Screw the long-term unemployed!”
Dave R. says what the governor merely thinks.
Which is why, I suppose, he’s governor.
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:34 pm
obamacare doing terribly in the polls
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-where-public-obamacare_556000.html
md
March 30th, 2011
4:34 pm
“The $175 million in question is federal money for the longterm unemployed in states with a high unemployment rate. Again, it is not a loan.”
OK…I was mistaken on the extended money involved……..but to say there are no loans is also inaccurate……….since the feds also have no money, we take out loans from China to cover……..
Big picture, the money still has to come from somewhere………and since we don’t have it at the State or Federal level, we will more than likely have to cut something else out……so again, no simple answer………..it is not as cut and dried as you want to make it.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:34 pm
Harry Callahan,
“so where’s the jobs from that awesome jobs bill?”
Well, 1st Obama arrested the free-fall in layoffs, then came the jobs…
http://www.wealthvest.com/blog/tag/nancy-pelosi/
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cbd645d6-5ac3-11e0-8900-00144feab49a,s01=1.html#axzz1I7K1FNRv
WOW
March 30th, 2011
4:34 pm
“Which is why, I suppose, he’s governor.”
Delta is ready when you are, Jay. There are plenty of failing blue states that would love to have you.
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
4:35 pm
WOW: Poll: Obama’s approval hits new low
Yay. With any luck that will continue …
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:35 pm
America is overpopulated. Time to move to Asia.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:35 pm
“Some corporate leaders consider it their responsibility to pay appropriate taxes fairly.”
If GE weren’t paying taxes appropriately, the IRS would be filing charges. They are entirely legal.
md
March 30th, 2011
4:36 pm
“Feingold’s complaint stems from recent revelations that GE will pay no taxes this year, despite making more than $5 billion in the United States in 2010.”
As NBC remains silent on the issue………………..
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:37 pm
Harry Callahan,
“so where’s the jobs from that awesome jobs bill?”
And I must also say, nice deflection. So are you still saying that Obama created as many jobs bills as the current Republican controlled house?
Jay
March 30th, 2011
4:37 pm
It’s no fun preaching to the converted, WOW,
Joe Cool
March 30th, 2011
4:37 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding”, within the last two or three weeks, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with the matter.
Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA and the White House declined immediate comment.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
4:37 pm
The post BushCorp devastation will take a long time to undo.
Even so, more bad news for the cons:
Job cuts are down 39% from a year ago and employment is averaging an uptick of about 200,000 per month.
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:38 pm
Jay, look at it this way. The state is turning down something not to different than something like the cornhusker kickback.
There is an argument to be made, that the Feds are borrowing the money, and everyone should stop taking borrowed money. If every state did this (blues never would), then the Feds might finally get the message.
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
4:38 pm
Folks, Bookman wants you to think about the poor jobless not getting government money when ( you are in debt) there is no money to give away.
Stop superfulous giveaways until the federal debt has started receeding. It hasn’t yet. That is what states count on to rescue them. You cannot give away what you don’t have.
poison pen
March 30th, 2011
4:39 pm
Jay, while I support the benefits, I would like to know what the Technicality is.
itpdude
March 30th, 2011
4:40 pm
Joe is not so cool. He’s number 2.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
4:40 pm
Dusty, then at least be consistent.
And preach that welfare for the wealthy and income redistribution UP the ladder is an even greater sin.
md
March 30th, 2011
4:41 pm
“President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.”
Good for him……….he better have a hit squad looking for Qaddafi since he already has a hit squad looking for that rogue american in Yemen………….
Abrazos
March 30th, 2011
4:41 pm
Cut their unemployment, cut their foodstamps. Kick ‘em out of their homes. Let ‘em starve! Let ‘em freeze! They can’t move because they can’t sell their houses or they can’t sell them because they’re underwater on their mortgages. And let’s not forget that if any of YOU bought a dwelling since 2007, you are probably underwater on your mortgage, too.
These fellow Georgians are on the ropes. Is the Governor is hoping all 22,000 families will have the courtesy to make eliminate themselves from his budget woes by joining hands together and drowning themselves in Lake Lanier?
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:41 pm
“And I must also say, nice deflection. So are you still saying that Obama created as many jobs bills as the current Republican controlled house?”
If it didn’t create jobs, was it a jobs bill?
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
4:41 pm
AmVet, 4:37
start being truthful. You cannot blame Bush for everything when he’s been gone for two years. Haven’t you noticed yet?
We do have another president. Kapeche?
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:41 pm
“It’s no fun preaching to the converted”
Wonder if that means Jay thinks Blue states are bust, or if he’d be happy to catch a Delta flight to a blue state…..
Joe Cool
March 30th, 2011
4:42 pm
“Joe is not so cool. He’s number 2.”
Bettter than 8th like @@
poison pen
March 30th, 2011
4:42 pm
AmVet, I don’t think the job picture is as rosy as you picture, and people are still losing their homes at an alarming rate. I support helping people laid off, but our country is not out of the woods by a long shot.
ty webb
March 30th, 2011
4:42 pm
“And preach that welfare for the wealthy and income redistribution UP…”
good grief…please amvet, stick to race baiting. You’re better at that.
hahaha!!!
March 30th, 2011
4:42 pm
Hey Gay, where is the law that forbids you from giving up your entire salary to handout ro whomever or how ever you want? Why do you want your neighbors to pay for agenda yet you refuse to yourself?
Just curious big guy….
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:43 pm
“Well, 1st Obama arrested the free-fall in layoffs, then came the jobs…”
It was 8% when he took over, rose to 10%, and remians stuck there. Nice try though.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
4:43 pm
If every state did this (blues never would)…
jm, ask Jay about the 24 states carried by McCain…
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:43 pm
“Bookman wants you to think about the poor jobless not getting government money when ( you are in debt) there is no money to give away.”
And Dusty wants you to think that the US is broke (which it isn’t) in order to push through ideological cuts that do little to address the budget deficit at the expense of the most vulnerable of our society. The time when gov’t spending is important is exactly at times like these…not in times of excess.
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:44 pm
RESET BUTTON.
Hitting the snooze button doesn’t reset your clock. Our economy is toast and all jacked up on printed roids and morphine credit. Gravity will reassert itself soon enough.
Double dip anyone? Laws of gravity have not been refuted and there’s too much burnt capital….
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:44 pm
Harry Callahan,
“If it didn’t create jobs, was it a jobs bill?”
Still deflecting huh?
md
March 30th, 2011
4:45 pm
Like oil, money is finite………not too sure why folks can’t understand that.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:45 pm
““Feingold’s complaint stems from recent revelations that GE will pay no taxes this year, despite making more than $5 billion in the United States in 2010.”
You and Mr. feingold need to do some reading. The have tax credits from previous years where the OVERPAID. Even the NYTimes said so.
Reading comprehension.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
4:45 pm
So harry, what about those penalties and tax audits that GE mentions in their annual reports….I guess they dont pay all of their taxes lawfully. They have lost a few disputed provisions too. Let’s be honest….but then my post was not about unlawful act, it was about appropriate acts.
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
4:46 pm
AmVet,
Are you saying this country is NOT in debt?
Most wealthy people got rich by being smart and working hard. Hating them because they could do that does not make you look any better or richer. It just makes you look envious.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:46 pm
“And Dusty wants you to think that the US is broke (which it isn’t) ”
Guess it depend on your definition of “broke”. What’s the current debt? $13 trillion, and rising at $1 trillion annually? At what point are we “broke” Sherlock?
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:46 pm
Our economy is like some of the turkeys around here who smoke pot.
“Everythings all cool, I’m high, whatever dude, its all good.”
Then they wake up, a whole lot dumber and less productive.
Jay
March 30th, 2011
4:47 pm
OK, poison, but remember, you asked:
Under the previous program, states had to do a two-year “lookback” of their unemployment rates to document the fact that in the previous two years they had a bigger jobless problem than other states (only the worst-hit states are eligible.)
When Congress authorized the renewal of the extended benefits in December, it decided to require a three-year “lookback,” a minor tweak in the law. Ga.’s Legislature had to authorize that change.
Now you know why I didn’t put all that in the column.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
4:47 pm
pen, rosy?
Oy.
Warning, do not read this ty. Ignorance is bliss…
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:47 pm
“Still deflecting huh?”
No. The bill created no jobs. It was either;
A) Really intended to do somehting else, under the guise of “creating jobs” or
B) A miserable failure
I’ll let you decide if it was A) or B)
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:47 pm
Harry Callahan,
So now we are comparing unemployment rate to the number of jobs created? Just throwing everything at the wall to so if it sticks, aren’t we?
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:48 pm
Harry C 4:45 – dude, I get it and understand it. I was just pointing out the article, not taking sides.
GE is totally entitled to those deductions whatever they are, and as someone pointed out, they should take them. Relax. Just pointing out liberal hypocrisy….
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:48 pm
Keep Up…if you want to start a business with your own money, and over-pay your taxes, no one is stopping you.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:49 pm
If we want to have REAL discussion about tax dodgers, we could start with Obama’s cabinet though….
Abrazos
March 30th, 2011
4:49 pm
“It was 8% when he took over, rose to 10%, and remians stuck there. Nice try though.”
Harry, the unemployment rate for February was 8.9%. http://www.dol.gov/
Nice try though.
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:50 pm
Harry C
“and rising at $1 trillion annually”
Try rising at $1.7 Trillion annually, possibly more. Read: armaggeddon
md
March 30th, 2011
4:50 pm
“And Dusty wants you to think that the US is broke (which it isn’t)”
Our current financial statement says it is…….that is what “deficit” means………
Now, if we had a deficit but also had a surplus of a few trillion, I’d agree with you…..but instead, we have a negative surplus of 15 trillion…………
Not sure how you do your checkbook, but the way I see it we are big time broke………
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
4:50 pm
House Republicans seek IRS probe of AARP.
It’s about time someone went after those AARPers. They’re no better than those government employees or those union people. They’re going to destroy us if we don’t stop them and their evil socialist, communist, terrorist ways.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:51 pm
“So now we are comparing unemployment rate to the number of jobs created? Just throwing everything at the wall to so if it sticks, aren’t we?”
If the unemployment rate is static, by defintiion jobs lost = jobs created. Does it make a lot of sense to crow about creating jobs when they are disappearing as fast or faster? I guess it does if you’re a hack Journalist or blogger carrying Obama’s water.
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
4:51 pm
Jewcowboy,
I don’t live in virtual reality, the one you seem to inhabit. Our own government says we are in debt in the trillions. Now you may not call that BROKE but I do. That’s living with REAL reality.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:52 pm
Harry Callahan,
“No.”
Yes, you are. You stated, “Same number as Obama passed when the Democrats controlled both houses” in response to my question, “How many jobs bills has the House passed since the Republican’s have taken over again”.
When I showed proof that Obama had indeed passed a jobs bill, you responded with, “so where’s the jobs from that awesome jobs bill?”
So now we are talking about the success of the bill, not the initial question of how many have bills have Republicans passed in the House addressing jobs.
That, sir, is deflection. And you are still engaging in it.
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
4:53 pm
Dusty: Stop superfulous giveaways until the federal debt has started receeding. It hasn’t yet. That is what states count on to rescue them. You cannot give away what you don’t have.
Well, apparently we can afford corporate welfare. So why can’t we afford to keep our families from plunging into poverty and our kids into hunger?
Huh?
jm
March 30th, 2011
4:53 pm
McConnell isn’t the only one critical of the pace behind Obama’s drilling policies. A handful of Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, have also questioned whether the administration has been doing enough to get domestic oil and gas exploration back to the same pace as before the Gulf spill.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52239_Page2.html#ixzz1I7OxsBEy
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:53 pm
md,
“Not sure how you do your checkbook, but the way I see it we are big time broke…”
A gov’t is not an individual, and they do not operate in the same capacity.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:54 pm
“Harry, the unemployment rate for February was 8.9%”
Well then, I guess Jay’s fretting over unemployment benefits is unfounded.
poison pen
March 30th, 2011
4:54 pm
Abrazos, if you would have seen 60 minutes a few months ago on unemployment you would realize that it is closer to 17% Just sayin.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
4:54 pm
“It’s no fun preaching to the converted, WOW,”
Then again, those blue states are all losing their populations.
Mary Elizabeth
March 30th, 2011
4:55 pm
“But given the ideology that dominates their party, they also can’t be seen as advocating assistance for the long-term unemployed.”
——————————————————————————————————————————
That sentence is the heart of the issue. And, as mentioned, it hurts not only the people without employment, but the economy, as a whole, when these unemployed are not buying food, paying rent, etc.
The same is happening when, as I have heard happens in other states, state workers and teachers are being laid off for ideological reasons, the economy, itself, suffers in those states because the money those state workers would have earned, by working, is no longer available to them to spend on food or rent, or other needs, and that, in turn, not only hurts these individuals, but it also adversely effects the economies in those states for the same reasons as given above – no income, no spending.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
4:55 pm
Dear Dusty, you cannot hold Bush blameless for everything though he’s been gone for two years.
He left this country in a mess. Nobody seriously disputes that.
“Are you saying this country is NOT in debt?”
No why would even ask that. earlier today I posted information that the US is currently running under a $1.4Trillion deficit.
“Most wealthy people got rich by being smart and working hard.”
Obviously. They have also enjoyed enormous benefits not available to working class Americans, including tax shelters, loopholes, and other massive contrived advantages. Again, nobody seriously disputes this.
“Hating them because they could do that does not make you look any better or richer.”
Hating them?
Where do you come up with this nonsense?
I don’t hate rich people. I don’t love poor people. I simply advocate for economic justice. FOR ALL.
Right now, there is a paucity of it…
poison pen
March 30th, 2011
4:55 pm
Our Gov’t isn’t broke, we are just choking on debt.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
4:56 pm
Harry Callahan,
“If the unemployment rate is static”
And it isn’t static, therefore it does not make sense to compare the two. And no, jobs are no longer disappearing faster than they are being created…as shown by the link I provided earlier.
@@
March 30th, 2011
4:56 pm
Like oil, money is finite………not too sure why folks can’t understand that.
Because they’re happy to huff the fumes?
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
4:56 pm
MD, 4:50
Sorry.
I stay a bit behind here. Did not mean to say much the same thing you said. And we are “broke”!
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:56 pm
“A gov’t is not an individual, and they do not operate in the same capacity.”
That’s pretty much why they’re broke.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
4:57 pm
Sorry, boys and girls, but two part-time retail jobs (and yes, they are out there) at $8.50/hr totaling 48 hours per week NETS you over $250 per week.
If you can’t do at least that, why should any government give you the same to sit around on your a$$?
md
March 30th, 2011
4:57 pm
“A gov’t is not an individual, and they do not operate in the same capacity.”
True…..but they still don’t have the money, and getting it isn’t as easy as snapping their fingers……if it was, I doubt they would have allowed the debt to get as big as it is……………
Is there wealth in the country? Absolutely. Can you put in on the balance sheet? Absolutely not…..
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:58 pm
Thanks to Mary Elizabeth for another of her wordy but meaningless regurgitations of nonsense.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
4:59 pm
“If you can’t do at least that, why should any government give you the same to sit around on your a$$?”
Because liberals demand it, and they think they can make other people pay for it.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
4:59 pm
What gripes the hell out of me is folks acting like $244 is some largesse…how many of us spend that on dinner out? Then there’s that send the illegals back canard…yeah, sure, the unemployed profession just can’t wait to get a job making less than minimum wage…or, if not, those carping just can’t wait for the wage demand of a documented worker to get added to the sale price of the burger or the hotel room…damn, at the risk of coming in in as foul ass a mood as yesterday, some folks are so completely out of touch with reality there’s no point in even trying to communicate…
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:00 pm
” I simply advocate for economic justice. FOR ALL”
Socialism, in other words?
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
5:00 pm
Harry…why indeed if I had a business where consumer beliefs that my business had failed to pay taxes to the state or feds, whether lawfully or not, would be adverse to my business, I would counter that as part of my business operations. So when you falsely claim that a corporation has a “responsibility” to use tax shelters or other tax loopholes to pay as little tax as the law allows, you are of course completely wrong. But you are welcome to point out where that “responsibility” exists in law. Your argument is no different than the false assertion that a corporation has a “responsibility” not to make charitable contributions, and thereby maximizing profits.
But then you post “soundbites” and run away when challenged….
md
March 30th, 2011
5:01 pm
“That sentence is the heart of the issue. And, as mentioned, it hurts not only the people without employment, but the economy, as a whole, when these unemployed are not buying food, paying rent, etc.”
And if the country defaults on it’s debt, how many more will be affected??
This is a big picture equation and many of you want to focus on the little picture……….
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:01 pm
“What gripes the hell out of me is folks acting like $244 is some largesse”
Go find a homeless person and give them $244. Every Friday. No one is stopping you.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:02 pm
md,
“Is there wealth in the country? Absolutely. Can you put in on the balance sheet? Absolutely not…..”
Right now US debt as a percentage of GDP is below what it is was in 1947. Do we need to address it…most certainly. Do we need to do it at the expense of the citizens who need help right now during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression…certainly not.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:03 pm
“So when you falsely claim that a corporation has a “responsibility” to use tax shelters or other tax loopholes to pay as little tax as the law allows, you are of course completely wrong. ”
No, I’m completely right. As long as GE or any other company is operating within the law reagarding taxation, all your protests are nothing but whining.
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:03 pm
Howdy josef nix!
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:03 pm
“But then you post “soundbites” and run away when challenged….”
I ran away? Guess I’m having an out-of-body experience.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:04 pm
josef, lots of good times here today ta the Bookman Daycare School.
As you can already tell from that first 5:00 and second 5:01…
md
March 30th, 2011
5:04 pm
“I stay a bit behind here. Did not mean to say much the same thing you said. And we are “broke”!”
Basically said the same at the same time……..I just beat you to the Jeopardy buzzer………
ty webb
March 30th, 2011
5:04 pm
Josef,
you want to talk about it?
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:05 pm
josef nix – when you multiply $244 by 52 weeks a year, times millions of unemployed, yes, it gets expensive.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:05 pm
Harry
You might be surprised to see what we give to charitable causes in the household…
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:06 pm
this is a blunt hammer to bring energy efficiency about, but the best tool available since higher gas taxes are out of the question.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, it will cost automakers an average of $948 to meet the 34.1 mile per gallon Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards that will be adopted in the United States in 2016. The current standard sits at 27.5 mpg. The EPA estimates that the average owner will save some $4,000 in fuel costs over the life of the vehicle, resulting in a net savings of over $3,000 per owner.
Sounds like a fair deal, right? Well… let’s delve deeper into the numbers. The New York Times reports that some automakers will be paying much more money to reach the 2016 CAFE requirements than others. With its penchant for hybrid cars, it’s no surprise that it will cost Toyota the least amount to comply at just $455 per vehicle. Kia ($501 per vehicle), Honda ($574) and Hyundai ($745) all have it relatively easy as well.
Now things get a little murkier. General Motors will reportedly have to shell out $1,219 per vehicle to comply with the 2016 CAFE regulations; Ford will spend $1,228 per vehicle. Chrysler has it even worse, with an estimated $1,328 per vehicle. Still, that pales in comparison to Volkswagen, which is expected to spend a whipping $1,693 for each vehicle it sells here in the States to hit the 34.1 mpg requirement. Yowza.
As pointed out by NYT, though, we shouldn’t necessarily feel bad for those automakers paying more per vehicle. After all, companies like Toyota and Honda have already paid huge sums of money in research and development costs to get their fleet mileage figures where they are – in a way, you could say that the EPA is forcing thirstier brands just to follow suit. For more analysis of the numbers and how they will affect automakers and consumers, click here.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:07 pm
AmVet, your post @ 4:55 is essentially the syllabus for he Bookman Daycare School. Mary Elizabeth’s post @ 4:55 is the master’s thesis for the Bookman Daycare School.
And isn’t it interesting that you two are posting at the same time?
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
5:07 pm
Harry…you run and spin…you said “responsibility”. This issue is not about lawfulness, which I already addressed.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:08 pm
“Harry
You might be surprised to see what we give to charitable causes in the household…”
Likewise
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:08 pm
I’m sorry, but if your bills are higher than $1,000 per month, cut your bills down! If you are in a home that you no longer can afford, dump it and take the loss. You can recover from it. I know this prom personal experience.
If you can’t find a job that makes $40k/year, find two that make $25k or $30k combined. Either way, do whatever you have to do to keep your a$$ off the government dole.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
5:08 pm
“Socialism, in other words?”
“A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business” Henry Ford
“There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible” Henry Ford
“An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.” Henry Ford
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:09 pm
jm
Which is more expensive, $244 x 52 x millions or the fall out of those same millions on the street and doing whatever it takes to put food in their kids’ bellies…? As md would say, it’s a matter of choices, and as SoCo would say, unintended consequences…
AmVet, jewcowboy
Howdy…
md
March 30th, 2011
5:09 pm
“Right now US debt as a percentage of GDP is below what it is was in 1947″
“Right now” are the operative words……….the GDP is not a static number, and can change on the drop of a hat…………to say we are not broke is what many families were saying before they lost their jobs………now they can’t afford food and water much less the debt they have accumulated………..
GDP drops due to some unforeseen situation (ME war?, no oil, etc)…….that percentage goes through the roof. And as it stands, that percentage will rise on a yearly basis due to just the service on the current debt………..
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:09 pm
md,
“This is a big picture equation and many of you want to focus on the little picture……….”
Here is a list of countries by debt to GDP ratio…the US is ranked 37.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2186rank.html
We are most certainly not broke. If we were our bonds would most certainly be trading at higher interest rates.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:09 pm
“Harry…you run and spin…you said “responsibility”. This issue is not about lawfulness, which I already addressed.”
The employees of a corporation are responsible first to the owners (stockholders) who emplopy them. Sorry, but there it is.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:11 pm
Doggone…
Mr. Ford is speaking of doing things of your own free will…not by government mandate.
Thanks for another funny post though.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:12 pm
“They have also enjoyed enormous benefits not available to working class Americans, including tax shelters, loopholes, and other massive contrived advantages. Again, nobody seriously disputes this.”
Sorry, wrong. Intelligent people seriously dispute that.
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:12 pm
josef nix 5:09 – no one is going to starve in this country. Atlanta Food Bank is on top of that, among many others.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
5:12 pm
Now “this” looks interesting:
Headline (AP): “GOP Offers Odd Twist in Budget War”
“Head-spinning debate on Capitol Hill over federal spending takes another unusual turn, with House GOP vowing to make the party’s plan the ‘law of the land’ without Senate approval.”
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
5:12 pm
AmVet,
Bush did many sensible things such as keeping this country together after the tragedy of 9/11. He was a strong leader and never acted otherwise. He set the stage for freedom in Iraq and diminished alQueda to hideouts in minor parts of the world. Bush made what some call “mistakes ” in the economy but there was no avoiding some setbacks by any means. A Demo Congress did not cooperate and the hate expounded by Democrats was unstopable. They dinimished not only Bush, but the whole country.
Obama has found that Bush was making sensible moves in many ways and tries to do the same. And while Obama tries, he does not have the leadship abilities of Bush. He falters, fidgets and delays.
You confuse rich people with large corporations. There are many rich people outside of vast corporations. They made money legally and must pay taxes legally. There are crooks among the rich but most are not. Your excuses for disliking them still come forth as envy.
Mary Elizabeth
March 30th, 2011
5:12 pm
Harry, my “wordy but meaningless regurgitations of nonsense” were deserving of about a 10 minute spot on Rachel Maddow’s show last evening. Must have had some validity to them to warrant the expense of that lengthy spot on her show. I simply was relaying what Maddow had researched and assessed on her show to the people on this blog – including any legislators who might read it. The idea is not to hurt the fragile economy any further through ideological decisions that are not practical in solve economic problems. If you don’t like the ideas, take it up with Maddow, not me.
And really, your insults of me are getting rather old and boring. I really think that you should get me off of your mind. I would prefer not to have any dialogue with you, as you well know. Just drop the uncalled for insults.
I realize that you are simply trying to destroy my credibility, but sorry, Harry, I have a pretty strong autonomy and it just won’t take. Give it up. There are many others you can have a pleasant conversation with. You and I will never see with similar visions. Talk to the others.
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
5:12 pm
If Republicans hate unemployment benefits so much, they should vote to eliminate them. What are they waiting for. By the way, while they’re at it, can’t they get rid of Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security. They’re such drains on those with money.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:13 pm
DAVE
Bills over $1000 a month? That’s not even a decent apartment or mortgage payment in a “safe” neighborhood…car note, gas, insurance to get back and forth to those two $8.50 jobs, child care, untilities, groceries…what world are you living in, Mate?
Harry
No, I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m simply saying that you ought not to go castigating folks for “not doing” what they do do…
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:13 pm
jewcowboy 5:09 – the only person buying US bonds right now, for all intents and purposes, is the government itself. If it stops doing so, interest rates will increase significantly.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:13 pm
Cons simply have incented incorrectly.
They value plutocrats and corporations but not working class American families.
Beyond bizarre.
The greatest mystery in any modern western democracy.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:13 pm
“Harry, my “wordy but meaningless regurgitations of nonsense” were deserving of about a 10 minute spot on Rachel Maddow’s show last evening. Must have had some validity to them to warrant the expense of that lengthy spot on her show. I simply was relaying what Maddow had researched and assessed on her show to the people on this blog – ”
There’s your sign.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
5:13 pm
(Reuters) – “President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.”
Ah…………………………… well then, it’s not “secret”.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
March 30th, 2011
5:13 pm
Well, about time these bums watching TV all day and munching on Fritos while collecting a big weekly check from the state get put to work. I know I’d be willing to pay maybe a quarter a hour to somebody that wants to rake up the leafs around the trailer while I’m busting my hump working and paying big-time taxes. There’s lots of jobs like that these bums could do. But no, they want to stay indoors where it’s comfy and do nothing but nap and munch and watch, nap and munch and watch, nap and munch and watch.
Well, the good times is coming to a end for these moochers that are so lazy they won’t even use a crayon to make a Need Work sign to hold at the exits of the highways. Let them make it to the top like me. I spent years hanging sheetrock and mixing mortar till I finally nabbed this beer truck driving job. If I can do it they can too.
This Nathan Deal might make a good guvner. If he don’t get locked up for stealing our money first. The Devil’s all around, tempting people.
Have a good p.m. everybody.
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
5:14 pm
If you’ll notice, something interesting happened above. An attempt was made to dislodge a head that has fallen under a thought boulder and free it up to the sunlight of thought. Noble though it was, the attempt failed.
“A gov’t is not an individual, and they do not operate in the same capacity.”
That’s pretty much why they’re broke.
You see, this is what trips up the simple-minded among us every single time, and provides endless fodder for parties and unscrupulous people (which accounts for roughly 100% of today’s Repugnant Party) to exploit for easy political gain.
A modern economy does NOT operate in a simple 1:1 analogy with an individual or household economy, especially one such as the United States whose currency happens to coincide with the world’s reserve currency. Such an economy has a range of options at its disposal for raising cash which an individual doesn’t have. But try explaining this to some of our more stubborn-minded colleagues – you’ll come to grief.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
5:14 pm
Mr. Ford is speaking of ”
Are you a happy medium?
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:14 pm
“my “wordy but meaningless regurgitations of nonsense” were deserving of about a 10 minute spot on Rachel Maddow’s show last evening.”
Sorry, but Maddow can waste 20 minutes opining about lint. I don’t think it’s possible for her mouth to stop moving.
Real Scooter
March 30th, 2011
5:15 pm
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
4:59 pm
josef,I read your post 3 times and still don’t know what you are getting at.Would you mind simplifing for me?
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:15 pm
Scout 5:12 – Reid is trying to shut the government down to make the Republicans look bad, and the Republicans are trying to avoid a government shutdown, so they’re trying to find a way to fund the government even if Reid won’t pass any budget (theirs or the R’s).
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:15 pm
” I would prefer not to have any dialogue with you”
Likewise. I’ve got children of my own if I want an uneducated viewpoint.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
5:15 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that no decision had been made by the Obama administration on whether to arm rebels fighting Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in Libya.”
Hummmmm …………………… is she out of the loop?
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:15 pm
Harry Callahan,
“Mr. Ford is speaking of doing things of your own free will…not by government mandate.”
Perhaps, if modern corporations would do that on their own free will, gov’t mandate would not be necessary.
So how many jobs bills has the Republican controlled House passed since taking control?
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
5:16 pm
jm:
Excellent !
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:16 pm
Scout 5:13 – methinks BO is not in strict compliance with his UN orders….
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:16 pm
Left Wing…
Nice try at slamming me, but arguing that the U.S. isn’t brioke pretty much tells any intelligent life form that you are incapable of coherent thought.
getalife
March 30th, 2011
5:17 pm
Deal could steal everything our cons own and they would still vote gop.
Sad but true.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:17 pm
“So how many jobs bills has the Republican controlled House passed since taking control?”
The same as the Democrats. Zero.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
5:17 pm
“Perhaps, if modern corporations would do that on their own free will, gov’t mandate would not be necessary”
It was ever thus: government steps in where people and/or the economy fail to do so
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
5:17 pm
Headline: “A Portland, Ore.-bound flight made a “level two emergency” stop in Chicago Tuesday night after passengers said three men, reportedly of Middle Eastern descent, were acting strangely, even fighting with flight crews.”
Discrimination !!!
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/DC-Flight-Diverted-to-OHare.html?dr#ixzz1I7UuzzbG
Finn McCool
March 30th, 2011
5:17 pm
And who will wipe Boehner’s tears away?
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:17 pm
Scout 5:15 – 2 words. Plausible Deniability…. not very plausible though
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
5:18 pm
Harry, are those employees also responsible to shareholders to show why the corporation makes charitable donations and thereby reduce profits?
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:18 pm
Left wing management,
“But try explaining this to some of our more stubborn-minded colleagues – you’ll come to grief.”
Yes, yes you will.
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:19 pm
Harry C 5:17 – disagree. R’s passed a repeal of healthcare, which said repeal would help create jobs. But the Senate killed that.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:19 pm
JC, the Obama “jobs bill” was a $26 billion giveaway to the teacher’s unions. Nothing more.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:20 pm
“Your excuses for disliking them still come forth as envy.”
Well, silly me, I tried.
And Kam, Mary, getalife and many others, the tick, tick, tick is getting deafening.
Finn McCool
March 30th, 2011
5:20 pm
But try explaining this to some of our more stubborn-minded colleagues – you’ll come to grief.
Like Harry callahan?
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:21 pm
jm, in that case, the R’s lead 1 to nil, because as stated above, the Obama “jobs bill” was nothing but a payoff to a key constituency, teachers unions.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:21 pm
“That’s not even a decent apartment or mortgage payment in a “safe” neighborhood…car note, gas, insurance to get back and forth to those two $8.50 jobs, child care, untilities, groceries…what world are you living in, Mate?”
Depends on where you live, josef. The city? Probably not. Car note? Get one that doesn’t require a note. Reduces your car insurance rate, too. Eat leaner.
All I’m saying is that there are alternatives that probably 90% of the unemployed don’t even think about, just to get that unemployment check.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:22 pm
jm
Have you not been following the “runs” on the Food Banks? They are now scaling back big time and out begging themselves…
Scooter
Bottom line? Acting like $244 a week is some great hand out…acting like sending illegals back is going to open up all these jobs for unemployed professionals…acting like paying the wage “our own” would demand is not going to result in a hefty price hike at those places that hire those illegals…
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:22 pm
Harry Callahan,
“The same as the Democrats. Zero.”
Considering Democrats do not control the agenda in House any longer, that is not a surprise. What is surprising is that the Republicans campaigned on “Where are the jobs” mantra..yet have not addressed that issue yet.
What’s up with that?
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:22 pm
“Harry, are those employees also responsible to shareholders to show why the corporation makes charitable donations and thereby reduce profits?”
Private enterprise, corporations included, are free to do as they like…give to charity – or not – and over-pay taxes – or not.
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
5:22 pm
Likewise. I’ve got children of my own if I want an uneducated viewpoint.
I suspect they look up to you for guidance and counsel on a daily basis.
getalife
March 30th, 2011
5:23 pm
The gop lied about jobs.
hairy will never admit it.
will you ever learn?
March 30th, 2011
5:23 pm
“So how many jobs bills has the Republican controlled House passed since taking control?”
The same as the Democrats. Zero.
Yet you still snipe and insult each other every day in some attempt to “win” a point on behalf of your party’s ideology. Suckers, all of you.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
5:23 pm
“Like Harry callahan?”
Don’t confuse close-minded with stubborness. Stubborness is amenable to the proper argument. Close-mindedness is incurable.
md
March 30th, 2011
5:23 pm
Jewco,
I would contend that bond ratings and interest rates are set on past reputations, not necessarily current circumstances……….it is only a matter of time if we don’t get our act together……..
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:23 pm
“What is surprising is that the Republicans campaigned on “Where are the jobs” mantra..yet have not addressed that issue yet. ”
My guess is they’re trying to craft something Obama won’t veto. What’s your guess?
Finn McCool
March 30th, 2011
5:24 pm
Ok, another school lesson for the Republitards:
When you’re broke you have no money. When you are in debt because you have a mortgage and a car payment, it doesn’t mean you are broke. In fact, the two can’t really work together, can they?
Trying to understand federal debt, taxation, etc, in terms of personal finance is about as dumb as it gets. A governement won’t stop collecting taxes- so it isn’t broke. A government can issue bonds and print money – so it won’t be broke. let’s see you and your spouse print money and try collecting taxes.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:24 pm
“So how many jobs bills has the Republican controlled House passed since taking control?”
Why do you think that government can actually create jobs?
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:24 pm
“Don’t confuse close-minded with stubborness. Stubborness is amenable to the proper argument. Close-mindedness is incurable.”
You ought to know.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:24 pm
Dave
Oh, what the hell, let’s just go ahead, put ‘em all in one place and blow ‘em the hell up…lazy b*stards too d*mned good live under a bridge… okay, sounds good to me… I’m a convert…
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
5:25 pm
Harry…Glad that you finally concede that in your 5:22 post that your prior post at 4:28 was nonsense. There, was it so hard to acknowledge that you really were wrong…. oh yes, I guess it was by the number of posts it took.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
5:25 pm
Dusty
Why do you even try to converse with AmVet? The guy spends 90% of his time name calling and throwing out racist comments about white people.
Finn McCool
March 30th, 2011
5:26 pm
When will the Republicans come up with the $100 billion in cuts they promised?
All they can manage is $30 billion? Are you serious?
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:26 pm
OK, another school lessons for the Depenocrats:
When your’re $13 trillion in debt, and your future outlays exceed any reasonable estimate of income by trillions more…
you’re broke
Denying it is about as dumb sa it gets.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:26 pm
“Oh, what the hell, let’s just go ahead, put ‘em all in one place and blow ‘em the hell up”
Only if we can add liberal opinion columnists . . .
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
5:26 pm
I do not know any Republicans who are debt-free. They also love deficit spending. They do it every day. Deficits don’t matter.
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:27 pm
jonix 5:22 – no one is proposing ending foodstamps, which also help. no one in this country is going to starve.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:28 pm
Oh, I forgot to add . . .
(poke) (poke)
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:28 pm
“Harry…Glad that you finally concede that in your 5:22 post that your prior post at 4:28 was nonsense”
Dude, what color is the sky in your world? My position has not changed.
Reading Is Fundamental…
Finn McCool
March 30th, 2011
5:28 pm
We’re 1/4 of the way through the year. Have the Republicans done anything?
Are we paying them to work for 3/4 of the year?
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:28 pm
Harry Callahan,
“What’s your guess?”
That they really don’t care, and are intent on implementing ideological changes that neither address jobs nor the deficit.
md
March 30th, 2011
5:28 pm
“A modern economy does NOT operate in a simple 1:1 analogy with an individual or household economy, especially one such as the United States whose currency happens to coincide with the world’s reserve currency. Such an economy has a range of options at its disposal for raising cash which an individual doesn’t have. But try explaining this to some of our more stubborn-minded colleagues – you’ll come to grief.”
The basic fundamentals are the same……….and we have used many of the options already to very little avail……….we are currently printing money which will only make matters worse, and continue to add to an unsustainable debt load………….even the most wealthy will eventually come to a tipping point……….we are playing “the straw that broke the camels back” and no one knows when it will come crashing down……….
We are having a hard enough time maintaining the status quo, and now throw in the variables of inflation and high oil prices………….
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:28 pm
Finn McCool 5:24 – a thousand points if you can name what happens if you just try to print money to solve the problem.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:29 pm
“I do not know any Republicans who are debt-free.”
My guess is you don’t know any Republicans. I’m jumping in my paid-for car and heading to my paid-for house for a comfortable debt-free sleep right now.
Enjoy
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:30 pm
Finn McCool – $30 is the compromise # bucko. Its Reid that won’t sign up because he wants a shutdown. Playing politics with our finances. Irresponsible.
Harry Callahan
March 30th, 2011
5:30 pm
“That they really don’t care, and are intent on implementing ideological changes that neither address jobs nor the deficit.”
Interesting…that’s how I view Democrats…
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:31 pm
jm
How much is the monthly maximum allotment of food stamps for a family of four?
And as for not starving…of course not…there are plenty of dumpsters full to overflowing behind just about every restaurant in town….
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
5:31 pm
Oooops !
“Qaddafi’s son toured Air Force Academy this year”
“Muammar Qaddafi’s militaristic son, Khamis, was given Air Force Academy VIP tour just before uprising.”
Mary Elizabeth
March 30th, 2011
5:32 pm
And I likewise consider you thoughts uneducated and unaware in anything of depth – though you can’t or won’t see it – so just drop the asides to me and we can have a silence truce.
You’ll do that – unless, of course, you are more interested in bullying or berating than you are in understanding.
To readers: If Harry addresses me again, you’ll know the answer was his need to bully and berate, otherwise, he will have the good sense to leave me alone.
I regret, readers, that you have had to read all of these negatives between Harry and myself. I have simply tried to defend myself against his bullying of me, which was what I should have done. I did not ask to be singled out.
On a more positive note, I have written a rather philosophical treatise regarding President Obama and America’s evolving role in the world. I have posted it in response to WOODSTOCK MIKE
at the very end of all of the posts of the entry Jay posted yesterday called “Obama Administration Under Fire On Transparency” for those who might care to read it. Some of my remarks were lifted from my blog which can be reached at http://www.maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com. I hope some with that more philosophical kind of vision might find my thoughts rewarding.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:32 pm
Keep, hows the recovery going?
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
5:32 pm
Harry Callahan:
If for example I check the balance in my checking account and it says $0 and I know I have no other income coming in, then that’s broke. But a national economy such as the US has ways of raising cash and can then – unlike me the individual – use that cash to generate activities which will then eventually generate additional revenue and perhaps pay off that loan and then some.
What part about this simple – though admittedly counter-intuitive for a certain moralistic / minimalist perspective – picture do you not grasp?
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:32 pm
“Have the Republicans done anything?”
Actually, Finn, they have. Largely passing bills in an attempt to defund as much cr@p as was passed last year without funding, and working on a budget for THIS year. Considering they only have one branch of Congress, they are doing above average in my estimation. Nt great, but good enough. The proof will be inthe budget they unveil in April.
Finn McCool
March 30th, 2011
5:32 pm
I guess the Republitards read my line about printing money and thought:
“Dey’s gunna print money? Where de line i get in fer that? Get er done!”
jewcowboy
March 30th, 2011
5:33 pm
Anywho…I’m off to meet some folks for a cocktail…or four. You folks have fun.
Charles
March 30th, 2011
5:33 pm
All I know is that I secured new employment today after 5 months of unemployment! I’m very happy!
md
March 30th, 2011
5:33 pm
“A governement won’t stop collecting taxes- so it isn’t broke. A government can issue bonds and print money – so it won’t be broke. let’s see you and your spouse print money and try collecting taxes.”
Who they going to collect from if folks have no money??
Bonds?? Ask Greece about their bonds…………………..
Print money?? Know anything about inflation????
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:35 pm
” If Harry addresses me again, you’ll know the answer was his need to bully and berate, otherwise, he will have the good sense to leave me alone.”
For me, it’s so much easier to simply ignore your misguided attempts to rationalize government action.
Rebel Son
March 30th, 2011
5:36 pm
for sure everybody here has got great arguments for their side to this issue…may i be allowed to add just a little something…somewhere out there there are children whose parents are unemployed…not because they are sorry and wont work …..they would love to have a job…it is just a very bad economy right now and companies are having to let people go…still doesnt make it any easier for those pareents to have to look at those children and try to explain why there is no food…and yet we argue here about whether the State of Ga. or any state for that matter shouldnt do everything they can to help these children…God save us all people…
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm
My guess is you don’t know any Republicans.
Your guess would be wrong. Then again, you probably believe that no part of our current national debt is your responsibility.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm
Private enterprise, corporations included, are free to do as they like…give to charity – or not – and over-pay taxes – or not.
Any corporation, GE included, has the responsibility to pay as little tax as the law allows, thereby maximizing profits. Shareholders demand this and rightfully so.
Indeed Harry, reading is fundamental,,,,and so is understanding your own nonsense is contradictory.
Real Scooter
March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:22 pm
Thank you josef! Now I get it.
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm
Congrats, Charles! I guess you don’t have to be rounded up and blown up like josef and I want to do!
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm
JOSEF,
I see you are on a tear about “the starving children” etc. There may be undernourished children in the USA but I was told that obesity is the problem. If I want to see starving children, I can see their pictures on TV from foreign countries. They don’t picture any starving children of America.
But you lost me with those $244 dinners. For an evening engagement? Now that’s plain self indulgence unless it’s for about twenty people. Don’t talk about us people who rather save for the good causes than be an elite on the night out. I suggest bread and water for you and Mary Elizabeth to show your equalization of food benefits. Then tell me about giving support money that we don’t have in the treasury.
larry
March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm
Georgia Works, a program where the unemployed worked and trained in new jobs without any expense to the employers was suspended by Skip Butler upon taking office in Janurary. The program had a 60% success rate placing unemployed workers in permanent positions with private companies.
And now they are going to reject the money that has been set aside for the long-term unemployed……
with an unemployment rate over the national average for the 34th straight month.
And they are worried about looking heartless. That was a joke right?
Traci
March 30th, 2011
5:37 pm
I have been out of a job for over 2 years and have run out of benefits. I would like a job that pays at least the basics, not a handout. I went to a job fair today at the Crown Plaza Hotel off of powers ferry road and over half of the companies that were advertised as attending were not there. It was awful. Where are the jobs?!?!
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:38 pm
Mary, I’ve found it best to just ignore them.
They want your attention…
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:38 pm
Charles
Congrats and good luck!
Paul
March 30th, 2011
5:40 pm
I always thought it a nice principle to hold people accountable for their choices. Here we have all these unemployed, been that way for quite a while, some of them since the ‘08 meltdown occurred. So, people should be held accountable.
Which is why I think it not a bad idea to levy a tax – rate to be determined by the amount required – on the Wall Streeters and banks and whoever else were the root cause of the meltdown that put all these people out of work. Of course, the gov’t had some contributory negligence, but seeing’s how one party is loathe to enforce accountability in the form of taxes to pay for the damages or deficit spending to finance it, we can knock their percentage off and just go as far as the assessment on the Street will take us in paying damages, I mean, benefits, to the out of work folks.
And Mary Elizabeth, welcome to the club. Don’t take it personal, don’t even feel special. Harry’s an equal-opportunity diverter and name-caller. Just ask him to define socialism and offer to buy him a $12.50 lunch (he spends 12 bucks, it’s what really rich people do) and you’ll get along famously.
And never forget that, on the Internet, people can be whoever they want to be!
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
5:40 pm
AmVet…. thanks for asking. Feeling better. Bandages off one arm (just 10-15 punctures well on way to healing). Other arm has the slashes and punctures…will be another week or so…but good news is no infection. The fingernail….that is going to take awhile to regrow and attach but I am learning to 9 finger type,
md
March 30th, 2011
5:40 pm
“But a national economy such as the US has ways of raising cash and can then – unlike me the individual – use that cash to generate activities which will then eventually generate additional revenue and perhaps pay off that loan and then some. ”
Well…..don’t look now, but what do you think they have been doing the last few years?? And all it has accomplished is a bigger debt and deficit………..
And sure you can compare individuals to gov’ts………either the money is there or it isn’t……why the heck does one think local govts are cutting back severely??? They ain’t got it and they can’t get it……can’t squeeze blood from a turnip…………..
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:41 pm
Yes, Charles, Mazel Tov.
Things are slowly improving…
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:42 pm
Hey, AmVet! I saw today where about 37 out of 44 ESPN analysts picked my Red Sox to get to the World Series and win it all.
Zero picked your Yankees.
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:42 pm
josef nix 5:31 – I don’t know. Report on WABE says 1/3 of all food is not used and can be redirected in the system to their food bank. If 1/3 of the food created in this country is not enough to feed the 15% of the people (+/-) below poverty level, we have a problem.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:43 pm
That’s great Keep! Glad to hear there is no infection.
Nine finger typing?
Is that like one finger saluting?!
Mary Elizabeth
March 30th, 2011
5:43 pm
Dave R
You have, in the past, thrown a few insults my way, for my views, but nothing that I would consider continuous bullying. However, I do appreciate your recent idea of simply ignoring my thoughts since you do not concur with them – rather than throwing insults my way The views I give I have given much thought to for most of my life. I do not recall ever insulting you, even though our thoughts are opposing. I wish you well.
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:44 pm
Charles – Dave R – I have a discussion tomorrow with company hiring in Singapore! Fired up!
Even if it goes nowhere, I’ll learn something out of it.
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:45 pm
outta here – research to do. good luck folks.
md
March 30th, 2011
5:46 pm
“But a national economy such as the US has ways of raising cash and can then – unlike me the individual – use that cash to generate activities which will then eventually generate additional revenue and perhaps pay off that loan and then some. ”
And for the downside of that gamble….which is what it is…..look to Japan and see one of the longest recessions in history……………
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:47 pm
“Zero picked your Yankees.”
Time will tell, buddy!
I got in late last night and missed the first two thirds of my fantasy draft.
Ended up with 4 Braves (I chose Chipper, gawd help me!), no BoSox and no Yanks.
I did get the Freak and David Price from the Rays, so maybe my pitching will carry me for awhile…
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:47 pm
But Mary Elizabeth, those on the right can’t just sit idly by and ignore you all the time.
They have to hunt you down and make sure your views are never implemented!
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:48 pm
Good luck, jm!
larry
March 30th, 2011
5:48 pm
Where this is going to hurt is in rural Georgia . These counties that have 11 to 12 % unemployment.
Truth Squad
March 30th, 2011
5:48 pm
Let us not forget that for every $1 in assistance, there is an economic gain of around $1.5 returned. In other words, it’s a very good investment.
Second, unemployment is only paid to those who have worked, thus the “insurance” part.
We should also remember that unemployment insurance is taxed. We can thank the Republicans for that as they denied President Obama’s request to extend the exemption created in the stimulus package.
At some point there will come a time of reckoning for Republicans and the Democratic Party.Even this country cannot have some 20+ million un- and under-, employed people milling around frustrated and desperate. These aren’t bums, many are educated and have professional work experience.
There aren’t enough jobs for everyone that wants one to have one. There are too many jobs being created that pay low wages, or pay high wages but require specialized skills that may, or may not always be in demand.
Polls are showing that the American people have had enough of the mean spirited Tea Party. They want jobs addressed, they do not want the social safety net or collective bargaining rights cut, and the list the budget deficit as a secondary concern.
The only way the Republicans beat President Obama is to propose a jobs program that puts people to work. Cutting taxes and cutting discretionary spending is not such a plan. Most Americans know that to seriously deal with the deficit is to put people to work at fair wages so they can pay taxes. They also know that something is wrong when huge multinational companies pay less taxes than the average middle class family.
If the Republicans don’t help the unemployed to regain work, and if they don’t address the shifting tax burden on the Middle Class, then President Obama will win in a landslide.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:48 pm
Scooter
Sorry about that…jerking knee got in the way!
And that starving children one…no hyperbole for me? But, Dusty, we already know that in a certain line of thought it’s perfectly okay for them to be hungry and malnourished…so long as they keep their dirty little fly ridden selves outta sight and outta mind…got it…I’m learning…check
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:49 pm
Good luck, jm.
Like you, I’m trying to figure out a way to become an ex-pat…
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
5:49 pm
md: Well…..don’t look now, but what do you think they have been doing the last few years?? And all it has accomplished is a bigger debt and deficit………..
Yeah that’s right. We did do it for a time and that’s the only thing that has maintained some bare measure of social stability during the most tumultuous period economically in 80+ years. You know, the so-called “stimulus”? It was a timid one (like everything this president does), but a stimulus nonetheless. We’re about to see what happens when the effects of those measures run out before the economy is able to get back to its feet in some minimal way.
And sure you can compare individuals to gov’ts………either the money is there or it isn’t……why the heck does one think local govts are cutting back severely??? They ain’t got it and they can’t get it……can’t squeeze blood from a turnip…………..
No, you can’t. For an INDIVIDUAL it’s true that the money is either there or it isnt’t, but this principle does not hold the same way for an economy that has the ability to raise cash on capital markets and yes “print” money as you say. You mention “local govmts”. Well, they’re a little different. They can sell municipal bonds, but they can’t devalue a currency for example and they are required to balance budgets.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:49 pm
larry
Rural Georgia? Out of sight, out of mind…
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:49 pm
AmVet, I think the Rays pitching will keep them close, but they just lost too many to free agency to compete in the AL East.
No BoSox in your draft? That’s taking team loyalty a bit too far, isn’t it?
md
March 30th, 2011
5:51 pm
“so long as they keep their dirty little fly ridden selves outta sight and outta mind”
We talking about the folks waiting in line to immigrate again?????????
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:51 pm
“Let us not forget that for every $1 in assistance, there is an economic gain of around $1.5 returned.”
More phony math from the people who could argue that the sky is purple if the government told them so.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:53 pm
jm
@ 5:42
That is much my point…what we waste in this country is a crime, sin and a disgrace…there shoulde not even be a question of anyone going to bed hungry…but we can’t seem to get a handle on it…
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:54 pm
AmVet – if I were a retiree…. I’d be headed to Costa Rica, or somewhere with plenty of islands….
Instead, I got 30 (hopefully 40 or 45) years ahead of me.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:54 pm
md
@ 5:51
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
5:54 pm
Amvet…. well in my younger days all 9 fingers would be used to give Bucky Dent a one-finger salute but I’ve moved on…..and I can tolerate Yankee fans. But then I lived in walking distance to the Green Monster.
Mary Elizabeth…don’t let the knuckle dragging Hairy or the others get you down. You may have more that agree with you than not.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:54 pm
Dave, when it comes to fantasy sports, I’d take Russians, Red Sox, Phillies, Chinese…(grin)
I did see where someone picked the Yanks to win the wild card.
It always comes down to consistent pitching.
Last year I had a huge lead, but lost it down the stretch.
I’m a great manager, but sometimes, my damn players…(another grin)
RW-(the original)
March 30th, 2011
5:55 pm
It doesn’t appear that the column tells us how long everybody is supposed to be getting this supplemental UI. (Maybe it’s in the comments, but who has time for that?)
Is this just to get them to 99er status and if so when does the drive to remove that cap begin?
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:55 pm
jm
Costa Rica? Love it! Socialism at work and working…
jm
March 30th, 2011
5:56 pm
jonix – AFB (and others) are starting to do a good job collecting “waste food”. If only every community would organize itself to do this….
Frankly, given the quality of food wasted by Whole Foods, Fresh Market, etc, I’m half tempted to check out what they have.
Just kidding, I can still afford mac & cheese and cereal…. 
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
5:56 pm
Another attempt to free a sluggard from the boulder his head is pinned under that failed.
Let us not forget that for every $1 in assistance, there is an economic gain of around $1.5 returned.”
More phony math from the people who could argue that the sky is purple if the government told them so.
As you can see, there is probably nothing more difficult to break than the grip of a pseudo-intuitive idea — such as the one that says that $1 is just $1 and nothing more and can only be earned and spent once — that’s seized the head of a person under the spell of the false intuitive idea.
md
March 30th, 2011
5:56 pm
“No, you can’t. For an INDIVIDUAL it’s true that the money is either there or it isnt’t, but this principle does not hold the same way for an economy that has the ability to raise cash on capital markets and yes “print” money as you say.”
And there are risks associated with both those avenues…………which is a gamble.
Sure there are different methods to remain solvent……individuals can file bankruptcy while most govts can not……….
Never said it can be compared 1 to 1, but the fundamentals of accounting are the same……both best have more income than expenses, or there will be consequences………..
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
5:57 pm
Keep and as a lifelong NYY fan, I’ve learned a lot in the past few years about begrudging respect.
Trust me, blowing a three game lead in the playoffs has a humbling effect!
And now, the table shave turned…
BTW I went to a game at Fenway back in the 90s.
And loved every minute of it…
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
5:57 pm
“well in my younger days all 9 fingers would be used to give Bucky Dent a one-finger salute but I’ve moved on”
Keep, I’m ashamed of you.
The proper wording is Bucky BLEEPIN’ Dent!
Got that, chief?
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
5:57 pm
Mary Elizabeth
I’d worry more if Harry DIDN’T jump in my sh*t if I were you!
Soothsayer
March 30th, 2011
5:58 pm
These two congressmen, one a Republican and one a Democrat didn’t realize they were on camera. The results are hilarious. I’ll bet they’re more careful next time!
Jefferson
March 30th, 2011
5:58 pm
Get the money from those who have plenty of money…why is that so hard to do?
md
March 30th, 2011
5:59 pm
“Let us not forget that for every $1 in assistance, there is an economic gain of around $1.5 returned. In other words, it’s a very good investment.”
Is the debt service to China built into that return??
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
6:00 pm
“As you can see, there is probably nothing more difficult to break than the grip of a pseudo-intuitive idea — such as the one that says that $1 is just $1 and nothing more and can only be earned and spent once — that’s seized the head of a person under the spell of the false intuitive idea.”
I agree that in some rare instances, this theory might be true, but what you fail to understand is the resulting implications of the effect that occurs in the free market as a result of the government’s deficit and debt increasing with that $1 being given away.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
6:01 pm
Hey, blame Mike Torrez for hanging one boys!
I skipped work that afternoon and watched the excitement in a bar down the street from my office.
Ah, life was good back then…
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
6:03 pm
AmVet, there’s nothinglike being in a bawlpaak (Fenway) where you can still recognize the players your jeering at . . .
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
6:04 pm
Uh, AmVet? That would be “Mike BLEEPIN’ Torres” !
World B. Free
March 30th, 2011
6:05 pm
Freewill by Rush
There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance take,
A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance.
A planet of playthings,
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
“The stars aren’t aligned,
Or the gods are malign…”
Blame is better to give than receive.
Chorus
You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose freewill.
There are those who think that they were dealt a losing hand,
The cards were stacked against them; they weren’t born in Lotusland.
All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate.
Kicked in the face,
You can’t pray for a place
In heaven’s unearthly estate.
Chorus
Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete.
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt that’s far too fleet.
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
6:07 pm
The best indication of the fact that the modern GOP has set up camp in the land of the absence of thought, of hostility to thinking, is the way Mitt Romney blurted the word “nuanced” recently to describe Obama’s foreign policy approach. You could just see the wheels turning, as he grasped and fumbled for a simple adjective to describe the object, and finally his tortured mind fell on that old war horse from the Bush / Iraq War era: “nuanced”, which is purely a cipher for the thought luggards, the ones who nod their empty little heads when those heads ought to crackling with a new thought. But hey, that’s the GOP base for you.
You’re an unprincipled man, Mr. Romney.
md
March 30th, 2011
6:07 pm
“Get the money from those who have plenty of money…why is that so hard to do?”
Because it is morally bankrupt……………
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
6:09 pm
I could have sworn I read somewhere, the other day, that Georgia stopped taxing businesses for the unemployment fund, around the year 2000. Anybody know if that’s true or was I dreaming?
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
6:10 pm
” is the way Mitt Romney blurted the word “nuanced” recently to describe Obama’s foreign policy approach.”
You’re actually right this time LWM.
I’d label it confusing and contradictory.
md
March 30th, 2011
6:10 pm
“The best indication of the fact that the modern GOP has set up camp in the land of the absence of thought”
Now, with that little tape from Shumer, it should be obvious that party doesn’t factor into the equation……….
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
6:10 pm
JOSEF,
You have gone overboard. Absolutely. Between school lunches, food banks, churches and most religious institutions, there are no starving children in America. I simply do not believe the starvation implication is true. And nobody forgets children in far off Georgia USA.
Small communities usually take care of their own, sometimes from necessity. Anybody who depends on the government for everything has lost their freedom.
I think there is a better way and it isn’t government handouts. It is the old American spirit of taking care of one’s own. Our country was established by people who valued their independence. I’m still hanging on that for dear life.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
6:11 pm
Rural Georgia? Out of sight, out of mind…
Ain’t that the damn truth. We don’t even exist in the AJC world.
Soothsayer
March 30th, 2011
6:13 pm
HD: that is not true. The SUTA tax is alive and well. Some businesses with good “experience ratings” (i.e, no claimes) pay very little. All businesses start out paying 2.7% on the first $8,500 each employee makes each year. For businesses with “poor experience ratings” (i.e., lot’s of claims) the rate can go up considerably. However, only the first $8.500 for each employee is taxed each year.
@@
March 30th, 2011
6:15 pm
So I’m toolin’ around the AJC blogs, low & behold…Mrs. Tucker is writing again. Two threads and only two comments.
Kamchak’s was the first. Rather odd though…he commented on her not having any new topics and recycling materials.
That wasn’t very nice, Kamchak.
Perhaps your fellow leftists should go over there to repair the damage you’ve done.
Geez!
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:15 pm
DUSTY
Like I said, can’t I play in the hyperbole playground with you?
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:18 pm
Hillbilly
“Ain’t that the damn truth. We don’t even exist in the AJC world.”
Sure you do…anytime they want to paint a negative picture, off they go outside the perimeter to do it!
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
6:21 pm
Dave R: “but what you fail to understand is the resulting implications of the effect that occurs in the free market as a result of the government’s deficit and debt increasing with that $1 being given away”
I assume you’re talking about the effects of money being given away on the average person’s willingness to work for the money when they can lounge about and still receive a hand-out?
Again, nothing is harder than to loosen the grip of deeply held, moralistic ideas about the inherent justice of a system – even when that system is screwing people like you at every turn. The notion that one is surrounded by slackers and freeloaders is deeply ingrained in the mind of some human beings and it’s a highly intuitive idea in the sense that if one looks around one has no trouble finding examples of laziness and sloth. To a certain common man’s morality, this idea that this is the root of our problems is thus deeply appealing. In actuality however our problem is anything but sloth. The Wall Street speculators and corporate lobbyists are hard-working enough, but they’re still gutting our system.
md
March 30th, 2011
6:23 pm
“President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
People familiar with U.S. intelligence procedures said that Presidential covert action “findings” are normally crafted to provide broad authorization for a range of potential U.S. government actions to support a particular covert objective.”
“You want me on that wall……..you need me on that wall”
Just another passage in the Holy Crap Book of Secrets………….
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
6:24 pm
HillBilly,
The AJC world is not the real world. Thank goodness! Blogs attract the blowhards of the world (except for you & me)!
Keep rural Georgia pristine. We need the stalwart to keep us city-folk from going astray.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
6:29 pm
“The AJC world is not the real world. ”
Like my dad used to say, “the only thing I’ll ever use the AJC for is to line my kids pet parakeets cage with.” It worked, too.
mmm, mmm, mmm, Barack the Liar Obama - BEND OVER, Here comes the CHANGE!
March 30th, 2011
6:29 pm
Who says they are “badly needed”? GO OUT AND GET A JOB, ANY JOB, BUT GET TO WORK!!!
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
6:29 pm
“Just another passage in the Holy Crap Book of Secrets”
The talking heads have been discussing for days whether such actions would be legal under the UN resolution…and you’re surprised? Try paying better attention.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
6:30 pm
Now that the discussion has turned to baseball, I did see a Yankee fan on a plane yesterday. We hit some hard turbulence and he puked into a barf bag. His puking reminded me of what Yankee fans really are.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
6:31 pm
” “the only thing I’ll ever use the AJC for is to line my kids pet parakeets cage with.” It worked, too”
Funny….you don’t look like the bottom of a bird cage
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:31 pm
“G-d helps the rich. The poor can beg.” –Ethiopian proverb
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
6:32 pm
“I assume you’re talking about the effects of money being given away on the average person’s willingness to work for the money when they can lounge about and still receive a hand-out?”
And you would a$$-u-me wrong, LWM.
I don’t give a rat’s patootie about the justice of any system except the legal one. I am the sole person responsible for my actions and results and do not care if someone else makes more money than me, or less. That is their benefit or problem, not mine. And if I wish to I can choose to help those I feel are in need of my help, or not, based on what I know about their particular circumstances.
But I’ll be damned if I will willingly have money taken from me for my hard work to give to others that have not or will not try as hard as I do to make a living.
You problem is that you keep trying to stick your nose into everyone’s business, good or bad, and using the government as your blackmailer in a search for your misguided definition of justice.
World B. Free
March 30th, 2011
6:32 pm
I’m surprised a gawd-fearing, good christian state like georgia would turn its collective back on the less fortunate…
md
March 30th, 2011
6:32 pm
“The talking heads have been discussing for days whether such actions would be legal under the UN resolution…and you’re surprised? Try paying better attention.”
Why would you ASSUME that I am surprised??
Dave R.
March 30th, 2011
6:34 pm
And with that, it’s time for the commute home.
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
6:35 pm
NO, JOSEF, I won’t play in your besotted world of starvation and neglect. If it makes your conscience feel better to declare it, good. I manage to deal with it as I can, not just the world of government dependency as the answer.
I don’t doubt your good intentions but sometimes I do wonder about your view of honest reality. It seems to run a bit wild at times. Then again, you face little ones every day. Do you really think they are starving?
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:36 pm
World B
Well, like the old spiritual says, “everybody talking ’bout heaven ain’t goin’ there..”
Libya and Obama…
My 4th graders brought it up today,,,interesting comments…their mouths to G-d’s ears….
Soothsayer
March 30th, 2011
6:37 pm
Come on! Admit it! You’ve used one of these, haven’t you?
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
6:37 pm
Dave R. :
Good on you for ceding point on Romney. Surprised the media didn’t pick up on it. Then again, my opinion of the media is lukewarm at best for a reason.
To put my other point a little more simply: the concerns you express about motivation and government aid are undermined when you have certain mega-earners in the financial sector – namely Wall Street hedge fund managers – who, regardless of how hard they actually work, I doubt work any harder than the average janitor or restaurant manager yet are able to accumulate sums of such volume that they can over time start buying favors in the political system (ensuring they stay within a favorable tax loophole status for ex.). A similar principle holds in the corporate world in general. So when you have financial managers pulling in yearly earnings in the billions with a B and you have average CEOs making not 10 or 20x the average worker but more like 200 – 300x as much, then I say you can no longer claim that the system operates based on ‘common sense’ morality of incentive, thrift, and industriousness. Instead it becomes a lottery or crony casino, etc. Only a radical reform of that system will return us to a place where we can demand common virtue from the ordinary worker in return for maintaining his social safety net.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
6:37 pm
“Like I said, can’t I play in the hyperbole playground with you?”
Not if you hate rich people, josef!
Hey, I found wow on the Intertubes! Or is it harry? (I get them mixed up.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtQb1sSZnlU
OK, off to the gym.
I know it’s fun, but try not to feed the trolls!
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:38 pm
DUSTY
What part of hyperbole don’t you get? Sometimes you’re as dense as the Black Forest of Germany! Hungry? THAT I do see and do see a lot of…much more than you with your blinders on would ever like to admit exists here in our land of plenty…
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
6:39 pm
“Why would you ASSUME that I am surprised??”
I didn’t. You already appear to know what a question mark is for…so I won’t have to explain to you why I USED one
Kerry
March 30th, 2011
6:39 pm
You party fouls just don’t get it do you. Ever heard of divide and conquer. Both the Dems and Reps are just setting their laughing at the voters. They have you both fighting each other as they both rob this country blind. Government shuts down, Congress gets paid, health insurance most people can not afford, but congress has theirs paid for life. Wake up people. Just wait until all the cuts are done in local government and you will not be able to leave your house with out it being broken into and good luck getting emergency care or the fire department to come out.
Soothsayer
March 30th, 2011
6:39 pm
Onced the bank comes and takes the pick-em-up truck back it shore seems like a waste to not put the camper shell to good use!
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
6:42 pm
Josef @ 6:18
Well, there is that. Or if somebody in the Metro area needs a reservoir and wants to come take our land, to build it.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:42 pm
AmVet
Aw, why limit it to just two,…that one qualifies as the blog mascot!
And I don’t hate the rich…gently sauteed in lemon butter garlic with fresh baby asparagus and a nice dry Riesling they can be quite tasty..
md
March 30th, 2011
6:42 pm
“To put my other point a little more simply: the concerns you express about motivation and government aid are undermined when you have certain mega-earners in the financial sector – namely Wall Street hedge fund managers – who, regardless of how hard they actually work, I doubt work any harder than the average janitor or restaurant manager yet are able to accumulate sums of such volume that they can over time start buying favors in the political system”
Last I checked, one had the choice as to which profession to enter……………..
md
March 30th, 2011
6:43 pm
“You already appear to know what a question mark is for…so I won’t have to explain to you why I USED one”
Uh-huh………..
Soothsayer
March 30th, 2011
6:44 pm
Lord! Child! Why does your breath smell so bad?
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:45 pm
Hillbilly
Capitalist Colonialist Running Dogs of Carpetbag-Scalawag Yankee Imperialism! (And, no, that’s not hyperbole!)
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
6:47 pm
Dave R: “I am the sole person responsible for my actions and results and do not care if someone else makes more money than me, or less. ”
Ok, I see. Then we’ll have to agree to disagree. I would just point out to you that if you claim not to care how much others make, that’s misguided. And indeed it seems to give the lie to your earlier claim that money is finite and to some extent a zero sum affair (from the standpoint of budgets). Well, if you have a collection of a half dozen higher earners in financial speculation who between them have income equal that of huge swaths of the population, then that is eventually going to have an effect on those same budget realities you claim to be so concerned about. It’s been claimed e.g. that if we were simply to enforce a ‘reasonable’ tax rate on those 12 or so hedge fund managers who last year had $1 b and up in income (in other words, if we were to increase their tax rate up to what Warren Buffet’s secretary makes on her measly little $40k salary) that alone would generate enough money to support salaries and benefits for hundreds of thousands of teachers.
Now it would be one thing if those same people who defend the low hedge fund tax rates weren’t also turning around and claiming we can’t afford to pay our teachers and public employees for basic services and that we’re broke and have to slash left and right. Now THAT is what in my mind you ought to care about what these people are making. It’s all of our business.
So when you start looking at it like this, th
Soothsayer
March 30th, 2011
6:49 pm
Hurry! They’s still time to book for prom night! Don’t be left out! Call today!
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
6:50 pm
josef
Yeah, Colonialism is alive and well in the 21st century. Probably outlive both of us, too. The Colonialist do it for our own good, though, bless their hearts.
World B. Free
March 30th, 2011
6:50 pm
Nothing finer then the smell of stetson cologne and a angry old goper with a few bourbons in his belly wafting thru coach seating…
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
6:52 pm
md: “Last I checked, one had the choice as to which profession to enter……………..”
You have got to be kidding me.
You’re going to tell me that an average kid in a working class environment has anywhere near the shot at breaking into the world of mega-earning high finance as the upper middle and upper class children?
The idea that the system is fair and wide open for anyone to enter is the biggest lie of all – and you fall for it.
Believe me, when you have a class of people making yearly income in the billions with a B, there are going to be some considerable entry barriers.
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
6:52 pm
Well, JOSEF, I see you are now the expert on starvation in America and anybody with another view is dumb. Do your students not get a free lunch every day and some even get breakfast? Yet you say you see them starving!
Anyone who lets their children starve in Atlanta is probably on drugs or purely ignorant. I would guess that the children of America are probably the best fed in the world. I can’t prove that but I don’t doubt that it is true. As I have mentioned, obesity is more the problem than starvation. Mrs. Obama seems to think so.
“The poor we have with us always.” But we never give up trying not to. Believe it or not, I am tryng too.
Off to dinner…
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
6:52 pm
Sooth 6:49 — and a four wheel drive at that.
Kinda makes me wonder, will the four wheel drive be necessary when picking up passengers or dropping them off at the soiree?
Adam
March 30th, 2011
6:53 pm
I see the birth certificate thing came up again. I guess we have Donald Trump to thank for this.
Here, again, is an article that proves
1) the birth certificate HAS been SHOWN
2) the birth certificate is REAL
3) Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii (which is one of the 50 United States, in case anyone wasn’t clear on that point)
Here it is, AGAIN: http://factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
And please, don’t be an idiot. Read beyond the first paragraph. It would be nice, if you are honest with yourself, to read the whole thing.
Soothsayer
March 30th, 2011
6:54 pm
Well, I hadn’t wanted to tell anyone about my Mercedes on account of that I might be labeled a Capitalist Running Dog. But, here it is in all it’s glory. Have you ever seen anything like it? Be honest!
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:55 pm
Hillbilly
Not out to poke, but I can’t for the life of me see how some people with a liberal view and an education cannot see that. Frankly, I think they can, they just don’t want to admit it. To do so would necessitate acknowledging their own roles in perpetuating the, uh, what do they call us, “anachronistic,” system. And as we know, no Major Historian dares touch the subject, they a few General Historians will!
@@
March 30th, 2011
6:57 pm
josef & Hillbilly:
We’ve discussed this so you’ll find it interesting.
STRATFOR is reporting that Assad made no concessions in his speech today. Feeling confident, he is. The reason? It’s the Muslim Brotherhood who’s been promoting much of the violence. They’re pushing the envelope in looking for the U.S. to intervene so they can fill the void.
Kinda like what happened in Egypt. It was the youth’s movement, but because they weren’t organized, the MB interjected themselves into the movement and won a seat at the table. The youth didn’t.
So I’ll expect a crackdown with no U.S. interference. I think Assad has cut a deal…with Turkey acting as the go-between.
Suspense and intrigue.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
6:57 pm
DUSTY
I never said “dumb.” I said dense…there’s a big difference there…but enjoy your dinner, just don’t choke on it…
@@
March 30th, 2011
6:58 pm
“in” should be “and”
IHB
Left wing management
March 30th, 2011
6:58 pm
md:
Forgot to add the crucial point:
Believe me, when you have a class of people making yearly income in the billions with a B, there are going to be some considerable entry barriers – and they aren’t going to be strictly merit-based.
steve
March 30th, 2011
6:59 pm
I thought this economy was booming Jay? Remember the summer of recovery last year? The Obama stimulus that was supposed to ensure unemployment would never rise above 8%? This article doesn’t make much sense unless you admit the Obama economy continues to slump and sink.
md
March 30th, 2011
7:00 pm
“You’re going to tell me that an average kid in a working class environment has anywhere near the shot at breaking into the world of mega-earning high finance as the upper middle and upper class children? ”
Absolutely……….Warren Buffet himself started one step at a time………
You seem to be living in the land of excuses vs the land of opportunity……
There are countless millionaires in this world that started from nothing……you do them a disservice with your excuses.
We choose everything we do……….including making excuses for the choices we didn’t make…..
jconservative
March 30th, 2011
7:00 pm
The $175 million is a grant to the State that does not need to be paid back. But the State must accept the money. Ask and ye shall receive. Ask not and ye will not receive.
This is a good way to cut State revenue, if anyone is interested in cutting revenue.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
7:01 pm
@@
I’ve had my suspicions on Turkey’s role in the Byzantine shennanigans…they’ve got their own MB angst…what’s the saying thereabouts? “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Dusty
March 30th, 2011
7:06 pm
Thank you, Josef. If I can overlook your dense obsessions as fiddle faddle, I certainly won’t choke on dinner. It’s meatloaf tonight. A good one too.
I don’t let my children STARVE even when they are six feet tall!! So there!
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
7:07 pm
josef
Most “major historians” don’t get to be “major” by rocking the boat. Politics in that profession, like any other.
@@
Syria is interesting, although I’m not 100% up to speed. I don’t see anybody interfering much there. I doubt that the U.S/NATO alliance will, and the Arab League really doesn’t want this democracy thing to get out of hand, they just hope to sacrifice Gaddafi to take heat off themselves. It’ll be interesting to see what Israel does towards Syria. On the one hand, I’m sure they’d love to see a different regime in power but on the other hand, in spite of Syria’s mischief making in the region, the border between Syria and Israel has been relatively quiet for a good while. They might choose to go with the devil they know, so to speak.
By the way, have you ever read “America’s Secret War”by George Friedman? Interesting book.
Truth Squad
March 30th, 2011
7:09 pm
@Dave R…..if you don’t agree that for every $1 in assistance to the unemployed, there is a benefit of more than that to the economy, then PROVE IT!
I think Jay already did a great job of breaking down for us just why the economy benefits when assistance is given, and why it doesn’t when it is withheld.
Don’t call names and then run; that proves nothing. In fact, people might think you lack the capacity for thoughtful debate and cannot back up your claims in a plain , common sense, jargon-free manner.
md
March 30th, 2011
7:12 pm
Billionaires that started from nothing:
http://www.hotelresortinsider.com/news_story.php?news_id=801
And since we do choose everything we do, if one chooses to tell oneself that life ain’t fair and there are roadblocks and ………odds are they will fail.
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
7:15 pm
And since we do choose everything we do…
My Da chose to have cancer?
That’s just silly.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:16 pm
“odds are they will fail.”
and how many billions do YOU have?
cmac22
March 30th, 2011
7:17 pm
obozo is such a boob!
Obama in 2002: Toppling Brutal Dictator a ‘Dumb War’
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
By Matt Cover
President Barack Obama
President Barack Obama pauses during his speech on America’s energy security, in this photo taken Wednesday, March 30, 2011, at McDonough at Gymnasium Georgetown University in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, as an Illinois state senator in 2002, said that using military force to topple a murderous dictator amounted to a “dumb war” and should be opposed.
The “dumb war” Obama was criticizing was the planned invasion of Iraq and the murderous dictator was its leader, Saddam Hussein. Obama, speaking at an anti-war rally in Chicago on Oct. 2, 2002 said that while Saddam was a brutal tyrant, that was not enough to justify using military force to remove him from power.
“Now, let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein,” said Obama in his speech. “He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied U.N. resolutions, thwarted U.N. inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.”
“… After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration’s pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again,” said Obama. “I don’t oppose all wars. … What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.”
Obama argued that deposing Saddam militarily was not necessary, because Iraq posed no “direct threat” to the United States. Obama also cited Iraq’s weakened economy and the fact that it was still possible to contain Saddam’s aggression, repudiating the Bush administration’s rationale that Saddam posed too great a threat to American interests and his own people to be left in power.
“But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military is a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history,” said Sen. Obama.
However, as president of the United States, Obama has discounted those same arguments he once made against using military force against brutal dictators.
In his March 28, 2011 speech justifying his decision to attack the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Obama cited Gadhafi’s record of brutality, saying that allowing Gadhafi to continue his brutality was not an option.
“Qaddafi declared he would show ‘no mercy’ to his own people,” said President Obama. “He compared them to rats, and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we have seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day.
“Now we saw regime forces on the outskirts of the city,” Obama said. “We knew that if we waited, if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.”
Gadhafi, apparently unlike Saddam, needed to be stopped because he would kill his own people to maintain his own power, an act that this time posed a threat to America’s “interests and values,” Obama said.
“But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act,” said Obama. “That’s what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks.”
Obama, in his 2002 speech, said that instead of deposing Saddam through force, America should “fight” for democratic reforms in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, stronger international nuclear safeguards, and energy independence.
“Those are the battles that we need to fight,” Obama said in 2002. “Those are the battles that we willingly join – the battles against ignorance and intolerance, corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.”
By 2011, however, Obama had come to endorse the use of military power to enforce America’s “responsibility as a [global] leader” arguing that the United States was “different” and therefore had no other choice but to attack Libya.
“To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and, more profoundly, our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are,” he said. “Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different.”
md
March 30th, 2011
7:18 pm
“My Da chose to have cancer?”
“We do”………………………
elsee
March 30th, 2011
7:18 pm
I have a very good friend who has been out of work for over a year. Over 50, well qualified but too qualified. $244 a week will feed her children and put gas in her car. That is it. she is in danger of losing her home. (Not a weird loan). Utilities are off and on. Where is the help here. She is a white, divorced mother of two. Owns her home and has no debt other than her home which is underwater. What should she do all of you self righteous republicans with jobs and money to talk?
Jay
March 30th, 2011
7:18 pm
md, I think most people will agree that it’s possible to make such a leap, just as it’s possible to run a 4-minute mile. But only a select handful are capable of it.
On the other hand, if you only have to run a half mile in those four minutes, or even a quarter mile, your odds improve quite a lot.
And no, we’re not talking about guaranteeing equal outcomes, just a little more equitable starting point. Most of the recent research on the topic has shown that contrary to folklore, the US has less economic mobility than most other industrialized economies. It didn’t used to be that way, but it is now.
@@
March 30th, 2011
7:18 pm
josef:
We’ve been grooming Turkey to take the lead in the Arab word. What Arab country DOESN’T have a MB? And Syria? We’ve got years of “diplomacy” invested in Assad. He’s Iran’s only friend but maybe not, in reality. SOMEBODY got Hamas to back off on their attacks against Israel. I’m betting it WASN’T Ahmadenijad.
Hillbilly:
I agree! I was talking to my former minister (The Brit). Said he was suprised when he heard Syria had been under “emergency rule” for the last 40 years. His knowledge of and close friends in Syria have made no mention of it. He sees the country as pretty progressive by comparison.
I’ve seen the book but haven’t read it. I’ve got a friend who has…I’ll ask him if I can borrow it.
md
March 30th, 2011
7:21 pm
“and how many billions do YOU have?”
I’ve already raised my hand and stated I didn’t make the choices……………..and I refuse to make excuses for the choices I didn’t make.
cmac22
March 30th, 2011
7:21 pm
Anymore news on obozo’s Afghan “kill team”?
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
7:23 pm
Anymore news on obozo’s Afghan “kill team”?
Your google broke?
cmac22
March 30th, 2011
7:25 pm
Google is just fine! love to Google “obama’s poll numbers” ….. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
BADA BING
March 30th, 2011
7:25 pm
Well, if you are going to continue these payments indefinitely, you are going to have to change the name of it and call it what it is…..welfare.
@@
March 30th, 2011
7:25 pm
In a way, just like Russia (natural gas/Europe), Syria is sitting in the catbird seat. Everybody wants to win points with Syria. Could there be a more “reliable partner”? I don’t have an answer to that.
Alls I can say is….when they’re all we’ve got, they’re all we’ve got. The lesser of two evils.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:26 pm
“I’ve already raised my hand and stated I didn’t make the choices”
A decision not made is not, by definition, a decision you can NEVER make. Get busy, make that choice and get those billions rolling in. After all, it’s up to you…all you have to do is make the right choice.
Right?
md
March 30th, 2011
7:27 pm
Well Jay, life ain’t fair and never will be………if folks redirect the energy they use to complain, maybe they would have a head start………….
I’ve seen numerous people spend hours trying to get out of doing something when they could have been done hours beforehand had they just done it.
And choices will forever keep the playing field uneven, no matter how hard one tries to level it. Effort, choices, motivation, etc all factor in to the equation ………
Starting with education………those that don’t take it seriously will forever be playing catchup.
Del
March 30th, 2011
7:28 pm
Doesn’t matter what congress appropriates, we’re broke the country is broke even though we spend money as though we’re not like what we’re doing now in Libya. The reality is that we’re getting down to the local communities as the last and only resort for the poor. Faith based charity will need to factor in greatly as it actually has without any reporting on its role. The liberal secularists hate the mere thought of it but reality is reality.
GrowGeorgia
March 30th, 2011
7:30 pm
It’s a no-brainer to bring federal money into these communities hardest hit by long term unemployment. Milledgeville, for example, has 15% unemployment right now due to plants closing up and moving abroad. The unemployment check pays landlord, grocer, shoestore, gas sation, drug store. Keep families afloat while they hunt their next job, and keep the small businesses afloat – no brainer!
BADA BING
March 30th, 2011
7:30 pm
There are no jobs available. When the economy comes back, the older people and some unskilled workers may still NEVER get another job, or be vastly under-employed. That will call for drastic measures that some people do not understand yet. Some people will never return to the life that they had, major life changes will be required.
md
March 30th, 2011
7:31 pm
“A decision not made is not, by definition, a decision you can NEVER make. Get busy, make that choice and get those billions rolling in. After all, it’s up to you…all you have to do is make the right choice.
Right?”
Absolutely……I’m working on it………
Don’t get me wrong, I’m taking baby steps every day…….but I also acknowledge some choices are not as productive as they could be…like being on this time sucking blog.
But I choose to be here…….so no excuses.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
7:31 pm
JAY
Since you’re here and I know it’s off topic, but what is your take on Syria?
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
7:31 pm
Fortunate in my ancestors……. I was supremely so in my birthplace. Where one is born is very important, for different surroundings and traditions appeal to and stimulate different latent tendencies in the child.
Andrew Carnegie
Bruno
March 30th, 2011
7:32 pm
josef–I didn’t know if you saw this article about a newly discovered 2000 year old Biblical artifact:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110330/ts_yblog_thelookout/could-lead-codices-prove-the-major-discovery-of-christian-history
Interesting discovery.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
7:34 pm
Grow Georgia
“…no brainer…”
Yep. But evidently logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead…
Bada
“…drastic consequences…”
And I don’t see those being addressed…
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:34 pm
“like being on this time sucking blog.
But I choose to be here…….so no excuses.”
Nothing like contradicting yourself in less than an inch of type
md
March 30th, 2011
7:34 pm
Bruno…..read that earlier……….interesting to say the least. Makes a heathen like me think……….never hurts to review the possibilities………….
Del
March 30th, 2011
7:35 pm
Time to get the illegals out of this country, while bringing manufacturing back home from China and India so Americans can once again do the jobs that the fool politicians have said they won’t do.
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
7:36 pm
md
March 30th, 2011
7:18 pm
“My Da chose to have cancer?”
“We do”………………………
WTF!
md
March 30th, 2011
7:36 pm
“Nothing like contradicting yourself in less than an inch of type”
Not at all…..I have plenty of irons in the fire….only time will tell which ones may or may not pay off……
Lisa
March 30th, 2011
7:37 pm
I agree the leaders have left long term unemployed Georgians abandoned, so long as they are in office now they are happy and could care less about the promises that led them to the golden dome. I hope they can sleep at night knowing that a once hard working voter is now hungry and possibly on the streets with their families! Tables do turn and I hope it gets better for my fellow Georgians who are looking for work after being out of work for an what the leaders say is to long. I was out of work for over a year, I LOST alot but I am working now,thanks to God and not the leaders. Last June they abandonded me I had absolutely no income for three months while they “studied the issue”. Amazing the way it works, you pay into a system all your working life and when you need it, it closes down!
md
March 30th, 2011
7:37 pm
Uh……we do……having cancer is not a “do”……..think about it.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 30th, 2011
7:38 pm
Speaking of polls:
(CNN) — Nearly half of all Americans have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party movement, putting it in the same company as the Democratic and Republican parties, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday indicates that 32% of the public have a favorable view of the two-year-old anti-tax movement, which also calls for less government spending and a more limited role for the federal government in our lives. The 32% favorable rating is down five points from December.
The people questioned for the poll who say they have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party is 47%, up four points from December and an increase of 21 points from January 2010. That number is virtually identical to the 48% unfavorable ratings for both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in the same poll.
Jay
March 30th, 2011
7:38 pm
Well, Josef, there are a couple of ways to interpret that question. If by “what’s your take on Syria?,” you mean what should we do about it, my answer would be nothing.
But I’m rooting for Assad’s ouster. He and his family have been nothing but trouble, especially for the Syrian people. His removal might be bad news for the Iranians, who have been their allies, which would be good for us and Israel. However, it might also be good news for the Muslim Brotherhood folks, which might be bad for us and Israel.
But since we have no way of knowing the outcome, and no real way of influencing it ….
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
7:39 pm
BRUNO
I had not seen that…thanks…very interesting…more Essenes, perhaps?
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:39 pm
“Not at all”
I’m not a BIT surprised you can’t see the contradiction…not one bit surprised.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:40 pm
Heard on TV “If there were no customers, there would be no Nationwide” – have to remember that one the nest time someone calls me stupid for saying that customers come first!
Bruno
March 30th, 2011
7:41 pm
Makes a heathen like me think
Historical discoveries which “support” the Bible don’t sway me much. Many novels use a factual context to weave the fictional story around. Corroborating the factual part doesn’t make the fictional part any less fictional. But still a great discovery nonetheless, assuming it isn’t some type of hoax.
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
7:42 pm
Uh……we do……having cancer is not a “do”……..think about it.
I believe the original statement was one of contradiction to your claim that we choose everything to which you proclaimed “we do.” I thought about it and replied appropriately with WTF! to which you replied with something as equally senseless as your other claims.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
7:43 pm
Del @ 7:35
Sounds good, but those manufacturing jobs are never coming back. The only way we’ll see them again is if the cost of manufacturing here becomes cheaper than the costs abroad. With free trade (no tarriffs) and substantially cheap labor abroad, Americans would have to work for damn near free to bring manufacturing jobs back.
I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s going to be a long, long time before employment returns back to “normal”, if it ever does. Americans are going to have to make hard decisions on even the most basic of things in order to survive. Outside of government, Wal Mart is the country’s largest employer. That should tell you how fu*ked up we are right now.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
7:43 pm
JAY
That’s what I meant by “take…” I see it much the same way…and Syria does have a strong secular tradition…maybe not the most democratic, but secular nonetheless…and if their reformers do have a model in mind, I’d lay my bets on Turkey…
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:45 pm
“The only way we’ll see them again is if the cost of manufacturing here becomes cheaper than the costs abroad”
That day may be closer than you think. I’ve starting hearing…here and there…interviews with business men who say something along the lines of wondering if the cost and effort of shipping raw materials overseas and then shipping the finished goods back here is really worth the overall cost.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
7:47 pm
Outside of government, Wal Mart is the country’s largest employer. That should tell you how fu*ked up we are right now.
On the bright side, WalMart is on the rise in China, too.
Mr_B
March 30th, 2011
7:50 pm
Bruno: I wouldn’t get too excited about this. Every couple of years someboby in the Levant claims some sort of similar discovery: always with some sort of mysterious provenence, and never in the original context. Way too much money at stake in that part of the world.
JohnnyReb
March 30th, 2011
7:51 pm
CNN poll on the Tea Party is like the DOJ finding the DOJ not guilty in dropping the black panther lawsuit.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
7:54 pm
Mr B
Shalom…but don’t forget, there are the Dead Sea Scrolls…ya never know! Them Essenes were a wiley lot!
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
7:55 pm
Doggone
I’d be happy to see that happen, especially if it happens before I die. I have no faith in the men/women who make those decisions.
HD
JohnnyReb
March 30th, 2011
7:56 pm
Re, USA manufacturing. For the culprit, look no further than the unholy trinity: EPA, OSHA, and Unions.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:57 pm
“CNN poll on the Tea Party”
Looks like someone failed to notice it was ALSO a poll on both the Reps AND the Dems…and wasn’t favorable to ANY of them.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
7:59 pm
Re, USA manufacturing. For the culprit, look no further than the unholy trinity: EPA, OSHA, and Unions.
Had you said lobbyists, free trade agreements, and politicians, I might have agreed with you. If you remove the free trade agreements along with the lobbyists and politicians that make them happen, it would still be more cost effective to produce here.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
7:59 pm
“I have no faith in the men/women who make those decisions.”
Oh, it’s always going to come down to money. Yes, we’ve shipped a lot of jobs overseas and that has hurt us, but in the long run we’ve also created a lot of new consumers and it’s going to work out that businesses will find that it’s more economical to have their manufacturing closer to the market.
I don’t see the jobs “coming back” in the sense of not being “there” any more. I see them coming back in the sense of ALSO being here.
Del
March 30th, 2011
8:02 pm
SoCo, you make sound points but I still think that as the largest consumer market in the world (I know it’s rapidly slipping away as other foreign markets grow) we can negotiate far better trade agreements than what we’ve done. We’re giving away our technological advantages to countries like India and China. We do so in order to open markets in those countries that they’ll allow to open only slightly in return. The leverage they hold over our government is their continued financing of our debt. The chickens are coming home to roost and the ultimate reversal won’t be pretty.
JohnnyReb
March 30th, 2011
8:03 pm
There is obviously sufficient Leftist media to sway public opinion. And we all know the outcome of polls can be influenced by the structure of questions. It’s also obvious the Liberal media has kicked into gear at the same Dems are fighting Repubs over the budget and Obama has started campaigning (if he ever stopped).
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:03 pm
Doggone
I’ll have to hope and pray that you’re right. If we had more of a sense of nationality and pride of America instead of self-pride, I’d be more inclined to believe as you do. As long as we have the “every man for himself” mentality here, we’re doomed.
Jay
March 30th, 2011
8:06 pm
Actually, JohnnyReb, if you look at manufacturing value-added, we’re producing just about as much as we ever did. We’re just doing it with technology/machinery, meaning much fewer jobs. Our manufacturing amounted to $1.5 trillion in 1976, and over $3 trillion now, all adjusted for inflation.
@@
March 30th, 2011
8:07 pm
His removal might be bad news for the Iranians, who have been their allies, which would be good for us and Israel.
But Netanyahu is supporting Assad during the protests.
Does anybody recall when George Mitchell was handed a proposal (map) by Netanyahu that indicated how far he was willing to withdraw from the Golan Heights? He even showed it to Obama. In exchange, Netanyahu wanted Syria to break off military ties with Iran and terminate their backing for Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a bunch of Palestinian terrorist organizations that enjoy sanctuary in Syria.
Not an easy task for Assad but one that can be accomplished over time. I just can’t see what Assad hopes to gain from hanging with Iran.
Perhaps I’m thinking too simplistically.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
8:07 pm
“As long as we have the “every man for himself” mentality here, we’re doomed”
But I think you’re thinking too much of the existing companies. You’re overlooking the hole they’ve opened for someone else to fill.
Jay
March 30th, 2011
8:08 pm
An you know, as long as the right leans on that “liberal media” crutch to explain the lack of popular support for their ideas, they’re going to have a hard time.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
8:09 pm
Re, USA manufacturing. For the culprit, look no further than the unholy trinity: EPA, OSHA, and Unions.
I’d look at George H W Bush, who sold us out to the Globalists, and Bill Clinton and George W Bush, who helped the Globalists consolidate their victory.
We may be the largest consumer market in the world but that won’t last, if we don’t have jobs. The thing that gets lost in the unemployment statistics are people who will never make as much again, as they once did, those who work less than fulltime hours (not by choice), and the explosive growth the last 10-15 years, in “temp jobs”.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:09 pm
Del
Agreed. Little known fact that most people don’t think about: As a country, we spend billions and billions fighting counterfeit products coming into our country. The money that’s spent usually comes from the government and is used to protect intellectual property rights of companies. If we didn’t give foreign companies our products to manufacture legally in the first place, it would be that much harder for them to counterfeit them.
We’ve gotten to the point that we’re giving away far more than what we’re getting back in these deals. I’m sure it could be shown that most major empires throughout history have begun their demise when they were no longer self-sustainable and became dependent on outsiders for more than what they could produce themselves.
Mary Elizabeth
March 30th, 2011
8:09 pm
Just a quick “thanks” to all you of you who took time to write me an encouraging word or a word of humor an hour or so ago. When I post, which isn’t that often, I really don’t mind disagreement in points of view expressed to me. I just ask that those who are SO opposed to my authentic opinions not throw personal insults at me when you state you disagreeing views.
Thanks again to all and have a nice evening.
That’s not too much to ask, now, is it?
And, Joseph, speak for yourself about your “sh*t” only. Somehow I just can’t think of my thoughts in that context, even with humor.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:11 pm
You’re overlooking the hole they’ve opened for someone else to fill.
That could be true. I’m just looking at past performance and the current participants. That does not always indicate future performance, but it does give you a base idea.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
8:14 pm
Mary Elizabeth
Aw, why not!
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
8:15 pm
“I just ask that those who are SO opposed to my authentic opinions not throw personal insults at me when you state you disagreeing views”
Humor always helps, but a friendly bit of advice: grow a thicker skin or you won’t last around here. The bets offence is to not respond. The bomb throwers are just looking for a big boom. Don’t give it to them.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:15 pm
The thing that gets lost in the unemployment statistics are people who will never make as much again, as they once did, those who work less than fulltime hours (not by choice), and the explosive growth the last 10-15 years, in “temp jobs”.
AMEN!!!!!!! My better half just lost a mid $30k managment position, and got another one that pays less than $15k. Nobody figures those type statistics into the employment reports. Lose a million jobs that averages $50k a year and gain a million jobs that average $20k and we’re still a net loser in the grand scheme of things.
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 30th, 2011
8:15 pm
Long term unemployed? How can that be, when your Idiot Messiah saved the economy, ended the recession, and created all those green jobs?
Idiot Messiah: Failure.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
8:16 pm
“just looking at past performance and the current participants”
Yes, but even so…it’s not going to happen fast, but barring any more meldowns, the potential is there for it to happen. Even if slowly.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:17 pm
The bomb throwers are just looking for a big boom.
I don’t even give them credit for throwing bombs. That would indicate a mastery of basic manufacturing to even be able to construct a bomb. Some of them fail to show even a mastery of being able to construct fecal matter without instructions or help.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
8:19 pm
SoCo
@ 8:15
Which is why I take all the glowing reports with a grain of salt…it’s downward mobility and that’s not good…
Tucker
March 30th, 2011
8:19 pm
“Georgia’s long-term unemployed about to be abandoned”
At this point there’s not much excuse for being long-term unemployed, barring disability. The recession has officially been over for nearly two years and businesses are hiring workers. Some of the LTUs probably won’t take jobs they feel are beneath them, others maybe just like getting paid to sit @ home and watch Oprah.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
8:19 pm
“Some of them fail to show even a mastery of being able to construct fecal matter without instructions or help”
No argument there!
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:19 pm
the potential is there for it to happen. Even if slowly.
I can see that, but I believe it will be slower than pine tar sap in December. Where my skepticism comes into play is those incidents or barriers i.e. well-contributed politicians that would get in the way.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:20 pm
josef
Add a few extra grains and a wedge of lemon. It makes things much better to handle.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
8:22 pm
“well-contributed politicians that would get in the way”
Well, I don’t think they’re going to do much in the way of getting companies to stop sending jobs overseas…but I can’t see even the dumbest of them trying to seriously do anything to stop a company from actually hiring more people here.
Jay
March 30th, 2011
8:22 pm
I wish that were true, Tucker. But here in Georgia, the unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, and the real one is considerably higher, which is why the extended benefits are available here.
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
8:23 pm
Some of the LTUs probably won’t take jobs they feel are beneath them, others maybe just like getting paid to sit @ home and watch Oprah.
Somebody is probably talking out their ass.
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 30th, 2011
8:23 pm
I wonder how many Americans Doggone hired this year.
@@
March 30th, 2011
8:25 pm
This is kinda funny. I’m thinking out loud…
to myself.
That’s O.K., it’s likely no arguments will ensue between me, myself and I.
Some of the best thinking takes place in my own brain.
(ISH)
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
8:25 pm
The recession has officially been over for nearly two years and businesses are hiring workers.
Not where I live.
it’s downward mobility and that’s not good…
To turn a cliche around, a falling tide lowers all boats.
On the subject of another Meltdown:
I wouldn’t be surprised, at all, to see another one, in the not so distant future. Nothing, that I can see, has been done to change the behaviors that caused this one. Everything is still the same in the financial world and those too big to fail, are still too big to fail.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:28 pm
Somebody is probably talking out their ass.
I’m not even gonna tell you what my mind interpreted that statement as when I first glanced at it.
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 30th, 2011
8:28 pm
…and Fan and Fred are still around, funding failure.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
8:29 pm
“Nothing, that I can see, has been done to change the behaviors that caused this one”
but don’t leave out of the equation the power that investors have to NOT buy “too good to be true” investments. They’re going to be a LOT waryier (sp?) in the future.
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
8:30 pm
Hillbilly Deluxe
Like as not there is investment $ looking for another bubble to inflate.
In the 90s it was dotcom.
In the 00s it was our homes.
In the 10s it could be our children’s education if we are conned into privatizing education.
Easy to sell the idea of growth in the for-profit education model.
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 30th, 2011
8:33 pm
…and a whole bunch of that money looking for an investment is being pumped out by the federal government via deficit spending, and the Fed, with the encouragement of the Idiot Messiah.
Mick
March 30th, 2011
8:35 pm
lbb
You really are monotonous with the name calling, in case you haven’t noticed most here are adults…
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
8:35 pm
but don’t leave out of the equation the power that investors have to NOT buy “too good to be true” investments. They’re going to be a LOT waryier (sp?) in the future.
Hopefully, that’s the case. These things are more driven by the institutional investors than the individual investor, though. The institutional people haven’t shown me that they’ve learned anything, so far.
Kamchak
Good point you have there. I’m no financial expert but I see a gold bubble in our future and the speculators are driving up the price of gas again. I’ve always thought the futures markets do very little good and create a whole of problems. People looking to skim $$$ off the top, for doing virtually nothing. Good for them if they hit it right but I don’t think it’s good for the country.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
8:37 pm
Mick
I would’ve thought that by now LBB would have gotten around to calling him the False Messiah!
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
8:40 pm
Hillbilly
I had to run a spell check on that one! “warier ”
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
8:42 pm
josef
Someday, I’m going to write my own dictionary. There’ll be English professors dropping out like flies.
Mick
March 30th, 2011
8:43 pm
josef
That would definately be something new….I left the name calling bit in say…..first grade….really always thought it to be juvenile imho…
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
8:44 pm
Headline: “Obama in 2002 – Toppling Brutal Dictator a ‘Dumb War’ ”
(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, as an Illinois state senator in 2002, said that using military force to topple a murderous dictator amounted to a “dumb war” and should be opposed.
The “dumb war” Obama was criticizing was the planned invasion of Iraq and the murderous dictator was its leader, Saddam Hussein. Obama, speaking at an anti-war rally in Chicago on Oct. 2, 2002 said that while Saddam was a brutal tyrant, that was not enough to justify using military force to remove him from power.”
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
8:44 pm
For anybody interested in the eagles, they are due to start hatching in a couple days or so.
http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles
Mick
March 30th, 2011
8:45 pm
hd
I’m with you on those presidents selling us out to the global economy, instead of them being raised to our levels, we are sinking to theirs…..the dam is going to break eventually…
Mick
March 30th, 2011
8:46 pm
scout
For the love of pete, these conflicts are about as similar as mars and uranus…
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
8:47 pm
And I don’t hate the rich…gently sauteed in lemon butter garlic with fresh baby asparagus and a nice dry Riesling they can be quite tasty..
Damn josef, that is funny with a capital F!
I love the con “answer” to unemployment. Ridiculous underemployment!
Take a guy with a wife and three kids who was making $75K a year at his profession and then tell him the solution is go work for $12 an hour somewhere indefinitely.
Long live the Plutocracy!
RW-(the original)
March 30th, 2011
8:47 pm
For anybody interested in the eagles, they are due to start hatching in a couple days or so.
Maybe we’ll have little Eagles for a Friday night theme.
@@
March 30th, 2011
8:47 pm
Easy to sell the idea of growth in the for-profit education model.
My husband has often entertained that prospect but for now it’s rental property.
One more unit to renovate. Everybody needs a place to live. Not a slumlord, mind you. He’s actually got a waiting list. When renters look at what he’s done, they’re eager. He’s gonna build small decks for the occupants in two of his units. They pay on time and he wants them to stay happy. What’s a little lumber and labor, right.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:49 pm
HD
CNN ran a story on the eagles this morning. I think I remember them saying that the resolution on the cameras was high enough that you could see the cracks in the egg shells when they start hatching. My resolution doesn’t look that high though.
Doggone/GA
March 30th, 2011
8:50 pm
“These things are more driven by the institutional investors than the individual investor, though. The institutional people haven’t shown me that they’ve learned anything, so far.”
Yeah, but on the other hand a lot of them are like sheep. All it takes is one bellwether to lead the way and most of them will follow meekly along.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
8:50 pm
Everything is still the same in the financial world and those too big to fail, are still too big to fail.
Aye, there’s the rub my friend.
In fact, the headlong rush to further empower the imperious banksters, etc. rolls merrily along.
Thanks in no small part to the guppies who think the last debacle was just a market correction…
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
8:51 pm
Speaking of Friday, it’s opening day for MLB. I hope Nate McLouth bounces back and has a good year. I’ve always liked the way he plays the game.
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 30th, 2011
8:52 pm
Take a guy with a wife and three kids who was making $75K a year at his profession and then tell him the solution is go work for $12 an hour somewhere indefinitely.
———–
Still waiting for the Idiot Messiah’s solution.
RW-(the original)
March 30th, 2011
8:53 pm
Hillbilly D,
Opening day is tomorrow.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:53 pm
Take a guy with a wife and three kids who was making $75K a year at his profession and then tell him the solution is go work for $12 an hour somewhere indefinitely.
He’s good then. Most places pay $7.25 an hour. At $12/hr, he can gross almost $25k. If he’s able to get overtime or time and a half for holidays, then he could even eclipse $30k. He’d show how much of a hard worker he really is then. And then, he’d earn his bootstraps and pull himself up. The End…
@@
March 30th, 2011
8:53 pm
Hillbilly:
Waiting for eggs to hatch is like watching grass grow.
Are the two hummingbirds the babies or the parents?
I’m afraid to look at the owls for fear I’ll see blood and guts being consumed.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
8:55 pm
Baseball starts tomorrow, but there’s only a few games. I’m in agreement on Friday as Opening Day….
@@
March 30th, 2011
8:55 pm
And is that a bird t*rd dangling off the twig on the right?
@@
March 30th, 2011
8:56 pm
Move over fatso, you’re hogging the nest.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
8:57 pm
RW
Well, I’m a Cub fan. Their opening day is Friday. I guess it’s fitting they start the season behind.
@@
The 2 hummingbirds are the babies. They should be flying pretty soon. You may not want to watch the eagles once they hatch. They eat dead stuff, too.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
8:58 pm
Screw those birds! And the damn tree huggers!
Where’s my DDT?
Barry, I suppose you’re unaware that unemployment continues to drop and that job cuts are decreasing dramatically.
I still have grave reservations about the aftermath of the attempted corporate destruction of capitalism, but the further we get away from September 2008, the better.
And I never thought I’d say this, but as obnoxious as you are, you are still a delight compared to the daytime duo of the out-of-control auto-responder and Frank Burns (He ain’t no Eastwood character.)
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
9:00 pm
@@
Yes, that’s a turd.
Maybe we can find you some Bluebirds to watch a little later. They are very clean birds. They take their turds away from the nest. I can sit an watch them for hours in my yard. I’m easily entertained, I guess.
josef nix
March 30th, 2011
9:00 pm
gotta run…’night all
WOW
March 30th, 2011
9:04 pm
“An you know, as long as the right leans on that “liberal media” crutch to explain the lack of popular support for their ideas, they’re going to have a hard time.”
That MUST be why CNN, MessNBC, CBS, PBS etc are all failing in the ratings. Katie getting booted from CBS nightly news, Ed Schmuck being moved to 11 pm, Keith Olbermann being fired, etc..
Yep, the right is having a hard time with the left wing media.
Hey, how are sales at the NY Times, WaPost etc? LOL
RW-(the original)
March 30th, 2011
9:05 pm
Sorry, but the Reds play tomorrow so that’s Opening Day.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
9:05 pm
“But here in Georgia, the unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, and the real one is considerably higher, which is why the extended benefits are available here.”
So what you’re really saying is you want people to remain unemployed forever.
RW-(the original)
March 30th, 2011
9:07 pm
Hillbilly D,
That Reds game is against the Brewers so your Cubbies will be a half game up on somebody when they hit the field.
@@
March 30th, 2011
9:10 pm
Hillbilly:
If they don’t take to the air soon, it’s time for a bigger house…separate bedrooms. I’m sure I’ve seen a bluebird. Are they blue?
I sneaked a peek at the owls. They’re ugly little things. The mother looks like a tropical monkey. Some species prefer vinyl, stone, wood or carpet beneath their feet. Owls prefer poop. At least the hummingbirds hang theirs out on the line. I assume they washed it first?
(ISH)
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
9:12 pm
RW
That may be their best position of the year!!…………If the Cubs play .500 ball this year, I’ll figure they had a good year. They got some guys on the farm that are a year or two away, if they don’t trade them away.
Be interesting to see what Fredi Gonzalez does with the Braves. I think he’ll do well but we’ll see.
AmVet
March 30th, 2011
9:12 pm
Hey guys, a really great story about one of my favorite “little” guys who made it big in the bigs.
http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201103/beloved-baseball-family-gives-live
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
9:15 pm
@@
This is a bluebird. Like most birds, the male is the more colorful.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bluebird+pictures&view=detail&id=B68C5143BF174DB0EC625035799A859DFD52DCCF&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
9:16 pm
Be interesting to see what Fredi Gonzalez does with the Braves. I think he’ll do well but we’ll see.
This time tomorrow, we should be sitting atop the NL East.
Del
March 30th, 2011
9:17 pm
Many people and well before this so called great recession have had to take steps back and sometimes several steps back to regroup, rebuild in order to move back up. Life isn’t fair, never has and never will be.
godless heathen
March 30th, 2011
9:17 pm
“Some of the LTUs probably won’t take jobs they feel are beneath them, others maybe just like getting paid to sit @ home and watch Oprah.”
Like I said at the top, it’s almost onion picking time down in Vidalia. But we have to import workers to pick the onions? Fortunately, I have a job, but if I didn’t I’d be thumbing down to Vidalia as long as I was able before I took charity.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
9:17 pm
“Be interesting to see what Fredi Gonzalez does with the Braves. I think he’ll do well but we’ll see.”
ESPN picked the Braves to win the East. Three ESPN writers picked them to win the WS. They have a lot of young talent and some very very good pitchers. Craig Kimbrel is a lot like Billy Wagner and throws in the high 90s. Uggla, Prado, Jones, Heyward and Mccann will all do well.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
9:18 pm
It’s always good to see a player like David Eckstein, who uses their noteriety for doing good.
JohnnyReb
March 30th, 2011
9:18 pm
“An you know, as long as the right leans on that “liberal media” crutch to explain the lack of popular support for their ideas, they’re going to have a hard time.”
Jay, about the time you posted the above, my boss was calling dinner. So apologies for being tardy, but I must comment.
The Right’s ideas seem unpopular to you because they are against your ideology. The issue is, are they as unpopular as legacy media portrays? Recent voting history says no.
@@
March 30th, 2011
9:18 pm
Thanks, Hillbilly. Very pretty.
Okay…somethin’ just landed on my screen. Which one of you fellas spit?
Enjoy your baseballs. Don’t forget to make the necessary adjustments.
(ISH)
I’m out.
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 30th, 2011
9:21 pm
The new Georgia Tax Policy that is being debated in the GA House of Representatives today will not allow tax deductions for charity or church giving. It is important that you contact your House of Representatives member today and tell them you are opposed to that change in the GA Tax Policy.
…It is urgent that you do this today and send this information to your contacts as well so they can do the same.
H. Ray Newman
State Missionary
Ethics and Public Affairs
Georgia Baptist Convention
6405 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097
In other words, charitable giving doth not transcend the need for a tex deduction in order to make it more palatable.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
9:21 pm
But we have to import workers to pick the onions?
They import people so they can pay substandard wages. If you can’t get people to work for you, then you have to pay more. Isn’t that how the free market is supposed to work? Yes, that increases your cost and you charge more. That’s how the free market is supposed to work, too. Then people decide whether they want your onions enough to pay more for them.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
9:24 pm
In other words, charitable giving doth not transcend the need for a tex deduction in order to make it more palatable.
I can only speak for me but I’ve never taken a deduction for anything I’ve given to charity. To me, that would be giving for the wrong reason. It’s everybody’s choice what they do, though.
godless heathen
March 30th, 2011
9:24 pm
This country is rich enough such that noone should go hungry and noone should be without adequate clothing and shelter. That doesn’t mean you should sit in your $400,000 home and collect unemployment benefits and feed your rugrats with food stamps until a “good” job comes along. My grandpa once said, “Any job is a good job, some are just better.”
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
9:27 pm
Then people decide whether they want your onions enough to pay more for them.
Varsity onion rings are expensive enough. Any higher and I’ll just have to forgo the pleasure.
killerj
March 30th, 2011
9:29 pm
AARP doesn,t care,they have all your tax money,Goldman&Sachs doesn,t care they have all your tax money and just think they only ask for more,lets not forget fannie&mac,until you go after the real problem this is what you get,out of control Government that,s all about themselves.Go Tea Party.
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 30th, 2011
9:31 pm
Nite all.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
9:32 pm
That doesn’t mean you should sit in your $400,000 home and collect unemployment benefits and feed your rugrats with food stamps until a “good” job comes along.
Sounds like grandiose hyperbole to me, but I imagine anyone who’s in a $400k house ain’t getting by too well on UB here in GA. Some people are “lucky” enough to find employment quickly after losing a job, but current conditions are not very condusive for finding a job if you’re unemployed.
Road Scholar
March 30th, 2011
9:32 pm
Hillbilly: On a news show they interviewed a farmer dependant on immigrant workers in Oregon. They did production rate studies comparing the immigrants to American workers. The immigrants picked at a rate 4 times the rate of the Americans. Even at the same low wage paid, the cost for Americans to do the same job as the immigrants was 4 times the standard. Most of the Amricans quit after one day!
godless heathen
March 30th, 2011
9:39 pm
They pay onion pickers what their value is. If someone will pick onions for $5.00 an hour and our benevolent government has decided that it will cost the grower $7.25 an hour for you to pick the onions, the grower is going to go with the less expensive labor, and you will be at home unemployed. I bet American citizens can pick onions just as well as Mexicans. But Vidalia onions will cost a bit more than imported Mexican Sweets. But if the Vidalia is a safer food product, grown by Americans, and properly marketed, they will outsell the imported product.
godless heathen
March 30th, 2011
9:42 pm
“but current conditions are not very condusive for finding a job if you’re unemployed.”
Onions are ready.
godless heathen
March 30th, 2011
9:43 pm
“Most of the Amricans quit after one day!”
Why? Physically inferior? Too dumb? Or not hungry enough?
WOW
March 30th, 2011
9:44 pm
Southern Comfort
You gonna watch the HBO Auburn/LSU/Ohio State hit piece tonight?
Real Sports reporter Andrea Kremer says in the show, “there is no documentation, receipts, letters, emails proving he got the money.”
CNNSI writer Stewart Mandel asks a very important question: HBO confirmed to us they have no proof that any of these claims are true …” So I ask again, why are they running them?
Seems like some washed up ex-Auburn players are angry. HBO refused to air many other ex-Auburn stars who call McClover and the other three a bunch of liars.
Doesn’t make sense that 4 crappy ex-Auburn players would get paid but not stars like Cadillac, Brown, Campbell, Rosegreen etc..
Anyway, McClovers high school coach came out and called McClover a liar. The folks at RollBamaRoll are calling it a bunch of nothing.
Kamchak
March 30th, 2011
9:50 pm
Why? Physically inferior? Too dumb? Or not hungry enough?
A generation of punk-assed desk jockeys that hasn’t done a lick of physical labor, that’s why.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
9:51 pm
godless
I’ve talked to a recruiter who goes to Cent. America regularly to hire guest workers for citrus growers in FL. They pay $10 an hour. After you take rent, bills, groceries, and other essentials into account, I’d like to see you work and provide for a family in S. Florida on $10/hr…
WOW
I’m not watching it. I believe all major programs throw money at those kids. Bama had one booster in Memphis that got killed years ago who was reportedly the top dollar man at the Capstone. Personally, I think they should all get paid. The schools and NCAA makes millions off of them, so why shouldn’t the athletes get a cut?
WOW
March 30th, 2011
9:54 pm
Southern Comfort
I’ll never understand why a student athlete isn’t allowed to make money yet the school can make millions off of one or two stars. I think the four ex-players are angry about not making it big in the pros. McClover even stated that he’d do the interview if HBO would give money to his “charity.” Many other players have come out and called these four guys a bunch of liars.
Anyway, unless something major comes out, ya know like real evidence, I’m just gonna sit back and laugh. I guess when you’re on top, everyone is gunning to bring you down.
Jack
March 30th, 2011
9:55 pm
These “benefits” being bandied about are paid by employers, not the government.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
9:58 pm
I think the four ex-players are angry about not making it big in the pros.
I think that’s usually the catalyst in every single incident where the athlete “comes clean” years after leaving school. When I was in elementary school, there were football players from my hometown that ended up with brand new cars after they signed with both AU and UA. It goes with the territory.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
9:59 pm
Southern Comfort
Yeah, but McClover got caught in a lie a few years ago when he said he was given a car. Turned out he took his Pell Grant money and bought a used car.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
10:00 pm
Jack
Once that initial 26 weeks is up, the “extended” benfits are fully funded by government.
TIme to call it quits……..
Later y’all.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 30th, 2011
10:02 pm
WOW
Haven’t heard about that one. I don’t have evidence to back it up, but I wholeheartedly believe there’s some payola going on in college football. It might not be substantial, but it’s human nature to push the envelope on things.
WOW
March 30th, 2011
10:11 pm
Southern Comfort
Auburn has taken a beating from the media since November. I’m not saying Auburn is clean but it is awfully strange that people are out for blood against Auburn.
Ohio State’s coach got caught in a flat out lie and yet nothing happens to Ohio State.
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
10:12 pm
Did someone say France?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYFxGPkPTyw
WOW
March 30th, 2011
10:14 pm
Southern Comfort
This is interesting.
Regarding McClover’s claims to have gone “to a booster that I knew” and asked for $7,000 to buy a car while at Auburn, Junior Rosegreen, a former high school and college teammate of McClover said this:
“Stanley bought that car with his Pell Grant money. I know that for a fact. I was there when he did it.”
- Rosegreen reiterated Wednesday what he said earlier this month in an interview with AuburnSports.com:
“Stanley is bitter with everybody because he blew $1.2 million at the strip club. He went to the strip club three times a week. He was making it rain with 20-, 10-, 5- and 1-dollar bills and now he’s broke. He shouldn’t get mad at Coach (Tommy) Tuberville, Coach (Eddie) Gran and the Auburn Family because he blew his money.”
- Rosegreen on whether or not HBO compensated McClover for the interview:
“He called me after (HBO) first contacted him and left a message. I then called him back and he told me that Auburn screwed him over and didn’t do anything for him. He said he was going to bash them. He said he was going to put something out there saying they paid him. I said, ‘What are you going to put out there on them?’ He said, ‘I’m going to put it out there that they paid me.’ I said, ‘Stanley, you know they didn’t pay you.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to put it out there anyways.’
“HBO gave him $20,000. He told (Dillard) Coach Herman Lovett that HBO paid him $20,000 for the interview.”
HBO continues to deny that it compensates anyone for interviews. Lovett could not be reached for comment.
Paulo977
March 30th, 2011
10:31 pm
Harry C
re: Mary Elizabeth’s “the money those state workers would have earned, by working, is no longer available to them to spend on food or rent, or other needs, ” It’s known as the multiplier effect … you did do Econ 101 didn’t you?
1811/1801 - 0311/0317
March 30th, 2011
10:31 pm
Headline: “Poll: Obama’s approval hits new low”
“President Barack Obama’s approval rating and prospects for reelection have plunged to all-time lows in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Half of the registered voters surveyed for the poll think that the president does not deserve a second term in office, while 41 percent say he does. In another Quinnipiac poll released just four weeks ago, 45 percent said the president did not deserve reelection, while 47 percent said he did.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52208.html#ixzz1I8lpAu1F
Paulo977
March 30th, 2011
10:38 pm
Obama’s approval rating gallup poll
http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx
Cowboy Curtis
March 30th, 2011
10:52 pm
You know…I’m all for helping a man when’s he down….but where do you draw the line? I’m not sure how long these people have been unemployed….but is 12 months of benefits enough? 18? Is there a limit? If a person cannot find a job after 12 months of looking, then I”ve got to think they just don’t want to work bad enough and that the unemployment pays TOO well.
The Thin Guy
March 30th, 2011
10:58 pm
Indeed, we are all suffering in The Great Pelosi Recession. The problem with unemployment compensation and other government handouts is they go to the wrong people. I have known many people who were told they had two choices: quit or be fired for cause. In either case you don’t get unemployment compensation. And I have know many people who were simply laid off, took their unemployment compensation and had a party until it ran out and then got another job. Call it what it is: welfare. The dole. Not everyone can get a job writing for the ajc. Some people have pride.
getalife
March 30th, 2011
11:07 pm
Told you Auburn cheats.
Give the Championship to LSU and take away the Heisman.
Gandalf, The White
March 30th, 2011
11:24 pm
Get rid of the illegals, including those in our Schools and thing will get better.
STOP THE INVASION OF AMERICAN BY ILLEGAL MEXICANS!
This is our country, not Mexico!
vuduchld
March 31st, 2011
12:00 am
Seems like Jawja has become a complete mess. Sky high unemployment, a bankrupt gubner, idiotic politicians. Not a day passes that I laugh out loud at this pitiful, pathetic state, one that is fast approaching Somalia status. So, why do you dimwitted citizens continue to pay these bottom feeder Tea Begger their salaries. Seems to me, these maggots need to work for free since they’re demanding that you do the same. Why haven’t they cut their salaries,saving you welfare monkeys precious dollars. You folks in Jawja land love being taken for a ride don’t you? Year after year you vote in the same idiots, just with a different name. Me, I’m sick and tired seeing my federal dollars going to support you maggots. You conservafrauds keep preaching succession, what’s the hold up? I can’t wait for that to happen because all you toothless rebels have ever been was deadweight. NOW GET UP AND GET THE HELL OUT OF MY COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thulsa Doom
March 31st, 2011
12:17 am
WOW,
I am an Alabama fan but I’m also one of those rare people who also pulls for AU when they’re not playing Bama. There’s a few people like me in the state. Just not many.
On the AU situtation I am inclined to believe McClover is a lying fool. The man played a couple years in the NFL so we know he made at least a couple million most likely. And now he’s broke?
I think Rosegreen is right when he says McClover is a liar and is just mad at the world that he blew all his money and now has not a damn thing to show for himself. No education, blew all his money from the NFL at strip clubs, jobless. Total freaking loser. Its possible that the other 3 AU players have an axe to grind for similar reasons- Chaz Ramsey has been angry for awhile over his shoulder injury.
On the other hand though it is hard to believe that all 4 of them are lying. What are the odds that all 4 chose to make pariahs of themselves and for what purpose?
In regards to the whole premise of the article as to how much money players make for the instiution cry me a river. They have a chance for a fully funded education.
It is up to them to go to class, actually learn something, and earn a meaningful degree. You can’t make someone take advantage of a fantastic opportunity put before them. They’ve got to want it and if they just choose to piss it away then that’s on them.
We got 18 year olds in Afgh and throughout the military tasked with tremendous responsibilities, some life and death decisions, and handling multi-million dollar equipment and fighting wars where they could die. And working for less than minimum wage when you factor in all the hours they really work. And most of them are there cause their families didn’t have the money to send them to college.
These football and basketball players that are given this tremendous opportunity for a full college education with all the perks who then piss it all away I have no sympathy for. None.
Thulsa Doom
March 31st, 2011
12:19 am
vuduchild,
Go back to your roach infested housing project and sound crazy there.
Big Steve
March 31st, 2011
5:10 am
I sure see alot of help wanted signs out there …
Kinda sucks for all the free-loaders to have to put their boots-on and pull themselves up back into earning their way… Like we all have had to do in our lives…
I recall all the hand-wringing by the left about Newt’s Welfare Reform. What happened to the welfare slackers when they were cut-off? They all went and got jobs…
Dr. Craig Spinks
March 31st, 2011
5:18 am
Jay,
Does the GDOL track the employment status of people who exhaust their unemployment benefits?
TnGelding
March 31st, 2011
6:20 am
Food stamps are available to the truly down and out. Some of those drawing unemployment compensation are millionaires. The timing is good, too. By the end of June they should be able to find work. That money appoved by the feds has to be repaid.
seabeau
March 31st, 2011
6:45 am
Jay! Studies done in Europe,which has most liberal unemployment benefits in the world, have shown without a doubt a correlation between the termination of benefits and the resumption in employment. In other words, the longer we pay them at home ,the longer they will atay at home.
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:07 am
mornin’.
Jay! Studies done in Europe
I’m having Rula Lenska flashbacks, here.
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:08 am
My first presumption upon reading Jay’s piece was that some people in positions of power in GA are simply sociopathic.
See also:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/430/very-tough-love?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+talpodcast+%28This+American+Life+Podcast%29
josef nix
March 31st, 2011
7:10 am
Whoo-whee…500 posts and still on topic!
Repeat after me…put ‘em all in one place and blow ‘em the hell up. Then send all the illegals home and hire a bunch of Phd’s to pick the onions (do you “pick” onions?) Pay them a wage enough to meet the mortgage on that $400 K house and meet the note on the nazimobile they deserve since they’ve worked so hard for it…sounds like a solution to the problem to me…
Well, off to the old plantation at the local schoolhouse…gotta get the little b*ggers ready for standardized testing so we can up our low-down-good-for nothing teacher’s salaries…glad to know the world’s in good hands here at Jay’s Allstate agency…
Jimmy62
March 31st, 2011
7:17 am
Last I checked, the government was already spending more than they take in. Where is this $175 million coming from?
Jay, why don’t you start a charity to help these people. You’ll do a lot more good that way than by writing whiny columns.
Mongo
March 31st, 2011
7:20 am
More job killing conservative budget cuts. Wait and watch Georgia’s unemployment rate skyrocket while the rest of the country recovers.
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:22 am
gotta get the little b*ggers ready for standardized testing
I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to say “buggers.”
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:23 am
It would beggar belief that the bluenose wouldn’t allow “buggers.”
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:24 am
Wait and watch Georgia’s unemployment rate skyrocket while the rest of the country recovers.
No, it’ll just be a little worse (like a point or two), which the local sociopaths here will attribute to a lack of Personal Sponsability.
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:26 am
It’s stupid to cut spending at a time of high unemployment.
(I have to keep saying that since our Uppity Illegal Alien Preznit seems to have forgotten how.)
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:28 am
(do you “pick” onions?)
I can dig it.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
7:30 am
“Give the Championship to LSU and take away the Heisman.”
getajob doesn’t realize that LSU is now being looked at by the NCAA. getajob also doesn’t realize that LSU lost 2 games and didn’t finish anywhere near the top 10.
No one is going to take away the BCS championship from Auburn.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
7:36 am
“On the other hand though it is hard to believe that all 4 of them are lying. What are the odds that all 4 chose to make pariahs of themselves and for what purpose?”
It is interesting that all four former players were a bust and went broke. It’s also interesting that none of them have named names. It’s also interesting that HBO admits that they have nothing to back up the claims. It’s also interesting that HBO decided not to air 30 former Auburn players who all call BS on the whole thing.
I’m not saying Auburn is squeaky clean because they’re not. BUT, McClover got $20,000 from HBO for his special “charity.”
I do commend you on being a fair minded Bama fan. Wish there were more like you but unfortunately most of the Bama fans I know never set foot inside a U of Bama classroom.
LSU is under the microscope for several new accusations. One being Patrick Peterson being paid $80,000.
JMoore
March 31st, 2011
7:37 am
We must not let “welfare” be transformed into “unemployment benefits”. Time to fish or cut bait.
Road Scholar
March 31st, 2011
7:39 am
godless heathen @9:43: It was tooooooo Haaaaaaard!
The only way the farmer could explain it was that the immigrant workers did this for generations and at an early age, so their dexterity was second nature. The “Americans” probably wanted a break each hour, and constantly took calls on their cell phones!
Road Scholar
March 31st, 2011
7:41 am
Some one posted above that a person who owns a home should give it up to get unemployment…have you heard about the housing market? And just who would buy it?
Howard
March 31st, 2011
7:45 am
If this is Republican “right” thinking I want no part of it. Why would we not help the unemployed AND at the same time pump this money into our state economy. Would Republicans rather the unemployed and their families go homeless and without food and NOT spend unemployment benefit checks in local businesses also helping boast them? Who are they trying to punish just to make a point…all of us?
Doggone/GA
March 31st, 2011
7:45 am
“Some one posted above that a person who owns a home should give it up to get unemployment”
I hate it when Jay does posts on subjects like this. It seems to bring out the worst in some people, who I truly believe will not be “happy” until they see beggers in the streets.
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
7:49 am
“Georgia’s long-term unemployed about to be abandoned”
Is anybody actually surprised by this?
Georgia’s GOP has nothing but disdain for poor Georgians.
Do they still call it compassionate conservatism or is it ok to call it what it really is – class warfare?
Truly disgusting.
Rational
March 31st, 2011
7:50 am
Something tells me that the majority of the long-term unemployed don’t want to work, and are perfectly happy to get their check from the government every week. Everyone I know that lost their job and has actually tried to find a new one have found a new job. Many people I know have changed jobs during the last couple of years. I’m not saying this is all of the long-term unemployed, but I do feel like it is a large portion of them. If you are qualified to work, then you can find a job – if you’ve been sitting at home, not working for the past two or so years because you “can’t” find a job, all you’re doing is making yourself less employable. If I have a position come open at my business, I’m not going to hire the guy that has been on long-term unemployment because I’m going to have to assume that he is lazy and hasn’t wanted a job.
TnGelding
March 31st, 2011
7:51 am
josef nix
March 31st, 2011
7:10 am
Have a great day! Thanks for your dedication to the children and our future!
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:51 am
Why would we not help the unemployed AND at the same time pump this money into our state economy.
Because (in no small part) our Preznit has adopted the idiotic rhetoric of the right in asserting that “belt tightening” needs to happen, which gives the truly sociopathic right wingers cover to revert to their feral states.
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
7:52 am
Rational
Best guess….what do you think the percentage is of the Geogia long term unemployed who are lazy and don’t want to work?
You say large portion. 80%? 60%?
stands for decibels
March 31st, 2011
7:53 am
Anyway, producin’ awaits. Be excellent to one another.
Rational
March 31st, 2011
7:57 am
Best guess 90%+. Like I said, everyone I know has been able to find a job within a few months of being laid off if they truly looked and didn’t turn their noses up at a job that didn’t pay as much as what they were making before. If you don’t take the job that pays $300 a week because your unemployment pays almost that much and you don’t have to do anything for it then you’re being lazy and don’t want to work. That is my opinion. I don’t expect anyone like you to agree with it.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
7:58 am
So where are all those shovel ready jobs Obama promised from the 2009 stimulus packages?
Normal
March 31st, 2011
7:59 am
Rational,
You are being irrational. I would agree that there is a small percentage of people out there who will shun work if they can still get a paycheck from the Government, but it is patently unfair to paint all of the unemployed with that brush. I have a neighbor, back from the Military, wife and a one year old son. His wife was laid off around six months ago, and he tries as hard as he can to find work and will do
just about anything legal to feed his family and pay his mortgage. I’ve hired him to help out around the house because of my knees. I have them over around once a week to ensure they have at least one good meal. He’s proud, he wants work, but he can’t get hired. What is he to do without unemployment benefits?
Joe the Plumber Too
March 31st, 2011
7:59 am
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. There are plenty of jobs out there if the layabouts didn’t feel they were too good to some of the jobs. If you can’t accept a job beneath what you feel is your station in life, then start your own business. This is America, take care of yourself and get off the taxpayers teet.
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
8:01 am
90+ Percent?
That’s what you really think?
Oh my God.
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:07 am
I’m not saying all the unemployed aren’t trying to find work. I’m talking about the people that have been unemployed for two or so years. Using the recession as an excuse knowing that anyone who cuts their unemployment checks is going to be demonized by people like Jay. If I lost my job, and went 6 months or more not being able to find a job that would support me and my family, I would go on the road trying to find a job that would. Even if I had to sacrifice my time with my wife so I could have a good job somewhere.
I’m sure everyone here has a story like yours Normal. Where they know somebody who is trying very hard to find a job, but just can’t. Even that scenario doesn’t really make me think that they are trying hard enough. I can’t count the number of places I’ve passed that have “help wanted” signs on them. Yeah, you might have to get more than one job to cover your household expenses, and you might be working mornings at Starbucks and evenings at McDonald’s, but you’ll be working. I’m sorry for your friend, and what you’re doing, hiring him for odd jobs and feeding them once a week is a better solution than putting the government farther into debt. The state nor the country can afford it.
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
8:09 am
“Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:07 am
I’m not saying all the unemployed aren’t trying to find work.
But you are saying 90+% of them are lazy
So only 10% are looking for work?
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:10 am
No, I’m saying 90% of the long-term unemployed are lazy. Do you know how to completely read and comprehend the comments or are you too lazy for that?
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:12 am
“Georgia’s GOP has nothing but disdain for poor Georgians.”
Yeah, that’s it Granny. The GA GOP just hates the people of GA and wants nothing more than a bunch of out of work voters.
Geez, grow up.
Normal
March 31st, 2011
8:12 am
Rational,
All I can say is bless your heart…
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:13 am
“No, I’m saying 90% of the long-term unemployed are lazy.”
Got anything to back that up, Rational?
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:16 am
See, you’re only arguing from an emotional point of view. If you look at it logically, Normal, then you would understand that what I’m saying makes sense. You just don’t want to hear it because you feel that you are right, and that as long as these people are unemployed they deserve another extension of the taxpayers’ money. I’m fairly certain that the long-term unemployed haven’t done anything at all to deserve my money.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:16 am
“Something tells me that the majority of the long-term unemployed don’t want to work, and are perfectly happy to get their check from the government every week.’
Is that “something” the voices in your head, Rational? You have absolutely NOTHING to back up that asinine claim. There are a lot of people over the age of 45 who are looking for work but they can’t find work because of age discrimination.
Again, where are all those jobs Obama promised back in 08 and 09? Where is Obama’s “laser-like” focus on job creation?
Normal
March 31st, 2011
8:17 am
WOW,
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you make less than 250,000 dollars a year, the GOP will slap you on the back and say they’ve got it covered. They will call you a “true American” and shake your hand. They will even thank you for your vote and call you a fine fellow, but when they get the power, they will drop you like a hot rock, and cater to the people who make more than 250,000 dollars a year, their true bosses. They don’t care one fig about the common American, period,
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:17 am
“I’m fairly certain that the long-term unemployed haven’t done anything at all to deserve my money.”
WTH are you talking about?
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
8:17 am
Rational –
Back off the slurs and reread the question you were asked and answered.
Let me help you
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
7:52 am
Rational
Best guess….what do you think the percentage is of the Geogia long term unemployed who are lazy and don’t want to work?
You say large portion. 80%? 60%?
Rational
March 31st, 2011
7:57 am
Best guess 90%+. Like I said, everyone I know has been able to find a job within a few months of being laid off if they truly looked and didn’t turn their noses up at a job that didn’t pay as much as what they were making before. If you don’t take the job that pays $300 a week because your unemployment pays almost that much and you don’t have to do anything for it then you’re being lazy and don’t want to work. That is my opinion. I don’t expect anyone like you to agree with it.
and then this
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:10 am
No, I’m saying 90% of the long-term unemployed are lazy. Do you know how to completely read and comprehend the comments or are you too lazy for that?
Rational? Not so much.
90+%……Oh my God.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:19 am
“If you make less than 250,000 dollars a year, the GOP will slap you on the back and say they’ve got it covered.’
Then you’ll have no problem posting evidence to back up that claim.
“They will call you a “true American” and shake your hand. ”
Uh huh.
“They will even thank you for your vote and call you a fine fellow, but when they get the power, they will drop you like a hot rock, and cater to the people who make more than 250,000 dollars a year, their true bosses. ”
Got anything to back up that claim?
“They don’t care one fig about the common American, period,”
So where are all the jobs your cult leader promised?
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:19 am
My own observations are all I have to back it up. I’m not touting it as a hard statistic. Although, I’m sure, given how statistics can be manipulated to show anything you want, I could find a statistician that could back that up, but how would you measure it scientifically. I’m saying based off my experience, the people that aren’t being picky about what job they take, and actually get out and look are finding jobs. If you aren’t finding jobs then you’re being too picky or aren’t looking. If I’m paying for you to live with my taxes, I get to decide that you choosing to not look harder, or taking the jobs that you can find because they aren’t what you want to do, makes you lazy.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:19 am
Granny Godzilla
This might be the first time you and I agree on anything. Rational is anything BUT rational.
JMoore
March 31st, 2011
8:20 am
Don’t you love going to the grocery store to watch those paying for their items with food stamps while talking on their iPhone4?
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 31st, 2011
8:22 am
Per Georgia DOL:
How do I qualify for unemployment insurance benefits?
There are several qualification requirements, but these three are critical:
You must have earned enough money in the base period to set up a claim.
You must be unemployed through no fault of your own.
You must be able to work, be available for work, and be actively seeking work each week you claim benefits.
Some people are beyond irRational.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:22 am
“My own observations are all I have to back it up.’
Ok, so you have total bs to back up nothing.
“If I’m paying for you to live with my taxes, I get to decide that you choosing to not look harder, or taking the jobs that you can find because they aren’t what you want to do, makes you lazy.”
You aren’t paying me anything, Rational.
One more thing. Maybe one day you might need a kidney or a liver and one of those “lazy unemployed” people might have one that fits your arrogant body.
You may want to think twice about the hate filled garbage you spew.
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:23 am
Granny Godzilla, you tried to say that I thought 90% of the unemployed were lazy. I didn’t say that I said long-term unemployed. Then you accuse me of not reading what you wrote. Get a life.
WOW, I’m not arguing that the number of 90% came from my head. Like I said in my last post, it is based on my own observations. If you are over 45 and can’t find a job because you’re being discriminated against, then you need to either A – go back to school, technical or otherwise and get a new skill set, or B – look other places, there are plenty of older people working in the world today. I don’t hear a reason why you’re unemployed if you’re saying “I’m over 45, people are discriminating against me because of my age” I hear an excuse for you to not work.
Joe the Plumber Too
March 31st, 2011
8:24 am
Or the wife with 4 little snotnoses running around using the EBT card while hubby waits behind her to pay for the twelvepack and smokes, and that’s black, white and brown folks doing it.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:24 am
“Don’t you love going to the grocery store to watch those paying for their items with food stamps while talking on their iPhone4?”
This one always makes me chuckle.
Michelle Obama serves food to D.C. poor and homeless, but…the homeless guy has a cell phone.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/michelle-obama.html
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
8:25 am
WOW
Nice thing about being human….wonders never cease.
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
8:25 am
Let’s see ….prepaid cell phone versus land line….
Hmmmmmmmmmm
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:26 am
Personally my favorite was the day I was at the Publix in Buckhead buying lunch when the woman in front of me at the checkout counter paid for her food with food stamps, then went and got into her brand new (still had the dealer tags from RBM) Mercedes and drove off.
Joe the Plumber Too
March 31st, 2011
8:26 am
Or the spadex wearing thing a few months ago in Cobb County holding her cell phone screaming ” Show Me The Money” trying to get someone else to pay her heat bill.
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:27 am
“I’m not arguing that the number of 90% came from my head. Like I said in my last post, it is based on my own observations.”
Ok, so you made up a number off the top of your head and have nothing to back it up with except your “observation.” Got it.
“If you are over 45 and can’t find a job because you’re being discriminated against, then you need to either A – go back to school, technical or otherwise and get a new skill set, or B – look other places, there are plenty of older people working in the world today.”
HOW IN THE WORLD WILL SOMEONE OVER 45, WITH A HOUSE NOTE, KIDS ETC, NO JOB, NO INCOME BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL FOR FOUR YEARS??????????
Dude, do you even think before typing?
“I don’t hear a reason why you’re unemployed”
That’s because I’m not unemployed, Rat.
“if you’re saying “I’m over 45, people are discriminating against me because of my age” I hear an excuse for you to not work.”
Oh, I hear big fat lawsuit headed your way.
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
8:27 am
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:23 am
Granny Godzilla, you tried to say that I thought 90% of the unemployed were lazy. I didn’t say that I said long-term unemployed. Then you accuse me of not reading what you wrote. Get a life.
you most certainly said 90+% for all of us to read, best to change your name and pretend to be something other than rational
Normal
March 31st, 2011
8:27 am
Due to the financial melt down thanks to Bush & Co. the homeless lost their homes and jobs, but have had a cell phone. Let them keep it to try to keep getting back on their feet and not lose hope. I’d rather see them with the phone than face down in a gutter…
Normal
March 31st, 2011
8:28 am
BTW…New thread…
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:29 am
“Personally my favorite was the day I was at the Publix in Buckhead buying lunch when the woman in front of me at the checkout counter paid for her food with food stamps, then went and got into her brand new (still had the dealer tags from RBM) Mercedes and drove off.”
So Rat has decided to base his entire argument off a few morons who scam the system.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news Rat, but for the most part, people can’t find work because…..there ain’t no jobs to be had.
Again, where are all the jobs Obama promised back in 08?
metoo
March 31st, 2011
8:30 am
Looks like some of my right-wing friends who made 6 figures and are now out of work and on food stamps will have to get use to being called “bottom feeders” by their peers. They use to say the same about others.
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:31 am
Yeah, I mistyped there on that last post Granny. My bad. Here to make it clear what my thoughts are and what my opinions are:
I BELIEVE THAT 90+% OF THE LONG-TERM (key word here) UNEMPLOYED ARE TOO LAZY TO ACTUALLY FIND A JOB AND WORK.
There, that is what I believe.
Granny Godzilla
March 31st, 2011
8:33 am
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:31 am
Yeah, I mistyped there on that last post Granny. My bad. Here to make it clear what my thoughts are and what my opinions are:
I BELIEVE THAT 90+% OF THE LONG-TERM (key word here) UNEMPLOYED ARE TOO LAZY TO ACTUALLY FIND A JOB AND WORK.
There, that is what I believe.
Dear god in heaven….
WOW
March 31st, 2011
8:33 am
“I BELIEVE THAT 90+% OF THE LONG-TERM”
Which = total BULL $HIT.
JMoore
March 31st, 2011
8:34 am
We should have picked our own cotton.
Buzz G
March 31st, 2011
8:35 am
We need more pigs at the trough. Here piggy, piggy, piggy. Obama is here to feed you.
Rational
March 31st, 2011
8:36 am
WOW, I’ve never once accused you of being unemployed. I don’t know you, nor do I care if you’re employed or not. When I say “you” or “your” or “you’re” in a post, I mean it in the collective, general sense, not the specific sense where I’m picking on you directly.
There are jobs to be had, just not great jobs. I’ll admit that, I’ve said it before, you may have to work two or three jobs to get by, but if you really want to work, then you’re going to work those two or three jobs. And once again, I’m talking about the people that look for only a few jobs a week, the minimum number, probably at places they would never be qualified to work at in the first place, and sit back and draw their unemployment and do nothing else.
And, I haven’t been reading the comments and stuff long enough to know your political views WOW, but I don’t see how the government is supposed to create jobs. It isn’t their responsibility. They don’t create wealth – they seize it, so how can they create jobs?
HATE REPUBLICANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 31st, 2011
8:49 am
Atlanta = Detroit..Georgia= Michigan…all 4 are mismanaged…
md
March 31st, 2011
8:55 am
Greedy old guy,
I can only suggest you follow the entire exchange vs jumping into the middle and making yourself look silly………as I said before ….think about it.
(but it would help if you actually read everything before you try and think)
money deal
March 31st, 2011
8:57 am
my unemployment runs out in about 18 weeks—they need to jack the benefits way up and extend them for another year–the job market is terrible. The chump change I get now is not enough to pay all my bills.
Greedy Old People, Inc., A Magazine for the Privileged
March 31st, 2011
9:04 am
md,
Your attempt to divert attention from your claim that we all choose everything is humorous, at best. Just for another laugh, perhaps you would like to demonstrate your control over your autonomic system. I will not hold my breath while waiting though because to do so would be just plain silly. Think about it.
md
March 31st, 2011
9:10 am
We choose everything we do……………………..
You are having a hard time with your comprehension…………….
Give me one…just one….instance of something we “do” that we do not choose……………….
Silverchief
March 31st, 2011
9:11 am
JB you must love NASCAR……..Turn LEFT, Turn LEFT, Turn LEFT. Handouts forever……NOT!!!
vince neil
March 31st, 2011
9:20 am
I think the ue benefits equal around 1200 at the top of the earning scale…I want all of you to tell me that one could not find SOMETHING, even if is below your “status” that could earn this much a month….please tell me why should those UE not go find these….I am currently under employed in a role for which i have some passion, not withstanding, I am earning about 1/2 of what I did a few years ago…just FREAKING do it…good for the head and the heart…
Fletch
March 31st, 2011
9:20 am
Just an observation here, but since the new Labor Comissioner came in, I’ve noticed a distinct difference in the eligibility rulings that have been coming our clients way. By that, I mean that under Thurmond, the initial rulings were literally 80% in favor of the employee regardless of the amount of documentation provided by our employers showing just cause for termination. However, since January, I’ve seen a significant drop in what I call “rubberstamping”. I’m not against UI benefits for those that truly DESERVE them, however, I’ve had to argue far too many claims that were arbitrarliy awarded to people that clearly were at fault for their termination. Hopefully, with a little more analysis and a lot less rubberstamping, we can begin to whittle away at the gaping hole that is the GDOL UI fund.
md
March 31st, 2011
9:30 am
“Your attempt to divert attention from your claim that we all choose everything is humorous”
This is where YOUR problem lies, for I never once made that claim………..that is where the reading comprehension comes in.
Tired of BS
March 31st, 2011
9:34 am
I know a few long term unemployed people. One is going to school on the HOPE and Pell Grants while receiving unemployment and food stamps and no child support from a deadbeat dad. One is a mother with a small child and receives unemployment though she” has no desire to work”…. she’s “enjoying her free time being a mom”. My friend is unemployed and “working off the books” for someone so she can avoid taxes.
For every story you hear about someone who is truly looking for work while unemployed there are countless others who are bilking the system because they can. It is the same thing as theft in my mind.
I am not without compassion, we are simply unable to sustain the current status quo. I wish them well in their job search.
williebkind
March 31st, 2011
9:38 am
Have you noticed since this country did away with lifetime welfare we keep coming up with ways to give money away to most of the same folks? Look at what we have done! We have sent them to college and they have a degree! Their skills have not improved proportionately to the money we invested in their education. So education does not turn things around. We have OJT where these usual folks receive 10 weeks of training at $8.50 per hour for 32hrs a week. My point is where has welfare really stopped. It never will as long as liberals keep them on that voting plantation and determined to create a socialist state.
Fletch
March 31st, 2011
9:45 am
Tired of BS – “For every story you hear about someone who is truly looking for work while unemployed there are countless others who are bilking the system because they can.”
Amen! Here’s a perfect example for you. I’ve been fighting an unemployment claim for over a year on behalf of a client who had an employee that was fired for multiple violations of company policy.
Here’s the timeline:
Initial Filing – Employee Denied
Employee Appeal – Employee Denied
Employee Appeal to the Board of Review – Employee Denied
Employee Appeal to the Georgia Superior Court – Under Review
I learned from my client 6 months ago that this employee has been working since one week after he was terminated and receiving cash under the table. Clearly, he doesn’t need the UI benefits,but will do everything allowable under current Georgia Code to get those UI benefits that he “deserves”.
Again, this person has been employed since March of 2010, the Georgia Superior Court hearing was in February of 2011. Obviously the amount of money and man hours fighting this loser out weigh what what he would receive in UI (which is roughly $100.00 a week). However, it’s a classic example of the larger problem that exsists here in GA.
williebkind
March 31st, 2011
9:50 am
Fletch
March 31st, 2011
9:45 am
Good post! I agree.
ODDOWL
March 31st, 2011
5:01 pm
This is not rocket science…. Its very simple… Share the wealth, tax the rich, pay down the debt. 55 % top fed, income tax rate on the rich people who earn more than $250.000 a year. 40% corporate tax rate. 40% capital gain tax rate. Charge American multi-national corporations the same standard import tax and tariff on all products made overseas and shipped back to America. The Federal and State treasuries would be awash in money in no time flat. As long as the politicians don’t talk about taxing the rich. They’re just shuckin’ and jivin’.
99-Weeker
April 3rd, 2011
2:51 pm
“For every story you hear about someone who is truly looking for work while unemployed there are countless others who are bilking the system because they can. It is the same thing as theft in my mind.
I am not without compassion, we are simply unable to sustain the current status quo. I wish them well in their job search”.
THANK you.
And, as for those who have/are “gaming” the system, they are doing it at their own risk. Enough said.
Toby
April 3rd, 2011
2:59 pm
Don’t you just love it that we have so many people to look down on? A lot of you seem to need the ego boost.
steve brown
April 3rd, 2011
4:26 pm
If this happens I will put all my energy into having Deal recalled.
Granny Godzilla
April 4th, 2011
9:58 am
http://babies.icanhascheezburger.com/2011/04/01/funny-kids-pictures-wee-folk/“>Who is that handsome baby
Granny Godzilla
April 4th, 2011
10:00 am
Off Topic, but who is that good looking baby?