Why Aren't People In The Media Pushing the Story About Republicans Blocking Unemployment Benefits?
By Susie Madrak Wednesday Oct 28, 2009 6:15pmIs it really as simple as "I don't know anyone like that"? Because this is a huge crisis for millions. The longer the Republicans bottle up the unemployment benefits extension (for no other reason than they can), the more people without other options fall off the unemployment rolls.
You'd think someone in the media might see that as an important story. But maybe when journalists started getting hired from Ivy League schools, they lost any interest in what happens to the paycheck class.
Gee, I hope not. But I'd love to see some evidence to the contrary. The media should be out front, shaming these people:
In a conference call with reporters today, three Democratic Senators charged Republicans with obstructionism in all aspects of public policy, particularly stopping the Senate from passing a bill that would extend unemployment to millions of Americans, at a time when 7,000 Americans a day are losing their benefits.
Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) vowed to move forward with a motion to proceed on the unemployment bill, tied up with non-germane amendments (about things like ACORN funding and E-Verify which have already been voted on in the Senate in other forms) from Republicans that “amount to a political agenda” in Stabenow’s words, as soon as tomorrow. “The votes are there to pass this bill,” said Shaheen. Stabenow said that the bill could have passed a few weeks ago.
Asked by Mike Lillis of the Washington Independent, who has a writeup on this up, why the Senate cannot just plow forward on this bill, given their 60-vote majority in the Senate, Stabenow answered that “you can only do this one at a time.” She countered that Republicans have slow-walked practically all critical legislation since 2007, forcing cloture votes on ordinary measures to take up floor time and generally obstruct the legislation. Obstructionism in the Senate is not limited to filibusters, but also procedural actions when filibusters can be overcome. The result is a slow crawl that creates anxiety among Democrats and liberals and emboldens Republicans to claim that Democrats are running a “do-nothing” Congress. It’s a neat trick.
Democrats hope for a final vote on this bill by the end of the week.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_vssdys8lk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq_5QZDpY1Y
breath for the next Obama blame game..It is so scary to see the media --all of them- except the foreign press- pushing the stupidity and obstruction from the party with less than a 20% approval rating and NO concern for the people but the American media are corporations and not news organizations..Pitiful!
They don't CARE.
Well, there you go. That was easy.
they are watching the GAME!
Exactly!
Just like with the Health Care plans, the Repug plan being: if you get sick, just die - Quickly (and quietly, please).
The unemployment plan is similar: if you lose your job (as you say)
who cares???
They've got "Not in the Balloon Boy" to cover. They'll get around to the unemployment issue after they say a few words about the 30-male Republican Senators who voted agaist the Franken Anti-Rape Bill. Yes indeed, the "Hills are Alive with the Sound of Crickets."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGVhVShmfu8
something to do with the fact that they are not unemployed and therefore don't give a rodent's rectum about this issue?
Plus it leaves more money for them to shovel to their criminal pals on Wall Street.
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis...
Of course not---with some exceptions, they only care about pleasing their corporate pimps and collecting their nine pieces of silver so they can go to elite Beltway cocktail parties and boast to each other how great and important they are.
Their industry is a joke and for the most part, they are apathetic, selfish toadies more than willing to sell their integrity and conscience to the highest bidder.
I really like Stabenow as our Senator. She does more to shine a light on the crap republicans pull, and it's impact on working people than just about any other democrat.
Her staffers are by far the most helpful of any congressman I ever contacted.
Anyone still have doubts that republicans and their right wing ideology is demonic and anti American?
...just look at Urinald Schwarzenggroper's "NAZI death's head" belt buckle!
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,11010...
Arnold is a sick puppy.
?
tabloids?
... A "demon angle" would would fly in the tabloid news. ;P
Look at Balloon-Boy!
Because they are paid by the same people not to talk about it!
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
...on this one (a little)
After all, Obama has a huge war going in the middle east and we need to support him! (and the troops) with plenty of money. (gas costs 400 bucks a gallon over there)
...also the banks might need more money soon...we should be conservative and save some cash for Goldman Sachs...(just in case).
Geithner would want it so...
...I understand. :P
...should just do an end run around congress and just take over unemployment claims for the next year or so...
They wouldnt need congress' approval and it would be a great public relations stunt!
...a bunch of checks in the mail would surely help with that "audit The Fed" thing that Americans keep demanding...
Dear Ben, print us some money and we won't audit you...(this year)
NEBRASKA 4.9% unemployment
Sen. Mike Johanns [R, NE]
UTAH 6.2%
Sen. Orrin Hatch [R, UT]
Wyoming 6.8%
Sen. John Barrasso [R, WY]
Sen. Michael Enzi [R, WY]
OKLAHOMA 6.7%
Sen. Thomas Coburn [R, OK]
Sen. James Inhofe [R, OK]
LOUISIANA 7.4%
Sen. David Vitter [R, LA]
Texas 8.2%
Sen. John Cornyn [R, TX]
Missouri 9.5%
Sen. Christopher Bond [R, MO]
Alabama 10.7%
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R, AL]
Kentucky 10.9%
Sen. Jim Bunning [R, KY]
South Carolina 11.6%
Sen. Lindsey Graham [R, SC]
Sen. Jim DeMint [R, SC]
Both South Carolina senators even though they have the 5th highest rate in the union?! Hello Democratic Party in South Carolina, get it together and unseat these guys.
...they are getting theirs!
Police: SC state attorney caught with stripper
I don't care about the sexual exploits of consenting adults, but I do care about public officials thinking their position gives them a pass.
Let's call each one of them and tell them that we hope they don't get sick, or fall down a flight of stairs and break their necks, or have a heart attack while driving over a bridge, careening out of control and off the bridge.
This is easy to explain, if one understands just how "official" unemployment is reported to and by the media in the U.S. Putting aside all the jargon, anyone who is on unemployment long-enough to run out of unemployment benefits is no longer measured as "unemployed." Then viola! the unemployment figure improves. By the way, this is not the way unemployment is measured in European countries, and their use of more honest figures explains why Europe has usually shown much more "unemployment" than the U.S. And the U.S. does keep track of the more inclusive, and much larger, unemployment measures but that is not what is reported to the corporate media.
At this time, with our sham election over, it is to the benefit of both parties to show unemployment is improving. The Republicans must continue to bamboozle us into believing the U.S. economic system is still viable and the Democrats must show that, under Obama, "prosperity is just around the corner." So, mark my words,neither party is going to fight to extend benefits.
Here in Dayton, Ohio, every day my spouse and I see the real faces of America's economic collapse. Things are desperate for those who were already poor and many formerly middle-class citizens are now struggling for survival. We have formed a non-profit charity to help them. Please visit us at www.AVoiceForTheCommonwealth.org And please do what you can in your communities.
Here's the kick.
"Official" unemployment figures only report the 1st 26 weeks in the figure. Not anyone who on any extension, EUC, EB, HEB, nothing. Just the 1st 26 weeks. That's it.
Here in Connecticut, it is known that our figures have been under-reported by 2-3% for over a year now. otherwise, we would have had a 7 week HEB extension back in the beginning of August, not mid November. Have to wait 3 weeks after the trigger date. So no checks until at least the 17th of November.
Link to the Mike Lillis mentioned in Susie's post
http://washingtonindependent.com/65488/reid-t...
seem to have warped Susie's view of "Ivy League schools."
These are the same people who make the sanctity of life claim concerning abortion but show no regard for the common American who is unemployed because of their bribery-based policies.
...conservatives love to claim.
Actually, individual journalists are probably reflective of the population as a whole, but their work is more closely controlled than ever by the top floor, corner suite. Publishers no longer think of newspapers as a necessary part of a democracy. The daily rag is "just" a business and advertisers must be pleased by a conservative (business friendly) slant on the news..
Going back more years than I care to remember, the results are the same. The lower-level, rank-and-file media employees are more likely to self-identify as moderate to liberal, and as Democratic. Management and upper management self-identify as moderate to conservative, and as Republican.
Conservatives love to complain about the 'liberal media' without bothering to acknowledge one important fact - the people who actually make the decisions about what is published/aired are far from liberal.
House and Senate Democrats need to create a show for the media. Hold news conferences, make outrageous statements on the House floor. Contact the media and call the Repugs out on the issue.
That's the idea.
If they fall off the rolls then they are no longer part of the unemployment statistics and so no longer need to be reported.
That makes the numbers go down and they can claim things are better than they really are and thus avoid the citizen backlash against their business friendly policies.
Dems want to sweep this under the rug just like the Repugs.
Don't expect them to help.
Where are the leftists?
We need a WPA 2.0, direct hire, never mind the unemployment benefits.
but no money for the unemployed? Scores of billions go to the DrugWar every year, more than enough to cover unemployment, but it sure doesn't house or feed anyone who really needs it, only 'those people' that the Rethugs want locked up (think black and brown and po' white trash faces).
It's triage time for the National Budget...before all those desperate, unemployed people become desperate, unemployed angry people and take to the streets. With so few jobs left, they'll have lots of 'free time' to do so, those 'lucky duckies'
Have you checked Drudge? I am sure as soon as he has something on this issue we will all hear about it.
I've said it and said it but I'll say it again. We have to stop pretending that the job of the mainstream media is journalism. Those days are over. The mainstream media are the communications departments of the giant corporations that run this country. They are not covering this story because they are not SUPPOSED to cover this story. Nobody will be fired for dropping this story, hence their job must be to ignore it, otherwise someone WOULD be fired for dropping this story.
STOP pretending that these oversights are due to a lax or incompetent media.
START pointing out that the professional mainstream media are owned and operated by corporations for the benefit of corporations at the cost of the public.
The media usually does ignore the wrongdoings of Republicans. Remember thats how we got into the Iraq war. Just ignore it. If it was Democrats doing the same thing, they would be all over it.
It's Joe Scarborough that gets things started for 3 hours every day. He sets the tempo as to what will be hashed and rehashed. He gets his talking points straight from Faux Noise. If Joe didn't bring it up, more than likely it will not be discussed until prime time night.
The result is a slow crawl that creates anxiety among Democrats and liberals and emboldens Republicans to claim that Democrats are running a “do-nothing” Congress.
As long as the MSM Doesn't report the truth of WHY so many people are losing their benefits (then their homes, their marriages, their kids, etc.) the public has to GUESS who is to blame... and WHO is the majority in Congress? Sometimes the MSM does not report things to simply suppress positions the owners disagree with, sometimes they do it to cause confusion and paranoia to fuel fear and rage. This is a case of the latter.
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