GOP Blocks Another Attempt to Extend Unemployment Benefits

In the most under-reported story of the week, the Republican’s have, yet again, screwed over the people who have been hardest hit by the recession. This is the second time this month that the GOP has blocked extending unemployment benefits.

Washington Independent’s Mike Lillis wrote:

Last week, Senate Democratic leaders rolled out a proposal to extend unemployment insurance by 14 weeks — with an extra six weeks thrown in for those states where jobless figures have topped 8.5 percent — only to have Republicans block the measure on the chamber floor.

Well, today it happened again.

According to the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Democrats on Tuesday asked for consent to pass the bill, only to be shot down by GOP leaders.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Republicans aren’t objecting to the extension, but to how it’s funded. (The Democrats’ plan would tap an expiring surtax on businesses, while the Republicans want to use unspent money from the stimulus bill.)

The House has already passed its version of the extension. With unemployment numbers creeping up each month, the pressure’s on the Senate to work out a deal quickly.

The saddest thing about this story is not the story itself (which is disgusting enough), but the comments by regular American people who responded to this story and the desperation some of them are feeling. I have posted the following comments as they were written.

My unemployment benefits ran out in August and I am barely holding on. I am watching daily to see if this bill will be passed. I lost my job and went from a salary of comfortable salary to $450.00 a week.my family and I was able to live off of our saving for a while but now we are dependent on UI benefits. My husband was layed off and we are only surviving on his benefits. We are in jeopardy of losing our home. We’ve already lost both cars and have had to cut our expenses substantially. As the weather changed we are afraid to use our heater and we are bundling up for fear of not being able to pay the bill our heating bill.. . I need the GOP to get off their high horses and live a day in my life. I guess if you haven’t been affected by the economy then you don’t get it. I will just continue to pray.

I wish people would stop playing the blame game, and realize it doesn’t matter who we vote in or out!

And…

well i finally got enough money to buy a little groceries for the kids and the rent never thought i would have to do what i did to get it but necessity out ways legality,all because these assholes aren’t in our shoes, so they can take there sweet time because the crime rate will go up!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It would be nice if the GOP would leave their bubble of knee-jerk obstruction to see real American’s who are suffering. Their lives should not be used as political pawns by a party who wants every opportunity to create a Democratic Waterloo.

Thankfully, not all is lost. More comments and commentary below the fold.

Screw you, Jerry Bruckheimer

Take a hike, you douchebag. And you can take Gary Sinese with you. You are both Republican tools.

Why do I say this?

I was watching CSI: NY tonight. The premise was this: dere’s dis guy (oh, wait, this is NY not NJ, sorry) and he’s using technology to kill people. First, he takes over a car’s GPS and directs the victim to a bad area of NYC, then takes over the On-Star type service to first enjoy taunting his victim, then listening as he dies. Another guy dies when the killer takes over the restaurant ordering system to give this victim a double helping of peanuts instead of the peanut-free dinner that was originally entered by the server. As the victim’s throat closes up the killer is on the phone (who knew killer’s answered 911 calls?), asking for the gory details as to whether the victim has turned blue yet. MUWAHHHH!

Sounds interesting, right? I thought so.

Turns out, this guy was killing specific people; a doctor, the owner of a hospital, and staff members who had the unfortunate job of telling him that he no longer had insurance and they would not treat his advanced stage cancer any more. He chose Mac (Sinese’s character) to “tell his story” because Mac’s father had died of a pretty invasive cancer, too, and he just knew that Mac could relate to him after watching his father die of a similar cancer.

Heady stuff.

I would have forgotten the plot line as just another interesting CSI plot (it’s hard to feel sympathy for a killer, but it’s also difficult to not feel sympathy for a man who maybe had a chance if he could have gotten the chemotherapy and other treatment he needed, a thought provoking dichotomy, to be sure) – until the very end when Mac made a little speech to the killer, who was now in the hospital, getting treatment for his cancer, at the city’s expense, saying that the killer was nothing like his father! His father would have been proud to say that he lived long enough and it was his time to go – and go quietly into the night, happily (singing patriotic songs as the life flowed out of his body, I am sure). Of course, his dad had insurance, which took care of him until there was nothing left to do, but his time had come and it was time to go and go proudly he would. Glad to die, by golly!

One guy has insurance and runs the course of his therapy and the other who is no longer insured (the reason was not given) is cut-off mid-therapy. One might think this could be called a false equivalency.

Not in the eyes of these Republican tools – rich, Republican tools who could pay cold hard cash straight from their personal checking accounts for a heart transplant – several times a year.

I am washing my hands of the far too many Bruckheimer franchises. One viewer down. And I didn’t even have to die to do it.

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How Dare the President bid for the Olympics!

There has been much ado, of late, concerning President Obama trying to procure Chicago as the 2016 Olympic site for the United States of America.  Chicago, they say, is just part of the dirty Obama/Chicago Machine.

Let’s see what that dirty, liberal, Marxist, communist, Fascist, hippy President had to say about it:

Union League Club of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

11:35 A.M. CST

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank the members of the 2016 Chicago bid to get the Olympics. Listen, Mr. Mayor, you and your committee have put together a great plan. It’s a plan that will make America proud.

They say that the Olympics will come to Chicago if we’re fortunate enough to be selected, but really it’s coming to America, and I can’t think of a better city to represent the United States than Chicago.

This is a well thought out venue. There will be — the athletes will be taken care of. People who will be coming from around the world will find this good city has got fantastic accommodations, great restaurants. It will be safe.

And so I — this country supports your bid, strongly. And our hope is that the judges will take a good look at Chicago and select Chicago for the 2016 Olympics.

Thank you all.

END 11:36 A.M. CST

Oh, wait, that wasn’t President Obama who said that, it was President Bush,  on January 7, 2008.

Must have been something to do with the tens of thousands of jobs that would be created over the next eight years and the millions of dollars that would be injected into this craptastic economy by dozens of countries worldwide.  We definitely don’t need that!

Nevermind.

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SC Rep. Joe Wilson calls Obama a Liar

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)

During tonight’s speech to the joint assembly of Congress, Joe Wilson, the Republican representative from South Carolina, decided that he was attending a WWE wrestling event instead of a session of the US Congress addressed by the President of the United States of America. Of course, it is Rep. Wilson who is the liar.

Feel free to contact Rep. Wilson, should you so choose.

Address in DC:
The Honorable Joe Wilson
United States House of Representatives
212 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4002

DC Phone: 202-225-2452
DC Fax: 202-225-2455

Email Address: http://www.house.gov/formwilson/IMA/issue.htm

WWW Homepage: http://www.joewilson.house.gov/

District Offices:
903 Port Republic Street
Beaufort, SC 29902
Voice: 843-521-2530
FAX: 843-521-2535

1700 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1
West Columbia, SC 29169
Voice: 803-939-0041
FAX: 803-939-0078

UPDATE:

Did you see Pelosi’s face?  This idiot’s head will be ringing when she gets done with him.

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The Blog Post Every American Needs to Read

Want a real life story about the French healthcare system? Not a story from a guy some guy knows who is a friend of a colleague, but from an American who, while in Paris on vacation, had to suffer the indignity of that socialist country’s terrible emergency healthcare system? Read it now.

Sometimes it’s best to start a long story at the very end. In the case of my emergency eye problems in France, it’s the part of the story where the French medical system keeps refusing to let me pay for my $3000 surgery.

Go on. Click that link!

And pass it along!

BREAKING: Call him Senator Franken

CNN is reporting, in Breaking News:

Minnesota’s Supreme Court has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the state’s disputed U.S. Senate race.

Now it’s up to Pawlenty to certify the results.

HAARM – Healthy Americans Against Reforming Medicine

Are you scared yet?

Go to HAARM’s website.

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