It is of course good that the unemployment benefits extension passed, but it's going to have to be revisited yet again in November. And after January we're presumably going to need more than Presidents Snowe and Collins to continue passing such things.
Jan Schakowsky, one of the presumably good members of the Catfood Commission, just mentioned the introduced House bill for a public option, pointing out that having one will save money. This is a fact that her catfood commission members are unlikely to acknowledge, preferring instead to make construction workers retire at 70 remain unemployed and penniless for several years before their Social Security benefits kick in.
Just adding to the post below, ever since I've been blogging - anonymously at first, and then not - I've been hearing journalists talk about the need for people on the internets to be "held accountable."
Phillips announced: "something is going to have to be done legally. . . . these people have to be held accountable, they're a bunch of cowards." [The most noteworthy part of this might actually have come toward the end, when Roberts -- out of absolutely nowhere -- volunteered this creepy confession: "I always caution young people: never post a naked photograph of yourself on the Internet"; if there's anything needing greater attention, it might be Roberts' bizarre propensity for walking around starting conversations with "young people" about that].
Again...what kind of accountability? Jail time for being mean on the internets? Basically it comes down to "people who annoy me should get fired for stuff they do when not on the job."
I know I have a boring, gloomy, and repetitive blog these days, but it's hard not to be depressed as I come to the realization that there are significant numbers of people in positions of power who seem to be under the impression that 9%+ unemployment for the next 18 months is ok.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The White House said Friday it expects that unemployment will stay at or above 9% until 2012, but at the same time forecast that the economy will grow by at least 4% in 2011 and 2012.
When the administration had the stimulus passed, the economic emergency which prompted it was projected to have unemployment peak at 9% and fall to just about 7% by the end of 2011. Without the stimulus.
This is so goddamn depressing, though Van Jones said I should clap louder.
HAMP has just allowed banks to squeeze a few more mortgage payments out of people before screwing them. Whether this is bug or feature I do not know, but either way the person responsible for this program should be fired.
The basic issue is that while class impacts us all, race impacts us differently. It's perfectly fine to acknowledge that non-minority poor people get the shit end of the stick, too, but minority poor people... generally have it even worse. And wealthy minorities also have it worse, relative to wealthy whites. Policy wise, for me, that means doing more for poor people rather than fretting about imaginary affirmative action programs which barely exist in most of the real world
It's good (to me! I know most of you don't care) that the conversation is finally shifting a little bit from "not enough parking is the problem" to "maybe too much parking is a problem.
Another consequence of single use zoning is that immense amount of space devoted to parking is empty most of the time. With mixed use zoning, parking can, to some degree, have a double duty, serving workers and shoppers during the day and residents during the evening.
I'm sure there are very good reasons a stupid hippy like me can't understand why the government can't directly hire thousands of people to go knock on doors and paint roofs white, but I have no idea what they are.
It isn't something I follow closely generally, but I am a bit confused why the looming specter of EPA regulation hasn't melted some opposition to a decent climate/energy bill.
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