Unemployed need not apply - cartoon

Republicans declare war on the middle class

Just in case you've not been keeping in touch, it has become more and more obvious that the Republicans, working in the name of big business, have declared war on America's working class.  They are making attack after attack on workers and unions.  I'll post articles here as I see signs of this in the news - but there's more and more evidence every day - the wealthy won't be happy until the working folks are working for $1 per day.  The following is a letter from the AFL-CIO.

It’s shocking, unacceptable and totally unnecessary: Thanks to the actions of House Speaker John Boehner and the House Republicans, assistance for jobless workers harmed by unfair trade deals like NAFTA expired Saturday.
The program that expired—called Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)—provides financial help and training for workers who lose their jobs or see their hours or wages reduced due to outsourcing, offshoring or increased imports.

Demand action this week to renew assistance for workers whose jobs are outsourced: Sign our electronic petition to Speaker Boehner and House Republicans. (We’ll deliver a copy to your member of Congress, too, so he or she knows how you feel.)

Until last week, there was a bipartisan consensus that people who lose their jobs because of unfair trade deals like NAFTA deserve help and training for finding new jobs.

By rejecting extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, Boehner and House Republicans have decided that people who lose their jobs because of unfair trade deals like NAFTA no longer deserve help. Maybe they’re supposed to pull themselves up by their Chinese-made bootstraps.

Demand Speaker Boehner reverse this outrage immediately: Sign our electronic petition NOW.

When Boehner and Republican leaders pulled TAA extension off the floor last week, they said they didn’t want to pick “winners and losers.” That’s a cruel joke for working men and women. The deck has been stacked, and the winners already have been picked: CEOs, multinational corporations and Big Banks. America’s workers have lost.
Displaced workers struggling to find their footing deserve dignity and the possibility of working again. If we’re going to continue with unsustainable and unacceptable trade deals, the very least we can do for workers who lose their jobs is provide financial and training assistance.

Urge Speaker Boehner and House Republicans to reverse their outrageous refusal to renew Trade Adjustment Assistance by taking immediate action this week.

In solidarity,
Manny HerrmannOnline Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

This Should Help

From Think Progress.

One of the conservative governors refusing some of the stimulus money has a better plan...

Following the lead of a number of his fellow Republican governors, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has given some indication that he will not accept some of the money slated for South Carolina in the $787 billion economic recovery bill President Obama signed into law last week. “At times it sounds like the Soviet grain quotas of Stalin’s time,” Sanford said yesterday on Fox News.

On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, Sanford received a call from a Charleston resident who said he lost his job because he has been taking care of mother and sister, both of whom have serious illnesses. The caller told Sanford he is “wrong” to decline the money. “A lot of people in South Carolina are hurting. And if this money can come and help us out we need it.” In response, Sanford could offer him only his prayers:

Yep - prayers. One has to ask however, if prayers are going to work, how did we ever get into this mess?

Bush Cronies Struggling To Find Work

I don't wish anyone ill, but if sombody must be out of work it seems as if it should be the crowd that contributed the most to the conditions that have created the current economy.

From Gabriel Snyder over at Gawker...

After ruining the economy, the country and the world, no one wants to hire former Bush officials. Reports the Wall Street Journal, "only 25% to 30% of ex-Bush officials seeking full-time jobs have succeeded."

One of these most unsympathetic victims of the economy he ruined is ex-Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, who's making ends meet these days by hustling for $25,000 speaking gigs and collecting pay as a director of the United Technologies Corp. But oh, the pain of unemployment:

"This is not a great time for anyone to be job hunting, including numerous former political appointees," said Carlos M. Gutierrez, Mr. Bush's commerce secretary. Previously chief executive of cereal maker Kellogg Co., he hopes to run a company again because "I have a lot of energy."

This is, let us remind you, the same guy who was in charge of commerce while the economy died. Back in October 2006, when it was clear that the housing bubble was bursting and the entire economy was in trouble, this is what was going through Gutierrez's energetic mind:

"We have a very strong, large resilient economy that can absorb a housing correction," said Carlos M. Gutierrez, the commerce secretary. "If you isolate the impact of the housing correction and look at all the rest, those are solid numbers."