Motley Moose – Archive

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, President Obama said Congress should act to extend emergency unemployment insurance for more than one million Americans who have lost this vital economic lifeline while looking for a job. Letting emergency unemployment insurance expire not only harms American families, but it is also a drag on the overall economy. The President urges both parties to pass the bipartisan three-month extension under consideration in the Senate so that we can once again focus on expanding opportunities for the middle class and creating jobs for all hardworking Americans.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

Quick answer: pretty much everything.

When I was phonebanking in 2010 for OFA (Obama For America) in Wisconsin, the unified campaign effort was tasked with electing a Democratic governor, re-electing Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), and electing Democrats to the House of Representatives. The phone script included this: “Please vote to send people to Washington DC who will help President Obama advance his agenda”.

On the list of people we were calling were those who had voted for President Obama in 2008, people who should have been interested in advancing his agenda because, in theory, they voted to do just that only two years before.

But mid-terms are funny things. Many of the people I called said they only voted in presidential elections. Some of them were unhappy because they didn’t get their pony so much of the president’s agenda had to be set aside to deal with the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression … a parting “gift” from Worst President in History George W. Bush.

Well, Democrats were not enthused but Republicans were because they had two things firing up their base: a black man (who was not even born in ‘Murica!!) had stolen the election (ACORNNNN!!) … and the Affordable Care Act had been passed, ushering in death panels and government-run health care and frightening all your doctors into fleeing to the libertarian paradise of Somalia.

So turnout was low and we ended up with Scott Walker and a solid Republican legislature here in Wisconsin. And we sent Ron Johnson to the Senate and Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble to the House of Representatives. Elsewhere, Michigan got Rick Snyder, Ohio got John Kasich, Pennsylvania got Tom Corbett, Florida got Rick Scott, Iowa got Terry Branstad, Maine got Paul LePage … and America got Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

As 2013 draws to a close, I am reminded of how much I dislike end of year retrospectives. Charlie Pierce calls them “lazy journalism” … I call them boooooring. I saw all that 2013 stuff and I am ready to look Forward to 2014 which I think will be a very good year for Democrats.

But I will not begrudge the White House pointing to the accomplishments of the Obama Administration in 2013 and, being an O-Bot, I will willingly link to their website.

White House Year in Review

In 2013, our economy grew, and our deficit shrunk. For the first time in almost two decades, we said that we’re producing more oil at home than we buy from the rest of the world. We honored our heroes. We bounced back from national tragedies and natural disasters. We strengthened our relationships with allies around the world and took action to promote the American dream at home. Take a look at our 2013 year in review.

But what is more exciting to me, a Twitter-aholic, is the White House list of Top @WhiteHouse Tweets of 2013. Because history, 140 characters at a time, is worth preserving.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

Republicans are congratulating themselves over extracting concessions in the recent 2-year budget deal that left the extension of unemployment benefits to 1.3 million Americans on the cutting room floor.

Those benefits are from the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Act passed in 2008 and extended 11 times, usually as a hostage held by the Republican Party to force President Obama and the Democrats to give in to their demands. At the end of 2010, Republicans in Congress used the threat of real harm to millions of Americans, from the expiration of EUC benefits, to extend the Bush tax cuts (a compromise for which the president took a lot of heat from his “base”).

What is EUC?

Extended Benefits are available to workers who have exhausted regular unemployment insurance benefits during periods of high unemployment. The basic Extended Benefits program provides up to 13 additional weeks of benefits when a State is experiencing high unemployment. Some States have also enacted a voluntary program to pay up to 7 additional weeks (20 weeks maximum) of Extended Benefits during periods of extremely high unemployment.

Before the expiration:

After the expiration:

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

Found on the Internets:

Poll: Dems Drop 13 Points On Generic Ballot In 2 Months

The CNN/ORC poll released Thursday found that a Republican candidate leads a Democratic candidate on the generic ballot, 49 percent to 44 percent. The new findings from the mid-December poll are a switch from two months ago when Democrats had the advantage over Republicans on the generic ballot. Back then, the same polling outlet found Democrats leading Republicans on the generic ballot, 50 percent to 42 percent.

So a person who does not exist will lose to another person who does not exist in an election 311 days from now. Sigh. Perhaps the wildly fluctuating polls had something to do with this?

– Only 6 people were able to enroll at healthcare.gov on Oct. 1

Or maybe because the right-wing and mainstream (is that redundant?) news sites are pounding the “Obamacare is a failure!!” story and ignoring any good news?

Karl “Math Guy” Rove is predicting a big year for Republicans. And that is good news for John McCain Democrats if we run on the Affordable Care Act and the minimum wage and Heartless Republicans:

– The GOP Decides to Play Scrooge as Millions Lose Benefits

– Inequality isn’t important? That’s just wrong

– Hey Dems: the only way out on health-care is through

– ObamaCare sales surge

– Poll Finds Strong National Support For Extending Unemployment Benefits

– Gallup: 76% Of Americans Support A Minimum Wage Increase

And this won’t hurt the cause one bit: McDonald’s Ditches Worker Advice Website Due To ‘Unwarranted Scrutiny’

Before it was shut down this week, the McResource site had advised McDonald’s workers to avoid holiday debt by selling their Christmas presents for cash, and warned them not to eat fast food. McResource also advised workers to break their food into small pieces as a way of tricking themselves into feeling full, and suggested that workers “sing away stress.”

“Unwarranted scrutiny”, aka, EPIC cluelessness.

Please proceed, rich minimum-wage corporations getting rich because your workers are kept alive via government safety nets. Please proceed.