Month: July 2010

The Power Party

~ susie

I don’t know what to add, it speaks so eloquently on its own. The Beltway dynastic families continue to look out for their own:

Washington’s biggest lobbying firm just got a lot bigger: Patton Boggs on Thursday announced the purchase of the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a smaller, family-style firm run by two of the Senate’s most influential alumni.

Under the acquisition, which has been in the works for several months, former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former senator John Breaux (D-La.) will join Patton Boggs along with their sons, Chester Trent Lott and John Breaux Jr., and a half-dozen other staff members, according to a news release.

The union will further cement the firm run by Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. as Washington’s most formidable lobbying force, with more than $40 million in lobbying revenue last year. Breaux-Lott, which was formed in January 2008, reported about $11 million in lobbying expenditures in 2009, disclosure records show.

“This acquisition is a strategic coup and a cornerstone for our bipartisan growth,” Boggs said in a statement.

Invisible

~ susie

Jennifer Gibbons, the Prince William Soundkeeper, testified today at the Elena Kagan nomination hearings and when she started to describe the people affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, I felt like she was talking about me and so many of the people I know.

She said one woman said she felt like she “didn’t exist anymore,” and a man she knows shocked her recently by admitting to a group of people that he felt “worthless” and thought about suicide all the time.

Tonight I talked to a 32-year-old accountant with two children who’s working behind the counter at a pizza restaurant. He has no idea at all what to do. “I can’t get a real job,” he told me. “When I do get an interview, I’m competing with MBAs for $10 an hour jobs where they want you to do the work of two people.”

But hey, at least we’re still funding the war, right? So there’s the silver lining!

In Canada, they gave Bruce Cockburn a national award. Here in the U.S.A., we’d put him in prison for crimes against the state.

Republicans Should Be Ashamed. But That Would Require A Conscience.

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Obviously, she should stop whining and kill herself. Isn’t that what New Republican Jesus would say instead of all that lefty “help the poor” crap?

Debra Rousey of Gainesville, Georgia, says that she received an unemployment check of $194 last week, half the usual amount she receives, along with a letter announcing that this check would be her last. She is now in a complete panic over what to do next.

“I’m desperate and devastated,” she told HuffPost. “I didn’t get any warning. I was barely making ends meet on $330 a week, trying to diaper my grandchild and put food on the table for the four people I support. What do I do now? How am I going to make rent next month? I keep thinking, ‘If I end up in a cardboard box, can I find one big enough for everybody, or do I have to send my son to live with someone else?'”

Since Rousey, 45, was laid off from her job as a branch manager for Suntrust bank in November, she says she has been “frantically looking” for a job — everything from entry-level marketing positions to a fry cook job at McDonalds — but hasn’t had an interview in months. As of tomorrow, she will be one of nearly 1.7 million people whose unemployment benefits have prematurely expired while Congress sits on legislation that would renew those benefits.

“I hate being on unemployment,” Rousey said. “I haven’t applied for food stamps or Medicaid for myself because I have a work ethic that says if I want to eat, I want to work to eat. I don’t want a handout. But right now I’m at the breaking point. If I don’t come up with cash quick, everything will be cut off within two weeks — gas, electric, water. Five people will be displaced. How am I supposed to come up with the money?”

But on the bright side, Debra, corporations have reported record profits for this quarter, giving credit to the high unemployment rate that’s keeping wages so low. So try to think of somebody other than yourself, little missy!

Rousey is currently pursuing a master’s degree in adult education through an online program, and her son, 17, and her 25-year-old daughter are also full-time students. She said all three of them are desperate for work.

“I have put in at least 5 resumés a day since November,” she said. “It’s not like I’m not employable. I have a bachelor’s degrees in business, an associate’s degree in marketing, and 25 years of office management experience. But I can’t even get McDonald’s to call me back for an interview.”

If her unemployment benefits are not renewed soon, Rousey says she will have no way to pay rent or put food on the table. The House passed a bill on Thursday that would extend unemployment benefits for those who have been unemployed longer than six months, but the bill is moving slowly in the Senate. Rousey said she she’s not holding her breath for help from the government.

Jesus Christ. Bitch, bitch, bitch! Why don’t these people pull themselves up by their bootstraps? Maybe her grandchild could be a model in a diaper commercial. She needs to Think Outside The Box and get used to the fact that somebody Moved Her Cheese.

We’re turning into India. Wheeee!