NELP, Labor Unions & Congress Abandon 99er Cause

It appears for certain that NELP, several labor unions and Congress have all abandoned the 99ers’ cause. Congress is the major culprit here, with Senator Stabenow (D-MI) blatantly lying to the 99ers on National TV (MSNBC’s The Ed Show) when she promised S3706 would be brought to the floor for action right after the election. Liars in Congress are no big surprise - but one would think better of labor unions and NELP, right? WRONG!

The 99er nation was assured time and again from April through July this year by NELP (National Employment Law Project) that once HR 4213 was passed (which did not include a Tier 5) that NELP would immediately turn their enormous lobbying power and energy towards getting a Tier 5 bill written and passed. Once HR 4213 was finally passed, NELP did NOTHING of the sort. More liars!

Then we have the AFL-CIO labor union, who was a major player in the One Nation Rally, held on October 2, 2010 in Washington DC. Before the election, the AFL-CIO and their Working America (WA) branch by all appearances embraced the 99ers cause, yet at the One Nation Rally - NOT ONE WORD in the entire 4 hour plus program was given to address the desperation and struggle of the millions of 99ers, suffering greatly - without UI benefits for (by then) 7 months.

It was neither NELP or the AFL-CIO who successfully lobbied the House and Senate to draft the Tier 5 legislation introduced after HR 4213 finally passed Congress. It was the relentless work of the 99er Nation who bent the will of the House and Senate and Washington’s FEAR of losing the election that resulted in those bills being introduced. Nobody in Congress ever had any intention of allowing either bill to do anything but die in committee.

Now, all of the sudden NELP and the AFL-CIO are publicly outraged over the failure of Congress to pass an extension of the UI filing dates expiring next week. After all - God forbid that another 2 million jobless Americans lose their benefits around the holidays. Funny though how neither organization gives a damn about the 4 to 5 million jobless Americans who have not had any UI income for soon to be 9 months.

NELP and the AFL-CIO seem to be playing the same tune once again and the name of that tune is “Screw the 99ers” - just like Congress and the Whitehouse have been singing all along. But NELP and the AFL-CIO have a very strong connection.

It appears that NELP's Executive Director used to be a big cheese at AFL-CIO. Why am I not surprised?

Christine L. Owens, NELP Executive Director cowens@nelp.org
202-887-8202, ext. 304 (Washington, DC Office) 212-285-3025 (New York Office)

Christine Owens joined NELP as its Executive Director in January 2008. Over her long career as a workers’ rights advocate, she has held a variety of public interest and public sector positions advancing employment rights and opportunities for women, people of color and low wage workers. In 1997, she joined the national AFL-CIO as a senior policy analyst specializing in workplace equity issues, and in 2001, was appointed Director of Public Policy. At the AFL-CIO, she worked closely with NELP and numerous national and grassroots economic policy and worker advocacy groups, along with national unions and state labor federations, to promote reforms such as minimum wage and living wage hikes, pay equity for working women, and state UI coverage expansions. Before joining the AFL-CIO, she founded and ran the Workers Options Resource Center, which coordinated the efforts of a broad-based coalition of national and community organizations to win the 1996 federal minimum wage increase.

You see this is not about jobs or UI for Americans - it is more about job opportunity for those big wigs in the powerful positions improving their own wages and opportunity.

I suggest that if NELP gets any public funding at all from Washington that every 99er needs to ask the incoming Republican Tide to cut off their funds immediately! NELP and the AFL-CIO should not be discriminating against the longest term unemployed in favor of those not suffering anywhere near as long as the 99ers have been.

Now the AFL-CIO has announced a National Day of solidarity on December 7th, 2010 to stand together for America’s long-term jobless workers and want you to sign a petition that leaves out over 5 million jobless American 99ers suffering the worst. Well I will NOT be signing that petition or any other which does not include help for the 99ers!

Next up U-Cubed announced "Join us for National Unemployment Insurance LOBBY DAY on December 1, 2010."

Text from the announcement: “Last chance! Congress must pass a year-long extension of unemployment benefits before the holidays.

Unless Congress reauthorizes the current program before it expires on November 30th, jobless benefits will be cut off for about 2 million workers by the end of December.

Act now. Participate in the Unemployment Insurance Lobby Day on Wednesday, December 1st.

Not one word yet again about the 99ers in this one year long extension! Unbelievable!

Cindy Paoletti, relentless advocate for the 99er Nation decided to email Rick Sloan, IAM Communications Director & Acting Executive Director of Union of Unemployed (UCubed) to find out why.

The following is a quote from Mr. Sloan’s return email:

“In 40 days, de facto control of Congress shifts to the GOP and the deficit hawks among the D's. Between the House Rules Committee and the Senate Cloture Rule, no jobs bill, no UI extensions and no new Tier V will see the light of day ... unless by some miracle the GOP wakes up to the fact that jobless households cast 45 percent of their votes for Republican House candidates. I, for one, don't believe in such miracles.

So, in the closing days of this Congress, the AFL-CiO and the Democratic leadership are trying to thread the needle. If a short term extension is all that has a chance of getting through, then that is what they'll try to get done. But that's still a long shot given the election results. Without a big lobbying push, even a couple month extension might not happen.”

I, Paladinette have nothing but the highest respect for Rick Sloan. His opinion has merit and is based upon years of experience about how Washington works. U-Cubed has always been supportive of the 99er plight and our Tier 5 hopes.

With that said, it is with great regret that I cannot and will NOT participate (again) in yet another fight to extend UI filing dates only. The 99ers did this before and when we greatly helped HR 4213 get passed - nobody stood with the 99ers to get us what we needed when it was over.

Maybe I just do not have any fight left in me - poverty will do that to a person. Fact is I need all my energy and every penny I can beg, borrow, find or earn just to survive and continue to look for the one thing that can save me - a JOB!

In closing I just want to point out that labor unions, NELP and Congress all have their own agenda and the 99ers are flat out not important enough to any of them to fight for or save. Congress and NELP have proven themselves to be liars and the AFL-CIO refuses to include the 99ers in their fight. In my book that makes them all useless!

If the Democrats are going to cave in to the Republicans on the Tax cuts for Americans making over $250K per year - which it looks like they will - then at the very least Washington Democrats, Union Leaders and supposed lobbying groups for the unemployed like NELP should see to it that Americans get the most out of that negotiation by including help for the 99ers in that “give away” to wealthiest citizens who do not need it at all.

The Republicans would give up just about anything to keep the Bush tax cuts in place - so why not grow some “stones” Democrats and get the utmost in return for what you give away? Here is a clue for those faint of heart members of Congress who may not have a political spine left after the election: Extend the cap up to $1 million (from the current $250K) for exactly as long as the Republicans agree to extend UI benefits - including a Tier 5. Anything less is simply weak and unAmerican.

Gee - anyone feeling THANKFUL for NELP, Labor Unions & Congress yet? Me neither....

[The donation button below is for me, Paladinette. If you like what I write and can afford to do so - please donate to the cause. I thank you!]

South Korean Defense Minister Resigns

">CNN reports that Kim Tae-young has resigned as South Korean Defense Minister today, November 25, 2010 - two days after North Korea's attack left four South Koreans dead.

However, Tae-young submitted his resignation May 1, 2010, but it was not accepted until today. The Guardian reports that the news came after South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, "ordered the country's military to strengthen its troop presence on islands near its disputed maritime border with North Korea and Pyongyang warned of retaliation for any 'reckless military provocations.'"

Myung-bak's decision to send more troops is a very controversial, but it's quite odd that the resignation of the Defense Minister was finally accepted during the same time as this announcement.

Patriots at Detroit Update

As of right now the New England Patriots are beating the Detroit Lions. The score is 38 to 24 and it is the fourth quarter. It was odd to see Kid Rock performing during half time, but there was also a quick interview with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to promote his new movie coming out "Faster."

There is 6:34 left in the game. Go Patriots!

Happy Thanksgiving From President Obama (video)

President Barack H. Obama sends his Thanksgiving Greetings to America and to The World on Thanksgiving Day. Well, really the video was made something like 22 hours ago. President Obama's probably working today. President Of The United States is a 24 and 7 job.

Of course Obama will spend time with his family, but after the Cowboys game, he's going to be reading. Bet on it.

President Obama just sent this email containing his Thanksgiving message:

Zenophon --

When Michelle and I sit down with our family to give thanks today, I want you to know that we'll be especially grateful for folks like you.

Everything we have been able to accomplish in the last two years was possible because you have been willing to work for it and organize for it.

And every time we face a setback, or when progress doesn't happen as quickly as we would like, we know that you'll be right there with us, ready to fight another day.

So I want to thank you -- for everything.

I also hope you'll join me in taking a moment to remember that the freedoms and security we enjoy as Americans are protected by the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces. These patriots are willing to lay down their lives in our defense, and each of us owes them and their families a debt of gratitude.

Have a wonderful day, and God bless.

Barack

Here's President Obama:



Happy Thanksgiving!

Oakland Mayor-Elect Jean Quan's Car Booting Shows Knifes Are Out Already

Having her car, a Toyota Prius, booted for more than 10 unpaid parking tickets (you only need more than 5 to get booted) is one of those moments where Mayor-Elect Quan needs a thick skin. Why? Because, from experience, I know it was an inside job. Probably the work of City Hall Gadfly Sanjiv Handa, or someone with that level of knowledge.

Happy Thanksgiving! When then-Oakland City Councilperson Jean Quan beat former State Senator Don Perata to become Mayor-Elect of The City of Oakland, this blogger wrote the following:

...With all of this, Mayor-Elect Quan must be sure to realize that she does not have a mandate; she did not score the majority of popular votes. That should be of concern for her. The Mayor-Elect must - and I think will - be open to people. Moreover, Jean must - and this can't be overstated - develop a very thick skin. She must work to jettison the idea that people who criticize her aren't in her corner. Not so. She's Mayor of Oakland, now, and that means she's got a PR-issue to deal with every day.

As Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris told me, "Zennie, there are a thousand games you can play in City Hall every day. The question is which one you should play?" What Elihu was saying to me is you always have to watch your back, figure out where the arrows are coming from, and then have a plan to strike back, if it's worth doing so. If you have the right temperament , the game's fun. Jean's got to develop that to be successful.

Having her car, a Toyota Prius, booted for more than 10 unpaid parking tickets (you only need more than 5 to get booted) is one of those moments where Mayor-Elect Quan needs a thick skin. Why? Because, from experience, I know it was an inside job. Probably the work of City Hall Gadfly Sanjiv Handa, or someone with that level of knowledge.

In other words, the "police technician" who ran Quan's Toyota for tickets at 9:30 AM on Tuesday didn't just walk down 14th Street with a happy whistle and nothing better to do than check the ticket status of the cars parked at the City Council parking spaces. That happened because someone either in the current Mayor's Office, or a person in the know, or another councilmember tipped off the cops.

That's how my car was towed when I worked for Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris. I commonly parked my 1997 Ford Probe in the Mayor's Parking Space, but only after checking with Mayor Harris before hand.  I arrived early, then, as between 1995 and 1999 I represented the Mayor at the Tuesday morning committee meetings.   It got to a point where parking at the space, in fact exactly the same one Quan used the Tuesday day it was booted, was habit.  

Then, one day, my car was gone.  This was 1997.

I thought it was stolen for a good hour.  But an Oakland police officer called my office to report it was towed.  In my case, it wasn't outstanding parking tickets, but a mean-sprited person in the name of one Toni Cook.  Cook served as Mayor Harris Policy Advisor over the Oakland Schools, and was the advocate of the use of Ebonics, which is a kind of "black English" in Oakland Schools in 1995.  Ebonics was something I and Mayor Harris hated, but Elihu supported her idea in his "political head-fake way" of making you think he backed something he disliked.

Cook and I, while both African American, were as different as night and day.  She wasn't a friend, amd I exchanged perhaps a few words with her, but had no idea she held this deep resentment of my permission to park in the Mayor's space.  She did, and I was told by Oakland Mayor's Office staffers, that it was she who called Oakland's finest and made up a lie to have my car towed.   True story and I was steamed.  I had to cough up $106 to get my car out.

When Mayor Harris found out about it, he had Cook pay me back what I spent.  

Later that year, at the City of Oakland's Christmas Party, Sanjiv Handa approached me and was red-faced that I was parking in the space.   Now, again, Mayor Harris had consistently given me permission to park there, even as others didn't want me to be there.  I told Sanjiv to get upset about more important matters.   He was being rather weird at that time in our lives, anyway.

The point is, people at the City of Oakland can be massively petty.  If they don't like you for some small reason, and its always a small reason, they will work to make your life less than happy.  It's one of the major draw backs of working for the City of Oakland.

In Quan's case, I know for a fact her car-booting was an inside job, and it's a sign Mayor-Elect Quan needs to mak sure that every "I" is dotted, and every "T" is crossed when she takes any action at Oakland City Hall.

In the car-booting case, the problem was Mayor-Elect Quan parked in the Mayor's Office Parking Space, while she's still technically an Oakland City Councilperson.  Having her car booted for tow was someone's way of telling her she's not yet Mayor of Oakland, so she should stay out of the Mayor's Parking Space until after she's sworn in next year.

Mean?  Yes.  But that's the City of Oakland, for ya.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Google News Meta Tags Program Killing Blog Listings

The so-called Google News Meta Tags original content tagging experiment has resulted in a massive delisting of blogs on a scale such that it could be called The Blog Saturday Night Massacre. Especially since it happened on Saturday November 20th as well as that weekend.

A review of posts in a subject area called "Indexed stories for past 2 days missing" at Google News Help Forum reveals a common complaint that blogs were taken off Google News without email warning or reason, including Zennie62.com. Some blog webmasters waited for contact from someone at Google, and are still waiting.

This is what I posted at the Google News Help Forum:

Our blog, too, had the same problem. Indexing to Google News stopped on November 19, 2010, and it seemed to be timed with my blog post on Sarah Palin. I contacted Google News support, but no response. But then, a friend provided me with both the email and phone number of Krishna Bharat, the Google News Creator. I emailed, then called him while I O'Hare Airport. He seemed rushed, but said he's have support look into it.

The next day, I got a weird email that read the blog Zennie62 wasn't approved for inclusion into Google News. After investigation, I figured someone pointed at the fact that I blog at SFGate.com, the website of The San Francisco Chronicle, too. But all of my posts start at Zennie62.com, and Google staff knew that. All of the blogging styles and approaches I use at Zennie62, I use at SFGate.com. Period. Plus, we have anywhere between 3 and 10 active bloggers every day at Zennie62, not just me.

When I petitioned to have Zennie62.com included on Google News, my main point was that my blog posts at SFGate.com were EXACTLY the same as on Zennie62.com, yet Google News favored SFGate.com. The Google Staff I contacted agreed, and made the case for Zennie62.com. In August, we were in. Now, not.

Then, this whole meta tag plan was established, and Google News, it seems, has made a mistake.

The meta tag plan is a good idea in theory, but a big mess in practice. Also, I noticed a lot of Conservative Blogs popped up on Google News - Red State, Newsbuster, and others - that were not there. It makes Google News look like it's favoring Conservative Blogs because liberal blogs like VF Daily are not on Google News.

But the even larger problem is bloggers do not "team up" to coordinate on Google-related issues. It seems like we act as free agents and point fingers at each other, while being harmed by Google in the process.

This blogger emailed Google News Creator and Principal Scientist Krishna Bharat, who once claimed that he wanted Google News to be a "Force For Democracy," as well as other Google staffers for an answer, and received this weird response:

Thank you for your note.

Although we're unable to provide specific suggestions at this time, we
sincerely appreciate your interest in Google News and your willingness to
provide your articles to us. As we mentioned in our previous email, we'll
log your site for future consideration.

Thanks for your interest in Google News.

Regards,
The Google News Team

The email response to that was essentially that Google News and Google have no idea how many blogs they've impacted, or for that matter lives. Blogs are a source of jobs and income for many people today. For Krishna and Google to take the action they did was at best irresponsible; at worst, I'm not sure what to call it at this point. The whole episode's still unfolding.

A Blogger Calls

About an hour later, I wound up in an interesting but brief phone conversation with a husband and wife blogger team who's blog, which I will not mention here, was severely impacted by the Google News de-listing. (The good news for Zennie62.com is my obsessive tinkering with the blog template has resulted in a website that's so-overengineered, the delisting impact is no where near as great as I feared it would be. The search engine placement is still extremely good, great, even. But that's not the case for others. I digress.)

They had to stop paying bloggers from their site, and reported of how other blogs, some on Google News for three years, were delisted and are suffering from decreased traffic and out-of-work bloggers. Overall, not a fun Thanksgiving Eve for bloggers.

As I warned Google and Krishna, they started a unified blog network that could really come back and bit them in the ass.  That's putting it mildly.

I understand, but disagree, with Google's desire to protect Old Media sites.  Indeed, Associated Content, the giant web platform now owned by Yahoo, was only partially impacted by the Google News Meta Tag Program.  I'm told Yahoo was allowed to "cherry pick" listings that appear as duplicate content on Google News and Yahoo News.   My source says "it's not fair for the little guy,"  or gal for that matter.

Between the Google News Meta Tags Program action, Google's Blogger.com's elimination of six popular music blogs because Google overreacted to a DMCA complaint, and Google's deal with Verizon that threatens Net Neutrality, 2010 is turning out to be the year Google turns its back on small business bloggers, then, in the case of music bloggers, shoots them as it walks away.    That's not too dramatic a statement.

But, if John Kenneth Galbraith's Theory of Countervailing Power, outlined in his classic book American Capitalism, is correct, then the large number of bloggers could unite as one to, in some way, force Google and Google News to stop the harmful tactics of present day.  Indeed, Google has laid the platform for Galbraith's theory to take hold.

Stay tuned.

Christy Martin Stabbed by Husband

The 42-year-old Christy Martin, well-known boxer, was shot and stabbed by her husband, Jim Martin, while the two were fighting in their Florida home, according to The Orange County Sheriff's Office as reported by the LA Times, ESPN and The Associated Press.

8Countnews.com, boxing news site, reports that a passing motorist found Christy on the side of the road and brought her to a hospital in Florida where she was being treated for a gunshot wound and stab wounds in her leg and torso.