Texas pays unemployment benefits to a lower percentage of its jobless population - 31% than any other state except South Dakota. On Wednesday, July 15th 2009, Texas officials announced they had indefinitely postponed a 13-week extension of unemployment compensation approved by state lawmakers in late May.
Andrew Stettner of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers, said "it seems like Texas is more worried about one worker getting a check in error than getting the benefits out quicker."
Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken, a former state Republican Party Chairman appointed by Governor Rick Perry to lead the workforce commission called the criticism "incredibly unfair." Unlike regular unemployment compensation, people who apply for extended benefits have to be willing to take a job that is below what they would normally be willing to do."
Most states are still implementing their unemployment claims under rules adopted in the 1980's when laid-off workers filed in person at state offices or by mail. Now claims are filed over the phone or online. To speed the start of the extended benefits program the commission "may recruit technicians versed in its old German-made data programs that run on mainframe computers." Pauken said.
You have to wonder if these computers are used to help count the actual number of unemployed in Texas.
This is an open letter to all those attending next month's inauguration.
In just over a month, millions of Americans will be flocking to Washington, DC to celebrate this historic Presidential Inauguration. As an early and enthusiastic supporter of President –Elect Obama, I welcome my fellow celebrants to the party. As a DC resident, I’m thrilled that so many of my friends from all over this great nation will be joining in the fun.
However, as a DC resident, I am deeply concerned about my city council’s decision to keep Washington bars open 24 hours during the days preceding the inauguration.
Since I can’t do anything to stop the decision, I am writing this letter as a concerned mother and fellow Obama supporter.
Please do not come to my town and get so drunk that you litter my streets or drive drunk on my roads. The roads you use to return home from the bars are the same ones that take my kids to school.
Please do not engage in crass behavior that will embarrass me in front of my children. Don’t make me explain explicit adult behaviors to my five year old son and his three year old brother.
Please do not get into fights or start screaming matches with McCain supporters. While these people may be your political adversaries, they are my neighbors.
You see, for many, Washington is just host to the Party of the Century. For me, it’s the city where my kids go to school, the home where I rest, the roads I drive and the parks where my children play.
Please remember that there will be families working, going to school and living at this party venue. We deserve the kind of dignity and consideration our President-Elect has modeled during the two years of his campaign.
Thank you.
Laura Owen
Washington, DC
OUR SMALL TEAM OF GILLIAN PARRILLO, ROSARIO ESTRIDGE, DEBORAH HYATT AND TERESA MCGOWAN PARTICIPATED IN ANOTHER VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE AT A NATURALIZATION CEREMONY IN DALLAS TEXAS. WE MANAGED TO REGISTER 100+ NEW VOTERS ALONG WITH THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS WHO ALSO REGISTERED 100+ VOTERS. WE MANAGED THE COLLIN COUNTY TABLE.
Fellow Dallas Obamans
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs5kp7
Here are the event details:
Obama Dallas has setup a Virtual Phone Bank to help get the word out about Obama and find other volunteers willing to lend their voice and time to the campaign. A Virtual Phone Bank is something you can do from your own home at your own time.
To access the virtual phone bank, you will be given a login and password to a website. Once you login, the phone bank will give you the number you need to call, whom you are speaking to, and what to ask them. You will also have a section to input the person's responses.
Those who signup will be contacted through email on how to access the system.
All calls made will be local to Dallas County.
If you do not wish to use your own phone, phones will be available at Obama Dallas that you can call from.
Let's make Dallas a shining blue beacon of Change!
If you would prefer to not use your own phone, check out the event Coordinated Phonebanking
Collin County Mini Camp Obama plus Voter Registration Deputization
Obama Collin County DATE: Saturday, August 30
TIME: 10:00am - 1:00pm
LOCATION: Obama Collin County Headquarters, 4577 Ohio Drive, Frisco, TX
MORE: RSVP at http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/meeting/4gyk2
Senator Obama will have officially accepted the nomination and called us to action! Collin County - our time is now! Please join us on Saturday 8/30 @ 10am for a morning dedicated to discussing how we will deliver Collin County in November. We need you, we need as many Volunteer Voter Registrars as possible - we will also have Sharon Rowe from the Collin County Elections office to deputize Volunteer Voter Registrars.We cannot change Collin County without YOU, please join us! Join our Barack Obama group before 8/30 at http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/ObamaCollinCounty (note you may not receive a confirmation email that you have successfully joined the group). We had over 70,000 vote with us during the primary - help us make history here at home in November!
http://mikegallagher.townhall.com/columnists/MichaelMedved/2008/07/16/the_candidate_as_cult_leader
Under the headline “Obama Supporters Take His Name as Their Own,” the New York Times reported on a bizarre fad among the candidate’s enraptured acolytes: across the country, they’ve begun adopting his middle name, Hussein. “The result is a group of unlikely sounding Husseins,” writes reporter Jodi Kantor, “from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington, D.C., to Kelly Hussein Crowley of Norman, Oklahoma, to Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin of Chicago.”
I have setup a group on my.barackobama.com for Texas Precinct 1133 to help fellow Obama supporters in this under-represented precinct locate each other. We are also looking for people willing to help with voter registration, get out the vote, and other activities to make sure our precinct gets Obama one step closer to the White House. The group can be reached at the below link:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/TXPrecinct1133
"Yes We Can" is the new musical and video tribute to Senator Barack Obama for President by Maria Muldaur and Bonnie Raitt. I was asked to co-produce and distribute the video on behalf of Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, and Joel Joseph of Studio B Recording in Sausilito, CA. It's not to be confused with the first great "Yes We Can" video and song by Will-I-Am, which is a terrific and pioneering work of its own. Also see www.yeswecanthevideo.comHere's the video:
You can see the video with a click here: <a href="http://zennie2005.blogspot.com/2008/07/yes-we-can-tribute-to-obama-by-maria.html"> YES WE CAN </a>
If you ever wonder how the Obama campaign came from nowhere and defeated the largest and strongest candidate organization in modern American history, I have my own theory.
It is because he applied the approach he used as a community organizer in Chicago to organizing a campaign. You put dedicated young people on the ground to organize grassroots volunteers to do the real work. It doesn’t sound new and it is not. Many campaigns have recruited students and sent them out to organize. The difference is this; Senator Obama sent them out prepared. Last summer, he gathered hundreds of recent college graduates in Chicago and other cities for intensive training at "Obama University". Each morning they were taught by experienced political professionals and mentored in practicing those skills through the rest of the day and into the night. When they arrived in the primary states where they were assigned, they knew what to do and they had the confidence that comes from having already practiced it successfully.
Like many other Americans, I have often found an excuse not to vote and have avoided getting involved in politics. I’ve told myself I was too busy, or that my vote wouldn’t really make a difference or that the fact I’m in a wheelchair with a ventilator and sleep in an iron lung gave me an excuse.
Not this time. Not this year. The list of crisis level issues facing our nation is staggering. We simply cannot continue on the path we’ve been on. Polls show that I am not alone in this assessment.
We had a great initial organizing meeting at the Country Cafe, so wonderful seeing many newly involved political activists from the Rockwall County Convention turning out again to support our candidate Barack Obama for President.
We've made some plans to continue meeting, grow or group and to take several prelimary steps to improve the group's visibility. So much to do, and only 20 weeks left to do it all in, we need your help. In fact, we need a small army of volunteers, there are about 50,000 registered voters in Rockwall County and we need to knock on their doors at least twice in the remaining weeks. So, if you have a lose weight goal, maybe we can help with some teamwork walking, talking and knocking on doors.
While we cannot create a PAC, we can spend our own money as we please, all that you want to spend, so don't hesitate to buy large quantites of signs, stickers, buttons and magnetic signs too and distribute them freely. There is no restriction on your doing so. Anything to increase the campaign visibility in Rockwall County is fair game as long as its legal. So, bring us your ideas, lets workd together and while we are at it maybe make a few new friends.
I look forward to seeing everyong next week, Country Cafe, 3045 N. Goliad, Rockwall, TX.
Breaking from Newsmax.com
Report: Gore, Carter May Stop Hillary
Former President Carter and Al Gore have discussed plans to tell Hillary Rodham Clinton that she must abandon her presidential bid, for the sake of the Democratic Party.
"They're in discussions," a source close to Carter told the Scotland on Sunday newspaper. "Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence."
The newspaper said the message will be delivered — it's just a matter of when.
Barack Obama leads Clinton in the race for pledged delegates, and political experts say its nearly impossible for her to catch. But she retains a lead among superdelegates, and has pinned all of her hopes on them. She continues to insist that she will stay in the race until the Democratic convention in August.
According to Scotland on Sunday, the Carter-Gore talks have centered on two likely scenarios for ending Clinton's bid: Carter and Gore meet with her privately and ask her to step down. Or both of them appear in public and endorse Obama — which is likely to puch a majority of superdelegates to support Obama.
PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney on Monday endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's presidential bid.
In a statement, the 75-year-old Rooney said endorsing political candidates is not something he regularly does.
"As a grandfather and a citizen of this community, I think Barack Obama's thoughtful, strategic approach is important to America," Rooney said. "When I hear how excited young people seem to be when they talk about this man, I believe he will do what is best for them, which is to inspire them to be great Americans."
The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator and Rooney met Monday after Obama spoke at a meeting of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Obama's Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, also addressed the gathering.
Last month, former Steelers running backs Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis also endorsed Obama.
That's where he met a community activist named David Kobeirowski, who told the senator he was planning to start a book club to discuss The Audacity of Hope.
"He immediately raised his hand in the air and said, 'David, that is fantastic. This is the kind of grassroots spirit I want to have all over the country,'" Kobeirowski recalled.
more...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89438634
