Unemployed and on the Verge of Losing Everything: "I Don't Know How I'll Make It"

This is what happens when we fuck up and vote in imbeciles like Bush and Obama ! You snooze, you lose !

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You have to get up in the morning and look for work with each day having to believe that today will be different from yesterday.

You have to stay positive to sell yourself and yet accept rejection - the most brutal, personal form of rejection possible in a capitalistic society - every single day.

You have to do all of this while the financial clock keeps ticking down to zero.

"A little while longer," are words you've been repeating to yourself and your family for months now, despite all evidence to the contrary.

There is no such thing as a jobless recovery.

It is merely the moneyed interests tightening their grip on the working class like a boa constrictor killing its prey.

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it's interesting that Alternet is promoting this bit of propaganda.

US troops have been withdrawn from "urban areas", after massive bases have been established all over Iraq. The actual number of troops will not appreciably decrease for years, and that's only if the Iraq puppet government meets requirements set up by the US.

The occupation of Iraq continues, with a new name.The previous administration used the occupation of Korea as an example of what they intended for Iraq, and it appears that game plan is moving forward.

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I was in the first wave of this economic sunami. I lost my job at a local casino that I held for almost four years. That October I was called into the GM's office and told I was being accused talking about Tribal business at work and terminated because the newly elected Chairman of the Tribe felt he needed to make an example out of someone, and that was that. I was fired before anyone even asked me what my side of the situation was.

So began my oddessy with unemployment. Due to the outrageous circumstances of my termination, the casino did not deny my unemployment claim so I got my first assistance check about 5 weeks later. Since then, I've had several periods where months went by without any help. At one point, I had to apply for food stamps, and it made me physically sick to do it. I only used them for the first month. I didn't send in the paperwork for the second month because I could not bear to be 'that bum' that so many of the heartless bastards in our society carry on about.

When Congress passed the first of the unemployment extensions, I felt like someone had thrown me a tiny string to pull me back from the edge. By that time, I had lost my car, I had to live with relatives who paid all the bills, I had applied for over 120 jobs without any responses, and I had decided that if I was to become homeless, I would kill myself.

I know that sounds like a harsh statement. But, I will not live for the sake of living. The thought of existing under a bridge was more than I wanted to think about.

The funny thing about Republicans is that they didn't support unemployment extensions. My dickhead Representative is Devin Nunes (R) CA 21, and his office told me that they don't like paying people to be on vacation. The unemployment I recieve is 42% of what I used to make at work. It's 100% of my survival. If they think this is vacation, I think they need to have their jobs cut off so that they can get a better feel for what it means to lose everything month after month-then hear your government officials act as if you are trying to milk the system.

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The simple fact is that companies don't want to hire people over 45 because of the cost for health insurance. In countries that have national plans, age is not as big a barrier to employment. Citizens must demand single payer insurance now, and that will help alleviate the systemic economic problems of the US.

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I find it just disgusting, that these, sloppy headed Bush supporters, first support a party that swerves back and forth, smashing Americans lives, values, and even our Country's foundations, then slams America into a half-dead tree, leaves it burning, with the occupants still inside, then blames Obama. Now people are hurting like people in this country haven't hurt, since 1930s, they still don't want to help, leaving them to defend for themselves like a bunch of hungry dogs. Then they still don't want them to get unemployment, until, the country recovers. The GOP must be just old fashion devil worshippers, and cannibals. There is no excuse for their cruel, hateful Christain attitude, that supports, their meaness. Just remember, there are just as many GOP supporters eating out of garbage cans as any other group now. I really wonder how high the suicide rate will get go, before they wake up.

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9/11, Iraq/Afgn theft and now a profound redistribution of wealth, all committed in broad daylight and perfectly choreographed by MSM/PBS/NPR.

When good is made to appear bad and bad is manipulated to appear good, you're at a tipping point.

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This is that has been playing itself out since the end of the 70's when corporate down-sizing got on a roll and they learned greed is good. Many hitting the 50 mark (Particularly the Aerospace industry) worked several facilities and never got vested (Let go at 9 plus years and rehired months later). Many gave up, retired completely on their stocks and savings. This may be far worse than the Great Depression, and last far longer but nothing has changed since this started back then. The rich are richer, Washington doesn't care about us, the worker, and jobs are not coming back. If Wall St. profits are already back to '07 levels, what does that tell you? Biden stating they misread how bad this meltdown is tells me all I need to know:They are clueless about the real world.

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I too would kill myself rather than be poor or feeble. It is a shame the Ghetto denizens don’t fell the same way.

Honestly, is it better to be dead or a beggar?

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The one good thing about being on EUI is you have the chance to start your own bussiness. Or complete something you have always wanted to do.
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Texas Governor Rick Perry refused over $550 million dollars for Texas' unemployment trust fund because he wanted to "resist further government intrusion.”

As long as government intrusion allows Governor Perry and the rest of his ilke their healthcare benefits, salaries and pensions for life why should they care about the Luz's of the world?

The disconnect is with the politicians here. Our Congress voted themselves a pay raise during our so called financial crisis.

The real crisis is the Wall Street Financiers who are being aided and abetted by our government, (you know Hank Paulson former CEO of Goldman Sachs).

Now we have centrists Obama seeing green shoots where yellow weeds are growing and doing nothing to stop Wall Street's raiding of the Federal Government's coffers.

Instead we have Geithner and Summers (both pro wall street) insisting that we can't upset the bankers because they know how to fix the mess.

Time to move to a different banana republic.

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...that the unemployed and the working poor finally "crack it" that they've nothing to lose except their chains. It's an irony that 20 years after the putative fall of Marxism, Karl Marx is being proved right - or so it would seem.

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You forget that manufacturing in America has been expatriated for 20 years or more, that working-class clerical pink-collar jobs have been automated out of existence since the phone company layoffs of 1972-76.

Our recession has been ongoing for a quarter of a century. We have long joked that if 2000 female mill hands lose their jobs, no-one cares, but if ten aerospace workers are laid off, the MSM media are called out en masse to cover the event.

As someone who held onto a paid-off house through seven desperate years of unemployment, scrap metal recycling, flea marketing, growing veggies in flower beds, and hauling water from springs when the municipal supply was cut off, I can sympathize with Ms. Guerra. Education means little, personal connections are paramount, and age is the ultimate sin and crime in the current economy.

Thank you all for finally noticing the problem.

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Has America giving itself a black president just as the nation inherit an African economy ?

Is America about to taste the medicine it’s own institutions like the World Bank & International Money Fund have been administrating the world over for decades ?

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MEANWHILE...

HALLIBURTON / KBR STEALING US BLIND !
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"Americans do not have the intellectual capacity to revolt. All you need to keep them pacified is to give them a dozen donuts & a gun !" - Max Keiser

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They can get away with that now because there isn't much to do around any of these companies right now. At the rate they are laying off, they can count on the usual pair or trio of geniuses that "fix" everything in a company. Under better times, this is no more than self-mutilation and a one-way ticket to corporate liquidation. Why? Because the competition would sop up all the people you let go. At that point, the competitive portion of business ends and you simply get financially slaughtered, that's all. There's a reason for poaching employees.

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Come on . . . cheer up. You have the Sarah Palin and Michael Jackson stories to comfort you. Just turn on your cable TV let it wash over you and everything will be fine.

These diversions are keeping a gullible and non-informed public at bay. The American "Media" has been and will continue to be the pacifier that let's elections get stolen, criminals run the government, bankers steal the treasury and large corporations (the owners of the "Media") control people's lives. There is so much noise blanking-out the real reasons things are the way they are, no wonder it's getting worse.

Real leadership is the key, but that hasn't been the case for many, many years. Until then, it's gonna be every man for himself running in a hundred different directions . . just the way they like.

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The year that Ronald Regan and George HW Bush arranged with the Iranians to hold Americans hostage until after the presidential election said it all. The cabalists were going to steal the country blind, the war machine was going to be revved up beyond our imaginings. I told many people that if the new status-quo was allowed to continue, that in 25 years this country would be steeped in an economic depression that would make the 1930's look like mere practice. I also took note that when George H W Bush announced he was going to "level the playing field" of world economics he never said a word about raising world living standards. What he meant was that he and his cronies were going to obliterate the American economy through de-industrialization ( thank you Mr. Kissinger for your participation in this bit of treason) of the United States and make every world citizen a serf to the monied interests. I tell you here and now, our people are going to starve before this mess shakes itself out. We are in for 30 more years of hell before this hideous black cloud starts to fade. It isn't just economics, either, it is the flagrant disregard for our Constitution which has been pissed on and used as if it were "just a goddamned piece of paper" as per George Bush Jr., it is every ideal we have ever had as a nation. It will only change when there is nothing left for citizens to lose. That time is coming. We are half way there now, and the worst is yet to be seen. I pity my children and grandchildren...and yours.

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I have the been waiting for disability since 2005, and that is another total joke! The Feds are not interested in helping the "common" people. I live on food stamps and the kindness of strangers, with massive amounts of help from my retired parents. I receive inadequate medical care for my chronic and deadly health condition. I have two teens and had worked for 25 years before this--can you imagine what their outlook on society must be?! My house was foreclosed upon 2 years ago (even though I had a non sub-prime loan, BTW). The financial strain here in California was such that my ex-husband became violent towards me before we split, which just compounded the whole mess.

Basically, the "system" wants people such as myself to die. Fuck them, I say; I am not a commodity or a widget! If I go, who would raise my kids?

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U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq.

What kind of moronic statement is that? You do realize your cred vaporised right there, don't you?!

Lay off the Strawbarry Kool Aid sister. The sooner the better.

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Many lay-offs are legitimate, but I'm convinced that a percentage of them are simply companies jumping on the bandwagon. Payroll is their biggest expense, always has been. But the mass lay-offs don't have to be accounted for. Hey, times are bad. That's where I think a little government attention might help. Are they all necessary or just a way to cut costs. In France a couple of months ago, someone noticed that alot of pregnant women were losing their jobs, They too have unemployment problems. They checked into the demographics of the people losing their jobs. Pregnant women were a disproportionate number of unemployed. They immediately set out to
remedy the problem. We don't do that here. People's lives are decided by corporations
and each state handles things their own way. I just don't believe that unemployment has to be as high as it is. When I worked in the Securities business I noticed that everytime a big company announced a cut-back, the stock always went up. That's because the profits went up. That raises many questions about today's practices. I don't believe it has to be this bad. Thanks, ANNA

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I was waiting for the punchline. They've "withdrawn to the outskirts of the cities" at "pre-surge" levels with an unspecified amount of "trainers" left in the cities. They even had to re-draw the map of baghdad so our largest base there appeared to be on the city outskirts. Geez, I know this was just mood setting for the rest of the piece, but come on. Everybody cheers when Obama brings the troops to Bush level.

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As females I find the burden of society has been placed on our shoulders. Why did she quit her job to look after her mother. That is not a logical practice. A man is never heard of doing this. Why would her child,a son, ask for her last $30.00 for a book and she is starving.
I just find that woman have the wrong programming of self sacrifice.

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When a Bank says " we can't help you " what they are REALLY saying is we CHOOSE not to help you
They were encouraged to allow for renegotiating of Mortgages but then they would have to write down the value of the mortgage . Our "elected" representatives made sure that Bankruptcy judges could not Cram Down mortgages .

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This has nothing to do with Obama, this has to do with a country that sat back and let George Bush kill its kids (anyone's kids who weren't their own), so they could stuff money in their pockets over some non-existent BS about terrorists. America has money and plenty of it, but those that Bush put in control of it are running like the chicken nuts they are trying to stuff it into offshore accounts and offshore jobs to keep from paying the people they profited from. The scales tipped to the wrong side for too long and Pres Obama isn't going to have an easy time getting it back. They're not going to do the right thing, so he ends of having to tax the hell out of them and shift the jobs over to government to protect its citizens who (according to John McCain) make "less than $5m a year." You people are going to have to get out of those "dumb job boxes" and learn to reinvent yourselves, and watch where the money ball is bouncing. You've got a better shot at starting your own business or doing a non-profit than finding a job right now. It's going to education, health care, transportation, technology and green energy. GO WHERE THE MONEY IS, people..get out of your comfort zones, out of the box and start re-thinking where you are in life right now ... and stop blaming Obama for something he didn't start, but has to finish. It ain't gonna happen overnight, but only two things are going to happen. The GOP who are controlling the pocket book strings (because Bush let them) are going to have to quit playing these games and blowing smokescreens, or the country they stole the money from for that past eight years is going to self-implode and fall on their little cheap swift-boating conniving heads. These people doing all the ranting about Obama don't give a crap about you, they only care about themselves. If Bush had stayed in office, they'd have shown you how much they REALLY care about you.

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but not everyone deserves sympathy. Luz is one who is undeserving.

Took off from work to take care of someone? That does not make economic sense, as much you might feel it's compassionate. That's just not something you can or should be able to do in any vaguely capitalist system.

Had kids? That's a lifestyle choice. She created extra expenses for herself. No one made her do that.

Who deserves sympathy and economic help?

People without children.

People who did not buy a car if they live in a place with public transportation.

People who rent small apartments, or a room and did not get mortgages.

People without expensive personal habits - regardless of what they are.

Those who did not create these extra expenses for themselves should get tons of help - way more than they get now. Those who HAVE THE LEAST and TAKE THE LEAST should GET THE MOST. We should not reward those who cost more because of their own lifestyle choices. We should reward those who cost the least because of their own lifestyle choices.

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disgusting

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This article featured a slide show of someone who is a face behind the numbers of a grim statistic. There are millions like her who are accompanied with uncertainty, a loss of a stipend and no one can predict when they'll see a check again.
Losing a job is akin to losing a close friend whom you've known for years: "what will I do without you"?
Sure, we can say "we'll move on" (we have to) and "another one will come along" (but we don't know when) but time is against us. Time has a way of affecting our psyche and the way we handle a difficult time. It's a cruel numbers game.
Nice job by AlterNet for the article. I wish Luz and every unemployed person good luck on finding a job. I don't want anyone to go through what we're facing.

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From the article:
"... the actual unemployment rate is 16.5%, pretty high numbers for a country that has spent an additional $14.5 billion (of the $787 billion dedicated since Obama's election) to putting people 'back to work.' "

The only people who have been put back to work are people on Wall Street. Beyond government money for unemployment extensions, I see no government funds being used in my area, either for new public or private works to increase employment or for general economic stimulation.

Besides, even if the pittance in direct "back to work" aid was actually effective, that $14.5 billion amounts to LESS THAN 2% of the billions handed to the Pirates of Wall Street, the same pirates that have stolen the bulk of America's wealth already.

We know from this who Obama's administration wants to stimulate – and it sure-as-hell isn't the "bottom" 95% of us.

Situations such a Luz's are spreading throughout the nation in exponential numbers; so my questions are these:

What IS America going to do with millions of people with no hope and no future and no support?

Where is America going to bury all of those who choose suicide?

How is America going to look to the rest of the world when massive ghettos grow like South American Favelas around its major cities?

What other nations will want to continue investing in such a failing and heartless nation, one whose stupid and greedy policies and far-reaching tentacles damage the world economy?

And, maybe most importantly, how is America going to cope with millions of extremely angry (and armed) people with nothing left to lose? It has been said that there is nothing more dangerous to a society than a person with nothing left to lose. We're now manufacturing millions, so I seriously doubt that there is an army on the planet big enough to contain violence on this scale if all of those people whose lives have been (and will be) destroyed choose to act.

The arrogant Powers That Be are playing a very dangerous game in a country that once drove out the strongest empire in the world and then went to war with itself for over four years, with a cost of over 600,000 lives.

Right now, even in the midst of a growing disaster, there still remains an adequate level of Good Old American Optimism. If that should ever die, however, God help us all.

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our private Federal Reserve & the other private central banks!!! It's a scheme of the Illuminati/NWO/globalists to destroy U.S. sovereignty & usher in a one-world dictatorship!

The severely corrupt governments + corporations are why so many people are suffering!!! There are abundant resources on this planet for EVERYONE to have clean water, food, shelter, decent jobs, medical care, etc.!!!

http://www.endthefed.us/

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At least my husband is working, but I'm 59 and have been unemployed over a year now. I'm wondering if I will ever have a full-time job with benefits again. Even temporary work, which was steady in the previous decade when I was unemployed, is almost gone. I worked for a day two weeks ago, and that was the first time since January. I will be on my third round of unemployment after my next unemployment check. I've started applying for jobs like "kitchen aide", but with no success. I would tell people, though, to at least sign up as substitute teacher's aides or clerical workers at school districts. Sometimes during the school year those jobs can be fairly steady, if low-paying.

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I suppose that helps and, I suppose, that the taunting that appears in the discussion above serves some purpose as well.

Yet, sooner or later someone must work on answers.

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From the above article:When Luz Guerra had to leave her last job...she'd...had over 30 years experience as an organizer and adult educator.

Luz began to apply for office manager jobs, receptionist jobs, sales clerk jobs

In short anything but a position requiring demanding physical labor.

True at 52 no one would want or should need to work at a physically demanding job. But since the Sixties the attitude of suburban white America and upwardly mobile minority America, the category into which Ms. Guerra falls, is that in order to get ahead one needs a college degree which is then the ticket to the white collar world of air conditioned office buildings, three martini lunches, shuffling papers from on side of the desk to the other between golf outings on the company tab as legitimate "business" meetings.

The diminution and degradation of physical labor accelerated during the Reagan years with the Alzheimer addled "Gipper" announced the end of an industrial-based economy and the glorious dawning of a "service" based "free market" economy. Then the outsourcing of our domestic manufacturing sector began in earnest, culminating the with the dreadful NAFTA and CAFTA which has driven US manufacturing south and out of work granjeros to El Norte.

In reality Ronnie Rayguns should have told the truth about our "service" economy: It is in reality a servant economy. Have you noticed that many of the new businesses opened within the past twenty years are in lawn and garden care, carpet cleaning, dog grooming and picking up the shit of same? Many workers laid-off in earlier downsizings and recessions opened "new" businesses where they are, in essence, "servants" of oh, so busy suburban white collar coordinators.

Now the shit is hitting the fan for the coordinator class. The niches for servant businesses are taken. Soon the only thing left for white collar coordinator class will be the opportunity to fight over the stoop labor jobs now held by illegals from south of the border.

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You say a statement like this and wonder why you don't have a job?

When you wake up from whatever psychosis you're under, take a good look around and get educated.

Propaganda and lies do not equal truth.

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I couldn't afford health insurance for 7 years. I lost my money in business reversals and at the same time developed physical problems. No health care, no job, and denied for disability without being told I could appeal (welcome to the government which does everything NOT to help you). I just spent the holiday weekend selling my stuff at a flea market for cash to pay an upcoming property tax bill and I needed a dozen pain pills in order to do it. This is the reality of our new America after most of Congress spent our money on the banks and the military-industrial complex--when not stuffing their own pockets and the pockets of their wealthy overlords. America is a serfdom. America is the company store and no matter what we do we will be in debt until we die.

I also want to add a comment about helping sick relatives. My nephew had to quit his job to care for my sister because we could not get any assistance--and she had very good health insurance. I spent what money I had left traveling across three states so I could spell my nephew every other month. I know of lots of people who bankrupted themselves to care for a sick family member because this country provides no help for you unless you are willing to give up everything and die in a government home.

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... has gone on for too many decades. Even now Obama's prescription for an improved economy is for all to go out and buy "things", whether they need them or not.

Reminds me of the Soviet Union producing too much of unneeded items so they could be sold inexpensively, but few wanted them.

Government Motors executives were part of our current problem. They produced cars that few wanted. They thought that their market could buy new cars every two years, and made them to last just a little longer. So Toyota, Honda and others started winning the market.

Worse, about 40 years ago the important Business Schools were claiming that the auto executives were allowing the unions to set make-work rules, and restrictive rules, and gaining such high wages that the business would eventually fail. They were right about the results of catering to the unions, just wrong about the timing.

It seems cruel to think so, but just as inefficient businesses can fail, and should be allowed to fail, so should lazy and uneducated citizens be allowed to fail.

Bg corporations are not the problem. In the U.S. 99.7% of businesses are small businesses, and they provide jobs for 50.4% of the workforce.

If you have never met a payroll out of your own pocket, you don't understand business, and your comments on this site are worthless.

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Anything connected to Wall Street is a plague and a curse on everyday Americans. Whether its healthcare, utilities, insurance, you name it.
These greedy, heartless, (I wanted to say "godless" but those "godly" republicans are just as selfish and greedy as pagan CEOs) investors don't see with their eyes the misery their insatiable lust for wealth is causing and neither their bought off politicians. We need a revolution in the worst way.

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It is time WE THE PEOPLE start doing something in mass and stop waiting for some one else to fix it for us. Time to remember that our elected officials work for us, and if not we are obligated to remove them. WE DON'T HAVE TO LIVE THIS WAY IT IS OUR LIFE, OUR PLANET START ACTING LIKE IT. Read David Kortens book, The Great Turning. TURN OFF THE TV, and start talking to your friends and neighbors, research your own information and make your own decisions. Most of all remember WE includes everyone on this planet, all colors, all religions, all sexual orientations, We are not the enemy the banks and corporations are. The media want us to fight amongst ourselves so we are distracted from their agenda, only you can decide not to listen.

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To The House of Commons as a Member of Parliament in Norwich North where he was born - because the current MP resigned on charges of corruption.

I have the utmost Respect For Craig Murray Because as a UK Ambassador He Seriously Embarrassed The UK Government For Their Involvement in Receiving Information From TORTURE.

Not only did they force him out of his job, they have maintained an exceedingly long campaign to try and keep him silent.

If any American Journalist is reading this - then all I can say is that it is a VERY Interesting and VERY Current Newsworthy Story About The very Fundamentals of Democracy in a Country ENGLAND that is supposed to be an Example to the World as having the Oldest Most Long Running Democracy in The World.

Except Craig's Voice is Not Being Heard

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

link

Maybe you can help

Tony

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Your opening almost made me pass on this article.... Withdraw from Iraq? Hardly.

I have worked in an Unemployment Office for almost 10 years. Luz is making an all too common mistake in her job search, applying for things she is way over qualified for. She should stay focused on what she does best, helping people help themselves. Get a grant and start something. I know easier said than done but better than applying for housekeeping.

If looking for work in this economy, get creative, network, network some more and develop a high demand skill. Get a CDL, CNA x-ray tech what ever floats your boat and will keep the lights on. There is A LOT of money for school and training out there. Your community college will be delighted to tell you all about it!

One, you could go cry in your beer blaming Bush, Obama, the Federal reserve or space aliens or two get creative and make something happen! The solution lies within...

Or maybe I'm full of shit...

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There are some of us that have been saying all these things since Ronald Reagan.Everyone has been so smug, so superior. Nobody believed that it would ever happen to them. We watched as the conservatives had you cheering every strand the yanked from the safety net. We scratched our heads as working folk turned on working folk just because they lost their jobs. We wondered how a country could survive with a so called service economy, then an information economy, then a las vegas roulette economy. All the while anybody with a brain saw that we were barrelling towards disaster. Well guess what? The whole thing is coming apart and there is nothing there to save anyone. All you executives are gonna be the only ones fat enough to eat. What do you suppose you will manage now? We need you less than anyone. Our only hope is that when it becomes apparent that there is no more use for you and the hungry masses are barbequeing your SharPei you will cry loud enough to have Goldman Sachs send you a lifeboat. Then guess what? they are gonna have to send one for all of us, because when the inevitable shit hits the fan, the boys in the brooks bros. suits that caused this will be out numbered out smarted, and as useless as a 6000 dollar shower curtain. We have gotten good at surviving, lets see how you do.

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an opportunity to suppress the workforce in any way possible. For instance I work in a call center and the policy has been if calls are in que we can work overtime. Last week one of my co-workers who had worked overtime several days the week before, was told after the fact that the policy had changed and she would not be paid. The company has never told anyone the policy had changed. Then they made her sign a paper stating it was alright for them not to pay her for the 10 hrs of overtime. Because those of us who are employed are thankful for the paycheck, we have become slaves to the corporations.

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corporate ones, to be exact. And I have the wherewithal to do so. I was a Permatemp at APPLE for 3 years, with no benefits and when I got laid off, I did not qualify for unemployment as I was misclassified as self employed.

I am hungry now, but I will have my revenge. I have one of the top law firms in the country on the case and hope to have at least as big a case as the successful one brought against Microsoft by its Permatemps (Vizcaino vs Microsoft). Unfortunately for Apple, I am a very worthy opponent. As sharp as my lawyer is, he always remarks that I have a 'steel trap mind,' which I actually take as a pretty big compliment.

I WILL fight the good fight for the 'little people,' and I will use the ego of my abuser against him to ultimately crush him. Heed my warning, Apple... This is not an idle threat.

To any other corporation even attempting to abuse my rights or those of others, you must heed my warning also. Let's watch them like hawks folks. It's the only way to reverse this hell we all find ourselves in at this moment. All I will reveal for now, is that although I am poor, I am connected to some unusual folk in high places and I will use this to go after who ever I need to go after.

Power to the people :)

Peace

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With the way the government is spending our tax money, no wonder people are "going under".

We still have troops in 130 COUNTRIES that we're paying for every single month.

Here's the report - US Treasury financial statement

Spreading "democracy" all over the place while Americans go hungry is insanity.

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An era of big economy mania has come and gone - the party's over


One of the previous comments contained these statements -

> . . and I had decided that if I was to become homeless, I would kill myself. <

This I do understand all too well. I'm just a bit shy of 60.

I listen to the usual suspect financial gurus on the radio, and read some of their articles, but what I come aweay with is that if you are young, fresh out of college, and looking for your first job, it will be rough, but eventually you'll "make it".

For folks in their 60s and beyond, if you are wiped out because your mutual funds took a turn for the worst, your house is already "under water" and you can't get any more credit, and all the credit cards are already maxed out, there are very few options left.

I'm not going to try to eek out an existence living from a shopping cart.

In my own context, I've had an interesting enough life, and am very grateful for the friends and experiences I have had over the years.

I leave behind no dependants, and in a sense. I'm free to depart.

One thing I do know for certain - the party's over.

We had our corporate "big 80s - greed is good" haydays, the dotcom bubble of the 90s, and the post Y2K bogus mortgage housing bubble.

Many of those "smartest guys in the room" types (as per the recent film about Enron) had this over the top, middle finger in your face if you get in my way attitude, everywhere, in almost every sector of finance and industry.

And now we are seeing the results of this "greed is good" gone wild era . . .

Never mind that many folks, myself included, tried for years to get people to look at this phony house of cards quarterly return obsessed business world and its obvious pathologies.

More than a few times I was ridiculed for daring to bring up such novel concepts as ethics, standards, and transparency in business operations. I was told I was naive, obsessed with utopian ideology, and so on.

I just wonder, how many of those same folks would respond to my "utopian" views now, but I digress.

If my time is up, and survival here is just too much of a ridiculous struggle, I'll quietly depart and that's that.

However, its those folks just getting of college I wonder about. They will be paying the tab for all the bailouts and stimulus funds that are now being utilized to correct the damage of the past decades. They will already be in debt, for years, just to pay off their student loans, before they even get their first job.

The USA we once knew is, for the most part, a hollow shell of a previous era.

Had the USA stayed out of Vietnam, and instead invested those dollars in advanced energy technologies, education, and health care reform, we might have a very different USA today.

But instead, we took an even further step backward, plunging into a completely bogus war in Iraq based on false information and fraud, and paid for with debt obligation to China.

As for me, even if I oculd survive for a few more years, only to have every cent dissapear into perpetual medical and heath care exoenses, I just can't get that enthusiastic about going through all that.

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WHAT GOOD ARE ECONOMISTS?

Samuelson: Economists Missed the Financial Crisis July 10.2009

Sooo after the democrat congress allowed millions of (year after year) subprime mortgages to be written (diversity/reverse discrimination bites back) for people (millions illegal!) who could never qualify traditionally, the congress allowed over 12 million illegals to milk America for fuel-social services, the congress passed major overspending bills for years, the democrats (secular socialists) gained power,
the new strident socialist president (he had a record) told voters for a year of his “redistribution-sharing plans”, our congress continued hiring (78,000 new gov-meant employees in 2009), the congress started meddling in big business, the congress defended Fannie-Freddie corruption, the congress made it plain high incomers were going to be hammered, the congress said harsh new eco-business laws were coming, the congress 4x the national debt, the congress borrowed a trillion to buy votes and called it a Stimulus and so on and so on…economists missed all that?

How blind, deaf and dumb to political impacts can modern American economists be?
Are these the same “experts” who are always “surprised”?
How is it about 80% of the time any jobs or inflation or whatever major stat appears….
you read “unexpected”, “above”, “more”, “below” and such?

Why is it the voices of conservatives screaming about the implications-reality of strident socialist policies are ignored…as in the days of Jimmah Carter? I will tell you. Its because liberals never ever accept the facts, the economic laws, human nature, the experience of other countries and simple history.

Economists and younger voters fall for the old democrat socialist Oz land policy speeches that failed before and will fail again.
Now the push for nationalized health care by a congress that cannot reform or refuses to reform (in 40 years) the fraud-efficiency-stupidity of Medicare. Go figure that.

How many huge federal programs must fail (and spend 3-7x whatever the “selling price” was) does it take?
The next natural historic democrat phase (as I mentioned all of 2009) will be the TAX U phase. They always spend us into deep debt then hammer our wallets to pay later. The gov-meant keeps hiring while the socialist Party keeps promising, keeps lying, keeps blame shifting and keeps taxing

J. Carter Obama is back. Plan accordingly.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

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