What a saga… 22 January 2009
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Democrats, Divertissements, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, U.S. Senate.trackback
A story of updates… Gothamist and Gawker… Gothamist updated for hours...
UPDATE 11:24 p.m.: It’s the NY dailies versus the Associated Press: The AP spoke to a source (one who is not “authorized to speak for Kennedy”) who “says she has renewed her determination to win appointment to the U.S. Senate seat once held by her slain uncle, Sen. Bobby Kennedy.” Basically Uncle Ted’s seizure only gave her “misgivings” but the source seems to think she’s still going for it. Are Cuomo, Gillibrand, Maloney et al. hoping the AP has it wrong?
Please, Caroline, go home. No matter the reason.
The Post‘s original, cryptic scoop offered no rationale for Kennedy’s withdrawal. Then, a person “told of [Kennedy's] decision” told the Times Kennedy chalked the move up to her worries about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s ill health.
People immediately started calling bullshit. Ted Kennedy has been on deathwatch since before the start of Kennedy’s non-bid bid for senate. Now she’s worried?
What a story. The whole thing, not just the squibble of fiction dribbled out at the end..
NYT (who, I see, went with a photo from December of CKS at the Gee Whiz diner, so appropriate):
Mrs. Clinton resigned from the Senate on Wednesday, immediately after being sworn in as secretary of state. The governor has said privately and publicly that he would like to select a woman to succeed her, noting that if he were to choose a man, the number of female senators would drop to just 16.
So, Gillibrand moves up? And Maloney? (Not as if I know… I just guess from 2,700 + miles away.) I feel like I am at a table of donated items at the Goodwill, or the St Vincent de Paul. Charity. How miserable it all is.
***
In other news, not unrelated… Tapper on with Charlie.. saying, when asked about the relationship of Team Obama (don’t get too close and ask about Gawd there, Charlie!) to the media..
Well some of us try to report from our feet rather than our knees.
Local Democratic aligned talk radio is bitching, as I flip it on at 1:18 am to see what is up, that Hannity refers to Obster as “the Messiah”. ”How dare he”. And “it’s just plain wrong”.
Then quit with crafting that bullshit… it seems simple to me.
Good luck to all.
Just saw this at Press TV:
The “International Community” is useless… we cannot even get a killing blockade lifted. And why would we, we promote targeting civilians as a fully credible and permissable act of war.
hmm This at anti-war says there is a plan kicking around (I would bet it is an old plan, resuscitated) to shift prisoners from Guantanamo to some of the larger bases… like Pendleton and Leavenworth. large enough bases to allow the building of safe secure and ‘isolated” containment facilities…
And sqawking emits, from congress critters, mostly, at least identified, R persuasion.
I wonder how many of those held at Gitmo are quilty of anything. Some, certainly. And it sounds like we want Europe to agree to take some of the most embarrassing. The fully innocent.
ABC :
fwiw, in the FT:
However! None other than Judith Miller says:
Pentagon sources say it’s likely that France will announce after Obama’s inauguration that it will add a “significant” number of troops to the roughly 3,500 deployed in Afghanistan as part of the NATO alliance effort.
And this too frm Miller (can’t we run her out of the country? can’t she go wear borrowed camo somewhere else?)… as the years stretch out in front of us……………….
The spectacle of all those “unnamed Kennedy Family source” statements was rich. I knew when the NYT didn’t change its online story (or changed it very little) for hours that she was going down. Boy, we sure have had a couple of dramatic lessons in real-time political euthanasia over the past year – first Spitzer, now this.
It’s just as well… she was a lame candidate and the media would have just hounded her for two solid years if she was picked.
she was a lame candidate and the media would have just hounded her for two solid years if she was picked.
agree… it would have been very tedious… I caught a comment from Birdsall of Baruch U saying it “now goes back wehre it should have been, sought by politicians who have won at least one race, voted on by at least some NYers”…
on the money.
6. What really killed her, I think, was the revelation that she had not been voting. It was after that came out, that you felt the ardor toward her distinctly cool, even among the Democratic hoi polloi.
It’s something that an ordinary celebrity candidate might have been able to brush off, but not a Kennedy.
the not voting is deadly.. even if partisans among voters over look it. It was an issue with Edwards (he barely bothered voting, primaries, involvment with the D party, dropping in at conventions, nothing til tapped to self fund and run) and Duckworth as well.
She (CKS) was an itinerant voter, at best, and had not financially endorsed either the party or candidates. It was glaring.
Bloomberg on the jobs loss report out to day
HA! At 10:47 PM ET last night.. Josh Marshall managed this on the Kennedy fandango:
It is possible that all of this drama is part of a single, highly coordinated plan and constitutes the first withdrawal through self-immolation performance art.
On and on it goes. Whatever did McGovern expect? Both Obster and Hilarious supported ramping up Afghanistan.. and had designs on Pakistan, at the very least. Geesh. Down toward the bottom he calls for a 5 year time out from war.
In the immortal words of Ms. Mitchell:
Thanks for all the chuckles, princess! (You too, pullers, pushers, Paterson, and polls!) Look forward to your next comedy stylings – whenever!
Um, waiter, can we get an extra senator here please?
Mufflered laughter in moderation . . . .
And we have another update from nonny-mouse sources to Capitol Confidential:
Chat with her accountant? Kids’ psychiatrist? Confession from hubby? Unmarked envelope with topless photos, Masonic videos, and/or numbers of Zurich accounts?
4.
Kind of late for that. There’s a presidential election this year, isn’t there? It’s not about Karzai anyway. The corruption in his government is already firmly entrenched.
AP, Reuters and Agence France-Presse Refuse to Distribute Obama Photo
haha
E&P:
I’d guess that’s the reason she dropped out.
Curses! FOILed o’gain!
Cripes. Looks like we dodged more than a dynasty here. Though the dysfunction is as thorough as ever!
From Liz Benjamin at Daily News:
And scroll down at link above for Bloomberg and Crew’s huffin’ and puffin! They don’t know nuthin about birthing no senators, Scarlet!
Sorry IB
TWO of yours out of Moderation…
No prob! Figured you might have a nap or a Safeway delivery on your schedule.
In other words, more crucial matters than keeping the latest plot twists straight on NYS’s current “daytime drama.”
8)
Ugh, apparently even Uncle Teddy is PO’d at how it went down…
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1873328,00.html
This whole thing generally smacked of Nouveau Kennedy so I’m not surprised Big Daddy is nonplussed.
Plus he has a WIFE… whoever dribbled out that Caroline was so concerned for him, acted as tho she was needed at some impoverished and isolated bedside.
She really is fabulously clueless.
Conscience Rule also snagged by Obama freeze-all-pending-regs directive?
Diarist sez HHS had not yet issued “guidelines for implementation,” so it falls into the zone of frozen regs. Good news, if true!
Typically, Obamalama’s speech at the state dept doesn’t direct Israel to do anything besides opening the border to humanitarian assistance. Instead, it’s all about what Hamas and the Arab states should do.
Thanks for that IB… from what I had read, instituting it 32 days before departure meant that Obster had to seek a longer remedy.. seek congress out, seek out feed back and so on.
Will forward that to moiv…
Very good news.
From Feminist Majority Foundation:
I think all of that is very good news.
Wait, it gets “better”…
Wow… first it was Teddy’s illness, then it was taxes and nannies, and now it’s her controlling husband.
None dare suggest it was her utter unsuitability for the job? Naw, couldn’t be that.
The Kennedy legacy seems to now consist merely of a shell filled with anonymous hangers-on…
Feminist.org linked to this in The Hill. Ugh I have read it over a couple more times… too mangled a tangle on rules and publishing in the Federal Register. It gave me an immediate headache.
uch:
In a round of interviews several weeks ago, Kennedy said her family supported her Senate bid and denied her marriage was on the rocks.
She’s a soap opera. Middle register.
I fully admit it… with the Caroline thing unraveling, I have Hannity on.
What a hoot… running with the nanny, taxes and husband issues. She is a rich resource.
NY Post… please god save us from the superheroes of the Democratic party. Please.
Hey, Markos, Cue the Suicide Watch…
Hamsher:
London Review of Books has a round up of commentary on Gaza…
The most pessimistic (so far, I am scanning my way thru) is a R W Johnson, whom I have never heard of, from Cape Town.
Interesting commentary from LRB contributors.
From an Eliot Weinberger
21, 28, 33, 34 (and counting!) – Pull up the drawbridges! Archers to the turrets! Camelot is under seige!
Camelotta! And maybe, at least now and here, abandoned by Liberal Lion of the Senate. Myabe Obster can offer one of the patented Dem party Man-Hugs.
And from the latest at Gothamist… LOL, the buffalo are alive, intermarried into the Kennedy Clan — and horrors! are eating her.
First Read (full text)… not sure it matters, “waterboarding” is now like “earmarks”, used to cue the choirs. The administration needs to issue an over riding legal statement on torture, secret prisons, RENDITION and so on, from the OLC or whoever is appropriate. (Of course it would help had this only been a Bushiter problem, they pushed it, domestically legalised it and codified it… )
Not that Levin cares.
Depending on where the amendments end up… I give them props on this. I did nto think they would do it. Ledbetter:
The first whiff of decay in her bid came when La Caroline blew into Syracuse for 30 minutes and refused to answer questions, not realizing that the local press would make a stink about that.
By the time she reached Rochester a couple hours later (hey, New York’s a big state to cross dontcha know – you can’t just take a limo, there’s serious driving and/or flying to be done – you can fit a couple of Massachusettses inside), it was all over the Internet, all over the blogs, all over the Times and the Post and the Daily News.
That was the first stage. The second was, uh, um, the Youtube video. The Internet strikes again.
The third was the not-voting thing. That’s when the Dem insiders began to wrinkle their noses. Internet not required for that.
And the final act, last night, where once again she got completely owned by the speed of the Internet.
Do the Kennedys have computers? Just wondering.
ain’t it a hoot! I am thankful for all forms of entertainment…
Supposedly Paterson will now deliver us with a Bouncing Baby Senator at noon tomorrow. Don’t you just love surprises?
Starting to think he definitely won’t pick Cuomo now, just to avoid another Appointment Sideshow (for a replacement AG) while the Scramblelot egg is still fresh on his face. Lotta talk about Gillibrand again, and da Gov is apparently the keynote speaker at some sort of energy and agribiz summit at the FDR Libary on Monday. (Not too keen on that possibility myself. But after the Kennedy meltdown, maybe Patti Smith still has a chance!)
LOL – just heard Tweety exhort a correspondent “tell me what you’ve got” on the CKS fiasco, and then cut her off mid-sentence with “don’t give me any BLOG stuff. . . if that’s all you’ve got, forget it!”
Protecting the franchise at all costs! Not to mention his pals in the Compound!
BTW, in case you missed it – Obster did a press release on Roe v. Wade anniversary. Saw it at DK – doesn’t seem to be up at whitehouse.gov yet.
Also in the news, Condi signed with William Morris, and the company that makes Beanie Babies is rolling out Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia dolls, while simultaneously whistling innocently about the names.
42 – Agree, on all counts. I mean, why not just twirl your hair, to show you don’t care.
Of course, you could still be right about the Ferrari scenario last night, except that the something that just broke actually first came unglued on the day she decided to “run.”
Via The Page, full text… Take That! Buffalos and Injuns!
Sure and begorrah, Tweety too is fighting hard for the poor colleen!
He just asserted she could still get a high-profile job in the Obster admin – if it’s a nanny problem, look at Geithner! – maybe run the Peace Corps or something, I don’t know!
Toss her somewhere… ti seemed clear from what leaked out that she barely showed up at her office in the Klein We’re Pro Education dept .. or whatever they call it.
To top it all off, Paterson’s doing a (previously scheduled, questions pre-submitted) conference call with bloggers right now
Re the Inaugural crowd crush and many disappointed special ticket holders…
The photo accompanying this article, I’m afraid, probably is going to be an apt representation of the hopes of some Obama supporters over the next four years (it seems unavoidable)…
http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/01/20/the_tunnel
Lambs.
I understand the human desire to flock together, but I distrust crowds and crowd control so strongly that I would have a hard time agreeing to go down to DC for something like this (unless it were to just hang out and people-watch and not try to see any events). I had briefly considered, during Deanmania, going to NH, but just a quick initial request for information from the local Dean “organizer” made me immediately drop the notion, because it was clear they just didn’t have anything coherent to say in terms of instructions. So, I can’t truly scoff. This was me, 5 years ago (except, I didn’t go).
I can’t believe there are people blaming this fuckup on Bush. Or, really, blaming it too much on Obama. Sadly I think people think “Ecstatic crowds! Nation’s capital!” and dream of MLK, Woodstock and other sunnier times. Times have changed. Nobody in the U.S. is prepared for crowds – or rather, they ARE prepared; very prepared; those folks were herded into those tunnels quite efficiently, and they went very trustingly.
50
oh even if a candidate I loved and supported and KNEW PERSONALLY had won, I would never go to DC on Inauguration day.
The story I read last night of being trapped … in the tunnel for hours… was mind boggling. It seemed two color groups got hit. Surprisingly DiFi’s statement about it seemed rather open.
A mess.
51. Forgot to add this link… which is just sad. (like, I feel sorry for them, sad)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48651760@N00/sets/72157612798793375/detail/
and yet, it’s so telling…
Comments to the FP thread on the Purple Tunnel of Doom are interesting.. and I see that Paper Tigress/Nur-al-Cublicle has surfaced… first comment. She has been MIA at her sites for months.
LOL FP headliner at NYP
http://www.nypost.com/
is “Never Had A Chance” and quoting Paterson.
What a scream!
Somehow doubt she’ll be tempted by actual public service much for a while. Probably better write another book before she tries again!
55. Probably better write another book before she tries again!
‘The Little Kennedy Who Couldn’t’
Battle of the rosaries! And St. Patrick’s team goes down!
good distillation…
Killing ‘nonwhite people’ was motive in Brockton shooting spree, police say
OK… I thought i heard, on a quick top pf the hour news update on local KGO, that obster overturned the Global Gag Rule… but was half listening. Looking to NYT Politics page I see this
58
goodness… I never even heard about it………………..
Ugh, apparently even Uncle Teddy is PO’d at how it went down…
Did he throw his drool cup?
No idea what it means, but Turki al-Faisal takes to the pages of the FT…
Off to see what Angry Arab says…
Confused so-called “progressives”.
This should be a fun 4 years.
62.
He did condemn Hamas’ rockets today at the state dept but, like I said, he was completely silent about Israel’s part in the war.
Pray all you want. The writing’s on the wall.
Good news on Ledbetter.
Sources: Kirsten Gillibrand Chosen to Fill Clinton’s Senate Seat
I read that McCarthy from LI, the one that ran after the LIRR killer… said she will challenge Gillibrand if she is selected. Gillibrand is upstate/pro gun.
Carry on congresspeeples.
60 – killing sprees only get national coverage if it’s white people at work, or a school.
64
The only thing of interest is what pressure may be be exerted on Obama/America.
Politico:
I saw the author of this book interviewed today. Looks interesting: Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes
Bittman is great. His is one of the foodie blogs I link to sometimes. He was interviewed on Morning Edition today.
He also was part of a very cool food/travelogue show on PBS a month or two ago: Spain: On the Road Again.
His NY Times blog: Bitten
I loved the Spain food show with Bitten but it sorta disappeared out there.. unfinished. I think htey had a mandatory 10 x a year fundraising 6 weeks cessation of most programing (right, it never ends and doubles back on it self) and it blew the show out of the line up.
Our local PBS is soooo bad that way.
72. Bittman is great
Good to know! Thanks.
IOZ deconstruction…
It’s entitled, Those Rich Fucks, This Whole Fucking Thing.
Obama’s Economic Plan Is Not Going to Save Us
By William Greider
hmmm from the Greider:
Plus, while not knowing much, I kind of assume there is some replay of fast drops on the Stock Exchanges again. I heard today that Green tech stocks, admittedly start-ups, lost about 2/3 of value in big loss weeks…. Somebody does not believe in the coming Green investment out of DC
heard today that Green tech stocks, admittedly start-ups, lost about 2/3 of value in big loss weeks
None of them are well-capitalized well enough to ride out the lack of credit, and the money from the gov’t for their projects is unlikely to show up for months.
I bet you’ll see a lot of that intellectual property snatched up by bigger/older companies so that they can take advantage of the gov’t money once it does start flowing.
78.
That was mentioned during the auto industry CEOs’ hearing and I recall someone saying they’d make sure the money was only to be spent in the US. Don’t know if that actually happened though.
79. Pressed further by the Politico reporter about his Pentagon nominee, William J. Lynn III,
When Gibbs was asked about that during the first presser today, he said there would be “waivers” to the new lobby reform rules. Always waivers to so-called progress. Always.
Also at Politico filed a few hours after the 79 link
Maybe Obster and co did not hear themselves making all those promises.
Gibbs is definitely the next spokespuppet. Avoid avoid avoid.
ugh never could stand Gibbs… he was the Dem party name front man for the 528 that ran the fake group that put out the ”osama ad” against Dean in 2003
Barack and Michelle Obama do WHAT together?
I wonder what his safe word is.
Marisa (2)
…(I would bet it is an old plan, resuscitated) to shift prisoners from Guantanamo to some of the larger bases…
Yeah first thing that came to my mind were the previous plans to send some to Afghanistan……
Report: US Planning Gitmo-Style Prison in Afghanistan
”The Financial Times is reporting the US government is planning the construction of a high-security prison in Afghanistan to hold detainees. The planned site for the jail is Pol-e-Charki, a rundown prison near Kabul that dates back to the Soviet era. The jail would be phased in as an alternative to the US military prison at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, where the US is currently holding more than 500 people. Another 500 prisoners are under US detention at military facilities and secret locations across Afghanistan.”
oh…and speaking of Afghanistan…..
Guantanamo Bay may get all the press, but Bagram, the US detention center in Afghanistan, holds over twice as many prisoners, and it’s proving just as difficult to close. Plans to transfer its roughly 630 inmates to a US-funded Afghan prison outside Kabul have failed, the New York Times reports; the new building isn’t big enough to hold them all……
(another possibility….Tea and Sympathy a shot of Grand Marnier in hot tea…no sugar needed)
Hmmm…I can’t find the transcript of the press briefing on the new WH site. FAIL.
The planned site for the jail is Pol-e-Charki, a rundown prison near Kabul that dates back to the Soviet era.
World Forum, a news program on KQED/PBS here, did a longish segment today on that prison… they picked up an Al-Jezeera segment. Took a camera thru parts of it.. the vid is likely at al Jazeera. Or worldforum.org
My guess from listening thru the lines… much talk bout how “part” of the prison was “better” (seg with former prisoner) and that is under American control (what,? we are angels?) but that most of the prison is under local Afghan control. And not monitored. People lanquish for up to 18-24 months with out charges or trials.
My guess, it will always be someone else doing the dirty work.
One report today (forget where I read it) ran over all the rumors and unofficial confirmations across the years of the many many secret black sites… think it was in the Guardian. The report said, make it alal public… as part of prosecuting the wrong doers.
LOL Everybody breathe.
There may be some limited disclosure, but nothng that would lead to prosecutions.
Obsters are good at dangling live rabbits in front of the racing greyhnouds… is how i see it.
86. Barack and Michelle Obama do WHAT together?
TMI!! lol
88
even crazy sick bushiters got the transcripts up. Thanks for mentioning, I had totally forgotten about leafing thru those at WH.gov….
85. he was the Dem party name front man for the 528 that ran the fake group that put out the ”osama ad” against Dean in 2003
Right. I remember you mentioning that before. Ironic, because I was looking for the transcript to post what he said when asked if the Army Field Manual (aka “no torture” now) would apply to OBL. He said he’d have to check with the NSC. So I guess that means there’s a “waiver” when it comes to torturing OBL then? That’s how it sounded.
As for this supposed torture ban, Obamalama repeatedly said “the US does not torture” when he was campaigning, so what exactly is he banning then? (Busted.) And since when does the CIA follow the Army Manual? Do they get a “waiver” then too because they’re covered by law (the MCA) for the torture they do i.e. they can’t be prosecuted for it. I remember that well because I was outraged that McCain supported that piece of garbage when he claimed to be the anti-torture crusader. Hypocrites The lot of them.
…the fine art of disclosing some previously well locked and hideous secret with the effect of seeming to imply something will actually be done about it, has just about reached gagging level….That ended up being my impression of Gellman’s Cheney book, Angler. Interesting that the book was written as if Cheney had already been out of office when it was written.
Belated thanks to IB for the presents she left me in the last thread.
Just got back from a two-day stint stuffing brochures for some enviro-org downtown. This should infuriate Unemployment tomorrow because they’ll want to know why I didn’t report it three days ago when I was plugging all the info into their telephone “service”– Info which they may or may not have received;No way to tell since I waited an hour for a human to answer the fucking phone, to no avail.
I’ll be down there tomorrow when they open. Remember, Kids and Kits. If I don’t return alive by sundown Friday, it’s only because I died of ecstasy over The Bold New Chapter In American Life [tm]. I mean, Golden Man gets sworn in and –boom !– I get almost $120 post-tax for two days work ! Of COURSE it’s interconnected !! It’s all interconnected !
Can I get an “Amen,” please ?
The best part of OR’s Unemployment phone “service” is the pious lecture you have to listen to at the beginning, before the music. Some patronizing fuck explaining that it’s not an entitlement because it comes from your EMPLOYER, not from you, smelly peasant.
Oh, fuck you, State of OR. You know what ? It’s my goddamn money, earned in over two decades of suffering through shit job after shit job putting up with shit people and tasks repetitive enough to make a brain-damaged chimp cry. You can throw up as many obstacles as you want, but there’s no place you can hide it where I won’t come after it.
Eat me.
On a totally unrelated note, I saw some headline today about how “new glamour” is descending on DC thanks to Mrs. Obama. Frankly every outfit I’ve seen her in so far looks like crap. I might add that you’d think this sort of thing would stick in people’s craws, rather than being cause for celebration. We’re in a fucking depression, Assholes. Maybe Michelle should go buy a 9 buck pair of jeans at Goodwill and then pass out bags of lentils in front of the White House gates. Seems to me that might be a tad more, uh, “in fashion.”
Also some jackass on LJ is burbling and twittering because Obama has publicly asked “what shareware is. Oh, wow. Our President is ‘curious about things.’ Isn’t it wonderful ?”
I know what shareware is, you babbling stupid asshole. I think it’s kind of sad that Obama doesn’t know. Why would I rejoice that his party wants to help auction off the internet to the highest bidder before they have a fucking clue about how most of it works.
Shiiiiiiiiiit.
As far as US prisons in Afghanistan go, the Canadian military stopped handing over prisoners to your guys there years ago to assure they wouldn’t be tortured. And when we had our torture scandal up here, our gov’t assured us that the Red Cross had been monitoring prisoner treatment there but the Red Cross (breaking with its protocol to remain silent about such things) said publicly it hadn’t checked on their welfare (not their fault though). So much for checks and balances.
I am totally embarrassed to say I know what shareware is. Too…
I am a little surprised El Heife Techie.
Some patronizing fuck explaining that it’s not an entitlement because it comes from your EMPLOYER
right….and then factored out of the meager wage…..further, I don’t know if all states have the policy, but an employer who pays higher than most others in a given area is doing that because they’ve turned over too many employees and are then penalized by a higher unemployment rate, which is usually a peanuts rate anyway.
94. Maybe Michelle should go buy a 9 buck pair of jeans at Goodwill and then pass out bags of lentils in front of the White House gates. Seems to me that might be a tad more, uh, “in fashion.”
Amen to that. The spin I’ve heard is that she’s helping these new or little known designers by wearing their stuff. Well rah rah for them and the rich people with the tax cuts who can afford to buy that crap.
In other awesome local news, the Mayor-elect is in trouble because he had non-Biblical relations with a male aide at some point where said aide may or may not have been at the age of consent– which I believe is eighteen hereabouts. Oh, and he hired a local reporter for some staff job she wasn’t qualified for;Now the ex-reporter is earnestly explaining that it never occurred to her that this might look… y’know, awkward. Given that said reporter had been investigating the then-candidate’s relationship with the aide.
There’s going to be some rally in support of the Mayor-Elect featuring Dan Savage or some shit like that in a couple of days. I don’t think I’m going. Never liked the man. Even without the messing around with some guy less than half his age, he’s bought and paid for by developers and other folks hell-bent on completing our city’s transformation to some cross between Disneyland and the part of S.F. where Pelosi whines because she couldn’t get protesters tear-gassed off her street.
Fuuuuuck.
[puts out hot cocoa for Mcat, diane, and catnip.]
Mcat, I’m giving up drinking, too. It just seems so besides the point nowadays. I’m going on the wagon as soon as I polish off the last of IB’s complimentary schnapps.
Thanks for the cocoa. It’s Winter From Hell – The Sequel here.
thanks for the cocoa….yum ;0)…..well have to admit…if I had some Baily’s I’d put a sloosh in there …..(though I never buy “sweet” alchohol..I now want some Ouzo and Tuaca because as I recall they were very tasty, and I’m blaming it on that Bohemian, Intermittant Bystander for bringing up Liquers (that seems spelled wrong but not looking it up)…gnight all!
Just a thread…
LINK
…………….
………………
Ms_X the state certainly has no right to give you a lecture about feeling grateful to your fucking employer… but they are right in that regard. The state and federal unemployment system is paid for by a tax on employers of at least the first $7,000 annual payroll for employee. The Federal rate generally remains constant, but the state rate is determined by a calculation of unemployment money paid out versus unemployment paid in and the general rate of turnover for the business ['experience rating']. Stable businesses that don’t lay off to many people typically have unemployment rates of 1.25% of the first $8000 of so of payroll. Businesses with greater turnover see much higher rates. the entire system is funded by employers. Is that right? Well that’s another issue entirely…
But the system is primarily funded by a tax on employers that is adjusted annually based on the account they’ve built up with the state and the rating of their average turnover.
So the facts of the lecture aren’t incorrect. I actually think it is one of the few things we’ve gotten right to a certain extent – a system of forcing employers with a greater turnover to pay more in unemployment taxes – and keeping close account of the record, which state departments do.
On the other hand, anyone making you feel guilty for, or obstructing your taking unemployment should be made to lie on a feather bed, confess the atrocities they’ve committed, and be given a choice of featherbedding Antarctica or watching turtles mate in the Galapagos.
amen!
not me.
the cheese stands alone.