A little familial pride. Remember, his dad, Bernie, will blues it up
today, 5-6 pm on KPFK, with Michelle Shocked and Richard Montoya,
host of the show and the maestro of Culture Clash. Love 'em all.
----- Original Message -----
From: Aaron Pearl
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 11:09 AM
Subject: RE: McNamera emails, Woody's kids, Ash Grove Summer on the Air, KPFK Board Candidates
Hi uncle,
Cute kids, cute video.
I just found this video from Al Jezeera English that is probably the most in depth eye witness reporting out of Iran I have seen so far. Thought You and your readers might enjoy something a bit longer than the brief glimpse we've seen before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGLGEvWzEFw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2Fnwshp%3Fclient%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26hl%3Den%26tab%3Dwn&feature=player_embedded
-
Aaron
Cute kids, cute video.
I just found this video from Al Jezeera English that is probably the most in depth eye witness reporting out of Iran I have seen so far. Thought You and your readers might enjoy something a bit longer than the brief glimpse we've seen before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGLGEvWzEFw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2Fnwshp%3Fclient%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26hl%3Den%26tab%3Dwn&feature=player_embedded
-
Aaron
***
By Marie Cocco
Truthdig/Washington Post: July 8, 2009
When a virulent disease is ravaging you like a cancer, you don't want a
cacophony of voices promoting different or contradictory cures. Yet that is
what we're starting to hear about the economic crisis, not only from a
politically divided-and pretty scared-capital, but from within the Obama
administration itself.
In just the past few days, Vice President Joe Biden has said the young
administration misread the depth of the recession-an honest account, since
most private economists did as well. Laura Tyson, an outside economic
adviser to the White House, said it's wise to start preparing another
stimulus package.
Then President Barack Obama made everything perfectly muddy when he said
in an ABC News interview that the seriousness of the downturn and how to
attack it is "something we wrestle with constantly." Yet in the next breath,
he expressed concern about the burgeoning deficit.
But if anyone's looking for some clear voices, there are 650,000 of them
just waiting to be heard. That is roughly the number of long-term unemployed
who will begin losing their jobless benefits in September, according to the
National Employment Law Project.
Remember, the recession didn't start last fall when the government
bailed out AIG and the financial system froze. It began in December 2007-and
6.5 million jobs have been lost since then. Depending on which state and the
sort of triggers that apply to benefits, hundreds of thousands of workers
laid off early in the downturn are soon to be left without the basic
sustenance of an unemployment check.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department says, the number of unemployed people
out of work for 27 weeks or longer continues to grow, reaching 4.4 million
last month. In June, three out of 10 jobless workers had been out of work
for at least six months, according to the department's data.
The stimulus package the president signed soon after taking office did
provide extended benefits, and boosted weekly payments. But even that
extension runs out on Dec. 26, and would not apply to all the unemployed.
Does anyone really believe that a significant portion of the unemployed will
have found new work by then? Hardly. Both private and government economists
now predict that unemployment will continue to rise at least through the end
of this year.
"We can't ignore this moment when all these folks are running out [of
benefits]," says Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project.
"That needs to be a top priority, to help these workers."
Let's stop kidding ourselves. In no contemporary economic crisis-not
even those that unfolded on the Republicans' watch-has Congress left the
unemployed completely in the lurch. So some sort of spending package-call it
stimulus, call it stopgap emergency aid, whatever works-is going to have to
be passed.
The unemployment emergency helps feed another crisis Congress is going
to be forced to address: the state budget disasters unfolding around the
country. So far, 42 states have cut budgets that already had been enacted
for fiscal 2009, according to the National Governors Association. More and
deeper cuts are expected next year.
Already states have laid off and furloughed workers-including, in some
states, the very workers who process unemployment claims. Generally
speaking, states are required to balance their budgets each year, a mandate
that forces them to pull money out of the economy through spending
reductions and tax hikes, counteracting the federal government's efforts to
juice things up. "That is what happened during the Great Depression, we had
states working against what the federal government was doing," says Heidi
Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
With red states and blue, Republican governors and Democrats, all
struggling against the same relentless, recession-driven drops in tax
revenue, an almost irresistible political coalition for more aid to states
eventually will take shape. And with the fast-approaching September deadline
for extending some unemployment benefits, there will probably emerge one of
those must-pass measures that may or may not be called another stimulus
bill.
Any hot air expended trying to stop it serves no purpose but to fuel
political fires. Remember, that is the whole point of those now huffing and
puffing most heartily. They don't want to figure a way out of this morass;
they just want to figure out a way to unseat those now in office.
Marie Cocco's e-mail address is mariecocco@washpost.com.
© 2009, Washington Post Writers Group
Truthdig/Washington Post: July 8, 2009
When a virulent disease is ravaging you like a cancer, you don't want a
cacophony of voices promoting different or contradictory cures. Yet that is
what we're starting to hear about the economic crisis, not only from a
politically divided-and pretty scared-capital, but from within the Obama
administration itself.
In just the past few days, Vice President Joe Biden has said the young
administration misread the depth of the recession-an honest account, since
most private economists did as well. Laura Tyson, an outside economic
adviser to the White House, said it's wise to start preparing another
stimulus package.
Then President Barack Obama made everything perfectly muddy when he said
in an ABC News interview that the seriousness of the downturn and how to
attack it is "something we wrestle with constantly." Yet in the next breath,
he expressed concern about the burgeoning deficit.
But if anyone's looking for some clear voices, there are 650,000 of them
just waiting to be heard. That is roughly the number of long-term unemployed
who will begin losing their jobless benefits in September, according to the
National Employment Law Project.
Remember, the recession didn't start last fall when the government
bailed out AIG and the financial system froze. It began in December 2007-and
6.5 million jobs have been lost since then. Depending on which state and the
sort of triggers that apply to benefits, hundreds of thousands of workers
laid off early in the downturn are soon to be left without the basic
sustenance of an unemployment check.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department says, the number of unemployed people
out of work for 27 weeks or longer continues to grow, reaching 4.4 million
last month. In June, three out of 10 jobless workers had been out of work
for at least six months, according to the department's data.
The stimulus package the president signed soon after taking office did
provide extended benefits, and boosted weekly payments. But even that
extension runs out on Dec. 26, and would not apply to all the unemployed.
Does anyone really believe that a significant portion of the unemployed will
have found new work by then? Hardly. Both private and government economists
now predict that unemployment will continue to rise at least through the end
of this year.
"We can't ignore this moment when all these folks are running out [of
benefits]," says Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project.
"That needs to be a top priority, to help these workers."
Let's stop kidding ourselves. In no contemporary economic crisis-not
even those that unfolded on the Republicans' watch-has Congress left the
unemployed completely in the lurch. So some sort of spending package-call it
stimulus, call it stopgap emergency aid, whatever works-is going to have to
be passed.
The unemployment emergency helps feed another crisis Congress is going
to be forced to address: the state budget disasters unfolding around the
country. So far, 42 states have cut budgets that already had been enacted
for fiscal 2009, according to the National Governors Association. More and
deeper cuts are expected next year.
Already states have laid off and furloughed workers-including, in some
states, the very workers who process unemployment claims. Generally
speaking, states are required to balance their budgets each year, a mandate
that forces them to pull money out of the economy through spending
reductions and tax hikes, counteracting the federal government's efforts to
juice things up. "That is what happened during the Great Depression, we had
states working against what the federal government was doing," says Heidi
Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
With red states and blue, Republican governors and Democrats, all
struggling against the same relentless, recession-driven drops in tax
revenue, an almost irresistible political coalition for more aid to states
eventually will take shape. And with the fast-approaching September deadline
for extending some unemployment benefits, there will probably emerge one of
those must-pass measures that may or may not be called another stimulus
bill.
Any hot air expended trying to stop it serves no purpose but to fuel
political fires. Remember, that is the whole point of those now huffing and
puffing most heartily. They don't want to figure a way out of this morass;
they just want to figure out a way to unseat those now in office.
Marie Cocco's e-mail address is mariecocco@washpost.com.
© 2009, Washington Post Writers Group
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