Thursday, July 15, 2010

A case of projection?, Fears Grow as Millions Lose Jobless Benefits

From: "Sid Shniad" <shniad@gmail.com>

Subject: A case of projection?

From: Donald Grayston
letters@globeandmail.com: Wed, Jul 14, 2010

There is no doubt that Iran's human-rights record is abysmal (Iran's 'toxic
mix' of policies threatens world, activists say--July 14). A recent
statement from a group of activists in the fields of international law and
human rights says that Iran presents a "clear and present danger" to
international peace.

Iran, they say, threatens to develop nuclear weapons, practices incitement
to genocide, sponsors terrorism and abuses the rights of its own citizens.
Reading this, I can only wonder whether the psychological habit of
projection is not at work here. Take "Iran" out of this summary, substitute
"Israel," and it still makes sense. Israel already possesses nuclear
weapons, does not inhibit genocidal statements (on walls and elsewhere)
about "Arabs" (meaning Palestinians), conducted an assault on Gaza intended
to generate terror, and treats its citizens of Arab descent as second-class
citizens.

Acknowledging the possibility that for this statement I could be accused of
anti-semitism, let me say immediately that for many years I taught a course
on the Holocaust, and that I support both justice for the Palestinians and
security for Israel. Only when both are in place will there be peace in the
Middle East.

Meanwhile, it makes peace less likely if we demonize rather than simply
criticize Iran, as we would criticize the policies of any country, our own
included. I can only see this coalition and its statement as part of a media
build-up intended to generate public support for the bombing of
Iran--already scheduled for August, according to some writers--by Israel
and/or the United States. If this does happen, it would destabilize the
entire planet, not directly because of anything dreadful Iran has done, but
in the paranoid response to it of "the West." For the sake of our children,
let us step back from the brink.

Donald Grayston

***

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/14-0

Fears Grow as Millions Lose Jobless Benefits


by Nick Carey
Reuters: July 14, 2010

CINCINNATI - Deborah Coleman lost her unemployment benefits in April, and
now fears for millions of others if the Senate does not extend aid for the
jobless.

"It's too late for me now," she said, fighting back tears at the Freestore
Foodbank in the low-income Over-the-Rhine district near downtown Cincinnati.
"But it will be terrible for the people who'll lose their benefits if
Congress does nothing."

For nearly two years, Coleman says she has filed an average of 30 job
applications a day, but remains jobless.

"People keep telling me there are jobs out there, but I haven't been able to
find them."

Coleman, 58, a former manager at a telecommunications firm, said the only
jobs she found were over the Ohio state line in Kentucky, but she cannot
reach them because her car has been repossessed and there is no bus service
to those areas.

After her $300 a week benefits ran out, Freestore Foodbank brokered
emergency 90-day support in June for rent. Once that runs out, her future is
uncertain.

"I've lost everything and I don't know what will happen to me," she said.

The recession -- the worst U.S. downturn since the 1930s -- has left some 8
million people like Coleman out of work.

Unemployment has remained stubbornly high at around 9.5 percent. According
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in June 6.8 million people or 45.5
percent of the total are long-term unemployed, or jobless for 27 weeks or
more.

Before the recession began in late 2007, the unemployed received benefits,
usually a few hundred dollars a week, for 26 weeks or around six months
after losing their jobs.

Under the federal/state programs, which are administered by state
governments and partly funded by taxes on business, only full-time workers
are eligible for benefits. Within federal guidelines, benefits and
eligibility vary from state to state.

As the downturn left more Americans out of work for longer periods, Congress
voted to provide funding to extend benefits to as long as 99 weeks in some
areas.

Some critics say this adds to the country's large fiscal deficit, and may
even discourage job-seeking.

FOOD BANKS FEAR STRAIN

An attempt to pass another extension has become bogged down in partisan
political bickering in the Senate. Relief agencies fear that failure to
extend benefits will strain their resources and may worsen the U.S. housing
crisis.

"This will put a great deal of stress and strain on our organization, which
has already been working hard," said Vicki Escarra, chief executive of
Feeding America, which has a network of more than 200 food banks. In the
year ended June 30, Feeding America distributed 3 billion pounds (1.36
billion kg) of food, a 50 percent increase over the past two years.

The benefits debate has pitted the majority of Democrats against most
Republicans and some conservative Democrats.

When the House of Representatives passed a $34 billion benefit extension on
July 1, 11 fiscally conservative Democrats voted against it. The Senate may
take up the issue again in mid-July, but Republicans like Senator Tom Coburn
have argued any extension must be paid for with cuts elsewhere.

"Even then he (Coburn) is not sure if that's a good idea," said John Hart, a
spokesman for the Oklahoma senator. "The longer the unemployed have
benefits, the less incentive there is to find a job."

Most economists argue that cutting benefits could slow recovery, describing
benefits as direct economic stimulus because almost every penny of it gets
spent. In a June 28 client note, Goldman Sachs said if all additional U.S.
stimulus spending expires, it could slow the economy up to 1.5 percentage
points from the fourth quarter 2010 to the second quarter of 2011.

The note added that extending unemployment benefits and a $400 tax credit
would "substantially mitigate" that impact.

3 MILLION CUT OFF IN TWO MONTHS

During the Senate impasse, from the week ended June 5 to the week ended July
10, more than 2.1 million Americans lost their benefits. Another million
will join them by July 31.

In Ohio alone, where unemployment stood at 10.7 percent in May, more than
83,000 people lost their benefits in June.

Sister Barbara Busch, executive director of non-profit housing group Working
in Neighborhoods in Cincinnati, 65 percent of the people who come seeking
help with their mortgages are unemployed or underemployed.

"I fear once the benefits run out, I suspect we'll see a new wave of
foreclosures," she said. "I just hope I'm wrong."

Ohio is a bellwether U.S. state in elections. The state's Democratic
attorney general Richard Cordray said blocking extending jobless benefits
was politically motivated ahead of the midterm elections in November.

"If people lose their benefits they will blame the congressional majority
and the administration," he said. "As unappetizing as it is, that would
appear to be the strategy."

Senator Coburn's spokesman Hart said suggestions the Republicans were
playing partisan politics were "ludicrous."

"The Democrats say that because they want to avoid making the hard
decisions," he said.

Alonzo Allen, 55, a former aid agency worker in Cincinnati whose benefits
will run out in September, spends two days a week volunteering at the food
bank in Over-the-Rhine and the other three looking for work. He said he
worries about the one-bedroom apartment he rents and how he will feed his
dog Ginger, who is the "only family I have."

"If the benefits stop, I'll be out on the street and I'll lose all my
furniture," he said. "That's going to be tough."

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

© 2010 Reuters

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