I think the government has lost it’s mind! Attended a meeting today that gave us updates on how to handle our SNAP (that’s what they call the Food Stamp program now days) cases. Clients no longer have to report their address changes, we don’t care until it’s time to do a renewal or at the mid-way point of their certification period when we do what we call an Interim Report. Of course, we may mail out their renewal and/or their Interim Report and it gets returned to us by the Post Office but please don’t call and tell us you moved!
Not only that, but if someone dies and a friend, neighbor, or other relative calls us to report that they are now deceased, we can’t close down their case as it’s not considered verified. We can’t use the fact we can verify that Social Security has stopped their payment because of death, nor can we use an obit in the newspaper or even if someone that works for the agency attended the funeral. We are to let the benefits continue to post to the account and let it close at the end of their certification period or at Interim Report time. Better yet, if someone goes to jail and we are told they will be there maybe for months, don’t close the case down because it’s not verified. Who is to say that someone will find that card and use those benefits, which of course would be fraud but then how can you determine who has committed the fraud because there will be no way to prove he really used it.
It is getting to the point the way the government is making benefit program changes, we need to just sit up a toll booth out on one of the main roads and hand out SNAP benefit cards to get all the Food Stamps you can use and while we are at it, give you a Medical card for your “Obamacare”. I can tell you that employees are upset but there is nothing we can do. The Feds make the rules and if we don’t follow, then the state gets in trouble. It may be getting to be time for me to seriously consider retirement. While I have never agreed with everything through the years, things are worse than they have ever been. After all, it’s my tax dollar that’s helping pay for this along with yours!
The AFL-CIO is launching a major effort over the next three weeks to help Democrat Jim Martin best Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the GA Senate run-off. …
Last week, the AFL-CIO moved field staff from DC and around the country to GA and expects to have about 10K volunteers pounding the pavement and working the phones. In addition, AFL-CIO affiliates have released staff to work on the GA campaign.
It’s always nice to hear officials be honest about the role of ticketing in government. Now that they have drained the citizenry through taxes, officials are looking to the police to help them out.
Dwindling property tax revenue has forced local governments in Michigan to look to motorists to refill their municipal budgets, according to a Detroit News analysis. In 2002, the city of Detroit issued a total of 126,007 traffic tickets. Last year, that figure grew to 245,249 — a 94 percent jump. The percentage increase was even greater in small towns like Plymouth which saw the number of tickets skyrocket from 440 to 2,584 — up 487 percent — over the same period.
“When I first started in this job thirty years ago, police work was never about revenue enhancement,” Utica Police Chief Michael Reaves told the Detroit News. “But if you’re a chief now, you have to look at whether your department produces revenues. That’s just the reality nowadays.”
Interestingly, the Detroit suburbs are apparently considered to be some of the worst speed traps in the nation.
But what does this really have to do with public safety? Well, some figures may lead you to believe that public safety is the last of their worries when they can generate revenue instead:
While Detroit police focused on increasing the number of traffic tickets by 94 percent, every category of serious crime increased significantly. The total number of murders, rapes, robberies, assaults and burglaries increased by 19,370 — a 56 percent jump — between 2002 and 2006.
Environmental groups are targeting pro-gun and pro-hunting legislators one at a time. They are flying under the radar by taking them out one-by-one. But by concentrating their wealth at one or two lawmakers at a time, they’ve successfully knocked off two so far.
According to the Federal Election Commission, the 527 and 501(c)4 group Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund spent $1.6 million to unseat incumbent Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R), who lost her bid for a fourth term on Nov. 4. The group targeted Musgrave, even though she did not sit on a single prominent committee dealing with environmental issues. It was the second-largest independent expenditure by a non-party group in any 2008 House race.
They had initially decided to divide that between two races, but then they found that one was going better than planned and they threw their entire warchest against Musgrave. For their own release, here is what their money bought:
In all DAF:
Deployed 48 campaign field and canvass staff;
Knocked on over 83,000 doors in support of Betsy Markey and against Marilyn Musgrave;
Aired four (4) television ads and two (2) widely broadcast radio ads;
Earned over 75 stories in the Colorado media; and
Played a leading role in working with numerous labor, environmental, and progressive activists through the America Votes coalition to help deliver the 4th district for Betsy Markey.
That’s insane staff for one Congressional district. Add to that the ads, the PR work, and the paid ground game, it would be nearly impossible to overcome that when you add in the efforts of the other campaign.
Now, for a glimpse of what we have to look forward to in coming years:
Glenn links this article about plans for an Obama holiday.
“Yes We Can” planning rallies will be at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the downtown McDonald’s restaurant, 1100 Kansas Ave., until Jan. 13. The goals are to secure a national holiday in Obama’s honor, to organize celebrations around his inauguration and to celebrate the 200th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12 1809.
Why? I don’t remember rallies being hosted twice a week to plan for a Bush holiday. Or a Clinton holiday for that matter. Why Obama? Oh yeah, that race thing. Interesting that I could give a shit what color he is, but people who think I’m racist because I don’t agree with his policies want to declare a national holiday for no other reason than his race. Mixed messages much?
This post has very little content and really just serves to remind me of home – and all its political and economic glory.
As Much of Nation Went Blue, Okla. Applied Extra Coat of Red
Despite Barack Obama’s dominance nationally, Democrats are reeling in conservative Oklahoma, where John McCain made his strongest showing and the GOP snatched control of both houses of the Legislature for the first time in state history.
McCain got 65.6 percent of the vote in Oklahoma, the highest state percentage for him in the country, even though Democrats hold an edge in voter registration by about 300,000.
The senator from Arizona swept all 77 counties, repeating President Bush’s feat four years ago against Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.). No Democrat has won a presidential race here since Lyndon B. Johnson’s landslide in 1964.
Although McCain was considered more moderate than the conservative Bush, he did better than the president did in 2004 in rural areas of Oklahoma, where social conservatism is dominant. …
“Oklahoma voters loved Palin,” and they respected McCain as a former prisoner of war, said Keith Gaddie, University of Oklahoma political science professor.
He said another factor working for McCain was that the state economy is in good shape, compared with that of much of the rest of the country that went for Obama. The oil and gas industry has been strong here in recent years.
Democrats had hoped to pick up a half-dozen seats in the Oklahoma House while at least holding their own in the state Senate, which had 24 Democrats and 24 Republicans.
Instead, Republicans picked up four House seats to raise their majority to 61 to 40 and gained two state Senate posts to take a 26 to 22 edge.
Sometimes I really miss home.
Although I do find it interesting that the Democratic governor felt the need to endorse Obama considering that the only Democrat in federal office specifically did not endorse Obama.
The Brady Bunch has declared that the gun lobby is the biggest loser in the elections. That’s funny. If you look at not only the numbers, but also the choices, we won here in Pennsylvania. In fact, they have to sit out of many of the Congressional races because all candidates are pro-gun.
The Brady Bunch endorsed in 8 races, winning in 6 of them. Really, you could argue that’s only 5 since one race was completely unopposed – not even a symbolic sacrificial lamb was put on the ballot.
NRA endorsed in 11 races, winning in 8 of them. None were unopposed.
Only 3 of their 8 endorsements were in seats that weren’t 100% safe. Whereas NRA took chances with 8 endorsements.
The Brady Bunch is 100% Democratic – not at all bipartisan. Well over 1/3 of the NRA endorsements went to Democrats.
In 4 Congressional races, Brady endorsed head-to-head with NRA. They lost two of those, even in a Democratic blowout year.
In 7 of the races that Brady sat out of, the choices were between candidates who were both NRA rated at least B- and up. In fact, of those, 5 were races between A rated candidates.
Spin, spin, spin, Peter. You’ll have to with these numbers in a year when economic issues determined the day, and even riding on the back of the most historic Democratic election in history, your guys still couldn’t pull it out.
Sebastian is absolutely right – which is why it will be very important if you live in a district with one of the new “blue dog” Democrats, to let them know where their bread is buttered. Any coming gun control legislation will need to be fought tooth and nail in the Senate and the House.
That’s very true.
However, I’m going to take that one step further. It’s time to not only give their office a call (if they were re-elected and have one right now) and tell them that you’re very upset that Obama is running away from his slightly more centrist position on gun rights by calling for a gun ban, and you expect them to stand up to it should one be introduced.
If they have demonstrated leadership on this issue in the past, donate. If you don’t know where to donate, give their office a call and ask for the information. (While government employees can’t do any campaign work, they are allowed to tell you who you need to contact about donations if you ask, IIRC.) If a Blue Dog in your state (even if he’s not in your district) is strong on guns, start working with your lawmaker and a regional gun club for a fundraising shoot during one of the district work periods.
You might think that it’s way too early to start thinking about the next election. But I’ll tell you right now that it’s not. In fact, if you want to keep the pro-gun Democrats safe from anti-gun challengers, you need to start building the good guy’s warchest now. That will hold off primary challengers who may be less friendly for our rights.
I’m going to have more on these topics in the future. But what I would like to know from you guys is what information you need to act on some of these suggestions. Do you need a how to guide? Do these real world ideas need to be converted into more tech friendly options? How can I help you help the guys we need to help in order to keep the Democratic caucus from running us over?
This post has very little content and really just serves to remind me of home – and all its 