Name it and it sticks

[yesthattom]

The Republicans know that if something doesn’t get “a name” it doesn’t “stick”. There was 6 months of Clinton-did-something-murmurs but once they all started calling it “MonicaGate”, then it got traction. Creating the name “Snowflake Babies” turned the entire “Republicans want to stop America from curing diseases and force all the good biotech jobs to other countries” into photo ops for newborns that people I wouldn’t trust with a beanie-baby were claiming had been born from embryos that would otherwise have been destroyed.

The liberals (and I say liberals... as in the word with the same root as “liberation”) need to name things better. Here are some things that need names:

• The 100,000 people that are arm-less, leg-less, or hand-less or otherwise have body parts blown up during the Iraq war. Half of them won’t talk to the media because they are afraid of losing their VA benefits. However the other half are ineligible for VA benefits because National Guard troops can’t use the VA (when Dems proposed it, it was voted down by the Republicans for being “too expensive”). That “other half” should be willing to talk to the media.
• A name of vets from the Iraq war that get no VA benefits because they were National Guard members.
• A name for the miscounting of the number of dead Americans in the Iraq war. We just surpassed 3,000 dead, right? Well, it turns out that number doesn’t count the people that die on the airplane to the military hospital in Germany (or while at that hospital). In other words, they under counted by getting wounded onto the airplane as soon as possible. Some estimate there are 5,000 people dead by that standard.
• Unemployment statistics count people getting unemployment benefits, but those run out after 6 months. Therefore the “low unemployment rate” means that very few people have lost their job recently. If you lost your job 6 months and a day, you are out of the statistics. The real unemployment story is much different (and a smart president could use this fact to sustain a long period of many-people-without-jobs as long as they all lost them early in his administration; and then just stayed unemployed for years)
• The people that have jobs without insurance, especially the ones that use expensive emergency room visits for normal treatment... which you and me pay for in taxes. (It would be cheaper to give them insurance and get them primary care)

Can you name more under-counted categories that should be named and/or suggest names for these groups of people?

Comments

Re: unemployment statistics misunderstanding

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

And, yet, NPR, CNN, the Sunday morning talk shows, and others keep talking about the unemployment rate being deceptive because of the 6-month shelf.

Re: unemployment statistics misunderstanding

[domiobrien.livejournal.com]

That's because they haven't a clue what the figures are based on, though they COULD bother looking it up. Most of them have never heard of Wagner-Peyser (the 1933 act that started the unemployment system and job centers), the Reed Act, DOLETA, ELMI, etc, much less understand what they are about. People who are filing for unemployment insurance are CLAIMANTS-- they may, or may not be, unemployed. Information on them is reported as UI filings/claims, NOT unemployment. And while 6 months is the most common eligibility period, there are people who only qualify for a few weeks of UI, and others who qualify for much more (after 9/11 there were many people who qualified for 65 weeks of benefits; some people certified under Trade Act get 2 years of help). Unemployment figures come from the statistical household survey, not from claims. Job growth and shrinkage come from employer reports, not UI claims or the household survey. So you may see that new UI filings are down, but continued claims are steady, and the long-term claimant list is growing (if you've been claiming for 13 weeks, you are a long-term claimant-- most people are, historically back to work by then) but that the unemployment rate is up, and that there are fewer jobs; all of these come off different sources reported to DOLETA and turned into statistical reports by ELMI (Employment and Labor Market Information) personnel. Check out Bureau of Labor Statistics online.