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: not so

[polydad.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you live in a lawful country; I don't. I'm sorry my experience doesn't meet with your approval, but it *is* my experience, and I'm sure the guy who threw me out would be just as quick to deny it ever happened as you are, if there's anybody watching.

best,

Joel

Re: not so

[domiobrien.livejournal.com]

Joel, if you can give me a place (town/city in NJ), the date it happened, and a way for them to contact you, this is a heads-gonna-roll. If it happened as you say, someone broke both state and Federal law, and gets to lose his job if he's still there, or be prosecuted anyway if he isn't. And there is ALWAYS someone watching; services provided is crucial-- state UI/employment offices are funded by the Feds, and even if someone just comes in and asks to check job listings, any staff member at the desk will make sure he or she signs in-- so the state gets credit with the Feds for services rendered. Signatures lacking mean staff positions lost. Funding is based on the number of people who come through the office, and that's documented with sign-in sheets, registrations, and claims. Fed audits are constant. Domi

Re: not so

[polydad.livejournal.com]

And what good would getting some incompetent bureaucrat in New Jersey canned do for me?

I thank you for your interest and enthusiasm, but it took the combined actions of about eight bureaucrats to run me out of New Jersey, and unless there's some way to get my *life* back out of the deal, any vengeance short of having all eight of 'em taken out and shot isn't worth my time.

best,

Joel

Re: not so

[domiobrien.livejournal.com]

The job services under Wagner-Peyser since 1933 are one of the few government programs which actually WORK. Employers pay into the state and federal UI trust funds. The money can't be used for anything else. The primary mission is to find people jobs. The secondary mission is to help employers find employees. The third mission is to pay unemployment benefits timely to eligible claimants. Job training and career planning are more recent additions. And they work. Federal audits show most people get back to work within 13 weeks (here in NH, it's 8 weeks). Intensive services are provided to people at high risk of being long-term unemployed. Job counseling and training are provided to those whose jobs have gone overseas. There is intensive training for staff, including internationally-recognized certification programs for workforce professionals. Funding is directly dependent on services provided timely, accurately, legally. So when you say that someone in a UI/job service/works/one-stop turned you away, told you on the spot that you didn't qualify for UI when determination is in fact a 10 day to 42 day process (faster IF an employer provides the information up front on a mass layoff), offered you no job services, you are saying that the system fell apart. But NJ has the same requirements for staff and training as other states, and all of us plug into the same databases, have the same resources, no matter what state we're in. Every person who enters the office, calls on the phone, uses the website has to be accounted for; not only their jobs and benefits but ours depend on it. So there is more to this story, or someone's head ought to roll (or already has).

Re: not so

[polydad.livejournal.com]

I think you're missing my point. Of course heads deserve to roll. So what? What good does getting the asshole who denied me service fired do *for me*? If three years of back benefits were taken out of his personal savings and put in my account, sure, let's go for it. But they won't do that.

The best I could see coming out of this would be wasting years of my time running around trying to prove what I already know to be true, for the reward of ruining some *other* poor slob's life. So what?

best,

Joel

Re: not so

[domiobrien.livejournal.com]

Joel, when you walk into, call, or contact by internet any state job service/unemployment office, you are VALUABLE to any employee who deals with you. Answer your e-mail? Essentially, I get a point. Get your signature on a sign-in sheet? 2 points. Take your claim? 25 points. Get you to register in the state job system? 25. Talk with you about your qualifications-- that's assessment. Wow. 50 points. Discuss the local labor market with you, another 25. But only if I have you on file, can attach those services to your computerized file, with your SSN on it (validated with the Feds on my computer), and your work authorization if you're an alien and confirm the alien work authorization with the Federal database. Review your resume? Another 20 points. Refer you to a veteran's counselor, 10 points, to food stamps, 10 points, etc etc etc. If I don't provide services, I'm out of a job. When you walk in, everyone in the office not already working with a client should be falling over their feet to help you, get to know you, get you to come back again next week. Would you like to take an aptitude test? Sign up for an interviewing workshop? Talk to an employment counselor? Fill out a college application, job training application, fuel assistance app, get a FAFSA, apply for WIC? POINTS. f you don't tell us when you get a job, we'll still check new hire reports and wage records through WRIS for all states and territories for 3 years and hope your number comes up as a hire, because I can get credit for that, or at least the most recent government employee, in any state, who provided you a service can. Hey-- with a BA and some customer service experience you, too, can qualify to train as an employment interviewer, $24,132 a year to start and state benefits. Or you can take on the years of training to become a certifying officer/adjudicator to determine if people are qualified to receive unemployment; that starts at around $26,000. If you get enough service points, you'll even get to keep your job. If you're good, you may even get promoted. And if you can't connect with the clients, get validated SSNs on file, document services, you're GONE.

Re: not so

[polydad.livejournal.com]

So you're suggesting I apply to the local unemployment service for a job? Or are you going back to the idea that because my experience doesn't match with your idea of what it should be that it didn't happen? I'm not sure what you're trying to do, here.

I have no plans on trying to do anything to the bureaucrat in New Jersey because I don't get anything out of it. I'm working with an educational nonprofit here in LA, and with any luck I'll start getting paid for that soon. Going back to NJ with anything short of a tac nuke in my hip pocket is a waste of time.

best,

Joel

Re: not so

[domiobrien.livejournal.com]

Hope your work with the educational non-profit works out well, and your career goes in the direction you hope.
Domi