If only they were the ones unemployed ...

Why do they hate poor people who just want a job?

This is the Seasonally Adjusted (SA) U3 unemployment figure, one of twelve variants that could have been used.

The reporter could have just as credibly said "New unemployment numbers were released today showing that unemployment rose to a record high 18% in January."

If the public were presented an unemployment number that showed the national average at 16.5% or 18% (SA or NSA U6) - with regions of unemployment topping 20% - American people would have a much different attitude toward the responsibilities and actions of our elected representatives. I believe this would be true even if you carefully disclosed all the details of how those numbers are generated as social workers have an ethical obligation to do.

In public policy, half-hearted stimulus, half-hearted jobs bill proposals and full-hearted upward wealth-transfers to Wall Street might not be viewed with detachment, but rather with righteous indignation. People might be shaken out of either complacency (among the less hard hit upper middle class) or despair (among the ravaged poor and working class) and take to the streets.

It was this kind of popular awakening and outrage that pushed FDR to the left, away from his centrist and economically conservative political history. And it didn't happen from day one of his first term. He was pushed there by a combination of the terribly reality of the American situation and the active, engaged, outrage of a public that would settle for nothing less but structural revolution of our political and economic system.

Did any of the TV stations ask these guys about their votes?

[I rarely watch local news]

I'd love to see a clip of them saying they are opposed to unemployment benefits because they encourage people not to get jobs.

Lamar has spent most of his life taking a public salary.

Heard a Republican pundit on CNN last night complaining that extending unemployment benefits only encourages bad behavior.

Disgusting.

Lamar's finances are old news, but he made millions off government regulated businesses after he was governor. Private kindergartens, prisons, etc. Not to mention his investment in Blackberry Farm, which enjoyed improved roads and access courtesy of the state.

And how about the way UT's trustees named him president even though they'd already gone through a lengthy search process, vetted and whittled down the list, which didn't include him.

I remember a faculty member who was involved in the search telling me that he was walking in Circle Park one day and the most prominent member of the board drove by, slowed down, rolled down his window and said "Great news! Lamar'll take the job!" My friend said "But he didn't apply. What do we tell the finalists?

He just got a wave and taillights.

Facing South reports that, of the 19 Senators who voted against the extension of unemployment benefits, 8 of them hail from states with unemployment rates higher than the national average.