Webb and Warner Didn't Sign Letter Supporting Unemployment Exention

As we are rapidly approaching the deadline for Congressional action on extending unemployment benefits to those who have lost their jobs, it appears as though Virginia’s senators don’t understand that action is urgently needed to help those who are just barely hanging on. In a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid and Chairman Max Baucus, almost 30 members of the US Senate called for “a long-term renewal of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation.” Completely absent from that letter was the signatures of either Jim Webb or Mark Warner.

This is extremely important because the letter makes it absolutely clear why the extension of these benefits is important and fits within the precedent set by Congressional history.

“For the past six decades, Congress has provided federally funded unemployment insurance benefits during every recession. Further, federal unemployment insurance benefits have always been provided until the economy was on a stable path of growth. In fact, the highest unemployment rate at which federally funded unemployment benefits were not extended was 7.2 percent. Currently, the national unemployment rate is 9.6 percent. At the current rate, without a reauthorization, we would cut the life line that millions of Americans use to stay afloat. Equally importantly, we would endanger our fragile economic recovery by reducing the amount Americans spend on groceries, utilities and other basic needs.”

Furthermore, it’s not as if this letter is even only signed by members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, for instance, signed onto the letter and she is a centrist who has her base in upstate NY (the more conservative part of the state). Webb and Warner therefore should explain why they didn’t step up to advocate for those who are struggling the most. At a time when there are people all over the Commonwealth are out of work through no fault of their own, after all, Virginians need to know why their Senators refused to show leadership on the issue.

U of R's E-waste Recycling Event A Huge Success

The University of Rochester has shown some leadership on the sustainability front here and one of their big sustainability events is the annual one they hold for e-waste recycling. This year's event was held about a month ago and they just put up an announcement about how productive the event was.

This year’s annual Household E-waste Round-up, which took place on October 29th, collected 34,851 lbs of electronics, 9,000 lbs more than last year.

The event took place in Park Lot, where student and staff volunteers greeted a steady flow of traffic from the UR Community. From 6:30AM to 5PM, workers enthusiastically emptied the vehicles of unwanted computers, monitors, keyboards and various other electronics.

I think there are also a few things of note that weren't covered in the post. First of all, the event was held on a very cold and very rainy day, which makes the turnout even more impressive. Anyone who has organized an event knows that it's hard to get people to turn out when the weather is bad, unless the motivation for people to come to the event truly is strong. This means the staff involved with the organizing event really did well in getting out the message about this event's importance.

Another important note is that there were students volunteering and most of the people who dropped off good were associated with the university. The event therefore not only allowed for recycling of electronics, but also helped to institutionalize the awareness of how sustainability efforts can be worked into campus life.

Chase Whiteside "It Get's Better" Video

No Discharges Under DADT in Over A Month

While pressure still needs to be put on the US Senate to pass a repeal of DADT, some good news has arrived for folks who believe you shouldn't face discrimination just because of who you love. There hasn't been anyone dismissed from the armed forces due to their sexual orientation in a month. Although the Pentagon isn't ready to admit this is the reason, public support for repeal and an Oct. 21 decision from Secretary Gates to only allow the secretaries of the various military branches sign off on DADT dismissals are likely responsible for the lack of new discharges.

Based on historical trends, however, it appears the change, as well as moves by Gates and President Barack Obama to get Congress to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," has caused discharge rates to fall dramatically, said Aaron Belkin, executive director of the Palm Center, a pro-repeal think tank based at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

"Statistically, it would be extremely unlikely if we had a month in which there were no gay discharges," Belkin said, noting that 428 gay and lesbian service members were honorably discharged under the ban in 2009. "When you require a service secretary to sign off on a discharge, you are basically saying, 'We don't want any people in this category discharged unless there is an exceptional situation.'"

This is a good sign in two regards: 1)Nobody has been forced out of the military due to bigotry and discrimination in a month and 2)public opinion and the efforts of repeal advocates seem to be making a difference. While action needs to be taken extremely quickly if we want to see repeal during the lame duck session, this news does give a little bit more hope than we had a few days ago.

Snowe and Collins Support Lawsuit Against Health Care Bill

I hear from a lot people from all political stripes that they would like to see Congress work in a bipartisan manner. I definitely agree with that spirit and have made it a point to include moderate Republicans in my outreach while organizing. With that being said, we now have yet another example of how there are some major issues that must be addressed before we actually see any bipartisanship on Capitol Hill.

During the debate surrounding the health care bill, the White House and Democratic leadership spent a significant amount of time reaching out to the moderate Republican senators from Maine. They even made so rather large compromises to make sure their ideas were included in the bill. Nonetheless, both Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are supporting a lawsuit against the health care bill.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are co-signing an amicus, or friend of the court, brief to be submitted to the federal court in Florida that will hear a constitutional challenge of the federal health care reform law.

The brief was initiated by U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and boasts signatures of 30 Senate Republicans. The lawsuit was brought by the attorneys general for several states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a small-business trade organization.

This is why so many people believe there isn't any bipartisanship in Congress. The Democrats compromise and try to reach out to Republicans, and then we two of the "moderate Republicans" supporting a lawsuit against legislation that would provide health care to millions of Americans.

Weekend Photoblogging: Touring a Landfill

Every weekend I'll be posting some photos from events that I have attended, or places I have been, during the week. This week's photos come from a tour of a local landfill that I toured with several environmental activists. The photos below were taken with my blackberry, so the quality isn't great, but they do show some of the interesting things we saw during out tour. 1)There are seagulls all over the place and 2)part of what they do at the end of everyday is cover up the daily drop off with soil.

Another interesting aspect of the tour was that with some of the older techniques that were used in landfills, you usually can still read a 20 year old newspaper. Our tour guide informed us that with some of the "sludge" and decomposition techniques they are currently using, however, she expects that won't be possible.

Will Cable Bills Ever Represent Only Content You Want?

Besides news programs and sporting events, I hardly ever watch live television. So while I enjoy watching my shows on the TV screen through my DVR instead of a small computer screen, I would welcome an opportunity to save some money if it meant I could still get the basics. With so many of younger folks aren’t getting cable when they move into their own place and others are dropping it due to financial difficulties, it appears as though there are some cable companies that are finally realizing that they should providing cheaper options to customers. The question is, whether they are actually doing enough to keep customers from completely abandoning their product.

Time Warner Cable, which serves large portions of New York and other states, is one of the cable companies exploring ways of providing a cheaper product. According to the NY Times, Time Warner is going to be offering customers in NYC a package called “TV Essentials.”

For roughly half the cost of Time Warner Cable’s current cable TV package, customers will receive ESPN News but not ESPN; TBS but not TNT; CNN but not Fox News or MSNBC. A market trial will begin in New York on Monday, a Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said, and in the company’s northeastern Ohio market on Dec. 15.

The slimmed-down package, called TV Essentials, is an experiment for Time Warner Cable and for the television distribution business, which generally bundles as many channels as possible at the highest price possible.

This move is good for customers (and also a good business venture for Time Warner), but it’s still not a good fit a lot of folks. As I said at the top of this post, for instance, I primarily am keeping my cable because I want to watch the news and sports. The “TV Essentials” package, however, cuts many of the news channels that I watch and some of the sports networks. I bring this up to say; why not let me pick the individual channels that I want to actually pay for?

Allowing people to pick the individual channels they want would save people like myself a lot of money. It would also bring in some customers who would be willing to pay relatively small amounts and only for content they actually want. So while this isn’t going to be happening immediately, the question is whether the rise of TV shows being available online and people sick of paying for content they don’t use will eventually result in this being an option being provided by cable companies.

Sen. Jeff Merkley Adds His Voice to the It Gets Better Campaign

Sen. Jeff Merkley has added his voice to the "It Gets Better" campaign. I support Jeff on a variety of issues and have done so since he entered the Democratic primary for US Senate in Oregon back in 2008. Nonetheless, I think this is one of the most important video messages I've seen come out of his office.

We need more Members of Congress to put aside partisanship and stand up for what's right. I'm glad to see Sen. Merkley doing so here.

Jim Webb Praises Comprehensive Nature Of DADT Report

The debate surrounding DADT is certainly heating up as there is a need for the Senate to act quickly if anything is going to happen during the lame duck session. Over at Americablog, Joe Sudbay pointed out that Sen. Jim Webb made some comments about the study that could be interpreted as a good sign for those who support the repeal of DADT.

There was one possible good sign from Senator Webb, who voted against the DADT amendment in Committee on May 27th. As Igor reports, Webb "praised the comprehensive nature of the report.

I agree with Joe that it definitely is a good sign that Webb's speaking about the comprehensiveness of the study. At the same time, however, his comments still leave him a lot of wiggle room that would allow him to either argue for delaying a vote or voting against repeal all together. Here are Webb's remarks: