It's bad enough that my friends have to endure incessant pick-pocket scams in their job searches like entities promising assistance while asking for cell phone numbers to deceptively bill for text messages sent out containing worthless job referrals.
Even worse than these scams to steal revenue from persons with no income are the insults heaped on my friends and millions of other jobless people by heartlessly cruel conservatives mainly Republicans always quick to pontificate about how the jobless allegedly don't want to work or to call unemployment compensation a crutch that allegedly hinders the momentum of economic recovery.
For the record, Democrats in DC are dismal on the jobs-creation front"too timid to seriously confront the all-out assault on middle and lower classes by craven capitalists.
The Democratically controlled Congress passes public service jobs bills that would quickly put paychecks into the pockets of the jobless but that legislation gets killed in the Democratically controlled Senate where members of both parties listen to the self-interest of Wall Street more than to the suffering on Main Street.
Exhibit A for the crass anti-jobless conservatism is Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett. Earlier this summer Corbett proclaimed that too many jobless prefer lying around collecting unemployment payments instead of taking available jobs.
One of my jobless friends countered Corbett by making the observation that, "You cannot pay your bills with unemployment."
The $500 weekly that this person was receiving in unemployment payments before they ran out amounted to less than a third of their weekly salary at their last job. Further, most unemployed receive far less than my friend, because their salaries were far lower.
Some newspaper editorials rightly castigated Corbett for his "ignorant and insensitive" assertion, stating the obvious that Corbett ignored there is "no evidence" supporting Corbett's contention that jobs abound across Pennsylvania's depressed landscape.
Candidate Corbett swung around trying to remove his dog-dropping-stained shoe from his mouth -- and told the public that he didn't mean to "imply that anyone was lazy" for being on unemployment instead of reentering the work force.
Corbett claimed he wasn't saying what he believed based on what he actually knew about jobs/joblessness, but rather was only repeating something that someone else told him. That weasel rationale prompted one newspaper to fault Corbett for failing to do his homework, instead of relying on (alleged) anecdotal information provided by someone else.
Good thing Corbett made his now self-acknowledged "insensitive" assertion as a political candidate in the court of public opinion instead of in a court of law, given that his day job is being Pennsylvania's Attorney General.
Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct covering all lawyers states in part that an attorney shall not knowingly "make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal..."
If a gubernatorial aspirant doesn't know jobs in Pennsylvania are scarcer than rattlesnakes without poisonous fangs, that person lacks the critical capacity and compassion needed for that executive office.
The reality is Corbett tried to score a slimy conservative Republican political point with his jobless-are-lazy pronouncement.
AG Corbett currently has the power, if he wanted to use it, to attack the rampant age discrimination that is ravaging 50+ job seekers in his state. He could, if he wanted to, also sue the scammers who are pick-pocketing Pennsylvania's unemployed. But AG Corbett instead uses his powers for partisan purposes, like participating with other Republican AG's in the lawsuit attacking President Obama's health care reform.
Corbett's "Attytood' about the jobless is not an isolated incident of an errant comment. Weeks after Corbett's comment, other Republican candidates from coast-to-coast unleashed GOP talking-points pounding on unemployment compensation and the minimum wage.
Even worse than these scams to steal revenue from persons with no income are the insults heaped on my friends and millions of other jobless people by heartlessly cruel conservatives mainly Republicans always quick to pontificate about how the jobless allegedly don't want to work or to call unemployment compensation a crutch that allegedly hinders the momentum of economic recovery.
For the record, Democrats in DC are dismal on the jobs-creation front"too timid to seriously confront the all-out assault on middle and lower classes by craven capitalists.
The Democratically controlled Congress passes public service jobs bills that would quickly put paychecks into the pockets of the jobless but that legislation gets killed in the Democratically controlled Senate where members of both parties listen to the self-interest of Wall Street more than to the suffering on Main Street.
One of my jobless friends countered Corbett by making the observation that, "You cannot pay your bills with unemployment."
The $500 weekly that this person was receiving in unemployment payments before they ran out amounted to less than a third of their weekly salary at their last job. Further, most unemployed receive far less than my friend, because their salaries were far lower.
Some newspaper editorials rightly castigated Corbett for his "ignorant and insensitive" assertion, stating the obvious that Corbett ignored there is "no evidence" supporting Corbett's contention that jobs abound across Pennsylvania's depressed landscape.
Candidate Corbett swung around trying to remove his dog-dropping-stained shoe from his mouth -- and told the public that he didn't mean to "imply that anyone was lazy" for being on unemployment instead of reentering the work force.
Corbett claimed he wasn't saying what he believed based on what he actually knew about jobs/joblessness, but rather was only repeating something that someone else told him. That weasel rationale prompted one newspaper to fault Corbett for failing to do his homework, instead of relying on (alleged) anecdotal information provided by someone else.
Good thing Corbett made his now self-acknowledged "insensitive" assertion as a political candidate in the court of public opinion instead of in a court of law, given that his day job is being Pennsylvania's Attorney General.
Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct covering all lawyers states in part that an attorney shall not knowingly "make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal..."
If a gubernatorial aspirant doesn't know jobs in Pennsylvania are scarcer than rattlesnakes without poisonous fangs, that person lacks the critical capacity and compassion needed for that executive office.
The reality is Corbett tried to score a slimy conservative Republican political point with his jobless-are-lazy pronouncement.
AG Corbett currently has the power, if he wanted to use it, to attack the rampant age discrimination that is ravaging 50+ job seekers in his state. He could, if he wanted to, also sue the scammers who are pick-pocketing Pennsylvania's unemployed. But AG Corbett instead uses his powers for partisan purposes, like participating with other Republican AG's in the lawsuit attacking President Obama's health care reform.
Corbett's "Attytood' about the jobless is not an isolated incident of an errant comment. Weeks after Corbett's comment, other Republican candidates from coast-to-coast unleashed GOP talking-points pounding on unemployment compensation and the minimum wage.
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