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Post by beth on Feb 27, 2010 18:16:29 GMT
This is MY senator. Idiot! He has not been mentally equipped for this job for quite a while now. By blocking the vote to extend unemployment benefits, he's made a nuisance of himself, but probably done the Democratic party a huge favor. This isn't very long. Please take a few minutes and watch a fool - so bitter he does not care to jeopardize his party's hope of reclaiming political power.
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Post by beth on Mar 1, 2010 22:02:19 GMT
I hope most realize all Kentuckians don't back this POS. The only reason he was elected in the first place is because he was once a fairly well known baseball player, and people apparently thought he was an all-around good guy. He is not running for re-election, by popular demand, so it appears he's been chosen to do the Republicans dirty work in slamming this bill so many people count on to survive a little longer 'til some jobs open up. Bunning Objects To Extending Unemployment Insurance AGAIN Sen. Jim Bunning continues to object to extending unemployment benefits. On Monday, the Kentucky Republican once again prevented a vote on a bill that would extend eligibility for enhanced unemployment benefits and subsidized health insurance for laid-off workers by 30 days. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asked for unanimous consent to move forward with the bill. If Congress fails to pass an extension, the National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2 million people will lose their benefits in March. Six times last week, Democrats asked to extend their unemployment benefits for a short time while they work on a longer extension," Reid said. "Six times, Republicans said no. They didn't just say no to us, that is members of the Senate. They said no to their families in their own states and all our states count on us to act when we need action. They count on us to respond in the event of an emergency. This is an emergency. The Republicans in the Senate are standing between these families and the help they need while these benefits expire and expired." Make it seven. After Reid spoke, Bunning raised his objection and blamed the Democrats for failing to extend benefits with an earlier bill that Reid scrapped. He repeated his insistence that the Senate not add an additional $10 billion to the deficit. "Just a brief explanation of why we are where we're at with this extension bill, the brief extension of 30 days," said Bunning, who is not running for reelection and apparently not acting with the blessing of GOP leadership. "There was an agreement between the majority leader of the Finance Committee and the minority leader in the Finance Committee, Sens. Baucus and Grassley, on a three-month extension of these very same provisions. There were more provisions in the bill also. It cost a little more than the the $10 billion that is asked for because it was a three-month extension. Senator Reid pulled that bill from the floor of the U.S. Senate. He did it. The leader of the Democrats pulled that bill from the floor. I support extending unemployment benefits, COBRA benefits, flood insurance, highway bill fix, doc fix, small business loans, distant network television for satellite viewers. If we can't find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of this U.S. Senate." The bill under consideration provides a stop-gap 30 day extension for several other expiring laws, including funding for highway projects that employed 2,000 people until Monday, improved Medicare reimbursement rates (known as "doc fix"), flood insurance, and licensing that allows satellite TV providers to carry local channels in rural areas where they are unavailable with an antenna. Reid said nearly 1.5 million people in rural access would lose access to their local channels today. (DirecTV did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Democrats are using the holdup to hammer Bunning and the Republican party. Congressional Democrats, along with Vice President Joe Biden, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs have all condemned the holdup. Even if Senate Democrats get around Bunning and pass an extension this week, some recipients of unemployment benefits could miss a check. Before last week, workforce agencies in some states were already sending out letters notifying recipients that they would be ineligible for any of the federally-funded "tiers" of additional benefits provided by the stimulus bill. Eligibility for those benefits ended on Feb. 28; the bill under consideration would push the deadline back to April 5. A Democratic aide said Reid would move forward this week with a larger measure that would extend unemployment and COBRA benefits for the rest of the year. Reid could file for cloture tomorrow, a process that will eat up time but won't allow a single senator to block progress. Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project, said that the legislation would retroactively pay UI recipients. But how long will it take? "If you're already unemployed for more than six months," she said, "odds are you're living at the margins already with no room for error." /snip video here
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Post by fretslider on Mar 1, 2010 22:19:47 GMT
Wow, what a blockhead.
Politicians are the same wherever you go. Nuff said
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Post by iamjumbo on Mar 2, 2010 14:09:19 GMT
Wow, what a blockhead. Politicians are the same wherever you go. Nuff said not really. the chap was a very good pitcher thirty years ago. throwing a baseball does not require a great deal of intelligence. for the most part, it is the catcher who decides which pitch should be thrown. bunning is simply displaying his lack of intelligence
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Post by Ben Lomond on Mar 2, 2010 14:10:46 GMT
Perhaps it is the system that is wrong, and in need of updating. We have the same problem in the UK parliament, where a private members bill can be "talked out" by ONE individual who rambles on ad infinitum until the allotted time is up. Filibustering is outdated, and a bit of an anachronism in today's legislatures. Surely it cannot be right that one stubborn individual can negate the collective will of any legislature?
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Post by clemiethedog on Mar 2, 2010 19:54:32 GMT
Road sign to Bunning's home: BTW, Jumbo is correct. Bunning was a good pitcher, tossed a no hitter in each league, one a perfect game (granted, it was against the 1964 Mets).
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Post by fretslider on Mar 2, 2010 20:19:01 GMT
Wow, what a blockhead. Politicians are the same wherever you go. Nuff said not really. the chap was a very good pitcher thirty years ago. throwing a baseball does not require a great deal of intelligence. for the most part, it is the catcher who decides which pitch should be thrown. bunning is simply displaying his lack of intelligence Our politicians are all masters of arslikhan, greedy to the nth degree, dishonest and totally self-centred. What happens if the catcher has been on the rye?
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Post by iamjumbo on Mar 2, 2010 22:02:45 GMT
not really. the chap was a very good pitcher thirty years ago. throwing a baseball does not require a great deal of intelligence. for the most part, it is the catcher who decides which pitch should be thrown. bunning is simply displaying his lack of intelligence Our politicians are all masters of arslikhan, greedy to the nth degree, dishonest and totally self-centred. What happens if the catcher has been on the rye? if he's been on too much of it, he's liable to squat too close and get his head smacked with a bat
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Post by iamjumbo on Mar 2, 2010 22:05:34 GMT
Road sign to Bunning's home: BTW, Jumbo is correct. Bunning was a good pitcher, tossed a no hitter in each league, one a perfect game (granted, it was against the 1964 Mets). if i remember correctly, as bad as they were, the mets did win about fifty games that year, so he still did it against major leaguers.
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Post by clemiethedog on Mar 3, 2010 13:35:59 GMT
Yes, they were major leaguers, under the widest definition of the term. Not to turn this into a sports thread (although the subject, Bunning, is more of a jock, a boneheaded jock, than anything else), but I can't recall any of those Mets except for Ed Kranepool. The original Mets had some name players like Richie Ashburn, Frank Thomas, and Gil Hodges, but I think they were gone by 1964. Cleon Jones, Tom Agee, and the offensive nucleus of the Miracle 1969 team hadn't arrived yet. Regardless of the quality, it was nevertheless quite an achievement. Bunning is a member of the H of F. I believe he was also the second player to record 3000 strikeouts (Walter Johnson was the first).
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Post by iamjumbo on Mar 3, 2010 14:26:02 GMT
Yes, they were major leaguers, under the widest definition of the term. Not to turn this into a sports thread (although the subject, Bunning, is more of a jock, a boneheaded jock, than anything else), but I can't recall any of those Mets except for Ed Kranepool. The original Mets had some name players like Richie Ashburn, Frank Thomas, and Gil Hodges, but I think they were gone by 1964. Cleon Jones, Tom Agee, and the offensive nucleus of the Miracle 1969 team hadn't arrived yet. Regardless of the quality, it was nevertheless quite an achievement. Bunning is a member of the H of F. I believe he was also the second player to record 3000 strikeouts (Walter Johnson was the first). i could be mistaken, but i think that warren spahn was the second, and bunning was the third. correct me if i'm wrong. at any rate, bunning was a lot better pitcher than he has been a man
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Post by clemiethedog on Mar 3, 2010 14:32:19 GMT
Strange as it may seem, but Spahn never reached 3000 (losing 3 yrs at the start of his career to WWII was a barrier). Hitters in the NL didn't 'go for the pump' as often, at least as the records show, nd that may have reduced their strike-out totals. Looking at Spahn's record, he seems like a Greg Maddux type, pitching with his head and recording fewer strike-outs in the process.
With no-hitters, Spahn's record is more impressive, one at the age of 40, followed by another at the age of 41.
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Post by iamjumbo on Mar 3, 2010 18:34:23 GMT
Strange as it may seem, but Spahn never reached 3000 (losing 3 yrs at the start of his career to WWII was a barrier). Hitters in the NL didn't 'go for the pump' as often, at least as the records show, nd that may have reduced their strike-out totals. Looking at Spahn's record, he seems like a Greg Maddux type, pitching with his head and recording fewer strike-outs in the process. With no-hitters, Spahn's record is more impressive, one at the age of 40, followed by another at the age of 41. okay. i think that i was thinking when a big deal was made about him having 300 in a season. maybe he was the first lefty to do it or something. it was a thousand years ago.
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