The Senate refused to vote on unemployment and then went on vacation.

[Warren Stupidity]

This is the meme NPR pushed this morning, and that in general is being pushed across the board by our corporate media. It is part of their meta-meme that Gummint is to Blame, which in turn is a keystone of their Toss Da Bums Out 2010 election strategy.

Not one mention of the minor fact that it was the

F'ING REPUBLICAN PARTY OF NO

that refused to vote on extending unemployment compensation.

NPR followed up with a sampling of listener opinions, all of them stating that recipients were leaches, or words to that effect.

I give up.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Don't give up!

Their stand on unemployment must be used against them at every opportunity!

They will lose if they keep this idiocy going.

[Zavulon]

2. My dear CalPeg!

I hope you're right, but I doubt you are. Repugs have made greed popular, and all they have to do is keep prattling on about 99 weeks of unemployment and the cost of supporting us "parasites" to get their supporters to turn out in droves. This assessment, by the way, comes from yours truly - someone whose unemployment ran out and has been told over and over "get a job," as if anyone can find one.

[Andy823]

4. Yes, but...

There are also a lot of republicans without jobs, and while taking this stand against extending benefits will help them with the idiots in the tea party, and the dittoheads and Beckerheads, it can backfire on them if the facts get out that it's them, the republicans who are stopping the extensions! I know that many republicans, even if they are hurt by what their republicans in congress are doing, won't voter for a democrat, but they could get mad enough to stay home and not vote at all. The facts need to be put out there, and the democrats really need to put the republicans on the defense before the republicans put the democrats on the defense! Get the truth out and hammer it home everyday till the elections, show the public just who is really voting against anything that will help the people who need it and the country! It's all politics, and if the people see the truth, it won't help the republicans!

[Zavulon]

16. Yes, but...

there is no way the Repug turnout is going to be low; they hate what they view as soft stances on illegals, they hate the health care bill (hell, as a Democrat I hate it too), and every racist Repug who sat home thinking McCain would win is going to come out now. The bottom line, in addition to all of this, is that it's impossible to sell Repugs on the idea of taking their money and using it to help others.

Given that we have limited resources, I'd look for other battles to wage on the PR front = the environment, for instance. I don't think we can sell an extension past 99 weeks to anyone but ourselves.

[Andy823]

3. I agree.

This can and should be used against them, but I also think that if Reid had made the senate stay in session "UNTIL" they got a vote, it would have made the democrats look better than letting everyone go on a break. Just today I heard something that I couldn't hardly believe. A republican on Hardball "WANTING" congress to go after the employers of illegals! He kept saying that the democrats don't want to enforce the laws on the employers, but republicans do! That just makes not sense to me. If this is their plan, going after democrats and saying they won't enforce the laws against employers and are catering to the big corporations that "want" illegal workers so they don't have to pay benefits, and can keep wages low and their profits high, democrats are going to be in trouble come election time!

There is now way in hell republicans want to go after employers for hiring illegals, they never have and they never will, but if they can paint the picture that it's the democrats who are not taking on those employers who break the law, and if democrats have to defend this, then it could hurt the democrats come election time. It's just like republicans saying president Obama has turned down skimmers from other countries who have offered to help in the Gulf, it's a lie, but they keep saying it and democrats don't seem to be pointing out the fact there are over 24, the number I heard today, skimmers from other countries working in the Gulf right now!

Democrats need to get on the ball and get the facts out. As someone I heard on TV today, not sure who it was, democrats have to beat the republicans at their own game, and not end up defending themselves instead of point out the fact that it's the republicans who are trying to make sure nothing gets better in order to gain seats in congress! if the democrats can get the "truth" out and show the public who it is that wants to not only make the president fail, but the whole country, they can win the game, but if they sit back and wait till the republicans have spread more and more lies, then they end up having to defend themselves against those lies, the republicans win!

[Warren Stupidity]

12. "I give up" is me being exasperated.

I never actually give up. I don't know how.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. OK, I'm glad to hear that!

[depakid]

5. Stopped listening to National Propaganda Radio

when they began characterizing blatant civil rights and civil liberties violations as "victories" in the "war on terra."

[Warren Stupidity]

11. NPR just an example of how totally fucked the media is.

The meme-lockstep is universal. They have their orders. It is pathetically obvious.

[Skink]

6. Obama promises to disolve parliament.

Special elections to come.

[librechik]

7. join me--I've been feeling the same way, CalPeggy

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8707969

cheers and hugs

[patrice]

8. No one ever talks about the possibility that if you take just any job, assuming one is offered,

you will not be looking, you will be unavailable, or you will miss some other job or jobs that are more appropriate to your skills, what you have to offer the world, or would be more fulfilling to your general level of happiness, but nooooooooooooooooo! we're all just supposed to get back into the harness and other people who are happier with their work deserve that more than the un-employed do.

[inna]

9. it's Democratic Congress and admin

[Pirate Smile]

10. It is the meme Huffington Post pushes also. Republicans block stuff, they blame Dems for it.

[Telly Savalas]

15. It would be a lot harder for there to be any confusion on this matter

if the Democratic caucus would actually force the GOP to filibuster. This would put the issue on the media's front burner with clearly drawn lines on where the two parties stand. The Democratic Caucus freely chooses not to do this, so it's kind of hard for them to be painted as victims in this situation.

[spanone]

13. i turned on npr twice today in my car....

both times there was a pundit (different one each time) telling me that the democrats were going to lose big in the fall.

they compared the 'groundswell' of republican support to the movement in 2008 that swept Obama into office.


i didn't get either one of these guys names, but i found it odd that they were both spewing the same shit, unchallenged. i no longer donate to npr

npr = now promoting republicans


but tell me this, why the fuck are the democrats not using this reality to beat the shit out of the republicans?