Are you !@#$%^& kidding me?!?!?!

Charlie Crist In a Video Game

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2009/07/-photos-starting-as-quarterback-from-tallahassee.html

This douche has time to come here down the road from me and parade around with this BS, but we cant get a person with any sense to answer the phone at AWI to tell us when we will be able to survive?

All I can say is kjasclf'knzvlkjcnlskdnvoiSENFONSVDLKNscolnoinqwoinqwoinonsaclonksdvoih

I swear if you put him in the Senate you are a fucking tool....

Sorry I had to rant about this one!!

Hi UIO-
I have my many beefs with afore mentioned uncle Charlie, and I may or may not vote for him in the upcomming primary (I didnt vote for him in the last primary that he ran because he refused to drill for oil off shore, he has since moderated his position) , but Im not ready to blame him for this AWI mess . (I think I could blame him for a junket to Orlando as you mentioned)

Firstly, this program was instigated by the Feds (by stimulus legislation implemented by the US Department of Labor) to be thrust upon the states in such a way that they needed to pass legislation in order for the individual state (Fla in this case) to implement it via AWI (after significant rework of their processing capabilities). Ive just mentioned 2 breaurocracies (not including Congress, the Fla legislature, Joe Biden, and the Florida stimulus cszar and a mainframe change).

ANY program that orginates in that way, makes me have very low expectations for efficency. They certainly met my low expectations on this one. (I think the post office is run more efficiently than EB was). (To be fair to AWI, i dont think they ever set the expectatin that benefits would be paid before mid July)

If the powers at be in DC really wanted to get unemployment benefits to people in a hurry, they simply could of passed another (whats become routine) Federal extension (a EUC type scenerio), but even the last one (which was signed by Pres Bush in mid November, didnt start paying benefits until Christmas, and that was with a already established law and infrastructure).

But no, the big government for all people insisted on forcing their strings attached version onto the states , and thus we see the ridiculus result.

I believe the Florida Senate (Republicans) blocked the EU benefits until many of us wrote to Charlie Crist telling him of the dire state of the unemployed. This is the reason it took until now to get it. It finally passed in late May I believe, but couldn't be implemented until the beginning of the fiscal year in July. I would rather have Charlie Crist than Gov Sanford, who rejected federal help for his constituents because he was more interested in personal stimulus in Argentina.

Good point UIO-

Actually what happened in the Fla. Legislature was poorly reported and not well explained by the principals.

Per below, there were 2 pieces to the EB legislation, the piece they passed, and the piece that was to expand benefits to part-time workers who became unemployed (this piece could not be sun-setted). The Dems in the legislature fought for the whole thing, the Repubs insisted on keeping it limited to the traditional EB in the legislation that they eventually passed(and were able to sun-set it so the state doesnt have to pay for it in the out years).
[Speaking as a future tax payer I cant say that this was a bad strategy.]
Meanwhile Charlie Tuna took the political high road and said he wanted it all (that way he looked compasionate, and if he didnt get it all he could blame it on the legislature while he runs for Senate, meanwhile everybody else takes credit for passing traditional EB)

I hate to be in the position of defending these jamokes, but in the big scheme of things, EB was not the only thing on the legislative docket this past spring. There was a thing called the annual budget, which as you can imagine took up the bulk of the proceedings. Given that they passed a balanced budget (as mandated by law) I cant overly fault them. (thats a lot better performance than our friends in DC could produce). [You can look at all of the legislation which came to Charlie's desk @ the gov's website]

from Marcia Heroux Pounds of the Sun Sentinel.

Apr 20, 09
Florida’s House leadership has confirmed that it plans to take the money and make the necessary change for 20 weeks of extended benefits. But the extra unemployment compensation is delayed because of a battle over $444 million that the Republicans are rejecting because the money has too many strings, according to Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach.

I just thought of something to add here in the post-mortem.

Several so called "advocacy" groups, were pushing loudly for Florida (and the rest of the eligible states) to pass the whole unemployment assistance package in their state laws (including expanding benefits to the part time unemployed) . This stirred up a lot of anxiety amoung us unemployed folks and the local editorial writers because it was framed that the majority of our legislators didnt want any EB benefits to be made available (this was never the case as all parties involved wanted a extension of traditional unemployment benefits at a minimum, although the Repubs in the legislature were mostly mute in expressing that)

Yet when EB finally passed the legislature and the Gov said he would sign it, none of these guys (especially NELP) put out any information that these benefits had been approved. (If I recall correctly I had to follow the bill thru the legislature on the internet in order to keep informed on the subject)

I only mention this as it is my opinoin that many of these groups (NELP being the poster child) are more ajenda (political) oriented than actually trying to help unemployed people.

sc4ram wrote:
...none of these guys (especially NELP) put out any information that these benefits had been approved...I only mention this as it is my opinoin that many of these groups (NELP being the poster child) are more ajenda (political) oriented than actually trying to help unemployed people.

While I agree with many of your points (about what actually happened, the budget crisis, bad strategy, etc.), I take big exception to your comments about NELP.

Of course this organization is an advocacy group, but to say they are not trying to help the unemployed is a bit uninformed at best. Having been in contact with several of their attorneys and state affiliates before, during, and after this bill passed, I can tell you that they are one of the few groups with any lobbying power that have any sway with legislators all over the country, explaining the details of unemployment law to legislators who really had no clue about what the options were.

They are just about the only ones who have made big waves about the plight of the unemployed in the press. If it weren't for them, you would have never seen ANY press about benefits running out, since dwindling staff at newspaper offices has left us with no good sources of local or state news other than the Internet or small bits that float to the top of attention on tv. The few newspaper and internet press bits that came out were mainly because of press releases that NELP put out and reporters used as sources (almost zero investigative reporters left in this state!)

As for them not putting out info after it passed, they did post summary releases about the progress in the states as progress was made. Even these press releases were used by reporters. I had a hard time finding articles that were NOT quoting NELP press releases, sad to say. And if they didn't focus on media blitzing after each state victory, it was because they were focused on the next state challenge, not doing the job of the few news reporters left. It was apparent that it was only after the passage of these bills that the media picked up on what was happening and popped it all over the news, at least on the Internet, along with notices on the AWI site that at least admitted that a bill had passed.

I think it should be understood also that NELP, while they do have a few offices in different locations across the country, is not an enormous organization. They appear to have relatively small staffs, and rely much on getting local help for causes whenever they can. While any organization has its faults, and I don't know any of these people personally, I think blaming them for anything that has happened during this mess is really misplaced criticism.

Thanks Nancy-

You are obviously more familiar with NELP and their capabilities than I am. (actually I found their website very helpful in explaining the various nuances of the EUC extensions last year)

What I was trying to say (and I still stand by this) , is that their very vocal actions in regard to changing Florida unemployment (EB) law to include unemployment benefits for part time unemployed and persons on family medical leave, in addition to the traditional unemployment benefits that are the main subject of this board, were disproportionate from their less visible communication of the traditional EB benefits that ultimately passed. They framed their argument as "all or nothing" which was very confusing at best.

A laymen reading their releases on this could of easily concluded that Florida was trying to screw all of their unemployed citizens out of EB which wasnt the case. (This is not completely the fault of NELP, the legislators and many local editorial writers didnt seem to be able to communicate this either)

In my opinion (and thats all it is) if I was going to choose someone to be my advocate, I would hope they would use some of their capability to speedily enact a unemployment extension that everybody agrees should happen, and not frame it as we must expand the program to non traditional applicants or we get nothing.

Again my opinion only, since it is free you are welcome to value it accordingly.

Thanks for your feedback.

sc4ram--

Actually we still agree in principle on a lot of this. I also thought the legislation was skewed in many ways, but the arguments should really go back to the original stimulus bill provisions which were so naive that they didn't seem to think the states would push back on all this.

In principle NELP is an advocate for all kinds of workers, whether it's the issue of many of us needing EB or the low-wage part-time worker or whichever kind of worker problem. They are associated with UAW in some way or another, so they do not exclusively represent US, a subset of workers who are unemployed long term.

So they had to take their cues from what the original stimulus bill offered (or demanded in part). Some of those provisions, even though in Florida's case they had to pick only one option, seemed even to liberals a bit questionable legislation. The best silk purse that should have been made of the sow's ear of some of the stimulus unemployment provisions, IMHO, is to have introduced those two parts of the legislation entirely separately. The two pots of money were separate anyway. It made for horrible confusion and delays when both were put together, and as you say, further confused by the press.

I don't know how much of that combining was caused by NELP, but I think some FL newbie legislators just jumped the gun thinking they could get it all (and in a conservative legislature like Florida, no less!) An up or down vote on each separate bill would have been SO much easier and orderly, and probably EARLIER. As it was, NELP had a hard enough time just getting those reps to understand the basics of the stimulus bill. (I found my own rep, as great a person as she is in many ways, totally uninformed of the details until I had to point them out myself! And presumably she got more enlightened on the differences later on. )

As for NELP in the future, if you haven't read it already, check out Maurice Emsellem's testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee back a few months ago. (see PDF on their site) It touched all bases on the coming needs for the unemployed going forward into the fall. As you read, you'll notice a strategically tactful style that aims not to antagonize the current Congress, yet pushes them toward further action. I even called Mr. Emsellem at that time to say thanks for that document; it was forward-thinking and smart.

Well, it's all history now. That's enough arm-chair analysis for me.