The LuLac Edition #1234, July 12th, 2010

PHOTO INDEX: CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR TOM CORBETT AND THE THREE STOOGES WHO ALWAYS SEEMED TO BE LOOKING FOR WORK. MAYBE CORBETT IS STILL STUCK IN THE 1930 HERBERT HOOVER DEPRESSION MINDSET.

GET A JOB!!!!!

My father was a very complex man. I never fully appreciated the nuances of his personality because he spoke in definitive declarative statements. Yes was yes and no was no. All of his life he voted for Democrats. A child of the depression he saw firsthand the power of FDR’s “New Deal”. One year, 1974 I beseeched him to vote for Republican Dick Schweiker over Pete Flaherty for the U.S. Senate. I relentlessly lobbied him hard and he relented and voted for Schweiker. Two years later when Schweiker took the number 2 spots on a proposed ticket with arch conservative Ronald Reagan, my father declared “Never again”. And he didn’t. I have been much more flexible in voting for Statewide GOP candidates. I think there are many GOP moderates. In Luzerne County alone, I have many Republican friends who I have and will vote for. But Statewide and nationally, the GOP is committing hara- kari with reasonable voters. The latest bombshell came from Tom Corbett. On Friday Corbett the GOP nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania said this:
Corbett charged Friday that some Pennsylvanians Republican gubernatorial candidate and state Attorney would rather stay home and collect unemployment checks than go back to work — “The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are just going to sit there,” Corbett told Harrisburg radio station WITF during a campaign visit to businesses in Elizabethtown, a college community about 20 miles southeast of Harrisburg. Corbett said he has heard similar complaints from business owners across the state. “One of the individuals said, ‘I can’t get workers. People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment.’ ... They’re literally telling him ‘I’ll come back to work when unemployment runs out,’ ” Corbett said. “That’s becoming a problem.”
Can’t get workers? Every job fair I went to when I was unemployed was crowded. I’m talking about “waiting in line to get in” for an hour type of crowded. And there were young, old, people my age and in between. All of those people wanting a job? What planet are the business owners on? The comments ignited one of the hottest moments yet in a languid campaign.
“I don’t know what world Tom Corbett is living in,” said Democratic nominee Dan Onorato, the elected chief executive of Allegheny County. “Our economy is struggling, families in Pennsylvania are hurting, and Harrisburg insiders like Tom Corbett aren’t doing anything to help them.”
Never been a fan of Dan Onorato. Backed Jack Wagner for Governor. But I’m going with Onorato over Corbett. Corbett has to know better.
State AFL-CIO President Richard Bloomingdale was astonished by Corbett’s remarks, the labor federation said. As was I and every independent/Democrat or Republican I know thinking about voting for Corbett. I spoke with two supporters of Anthony Williams who were looking at Corvbett. No more.
“Unemployed workers would rather be working, feeding their families and paying the mortgage than living with the uncertainty of not having a job, earning less than half their wages and going without health care and pensions,” Bloomingdale said, noting that more than 25,000 people are jobless in Lancaster County, which takes in Elizabethtown. “We are asking Tom Corbett to tell us where are the jobs,” he said. About 590,000 Pennsylvanians are currently unemployed, the federation said. Maybe if that federation can get at least half of those voters to the polls Tom Corbett will be defeated. Statewide unemployment in May — the most recent figure available — was 9.1 percent, according to the state Labor and Industry Department. That was less than the 9.7 percent national rate but the highest mark for Pennsylvania in 26 years. Department spokesman David Smith said unemployment compensation provides temporary payments of about half of a worker’s weekly pay, up to a maximum of $564. Recipients must attest that they are “ready and available” to work, Smith said. By law, they cannot refuse any offer of “suitable employment,” a term that reflects their professional qualifications as well as their pay level, he said.
As you may have noticed, I take this very personal. One day after completing chemo, I was laid off from Blue Cross. I spent 11 months looking for work. I went to countless job fairs and more interviews than I can even remember. I got in arguments with employed friends who said “You should take it easy because you worked all throughout the chemo treatments” I told them that “a job is at the very core of someone’s being”. I got blank stares. Lucky enough to have rebounded and become employed at one job which led me to a better paying one a month later, I realize I’m one of the lucky few. Those others 89 who got laid off with me at Blue Cross, about 75 of them are still looking. The myth that unemployment compensation is gravy is really unfounded. First, you lose your health care. Second, your salary is cut. Third, you spend more money looking for work. For those who say, like Tom Corbett that the jobs are there, I challenge that bastard to stand in a line with people at a Job Fair. Like my dad more than 35 years ago, I’m finding that trusting Republicans, even the most seemingly moderate is a mistake. Sooner or later, their true, ugly self centered colors show. And they have no conception of what the average middle class person unemployed is going through. If they don’t have the compassion for the people out of work, what the he’ll are they going to do against the people who have jobs.

Maybe, in 2011, after Tom Corbett is defeated, we can send this song out to him: