Dear Obama, stop the needless furloughs

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Monday July 29, 2013 · 10:30 AM PDT

2013/07/29 · 10:30

Below is a letter I've written and sent to the President. In the past two weeks, we've gotten a huge amount of support from our Congressman Derek Kilmer(D-WA 06), and many others, resulting in an amendmentment to the FY14 Defense spending bill that prohibits future furloughs of Working Capital Fund activities. We're meeting with our Senator during the August recess, and it appears she agrees with us, that these furloughs should be stopped, since they will save no money.

However, even though Congress is onboard, and agrees that these should be ended, they're going to go on vacation anyway.

Thus, we've appealled directly to President himself. These furloughs, applied to working capital funded activities, are yielding no savings, yet they are costing a lot of impliment. Productivity is lower than I've ever seen before, and morale is at an all time low. I'm recieving my first 'furlough paycheck' this week, and as a result have cancelled summer activities for my kids, as well as cancelled two planned vacations for August. While I have extra time off, my family simply doesn't have money to do anything with the extra time.

President Obama can stop these furloughs, by simply telling Hagel to knock it off. Unless there is an actual lack of funds and business reason, these furloughs are nothing more than an attack on the middle class.

cheesybear

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Tuesday June 25, 2013 · 11:43 AM PDT

2013/06/25 · 11:43

On June 21st, a bipartisan group 31 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, asking for him to clarify both his rationale and justification for furloughing employees at activities which are funded by Working Capital Funds.

Activites such as these do not recieve directly appropriated funds from Congress. They recieve funding and tasking from customers at program offices, who have already had budgets reduced due to sequestration.

Seeing the potential for these budget reductions at the program level, many activities took pro-active steps to manage workload and resources, such as instituting hiring freezes, limiting overtime, and developing other product lines to draw in new customers.

Through these measures, these activities have created a sufficent buffer against the impacts of sequestration, and do not need to furlough employees. In fact, many agencies are actually behind in production, and are currently requiring overtime in order to meet tasking obligations with a reduced workforce.

Even though there is no business case to support it, furlough notices have gone out employees notifying them that they will be required to take 11 days of unpaid leave between now and the end of September.

Why? Because the Secretary of Defense has issued a politically motivated arbitrary policy, designed to amplify the effect of sequestration, while punishing career civil servants.

Read the letter that Congress sent below the jump

cheesybear

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Tuesday June 18, 2013 · 3:52 PM PDT

2013/06/18 · 15:52

Hello Daily Kos, It's been many years since I've been here. But I'd like to ask you to give me a few minutes to talk about arbitraty politically driven furloughs.

Bottom line up front; There is no business reason for these furloughs. Secretary Hagel is pushing these, although they are illegal, for political reasons only.

Sequestration cut defense budgets. Yes, that is a fact, but those budget cuts have already happened, and the agencies that many civilians work for, have more than enough funding and work to avoid furloughs.

Simply put, this is a politically driven attack on career civil servants.

cheesybear

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Wednesday June 10, 2009 · 9:04 AM PDT

2009/06/10 · 09:04

Newt Gingrich addressing GOP on June 8, 2009:

"Let me be clear. I am not a citizen of the world!"

I KNEW IT!! NEWT IS AN ALIEN! He's a REPTILIAN HUMANIOD, and isn't even trying to hide it anymore.

cheesybear

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Friday October 10, 2008 · 9:15 AM PDT

2008/10/10 · 09:15

The GOP is the party of teenagers. The thrive on gossip, whining, self promotion, and their peers talking about how awesome they are. They throw good parties, by maxing out their credit cards, trashing their folks house, and breaking a few laws along the way.

cheesybear

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Wednesday October 08, 2008 · 8:50 AM PDT

2008/10/08 · 08:50

McCain claims that since times are tough, and the future is unknown, "We need a steady hand at the tiller".

Being a racing sailor myself, I respectfully disagree. When seas are rough, you need a helmsman with strong vision and firm grip.

cheesybear

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Tuesday February 12, 2008 · 8:35 PM PST

2008/02/12 · 20:35

I just don't get it. This race is about delegates, not states... so why is Clinton "putting it all" on March 4th?

Democrats allocate delefates proportionally. It's not 'winner take all'... so why the focus on winning the 'big' states?

Perhaps is an indication of their values.

cheesybear

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Friday December 22, 2006 · 8:05 AM PST

2006/12/22 · 08:05

So by now most people have heard, that it looks like the Aircraft Carrier, the John C. Stennis , will deploy to the middle east to keep tabs on Iran sometime very soon, likely just after the holidays.

While the media narrative is that this is nothing more than posturing, a show of force, the magnitude of what this means is likely lost on anyone outside of the Navy community. We’re not talking about 1 ship here, we’re talking about an entire Carrier battle group. Most of us have some idea of what constitutes a Carrier battle group from playing Battleship on the floor with out siblings as kids, but the modern day equivalent constitutes a bit more than just the 5 plastic ships on the 10x10 grid.

cheesybear

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Tuesday March 21, 2006 · 9:23 AM PST

2006/03/21 · 09:23

I thought this was something that everyone should be aware of. A recent proposed IRS rule change will allow tax preparers to sell the information on your tax return to third parties.

Read the Seattle Times article here.

And if you're interested in my feelings about the 'tax preparation complex' flip below the fold. In short, I'm not a fan, and I'll be damned if I ever pay someone to do my taxes for me... regardless of how 'complicated' they might be. Read More

Caucus resolutions - need help

cheesybear

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Thursday March 02, 2006 · 10:18 AM PST

2006/03/02 · 10:18

I've been tossing around these ideas in my head for some time, and found out today that my local precinct caucus is this weekend. Like any good 'Deaniac', I'm planning on going, and I want to have some ideas to contribute.

Below the fold are drafts of two resolutions that I'd like to pitch, but I need some help forming and shaping the resolutions. I'm targeting Campaign finance, and my frustration that so much money is spent on campaigns, largely from groups that are not consistuents. I believe this is a big reason why it's 'the party above the people'.

Another frustration is that media advertising has become so saturated with misinformation (swift boating), but how to balance this with free speech rights. Please share your thoughts, be critical, and challenge anything that I've put down. Read More

Is the world black and white, or grey and full of color?

cheesybear

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Friday January 27, 2006 · 3:06 PM PST

2006/01/27 · 15:06

We've seen this before. Miserable failures at more levels than we can even comprehend. Signs of deep corruption and incompentence. How in the world can anyone think that this is the best, we as a country, can do? How can anyone support what is happening, let alone, how can a majority of this country continue to support whats going on? While I hate being cynical, and I hope that my fears are overblown, I can't ignore what I've seen unfold in the past few weeks.
Read More

Intellegent design in disguise on PBS

cheesybear

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 28, 2005 · 2:52 PM PST

2005/11/28 · 14:52

Has anyone else seen "The Privleged Planet" on PBS recently? Last wedensday, after watching Frontline, we began watching this show. After the first few minutes, it caught my interest, as it was talking about space and the universe, so we kept watching.

Here's a link to the 'official' website

The first 20 minutes were interesting enough, but they kept making these conclusions that I thought were stretched quite a bit, with circular logic, but we kept watching to see where it was all going. After about 30 minutes, my wife says, this is going to be about intellegent design... I said "no way, that would be so misleading", but with about 10 minutes left in the show, suddenly they had people on from places like "The ministry of god", and it was clear that they had been setting up the whole program to promote Intellegent Design.

So like any good PBS supporter, I've written a letter to my local affiliate. I encourage anyone else who seen this program to do the same. Read More

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