60 minutes on now, Veterans in food lines

Lord help me I just hate him so much. All these hungry people standing in line for 5 hours to feed their families, lost jobs.

And Billions going to Iraq to sate his unquenchable thirst for oil and money. He proclaims to be a Christian. If there is a God I hope he's judged accordingly. This administration doesn't deserve one more day in power, not one.

Apparently the piece was a re-run from before Thanksgiving. Things have only gotten worse since then.

considering what those people did for us and we can't even look out for them...

:mad:

"Yeah I got your back!..... (way back!)"

-An

Troops lining up for a single MRE and 3 liters of water in 140 Degree heat?

and reduced family separation differential.

Because they're over there fighting for (fill in the excuse here) in Iraq. They should be grateful that they had the privilege to fight for little king george.

Makes me sick to my stomach.

I remember the bush apologist friend of mine who tearfully pressed me to at least fly the flag to support our troops when the war broke out. I told her I was too busy hurrying off to the peace march, where I was supporting our troops by one of a series of actions trying to prevent their having to go over to that hell-hole in the first place!!!!!!

By the way, these folks who find it so easy to send our troops off to war and maybe to their deaths were, for the most part, stay-at-homes with (fill in the excuse here) reasons for not going when it was THEIR turn to enlist as younger men. And they're also the same bunch of "heroes" who are so eager to flitch off any extra money for tax cuts for their rich friends who don't need the extra money.

Repulsive.

We give them money for college and they repay us by complaining about our beloved president? If they don't love america they can get the hell out.

There's a great number of them that think that if you don't have a job (who cares why) and you didn't come from money then **ck you - you deserve to stand in line for hours just to eat.

I'm sending this link to everyone I know.

Everyone needs to see this. I saw the ``60 Minutes II'' segment and it moved and appalled me. People have to see the faces and the desperation and fear of these average Americans to truly understand how bad this is.;(

Who would imagine that working families in 21st-century America would be reduced to this. It makes my blood boil to think that we are spending billions to launch an unprovoked war on a third world nation when there is starvation and such unrelieved dispair at home!:grr:

thank you for all the help you give to others here to make information accessable.

:hi:

I don't usually get emotional, but this was too much. The pain in these peoples eyes was so real. All because of an administration that is greedy and uncaring. And, at the end, they said for the first three months of this year (since they originally aired the report), requests for assistance had gone up another 20%. I'm dying here.

I don't know what to say right now.

Can't afford another. She was working towards becoming a nurse.

And the WWII vet, and the ladies who were laid off after 30 effing years, and the $7 an hour guy.

I'm old enough to vaguely remember the war on poverty; a war we pretty much won (it was lots worse before, anyway).

Mom and my late dad lived through the Depression, they never thought they'd see another. Fortunately for him, my dad won't, but mom is just an illness away from a catastrophe. One year ago, my husband and I had to declare bankruptcy after a huge medical bill.

I hate this fucking administration.

:eyes: :puke: LIAR

eventually.

I came into the room and turned on the tv and happened on this.

I wish Bush could live the life of one of that girl who goes to school hungry and has trouble concentrating when she needs to study.

Contrary to the stereotypes, these are average Americans who have hit hard times.

Why aren't the democrats going to those food lines and screaming in disgust at the Bush tax cuts (...those who didn't freaking vote for...)

Compassionate Christian Bush, my ass.

I hate that man. He is a disgrace to this country.

When I received my tax credit last week I gave some to my two candidates and the rest to a local food bank here that is really having a hard time keeping up. It's terrible. And I live in a very red county.

This is really breaking my heart. We're just making it from paycheck to paycheck around here but we don't have kids and we're aren't going hungry. We are going to start buying extra food each and every week and take it to the food pantry. I challenge each and every DU'er who can to do the same. (And please try not to make it tuna...too much mercury for children and pregnant women.)

to the local people who distribute it. I noticed during the holidays (I was volunteering to help - no I'm not tooting my own horn) a lot of cans had signatures from kids. I think that's great in two ways. A family gets assistance, and the family that helps has their kids personalize it - this can from Anthony or whatever. Makes the kids that help give feel good, makes the families that receive feel a connection, made me feel good to be in the middle.

If you give canned goods, get your kids involved. Teach them that they are contributing to society - a confusing term, but one they will remember. Teach them that they may someday need help from others in some way, and will appreciate it. Teach them that we all only become better when one helps others. It will come back to them.

DO IT, folks. You'll be glad you did. But...you knew that. ;))))

But even if you do have kids and are struggling, you can go to your local Aldi's, SaveALot, etc where they usually have ridiculous prices on canned food, especially vegetables, and pick up a couple extra cans to take to the food pantry. We do almost every week. I know it's not much, but every bit helps, and it makes my kids happy to know that as bad as we have it we can still do something to help those who are worse off than we are. And it costs around $0.50 for a couple cans of off-brand corn, who couldn't do that? :)

Every single day this week, there is a National coalition effort to demand food, clothing, housing, education....lucky for DUers
08/27 Wed.is Poor People's March for the right to FOOD and WATER join us, or contribute as you can...see connecting web sites...

there are many Veterans who need food, housing, jobs....we are working hard here in DC for the past week on a National level, which counts a lot....welcoming the Poor People's March and joining in every single day this week....there are many links where DUer's can help, churches are helping, volunteers are feeding and providing amenities for these activists (including medical care), funding is needed for protest materials, hand-outs for congress, web-site hosting, bail-bonds for those arrested on Saturday...these events make a BIG difference...politicians must take notice HERE in OUR Nation's Capital...please, look at the web site links and follow through with action....YOUR efforts can make all the difference...action speaks louder than words...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=236938

(reposted here, spelling errors intact, from the lounge):

I've been chewing all night on What To Be Done. In the broadest terms, I think it might be time, with the benefit of hindsight, to revisit both the War on Poverty and the Great Society concepts, which failed, I think, due to 1960s era Great Bureaucracy, a total lack of digital innovation and modern efficiency, and the like.

For example: What didn't work?

Cabrini Green, to sum it up in two words. Giant poor people storage boxes, owned-by-the-government, forever-to-be-owned-by-the-government. Went to crime-ridden decay inside a decade.

But what works now?

The housing projects in modern Philadelphia, for one. Modern suburbs, quaint little charming neighborhoods, all public assistance housing, and the residents can earn ownership of their own home through contribution to the community, a small mortgage, and so forth.

What else didn't work?

Food Stamps, for another example. Rife with fraud - you could trade them for anything. They were money by another name.

But what works now?

In my own state, the Lone Star Card - essentially an ATM card applicable only to food, usable only in grocery stores. Saved millions upon millions of dollars, serves the people magnificently. Put in place by the last progressive candidate for Governor, former comptroller John Sharp, and a brilliant success, Republican lies to the contrary notwithstanding.

I also think frankly we need to change the language and wrest it away from "conservative vs. liberal." That's the stuff of the mid sixties. Today's reality is "corporatism vs. communites," or "corporatism vs. citizens."

Honestly, when was the last time you, or anyone you know, ever heard of any community defeating any corporate entity in some naked money / power / resource grab? Ever heard of anyone preventing a Super Wal-Mart from being built in their neighborhood, in the past, oh, thirty years? Ever heard of a subdivision being stopped from being developed over a pristine aquifer recharge zone?

Twenty miles away from my own home town, the progressive Mecca, Austin, Texas, Alcoa - the filthiest polluter in Texas (fathom that) - just sailed through the approval process to move two huge state highways, strip-mine tens of miles of the most beautiful land within a hundred miles of here, drain the aquifer, and sell their leftover water to the city of San Antonio - a city which, owning to sound "conservative" principles, refuses to finance its own dams and reservoirs, demanding instead to siphon water from elsewhere. And so what if it kills four whole counties.

All this, despite probably 95 percent disapproval from the whole of the effected populace.

I think we're getting close to a high-tide mark here. Either the United States leads the world into a sustainable, humane and tolerable future, or it becomes the last ballwark against third-world two-class misery for a brief time, before finally succumbing into corporate wage-slavery and cultural/economic ruin.

has anyone ever run the numbers? What would it cost for a national version of Texas' "Lone Star" card - a food-only ATM card with built in fraud protection, to ensure that each and every person in the United States can always get enough to eat, and each and every person who pays taxes shares both the burden and the benefit?

I think it's been proven time and again that the American character is eminently giving towards those in need, and more importantly, even more reluctant in taking help, even when needed. During the 90s boom, requests for food assistance went through the floor, as people were able to fend for themselves - that alone proves we're not a nation of parasites.

.....holding their babies!! I resent like all hell what this SOB and his co-conspiritors have done to my country. What right does this asshole have to take a 30 day vacation while decent people can't even get a minimum wage job? He's a damn criminal and should be held accountable. There was a budget surplus when he was "appointed" and now there is an all time record budget deficit and the economy is in the toilet. But it doesn't bother him and his petro-buddies.

about food banks, both contributing and volunteering. Although I do contribute food, this program opened my eyes in a new way.

and thanks for responses which have kicked this thread back to the front page, where I see too many useless threads slamming one candidate or another from the dem primary.

democracy with dignity. that's what is so lacking in Bush's America. he robs people of their dignity, as well as their pensions or a living wage.

that sixty-five dollars that man got for cleaning the church...while Bush coddles Ken Lay. sixty-five dollars a week for a family to survive.

no doubt Bush would piss that away on golf balls, if he actually had to pay for anything himself.

how much freaking money has he taken in from fat cat contributors? how will Bush spend that money? greasing Rove's fat ass?

honestly, those long lines...I felt like I was watching a colorized verision of that famous photo from the depression with the line of hungry people waiting in a food line in front of the billboard with a smiling family in a car with the phrase "highest living standard in the world."

I feel I need to do more than I have been doing. the problems are worse than I realized.

btw, our local farmer's mkt also a truck parked on the site where the farmers can contribute fresh produce, AND there has been a campaign to grow a row for the hungry from your own backyard.

canned goods are necessary, but fresh food is also important and generally healthier. if you have a local mkt, maybe you can call and suggest the same thing?

....... that ever ran for president, even if he didn't win the election. The events of 09/11 beguiled the gullible public into a mindset that equated anything critical of this incompetent lamebrain was unpatriotic. Wait till the next election comes around. He'll milk this for as much as he possibly can.

Lord help me I just hate him so much. All these hungry people standing in line for 5 hours to feed their families, lost jobs.

A lot of those people in line are the working poor (caused by the cheap labor conservatives!). The one family, the father had a job (but only $6 - $7 per hour) and no benefits. You can't pay the rent, the bills and feed your family for that!

I hate what dubya has done to this country. HE IS THE TERRORIST. No being able to provide for your family is more frightening than what they are telling us to fear!

are everywhere around us. So many just barely getting by. There were so many diverse stories that just hurt so bad on that program. They all came back to one thing though. George W. **cking Bush and his black, black soul, killing the economy and stripping the programs that would allow those people to survive with some measure of dignity. Not standing in the snow for hours, and did you notice the part where they marked them with Sharpie's (before? after?) they went through the line like they were animals or something?

I HATE THAT EVIL SACK OF VOMIT SITTING IN MY WHITE HOUSE! YOU LOVE YOUR **CKING RANCH SO MUCH STAY THERE! FOREVER!

He is spending billions to fight an unnecessary war in Iraq, when our tax dollars would be put to much better use at home. This is unconscionable and makes me very angry, as well.:mad:

Welcome to DU, Clark Can WIN! You will find many kindred spirits here.:-)

I just instant-messaged that link to the members of my household, and we all got the creeps...

Tucker

We can spend billions in Iraq, but cannot guarantee our veterans a living wage.:grr: