On Saturday's show, we'll discuss the politics of the Farm Bill, and proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. We'll also examine the charges President Obama and Mitt Romney have leveled at each other over outsourcing. And we'll examine the broader question of the President's re-election strategy, including whether he's focusing closely enough on the middle class.
Joining Chris at 8am EST on MSNBC will be:
Mark Bittman (@bittman), food columnist for The New York Times and author of several books including "Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes" and "How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food."
James Carville, lead strategist for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential election campaign, political science professor at Tulane University, and co-author of "It's the Middle Class Stupid."
Katrina Vanden Heuvel (@katrinanation), editor and publisher of The Nation magazine and author of "The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama."
Myra Sanchez, a member of the East Harlem Food Action Board and food stamp recipient.
Debbie Palacios, a former food stamp recipient and current applicant, as well as a volunteer for Food Stamp Outreach and Food Bank for Monmouth and Ocean Counties of New Jersey.
L. Joy Williams (@ljoywilliams), political strategist and founder of LJW Community Strategies, co-host of "This Week in Blackness Radio."
Joel Berg, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, executive director of NYC Coalition Against Hunger, author of "All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?" and former USDA Coordinator of Community Food Security.
Seth Bixby Daugherty, Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chef 2005, former food stamp recipient, founder of the Minnesota affiliate of Share our Strength and co-founder of the Real Food Initiatives, which aims to overhaul school lunch menus nationwide.
Leave a Comment:
Chris, if you cover the recent Bain corporate document revelation that disputes Romney's "departure" from Bain in 1999, PLEASE emphasize the difference between being an "OWNER" and "SOLE STOCKHOLDER" of the Bain companies from the more important point of him being the "CEO, President and Managing Director" of the post-1999 Bain companies. I can own 100% of the shares of a company and not have a damn thing to do with running it. Stupid, yes, but also possible. On the other hand, being a "CEO, Managing Director and President" is far more important. Each of these positions indicates a separate important position inside a corporation. Each indicates a position of direct involvement, management and RESPONSIBILITY for the acts of the corporation. That is the important point. If Romney was on the moon from 1999 to 2002 and he said he was "CEO, President and Managing Director" of the Bain Corps., he still would be personally responsible for each and every act of the corporation. Romney can blame everything accomplished by Bain on his mystery "partners" and "directors" and "managers" while on the moon, but he was still the CEO, President and Managing Director.
Since he was undoubtedly holding these positions until 2002, yet claiming no responsibility for the acts of his corporation, what would he do if her were elected President of the United States? Would he deny personal responsibility for any negligent or criminal acts committed by others in his administration? If so, he is not suited for the office.
Thanks.
Why was James Carville dressed like a homeless man on today's show?
On Bain:
Let us assume Romney lefy in 1999 and had nothing to do with Bain as he asserts. The question then is what would he have done if he stayed. Would he agree or disagree with what was done. That is the real issue. The "technicxal" points on contradictions are one measure of character but the real issue is what happened to people and what he did or would have done in the period 1999 to 2003.
So explain these poor people that sell their food stamps $0.50 on the dollar.
Or the people that buy food with food stamps then cook it and sell out of the back door like a fast food change.
Lot of fraud in the food stamp program.
Then the drug addicts on food stamps that sell their food stamps to buy more dope.
no proof that more than very few people commit fraud within the food stamp program... I once witnessed a person selling their foodstamps... but it was to pay rent so that they could keep their house... those that don't understand the sociology behind food stamps either have no empathy, no critical thinking skills or are heartless. The easy cure to any perceived problem is to create jobs for all people who want one and access to health care...
The "food stamps" could be bought and sold.
The current system is now like a debit card, which makes the system more efficient but also prevents the kind of fraud you mention.
People sell you their card with their pin number.
Happens all the time.
Food stamps are very hard to track as too what is bought and who is selling their card.
Holy Cow!!
Let's look this up!!
From fns.usda.gov
What is SNAP Fraud?
SNAP fraud is when SNAP benefits are exchanged for cash. This is called trafficking and it is against the law.
SNAP fraud also happens when someone lies on their application to get benefits or to get more benefits than they are supposed to get.
SNAP fraud also happens when a retailer has been disqualified from the program for past abuse and lies on the application to get in the program again.
Let’s Look at the Facts about SNAP Fraud
The trafficking rate in SNAP has dropped dramatically.
Due to increased oversight and improvements to program management by USDA, the trafficking rate has fallen significantly over the last two decades, from about 4 cents on the dollar in 1993 to about 1 cent in 2006-08 (most recent data available).
The federal government is aggressively fighting SNAP trafficking.
USDA and the Obama administration are actively working on behalf of American taxpayers to protect the federal investment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and make sure the program is targeted towards those families who need it the most. USDA aggressively acts to control trafficking by using SNAP purchase data to identify suspicious transaction patterns, conducting undercover investigations, and collaborating with other investigative agencies.
USDA uses the latest in available technology to track and control abuse of the SNAP.
SNAP electronic benefits transfer (EBT) has given USDA new tools to identify, track, and take action against trafficking. We use the electronic “audit trail” from EBT transactions to identify trafficking and other suspicious activity. The Anti-Fraud Locator using EBT Retailer Transactions (ALERT) system monitors electronic transaction activity and identifies suspicious stores for analysis and investigation.
USDA dedicates staff to investigating and prosecuting fraud
FNS has a dedicated team of over 100 analysts and investigators across the country dedicated to SNAP retailer compliance. They analyze retailer data, conduct undercover investigations, and process cases – including fines and administrative disqualifications – against violating retailers.
FNS also works with State law enforcement authorities to provide them with SNAP benefits that are used in sting operations, supporting anti-trafficking actions at the local level.
The federal government takes action against those who misuse the program.
In FY 2011, over 100 analysts and investigators reviewed over 15,000 stores. Over 1,200 stores were permanently disqualified for trafficking and over 600 stores were sanctioned for other violations such as the sale of ineligible items.
FNS also works with State law enforcement authorities to provide them with SNAP benefits that are used in sting operations, supporting anti-trafficking actions at the local level.
USDA’s Office of the Inspector General also conducts extensive criminal investigations – many resulting from FNS administrative oversight findings and referrals – to prosecute traffickers.
In FY 2010, OIG’s SNAP investigations resulted in 195 convictions, including a number of multi-year prison terms for the most serious offenses, and approximately $36 million in monetary results.
In FY 2011, OIG devotes nearly half (48 percent) of its investigative resources to reduce nutrition assistance program vulnerabilities and strengthen program integrity in delivering benefits to individuals
People stand out side the store in my part of town and sell their food stamp cards all the time.
Just because you do not see that in no way means it is not happening.
If I go to the beach and take a glass put in the water and fill it up, then look at it and see no fish, then I guess there are no fish in the ocean.
Try going to a store in the poor part of town.
h0-lee-cow,
You just keep repeating yourself. Give us specifics. Since you've claim you've seen this all the time, tell us exactly how they do it!
Do they stand on street corners and do it in front of you? Or in crack houses?
How do they do it? What do they say? Be descriptive. You surely can do that, since you've see it often enough!!
Help us understand exactly how they do it!!!
The selling of Food Stamps does not happen very often in this country, it is interesting that you know about that. What about certain Republican’s after keeping their unfair share of Bush tax cut money and selling their vote.
That kind of selling stuff happens in North Korea and I guess people like you want a country like North Korea who has limited public services and people dieing in the streets without public emergency vehicles to help them or pick-up their dead bodies.
The undead Reagan walks amongst us, and 40 years later liberals are utterly incapable of confronting the welfare queen narrative.
.
The President brought up his storyteller failure again this week in the Charlie Rose CBS interview (link). If you look at the coverage in the liberal media. "Storytelling" is equivalent to what the guy at the used car lot does. But the President is not talking about the cynical need for hucksterism.
.
As long as liberals believe there is no fiction in logic and facts and no truth in literature, they will be hammered by stories told by long dead presidents. Denying that there is anything elevating about literature of politics, and instead believing that it is anything more than propaganda and hucksterism will have the same effect denial of climate science: apocalypse. Liberals will continue to lose elections, the country will continue to move further to the right and there will be devastating consequences.
People stand out side of the store and ask you would like to buy $$ in food for only $.
They sell the food stamp benefit at $0.50 on the dollar.
I have never seen anyone get murdered, but that does not mean it does not happen.
Same for people that sell their food stamps, just because you never see it does not mean it does not happen.
I go to the beach all the time, I never see sharks, I guess that means there are no sharks in the ocean.
I think having someone as overweight as Ms Palacios on this panel about food stamps is NOT a good move. Get it?
High quality nutritious food (fresh foods, real meat and vegetables) are more expensive than junk food. Some poor people live in neighborhoods where nutritious food is not available.
The same thought popped into my head and I was ashamed of myself for thinking it.
So the grocery stores in poor parts of town do not have healthy food?
That is the craziest thing I have ever heard of.
Fresh fruit & vegetables cost than junk food, beans, meat, beads, all cost less than junk food.
In some poor parts of town there ARE NO GROCERY STORES!
Yes - crazy but TRUE!
Sure. And just where is that?
A correction:.
I googled and found some studies.
If you have access to a grocery store - and especially if you have access to a farmer's market - nutritious food does not cost more than junk food.
If, however, you do not have a grocery store and not farmer's market, then fresh fruit and vegetables - if you can find them at all - are more expensive.
OK - lets' look it up!
Go to ers.usda.gov
There is a Food Desert Locator.
This is a really great map - thank you for pushing me to find it!
Overview
Part of the First Lady's Let's Move! initiative, the proposed Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) will expand the availability of nutritious food to food deserts-low-income communities without ready access to healthy and affordable food-by developing and equipping grocery stores, small retailers, corner stores, and farmers markets with fresh and healthy food. The HFFI is a partnership between the Treasury Department, Health and Human Services, and the Agriculture Department (USDA). An Interagency Working Group from the three departments, along with staff from the Economic Research Service (ERS/USDA), developed a definition of food deserts to be used with other data to determine eligibility for Federal funds.
Background
In a 2009 report to Congress, Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences, ERS outlined a number of ways to measure how many people have limited access to food and how many live in low-income areas with limited access. The report used 1-kilometer (km) square grids as the base geographic unit of analysis, measuring distance from the nearest source of healthy foods. Grids outside of a specified distance from a food source were designated as low access areas (separate markers for low access were used for rural and urban areas). Grids with high concentrations of low-income individuals received particular attention.
I think it would be better to consider being judgmental against the people who think they can stand in line in front of people and say that they should be entitled to pay less Sales Tax since they, probably, have a better income than people standing behind. Now that Republican leaders told their constituents, it was O.K. to do it in front of the I.R.S….
Hey! BeanTownBadBoy, how much does your Bush tax cuts 'weigh' on your mind?
ho-lee-cow,
Actually, fresh healthy foods DO cost more than junk food!! Do you really think beans are more healthy than fresh vegetables? Spend some time in a store and figure out how much fruit and vegetables are a pound and how much you need to feed a family to give them their dietary allowances. I travel a lot and one of the things I've figured out by comparing my receipts is that what I pay for a week's food on travel eating at fast food joints is actually cheaper than what I spend at the grocery store when I am home for a week!!! I really don't care what the "experts" say - I know from my own experience!!
I live in a congested area where there are a great many poor and I shop at neighborhood stores for convenience. Fortunately, I have access to a farmer's market where I work, but the prices of produce there are even higher than in the stores! I can afford it, so I choose to go the farmer's market for my produce because it is grown locallly and fresher!
What I find is that these small stores (they are small because there is limited area for them) is limited choices and usually old produce, for instance a tomato from the farmer's market will last a week, a tomato from the store lasts 2 days at most. Their prices are generally higher because they know they have a "captive" clientelle that probably can't get across town to the suburbs and shop at the big stores, and besides, how do you get all of that home on the bus? And don't you think transportation costs time and money?
I buy for one and have enough trouble trying to cart a week's worth of groceries up to my apartment - I couldn't imagine trying to buy enough for a family for a week and trying to carry that home by myself.
Then, what you also don't understand is that the poor are usually working poor - do you really think they have all day to sit at home and cook beans? Or all day to catch the connector buses to get them to the big stores and back?
Compare a bags of apples to a bag of chips.
Compare a bag of carrots to a bag of candy.
Last time I was at the store a 1lb of bananas cost $0.69 a 2oz Snickers bar $0.85.
A bag of beans 1lb about $1.30, A bag of Hershey's kisses 16oz $2.60.
Fresh food cost less than junk food.
Ho-lee-cow:
At Harris Teeter:
Apples $1.56 each
Bag of Lays chips to serve 10: $4.29 so to serve 1: $.43 Potato chips are cheaper
Bag of carrots to serve 4: $1.17
Bag of candy (not on sale) to serve 4 $1.99 so carrots are cheaper.
One banana is about .69$. A Snickers bar here is $.89 Bananas are cheaper.
Beans? What "beans" are you talking about? I don't consider those dried beans you have to soak and cook all day (or do you ignore the price of gas or electricity?) very healthy. How about fresh beans like snap beans? at $1.99/ lb. At 4 oz per person, that is about $.50/per person. I don't eat Hershey's kisses, but my friends tell me 9 are a normal amount (at .16 oz/kiss - from Hershey) this is 1.44 oz and at the unit price per ounce of $.35/oz this comes out to $.50 so the price is about the same.
But, are the poor only supposed to eat bananas and carrots - nice of you to choose the cheapest possible produce you could!! What about green peppers, brussel sprouts, broccoli, and other vegetables? All of those are FAR more expensive than carrots. For instance a serving of squash, a very healthy vegetable is about $1.00 and THAT is more expensive than most candy!! And then there are pears and berries and all sorts of fruits which are far more expensive than bananas. For example, the cost of on small pear is $1.12 which is MORE expensive than your candy bar!!!
You lose buddy!!!
I hate to be on the side of starvation... but there IS fraud... but don,t think I want to throw out the starving baby with the bath...how about sincere effort at fraud discovery... by the way luv Mark Bitman,s books
SO interesting that the same elected officials and candidates who resist the idea that all workers should earn a living wage and thereby be self-supporting are the same ones who argue against income-supplement programs (SNAP, WIC, child-care assistance, healthcare, subsidized housing). You can't have it both ways, folks! Everyone who works should be able to meet their basic needs.
What is a living wage then?
Living wages vary throughout the nation, of course. Go to
livingwage.mit.edu to see what it is for states, counties, cities & towns
I seriously yelled at the TV (and scared the cat, again!) when the clip was played with someone making the statement that the goals of progressives is to make as many people dependent on government programs.
Yes - a goal is to help people who need the help, but this is a part of a larger goal to make sure the whole system works so that people NO LONGER NEED THE HELP!!!
Giving a man a fish is a short term step, teaching him to fish is the long term goal.
Also:
The Republican who accuses the Democrat of wanting to make people dependent is just as wrong as the Democrat who accuses the Republican of wanting to throw poor people under the bus.
The democrats do not want to teach anyone to fish, they want you to have to rely on the government for your daily fish.
Please tell me what the Republicans have done to encourage education.
tick...tick...tick...
The Democrats are pushing for better education.
Education = teaching.
Go and check out what walker has done in the state of WI.
Funny thing before the dept of education more kid graduate from high school than today.
The level of education was higher.
2011 budget for the dept of education $80 billion, now tell me how much of that was spent at any public school.
There is no reason with the technology available today that there should not be restrictions to the variety and price of foods that can be bought with foodstamps. All the public needs access to nutritious foods but ultimate discretion is not some thing ,the government (tax dollars) should pay for. This will provide both good healthy food and education and experience on how to spend money. We get 2 bangs for the buck everyone gets healthy food and we teach looking for value. Public spending does not equal the exact same lifestyle as private money. I do not understand why this is even a discussion. We have a huge variety of healthy inexpensive foods nobody will be deprived or limited to health from food. Spending public money on luxury foods is dumb and removes incentive.
A few comments re: the Food Stamp debate: 1. limiting the food that may be purchased sounds like a sound idea. I agree soda is not food. But consider the cultural diversity of recipients. In my neighborhood alone we have a huge Russia, Central American and Middle-Eastern population. Who in DC is qualified to find a median food for these cultures. 2. Consider vegetarians. If govt dictates that the programs allows 20 lbs of meat per month but not 20 lbs of salmon, what then? And I do not doubt that these types of restrictions would be a slippery slope that would lead to deeper and more invasive restrictions. 3. Food stamp budgets are not so generous as to allow for a great deal of discretionary spending. The average budget is $300 per month for a family of 3. That is just barely enough to buy staples (with a box of cereal costing over $5.00 and a 1/2 gallon of juice @ 4.80). Sometimes a family has to buy soda and mac and cheese, because the budget doesn't allow for meats and real fruit drinks. I oppose government imposed diets on a national level as much as when Mayor Bloomberg sought to do so.
This is not a problem with scanners and computers all that can be controlled.
Be a real shame if the chris hayes show would have people on from bain, from the GOP.
Person from Bain on tomorrow.
I am a cashier at a big box store. I see sooo much fraud with food stamps. I know yes there is a need for them but there needs to be a change in what they can buy. The other cashiers and I HATE working the 1st of the month. It is very hard seeing what is bought. I see $50 in soda alone by a lot of people then theres the chips and junk food. Its hard when you see these people can eat better than i can and i'm working. We see people buy 3 different shopping carts full of food by 3 different people then receive cash for the amount of $ spent for them. Then the person with the food stamps uses the cash for clothes, beauty items and more. I see 75% name brand items. I see $20 T-Bones, fresh seafood etc. bought and not just by 1 or 2 people. I can hardly afford meat. Another thing that burns me is why can't people with foods stamps use coupons or ad matching to make their $ last longer? I have never seen 1 do this.
I think after 2 years on food stamps and other public aid you should be weaned off. You should not get more money when you keep having kids. After 2 years you should be forced to go out and do something. If they want the $ you have to volunteer at a hospital, nursing home, etc. Learn skills to get a job. Enroll in school with passing grades and you can keep the $. We could provide the daycare for them. It would cost up front but then they could take care of their family on their own with very little welfare. There should not be career welfare like there is now. My own daughter in law and her whole family are like this. She refuses to get a job and makes my son not work full time so she can get more $ from the government.
Cashier
WOW!!! What an incredibly MEAN society we've turned into!!!! Sure, there will always be crooks who game the system, NO MATTER what that system is! There will always be "lazy people" - you can't change that!!
Why didn't you tell us anything about the people who go to your "big box store" to save money on their EBT card? Why didn't you tell us about the people who ARE trying to do the best they can under difficult circumstances?
You are a cashier who can lose your job any day and then where will YOU be? Would YOU like to be compared to all the dishonest cashiers I've met in my lifetime? Are all cashiers bad just because I've met some doozies?
Used to be people said "There but for the grace of God go I". I haven't heard that once from any of you who have been on here attacking people who use EBT cards.
Rather you focused on people who act badly with their EBT cards comparing them to "poor you"!! Do you think all poor should "suffer" for the acts of the few? Should the poor not be able to get their kids a candy bar, a soda or chips once in a while- if only to make their kids feel "normal"? Do you think all the poor should be denied any of the joys YOU have? Does that make you feel "better than" someone else? Is that important to you?
I'm glad you are willing to provide daycare and training! Now that is exactly what needs to be done!! But have you listened to the Republicans lately? They want to outlaw contraception and deny the poor access to things like daycare and education - talk about catching them between a rock and a hard spot!!!
Isn't it bad enough for the poor to be in the situation they find themselves in without be "attacked" for being in that situation based on your experience with a few dishonest people? Do you understand how much harder you make it for them to get out of the situation they are in if they are constantly being beat down because of the action of the crooks over which they have no control? What they need are the tools and the empowerment to help themselves!!
Where is our compassion these days?
thank you so much for adding the rare moment of compassion. I work with adults with intellectual/mental disabilities, they aren't just unemployed, they are unemployable. As a whole, they have to go through so much red tape and beaucratic bs to get help, and without supports, they wouldn't be able to navigate it all. And the help they get is so very little. It breaks my heart every time I hear the self-righteous/self-absorbed/vainglorious fools talk and pontificate about 'the poor, the sick'. I pity them.
Notice none of these people talk about the state of the economy.
It's all about that evil mitt and his millions.
Just go check how many compaines bain capital has saved and the people that have jobs due to bain capital.
GIS steel, the union would not come to the talble and try to save the company, bain had been in control of it for 4 years, and the union would not move one bit.
Bain told the union if no deal we close the plant down, the union said okay.
Now the union crys wolf.
I am not having any luck googling.
Please provide links to your information.
Oooooops GST steel...
That helps.
You are still going to make me look up the links. *sigh*
----------------
{emphasis added}
From PolitiFact article:
Our ruling
Obama’s ad, and the news release announcing it, packed a lot of claims about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and how it handled its investment in a Kansas City steel mill.
We are checking this claim: "After purchasing the company, Mitt Romney and his partners loaded it with debt, closed the Kansas City plant and walked away with a healthy profit, leaving hundreds of employees out of work with their pensions in jeopardy."
We found, through corporate filings, interviews and investigations by other news organizations, that the statement is accurate but needs some clarification. First, it’s true that Bain added significantly to GST’s debt load while paying dividends to itself. The plant’s closure, however, happened after Romney had left daily operations at Bain, though he led Bain during six years of its majority investment in the plant. And other, outside factors were at work, making the steel industry a tough business. Steel prices were low and electricity costs were high, and those forces drove other steel mills out of business around the same time.
The statement’s last two claims are solid: Bain (and Romney) made a profit from taking over GST, and the employees lost many benefits their union had negotiated, including supplemental pension payments. The federal government had to step in to shore up the fund.
We rate the claim Mostly True.
---------------------
The PolitiFact quote that I pasted above does not mention the unions.
From a Wall Street Journal article
And then came the tsunami. The late 1990s saw a new outpouring of cheap steel from elsewhere around the globe. The Asian financial crisis walloped the mining industry, cutting demand for GST products. The price of GST's electricity and natural gas skyrocketed. The union dug in, refusing to make concessions. By April 1997, it was on strike, shooting bottle rockets at guards. Labor costs spiked*, and by 1999 GSI was reporting $53 million in net losses.
----------------------
*How do labor costs spike during or after a strike?
----------------------
Therefore, an inflexible union has something to do with it, but there were larger forces at work.
So 1 company that did not make it. Out of how many that are very successful?
I can’t take it anymore. I REFUSE to live under the tyranny of another Republican Corporate Ho Party administration! I’m declaring WAR on the GOP and all you insane imbeciles who keep making the same mistake over & over & over… voting for Republicans.
1) Is there a better definition of TRAITOR than those who would corrupt or suppress the VOTE for personal gains?
2) The Republican Corporate Socialist Party doesn’t even try and hide the fact they’re a bunch of vain, self-serving, power mad, greed stricken silver spoons who privatized profits, socialized losses on Wall St. A bunch of evil, self serving, Con Artists who made bribery legal so they couldn’t be held accountable for “Citizens United”.
ENOUGH!
After all the obstructionism, incompetence, racism and low grade thought processes exhibited by the Republicans since Obama/Biden got the nomination in 2008, the ONLY way the RIGHT can win in 2012 is to rig the election. THIS is a WAR against EVERYTHING the USA stands for, and I plan to treat it that way.
Mention voter suppression I think about the GOP, the best example being Florida in 2000. Does any Conservative care that 170,000 Blacks were purged from voter lists? We could have had a good, decent, caring man like Al Gore as our President instead of that cocaine cheerleader, drunken loser George W. Bush who @!$%#ed every American over…
What the **** did you inbred, brainwashed, Conservative wacko idiots expect was going to happen when you voted for George W. Bush? After a string of historic failures in every business W. tried and bailed out by the Saudi Royals (and other foreigners), did you deadnecks think he was suddenly going to be a success leading a nation? Remember, Bush traveled to many FOREIGN countries after he trashed the economy. He sold the American PEOPLE out to save his own legacy. Hypocrites who blame Democrats for their own SINS…
NOTE: Obama actually LOWERED government spending, what you Conservatives are blaming him for is putting the Bush/Cheney debt ON THE BOOKS! Remember, they didn’t PAY FOR 2 wars, tax cuts for the rich and Medicare Part iDiot..
The results of Bush/Cheney and the Republican controlled Congress (1994-2006) speak for themselves and CAN‘T BE IGNORED! Waste, fraud, abuse of power, scandal, corruption, media consolidation, sexual deviancy, reckless economics, welfare for the rich, soldiers getting electrocuted in showers due to shoddy contractor work, arms dealing, environmental deregulation, war profiteering, Constitutional violations and a corporate crime wave of epic proportions. The greatest looting of a nation’s wealth & resources in the history of mankind… Yet these shameless hypocrites have the audacity to act they’re the responsible adults at the table, BULLS***!
I can’t believe it but House Majority leader Eric Cantor actually bet AGAINST America by shorting US Treasury bonds. WHY don’t you apathetic morons know that? Your children’s future is at risk. Republican mofo’s should be in crowded holding cells wearing chains NOT WINNING ELECTIONS! Wake the f*** UP you stupid ******’s
But Conservative wacko groupies didn’t have enough of getting screwed over by the rich guys, NO, these morons want to elect ANOTHER lying, silver spoon, trust fund baby Mitt Romney. A man who LIED on SEC filings… A man who ravaged manufacturing plants in the USA, STEALING PENSIONS, then sending JOBS and MILITARY component TECHNOLOGY to India and COMMUNIST CHINA… A man who takes credit for saving the Salt Lake City Olympics even though it was actually a government bailout that saved the Games. (lot’s of that going around) A MAN, who if elected President, will take an oath with his hand on the Book of Mormon!
How convenient it is delusional Republicans/Conservatives can forget that WE TRIED IT YOUR WAY AND IT WAS A MISERABLE mind-numbing FAILURE that turned all Americans into the United Suckers of America.
EXAMPLE: Republicans in the House of Representatives have wasted 48 MILLION dollars in man hours taking meaningless votes on affordable health care just to posture for the crazy base who think JESUS (the healer) would approve. According to Conservative low grade thought processes, “JESUS would have asked for insurance info before raising Lazarus“ (John Fugelsang).
Any sane person would think, after the Bush/Cheney disaster and the catastrophic results of Reaganomics, that Republicans/Conservatives would have hung their heads low and back away from warped thinking, BUT NO! NO, these shameless *******’s doubled down. Republican Governors all over the nation are leading the charge toward voter suppression.
Conservative voters in Florida had the nerve to elect Rick Scott as Governor even though it was widely know this man was a scandalous, corrupt, Medicare fraud cheat. This criminal has been indicted and caught lying on numerous occasions but the idiots who live in Florida are allowing him to cheat people out of their RIGHT to vote. (If we could only get Florida, Texas, Arizona and South Carolina to secede… what a great nation we could be)
If that wasn’t enough to hang him from the highest palm tree then read the breaking news about Gov. Rick Scott covering up a Tuberculosis outbreak in Florida because he had cut funds for treatments, hospitals and reporting.
The Concerned Citizens of America are going to hold you dumb@$$ degenerates who vote for Republicans ACCOUNTABLE for their poor choices, spoact.blogspot.com
© 2012 by SPQR
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I’ve had it with the abortion issue. Millions of wannbe followers of CHRIST have when over to the dark side for no other reason than anti-abortion? Pastors in Evangelical Churches, Bishops in extreme Catholic Churches all over the nation have spent the last 30 years organizing for the Republican Party, STILL have their tax exempt status intact. The “Conservative Labyrinth” (John S. Saloma III) has spent billions on religious broadcasting and church tidings. They’ve spent SO MUCH money they actually convinced Christians, who aren’t using their brains, that JESUS and War Profiteers are on the same side.
UN-****’n-BELIEVABLE.
The GOP used Conservative Christians like a $10.00 meth ho (right, Ted Haggard). They convinced the flock to support/vote for them using anti abortion and spent 30+ years doing nothing about it. Think about it you idiots, 8 years of Reagan. 4 years of Bush Sr, a Republican controlled Congress from 1994-2006, 8 years of Bush Jr and HOW MANY SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS? …abortion was hardly an after-thought except before election time.
I hate to say it but the LEFT has got to stop defending abortion. We have many, MANY other more important issues to FOCUS on at this time. (like saving the nation). Women should do as the ancient Greek women who withheld sex until the men come to their senses”. Joe the Eunuch
(lol)
“All these tough guy Conservatives and NOT ONE of these lugheads figured out that the propaganda that brainwashed them is paid for by foreign agents who want to divide and conquer the USA. Look at the evidence - Mark Steyn, Dinesh D’Souza, Rupert Murdoch… ohhhh and remember how George W. Bush was like smitten school girl every time the Saudi Royals came to the Crawford, TX ranch? You pathetic right-wing pussies disgust me” Charlie Stunats
@SpoAct
I agree with many of your points (except for the abortion issue)
So ---- what are you going to do about it?
Start a rebellion - use "2nd amendments remedy"?
Yell and scream?
Or work with campaigns for candidates who share your views?
Is Romney not releasing his Tax returns because in some years he PAID NO TAXES?
President Obama had to show his Birth Certificate to show he was born in the US. Must Romney have to show his returns to prove that he did pay taxes?
Why was James Carville dressed like a homeless man on today's show?
What about "casual" says "homeless" to you?
Yeah, not only what does casual say about the Homeless, but also what do Food Stamps have to say about Homeless when those homeless do not have Food Stamps and those with Food Stamps are not homeless and struggling to stay that way.
James Carville worked for the Clinton Administration, and his wife Mary Madelyn (M.S.?), worked as an advisor to Dick Cheney, they both could probably tell you about anything in government, backwards, forwards, that you want to know.
Many leveredged buyout firms (aka private equity) troll SEC filings looking for likely targets of cash rich (fat pensions) public companies to buy for ten cents on the dollar, load up with debt to pay yourselves, and then raid the pension funds before blowing it up in bankruptcy and leaving town and leaving employees the wards of the PBGC,
To these vulture "capitalists", like Bain, that some of those targeted companies survived and even prospered is either an irrelevant option among many to maximize returns on investment, or a bug rather than a feature.
Should we waste our time trying to convince Republican leaders that food stamps fill a human need in our society, or Republican constituents who will vote for Republican leaders no matter what they do? Perhaps we need to elect a Democratic Congress and, instead, demand that they pass a law that there can be no business tax cuts, or uneven income tax cuts, within the same year of ‘any’ entitlement programs cuts or qualification program cuts, and just be done with this bull crap.
Republican leaders will not fight for a better wage for the 30-year-old making 10 dollars an hour, these days, with his wife at home with their toddler children getting help with Food Stamps because they ‘need’ it. Therefore, perhaps we need to pass another law requiring businesses that make ‘increased’ profit in four consecutive quarters to share a small percentage of their increased profit in employee wages and bring wages back up in this country. After all, that would protect businesses that do not make sustained increased profit from having to participate financially and help keep people off Food Stamps.
(Either of those suggestions would be better than Republican leadership proposing that the government should just throw-out the bills to save money and call their selves the financial brains of the country. They might as well suggest the American public throw-out their food bill, as well, to save money.)
The big point about Bain and private equity is being missed by the panelists. An attack on what Bain did (with Romney at its helm) is not an attack on private equity--which does all sorts of things. What Romney did with Bain is to outsource jobs from the U.S. and eliminate workers or cut down their benefits through the use of bankruptcies. Letting Romney defend by defending private equity firms generally is a mistake--focus on what Bain did, as opposed to the universe of what was done by other private equity firms (which is not relevant anyway).
George Naylor might be the most important guest Ive seen on the show. His parting comment about raising hay, pasture, and small grain to humanely raise livestock on small farms instead fo growing industrial commodity crops in monocultures to feed to tortured animals in CAFOs is a positive revolutionary position that if acted upon has the capacity to reverberate change into every home in America.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Here is person that owns a company that loses money, if not for her running around with a tin cup begging for money to run the thing, it would go bankrupt.
Yet she feels she knows what is best for the economy & the country.
Backup that statement please.
Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Looks like she is a part owner of The Nation magazine.
The website includes a link for advertisers.
So..............what is your point?.............getting advertisers is running around with a tin cup?
From The Nation website:
The Nation will not be the organ of any party, sect, or body. It will, on the contrary, make an earnest effort to bring to the discussion of political and social questions a really critical spirit, and to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred.
-- from The Nation's founding prospectus, 1865
It makes no money, if not for 30,000 plus donors it would fold like a cheap lawn chair.
Yet she is ready to tell all the rest of us how to run the country.
She gets paid the money she bums.
ho-lee-cow
Why don't you "back up" the throw-off statements you make? Why don't you tell us how all the people you see ripping of their EBT cards do it? You claim you see it all the time. Tell us what you see so we can watch too!
Go to the poor part of your town go to the store and see for your self.
Next the nation magazine is a losing business, it makes no money.
Vanding bat couldn't run a lemon aid stand.
As she begs her way thorugh life.
Maphi, regarding the accusation of the journal Nation's finances and Vanden Heuvel-
Actually, the Nation has run in the red since its institution during the days of Abolitionists. It turned a profit in 2003, and has adopted some of the fund raising techniques of right wing intellectual journals (source:NYtimes).
Vanden Heuvel is one of my heroes, but part of our progressive mindset is that we recoil at using terms like brand and encouraging parochial groupish loyalty- for example to institutions like the Nation. Liberals instinctively distrust groups and hivish behavior. They don't join the community groups, and groan at sloganeering and group think indulged at meetings of such organizations.
There is a reason that only 20% of Americans self identify as liberal. Conservatives have made it a dirty word, and the progressive hip have the Woody Allen sentiment about group participation. We progressives don't want to be part of a club that would have us as a member. Instead, our participation is contingent on momentary necessities that come and go- and even then, we have a feeling of "being among you, but not of you". Obama for America in 2008 rapidly shed its members not simply because the leaders had no interest in maintaining it, but partly because members were disinterested in persistent membership and social participation in an organization devoted to political matters.
Vanden Heuvel undoubtedly has read of E.O Wilson's notion of eusociality in superorganisms. No doubt she recoils at the idea of using media as a mechanism of orchestrating and enforcing parochial messaging as is the case of the superorganism of the Right who takes its hivish cues from Murdoch's Fox News. E.O. Wilson latest work involves examination of the central role of group selection to advanced social behavior (link to interview by Charlie Rose- esp. see time code 14:10) . Whether she figures out a model for a healthy relationship between individualist progressives and a viable progressive superorganism- some progressive leader in media will figure out how to be a queen bee. Note- in a hive, the queen is not dictator- but without her there is no nest. As Wilson points out, societies begin with the nest.
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Really, this is an evolutionary fight about survival. Participation in groups need not be an appeal to submerge identity in a Stalinist system. There are workable alternative models- eg. the self effacing membership of Shriners. Fine whatever we wear goofy hats and march in the Darfur demonstration, and we regularly show up at the Nation website and regularly participate and contribute not just words but money and time phone banking in smaller breakout interest groups. In such an organization, we understand the virtue of service to a common progressive good, and understand that going it alone as isolated progressive voices who occaissionally show up for a political act will lead to our extinction.
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The right is creaming us due to their ability to maintain a persistent relationship to a coherent superorganism.
Ho-lee-cow?
So you've never ACTUALLY SEEN this yourself? If you had, you would be able to describe it to me! I actually DID some fraud prevention in my earlier days - I know how its done, but apparently YOU don't! I think you are just "parroting" what other people say and blowing it WAY out of proportion!!!
Liberals today are socialists. Not like the liberals of the 60's, those liberals wanted less government, less taxes, more personal freedoms.
By 1980 it had done a 180.
Less government is good. I do not need the government telling what size of soft drink I can buy. Thanks to New Bloomberg City.
Was watching squawk box and paul krugman was no, he thinks it's ok for the government to spend up 50% of GDP....!!!!!
Then the every next day Allen Simpson, Warren Buffett, Erskin Bowles, when they were asked what they all thought about what krugman had said, they all rolled their eye's and said that krugman needs to take some time off and get his head together.
You know the Bowles Simpson plan that obama tossed in the trash.
@JohnMesserly
Thank you for the clarification. So it's fund-raising if you are right-wing and begging with tin-cup if you're The Nation... That makes sense (*eye-roll*)
@ho-lee-cow
I am reading Our Divided Political Heart by E.J.Dionne.
Actually - I am re-reading it. The use of the terms liberal, conservative, republican - have changed so much in our history that it gets confusing.
And - just to clarify - "liberals" (current usage) are not "socialists".
The term "liberal" came from Individual Liberty.
The term "republican" came from community or government ( E. Pluribus Unum and "to the Republic for which it stands")
You are correct in saying that the "liberals" {current usage} became more republican in the 1980s. (actually not sure about that date - maybe earlier)
The Republicans {current usage} - became extremely individualistic with the rise of the Tea-Party. [Except for topics that are the most personal and private, in which case the government has total control]
So - using the original meaning of the terms, you - Ho-lee-cow - are more liberal than I am. {Note to self - wait and see how that goes over}
Conservatives used to be the ones that wanted to keep the status quo. Anyone who wanted to make a change needed to have good convincing arguments to show why it is necessary.
I have stopped thinking of myself as a liberal - but rather as an individualist communitarian, or the other way around depending on topic. This means I believe in individual liberty and responsibility but also that together we can do things we can't do by ourselves - working together in Community.
Government is not the enemy, Government is We the People.
As far as UP’s clip of the person on Fox News saying people have a hand out, Republican leadership has had a hand out for the same 3 trillion a year Bush tax dollars from most of us and will continue to ‘take’ that same amount from most of us, Bush tax cuts or no Bush tax cuts.
Chris - Has anyone considered that Mitt Romney is withholding his tax returns (except for what he's disclosed) because the actual returns might show that he has not been fully compliant with the tithing dictates of the Mormon Church ? Just a thought.
I was happy to see you cover the Farm Bill this morning, but was disappointed that when you really got into the real problems as mentioned by George Naylor, there seemed to be no response and the subject was dropped. You moved on to the next topic.
Another question that was not asked or answered was why in heavens is the food stamp program in the Farm Bill anyway??? It should be handled by HHS or other agency. We all know that the purpose of food stamps originally was to provide an outlet for farm surpluses.
So you would starve thousands in order to stop a few people from profiting from their food stamps? You would stop thousands from voting in order to prevent a couple of instances of voter registration fraud? What is wrong with you? The point of the food stamp program is to feed hungry people and that's what it does. The point of a Democracy is to give all citizens the right to vote. You can't see the forest for the trees. There will always be abuses, but as long as they are minimal, it's the price of a successful program. Stealing millions and even billions from the tax payers is an entirely different matter, but I suspect you don't worry about Wall Street, Libor, big oil, agribusiness, big pharma, AIHIP, etc.
Why, at 1:40 in the afternoon, am I relegated to reading about, rather than seeing and hearing, this morning's show? Melissa Harris Perry (MHP) airs after Up; yet I have been able to view MHP's entire 14 July show via MSNBC videos but not one video from this morning's Up. In general, Up's video service has declined from when Up first aired and it was possible to see the entire show, the same morning, in sequence, via four clearly labeled videos; now, even when the videos finally appear on MSNBC, there are many more to pick through and the descriptions provide little clue as to the sequence in which they must be viewed to follow the discussions depicted. Has your great editorial staff been assembled at the price of cutting back on technical staff? I am, I am sure, only one of many who have shared, and would share in the future, some of the great discussions on under-reported issues that are presented on Up With Chris Hayes; however, I cannot share what I cannot see.
Even if they had staff to do this promptly, there is little evidence that MSNBC would use interaction between viewers as anything but a marketing mechanism for driving increased buzz about the shows and brand.
Since it is perceived to have very little potential in that respect, there is corresponding disinterest in allocating funds for strengthening support for dialog on the site. Ahem- it is the kind of elite attention to the bottom line rather than social goods that is at the heart of practically every scandal- from Sandusky to Wall Street gambling, to Libor manipulations.
Up's content deserves a thematic spine, rather than one solely based on show date. Responses should be googlable from the net (they aren't now- just try it) and viewable by clusters of users that the contributor defines.
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There is a business case for why MSNBC would find it financially beneficial to do it, but as Hayes says- every political organizer will tell you that every volunteer has strong opinions about how the campaign should be run differently...
We really have no agency here- there is no appreciable social benefit for making contributions of time here anything like if you contribute time to improving Wikipedia. The only real benefit I have ever seen to contributing here is that here I can be partisan, and when I try to explain a point to others, I see the weaknesses and faulty thinking in my views on an issue.