From the War on Poverty to the War on the Poor

Paul Ryan (R-WI), chair of the House Budget Committee, issued a 250-page report in March entitled "The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later." Unsurprisingly, the report repeats the conservative charge that the alleged "disincentives to work" in federal anti-poverty programs remain a primary cause of poverty. In introducing the report, Ryan drew heavily on this argument, contending that "We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work."

Paul Ryan's remarks are likely only initial salvos in a fiftieth-anniversary ideological conflict over whether the War on Poverty failed or succeeded. So far, most liberal commentators have responded by defending the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs in keeping tens of millions out of poverty. Yet it is not just conservatives who deploy the "culture of poverty" argument these days. While President Obama recently offered minor, inexpensive proposals to restore "equality of opportunity" (like partnering community colleges with corporations on job training programs), he continually chides black men for abandoning their parental responsibilities. His "My Brother's Keepers Initiative" asks philanthropic organizations to help young black men get "back on track" and stop "abandon[ing] their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men."

Rarely does Obama speak of mass inner-city under- and unemployment as factors contributing to this phenomenon, or of the evidence that non-married African-American fathers are, on average, more involved in parenting than are white non-married fathers. Indeed, few mainstream commentators argue that the War on Poverty did not go far enough, or that the economic devastation of inner cities and the industrial heartland have structural economic causes that made "work disappear," as sociologist William Julius Wilson put it twenty years ago. If there are jobs to be had in these areas, they are low-wage service jobs that fail to provide a family wage, often even if two family members hold such jobs.

Politicians of both parties talk about ameliorating poverty. Yet few "opinion makers" argue that poverty could be radically curtailed, perhaps eliminated, if we had the political will to transform the American economy. Absent social movements militantly protesting growing inequality, our political elites are unlikely to shift budget and tax priorities so as to fund federal job creation programs and expand social rights such as truly universal health care, publicly funded child care, and parental leave.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/23270-from-the-war-on-poverty-to-the-war-on-the-poor

BundyFest ... LOL

Remember when President Bush ...

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Last Month Was the Fourth-Warmest March Since 1880. Happy Earth Day!

Despite United States temperatures ranging from "obnoxiously cold" to "WTF this was supposed to be spring," last month was in fact the fourth-warmest March since 1880 globally, and the 349th-straight month of global temperatures above the 20th-century average for that month.

"But I was so cold!" you might be saying. "How can this be, Al Gore?" Apparently the answer involves the fact that there are other countries in the world besides the United States:


http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/04/22/march_global_warming_the_349th_straight_month_of_above_average_temperatures.html

Florida is for Crist ....

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Political Language ...

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We're Patriots ... ?

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In Paul Ryan's Budget ....

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The Meritocracy Myth: How the Super-Rich Really Make Their Money

Warren Buffett once claimed that the "genius of the American economy, our emphasis on a meritocracy and a market system and a rule of law has enabled generation after generation to live better than their parents did." The Economist suggested that "people succeed through brains and hard work." Economist Tyler Cowen believes in a "hyper-meritocracy" in which wealth is created by the most intelligent and motivated people.

That all sounds very inspirational. But the super-rich tend to make their money in less meritorious ways.


1. Betting on Food Prices to Rise

Chris Hedges noted that Goldman Sachs’ commodities index "is the most heavily traded in the world. The company hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock and jacks up commodity prices around the globe so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples and literally starve." Numerous sources agree that speculation drives up commodity prices. Wheat, for example, rose in price from $105 to $481 in just eight years.


http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/the-meritocracy-myth-how-the-super-rich-really-make-their-money

Obama plans clemency for hundreds of drug offenders

DUBLIN, Calif—Scrawled on the inside of Barbara Scrivner's left arm is a primitive prison tattoo that says "Time Flies."

If only that were the case.

For Scrivner, time has crawled, it's dawdled, and on bad days, it's felt like it's stood completely still. She was 27 years old when she started serving a 30-year sentence in federal prison for selling a few ounces of methamphetamine. Now, 20 years later, she feels like she's still living in the early '90s—she's never seen or touched a cellphone, she still listens to her favorite band, the Scorpions, and she carefully coats her eyelids in electric blue eye shadow in the morning.

It's out there, outside of prison, where time flies.

On a sunny afternoon at a federal prison outside San Francisco last month, Scrivner nervously clutched a manila envelope full of photos of herself and her daughter that she keeps in her cell. As she displays the pictures, Scrivner’s daughter Alannah, who was just 2 years old when her mom was put away, changes from a redheaded, freckled young kid to a sullen teen to a struggling young mom. Scrivner changes in the photos, too. At first she's a plump-cheeked beauty with chestnut-brown hair, then she’s a bleached-blonde woman in her early 30s, before becoming increasingly gaunt as the years grind on.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-plans-clemency-for-hundreds-of-drug-offenders--162714911.html

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I say the time for clemency is not soon enough ...