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War on poverty slips from election agenda (BARFCON I Alert)
al Reuters via yahoo ^ | Oct 25, 2006 | Matthew Bigg

Posted on 10/25/2006 2:36:36 PM PDT by proud_yank

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - On a boat stranded in a street in New Orleans, two words are scrawled: "No politicians."

It's not clear if the boat is a remnant of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated this city more than a year ago, but the message of the graffiti is unmistakable: politicians failed to deliver for those who lost their homes in the hurricane.

"They sent boys over there (to Iraq) to fight in a war that never ends. Why didn't they keep the money over here when Americans are suffering," said Gwen Brown, 51, whose home in New Orleans was flooded by Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina exposed an underclass of poor Americans to the rest of the world, but poverty has slipped off the agenda in the runup to midterm congressional elections next month.

"After the hurricane it was easier for a time (to interest people in poverty) but it is ... very hard to maintain national attention unless there is national leadership," former Democratic senator John Edwards said in an interview.

Edwards ran for president in 2004 arguing there were two Americas, one for the well-off and another for those who struggle. When that effort failed, he ran for vice president on John Kerry's ticket. He said he has not decided whether to run again in 2008.

Poverty has been a Democratic issue since President Lyndon Johnson declared a "war on poverty" in 1964, but Edwards said Democrats see risks in promoting the issue, fearing they would be painted as big-government spenders.

An illustration of that is Harold Ford, running for the U.S. Senate for Tennessee, who campaigns on reforming health care but also advocates issues attractive to conservative voters such as opposition to gay marriage and cutting taxes.

U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson warned there were dangers for Democrats who abandoned social justice issues to win elections.

"There is a need to have politicians whose positions represent change for the better and not an accommodation with the worst of our status quo," he told Reuters.

DOES POVERTY EXIST?

The U.S. Census Bureau said in August one in eight Americans and one in four black people lived in poverty last year.

In all, some 37 million Americans lived below the poverty line, defined as having an annual income around $10,000 for a single person or $20,000 for a family of four, it said.

Robert Rector of the conservative Heritage Foundation think-tank argued there is little actual poverty in the United States and most poor people had a house, car, television, air conditioning, food and medical care.

Democrats only employed the word to stir emotions and "low income status" would be a better description in most cases, Rector said in an interview.

That case gains traction in the United States, a society with a fiercely competitive ethic and a belief that hard work and self-reliance are a sure route to success, making it risky to promote a national goal of helping the poor.

What makes it still harder is that the religious right has hijacked the agenda for Christian voters promoting opposition to abortion and gay marriage but pushing poverty off the agenda, said Jim Wallis, leader of Sojourners, a Christian ministry that promotes spiritual renewal and social justice.

Wallis cited recent research by the Center for American Values in Public Life which indicated that 85 percent of Americans say poverty and affordable health care are more important issues than abortion and same sex marriage.

"The conventional wisdom is that poverty isn't sexy and that nobody wants to talk about poverty ... You need political leaders with the courage to test the proposition," he said.

For many voters in New Orleans, talk of political courage may come too late to dent their cynicism.

Near the stranded boat, the owner of a newly-rebuilt house near the stranded boat has created a mock Hurricane Katrina cemetery, with colorful headstones bearing epitaphs for local politicians and President Bush. One reads: "Bush rebuilt the city -- Baghdad."


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2006; edwards; election; wop
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Wow. This 'journalist' managed to hit every nail imagineable.
1 posted on 10/25/2006 2:36:38 PM PDT by proud_yank
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To: proud_yank

The War on Poverty has been a quagmire ever since LBJ declared it in 1965. It's time to cut and run.


2 posted on 10/25/2006 2:39:08 PM PDT by Parmenio
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To: proud_yank
""They sent boys over there (to Iraq) to fight in a war that never ends. Why didn't they keep the money over here when Americans are suffering," said Gwen Brown, 51,"

President Bush sent $100 Billion to you. Go ask your Democratic politicians where it all went, sweetheart!

3 posted on 10/25/2006 2:39:54 PM PDT by avacado
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To: proud_yank

Trillions have been spent on the war on poverty. Declare it a quagmire and move on.

Retreat from the war on poverty, I say.


4 posted on 10/25/2006 2:43:35 PM PDT by weegee (Remember "Remember the Maine"? Well in the current war "Remember the Baby Milk Factory")
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To: weegee

---
Trillions have been spent on the war on poverty. Declare it a quagmire and move on.
---

Right now, State & Federal, spends $1.8 billion per day on welfare.

source: Heritage Foundation Report to Congress


5 posted on 10/25/2006 2:46:11 PM PDT by avacado
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To: proud_yank

"The conventional wisdom is that poverty isn't sexy and that nobody wants to talk about poverty ..."

BS. It has been chic for the last 35 years to walk around looking like you just woke off some park bench. You can go into Saks 5th Ave. right now and buy poverty-chic clothing but it will cost you a couple thousand dollars.


6 posted on 10/25/2006 2:47:18 PM PDT by L98Fiero (Evil is an exact science)
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To: L98Fiero

Look at Michael Moore, and all other Hollywood liberals, who make MILLIONS speaking and writing about poverty.

May not be sexy, as Fatty Moore certainly is not, but its apparently a good source of income.


7 posted on 10/25/2006 2:51:37 PM PDT by proud_yank (Socialism - An Answer In Search Of A Question For Over 100 Years)
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To: proud_yank; Libertina; Billthedrill; Cap'n Crunch; Horatio Gates; Squantos
Hurricane Katrina exposed an underclass of poor Americans to the rest of the world. You know, the class of people who have not learned positive life lessons like work, saving, parenting skills, taking out their own garbage, or removing that turkey from the oven that they cooked 10 days ago. The sort of things the avg. person learns by the time they are 10. But poverty has slipped off the agenda in the runup to midterm congressional elections next month.

There, I fixed it to reflect reality.

Seriously, I have to go into homes of all economic classes daily. Almost 100% of persons in the middle and upper classes, the trash is taken out, the sink is not full of two-six day old dishes, and the house (while maybe cluttered) is clean.

100% of poor persons homes I enter are completely and totally filthy. I'm talking about dishes from the last month piled sky high. Garbage upon piles of garbage everywhere. Carpet that is a biohazard. Dogs and cats living inside and crapping there, uncleaned. I actually saw a bit of human crap on a floor once, when another resident pointed out that the suspect must have pooped his shorts during the struggle, and they then walked over to watch their big screen TV without cleaning it up.

And I will take bets at 4-1 on any poor household I enter that there will be either a turkey, ham, or chicken carcass in the oven, or a pan with 1 week old grease from frying something, on the stove. I'll lay a 50 or 100 dollar bill at those odds everytime. None of my co-workers will ever take the bet.

The simple truth is that persons that can't run their own kitchen can't ever be trusted to run their own lives, let alone raise their own offspring properly.

You just heard the word.

8 posted on 10/25/2006 2:54:57 PM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (Life is tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid.)
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To: Parmenio

Poverty is still winning, from what I read.


9 posted on 10/25/2006 2:55:04 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: L98Fiero
The left has abandoned the term "poverty" as a rallying point. The new mantra is "middle class income disparity". There are now too many on the lower rung of the middle class ladder and the disparity between them and those with higher incomes is too great.

The left won the war on poverty through wealth transfers. They will continue to tout redistribution only with a different emphasis.

yitbos

10 posted on 10/25/2006 2:58:57 PM PDT by bruinbirdman ("Those who control language control minds. " - Ayn Rand)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig; girlangler; fanfan; Victoria Delsoul; Army Air Corps
100% of poor persons homes I enter are completely and totally filthy. I'm talking about dishes from the last month piled sky high. Garbage upon piles of garbage everywhere. Carpet that is a biohazard. Dogs and cats living inside and crapping there, uncleaned. I actually saw a bit of human crap on a floor once, when another resident pointed out that the suspect must have pooped his shorts during the struggle, and they then walked over to watch their big screen TV without cleaning it up.

You see though, its the job of the government to clean that up, using someone else's money of course.

Obviously welfare checks aren't as much as they should be, since these homes should have full surround sound, leather sofas, salt water aquariums, and other ammenities to complement the big screen television.

Oh, the class struggle rages on.
11 posted on 10/25/2006 3:30:59 PM PDT by proud_yank (Socialism - An Answer In Search Of A Question For Over 100 Years)
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To: L98Fiero

"You can go into Saks 5th Ave. right now and buy poverty-chic clothing but it will cost you a couple thousand dollars."

How perverse.


12 posted on 10/25/2006 4:14:10 PM PDT by Niuhuru
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To: proud_yank; Parmenio
The War on Poverty has been a quagmire ever since LBJ declared it in 1965. It's time to cut and run.

LBJ probably just wanted to get everyones mind off the Kennedy Assassination.
What better way, then to give the poor everything.

What a juxtaposition....Kennedy says..."ask what you can do for your Country," and LBJ turns it into...."ask what your Country can do for you."

13 posted on 10/25/2006 4:36:14 PM PDT by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: avacado
Right now, State & Federal, spends $1.8 billion per day on welfare.

NO WAY!

Sorry for yelling, but No Way!

A day?

14 posted on 10/25/2006 4:38:16 PM PDT by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: fanfan

---
"Right now, State & Federal, spends $1.8 billion per day on welfare."

NO WAY!

Sorry for yelling, but No Way!

A day?
---

Yep! And that is from the year 2001!

The Size and Scope Of Means-Tested Welfare Spending
by Robert E. Rector
Testimony

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/Test080101.cfm


15 posted on 10/25/2006 5:52:55 PM PDT by avacado
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To: fanfan

IMHO, creating generations of welfare recipients is a crime against humanity.


16 posted on 10/26/2006 12:51:09 AM PDT by proud_yank (Socialism - An Answer In Search Of A Question For Over 100 Years)
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To: proud_yank

It always amazes me that bleeding heart libs perpetually assume that the best way to get some "poverty stricken" unfortunate out of poverty is to take money from someone else who has avoided poverty or worked their way out of poverty. My advice to all the "poverty stricken" unfortunates is to work hard until you are not poverty stricken anymore. Got it?


17 posted on 10/26/2006 3:31:46 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: bruinbirdman
"wealth...disparity"

You are so right. The left used to squawk about hungry Americans. Now with the poorest third of Americans being the fattest they can't use that one. They still yammer about the homeless, but the facts are that only a tiny percentage of Americans don't sleep with a roof over their heads. And through the myriad of gov programs all "poor" get free med care. So now they are left with the so-called wealth gap. Which means some Americans have a lot of toys but do not have quite as many toys as some other Americans whose toys are a little more numerous and expensive. Boo hoo hoo. (smirk)

18 posted on 10/26/2006 3:39:07 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: driftless2

I got an earful from a friend this evening, when I said I have a hard time feeling pity for the poor, and for poor Mexicans who come here illegally.

Rich people only get there by crushing others....tax cuts for the rich....I don't have a problem with paying for social programs for (illegal) Mexicans given how bad it is there...

I tried to explain that 'income' is by no means at all a measure of 'wealth', and that right now I would fit into the 'poor/unemployed masses' part of income statistics.

For the record, I am a degreed materials/metallurgical engineer, currently interviewing and receiving offers. No less, I am at this moment part of society's 'bottom rung' of the social ladder. Pity me.

I define poverty as lack of opportunity, which hardly exists in America. Even if you define poverty as lack of material possessions, that hardly exists in America as so many of them have nice televisions and satellite dishes bought with someone else's money.


19 posted on 10/26/2006 3:48:37 AM PDT by proud_yank (Socialism - An Answer In Search Of A Question For Over 100 Years)
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To: proud_yank

Nice reply. I have sympathy for anyone who is trying hard and has mouths to feed. And by the way I've been bankrupt and deep in the hole without a job. BUT IT WAS NO ONES FAULT BUT MINE! I got myself into my problem, and I got myself out of my problem. That's what libs can't get through their heads. They fervently believe that people have no control over their lives and need massive gov help anytime they get into financial problems. Despite the fact that America is the best place in the world for anyone who desires to rise out of so-called poverty and better themselves.


20 posted on 10/26/2006 4:03:19 AM PDT by driftless2
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