[Hildy]

People out on the street? Middle-class people not being able to make ends meet? Smells like election season to me!

[Porterville]

Bull Sh!+

[Spruce]

This is ALL GEORGE BUSH'S FAULT!

[Hans]

Remarkable tale.
Perhaps we might try saving next time round.

[Porterville]

There are a ton of jobs in Dallas, and there are a ton of jobs in less expensive parts of TX.

[omegatoo]

potatoes, milk and coffee
Coffee??
Coffee??
She's feeding her handicapped child coffee???
Glad she's got her priorities straight.

O2

[EggsAckley]

potatoes, milk and coffee,

coffee!!??! She could pass on the 6-bucks-a-pound coffee and buy some real food.

I can't stop thinking that she is a made-up character in somebody's liberal mind.

[Porterville]

There are foodstamps, there is unemployment insurance, there are jobs cleaning houses, there are jobs cleaning tolets, there are HR jobs at SMU, Highland Park, the number of malls in the area, there are even jobs picking up dog poop. Also, there are programs that give grants to people to go back to school and financial aid for these "victims". And, I'm suppose to believe she has no family support anywhere in the USA??? Right.... Liberal lies and crank addicts doesn't mean it's a story to be listened to

[Protagoras]

Buncha BS if ya ask me.

A few years ago here in Chicago we had all these morons standing by the exit ramps of the expressways with signs saying "will work for food". Most were women, they get more suckers to feel sorry for them. Some of them even used their children as props. Even the most conservative estimates of how much they got from each car that responded showed them making an astounding amount of tax free money.

A local television station reporter finally staked a half a dozen of them out over time. He watched them as their day came to a close and they walked several blocks away to their new cars and followed them back to their confortable suburban homes. He then hopped out with the camera rolling and started asking them questions about how much they made and what they needed it for.

After a few nights of that on the 10 pm news, you couldn't find one anywhere anymore. What a coincidence! The homeless problem was solved almost overnight.

[Tijeras_Slim]

We just have to hope that the next time that phone rings it will be a job that turns all this around.

Why do losers like this always wait for someone to call them?
No sympathy from Slim.

[Our man in washington]

Let's list the problems here:

1. They had no money, but somehow, applying for Medicaid to pay for treatment was out of the question.

2. The woman was so desperate that she had to beg for money, but not so desperate that she would consider moving to New York City for a while to be with a family who could help her.

3. The husband's story that he couldn't even find a retail job is pretty suspicious. Also, what did he do before and how did he lose that job?

Things that make you go hmmm...

[ItsOurTimeNow]

While Wessenberg has landed a series of temporary jobs, usually earning between $11 and $14 an hour, they don't come close to paying for the comfortable life the Wessenbergs once knew...

And there you have it...

The story of the Ant and the Grasshopper comes to mind.

[AD from SpringBay]

Does anybody know how to save money for a rainy day? Her husband's six figure income should have prepared them a little better than this.

[MEGoody]

"Wessenberg, 44, says she resorted to panhandling because there was no other way to feed her children after her husband lost his job."

They bought a house a year ago? They aren't too bad off.

[Alberta's Child]

After about the third sentence of this article, I said to myself, "This woman has to be from New York City."

Sure enough . . .

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Very odd story. Sounds contrived.

My sister lived in Coppell for a few years. It was a very nice suburb as I recall.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Sheila Wessenberg's mother and six siblings have tried to be supportive from afar, sending money when they had it, visiting whenever possible.

"We'd love it if Sheila would move back here," says her mother, Sheila Sabbagh, who lives on Staten Island in New York City. "But things have changed since she left here 14 years ago. And we know that Sheila loves being in Texas. She won't give up on what she wants. She is quite a fighter."

These facts nullify the entire story. All she had to do was move home. Probably had a falling out with her mother and was too stubborn to accept the family's help - which hardly qualifies this story as supporting documentation for the "It's All Bush's Fault!" case the newspaper is trying to make.

[boycott]

A lot of you folks just don't get it. Yes, I know that the liberal media spins. However, there are a lot of people that are down and out. A lot of these people are good hard-working people that just ran into unfortunate circumstances.

The question isn't do these sort of situations exist. Of course they do. Is it the Republicans or the Democrats fault? Both are partially to blame. Both waste our tax dollars for their own special interest projects. Both parties supported NAFTA and GATT. There's plenty of blame to go around.

It's easy for the media to spin because most Amerians are ignorant (many of them just plain stupid). They don't understand that the economy is cyclical. They also don't understand that what our politicans (certainly not leaders or statesmen) did five and ten years ago affects us today.

The media was promoting a bad economy when they helped Clinton get elected in 1992. I remember the media telling us on Bill Clinton's inarguation day that the economy may not be as bad as first thought. They were giving Clinton credit for turning around the economy on his first day in office. This was long before he ever passed his first budget. The media held off telling us how bad the economy had gotten under Clinton's eight years until after the election.

My point is that I realize the media spins. I also know that there's a lot of people that have been through some hard times. A lot of this just because of very unfortunate cirmcumstances. Therefore, you want see me make jokes about their situation.

[mtbopfuyn]

I just hate it when I have to sell my mink coat to feed the kids.

Las Colinas, well, la tee da! On a budgeting board I used to visit, we played games (serious real life games) on feeding a family of 4 on $15 a week (or maybe only M-F). It's amazing the menus that we came up with and it wasn't all beans. Shopping garage sales, kids can have a year's wardrobe of nice clothes for <$30 including new undies and shoes and be in the better dressed group. Toys and books (luv books!) can be had for almost nothing. It's a matter of prioritizing. This woman raking in $15/hr hasn't a clue as she sits whining at her phone.

Yikes - FNC reporting explosion in Jordan...

[tiki]

BS Tell her how to get to the food stamp office. In my state she'd get food stamps, rent assistance, health care for the children, day care for time spent looking for a job. and on and on....Every church in our town will give out food.