kick em' when they're down

this whole demonizing of the "other" got into full swing in the reagan years with the welfare queens and their caddies.....in a recent conversation with a lock-step republican loyalist "they" were referred to as if, well, everyone knows who we are talking about. the right wing hate mongers have provided a megaphone to get this message out and they have done their job. so now, as they borrow from future generations and steal, they have planted in many people's minds where to look for the blame. wake up sheeple, they are stealing all our treasure!

.............If the budget cuts passed by the US senate on Thursday are anything to go by, the whole thing will end in tears. Republicans - disgracefully - targeted most of the cuts on the elderly and the poor through restructuring (ie cutting) some Medicare and Medicaid programmes. Worst of all, part of the cuts originally aimed (creditably) at cutting America's ludicrously high agriculture subsidies was amended so the brunt would be taken by chopping $844m from food stamps for the poor rather than from farm subsidies. Meanwhile, Republicans are hoping to pass yet more tax cuts for the wealthy. An administration that can tackle a serious budget problem in this way deserves all that may be coming to it.

more.......
.......Race and gender discrimination may not be the most screwed-up thing about welfare deform, but it is one of the few areas in which legal rights exist. These rights give us some handles and could give us a legitimate opening into the welfare reauthorization debate. We could initiate actions to put race and gender discrimination on the welfare reform radar screen, demand and win resolution to key individual cases, and secure new regulations from state welfare agencies and federal agencies responsible for civil rights enforcement. After all, if work is going to be the "solution" to all that is wrong with welfare, then the work arena has to operate fairly.