Last Call For The Austerity Monster Under The Kitchen Table

Tonight, keep in mind that the scariest story of Halloween is harsh, painful reality for millions of working-class and low-income Americans.  Starting tomorrow, Republican refusal to restore SNAP funding means 47 million of us will have even less to eat.  Bob Aiken of Feeding America:

In the last few weeks, the media has been ablaze with news of the government shutdown, the debt limit and health care reform. Missing from most public debate, however, is the cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits that will take place on November 1 and will affect every one of the more than 47 million Americans who depend on the program to help meet their basic nutritional needs. 

When the changes are implemented, everyone enrolled in the SNAP program will see their benefits cut. For example, a family of four that qualifies for the maximum monthly benefit will lose $36 a month -- that's a 5% reduction.

Sorry America, Republicans need that money for corporate welfare and subsidies for the energy giants. Feeding Americans? Not real high on Tea Party Jesus's to-do list.

Most families do not have enough to make it through the month already -- 90% of SNAP benefits are redeemed by the third week of the month and 58% of food bank clients currently receiving SNAP turn to food banks for help at least six months out of the year. 

The upcoming cuts will result in an increased need for food assistance at food pantries and soup kitchens across the nation when many are already stretched meeting sustained high need in the wake of the recession.

Healthy food is more expensive than super-processed industrial crap.  Sure, you can eat $1 cheeseburgers daily, but that's not exactly good for you.  Of course, the Republican argument is if you're on SNAP, you don't really get the choice, now do you?

In September, the House passed legislation cutting $40 billion in SNAP over the next 10 years, according to a Feeding America analysis. Together with this week's cuts, the pending legislation will result in a loss of nearly 3.4 billion meals for low-income Americans in 2014 alone, according to a Feeding America analysis. These are meals our most vulnerable citizens cannot afford to lose, and food banks and other charities simply cannot fill that gap.

"Hey waitaminute, are you saying Tea Party Jesus can't feed the poor, you godless commie?!?"  Yeah, that comes out to 72 meals a year for 47 million people going away if House Republicans get their way, but Republicans care about the poor.  If you eat less, maybe you scumbag poors will work harder, right?

Sometimes the monsters of Halloween are very real, and they stick around the morning after.  And the morning after that.  And on and on...

The Curious Kasich Of Ohio's Mystery Austerity

Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich is shocked -- shocked I tell you! -- to discover that his own anti-choice, anti-growth, regressive sales-tax laden austerity budget is hurting poor people in the Buckeye State!

In his grand Statehouse office beneath a bust of Lincoln, Gov. John R. Kasich let loose on fellow Republicans in Washington.

“I’m concerned about the fact there seems to be a war on the poor,” he said, sitting at the head of a burnished table as members of his cabinet lingered after a meeting. “That if you’re poor, somehow you’re shiftless and lazy.”

“You know what?” he said. “The very people who complain ought to ask their grandparents if they worked at the W.P.A."

If you're wondering if Kasich is suffering from amnesia or something, the very next sentence in the article explains everything:

Ever since Republicans in Congress shut down the federal government in an attempt to remove funding for President Obama’s health care law, Republican governors have been trying to distance themselves from Washington.

Well, no foolin', Joe.

To some Ohio analysts, those moves are a reaction to the humiliating defeat Mr. Kasich suffered in 2011 when voters in a statewide referendum overturned a law stripping public employees of bargaining rights. Before the vote, Mr. Kasich’s approval in this quintessential swing state plunged.

Now, as the governor’s image has softened, his poll numbers have improved heading into a re-election race next year against the likely Democratic nominee, Ed FitzGerald, the executive of Cuyahoga County.

He still angers many on the left; he signed a budget in June that cut revenues to local governments and mandates that women seeking an abortion listen to the fetal heartbeat. Democrats see his centrist swing as mere calculation, a prelude to a tough re-election fight.

“This is someone who realized he had to get to the center and chose Medicaid as the issue,” said Danny Kanner, communications director of the Democratic Governors Association. “That doesn’t erase the first three years of his governorship when he pursued polices that rewarded the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.”

Ohio voters might want to remember that  Kasich is right:  there absolutely is a war on the poor in Ohio, and the leader of that war is none other than John Kasich himself.

The Ghosts 'N' Stuff Party

If you're wondering why glibertarians are so keen on guys like Rand Paul, Double G, and the Dudebro Defector, it's because they all kind of fit the same general profile of what a glibertarian is in a new survey.

Compared to the general population, libertarians are significantly more likely to be non-Hispanic white, male, and young. Nearly all libertarians are non-Hispanic whites (94%), more than two-thirds (68%) are men, and more than 6-in-10 (62%) are under the age of 50.

The party affiliation of libertarians skews significantly more Republican than Democratic. Close to half (45%) of libertarians identify as Republican, compared to only 5% who identify as Democrat. However, half of libertarians identify as politically independent (35%) or identify with a third political party (15%), including roughly 1-in-10 (8%) who identify with the Libertarian Party. Roughly 4-in-10 (39%) libertarians identify as part of the Tea Party movement, while 61% do not.

Libertarians are white, male, younger folks who identify with Republicans, and a healthy chunk are Tea Partiers.  I'm so very surprised by that, you know?  These are people whose economic views are strictly anti-government...

• Nearly two-thirds (65%) of libertarians oppose increasing the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.00 an hour, as do 57% of Americans who identify with the Tea Party. By contrast, 57% of Republicans overall and 61% of white evangelical Protestants support raising the minimum wage.
• Nearly all (96%) libertarians have an unfavorable view of the 2010 health care law, compared to 83% of white evangelical Protestants, 78% of Tea Party members, and 89% of Republicans.
• On the issue of passing tougher environmental laws, libertarians and Tea Party members are generally aligned in their strong opposition (73% and 74% oppose), while white evangelical Protestants and Republicans overall are also opposed but with less intensity (62% each opposed).

...except when it comes to telling women and minorities what they need to be doing.

• Nearly 6-in-10 (57%) libertarians oppose making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion, a proportion identical to the general population. By contrast, strong majorities of Republicans overall (58%), Americans affiliated with the Tea Party (58%), and white evangelical Protestants (68%) favor making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion.
• Seven-in-ten (70%) libertarians favor allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to help terminally ill patients end their lives. Americans who identify with the Tea Party are closely divided on this question (49% favor, 51% oppose). By contrast, strong majorities of Republicans (58%) and white evangelical Protestants (70%) oppose this policy.
• More than 7-in-10 (71%) libertarians favor legalizing marijuana. By contrast, approximately 6-in-10 Republicans (61%) and Tea Party members (59%), and nearly 7-in-10 (69%) white evangelical Protestants, oppose legalizing marijuana.
• Unlike most other social issues, libertarians remain socially conservative on same-sex marriage. While a majority (59%) of libertarians oppose same-sex marriage, they are significantly less opposed than Republicans overall (67%) and than other conservative-leaning groups such as Tea Party members (73%) and white evangelical Protestants (80%).

Freedom to smoke weed, but screw women and same-sex couples.  Dudebros all the way down, our glibertarian friends.  They may call themselves libertarians, but they're really the party of ghosts:  moaning about the past all the time, white as a sheet, and completely transparent...and reliable conservative GOP votes.

StupidiNews, Halloween Edition!

 We've got your Halloween news, boos, and views this morning, folks!

• The Boston Red Sox exorcised the ghosts of the past at Fenway Park with a 6-1 Game 6 win, clinching their third World Series in 10 seasons and the first at home in nearly 100 years.
• Marine archeologists have raised five cannons from the wreck of legendary pirate Blackbeard's flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, off the North Carolina coast.
• Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius faced monster questions from House Republicans over the gremlins in the federal health exchange website.
• Americans are spending a bit less this year on Halloween, but 3 in 4 Americans say the economy isn't scaring off any plans for the holiday.
• Dell says it's solved the spooky mystery of why some of its laptops smell like "cat pee", the manufacturing process used to make the device's palm rest.

And your frightening bonus, 8 political Halloween costumes for you last minute slackers.  

Have a good one, boils and ghouls!