Food Aid? To feed the poor & hungry of modern day America?

It's almost impossible for any none Americans to even come close to comprehending how the hell some millions of citizens of the United States, the world's wealthiest country, could ever be allowed to find themselves in such a shocking sort of sickening situation as this is.

Poverty hits African Americans hard

BBC correspondent Matthew Price continues his journey across America, and reports from Chicago, Barack Obama's home town, where African American community leaders fear the recession is dragging down their communities more than most.

(snip)

Poverty is growing across the United States. Many communities are affected. Yet a number of studies suggest that African Americans in general have been hit harder than others.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, black unemployment has risen to 13.4% since the recession began in December 2007. The national unemployment rate is 8.5%.

One of the largely untold stories of America's economic decline is the disproportionate effect it appears to be having on African Americans.

Read the rest of this remarkably revealing report.

[Sigh.]

If only "socialism" wasn't such a shocking swear word in the states, eh?



Who knows though?

Maybe the blessed Obama truly does have the balls he so strongly hinted he had -- last year.

Maybe now that his presidential honeymoon period is over, Barack will be brave enough (and care enough), to bring about some real change : as opposed to simply some more, same old, same old, 'small change'.

Eh?

(Cross posted across at 'appletree')

Asshole-In-Chief

Photo from the 2004 G8 summit

Leaving his last G8 summit, Dubya said "goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." Given the fact that much of the summit was devoted to coming up with a strategy for cleaning up after the world's biggest polluter, it's not surprising that even France's conservative president expressed shock.

Bush's remark wasn't the only source of controversy at the summit. A press packet issued by the White House described Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi as one of the "most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for government corruption and vice".

This is precisely why a lot of people don't like Americans: because some of us act like assholes when we travel abroad. And now Bush, representing all Americans, has gone abroad and done his best to perpetrate every negative stereotype commonly attributed to Americans.

Worst. President. Imaginable.

(cross posted at appletree)

Make A New Year Resolution To Stop Force Feeding Kids To Death With Fast/Fat/Junk Food ...

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What we really want to know (really, really want to know), is why it took so many successive (so called, caring) British Governments so long to see some sodding sense.

Apart from their (constantly & callously lobbied for), perpetual pandering to filthy fat-cat, fast food, close to criminal profiteering of course -- entirely regardless of the fast becoming, fatally catastrophic cost to our kids.

Ban on junk food ads introduced

A ban on adverts for junk food during television programmes aimed at children under 16 has come into force.

Regulator Ofcom has outlawed adverts for foods high in fat, salt and sugar in an effort to tackle rising childhood obesity levels.

But broadcasters say the quality of children's programmes will be hit by the loss of an estimated £39m in advertising revenue.

The move is the latest stage in a phased crackdown on advertising during programmes aimed at or appealing to children.

In April 2007, junk food ads were banned during programmes made to appeal to seven to nine-year-olds.

And by December this year, dedicated children's channels will have to phase them out altogether.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls has said that UK children see some 10,000 television adverts a year and recognise 400 brands by the age of 10.

And surprise, surprise, there's even more (isn't there always?) where that came from.



Y'know, some (such as ourselves), see this sort of inexcusable serial-stuffing-fest, as nothing short of child abuse.

Increasingly, some of our children are slowly being force fed to death -- entirely as a result of a no holds barred, never ending battle (waged by all the usual suspects), to grab as big a slice as possible, of the already obviously obscene, junk food market mega-profits.

The bottom line, as appallingly unpalatable as it may first appear, is that these conscienceless crooks are now literally 'farming' us and our children, exactly as the animals we eat are farmed.

We are all now being 'farmed' - as perpetually profit producing, cattle-like, obsessive compulsive consumers. No more and no less.

Yep, really.

What's next? Soylent Green?

Meanwhile, millions of our fellow human beings, both young and old, are needlessly suffering and starving (worldwide), on a damned daily basis.

Anyway, have a nice day. (With great massive dollops of extras on the side).

Eh?

*(Cross posted at Appletree)

America's Woes Won't Stop Worsening: Recession, Depression, Implosion, Complete Collapse Or What?

As Christmas 2007 rappidly approaches it appears that hardly any one is getting fat across the Atlantic any more -- apart from the already infuriatingly fat (by too far), infamously favoured few fat-cats and their completely contemptible close knit clan of crooked cohorts, flunkies, families and friends and their ilk.

Detroit's woes augur ill for US

By Adam Brookes -- BBC News, Detroit

Americans are worried that hard times lie ahead. But in Detroit, Michigan, they have already arrived, with a vengeance.

Michigan, by some calculations, has lost 400,000 jobs in the past seven years. That's in a state whose population is only 10 million.

Detroit is seeing unemployment running at nearly 8%, twice the national average.

The number of homes in the city "foreclosed" - or repossessed by mortgage lenders - is among the highest in the country.

The city's charities are getting busier, a sign of economic distress.

(snip)

"This is ground zero when it comes to poverty," Augie Fernandez says.

"Here we are in the capital of manufacturing and we're just seeing it dissipate away."

Coming soon to a city near you?

"To find myself in a position where I couldn't afford a gallon of milk, I couldn't afford a loaf of bread - it was very humbling," he says.

"For want of a better term it made me feel like a loser, like I wasn't able to provide even the basic things for my family, let alone anything beyond that."

I ask Daniel and Cynthia if they thought of themselves as middle class. They both answer yes. I ask if they still think of themselves as middle class.

"I think we're on the poverty line right now," says Daniel. He wonders if he will be able to hold on to his house.

Read the rest of this very worrying report.



Of course there are still some who can't quite understand what all the fuss is about.

Nor can any among those self same, self serving, self satisfied sobs yet see the writing on the wall.

Which, upon further reflection, may not be all that bad a thing.

Since when the fast approaching, almighty avalanche of shit finally hits the fabled fan they certainly won't see it coming.

And when it does, as it soon surely must, they'll never know what hit them.

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