Build Date: Mon May 20 11:20:08 2024 UTC
Don't eat the Yak soup - it's not really Yak.
-- Johnnie Royale
PIMPMASTER W!
2002-02-27 21:47:52
Our selected President, George W. Bush, announced his plans for welfare defor. . . I mean reform. The cornerstones of this administration's proposed policies, which are to be piled on top of the already horrific Clinton era "reforms", are work and "family formation." In typical "Republican Stormtrooper" fashion and following very nicely in the wake of the "War on Terror", the GOP is once again launching an assault on the poorest of the poor here in the Good Old US of A, all while claiming these draconian measures are for their own good.
Tuesday afternoon I very nearly crashed my car when I heard Dubya's voice on my radio, talking about how more welfare recipients would have to work, and how his plan would give them "dignity" by requiring a minimum of 70% of adult recipients (instead of the current 50%) to work 40 hours per week (instead of the current 30). Of course, the children of these newly dignified adults will have to be put in some sort of day care, despite studies of Florida workfare recipients which showed a direct correlation between the number of hours of work activity a parent is required to perform and the likelihood of poor academic performance and disciplinary problems in their children. Dignity? Most workfare positions provide training and experience in the lucrative world of custodial work, which I guess from a conservative point of view is like using the "Trash" to clean up the trash. Fuckers!!! These are real, honest Americans. Most of who simply want the opportunity to raise a family and pay their bills and not be treated like some sort of medieval serf.
The average monthly cash benefit in Montana is around $350. If recipients must perform 40 hours of work activity each week to collect a check, that calculates to approximately $2.02 per hour. In a more generous state, a recipient might get $500 a month, or all of $2.88 an hour. It's a good thing minimum wage laws (currently $5.15 an hour, since 1996) don't apply to workfare recipients, or the states could be in deep trouble for violating labor laws. But multi-millionaire President Bush (who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has never earned an honest dollar in this life) and his Republican thugs say that working for $2.00 or so an hour will restore dignity to public assistance recipients. These are the same guys that gleefully announced that they did NOTHING while Enron crashed and burned... like alerting the thousands of 401k investors that the Enron executives were dumping their ill-gotten stock options for millions. Doesn't that just make you feel like they're trying to help out the working class? At least Nero played his fiddle. What a friggin joke.
Even more problematic than the slave-wage work requirements which will tear parents from their children is the $300 million Bush proposes for "family formation." This is a program of "incentives" designed to "encourage marriage and two-parent families." It is very strange that conservatives, of all people, would want the government to meddle in the most personal of relationships. But it is certainly typical of the normal Republican doublespeak we've all become so accustom to hearing these days. Marriage is a personal choice, and it is not, as Bush and his cronies claim, a cure for poverty.
Marriage strictly for monetary reasons is unstable and disingenuous at best. At it's worst it is simply trading sex for money and if you tried this sort of operation on the streets of any American city, you'd be talking to the vice squad. Is it right for the welfare office to pimp single moms simply because they haven't enough money for food, shelter, and medical care? Should our tax dollars be spent to create the biggest prostitution ring of all times? It seems to this PDJ reporter that Bush is basically claiming that the best talent these women have to offer in the job market is to lay on their backs and spread their legs. You'd think after nearly a century of real progress in women's rights that the Republicans would have learned a thing to two and would stop trying to force poor women into the oldest profession.
But that's our pResident Bush's welfare "reform" proposal, forcing the most vulnerable families in the United States into lives of slavery and prostitution, at least until their lifetime 5-year time limit is up. Then they can either starve or using their newly developed skills, find a plantation owner or a pimp displaying a "Help Wanted" sign.
T O P S T O R I E S
In 2010 Dr. Cheng-Huai Ruan discovered a way to cause a patient with an abnormal heartbeat to get back into a normal rhythm by sticking a finger up the patient's ass. (More...)
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 through 1982. Howard Hesseman played Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from Los Angeles who was fired from his previous job for saying the word "booger" on the air. In the show Hesseman would do some dialogue, introduce a song, and start the song. You'd hear a few notes, but never the whole song. (More...)
SF Hippies Can't Get Their Act Together
The annual 420 Hippie Hill event in Golden Gate Park, where large crowds of hippies, wannabe hippies, and hippie poseurs drape themselves in tie dye t-shirts and gather on a hill on 4/20 to smoke weed, was cancelled this year because the organizers couldn't get their act together. (More...)
Mozart to be inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame
Joining such hard-rocking inductees as Abba, Chet Atkins, Nat King Cole, and Neil Diamond, the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame is proud to induct Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (More...)
Gary Busey definitely involved in a hit and run accident
Gary Busey was definitely involved in a hit-and-run accident, but won't face any charges because he's rich and famous. (More...)
Gary Busey allegedly involved in Malibu hit-and-run
"Sir! You hit my car! I need your information!" the woman yelled at Gary Busey driving a battered Volvo station wagon before he sped off. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
The days are getting longer and, as the man says, the nights are getting HOTTER! Lick your finger, touch your ass and go *Tschssh*, cause the damn SUN is out now! And of course that means it's time for a refreshing Spocktail that meets YOUR NEEDS for a delicious booze cooler at affordable prices. (More...)
It was the night of the Leonid meteor showers -- the perfect opportunity to break out the evil opaline liquor, get madder than hatters, and test wireless ethernet hardware... Would the plunging meteorites interfere with the 2.4GHz band? What about our delicate brain waves? (More...)
Last week I had eye surgery and it was certainly one of the least enjoyable episodes of my life. Eye Surgeons like their patients to be conscious enough so that they can move their eyes to the proper position during surgery. (More...)
Clowns Take on God in Mysterious Annual Ceremony
Last Sunday's (the 6th) Grimaldi Service at a small church in East London was a red-letter day for clowns worldwide. About a hundred old-school red-nosed clowns made the sombre trip to darkest Dalston to pay their respects to clowns who died in the last year and to thank God for the gift of laughter in a bizarre ceremony presided over by the eccentric Reverend Clown Roly, resplendent in a garish red lumberjack shirt with oversized gold lapels. (More...)
During a magnificent sunny day in a fast receding autumn, the Spock Science Monitor reporters once again blew the playa dust off of their computers and covered the 2002 Burning Man Decompression – held every year just east of Portola Hill in beautiful San Francisco. Both an afternoon and evening issues were released to the unsuspecting crowd of freaks attempting to in some small way experience the euphoria of the playa – if but for a brief afternoon far from the desolation of Northern Nevada. (More...)
The Ancient and Correct Sake Ceremony
Many Americans have learned to appreciate the delicate, sophisticated flavors of Japanese food and drink, along with the beautifully refined rituals of Japanese dining. San Francisco, as a gateway between East and West, has especially benefited from the flowering of Eastern consciousness in America. It is hardly possible to walk down the street without stepping on somebody's sushi. (More...)