I"M A 35-YEAR OLD VETERAN ON FOOD STAMPS

JASON KIRELL MILITARY AND ON FOOD STAMPS

Story from Huffington Post:

My name is Jason. I turned 35 less than a week ago. My first job was maintenance work at a public pool when I was 17. I worked 40 hours a week while I was in college. I've never gone longer than six months without employment in my life and I just spent the last three years in the military, one of which consisted of a combat tour of Afghanistan.

Oh, and I'm now on food stamps. Since June, as a matter of fact.

Why am I on food stamps?

The same reason everyone on food stamps is on food stamps: because I would very much enjoy not starving.

I mean, if that's okay with you:

· Mr. or Mrs. Republican congressman.

· Mr. or Mrs. Conservative commentator.

· Mr. or Mrs. "welfare queen" letter-to-the-editor author.

· Mr. or Mrs. "fiscal conservative, reason-based" libertarian.

I do apologize for burdening you on the checkout line with real-life images of American-style poverty. I know you probably believe the only true starving people in the world have flies buzzing around their eyes while they wallow away, near-lifeless in gutters.

Hate to burst the bubble, but those people don't live in this country.

I do. And millions like me. Millions of people in poverty who fall into three categories.

Let's call them the "lucky" category, since conservatives seem to think people on welfare have hit some sort of jackpot:

Those living paycheck to paycheck? They're a little lucky.

Those living unemployment check to unemployment check? They're a little luckier.

Those living 2nd of the month to 2nd of the month? Ding! We've hit the jackpot!

The 2nd of the month being the time when funds gets electronically deposited onto the EBT card, [at least in NY] for those who've never been fortunate enough to hit that $175/month Powerball.

I fall into the latter two categories. But I've known people recently -- soldiers in the Army -- who were in the first and third. They were off fighting in Afghanistan while their wives were at home, buying food at the on-post commissary with food stamps.

And nobody bats an eye there, because it's not uncommon in the military.

It's not uncommon -- nor is it shameful. It might be shameful how little service-members are paid, but that's a separate issue.

The fact remains anyone at a certain income level can find it difficult from time to time to pay for everything. And when you're poor you learn to make sacrifices. Food shouldn't be one of them.

The whole concept is un-American. People living here, in the greatest country on Earth, with the most abundant resources, should be forced to go hungry because of the intellectual notion of fiscal conservatism and the ideological notion of self-reliance.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I didn't risk my life in Afghanistan so I could come back and watch people go hungry in America. I certainly didn't risk it so I could come back and go hungry.

Anyone who genuinely supports cutting food stamps is not an intellectual or an ideologue -- they're a bully.

And nobody likes a bully. Except other bullies.

It's time for regular Americans to stand up to these bullies. Not cower in the corner, ashamed of needing help. Because if there's one thing life has taught me, it's that you never know when you'll be the one in need.

I know that the NRA asshat Wayne LaPierre spoke on meet the press this morning, but we at NFTOS have made a decision that this waste of human flesh will not get further air time on our blog.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

NINCOMPOOPS, KNUCKLEHEADS, AND DIMWITS

The American Taliban Rejects The Veterans Job Act 2012 

Forty dimwitted teapublican members of the United States Senate betrayed veterans yesterday when they decided that denying President Obama a victory was more important than spending $1 billion to create jobs for vets.

The bill that Senator Pat Murray wrote, the Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012 would have trained and employed veterans for jobs in forests, wildlife refuges, parks, cemeteries and other public lands. Murray proposed paying for the $1 billion tab over five years in part by collecting delinquent taxes from both Medicare providers and suppliers, and from individuals with more than $50,000 in unpaid taxes.

In a statement, Murray denounced the Republican blockade:

“It’s both shocking and shameful that Republicans today chose to kill a bill to put America’s veterans back to work. At a time when one in four young veterans are unemployed, Republicans should have been able, for just this once, to put aside the politics of obstruction and to help these men and women provide for their families.

“But this vote is stark reminder that Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans are willing to do absolutely anything to fulfill the pledge he made nearly two years ago to defeat President Obama. It doesn’t matter who gets in their way or which Americans they have to sacrifice in that pursuit, even if it’s our nation’s veterans.

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Here are the 40 Republicans who voted to keep America’s veterans unemployed:


Alexander (R-TN)

Ayotte (R-NH)

Barrasso (R-WY)

Blunt (R-MO)

Boozman (R-AR)

Burr (R-NC)

Chambliss (R-GA)

Coats (R-IN)

Coburn (R-OK)

Cochran (R-MS)

Corker (R-TN)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Crapo (R-ID)

DeMint (R-SC)

Enzi (R-WY)

Graham (R-SC)

Grassley (R-IA)

Hatch (R-UT)

Hoeven (R-ND)

Hutchison (R-TX)

Isakson (R-GA)

Johanns (R-NE)

Johnson (R-WI)

Kyl (R-AZ)

Lee (R-UT)

Lugar (R-IN)

McCain (R-AZ)

McConnell (R-KY)

Moran (R-KS)

Paul (R-KY)

Portman (R-OH)

Risch (R-ID)

Roberts (R-KS)

Rubio (R-FL)

Sessions (R-AL)

Shelby (R-AL)

Thune (R-SD)

Toomey (R-PA)

Vitter (R-LA)

Wicker (R-MS)


The theme of the American Taliban [GOP] is "lose to win", sink to swim, escalate to disengage, shoot first, aim later.

Upon his Presidential arrival, President Obama was greeted with a Three Mile Island of an economy, so bad that in most paranoid recesses of the mind one could wonder if the "American Taliban" didn't plan it this way, to leave Obama in a position of having to prove the ultimate negative, that he staved off worldwide financial collapse, that if he had not done what he so swiftly did, that this economic cloudy day would have otherwise been the 'biblical flood of finance".

Yet since the onslaught of the tea bagger regime [2010 midterm elections] time and time again these do-nothings have done just that, do absolutely nothing. And at what cost? To ensure that Barack Obama doesn't win the November election? These very humans, whom can brush their own teeth, probably, provide us yet again, more choke and puke politics. I am not saying that these 40 Senators are intellectual midgets whom prostitute themselves to their radical base, who will do anything for big money, corrupt healthcare, and whose myopia could lead to the demise of this great country. I'm just saying -

If any two of the teapublicans on this list would have decided to put our veterans first, this bill would have moved forward. Instead, these simpletons, these teapublican Senators thanked veterans by denying them jobs.

This party aptly named "The American Taliban" [Senate Republican] actually fled from the media and refused to take questions at their weekly press conference yesterday. If you are represented by one of these senators, take the time to attend one of their events and ask them why they don’t want veterans to have jobs.

Between Mitt Romney’s secret videotape and yesterday's teapublican Senate vote, it is clear where the tea baggers stand. Twice in one week U.S. Soldiers where called moochers and job losers.

Is this what teapublicans consider patriotism? If so, I don’t want any part of their patriotism! Our veterans deserve better, and our nation’s deserves better leadership than this!

Only 47 more days until we get to go to the polls and vote for candidates who truly do support our troops.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West