Well, it’s official. I have officially lost my sense of humor. I laughed when the Ted Haggard story came out; he was a top political evangelical with access to the White House. When they caught McCain’s Florida campaign chair offering that undercover cop a twenty to let him blow him, I did a very funny piece on it. When they caught the newly elected chair of the GOP trying to blow a guest while he slept on the couch, I did a funny piece on that.

But now they caught Senator Larry Craig trying to blow an undercover cop in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. (continued)

I'm sure many of you have already seen the news.  The minimum wage went up to the princely sum of $5.85/hour on Tuesday.  Although it's a start, it's nowhere near enough.  Indeed, this miniscule wage increase still leaves millions of Americans below the poverty line here, in the richest nation on Earth.  And the one candidate who realizes that even $7.25/hour (the amount the minimum wage is scheduled to reach) is not enough is John Edwards.  Follow me after the jump for more on how John Edwards is waging the latest battle in the War on Poverty.

Since Obama has put out his plan it is time to line the two plans up and see what the proposals are. So here we go!! Once again I am pulling the info from their websites so I am not going to link.

I've been criticized from time to time for "humanizing" the health crisis. People write to me complaining about "my stories".  No, they're not my stories, they're tragic American stories.

I'm sure it can't be easy to defy the pundits, consultants and the professional talkers--all that brilliant and expensive conventional wisdom.

A story has recently made itself known in this space that has become more than a one-day event, and as a result we will be doing some follow-ups.

The complexity of the story requires that we discuss the nuts and bolts of the larger environment within which the story is contained, and we will do that today.

The Poor are Getting Poorer; In the Meantime, In Between Time, Aint We Got Fun....
I caught an interview with Matt Bai on "The Young Turks" on June 7.  (You need a premium membership to listen to it). At the end of the interview Bai tells Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankowicz that he asked John Edwards if Edwards worried about making poverty the centerpiece of his campaign?  What if Edwards lost the nomination?  Would poverty then never be at the center of anyone’s campaign again for the next forty years?    Edwards said, "It keeps me up at night."

I would never of believe this could happen in Ca. but not only does it happen, it seems to be wide spread and growing. I'm not talking about a huge amount of money owed per family before the punishment kicks in, the amount is only $5.00. What is happening when a parent owes 5 bucks or more ?

There are 90 million reasons why we need John Edwards as our next president of the US, and Bob Herbert explains why. There are 37 million people who are living below the US poverty line, and there are a total of 90 million people now who are barely making ends meet, or who are less than twice the level of the poverty l

Some stories are only for entertainment, and some stories are meant to teach us a lesson. At least that is what we have been lead to believe for the last fifty years or so. However, when we look for the stories that are only meant to entertain us we almost always find some thoughtful instructive lessons in those stories regardless of their entertainment purpose.

copyright paul kane 2007 all rights reserved

From a 2005 Conference of Mayors survey of 23 cities:

We have heard John Edwards, speak again and again about the two America’s, the haves and the have nots. His message resonates with me, because I witness it every week in my own life. I wanted to take the time in this diatribe to share my experiences of the disparity with you.

It is likely that most readers of these pages are familiar with microlending, and by extension, Mohammad Yunus, the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Microlending (the extension of small amounts of capital to the world’s poorest people) has become a huge part of Bangladeshi life, as just one example, and there are many excellent discussions of what the concept means to the world.

The third in a three-part series on Hunger in Massachusetts and part of the continuing guerrilla vlogger series.


Last summer, the food pantry near where I live sent out an urgent request:

Please help, we are having the busiest summer in five years. We need help feeding all the kids that are out of school and not receiving their school lunch.

The cold winter months and school vacation are the toughest times for providers to cope with their demands.

For this part of the story I sit down with a couple of providers for a one on one discussion and get out to a food pantry to see what they do exactly. Tony Luna of Central Food Ministry in Lowell, MA allowed to tape at his facility and Janet Barsorian of the Lowell Transtitonal Living Shelter, the largest homeless shelter in Lowell, gave me a few minutes of her precious time at the MVFB to discuss the challenges she faces as a provider.

The second in a three-part series on Hunger in Massachusetts and part of the continuing guerrilla vlogger series.

Last summer, the food pantry near where I live sent out an urgent request:

Please help, we are having the busiest summer in five years. We need help feeding all the kids that are out of school and not receiving their school lunch.

The cold winter months and school vacation are the hardest times to make ends meet when you're on a modest income. Massachusetts has a particularly severe problem with hunger because we have intense cold in the winter and the cost of living is so high all year round.

There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to alleviate the ever increasing and ever expanding needs of the providers in your area. This week a brief recap of part one and the full tour I got at Merrimack Valley Food Bank.

The first in a three-part series on Hunger in Massachusetts and part of the continuing guerrilla vlogger series.

Last summer, the food pantry near where I live sent out an urgent request:

Please help, we are having the busiest summer in five years. We need help feeding all the kids that are out of school and not receiving their school lunch.

So in an effort to learn more about this issue, I decided to do this vlog and I've been video-taping at the Merrimack Valley Food Bank for this diary.

I contacted them through their website and they were happy that someone, even a guerrilla like me, wanted to do something, anything, to shed some light on this problem and promote awareness about what they and all the other providers do and how you can help.

I hope that you follow me below the fold for the video and some facts about hunger. Please let us all know about your experiences in your area.