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49 million Americans lacked access to a dependable food source in 2008.
17 million children, more than 1 in 5 faced hunger in 2008. These are the highest numbers registered since the government has been keeping track. For perspective the report was released by the USDA ten days before Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, the right wing media is obsessed with President Obama bowing to greet the Emperor of Japan when a two minute google search will yield pictures of President's greeting foreign leaders with a bow dating back to Eisenhower. The mainstream media is obsessed with selling Sarah Palin's ghost-written fictional account of her failed candidacy even though it has been thoroughly debunked by the Associated Press and more partisan outlets like Media Matters.
Republican Senators and Representatives seem consumed with a fear that the American justice system and its' law enforcement personnel are not up to the challenge of administering justice to terror suspects in this country. Whether their fears are legitimate or represent a cynical ploy to create fear for political gain is unclear. I suspect the latter.
Nearly 2000 years ago Roman poet Juvenal coined the phrase "Bread and Circus' to mock the faux populism of the politicians of his day. Today it seems we have an abundance of circus, but not nearly enough bread.
