Glenn Beck hits another low, he's "Ashamed" of the 99ers

[dajoki]

Glenn Beck "Ashamed" of the 99ers
by Josie Raymond August 17, 2010 03:52 PM (PT)
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/glenn_beck_ashamed_of_the_99ers

I thought the man had lost the capacity to surprise me. Or that I had lost the capacity to be surprised by his sheer idiocy. But Glenn Beck has outdone himself this time. By attacking the 99ers, a group of Americans who've used up their 99 weeks (or less) of unemployment benefits and still aren't able to find work, he has gone after not the big banks and deregulators who caused this Great Recession, but its most faultless victims. Here's what the motherbecker said on his show on Monday night:

"We've completely abandoned the whole concept of the free market system. The whole concept of, here's an idea, merit. You have to do something!

You have the 99ers, have you heard of the 99ers? These people, some of which frankly I bet you'd be ashamed to call them Americans, they think that 99 weeks on unemployment benefits just aren't enough

Last week they went down to Wall Street and they protested. 99er Connie Kaplan asked, 'Are you gonna tell us, Mr. President and Congress, that our lives are not worth saving?' Connie, here's an idea that'll help save your life ... go out and get a job! You may not want the job. Work at McDonald's. Work two jobs. ... Two years is plenty of time to have lived off your neighbor's wallet.".

Here's the problem: as 40-year-old Boston native and longtime unemployed mom Louise Davies told Change.org earlier this year, she tried to get a job at McDonald's and was turned down. "I used to ride my bike to my local McDonald's for a 7 a.m. shift ," she said. "Now even they won't hire me because I'm over-experienced."

There are 15 million people unemployed in the United States right now. One a half million can be called "99ers." When will the insensitive and the ignorant quit telling poor people to just go get jobs at fast food joints? It's not as easy as it sounds. Furhtermore, if a 99er did get a job at McDonald's working fulltime and tried to support her family of four on the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, she'd earn about $15,000 — well below the federal poverty line. So she's prepare of sell food all day, then be forced to collect food stamps from the government to feed her own family.

How did Beck miss the giant black and white signs that many people were holding at that protest on Wall Street that read, "I Want to Work"? I shouldn't be surprised since he misses the nuance of so much else. In the same segment he went on to say that members of unions like the AFL-CIO, SEIU, the Democratic Socialists of America. "These aren't regular people," he said. "They're socialists and anti-capitalists!" I'd rather be right than "regular," wouldn't you?

[Erose999]

1. Mickey D's isn't going to hire someone they know will jump ship as soon as a better opportunity

comes along. Right-wingers are such dumbasses. The "get any old job" argument doesn't work when there are 5 job seekers for every 1 available job. There literally are not enough jobs to go around.

[gratuitous]

2. Now there's a coincidence

Because I'm kind of ashamed that Beck is still on the air. I don't have a problem with his thinking or saying anything he wants, but why do we give our public airwaves over to an individual who is so deranged? Maybe Fox should learn a little shame.