[h/t Heather

I'm speechless. This little rant by Kate O'Beirne at a Republican strategy session is so evil, so incredibly cold-hearted, and so predictably right-wing that it makes me want to shove a big bowl of cereal and a big banana right down her chicken-hearted little gullet. Ebenezer Scrooge would be proud of his progeny.

O’BEIRNE: And then the title of our gathering is so crucial; “Less of Washington and More of Ourselves”. The federal school lunch program and now breakfast program and I guess in Washington DC, dinner program are pretty close to being sacred cows… broad bipartisan support. And if we’re going to ask more of ourselves, my question is what poor excuse for a parent can’t rustle up a bowl of cereal and a banana? I just don’t get why millions of school children qualify for school breakfasts unless we have a major wide spread problem with child neglect. You know, I mean if that’s how many parents are incapable of pulling together a bowl of cereal and a banana, then we have problems that are way bigger than… that problem can’t be solved with a school breakfast, because we have parents who are just criminally… ah… criminally negligent with respect to raising children.



And yet, that’s the kind of program that has huge bipartisan support with very little thought about why we’re now feeding children. Talk about a fundamental parental responsibility. In what sense can we begin asking the “more of ourselves” piece to go with this less government?

Obviously she never met Jaelithe, who relied on the school lunch program to survive because her mother was young, single and poor, struggling to raise her daughter and get an education to better herself. Are these the words of an abused child, or just one raised in a world where the only outstretched hand was the government's? Exactly what part of Jaelithe's mother's "self" should have given more?

But going hungry — that is a different story. That's waking up in the morning hungry. Feeling, throughout the day, hungry. Lying in bed not able to sleep just yet because you are hungry. Dreaming about feeling hungry. And there is not any trip to the taco place down the street and not a trip to McDonald's instead and not a trip to the farmer's market or the grocery store, either, because there is no money for those things. There is not even the option of a trip to the backyard for some homegrown tomatoes or cucumbers or strawberries because there is no yard when you live in a run-down apartment or a shelter or a car. There is only your hollow-eyed mother who is hungrier than you are dividing the last stale crackers to make them last. Assuming that you are lucky enough to have a mother. And crackers.

This goes so far beyond the sacred right-wing cow of personal responsibility. It's outright cruelty. These pigs are out there shouting to give zillionaires a fat year-end bonus and extend it for a couple of years while sticking it to poor people who rely on programs like the school lunch and breakfast program to survive. Lest you think this was just a slip of the tongue, here's more of her teabagging nonsense:

Maybe she should shut up and listen to what's going on around her for a change. If she did, she might not, miss the fact that food banks are struggling to meet demand as more and more families struggle to keep roofs over their heads, sacrificing other necessities like food and clothing. Since 2006, the need for some form of assistance has tripled. Tripled.

Here's an example of someone O'Beirne considers a child abuser:

Elizabeth Brown looked tired. When her husband, "the main money-maker" died three years ago, she was left with a 10- and a 5-year-old. She worked part time at Allegheny General Hospital in housekeeping with help from her family, "but they couldn't help that much. They're having hard times themselves." She couldn't afford child care on her earnings, so she left the job and is now, at 40, raising a 13-year old and 8-year old on food stamps worth $550 a month.

There's a profile of a child abuser for Ms. O'Beirne.

Only in her little imaginary world. That's the only place that everyone has enough to eat and to feed their children. Anyone who doesn't must be a child abuser, because they should be able to slap together a banana and cereal in the morning.

If they had cereal. Or a banana.

Or the money to buy cereal and a banana.

This is the world of the heartless and the selfish, the teabagger. They trot through life making pronouncements on others with mighty conviction without ever having walked in the shoes of the poor and likely profiting from the sacrifices yanked from the vanishing ranks of the middle class. There is no humanity, no compassion, no understanding. Just a pair of bootstraps to beat up anyone less fortunate.

After watching this I'm feeling the need to make a donation to a nearby food bank to offset this woman's evil. Here's a tool to find one near you, should you feel the same way.

If anyone knows where Robin Hood is hiding, perhaps they could direct him to Kate O'Beirne's house as a first stop?