Nobody here but us hobos

Last week, Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly blog collected some recent quotes by Republicans that showed outright hostility to the unemployed. It was the usual crap: we're all lazy drug addicts who refuse to take the good jobs that are out there just begging to be filled. One of the more bizarre was Dean Heller (R-NV) asking "is the government now creating hobos?" Rachel Maddow did a piece the next day playing the tapes of the statements. Clever Wife has been in a low simmer ever since. Yesterday, she came to a boil after visiting the pharmacy. When it was our turn at the counter, I stared to explain that our COBRA runs out on Wednesday. Before I could finish, the pharmacist said, "right, I refill anything I can." I looks like our situation is common enough that she didn't even need to hear our question before knowing what we needed.

The (employed) punditocracy and our (employed) congresspeople are agreed that deficits are more important than people and that the best way to reduce those deficits is to make more people unemployed and to make more painful. After all, in hard times like these, other people must make sacrifices. It's understandable that we feel frustrated. Thankfully, they can't shut us up. Not yet, at least. CW came home from the pharmacy and created a Facebook page for the hurting. It's called "Nobody Here but Us Hobos." We don't expect a Facebook page to change the world, but it might be nice to have a place to vent and share stories. We can keep a tally of which political leaders and pundits are hostile to the unfortunate and which are willing to help, who reaches down and who kicks down. Who knows, maybe a little political organizing will come out of it. And if not, it never hurts to know someone is willing to listen and share your pain and outrage.