Food or Fireworks?

[Mark Crnolatas]

I watched the big show on TV last night from Wash, DC and what came to mind was this: After seeing some features on the horrific conditions our own citizens are living in, particularly in the coal mining type areas of Appalachia now with no food at all, kids running around in the worst poverty one could imagine, I wonder how much the cost of that big show I was watching was. Millions I would guess.

How many meals would that have served those starving in our own states?
If I were "King", I think I would have, under the circumstances, canceled such goings on this year, and channeled those funds to feed our own citizens who I'm sure didn't get a chance to enjoy the entertainment and fireworks in the capitol.

Priorities ?

Mark Allan Crnolatas
In God We Trust

[Roy Pitchford]

I'm a little more curious about the Hawaiian party that was thrown at the White House in the last couple weeks. How much did that all cost?

[Jim DeVito]

What about the starving kids in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, america, or anyware else in the world? How many starving kids can we save with the money from the two wars, from sending everybody and there mother to prison, from the war on drugs, from... any number of things we waist money on. We could go on for days but in the end it will never change. There will always be starving kids and there will always be entire countries of people living above there means. Sucks but that is how it goes.

[ryan costa]

i said something to that effect a year ago and 8 years ago and nobody cared.

I look forward to many spectacular July 4 fireworks televised from DC in the future.

Hawaii food is mostly pork and pineapple and rice and sweet potatoes. cheap stuff.
let's truck some into appalachia.

There are quite a few appalachians on my street. the kids have been detonating noisemakers and bottle rockets all week.

[Mark Crnolatas]

I wasn't making a political statement, if that is what it seemed like. It was meant more a commentary on how little we actually care for our fellow man in our own country.

Mark Allan Crnolatas

[Charlie Page]

I watched the big show on TV last night from Wash, DC and what came to mind was this: After seeing some features on the horrific conditions our own citizens are living in, particularly in the coal mining type areas of Appalachia now with no food at all, kids running around in the worst poverty one could imagine, I wonder how much the cost of that big show I was watching was. Millions I would guess.

How many meals would that have served those starving in our own states?
If I were "King", I think I would have, under the circumstances, canceled such goings on this year, and channeled those funds to feed our own citizens who I'm sure didn't get a chance to enjoy the entertainment and fireworks in the capitol.

Priorities ?

Mark Allan Crnolatas
In God We Trust

You could say the same thing about the $300+ pound kobe beef dinners, NYC photo op fly-overs that cost us taxpayers over 300k (and throw NY into a 9-11 panic), expensive inauguration parties, etc. We’ve been told to tighten our belts but our president has seemed to loosen his up. Whatever happened to leading by example?

Closer to home, should we be foregoing those 42 inch LCD TVs, cell phones, 30k kitchen remodels, trips to DQ and buying Miller Lite rather than Great Lakes?

On a side note, I had a roommate in college who got a free ride because he was “Appalachian White”.

[Brian Pedaci]

Come on now, Charlie. Obama has found some areas in which to scrimp.

Gifts to foreign dignitaries for one

[Charlie Page]

Come on now, Charlie. Obama has found some areas in which to scrimp.

Gifts to foreign dignitaries for one

Yes, the DVD collection in the wrong format and iPod.

He also skimped on the Russian translator for the button Hillary handed out.

This must be the "scalpel" approach to cutting spending that Obama mentioned during a debate with McCain.

[Will Brown]

If you watch the whole show, you would in all probability see a list of sponsors who paid for the event. The government rarely puts in any significant funds. And even if it did, it would not be enough to make a significant dent in poverty. I'm not convinced that any American children are starving, other than those who eat junk food. If our poor are starving, why do we have so many people sneaking over the border to live in such poverty?

Our politicians have always tried to put on a good show to demonstrate how strong we are. If they canceled the bread and circuses because of an economic slowdown, that would be a discouraging example just when they think we need to have our spirits lifted.

Perhaps you could name five children who are starving?

[Mark Crnolatas]

No children starving in the U.S.?

Try googling "Are there children starving in the U.S.?

[ryan costa]

there are millions of illegals sneaking over the border to work here because policies the U.S. and World Bank coerced onto Mexico created a lot more unemployment in those countries.

Maybe there are kids having less-than-enough food in parts of America. there is usually a lot of land and a lot of unemployment in these areas. what is needed is a lot of hippy-science sustainable agriculture co-op stuff in those regions. They don't - initially - have the money to import food off the wal-mart truck or launch capital intensive export-based cash crops.