According to
TMZ, Nadya Suleman is being accused of welfare fraud. The mother of 14 children is apparently entitled to receive welfare as long as she makes under $119K a year. I wonder how many people who make $119K a year actually get welfare. I understand she has 14 kids, but you would think you could still make it work if you are getting that much money a year. Anyway, Octomom made over $200K last year so should not be getting any welfare. Is this her fault? Did she submit false documents? What if you made $200K last year, but have not made any this year?
Wait a minute...I make under $119K a year. Does that mean I can collect wellfare?
ReplyDeleteDo u have 14 kids? Lol
DeleteIf you have 14 dependents, crila.
ReplyDeleteIt's Octomom, Enty. We'll never get a straight answer out of her.
ReplyDelete...In the very expensive state of California.
ReplyDeleteIf she really made $200k last year, I will immediately stop feeling sorry for her. Even if her only source of income is internet porn and pole dancing, she needs to pick up and move her brood someplace where the cost of living is low - she could seriously take care of 14 kids in, say Kansas City or wherever, on $200k a year, and she could make all the internet porn she wanted to just as easily. They gots the interwebz everywhere now.
ReplyDeleteWe who reside in Kansas City say no thank you to Octomom! ;).
ReplyDeleteSorry, Lizzard! Didn't mean to run down KC. I actually love it there; I was just trying to think of a place that has a lower cost of living, and I didn't want to suggest OKC, as I didn't want to put that idea out into the universe - we don't want her, either. Maybe somewhere in Indiana? Hee hee - just testing to see if libby is listening :-p.
DeleteBut the teacher and mother in me wants here to move here, so I could get my mitts on her kids and turn shit around for them. I hope and pray her kids are getting the intervention/therapy/education that they need. I know more than one of them has special needs. One special needs kid in a family is challenging - God only knows what's going on in that household of hers.
DeleteThat picture is all kinds of freaking me the hell out.
ReplyDeleteHer eyebrows scare me.
ReplyDelete@FSP - I was JUST going to say that. Great minds, my man.
DeleteI am also glad I was not the only one wondering what the hell was going on there. Who's missing a sharpie???
DeleteThe REAL fraud in this whole story is why those kids have never been taken away and given to FIT parents, so at least they'd have a chance in life.
ReplyDeleteAfter finding out she did this to become famous, that kind of illness didn't trigger the kids being adopted out while they were still babies and completely adoptable?
Yes FSP! She needs to do something about those brows. They are fug.
ReplyDelete@libby...I'm way behind then. I don't even have 1. I better get started.
ReplyDeleteShe needs to leave California. I think she should move to Florida.
ReplyDeleteWe who reside in the state of Florida say, no thank you to Octomom! ;).
ReplyDeleteFlorida has enough crazies to deal with.
ReplyDeleteThe east coast also does not want Octomom.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it bad enough that she's visited Florida? Haven't we suffered enough? Florida says NO to octomom!
ReplyDeleteHow bout Canada * ducks*
ReplyDeleteWell don't send her to Washington.
ReplyDeleteSure, why not....we'll ltake her in Canada, we'll take anybody. We took in Randy Quaid. See?
ReplyDelete@Amy - in Canada she'd have lots of wonderful support and no one would give her such shit about it. BUT, since she doesn't have any marketable skills Canada doesn't want her either. Or me, sniff sniff.
ReplyDeleteI know, Susan. Floridians have enough on their plate, with naked carnies shitting in front of the owners whose homes they break into.
ReplyDeleteMichigan will not claim her. We already have Flint and Detroit, and always make the 10 most dangerous states list, because of it. We don't need more shame!
Yes, Frufra. I'm listening so hard I wrote you this essay, which you now have to read:
ReplyDeleteIndiana is not a place to live, really, unless you were born here. Hoosiers are Hoosiers, and I love my state. But it is boring. And provincial. And socially uptight. Even Indianapolis, in many ways.
This city is angry though (Rust Belt poverty). And the rural areas can be VERY shotgun-wielding and religion-pushing. Indiana historically ranks very high on the racism/xenophobic factor too, I'm sorry to admit.
(No offense to my fellow Hoosiers, as we are certainly not all the same. But a quick google search will help, if you don't KWIM. I'm trying to be discreet.)
I have lived for months at a time in both NY & CA (family in both), and they are CLUELESS as to how Indiana is just its own kinda place.
There you go, Frufra. All for you, Frufra! *Leaps from window in noose*
Oh, and ON TOPIC Fru (DUH, libby)
ReplyDeleteShe COULD disappear here. But I don't think she wants that.
the kinds of places that she could live though WOULD be cheap. You are correct. But she wouldn't get that amount if she lived here---they grade your benefit$ based on where you live.
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ReplyDeleteOh, and libby, don't jump!!!!
ReplyDeleteQuit knocking the heartland - I've met some real assholes from LA and NYC. There are assholes EVERYWHERE! It's just easier to mock those who aren't as "sophisticated" as city folk.
ReplyDelete@Libby, we have good friends that moved to Indy for a job and LOVE visiting-lots of cool stuff to do! LOVE the Monon trail, biking that is super fun! I also have an Aunt/Uncle that have lived in Carmel for forever and it kills me when she makes digs about Kentucky (where we're all born & raised) like Carmel is Beverly Hills. *eyeroll* :)
ReplyDeleteThat being said, Kentucky doesn't want Octomom.
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ReplyDeleteYes, I'm an Okie. So, yeah, glass houses and all.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEDIT:
ReplyDeleteSusanB---There's something to 'knock' everywhere. I hope I didn't give the impression I was.
Transplants would have to get used to some things is all. From one area in Indianapolis to the next, or even one town to the next can be VERY different. It would be hard to move here from elsewhere. I'm sorry if that point wasn't clear.
It has been said, and not by me, that Hoosiers are second only to Texans in our pride in identity.
I moved to Indianapolis from California for about a year. I am a pretty conservative Californian. there I might as well have had purple hair and lots of piercings. They all thought I was some kind of liberal freak.
DeleteIt still floors me that she was ever eligible for welfare to begin with. And didn't the state also pay for her to have that litter of kids in the first place?
ReplyDeletecurly---EVERYONE in Indianapolis, regardless of race, is well-informed that if you don't live in Carmel, you WILL be pulled over by cops if it's after dark.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the KY-hate, curly. I think it stays because of forever basketball rivalries....You understand.
My mother's people are from KY. I couldn't admit that as a kid. Isn't that dumb? It's HARDCORE here.
Libby - I know - it just seems like a lot of people (not you) think of the wide space between NYC and LA as the land of crazed, hyper religious, bigoted gun-crazy hypocrites. I've lived in small towns and big cities - I've found these bad people in both. I've seen more kindness and acceptance of "different" people in small towns than I have in big cities. I've lived in the south for a long time and most of the hatred I've seen seems to come from transplants - like it's ok to be overtly bigoted in the south. It's not. Agree, there's something to "knock" everywhere. Me personally - I like living in a suburb (preferably a distant suburb) of a large city. Seems to be the best of both worlds. And yeah - transplanting can be difficult no matter where you go.
ReplyDeleteIt's extra silly because Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky are all so close together right there in Cincinnati!
ReplyDeleteBut it's totally about basketball, seems to me. An outsider's perspective :-).
No, no--SusanB....Indiana is not welcoming to outsiders like that..that was part of my point... as much as anywhere else I've been. Just as a culture. Small town/city...We are kinda not welcoming. In comparison.
ReplyDeleteAny other place I've been--Florida, Georgia, WV, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, KY, SC, and Virginia---All displayed those type of 'good manners' you describe. ALWAYS welcoming, because they're raised that way.
I would describe it as Indiana is more rooted in their particular identity, and more suspicious of outsiders, generally. We really love our own kind 'round here, for some reason (again, generally). I mean it, this is my home. My experiences.
It's would be hard to sway me from my own life experience, so let's stop this a-fussin' and a-feudin', eh? I gotta go soon, as John is up and i need to konfront him finally about Khloe K. (Wish me K-luck!)
I will be back for Random Photos, probably. Unless I get a life today.
BBL.
I'm sorry to hear that about Indiana - I've never been there but I've heard it's a lovely place to live. Bye, Libby! Se you in the Random Photos!
ReplyDeleteShe won't move because no tabloids will pay her. She's an atrocity and a sideshow. She had 14 kids thinking she would be famous. She got her wish. If she can pay for nannies and a hairstylist, she's still doing better than most people.
ReplyDeleteShe's a hot mess that people don't want to stop hearing about, because they care about the kids. She's obviously smart enough to know that. Those poor children.
Fresno.
ReplyDeleteNot that I want to keep her in California, but she is our mess, it's a lot cheaper to live in the Central Valley than Southern California. Plus, Fresno has a lovely zoo and Storybook Land is lots of fun when you're a kid. Christmas Tree Lane is quite nice, if they still do that.
It's also an armpit, but you can't have everything.
You can tack on IL and MO to what libby said about IN. I'm finishing school and I'm MOVING. I live in the heartland. I don't like the heartland. I know there are assholes everywhere, but the weather here certainly doesn't help, either.
ReplyDeleteLoved THE OMEN reference, BTW.
Unfortunately she would fit right in here in the UK and also get free healthcare
ReplyDeleteBay area resident here and it is bloody expensive but what it also has are jobs. She could like, get one of those and then not have to get welfare.
ReplyDeleteAnd we're renters in the area with a house south of Tahoe. Sad when you can only visit your house on the weekends and holidays.
I think she looks just like Angelina Jolie.
ReplyDelete/sarcasm
Ridiculous they allow people to get welfare increased for the amount of children they have. No benefits after one child, and drug testing should be mandatory. Makes me sick to stand in line behind the people who pull out the food stamp cards with carts full of the cheapest lunch meat and frozen pizzas available for the kids, yet have a carton of cigarettes and booze from the liquor aisle...and lets not forget the rolling papers or glass tubes with a tiny rose inside. Woman yesterday I saw with food stamp card climbed into a brand new Tahoe on the parking lot. So mad I could scream. Would have phoned her in for fraud via her license plate number, but she still had temporary tags.
ReplyDeleteI'm in small town Indiana and think it is GREAT! I knocked it when I was in high school, but I love it and think there is lots to do and lots of open attitudes :) .... we DON'T want octomom though....so I guess we still have a ways to go haha
ReplyDelete@fordellcastle...how do you know that was HER car? Or how do you know that she didn't buy the car 3 months ago when she had a job? I get sick of people judging those that are in difficult circumstances with superior rhetoric such as, "get a job." Two people making minimum wage in the "Heartland" spend almost 50% of their wages just to rent decent housing. Many minimum wage earners work 2 or 3 jobs just to put food on the table...and you would begrudge them or their children food? If you live in a middle class or upper middle class area, you can bet that you have friends and neighbors that are either food deficient or depend on charitable and government food assistance. 4 out of 10 children in this country that has so very much go to bed hungry or show up to school hungry every day and instead of seeing this for the tragedy that it is we cut programs that help and think to ourselves that they should have been born to parents who were better off.
ReplyDeleteWe are a country of great largess but it seems as though our hearts are shrinking. I have mine so screw you and yours.
You can never get past that no matter what you think of adults that need help, children are innocent of their circumstances-- they can't help how many children their parents decided to have and they shouldn't be made to suffer because of things that they cannot control. To help those children, we also have to provide assistance to adults...whether it's the parents, foster homes or state schools. And only helping one child...what do you do about the people who were perfectly capable of caring for their children when they had them but because of circumstances outside of their control (layoffs, illness, death...) they find themselves in difficult times?
Sorry for the rant but as much as I love this country we seem to have lost the capacity for compassion and it both angers and saddens me greatly.
What Lola said. High five, girl. I want you on my team - we've got some asses to kick and some kids to feed!
ReplyDelete@Lola--For conversation's sake (and NOT to get in some argument), how do you feel about people using welfare to buy cigarettes and alcohol? I'm truly curious. I disagree with everything fordellcastle said re: number of children, the person with the Tahoe whom he knows nothing about, etc., but re: people with welfare being able to buy whatever they want, including cigs and booze instead of more food to feed their children, it does make me wonder if there should be some kind of regulation. Curious as to what people think of that.
ReplyDeleteIn an ideal world, drug testing would be a good thing I guess, but that would cost an obscene amount of money (performing the tests, running screens, delivering results). Oy. That would be unrealistic and unsuccessful if they're just looking for ways to save money.
@Jolene,
ReplyDeleteYou can't use "welfare" to buy cigarettes and alcohol. (I assume you're talking about food stamps/SNAP.) This link describes how welfare benefits are doled out.
When I was a kid in a welfare home (thanks to a deadbeat dad), they gave out coupon books that looked like money in denominations of $1, $5, $10, etc. that could only be spent on food. You could buy kool-aid but not toilet paper. Frozen pizza but not soap. No welfare benefits for household items. Mom would send us kids to the store to buy 10¢ kool-aid packets so we'd get 90¢ in change. Four times and we'd have enough to buy a package of toilet paper.
Are there assholes who abuse the system? YES. Those are the ones the you notice. But that kid whose back at the bakery checking on the day old bread sales, you probably aren't noticing. That kid was me. The mom talking to the meat counter guy about markdowns, that was my mom. The kid buying 10¢ kool-aids so we could buy feminine products, that was my sister. Mom didn't do drugs, tried to hold jobs while taking care of 3 kids under 10 while dad attended to his new girl and forgot about his other kids, and didn't drink.
@Jolene
ReplyDeleteDrug testing for welfare has been proven to cost the states that have implemented it millions more than it saves. In Florida, less than 1% of welfare applicants tested positive...and funny enough, the lobbyists who pushed throught the bills to test welfare recipients are the drug testing companies that stand to make hundreds of millions. And this is not endemic to Florida. Arizona...Oklahoma...all have found their numbers to be obcenely low. But big companies sure are benefitting, on the taxpayers dime. Why aren't we up in arms about that?
And yes, you do have some people who use their welfare for things they shouldn't. There is always going to be fraud and waste in Government programs (although why we aren't NEARLY as concerned with the fraud and waste in huge contracts to Multi-billion dollar companies as we are with the "wrong" kids getting a free lunch absolutely befuddles me). But I would also say that you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that the people who really NEED it and really benefit from it are screwed because of a few bad seeds.
Welfare and public assistance have become, in many ways, victims of their success. There are very few of the generation that suffered through the Great Depression and hard times, without any public safety net, left to us. The generation alive today hasn't seen bread lines, children begging for food, people dying in the street...because we, as a nation, decided that wasn't okay...that we could do better. But by helping people, we have, as a society, forgotten HOW BAD it was, and could be again. It is unfortunate that we will likely have to get back to that point, where people suffer unbearably and irrevocably...and we all wonder how we could have let it happen...before we, as a nation, find our compassion again.
Lola for president! She's got a brain AND a heart. Hard to find both in the same politician. ;-)
ReplyDelete@Frufra
ReplyDeleteHigh five!
And for any who question the need for public assistance (and how most people are using it to barely stay afloat), spend a day volunteering in the inner city (or at your local soup kitchen). You will be both disgusted with how we allow people to sink to nothing (and spit on them while they suffer) and uplifted at the spirit and goodwill people with nothing are able to hold on to.
And Boxes Little Boxes is completely correct. I have never had to use SNAP, although I HAVE had to decide between some groceries and tampons that week.
ReplyDeleteGood luck (and many blessings and hugs) to anyone who has to make those kinds of decisions. That's why I'm a social-worker-in-training...too many people need help. Not a hand-out, mind you...HELP. So that they can become empowered to help THEMSELVES.
Lola, if you aren't already working someplace to advocate for children, we need you in Oklahoma. Lots of problems here, but lots of big hearts, too. It's amazing what you learn when you get busy with the work of change.
ReplyDeleteYou go, AKM! So excited to hear that you're a social worker to be - bless you :-).
ReplyDeleteOh, and re Boxes and AKM's comments - you can't buy diapers with SNAP, either. Consider starting or contributing to a diaper bank where ever you might live. As a mom, I can't think of much worse than not being able to change my baby when he needed it. And diapers are so, so expensive. Add the expense of diapers with the expense of formula, and forget about it - it's really tough. I know it was a big financial burden to us when we had our first. And my husband was a police officer at the time!
ReplyDeleteI agree that in any country there are enormous numbers of working poor. I agree with assistance to help purchase food & household items. I also think budgeting classes should be mandatory because Frufra, for many years cloth nappies were used on babies. They are cheaper than disposables & not as rough on the environment. If you don't have the money, you buy as many reusable items as possible. I work with a bloke who rorts the system here in Australia, who complains that his welfare has been cut because he is on the books, & who smokes, gambles & drinks before paying his bills, putting savings aside & looking after his daughter. He & his wife are expecting child number 2. They are both capable of working, but he is lazy & doesn't do the job he is employed to do, & she is studying, but has already changed courses. How many years should the taxpayers be helping them out? Take children away from deadbeat parents. Children are a privilege, not a right.
ReplyDelete@feraltart...
ReplyDeleteI understand your anger, but give them to whom?
Unless you are under the age of 3 (at best) and white or have light colored skin, no one wants you.
I agree that cloth diapers are a viable alternative, but they get difficult for people without regular access to a washing machine. And I love the idea of money management classes. My main objective, though, is to help babies who are completely innocent bystanders in the drama that their parents have forced upon them. In a country like ours, that has so much, we surely can spare a bit of our abundance to care for our children.
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent point, Frufra. When I was at the DV agency, we tried to keep as many personal products on hand as we could. People, companies, church groups, etc. always wanted to give us food and clothing, and other than the easy-open food items that we could give to those in our emergency shelter program, we just didn't have the space nor did we need the food and clothes, usually. We had SO many clients tell us, "I have enough food right now for the month from WIC/SNAP/food bank. What I really need is some shampoo and diapers for my baby."
ReplyDeleteGood-Deed-For-Wednesday Plug: Take a few bucks, go to the store, purchase several bottles of shampoo, and take it to your local DV shelter. You won't believe how grateful they will be.
(Of course, you could certainly call first and see what they really need. Chances are, though, that toiletries are high on their lists. There are so many food drives, but rarely do you hear of a personal-items drive.)
My daughter and I volunteer regularly at an organization that supplies relief and medical supplies to disaster stricken areas around the globe (if you were in hurricane Sandy and got a personal care kit, there's an excellent chance we packed, or supervised the people that packed, your kit). When disasters strike, we always get donations of clothes and food (we deal with neither and pass them on to local shelters or groups that do deal with those items) when what people need are toiletries, diapers, formula, toothpaste. The personal care items always are forgotten. Not to belittle people who do donate other things by any means (there is always a need for most things), but toiletries and personal care are the forgotten, yet urgently needed, items.
ReplyDeleteFrufra, I have a lot of family from Oklahoma and the state really makes me shake my head sometimes in regards to how they care for the people who need it most. Add in that they have one of the lowest child support requirements in the country and it's no wonder you see so many single women and children desperately in need of help. (Kansas is only marginally better)
ReplyDeleteWe do some volunteering with kids (my daughter reads to kids in Head Start) but since I usually take her along, I try to choose things that don't impact her negatively. I have made a concerted effort to make sure that she knows that she lives a privledged existence...and that people suffer in our backyard; but she is extrememly sensitive and SEEING those things literally keeps her awake at night (after one volunteer stint, she literally broke down in tears and asked why she had so much when there were so many people who had nothing-- and why did we let her have so much). She has enough time to learn that the world is a cruel place so we devote most of our time to the afore mentioned relief agency and to environmental causes.
I admire people who deal with needy children. It is a difficult, difficult...thankless job and it is no wonder people end up burned out.
@Lola-I am so sorry for what I wrote. I posted before I had time to cool off. You were right to tell me off. I deserved every word of it.
ReplyDeleteLola, I agree with you regarding being careful about your daughter's exposure - my kids are exactly the same way. But I have to say that there is an awesome reward in helping kids - they give you love and good vibes that will make your damn day, week, month, and year! Not to deny the very real feeling of dispair when you can't ultimately do ENOUGH for them, but providing food to a little dude that needs it is a feeling like nothing else I've ever experienced. Makes me feel like I won the Super Bowl :-).
ReplyDeleteI also get a kind of guilty pleasure out of forcing companies and people who aren't very generous to give money or products for kids who need it. It's like some kind of a Robin Hood vengence-type thing for me.
ReplyDelete@fordell
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your response. We all have bad days when it is hard to feel compassion for people who appear to be bilking the system and appear to not need help. We ALL need help at some point in our lives.
In saying that I will put out there that there are many days that my compassion takes a vacation...I would never cop to being some benevolent angel. I hope though, that we all try to do our best to recognize that we are the lucky ones in life. On that note, my beautiful, amazing daughter said something the other day that is so true...
No matter how bad your day or your life is at the moment, it doesn't mean that the happy parts don't exist and have never been there.
When you have nothing, that is sometimes the hardest thing to hold on to.
(And Lola steps off of her soapbox for the day, reminding everyone that it's not just on blogs that I tend to be a curmudgeon about things.)
Looking for toiletries to donate to your local charity? Ask your dentist ahead of time, if he/she could possibly get their reps to donate toothbrushes & toothpaste. Reps are very generous with handouts & it doesn't cost your dentist a thing except a phone call. Bringing homemade muffins in while asking also helps. As does getting your child(ren) involved in the request.
ReplyDeleteHate to sound manipulative, but a girls gotta know how to twist arms for the right reason ;)
I know of people who did abuse the Monopoly money food stamps, trading it to stores for beer and cigs. They'll always be people who do this, with anything..not just welfare. I also know folks who depended on it to eat, and were grateful to get it, and wouldn't dream of cheating in a million years.
ReplyDeleteThat does not mean I'm any less disgusted by Octobitch.
Thank you Lola and Frufra! This was some great reading tonight :)
ReplyDeleteI've been at the bottom myself. It's the loneliest and coldest place of all. And the shame of asking for help was unbearable. However, without the kindness of strangers and family I don't know what I would have done. Compassion is the greatest gift we have for others. Spread the light!
It's the generational welfare that needs to stop, It's a racket for some and they should be sterilized.
ReplyDeleteSorry, have to say i got burned out on the later comments [i try to read all of them before commenting], but i can say i breathe a sigh of relief when i read Susan B's comments, and i'm thrilled when i read Libby's comments.
ReplyDeleteLibby, you seem to feel that your comments aren't appreciated -- All i can say is that I 'Kvell' and grin when i see that you've commented. You're terrific!!!
Susan B., please carry on ;-)
Re Octomom? I. Can't. It's. An. Impossible. No-Win. Situation. [For all involved.]
Truly, I can't broadcast my real feelings about the person known as 'Octomom' because they are so antithetical to my deeply held beliefs about how one responds to other humans. Because IMO she's beyond the human pale.
@agent it: We may want that solution, but it's constitutionally impossible. But, yeah, that's what we need because it's a 'learned' process.
ReplyDelete