Before I am ready make the claim that I am a liberal it might be wise to say just what I think a liberal is. A liberal is just someone who generally supports the little guys rights over the rights of government and big business. Okay so now you know why this liberal who has never owned or shot a gun is a strong second amendment proponent.
I also argue that if the government can deny the citizens second amendment right then they can deny any constitutional rights, which of course they now do with impunity.
The elites must have seen the credit crisis coming for at least as long as Greenspan's Fed headship. So, they must have at least been preparing to keep order and protect themselves during food riots for at least 20 years. Then the first order of business would be to get the guns.
Peasants with pitch forks are fine, but impoverished gun owners crashing the gate could upset the table. Conspiracy theory?
Yup!
Michigan Braces for a Surge in Welfare Applications
By SARA MURRAY
Michigan's generous jobless benefits and strict eligibility rules have kept the welfare rolls down despite the state's 14.1% unemployment rate, the highest in the country. But a surge in jobless workers reaching the time limit for unemployment benefits in coming months could change that.
More than 5,000 unemployed residents of southeast Michigan looked for work at a job fair sponsored by the city of Detroit in March. Some filled out job applications on computers, while others waited to speak to recruiters.
A major test for the state's welfare system could come by January, when nearly one in seven unemployed workers will have exhausted their jobless benefits, unless the laws change, said Norm Isotalo, a spokesman for Michigan's unemployment-insurance agency. Many of the more than 680,000 unemployed workers in the state are collecting jobless benefits, which last for as long as 79 weeks.
Other states with high unemployment, such as Florida and Oregon, have already seen significant increases in welfare caseloads.
"We're expecting a huge influx of applications in the next few months," said Barbara Anders, the director of adult and family services at the Michigan Department of Human Services. About 100,000 people's jobless benefits will expire by January. Officials hope for funding to add staff to handle the influx, and the state Senate appropriations committee has approved hiring 200 more staffers.
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"We believe that the safety net remains strong in Michigan," said Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm. She added that the state's food-assistance and Medicaid programs have expanded.
In contrast to most other big states, welfare caseloads in Michigan are 4.8% below year-ago levels, though the total number of cases has stopped falling in the past four months. In April, the state reported about 70,000 families were receiving welfare under the federal-state Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, or TANF. But nearly one in seven residents, or 1.4 million in all, are receiving food stamps -- a clear symptom of Michigan's economic distress.
The state has some of the strictest welfare rules in the nation, dating back to its pioneering welfare-overhaul efforts in the 1990s. Michigan is one of four states that closes a family's case the first time it fails to comply with a requirement -- such as spending a set amount of time searching for a job -- according to the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.
Michigan is the only one of those four states that also suspends a family's benefits for three months when it doesn't comply; the other three suspend them for one month. Families that are suspended for breaking the rules must reapply for benefits.
![[Paycheck Paradox]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/NA-AY575A_WELFA_NS_20090625192019.gif)
Local advocates for low-income people cite Michigan's rules limiting the income or assets of would-be welfare recipients. A family of three that earns more than $814 a month is ineligible for welfare in Michigan, a threshold that hasn't changed in more than two decades, said Sharon Parks, president of the Michigan League for Human Services, an advocacy group for low-income people.
"The fact that it's stayed the same means that you have to be poorer and poorer to qualify for cash assistance," Ms. Parks said.
In the 1990s, under Republican Gov. John Engler, Michigan developed one of the nation's first programs to push welfare recipients to work, an approach adopted nationally in 1996. The rules tightened further under Ms. Granholm in 2006. The rules allow families to receive benefits for a maximum of two years, and toughened penalties for not following work requirements.
Before Michigan's welfare office will open a case, an applicant must first visit a Michigan Works office to register for a job-search program, and report frequently thereafter, which some advocates say has discouraged applications in a state where jobs are scarce.
"It's just perceived to be this roadblock to getting assistance," said Kristin S. Seefeldt, assistant director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, who has followed 45 low-income women for the past four years.
For those who already have jobs, the job-search program doesn't bend around work schedules. For others, the job-search program primarily consists of spending hours looking at want ads. "They could do that on their own, and the amount of money they'd get from TANF isn't worth it" for some people, Ms. Seefeldt said. The monthly welfare check for a family of three in Michigan is $492, or $5,904 a year
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