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Another Saturday, another segment on Faux News where they're attacking the poor and food stamp recipients, which, other than attacking union members, seems to be one of their favorite pastimes during their so-called "business block," From Cavuto on Business, after Cavuto opens the segment dismayed about all of the people "on the dole" still receiving food stamps and guest Dagen McDowell carrying on about how this is proof that "big government" is out of control, we got this bit of nastiness out of regular, Charles Payne:

CAVUTO: The argument, Charles Payne, is that once you get them, it's hard to stop them, so the benefit is there and it's hard to take the benefit of it away and the more people that are getting them, then it's just exponentially grows.

PAYNE: Yeah, well there's absolutely no doubt about that, that there's this idea that, you know, between the food stamps and the welfare and the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit and the local programs, you know, it gets a little comfortable to be in poverty, you know... and I know people are going to.... listen. No. Listen, I've lived it first hand. I've seen where people don't go to work because they get everything paid for them. The incentive is not there.

Yeah, all of those lucky ducky poor people who are just living the high life out there. Charlie Gasparino attempted to assert himself as somewhat of the voice of reason in the segment and a number of the members of the panel admitted that unemployment numbers are still terrible and people are hurting out there, but it really didn't get much better from there. Ben Stein made the ridiculous remark that "the war on hunger" appears to have been won, ignoring the fact that we've got millions of children in this country who don't know where their next meal is coming from -- and ignoring that lack of access to nutritious food and eating cheap junk that is bad for you instead is contributing to the problem with obesity, not that poor people out there have too much money to spend on food.

What we were treated to here is yet another example of Fox and their war on anti-poverty measures:

Not content to shame food stamps recipients and bully them into silence, Fox News is now targeting efforts to raise awareness of poverty and food insecurity.

The latest front in the Fox News war on anti-poverty measures takes aim at chef Mario Batali as he highlights the difficulties of living on food stamps -- problems that are routinely dismissed on Fox while the network pushes for drastic cuts to nutritional aid and other anti-poverty measures.

h/t Media Matters

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The Daily Show's Jon Stewart spoke to directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush about their new documentary coming to theaters and available on demand and at iTunes on March 1st, A Place at the Table, which highlights the issue of food insecurity in the United States and what can be done to solve it.

Sadly as the film's directors pointed out, after a lot of outrage after a 1968 documentary came out on hunger in America, our politicians at the time reacted and went a long way towards eradicating hunger in America and put in place a social safety net to make sure we did not have Americans suffering from the type of food insecurity that outraged so many.

Stewart asked them what happened to change that and how we wound up facing the same problem now and you could probably sum it up in just a few words: Ronald Reagan and demonizing welfare queens -- or pretending we've got some "moocher class" out there that we see demonized on Fox daily by the likes of Bill O'Reilly and his ilk today.

Jacobson and Silverbush are hoping that raising awareness about the fact that we have religious institutions overwhelmed right now trying to take up the slack for the job that our government should be doing will motivate citizens to get out there and put pressure on the politicians to act and address the problem.

Here's more from their press release: About The Film:

50 million people in the U.S.-one in four children-don’t know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine this issue through the lens of three people who are struggling with food insecurity: Barbie, a single Philadelphia mother who grew up in poverty and is trying to provide a better life for her two kids; Rosie, a Colorado fifth-grader who often has to depend on friends and neighbors to feed her and has trouble concentrating in school; and Tremonica, a Mississippi second-grader whose asthma and health issues are exacerbated by the largely empty calories her hardworking mother can afford.

Their stories are interwoven with insights from experts including sociologist Janet Poppendieck, author Raj Patel and nutrition policy leader Marion Nestle; ordinary citizens like Pastor Bob Wilson and teachers Leslie Nichols and Odessa Cherry; and activists such as Witness to Hunger’s Mariana Chilton, Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio and Oscar®-winning actor Jeff Bridges.

Ultimately, A Place at the Table shows us how hunger poses serious economic, social and cultural implications for our nation, and that it could be solved once and for all, if the American public decides-as they have in the past-that making healthy food available and affordable is in the best interest of us all.

You can read more about their campaign here and can watch the trailer below.

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Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) on Tuesday faced tough questions from CNN host Soledad O'Brien for his plan to cut the food stamp program and "hurt people who need food," including 20 percent of his own constituents in Alabama.

Speaking to Sessions in an interview on CNN's Starting Point, O'Brien wondered if cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be on the table as part of the so-called fiscal cliff negotiations.

"Absolutely," Sessions insisted. "This month was a record increase in food stamp participation at a time when unemployment is declining."

"But there are people who say if you're doing cuts, you invariably hurt people who need food," O'Brien observed. "It's 61 percent of households in your state have children who are recipients of the food program that they're on."

"Soledad, this program has been growing out of control at an incredible rate and there are a lot of people receiving benefits who do not qualify and should not receive them," Sessions remarked. "No child, no person who needs food should be denied that food. Nobody proposes that. We are talking about an amendment that I offered that would have reduced and closed a loophole of $8 billion when we would spend $800 billion was opposed by saying it would help -- it would leave people hungry in America, but it would have only eliminated abuses in the program."

The CNN host, however, pointed out that the Alabama Republican had voted twice to grow the program and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities had determined that "SNAP has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program."

"People highlight the program as actually not having a lot of fraud," O'Brien explained. "Most people who are on it are not somehow working the system. They're just hungry people."

"That's not accurate," Sessions replied. "They're counting the computer system fraud error rate, but they're not out counting the real people who are filing false incomes or haven't reported changes in their income."

O'Brien continued to press Sessions, noting that "the problem could be in the reverse" because less than 70 percent of the people who qualify for food stamps were using the program.

"I guess when you are thinking of things to cut, people basically say, why are you trying to balance the budget on people who are making under $23,000 a year?" she asked. "I think that range, roughly, is the national average for what a family of four would get on food stamps. So, why not cut something else? There are other things that could be on the table before you pick a program that is feeding the nations poor children."

"I say all programs need to be examined in this government," Sessions shot back. "This government is wasting money every day. There is no doubt about that. And food stamps is a program that was totally exempted from any oversight when it has gone up four times in the last ten years in the amount we spend."

"Two of those times you voted for it, sir!" O'Brien interrupted. "Some people would say it's growing because people are hurting."

"I voted for the [agriculture] bill that had that in it, probably so," Sessions shrugged.

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From Current TV's new series, Currently on hunger, under-nutrition and obesity in America. This segment from The Young Turks takes a look at celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck and the work he's doing with Meals on Wheels.

For more interviews, articles and recipes, check out their new site here -- http://current.com/currently/feeding-the-need/ .

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As Nicole posted here earlier this week, Sesame Street has decided to add a new character to educate children about food insecurity. Apparently that was terribly upsetting to the panelists Andrea Tantaros, Eric Bolling, Greg Gutfeld and Kimberly Guilfoyle on Fox's The Five, which replaced Glenn Beck's show on their evening lineup.

Bob Beckel, the lonely representative for "the left," did his best to try to remind the rest of them of just how many children in the United States are going hungry every day and it didn't make an ounce of difference to the rest of the panel, some of whom were more worried about their children being made aware of the fact that children are going hungry and that heaven forbid hearing about it might scare their otherwise isolated offspring.

And as Media Matters reported, it's not just Fox attacking Sesame Street for this, but right-wing bloggers as well -- Strings Attached: Right-Wing Media Take Shots At New Poverty-Stricken Sesame Street Character.

Thom Hartmann talked to author Frederick Kaufman about his cover story in this month's edition of Harper's Magazine The food bubble: How Wall Street starved millions and got away with it.

It's subscription only but you can read more about Kaufman and his work at his blog AmericanStomach.com.

UPDATE: One of our readers was kind enough to send along a link to the full article. It's available here.

Thom shared a little of the article during his interview with Kaufman.

Hartmann: "The history of food took an ominous turn in 1991, at a time when no one was paying much attention. That was the year Goldman Sachs decided our daily bread might make an excellent investment."

And then towards the end of the story, just a couple of sentences here. "Bankers had taken control of the world's food, money chased money and a billion people went hungry." Remember the food riots of a couple of years ago around the world?

"The world wide price of food had risen by 80% between 2005 and 2008 and unlike other food catastrophes in the last half century or so, the United States was not insulated from this one." Could it be because it was our banksters that were doing it?

"As 49 million Americans found themselves unable to put a full meal on the table, one in five kids came to be dependent on food kitchens. In Los Angeles nearly a million people went hungry. In Detroit, armed guards had to watch over grocery stores." And then the question, "Could this happen again?"

Really great interview. Too bad our "mainstream media" isn't touching this one. As they noted during the interview, it looks like there's nothing that these bankers won't exploit to make a buck. Really disgusting. And all we've got going on in the United States is some half-baked sorry excuse for "reform".

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From The PBS Newshour Hunger in America:

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight: hunger in America. Jeffrey Brown has our story.

JEFFREY BROWN: One in seven American households had a hard time putting enough food on the table last year, that from a new report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- 14.6 percent of U.S. households, nearly 50 million Americans, found themselves in need during 2008, an increase of 13 million people from the year before. The new figure is the highest since data collection began in 1995.

The USDA called the problem food insecurity, instead of hunger. But, by any name, President Obama said, the findings were unsettling. And his secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said it's a -- quote -- "wakeup call for the country."

Inside those numbers, a more dire toll: One-third of those in need said they have been forced to skip meals, cut portions significantly, or go without food altogether.

Cynthia Sibley helps coordinate the Simple Supper, a community meal and food bank run from a Methodist church in Eagle, Colorado. She says the recession has affected many levels of her community.

CYNTHIA SIBLEY, Simple Supper: It's hitting people that -- it's surprising a lot of us. And all of us here are feeling it in one way or another. And we know people who have either lost their homes, lost their jobs. It's -- you know, it's shaking us to the core. And I know that there are a lot of places across the country that this is occurring, but to see it, you know, firsthand and experience it...

JEFFREY BROWN: Nationwide, the report said, 17 million children did not have enough to eat last year. And the Agriculture Department predicted the numbers for this year are likely to be worse still.

And now to some close-to-the-ground views from two regions. J.C. Dwyer is with the Texas Food Bank Network, a nonprofit statewide group. He joins us from San Antonio. Lynn Brantley is president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

Mr. Dwyer, I wonder, first, did this report surprise you, based on what you're seeing there?

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