NETWORK Executive Director Sister Simone Campbell spars with a Republican Congress about poverty. Possibly the biggest of many WTF moments from Republican Congressfolk: when Ms. Campbell explains, in dollar amounts, how hard it would be for churches to pick up the slack in helping the poor where government falls short, Rep. Reid Ribble (S-WI) responds that "your capacity (to respond to poverty) is the same as our capacity." Remember learning in school how churches have the power to tax their worshipers? Of course not. That's because they don't.

Just in case you thought banksters were the only ones stealing homes these days, Isaiah Thompson tells us how municipalities seize homes in "civil forfeiture" claims. Nominally a tool to deprive drug kingpins of the fruits of their "labor," municipalities like Philadelphia have gone rather haywire, taking homes from innocent homeowners because someone sold a dime bag on their property, and then pocketing the money. And get your surprised face ready: civil forfeiture claims just so happen to hit poor and ethnic minorities the hardest. The "War on Drugs" has gone completely bat-guano.

Paul Buchheit discusses "Eight Ways Privatization has Failed America." Number one, you'll be completely unsurprised to note, is health care. Spoiler alert: you won't be surprised by the other seven, either.

David Sirota explodes the myth that a minimum wage hike would result in huge price increases for everyone. FTW: "a report in Newsweek based on the calculations of University of Massachusetts economists...found that raising McDonald's workers wages to $15 an hour would likely add just 22 cents to the retail price of the Big Mac." $15/hour is double the current federal minimum wage, and, ah, 22 cents is not double the price of a Big Mac.

Remember last week, when we talked about the former Indiana School Superintendent revising letter grades upward for at least one of his big-donor charter school buddies? You may be wondering if he gave any public schools a similar break. In fact, no. Mr. Bennett now supervises Florida schools, because there's no such thing as failure when you're a right-winger.