FORECASTS & TRENDS E-LETTERby Gary D. HalbertAugust 19, 2008
“Frightful Storm Brewing” – The Entitlement Crisis
IN THIS ISSUE:
1. Largest Budget Deficit In History Coming In 2009
2. A Sobering Reminder From The Fed’s Richard Fisher
3. Deficits To Explode In Coming Decades
4. Conclusions – Why No One Is Talking About This
Introduction
At the end of July, the White House announced its forecast for the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2009, which begins next month. The deficit is shocking – an estimated $482 billion, and that does not include apprx. $80 billion that will be spent on the war in Iraq, or a possible second economic stimulus package that is being debated in Congress. So the 2009 deficit will go well beyond a half a trillion dollars! It will be the largest budget deficit in US history.
The national debt is now at $9.6 trillion and will rise well above $10 trillion next year. And that amount does not include the trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The US faces a debt crisis of incredible proportion over the next several decades. Everyone knows it, but no one seems willing to do anything to stop it.
What follows is one of the most troubling things I have read in a long time. It is a recent speech by Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard W. Fisher. Last week I noted that Mr. Fisher has been the lone voice on the FOMC that has voted against Chairman Bernanke & Company, and argues that interest rates should be rising. In checking into Mr. Fisher’s positions, I ran across the following speech he gave recently to the Commonwealth Club of California.
Let me warn you, Mr. Fisher’s remarks are going to trouble you. They may even scare you. But you need to read what follows.
Remarks by Dallas Fed President Richard W. Fisher May 28, 2008
[QUOTE] Thank you, Bruce [Ericson]. I am honored to be here this evening and am grateful for the invitation to speak to the Commonwealth Club of California.
Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, two of Ben Bernanke’s linear ancestors as chairmen of the Federal Reserve, have been in the news quite a bit lately. Yet, we rarely hear about William McChesney Martin, a magnificent public servant who was Fed chairman during five presidencies and to this day holds the record for the longest tenure: 19 years…
Bill Martin was nominated to run and lose on the Alfalfa Party ticket in 1966, while serving as Fed chairman during Lyndon Johnson’s term. In his acceptance speech, he announced that, given his proclivities as a central banker, he would take his cues from the German philosopher Goethe, “who said that people could endure anything except continual prosperity.” Therefore, Martin declared, he would adopt a platform proclaiming that as a president he planned to “make life endurable again by stamping out prosperity.”
“I shall conduct the administration of the country,” he said, “exactly as I have so successfully conducted the affairs of the Federal Reserve. To that end, I shall assemble the best brains that can be found…ask their advice on all matters…and completely confound them by following all their conflicting counsel.”
It is true, Bruce, that as you said in your introduction, I am one of the 17 people who participate in Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) deliberations and provide Ben Bernanke with “conflicting counsel” as the committee cobbles together a monetary policy that seeks to promote America’s economic prosperity, Goethe to the contrary. But tonight I speak for neither the committee, nor the chairman, nor any of the other good people that serve the Federal Reserve System. I speak solely in my own capacity. I want to speak to you tonight about an economic problem that we must soon confront or else risk losing our primacy as the world’s most powerful and dynamic economy.
Forty-three years ago this Sunday, Bill Martin delivered a commencement address to Columbia University that was far more sober than his Alfalfa Club speech. The opening lines of that Columbia address were as follows: “When economic prospects are at their brightest, the dangers of complacency and recklessness are greatest. As our prosperity proceeds on its record-breaking path, it behooves every one of us to scan the horizon of our national and international economy for danger signals so as to be ready for any storm.”
Today, our fellow citizens and financial markets are paying the price for falling victim to the complacency and recklessness Martin warned against. Few scanned the horizon for trouble brewing as we proceeded along a path of unparalleled prosperity fueled by an unsustainable housing bubble and unbridled credit markets. Armchair or Monday morning quarterbacks will long debate whether the Fed could have/should have/would have taken away the punchbowl that lubricated that blowout party. I have given my opinion on that matter elsewhere and won’t go near that subject tonight.
What counts now is what we have done more recently and where we go from here. Whatever the sins of omission or commission committed by our predecessors, the Bernanke FOMC’s objective is to use a new set of tools to calm the tempest in the credit markets to get them back to functioning in a more orderly fashion. We trust that the various term credit facilities we have recently introduced are help ing restore confidence while the credit markets undertake self-corrective initiatives and lawmakers consider new regulatory schemes.
I am also not going to engage in a discussion of present monetary policy tonight, except to say that if inflationary developments and, more important, inflation expectations, continue to worsen, I would expect a change of course in monetary policy to occur sooner rather than later, even in the face of an anemic economic scenario. Inflation is the most insidious enemy of capitalism. No central banker can countenance it, not least the men and women of the Federal Reserve.
Tonight, I want to talk about a different matter. In keeping with Bill Martin’s advice, I have been scanning the horizon for danger signals even as we continue working to recover from the recent turmoil. In the distance, I see a frightful storm brewing in the form of untethered government debt. I choose the words—“frightful storm”—deliberately to avoid hyperbole.
Unless we take steps to deal with it, the long-term fiscal situation of the federal government will be unimaginably more devastating to our economic prosperity than the subprime debacle and the recent debauching of credit markets that we are now working so hard to correct.
You might wonder why a central banker would be concerned with fiscal matters. Fiscal policy is, after all, the responsibility of the Congress, not the Federal Reserve. Congress, and Congress alone, has the power to tax and spend. From this monetary policymaker’s point of view, though, deficits matter for what we do at the Fed.
There are many reasons why. Economists have found that structural deficits raise long-run interest rates, complicating the Fed’s dual mandate to develop a monetary policy that promotes sustainable, noninflationary growth. The even more disturbing dark and dirty secret about deficits—especially when they careen out of control—is that they create political pressure on central bankers to adopt looser monetary policy down the road. I will return to that shortly. First, let me give you the unvarnished facts of our nation’s fiscal predicament.
Eight years ago, our federal budget, crafted by a Democratic president and enacted by a Republican Congress, produced a fiscal surplus of $236 billion, the first surplus in almost 40 years and the highest nominal-dollar surplus in American history. While the Fed is scrupulously nonpartisan and nonpolitical, I mention this to emphasize that the deficit/debt issue knows no party and can be solved only by both parties working together.
For a brief time, with surpluses projected into the future as far as the eye could see, economists and policymakers alike began to contemplate a bucolic future in which interest payments would form an ever-declining share of federal outlays, a future where Treasury bonds and debt-ceiling legislation would become dusty relics of a long-forgotten past. The Fed even had concerns about how open market operations would be conducted in a marketplace short of Treasury debt.
That utopian scenario did not last for long. Over the next seven years, federal spending grew at a 6.2 percent nominal annual rate while receipts grew at only 3.5 percent. Of course, certain areas of government, like national defense, had to spend more in the wake of 9/11.
But nondefense discretionary spending actually rose 6.4 percent annually during this timeframe, outpacing the growth in total expenditures. Deficits soon returned, reaching an expected $410 billion for 2008—a $600 billion swing from where we were just eight years ago.
This $410 billion estimate, by the way, was made before the recently passed farm bill and supplemental defense appropriation and without considering a proposed patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax—all measures that will lead to a further ballooning of government deficits.
In keeping with the tradition of rosy scenarios, official budget projections suggest this deficit will be relatively short-lived. They almost always do. According to the official calculus, following a second $400-billion-plus deficit in 2009, the red ink should fall to $160 billion in 2010 and $95 billion in 2011, and then the budget swings to a $48 billion surplus in 2012.
If you do the math, however, you might be forgiven for sensing that these felicitous projections look a tad dodgy. To reach the projected 2012 surplus, outlays are assumed to rise at a 2.4 percent nominal annual rate over the next four years—less than half as fast as they rose the previous seven years.
Revenue is assumed to rise at a 6.7 percent nominal annual rate over the next four years—almost double the rate of the past seven years. Using spending and revenue growth rates that have actually prevailed in recent years, the 2012 surplus quickly evaporates and becomes a deficit, potentially of several hundred billion dollars.
Doing deficit math is always a sobering exercise. It becomes an outright painful one when you apply your calculator to the long-run fiscal challenge posed by entitlement programs. Were I not a taciturn central banker, I would say the mathematics of the long-term outlook for entitlements, left unchanged, is nothing short of catastrophic.
Typically, critics ranging from the Concord Coalition to Ross Perot begin by wringing their collective hands over the unfunded liabilities of Social Security. A little history gives you a view as to why.
Franklin Roosevelt originally conceived a social security system in which individuals would fund their own retirements through payroll-tax contributions. But Congress quickly realized that such a system could not put much money into the pockets of indigent elderly citizens ravaged by the Great Depression. Instead, a pay-as-you-go funding system was embraced, making each generation’s retirement the responsibility of its children.
Now, fast forward 70 or so years and ask this question: What is the mathematical predicament of Social Security today? Answer: The amount of money the Social Security system would need today to cover all unfunded liabilities from now on—what fiscal economists call the “infinite horizon discounted value” of what has already been promised recipients but has no funding mechanism currently in place—is $13.6 trillion, an amount slightly less than the annual gross domestic product of the United States.
Demographics explain why this is so. Birthrates have fallen dramatically, reducing the worker–retiree ratio and leaving today’s workers pulling a bigger load than the system designers ever envisioned. Life spans have lengthened without a corresponding increase in the retirement age, leaving retirees in a position to receive benefits far longer than the system designers envisioned. Formulae for benefits and cost-of-living adjustments have also contributed to the growth in unfunded liabilities.
The good news is this Social Security shortfall might be manageable. While the issues regarding Social Security reform are complex, it is at least possible to imagine how Congress might find, within a $14 trillion economy, ways to wrestle with a $13 trillion unfunded liability. The bad news is that Social Security is the lesser of our entitlement worries. It is but the tip of the unfunded liability iceberg. The much bigger concern is Medicare, a program established in 1965, the same prosperous year that Bill Martin cautioned his Columbia University audience to be wary of complacency and storms on the horizon.
Medicare was a pay-as-you-go program from the very beginning, despite warnings from some congressional leaders…who foresaw some of the long-term fiscal issues such a financing system could pose. Unfortunately, they were right.
Please sit tight while I walk you through the math of Medicare. As you may know, the program comes in three parts: Medicare Part A, which covers hospital stays; Medicare B, which covers doctor visits; and Medicare D, the drug benefit that went into effect just 29 months ago. The infinite-horizon present discounted value of the unfunded liability for Medicare A is $34.4 trillion. The unfunded liability of Medicare B is an additional $34 trillion.
The shortfall for Medicare D adds another $17.2 trillion. The total? If you wanted to cover the unfunded liability of all three programs today, you would be stuck with an $85.6 trillion bill. That is more than six times as large as the bill for Social Security. It is more than six times the annual output of the entire U.S. economy.
Why is the Medicare figure so large? There is a mix of reasons, really. In part, it is due to the same birthrate and life-expectancy issues that affect Social Security. In part, it is due to ever-costlier advances in medical technology and the willingness of Medicare to pay for them. And in part, it is due to expanded benefits—the new drug benefit program’s unfunded liability is by itself one-third greater than all of Social Security’s.
Add together the unfunded liabilities from Medicare and Social Security, and it comes to $99.2 trillion over the infinite horizon. Traditional Medicare composes about 69 percent, the new drug benefit roughly 17 percent and Social Security the remaining 14 percent.
I want to remind you that I am only talking about the unfunded portions of Social Security and Medicare. It is what the current payment scheme of Social Security payroll taxes, Medicare payroll taxes, membership fees for Medicare B, copays, deductibles and all other revenue currently channeled to our entitlement system will not cover under current rules. These existing revenue streams must remain in place in perpetuity to handle the “funded” entitlement liabilities. Reduce or eliminate this income and the unfunded liability grows. Increase benefits and the liability grows as well.
Let’s say you and I and Bruce Ericson and every U.S. citizen who is alive today decided to fully address this unfunded liability through lump-sum payments from our own pocketbooks, so that all of us and all future generations could be secure in the knowledge that we and they would receive promised benefits in perpetuity. How much would we have to pay if we split the tab? Again, the math is painful. With a total population of 304 million, from infants to the elderly, the per-person payment to the federal treasury would come to $330,000. This comes to $1.3 million per family of four—over 25 times the average household’s income.
Clearly, once-and-for-all contributions would be an unbearable burden. Alternatively, we could address the entitlement shortfall through policy changes that would affect ourselves and future generations. For example, a permanent 68 percent increase in federal income tax revenue—from individual and corporate taxpayers—would suffice to fully fund our entitlement programs. Or we could instead divert 68 percent of current income-tax revenues from their intended uses to the entitlement system, which would accomplish the same thing.
Suppose we decided to tackle the issue solely on the spending side. It turns out that total discretionary spending in the federal budget, if maintained at its current share of GDP in perpetuity, is 3 percent larger than the entitlement shortfall. So all we would have to do to fully fund our nation’s entitlement programs would be to cut discretionary spending by 97 percent.
But hold on. That discretionary spending includes defense and national security, education, the environment and many other areas, not just those controversial earmarks that make the evening news. All of them would have to be cut—almost eliminated, really—to tackle this problem through discretionary spending.
I hope that gives you some idea of just how large the problem is. And just to drive an important point home, these spending cuts or tax increases would need to be made immediately and maintained in perpetuity to solve the entitlement deficit problem.
Discretionary spending would have to be reduced by 97 percent not only for our generation, but for our children and their children and every generation of children to come. And similarly on the taxation side, income tax revenue would have to rise 68 percent and remain that high forever. Remember, though, I said tax revenue, not tax rates. Who knows how much individual and corporate tax rates would have to change to increase revenue by 68 percent?
If these possible solutions to the unfunded-liability problem seem draconian, it’s because they are draconian. But they do serve to give you a sense of the severity of the problem. To be sure, there are ways to lessen the reliance on any sing le policy and the burden borne by any particular set of citizens. Most proposals to address long-term entitlement debt, for example, rely on a combination of tax increases, benefit reductions and eligibility changes to find the trillions necessary to safeguard the system over the long term.
No combination of tax hikes and spending cuts, though, will change the total burden borne by current and future generations. For the existing unfunded liabilities to be covered in the end, someone must pay $99.2 trillion more or receive $99.2 trillion less than they have been currently promised.
This is a cold, hard fact. The decision we must make is whether to shoulder a substantial portion of that burden today or compel future generations to bear its full weight.
Now that you are all thoroughly depressed, let me come back to monetary policy and the Fed.
It is only natural to cast about for a solution—any solution—to avoid the fiscal pain we know is necessary because we succumbed to complacency and put off dealing with this looming fiscal disaster.
Throughout history, many nations, when confronted by sizable debts they were unable or unwilling to repay, have seized upon an apparently painless solution to this dilemma: monetization. Just have the monetary authority run cash off the printing presses until the debt is repaid, the story goes, then promise to be responsible from that point on and hope your sins will be forgiven by God and Milton Friedman and everyone else.
We know from centuries of evidence in countless economies, from ancient Rome to today’s Zimbabwe, that running the printing press to pay off today’s bills leads to much worse problems later on. The inflation that results from the flood of money into the economy turns out to be far worse than the fiscal pain those countries hoped to avoid. Earlier I mentioned the Fed’s dual mandate to manage growth and inflation. In the long run, growth cannot be sustained if markets are undermined by inflation.
Stable prices go hand in hand with achieving sustainable economic growth. I have said many, many times that inflation is a sinister beast that, if uncaged, devours savings, erodes consumers’ purchasing power, decimates returns on capital, undermines the reliability of financial accounting, distracts the attention of corporate management, undercuts employment growth and real wages, and debases the currency.
Purging rampant inflation and a debased currency requires administering a harsh medicine. We have been there, and we know the cure that was wrought by the FOMC under Paul Volcker. Even the perception that the Fed is pursuing a cheap-money strategy to accommodate fiscal burdens, should it take root, is a paramount risk to the long-term welfare of the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve will never let this happen.
It is not an option. Ever. Period.
The way we resolve these liabilities—and resolve them we must—will affect our own well-being as well as the prospects of future generations and the global economy. Failing to face up to our responsibility will produce the mother of all financial storms. The warning signals have been flashing for years, but we find it easier to ignore them than to take action. Will we take the painful fiscal steps necessary to prevent the storm by reducing and eventually eliminating our fiscal imbalances? That depends on you.
I mean “you” literally. This situation is of your own creation. When you berate your representatives or senators or presidents for the mess we are in, you are really berating yourself. You elect them. You are the ones who let them get away with burdening your children and grandchildren rather than yourselves with the bill for your entitlement programs.
This issue transcends political affiliation. When George Shultz, one of San Francisco’s greatest Republican public servants, was director of President Nixon’s Office of Management and Budget, he became worried about the amount of money Congress was proposing to spend. After some nights of tossing and turning, he called legendary staffer Sam Cohen into his office. Cohen had a long memory of budget matters and knew every zig and zag of budget history.
“Sam,” Shultz asked, “tell me something just between you and me. Is there any difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to spending money?” Cohen looked at him, furrowed his brow and, after thinking about it, replied, “Mr. Shultz, there is only one difference: Democrats enjoy it more.”
Yet no one, Democrat or Republican, enjoys placing our children and grandchildren and their children and grandchildren in harm’s way. No one wants to see the frightful storm of unfunded long-term liabilities destroy our economy or threaten the independence and authority of our central bank or tear our currency asunder.
Of late, we have heard many complaints about the weakness of the dollar against the euro and other currencies. It was recently argued in the op-ed pages of the Financial Times that one reason for the demise of the British pound was the need to liquidate England’s international reserves to pay off the costs of the Great Wars.
In the end, the pound, it was essentially argued, was sunk by the kaiser’s army and Hitler’s bombs. Right now, we—you and I—are launching fiscal bombs against ourselves. You have it in your power as the electors of our fiscal authorities to prevent this destruction. Please do so.
Note: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System. [END QUOTE]
Deficits To Explode In Coming Decades
The following chart provided by the Heritage Foundation, based on Congressional Budget Office projections, illustrates how federal deficits will explode over the next 70 or so years due to the skyrocketing costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Sadly, this is the future we are leaving for our children and grandchildren.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Did You Know
Did you know?
I didn't know!
How could we?
Be sure to check the web site at the bottom
Did you know that 47 countries have reestablished their embassies in Iraq ?
Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated,
364 schools are under rehabilitation,
263 new schools are now under construction;
and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq ?
Did you know that Iraq 's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universit ies, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers, all currently operating?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational?
They have 5 - 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq 's Air Force consists of three operational squadrons,
Which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers every 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq ?
They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities,
93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW!
WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?
BECAUSE OUR MEDIA WON'T TELL US!
Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades.
Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two purposes:
It is intended to undermine the world's percepton of the United States thus minimizing consequent support; and it is intended to discourage American citizens.
---- Above facts are verifiable on the Department of Defense web site. http://www.defenselink.mil/
Did you know?
I didn't know!
How could we?
Be sure to check the web site at the bottom
Did you know that 47 countries have reestablished their embassies in Iraq ?
Did you know that the Iraqi government currently employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated,
364 schools are under rehabilitation,
263 new schools are now under construction;
and 38 new schools have been completed in Iraq ?
Did you know that Iraq 's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universit ies, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers, all currently operating?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2005 for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational?
They have 5 - 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq 's Air Force consists of three operational squadrons,
Which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers every 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq ?
They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities,
93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW!
WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW?
BECAUSE OUR MEDIA WON'T TELL US!
Instead of reflecting our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at the presidential motorcades.
Tragically, the lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves two purposes:
It is intended to undermine the world's percepton of the United States thus minimizing consequent support; and it is intended to discourage American citizens.
---- Above facts are verifiable on the Department of Defense web site. http://www.defenselink.mil/
Did you know?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
You Want To KNow More About Ms Obama
Please take some time and go to this link and read about Obama's Wife. Is this the person we want in our White House. Is she not one scary person. I want to thank my daughter-N-law who I am proud to say is a conservative professor for finding this for me. I had not been able to locate Ms Obama thesis. Princeton has locked it away/
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html
Please pass this on.
A Concerned American
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html
Please pass this on.
A Concerned American
Friday, August 22, 2008
SEE THE HUMOR IN IT
---Subject: Democrats are more ethical
I believe the democrats have suddenly developed a keen sense of morality.
John Edwards has been banned from making a speech at the democratic convention for having an affair and lying about it.
In his place Bill Clinton will be speaking.
Now That Is Funny
I believe the democrats have suddenly developed a keen sense of morality.
John Edwards has been banned from making a speech at the democratic convention for having an affair and lying about it.
In his place Bill Clinton will be speaking.
Now That Is Funny
Want to know where all the money is coming from?
The N100 million dinner for Obama
By Reuben Abati
"Some skeptical people have been writing nonsense and rubbish in the newspapers that what is my business with Obama. But they are free to continue to write petitions. It is not their money that we are spending. Ask them is it your money that we are spending?"
These are the exact words of Professor Ndidi Okereke-Onyiuke, Director General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and Chairman of the Africans for Obama 2008, a non-governmental Nigeria-based group that is campaigning vigorously, raising funds and mobilizing support for the US Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama.
The landlady of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (she has been in that position for close to a decade) was defending the expensive fund-raising dinner that was organized for Barack Obama on Monday, August 11, at the Shell Hall of the MUSON centre in Lagos.
For the rest of this story please go to: www.GoodNeighborLaw.com
Permission to use granted by Jackson, editor of Point Blank News 8/21/08
By Reuben Abati
"Some skeptical people have been writing nonsense and rubbish in the newspapers that what is my business with Obama. But they are free to continue to write petitions. It is not their money that we are spending. Ask them is it your money that we are spending?"
These are the exact words of Professor Ndidi Okereke-Onyiuke, Director General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and Chairman of the Africans for Obama 2008, a non-governmental Nigeria-based group that is campaigning vigorously, raising funds and mobilizing support for the US Democratic Presidential candidate, Barack Obama.
The landlady of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (she has been in that position for close to a decade) was defending the expensive fund-raising dinner that was organized for Barack Obama on Monday, August 11, at the Shell Hall of the MUSON centre in Lagos.
For the rest of this story please go to: www.GoodNeighborLaw.com
Permission to use granted by Jackson, editor of Point Blank News 8/21/08
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
There Is So Much Info Out There On These Two
Google Michelle Obama Princeton and just dig around on her, In my wildest dream I can not imagin her as the First Lady of our country... I would be ashamed if my Dad and his Dad were here to witness what is going on. How did we get to this point and more important how do we get ourselves back into what America is all about.
Change is needed but it is not what is going to happen if Obama is in. Here is the change that is needed... in my order of priority
1. Put God back in place
2. Close the borders and get control of who is coming into our country. This means we
have to reduce the inflow, stop the open entry unless they have a job and or we need
their expertice. We have long past needing hundreds of thousands of imagrants every
year. Inforce citizen ship rules. Speak english, read and write.
3. Deal with the illegals. Send them back and stop the free ride they are getting.
4. Get give aways programs under control. The government does not owe anyone a free
ride that is able to work. We have 10 million illegals in our country and a 5 % unemploy -
ment so send them back and put our people back to work. This is pretty simple.. Stop the
free ride program and folks will find a job. Who says my tax dollars should go to someone
is 30 years of able bodied but would rather take a hand out than work. This is not the
American way ... It is time to cut off entitlement programs.
5. Congress is out of control with their perks, retirement programs, spending allowances,
Term limits were put in place for Presidents and maybe it is time to do the same for
congressional leaders. For sure an age limit...
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Obama on Clarence ThomasAugust 18, 2008; Page A14
Barack Obama likes to portray himself as a centrist politician who wants to unite the country, but occasionally his postpartisan mask slips. That was the case at Saturday night's Saddleback Church forum, when Mr. Obama chose to demean Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Pastor Rick Warren asked each Presidential candidate which Justices he would not have nominated. Mr. McCain said, "with all due respect" the four most liberal sitting Justices because of his different judicial philosophy.
Mr. Obama took a lower road, replying first that "that's a good one," and then adding that "I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don't think that he, I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation. Setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretation of a lot of the Constitution." The Democrat added that he also wouldn't have appointed Antonin Scalia, and perhaps not John Roberts, though he assured the audience that at least they were smart enough for the job.
So let's see. By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court. Since his "elevation" to the High Court in 1991, he has also shown himself to be a principled and scholarly jurist.
Meanwhile, as he bids to be America's Commander in Chief, Mr. Obama isn't yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both a "community organizer" and law school lecturer. Justice Thomas's judicial credentials compare favorably to Mr. Obama's Presidential résumé by any measure. And when it comes to rising from difficult circumstances, Justice Thomas's rural Georgian upbringing makes Mr. Obama's story look like easy street.
Even more troubling is what the Illinois Democrat's answer betrays about his political habits of mind. Asked a question he didn't expect at a rare unscripted event, the rookie candidate didn't merely say he disagreed with Justice Thomas. Instead, he instinctively reverted to the leftwing cliché that the Court's black conservative isn't up to the job while his white conservative colleagues are.
So much for civility in politics and bringing people together. And no wonder Mr. Obama's advisers have refused invitations for more such open forums, preferring to keep him in front of a teleprompter, where he won't let slip what he really believes.
Change is needed but it is not what is going to happen if Obama is in. Here is the change that is needed... in my order of priority
1. Put God back in place
2. Close the borders and get control of who is coming into our country. This means we
have to reduce the inflow, stop the open entry unless they have a job and or we need
their expertice. We have long past needing hundreds of thousands of imagrants every
year. Inforce citizen ship rules. Speak english, read and write.
3. Deal with the illegals. Send them back and stop the free ride they are getting.
4. Get give aways programs under control. The government does not owe anyone a free
ride that is able to work. We have 10 million illegals in our country and a 5 % unemploy -
ment so send them back and put our people back to work. This is pretty simple.. Stop the
free ride program and folks will find a job. Who says my tax dollars should go to someone
is 30 years of able bodied but would rather take a hand out than work. This is not the
American way ... It is time to cut off entitlement programs.
5. Congress is out of control with their perks, retirement programs, spending allowances,
Term limits were put in place for Presidents and maybe it is time to do the same for
congressional leaders. For sure an age limit...
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Obama on Clarence ThomasAugust 18, 2008; Page A14
Barack Obama likes to portray himself as a centrist politician who wants to unite the country, but occasionally his postpartisan mask slips. That was the case at Saturday night's Saddleback Church forum, when Mr. Obama chose to demean Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Pastor Rick Warren asked each Presidential candidate which Justices he would not have nominated. Mr. McCain said, "with all due respect" the four most liberal sitting Justices because of his different judicial philosophy.
Mr. Obama took a lower road, replying first that "that's a good one," and then adding that "I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don't think that he, I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation. Setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretation of a lot of the Constitution." The Democrat added that he also wouldn't have appointed Antonin Scalia, and perhaps not John Roberts, though he assured the audience that at least they were smart enough for the job.
So let's see. By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court. Since his "elevation" to the High Court in 1991, he has also shown himself to be a principled and scholarly jurist.
Meanwhile, as he bids to be America's Commander in Chief, Mr. Obama isn't yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both a "community organizer" and law school lecturer. Justice Thomas's judicial credentials compare favorably to Mr. Obama's Presidential résumé by any measure. And when it comes to rising from difficult circumstances, Justice Thomas's rural Georgian upbringing makes Mr. Obama's story look like easy street.
Even more troubling is what the Illinois Democrat's answer betrays about his political habits of mind. Asked a question he didn't expect at a rare unscripted event, the rookie candidate didn't merely say he disagreed with Justice Thomas. Instead, he instinctively reverted to the leftwing cliché that the Court's black conservative isn't up to the job while his white conservative colleagues are.
So much for civility in politics and bringing people together. And no wonder Mr. Obama's advisers have refused invitations for more such open forums, preferring to keep him in front of a teleprompter, where he won't let slip what he really believes.
Well Said and worth the Read, Sums it up nicely
Dear Friends:
My name is Joe Porter. I live in Champaign, Illinois. I'm 46 years old, a born-again Christian, a husband, a father, a small business owner, a veteran, and a homeowner. I don't considerable myself to be either conservative or liberal, and I vote for the person, not Republican or Democrat.
I don't believe there are "two Americas" - but that every person in this country can be whomever and whatever they want to be if they'll just work to get there - and nowhere else on earth can they find such opportunities.
I believe our government should help those who are legitimately downtrodden, and should always put the interests of America first.The purpose of this message is that I'm concerned about the future of this great nation.
I'm worried that the silent majority of honest, hard-working, tax-paying people in this country have been passive for too long. Most folks I know choose not to involve themselves in politics. They go about their daily lives, paying their bills, raising their kids, and doing what they can to maintain the good life.
They vote and consider doing so to be a sacred trust. They shake their heads at the political pundits and so-called "news", thinking that what they hear is always spun by whoever is reporting it. They can't understand how elected officials can regularly violate the public trust with pork barrel spending. They don't want government handouts.
They want the government to protect them, not raise their taxes for more government programs.We are in the unique position in this country of electing our leaders. It's a privilege to do so. I've never found a candidate in any election with whom I agreed on everything. I'll wager that most of us don't even agree with our families or spouses 100% of the time. So when I step into that voting booth, I always try to look at the big picture and cast my vote for the man or woman who is best qualified for the job.
I've hired a lot of people in my lifetime, and essentially that's what an election is - a hiring process. Who has the credentials? Whom do I want working for me? Whom can I trust to do the job right?I'm concerned that a growing number of voters in this country simply don't get it. They are caught up in a fervor they can't explain, and calling it "change."Change what?, I ask.
Well, we're going to change America, they say.In what way? I query.We want someone new and fresh in the White House, they exclaim. So, someone who's not a politician?, I press.Uh, well, no, we just want a lot of stuff changed, so we're voting for Obama, they state.
So the current system, the system of freedom and democracy that has enabled a man to grow up in this great country, get a fine education, raise incredible amounts of money and dominate the news and win his party's nomination for the White House - that system's all wrong?No, no, that part of the system's okay - we just need a lot of change.And so it goes.
"Change we can believe in." Quite frankly, I don't believe that vague proclamations of change hold any promise for me. In recent months, I've been asking virtually everyone I encounter how they're voting. I live in Illinois, so most folks tell me they're voting for Barack Obama. But no one can really tell me why - only that he's going to change a lot of stuff.
Change, change, change. I have yet to find one single person who can tell me distinctly and convincingly why this man is qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation on earth - other than the fact that he claims he's going to implement a lot of change.We've all seen the emails about Obama's genealogy, his upbringing, his Muslim background, and his church affiliations.
Let's ignore this for a moment.Put it all aside. Then ask yourself, what qualifies this man to be my president? That he's a brilliant orator and talks about change?CHANGE WHAT?Friends, I'll be forthright with you - I believe the American voters who are supporting Barack Obama don't have a clue what they're doing, as evidenced by the fact that not one of them - NOT ONE of them I've spoken to can spell out his qualifications.
Not even the most liberal media can explain why he should be elected. Political experience? Negligible. Foreign relations? Non-existent. Achievements? Name one.Someone who wants to unite the country?
If you haven't read his wife's thesis from Princeton, look it up on the web. This is who's lining up to be our next First Lady? The only thing I can glean from Obama's constant harping about change is that we're in for a lot of new taxes.For me, the choice is clear. I've looked carefully at the two leading applicants for the job, and I've made my choice.
Here's a question - where were you five and a half years ago? Around Christmas, 2002. You've had five or six birthdays in that time. My son has grown from a sixth grade child to a high school graduate. Five and a half years is a good chunk of time. About 2,000 days. 2,000 nights of sleep. 6, 000 meals, give or take.John McCain spent that amount of time, from 1967 to 1973, in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp
.When offered early release, he refused it. He considered this offer to be a public relations stunt by his captors, and insisted that those held longer than he should be released first. Did you get that part? He was offered his freedom, and he turned it down. A regimen of beatings and torture began.
Do you possess such strength of character? Locked in a filthy cell in a foreign country, would you turn down your own freedom in favor of your fellow man? I submit that's a quality of character that is rarely found, and for me, this singular act defines John McCain.Unlike several presidential candidates in recent years whose military service is questionable or non-existent, you will not find anyone to denigrate the integrity and moral courage of this man.
A graduate of Annapolis, during his Naval service he received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. His own son is now serving in the Marine Corps in Iraq. Barack Obama is fond of saying "We honor John McCain's service...BUT...", which to me is condescending and offensive - because what I hear is, "Let's forget this man's sacrifice for his country and his proven leadership abilities, and talk some more about change.
"I don't agree with John McCain on everything - but I am utterly convinced that he is qualified to be our next President, and I trust him to do what's right. I know in my heart that he has the best interests of our country in mind.
He doesn't simply want to be President - he wants to lead America, and there's a huge difference. Factually, there is simply no comparison between the two candidates. A man of questionable background and motives who prattles on about change can't hold a candle to a man who has devoted his life in public service to this nation, retiring from the Navy in 1981 and elected to the Senate in 1982.
Perhaps Obama's supporters are taking a stance between old and new. Maybe they don't care about McCain's service or his strength of character, or his unblemished qualifications to be President. Maybe "likeability" is a higher priority for them than "trust".
Being a prisoner of war is not what qualifies John McCain to be President of the United States of America - but his demonstrated leadership certainly DOES.Dear friends, it is time for us to stand. It is time for thinking Americans to say, "Enough." It is time for people of all parties to stop following the party line. It is time for anyone who wants to keep America first, who wants the right man leading their nation, to start a dialogue with all their friends and neighbors and ask who they're voting for, and why.
There's a lot of evil in this world. That should be readily apparent to all of us by now. And when faced with that evil as we are now, I want a man who knows the cost of war on his troops and on his citizens.
I want a man who put s my family's interests before any foreign country.
I want a President who's qualified to lead.I want my country back, and I'm voting for John McCain.
My name is Joe Porter. I live in Champaign, Illinois. I'm 46 years old, a born-again Christian, a husband, a father, a small business owner, a veteran, and a homeowner. I don't considerable myself to be either conservative or liberal, and I vote for the person, not Republican or Democrat.
I don't believe there are "two Americas" - but that every person in this country can be whomever and whatever they want to be if they'll just work to get there - and nowhere else on earth can they find such opportunities.
I believe our government should help those who are legitimately downtrodden, and should always put the interests of America first.The purpose of this message is that I'm concerned about the future of this great nation.
I'm worried that the silent majority of honest, hard-working, tax-paying people in this country have been passive for too long. Most folks I know choose not to involve themselves in politics. They go about their daily lives, paying their bills, raising their kids, and doing what they can to maintain the good life.
They vote and consider doing so to be a sacred trust. They shake their heads at the political pundits and so-called "news", thinking that what they hear is always spun by whoever is reporting it. They can't understand how elected officials can regularly violate the public trust with pork barrel spending. They don't want government handouts.
They want the government to protect them, not raise their taxes for more government programs.We are in the unique position in this country of electing our leaders. It's a privilege to do so. I've never found a candidate in any election with whom I agreed on everything. I'll wager that most of us don't even agree with our families or spouses 100% of the time. So when I step into that voting booth, I always try to look at the big picture and cast my vote for the man or woman who is best qualified for the job.
I've hired a lot of people in my lifetime, and essentially that's what an election is - a hiring process. Who has the credentials? Whom do I want working for me? Whom can I trust to do the job right?I'm concerned that a growing number of voters in this country simply don't get it. They are caught up in a fervor they can't explain, and calling it "change."Change what?, I ask.
Well, we're going to change America, they say.In what way? I query.We want someone new and fresh in the White House, they exclaim. So, someone who's not a politician?, I press.Uh, well, no, we just want a lot of stuff changed, so we're voting for Obama, they state.
So the current system, the system of freedom and democracy that has enabled a man to grow up in this great country, get a fine education, raise incredible amounts of money and dominate the news and win his party's nomination for the White House - that system's all wrong?No, no, that part of the system's okay - we just need a lot of change.And so it goes.
"Change we can believe in." Quite frankly, I don't believe that vague proclamations of change hold any promise for me. In recent months, I've been asking virtually everyone I encounter how they're voting. I live in Illinois, so most folks tell me they're voting for Barack Obama. But no one can really tell me why - only that he's going to change a lot of stuff.
Change, change, change. I have yet to find one single person who can tell me distinctly and convincingly why this man is qualified to be President and Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful nation on earth - other than the fact that he claims he's going to implement a lot of change.We've all seen the emails about Obama's genealogy, his upbringing, his Muslim background, and his church affiliations.
Let's ignore this for a moment.Put it all aside. Then ask yourself, what qualifies this man to be my president? That he's a brilliant orator and talks about change?CHANGE WHAT?Friends, I'll be forthright with you - I believe the American voters who are supporting Barack Obama don't have a clue what they're doing, as evidenced by the fact that not one of them - NOT ONE of them I've spoken to can spell out his qualifications.
Not even the most liberal media can explain why he should be elected. Political experience? Negligible. Foreign relations? Non-existent. Achievements? Name one.Someone who wants to unite the country?
If you haven't read his wife's thesis from Princeton, look it up on the web. This is who's lining up to be our next First Lady? The only thing I can glean from Obama's constant harping about change is that we're in for a lot of new taxes.For me, the choice is clear. I've looked carefully at the two leading applicants for the job, and I've made my choice.
Here's a question - where were you five and a half years ago? Around Christmas, 2002. You've had five or six birthdays in that time. My son has grown from a sixth grade child to a high school graduate. Five and a half years is a good chunk of time. About 2,000 days. 2,000 nights of sleep. 6, 000 meals, give or take.John McCain spent that amount of time, from 1967 to 1973, in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp
.When offered early release, he refused it. He considered this offer to be a public relations stunt by his captors, and insisted that those held longer than he should be released first. Did you get that part? He was offered his freedom, and he turned it down. A regimen of beatings and torture began.
Do you possess such strength of character? Locked in a filthy cell in a foreign country, would you turn down your own freedom in favor of your fellow man? I submit that's a quality of character that is rarely found, and for me, this singular act defines John McCain.Unlike several presidential candidates in recent years whose military service is questionable or non-existent, you will not find anyone to denigrate the integrity and moral courage of this man.
A graduate of Annapolis, during his Naval service he received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. His own son is now serving in the Marine Corps in Iraq. Barack Obama is fond of saying "We honor John McCain's service...BUT...", which to me is condescending and offensive - because what I hear is, "Let's forget this man's sacrifice for his country and his proven leadership abilities, and talk some more about change.
"I don't agree with John McCain on everything - but I am utterly convinced that he is qualified to be our next President, and I trust him to do what's right. I know in my heart that he has the best interests of our country in mind.
He doesn't simply want to be President - he wants to lead America, and there's a huge difference. Factually, there is simply no comparison between the two candidates. A man of questionable background and motives who prattles on about change can't hold a candle to a man who has devoted his life in public service to this nation, retiring from the Navy in 1981 and elected to the Senate in 1982.
Perhaps Obama's supporters are taking a stance between old and new. Maybe they don't care about McCain's service or his strength of character, or his unblemished qualifications to be President. Maybe "likeability" is a higher priority for them than "trust".
Being a prisoner of war is not what qualifies John McCain to be President of the United States of America - but his demonstrated leadership certainly DOES.Dear friends, it is time for us to stand. It is time for thinking Americans to say, "Enough." It is time for people of all parties to stop following the party line. It is time for anyone who wants to keep America first, who wants the right man leading their nation, to start a dialogue with all their friends and neighbors and ask who they're voting for, and why.
There's a lot of evil in this world. That should be readily apparent to all of us by now. And when faced with that evil as we are now, I want a man who knows the cost of war on his troops and on his citizens.
I want a man who put s my family's interests before any foreign country.
I want a President who's qualified to lead.I want my country back, and I'm voting for John McCain.
The Past Is Starting To Surface
Can Anyone Find What O BAMA said when he was in Africa back in 2006 with some of his family at rallys with the bull horn... We have to find those somehow
How about this little number on the Bible... You can take certain passages out of context and make them fit you own agenda or from any publication as a matter of fact
Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/v/4FCNKwHRCQM
How about this little number on the Bible... You can take certain passages out of context and make them fit you own agenda or from any publication as a matter of fact
Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/v/4FCNKwHRCQM
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Lets Take American Back
I was very dismayed when, recently, a family member of mine said to me with great resignation that Obama will take the presidency. These words came from someone who in the past has been a great prayer warrior.
What is happening was my question???
Why are we Christians settling and not issuing a battle cry and falling to our knees and taking our country back? We allow ourselves to be stripped of the right to pray at school functions and in school, we have the 10 commandments removed from government places and are told we cannot pray in school, all the while providing public prayer places for Muslims.
What in the world is going on and why are we being apathetic? Why aren't we praying? Our God is a mighty God who is waiting patiently for us to raise our voices to heaven to stop the tide of the anti-Christ actions in our world today. N
ow we find we have a charismatic candidate for president who does not respect our flag and refuses to wear one on his lapel except when it becomes politically expedient and whose own wife and pastor that he loves profess to have strong anti-white feelings, and we sit back and say 'it is a given, we can do nothing.'
There has never been a time in 2000 years that we can do nothing, never a time that we must sit back and allow the evil in men's and women's hearts to take over our world. We should be very afraid because our apathy is leading us to perdition.
It is time for all Christian Americans to raise the battle cry and take our nation back. Maybe McCain on his own cannot defeat Obama, but our God can and He will if we take to our knees in prayer and raise a mighty cry to the heavens to 'Save us O Lord.'
We have the power to change the course of this election and to keep a man as suspect as Barak Obama from leading our country to who knows where with his message of 'change' - a change which I fear will be away from our Christian ideals and away from Christ and further away from one nation under God to one nation under Allah.
We are great at passing stories and pictures around the internet, but where are our prayers and prayer warriors praying to stop this tide of Barak Obama? God parted the red sea, Jesus raised himself from the dead, and we can bring our country back to its Christian roots and stop the move to the rise of Muslims in our country.
We can stop our country from being 'under Allah,' but we must begin to pray, to pray as if our country and our lives depended on it, because they do. We can stop all these atrocities against God's commands that have taken root in our country through something as simple as sincere prayer, a call to God to deliver us, to forgive us our sins of apathy and to protect us from the evil that is upon us.
Okay prayer warriors, here is your challenge, start those prayer chains. Get the spiritual power working on our behalf and stop Barak Obama the proper way, by calling on our God to save us from the deception that charismatic preaching is using to lead us on the wrong path. Stop those who would take God out of our country and our government. Raise up good men to lead us and protect us.
George Bush is being buffeted because he has fought a holy war against the evils that attack us and we should not be surprised because a prophet is not honored in his own country. But we should not rest on our laurels and allow ourselves to be taken further off the path of Christianity and to have God removed from our presence in our schools, courts, government and businesses. Invite God into the fray.
Ask that His power rest upon us and give us the victory. Ask him to raise up a might army to defend us and to protect our country as he did in days of old. Let us be victorious beginning NOW. The battle is His but we must call on Him without ceasing and unite our voices and hearts in prayer and fasting.
Please pass this around to all people of prayer that you know and maybe, just maybe a more eloquent person of prayer will write something better and more inspiring and even the rocks will shout that Jesus is Lord and our Mighty God is with us, bringing the victory for us and ultimately for Him. --'
Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.' I Thes 5:16-
What is happening was my question???
Why are we Christians settling and not issuing a battle cry and falling to our knees and taking our country back? We allow ourselves to be stripped of the right to pray at school functions and in school, we have the 10 commandments removed from government places and are told we cannot pray in school, all the while providing public prayer places for Muslims.
What in the world is going on and why are we being apathetic? Why aren't we praying? Our God is a mighty God who is waiting patiently for us to raise our voices to heaven to stop the tide of the anti-Christ actions in our world today. N
ow we find we have a charismatic candidate for president who does not respect our flag and refuses to wear one on his lapel except when it becomes politically expedient and whose own wife and pastor that he loves profess to have strong anti-white feelings, and we sit back and say 'it is a given, we can do nothing.'
There has never been a time in 2000 years that we can do nothing, never a time that we must sit back and allow the evil in men's and women's hearts to take over our world. We should be very afraid because our apathy is leading us to perdition.
It is time for all Christian Americans to raise the battle cry and take our nation back. Maybe McCain on his own cannot defeat Obama, but our God can and He will if we take to our knees in prayer and raise a mighty cry to the heavens to 'Save us O Lord.'
We have the power to change the course of this election and to keep a man as suspect as Barak Obama from leading our country to who knows where with his message of 'change' - a change which I fear will be away from our Christian ideals and away from Christ and further away from one nation under God to one nation under Allah.
We are great at passing stories and pictures around the internet, but where are our prayers and prayer warriors praying to stop this tide of Barak Obama? God parted the red sea, Jesus raised himself from the dead, and we can bring our country back to its Christian roots and stop the move to the rise of Muslims in our country.
We can stop our country from being 'under Allah,' but we must begin to pray, to pray as if our country and our lives depended on it, because they do. We can stop all these atrocities against God's commands that have taken root in our country through something as simple as sincere prayer, a call to God to deliver us, to forgive us our sins of apathy and to protect us from the evil that is upon us.
Okay prayer warriors, here is your challenge, start those prayer chains. Get the spiritual power working on our behalf and stop Barak Obama the proper way, by calling on our God to save us from the deception that charismatic preaching is using to lead us on the wrong path. Stop those who would take God out of our country and our government. Raise up good men to lead us and protect us.
George Bush is being buffeted because he has fought a holy war against the evils that attack us and we should not be surprised because a prophet is not honored in his own country. But we should not rest on our laurels and allow ourselves to be taken further off the path of Christianity and to have God removed from our presence in our schools, courts, government and businesses. Invite God into the fray.
Ask that His power rest upon us and give us the victory. Ask him to raise up a might army to defend us and to protect our country as he did in days of old. Let us be victorious beginning NOW. The battle is His but we must call on Him without ceasing and unite our voices and hearts in prayer and fasting.
Please pass this around to all people of prayer that you know and maybe, just maybe a more eloquent person of prayer will write something better and more inspiring and even the rocks will shout that Jesus is Lord and our Mighty God is with us, bringing the victory for us and ultimately for Him. --'
Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.' I Thes 5:16-
US Sumary of Key Conflicts / Wars and Why
This is an EXCELLENT essay; well thought out and presented by Raymond S. Kraft, a writer living in Northern California who has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.
It gives a brief but clear picture of past wars and the current War we are in. Please ready and share with your kids and grandkids... They all need to know why we do what we do. They need to know history as it does keep repeating and if we do not learn from our past we are doomed to repeat it ourselves.
Historical Significance: Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.
At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.
Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.
France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe.
Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia. Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.
America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.
The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with 't ank' paint ed on the doors because they didn't have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).
Actually, Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could. Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.
Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany. Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers.
Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.
All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.
There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.
The Jihadis, the militan t Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (goal)
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East. For the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win, the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.
If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control t he Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US , European, and Asian economies.
The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC ( Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, would be considered a monopoly in the U.S.A.). Not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today , but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.
If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, an d move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things. (
(1) We have deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is und isputed that Sadda m has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades; Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point , with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there won't have to be killed here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.
WW II, the war with the Japanese and G erman Nazis, really began with a 'whimper' in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen year's before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945,a 17-year war, and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . a 27 year war.
WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP, adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars . WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.
The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,00 0,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost more than 3,600 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater - a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.
This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.
The bottom line is that we wi ll have to deal&n bsp;with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it!
If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.
The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons, unless some body prevents them from getting them.
We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight ;later when the Jihad is mor e widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
( THIS IS SO CORRECT THAT IT IS MIND BOGGLING THAT PEOPLE DO NOT GET IT)
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.
The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing t o be the most ruthlessalways win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.
Remember, perspective is everything, and most America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.
The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!
Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops inGermany and Japan. World War I I resulted in the death of as much as 100,000,000 ( That's 100 million ) people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,500 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.
The stakes are at least as high. . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal f reedoms . . . or a world d ominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).
It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
'Peace Activists' always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.
Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed!
A liberal approach is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Please consider passing along copies of this article to students in high school, college and university as it contains information about the American past that is very meaningful today, history about America that very likely is completely unknown by them .
By being denied the facts of our history in most schools, they are at a decided disadvantage when it comes to reasoning and thinking through the issues of today. They are prime targets for misinformation campaigns beamed at enlisting them in causes and beliefs that are special interest agenda.
This may be the best 10 minute history lesson that you can provide anyone under the age of
30. Why the US has done what they have done.
If the US had not stepped in, the world as we know it today would be a much different place. God and never never doubt it God has bless our country because we have always stepped up to fight evil. Not once have we claimed the spoils of war. If we had then Europe, Japan, and we would be speaking english today even Russia had we had the ability to look ahead.
Remember a very famous US war general stated at the end of WW 11, that we should have continue into Russia and cleaned it up when we finished with German and Japan. History would prove him correct. Here we are 60 + years later still fighting with Russia. Never doubt for a minute if Russia thought they could take us they would jump on it like a June bug on a green pea. Why do you think they are siding with Iran they know that Iran would take the US on knowing they can't win and then the Big R could slide in and take over.
As complicated as this may seem, it is pretty simply. Everyone wants to knock the person on the top off. We are on top, because we have been blessed from 1700's until today. Even though we have pushed God back, taken him out of our schools, said he should not be on our money, pushed him out of the court system, as best we can. He still allows up to be who we are.
In the end we will lead the battle against the Islamic radicals. The question ... Is going to be now or later. Will it cost a few thousand lives or a few million lives. We will not give in some of us will fight to the death before we give in to domination. I just hope we continue with the battle. There is not enough fight in Europe to do it. Not in WW 2 not now. They are all talk and no show not then and not now. When Hilter was rolling they all thought they could apease him and talk their way out of it.
Just like Obama plan to meet with the Islamic nations and talk them into ...... what a dumb ass man he is. If someone can please get this into his hands, he has not studied American History 101. He does not have any idea how quick counties like Russia, China, Iran would jump on us given the opening.
Who has the mighest army, who has the best economic structure ( although beginning to slide)
who has a nation of people that will fight for a cause a million miles from home because it it the right thing to do. God Bless the U S A
It gives a brief but clear picture of past wars and the current War we are in. Please ready and share with your kids and grandkids... They all need to know why we do what we do. They need to know history as it does keep repeating and if we do not learn from our past we are doomed to repeat it ourselves.
Historical Significance: Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.
At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.
Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.
France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe.
Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia. Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.
America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.
The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with 't ank' paint ed on the doors because they didn't have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).
Actually, Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could. Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.
Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany. Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers.
Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.
All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.
There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.
The Jihadis, the militan t Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (goal)
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East. For the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win, the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.
If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control t he Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US , European, and Asian economies.
The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC ( Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, would be considered a monopoly in the U.S.A.). Not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today , but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.
If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, an d move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things. (
(1) We have deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is und isputed that Sadda m has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades; Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point , with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there won't have to be killed here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.
WW II, the war with the Japanese and G erman Nazis, really began with a 'whimper' in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen year's before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945,a 17-year war, and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . a 27 year war.
WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP, adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars . WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.
The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,00 0,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost more than 3,600 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater - a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.
This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.
The bottom line is that we wi ll have to deal&n bsp;with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it!
If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.
The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons, unless some body prevents them from getting them.
We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight ;later when the Jihad is mor e widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
( THIS IS SO CORRECT THAT IT IS MIND BOGGLING THAT PEOPLE DO NOT GET IT)
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.
The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing t o be the most ruthlessalways win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.
Remember, perspective is everything, and most America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.
The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!
Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops inGermany and Japan. World War I I resulted in the death of as much as 100,000,000 ( That's 100 million ) people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,500 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.
The stakes are at least as high. . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal f reedoms . . . or a world d ominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).
It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
'Peace Activists' always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.
Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed!
A liberal approach is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Please consider passing along copies of this article to students in high school, college and university as it contains information about the American past that is very meaningful today, history about America that very likely is completely unknown by them .
By being denied the facts of our history in most schools, they are at a decided disadvantage when it comes to reasoning and thinking through the issues of today. They are prime targets for misinformation campaigns beamed at enlisting them in causes and beliefs that are special interest agenda.
This may be the best 10 minute history lesson that you can provide anyone under the age of
30. Why the US has done what they have done.
If the US had not stepped in, the world as we know it today would be a much different place. God and never never doubt it God has bless our country because we have always stepped up to fight evil. Not once have we claimed the spoils of war. If we had then Europe, Japan, and we would be speaking english today even Russia had we had the ability to look ahead.
Remember a very famous US war general stated at the end of WW 11, that we should have continue into Russia and cleaned it up when we finished with German and Japan. History would prove him correct. Here we are 60 + years later still fighting with Russia. Never doubt for a minute if Russia thought they could take us they would jump on it like a June bug on a green pea. Why do you think they are siding with Iran they know that Iran would take the US on knowing they can't win and then the Big R could slide in and take over.
As complicated as this may seem, it is pretty simply. Everyone wants to knock the person on the top off. We are on top, because we have been blessed from 1700's until today. Even though we have pushed God back, taken him out of our schools, said he should not be on our money, pushed him out of the court system, as best we can. He still allows up to be who we are.
In the end we will lead the battle against the Islamic radicals. The question ... Is going to be now or later. Will it cost a few thousand lives or a few million lives. We will not give in some of us will fight to the death before we give in to domination. I just hope we continue with the battle. There is not enough fight in Europe to do it. Not in WW 2 not now. They are all talk and no show not then and not now. When Hilter was rolling they all thought they could apease him and talk their way out of it.
Just like Obama plan to meet with the Islamic nations and talk them into ...... what a dumb ass man he is. If someone can please get this into his hands, he has not studied American History 101. He does not have any idea how quick counties like Russia, China, Iran would jump on us given the opening.
Who has the mighest army, who has the best economic structure ( although beginning to slide)
who has a nation of people that will fight for a cause a million miles from home because it it the right thing to do. God Bless the U S A
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Wake Up ... Washington We Are Tired of This
I agree that it is time to change the way we do business... We gave Kuwait for example our support to save their butts a few years back. It cost us a few Billion dollars and this is how they support us.
It is time for a Change... Why do we give anyone US Dollars without some return even just standing with us on issues is a minimum. Here is how I see it for the countries below... It is a business our country... If we are sending our tax dollars you bet you ass we want something back. You want us to come bail you out with some radical dictator decides he wants your land under his control. Yes we do maintain the best Army in the world with our hard earned tax dollars. But for that we do expect you to remember that and support us.
Washington remember we the tax payers are the ones you need to be looking to for direction, not some rigged up pole that is meaningless. Run the country like a business that does not have unlimited funds. We the tax payers are about to send you a real clear message. Kick you butts back to the working level and see how you like it.
OK OK, is it clean what I am saying. I hear this from a lot of folks who talk to me about the sad state of affairs we are allowing to happen. Send a message by voting out the incumbents and putting in some new folks then take them out in two terms and send others up. This will get the message out pretty fast. Congress is not meant to be a career path but a public service arena.
Take a look at this below and does it not make you angry...
How they vote in the United Nations:
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time
Morocco votes against the Uni ted States 70% of the time
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen & nbsp;votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes again st the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United St ates 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
ALebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India vot es against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U.S. Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States And receives $192,814,000 annually i n US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States Receives $143,699,000 annually.
Someone please answer me why we are giving Egypt 6 Billion dollars, for what?
And that's not even mentioning the 100's of millions of dollars for the rest of these countries that hate us.
What is this money for?
And all of this money leaving our country while our tax payers struggle to put gas in their cars and food on their tables because these jerks continue to raise the price of oil while burning our flag and protesting us on every issue.
Lets get someone elected that will STAND TO them.
Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes (and gasoline) .
Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know. Disgusting isn't it?
Why do we put up with it? Really who is paying the bills here. Me and You so let them know we have had enough. Both parties need to get the message. The Republicans have totally lost sight of who there are.. We gave the both sides of DC and they did zilch with the opportunity.
Neither party as a clue... they truly think we send them up there to see who can get more port for his state when in fact we send them to DC to run our country and protect our way of life.
Trust me they are doing neither. Fact has it that if things do not change and change quickly by 2050 or sooner I am afraid there will be more Mexicans, Asians and Africian Americans ( whom ever they are) in the US than Whites. If that does not frighten you for your kids and grandkids sake then please wake up and understand who today insure that our standard of living is what it is) Who is paying the taxes? Who is building new businesses and adding people it sure is not large corporate American. We have driven most of them off shore with all the B S that is forced on them from DC, labor unions, state taxes etc. Is it not a crock that states go out any pay companies to come to their state then tax the crap out of their workers to get the money back... wakeup folks and understand how it all come together. You will not like it.
Lets take more money from the working class and give it to the non working class so they can live better. So what is the incentitive to work hard. Listen to this please.. I have a grandson who is 13 and he was asking me some questions about taxes and where that money goes, who pays the taxes and how much. I gave him about 10 minutes of basic economics and civics 101. He said well maybe I will just go after all the government give away and not work so hard... Scary since there are about 20-30 million or so doing that today. Any why not; free food, free health care, free or for sure heavy subsudized housing, free schooling, low interest loans on a variety of areas that in fact never get paid back. Just sell the business to a family member with a different name who gets the same low interest support that you did and walkaway from the load from good ol Uncle Sam... who by the say is me and you...
Today my grandson has to help me every Saturday in a little family business that requires about 4-6 hours of time. He gets paid for his efforts and pretty well for a 13 year old. But he is required to sweat his butt off, give up his Sat ( or as he said PAPA I have a life you know). But when the Eagle hits his hand he is happy, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he earned the money, when he goes to buy his game, his shirt his what ever it make him feel good that it is his money, he earned it. That is what has made American what it is today.
Not give away programs, not free this and free that for doing nothing. We have a whole society that actually feels they are intitled to received and not be expected to work for it. You talk about anamosity it is building up everyday. While about 30-40 % of us are sweating it out, in our own way, to have more and to feel good about what we have. We have about 10-12 % who feel that they have a right to feel the same way because the folks in DC keep sending stuff their way and if they yell loud more comes.
Take a look at how much money we have sent to Louisiana my home state. Trust me that New Orleans crowd do know how to yell. I wish I knew how much Federal money has been sent to that city in the past 15 years. Better yet we would all like to know what has been down with it.
OK OK... I just came in after working with my grandkids all day trying to teach them how to earn money, how to be a productive business person. How to deal with people to work hard and feel good when the Eagle lands and put the green back dollar where it belongs, in the hand of the worker. Then someone sent me an email showing me how we are sending a few Billion to a group of Islamic countries who given the opportunity would kill each and every Christian living in the US... Yes it lite my fuse...
Have a great night, day, evening what ever time you read this. But please stop and understand you and I must standup now and change the direction of our country before it is too late... Please not for you or for me but for our kids and their kids and their kids. We owe it to them.
God Bless American and please God Help Us change direction.
Tell DC folks we have had enough
It is time for a Change... Why do we give anyone US Dollars without some return even just standing with us on issues is a minimum. Here is how I see it for the countries below... It is a business our country... If we are sending our tax dollars you bet you ass we want something back. You want us to come bail you out with some radical dictator decides he wants your land under his control. Yes we do maintain the best Army in the world with our hard earned tax dollars. But for that we do expect you to remember that and support us.
Washington remember we the tax payers are the ones you need to be looking to for direction, not some rigged up pole that is meaningless. Run the country like a business that does not have unlimited funds. We the tax payers are about to send you a real clear message. Kick you butts back to the working level and see how you like it.
OK OK, is it clean what I am saying. I hear this from a lot of folks who talk to me about the sad state of affairs we are allowing to happen. Send a message by voting out the incumbents and putting in some new folks then take them out in two terms and send others up. This will get the message out pretty fast. Congress is not meant to be a career path but a public service arena.
Take a look at this below and does it not make you angry...
How they vote in the United Nations:
Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records:
Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time
Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time
Morocco votes against the Uni ted States 70% of the time
United Arab Emirates votes against the U. S. 70% of the time.
Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.
Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.
Yemen & nbsp;votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Algeria votes again st the United States 74% of the time.
Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time.
Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.
Pakistan votes against the United St ates 75% of the time.
Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.
Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.
ALebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.
India vot es against the United States 81% of the time.
Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.
Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of the time.
U.S. Foreign Aid to those that hate us:
Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.
Jordan votes 71% against the United States And receives $192,814,000 annually i n US Foreign Aid.
Pakistan votes 75% against the United States Receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.
India votes 81% against the United States Receives $143,699,000 annually.
Someone please answer me why we are giving Egypt 6 Billion dollars, for what?
And that's not even mentioning the 100's of millions of dollars for the rest of these countries that hate us.
What is this money for?
And all of this money leaving our country while our tax payers struggle to put gas in their cars and food on their tables because these jerks continue to raise the price of oil while burning our flag and protesting us on every issue.
Lets get someone elected that will STAND TO them.
Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes (and gasoline) .
Pass this along to every taxpaying citizen you know. Disgusting isn't it?
Why do we put up with it? Really who is paying the bills here. Me and You so let them know we have had enough. Both parties need to get the message. The Republicans have totally lost sight of who there are.. We gave the both sides of DC and they did zilch with the opportunity.
Neither party as a clue... they truly think we send them up there to see who can get more port for his state when in fact we send them to DC to run our country and protect our way of life.
Trust me they are doing neither. Fact has it that if things do not change and change quickly by 2050 or sooner I am afraid there will be more Mexicans, Asians and Africian Americans ( whom ever they are) in the US than Whites. If that does not frighten you for your kids and grandkids sake then please wake up and understand who today insure that our standard of living is what it is) Who is paying the taxes? Who is building new businesses and adding people it sure is not large corporate American. We have driven most of them off shore with all the B S that is forced on them from DC, labor unions, state taxes etc. Is it not a crock that states go out any pay companies to come to their state then tax the crap out of their workers to get the money back... wakeup folks and understand how it all come together. You will not like it.
Lets take more money from the working class and give it to the non working class so they can live better. So what is the incentitive to work hard. Listen to this please.. I have a grandson who is 13 and he was asking me some questions about taxes and where that money goes, who pays the taxes and how much. I gave him about 10 minutes of basic economics and civics 101. He said well maybe I will just go after all the government give away and not work so hard... Scary since there are about 20-30 million or so doing that today. Any why not; free food, free health care, free or for sure heavy subsudized housing, free schooling, low interest loans on a variety of areas that in fact never get paid back. Just sell the business to a family member with a different name who gets the same low interest support that you did and walkaway from the load from good ol Uncle Sam... who by the say is me and you...
Today my grandson has to help me every Saturday in a little family business that requires about 4-6 hours of time. He gets paid for his efforts and pretty well for a 13 year old. But he is required to sweat his butt off, give up his Sat ( or as he said PAPA I have a life you know). But when the Eagle hits his hand he is happy, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he earned the money, when he goes to buy his game, his shirt his what ever it make him feel good that it is his money, he earned it. That is what has made American what it is today.
Not give away programs, not free this and free that for doing nothing. We have a whole society that actually feels they are intitled to received and not be expected to work for it. You talk about anamosity it is building up everyday. While about 30-40 % of us are sweating it out, in our own way, to have more and to feel good about what we have. We have about 10-12 % who feel that they have a right to feel the same way because the folks in DC keep sending stuff their way and if they yell loud more comes.
Take a look at how much money we have sent to Louisiana my home state. Trust me that New Orleans crowd do know how to yell. I wish I knew how much Federal money has been sent to that city in the past 15 years. Better yet we would all like to know what has been down with it.
OK OK... I just came in after working with my grandkids all day trying to teach them how to earn money, how to be a productive business person. How to deal with people to work hard and feel good when the Eagle lands and put the green back dollar where it belongs, in the hand of the worker. Then someone sent me an email showing me how we are sending a few Billion to a group of Islamic countries who given the opportunity would kill each and every Christian living in the US... Yes it lite my fuse...
Have a great night, day, evening what ever time you read this. But please stop and understand you and I must standup now and change the direction of our country before it is too late... Please not for you or for me but for our kids and their kids and their kids. We owe it to them.
God Bless American and please God Help Us change direction.
Tell DC folks we have had enough
Friday, August 15, 2008
RUSSIA SHOW THEIR TRUE COLORS YET AGAIN
THE LESSON OF GEORGIA: BRING UKRAINE INTO NATO
By DICK MORRIS
Published on August 14, 2008.
Printer-Friendly VersionAs we watched Russian tanks and planes attack yet another small neighbor, the world had to be reminded of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan, three other countries that had to watch their freedom crushed beneath tank treads. The blatant, outrageous, and long planned invasion of Georgia should make it clear to the United States and Europe that there is an urgent need to pre-empt further Russian expansionism by spreading the NATO umbrella more widely.
In Eastern Europe, Ukraine is the name of the game. With close to fifty million people, is, by far, more populous and important than any other former Soviet republic or satellite. Russia, with a population of 142 million and dropping, needs to take over Ukraine to reassert itself as a global power.
Moscow is terrified that Ukraine will become part of the west. That’s why Russian operatives poisoned democracy advocate Viktor Yushchenko, now the president of Ukraine, permanently scarring his face and almost killing him and why Moscow refuses to extradite the agent responsible for the attack. And it is why the Kremlin tried to engineer the election of a pro-Russian puppet by cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine and then tripled the price it charged.
The Ukrainians have voted again and again for democracy and ties to the west. Putin has tried repeatedly to force the nation back into the Russian orbit.The clear implication of the invasion of Georgia is that Russia cannot be trusted to live in peace with its neighbors. The impetus to imperial conquest predated and has outlasted communism.
As Henry Kissinger argues, Russia must either be expanding or contracting. With so many divergent and often hostile nationalities inside and around Russia, the momentum of conquest is the only way to avoid an inertia which leads to decomposition.Ukraine wants to enter NATO but our European allies, led by Germany, are so dependent on Russian gas that they are reluctant to antagonize the bear.
Until now, the case of expanding NATO’s protection to Ukraine has been hypothetical, based on fear of Russian intentions. But by breaking the civilized rules of national conduct, Russia has demonstrated the folly of leaving smaller democracies exposed on its border.Some – initially including Barack Obama – treated the Russian invasion as a border war for which both sides were responsible.
The Democratic candidate called for mutual restraint and, only after two days had elapsed, did he label the Russian actions as “aggression”. Others have sought to blame Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili for the war because he sent troops into South Ossetia, long a part of Georgia which the Russians have egged on to seek its independence.
The breakaway province is an example of Moscow’s oft-used strategy of encouraging emigration to other countries so as to use the new demographics to justify a takeover.Of course NATO cannot extend its protection to every nation in Europe.
It is, in the final analysis, a military alliance and it must be certain that it can back its guarantees with adequate might. The location of Georgia makes this difficult to assure. But Ukraine, located right next to NATO members Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, can and must be defended by NATO.
Russia is rapidly losing its population. It has the lowest birth rate in Europe and loses half a million people every year. Its GDP is only $1.7 trillion, a tenth of the Euro Zone’s. It is only through energy reserves that Russia is able to project its influence. And Russia must realize that the West’s likely movement away from oil and toward alternative fuels may make the energy card obsolete in the future.
It is only through blunt, blatant military force that Russia can expand and trouble its neighbors. And if the U.S. and NATO stand up to it, Russia will back down. And Ukraine is where we must make a stand.
By DICK MORRIS
Published on August 14, 2008.
Printer-Friendly VersionAs we watched Russian tanks and planes attack yet another small neighbor, the world had to be reminded of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan, three other countries that had to watch their freedom crushed beneath tank treads. The blatant, outrageous, and long planned invasion of Georgia should make it clear to the United States and Europe that there is an urgent need to pre-empt further Russian expansionism by spreading the NATO umbrella more widely.
In Eastern Europe, Ukraine is the name of the game. With close to fifty million people, is, by far, more populous and important than any other former Soviet republic or satellite. Russia, with a population of 142 million and dropping, needs to take over Ukraine to reassert itself as a global power.
Moscow is terrified that Ukraine will become part of the west. That’s why Russian operatives poisoned democracy advocate Viktor Yushchenko, now the president of Ukraine, permanently scarring his face and almost killing him and why Moscow refuses to extradite the agent responsible for the attack. And it is why the Kremlin tried to engineer the election of a pro-Russian puppet by cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine and then tripled the price it charged.
The Ukrainians have voted again and again for democracy and ties to the west. Putin has tried repeatedly to force the nation back into the Russian orbit.The clear implication of the invasion of Georgia is that Russia cannot be trusted to live in peace with its neighbors. The impetus to imperial conquest predated and has outlasted communism.
As Henry Kissinger argues, Russia must either be expanding or contracting. With so many divergent and often hostile nationalities inside and around Russia, the momentum of conquest is the only way to avoid an inertia which leads to decomposition.Ukraine wants to enter NATO but our European allies, led by Germany, are so dependent on Russian gas that they are reluctant to antagonize the bear.
Until now, the case of expanding NATO’s protection to Ukraine has been hypothetical, based on fear of Russian intentions. But by breaking the civilized rules of national conduct, Russia has demonstrated the folly of leaving smaller democracies exposed on its border.Some – initially including Barack Obama – treated the Russian invasion as a border war for which both sides were responsible.
The Democratic candidate called for mutual restraint and, only after two days had elapsed, did he label the Russian actions as “aggression”. Others have sought to blame Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili for the war because he sent troops into South Ossetia, long a part of Georgia which the Russians have egged on to seek its independence.
The breakaway province is an example of Moscow’s oft-used strategy of encouraging emigration to other countries so as to use the new demographics to justify a takeover.Of course NATO cannot extend its protection to every nation in Europe.
It is, in the final analysis, a military alliance and it must be certain that it can back its guarantees with adequate might. The location of Georgia makes this difficult to assure. But Ukraine, located right next to NATO members Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, can and must be defended by NATO.
Russia is rapidly losing its population. It has the lowest birth rate in Europe and loses half a million people every year. Its GDP is only $1.7 trillion, a tenth of the Euro Zone’s. It is only through energy reserves that Russia is able to project its influence. And Russia must realize that the West’s likely movement away from oil and toward alternative fuels may make the energy card obsolete in the future.
It is only through blunt, blatant military force that Russia can expand and trouble its neighbors. And if the U.S. and NATO stand up to it, Russia will back down. And Ukraine is where we must make a stand.
DO WE STAND BY OUR FRIENDS
THE LESSON OF GEORGIA: BRING UKRAINE INTO NATO
By DICK MORRIS
Published on August 14, 2008.
We watched Russian tanks and planes attack yet another small neighbor, the world had to be reminded of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan, three other countries that had to watch their freedom crushed beneath tank treads. The blatant, outrageous, and long planned invasion of Georgia should make it clear to the United States and Europe that there is an urgent need to pre-empt further Russian expansionism by spreading the NATO umbrella more widely.
In Eastern Europe, Ukraine is the name of the game. With close to fifty million people, is, by far, more populous and important than any other former Soviet republic or satellite. Russia, with a population of 142 million and dropping, needs to take over Ukraine to reassert itself as a global power.
Moscow is terrified that Ukraine will become part of the west. That’s why Russian operatives poisoned democracy advocate Viktor Yushchenko, now the president of Ukraine, permanently scarring his face and almost killing him and why Moscow refuses to extradite the agent responsible for the attack.
And it is why the Kremlin tried to engineer the election of a pro-Russian puppet by cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine and then tripled the price it charged. The Ukrainians have voted again and again for democracy and ties to the west. Putin has tried repeatedly to force the nation back into the Russian orbit.The clear implication of the invasion of Georgia is that Russia cannot be trusted to live in peace with its neighbors. The impetus to imperial conquest predated and has outlasted communism.
As Henry Kissinger argues, Russia must either be expanding or contracting. With so many divergent and often hostile nationalities inside and around Russia, the momentum of conquest is the only way to avoid an inertia which leads to decomposition.
Ukraine wants to enter NATO but our European allies, led by Germany, are so dependent on Russian gas that they are reluctant to antagonize the bear. Until now, the case of expanding NATO’s protection to Ukraine has been hypothetical, based on fear of Russian intentions. But by breaking the civilized rules of national conduct, Russia has demonstrated the folly of leaving smaller democracies exposed on its border.Some – initially including Barack Obama – treated the Russian invasion as a border war for which both sides were responsible.
The Democratic candidate called for mutual restraint and, only after two days had elapsed, did he label the Russian actions as “aggression”. Others have sought to blame Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili for the war because he sent troops into South Ossetia, long a part of Georgia which the Russians have egged on to seek its independence.
The breakaway province is an example of Moscow’s oft-used strategy of encouraging emigration to other countries so as to use the new demographics to justify a takeover.Of course NATO cannot extend its protection to every nation in Europe. It is, in the final analysis, a military alliance and it must be certain that it can back its guarantees with adequate might. The location of Georgia makes this difficult to assure.
But Ukraine, located right next to NATO members Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, can and must be defended by NATO.
Russia is rapidly losing its population. It has the lowest birth rate in Europe and loses half a million people every year. Its GDP is only $1.7 trillion, a tenth of the Euro Zone’s. It is only through energy reserves that Russia is able to project its influence.
And Russia must realize that the West’s likely movement away from oil and toward alternative fuels may make the energy card obsolete in the future. It is only through blunt, blatant military force that Russia can expand and trouble its neighbors.
And if the U.S. and NATO stand up to it, Russia will back down. And Ukraine is where we must make a stand.
In the past Russia would not have dared to act this way. Bush is doing the right thing but NATO is the one that should be most concerned about such agression.
By DICK MORRIS
Published on August 14, 2008.
We watched Russian tanks and planes attack yet another small neighbor, the world had to be reminded of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan, three other countries that had to watch their freedom crushed beneath tank treads. The blatant, outrageous, and long planned invasion of Georgia should make it clear to the United States and Europe that there is an urgent need to pre-empt further Russian expansionism by spreading the NATO umbrella more widely.
In Eastern Europe, Ukraine is the name of the game. With close to fifty million people, is, by far, more populous and important than any other former Soviet republic or satellite. Russia, with a population of 142 million and dropping, needs to take over Ukraine to reassert itself as a global power.
Moscow is terrified that Ukraine will become part of the west. That’s why Russian operatives poisoned democracy advocate Viktor Yushchenko, now the president of Ukraine, permanently scarring his face and almost killing him and why Moscow refuses to extradite the agent responsible for the attack.
And it is why the Kremlin tried to engineer the election of a pro-Russian puppet by cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine and then tripled the price it charged. The Ukrainians have voted again and again for democracy and ties to the west. Putin has tried repeatedly to force the nation back into the Russian orbit.The clear implication of the invasion of Georgia is that Russia cannot be trusted to live in peace with its neighbors. The impetus to imperial conquest predated and has outlasted communism.
As Henry Kissinger argues, Russia must either be expanding or contracting. With so many divergent and often hostile nationalities inside and around Russia, the momentum of conquest is the only way to avoid an inertia which leads to decomposition.
Ukraine wants to enter NATO but our European allies, led by Germany, are so dependent on Russian gas that they are reluctant to antagonize the bear. Until now, the case of expanding NATO’s protection to Ukraine has been hypothetical, based on fear of Russian intentions. But by breaking the civilized rules of national conduct, Russia has demonstrated the folly of leaving smaller democracies exposed on its border.Some – initially including Barack Obama – treated the Russian invasion as a border war for which both sides were responsible.
The Democratic candidate called for mutual restraint and, only after two days had elapsed, did he label the Russian actions as “aggression”. Others have sought to blame Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili for the war because he sent troops into South Ossetia, long a part of Georgia which the Russians have egged on to seek its independence.
The breakaway province is an example of Moscow’s oft-used strategy of encouraging emigration to other countries so as to use the new demographics to justify a takeover.Of course NATO cannot extend its protection to every nation in Europe. It is, in the final analysis, a military alliance and it must be certain that it can back its guarantees with adequate might. The location of Georgia makes this difficult to assure.
But Ukraine, located right next to NATO members Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, can and must be defended by NATO.
Russia is rapidly losing its population. It has the lowest birth rate in Europe and loses half a million people every year. Its GDP is only $1.7 trillion, a tenth of the Euro Zone’s. It is only through energy reserves that Russia is able to project its influence.
And Russia must realize that the West’s likely movement away from oil and toward alternative fuels may make the energy card obsolete in the future. It is only through blunt, blatant military force that Russia can expand and trouble its neighbors.
And if the U.S. and NATO stand up to it, Russia will back down. And Ukraine is where we must make a stand.
In the past Russia would not have dared to act this way. Bush is doing the right thing but NATO is the one that should be most concerned about such agression.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wear Red on Fridays- Here is why
I read this some time ago and put it in practice. I also put it in practice at a retirement home that I volunteer at. Now on Friday I along with about 35-40 seniors wear RED to honor those who do what they do so we can do what we do.
WEAR RED
Red Shirt If the red shirt thing is new to you, read below how it went for a man.. Last week, while traveling to Chicago on business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with a folded flag, but did not put two and two together.
After we boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who'd been invited to sit in First Class (ac ross from me), and inquired if he was heading home. No, he responded. Heading out I asked? No. I'm escorting a soldier home.
Going to pick him up? No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq , I'm taking him home to his family. The realization of what he had been asked to do hit me like a punch to the gut. It was an honor for him.
He told me that, although he didn't know the soldier, he had delivered the news of his passing to the soldier's family and felt as if he knew them after many conversations in so few days. I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said, Thank you.
Thank you for doing what you do so my family and I can do what we do. Upon landing in Chicago , the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement over the intercom.
'Ladies! and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have had the honor of having Sergeant Steeley of the United States Marine Corps join us on this flight. He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I ask that you please remain in your seats when we open the forward door to allow Sergeant Steeley to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. We will then turn off the seat belt sign.'
Without a sound, all went as requested. I noticed the sergeant saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realize that I am proud to be an American. So here's a public Thank You to our military Men and Women for what you do so we can live the way we do. Red Fridays.
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority.' We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking number s. We are not organized, boisterous or overbearing.
Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of American's supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -- and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that .. every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something red By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.
If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.
The fi rst t hing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is 'We need your support and your prayers.' Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example, and wear something red every Friday.
WEAR RED
Red Shirt If the red shirt thing is new to you, read below how it went for a man.. Last week, while traveling to Chicago on business, I noticed a Marine sergeant traveling with a folded flag, but did not put two and two together.
After we boarded our flight, I turned to the sergeant, who'd been invited to sit in First Class (ac ross from me), and inquired if he was heading home. No, he responded. Heading out I asked? No. I'm escorting a soldier home.
Going to pick him up? No. He is with me right now. He was killed in Iraq , I'm taking him home to his family. The realization of what he had been asked to do hit me like a punch to the gut. It was an honor for him.
He told me that, although he didn't know the soldier, he had delivered the news of his passing to the soldier's family and felt as if he knew them after many conversations in so few days. I turned back to him, extended my hand, and said, Thank you.
Thank you for doing what you do so my family and I can do what we do. Upon landing in Chicago , the pilot stopped short of the gate and made the following announcement over the intercom.
'Ladies! and gentlemen, I would like to note that we have had the honor of having Sergeant Steeley of the United States Marine Corps join us on this flight. He is escorting a fallen comrade back home to his family. I ask that you please remain in your seats when we open the forward door to allow Sergeant Steeley to deplane and receive his fellow soldier. We will then turn off the seat belt sign.'
Without a sound, all went as requested. I noticed the sergeant saluting the casket as it was brought off the plane, and his action made me realize that I am proud to be an American. So here's a public Thank You to our military Men and Women for what you do so we can live the way we do. Red Fridays.
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority.' We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking number s. We are not organized, boisterous or overbearing.
Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of American's supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -- and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that .. every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar, will wear something red By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.
If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, coworkers, friends, and family, it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.
The fi rst t hing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is 'We need your support and your prayers.' Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example, and wear something red every Friday.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Some Facts on Military Deaths over the Years
Interesting Facts.......address for verification included at the end. I promise you that you are going to be surprised... amazed at these facts! Considering what the media has been reporting since the beginning of the Iraq war.
This is not so much about politics as it is about how the Media can spin something for propaganda purposes. Interesting facts!Military Losses, 1980 thru 2007 whatever your politics, however you lean, however you feel about the current administration, this report should open some eyes. Military losses, 1980 through 2007.
As tragic as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the following statistics: The annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the armed forces
from 1980 through 2006:
1980 ...........2,392 (Carter Year)
1981 .......... 2,380 (Reagan Year)
1984 .......... 1,999 (Reagan Year)
1988 .......... 1,819 (Reagan Year)
1989 .......... 1,636 (George H W Year)
1990 .......... 1,508 (George H W Year)
1991 .......... 1,787 (George e H W Year)
1992 .......... 1,293 (George H W Year)
1993 .......... 1,213 (Clinton Ye ar)
1994 .......... 1,075 (Clinton Year)
1995 .......... 2,465 (Clinton Year)
1996 .......... 2,318 (Clinton Year)
1997 ............ 817 (Clinton Year)
1998 .......... 2,252 (Clinton Year)
1999 ......... 1,984 (Clinton Year)
2000 ..........1,983 (Clinton Year)
2001 ............ 890(George W Year)
2002 ......... 1,007 (George W Year)
2003 ......... 1,410 (George W Year)
2004 ..........1,887 (George W Year)
2005 ............. 919 (George W Year)
2006.............. 920 (George W Year)
2007...............899 (George W Year)
Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,000 deaths
George W years (2001-2006): 7,932 deaths
If you are surprised when you look at these figures, so was I.
These figures mean that the loss from the two latest conflicts in the Middle East are LESS than the loss of military personnel during Bill Clinton's presidency; when America wasn't even involved in a war!
And, I was even more shocked when I read that in 1980, during the reign of President (Nobel Peace Prize winner) Jimmy Carter, there were 2,392 US military fatalities!
I think that these figures indicate that many members of our Media and our Politicians will pick and choose the information on which they report. Of course we all know that they present only those 'facts which support their agenda-driven reporting.
But why do so many of them march in lock-step to twist the truth?
Where do so many of them get their marching-orders for their agenda? Do you want further proof?
Consider the latest census, of Americans. It shows the following FACTS about the distribution of American citizens, by Race:
European descent 69.12%
Hispanic.............. 12.5%
Black .................. 12.3%
Asian.................... 3.7%
Native American ... 1.0%
Other.................... 2.6%
Now... here are the fatalities by Race; over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom:
European descent (white) 74.31%
Hispanic ......................... 10.74%
Black ............................... 9.67%
Asian........... .................... 1.81%
Native American.............. 1.09%
Other ............................... 0.33%
I was surprised again... until it became clear to me that the point here is that our mainstream media continues to spin these figures (for political gain). Nothing more!!!
It's all about politics and some politicians, are now famous for turning American against American for a vote.
Consider Hillary Clinton's stump speech after her Super Tuesday 'victory' stating that the current administration does not listen' to anyone and continues the war costing precious American lives.
Yes I might even agree with her, but she should be made to acknowledge her own husband's administration, without having an actual war, sent more soldiers to death during his presidency, and is on record of forcing the military to release Osama when we actually had him detained at the time I am not suggesting that any particular political party is necessarily right, there is a lot wrong.
But, I hope that during the time between now and November, that intelligent Americans can decipher the facts from the spin and the spinners from the leaders; those who seek even more power from those that seek justice, the dividers from the uniters. Over the next months let's be good listeners and see and hear who really tries to divide our nation; and who wants to unite our nation.
Who wants to control how our money is spent and who wants our money spent the way we would spend it. Who seeks power and who seeks justice? Who spins the facts and who is genuine. (Very few are on both sides)
The above statistics are published by Congressional Research Service, and they may be confirmed by anyone at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf
This is not so much about politics as it is about how the Media can spin something for propaganda purposes. Interesting facts!Military Losses, 1980 thru 2007 whatever your politics, however you lean, however you feel about the current administration, this report should open some eyes. Military losses, 1980 through 2007.
As tragic as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the following statistics: The annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the armed forces
from 1980 through 2006:
1980 ...........2,392 (Carter Year)
1981 .......... 2,380 (Reagan Year)
1984 .......... 1,999 (Reagan Year)
1988 .......... 1,819 (Reagan Year)
1989 .......... 1,636 (George H W Year)
1990 .......... 1,508 (George H W Year)
1991 .......... 1,787 (George e H W Year)
1992 .......... 1,293 (George H W Year)
1993 .......... 1,213 (Clinton Ye ar)
1994 .......... 1,075 (Clinton Year)
1995 .......... 2,465 (Clinton Year)
1996 .......... 2,318 (Clinton Year)
1997 ............ 817 (Clinton Year)
1998 .......... 2,252 (Clinton Year)
1999 ......... 1,984 (Clinton Year)
2000 ..........1,983 (Clinton Year)
2001 ............ 890(George W Year)
2002 ......... 1,007 (George W Year)
2003 ......... 1,410 (George W Year)
2004 ..........1,887 (George W Year)
2005 ............. 919 (George W Year)
2006.............. 920 (George W Year)
2007...............899 (George W Year)
Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,000 deaths
George W years (2001-2006): 7,932 deaths
If you are surprised when you look at these figures, so was I.
These figures mean that the loss from the two latest conflicts in the Middle East are LESS than the loss of military personnel during Bill Clinton's presidency; when America wasn't even involved in a war!
And, I was even more shocked when I read that in 1980, during the reign of President (Nobel Peace Prize winner) Jimmy Carter, there were 2,392 US military fatalities!
I think that these figures indicate that many members of our Media and our Politicians will pick and choose the information on which they report. Of course we all know that they present only those 'facts which support their agenda-driven reporting.
But why do so many of them march in lock-step to twist the truth?
Where do so many of them get their marching-orders for their agenda? Do you want further proof?
Consider the latest census, of Americans. It shows the following FACTS about the distribution of American citizens, by Race:
European descent 69.12%
Hispanic.............. 12.5%
Black .................. 12.3%
Asian.................... 3.7%
Native American ... 1.0%
Other.................... 2.6%
Now... here are the fatalities by Race; over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom:
European descent (white) 74.31%
Hispanic ......................... 10.74%
Black ............................... 9.67%
Asian........... .................... 1.81%
Native American.............. 1.09%
Other ............................... 0.33%
I was surprised again... until it became clear to me that the point here is that our mainstream media continues to spin these figures (for political gain). Nothing more!!!
It's all about politics and some politicians, are now famous for turning American against American for a vote.
Consider Hillary Clinton's stump speech after her Super Tuesday 'victory' stating that the current administration does not listen' to anyone and continues the war costing precious American lives.
Yes I might even agree with her, but she should be made to acknowledge her own husband's administration, without having an actual war, sent more soldiers to death during his presidency, and is on record of forcing the military to release Osama when we actually had him detained at the time I am not suggesting that any particular political party is necessarily right, there is a lot wrong.
But, I hope that during the time between now and November, that intelligent Americans can decipher the facts from the spin and the spinners from the leaders; those who seek even more power from those that seek justice, the dividers from the uniters. Over the next months let's be good listeners and see and hear who really tries to divide our nation; and who wants to unite our nation.
Who wants to control how our money is spent and who wants our money spent the way we would spend it. Who seeks power and who seeks justice? Who spins the facts and who is genuine. (Very few are on both sides)
The above statistics are published by Congressional Research Service, and they may be confirmed by anyone at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf
An Experts View - One Who Lived It
It is about time someone wrote the facts about the terrorists and many of the Muslims. Please read it all, it is well worth the time. We do need to change our way of thinking and take this situation seriously.
(Editor's Note: Below are selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC)
(Editor's Note: Below are selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC)
We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy.
The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah.
I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to survive, as the perpetrators shouted, "Allah Akbar!" My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word "infidel."
I had a crash course in survival. Not in the Girl Scouts, but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. At the age of 13, dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends--killed by Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York , or Britons in London . We were Arab Christians living in Lebanon .
As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw Americans waking up on September 12, 2001, and asking themselves "Why do they hate us?" The psychoanalyst experts were coming up with all sort of excuses as to what did we do to offend the Muslim World. But if America and the West were paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had to ask the question.
Simply put, they hate us because we are defined in their eyes by one simple word: "infidels."
Under the banner of Islam "la, ilaha illa Allah, muhammad rasoulu Allah," (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel , massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then.
Under the banner of Islam "la, ilaha illa Allah, muhammad rasoulu Allah," (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel , massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then.
Now infidels worldwide are paying the price for indifference and shortsightedness.
Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise.
Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise.
America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam. You hear about Wahabbi and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam. All the other Muslims, supposedly, are wonderful moderates.
Closer to the truth are the pictures of the irrational eruption of violence in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed printed by a Danish newspaper. Fro m burning embassies, to calls to butcher those who mock Islam, to warnings that the West be prepared for another holocaust, those pictures have given us a glimpse into the real face of the enemy.
News pictures and video of these events represent a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the infidel and dominate the world. An20Islam which has declared "Intifada" on the West.
America and the West can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental disease are starting to attack the body, and if they don't take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be knocking soon.
If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world.
This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals su ch as doctors and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature life in society is ever capable of giving them.
The United States has been a prime target for radical Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and its people. The radical Islamist deeds have been as vile as their words.
Since the Iran hostage crisis, more than three thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of Islam.
America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must engage our terrorist enemies, that we must address their grievances.
Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity.
Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are.
Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization.
If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslim community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't believe in ourselves20as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion.
Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization.
If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslim community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't believe in ourselves20as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion.
For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America 's learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect.
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Brigitte Gabriel is an expert on the Middle East conflict and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East t elevision and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com. More bio info at� http://www.intelligencesummit.org/speakers/BrigitteGabriel.php%EF%BF?%EF%BF?%EF%BF?%EF%BF?%EF%BF?
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Brigitte Gabriel is an expert on the Middle East conflict and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East t elevision and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com. More bio info at� http://www.intelligencesummit.org/speakers/BrigitteGabriel.php%EF%BF?%EF%BF?%EF%BF?%EF%BF?%EF%BF?
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