IT'S' THE SPENDING STUPID!

Author unknown.

Someone please tell me what the HELL's wrong with all the people we elect. They're certainly not looking out for OUR wallets!!!!!!

We’re "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless, etc., yet POTUS wants unlimited credit for spend, spend,l spend.. And, who will he spend on?

In the last years we have provided direct cash aid to:

Hamas - 351 M,

Libya 1.45 B,

Egypt - 397 M,

Mexico - 622 M,

Russia - 380 M,

Haiti - 1.4 B,

Jordan - 463 M,

Kenya - 816 M,

Sudan - 870 M,

Nigeria - 456 M,

Uganda - 451 M,

Congo - 359 M,

Ethiopia - 981 M,

Pakistan - 2 B,

South Africa - 566 M,

Senegal - 698 M,

Mozambique - 404 M,

Zambia - 331 M,

Kazakhstan - 304 M,

Iraq - 1.08 B,

Tanzania - 554 M,

With literally Billions of Dollars and they still hate us!!!!

The followiing paragraphs were authored by M. Tsien.

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income', receive no aid, nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries! We have hundreds of adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans.

 Ask yourself why low- tax (14-20%) emerging national economies throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa....and our friends in Russia and Canada, have higher annual growth rates than the United States and Socialist Western Europe.

What do you know about Congo, the 12th largest nation in the world?

Our daughter Kitty is a foreign service officer with US Agency for International Developmenet (USAID) in Congo, the 12th largest country in the world. Our son-in-law is employed by the Consulate there. He sent us the article below by Mark Doyle that pretty much explains what is going on there. I don't know if the maps in the article will reproduce here.

 

Subject: DR Congo's rebel kaleidoscope - map

 

This story includes a nice Oxfam map of the different armed groups operating throughout the Kivus, although, as the story states; “the map, drawn up in late November, was probably out of date almost as soon as it was published. But it does give an idea of the extreme difficulty ordinary civilians have in the region.”

 

Also includes a nice breakdown of why the Kivus are central in these conflicts.

 

DR Congo's rebel kaleidoscope

4 December 2012 Last updated at 20:45 ET

By Mark Doyle BBC International Development Correspondent

 

Congolese Civilians remain at the mercy of a variety of armed groups

While the M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have dominated headlines in recent months, they are just one of more than two dozen armed groups fighting in this resource-rich region.

A new report by the aid agency Oxfam, published along with a remarkable map, shows that the recent unrest in Goma - a strategically important trading city - is just the tip of an iceberg of human suffering.

The M23 rebels, named after a 23 March 2009 failed peace agreement that they claim to want to implement, captured Goma nearly two weeks ago, before withdrawing with their loot to positions just outside the city at the weekend.

Their campaign began in May 2012 when they mutinied from the national army. According to the United Nations, they had active assistance from Rwanda - which Kigali denies.

The M23 threat to the provincial capital Goma shuffled some of the military cards in areas far from the border region they control because United Nations and Congolese government army troops moved to Goma to counter them.

This left a security vacuum in other areas which smaller rebel groups exploited.

As the UN or the army moved out to reinforce areas under M23 threat, the smaller groups moved in, destabilizing the situation further.

Tax to work the fields

More than 25 rebel factions operate in just two provinces of eastern DR Congo: North and South Kivu. They have shifting alliances and control fluid areas of territory - but try to hang on to profitable tin or gold mines and/or routes where travelers can be "taxed".

Strictly speaking, the map, drawn up in late November, was probably out of date almost as soon as it was published. But it does give an idea of the extreme difficulty ordinary civilians have in the region.

“The small market town of Kashanga north-east of Goma... was attacked 12 times between April and July 2012”

"Preying on people has become an extractive industry," says Oxfam's Elodie Martel. "Armed groups plunder money, food and whatever other resources they can find."

In recent years, I have made numerous journeys through the Kivus and the kaleidoscope of armed groups you encounter is bewildering.

It is not unusual to come across two or three armed bands contesting the same stretch of road.

These groups often allow foreign journalists to pass through - it would draw too much attention to them to do otherwise.

But Congolese civilians are not so lucky. Oxfam cites the example of the small market town of Kashanga north-east of Goma which was attacked 12 times between April and July 2012.

The attackers were from the government army, and two other groups - the Patriotic Alliance for Free and Sovereign Congo (APCLS) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

They were fighting over control of illegal taxes imposed on people attending the weekly market.

In a nearby area farmers said they had to pay the Mai Mai Nyatura group 1,000 Congolese francs ($1; £0.62) or two to three kilos of beans per person for the right to access their fields to tend crops.

A man from this region who asked not to be named said of the armed groups: "Anyone who resists them or who raises their voice is immediately killed."

Across the Kivus there are estimated to be 767,000 displaced people.

"In the face of abuse and exploitation on this scale there is no room for apathy," Ms Martel said.

"This is a humanitarian catastrophe on a massive scale and the world cannot continue to turn its back on this tragedy," she said.

Too rich to care?

But whatever Oxfam's well-meaning appeals, the truth is that many people around the world do indeed shrug off DR Congo's woes.

The news emerging from the country is so consistently bad that people seem to have become immune to reacting.

Eastern Congo's beautiful hills belie the danger within

Across the country there are 2.5 million displaced. But the epicenter is the Kivus, for a combination of reasons:

• The Kivus have rich volcanic soil which supports crops in the valleys and cattle grazing on the rolling hills

• Other areas have rich mineral deposits - including tin, gold and coltan (used in the manufacture electronic gadgets)

• The above have attracted a relatively dense population

• Successive waves of ethnic Tutsi and ethnic Hutu settlement in the Kivus have destabilized and complicated the local ethnic balance

• Neighbouring countries all exploit the weakness of Congolese institutions by allowing their nationals to plunder DR Congo

• The Kivus are 1,500 kilometers from the capital Kinshasa and their natural trading route is via east Africa. This leads to yet more foreign influence.

Many people have fled their homes several times during two decades of unrest

Oxfam's Ms Martel said: "It is reprehensible that another year goes by with people telling us they go to bed afraid of killings, looting and abduction - and that women are too afraid to go to their fields to fear of being raped."

The aid agency called on the Congolese government and UN peacekeepers in the country to respond to people paying the ultimate price for the conflict.

But a more fundamental rebuilding may be necessary, because neither of these institutions have thus far been able to square up to the needs of the population.

When faced with a similar though much smaller-scale breakdown in law and order a little over a decade ago, the West African state of Sierra Leone decided to rebuild "from the army up".

With international assistance it re-trained its security forces in a strategy that has so far worked in helping rebuild the wider country.

But the tragedy of DR Congo is that it may be just too rich to do this.

It may be that the various elite actors on the Congolese stage - local and foreign - are making so much money from the rich mineral deposits that they don't want a functioning national army to restore order.

They may be benefitting too much from the current chaos.

The Democratic Republic of Congo covers 2,344,858 square km of land in the center of Africa, making it the 12th largest country in the world.

 

Inside DR Congo

• SIZE
• REBELS
• MINERAL WEALTH
• TRANSPORT
• POPULATION
• DATA

DR Congo Seeks Democracy

• Rebel city
• Why Goma matters
• UN under fire
• Q&A: DR Congo's M23 rebels

 

A wealth tax? A WEALTH TAX?

C'mon man, it's another way to take money out of YOUR pocket and MY pocket. There's no doubt in my miind that:

Major media will promote it.
The White House will run ads supporting it.
The Democratic Party will continue to trash "the wealthy."
House Leadership will continue to be mealy-mouthed.
Senate Leadership will promote it.

It will be so cleverly presented to American people that it looks like the right thing to do. It will amount to chtanging the rules after the game has begun.

Who will buy it? It will be the American Left and the "base" of the Democratic Party.

Stocks and bonds? Those with more than one car? More than one house? Trust funds (not that I have any)?

What's your net worth? Are you ready to have a government employee reviewing your personal assets?

Is a riding mower "wealth?"  A house with a two-car garage? Dividends that are already taxed?
Swimming pool in your yard? I invite readers to add to the list.

One strategy to implement this will be to lower the taxes of the "base". Afterall, they bought the goodies offered them during the recent Presidential race. The "majority" of the American people allegedly spoke during the recent election. With that phony mandate will they again "speak" to us in suupport of "wealth tax?"

Will we hear any peeps out of our ineffectual national conservative leadership?

 

Jive Talk from the White House aka We've Covered Our A..

They have certainly had enough time now to get their story straight. But who believes 'em?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/16/petraeus-to-testify-knew-libya-was-terrorism-from-start-source-says/ 

The view from a formerly Communist country

From Prague, The Perfect Quote: Occasionally people have the vocabulary to sum up things in a way that can be quickly understood; this quote - from the Czech Republic. It was translated into English from an article in the Prague newspaper, Prager Zeitungon "The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president."

THE DIVORCE AGREEMENT OF JOHN J. WALL

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is our separation agreement:

--Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

--We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.

--You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.

--Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

--We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and the coal mines, and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.

--You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

--We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.

--You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.

--We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks.

--We'll keep Bill O'Reilly, and Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

--You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.

--You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

--We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.

--You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

--We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find.

--You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

--We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

--We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem."

--I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World".

--We'll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

--Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you might think about which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

 

In the event you haven't voted yet,...

David Barton
Professor Emeritus
Michigan State University

I urge you to share this information with everyone you know, regardless of their religious or political perference, and it might be especially important to print this and hand-it to your pastor, priest or rabbi.

 

America Historian, and Christian, David Barton compiled this list and you can see his fact-source footnotes at http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=106938

 

If you are not familiar with David Barton, you owe it to yourself to know who he is and what he does.

Many of the actions listed below are literally unprecedented in American history. The hostility of President Obama toward Biblical faith and values is without equal from any previous American president. While most of these news stories have been seen before, seeing them all laid out in one list is pretty astonishing.

 

The Most Biblically Hostile President Of All Time

 

1. Acts of hostility toward people of Biblical faith:

 

April 2008 – Obama speaks disrespectfully of Christians, saying they “cling to guns or religion” and have an “antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” (footnote 1, on Barton's WallBuilders webpage)

February 2009 – Obama announces plans to revoke conscience protection for health workers who refuse to participate in medical activities that go against their beliefs, and fully implements the plan in February 2011. (2)

April 2009 – When speaking at Georgetown University, Obama orders that a monogram symbolizing Jesus’ name be covered when he is making his speech. (3)

May 2009 – Obama declines to host services for the National Prayer Day (a day established by federal law) at the White House. (4)

April 2009 – In a deliberate act of disrespect, Obama nominated three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican; of course, the pro-life Vatican rejected all three. (5)

October 19, 2010 – Obama begins deliberately omitting the phrase about “the Creator” when quoting the Declaration of Independence – an omission he has made on no less than seven occasions. (6)

November 2010 – Obama misquotes the National Motto, saying it is “E pluribus unum” rather than “In God We Trust” as established by federal law. (7)

January 2011 – After a federal law was passed to transfer a WWI Memorial in the Mojave Desert to private ownership, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that the cross in the memorial could continue to stand, but the Obama administration refused to allow the land to be transferred as required by law, and refused to allow the cross to be re-erected as ordered by the Court. (8)

February 2011 – Although he filled posts in the State Department, for more than two years Obama did not fill the post of religious freedom ambassador, an official that works against religious persecution across the world; he filled it only after heavy pressure from the public and from Congress. (9)

April 2011 – For the first time in American history, Obama urges passage of a non-discrimination law that does not contain hiring protections for religious groups, forcing religious organizations to hire according to federal mandates without regard to the dictates of their own faith, thus eliminating conscience protection in hiring. (10)

August 2011 – The Obama administration releases its new health care rules that override religious conscience protections for medical workers in the areas of abortion and contraception. (11)

November 2011 – Obama opposes inclusion of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous D-Day Prayer in the WWII Memorial. (12)

November 2011 – Unlike previous presidents, Obama studiously avoids any religious references in his Thanksgiving speech. (13)

December 2011 – The Obama administration denigrates other countries’ religious beliefs as an obstacle to radical homosexual rights. (14)

January 2012 – The Obama administration argues that the First Amendment provides no protection for churches and synagogues in hiring their pastors and rabbis. (15)

February 2012 – The Obama administration forgives student loans in exchange for public service, but announces it will no longer forgive student loans if the public service is related to religion. (16)

 

2. Acts of hostility from the Obama-led military toward people of Biblical faith:

 

June 2011 – The Department of Veterans Affairs forbids references to God and Jesus during burial ceremonies at Houston National Cemetery. (17)

August 2011 – The Air Force stops teaching the Just War theory to officers in California because the course is taught by chaplains and is based on a philosophy introduced by St. Augustine in the third century AD – a theory long taught by civilized nations across the world (except America). (18)

September 2011 – Air Force Chief of Staff prohibits commanders from notifying airmen of programs and services available to them from chaplains. (19)

September 2011 – The Army issues guidelines for Walter Reed Medical Center stipulating that “No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading materials and/or facts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.” (20)

November 2011 – The Air Force Academy rescinds support for Operation Christmas Child, a program to send holiday gifts to impoverished children across the world, because the program is run by a Christian charity. (21)

November 2011 – The Air Force Academy pays $80,000 to add a Stonehenge-like worship center for pagans, druids, witches and Wiccans. (22)

February 2012 – The U. S. Military Academy at West Point disinvites three star Army general and decorated war hero Lieutenant General William G. (“Jerry”) Boykin (retired) from speaking at an event because he is an outspoken Christian. (23)

February 2012 – The Air Force removes “God” from the patch of Rapid Capabilities Office (the word on the patch was in Latin: Dei). (24)

February 2012 – The Army orders Catholic chaplains not to read a letter to parishioners that their archbishop asked them to read. (25)

 

3. Acts of hostility toward Biblical values:

 

January 2009 – Obama lifts restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, forcing taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations. (26)

January 2009 – President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of state asserts that American taxpayers are required to pay for abortions and that limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional. (27)

March 2009 – The Obama administration shut out pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored health care summit. (28)

March 2009 – Obama orders taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. (29)

March 2009 – Obama gave $50 million for the UNFPA, the UN population agency that promotes abortion and works closely with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations. (30)

May 2009 – The White House budget eliminates all funding for abstinence-only education and replaces it with “comprehensive” sexual education, repeatedly proven to increase teen pregnancies and abortions. (31) He continues the deletion in subsequent budgets. (32)

May 2009 – Obama officials assemble a terrorism dictionary calling pro-life advocates violent and charging that they use racism in their “criminal” activities. (33)

July 2009 – The Obama administration illegally extends federal benefits to same-sex partners of Foreign Service and Executive Branch employees, in direction violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. (34)

September 16, 2009 – The Obama administration appoints as EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum, who asserts that society should “not tolerate” any “private beliefs,” including religious beliefs, if they may negatively affect homosexual “equality”. (35)

July 2010 – The Obama administration uses federal funds in violation of federal law to get Kenya to change its constitution to include abortion. (36)

August 2010 – The Obama administration Cuts funding for 176 abstinence education programs. (37)

September 2010 – The Obama administration tells researchers to ignore a judge’s decision striking down federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. (38)

February 2011 – Obama directs the Justice Department to stop defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act. (39)

March 2011 – The Obama administration refuses to investigate videos showing Planned Parenthood helping alleged sex traffickers get abortions for victimized underage girls. (40)

July 2011 – Obama allows homosexuals to serve openly in the military, reversing a policy originally instituted by George Washington in March 1778. (41)

September 2011 – The Pentagon directs that military chaplains may perform same-sex marriages at military facilities in violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. (42)

October 2011 – The Obama administration eliminates federal grants to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their extensive programs that aid victims of human trafficking because the Catholic Church is anti-abortion. (43)

 

4. Acts of preferentialism for Islam:

 

May 2009 – While Obama does not host any National Day of Prayer event at the White House, he does host White House Iftar dinners in honor of Ramadan. (44)

April 2010 – Christian leader Franklin Graham is disinvited from the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer Event because of complaints from the Muslim community. (45)

April 2010 – The Obama administration requires rewriting of government documents and a change in administration vocabulary to remove terms that are deemed offensive to Muslims, including jihad, jihadists, terrorists, radical Islamic, etc. (46)

August 2010 – Obama speaks with great praise of Islam and condescendingly of Christianity. (47)

August 2010 – Obama went to great lengths to speak out on multiple occasions on behalf of building an Islamic mosque at Ground Zero, while at the same time he was silent about a Christian church being denied permission to rebuild at that location. (48)

2010 – While every White House traditionally issues hundreds of official proclamations and statements on numerous occasions, this White House avoids traditional Biblical holidays and events but regularly recognizes major Muslim holidays, as evidenced by its 2010 statements on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha. (49)

October 2011 – Obama’s Muslim advisers block Middle Eastern Christians’ access to the White House. (50)

February 2012 – The Obama administration makes effulgent apologies for Korans being burned by the U. S. military, (51) but when Bibles were burned by the military, numerous reasons were offered why it was the right thing to do. (52)