Saturday, October 8, 2011

'Blame America First'?

Ralph Raico:
'Blame America First'?

No, Ron Paul's policy is put America First. No wonder the neocons are angry and terrified.

xxxx

Ron Paul puts America first
Thursday, October 6, 2011 - The Political Pro-Con
by Conor Murphy

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2011Many, including fellow presidential candidate Rick Santorum, have labeled Ron Paul as part of the 'blame America first' crowd in this election cycle. They are angered by his willingness to point out flaws in our country's foreign policy and smear him as an isolationist who wants America to hide from the rest of the world. Contrary to establishment Republican rhetoric, Paul's policy is not "blame America first," but "put America first."

From the start of the Cold War, America adopted a more interventionist foreign policy. We have been more concerned about the affairs of other nations than ever before, and the result has been more military spending. The United States spends roughly $1 trillion per year on defense, which is more than at any other time in our nation's history. This spending has become unsustainable, as shown by the debt crisis that loomed this summer.

Opposition to these policies is the only sensible way to keep the deficit under control and to keep the country safe from those who want to do us harm. If we were to bring our troops home from around the world they would be in less danger, we wouldn't be interfering with sovereignty of other nations and making enemies, and we would save hundreds of billions of dollars every year. These are the same policies that were supported by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams, none of whom were considered isolationists.

If we consider the enormous benefits to this country of discontinuing our role as world's policeman, we'll see that they would go a long way towards putting the United States back on the road to fiscal solvency. The United States would do well to stop worrying about the disputes and internal affairs of other nations when we are on the verge of a financial meltdown at home.

There is nothing isolationist about putting the interests of America first rather than funding wars with countries that pose us no threat, propping up dictators who are hated by their people, and sending aid to other nations to buy their friendship. Policies like these create more problems than they solve. Instead of defeating the terrorists, we are giving them more motivation to continue fighting. When we spread ourselves too thin, we make ourselves more vulnerable. And sending foreign aid to other countries generally means taking money from the poor in this country and giving it to the rich dictators of poor countries.

Pointing out these unfortunate truths is a necessary step to fixing our problems, and Ron Paul is the only candidate brave enough to do it. It is mind boggling that while Republicans claim to fight for smaller limited government, they feel that it does not apply to foreign policy. They would do well to listen to their own rhetoric when they talk about the problems and inefficiencies of government, and apply it to our meddling overseas. Maybe then the Republican Party might be able to demonstrate some consistency to the American people instead of talking out of both sides of their mouths.

When Rick Santorum shamelessly exclaims that Ron Paul is blaming America for 9/11, not only is he wrong but he is also being intellectually dishonest. Santorum, like the rest of the Republicans, opposes our current healthcare predicament. If Obama-care destroys our healthcare system in the next ten years, no one would claim that Senator Santorum had "blamed America" for our healthcare problem. Like any other conservative, he is simply blaming a flawed policy.

This is no different than Dr. Paul's position on 9/11. He does not blame the country for the despicable acts that occurred on that day, but he correctly places some of the blame on our government's foreign policy. Unfortunately, trying to explain this difference to Rick Santorum is as fruitless as attempting to convince him that his support for Medicare Part D in 2003 was as bad as supporting Obama-care.

It's ironic that while most establishment Republicans accuse Ron Paul of not supporting the troops, he has gotten more money from active duty troops than all other Republican candidates combined. Maybe the rest of the Republican field should follow the example of our men and women oversees and put America first.

Conor Murphy is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in political science. As a former radio talk show host on WVCW, Conor hosted two popular shows, Murphy's Law and Son of the Revolution. You can read more of his columns in The Political Pro-Con at The Washington Times Communities

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/political-pro-con/2011/oct/6/ron-paul-puts-america-first/

JP Letter to Editor - Awwam ke Khadim

Dear Join Pakistan

LETTER TO EDITOR

October 8^th, 2011

Awwam ke Khadim

Most politicians are elected on the basis of the promises they make to serve the masses of their constituencies. However, the after-election scenario is always different. Their sudden transformation from the ordinary to sublime not only changes their psyche but also makes them highly conscience of their newly found VVIP status and the privileges claimed right or wrong between which unfortunately they cannot even differentiate. Naturally, the traffic on roads including the ambulances must stop for them. They have to have special VVIP lounges and check-in counters at the airports. And, so what if the flight and hundreds of passengers have to wait for their late arrival for the boarding? As far as serving the masses is concerned, regretfully they cannot. Firstly, they are inaccessible to them for reasons of protocol and security and secondly, it is now the “self before the masses” that has to taken care of. And, surprisingly they make no bones abou t it. They just haggle and quibble openly for it. A case in point - the ongoing squabble for the limousines and posh offices between the returning MQM and Functional League ministers in Sindh and a few of the Q League not content with what they are offered. Of course, everyone of them needs the shining limo and the elegant office badly to serve the masses earnestly and enthusiastically.

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30 Westridge 1
Rawalpindi 46000
Pakistan
Tel: (051) 5158033
E.mail: jafri@rifiela.com

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Conservative Christians Cheer Ron Paul

Conservative Christians Cheer Ron Paul
Posted on October 8, 2011 by LHR, Jr.

They love his genuinely pro-life message: antiabortion and antiwar. My, how times have changed. Four uyears ago, the Values Voters booed his comment, in the context of a discussion of his Golden Rule foreign policy, that he worships the Prince of Peace. (Thanks to Travis Holte)

xxx

Conservative crowd roars for Ron Paul
By Gautham Nagesh - 10/08/11 10:03 AM ET

Presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas) and his libertarian message received a raucous welcome from the socially conservative crowd at the Values Voter Summit on Saturday morning.

Paul's supporters were out in force at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, and they made their presence known, roaring at familiar talking points such as the accusation the nation's central bank is "counterfeiting our currency."

But the longtime congressman also modified his message slightly to play to the family values crowd, emphasizing the Biblical roots of many of his principles and avoiding controversial positions such as his advocacy for ending the war on drugs.

Paul cited his background as a physician as a reason why he would be particularly well-suited to defending the anti-abortion rights position shared by most of the audience.

"You cannot defend liberty if you don't understand life and where it comes from," Paul said to a standing ovation.

Notably, some of the loudest cheers came in response to Paul's strong words against military intervention as he pointed to the two wars the U.S. is currently engaged in as a drain on both the economy as well as the service members and their.

"One of the greatest threats to the family is war. It undermines the family," Paul said, adding that war also causes inflation, poverty and an increased rate of suicide among veterans.

The speech had the feel of a campaign rally as Paul's supporters stood up repeatedly and chanted his name in unison while other members of the audience looked on.

Paul gave his fans what they came to hear, closing with a libertarian flourish in which he warned that Americans should be wary of the reach of the U.S. government.

"Now you have no privacy whatsoever," Paul warned the crowd, citing airport security and government surveillance programs. "We are living in an age where government is way too big."

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/186353-conservative-crowd-roars-for-ron-paul

Hell hath no fury like a harem of your four current wives

New post on Bare Naked Islam

Hell hath no fury like a harem of your four current wives

by barenakedislam

Four furious wives of a Pakistani Muslim man crash his wedding to wife #5. After seeing the groom get his head handed to him by wives #1 through #4, bride #5 hightails it out the back door. Islam allows a man to be married to only 4 wives at a time.

Puns for Educated Minds.

New post on Fellowship of the Minds

Puns for Educated Minds.

by Steve

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.

He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out
to be an optical Aleutian.
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it
was a weapon of math disruption.
5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for
littering.
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum
Blownapart
8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking
into it.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to
the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
17. A backward poet writes inverse.
18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine .
21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The
stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per
passenger.'
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says "'Dam!'
23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in
the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your
kayak and heat it too.
24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The
other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'
25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root
canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope
that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

~Steve~ H/T Miss Cindy

Steve | October 8, 2011 at 6:36 am | Tags: Alaska, Aleutian Islands, France, King Arthur, Paris, Seine, Sir Cumference (series of books), Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana | Categories: Humor | URL: http://wp.me/pKuKY-9SI

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Let’s See “Occupy Wall St” Protest This One

New post on Fellowship of the Minds

Let's See "Occupy Wall St" Protest This One

by Dr. Eowyn

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary, is 31 years old and just landed a $300,000-a-year job on Wall Street, to be on the board of directors of Hollywood mogul Barry Diller's IAC (InterActive Corp), an internet company with over 50 brands across 40 countries headquartered in New York City.

Georg Szalai reports for The Hollywood Reporter, Oct 5, 2011, the IAC says Chelsea's "skills and background complement the existing areas of expertise of other board members," but her appointment is "seen by some as a celebrity appointment."

Clinton will be paid about $300,000 a year in cash and incentive stock awards.

Steven Davidoff, a commentator for the New York Times' DealBook, wrote:

""Ms. Clinton has this position only because she is the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the current secretary of state. This is clearly an appointment made because of who she is, not what she has done, one that defies American conceptions of meritocracy. The real question is whether Ms. Clinton can act independently and provide value to the IAC board. While there are many doubts on that score - and while Ms. Clinton clearly did not earn this position - she can still demonstrate that she is up to the task."

Davidoff also highlighted that IAC's board is full of Diller friends, including former Walt Disney boss Michael Eisner, Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Diller's stepson. In fact, the corporate governance research firm GovernanceMetrics International has cited governance concerns about IAC's board.

+++

You'll be delighted to know that Chelsea's new boss, Barry Diller, is also the media executive responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting.

America's bipartisan ruling class is such a cozy bunch!

~Eowyn

Dr. Eowyn | October 8, 2011 at 7:06 am | Tags: Barry Diller, Bill Clinton, Chelsea-Clinton, Fox Broadcasting Company, Hillary Clinton, IAC | Categories: Children, Economy, Liberals, Media, New World Order, The Powers That Be, United States, US Presidents | URL: http://wp.me/pKuKY-9RD

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JP BUSTING THE MYTH OF US AID TO PAKISTAN

From: Dr Meraj Siddiqui <drmerajs@gmail.com>

BUSTING THE MYTH OF US AID TO PAKISTAN

In ten years since 9/11, Pakistan received only $448 million in US aid. Our losses? $70 billion. Our debt? $86 billion.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Get it straight. Since 9/11, Pakistan has received only about $448 million net in economic assistance. The Economic Survey of Pakistan says that the costs Pakistan has incurred on America's failed 'War on Terror' are $68 billion. Deduct our external debt from $68 billion and we would have a billion of two left over, which the US should pay. Sad was the day we decided to help this multi-bankrupt country.

Yet propagandists and conspiracy theorists in the US corporate media (with their Pakistani poodles yapping in tandem) keep peddling the myth of the "enormous" American aid to Pakistan since 9/11. Figures vary wildly from $10 to 20 billion. This is perception management at its best.

After a study he conducted for the Woodrow Wilson Centre, Shahid Javed Burki said: "If US civilian assistance is completely withdrawn, it will only have an impact of 0.14 percent on Pakistan's GDP growth." Calculations were based on gross aid, 40 percent of which goes to American 'consultants'. These are conservative estimates compared with how US aid is being spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than 60 percent of the money remains with American 'contractors' and 'consultants'.

Mr. Anjum Rizvi of Vibe TV helped me to put these facts and figures together to expose the myth of US 'aid' to Pakistan.

Former State Bank Governor Ishrat Husain says that American aid does not help the government's precarious fiscal situation in any meaningful way. Only "12-15 percent of the total amount is channeled for budgetary support… Assuming that the whole $3 billion [per annum] in economic and military aid is disbursed fully, this accounts for less than seven percent of the total foreign exchange earnings of the country… The increase in export revenues and remittances in the current year was almost twice that amount."

What price then Hillary Clinton's boast in Islamabad on May 27 that, "We provide more support than Saudi Arabia, China, and everybody else combined…but I will stand here and admit that I'm not sure many Pakistanis know that." Of course they don't, Madam Secretary, because its all bull and you know it and we know it.

1. Since 2006 militancy has spread like a contagion throughout Pakistan. So far, it has cost the country more than 35,000 citizens, 3,500 security personnel, destruction of infrastructure, internal migration, nose-diving production and growing unemployment.

2. The US has so far provided $13 billion in aid to Pakistan, of which almost $9 billion were military disbursements. The government expects to receive $1.45 billion this year from CSF as reimbursements for money Pakistan has already spent on US behalf.

3. America has made the process of auditing Pakistan's invoices for reimbursement more stringent and rejected several claims in recent years.

· 50 percent of the aid has to be spent on US 'contractors' under US law, so this goes back to America.

· 25 percent is wasted on administrative expenses.

· The rest is given to the US Ambassador's favorite NGO to be deposited in US accounts.

· Almost none makes it to Pakistanis.

Compare this to China's spending of $30 billion in infrastructure projects in Pakistan.

If American military 'aid' looks big to you, please pause. Much of it is our money – reimbursements for money we have spent on America's behalf. It comes under 'Coalition Support Funds' for reimbursement to allied militaries for operations beneficial to the United States.

· The Pakistanis submit their costs; the US decides whether to pay or not.

· More than 40 percent of Pakistan's requests have been rejected.

· If any of our requests are "bogus" as the US informally claims, prove it. Or shut up.

· The problem is more likely with American bureaucracy, not Pakistani "mistakes". America is now even declining to pay for death benefits that it used to.

· Compare this to Afghanistan's $100 billion and Iraq's $600 billion aid, countries that are eight times smaller than Pakistan. Because America hasn't formally occupied Pakistan yet?

· Efforts to increase civilian assistance to $1.5 billion annually have failed.

Mrs. Clinton also said: "America cannot and should not solve Pakistan's problems. That's up to Pakistan. But in solving its problems, Pakistan should understand that anti-Americanism and conspiracy theories will not make problems disappear. It is up to the Pakistani peopleto choose what kind of country they wish to live in and it is up to the leaders of Pakistan to deliver results for the people." Quite. But most Pakistanis think that it is the US that spawns conspiracies that spawn "conspiracy theories" and it is the US that continues to cause problems for Pakistan.

Security-related funding, including CSF (2002-2010), amounted to about $14.14 billion.

· This includes the operational cost of the 140,000 Pakistani troops deployed along the 2,560-kilometer border with Afghanistan and training programmes for the paramilitary Frontier Corps.

· Almost two-thirds of the amount goes into security-related heads, while the social sector and economic infrastructure receive the remaining one-third.

· US AID and 'private contractors' spent more than 70 percent of the funds allocated for socio-economic development on their own support infrastructure.

· Half of the money never leaves US accounts. It's the same for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pakistan's ministry of finance was prompted to seek US clarifications on how $488.537 million being provided under the Kerry-Lugar-Burmen Law (KLL) were being spent.

· KLL provided for two modes of assistance: one, budget money worth $1,025.335 million for the year 2010-11 and, two, "off the budget" $488.537 million.

· Of "off the budget" assistance of $488 million, America plans to spend $170 million for International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement, $106.387 million for Office of Transition and $60 million for humanitarian assistance.

· The remaining over $240 million will be spent through international and local NGOs. Pakistani authorities do not know details of this spending.

· The American "Spent Plan" shows that Washington has so far obligated $1.025 billion for Pakistan after completing Congressional procedural requirements.

US media might scream about the "billions of dollars" of aid to Pakistan, but the fact remains that its impact on Pakistan is insignificant. US aid doesn't come close to funding the difference with Pakistan's losses. The war's cumulative impact on Pakistan is worse: loss of investment, decline in industry and capital flight. US and NATO forces abuse Pakistan's roads and bridges but don't pay for their maintenance. Add infrastructure loss due to militant activity and it gets worse. The truth is that aid from this bankrupt country creates more problems than it is worth.

First published by Pakistan Today newspaper. The paper's rights are reserved.

Muhammad Shoaib Tanoli

محمد شعیب تنولی

پاکستان زندہ باد ۔ پاکستان پائندہ باد
Long Live Pakistan

+92-300-2591223

Heaven on Earth
Pakistan is one of the biggest blessings of Allah for any Pakistani. Whatever we have today it's all because of Pakistan, otherwise, we would have nothing. Please be sincere to Pakistan.
Pakistan Zindabad!

ہم پاکستان ایک وطن ایک قوم