Benjamin Netanyahu - Congressional Speech, May 24, 2011

http://www.cspan.org/Events/Israeli-Prime-Minister-Addresses-Congress/10737421714-1/Thursday, May 24, 2011 Prime Minister Netanyahu has been given the opportunity to speak to a full house of congress.  He outlines the history of friendship that Israel has with the people of America. He also offers effusive praise to the United States of American for it's full throated support in the face of it's daily turmoil.  He touches on the beauty and efficacy of the state of Israel, the only democratic form of government in the middle east.  He praises the work of the young protestors in the middle east and encourages the growth that democracy would bring, even to Palastine.  He identifies positive change that has occured in the Palestinian territories economically.  And of course, plainly states that a relationship with Hamas, a nation plainly determined to bring for the destruction of Israel, cannot stand  He points out the irony related to the Arab nations which deny their citizens the right to speak out against it's own government or to convert from Islam, all the while demanding that Israel, who offers it's Arab citizens full rights of citizenship, freedom of speech.  To wit: "...Courageous Arab protesters are now struggling to secure these very same rights for their peoples, for their societies. We're proud in Israel that over 1 million Arab citizens of Israel have been enjoying these rights for decades. Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel's Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights. Now, I want you to stop for a second and think about that. Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one-half of 1 percent are truly free, and they're all citizens of Israel.."  He even weathered some good old American protest on behalf of the Palestinian plight.


Upon the acosted protestor's being ushered out of the building he deftly pointed out that we should "wear as a badge of honor" the fact that we can protest like the young lady just did.  Indeed, had she done so before Parliment of Tehran or Tripoli she would have been not only removed, but summarily extinguished. 

 To read the full text click here.  To see the video click here.

Obama's Reproductive Healthcare Hype

I must say that I am a bit concerned about the huge negotiations that appear to be taking place around keeping federally funded abortion out of the health care bill.  I am concerned that the democratic administration is hyping the inclusion of this as a leveraging ploy to get a government run program that will take over our health care economy.  I am not sure of the politics preventing them from dropping the abortion clauses in reconciliation simply to get the government in place.  I have largely been opposing this for social justice reasons, but do we really want governement health care?   Won't this fly through congress if abortion is gone?  Think of it:  we all breath a sigh of relief, no federal funding of abortion...whew.  But that begs the question: once abortion is gone - do we really want government health care of any kind?  By doing this the government will beome both a player and the referee in the medical community.  In so doing it will be able to regulate all other options out of business.  If the government could actually run a transparent, efficient and effective system that wouldn't be so bad.  But what is the history  of our government running things?

1. The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775. 234 years to get it right and it is becoming more unsustainable by the day.

2. Social Security was established in 1935. 74 years to get it right and it is bankrupt.

3. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. 71 years to get it right. It is bankrupt and now has an unlimited line of credit from the Fed (printing fiat).

4. The War on Poverty started in 1964. 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor".  We are still around.

5. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. 44 years to get it right.  They are bankrupt.

6. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. 39 years to get it right. It is bankrupt and now has an unlimited credit line from the Fed.

7. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

FAILED in every "government service" attempted while overspending massive tax dollars that could be saved, invested or spent by the American people. Can we NOW trust a government Health Care system to work...a system bigger than all of these programs?  And aside from that once they put private insurers out of business, what's to stop them from reinstating the funding?