2008-07-03T18:58:17Z opencongress.org tag:opencongress.org,2007:/bill/comments/47734 2008-07-03T18:58:17Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-07-03:/comment/32136 Anonymous Currently, U.S. global development policies and programs are scattered across 12 departments, 25 different agencies, and almost 60 government offices. Increased coordination is sorely needed to be effective. The Global Poverty Act, S.2433, is an authorizing piece of legislation which sets a directive for those departments under the Secretary of State to create a plan to address the first United Nations Millennium Development Goal. This bill is NOT an appropriating piece of legislation that would direct any new funds (or global taxes) to United States foreign assistance. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this legislation would cost less than $1 million to implement. S.2433 does not prejudge what the strategy should be, only that a strategy should be created. The Global Poverty Act does not subjugate the United States to the will of the United Nations. The strategy would apply only to those programs administered by the United States and the strategy would have complete Congressional oversight. For more information on the myths related to this bill, please visit: http://www.bread.org/take-action...-fact- sheet.pdf. For more information, you can easily read this bill at: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/qu...emp/ ~c110vneZOT 2008-07-03T20:52:15Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-07-03:/comment/32227 Anonymous Right. The agencies and employees aren't needed. Streamline the tax, and it is a tax, to a foreign government. 2008-07-03T20:55:10Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-07-03:/comment/32229 Anonymous Obama can't get away from Blair's GDP tax that he created this legislation over - two hard core socialists. 2008-05-24T09:37:03Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-05-24:/comment/17660 Anonymous WHAT IS MEMORIAL DAY? My years whirl past me. Swirling. Dry, broken grass hovering in a spring breeze. Can I remember my experiences in war? Hardly. Fighting for my country, my youth invested, seems such a long time ago, and so unimportant. The calendar this year marks Memorial Day on the 30th of May,2008. Have I lost something? The traditional Memorial Day, also known as Decoration Day, is on the 30th of May. This observed Memorial Day on May 29th coincidentally allows for a national three day holiday. Such is commercialism's capitalistic American display. But why do I feel so stricken, like I have abandoned old friends from long ago? Their ghosts consort with my floating years, and their spirits coast around my presence. Another three day holiday! Memorial Day! Maybe me and the kids can go camping? Or, to the beach? Memorial Day is fun! This is the inconsiderate, thoughtless approach to this meaningful, and consecrated moment representing one three hundred and sixty-fifth of our year. What is the meaning of Memorial Day? Is it merely a three day escape from our worldly duties? Or, is it the official beginning of summer? Is selling more hot dogs at the ballpark the overriding clarification? Many souls, sacrificed in war, in duty to America, are wandering. They drift in a heavenly place, minus their future here upon earth. Tomorrows were forfeited. Given up so our nation would invigorate free souls, aspire them to freedom, and justly allow their lives lived as they prefer. Raising offspring above restrictions, as they desire. Those lost lives giving we, the living, what we want freely. Those are the souls we respect on Memorial Day. This means it is a sacred day. Without retrospect, sacrifice is mute. Old Glory does not wave by accident. It flutters in the spring air revealing honor. The color red represents the blood bloom from those who fell, those who clawed, those who cried in horrible pain. Those who died fast. And, those who died ever so slowly. They did their duty. When I see Old Glory waving on a sunny, end of May day, the pigment red gushes from millions of souls, floating, not with us, anymore. They are amongst our heroes, cajoling with angels with their champions, conquerors and commanders. Friends and loved ones gather, over the rave, witness to those who gave more than anyone should be required to relinquish. They did not want to yield. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when the moment harshly struck them their fatal blow, they cried for their mother, or their friend. Then there were those, many of those, who knew exactly what they were giving. They moved forward knowingly. They lost their lives so their mission would be accomplished. Fools! Some intellects can say that. One would have to be an imbecile to give up life, no matter what the cause. For a flag? Futile! For a country! More pointless! For freedom! What freedom is there in mortality? Yes, fools they may have been, but their numbers add up in an awesome display of American loss! Veterans' Cemeteries, white badges sailing row after row after row upon green grass, almost never ending, creeping onto the horizon. Constant reminders of the devastation of our human treasure. Mothers' tears, enough to fill an ocean to overflow. Sweethearts, broken hearted, reading telegrams. Sons and daughters, many unborn, wakening at birth to a devastated family suffering from a victim of war there no more. And what does all this macabre math equal? Memorial Day is the correct answer. Few Americans know a person who died in war. Their family trees have lost some leaves, falling as they fought in one of America's wars, or discarded in the peacetime military. We are a busy people. We have business to capture. Our kids are in school. We have chores. Mundane, or surrealistic. We are a spirited society, seeking applications to improve ourselves and our communities. We are a helpful populace, always there when the going gets tough to help those who have suffered the tragedies of nature, whether a hurricane or a famine. Americans are always the first on the scene worldwide bearing their gifts of human spirit and abundance. This is why it is so puzzling that the meaning of Memorial Day seems to lack substance to many of our own people. Even with the day itself. Put back to accommodate a holiday schedule fixed by some organism no one knows, yet powerful enough to do so, the day itself lacks consequence to too many. Many who never knew a person who died in service to America are wrought with the invisible pain of not feeling for those who do. Americans take things for granted. We have so much. So very much. Endless choices. These options are not available worldwide. Our shelves are full. Unlike many in other nations of the world. So many are empty or offer very limited selections. Those American fighting men and women killed in battle whose souls are floating actually made available these wondrous choices we have every day of our American lives. Yet, most of our youngsters have no idea whatsoever what this means. They don't learn this in school. We must teach them. For without knowledge, they may end up thinking, or believing, all these marvelous selections came without circumstance. Minus anything. Equaling no meaning. Our nation needs to halt and perceive the flags and flowers on our Veterans graves on this consecrated holiday. We need to lift a common voice of adoration to those floating spirits of our onetime American Warriors, and extol them with a salutation. We have not come that far with our technological miracles of this millennium to become crass. We still need respect. Our backs can not turn from formality. Our eyes can not look away from custom. Our voices must not resonate in silence against honor and glory. To do so will leave us hollow, only to fill us with that which is desolate and lacking potential. This is not the true meaning of Memorial Day. The heartfelt significance requires reminding. Story telling. Wisdom being passed on from our Veterans to our younger generations. An interpretation certified by those who remember the horrors of war. Without this core, our society can not remain genuine. It becomes contemptible. It rots from within. These floating souls of our lost American Warriors are a powerful force, for they live within our hearts. They constantly seek justification for their contributions, and they are real within us. Such is what our American substance stands for, where character is developed, individually is guaranteed, and a community, a nation, survives. America enters the 21st Century as the most powerful entity humankind has ever experienced. America permeates this next century with vast responsibilities. Our children must bear this promise. We can not turn our backs on these bygone descendants, nor can we do so upon ourselves. Memorial Day offers us the opportunity to express a moment of solitude where each of us can personify in our own way what we feel. I only speak for my myself, as one who has bared his soul to the dread of war. So my father did, and his father's father before him, and their souls float amongst the multitudes. My mother and her mother held their Veterans after they returned from war, tears streaming down their cheeks in gratitude for their safe return. And there were those in my ancestry who did not return from war. And their mothers' tears soaked the pillows on beds for generations to sleep upon. Their souls are the dreams that drift amongst the floating, gathering at the end of May in the breeze of summer's coming, in the cool glass of lemonade at the child's street side stand, in the cheers at the ball game from the crowd rooting their team to victory and enjoying the best hot dogs in the world. Let us all stop for a moment, whether it is on the traditional day, or the observed Memorial Day, or even at the end of May, and reach for those floating souls. Let us reveal to them how much we cherish their sacrifice for our free people. Let these memories harvest our recognition of the meaning of Memorial Day in a very simple word. And let that word, simply stated be: THANKS!!! 2008-02-15T18:49:47Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-02-15:/comment/912 nightowl ABNU, janaid2001, Anonymous, you couldn't be more right. I cannot BELIEVE anybody could seriously consider the Obamination for the Presidency. I thought Prexy was supposed to defend the Constitution first & foremost, and advocate for and support the U.S. and her domestic and strategic interests FIRST ahead of anything else. And I thought such a person was expected to have enough moral stamina to reject "help" from anybody who would glorify the mass-murderer Guevara, or his ilk. The man is NOT morally serious at all. And this Global Poverty Bill is an unprintable word, for all the reasons everybody's already given. 2008-02-16T15:22:47Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-02-16:/comment/926 bobohack1 We need to take care of our own country. There are plenty of hungry people living here that the government seems to ignore. Black, white, red and yellow and any variations there-of living here should be our priority; NOT THE REST OF THE WORLD!!!!!!! Bob 2008-11-13T13:55:28Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-13:/comment/59265 aiwiron I say no to funding the rest of the world and no more aid to any country. 2008-09-21T01:01:33Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-09-21:/comment/40278 aindilis I vote against this bill, but not for the reasons you might think. I believe that the poor should be helped, but it seems to me that the United States would be incapable of helping them. The US is increasingly dominated by corporations, and it seems to me that these corporations are looking for laborers. Therefore they wish to mold these foreign poor into Americans - bent on mindless consumption, filled with corporate propaganda from the corporate Hollywood, and so forth. I think that these countries should be allowed to develop according to their own traditions. What the United States should do is pursue better economic and foreign policies. Look for instance at the extremely negative effect the US invasion of Iraq has had on their people. The Iraqi's are a dispossed people, robbed of their natural resources by an unjust faction of militants who have seized control of the United States government. The true colors are shown here, and this gives away the intention that the United States has in this bill. Furthermore, the United States should not fight socialism at every turn. Socialism seeks to provide a better distribution of wealth in society. Capitalism does not. So the United States fighting socialism belies its intentions to help the poor. Look at what Chavez has done by investing his nations oil wealth in the poor. I write this article, not to be mean to the United States, but to accurately present what I believe would help the poor the most. I find that the United States seems to tailor its policy according to what benefits the rich more than the poor. If I am in error, I apologize. 2008-02-29T11:27:41Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-02-29:/comment/1737 cooley28 no no no! Don't we have enough debt as a nation and no I wil not pay more tax. It is the responsibility of the other nations leaders to take care of their people. Instead of sticking the money in their pockets figure out a stimulas package that will bring agricultural or manufacturing business for their own wealth. why are we to be punished because our nations fore fathers fought to create an environment where men and women use their God given gifts to create wealth. Every nation has that ability but will not think of the people first. It is not our responsibility to be a baby sitter for the world.. 2008-11-09T14:37:10Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-09:/comment/58153 Anonymous "Glenn Beck reported it" Isn't he an Arab?? 2008-11-28T16:53:56Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-28:/comment/66085 gaymac I agree charity should begin at home, Would these people care about us ? Most of these starving over populated countries just need birth control, Sterlization and abortion, that would slow down the over population, and help them take care of their selves. Our government needs to first care for the country threy were elected to protect 2008-02-14T16:54:14Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-02-14:/comment/879 Anonymous Obama must be nuts to think we can afford the Global Poverty Act. Our own people are suffering. We are a debtor nation and don't have money to spare, much less give 845 billion dollars to the most corrupt organization on earth--the UN. Senator Biden should hang his head in shame. We are headed straight down the road to communism. Jack Campbell 2008-11-28T16:59:43Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-28:/comment/66086 Anonymous That is complete bull sh*t. 2008-09-23T23:22:58Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-09-23:/comment/40873 Toolbox003 If this bill passes the US will have to agree to the UN's Millenium Declaration which has connotations all of their own. This would require the US to rewrite many of the laws that we hold near & dear to our hearts such as the 2nd amendment. The US would also have to agree to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which was proposed in 1989 and the US is one of the last members of the UN that is refusing to sign this, and for good some very valid reasons. If this bill passes it will allow the UN to have more power over the US than it needs or should ever have. And on the poverty issue, the US needs to take care of the poverty stricken here at home before sending any more money oversea's. 2008-09-23T23:24:38Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-09-23:/comment/40874 Toolbox003 If this bill passes, the US will have to agree to the UN's Millenium Declaration which has connotations all of their own. This would require the US to rewrite many of the laws that we hold near & dear to our hearts such as the 2nd amendment. The US would also have to agree to the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which was proposed in 1989 and the US is one of the last members of the UN that is refusing to sign this, and for good some very valid reasons. If this bill passes it will allow the UN to have more power over the US than it needs or should ever have. And on the poverty issue, the US needs to take care of the poverty stricken here at home before sending any more money overseas. 2008-11-29T18:10:32Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-29:/comment/66210 gregn1 To-"anonymous" Nov. 25 2008. I have no clue what definition you are using to determine these racists. People of many colors are against this bill. When the U.S. is in a position to supply prosperity to the rest of the world, fine. However, currently we cannot pay back the loans we have outstanding with other countries let alone fix the entire worlds financial problems. It has absolutely nothing to do with race, it has everything to do with the fact we are broke. If you add up all the taxes we pay it's closing in on half of what we make. How much more of your hard earned money are you willing to give to the government to solve all the worlds problems when they can't even solve some of the most basic ones here? We still have hunger, poverty, sickness. Hasn't our government already pledged to eliminate all of these things? Obviously, you are not one of the people who is contributing to the money involved. Could it be that you are just one of the way too many holding out your hand to get "your piece of the pie", and not struggling to get by like the rest of us. Why does the U.S. have to take the role of savior of the world. 2008-11-30T08:41:09Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-30:/comment/66284 Anonymous Until we take care of the United States of America, how in the hell are we expected to continue to hand out money to help all these other countries. We are on a fast track to becoming one of these Third World countries that the Liberals are all in favor of saving? Who do you think is going to come to our aid when we become a Third World country? That's right, nobody! As stated in posts before this one, there are many, many people in other countries that are looking forward to the demise of the United States. This Bill will do nothing but insure of demise takes the fast track. God Bless America, because we certainly need it! 2008-11-30T09:15:42Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-30:/comment/66287 Anonymous Is this the start of a one world government? Turn to Christ and REPENT! Or be left behind. 2008-11-30T10:50:06Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-30:/comment/66306 Anonymous When will we learn that morality cannot be legislated??!! 2008-11-30T12:27:29Z tag:opencongress.org,2008-11-30:/comment/66323 Wordsmith1218 S.2433 is simply good international policy; defining the U.S. commitment to a strategic global community and making a stronger effort toward a better informed people worldwide. Only through education and the lessening of poverty can we - as a free world - defeat the ignornace of terrorism and dictatorial hegemony. Creating wealth creates and promotes freedom and once this wealth is either denied or threatened will those rise against the dominance of an oppressive nation or society. S2433 was agreed upon nearly nine years ago, a US and UN supported statement that would work toward the end of global poverty by the year 2015 - America must honor the integrity of these commitments and demonstrate genuine leadership in this world.