Saturday, May 20, 2006

Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point

Global Food Supply Near the Breaking Point
Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, May 17 (IPS) - The world is now eating more food than farmers grow, pushing global grain stocks to their lowest level in 30 years.

Rising population, water shortages, climate change, and the growing costs of fossil fuel-based fertilisers point to a calamitous shortfall in the world's grain supplies in the near future, according to Canada's National Farmers Union (NFU).

Thirty years ago, the oceans were teeming with fish, but today more people rely on farmers to produce their food than ever before, says Stewart Wells, NFU's president.

In five of the last six years, global population ate significantly more grains than farmers produced.

And with the world's farmers unable to increase food production, policymakers must address the "massive challenges to the ability of humanity to continue to feed its growing numbers", Wells said in a statement.

There isn't much land left on the planet that can be converted into new food-producing areas, notes Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based non-governmental organisation. And what is left is of generally poor quality or likely to turn into dust bowls if heavily exploited, Brown told IPS.

Unlike the Green Revolution in the 1960s, when improved strains of wheat, rice, maize and other cereals dramatically boosted global food production, there are no technological magic bullets waiting in the wings.

"Biotechnology has made little difference so far," he said.

Even if the long-promised biotech advances in drought, cold, and disease-resistance come about in the next decade, they will boost yields little more than five percent globally, Brown said.

"There's not nearly enough discussion about how people will be fed 20 years from now," he said.

Hunger is already a stark and painful reality for more than 850 million people, including 300 million children. How can the number of hungry not explode when one, two and possibly three billion more people are added to the global population?

The global food system needs fixing and fast, says Darrin Qualman, NFU's research director.

"Many Canadian and U.S. farmers are going out of business because crop prices are at their lowest in nearly 100 years," Qualman said in an interview. "Farmers are told overproduction is to blame for the low prices they've been forced to accept in recent years."

However, most North American agribusiness corporations posted record profits in 2004. With only five major companies controlling the global grain market, there is a massive imbalance of power, he said.

"The food production system is designed to generate profits, not produce food or nutrition for people," Qualman told IPS.

He says there are enormous amounts of food stored in central Canada's farming heartland, but thousands of people there, including some farm families, are forced to rely on food banks.

"It's a system that's perfectly happy to leave hundreds of millions of people unfed," he said.

Inequity and poverty are at the heart of the hunger problem, according to experts, including the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Economic inequity is becoming more widespread, with hunger and malnutrition a chronic problem for the poor in both the South and the North, says Brown.

And the present situation is likely to worsen with climate change.

An estimated 184 million people in Africa alone could die from floods, famine, drought and conflict resulting from climate change before the end of the century, according to a new report by Christian Aid, a British-based charity.

Millions more in other parts of the world will also perish, and recent gains in reducing poverty could be thrown into reverse in coming decades, said the report, "Climate of Poverty: Facts, Fears and Hopes".

"This is a grave crisis for global society and we need global solutions," said Andrew Pendleton, climate and development analyst at Christian Aid.

In the "Hope" section of the report, the group envisions poor regions using renewable energy to power a new, and clean, era of prosperity.

Another vision is already making a difference in villages in 10 African countries. With some money to buy better seeds, fertiliser, a share in a protected water source, and a bed net to fend off malarial mosquitoes, hundreds of thousands of villagers in the Millennium Villages project are now able to grow enough food and sell the surplus.

Developed by Jeffrey Sachs and others at Columbia University's Earth Institute and the U.N. Millennium Project, each project is led by local community members using proven, practical, low-cost technologies.

Making a substantial difference in Africa's food security and poverty issues means development assistance to spread the project to the more than 100,000 villages in Africa, organisers have said.

That kind of frontal assault on poverty, along with population stabilisation and sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that are causing climate change, top Brown's list of what needs to be done immediately.

Shifting from a global food production system to local food for local people would go a long way towards addressing inequity, Qualman believes.

"The 100-mile diet, where people obtain their food from within a 100-mile radius of their homes, makes good sense for most of the world," he said.

The whole fabric of the food production system needs to change, or hunger and malnutrition will only get much worse.

"North America's industrial-style agricultural system is a really bad idea and maybe the worst on the planet," Qualman concluded. (END/2006)

Thus Says The Lord, “Judgment won't be prolonged”

Thus Says The Lord, “Judgment won't be prolonged”Kato Mivule
May 18, 2006

>>This is a prophetic message I have from The Lord concerning the coming Judgments...
>>This is no joke, this could very well be the last warning you read or hear before The Lord drops the Next Shoe...
>>Take Heed, Watch, Pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things coming on the earth and to stand before The Son of Man...

>>Repent of ALL sin, walk Holy before The Lord...
>>Don't be deceived that Judgment will be delayed...the rag is being pulled from under many people's feet and they even don't know it...

>>Separate from all sin, and the wicked...
>>Come out of ALL types of Babylon...Revelations 18:4...
>>Love Jesus Christ with ALL your Heart, Mind, and Strength...
>>The Lord is arising with vengeance to Judge America and the Nations...

>>Many people are going to DIE including Pharisee Christians...
>>Many dead bodies all over the place...
>>Many DESOLATE Cities in America and the Nations...
>>Many diseases...
>>Nuclear War...

>>Many destroyed cities, never to be rebuilt AGAIN...
>>Many Cities WIPED OFF the face of the earth...
>>America, the time for your great humbling has come...
>>The proud and lofty of the earth will be debased and overthrown...
>>This is the year of the Great Humbling...

>>Economic Woes...
>>Biological Disease Woes...
>>War Woes...
>>The Angel of Death is moving around the world and in America especially...your ONLY protection is in Jesus Christ...

>>Judgment comes on America and the Nations...
>>Judgment will not be prolonged...
>>Sword, Pestilence, and Famine...
>>Economic, Biological Catastrophes, and War...

Ezekiel 12:21-28
(21) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
(22) Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?
(23) Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.
(24) For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.
(25) For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.
(26) Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
(27) Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.
(28) Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.


>>Judgment coming on Christendom...
>>Judgment on all Apostasy in Church...
>>Judgment on Current Leadership in Christendom...
>>It all won't be delayed any longer...


Jeremiah 5:23-31
(23) But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
(24) Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
(25) Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
(26) For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
(27) As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
(28) They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
(29) Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
(30) A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
(31) The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

>>To The Watchmen...

Joel 2:1
(1) Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Amos 8:1-2
(1) Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.
(2) And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

Obadiah 1:15
(15) For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

>>Message to The Lord's Remnant...

James 5:8-9
(8) Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
(9) Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

Philippians 4:5-7
(5) Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
(6) Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
(7) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 4:7
(7) But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

Revelation 22:10
(10) And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

In Christ Jesus
Kato Mivule
Uganda, Africa

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Today we march, tomorrow we vote!

NAHORA MARCHAMOS, MAÑANA VOTAMOS!

By Jon Christian Ryter

May 17, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

Under a hastily formed cluster group of national and international labor union activists and mid-level field organizers, illegal aliens, legal aliens, Hispanic activists, Catholic priests, and school-age children of both legal and illegal aliens, and rank and file union members—compulsorily drafted as paid protesters—as well as left-wing zealots who will show up for any anti-American protest, joined the largely Hispanic May Day national retail "pro-amnesty" boycott by minorities of retail stores all across the United States as though to suggest that the buying power of illegals was strong enough to hurt Main Street America merchants, and that the retail community would buckle and demand that Bush grant the illegals amnesty rather than deport them. Instead, retail America in the path of the May Day parade found themselves the victims of marauding Hispanic street gangs in Los Angeles and elsewhere who saw the chaos as an opportunity for profiteering. Members of Hispanic gangs struck merchants in every city where the May Day amnesty protests were held and either resorted to gypsy-style rack stripping, or they simply robbed the stores at gunpoint.

The amnesty cluster groups that coordinated the nationwide May Day demonstration which followed another nationwide demonstration to protest the anti-immigration legislation that is stalled in the US Senate. After the May Day protest—operating under the umbrella of "We Are America Alliance"—funded by big labor and several left-wing organizations like MoveOn.org and La Raza, the Latino coalition announced a new coordinated campaign to register a million new voters before the midterm elections.

In Los Angeles on Monday, May 8, Renan Almendareaz Coello, a nationally-syndicated Spanish-radio DJ and one of the key spokesmen for the alliance, presented vague details of the strategy that began with the chant that was heard in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and everywhere the May Day amnesty protests (that actually began in March and will culminate on May 17) were held—"Ahora marchamos, mañana votamos!" ("Today we march, tomorrow we vote!")

To the illegals in America, its that simple. Forget citizenship. Citizenship comes later—after the Democrats vote the GOP out of office. First, the Latinos are being told, they need get a US driver's license. Never mind that, as thieves in the night, they violated the laws of this nation by entering the country illegally, and thus have no constitutional rights or prerogatives as intruders in a nation that has not legally granted them refuge. The Hispanic vote—especially the illegal Hispanic vote—is now more important to the Democrats than the black vote. African Americans have largely freed themselves from the shackles that tethered seven generations of their forebearers to the feeding trough of the State. Since they've tasted financial independence, they've discovered what liberty means. Today, a new generation of indentured minds eagerly await the invitation to dine at the feast-laden table of the State in exchange for the votes that will make them slaves to a new patronage system that the left hopes will evolve from the Election of 2006.

"We need to reach out to our youth—the first, second and third generation—to make sure they vote," Coello (also known to the LA Spanish-listening radio audience as "El Cucuy" (the Bogeyman) told the media. Angela Sanbrano, the Executive Director of the Central American Resource Center noted that the "...next [few] weeks are crucial to the immigration reform bill," adding that if the House measure is adopted it would become a felony to be in the United States illegally." Speaking frankly, it should be. Those who enter this country illegally conspire to steal the resources of this nation and its people. That should be a crime, and it should be a crime that prevents that person from ever being allowed to apply for, or receive, a visa to enter this country.

On Tuesday, May 9, Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala held a press conference at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles flanked by "immigrant" mothers holding white roses to symbolize their separation from their families in Mexico and other Central American countries. Zavala said the drive to produce one million new voters by the November mid-term elections will "...channel the unprecedented momentum of our previous marches into a targeted mass campaign for civil action..." to press for legislation that will reunify families and legalize the nation's 13 million undocumented aliens.

The "We Are America Alliance" is organized in 40 States to press for legislation that will make it easier for Latinos to exercise their prerogative to vote. Angelica Salas, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said the advocacy groups were planning to launch what she called "Immigration Democracy Summer" beginning July 1 to produce a million new voters—and citizens. Over the Labor Day weekend, Michael Garcia, the president of Local 1877 of the Service Employees International Union, said they will mobilize their recruits into a campaign that will have "...ten times the momentum that we had in 1994—post-Proposition 187," adding that Los Angeles, "...being the largest immigrant community in the nation, needs to lead the way." Interestingly, when they speak, all of the coalition organizations refer to illegal aliens as either migrant workers, guest workers or immigrants, and never as people who broke American law to get into the country, and who are resorting to additional illegal tactics to stay here.

The biggest tragedy is the American people who understand that the United States is a nation of immigrants seem to have forgotten that when they arrived in America, their European ancestors entered the country legally through Ellis Island. They applied for visas at the American Embassy in their native lands, learned the language, and applied for citizenship when they arrived. They didn't sneak across the border in the middle of the night. They strove to be assimilated into the society; they did not want to remodel this society to resemble the land they left.

They applied for work in America's stores, factories and farms and, beginning in 1914, paid income taxes on their earnings from those jobs. They adopted this nation as their own. They were not hyphenated Americans. They were not Polish-Americans, German-Americans, British-Americans, nor were they Asian-Americans or African-Americans. They were simply Americans. Americans who worked together, lived together as neighbors, and when the nation was threatened, they fought and died together. That is the strength of America. That is what made this nation great.

Americans, who have established a unique historic precedent of fighting—and shedding their own blood—to protect the civil rights of beleaguered people in distant lands, are generally willing to accept anyone, from any nation, as an equal and as a neighbor. However, few Americans who earned what they possess through sweat equity, are well-disposed to surrender, without a fight, the equality they earned through their labor to those who ask that equality be imputed to them because they believe the socialists who told them that America stole the land from Mexico in 1848, and they are entitled to retake—by force if necessary—land they believe rightly belongs to Mexico although that land was purchased by the United States from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadeloupe.

What America is experiencing in the nationwide Hispanic protests that began in March has not been the result of mere happenstance. It is the effect of much diligent planning by socialist societal engineers who are remodeling the nations of the world into a utopian global community where the wealthiest nations share their bounty—and their jobs—with the impoverished nations in order to create tomorrow's consumers—and more wealth—for the transnationalist merchant princes, barons of industry and princes of banking as the human capital of the world is recast as human chattel, the property of Camelot—the American aristocracy in the Kingdom of Utopia, the New World Order.

During the summer, Democratic alien-advocates working through Section 527 advocacy groups will reinforce their effort to recruit left-wing community organizations, union halls and liberal churches to become "immigrant action justice centers" to challenge and change the existing voting laws that scrutinize the identification of voters too closely to "protect" the voting rights of Hispanic voters from the prejudices of the GOP. In reality, what they are trying to accomplish is what they succeeded in doing in several States in 2005 and the summer of 2006—change the voting laws sufficiently to create a legal haze over the voting process where the citizenship of "motor voters" cannot be challenged because they are not checked.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of high school teenagers who earned drivers' licenses through their Drivers' Education classes were assigned voter registration cards that became voted ballots in the Election of 2004. Furthermore, the Democratic Party, with the aid of advocacy groups like MoveOn.org, will continue the motor voter registration drives started by Al Gore in 2000 and refined by John Kerry in 2004 when literally millions of ineligible "voters" in the battleground States were registered—and allowed to vote absentee ballot to preclude challenges to their eligibility. In many instances throughout the battleground States in 2004, ineligible voters were registered and voted at the same time on election day.

"Ahora marchamos, mañana votamos!" March today, vote tomorrow. Beginning in the spring and continuing through Labor Day, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and their utopian supporters from leftist organizations and labor unions staged marches, protests, and boycotts designed to pressure State legislators into amending State voting laws to protect Hispanics from voter discrimination, The leftists insist the GOP targeted Latinos at the polls in the Southwest swing States in 2004 just as they claim without evidence of wrongdoing, that the GOP intimidated African American voters in Florida in 2000 to steal the election for George W. Bush.

What the Democrats are attempting to do is to weaken the safeguards in the electoral process at State level to allow undocumented aliens to register and vote—without challenge by precinct officials even when its obvious the "voter" is not an American citizen. Under the guise of "letting every vote be counted," the legislative process is being manipulated by the left to allow non-citizens to vote under the guise that, after the votes are cast, the registrations will be examined and, if it is deemed the voter was not eligible, his or her vote would somehow be "uncounted" when it will be impossible to ascertain for which candidate the "voter" voted. The argument launched by the left is that every person, citizen or not, who lives in this country—legal or not—has a vested interest in the country since the decisions made by government impact all of us. Further, they claim that the undocumented illegals are eager to become taxpaying citizens—all they need is amnesty...one more time.

Although statistics proof that, even when given the opportunity to become a citizen, only about 14% of the Mexicans who were in this country illegally between 1986 and 1996 and who became eligible for citizenship under the amnesties offered by Reagan, Bush-41 and Clinton, actually applied for citizenship or for a work visa. Yet the number of registered Latino voters in California increased from 434 thousand in 1994 to 1.9 million in 2000. What's wrong with this picture? The Reagan amnesty legalized 2.3 million Hispanics. The Clinton amnesty in 1996 created 5 million new legal residents nationwide but only a handful of them chose to become new taxpayers. They were now here legally but their obligations to family members in Mexico superseded their financial obligations to the US government since they still viewed themselves as citizens of Mexico living in captured Mexican provinces in the United States.

Rosalind Gold of the National Association of Elected and Appointed Latino Officials Educational Fund justified the statistics by noting that Hispanics naturalize at a lower rate than other immigrant groups because the US borders their homeland. Where Asian immigrants naturalize at a rate of 60%, Hispanics naturalize at 14%. Gold noted, however, that the Latino population in Los Angeles grew from 27% in 1994 to 43% in 1996 when the Clinton amnesty and citizenship drive for new 1996 voters took place. In point of fact, Gold's explanation indicates why amnesty is the wrong way to go. And, of course, it also explains why President George W. Bush is bucking a bronco that can't be broken on the issue of immigration.

With 63% of the American people adamantly opposed to amnesty in any form, the voters have made it clear that contrary to the UN's "open borders" demands on the member states of the emerging New World Order, they expect their representative government to comply with their wishes: seal the American borders, deport the illegals and adhere to the rule of law with respect to immigration policy and procedure.

It has not dawned on the president yet, but his loss of popularity with the American people is centered on one issue and one issue only—immigration. Sixty-three percent of the American people demand the borders be closed and that no amnesty be granted. They want the illegals deported. A week ago, only 37% of the American people had a favorable opinion of how Bush is running the country. Today, his approval rating is down to 33%. That would suggest that 67% of the American people now disagree with Bush's amnesty program.

The left has launched what they call "Immigrant Democracy Summer." Officially it kicks off on July 1 and runs through Labor Day. It's objective is to create 1 to 1.5 million new Hispanic voters in November. The left intends this to be an unprecedented effort to stop the rightward swing of the political pendulum and seal the fate of this nation as America is forced to surrender its sovereignty to the overlords of Utopia once the left takes back the House and Senate in 2006, and wins the White House in 2008.

© 2006 Jon C. Ryter - All Rights Reserved

NO, MR. PRESIDENT, IT'S NOT ENOUGH!

NO, MR. PRESIDENT, IT'S NOT ENOUGH!

By Bill Meyer

May 17, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

I, like many Americans, anxiously awaited President Bush’s speech Monday evening concerning his plan to combat illegal immigration. Would there be a stepping-up of enforcement? Would there be amnesty? Would there be anything – anything at all done to eliminate the cultural “Nation within a Nation” which currently resides within our borders? (Or what used to be our borders) Unfortunately, the answers to these three questions were: 1) Kind of. 2) Absolutely, there will be amnesty, although the President will never admit it, and 3) Absolutely not. The “reconquista” movement will continue to thrive.

The President called for the hiring of 6,000 more border agents, and to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to fill-in for now. He wants high-tech monitoring gizmos to help patrol the border and biometric ID’s for guest workers. He wants to end catch and release, and create a temporary guest worker program. Blah-blah-blah, more pandering to the open borders lobby.

President Bush said “We are a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We are also a nation of immigrants, and we must uphold that tradition, which has strengthened our country in so many ways.” Well riddle me this, Mr. President: If you’re not willing to even attempt to enforce the bare bones of current immigration law, what makes us believe you’ll enforce any new legislation? And the “We are a nation of immigrants” baloney? No more than ten percent of our population is non-native born.

The most ridiculous assertion of El Presidente Bush is the insinuation that all people flooding our borders are rushing to embrace the American dream. Yearning to meld with American culture and American language. (as my bank’s voicemail pleasantly intones “Press 2 for Spanish”) I almost laughed out loud. How stupid does this man think we are? Has he not paid any attention to the masses of our South American friends yearning to reconquer the west and southwest U.S. under the banner of “Aztlan”?

Once again, President Bush has failed to uphold his sworn oath to defend this nation from invaders. But sleep well, multi-national corporate leaders. You’ll still have your army of slave-wage workers handy, and you’ll still get we honest, lawful, taxpaying Americans to support your workforce via the bloated welfare state. It’s enough to make you break out singing “God Bless America,” or is it “Dios Bendice América?”

I’ve had enough, how about you?

It’s time to send a message to our spineless politicians.

Join me in Southern Oregon this Thursday afternoon, May 18th, for “Take Back the Border Thursday” from 5-7pm at Vogel Plaza in downtown Medford, OR. (next to the Ginger Rogers Craterian Theater, corner of Main and Central Avenue) There’ll be free American flags for the first 200 demonstrators, and bring a sign, if you can. A few suggestions for slogans:

ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW

NO BORDERS NO COUNTRY

SECURE OUR BORDERS NOW

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS A CRIME

H. R. 4437 YES!

IMMIGRATION MORATORIUM

NO AMNESTY!

SAVE AMERICAN JOBS

(Hat tip to Jim Ludwic at Oregonians for Immigration Reform)

It’s time our elected officials were more concerned about what law abiding Americans believe, instead of kow-towing to the open borders corporate lobby.

Too much of our anger has been misplaced. I hold no ill will toward illegals. If I were in their situation, I’d have done what’s best for my family, too. But that doesn’t mean we should reward illegal behavior, which is exactly what President Bush wishes to do (with the help of our elected representatives). Don’t let them get away with it.

See you Thursday!

© 2006 - Bill Meyer - All Rights Reserved

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Bill Meyer is a 26-year veteran broadcaster, with prior stops in Seattle, Sacramento, and Modesto, CA. who now enjoys life in the beautiful Rogue Valley of southern Oregon, (The camping's WAY better here.) Is he Libertarian? Or paleo-conservative? Hard to categorize, but a fun, informative way to wake up. "The Bill Meyer Show" can be heard weekdays 6-9am on Newstalk AM-1440 KMED in Medford.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO AMERICA'S DADS?

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO AMERICA'S DADS?

By Pastor Chuck Baldwin

May 16, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

More than three decades as a senior pastor leads me to shout the question, "What in the world has happened to America's parents?" Have they gone mad, or do they just not care anymore? The signs suggest something is seriously amiss inside America's homes. As a pastor, I see this on a daily basis.

It seems that, for the most part, today's parents have little or no control over their children. Even in our churches, by the time a child reaches the ripe old age of two or three, he or she is out of control! I mean totally out of control! And by the time the child reaches five or six, he or she is spoiled beyond rotten! I mean deep down, through and through, the-world-revolves-around-me kind of spoiled!

What in the world has happened to America's parents? Perhaps the better question is, "What has happened to America's fathers?"

When I was growing up, there was no question who was in charge of our home. Dad was a mild mannered, soft spoken southerner, but there was no questioning his authority or his willingness to enforce the law. And by the law, I mean HIS law.

It did not matter to a hill of beans what anyone else thought about it: Dad, not Mom, made the rules, and bless God, I was made to comply! Believe me, Dad never hesitated to apply the board of education to the seat of knowledge!

My father taught me a work ethic by making me earn my allowance. He taught me the value of a dollar by making me save for things I wanted to buy. He taught me honesty by never accepting anything less than the truth. He taught me courage by making me face my difficulties head on. Furthermore, I was never given anything for which I cried or whined.

When I was old enough to get a car, Dad made me pay for it out of money I earned. I bought the gas and oil-and insurance, too. If the car needed repairing, I also paid for that. Beyond that, I never even had a credit card. Imagine.

Do you want more? I even worked and earned my way through college? Dad figured his job was getting me through high school. After that, I was on my own.

That is not to say that Dad was unwilling to help me from time to time. He did. But the burden of earning a living and feeding a family rested squarely on my own shoulders.

While living at home, we never went hungry, but seldom ate at restaurants or had fancy dinners. And the idea of "keeping up with the Joneses'" never entered our minds. In fact, I soon learned that the surest way to NOT get something was to begin my request with, "All the other kids have it."

I'm sure that to many modern day parents, my father would seem harsh, even brutish. I don't believe it. I have been able to successfully face the adult world and raise three children because of the values and principles I learned from my mother and father.

So, what has happened to that kind of man, to that kind of father? What has happened that has turned men into milquetoasts? How is it that big, strong men can be turned to mush by children?

Masculinity has nothing to do with how many pounds a man can lift at the gym, or how many packs of Budweiser beer he can consume before passing out, or how many women he can "score."

Masculinity involves taking leadership and responsibility. It makes a man get up and go to work, pay the bills, manage his finances, and discipline his children. It involves hard work and determination, commitment, and perseverance. Manhood, and especially fatherhood, is not for the weak or faint of heart. It requires sobriety and fidelity.

Yet, take a look around. What do we see? We see lazy, spoiled, self centered children. Children without discipline. Children without commitment. Children void of honesty or thrift.

No wonder our jails are packed to the point that judges are releasing criminals early due to lack of space. No wonder merchants keep raising prices to try and make up for losses due to theft and shoplifting. No wonder public school teachers have become little more than junior corrections officers. No wonder pharmaceutical companies are making a fortune selling behavior modification drugs to children. And since Dad won't control his kids, you can rest assured Big Brother will!

The problem is not the kids; the problem is the parents, especially the fathers!

The truth is, there are not too many problems confronting our country that could not be solved with old fashioned mothers and fathers who would pay the price to raise old fashioned hard working, independent, honest, well behaved, patriotic children!

Then again, it does seem to me that Uncle Sam and the powers that be really don't want Americans producing those kind of children, as that would put a monkey wrench in their plans for a New World Order. But that's a subject for another day.

© 2006 Chuck Baldwin - All Rights Reserved

Chuck Baldwin is Founder-Pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. In 1985 the church was recognized by President Ronald Reagan for its unusual growth and influence.

Dr. Baldwin is the host of a lively, hard-hitting syndicated radio talk show on the Genesis Communications Network called, "Chuck Baldwin Live" This is a daily, one hour long call-in show in which Dr. Baldwin addresses current event topics from a conservative Christian point of view. Pastor Baldwin writes weekly articles on the internet http://www.ChuckBaldwinLive.com and newspapers.

To learn more about his radio talk show please visit his web site at: www.chuckbaldwinlive.com. When responding, please include your name, city and state.

PROPAGANDA IRAN: NUCLEAR AMBITIONS OR EURO-BASED OIL

PROPAGANDA IRAN: NUCLEAR AMBITIONS OR EURO-BASED OIL

Nancy Levant
May 16, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

The Iran issue is reaching critical mass in the U.S. We are told that Iran is planning on building nuclear weapons. Via the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and the People’s Republic of China have nuclear weapons.

India and Pakistan have conducted nuclear testing, and Israel is believed to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons. South Africa used to have nuclear weapons, and North Korea claims that it does, in fact, have nuclear weapons. Iran is now accused of developing uranium enrichment technology for the purpose of nuclear arsenals.

Now, if American people knew their geography, which they don’t, they would know that Iran is directly between Iraq and Afghanistan, both being occupied, or if you prefer, assisted by the U.S. military. Now, the Mid-East has one thing going for it, and one thing alone – oil. The largest markets in the world are global oil and gas trades. Keep that in mind.

Iran has devised a way to compete with the New York and London markets by using a euro-based oil trading market. And what that means to the United States is this: Without intervention, the euro will become supreme over the U.S. dollar in the international oil market – the largest market in the world. And that, my American countrymen, is going to be catastrophic to our nation due to our INSANE debt AND our global government intentions. Therefore, we must consider carefully the following: Why did we really go into Iraq, and why are we really making plans to go into Iran? Could it be due to Iraq and Iran’s hydrocarbon reserves and our desire to maintain the U.S dollar as top dog in the international oil market – the largest market in the world? Are America’s leaders and financial backers not oil men?

Will we “intervene” in Iran to try to prevent euro-denominated crude oil pricing? Or is this simply a terrorism issue – hmmm. Watch carefully as events unfold in the next several months. Watch very, very closely. We are absolutely on the verge of a nightmare – one way or another – thanks to our amazing voter turnouts and the result of our votes. How much more do you seriously think the Mid-East is willing to take from Western intervention? I suggest that you will find out in the very near future.

And is terrorism a clear and present danger in the United States? Certainly, it is. After all, we have politically dismantled borders. We, the American people, didn’t want politically dismantled borders, but that was not our doing or our agreement(s). And is the Islamic world a bit angry at the United States? Gee…do ya think?

If you lived in countries where the only means to any kind of an economic base, jobs, livelihoods, and futures for your children came from the only natural resources of real value - oil and natural gas; and if another nation was dedicated to domination of those natural resources to the point of bombs and a foreign military, how would you feel as your families, cities, and culture were being cremated by that foreign intervention?

So, where are we? Since America has steadfastly REFUSED to develop alternative fuels and energy sources, America is INSANELY VULNERABLE to oil – even amidst the threat of terrorism, - and our corporations and government STILL REFUSE to take America off the oil grid. Instead, they devised a game plan to occupy, build military bases to protect oil wells, and invade a region whose sole income, economy, and future is based upon their ability to sell their oil. And if you still believe that the war on terror isn’t about oil, I’ve got some land and watershed systems to sell you in one of the 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves in the United States of America…

Should we come to find that Iran or Saudi Arabia or Iraq or others want to go off the bankrupt petrodollar, and choose, say, to use the petroeuro or dinar instead, do you have any idea what will happen to the NYSE? Do you have any idea what The Great Depression would look like multiplied by 10,000? Are you getting the picture of our INSANE vulnerability, which is the fault of our leadership and their Federal Reserve Corporation, which set America up to fall on its ass, while never lifting a finger to protect her future?

I’ll tell you what I’m worried about. I’m really worried that this nation is cornered no matter what we do – thanks to the mismanagement of this government by GREED, illegalities, and corporate-Imperialist ideologies. Who gave this government the LEGAL AUTHORITY, much less the moral authority, to try to force the world under “democratic” principles – ESPECIALLY WHEN AMERICA IS NOT A DEMOCRACY! We are a REPUBLIC. We were set up, as a nation, SPECIFICALLY NOT to be a democracy!

I suggest to you that every time you hear the word “Democracy” come out of the mouths of our elected, you better think “One-World Government by Wealthy Aristocrats and their Corporations” instead. And terrorism, you ask? Seems like there is more than one definition of that word. And the “war” on terrorism? There is still no declared war. Therefore, that “war” is not only illegal under the laws of this nation, but it has also bankrupted this nation and turned America into the enemy of the entire world. Wake up, people. There is more to this story than your TV sets are telling you, and we are in deep, deep, and immediate trouble. You need to get yourselves prepared. The new paramilitary systems in the United States were set up to accommodate Martial Law. Don’t you ever think otherwise.

© 2006 Nancy Levant - All Rights Reserved

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Nancy Levant is a life-long writer, a believer of God, country, Constitutional and individual rights. She resides in rural Southwestern Ohio. She has worked professionally with children since 1974 and is an ardent supporter of home schooling.

THE LESSONS OF UNITED 93

THE LESSONS OF UNITED 93

By Samuel Blumenfeld

May 14, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

I have just seen United 93, and it is obvious that many Americans have not only forgotten what happened on 9/11 but don’t want to be reminded of it. The film is a powerful and disturbing experience. But what rivets the audience is the realization that this is a true story, not a work of fiction, not make-believe. It happened, and there is no reason to believe that it can’t happen again.

Fanatical Islam is on the march and it aims to destroy everyone and everything that does not bow down and submit to Allah, the pagan Muslim deity. Considering what happens every day in Iraq, where Islamic fanatics kill other Muslims, who can doubt that Islam is a satanic religion that celebrates murder and mayhem. If we are to restore order to the world, we shall have to defeat this Islamic fanaticism.

But how can it be defeated? Even Democrats now realize that pulling out of Iraq before peace and order are established in that blighted country would be catastrophic not only for Iraqis but also for the West. Europeans already cower in fear of the large Muslim immigrant population that has settled among them. Thus, demographically, Europe is doomed to be dominated by Islam in thirty to fifty years.

And even some American publications have been afraid to print the Danish cartoons for fear of incurring Islamic wrath. These are the same publications that think nothing of revealing the secret methods our government is using to capture and interrogate Islamic fanatics and disrupting their plans.

But simply because the United States has not suffered any major Islamic attack on our shores since 9/11, too many Americans have become complacent about the continued threat. Bush is criticized for the manner in which the Iraq war has been conducted. But after our stunning success in Afghanistan and the initial invasion of Iraq, who could have predicted the ferocity and barbarism of the insurgency in which restaurants, markets, mosques, police stations are bombed every day. And for what purpose? To create the kind of chaos that would discourage us and cause a premature departure of coalition forces from Iraq.

What now seems quite imperative is that we must indeed stay the course. With the Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s threats to destroy Israel, we must remain in the Middle East to counter that madman’s ambitions. There are critics who like to claim that Israel’s interests formulate American foreign policy. But what would the world be like if we stood by and let Israel be destroyed and were then faced by an unstoppable Islamic force, delirious with triumph and armed with nuclear weapons aimed against us. Does anyone believe that these suicidal fanatics would not use these weapons if they had them?

The lesson of United 93 is a reminder of what was done to America on one day in which 3,000 innocent American lives were obliterated. The film bluntly reveals the confusion that reigned among our government officials as they witnessed in total disbelief what was happening before their very eyes. Disbelief is what made America so vulnerable. In fact, the terrorists were able to bring to a halt America’s entire aviation transport system. Nobody had told American officialdom what Islamic fanatics were capable of doing. So we learned the hard way at the cost of 3,000 lives.

We are told that the vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the President is conducting the war. The Democrats, so far, have not offered any alternative strategy. Some of them say that we must set a date certain for our departure, no matter the situation on the ground. That would definitely elate the spirits of the terrorists. They would like nothing better than to know when the Americans would give up the struggle and get out.

United 93 demonstrated what ordinary Americans are capable of doing when faced with terror. They decided to fight back even though they lost the battle. We honor their bravery, and the least we the living can do is make sure that no other Americans are ever put in the position the passengers on United 93 were put in.

Which makes us wonder why The New York Times and Washington Post decided to reveal some of the secret methods our government is using to counter terrorist activities. Do we honor those who died on 9/11 by not punishing these traitors?

On September 11th, there were Americans who had to decide whether to jump from the towers in Manhattan or burn to death, or whether to try to subdue the terrorists on United 93 or let them crash the plane into the U.S. Capitol. These are the kinds of decisions Americans should not be forced to make. But make them they did.

At the end of the movie, the audience filed out of the theater in stunned silence. There was nothing to be said, but everything to be felt.

© 2006 Samuel Blumenfeld - All Rights Reserved

BUSH'S SPEECH: IGNORING ILLEGAL ALIEN KILLERS, RAPISTS & ASSORTED THUGS

BUSH'S SPEECH: IGNORING ILLEGAL ALIEN KILLERS, RAPISTS & ASSORTED THUGS

Jim Kouri, CPP
May 16, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

During President George W. Bush's televised speech on the issue of illegal immigration, not once did he mention the hordes of criminals entering the United States and preying upon American citizens. How often we hear the news media lamenting the fact that the US incarcerates more and more convicts each year. Want to reduce the incarceration rate? Then reduce criminals to enter the country illegally or enter legally but remain here illegally.

Some may accuse me of gross hyperbole when I say that the government of Mexico uses the US as their penal system, but truth be told, tens of thousands of criminal aliens who come into the US are from Mexico and our federal and state prisons, and local jails warehouse these lawbreakers at the expense of US taxpayers. Not only that, but the US provides an abundance of crime victims for these killers, robbers, rapists and child molesters.

When the United States incarcerates criminal aliens--noncitizens convicted of crimes while in this country legally or illegally--in federal and state prisons and local jails, the federal government bears much of the costs. It pays to incarcerate criminal aliens in federal prisons and reimburses state and local governments for a portion of their costs of incarcerating some, but not all, criminal aliens illegally in the country through the Department of Justice's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program managed by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Some state and local governments have expressed concerns about the impact that criminal aliens have on already overcrowded prisons and jails and that the federal government reimburses them for only a portion of their costs of incarcerating criminal aliens. Congress requested that the General Accounting Office provide information concerning criminal aliens incarcerated at the federal, state, and local level. For the criminal aliens incarcerated, the state and local governments that received reimbursement through SCAAP, only received about 25 percent of the costs.

At the federal level, the number of criminal aliens incarcerated increased from about 42,000 at the end of calendar year 2001 to about 49,000 at the end of calendar year 2004--a 15 percent increase. The percentage of all federal prisoners who are criminal aliens has remained the same over the last 3 years--about 27 percent. The majority of criminal aliens incarcerated at the end of calendar year 2004 were identified as citizens of Mexico.

It is estimated the federal cost of incarcerating criminal aliens -- Bureau of Prison's cost to incarcerate criminals and reimbursements to state and local governments under SCAAP --totaled approximately $5.8 billion for calendar years 2001 through 2004. BOP's cost to incarcerate criminal aliens rose from about $950 million in 2001 to about $1.2 billion in 2004--a 14 percent increase.

Federal reimbursements for incarcerating criminal aliens in state prisons and local jails declined from $550 million in 2001 to $280 million in 2004, in a large part due to a reduction in congressional appropriations. At the state level, the 50 states received reimbursement for incarcerating about 77,000 criminal aliens in fiscal year 2002 and 47 states received reimbursement for incarcerating about 74,000 in fiscal year 2003.

For the 5 states incarcerating about 80 percent of these criminal aliens in fiscal year 2003, about 68 percent incarcerated in mid-year 2004 reported that the country of citizenship or country of birth as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, or Cuba. Four of these 5 states spent about $1.6 billion to incarcerate criminal aliens reimbursed through SCAAP during fiscal years 2002 and 2003. Estimates are that the federal government reimbursed these four states about 25 percent or less of the estimated cost to incarcerate these criminal aliens in fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

At the local level, in fiscal year 2002, SCAAP reimbursed about 750 local governments for incarcerating about 138,000 criminal aliens. In fiscal year 2003, SCAAP reimbursed about 700 local governments for about 147,000 criminal aliens, with 5 local jail systems accounting for about 30 percent of these criminal aliens. The 147,000 criminal aliens incarcerated during fiscal year 2003 spent a total of about 8.5 million days in jail. Mexico leads as the country of birth for foreign-born arrestees at these 5 local jails in fiscal year 2003.

It's estimated that 4 of these 5 local jails spent $390 million in fiscal years 2002 and 2003 to incarcerate criminal aliens and were reimbursed about $73 million through SCAAP. It's believed that the federal government reimbursed these localities about 25 percent or less of the criminal alien incarceration cost in fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

Sources: US Justice Department, US Bureau of Prisons, General Accounting Office, American Federation of Police, National Association of Chiefs of Police

© 2006 Jim Kouri- All Rights Reserved

GASOLINE IS NOT GOING UP!

GASOLINE IS NOT GOING UP!

By Paul Proctor

May 17, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

For the first time in my life, I put $70 worth of gas in my car. It wasn't premium and my tank wasn't empty. Many around the country are experiencing the same kind of shock at the pump and really don't know why. As a result, everything else we purchase and/or consume on a daily basis is rising accordingly because it is made and moved with oil - the lifeblood of today's economy. Consequently, whenever the cost of doing business increases, for whatever reason, a chain reaction begins and spreads across the financial world like an economic tsunami, leaving the consumer to suffer in its wake.

Economists call it "inflation" while the government calls $75 a barrel oil a "shortage," blaming higher prices on terrorism, the war effort, "peak oil," not enough new drilling and not enough new refineries to turn it all into gasoline.

Some say that skyrocketing fuel prices are simply the work of greedy oil company executives, while others claim it is OPEC's greed. Still others tell us it is all those environmental regulations that liberals imposed on refineries over the last several decades that ran up the cost of producing gasoline and discouraged the building of new and more eco-friendly refineries to meet the growing global demand.

Then there are those who say it is largely because of the high taxes we pay at the pump that petrol has become so expensive, while politicians declare that the perfect response to it all is to raise taxes on oil companies, as if they wouldn't in turn pass that increase on to the rest of us. Some answer, huh?

Society's problems don't worry me near as much as government solutions.

What almost no one in Washington and the American media will admit, (and I don't believe for a minute that they aren't privy to it) is the dirty little secret behind $3 a gallon gasoline, which is nearing or above $4 in some areas of the country. That is to say, they refuse to address the REAL REASON for our so-called "inflation."

Although many of the aforementioned theories given, play, in varying degrees, a role in those "rising prices," they are not at all the cause, but only the effect; and as many of us already know, treating symptoms does not constitute a cure.

The dirty little secret is this: Gasoline is not going up. It is the dollar your buy it with that is going down; and it has been going down in value for a very long time because it is just government issued paper with numbers printed on it and nothing physical in storage anywhere to back it up. What's more, the dollar is now going down faster than ever.

Paper money used to and was supposed to signify what was being held in reserve by a country's financial institutions in the form of gold. That all began to change here in America in the early 1900s when our country was manipulated into a fraudulent financial scheme called "fractional reserve lending" where bankers secretly met and determined in their cunning and arrogance that they could and should print as much paper money as gullible people were willing to borrow, regardless of how much gold was kept on hand to back it up.

They figured out that they could lend ten times more paper than they had gold in reserve; and as long as everybody didn't rush the bank at once demanding payment in gold, the scam worked. Nowadays we think ONLY in terms of paper - something they can print as much of as they want, which, in fact, makes what is already out there in circulation, worth less.

Over the years, those gold reserves decreased while the printing of that multi-colored paper we've come to love, increased, which today amounts to nothing more than a lot of government IOUs - printed promises on colored coupons, if you will, guaranteed by something that no longer exists; and as that pretty paper piles up it plummets in purchasing power here and around the world - and now faster than ever.

Lately the printing presses have been working overtime to produce even more paper for everyone to pass around for their goods and services, much of which is funneled directly into the near record-breaking stock market by the government's own "Plunge Protection Team" so as to prop it up on those economically rough days when it might otherwise have taken a severe beating or collapsed altogether, thereby strengthening the ongoing illusion that the economy is thriving, when it is in reality, an imploding house of paper. And all those government sound bites and statistics you hear quoted in the mainstream media each night - more illusion…

That's why, in spite of our "strong economy," gold hit $725 an ounce last week, (up almost 67% in a single year) gasoline is almost three times what it was in 2002; and as for housing and real estate - well lets just say they're through the roof; not because these things are all worth more now than they were a short time ago; but because the dollar used to purchase them with is simply worth less - a lot less.

In fact, it's not just gold that has exploded. Virtually all of the precious and industrial metals have soared sky high - so much so that thieves are now breaking into houses just looking for copper pipe and trim to steal. Commodities, real estate, medical care, food and fuel didn't just coincidentally become rare and unusual all at once. No, it is the dollar that has become much too plentiful, common and easy to borrow.

You know how the latest and greatest electronic gadget is always so expensive when it is first introduced to the public, right? What happens to the price of that hot new item after it is mass-produced and mass-marketed over a year or two until everybody and his dog has one? It goes on sale and the price goes down drastically, doesn't it? Eventually that sale price becomes the regular price and then drops even further until stores almost have to give them away. At some point we think back and scratch our heads in amazement trying to remember why we paid ten times what we do now for the same silly widget.

It's no different with the dollar. The more of them the government prints, the less they are worth. And when the dollar goes on sale, so to speak, with extremely low interest rates, as it has for many years now, everybody buys until the market is saturated with worthless paper, cheap loans and unmanageable debt. Oh, the numbers on the bills never change; but their value or purchasing power decreases steadily and significantly, forcing us to, in time, hand over a lot more of them to buy the same old necessities - like for instance, gasoline.

You see, it's not "inflation" at all that's making it hard to get by these days but rather the deflation of the dollars we borrow to pay for things. The more dollars there are in circulation, the less they are worth to the retailers we buy from. It's just that simple, leaving the average American today with personal debt that is estimated at an $8,000 per person in revolving credit, not to mention what they owe in mortgages, car loans, business loans, student loans and medical bills.

The government used to tell us how much paper they were printing. It was called the M3 money supply. But the reporting of that all mysteriously stopped earlier this year. Now it is just another big government secret.

Why would they want to keep such a thing hush-hush, you might ask? It is because they are printing paper at such an alarming rate now, in order to artificially prop up the markets and keep the illusion alive that our teetering economy is rebounding so we will keep on borrowing and spending as fast as we can rather than save for those rainy days and live within our means. Most of all they don't want you and me to lose faith in the fiat currency they created to make us feel prosperous and affluent while our wealth was being taxed and deflated away right under our noses, making us increasingly dependant on them for (you guessed it) more government solutions.

The only things that haven't "gone up in price," or at least gone up as much, are things that are also mass-produced; but by people from foreign countries, both here and abroad, who work for little or nothing to produce them, which is why you can now get a decent-sized color TV for a fraction of what it would have cost you 10 years ago.

Cheaply manufactured clothing, electronics, knickknacks and fast food make you think your dollar is still valuable, when in reality, it is only more governmentally orchestrated sleight-of-hand; this as millions of illegal aliens are allowed to rush the borders and work here for less while enjoying the perks of citizenship, tax free.

Oil is a different story though, because it can't be mass-produced by man. Furthermore, oil has, for decades, been bought and sold using dollars only. That was a deal OPEC made with the US years ago. That's why the dollar is referred to as the world's "reserve currency." If you wanted oil, you had to have American dollars to buy it with.

But that's all changing now. More and more oil-producing countries want to switch to the Euro or other currencies to sell their petroleum products to the world. Iraq was one such country; and you see what America's response to that was, don't you?

Iran also wants to sell oil without dollars; and, Surprise - Surprise, a war is being planned against them as well. You see, it's not really about oil - it about dollars. And now that Putin has expressed interest in selling Russian oil without dollars, one can only speculate at what awaits America and its dollar-driven economy.

They simply don't want our increasingly worthless paper for their increasingly in-demand oil. This makes the dollar extremely less desirable and even less valuable to foreign governments than it already is, driving it further down alongside other world currencies, which are also, with a few exceptions, backed by little or nothing but the blind faith of its users; and as we can clearly see now, it takes a lot more of those failing dollars to fill our gas tanks.

Now for the bad news: When all of those billions of dollars held around the world to buy and sell oil, and keep our debt-ridden economy afloat, start coming home from China, Japan, India, Russia and elsewhere, the value of that multi-colored paper piling up on American shores will soon be nil; and let's face it; you just can't eat money my friends, no matter how much of it there is available.

The good news is: If Americans ever lose confidence in that multi-colored paper, like others around the world already have, there's a good chance we'll lose confidence in those who've worked so hard throughout the years to get you and I to trust and believe in it while sarcastically declaring on each and every bill we hold dear that it is "In God We Trust." Maybe then some of us will place our faith and trust in the Creator rather than the creation and the creations of men.

But beware!

One day soon, as the dollar dwindles to nothing and eventually collapses before disbelieving eyes, taking with it our economy and all of the interlocking and interdependent economies of the world, another government solution will be offered.

And if we foolishly look to those who caused the problem for answers, we will surely go from the frying pan into the fire.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." - 1st Timothy 6:10

© 2006 Paul Proctor - All Rights Reserved

Bill permits 193 million more aliens by 2026

Bill permits 193 million more aliens by 2026
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published May 16, 2006

The Senate immigration reform bill would allow for up to 193 million new legal immigrants -- a number greater than 60 percent of the current U.S. population -- in the next 20 years, according to a study released yesterday.
"The magnitude of changes that are entailed in this bill -- and are largely unknown -- rival the impact of the creation of Social Security or the creation of the Medicare program," said Robert Rector, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation who conducted the study.
Although the legislation would permit 193 million new immigrants in the next two decades, Mr. Rector estimated that it is more likely that about 103 million new immigrants actually would arrive in the next 20 years.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican who conducted a separate analysis that reached similar results, said Congress is "blissfully ignorant of the scope and impact" of the bill, which has bipartisan support in the Senate and has been praised by President Bush.
"This Senate is not ready to pass legislation that so significantly changes our future immigration policy," he said yesterday. "The impact this bill will have over the next 20 years is monumental and has not been thought through."
The 614-page "compromise" bill -- hastily cobbled together last month by Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida -- would give illegal aliens who have been in the U.S. two years or longer a right to citizenship. Illegals who have been here less than two years would have to return to their home countries to apply for citizenship.
Although that "amnesty" would be granted to about 10 million illegals, the real growth in the immigrant population would come later.
As part of the bill, the annual flow of legal immigrants allowed into the U.S. would more than double to more than 2 million annually. In addition, the guest-worker program in the bill would bring in 325,000 new workers annually who could later apply for citizenship.
That population would grow exponentially from there because the millions of new citizens would be permitted to bring along their extended families. Also, Mr. Sessions said, the bill includes "escalating caps," which would raise the number of immigrants allowed in as more people seek to enter the U.S.
"The impact of this increase in legal immigration dwarfs the magnitude of the amnesty provisions," said Mr. Rector, who has followed Congress for 25 years. He called the bill "the most dramatic piece of legislation in my experience."
Mr. Rector based his numerical projection on the number of family members that past immigrants have sponsored.
Immigration into the U.S. would become an "entitlement," Mr. Sessions said. "The decision as to who may come will almost totally be controlled by the desire of the individuals who wish to immigrate to the United States rather than by the United States government."
Although most opposition has come from conservatives, liberals are growing increasingly uneasy about increasing the competition for American jobs -- especially the low-paying ones.
Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat, said yesterday that he would introduce an amendment to strip out the guest-worker program, warning that the legislation would "pull apart the middle class in this country."
One of the most alarming aspects of the bill, opponents say, is that it eliminates a long-standing policy of U.S. immigration law that prohibits anyone from gaining permanent status here who is considered "likely to become a public charge," meaning welfare or other government subsidy.
This change is particularly troublesome because the bill also slants legal immigration away from highly skilled and highly educated workers to the unskilled and uneducated, who are far more likely to require public assistance. In addition, adult immigrants will be permitted to bring along their parents, who would eventually be eligible for Social Security even though they had never paid into it.
Mr. Rector estimated that the eventual cost of the bill to the American taxpayer would be about $50 billion per year. Mr. Sessions said he hopes to educate his colleagues about what's in the bill before they vote on it, but there's little evidence that they're interested.
Last month, he asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct an in-depth study and hold hearings into the fiscal impact of the bill as well as the impact the bill would have on future immigration. The committee produced no study and held one hearing strictly on the fiscal aspects of the bill. Only three of his fellow panel members showed up, he said.

Hey why not. The UN Food for Oil Scandal worked for Saddam until the US stopped it.

Iran to Offer Economic Incentive to Europe to Keep Uranium Enrichment

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran — In a surprising turnabout, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday Tehran was willing to offer strong economic incentives to the European Union in return recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium.

"We are prepared to offer economic incentives to Europe in return for recognizing our right (to enrich uranium)," Hamid Reza Asefi was quoted by state-run radio as saying.

CountryWatch: Iran

"Iran's 70-million population market is a good incentive for Europe," the radio quoted Asefi as saying.

European countries now have access to the Iranian market, but Tehran has in recent years turned more frequently to Russian and China for trade deals.

The comments followed Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disdainful rejection of European plans to offer incentives to his country to give up its uranium enrichment program, saying it would be like trading gold for chocolate.

European nations have weighed adding a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to permanently give up enrichment — or face the threat of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

But in a nationally televised speech before thousands of people in central Iran, Ahmadinejad cast scorn on the proposal.

"Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?" he said.

Senior diplomats and EU government officials said Tuesday that the tentative plans were being discussed among France, Britain and Germany as part of a possible package to be presented to representatives of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany at a meeting in London. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the information.

The London talks were postponed Wednesday until next week to allow more time for phone discussions of what should be included in the package of incentives and penalties to be offered to Tehran, said a diplomat, requesting anonymity for the same reason.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to say Tuesday whether a light-water reactor would be offered in the package. But he insisted that Iran would be required to halt its program of enriching and reprocessing uranium on Iranian soil, saying the United States and others "do not want the Iranian regime to have the ability to master those critical pathways to a nuclear weapon."

In his speech, Ahmadinejad said Iran "won't accept any suspension or end" to its uranium enrichment activities.

He said Iran had trusted the European Union in 2003 and suspended its nuclear activities as a gesture to boost negotiations over its nuclear program, only to have the Europeans demand Iran permanently halt its uranium enrichment program.

The 2003 deal called for guarantees that Iran's nuclear program wouldn't diverge from civilian ends toward producing weapons. Iran agreed to the request, but negotiations collapsed in August 2005 when the Europeans said the best guarantee was for Iran to permanently give up its uranium enrichment program.

Iran responded by resuming uranium reprocessing activities at its uranium conversion facility in Isfahan.

"We won't be bitten twice," Ahmadinejad said.

"We recommend that you not sacrifice your interests for the sake of others," he said in an apparent warning to the European Union about supporting the position advocated by the United States.

Ahmadinejad reiterated his threat to pull out of Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if international pressure to give up uranium enrichment continued.

"Don't force governments and nations to renounce their membership in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," he said asserting that Iran had the right to a civilian nuclear power program.

With Iran's nuclear program now before the Security Council, the Americans are at the forefront of efforts to introduce a council resolution that would demand Iran give up enrichment or else face the threat of sanctions. Washington seeks to make such a resolution militarily enforceable, something opposed by Russia and China, which continue instead to favor talks meant to persuade Tehran to compromise.

In the latest sign of persisting differences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that Beijing and Moscow will not vote for the use of force in resolving the nuclear dispute.

In a gesture to Tehran, Lavrov also said Ahmadinejad will attend a summit next month in Shanghai, China, of leaders from Russia, China and four Central Asian nations.

"We cannot isolate Iran or exert pressure on it," Lavrov told reporters. "Far from resolving this issue of proliferation, it will make it more urgent."

A light-water reactor is considered less likely to be misused for nuclear proliferation than the heavy water facility Iran is building at the city of Arak, which _ once completed by early 2009 _ will produce plutonium waste.

Still, light-water reactors are not proliferation-proof, because they are fueled by enriched uranium, which can be processed to make highly enriched "weapons-grade" material for nuclear warheads.

Mexico Voters Fear Nation on Edge of Chaos

May 17, 6:12 AM EDT

Mexico Voters Fear Nation on Edge of Chaos

By JULIE WATSON
Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Police enraged by the kidnapping of six officers club unarmed detainees. A bloody battle between steelworkers and police leaves two miners dead. Drug lords post the heads of decapitated police on a fence to show who's in charge.

Less than two months before Mexicans elect their next president, many fear the country is teetering on the edge of chaos - a perception that could hurt the ruling National Action Party's chances of keeping the presidency and benefit Mexico's once-powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party, whose candidate has been trailing badly.

Some blame President Vicente Fox for a weak government. Others say rivals are instigating the violence to create that impression, hoping to hurt National Action candidate Felipe Calderon, who has a slight lead in recent polls.

A poll published Friday in Excelsior newspaper found 50 percent of respondents feared the government was on the brink of losing control. The polling company Parametria conducted face-to-face interviews at 1,000 homes across Mexico. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The conflicts are "a warning sign," said Yamel Nares, Parametria's research director.

Security is the top concern for Mexicans, and Fox has struggled to reform Mexico's notoriously corrupt police. Meanwhile, drug-related bloodshed has accelerated, with some cities seeing killings almost daily.

In April, suspected drug lords posted the heads of two police officers on a wall outside a government building where four drug traffickers died in a Jan. 27 shootout with officers in the Pacific resort of Acapulco.

A sign nearby read: "So that you learn to respect."

Mexico Voters Fear Nation on Edge of Chaos

Last week, Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos said Mexico was in a "state of rage," and warned that tensions were similar to those that preceded the Zapatistas' brief armed uprising in January 1994 in the southern state of Chiapas.

He said his group is committed to peace, but many fear his increased public profile - after years of hiding out in the jungle - could foreshadow greater polarization among Mexican voters.

The masked leader said a May 3 clash that left a teenager dead and scores injured in San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles northeast of Mexico City, is an example of the growing tensions.

Marcos has been leading nearly daily demonstrations in the town following the incident, which began when a radical group of townspeople kidnapped and beat six policemen in a dispute over unlicensed flower vendors. Police responded with rage the next day. Television crews captured officers repeatedly beating unarmed protesters, and several detained women alleged officers raped them.

The clash followed another bloody battle between steelworkers and police trying to break up an illegal strike at a plant in Lazaro Cardenas last month. Unions later threatened to shut down the country.

George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary, said the violence reflects Fox's lack of leadership.

"The state has become much weaker under his watch," Grayson said.

Recent polls show Calderon has overtaken longtime presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whom opponents have portrayed as a leftist demagogue similar to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

But that could change if PRI candidate Roberto Madrazo can convince voters that Mexico was more stable under his party's 71-year reign, which ended with Fox's victory in 2000. Mexican law bars presidents from seeking re-election.

Madrazo has tried to paint himself as the law-and-order candidate - though so far his poll numbers have remained well behind those of Calderon and Lopez Obrador.

"It's not going to help Lopez Obrador who has been associated with the rabble rousers, but Madrazo can come out and say with his party at least Mexico had continued stability," Grayson said.

Gerardo Aranda, a tourism guide in Mexico City, said he won't go back to the PRI, but he doesn't know who he will vote for.

"No one really knows now what could happen next," he said. "All the candidates are bad. ... There is so much anger toward the government, everyone is against everything."

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

This is part of Chapter 1 of a book at http://www.wake-up.org/warnbook/WarnBook.htm?46,14. It has some interesting concepts about Revelations

Warning! Revelation is About to be Fulfilled
Chapter 1 An Overwhelming Surprise
By Larry W. Wilson
To the Reader

If separated from the larger context of this book, this chapter could make God appear to be very cruel and unfairly harsh – so please read subsequent chapters as soon as possible! The devil delights in distorting the character of God whenever possible. The devil wants people to see God as a vengeful tyrant or a divine Santa Claus that can do no harm. Of course, both extremes are false. The same God who destroyed the world in Noah’s day and sent fiery brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, also sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins. (John 3:16) In short, God reveals His love for the human race in a well-documented balance between justice and mercy. Bible history proves that God is longsuffering. He extends mercy to sinners day after day, year after year – until the day comes when extended mercy no longer has any redeeming effect. Then, God justifiably responds in wrath to deal with defiant rebellion. I offer this introductory statement because the contents of this chapter may seem overwhelming the first time you read it, but please press on and read Chapter 2 as soon as possible.

No Longer a Book of Mystery

The book of Revelation contains several prophecies that integrate into one big story. Some prophecies in Revelation have been underway for centuries and others are about to begin. When we properly assemble all of the prophecies, a mind-boggling drama unfolds. God’s ways are wonderful to understand and so thrilling to discover. Some prophecies in Revelation are easy to understand and others are difficult at first, but we can say the same of God. Certain aspects about God are easier to understand than others. Ultimately, the book of Revelation confirms the good news that most people want to hear: A world of eternal joy and endless bliss is coming. The bad news is that God is going to test the inhabitants of Earth before He sets up His kingdom. (Revelation 3:10) God will separate "the sheep from the goats" before the Second Coming. The separation of the sheep from the goats is an important process in God’s plan because God will not permit rebellious people (represented by the goats) to enter His coming kingdom. God’s kingdom is reserved for people who love Him and exalt His righteous ways. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. . . . Nothing impure will ever enter it [the holy city], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. . . . He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Matthew 5:8; Revelation 21:27, 4, insertion mine)

The book of Revelation reveals that God will soon inflict the world with a series of 14 plagues. These events will not occur in random order nor will they be freak disasters caused by nature. The seven first plagues are called "seven trumpets" in Revelation because they serve the purpose of warning or awakening the people of Earth to the glorious arrival of Jesus Christ. The seven last plagues are called seven bowls because they represent seven full cups of God’s vengeance that He will pour out upon His enemies. Although the Bible completely explains these events, they will come as an overwhelming surprise for most people. Our Creator has carefully designed these coming events to achieve His goals, and He will carefully execute these judgments so that He can redeem the maximum number of people. As you read this little book, periodically remind yourself of two things: First, God so loved this world that He gave His only Son to die in our place and second, God’s patience with defiance and rebellion is limited. During the Great Tribulation, the people of Earth will see God’s perfect balance between justice and mercy. Remember this balance as you consider this study about the Great Tribulation. The next few pages give a brief overview of coming events.

How the Tribulation Begins

The Great Tribulation will begin suddenly. It will begin with a global earthquake that effectively disrupts the activities of the whole world. (Revelation 8:5) God has a few things to say to the human race, and He intends to arrest the attention of the world with a massive earthquake that literally stops everything and everyone in their tracks. The sudden cessation of life as we know it will force everyone to stop and wonder what is going on. This coming earthquake is particularly interesting because geologists theorized a "global earthquake" was physically impossible until the early 1990’s. Now, physical evidence is proving that Earth’s tectonic plates go much deeper into the core of Earth than previously thought, and this information has caused geoscientists to change their thinking. The book of Revelation predicts there will be a total of four global earthquakes. (Revelation 8:5; 11:13; 11:19; 16:18) These earthquakes will increasingly rip up the surface of the world, and the infrastructures of travel, communication and manufacturing will collapse during the Great Tribulation. These earthquakes have no equal in recorded history. Each earthquake will have greater strength than the one before it. The final earthquake will be so violent that it will literally move all of the mountains and islands from their places. (Revelation 16:20; 6:14)

Trumpet #1. Shortly (perhaps 30 days) after the first global earthquake, showers of white-hot hailstones will rain down from the sky. Meteoric firestorms will ignite unquenchable fires all over the world and the accompanying windstorms will destroy billions of acres of trees, food crops and vegetation within a few days. Of course millions of people will be left homeless and many more will suffer and die during this "rain of terror." (Revelation 8:7)

Trumpet #2. A few days after the meteoric showers of burning hail, Earth will experience two horrific asteroid impacts. The first asteroid will impact an ocean; the second will impact a continent. (Revelation 8:8-11) The first impact will create a series of tidal waves that will inundate coastal cities around the perimeter of the ocean. Seaports and coastal cities, well known for their immoral behavior, will completely disappear with overwhelming loss of life. Survivors will be frightened and distressed by the angry tossing of the sea. (Luke 21:25) Ships will not be able to cross the ocean and men will be powerless to do anything about the churning of the deep.

Trumpet #3. The second asteroid will impact one of Earth’s continents with devastating results. The impact will contaminate water supplies and cause extensive death. Ground waves from the impact will fracture geologic strata for thousands of square miles. Sewage, deadly bacteria, toxic chemicals and other garbage buried in the Earth will seep into underground aquifers. Underground rivers will become contaminated and they will carry their deadly mixture for thousands of miles. Revelation predicts that many people will die of drinking poisonous water.

Trumpet #4. Shortly after the second asteroid impact, the world will hear a terrible roar. Hundreds of powerful violent volcanic eruptions will occur. These will be numerous and powerful and cause great damage. Millions of people will perish. Revelation predicts there will be great darkness. (Revelation 8:12) The jet stream will carry megatons of volcanic ejecta and soot around the world in dense clouds that cause complete darkness. Scientists have observed this phenomenon in recent times. The extended absence of sunlight over the middle third of Earth (the breadbasket of the world) will prevent surviving crops from reaching maturity. Worldwide famine will begin.

In short, the first four judgments will create a horrible domino effect radiating into every aspect of life. Illness of all kinds will appear. Clean water and food will become scarce overnight and the misery index will be "off the scale." According to Revelation, 25% of Earth’s population will perish from these four judgments. (Revelation 6:8) Think about this. The population of Earth currently is more than six billion people. Twenty-five percent of six billion people is one billion five-hundred million people!

Trumpet #5. By the time the fifth trumpet sounds, Earth will have experienced a worldwide situation that is so desperate that we can only compare it to the flood in Noah’s day. God deliberately puts the whole world in a desperate situation because He knows it is the best way to get everyone’s undivided attention. From a parental perspective, God puts the warring nations of Earth in a type of "time out." God wants everyone to consider several issues. For example, God wants the world to know that the time has come for the nations of Earth to end. (See Daniel 2.) He wants everyone to know that He is about to establish His kingdom and He wants everyone to know the terms and conditions of being a part of His coming kingdom.

A few days before the Great Tribulation begins, God will anoint 144,000 servant messengers with exceptional Holy Spirit power. These people, from every nation, kindred, tongue and people, will speak for God for 1,260 days. The 144,000 will be ordinary people who will come from every religious background, and they will harmoniously proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the human race. As strange as it may sound, most of the world’s population will reject the terms and conditions of salvation.

About two and a half years after the Great Tribulation begins, God permits that ancient serpent, the devil himself, to appear on Earth physically. The devil will come with millions of angels and he will masquerade as Almighty God. (Revelation 9:1-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Revelation 13:11-18) The devil is the dreaded Antichrist. Deceptively cloaked in brilliant light and charming benevolence, the devil will claim that he is God. The devil will declare that he has come to establish a thousand years of peace on Earth. At this time, there will be three identifiable groups of people. The first group of people are those who have rejected the devil and decided to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. The other group of people will readily receive the devil as God because of the miracles he performs. The third group of people will defy both the devil’s demands and the prompting of the Holy Spirit because they refuse to obey anyone. Since God is separating the people of Earth into two camps, sheep and goats, He will allow the devil to inflict great pain and suffering upon this third group of people who have chosen to defy both God’s and the devil’s authority. Fortunately, the devil will not harm the saints with this affliction. Many of the devil’s victims will eventually relent and join the devil’s camp. However, a few of his victims will come to their senses, repent of their defiance against the gospel of Jesus and receive salvation. The devil will even call fire down from Heaven to prove his assumed divinity. Consequently, millions of people will ultimately conclude that the devil is God and they will obey him with astounding zeal and devotion.

Trumpet #6. When the devil’s popularity and control of Earth reach a sufficient level, he will tell his followers that everyone who refuses to recognize him as God must be annihilated. I call the events of Trumpet #6, World War III. During this time, God will allow the devil and his angels to kill one-third of the world’s population. (Revelation 9:15) The devil will establish a one world government and he will exalt himself as King of kings and Lord of lords. He will control all of the necessities of life and if a person wants to buy or sell items for survival, that person must become a member of the devil’s kingdom. To demonstrate citizenship in his one world government, the devil will force the inhabitants of Earth to receive a tattoo on their right hand. This tattoo will be the number "666." People who serve as officials in the kingdom of the devil will receive a tattoo on their foreheads to show their superior rank. The tattoo on the foreheads of the devil’s lieutenants will be the chosen name that the devil uses. (Revelation 13:17) The placement of a tattoo on the forehead of Satan’s lieutenants is a blatant counterfeit of what God intends to do for His faithful servants, the 144,000, after He takes them to Heaven. (See Revelation 14:1; 22:4.)

Trumpet #7. Before Satan implements the mark of the beast, everyone on Earth will have heard the gospel and everyone will have made an informed decision for it or against it. When every person has made a decision, Jesus will close Heaven’s door of mercy. Jesus will announce that the offer of salvation is closed by saying, "Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy." (Revelation 22:11) Then, the second global earthquake occurs. (Revelation 11:19)

I did 15 years in the AFRES. I got out in 2001 after 15 years. I needed just 5 more to retire. They kept extending tours and taking benefits.

U.S. reserves nearly 'broken,' says chief
Iraq, Afghan conflicts sap military resources

Reuters
Updated: 8:28 a.m. ET Jan. 6, 2005


WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army Reserve, tapped heavily to provide soldiers for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is “degenerating into a ‘broken’ force” due to dysfunctional military policies, the Army Reserve’s chief said in a memo made public Wednesday.

“I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern,” Lt. Gen. James Helmly said in a Dec. 20 memo to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker.

The Army Reserve is a force of 200,000 part-time soldiers who opted not to sign up for the active-duty Army but can be mobilized from their civilian lives in times of national need. About 52,000 Army Reserve soldiers are on active duty, with 17,000 in Iraq and 2,000 in Afghanistan, the Army said.

The Army Reserve has provided many military police, civil affairs soldiers, medics and truck drivers for the wars.

“While ability to meet the current demands associated with OIF (Operational Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan) is of great importance, the Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements including those in named OPLANS (operational plans) and CONUS (continental United States) emergencies, and is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken’ force,” Helmly wrote.

Helmly said military leaders had rebuffed his proposals for change. The memo’s purpose was to inform Schoomaker of the Army Reserve’s “inability — under current policies, procedures and practices governing mobilization, training and reserve component manpower management — to meet mission requirements” for the two wars, Helmly wrote.

'Dysfunctional practices’
In his eight-page memo, first disclosed by the Baltimore Sun, Helmly titled one section “US Army Reserve Readiness Discussion, Past Dysfunctional Practices/Policies.”

The Pentagon, maintaining higher-than-expected troop levels after failing to anticipate that a bloody guerrilla war would follow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003, has relied heavily on Army Reserve and Army National Guard soldiers. These part-time troops comprise about 40 percent of the U.S. force in Iraq.

Some reservists and families have complained about frequent and lengthy tours in war zones, inferior equipment and scant notice before being pressed into service.

Helmly’s remarks gave fuel to critics of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who argue that his policies and his resistance to a large increase in the active-duty Army are harming the all-volunteer military.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island called the memo ”deeply disturbing,” adding: “By consistently underestimating the number of troops necessary for the successful occupation of Iraq, the administration has placed a tremendous burden on the Army Reserve and created this crisis.”

Volunteer versus mercenary
Helmly referred to “potential ‘sociological’ damage” to the all-volunteer military by paying inducements of $1,000 extra per month to reservists who volunteer to remobilize.

“We must consider the point at which we confuse ’volunteer to become an American Soldier’ with ' mercenary,”’ Helmly said.

Helmly said Pentagon reluctance to issue orders calling reservists to active duty “in a timely manner” resulted in more than 10,000 reserve soldiers getting as little as three to five days notice before being compelled back into uniform.

A senior Army official said Schoomaker and Army Secretary Francis Harvey were reviewing the memo. “Changes are expected over time, and the Army is already working these issues. The memo just brings it to the forefront,” the official said.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Mexico is a hypocritical, crime infested, lawless, cesspool. It is no wonder all the people want to come to the US.

Mexico Threatens Suits Over Guard Patrols
By MARINA MONTEMAYOR, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 16, 5:03 PM ET

Mexico said Tuesday that it would file lawsuits in U.S. courts if National Guard troops on the border become directly involved in detaining migrants.

Mexican border officials also said they worried that sending troops to heavily trafficked regions would push illegal migrants into more perilous areas of the U.S.-Mexican border to avoid detection.

President Bush announced Monday that he would send 6,000 National Guard troops to the 2,000-mile border, but they would provide intelligence and surveillance support to Border Patrol agents, not catch and detain illegal immigrants.

"If there is a real wave of rights abuses, if we see the National Guard starting to directly participate in detaining people ... we would immediately start filing lawsuits through our consulates," Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez told a Mexico City radio station. He did not offer further details.

Mexican officials worry the crackdown will lead to more deaths. Since Washington toughened security in Texas and California in 1994, migrants have flooded Arizona's hard-to-patrol desert and deaths have spiked. Migrant groups estimate 500 people died trying to cross the border in 2005. The Border Patrol reported 473 deaths in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

In Ciudad Juarez, Julieta Nunez Gonzalez, local representative of the Mexican government's National Immigration Institute, said Tuesday she will ask the government to send its migrant protection force, known as Grupo Beta, to more remote sections of the border.

Sending the National Guard "will not stop the flow of migrants, to the contrary, it will probably go up," as people try to get into the U.S. in the hope that they could benefit from a possible amnesty program, Nunez said.

Juan Canche, 36, traveled more than 1,200 miles to the border from the southern town of Izamal and said nothing would stop him from trying to cross.

"Even with a lot of guards and soldiers in place, we have to jump that puddle," said Canche, referring to the drought-stricken Rio Grande dividing Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas. "My family is hungry and there is no work in my land. I have to risk it."

Some Mexican newspapers criticized President Vicente Fox for not taking a stronger stand against the measure, even though Fox called Bush to express his concerns.

A political cartoon in the Mexico City newspaper Reforma depicted Bush as a gorilla carrying a club with a flattened Fox stuck to it.

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Tuesday that Mexico accepted Bush's statement that the sending in the National Guard didn't mean militarizing the area. He also said Mexico remained "optimistic" that the U.S. Senate would approve an immigration reform "in the interests of both countries."

Aguilar noted that Bush expressed support for the legalization of some immigrants and implementation of a guest worker program.

"This is definitely not a militarization," said Aguilar, who also dismissed as "absolutely false" rumors that Mexico would send its own troops to the border in response.

Bush has said sending the National Guard is intended as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up resources to more effectively secure the border.

In Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, Honduran Antonio Auriel said he would make it into the U.S.

"Soldiers on the border? That won't stop me," he said. "I'll swim the river and jump the wall. I'm going to arrive in the United States."
___

Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.