By Jennifer J. Foster
Posted 05/05 at 10:30 PM
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Here’s a little update to yesterday’s post on the National Council for a New America, a/k/a the extreme GOP makeover:
First, you might remember my pointing out that the National Council had two—count them, two—women on its National Council and none on its National Panel of Experts.
Well ... someone—OK, it wasn’t just someone. It was Rush Limbaugh.—observed that Sarah Palin wasn’t part of the group and ... voila!! Now she is!!
SIDEBAR: Limbaugh said on his show Monday that “clearly in last year’s campaign, the most prominent, articulate voice for standard run-of-the-mill good old-fashioned American conservatism was Sarah Palin.“
Yikes.
END SIDEBAR
Anyway, the Alaska governor now peers out at you—in her familiar red suit—from the home page of the National Council for a New America’s web site. And take note that she sits on the National Panel of Experts, not on the National Council.
Two: I talked a little bit yesterday about what what I thought made Jeb Bush such a great governor in Florida. In poking around for stuff I could use, I came across this article from the St. Petersburg Times (you know I think the Times is America’s best newspaper) from Jeb’s farewell ceremony at the conclusion of his second term in 2006.
The entire article is worth your time, but I want to point out one section in particular. Reporter Joni James wrote that Jeb’s comments were “brief, personal and philosophical,“ and she illustrates with this excerpt from his speech:
“I really honestly believe we have made a difference,” Bush said. “My core belief at the end of the day is that if we can just build the field of dreams, just build the fertile ground if you will that allows people, individuals and families, to pursue their own dreams there will be more prosperity, more innovation and more good things happening than any government program ever created.
“I believe that when I got here. And I believe it just as much as a leave.”
Hmm. Sounds like fertile ground for rebuilding a party to me.
By Jennifer J. Foster
Posted 05/05 at 01:43 PM
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In short, NO.
The latest fearmongering e-mail to be making its rounds through GOP e-mail boxes is this one, or some version of it:
Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U. S. needs to know….
Something happened… H.R. 1388 was passed yesterday, behind our backs. You may want to read about it. It wasn’t mentioned on the news… just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.
Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA . This is the news that didn’t make the headlines…
By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in “migration assistance” to the Palestinian refugees and “conflict victims” in Gaza .
The “presidential determination”, which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in the United States , was signed on January 27 and appeared in the Federal Register on February 4.
Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.
And the e-mail goes on from there.
I don’t usually address hysterical e-mails in this space, but since we are interested in truth, not rumors, here, I felt compelled to write this entry.
The e-mail offers the information at this link at the Federal Register for “proof” of the claim that President Obama is moving Hamas sympathizers to the United States.
Here’s what the Register entry says:
Presidential Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27, 2009
Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related To Gaza
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 2(c)(1) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (the ``Act’‘), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2601), I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Act, that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act in an amount not to exceed $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.
See those last two words?
IN GAZA.
So, to review: Yes, the president has made $20.3 million available for “unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs” and “humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims.“
No, those refugees are not relocating to the United States. They are to receive this assistance, according to the presidential directive, “in Gaza.“
The e-mail going around charges that “few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.“
Here’s a thought: Maybe because it doesn’t.
Notice how the fearmongerer who wrote this initial e-mail distorted the language of the directive and ignored some of the language altogether. How do you get from “in Gaza” to “provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances”?
A complete and conscious disregard for reality, that’s how.
And how does the author know that those individuals to be helped “displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006”?
He would have had to have been there, watching, when each and every single one of those refugees voted.
Details, details.
If you don’t want to believe me, I give you the words of my congressman, the honorable U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), who is hearing from his constituents about this e-mail and responds to them with either one of these two letters, according to his press secretary, Shea Snider:
Thank you for contacting me with regard to Presidential Determination Number 2009-15, published in the Federal Register on February 4, 2009. It is good to hear from you.
As you may know, this Presidential Determination allocates $20.3 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for humanitarian aid to be provided for the Palestinian refugees displaced by the recent conflict in Gaza. None of this funding will be used to admit Palestinian refugees and conflict victims into the United States.
Or:
Thank you for contacting me with regard to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s $900 million pledge for the Palestinians. It is good to hear from you.
As you may know, of the $900 million, $300 million in relief aid has dedicated for Gaza. On March 6, 2009 I have joined several of my colleagues in the House to write Secretary Clinton a letter addressing our concerns with regard to the $300 million pledged for Gaza. The letter asks the Secretary to withhold the $300 million until she can guarantee that the terrorist organization Hamas will not benefit from it. While I believe this aid is offered with the best of intentions, the fact remains that Hamas controls that territory and spending millions of dollars there will not likely contribute to any positive solution.
As you can see, Rogers opposes the funding, but even so, he acknowledges that it will not be used to relocate Palestinian refugees into the United States “with housing and food allowances.“
Folks, do your country a favor. Please do not forward these e-mails, or any like them, unless you have personally verified the content therein. Ninety-nine times out of 100, if politically-oriented have a shred of truth in them, that shred is overshadowed and distorted by innuendo and outright falsehoods.
Spread truth. Stamp out rumors.
