Brutally Honest

Would you like to feel good about yourself?

Pause for a moment... consider how well off you really are... then consider giving to those who aren't... you know there are many in need... and you know you're likely able to give a little something to make their lives better.  Any of the charitable organizations listed below are worthy.  Click on an image and give.  Do it now.  You'll feel better.  You honestly will.  And you'll be making a difference in somebody's life.

Clicked on one yet?

Crossposted at Wizbang.

"Let's help one of our own today"

Regular readers know I don't do this sort of thing often.

Today I am:

Caleb Howe is one of the valuable members of our community who does tremendously good work. As you know, Caleb has put many hours of time and effort into RedState and broken major stories you’ve probably read here. If he was a left-winger, he’d be one of scores of full-timers bankrolled by George Soros and left-wing interest groups, and wouldn’t have to worry about making a living. And right now he could use some help. The Obama economy has done him and his family no favors and he has been without a job for some time. With bills to pay, including a mortgage, kids to feed, and an internet connection that has to be paid for, its tough.

Here’s the paypal link to Caleb’s account. I’m sure he’d be all Caleb-ish about us saying anything, but dammit we need him in the fight.

We help politicians all the time. Let’s help one of our own today.

It's one thing to be forced to be "charitable" by an oppressive government unwilling to allow us to choose who we should help.

It's another to choose.

My choice is to help.

If you feel led to do so, excellent.

"ill conceived or not well formulated"

Posted by guest blogger Locutisprime.

Rashad Hussain, President Obama's new envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, and Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy to aid a terrorist organization. (FNC/AP)

President Obama's new Muslim envoy Rashad Hussain admitted Friday to once defending a man who later pleaded guilty to conspiring to aid a terrorist group -- an admission that contradicts earlier claims from the White House that the quotes had been mistakenly attributed to Hussain. Hussain, named by Obama as an envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, said Friday his comments at the time were "ill conceived or not well formulated."

I am so pleased to finally see these complex and mind boggling realities being explained in a manner that I can both understand and relate to.

Thank goodness....what a breath of fresh air!

Now, can we please begin by applying these same principles to all of our conflicts with reason?

Where should we begin?

What say we apply these simple explanations to our little buddy president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Is there any doubt that many of his remarks of the past few years have been both ill conceived and not well formulated? I mean seriously, should his failures of communication be held against him?

And what of our own president and his on going remarks concerning Las Vegas? Is Barack Obama a recidivist 'ill conceiver?' I certainly think so. Can I get an amen brother!

So you see.......as has been noted for generations, intent is like beauty. It is in the eye of the beholder and therefore, there is no need in placing any extra burden on those who don't initially appear to be expressing themselves properly.

Give them a chance! Allow the secular humanist principle of relativity to come into play. Then apply an ample measure of perceived fairness to all encounters? And the first thing you know, we are all sitting around plucking daisies and singing we are the world and imagine.

I feel so much better now. It's as if this huge weight of blackness has been lifted from my eyes. And I must admit, these standard issue rose colored glasses don't hurt either.

Thanks to those who've given

Thanks to those who'll give again:

You can help by going here. Pray about it.

How discerning are you with your charitable giving?

I stumbled today across the following and have some follow-on comments:

Given that it's posted at well known Religious Leftist Jim Wallis' site, I can't be too surprised at some of what's noted here... for example, the implication that giving $400 billion to WalMart is such a terrible thing (never mind that the giver receives something in exchange)...  or the idea that we need to give to feed the nearly 1 million charitable organizations that are out there (rather than those actually in need)... or the surprising revelation (given where I found this) that conservatives give more than liberals (isn't that an argument for more conservatives?).

Setting all that aside, I can't help but wonder how many of these 1 million charities are being discerning in who is helped, after all, there's only so much money out there (the point of the graphic) and it would seem that discernment in giving is a necessity or the wrong people end up with the help and the actual needy people end up with nothing.

Think about these things friends before stroking that next check to charity... or even to your church... where's the money going, who's being helped, and what process is in place to prevent giving to the irresponsible at the expense of the truly needy.

Carry on.

Crossposted(*).

Bush shows class

We will all, I do mean all, miss this man:

Former President George W. Bush says he won't criticize President Barack Obama because Obama "deserves my silence," and says he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office. Bush's speech Tuesday at a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta was his first since leaving office.

He declined to comment about the Obama administration like former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney said Sunday that Obama's decisions are threatening the nation's safety.

Compare this to Clinton and Carter.  Go ahead, do it.

Barbara Streisand and Bush, sitting inna tree...

... k-i-s-s-i-n-g:

Who do you think went and washed and rinsed first?

Tithe this

If times weren't so rough, if America didn't keep the black man down, hell, it'd be bigger:

With props to Michelle Malkin.

The $80,000 Squidoo Charity Giveaway

Here's something easily done and a charity of your choice benefits:

For each vote, we'll give that organization $2.

It's that easy.

We'll do it until October 15th, or 40,000 votes (which is $80,000). Whichever happens first.

Any vote after the 40thousandth, or after October 15th, won't count toward the $80,000 giveaway. But hey, the popularity contest can continue.

If we get fewer than 40,000 votes (which would be silly... it's free money for great causes) we'll roll the remainder into the Squidoo Charity Fund for the next payout.

Soldier's Angels got my vote.  Go do your part.

George Bush: Walking the walk...

... eschewing the talk, unlike so many so called black leaders (and yes, I include Obama, who is clearly NOT his brother's keeper):

WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH traveled to sub-Sahara Africa in February he was greeted by large and tumultuous crowds of admirers - which mystified many of his critics, who believe that the animosity toward his administration abroad is universal. But polling data from the Pew Foundation shows something different: Approval ratings for the United States exceed 80 percent in many African countries, some with large Muslim populations. In Darfur, many families name their newborn sons George Bush.

What is it that the Bush administration did differently in Africa than it did elsewhere?

Certainly one factor is that Africa is not the Middle East or central Asia where America is fighting two unpopular wars and where polls show America at an all-time low in public esteem. In Sudan, the United States played a central role as peacemaker in ending a 20-year civil war between the Arab north and African south, which killed 2 million people.

It was the Bush administration that first raised the alarm about the atrocities in Darfur, organized a massive humanitarian relief effort to save people in the displaced camps, and rallied an international coalition to send peacekeeping troops to restore order through the United Nations and the African Union.

While the civil war continues, casualties have declined and people are being fed by aid agencies, thanks to US government generosity, which may explain why Bush is so popular among the Africans in the camps. America has played an important role as mediator in Burundi, Liberia, Northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo after civil wars devastated all five countries. Administration policy in Africa has not been without its failures: its military campaign in Somalia has been an embarrassment, putting vulnerable people at risk.

However important these diplomatic efforts may be, Bush's enduring legacy in Africa rests on humanitarian and economic, not political, foundations. More than anything else it has been the revolution in the US government's development assistance that is responsible for Bush's popularity.

The Bush administration doubled foreign aid worldwide over the past eight years, the largest increase since the Truman administration, and used it to encourage poor countries to undertake political and economic reform.

Total US government development aid to Africa alone has quadrupled from $1.3 billion in 2001 to more than $5 billion in 2008, and is scheduled to go to $8.7 billion in 2010, principally for education (primary school enrollment in Africa is up 36 percent since 1999), healthcare, building civil society, and protecting fragile environments.

Africa has received $3.5 billion in additional funds from Bush's Millennium Challenge Corporation initiative, which rewards poor countries that encourage economic growth, govern well, and provide social services for their people. The president's HIV/AIDS program, principally focused on providing Africans with anti-retroviral drugs to treat the disease (1.7 million people are on the therapy), has been such a success that the program has been extended to 2015 at $48 billion. His five-year, $1.2 billion effort to combat malaria has provided 4 million insecticide-treated bed nets and 7 million drug therapies to vulnerable people.

The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, approved in 2000 and reauthorized in expanded form in 2004, provides trade benefits with the United States for 40 African countries that have implemented reforms to encourage economic growth. Since 2001, US exports to Africa have more than doubled to $14 billion a year, while African exports to the United States more than tripled to $67 billion, of which $3.4 billion has been in goods other than oil. USAID has provided more than $500 million in trade capacity building for poor countries to access international markets, which is the only way Africa will escape the poverty that has for too long oppressed the continent.

Interesting is it not?  While Obama makes speeches to a Democratic party holding power yet doing next to nothing to assist those they champion, Bush has quietly done what they've not done a damned thing about.

And yet... and yet... where are the Religious Leftists?  Where's Jim Wallis, Greg Boyd, Mike Todd, and so  many others who are also quite adept at giving lip service  to causes (and to jetting around the globe time and again in so called support) and yet do very little else? 

I'm sick and tired of these pious putzes wagging their guilt ridden fingers in our faces and manifesting their Bush Deranged Syndrome induced rants that are so obviously ignorance based.  And you should too.

For Christ's sake.

The next time a leftist talks smack (and that's all they have... smack) about how George Bush has not helped the poor, knock them about their pointy and out of touch heads with this piece.

Then tell them to go straight to hell.

H/T to Leslie and Sigmund, Carl and Alfred for the Boston Globe piece.