THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S FINANCIAL LITERACY SITE

I came across www.mymoney.gov recently, and that made my day. I howled with laughter for hours.

Imagine, our government actually has a national strategy for financial literacy, developed for our benefit by the U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission. This Commission’s motto is “Providing financial education resources for all Americans.”

My only question is: does anyone in Congress know about this?

Oh, what is even funnier is the fact that the little symbol that shows up next to the address in the navigation toolbar is – I am not making this up! – a red star! All I can say is: “Спасибо, товарищ, but your help with managing financial affairs we surely do not need!”

The Chicago dEMOCRATIC Charter

This fascinating tidbit just in from Chicago!

It appears that a number of Chicagoans, apparently spurred to action by recent revelations about Illinois Chairman Blago, created an organization called Folks for the Ethical Treatment of Americans (FETA) and signed a document called The Chicago dEMOCRATIC Charter.

“Change is no longer optional,” said Gouda Syreček, FETA’s big cheese. He acknowledged that this kind of action is all but unprecedented in Chicago, and admitted that the Chicago democracy movement has hardly made progress since the 1931 Republican Mayoral Massacre. (Then, as today, the Republicans’ wounds were largely self-inflicted.) “Since then,” Gouda said, “Chicago politics have been frozen in place – downright Illinoian.”

But the document FETA issued yesterday marks a significant new chapter in the fight for political freedom. More than 450 Chicagoans from all walks of life published the FETA Charter on the Internet. The Charter calls for an end to the Illinoian freeze of the political scene and the establishment of multiparty democracy. It includes a scathing account of the decades of rule by The One Party, and gives a moving account of Chicagoans' yearning for a political system in which the governmental organs, instruments of enforcement and coercion, courts, schools, places of worship and all other institutions are accountable to laws rather than to an all-powerful political party.

“The purpose of FETA is to instill a feeling of hope,” Syreček stressed. “And, we want to see change we really can believe in.”

This is a daring move in a year that has seen political dissent crushed and opponents ruthlessly smeared, not just in Chicago but nationwide to ensure the success of a hardened Chicago politician’s presidential campaign. FETA's Charter is brutal in its frankness: "Our political system continues to produce economic disasters, human rights disasters, social crises and terribly educated children." It continues: "The Windy City’s ruling elite, all loyal members of The One Party, continues with impunity to strip away citizens’ rights to freedom, property and the pursuit of happiness. We see the powerless here becoming more militant because they no longer have any hope for change. This has all the makings of a disaster, as if what The One Party has done to date was not disastrous enough. The One Party’s system, as typified by the recent steamroller presidential campaign which eerily resembled the steamroller political campaign that swept Illinois Chairman Blago into office in 2003, has reached the point where the Illinoian freeze on genuine change in city politics is no longer an option."

A distinguished Chicagologist, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, likens the FETA manifesto to Charter 77 that was signed by Václav Havel and other Czechoslovak dissidents in 1977. “The Czechoslovak dissidents had to wait 13 years to realize their democratic dream,” he said. “In Chicago, the reality of genuine dEMOCRATIC government also seems far off. I'm sure that the FETA Charter won't produce immediate change. But the bravery of its authors suggests that the dEMOCRATS' day will come. After all," he added, "Chicago stinks like a cheese factory. Indeed, whenever northerly winds blow, we receive reports that numerous children and elderly residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have to be hospitalized after being overcome by the airborne miasma from the Windy City. Even localities in Ontario, hundreds of miles to the north, have reportedly begun to issue gas masks to its residents.”

YET ANOTHER TOP-NOTCH ACHIEVEMENT BY THE U.N.

As reported by www.EyeontheUN.org, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, the current UN General Assembly President, used his position on November 24 to attack Israel. He accused the Jewish state of apartheid and called for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions. Brockmann also said that Israel is crucifying his Palestinian "brothers and sisters." The occasion? The annual UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

What next?

As I wrote only yesterday, the UN has outlived its usefulness.

Now, for the record, I wish to go a step further. The UN does more harm than good, and every day that it stays open for business is a stain on humanity's already-compromised reputation. The sooner President Obama sends the UN packing, the better for us.

I wonder if he has any idea how wildly popular that would make him? Just a thought...

THE WORLD WITHOUT THE UN

This, from Mere Rhetoric (www.mererhetoric.com/): today, the UN is commemorating its annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People with a film depicting Jews as Nazi-equivalents and a public exhibit mourning the sixty years of Israel's existence. This day of solidarity comes just days before November 29: a reminder that, on that day in 1947, the UN voted to establish Jewish and Arab states in Palestine. (Which the Arabs rejected, thereby creating the Palestinian problem in the first place…)

Anne Bayefsky, editor of www.EYEontheUN.org rightly adds that “[t]he event is an annual reminder that the UN's real agenda is to delegitimize the birth - and the perseverance - of the state of Israel."

To which I say: What intelligent response can a halfway civilized human being make to such a show? Rage? Tears? Despair?

Well, neither. Let us simply make the UN go away.

Based strictly on the UN’s atrocious record on Israel, this once-respected organization appears to have outlived its usefulness. When you also consider the UN’s secretive and wastrel ways (a cool billion buckaroos to refurbish the Palais des Nations when millions are starving?), byzantine structure, thousands of do-nothing jobs and humiliating subservience to the most tyrannical nations on Earth today, the appearance morphs into certainty.

I believe that the demise of the UN will yield no major disasters. Other international structures will step into the breech. And we, we will find it easier to sleep nights. Conscience, y’know…

Perhaps we can try again in a few decades. It might be a waste of time, but the idea of a respected world body where nations can converse and settle their differences is a timeless and wonderful one. One day, we might succeed. But today’s UN is not it.

Mr. Obama, send ‘em packing. Now that would be change I can believe in!

I AM DYING TO SEE HOW MR. BERGSTROM WILL “MAKE AMENDS"

The AP has revealed yesterday that a Mr. Gunnar Bergstrom, a "former Communist," has apologized for sympathizing with the Khmer Rouge. In August 1978, he and three other members of a leftist Swedish “friendship delegation” had sat down with Pol Pot to a yummy seafood banquet and – apparently – a highly satisfying intellectual discussion of the many joys and virtues of the Khmer Rouge revolution. Now, we are told, Mr. Bergstrom realizes he was mistaken about Pol Pot's brutal regime and wants to make amends.

Sorry, Gunnar. All the essential facts about Kampuchea were out there even as you munched oysters with Southeast Asia’s very own Mr. Genocide. By then, millions had already died, and anyone who cared to know it, knew. You are thirty years too late.

But if you are truly sincere about making amends, why don’t you produce a kind of supplement to the Black Book of Communism, focusing on the near-universal leftist tradition of non-Nazi genocide denial? List all significant deniers from around the world and explain their rationales and motivations. That will not bring anyone in the killing fields back to life, but it just may open a few eyes.

Of which there are millions out there, veritably screaming for help with jacking up their lids.

THUS SPAKE SPAK, AND GOOD FOR HIM!

Hans von Spakovski, a visiting legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation, has highlighted a significant ongoing action to prevent fraudulent voting in Arizona (http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452407,00.html). At issue is Arizona's Proposition 200 that requires positive identification and proof of citizenship to vote. Proposition 200 was overwhelmingly depanded by the people of Arizona but predictably opposed by the usual suspects, who tried to block it by injunction. The injunction was ultimately dissolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

As "the Spak" points out, the honor system that traditionally underlay the American voting process has failed. It is therefore time for more positive measures. Opponents of Proposition 200 have claimed all manner of "oppression" of the allegedly disenfranchised, but the rights of ordinary citizenry must also be respected. (By the way, because it is so easy to ignore or dismiss their concerns, I refer to ordinary citizenry as "the flyoverites" even though they - i.e. we - really live throughout the United States.) The courts are dead on when they say that "...preventing voter fraud was an important governmental interest that justified the proof of citizenship requirement, particularly when the state had actual evidence of non-citizens who had actually registered and voted illegally in Arizona in past elections." And: "...Proposition 200 enhances the accuracy of Arizona's voter rolls and ensures that the rights of lawful voters are not debased by unlawfully cast ballots." (Both quotes are extracted from the above mentioned article.)

Right!

HELPING WHEN HELP IS NO LONGER NEEDED

American and Iraqi troops have fought long and hard to triumph in Iraq. Now that they have done the bleeding, the European Union wants to muscle in on their success. We are told that "...the European Union intends to re-engage in the country without delay.”

But the EU is leaving itself an out, since this re-engagement (whatever that is) is linked to an improved security situation. As we are told by European diplomats: "At the moment, the country is probably still too insecure. But we’re starting the discussion now. The better things get, the more we can do.” And: "We are certainly concerned and we are thinking of ways of how to help stabilize the country...” So, "without delay" may really mean "never," since perfect security is a pipe dream.

But in case the EU is serious, there are still useful things to be done. Here is a short list:

• recompense the American people for 60% of all war-related expenses,
• immediately assume all material, manpower and financial responsibility for helping rebuild the Iraqi civil infrastructure, with a target completion date of 2011,
• immediately assume military responsibility for securing the Iran-Iraq and Iraq-Syria borders, stopping all infiltration, so American and Iraqi forces can finish mopping up in country.
• continue adequate military support for Iraq as long as it is required if/when the Obama administration pulls out U.S. troops before the job is done and then cuts off all material support to Iraq so that Iraqi forces will not longer be able to operate effectively (cf. U.S. Congressional actions during the last years of the Vietnam struggle).
  

However, the most useful things for the EU to do are moral in nature.

First, the EU must publicly apologize to the Iraqi and American people for the EU's lack of support to date, and publicly acknowledge that minor ideological differences with the U.S. administration are not a sufficient reason for evading solidarity in a struggle against terrorism and genocidal tyranny.

Second, the EU should finance a comprehensive study of how much more effectively the conflict in Iraq would have been fought, and how much shorter it would have been, had the EU done its moral duty and stuck with the coalition.