Standing Watch

I got a curious email a couple of days ago, one that I just had to look into.

The email goes like this…

Subject: HB 1388 PASSED
Snops – http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=HB+1388+PASSED&sp-a=00062d45-sp00000000&sp-advanced=1&sp-p=all&sp-w-control=1&sp-w=alike&sp-date-range=-1&sp-x=any&sp-c=100&sp-m=1&sp-s=0&x=18&y=10 HB 1388 PASSED  YOU just spent $20,000,000 to move members/supporters of Hamas, a terrorist
organization, to the United States; housing, food, the whole enchilada.

WE are losing this country at a rapid pace.

Okay, where to begin, lol.

First, the originator couldn’t even get the “bill,” which was actually a House Resolution, correct, it is HR 1388, not HB 1388.

Entitled “The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act,” H.R. 1388 reauthorizes and revises existing federal public service programs, including AmeriCorps, essentially increasing their funding and scope (and, contrary to another set of false rumors, it did not make public service mandatory). Far from being passed “behind our backs,” the bill was much publicized during House and Senate debates and enacted with bipartisan support, and with many false reports in the media (especially on certain right wing broadcast).

The resolution passed the House and Senate in March of this year, and was signed into law on April 21, 2009 by President Obama.  The legislation had zero to do with Hamas (use the links I included to see for yourself).

It is true, however, that Obama did issue a memorandum to the US State Department last January that provided for $20.3 million in humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza that resulted from the Israeli offenisve in that territory.  The memorandum is not quite the same as an Executive Order, it is comparable to one.  Nowhere in the memo does it even mention relocating said refugees, or anyone else, to the United States.  Again, click the link and see for yourself.

And now, for the rest of the email, lol…

Yes, Obama did call the leader of the Fatah Party, the former majority party of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.  Fatah is the only political faction within the PLO that is not listed as a terrorist organization, and is actually left-moderate.  I, personally, considered such communications important to the eventual, if possible, resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian war.  In hind-sight, it was also important to reach out to moderates in region and ask for their support in dealing with the overall violence.  Hamas, the ruling party at the time (and still) is a terrorist organization, largely supported by Iran, and is so far to the right in the political spectrum as to make Adolph Hitler look like a pacifist liberal socialist.

Obama’s appearance on Al-Arabia was a first, to say the least, and an important step in gaining support throughout the Middle East to stabilize the region.  Only certain elements in the United States, mainly Christian extremists, objected.  The rest of the world marveled at it, and put hope that this token step would lead to eventual success in stabilizing the region.

Obama’s first Executive Order as President, which sparked controversy on both the left and right,  had zero to do with abortion, and everything to do with Presidential Records.  The Executive Order the author probably was referring to had to do with reversing former President George W. Bush’s last minute Executive Order that allowed doctors, and indeed all persons working in health care (from doctors to janitors), that allowed for the denial of any health care services (including EMS and ER) to any individual based solely upon “issues of conscience,” even if that issue was simply the professional hated the patient or something about them.  The Executive Order was so broad as to legalize racism, religious intolerance, sexism, etc. within the already failing health care system.  Obama was right to reverse this one.  Laws already exist that prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions within the US, which an Executive Order cannot override.

And, yes, Obama did order a halt to military tribunals at Gitmo, and the closure of the detainee camps at the same military base (at no time has anyone ordered or even suggested the closure of the base itself, save for the Cuban government).  Detainees who are considered “unlawful combatants,” as in civilians, are allegedly to be tried as civilians in US civilian courts, if evidence exists that they committed crimes (such as engaging in armed conflict, placing bombs, killing, etc, you get the picture).  They would then be placed in federal or state prisons, which now the far right politically claim isn’t secure enough.  Those with no evidence against them are currently being deported to third party countries willing to take them.  Simple, elegant, and not in violation of international law or the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of Prisoners of War.

And, yes, Obama ordered overseas CIA operated prisons closed.  They violated US and International laws, on many levels, and did more to create terrorists than to reduce terrorism.

And, it wasn’t Obama who dropped the charges against Saudi national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the accused mastermind of the USS Cole attack in Yemen in 2000.  Susan Crawford, the retired judge who oversees the commissions, issued a ruling dismissing without prejudice all charges against al-Nashiri.  Al-Nashiri remains in US custody, pending either resumption of military tribunals (unlikely), or trial in a civilian court.  The ruling avoids double jeopardy, which you would think this particular author would want.

Oh, and Snopes was misspelled, and the federal register is located not at a “dot com” site, but a “dot gov” site.

I’m a huge fan of the First Amendment, but this email goes to far.  Whomever the original author is needs to be determined, and that individual should face civil and criminal consequences for the lies put forth.  I get these emails through a source who forwards them because that individual wants to know what the truth is, not because they believe the lies put forth.  I cannot speak to the motives of those who forward them to the individual.  Maybe they want answers, too.  Maybe they honestly believe such lies.  But in the end it comes down to the individual who created the lies, the one who started the whole mess to begin with.

I have no love loss for Obama, and in fact I disagree with how he has handled many things.  But these lies distract from the truth, and make the truth to seem to be lies.  And, I believe, they have but one purpose.  To bring down the United States through a campaign of disinformation.