Our Congress has worked around the clock to protect the wealthy at the expense of the lowest economic sector of our nation. We ambushed Saddam Hussein on the pretext of democracy, but the truth is Iraq has oil and we want it.

The battles in the mid east are over oil and protection or destruction of one nation, Israel. The Israelies and the Arabs have been at it since early Old Testament times.

Somalia has only starving people. What is in it for us? No oil! No glory in supposedly saving God's chosen people. Why in the world should we be concerned about a few starving mistreated people who don't have the means to help themselves?

I previously posted on this topic. This has generated more discussion on Facebook. I have found this discussion to be interesting. It is enlightening to see how many Americans think and what they believe. I surely did not convince them of my points, but I think the discourse is educational. So I am going to do “Part 2" here. I hope this can be educational and enriching for you as well.

The key posts that took place after I posted the link to my article were:

"I personally believe in the Biblical and Third World models of national economics - "IF YOU DON'T WORK - THEN YOU DON'T EAT!"

I was on Facebook today. I saw something that a good friend of mine had written and the resulting comments.

Mr Obama: not all folks who have money inherited it from their rich parents like your Harvard classmates did.Some of us worked hard to succeed.To get where I am took lots of weekend nights in the library when I should have been out with friends.It took eight years of post graduate education and 12 years in the military,away from home,to finance that education.Demonizing people who work hard does not bring "Hope"!

Are we all in a trance, both liberals and conservatives? We sit and watch the evening news, listen to our favorite talk show hosts: Fox, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Frog Pond Croakers, or whoever. No one seems to be able to differentiate between their BS and their own BS.

The budget wrangles in congress are not even close to addressing the issues with any sane and sensible plan. Wrangling over the difference of 6 billion or 60 billion is 'stuff and nonsense!'

It appears both sides of the aisle are content with targeting those in society, with cuts, who are least able to absorb those cuts without drastic reductions in their lifestyles. Most of those cuts won't touch the upper middle class, and will actually benefit the ultra rich.

I just read, in my local paper, what our U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp had to say about our economy and how we can deal with the deficits and long term indebtedness. His opposition in the next election is going to have to be extremely evil, before I choose Tim as the lessor of the two evils!

I've never read Charles Dickens. I was never assigned to read any of his books during high school or college. I've watched various Christmas Carol movies, but had not really watched any other versions of a Charles Dickens book. A few months ago my wife and I watched an old 1930s version of A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Colman and we both loved it.

Soon after I then read an essay by George Orwell that talked about how subversive a writer Dickens was and how his stories attacked most of English institutions for their apathy towards the poor. It turns out that many radicals and social activists have been influenced by the books of Charles Dickens for his sympathy for the poor and for his critique of the British capitalist system.

Are you demoralized by November’s election and Obama’s retreat on the Bush tax cuts? One group of activists is fighting back against the Glenn Becks, Andrew Breitbarts and the rest of the Fox News propaganda machine. Last week a new watchdog group, www.IndictBreitbart.org, launched a campaign to encourage Baltimore’s new State’s Attorney to prosecute right wing activists Andrew Breitbart, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles for violating a Maryland law, which prohibits surreptitious recordings and disclosure of those recordings.

If the group is successful, it will be a step toward stopping the conservative media’s modus operandi of using lies, half truths, and video deception to attack everyone from George Sores to ACORN to unions, to civic organizations and their innocent members. It might also help discourage the mainstream media from repeating their false accusations, as they did in the case of ACORN and the New Jersey Teacher's Union.

The recent outbreak of cholera in Haiti which has killed more than 300 people is bringing international attention back to that island nation. Unfortunately, this epidemic has been predicted for months now and despite the best efforts of numerous NGOs and the donation of billions of dollars (special kudos is given to Bill Clinton in that aspect) the world hasn't been able to put Haiti back together or even in a position to have avoided the latest crisis. The remainder of my post is a cut and paste from an MSNBC.com comment on a story about the continuing rise in the death toll and the shortsighted reaction of some residents of that country to an effort by Doctors Without Borders to open a new health clinic to treat cholera patients. Here's the link to the story.

Basically, I was responding to those who commented that Haiti's people were 'ignorant' and we as a country should pull out and cut our losses. I do agree that Haiti is poorly served by its leadership and trust my wife's perception of the on-the-ground realities of economic and social inertia and stagnation which have been made worse by the over-reliance on temporary aid from NGOs. I'm also not willing to let Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma off the hook for delaying US aid already appropriated by Congress. So, here are my thoughts in that context.

A raging debate has ensued around whether NPR correctly fired Juan Williams because his remarks were inconsistent with editorial. Some say Williams undermined his credibility as a news analyst. Others accuse NPR of bungling its response and stifling free speech. What’s been missing in the debate over his firing is this.

Immediately after National Public Radio fired Williams because of his remarks about Muslims, Fox Cable’s Bill O’Reilly said, “This is like the ACORN deal — no more money to NPR. NPR has now devolved into a totalitarian outfit functioning as an arm of the far left.”

The Republican leadership and the right wing echo chamber followed O’Reilly’s call for the federal defunding of National Public Radio. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., announced plans to introduce legislation to strip federal funds from NPR because it fired Williams. According to DeMint, NPR received $4 billion in federal money since 2001 and will get $430 million in the 2011. Republican Minority Whip Eric Cantor and nearly every Republican running for office this year promised to seek an end to taxpayer subsidies for NPR and public television.

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945)

The difference between civilized society and barbarian or uncivilized society is respectful treatment of all members of society: rich or poor; powerful or weak; educated or uneducated; Christian or Pagan; the list can go on and on.

James O’Keefe, the conservative activist known for manipulating the mainstream media by making undercover videos that helped destroy the progressive community group ACORN, plotted to humiliate CNN and its investigative journalist Abby Boudreau.

He planned to record a meeting using hidden cameras aboard a floating "palace of pleasure" where he would seduce Boudreau and make sexually suggestive comments, according to CNN.

O’Keefe, a convicted federal criminal, tried to lure Boudreau onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the sessions. CNN documents and interviews yesterday suggest that O'Keefe had secretly, and illegally, taped phone calls he had with Boudreau.