This one will kill you. The priorities of the Obama administration and the Democrats are mind boggling.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just announced a new million-dollar scholarship program to help Palestinian students enroll at American universities. The Obama administration is calling them “opportunity grants.”
Clinton said the opportunity grants would create “a larger pool of capable young men and women from places like the West Bank and Gaza” who can “compete along with students in other countries for the opportunity to further their academic training in America.”
Now, oddly enough on the very same day Red State reports that Senate Democrats (with the help of a few Republicans including Arlen Specter) voted against giving 1,700 low-income children in the District of Columbia the chance for a better education. 58 senators sided with liberal special interests to defeat an amendment to save the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program which will eventually mean that these children who are already in school will have to get out.
So the Democrats are initiating funding “opportunity grants” for disadvantaged Palestinians while removing “opportunity scholarships” from disadvantaged American children in Washington D.C.
Like I said, the priorities are mind boggling. So we’re paying for Palestinians to become educated to compete for jobs while damning American children to failing schools so they won’t be able to compete for jobs in the future.
I grow increasingly worried about the future of our country.
March 11, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Dude…BHO isn’t just the leader of the United States…he’s the leader of the “global community”. How do you not get that?
[/snark]
God Bless,
Ryan
March 11, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Wow. All of a sudden, this whole thing sounds disturbingly like a passage from C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters”. where Screwtape says, “You must keep on shoving all the virtues outward till they are finally located in the circle of fantasy, and all the desirable qualities [that is, sins] into the Will.” God help us all, especially those in such danger of complete control by the devil.
March 11, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Having spent time in Palestine myself, the need is really urgent for this sort of grant. I know they should be giving them to Americans as well, but the Palestinians (many of whom are Christians) have been under the thumb of Israeli authorities for so long that they have very little opportunity for higher education. The only college in the whole of Bethlehem is run by the Christian brothers, and Palestinians aren’t allowed out of their territory without a permit. As much as I hate to say that I agree with Hillary on anything, it will be a critical part of the peace process to have educated Palestinians who won’t be radicalized by poverty and oppression.
March 11, 2009 at 5:16 pm
No, Anonymous, it simply won’t do. The PLA will not be sending Christians to America to learn technology in order to break, bend, and blow up objects and humans; they will be sending members of the Religion of Peace.
March 11, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Exactly, Mack! There may even be some clause in that “opportunity grant” that explicitly forbids Christians to come.
Wouldn’t put it past the marxist…
Mum26
March 11, 2009 at 9:46 pm
OK, Mack, Let’s think a bit here. There are elements in Palestine that are radicalized, and unfortunately they get all the attention. I lived in Palestine and it is very sad to see a permanent underclass intentionally established through political and economic policy of the Israelis. I uderstand why the Israelis think they need to do it–and there is no easy solution– but one can’t simply jump to the conclusion that any Palestinian who comes to America will be a front man for the PLO. When England and Ireland were fighting, we couldn’t assume that any 18 year old from Nortern Ireland who came to the US was a secret bomber against the IRA, etc. I spent a good amount of time with a Christian Palestinian family in Nazareth, a father educated in the US, and his children were prevented from going to college by the Israeli authorities because they didn’t want the Christians getting ahed of the Jewish families. These were civilized, educated people. Israel will not allow any industry or business to start in Palestine because they don’t want the Palestinians to get strong or rich. But denying people basic human freedoms only breeds haterd and violence… esp. among the uneducated. There are other kinds of Palestinians who are dealing with generations of poverty, who have developed an anti-establishment mindset, who have nothing to lose, and who are therefore willing to blow themsevles up. Imagine if they came to the US and saw that opportunity is possible, go back to Palestine and tell the radicals that there is another way? Violence begets violence, and there has to a way to break the cycle. As to whether a clause is written to forbid Christians to come… that is pure speculation.
March 12, 2009 at 3:01 am
When I think of the Palestinians I think of their reaction to 9/11/01, they were shown dancing in the streets.
Noted for future reference.
March 12, 2009 at 10:50 pm
oh, so now we trust the mainstream news to portray something accurately?
March 13, 2009 at 1:30 am
“oh, so now we trust the mainstream news to portray something accurately?”
In this case? You bet! It beats the tar out of trusting an anonymous commenter who might mention his personal experiences. Can you cite objective and easily verifiable proof to the contrary?
March 13, 2009 at 2:43 am
All I have to offer is personal anecdotal evidence, this is true. Let me tell you a personal anecdote then. While I was living in Jerusalem about 500 yards from the wailing wall, a group of Palestinian youths got incensed about something. It happens quite often. It would be not unlike American urban youths rioting or protesting. ONE of them had a bottle filled with gasoline and the others had some rocks. The Israeli police came out quickly, as they do, and there was a little scuffle.I didn’t even know it was happening and it lasted about 10 minutes. I saw it first on CNN. I looked out the window and then walked over to the area and nothing was going on. What did CNN do? They had a 15 second bit of footage on repeat over and over of a man throwing the gasoline-filled bottle for almost a hour! You would have thought that a riot had erupted by watching CNN. This is how things are portrayed on American television. I have no definite answer as to why… some say it is because Israel-friendly people control the media. Others say it is because a guy throwing a burning bottle is more exciting to watch in a 24 hour news cycle. Who knows? The truth is that news coverage of this situation is often far from representative of the “Palestinians” as a group… even though they have their radicals. If all you saw of Americans were the neo-Nazis and such from the Jerry Springer show, you might get draw false conclusions about Americans. I’m only asking for a reasonable understanding of what “Palestinians” means.