The [AmeriCorps] volunteers are "doing a lot to work to mentor and clean parks and take care of the elderly," Bush said in a Dec. 10 talk to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "Listen, part of making sure America is a compassionate place means acts as simple as walking into a shut-in's home and saying 'I love you' on a regular basis."

[...]

Now, however, it appears that the promises were all for show. AmeriCorps, under attack by right-wing Republicans in the House, suffering from internal accounting problems, and left undefended by the White House, is facing a funding crisis and may not have enough money to put more than 28,000 volunteers to work.

- Salon.com article by David Lindorff

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Let me see if I have this straight.

We can commit 100 billion to destabilize an entire region, er, I mean, potentially take out one of many sick dictators and his cronies. And there's not a whole lot of squabbling about that in Congress at all. Debate? What's that?

But we're having big arguments over at the White House about allocating considerably less than one-hundreth of that amount to contribute to the well-being of at-risk kids, seniors, and other people living right here in our very own country.

Is it just me, or are some folks' priorities a bit screwy?

Why aren't more people passionate about cleaning up our own country before trapsing into other lands?

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I know, I know, there's the Hitler Argument. How can we sit back complacently when this evil madman is killing innocent people?

Well, we didn't seem to have a lot of problems with this when he gassed the Kurds. We don't seem to be losing sleep over Rwanda or many other African countries in which people are murdered by the thousands pretty routinely. Aside from indignation of drug trafficking in Latin America, we don't seem all that concerned about kidnaps and murders going on there, either.

Either we play the world's policeman or we don't. Otherwise, we shouldn't be surprised when our selective involvement causes others to question our oily intentions.

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