Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Posted on 05/07/2007 2:18:42 PM PDT by enough_idiocy
"House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and his eight compatriots, all of whom have co-sponsored a bill that would require that America pay reparations to the people of Guam for - get this - the actions of the Japanese in World War II.
According to the bill (HR.1595, the "Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act"), the people of Guam:
suffered unspeakable harm as a result of the occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II , by being subjected to death, rape, severe personal injury, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, or internment.
For this reason (?), "the Secretary of the Treasury shall make payments" to WWII survivors and their descendants on Guam for the brutal actions of a third party.
Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? After all, the US is the largest aid donor on the planet; it's only logical that we should rebuild, repatriate, and reparate every country that has been hurt by every war that we can find. Let's not stop with Guam - let's include everybody from Carthage on up to the present. Should we pay reparations to the Koreans for the Mongol invasions of the 14th century, and to the Spanish for the loss of their Armada in 1588? Why not?
And while this bill holds up $126,000,000.00 for the repayment of the people of Guam for what the Japanese did (as well as $5,000,000.00 for "the Secretary of the Interior [to] establish a grants program [to]...award grants for research, educational, and media activities that memorialize the events surrounding the occupation of Guam during World War II, honor the loyalty of the people of Guam during such occupation, or both, for purposes of appropriately illuminating and interpreting the causes and circumstances of such occupation and other similar occupations during a war"), our soldiers can't even get a dime in supplemental appropriations.
Way to go, Democrats. Your "blame America first" (even for things we have nothing to do with), anti-US soldier attitudes, actions, and mindsets have just been taken to a new level."
Reparations Trumps Warfighters
http://www.redstate.com/redhot#redhot-31629
What kind of lunacy is this...? Oh yeah, the Democratic kind.
I think Steny Hoyer and his eight cronies should have to pay the reparations. Their savings and investments can be liquidated for the purpose, and their wages garnished until their debt is paid.
I think that the Democratic Party owes me reparations for screwing up my country and failing to adequately support the defense of our nation and its allies.
Easy.. it’s called buying votes.
Makes perfect sense...
In a bid to one-up his compatriot, Harry Reid, the Hon. Mr. Hoyer has found a way to retroactively surrender to Japan for WWII...
From Guam?
That’s funny, but yet really sad at the same time
So, yes it was our fault.
I am so ashamed!! Why wasn’t I there to protect Guam? Why? Why?...Oh yeah, I wasn’t even born yet. Sheesh
Does the word “KICKBACK” come to mind? Someone other than the people of Guam is getting some of this money. This is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard of in a long time. How about all the other countries that Japan invaded? Like China? How about all the countries that Germany invaded? And.....where in our Constitution does it give these idiots the right to do this?
My grandfather lost a couple of toes and partial hearing in the Ardennes during WWII. Apparently he wasn’t loyal enough for me to get reparations.
Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act
“... acknowledge the steadfast loyalty to the United States of the residents of Guam as a result of the occupation of Guam in World War II by Imperial Japanese military forces;”
http://www.theorator.com/bills109/hr1595.html
I wonder how many Guamians are still alive from WWII. I would expect that most of these people would be in their 70s and 80s by now. If they survived that long, then what’s the problem? The Dems are outdoing themselves on the pork - at least the Repubs seemed to keep their pork in the USA.
it looks like I nailed it again..to quote the late Peter Boyle on Everybody Loves Raymond, “Holy Crap”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1828014/posts
Thanks for the head’s up. I sent FReepmail to Mark Levin as well.
Ah, but the dems are working on that too.
Democrats’ Unconstitutional Power Grab
by Rep. Tom Price (More by this author)
Posted: 01/23/2007
Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will be considering a rule change (H. Res. 78) to allow delegates and non-members of the House—of which four of five are Democrats—to vote in the House of Representatives.
Fresh off a 100-hour agenda that was full of loopholes, fine print, and geared more toward sound bites than sound policy, Democrats are planning to further stack the deck in their favor in the House of Representatives. Tomorrow, House Democrats will change the rules of the House to allow non-members of Congress (serving as delegates from American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the District of Columbia and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico), the right to vote.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19093
Well, that ties it all together!!!
And it did pass the House.
Who wants to bet that Steny Hoyer and/or his cronies have Guamianian relatives?
I don’t ever want to hear another liberal complain that we don’t have the money for this or that program.
This is so stupid, so incompetent, so ridiculous it will (and should) define congress for decades to come. I would rather dine on hay with horses than sit down at a dinner table with a single member of congress.
When do we start kicking their doors in?
Are you for real?
What the status now?
but wasnt it FDR, their hallowed DEMOCRAT who allegedly KNEW about the pending attack but let it happen so he could have an excuse to enter the war.
If it didn’t, the bill is clearly unconstitutional. As written, it’s probably unconstitutional, but likely can’t be brought to court.
In that case, mention this too: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1829795/posts
Oh, nice twist. Good job.
You are right.
Using ‘democrat-logic’ the presence of US forces in Guam mad Guam a ‘target’ for the Japanese. You see? It’s the same thinking that says that Iraq would be a rose garden if only the US forces currently there would just... leave.
Bullsh!t.
Pure and simple bullsh!t.
Please tell me this is some sort of parody, or joke. Please.
You can find the text here:
http://www.uni-erfurt.de/ostasiatische_geschichte/texte/japan/dokumente/19/19510908_treaty.htm
I draw your attention to Article XIV. To make a long story short, the signers of the treaty agreed that Japan would turn over certain assets to the Allied Powers, and that all further claims against Japan would be waived. The details are in the treay.
Why did we do that? Because demanding massive war reparations from Germany under the Treaty of Versailles worked out so well. You may remember the consequences of that brilliant idea by Woodrow Wilson. If not, you can look it up. The United States wanted a free Japan that could be an American ally, not a country burdened by economic troubles that would probably wind up having a revolution and going over to the Communists.
So, among other peoples, Guamians cannot claim compensation for losses from Japan. So the only country that can compensate the Guamians for their WWII losses is the United States, which has somewhat of a moral obligation, since the U.S. signed away the Guamians rights to get compensation from Japan.
That is why this is happening this way. You can agree or disagree that the U.S. should pay this compensation. I'm not interested in arguing either way. So nobody complain to me about it.
I refer you to The Guam Meritorious Claims Act of 1945. I especially draw your attention to the final sentence of Sec. 1 - "Provided further, That any such settlements made by such commissions under the authority of this Act shall be final and conclusive for all purposes, notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary."
In short, they already got their money. Why do we need to toss another $162,000,000 at them?
Thanks for this enlightening post. What say you to the post below yours?
“the vote on H.R. 1595 has been postponed until tomorrow.”
ping
But a look at the present act and it screams PORK!!!!
Maybe some more money is justified, but not the amounts they're talking about. And a 5 billion dollar fund is a sick joke.
Actually, it wasn't a hard cap, and it didn't apply to death or injury claims. The $5,000 (which is somewhere north of $52,000 in 2007 dollars) limit applied only to what the Department of the Navy could approve on its own authority. Anything beyond $5,000, as well as all death and injury claims, could still be pursued, only the approval of the settlement of such claims needed to go through Congress.
The agreement that Clinton signed re: Nazi eras crimes wasn’t any better than that, and that was implemented in the 1990s. Clinton, without going to Congress, worked with Shroeder to create the German Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future”, people get 5 and under from the cases I’ve read, and US courts don’t allow victims living here or their decedents to sue in federal courts opting instead to defer to that program.
In this era, no nation has ever been punished for abusing US military POWs
ping
From Today’s ‘ Neal’s Nuze’ (05/07/07):
http://boortz.com/nuze/index.html
MORE OF YOUR TAX MONEY AT WORK
Brace yourself for this one. Your tax dollars are being called upon to pay for reparations to the people of Guam for the Japanese’s actions in WWII. That’s right. You read it correctly! Americans will pay for what Japanese did in a war that was fought over 50 years ago.
Here’s the story. A bill will be introduced this week in the House called the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act. This act calls for reparations—costing about $135 million—for the “unspeakable harm as a result of the occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II, by being subjected to death, rape, severe personal injury, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, or internment.” Now mind you, these are terrible things that happened to the people of Guam, but why do I have to pay for it? And why now?
Well it turns out that Truman signed an agreement with Japan in 1951 basically stating that from then on, Japan is not responsible for “individual American war claims.” Because Guam is a U.S. territory, the burden to compensate for Japanese abuses falls on U.S. taxpayers. Thanks a lot, Harry Truman. You are a great American Democrat.
But in 2003, Bush authorized the appointment of the Guam War Claims Review Commission. I guess we can assume that this was the result.
Now here’s an interesting question. I have heard, though I have never taken the time to verify, that there was only one major war engaged in by the U.S. where U.S. taxpayers didn’t fork over huge sums to rebuild the loser. That would be the War Between the States .. sometimes erroneously referred to as the “Civil War”
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Typical - not surprising, this is what the federal government does best - believe the tagline!
The Ordot dump has been scheduled for closure for 20+ years and the locals can't decide where to move it, thus costing mounting fines by the EPA. The Guam Public School System is a federal money pit that can compete with any pork program in the US. The island's infrastructure is in such disarray, because of no planned maintenance programs, it will take the Federal government to come in AGAIN to rebuild it.
The only governmental corruption cases to be prosecuted and won were cases brought by Federal prosecutors because the local judicial system can not convict their own, such as x-governor Carl T.C. Gutierrez.
The taxpayers need to know exactly how much money has already been spent on Guam.
The people of Guam need to stop depending on their Uncle Sam for their government officials incompetence.
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