Transcript: ABC’S 'This Week' (1-17-10)

Same guests as Meet the Press. Why?

in reference to:

"TAPPER: This morning, the crisis in Haiti. (on-screen): How frustrating is it for you that supplies are not getting to the people in need? (voice-over): Our guests, President Bush and President Clinton, leading a public appeal for one of the biggest relief efforts in American history. And from the front lines of the recovery, the commander in charge, Lieutenant General Ken Keen, and the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Rajiv Shah. Then... PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear... TAPPER: ... one year later, a first look at a new ABC News- Washington Post poll. And are Democrats about to lose Teddy’s seat? That and the rest of the week’s politics on our roundtable, with George Will, Donna Brazile, Tucker Carlson from the Daily Caller, and Katrina vanden Heuvel from The Nation. ANNOUNCER: From the heart of the nation’s capital, “This Week” with ABC’s senior White House correspondent, Jake Tapper, live from the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: Good morning. By tomorrow, more than 12,000 U.S. military personnel will be helping in a massive relief effort underway in Haiti. Air is pouring in, but getting food, water and medicine to the Haitian people remains a huge challenge, and desperation has begun to lead to violence. Tens of thousands are confirmed dead, but even five days after the earthquake, rescue crews are still pulling people out of the rubble alive. At the White House yesterday, two former presidents met with President Obama and pledged to lead a nationwide effort to raise money to help Haiti recover and rebuild. I spoke with Presidents Bush and Clinton at the White House about their effort. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TAPPER: I want to read you an e-mail I got from a Haitian friend of mine just a few minutes ago, he -- describing the situation on the ground there. He said, “The country is in total chaos. The government is totally non-existent. Law and order no longer exist.” How frustrating is it for you, President Clinton, that the response has been so overwhelming, and yet there is still -- supplies are not getting to the people in need? CLINTON: It’s frustrating, but I think we’re moving on it quickly. I think having the American military, the -- President Preval signed an agreement, worked out an agreement with Hillary yesterday morning to turn the airport over. Now, the -- the military, working with the U.N. forces, they still have structure. We lost a lot of U.N. people. Most of them were non-military. They’re setting up distribution centers to safely distribute food and water, and they’ll be able to have a widespread availability of medical care. And now -- so I think you’ll see it get a lot better in a hurry now. There also was an extraordinary amount of time devoted to trying to digging through those buildings to find people, living and dead. I think as -- as that effort begins to wrap up, you’ll see the distribution of food, medicine, water, and basic care get better. I think the security situation will get better. But people have to understand, not only was the city leveled and others, as well, west. The parliament building was wrecked. The presidential palace was wrecked. There’s -- as of yesterday, we’re still missing parliamentarians, still missing government ministers. I mean, the -- the country, the structure of the country was taken down. And -- and I think the United States has done a good job, and I think the international community has done a good job. The U.N. structure was taken down, biggest loss of life in a single day in human history. So President Bush and I were talking before. People get frustrated by this. But I think if you just -- within two or three days, I think, it will be in much better order."
- CQ Politics | CQ Transcript: ABC’S “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” (view on Google Sidewiki)

Transcript: Meet The Press (1-17-10)

Guests: LT. GEN. P.K. KEEN, DEPUTY COMMANDER, U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND

RAJIV SHAH, USAID ADMINISTRATOR

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

in reference to:

"We want to bring you up to date on all of the developments out of Haiti. It has been five days since the devastating earthquake hit that island nation, the latest estimates from the Haitian government, 50,000 bodies have already been recovered and the death toll is likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000. Our preliminary Red Cross estimate puts the total number of affected people, affected Haitians at 3.5 million. As the focus now moves from rescue operations to the massive task of trying to get food, water and shelter to desperate survivors, all of this as there are increasing reports of looting and intensifying violence. We will hear from former Presidents Bush and Clinton in just a moment on their joint fundraising efforts and how they are committed to a long-term rebuilding effort in this country of so much need. But first, let’s get the very latest this morning on rescue and relief operations and for that we are joined in Port-au-Prince by Lieutenant General Ken Keen, a three-star general who is heading up the U.S. military relief evident on the ground and here in Washington by Dr. Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. Welcome to both of you. Dr. Shah, let me begin with you, you were just in Haiti, just yesterday with Secretary of State Clinton. You had a chance to meet with officials of the government. What is the latest? What is your assessment on the ground there? SHAH: Well, I did have a chance to go to Haiti yesterday and it’s just a reminder of what you articulated, that this has been a tremendous tragedy, that three and a half million people have been affected; perhaps even more. There’s been significant loss of life. And there’s been significant degrading of the basic infrastructure: roads, the airport was inaccessible, the port has been destroyed. And so it’s a challenging, challenging situation. But the president immediately after this happened pulled the cabinet together and ordered a swift, aggressive and comprehensive and coordinated response and that’s what we’ve been in the process of doing. Going to Haiti yesterday was a chance to visit with the brave Americans who are part of that response. GREGORY: How big is this death toll going to be? Do you have any sense of that? SHAH: Well, we have no reason to contradict the numbers that you were articulating and that we’ve all heard. And I think we’ll get a lot more information as we are more active in collecting bodies and as we’re doing more of the recovery and rescue and you know, getting through the buildings and through the debris. GREGORY: You say rescue. Is it still possible to find more people alive? SHAH: Absolutely. This is still an active rescue operation. We -- as the U.S. government we were the first government to send rescue teams on the ground, in fact, a team from Fairfax County, Virginia that I had a chance to meet with were the first ones to reach there. They established a site of operations at the airport and helped coordinate and discharge the responsibilities of almost 30 other teams that came in from around the world. We have more than -- almost 400 Americans actively involved in urban search and rescue, these are teams with real capabilities, with specialized equipment, with lighting. They work overnight and they are really heroes. I had a chance to meet with them yesterday. They saved dozens of people, mostly Haitians and they are very committed and they are actively involved in rescues. GREGORY: General Keen, let me turn to you down in Port-au- Prince. Your priorities: food, water, safe shelter. How’s it going? KEEN: Well sir, we had a very good day yesterday. In getting out, delivering supplies, we delivered over 130,000 rations and 70,000 bottles of water. But that’s just the beginning. We’re going to do better every day."
- CQ Politics | CQ Transcript: NBC’s “Meet the Press” (view on Google Sidewiki)

Video: Face The Nation (1-17-10)

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Elderly Haitians Waiting to Die

This is a failure. If this is the best the world can do I fear for humanity.

in reference to:

"The old lady crawls in the dirt, wailing for her pills. The elderly man lies motionless as rats pick at his overflowing diaper. There is no food, water or medicine for the 85 surviving residents of the Port-au-Prince Municipal Nursing Home, barely a mile from the airport where a massive international aid effort is taking shape. "Help us, help us," 69-year-old Mari-Ange Levee begged Sunday, lying on the ground with a broken leg and ribs. A cluster of flies swarmed the open fracture in her skull. Complete Coverage: Devastation in Haiti Haiti Quake: How You can Help One man has already died, and administrator Jean Emmanuel said more would follow soon unless water and food arrive immediately. "I appeal to anybody to bring us anything, or others won't live until tonight," he said, motioning toward five men and women who were having trouble breathing, a sign that the end was near. The dead man was Joseph Julien, a 70-year-old diabetic who was pulled from the partially collapsed building and passed away Thursday for lack of food. His rotting body lies on a mattress, nearly indistinguishable from the living around him, so skinny and tired they seemed to be simply waiting for death. With six residents killed in the quake, the institution now has 25 men and 60 women camped outside their former home. Some have a mattress in the dirt to lie on. Others don't. Madeleine Dautriche, 75, said some of the residents had pooled their money to buy three packets of pasta, which the dozens of pensioners shared on Thursday, their last meal. Since there was no drinking water, some didn't touch the noodles because they were cooked in gutter water. Dautriche noted that many residents wore diapers that hadn't been changed since the quake. "The problem is, rats are coming to it," she said."
- Elderly Haitians Waiting to Die - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Activist wants to boot out everyone in Congress

The real solution is voter imposed term limits for those that have been in Congress too long. Throwing them all might serve a certain blood lust. But it is impractical. The American support term limits are already in place many states. And, of course, the Presidency is term limited. It is not a panacea. But it is a good first step. And you have the power. Come November vote out every member of the House that has "served" 8 years, or 4 terms. And in the Senate remove those that have been in office 12 years or 2 terms. You can't have limited government without limited terms.

in reference to:

"John Bitter is frustrated with people in Congress and the special interests that seem to bankroll them. His solution: Replace them all with regular citizens. "These guys are not any smarter than you and me," said Bitter, owner of Johnny Burrito's restaurant in uptown Charlotte. "We can run the country."Monday night he expects to be among those at a meeting hosted by GOOOH - "Get Out of Our House" - a group formed to evict all 435 members of the U.S. House. The group, pronounced "Go," is promoted by talk radio and conservative commentators such as Lou Dobbs. Led by Texas businessman Tim Cox, it has captured the attention of people fed up with the system.After Cox appeared recently on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," a spokesman for the group said 80,000 viewers went to GOOOH's Web site.Cox, who plans to be at Monday's GOOOH meeting in Charlotte, said Friday the group has 50,000 supporters on its way to a goal of a half-million."The key reason is we're nonpartisan," he told the Observer. "We have a $12 trillion (debt) and everybody sees the way we're spending the money like a drunken sailor. The people of America of both parties understand this is wrong and we can't sustain it.""
- Activist wants to boot out everyone in Congress | McClatchy (view on Google Sidewiki)

CDC: 1 in 5 Americans vaccinated against swine flu

CDC: 1 in 5 Americans vaccinated against swine flu

Transcript: 'FOX News Sunday' (1-17-10): Clinton, Bush Discuss Haiti

Former Presidents Clinton and Bush appeared on 'FOX News Sunday.' Read the complete transcript:

GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't intend to go any time soon. And I do think it will be -- there will be an appropriate time for the president and I to go down in our capacity as co-heads of the Clinton-Bush fund. But I have no intention of going any time soon.

GARRETT: Bad idea to go down now, sir?

BILL CLINTON, 42ND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I may go in a few days because of my U.N. job. But if I do, I'm going to try to stay out of the way. That is just do the work I have to do to work some things through with the Haitian government and thank people what we're doing, and see what else I'm supposed to do.

But I agree with President Bush that we don't need more people down there now unless they are literally delivering, providing food, water, shelter, medicine, medical care. It's chaos. You've seen it on -- you report it every night and every day.

And all of us should be helping, but the airport, it's all they can do to manage the planes that they have to bring in and out of there. So I think that there are some -- if you have a really good reason to go, you should go, otherwise everybody should stay.

Now in the next -- after the emergency passes, we'll go and we'll go more than once. But we need to let the people get fed.

GARRETT: Picking up on your point, Mr. President, how have you two personally reacted to what you've seen? When did you start seeing it and how have you felt it internally?

BUSH: I've been watching TV from Dallas, Texas, and I feel sick to my stomach. I feel it's really emotional. And that's the way it is for a lot of Americans. And therefore a lot of Americans are going to want to help. And our job is to make sure their help is not squandered, that it is spent properly.

GARRETT: President Clinton, you have a deep historical relationship, personal relationship, how has it affected you personally?

CLINTON: Well, it has been extremely painful because of -- because Hillary and I went down there, you know, in December of 1975 the first time, because I was heavily involved when I was president, because my foundation worked there afterwards, and because of the work I was doing with the U.N. I know a lot of the people who perished in the U.N.

Video: Anderson Cooper: ‘There’s Just Stupid Death Happening’

US official: Violence in Haiti hindering aid work

Although there has remarkable restraint by the Haitian given the calamity, there are elements that must be dealt with. This is why you have to have military on the ground establishing order. The Haitian government has apparently collapsed. Let's not forget that a prison was destroyed with large numbers of prisoners escaping. Many are probably running around terrorizing the population. One rescue worker from the Dominican Republican was shot in the face. I'm amazed that we should still be talking about trying to establish order. That should have been done on day two of the disaster.

in reference to:

"Some incidents of violence in Haiti have hindered rescue workers trying to help earthquake victims, a top official leading the U.S. government's relief efforts said Sunday. Providing humanitarian aid requires a safe and secure environment, said Lt. Gen. Ken Keen of the U.S. Southern Command. While streets have been largely calm, he said, violence has been increasing. "We are going to have to address the situation of security," Keen said. "We've had incidents of violence that impede our ability to support the government of Haiti and answer the challenges that this country faces." Keen said about 1,000 U.S. troops are in Haiti and that 3,000 more are working from ships. More than 12,000 U.S. forces are expected to be in the region by Monday. Fear of looters and robbers has been one of the factors slowing the delivery of aid. After Tuesday's earthquake, maintaining law and order fell to the 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers and international police already in Haiti even though those forces also sustained heavy losses in the disaster. Keen said U.S. forces are working with U.N. peacekeepers and that local police are beginning to assist in providing security."
- US official: Violence in Haiti hindering aid work - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Opposition Groups: Iranian Professor Killed by Arab Hitman

Keep in mind, FOXNews is anti Hezbollah because they are Israel's greatest adversary. And that network has close ties to the neocons. Neocon thinking puts defense of Israel at the top of it's agenda. The article appears in The Sunday Times is owned, along with FOX, by Rupert Murdoch.

in reference to:

"An Iranian university professor killed last week by a blast from a remote-controlled bomb strapped to a parked motorcycle may have been the victim of an Arab hitman, according to opposition groups. The murder of Masoud Ali Mohammadi, 50, a supporter of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader, has been blamed by the Tehran regime on “mercenaries” financed by Israel and Washington because of his role as a nuclear physicist. However, opposition groups who monitor Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese movement, in Tehran, claim that a member of the group, known by his pseudonym “Abu Nasser”, was photographed at the scene of the explosion in Tehran’s affluent Gheytarih suburb. A German-based opposition group released a photograph of a man of similar appearance who, it alleges, was one of the pro-regime demonstrators who stormed Mousavi’s office in Tehran after disputed presidential elections last June. The opposition claims the Revolutionary Guard uses Hezbollah operatives for some bloodthirsty tasks because they have a reputation for ruthlessness, and are outsiders and can always be blamed as opposition sympathisers. Tehran has gone to great lengths to suggest that Mohammadi was killed because he was a nuclear scientist, implying that he was part of Iran’s programme to develop nuclear weapons."
- Opposition Groups: Iranian Professor �Killed by Arab Hitman� - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News - FOXNews.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Saudi billionaire eyes new links with News Corp.

Foreigners own a major news outlet in America. In the case of Rupert Murdoch and FOXNews, they are propaganda arm of the Republican Party.

in reference to:

"The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant, in the latest indication that his appetite for growth remains robust even as his company retrenches. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king and who was listed last year by Forbes as the world's 22nd richest person, met with News Corp.'s chief executive Rupert Murdoch on Jan. 14 in a meeting that "touched upon future potential alliances with News Corp.," according to a statement released by his Kingdom Holding Co. late Saturday. Media reports have indicated that News Corp, parent to Fox News and Dow Jones & Co., among others, may be thinking of buying a stake in Alwaleed's Rotana Media Group, which includes a number of satellite channels that air in the Middle East. Neither company has commented publicly on the possible deal, but the talks offer an indication yet that such an agreement may yet be in the offing. Kingdom Holding's statement said Alwaleed is already the second largest stakeholder in News Corp., with 5.7 percent of the shares of the media company. The stake is held through Kingdom Holding, in which Alwaleed holds a 95 percent stake."
- Latest News | Top Stories | News Articles (view on Google Sidewiki)

Drone attack kills 20 in Pakistan

This is the best best hope for stopping the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen. In fact, the program should be expanded. Despite negative news reports, Predators save lives, including that of American troops.

in reference to:

"A drone attack on a suspected militant compound killed at least 20 in South Waziristan early Sunday morning, Pakistani officials said. The drone fired at least four missiles at the compound in the village of Nizba, a restive tribal area bordering Pakistan, the officials said. It was the third drone strike targeting the Shaktoi region in the past four days. The United States is the only country in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely."
- Drone attack kills 20 in Pakistan - CNN.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Ohio county pays man $1,500 for bat bite

Ohio county pays man $1,500 for bat bite

Report: Conan Agrees to Leave 'Tonight Show'

Report: Conan Agrees to Leave 'Tonight Show'

Food, water coming to earthquake-ravaged Haiti

What is the point of more supplies coming to Haiti if it isn't being distributed. More parachuting has to be done. The politicians are still talking about "aid is on it's way." For thousands it is too late.

in reference to:

"More food, water and relief supplies are on the way to Haiti from the U.S. About 600,000 humanitarian daily rations — basic nutrition packages that provide 2,300 calories — were expected to be at Haiti's airport by Saturday evening, said Tim Callaghan, the White House adviser helping to oversee relief efforts in Haiti. The World Food Program plans to distribute the rations. Callaghan told reporters on a conference call Saturday that water purification units arrived Friday night, and officials hope they will produce up to 300,000 liters of water. More water is coming from the neighboring Dominican Republic. Denis McDonough of the National Security Council said 180 tons of relief supplies had arrived in Haiti, but he didn't know how much had been distributed or where it has gone. "We don't have a good breakdown," he said. A U.S. Navy commander said the focus is on distributing food and other aid. "Coordination is getting better, supplies are getting to people that need it, things will get better over time," Rear Admiral Victor G. Guillory, Navy commander for the U.S. Southern Command, said on a separate conference call. "We will get the data, and I'm sure that's important," Guillory said. "My priority is to ensure that we push supplies out to people that need it.""
- Food, water coming to earthquake-ravaged Haiti - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)