This CNN video exposes the shocking scandal which is the failure to get aid to Haiti's sick and dying.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Video: Amputees in Haiti get only Motrin
Video: "Breaking the bottleneck of aid to Haiti"
Brian Williams (NBC) report asks why the delay in getting aid to the people of Haiti.
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Jet diverts to Philly over teen passenger's prayer
This is ridiculous. Obviously everybody is jumpy and irrational. It shows how little logic is involved in defending flyers. This nonsense happens so that someone in authority can claim something is being done to prevent terrorism on planes. When in fact it's just a pathetic charade. Does anyone really believe that we are safer because anything remotely resembling terrorism is pounced on? But non of this really gets at the heart of the problem. Until we address the root cause of terrorism we're no closer to be safe.
in reference to:"A Jewish teenager trying to pray on a New York-to-Kentucky flight caused a scare Thursday when he pulled out a set of small boxes containing holy scrolls, leading the captain to divert the flight to Philadelphia, where the commuter plane was greeted by police, bomb-sniffing dogs and federal agents. The 17-year-old on US Airways Express Flight 3079 was using tefillin, a set of small boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps, Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore said. When used in prayer, one box is strapped to the arm while the other box is placed on the head. "It's something that the average person is not going to see very often, if ever," FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver said. The teen explained the ritual after being questioned by crew members of the flight, which had left LaGuardia Airport around 7:30 a.m. headed for Louisville and was operated by Chautauqua Airlines, authorities said. Officials with the airline, however, said crew members "did not receive a clear response" when they talked with the teen, according to a statement issued by Republic Airways, which owns Chautauqua. "Therefore, in the interest of everyone's safety, the crew decided to land in Philadelphia, where a more complete investigation and follow-up with authorities would be possible," the statement said."
- Jet diverts to Philly over teen passenger's prayer - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)
Latest tea party target: Its own convention
This is grassroots?
in reference to:"The convention is being held at a fancy resort, features $550 ticket prices, a steak and lobster dinner and a guest speaker with a $100,000 speaking fee. It’s sponsored by a for-profit company with a mysterious wealthy benefactor, and its organizers, who have been accused of secrecy and corruption, have threatened lawsuits against dissenters and clamped down on news coverage. Sounds like just the kind of thing that tea party activists, whose populist outrage is directed at the Washington and Wall Street establishments, would be up in arms over. Except it’s a tea party convention. Billed as a pivot point to transition the tea party movement from a chaotic uprising to an organized and sustainable political force and featuring Sarah Palin as its star attraction, the first-ever convention in Nashville from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8 is insead shaping up as a reminder of the problems inherent in holding together a fractious coalition of local groups resistant to authority and pursuing often-conflicting agendas. Red State blogger Erick Erickson made it clear recently what he thinks of the coming event — pronouncing that it “smells scammy” and is inconsistent with the grass-roots energy behind the tea party movement."
- Latest tea party target: Its own convention - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)
Cindy McCain comes out for gay marriage, poses for anti-Prop 8 ad
I smell rat here. I cannot believe John McCain's wife would be coming out for gay marriage without a wink and nod from her husband. This is a way for the Senator from Arizona to have it both ways. He has plausible deniability by shrugging his shoulders and then seeming like a liberal by saying he respects his wife's views. At the same time can insist that he is still against gay marriage. No one would blame the Senator. These people are that cynical. And McCain is the quintessential sneaky politician.
in reference to:"Throughout his career, Sen. John McCain has been a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage. He opposed it during his 2008 presidential campaign and was vocal in his support for California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. His family, however, is increasingly on the other side of this hot-button issue. McCain's daughter Meghan distanced herself from her father's stance last summer when she posed for an ad for NOH8, a gay rights campaign seeking to defeat Prop 8. Now his wife Cindy is joining in the effort and is also appearing in an ad for NOH8."
- Cindy McCain comes out for gay marriage, poses for anti-Prop 8 ad - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)
High Court Eases Campaign Spending Limits
The supreme court has just dealt our democracy a death blow. America now officially belongs to the corporations.
in reference to:"A major ruling Thursday by the U.S. Supreme Court could change how presidential and congressional elections are funded, possibly opening the floodgates of money from corporations, unions and other groups. The ruling is a blow to activists who have tried to limit the role of special interests in American politics. By a 5-4 vote, the court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states. It leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions. Critics of the stricter limits have argued that they amount to an unconstitutional restraint of free speech, and the court majority agreed. "The censorship we now confront is vast in its reach," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his majority opinion, joined by his four more conservative colleagues. Strongly disagreeing, Justice John Paul Stevens said in his dissent, "The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation." Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor joined Stevens' dissent, parts of which he read aloud in the courtroom. The justices also struck down part of the landmark McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that barred union- and corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns. Advocates of strong campaign finance regulations have predicted that a court ruling against the limits would lead to a flood of corporate and union money in federal campaigns as early as November's congressional elections. The decision removes limits on independent expenditures that are not coordinated with candidates' campaigns."
- High Court Eases Campaign Spending Limits - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)
Transcript: Anderson Cooper: People are Dying Unnecessarily in Haiti (1-20-10)
Let me be the first to say (and I've saying it for days) the performance of the U.S. government, and UN, in Haiti is as bad or worse than Katrina. This is an outrage. It's a scandal. Read the complete transcript of Anderson Cooper's report from Haiti. He has been heroic in his reporting. He has denounced the failure to save lives, and does so nightly. Where are the other reporters exposing shocking failure to get aid to the people of Haiti:
COOPER: There have been multiple aftershocks since the earthquake hit, the strongest one hit early this morning as you probably heard; a magnitude 5.9. At the time we thought -- heard initially it was a 6.1, but it was a 5.9. There was panic in the street; there was a lot -- this sort of a surreal wail goes up, people screaming, running away from buildings.
There's a lot of fear here in this city about, you know, what's going to be -- javascript:void(0)what's going to happen and is another big earthquake going to come? So today was a real shock for a lot of people.
At General Hospital which is not too far from where we are right now, close to the presidential palace, there was an evacuation. They actually got all the patients out, moved them out of the building, they were afraid the building might collapse. They then had the structural engineers coming to look at the building and it was okay. But all of the patients were out there for much of the day under the hot Haitian sun.
The Red Cross had put up two tents but they didn't have any more tents, just two, they couldn't fit all the patients under it. It was really a surreal scene. And doctors there wanted us to come and look at the supply situation and why they are having such -- so many supply problems.
This morning, in fact, they couldn't have surgeries because they didn't have any surgical gloves. Take a look.
...COOPER (voice-over): In the courtyard of General Hospital, the sick, the injured sit in the sun and wait. After the earthquake this morning, the patients were brought here. The hospital building is fine but it will be hours before they can be moved back in. It is hot, it is humid, the patients are quickly getting dehydrated.
...DR. E. BENJAMIN, GENERAL HOSPITAL: We need everything needed for amputation, for sleeping pills, for post-op patient following infected-type of surgery, antibiotics, medication to put people to sleep, to resuscitate them and so on.
(voice-over): Haitian-American doctors and nurses and EMTs from the New York area arrived here Monday. They are stunned by the lack of supplies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have oxygen that I've been looking for the last two hours. I finally found this bag there and a gauge for my tank bag. I can't even find either a (INAUDIBLE) or a cannula and that woman is dying back there for oxygen.
DR. MARNELL MOORE, PODIATRIST, NEW JERSEY: We don't have enough supply. We tell you, you just have a below-the-knee amputation. You know what we are giving the patient for pain medication? Motrin.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Motrin we're giving them, with bilateral amputation.
COOPER: Wait. So somebody who's just had an amputation, the only thing you are able to give them is Motrin?.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But all you have is Motrin?
(voice-over): The hours are long and the patients keep coming. Medical teams are under great stress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have had enough, okay? I have had enough.
COOPER: There are people here from all over the world trying to help but with supplies so low, they feel they can't do their jobs.
DR. DAVID GRISWELL, VIRGINIA HOSPITAL CENTER: We have been here now several days working and all these medical supplies and other equipment are sitting there at the tarmac at the airport and they are not moving out.
No one has fed these patients now in four days. Some of these people have not eaten in four days.
I just went up to the OR. They are working five cases in the same room. There's no electricity there. I don't know why somebody can't hook up a power generator so they can start giving anesthesia to these people.
Transcript: Obama Interview with George Stephanopoulos (1-20-10)
Read the complete transcript of President Obama's interview by ABC's George Stephanopoulos:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Robert Gibbs was saying that you were surprised and frustrated by the vote. Is that accurate?
OBAMA: Well, I think not last night, but certainly I think a lot of us were surprised about where this was going, about a week ago.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you saw it coming by then?
OBAMA: By that time, we did. And here's my assessment of not just the vote in Massachusetts, but the mood around the country.
The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office.
People are angry, and they're frustrated. Not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years.
You've got really hard-working folks all across the country, who have seen their wages flat line and their incomes flat line.
They feel more secure than ever. Then suddenly you've got this bank crisis in which their 401Ks are evaporating, their home values -- their single-biggest investment -- is collapsing.
And here in Washington -- from their perspective -- the only thing that happens is that we bail out the banks.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're in charge, now.
OBAMA: No -- well -- absolutely. No, keep in mind the point that I'm making here.
It was the right thing to do for us to salvage the financial system, and I make no apologies for that, at all. But we knew at the time how politically toxic that was.
What it gave people a sense of is, "We're spending all this money, but I'm not getting any help."
And, "Gosh -- I wanted Obama to come in there to start making sure that I was getting help; not the big special-interest and the institutions."
Now if I tell them, "Well, it turns out that we will actually have gotten TARP paid back and that we're going to make sure that a fee's imposed on the big banks, so that this thing will cost taxpayers not a dime," that's helpful. But it doesn't eliminate the sense that their voices aren't heard, and that institutions are betraying them.
And I think that's been expressing itself all year. And they've gotten increasingly frustrated over the course of the year.
So I take complete responsibility for the fact that -- A -- we had to salvage a financial system that could have made things much worse. We had to take the steps that we did at the beginning of the year, in order to stabilize the economy.
And I am actually glad to see that the economy's now growing again, and we have the prospect of a much better economy in 2010. But that doesn't negate the anger and the frustration that people are feeling.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But a lot of the Republicans say that the anger goes beyond the bailout. The financial bailout.
I was talking to Michael Steele this morning -- the Republican National Committee Chair. He says it's repudiation of your entire agenda.
OBAMA: Well, I think if he's suggesting the people voted against credit-card reform, so that credit card companies can't take advantage of people, or prevention of housing fraud reform, or that they were voting against national service, or they were voting against the 4 million children who have health insurance now because of the steps that we've taken... I don't think that's a plausible point.
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