Hitting bottom at the top – White House forgets to lead on Haiti

People are dying in Haiti because they can’t get out, Dr. Green said. Shala Dewan, New York Times, January 29

Many of us wanted to think that the dreadful behavior during the Bush administration was some sort of aberration. We had a relatively clean election and ended up with a more intelligent and compassionate president who would reflect our views. There would be no more foreign invasions (wrong); we’d take care of the people before the Wall Street failures (wrong); and there would be no more Katrinas, without any doubt!

MIAMI — The United States has suspended its medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims until a dispute over who will pay for their care is settled, military officials said Friday. NYT

Why are “military officials” saying anything in a situation where the lives of people are involved and the reputation of the United States is on the line. Where’s the White House?

How could the White House allow this to happen? It gets worse.

The military flights, usually C-130s carrying Haitians with spinal cord injuries, burns and other serious wounds, ended on Wednesday after Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida formally asked the federal government to shoulder some of the cost of the care.Hospitals in Florida have treated more than 500 earthquake victims so far, the military said, including an infant who was pulled out of the rubble with a fractured skull and ribs. Other states have taken patients, too, and those flights have been suspended as well, the officials said. NYT

So it’s not just Florida but “other states” who are rejecting victims due to issues of cost, presumably. Who is in charge here or, more to the point, who’s on first? This betrays a lack of any coordination by federal authorities.

In the case of Florida, failing to deal in reality is troubling. Florida Governor Charlie Crist is not at all typical of Republican’s in the southeast. He’s bright, well spoken, and well liked. He did one thing no other govern or has done when he delivered on a campaign promise to stop the automatic disenfranchisement of ex felons after they left prison. If he’s frustrated enough to stop receiving patients in Florida, somebody had to have screwed up, royally. This is not his inclination.

But here’s a hint as to what’s going on. There’s no coordinated leadership.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said the decision to suspend the flights was made by the military, not the federal health department. A military spokesman said that the military had ended the flights because hospitals were becoming unwilling to take patients. NYT

Katrina, meet Haiti. You may have more in common than you know.

I had an uneasy feeling when I read early on that the Port-au-Prince airport had been shut down to allow Secretary of State Clinton to land. That was a crude and stupid move on Clinton’s part but, I though, maybe that will be the exception. You can always count on going wrong when you give anyone in this or the last White House or Congress the benefit of the doubt. When you need help, that’s when the incompetence and indifference becomes deadly.

Unsurprising Poll Results from Massachusetts: Voters Think Obama Sides With the Banks

From The Agonist

An interesting observation was made today by the pollster for Martha Coakley, the hapless Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts senate seat held almost forever by Ted Kennedy. It appears polls are showing that the voters, especially independents who would normally vote Democratic in a liberal blue state like Massachusetts, have instead run to support the Republican candidate as the agent of change. Wasn’t that supposed to be Barack Obama’s signature tune?

Mel Gibson on “The Edge of Darkness”

Michael Collins

(Also published at The Agonist)

Edge of Darkness is worth seeing for Gibson’s performance and the eerily realistic and supremely vile basis of the plot. Unfortunately, the film narrative is like the  old “Highway Patrol” series with Broderick Crawford, linear and  mundane.

It seems Gibson is destined for themes concerning death. Hero of democracy, William Wallace, was drawn and quartered at the end of Braveheart. Apocalypto showed the extraordinary efforts that a father would take to protect his wife and child in the midst of relentless violence.

It’s the “New Haiti!”

Michel Collins

The appointment of former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as key players in Haitian relief should cause the people of Haiti grave concern, if they weren’t otherwise preoccupied with survival. These former presidents’ records as pro-life advocates on the international scene is tarnished by real world outcomes.

During his eight years as president, Clinton was responsible for sanctions on Iraq that resulted in the deaths of 170,000 children under five. Former President George W. Bush exceeded that death toll by invading Iraq.   That  caused civil chaos and conflict among Iraqis leading to the deaths of over one million citizens in that tragic nation. When you see these two coming, their record speaks for itself.  (Image)

What will happen in Haiti? What can the citizens of that nation expect? It’s instructive to look at the post Katrina rescue effort with a focus on New Orleans as a prototype.

The Big Mass Loss: Voters think Obama sides with the banks

“Massachusetts voters have given up on President Obama as an agent for anything but the status quo, and this is most evident in his willingness to dole out trillions of dollars in direct and indirect support to the banks. The Massachusetts polls show this issue to be foremost on the minds of the voters.” Numerian

Michael Collins

The article exerpted below is the first and may end up being the best analysis of the Massachusetts disaster, the loss of the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate.  The “all knowing” pundits have already tagged this as some sort of revolt against President Obama’s health care legislation or a sea change in United States politics.  But there are a few facts that point to the likely cause of the defeat.  Financial commentator Numerian laid it out out very clearly at the start of his analysis:

“An interesting observation was made today by the pollster for Martha Coakley, the hapless Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts senate seat held almost forever by Ted Kennedy. It appears polls are showing that the voters, especially independents who would normally vote Democratic in a liberal blue state like Massachusetts, have instead run to support the Republican candidate as the agent of change. Wasn’t that supposed to be Barack Obama’s signature tune?

Unsurprising Poll Results from Massachusetts: Voters Think Obama Sides With the Banks

By Numerian

An interesting observation was made today by the pollster for Martha Coakley, the hapless Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts senate seat held almost forever by Ted Kennedy. It appears polls are showing that the voters, especially independents who would normally vote Democratic in a liberal blue state like Massachusetts, have instead run to support the Republican candidate as the agent of change. Wasn’t that supposed to be Barack Obama’s signature tune?

Massachusetts voters have given up on President Obama as an agent for anything but the status quo, and this is most evident in his willingness to dole out trillions of dollars in direct and indirect support to the banks. The Massachusetts polls show this issue to be foremost on the minds of the voters.

Tea Party Becomes the ‘Vote Our Way or We Shoot You’ Party

Posted by Devilstower , Daily Kos at 10:26 AM on January 15, 2010.

“We can go to the soap box, the ballot box, or we can go to the jury box. And hopefully we won’t have to go to the bullet box.”

Hey, the Tea Party “movement” isn’t about violence, or racism, or any of that stuff. It’s about calling the health care bill Nazi-inspired and reminding people that Barack Obama is an Indonesian Muslim. Oh, and remember to vote our way or we shoot you.

On-Point Host, Tom Ashbrook: Joining us from Royal Oak, Michigan, is Jeffrey McQueen, founder of USRevolution2.com, which has created a modified American flag to serve as a symbol for the Tea Party movement. He has been protesting government involvement in the auto industry at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week.

…

Ashbrook: if the Tea Party works out for you, to your vision, what will we see in ten years?

McQueen: Well I hope across America no politician will travel this country without seeing this flag so they’re reminded of who they work for.

Ashbrook: How about the American flag? That’s not good enough? You know, the stars and stripes?

McQueen: This flag has never been meant to replace the national flag. This flag has a specific purpose and it’s time has come. To show the politicians and the media that we’re ready for a second American revolution. And with that, you know, in America we have a choice of four boxes for political change. We can go to the soap box, the ballot box, or we can go to the jury box. And hopefully we won’t have to go to the bullet box.

Ashbrook: Bullet box? Are you talking about armed revolution?

McQueen: Have you seen the ammunition sales the last twelve months?

So remember, folks, health care for the poor? That’s Nazi BS! True American heroes take up arms to overthrow democratic elections. Got it?

And of course, this isn’t the first time that conservatives have raised the idea of using the bullet box to undo the results of those pesky elections.

Catherine Crabill, a Republican nominee for Virginia House of Delegates: We have a chance to fight this battle at the ballot box before we have to resort to the bullet box. I am glad for all of us who enjoy the use of firearms for hunting, but make no mistake, that was not the intent of the Founding Fathers. Our second amendment right was to guard against tyranny.

So vote conservative and all is well. Screw it up at the ballot box, and that’ll have to get rec-t-fied by my leetle friend here. Got it?

*******

Yemen on Lather, Rince, Repeat Cycle

By Ahsan at the Five Rupees Blog

The security-policymaking community in the U.S. works in very predictable ways. Any time a country no one in the U.S. is really familiar with comes up in the news due to some plausible connection to organized terrorism, the following things happen:

1. There is indignation and disgust directed at the government du jour. Government du jour, you see, has been concentrating on Country X With Lots Of Brown People for the longest time, but what it has missed is that Country Y — which, incidentally, also has Lots Of Brown People — is also crucial to the war on terrorism.

2. People who have no idea about Country Y With Lots Of Brown People suddenly feel the need to opine on it. This, by the way, is the most entertaining step — as long as you’re not from Country Y With Lots Of Brown People. Nothing is funnier than watching an entire industry of pundits, writers, op-edders, think tankers, cable news invitees, foreign policy “experts” and bloggers pretend to know what the fuck they’re talking about.

Of course, if you happen to be from Country Y With Lots Of Brown People, you begin to get worried, because any time the American punditocracy starts talking about you, only bad things happen. This is why I cried myself hoarse during the Pakistan hysteria in the middle of last year, and why I am thoroughly enjoying the Yemen hysteria now.

Posted by Ahsan at 1:18 AM

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“Conspiracy or cock up?” White House reaction to ersatz bomber

Michael Collins

Also posted here and here

The underpants bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is a curious terrorist.  He became disillusioned with his privileged life as the son of a bank chairman and member of the Nigerian elite, it would seem.  Rather than pursuing his studies in London, he retreated to Yemen to learn the ways of al Qaeda inspired terrorism.

Farouk was so indiscreet that his father reported him to the U.S. Embassy as a potential terrorist in November.   A month later, he managed to get on a jumbo jet headed for Detroit to complete a terror mission.   Despite his training in engineering at the prestigious London School of Economics, Farouk failed in his mission.  He couldn’t  mix his explosives to achieve the desired effect.  He apparently forgot to detonate the explosive device in mid flight, waiting until just before landing in Detroit to start his task.  He retrieved and set off the chemicals to create the explosion in full view of passengers.

What kind of terrorist is this?  He doesn’t know when, how or where to conduct his criminal enterprise.

Is this the best al Qaeda can do?

Is this the justification to for a media manufactured scare-a-thon about the danger Farouk poses to our “freedoms?”

Or is this guy some sort of ringer in yet another moronic master plan ?

Joe Klein’s Fatuous Fantasy

Michael Collins

Also published here and here.

Time Magazine’s Joe Klein is having an allergic reaction to free speech and public debate. The title of his latest column says it all:   The Left’s Idiocy on Health Reform. It’s an ex cathedra pronouncement from a made man at one of the nation’s oldest media properties.

What’s got Joe so worked up?

Two things. He’s upset at the lack of respect that internet based writers show for the mainstream media and Washington insiders. He’s also beside himself that people are actually finding fault with the health care reform bill which many bloggers have the nerve to describe as just another government bailout for big business.

In the snarkier precincts of the left-wing blogosphere, mainstream journalists like me are often called villagers. Joe Klein, Dec. 30

That’s some pretty nasty name calling isn’t it. “Hey villager!” Accusing an entire class of people of idiocy pales by comparison.  If I’ve ever read the term villager, I didn’t pay enough attention to remember it.   But let’s take Joe’s word that it’s out there in all its rhetorical glory. According to Klein, leftist bloggers see villagers as “regurgitating spin spoon-fed by our sources or conjuring a witless conventional wisdom that has nothing to do with reality as it is lived outside the village.” Now there’s some idiocy – from Joe’s keyboard to our screens.

What Joe is doing at the start is an old trick called setting up a straw man. You create the perceived problem on your own but label it as your opponent’s position.   You tailor it for your purposes with a little accuracy added for effect. Then you blast the straw man to smithereens in a self righteous rejoinder. Those who fabricate a straw man are essentially talking to themselves. The straw man fallacy is one of the first taught in logic classes because it is so easy to spot and so far afield from any form of serious dialog.