Good morning DeVeria & everyone.

Yesterday morning the first caller on WJ was a Pat Robertson fan, who thought that the Haitians were cursed (when asked why, she mentioned that they went with the French in 1761) and deserved no help and when asked about the WaPoo editorial suggesting that the 30,000 Haitians illegal immigrants in the U.S. should be given leave to try to find jobs in the U.S. to send money home, she said that there weren’t enough jobs for Merkins. Put a pall on my whole day, and still today.

G’morning. Are you serious? The thing is…she doesn’t see anything wrong or totally insane about what she said.

Words fail. She had no idea how appalling her words were, no empathy, no idea how bad it is in Haiti compared to her own circumstances, no matter how bad those might be. And, of course, she considers herself to be a Christian.

Today’s callers are a little bit better. 3 in a row against the U.S. drone assassination program.

Wow…

Morning, and what a good note, DeVeria, did you happen to seee Bob Herbert praising the Haitians at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/16/opinion/16herbert.html?th&emc=th

unfortunately, the wingers are lapping up the message that our poor just don’t know how bad things can be … with the conclusion that staying happy and singing down on the plantation is what we slaves should stick to. And stop voting in our own best interest too.

As long as the U.S. media forces the public to suffer the rantings of fools as legitimate “discourse” you will have to endure the ravings of these lunatics and their true believers. Why is it that only the European press is willing to call an American fool a fool?

My mother endured occupation in Europe during WWII and she says collectively American’s have no idea of what suffering is.

The US military has diverted a drone from Afghanistan to Haiti, where it is being used to do relief surveillance. A much better use of it.

From Juan Cole. Well, I suppose, until the drones start targeting “looters.”

I can believe that. And the U.S. has no idea how the Iraqis and Afghans experience U.S. occupation.

Ya mean that ain’t a picture of a nice family hanging out at the beach?

but do they know how bad it could be? How would it be if we had to experience life like that for 1 week?

Moyers interviewed the author of “Three Cups of Tea” last night. Well worth taking a look at.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html

Recognizing lies as equal to facts is the only way the right can support its own policies, it seems.

And the American media is complicit in spreading lies.

I don’t know but I have heard some ignorant ramblings this week and I’m like ok…these people dont have a clue as to what devastation is..how can they be so cold and heartless?

none whatsoever

” we never know what can happen in a day. “

This Tuesday we could see our own disaster ,Ted Kennedy’s seat could go to a wingnut !!

You know, I’d rather be where it’s as good as it can be, which is what the right wants us to forget.

We’re really watching the depths of human misery, in Haiti. Isn’t it good to see a world of efforts to help.

Hopefully the people of MA will see the abysmal picture that would be.

It’s the sort of crap one expects from robertson but to see his beliefs passed through the general population is more than enough to put a damper on yer day.

Off to meet friends for breakfast….catch up with y’all later.

The people here in Mass are pissed off ,they think our leaders have been pretty tone deaf as far as how bad off some families are

Thanks. I loved that book.

Good Morning DeVeria, everbody.
I hope the relief aid is getting to the people. We don’t know real suffering.

Rep Steve King:
“Illegal immigrants from Haiti have no reason to fear deportation but if they are deported, Haiti is in great need of relief workers and many of them could be a big help to their fellow Haitians.”

How many showed up for Big Dawg?

Tea baggers think thay are making sense…they just need someone they think they can trust to talk them down.

I hope not

The Haitian people are so used to having so little it shouldn’t be hard for them to adjust to having nothing at all/s

Yes and they really need it now.

Have a good one!

No one should have to get used to having nothing at all.

not sure I read a couple of newspaper articles ,but none gave any numbers. I’d like to know myself.
I’m not too happy with our Dems lately ,but I’d sure hate to see a wingnut get that office

Steve King also wanted to eat horses, (legalize slaughterhouses) to balance our economic relations with Europe, his high point of cynicism in my mind.

I’d recommend watching the interview that Bill Moyers had last night with Thomas Frank on the lack of historical/political memory of the American people and the media. The fact that Moyers is leaving PBS is a disaster for American journalism. I hear PBS is replacing his program with a program that was developed by the “think tank” established by George W. Bush.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html

I could not watch the coverage on TV last night ,I tried and could only handle a few minutes. It was awful !
I read an article from CNN this AM , UN staff abandoned a tent hospital leaving only a CNN reporter there , who lucky for the patients just happened to be a doctor.
I wonder how long it’s been since Gupta practiced real medicine?

I’ve been a fan of Moyer’s for some time now , he will be missed

I know how we can help, let’s have a nasty diary post about how horrible it is for Obama to ask W to help with fundraising. . .oh we have one

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/24145

There’s some historian on book-tv who just wrote a book on co-in. He just started his talk, about Malaya insurgency, and he seems to be saying that the key to success at coin is good leaders. Like McChrystal? Like leaders who make shit up out of whole cloth to hide things from the public? Leaders like that?

Agreed. Hopefully somewhere in the present admin there is some one starting out who will get to his plateau.

With the thought that Moyers will be succeeded by a product of the right, I need breakfast just to keep going.

Thanks for the good thoughts, see you all later.

deeply.

found some info
The blog Bluemassgroup reports that about 1500 showed for Clinton’s visit to Boston.
On the other side Guiliani showed up here to help Brown and drew a whopping 50 to 80 followers
I won’t make any conclusions based on that

1500 sounds like a big crowd for Worcester.

Wonder how many were teabaggers?

Boston 1500
no numbers yet for” Wormtown”
And yes 1500 would be a lot

And sociologists, studyiing the group.

Oh, I didn’t know he went to Boston too, but of course that would be on the circuit.

Wormtown pronounced ” Wistah “

My father came from Clinton, MA, close to Wistah, so I’m familiar with the talk.

Probably more sociologists than baggers.

Speaking of PUAC, anyone heard from Christy recently?

Obama needed someone to declare victory next month.

no and saying that I’m going to email her now.

George is there for the “Mission Accomplished” photo-ops. Whether he has access to rich wallets is kind of irrelevant. The entire world despises this man. What was Obama thinking?

Excellent. Give her all our loves.

Gotta go .
Just let the cat out , felt the warm sun on my face.
Gotta get out there and enjoy ,snow coming tomorrow !

See you all later !

Ps made a small donation for Haitian relief,hope you all can too. They have NOTHING !

Gotta tell you , when I open FDL there’s your post , right on top , covered up by an advertisement from wallmart such that it can’t be read unless you vote on their survey .

Talk about aggressive advertising .

We are all trying to figure that out.

Will do!

Have a good one! I’m gonna hit the streets today too.

Haiti’s problems and those of much of the rest of the third world put American consumerism in a truly bad light . Our national defence , upon which we shower virtually as much as the entire planet annually , decade after decade , is an obscenity in the face of such hardship and poverty .

We overthrew Aristide ,a democratically elected president who filled the shoes of people we did actually support , such as the Duvaliers in their Banana republic as such countries were called after the US and the brothers Dulles ( United Fruit/CIA ) bombed Quatamala and disposed of it’s government only months before the Cuban revolution .

We owe these people !

Oh and for the record on 911 1973 the US overthrew the democratically elected government of Chile .
http://freelightnow.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-things-change.html

Life is like a box of Candy Some bits can be bitter, others so, so and most are just delicious! It can last and last and disappear so fast all at the same time. Alas no matter how hard you try it will come to an end. So enjoy every bit of it.

OT, the HP is infected with a virus of trolls.

but, but, but Allende was a “socialist.” Now Americans can’t have that can they?

I noticed that this morning too . Funny because the outrage of actual democratic voters and progressives as opposed to repubican posters is doing more damage to the party establishment than the bogus comments made by the trollies .

Absolutely not ! Now here have a grape .

Mornin’, DeVeria, pups

Between 6am and 6pm yesterday WMNF raised $95K from listeners for Haitian relief. They’re soft-pitching to reach $100K by Monday. Doesn’t quite reach the $132K we raised in 14 hours for Katrina relief but times be a little harder 5 years later. The station is eating the credit/debit card transfer fees so all the dust goes to the 4 orgs they chose.

I think they were sent by think progress on the recommendations of Cass Sunstein .
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/15/sunstein/index.html

Gupta is a practicing physician, I’ve seen him pitch in while reporting from Afghanistan and elsewhere. Walks the walk.

A medical team from Fargo was in Haiti when the quake hit, they’re all okay…and busy.

Medical teams, service groups, volunteer church groups, these people from all over the country have been doing work in Haiti for years–but the need was so vast even before the quake. Just goes to show that there are, oh yes there are, Grover, things that governments do best…and must be able to do. Rather than drowned in a bathtub by your crony economic vampires.

Happy Saturday!

I just got an email from OFA asking for money to preserve “Teddy Kennedy’s seat”. I hate to be curmudgeonly, but I have to agree that it’s not Teddy’s seat but the People’s seat.

At any rate, I took the opportunity to unsubscribe from the OFA mailing list. If everyone responded similarly, it might send a message to someone. Then again, I don’t think there’s anyone in Obamaland paying any attention to the little people, since we’re not sending big bucks anywhere except Haiti at the moment…

G’morning. That’s good to know.

Wisdom or witlessness in sending dubyuh to do anything at all? It does make one ponder briefly.

Normally, I don’t waste as much time or effort on what might have been, as I do trying to figure out how to cope with what life has actually served up on our collective plates.

But now, with the scrambled, hellish mess dubya’s reign has served up in the way of an !in-your-face-sucker! taunt to the rest of the world, it is terribly hard not to allow the spirit and the will to sag with the sheer weight of it all. Sometimes I come uncomfortably close to despair over what might have been, what could have been, if only…

To be brutally honest, a more tortured part of my soul receives a small, shameful and justifiably painful blow of perverse satisfaction from having the enormity of the wanton waste and desperate need, and our diminished capacity to help the needy…, having all that thrown smack in dubya’s face – up close and personal.

Do ya think he’ll “get it”? How much do we care, and why should we bother?

Well. That’s already too much of a pity party from this corner. We have work to do. It’s crazy to waste precious time staring at that hopeless, hapless man-child when we have real work to do. Will you hand the boy that extra broom, or should I? I’ll take that double-wide swath in the corner.

*sigh*

What a horrible tragedy. I mean the earthquakes toll taken, and also some of the BS I’ve heard from tragically ignorant and heartless people on tv.
Yesterday I rescued a stray dog. I’m going out today to see if I can’t find his family. He’s well groomed but no collar.
Trying to help where I can. The enormity of the recovery in Haitii just has me feeling a little helpless.

link hands. it helps.

but then you knew that.

nice to see you demi. that stray is fortunate to have found you. ;->

W rode through New Orleans after Katrina. New Orleans still needs help.

(Reaching out my hands to you, Adie.)
I’m hoping this is a temporary, foster situation, but one never knows, do one?
I didn’t even get mad at him when I discovered some very runny presents on the livingroom carpet in the middle of the night.
When it was bedtime, I had both dogs on the bed with me and I was reading out loud to them from the book on wolves I’m currently reading. Should have taken a photo. :)

we get to go wallow in some beautiful Mozart served up by sonny and some friends tonight. we’re spoiled. i think i’d better take extra tissues in my pocket. and a jar of homemade granola for his breakfast. ;->

oh Adie! you are spoiled indeed, nothing like a little Mozart to share with the family.

beautiful mind-picture. thanks. needed that.

Sounds wonderful. I’m sure you might need that hankie. I would.

WE know. We must never forget, and never stop trying to help. dubya is irrelevant, utterly and completely. His crew spent more time worrying about how to set up his stage lights for the photo op than they did on the whole sorry “rescue” effort… to this day… and counting…

I wouldn’t trust that % to walk my dawg, and i don’t even have a dog…

We know how those types treat their dogs. Remember Romney?

omg! i’d forgotten! You scoundrel. aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhh.

LBJ seems almost sweet in comparison with his tug-eared beagle.

Let’s just all hope this isn’t like the tsunami relief during Bush’s term. You know, where millions upon millions was donated, and little went to the actual cause? But it did make it into motel chain hands to rebuild their prestigious luxury motels! And the rest was caught up in the bank accounts of the administrations that beg for the cash (like Red Cross). People help with their wallets, and these aid groups smile and wave.