Bill O Is In Charge Of Haitian Rescue Efforts?
Posted on January 21st, 2010 by D. Aristophanes
Is there a bigger douche than Bill O’Reilly? Watch how he handles this interview with frantic parents of a missing child in Haiti:
This should be an object lesson in how not to talk to people in the midst of a personal crisis.
Is there a bigger douche than Bill O’Reilly?
Sadly, No.
I can’t listen. Is there a shorter I can trust?
I was with you until the imprecation to “watch.” I mean, what’s the fucking point, Meat-man?
I think you mean “Hatin’ Rescue Efforts.”
At work = no video. Transcript?
If you can’t listen to it, here’s the gist:
O’Reilly alternately chides these people — who, remember, are experiencing what will undoubtedly be most awful emotional period of their lives — and basically demands they kiss his ring so that he might put the wheels in motion to step up rescue efforts of their daughter. They’re clearly not thinking straight, and who would expect them to be, while he sits there openly demanding that they be reasonable about all this, as if it was one of his usual stupid debates about the ‘War on Christmas’ or something, and that there is some other thing they would ever want to hear at this moment in time besides ‘We found your daughter.’
Say what you will about Oprah, but she probably would have handled this better.
He’s not really human, of course, merely a knock-off simulacrum.
Addendum to D. Aristophanes; the viewers also assert that U.S. military personnel on the island has been less than helpful in helping them, and Bill reacts with a nicer version of “don’t you dare blame our troops.” And wraps it up by saying “if you’d come to me sooner, maybe…”
What’s really depressing is that they seem to place quite a bit of faith in him (especially with the “thank you Bill, God bless you” at the end). When he so clearly doesn’t give a damn. Oy.
Anal cancer would be all confused if it encountered Bill-O. Where to start?
People are props to be used in the creation of a reality that only exists in television and radio studios. Emotions are for the weak, to be manipulated to create controversy and outrage in the furtherance of increased ratings. Cynicism is the cornerstone of my success.
And wraps it up by saying “if you’d come to me sooner, maybe…”
That was the bit that really got me. WTF, is O’Reilly the Godfather or something? And then the guy kisses his ring in gratitude for his condescention.
And since WP is a bitch and won’t post this in the last thread, a response to St. Trotsky’s response to me:
You just sit there, relax, take a load off. Heck, if you really must feed the politics bug, go stump for a third-party candidate, maybe even vote for them when the time comes.
St. Trotsky, if I recall correctly, I’ve got about 20 years on you.
Let me tell you how those 20 years have been spent:
2 years running non-profit charitable organizations, which help the people who can’t get help otherwise because no one who holds office gives enough of a shit to step up to the plate and help them.
6 years lobbying the state legislature on behalf of good government and citizen interest groups, where typically the odds were me vs. 25 Farm Bureau/utility/fundamentalist preachers lobbying on the other side.
2 years as a professional consultant and fundraiser for Democratic candidates, including one who is retiring this year after having spent a 14-year term in Congress, during which time he never introduced or co-sponsored a single piece of legislation.
10 years on the board of Common Cause, including 4 years as the state chair.
Hours and dollars too numerous to count volunteering my time and meager financial resources to supporting Democratic candidates and “causes”.
My payoff for all those years, all that effort, and all those contributions? A bunch of whiny assed crybabies bleating about how even though they control all the branches of government and have been saying for years that they’ll deliver on health care reform, they just can’t do it because they lost one seat in an election that reduced their majority from 20 seats to 18 seats.
Meanwhile, here I sit without health insurance.
So yeah, I’m just a lazy-ass who expects everyone else to get the job done for me and I’m being unrealistic in expecting the people I’ve worked my ass off for the past 20 years to actually do what they have been saying that entire time they would do if ever given the chance, never realizing that “given the chance” = every seat in government, because they’re such hothouse flowers that any criticism or setback, no matter how small, prevents them from accomplishing a damn thing even though they’d REALLY, REALLY like to get it done. And who have admitted, in print, in a public pres release, that they just aren’t going to be able to do ANYTHING, as much as they’d like to, because well, it’s just so HARD.
So I’m really unfazed by your suggestion, and the suggestion of others, that if I just keep supporting them, things will get better. Because they announced publically yesterday that no, they won’t, because they don’t think it’s worth the effort to make them better.
And I’M the fool for taking them at their word when they say that working for them, giving them money, and voting for them is a complete waste of time, money, and effort?
There’s an old saying about throwing good money after bad. I’ll add to that: if you like to win, it’s generally a bad idea to bet on the team that pledges to do everything they can with every opportunity they are given to lose.
Maybe after you’ve put in 20 years you’ll see where I’m coming from. Maybe you won’t. But I can predict this: if you put in the time and effort I have over that time, only to be told at the end of it, when you think your efforts have finally paid off and some things will get marginally better as a result, that no, no they aren’t going to get better because even under the most optimal circumstances, it’s too HARD to do the right thing…you really will not appreciate it when others suggest that you’re giving up the ghost because you’re lazy or a believer in magical ponies. Particularly when they have no idea what your past or present circumstances are.
The free market will find your daughter.
He promised to keep the military on scene til the white women are found. And I’m sure he will tell his staff to make a few calls to DoD and the Hill. You know, it’s kind of like a death panel for the Haitians.
The free market will find your daughter.
Heh!
Oh, BTW – Glenn Bleccch done maded a DOKUMENTARY in which he proves that the Left controls history ’cause we hid the seekrit facts of G.B. Shaw’s racism and eugenics and Helen Keller being a socialist and the Fabian Society and all that there.
Mind you, this is a guy who ten minutes before admitted he knew jack-shit about the stock market yet gave out investment advice anyway (short answer- BUY GOLD! ’cause the dollar is gonna collapse and the Red chinee are plotting our downfall and our precious bodily fluids are sapped by Leftists and all that.). And thinks the fasce on the dime is a sign that FDR was a Nazi. So you gotta take that into account.
Sadly, I think there’s reports of children being bought and sold.
Sadly, I think there’s reports of children being rounded up for sale
oops
What, no chastising the parents for being emotional on live television for all to see?
/troll
And wraps it up by saying “if you’d come to me sooner, maybe…”
Please tell me you made that up. Please.
Between this (not Not-Billo’s double post, but rather O’Reilly’s imperial evil) and the SCOTUS decision to cut Americans out of the campaign process in favor of corporate money, it’s shaping up to be a beautiful day. Pass the Sterno.
Oh, BTW – Glenn Bleccch done maded a DOKUMENTARY in which he proves that the Left controls history
The Left is also pissed at Obama and are totally going to assassinate him if he moves to the center, according to Beck.
You know, Second Non-Lester, we’re kinda at that point where we should just get on with trying to enjoy the time we have left, and stand aside and marvel at the progress of the rot. This country can’t govern itself and needs to be put out of its misery.
T&U – well, if by that he means politically assissinate, it would be one of the very rare times that Beck was right.
I’m done with the lot of them.
Please tell me you made that up. Please.
Not made up. Bill-O is in rare form in this clip, both signaling aggressive contempt for a couple of people at their most vulnerable and puffing out his chest with delusions of grandeur.
Has anyone checked this couple’s kitchen to see what kind of counters they ha – um, had?
Who the fuck is going to go to Billo for emotional support, anyway? That’s like calling Glenn Blecch for investment advice.
All BillO has to do is make some calls, and problem solved. He’s just that powerful, and how dare those grieving parents be so stupid as to not know this? Maybe they’re just too “emotional”, or whatever little-people problem they have.
God, he really is a sack of shit.
If Bill weren’t so solidly against the concepts of international law, he could have referred to the UN Convention on Priority of White Americans in Search Efforts (US is a signatory).
Jennifer, I just turned 64 and I, too, and now officially done with the lot of them. I’m just going to spend my remaining working days trying to scrape together enough spare change so I won’t have to spend my last years living in a refrigerator carton under the bridge.
Pure racism. He and his ‘viewers’ would weep with pity and sorrow if he did a segment on a DOG looking frantically for its missing puppy. But Haitians are black- they don’t feel things the way People (or dogs) do. That’s the message I hear from BillO, a miserable excuse for a human being.
Just throwing in a vote for Jennifer over St. Trotsky. If a Dem fundraiser calls me today, I might not give the standard polite No Thank You (which I have done ever since Obama voted on FISA) but instead give the underpaid phone slave an obscene tirade. If enough of us do that, word might get back. Maybe. Probably not.
Dems should understand that What Have You Done for Me Lately is the mantra. Done nothing? Get Nothing.
Guess who wants a wine box?
heh!
But Haitians are black
Black *and* French. Like some hideous liberal chimera.
BillO’s just cheesed off at the UN ’cause they keep having these conventions and he never gets invited.
I like St. Trotsky, but I sympathize with Jennifer in this case. My reaction is to ask: Can I do anything to help you, Jennifer?
Also, I’d bet that after she recovers from her misery at being betrayed -and the Dems have betrayed us, over and over- Jennifer with dig in and work hard to improve things.
Its seems obvious the old, usual ways of affecting politics just doesn’t work, because the system is designed NOT to work. Even when a smart and honest man (say Grayson) is elected, he can’t do much. And if he CAN, chances are he’ll die in a small-plane crash or be smeared with conservative feces.
We’ve got to think of ANOTHER way -not new, just different and BETTER- to do things. I suggest we all comb thru our History books, especially non-Western cultures, to get ideas of how to improve out system. For instance: China. Most people don’t know much Chinese History -tt goes back further than the Egyptian Empire- but for thousands of years they had a very workable system. Not democratic (that I know of), but they probably had some excellent ideas and practices we should study.
Please tell me you made that up. Please.
Nope. And BillO says it more than once.
Okay, I know I’m going to be condemned to hell for this opinion but I’ve been seeing the father Gengel all over the networks. He’s basically threatening that he’ll destroy the administration politically if they don’t have the military relief drop everything else and rescue the 4 American white girls first.
To hell with the fact that disaster logistics specialists are trying to use limited resources to help the most people as efficiently as that chaotic situation allows. So lets just screw helping hundreds of Haitians when there’s a pretty young white girl at risk!
I’m sorry but BO was actual being reasonable and for once, not playing into the usual mediawhore sensational tabloid preoccupation with only being concerned about pretty young white girls.
So go ahead and accuse me of being a douche too for remembering that the 200,000 missing Haitians also have grief stricken parents who are desperate that relief reach their kids also .
Triage is a bitch but neccessary.
T&U – well, if by that he means politically assissinate, it would be one of the very rare times that Beck was right.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the Secret Service doesn’t protect you from that.
I’m in the fuck ’em boat, too. Then again, I’m rather cynical and pessimistic by nature. The 2008 election was one of those moments when I felt that we might be able to do some good…which is what makes these events all that more disappointing.
Allen – the solution then is to not put Gengel on the air. The guy is obviously desperate to have his daughter returned safely. He is not in a rational state of mind. If Gengel was in charge of the rescue effort, he would commit every resource to digging out the hotel where his daughter was staying, regardless of how many lives in other locations were lost as a result.
This is why we don’t want Gengel in charge. It’s also why it’s dumb to even engage him in the format that O’Reilly does, particularly because O’Reilly lacks any ability to outwardly signal human empathy or to just nut up and stroke the guys shoulder in sympathy and essentially lie to him to make him feel a little bit better. Which is how you deal with people in Gengel’s situation and state of mind.
He’s basically threatening that he’ll destroy the administration politically if they don’t have the military relief drop everything else and rescue the 4 American white girls first.
This is where you get when you keep letting weeping parents determine public policy.
And when you insist on putting them in front of the public as part of “the story”. And when you have to have “the story” because your new media has been gutted into little more than a slightly less well-produced reality show.
“Is there a bigger douche than Bill O’Reilly?”
Sadly, Yes!
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/unbelievable-glenn-beck-intimates-pr
Lordy O’Reilly, it’s almost liked he’s pissed that this isn’t a vanilla missing white chick story which he could hump for months. Go partying past your bedtime with local dudes you never met, and Bill-O can work the morality angle, the irresponsible parent angle, the goddamn useless natives angle, the crucial missed evidence angle, the where’s Greta angle, the boycott wherever angle, the what-bikini she was wearing angle. It’s like rentascript until they turn up a corpse.
Here, you have an act of God which disappears a charity worker somewhere Bill-O never wants to visit. No wonder his splotchiness is bored and grumpy, he’s got a potential heroine but every other piece of the storyline is fucked.
Bill’s lackey’s call the Pentagon and they fly into action? Really, Bill? Really?
We could rebuild Haiti upon his enormous ego, but who’d want to live there?
I for one don’t blame the man for a second for what he’s doing on the air. That’s his daughter in danger, and if I was in his position I’d be doing every damn thing possible as well. It may not be rational, but it’s the way human beings work, and this is a part of humanity I’m not going to knock.
On the other hand, if I was one of the networks, I would choose not to air his story, precisely for the reasons shown above. To some extent, “the system” is supposed to counterbalance human emotions (for example, we don’t put the father of a raped or murdered teenager on the jury trying her attacker). Unfortunately, the days of honest, rational and service-oriented reporting are long gone. All we have now is people gleefully using other people’s tragedies as a way to make their ratings go up (mainstream media) or score propaganda points (conservative media).
You know what I’m thinking, though? Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that for the first time in their lives, millions of Americans are getting some insight into what it’s like to have a loved one in danger in an area occupied by the U.S. military. In a rational world, it might lead viewers to finally react to the U.S. military as the flawed and human organization that it is, rather than a real life counterpart to the Justice League of America which no one may criticize under any conditions. It might even lead viewers to have more empathy for millions of Arabs in Iraq or with relatives in Iraq, and to understand their criticisms of the U.S. military at least on a human level instead of simply flying into a spitting outrage against “HAJJI INGRATES! TERRORIST LOVERS! YOU SHOULD ALL DIE!!!”
Of course, I’m speaking hypothetically. I know all too well that the average American doesn’t have the empathic abilities for such a leap, and no interest at all in trying. You’ve got to admit though, it’s a nice thought.
Beck: “[Progressives] will cheat, they will lie, they will steal — and they have in the past blown things up if it helps them win.”
😮
Justice League?
More like the “Just Us” League, am I right?
You know who else blew up things to help him win?
And we made a series of calls and pretty much told the Pentagon that you have to get to this Hotel Montana,
Man, is he full of himself. Those poor kids, those poor parents… and Billo uses the whole thing as an ego trip.
The Left is also pissed at Obama and are totally going to assassinate him if he moves to the center, according to Beck.
The very definition of concern trollery- maybe Beck is Center Left Grrrrrrrrrllllllll.
I know all too well that the average American doesn’t have the empathic abilities for such a leap, and no interest at all in trying. You’ve got to admit though, it’s a nice thought.
It’s the kind of thing I really thought might come out of 9/11.
Crazy of me, I know.
Those poor kids, those poor parents… and Billo uses the whole thing as an ego trip.
Which is why Billo is such a fucking wanker.
I mean, demanding that the Marines drop everything and concentrate on the Americans… in a country that (at best) has a seriously dysfunctional relationship with the U.S. military.
After all, isn’t using the military to enforce private American interests essentially colonialism?
Ted the Slacker’s–
“Go partying past your bedtime with local dudes you never met, and Bill-O can work the morality angle, the irresponsible parent angle, the goddamn useless natives angle, the crucial missed evidence angle, the where’s Greta angle, the boycott wherever angle, the what-bikini she was wearing angle. It’s like rentascript until they turn up a corpse.”
–wins.
for someone who thinks a shit lot of himself, Beck comes across as a real whiny bitch. What is it with these dumb loud mouths on the right; Limbough, Hannity and O’Reilly too, sad pathetic little men who would bubble like a 12yr old if someone got in their face……..
SADLY, NO! POLL
Is Beck
A. Insane
B. A performance artist
C. A bit of both
Is O’Rielly
A. An egotistical asshole
B. An imbecile
C. A pathological douche bag
D. All of the above
Have the Sadly,No! Internet Hamsters® gnawed their way into the liquor cabinet again?
Also, I seem to be missing the codec to view Fox videos. After pleading with the gazoggle for a solution I realized that this is actually a feature.
GCM’s poll. A to both questions.
It’s the kind of thing I really thought might come out of 9/11.
I thought so, too, for a few months. By 2005, when people said people in New Orleans* deserved to die because they were dumb enough to live below sea level, it was clear that the evil-stupid are always with us.
*What do you call someone who lives there? A New Orleansian? I’m having a bad day mentally.
No wonder his splotchiness is bored and grumpy, he’s got a potential heroine but every other piece of the storyline is fucked.
I have a sneaking suspicion that he had a few testy words with his producer(s) after this interview.
If he did, it was in person. They don’t dare answer the phone anymore.
Billo uses the whole thing as an ego trip.
This and every single thing he ever does. If he had even the smallest shred of humanity, this “interview” would never have aired. It’s as simple as that.
SADLY, NO! POLL
Is Beck
A. Insane
B. A performance artist
C. A bit of both
Is O’Rielly
A. An egotistical asshole
B. An imbecile
C. A pathological douche bag
D. All of the above
E. YES!
“It’s the kind of thing I really thought might come out of 9/11.”
I thought so too. For a few weeks I actually thought the country could unite and do some good for America and the world. What I naive child I was. The right never beleived that. We were supposed to embrace conservatives while they continued to kick us in the balls. I remember Malkin, Coulter and other conservacunts attacking Hillary for wearing sunglasses at the memorial service. “She wears them so the American people won’t see her roll her eyes when they play the National anthem.” Bush only inspired “The People” to shop, and a few months later Trent Lott (I think) accused Daschel of treason for having the audacity to demand congressional approval for any military action in Iraq. It was then that I concluded that right wingers were pathological assholes.
What do you call someone who lives there? A New Orleansian?
I call them Nawlinians, but that’s just me.
It’s the kind of thing I really thought might come out of 9/11.
I started hearing people calling for immediate(as in no debate allowed) new restrictions on Constitutional rights/increased government intrusion/etc within days, and calling anyone who disagreed “naive” or worse, so any hope I had for pulling together as a nation was pretty short-lived.
There! All fixxedth!
What do you call someone who lives there? A New Orleansian?
“cher.”
I started hearing people calling for immediate(as in no debate allowed) new restrictions on Constitutional rights/increased government intrusion/etc within days, and calling anyone who disagreed “naive” or worse, so any hope I had for pulling together as a nation was pretty short-lived.
Well, YEAH, especially what with Eagleburger calling it an act of war along about 12:45 pm that afternoon – but I had my hopes.
I mean, it really wears on you to be cynical ALL the time.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security is preventing Americans trapped in Haiti from returning to the US by air on the grounds that the Port au Prince airport has been too heavily damaged to enforce the no-fly list or to screen passengers to TSA standards.
Leave it to the DHS to put greater priority on protecting people from the better than 1 in 10 million odds of being injured in a terrorist attack by exposing them to the worse than 1 in 10,000 odds of being injured, infected, or killed during the aftermath of a natural disaster.
“started hearing people calling for immediate(as in no debate allowed) new restrictions on Constitutional rights/increased government intrusion/etc within days.”
Your memory might be better than mine but I think it was a bit longer which is why I said a few weeks but otherwise ditto and also.
“Meanwhile, Homeland Security is preventing Americans trapped in Haiti from returning to the US by air.”
They should fly to Cuba, change their name to Elian, and hop on a rickity boat to Miami. This plan has the added advantage of granting automatic citizenship.
What if all of the trapped Americans said they were pregnant? Wouldn’t there be a wingnut armada within hours, on account of how glad they are that all of those trapped Americans are choosing life?
(PS: Jennifer, Marion in Savannah, et al.: I love you. We might have to meet and take over a town and live there and grow stuff and make people pay us to rescue and take care of animals like greyhounds and thoroughbreds. Possibly even human children. But our rules.)
Leave it to the DHS to put greater priority on protecting people from the better than 1 in 10 million odds of being injured in a terrorist attack by exposing them to the worse than 1 in 10,000 odds of being injured, infected, or killed during the aftermath of a natural disaster.
but but but THEY GOTTA KEEP US SAFE1111!!111
imagine howmanya’dem terristicals might think of sneaking across our desginer borders using such an event as cover. Sociopaths, they are! No respeck for hoomanity.
Your memory might be better than mine but I think it was a bit longer which is why I said a few weeks but otherwise ditto and also.
You also may not search out nutballs with opinions. It’s a curse.
All nations have this ilk. Hell, during Vietnam protests you would get indignant red-faced nuns stomping forward to get in your face. And there was never any shortage of politicians urging them on. The pols find it very convenient to use fear to “stampede the herd” if it suits their purposes and don’t particularly care if the direction is towards a cliff. The pols will be at the back of the pack, afterall
Islamofascistoterrorists could have moved to Haiti months ago and awaited a huge natural disaster just so they could blend in with Haitian refugees and do their Islamofascistoterrost dirty deeds. They are kinda sneaky like that.
I don’t feel any particular sympathy for the parents and Bill O is a douchebag to have these people on the air. Their “children” are adults, and NEWSFLASH—every single body buried in the rubble is someone’s daughter or son. The military isn’t their own personal, private contractor.
I’d wager that a lot of those military personnel feel good about being part of a relief effort and are doing their best. There is a lot of room for improvement as far as coordination between agencies and governments goes, but good gawd this disaster is huge.
No-Visible-Means said,
“All nations have this ilk. Hell, during Vietnam protests…”
It’s funny….the Liberals (aka the dirty fucking hippies) have been correct about Vietnam and every US military action since then, but we’re still ignored.
“The military isn’t their own personal, private contractor. “
These days, you might not want to make such a blanket statement….
How soon we forget.
http://www.worldsbiggestdouche.com/
Mari
DHS doing that?
Seriously?
Yes, seriously.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/19/trapped_in_haiti_by_airport_security_regulations
Shit.
Thanks Mari.
It seems there is hope for those aflicted by the scourge of “Pathological Douche-Bagitism.” I wonder what it is.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35534_The_Fiskie_Award_for_2009_Goes_To-_A_Raving_Freakazoid_Nut_Sandwich/comments/#ctop
Jennifer said,
January 21, 2010 at 18:31
A little late, but I fully endorse Jennifer’s point of view.
I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for a long time, and eat the shit sandwiches, and accept the triangulation because, after all, politics is the art of the possible, can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, yadda yadda yadda.
But after the Mass election, and the so-called leaders of the so-called Democratic Party basically threw their hands up and said, “well, now that the Republicans have a 41-59 majority, we won’t be able to get anything done, so fuck it,” that’s it. I’m done.
I’ve been a reliable Democratic voter for the past 30 years. I’ve donated to candidates. I made phone calls. And for what? So that I could watch, just one year into a promising administration, these pussies dissolve into a puddle of pee over the loss of one fucking Senate seat? Fuck, no. Done. done, done.
Perhaps there is a pathogen in the blood of John Cole that can be isolated. Is there a microbiologist in the house? We must find a cure for “Pathological Douche-Bagitism.”
I have not commented on the Dems sad response to the Mass election because it’s too depressing.
HOW ‘BUOT THAT GLENN BECK AND O’RIELLY GUY? WHAT A COUPLE OF DOUCHES HEH !eleventy!
Wiley–Good God, that’s harsh. Maybe the parents have somewhat unreasonable expectations, but it’s their KIDS, for crying out loud. If that was me, I’d be raving and screaming, without much thought as to how “reasonable” I was being.
It’s true that putting them on the air didn’t serve much purpose, though.
Well the marines may as well spend all their time looking for white americans, its not like they are actually helping anyone else. All they’ve done so far is ‘secure’ the airport (i.e stop everyone else from using it so they can fly Clinton and his blackwater bodyguards in) and stopped aid from entering the country for fear of ‘violent mobs’ (i.e scary black people).
The US response has been an absolute fucking travesty, and if anyone uses this as an example of how wonderful America/Obama/the military is then I am going to puke until I die.
Don’t blame Bill. He can’t help it. After all, he’s entitled.
By the way, DA, et al, I keep getting a message that an anonymous proxy has been detected when I post from work. Can someone let me know what they might be picking up so I can figure away around it?
Harsh? People are desperately trying to get toothpaste to put under their noses to block the stench of the rotting, exploding corpses in the street. That’s harsh. 200,000 dead. That’s harsh. Stumps of black bone sticking out of people who will die if they can’t get an amputation and antibiotics soon enough. That’s harsh. The orphanage that collapsed is harsh.
And no the military hasn’t been turning people away at the airport just to be jackasses. They started with an airport with no functioning tower, no functioning radar, no function computers, NO ELECTRICITY—-just radio communications and a short, crumbled runway. Flights were coming in from all over the world to an airport that no longer had regularly scheduled flights. Everything was chaotic. Most of the equipment to unload the planes had also been destroyed, as was most of the storage areas.
Also the ports are not functioning, and you can’t drive to Haiti. So there aren’t many ways to get the impossibly large amount of supplies that are needed into the country. Mid-air collisions and aid strewn across the tarmac won’t help.
IT’S HARD. It’s really, really hard. You can hear from all kinds of experienced people in relief organizations that is the worst they’ve ever seen.
Problems with coordination are very real, and there is certainly room for criticism, but to assert that the military is just there to make things worse is unfair.
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReoKQlOF4XY]Hard Work[/url]
The military for all its problems can move a lot of material, in a short time, in very austere conditions like no other organization.
Armchair generals talk tactics. Real generals talk logistics.
“It’s the kind of thing I really thought might come out of 9/11.”
In an ideal world, you might that having two of our key cities bombed for the political agenda of a psychopath thousands of miles away would make Americans think twice about clapping and cheering for Iraqi, Lebanese and Palestinian civilians to have the same fate inflicted on them.
Or you could hope that having seen how it feels to lose 3,000 innocents to a terrorist attack, we could have had the courtesy to arrest Oliver North and send him on the next plane to Nicaragua with our full apologies before taking on Osama Bin Laden.
At the very least, you’d think that Americans could finally at least understand the complaints of Iraqis and Palestinians, even if they still see the wars as necessary. Just on a human level.
Nope. Going on seven years of occupied Iraq and going on seventy years of occupied Palestine, most conservatives, a ton of independents and far too many liberals are still spewing some variation of “How DARE you not be grateful to us for destroying your country!!!” Seriously – you expect this kind of shit from the right wing, but the number of supposedly ‘normal’ people who jumped on this bandwagon without a second thought is staggering.
Link doesn’t work for me. Brings me to Sean Hannity making some kind of (sarcastic, I think?) point about Dean saying that the voters wanted real change.
“Armchair generals talk tactics. Real generals talk logistics.”
No shit. All those military planes aren’t loaded with grenade launchers and flags. They’re carrying vehicles and equipment to move aid to agencies that can distribute it. A lot of good a case of penicillin is going to do if it can’t be stored properly, moved, and distributed to people who will use it well.
Right now, the marines are clearing a port and hope to have it operational by Friday so that they can move a large amount of aid to camps for about 10,000 people each, that are being set up now by the Haitian government outside of Port O’Prince (or however you spell that). People need water, food, and medicine. They also need a working sanitation system.
We take so much for granted.
The Blue Helmets are policing, too. Though reports of looting and violence are exaggerated by the media, there are problems with violence and theft that need to be managed. Some people experienced with aid work in Haiti are saying that there is actually less gang violence now than there was before the earthquake, nevertheless, the threat is real. Aid agencies want to make sure that supplies get to the most needy first, and don’t end up being commandeered by a black market.
Nuh uh. No way in hell am I going to watch that walleyed sack of jackal-smegma talking down to some crazed parent about their missing kid.
I can handle small doses of Beck due to the Geek Factor, just to see what kind of poultry he’s gnawing the head off of this time … but I already had my quota of Falafel-Boy when I watched
seven weeks’two minutes’ worth of his Clash Of Teh Titan Egos with Sarahcuda.Speaking of which, did anyone else happen to notice the open sneer of contempt & loathing on Wolf Sniper Mom’s mug during both her spots with Beck & with O’Reilly? She may love that delicious Murdoch money enough to work with these clowns but she sure as hell despises them, & plainly has no problems letting that fact be known to anyone with eyes – a baking soda + vinegar situation which I suspect will lead to some major lulz in the not-so-distant future. Also.
All I know is that she’s special because she has a Republican daddy, she’s white, and therefor a special little snowflake totally unlike and more valuable than all those dirty Haiti-ans.
Jim is definitely on to something. The swords are still sheathed but there’s definitely a there-can-be-only-one vibe when they try to share a stage.
Wow! I have known that Oh’Really was insensitive, but his interview redefines insensitive. There are many people this insensitive who are running and ruining the country. It resides at the core of the problem our nation faces. It’s smart to be cold and dumb to feel empathy. With that perception guiding our nation there won’t be a nation much longer. If the only thing holding our nation together is shared racism, agreement with failed economic policies, and citizens who believe in a world that doesn’t exist how much time do you give it?
The Left is also pissed at Obama and are totally going to assassinate him if he moves to the center, according to Beck.
I for one would be thrilled if he moved to the centre, because it’s to the left of where he is now.
And BO is a knobhead – “shoulda come to me sooner” indeed. Mind you, the father there was making a strange analogy with JFK Jr’s death: I’m not sure what a search for one crashed plane has to do with a search and rescue effort following an earthquake that smashed a whole fucking city with hundreds of thousands dead, but there you go. Maybe it’s because I’m not American, because apparently Americans are far more important than all those wretched darkies who have the temerity to be dying all over Port Au Prince.
Sorry. Cranky day today.
You know what I’m thinking, though? Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that for the first time in their lives, millions of Americans are getting some insight into what it’s like to have a loved one in danger in an area occupied by the U.S. military. In a rational world, it might lead viewers to finally react to the U.S. military as the flawed and human organization that it is, rather than a real life counterpart to the Justice League of America which no one may criticize under any conditions. It might even lead viewers to have more empathy for millions of Arabs in Iraq or with relatives in Iraq, and to understand their criticisms of the U.S. military at least on a human level instead of simply flying into a spitting outrage against “HAJJI INGRATES! TERRORIST LOVERS! YOU SHOULD ALL DIE!!!”
That would indeed be a lovely thing. Alas, it seems unlikely, for a thousand reasons.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security is preventing Americans trapped in Haiti from returning to the US by air on the grounds that the Port au Prince airport has been too heavily damaged to enforce the no-fly list or to screen passengers to TSA standards.
That is the icing on the stupid cake. Onya, Homeland Security. Not as though the no-fly list is enforceable anyway, given that there’s several trillion people on it.
NEWSFLASH—every single body buried in the rubble is someone’s daughter or son.
This. Or someone’s mother or father or sister or brother. They’re all human, and all deserve help – that man’s demand that the marines drop everything to look for 4 white girls really gets up my nose. We’ve been in a similar situation, and we didn’t have the slightest urge to start demanding that the searchers stop looking for dirty furriners and look for our lily white kindred.
By the way, what the screaming buggery bollocks is wrong with your hamsters?
It’s the kind of thing I really thought might come out of 9/11.
Eh, “Now you’ll now how it feels to —!” didn’t work in second grade. Why would it work with grownups?
JA, yeah the main page loaded so slowly I thought my internet might be down. Maybe heavy posting (=WP) activity is bogging the server? Or maybe it’s just bogged? Dedicated server or shared hosting? DDOS attack? WP memory leak & impending meltdown? The possibilities are endless!
DDOS attacks sometimes happen after SadlyNo attacks a major celebrity, but there hasn’t been anything of the kind recently, so it’s probably just a technical hitch…
Jennifer:
Yeah, like I said, I’ve just given up on talking people like you off the fucking ledge. Don’t really give a shit about how many years you’ve got on me, or any of that.
If you want to stay home, stay home. I’m not here to convince you any longer, I don’t care about what the ramifications of you staying home are because honestly, you’d just be another goddamn statistic in voter apathy and lack of voter turnout.
If you’re going to stand out on that ledge, don’t expect me to look up any longer to pay attention.
And for what it’s worth, I don’t intend on becoming some factional figurehead. There’s a lot more people older, wiser, more articulate, less vulgar and more addicted to the politics bug than I.
All I know is that I’m the generation that’s supposed to get all betrayed by finding out politicians are dickholes across the board and quit trying to make a difference.
Because I’m younger, dumber, borderline-illiterate, more vulgar and less addicted. But hey, maybe that sort of change-up is what’s needed.
Who asked you to talk anyone off the fucking ledge?
As for not giving a shit about how many years anyone else has invested in trying to make this a better place for all of us, sounds like you’re a natural fit with our Democratic “leadership”.
JESUS.
I really hate to be lookist and all, but I finally get to at least see a still picture from the video of (what I presume) is the father we’re talking about – and mirable fucking dictu, this arrogant douchebag who wants the Pentagon to be his personal attendants is the very image of an overstuffed bloated Limbaugh-esque never-missed-a-meal-in-his-goddamn-life whiteboy.
I mean, no WONDER he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Hatians. I’m guessing he’s the sort who figures brown people were put on god’s grey Earth to serve him and clean up HIS messes.
Like I said, catering to stereotypes and all that, but it all wouldn’t surprise me a bit.
Bet he voted for Ron Paul, too.
@Pere Ubu
I hear you… but, I tell you if my daughter was missing in similar circumstances, I shudder to think how I might behave. DA got this spot on, O’Reilly’s the guy who needs to get his shit together, this Gengel guy, can’t begin to imagine what he’s going through. Even if he is a douche, now is definitely not the time to be pointing it out.
Yeah, people say hardship is when your true character comes out, but I don’t believe it. Lots of wonderful, kind people become so crazed with grief and pain they can’t function, and really aren’t themselves anymore.
Anyhoo, after all the sniping on here there better be some fanTAStic make-up sex going on. I expect flushed, sweaty, happy-but-a-little-spent commenting any minute now.
Or, you know, later, after cuddles and breakfast.
You know, I think I was so much happier when I had no idea what bastshit insanery Glenn Blecch was going on about.
He now seems to think the Republican Party has been infiltrated by “progressives”.
This kind of thing didn’t end well last time.
He now seems to think the Republican Party has been infiltrated by “progressives”.
I think he’s suffering from a linguistic spasm* and he meant “pro-regressives.”
*Which often precedes happy-but-spent commenting.
Oh, and he had Michelle “Batshit” Bauchmann on earlier and the two of them were all in a kerfluffle that Arlen Specter had told her to “act like a lady” instead of interrupting him and being (presumably) a crazy shrieking batshit insane maenad blithering about zero capital gains taxes and gummint takeover of industry and yadda yadda yadda.
Because I’m younger, dumber, borderline-illiterate, more vulgar and less addicted. But hey, maybe that sort of change-up is what’s needed.
No, actually I think that’s our biggest problem – not being younger, but being dumber and borderline-illiterate. I’ve often wondered if the reason education never seems to get better in this country is because the last thing politicians in power want is well educated voters.
And Jennifer, I’m with you. I’ve had enough as well. Fuck ’em.
Lulzers. At America’s Shittiest Website, Mark Krikorian says that the reason Haiti is so fucked is because it wasn’t colonized long enough. This is an actual, verbatim quote. Check it out!
He now seems to think the Republican Party has been infiltrated by “progressives”.
To Beck, ‘progressives’ is a shorthand way to say ‘urban intellectuals and other degenerate bourgeoisie’. It is quite apparent that Beck’s 912 We Surround Them Campaign To Destroy The Usurpers and Parasites has as one of its main goals the political transformation of society. The Wiki on Beckism clearly states:
Beckism is an offshoot of Reaganism, as is noted on the Beckist website:
What the followers of 912 Way particularly like is the direct acknowledgment of their clear headed thought:
One thing Beck is sure of is his dates and schedules:
Maybe we can’t get universal healthcare cos we weren’t colonized long enough. Scott Brown won cos King George cut and run thats why.
And for your daily fuster cluck, something with which to shoot yourself in the foot.
We reject and condemn human rights because they are bourgeois, reactionary, counterrevolutionary rights, and are today a weapon of revisionists and imperialists, principally Liberal imperialists.
That’s gibberish.
Our position is very clear.
Very clear gibberish.
Shorter Mark Krikorian:
Haiti’s problem is that those darkies didn’t get enough white European blood in ’em.
More Krikorian: Haiti needs some “intrusive paternalism” if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
I’m just surprised Krikorian didn’t bust out the “taking refugees from Haiti in would be a cover for terrorists” routine.
I guess he felt “THEM DARKIES IS COMIN TO STEEL OUR JOBS11!1” was enough.
My wife and I have a phrase: “Republican fat face”. That bloated aspect that seems almost a requirement for loudmouth male Republicans. We’d like to think the next fat-face we meet isn’t a far-right douche… but we’re disappointed 95% of the time. It’s weird.
I’m just surprised Krikorian didn’t bust out the “taking refugees from Haiti in would be a cover for terrorists” routine.
No, but sadly he did state that the only reason to even be concerned with the plight of the Haitians is because otherwise we will end up with refugees from Haiti washing up on our pristine beaches. He seems to believe that if there were a couple hundred more miles of ocean between us then there would be absolutely no reason for us to help out our fellow humans.
Maybe we can’t get universal healthcare cos we weren’t colonized long enough.
Do you think they’ll take us back?
We’d like to think the next fat-face we meet isn’t a far-right douche… but we’re disappointed 95% of the time. It’s weird.
So it isn’t just me.
I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or not.
He seems to believe that if there were a couple hundred more miles of ocean between us then there would be absolutely no reason for us to help out our fellow humans.
Well, as for any given conservative, Mark is totally lacking in empathy to begin with; not that he’d help them if they weren’t hundreds of miles away (c.f. New Orleans) but the distance makes it that much easier for him to be a sociopathic clyster and not worry about anyone showing up on his doorstep to have an intimate conversation about the fact.
“Do you think they’ll take us back?”
Does that mean we’d have to get our teeth un-straightened?
Do you think they’ll take us back?
If they could sell the South back to France, maybe.
I’m going to start spelling stuff with “u” just in case they will.
Does that mean we’d have to get our teeth un-straightened?
I hope not. Then again, my chomp chomps are completely natural, so fuck you guys.
However, I refuse to say “aloooomineeeum.” If that excludes me from the British Empire, so be it.
I’m going to start spelling stuff with “u” just in case they will.
Stuff already has a “u” in it!
I believe the British spelling is “stouffe”
the important and many-sided contribution of President Reagan in the fields of culture, education and the arts” and that Reagan “devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the American people, contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress.
This is why they tell you not to take the brown acid, people.
However, I refuse to say “aloooomineeeum.” If that excludes me from the British Empire, so be it.
I believe the original spelling was alumium, so maybe we all can come together and have bad teeth and spiffing healthcare as one people.
Not bloody likely!
I believe the British spelling is “stouffe”
As in “My sergeant-major is quite stouffe this morning.”
Look libs, if you think the Carter era of making tie-dyed shirts under the slavemaster’s whip was fun then go back to Hippiestan.
Reagan “devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the American people‘s money from their pockets and into those of the oligarchy.
Fizzored for great justice.
What?! Did I finally depress everyone to the point that they all gave up at once?
Also, I just noticed that the server’s clock is off by 16 minutes or so. Ever heard of ntp, beaches?
many-sided contribution of President Reagan in the fields of culture, education and the arts
What? “Bedtime for Bonzo” maybe?
don’t forget the many pieces of jellybean themed art created in his honor.
What?! Did I finally depress everyone to the point that they all gave up at once?
I don’t want to be cruel, but there are more depressing things right now than your posts. I’m going to see Avatar tonight, for example.
Figgered I was the final straw. I fully understand that the depression I can bring is tiny compared to others out there. Insignificant, even.
Crap, now I’ve depressed myself.
Just for the sake of maximizing the potential for confusion among anyone keeping score at home, I am in full agreement with the first sentence above. “With you” in my lexicon means that it’s Jennifer’s beeswax what she does with herself, not mine or thine … & even that, believe it or not, I’d kill &/or die for her or any other adult`s right to do so, my extreme dislike of (& philosophical difficulties with) such messy & unpleasant forms of recreation notwithstanding.
However, I still think it’s a real chump’s choice to give in to cynicism, no matter how many perforated, inked-up, performance-art-loving weeaboo ironic hipsters tell me I’m exiled unto all eternity from a seat at the Kewl Kids’ Table for entertaining such a belief, point at me & laugh, or bogart my joint … & no matter how often my fellow merely-mortal bald-apes let me down or piss me off. Besides, I’ve heard every single cynical pouty “none of it matters, fuck ’em all, who gives a shit anyway” snarl many many times before already – back when the noise was coming out of MY slack-jawed piehole. Been there, did that, & it sucked some major unwashed ass.
Skepticism rawks – it’s one of those rare paradoxical critters that you can get both lucid & fried on at the same damn time – & it’s so versatile, you can even apply it to ITSELF – but cynicism is a mental cul-de-sac … it’s easy as hell to use as a crutch but eventually you realize your legs are atrophied to hell for nothing, & then sooner or later (& trust me, it’s never at a convenient time), wouldn’t you know it, that fucking crutch goes L-shaped & you’re left face-down in a pile of doggy-doo. If you’re lucky, maybe the context of your faceplant will be such that not only will your collapsing nose not drive bone-splinters up into your brain, causing you to die in horrific agony, but as an extra bonus you can even somehow kid yourself into blaming someone else for the new pungent brown mousse & extremely non-delicious mouthwash that ensues, so … do you feel lucky, punk?
Second sentence? Ditto. You can have all the enough you want, but that`s a predicate with which I strongly disagree. It’s just not in my nature to have “had enough” – & I’ve long since learned via the ungentle tutelage of reality that my POV is far from admirable or noble, & ever more like morbid or pathological: I’m enough of a sick fuck to think that Nietzsche’s theory of the Eternal Return is wishful thinking – & if that part of my nature were to change, I’d have to turn in my Severely Deranged Motherfuckers League Badge & Decoder Ring.
Rue the day.
Pretty sure I speak for the entirety of the Commonwealth when I say this: YOU BROKE IT, YOU BOUGHT IT, MATE.
Dibs on telling him about that whole Wright Brothers thing!
“If they could sell the South back to France, maybe.”
The American half of me leaps with joy at the idea, but the French half would like to transmit a message from Le Peuple; not in a million years. The prospect of the National Front getting a few million new voters and sweeping every election isn’t really an appetizing one for us. Four years of Vichy was more than enough, thank you.
Quite a bit of wordiness there, st jim. I think it’s safe to assume you disagree with my position.
Perhaps you should consider Einstein’s definition of insanity.
But don’t assume that I’ve given up on humanity, I certainly haven’t and I’ll continue to try to help and cheer up those I come in contact with. Even wordy philosophist “outsiders” such as yourself. Your welcome.
@ Saint Jim
My problem is that, while white and non-broke, I’m also transgendered and gay. I can’t really afford to give up because it’ll be back to a really, really suck place for me and my family.
And that’s even IF I weren’t such a bleeding heart, anti-racist, environmentalist weenie.
Every time I want to stop caring, there’s some conservative voters group out to make my life hell. FUCK them.
If you’re going to visit another country, you have to check with Pat Robertson to see if they have a pact with the Devil. I can’t stress this enough. Stick with Texas or Branson, Missouri, and you won’t need the Marines or Fox Security to dig you out from under a hotel. When will people start taking responsibility for themselves?
If by “contribution” you mean “nugget of shit added to large pile of excrement,” this would be a correct statement. Reagan did indeed contribute to the excrement of his time.
That’s about ALL I can think of that he did contribute.
I couldn’t get all the way through that clip. Once the Gengel guy started winding up again that was it for me. He’s been on the TV constantly, getting hysterical and lashing out at the Government. Look Bub, we feel your pain, but your daughter was in a FOREIGN country. I don’t know where he was going with that Kennedy plane crash analogy, but the US is doing what it can.
O’Reilly is generally an ass, but I didn’t see anything up to the point where I bailed that warranted criticism. If anything, we all know now that Mr Gengel should not be put in front of cameras in his current distraught state. It’s not like no one is ignoring the situation, TV programs are using this guy for their own purposes now. Shame on them.
Seriously, this is surprising to anyone? BO is just showing everyone that he really doesn’t give a shit about anyone other than himself. Even this segment was done for ratings. It’s like “Hey everyone! Now our next guests have a missing child or dog or something in Haiti! Hey, folks, do you watch my show, weeknights at 8pm or whenever the fuck it’s on? You do? That’s great!”
What a pathetic group of liars!