So.... Americans need to sign IOU's to leave Lebanon.

[Bluebear]

They don't even know how much they will owe, but need to pay it back in 90 days.

Remember, this is America. We only bail out bankrupt corporations and find money to promote abstinence, not to rescue scared citizens in harm's way.

======
The State Department said Monday that it will ask Americans to pay for rides out of Lebanon that include chartered vessels.

"What we have to do in a situation like this is, we have to go out on an emergency basis and rent vessels," Burns said. "That's what we're trying to do ... We do that on behalf of American citizens. We're not quite sure how many of these Americans will come out."

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi objected to billing evacuees.

"A nation that can provide more than $300 billion for a war in Iraq can provide the money to get its people out of Lebanon," Pelosi said in a statement.

http://www.forbes.com/business/services/feeds/ap/2006/07/18/ap2887271.html

[rzemanfl]

1. Have you ever been so unproud to be an American? n/t

[Bluebear]

2. Negative.

It is so terribly sad.

[Sydnie]

4. No, I don't believe that I have

We can spend hundreds of millions killing people in that corner of the world but not one dime to save our own citizens there? The Founding Fathers are weeping hot, bitter tears about now.


I am so ashamed.

[Bjornsdotter]

3. Low, very low

Well I guess we've found out "How low can we go" :eyes:

Cheers

[KamaAina]

5. What if their checks bounce?

Do they get thrown overboard into the Mediterranean? :eyes:

[Bluebear]

7. They get airlifted back into Beirut.

We can't have deadbeats, ya know. :crazy:

[shance]

6. Welcome to the United States of Privatization.

This is absolutely unreal.

[shance]

8. Kind of like troops buying their own body armor to be in Cheney/Bushs war.

n/t

[brer cat]

26. that's very apt!

Soldier arm yourself, citizen rescue yourself. Government is for big business, not little people.

[KamaAina]

27. Some fire companies will hit you up for membership up front.

And if you're not a member, and your house burns down, well, that's just too damn bad. They will sit there and watch it burn.

I have no idea what happens if embers from a non-member's fire happen to catch on the member's house next door...

[Canuckistanian]

63. Can't they even contract Halliburton to provide transportation?

Not even on a "cost-plus" basis? I'm sure Cheney could easily sign off on this.

[Bluebear]

71. It's the only way.

Clearly.

[Nikki Stone 1]

65. You beat me to it with the "United States of Privatization"

I was just thinking "Welcome to the Privatized States of America". This is exactly what is going on.

[stevedeshazer]

9. I hope this story really bites them in the ass

Sadly, it probably won't.

[Ian David]

10. This is the responsibility of state and local government....

but we don't play the blame game.

[Ecumenist]

11. Are you Fucking serious???

Please excuse my crude outburst but this is fucking crazy...

[Bluebear]

12. Oh I'm serious.

Edited OP to include the news. Disgusting or what?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. yup, fuckingly serious. The French representative was interviewed

when he was asked about charging French citizens for transport out, he asked something like, "Why would we do anything stupid like that?" Then, upon hearing what the US was doing, he laughed like a demon. I am searching the internets for a copy of that interview.

[Swamp Rat]

14. "Mr. Yoo, sign right here on the promissory note"

"Ok ... P H U K . Y O O ... There ya go mister."

[AngryOldDem]

15. This is just total bullshit

I heard this on Lou Dobbs just now.

Seems to me, last I looked, the prime responsibility of a government is to get its citizens out of harm's way, especially when they're in a war zone.

I think we should bill Israel for this clusterfuck, because if it didn't bomb the goddamned airport on day one, all of this shit could have been avoided.

What will happen, I wonder, if these people flat refuse to pay? I would.

Just when you think it can't get any more surreal...it does.

[TankLV]

40. No - it's that TERRORIST organization - HEZHBOLLAH - that should be

billed.

THEY are the cause of all of this.

THEY started this.

THEY are world CRIMINALS, whose sole purpose in existing is the distruction of the State of Israel.-

Israel is defending itself - and I wish them success.

Sorry, I never support terrorist organizations.

[pengu1n]

70. Get real...

Open your eyes.
Israel has acted without regard for human civilian concerns.
Israel is a sovereign state - but one that is "above reproach" apparently.
US tax dollars pay for Israel - they do not fart without US GOV saying how good it smells.


THE DIFFERENCE IN LEBANON IS ONE OF PROPORTIONALITY.

When my 4 year old hits his little sister - I do not punch him in the face, rip his guts out - and hang him on a barbed wire fence as an example to other little boys....

flame on

(edit dyslexic)

[Rex]

16. Repukes don't believe in free anything, unless it is them.

Repukes are all about making $$$ and will kill anyone who stands in their way. Won't sign an IOU, well just stay and die! What the fuck happened to our country Bluebear?

[Bluebear]

18. I dunno, Rex . . .

and the populace is going down without even a whimper.

[Rex]

20. I wonder if the populace of Rome went down in a whimper?

Just accepted it, became serfs and swore loyalty oaths to the new landlords?

[DanCa]

17. We've lost two cities on his watch and now this

How can anyone support the chimp at this point is beyond me. Of course this latest devolopement doesn't surprise me. Take a look at what happend after Katrina. No one gives a damn about anyone but themselves today.

[malta blue]

19. I am so shocked by this development, I cannot even find

the words....a promissory note? To the goverment that has raped it's people? I've seen comments basically saying "these people who are in Lebanon don't pay taxes, so they should pay for the ride out" or something along those lines. What about the students at the American University of Beirut? Should students, individuals who are usually cash-strapped, have to pay for a ride out of a war zone?

I suppose I shouldn't be so shocked...

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

21. It is bad enough they have to pay, but why in the world can they not

provide a price?

Is it even a legal document if the cost isn't specified, or a legal loan or IOU without an amount specified?

I doubt it, unless it is spelled out as being the fair market value of the ticket at some specified date.

Those who can pay must be paying a specific amount. Why don't they use that figure?

[Bluebear]

22. Maybe it's on Air Halliburton.

They only deal in open-ended bills.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

28. Yea, that's what I fear for these poor Americans being forced to sign

these IOU's to get out of the war zone.

Or Air Helliburton, as I call them.

[Avalux]

23. I'm seeing 10K per promissory note in this article -

it's been posted in another thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=109&topic_id=26675&mesg_id=26675

Am I correct - that's what Nancy Pelosi is protesting? 10K PER PROMISSORY NOTE?

If that's the case, it's extortion. I am sick.

[IndyOp]

33. Good God In Heaven... $10K

This is a pro-life administration?

:cry:

:puke:

:nuke:

[Julius Civitatus]

42. What? $10k per person? Remember this when you pay your taxes...

Next April 15, remember this episode.

:mad:

[Monk06]

24. No Man Left Behind !!!!!!! ...... on approval of credit.

[louis-t]

25. Burns, Burns....Is that Mr. Burns?

Homer Simpson's boss? E-e-e-e-xcellent.

[Harry Monroe]

29. I want my money back!!

How do I go about getting my tax dollars back on a war I do not support?? How do I go about getting MY IOU from this Administration?? What a bunch of fuckheads!!

[Wonk]

30. The Canadian gov't is footing the bill for evacuating Canadian citizens.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060716/mideast_mackay_060717/20060717?hub=CTVNewsAt11

The Canadian government will bear the costs of the evacuation, which could take up to two weeks.

While there were initial hopes that 4,500 citizens a day could be evacuated, that number has been downgraded, Fife said.

Foreign Affairs officials have also acknowledged there is no plan in place to move Canadians from southern Lebanon, where the Israeli bombardment is heaviest, to Beirut.

Speaking from Beirut, CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer said getting Canadians out of the southern part of the country is posing a huge problem for Canadian diplomatic officials.

"The roads are simply impassable, they have been absolutely chewed by the Israeli assault over the past seven days and people are fearful that there will be more missiles that fall while they are en route," said Mackey Frayer.

[Monk06]

45. It would be nice if Steven Ha Ha Harper had a sense of urgency...

Canada has the money but no boats although they've
managed to hire and redirect a cruise ship.

Unfortunately he failed to mention that fourteen
Canadians have died already in the first wave of
attacks. Seven of the dead were from one family.
Four of them were children aged. (get out the hankies)
six years to ONE MONTH old. Their pictures were on
the front page of the Vancouver Province.

The baby's picture was taken in her bassinet at the
hospital when she was born 4 weeks ago. Her eyes
were barely open and now she's gone.

Thanks Steve for your support on the war on terror.

Thanks a bunch.

[acmavm]

31. Can't spare the funds to save Americans in peril. Every dollar spent

on the plebes is a dollar that doesn't end up in a rich man's pocket.

[Maestro]

32. Truly disgusting.

And Pelosi said it best. :puke:

[Aviation Pro]

34. Fees have been waived according to....

...two aides of Republican Senators.

How fucking magnanimous of them to do so.

http://www.cnn.com

[Lasher]

72. So, which way is it?

Maura Harty, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, said that a 1956 law requires that the State Department be reimbursed. She added that Americans unable to pay could sign a voucher to reimburse the government.

<snip:>

But on Tuesday night Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice addressed the billing issue, telling Sen. John Sununu that she was waiving the requirement, Sununu's office said.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/18/lebanon.evacuation/index.html

According to Condi's assistant, it's not their fault they have to bill these people. The law requires them to do it.

Then The Chimperor gets a big black eye on the international stage because neither France, nor Ireland, nor Britain, nor Italy, nor Canada even dreamed of billing evacuees. So Condi decides to waive the requirement. How can she do that if the law requires State Department reimbursement?

It used to take an act of Congress to change a law, but I guess that's different now with the Urinary Executive who has war powers when no war has been declared. Or maybe they were just lying about the billing requirement, ya think?

[Jo March]

35. Keith Olbermann just announced that this is not the case

Folks will not have to pay for their own evacuations.

I'm surprised that is the case but maybe the outcry caused them to rethink their positions.

[Bluebear]

36. Of course it was the outcry.

I don't think they would come up with something so helpful on their own. ;)

[Jo March]

77. True dat

;)

[LibDemAlways]

37. Absolutely outrageous, but what else would we

expect from the bastards who brought us the "doughnut" hole in the Medicare prescription coverage, who've looked the other way while corporate bandits have jacked up fuel prices and robbed people of their pensions, who underfund schools, expect wounded soldiers to pay for their hospital meals, who screwed ordinary people over by changing the bankruptcy rules, who've done nothing to stop outsourcing of American jobs, who refuse to even consider raising the minimum wage while enjoying the generous pay raises they vote themselves, who care not a bit that millions of people in this country have no health insurance and are one paycheck away from personal catastrophe?

Why should we expect anything else from these lowlife bastards? It isn't their asses on the line.

On edit: That it took a big public stink to get them to rethink this, speaks volumes. Cold-hearted, greedy, selfish pigs.

[Julius Civitatus]

38. Not a single civilized country is BILLING its own citizens to be evacuated

from a war zone. This is a neocon wet-dream come true, a libertarian utopic idea put into practice by these capitalistic anarchists residing in the White House. So, what happens to those US citizens that can't pay their way out? This is embarrassing and within the realm of the inhumane.

Just this morning I was reading that France, UK, and Spain not only have sent ships to lebanon to evacuate their citizens, but also to evacuate citizens from other nations, not their own. It's a crisis, it's a war, a desperate situation that calls for selfless humanitarian measures. And desperate situations like this show people are made of. Situations of peril and desperation brings out the villains and the selfless heroes...

We knew from Katrina what these weasels were made of. I even thought they would have learned from that situation. Wishful thinking! Now they are billing US citizens for their own evacuation.

Nauseating.
:puke:

[DanCa]

39. What is the motivation here other than greed.

I can't think of any single good reason to abandon our fellow American's over seas.
Republican greed is beyond redemption and now they dare wield the morality sword against us?
How dare they, how f'ing dare they.
T

[TankLV]

41. Truly a new low for this CRIMINAL administration.

I am beyond disgusted.

God I wish Clinton were still President.

[K8-EEE]

43. Why Don't They Bill Israel?

For making the whole damn country unsafe? No, they bill US. This is ridiculous.

[MasonJar]

44. Well. why not? We charge our soldiers for their meals when they

are in the hospital after being wounded in Iraq.

[MoseyWalker]

47. I'm not certain, but

think they finally stopped that abhorrent practice.

The greed is truly astounding.

[RB TexLa]

46. These are people who paid to go there

not government employees. Weren't they planning to return sometime without the help of the federal government? Where they not planning to pay for their return?

[Bluebear]

48. You're all heart, you know that? nt

[Chulanowa]

49. I'll bet they were planning on there being airstrips at the airports

when they decided to leave.

But it seems that a certain someone has been really thorough in destroying all methods of leaving Lebanon.

[riderinthestorm]

50. You realize their "paid for return" tickets are junk right now?

Right?

These folks are getting a ride to Cyprus, or perhaps Greece. And then they are going to have to pay for their own transport from there. They are going to pay at some point but having to pay to get evacuated from Lebanon or Israel right now to that next hub seems unfair. They have no way to get out unless the government figures out a mass transit system for them.

However method these people thought they were going to get out of there is now moot. The airport is bombed, most roads are bombed (the latest I heard was that only one major road is still open in Beirut and the military has taken it over for their use), docks are getting bombed as we speak....

[RB TexLa]

52. Airlines have worked with me when airports have been snowed in

and when there have been delays due to weather, I didn't realize they just do nothing for you if an airport has been bombed. Thanks, I'll remember that the airlines will work with you for something due to snow but not due to bombing, got it.

[riderinthestorm]

53. The airlines are not going to pay for the cruise ship

They are not going to pay for the transport from Beirut to Athens (for example). They may work with the Americans and their airline tickets from Athens to the US but not before.

The OP was stating that Americans were going to have to pay for their transport to Athens for example. That's just wrong. It's a war-zone and the US rescuing it's citizens from that warzone to a safer point, without demanding IOUs, would seem to be one of the things our government should do for it's citizens. If you don't get it, nothing I'm going to say will change your mind.

[RB TexLa]

55. Sorry, I guess I was confused, I thought you said those tickets were junk

[riderinthestorm]

57. In my opinion, they are junk

I bet the airlines won't honor anything on them. But I'm a cynic and have been screwed by the airlines before. I guess we'll see but I'm not holding my breath.

[progressivebydesign]

67. And how much as our govt spent on the missing girl in Aruba??

That really makes you think...

[Julius Civitatus]

60. Ahem... that's when there is an airport

Beirut's airport has been bombed by Israel. Do you expect these tourists to start flapping their arms real fast so they can get out of harms way?

As they said earlier, you are all heart, dude.


:thumbsdown:

[LostinVA]

76. Oh boy

Get clipped by a truck again or something?

[Name removed]

66. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RB TexLa]

75. no n/t

[dysfunctional press]

51. how much have americans been charged in the past...?

it isn't like this is the first time we've evacuated americans from war-torn foriegn lands...isn't there already a precedent in place?

[shadowknows69]

54. I can't believe I'm about to say this but

remember the good old days of THE COLD WAR!!! When the state department would rush to any citizens aid. All you had to do, if you believed the movies of the time, was fight or sneak your way to an embassy. Ah, the days of mutually assured destruction, bad music and cocaine. I miss em.

[kestrel91316]

56. Here's the deal:

In the eyes of the Bush administration, they're NOT REAL AMERICANS. You see, most of them are Lebanese-Americans. Icky, unkempt, Arab-types. Probably all a bunch of terra-ist wannabes.

So it serves them right to get stuck in a war zone and maybe die along with their children and Grandma and Uncle Habeeb. Why the hell should we REAL Americans pay for those people's problems?

Have I got it about right, you think???

[shadowknows69]

58. Bingo

n/t

[kestrel91316]

59. I have SOOOO got these assholes pegged.

[Nutmegger]

61. This is one of the most sickening things I've read so far

WTF is going on? This is an embarrassment.

[bling bling]

62. This is repulsive. I don't know what else to say. N/T.

[progressivebydesign]

64. Yes freepers, it's true. I officially fucking give up on America.

Ya finally got your dream, I give up.

We're spending BILLIONS a month for what in Iraq?? And these folks are being asked to fucking pay to get out of a situation that the US refuses to help diffuse! Fuck george bush. fuck 'em all.

[zcflint09]

68. disgusting, dispicable, deragatory

Bush and the neo-cons prove once again that they don't giv e a shit about the American peopl,e but only the $$$. Why can't the rest of the nation see that all this man is is a greedy, cheuvanistic pig?

[rman]

69. For-profit evacuation, that's a novelty

Though hardly surprising, given the ever increasing corporate governance.

[Pachamama]

73. The US Treasury is broke...when are people going to understand that?

That's the real reason our citizens are being charged and asked to sign IOU's while every other nation doesn't do that to their citizens as they get evacuated!

When is it going to sink in that every single one of us is signing an IOU daily to this administration and that we will be paying it off with interest for decades to come?

[ChicagoRonin]

74. To whom do we complain?

Though this is one of a myriad of screw-ups and issues to which the administration should be held accountable, we should all still let them know about our displeasure. Anyone genuinely disgusted should start calling all the senators, congressmen and newspeople they can and let them know public sentiment is one of anger. By the way, does anyone know if France or Britain or any other nations are charging evacuees from their countries?