Haiti & George W Bush -- Thom Hartmann

[Bozita]

From Thom's daily email:

Haiti & George W Bush

Yesterday, following the tragic earthquake in Haiti, the conservative Heritage Foundation suggested that "President Obama...reach out to a senior Republican figure, perhaps former President George W. Bush, to lead the bipartisan effort" to assist the beleaguered Caribbean country. Indeed, it is now being reported that Obama has asked the former Republican president to join with U.N. special envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton to raise funds for the nation. What a great idea. Maybe Bush will bring along with him Condi Rice, who was shopping for shoes in New York while people died in New Orleans, or Brownie, who did such a heck of a job, or John McCain, whose birthday party Bush attended while people were drowning in New Orleans? Isn't this a bit like asking the underwear bomber to head up a fundraising program for airport security? Some people are speculating that Bush will turn down the offer specifically because he's concerned his involvement will remind people of the thousands of people he let die in New Orleans and surrounding areas.

-Thom

[Dappleganger]

1. It's highly appropriate for him to be forced

to go and clean up at least a small part of his fucking mess.

[Blue Owl]

4. Inconvenience the little prick

It's about time someone did.

[gateley]

2. I hadn't realized this was the Heritage Foundation's suggestion. And we don't

need to "be reminded" about the people he let die In NO -- we'll never forget.

[AuntPatsy]

17. I didn't know either, now my reply to will makes me feel somewhat surer of my reply to his

thread...very interesting that he would even consider any suggestion from them, I don't like that bit of knowledge, perhaps that is where the big gun is hiding....proof at least to myself that operation cleansing of the bush name has begun in ernest for 2012 and you are right, "we" will never forget, though the media will aid in this cleansing with as always march in step preworded programming for the deaf dumb and blind....

[hughee99]

3. When trying to raise money for stuff like this...

it is helpful to have people from both sides involved. * will be able to raise money from places that Clinton will not, and vice versa. If the goal is to raise money for the Haitian people, this will help. If the goal is to work in some political agenda or statement, this isn't the place for that.

[lurky]

5. My impression was that Bush and the neocons were behind the coup:

You know the one against Aristede in the early 2000's. Unfortunately, we were all so wrapped up in post 9/11 drama that nobody really paid it much attention.

I would say something about seeing the bloody results of his policies, but I'm sure he is incapable of that kind of reflection.

[starroute]

12. The International Republican Institute was up to its neck in that coup

And that's John McCain and his pals, not the Neocons.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/07/16/haiti_coup/print.html

Jul. 17, 2004 | On Feb. 8, 2001, the federally funded International Republican Institute's (IRI) senior program officer for Haiti, Stanley Lucas, appeared on the Haitian station Radio Tropicale to suggest three strategies for vanquishing Haiti's president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. First, Lucas proposed forcing Aristide to accept early elections and be voted out; second, he could be charged with corruption and arrested; and finally, Lucas raised dealing with Aristide the way the Congolese people had dealt with President Laurent Kabila the month before. "You did see what happened to Kabila?" Lucas asked his audience.

Kabila had been assassinated.

IRI's communications director, Thayer Scott, in an interview with Salon, characterized Lucas' radio remarks as "a comparative analysis of countries that embrace democracy and those that do not."

Whatever the case, Lucas and IRI, a nonprofit political group backed by powerful Republicans close to the Bush administration, did more than talk. Throughout the last six years, IRI, whose stated mission is to "promote the practice of democracy" abroad, conducted a $3 million party-building program in Haiti, training Aristide's political opponents, uniting them into a single bloc and, according to a former U.S. ambassador there, encouraging them to reject internationally sanctioned power-sharing agreements in order to heighten Haiti's political crisis. Moreover, Lucas' controversial personal background and his ties to Haitian opposition figures with violent histories -- including some who participated in a coup against Aristide in February -- raise questions about whether IRI's Haiti program violated its own guidelines and those of its funders.

[GeorgeGist]

6. I don't think can * buy his way out of Hell ...

but I hope he tries.

[Jane Austin]

7. So sour.

I can think of all kinds of things to say about helping Haiti right now without getting sour like that quote is.

What a waste of emotion at a time like this.

[babylonsister]

9. I agree. Everyone should be working together on this and not

politicize every last thing that happens.

[Mithreal]

14. The op is an excerpt

[Mithreal]

22. I was wrong, thought it was an excerpt from what he said on the air.

[Number23]

11. "What a waste of emotion at a time like this."

I could not agree more. At times like this, it is very easy to tell the "activists," and the "humanitarians" from those who simply want to play politics with everything.

[Mithreal]

15. Hartmann talked about not playing politics with this

and supported Obama asking Bush.

There is nothing wrong with putting a story in context.

[Mithreal]

13. Hartmann had much more to say about this than the op indicates

He clearly stated he is in favor of Obama asking Bush to assist.

[Jane Austin]

19. Then why all the sarcastic details? ............ n/t

[Mithreal]

21. I stand corrected. It appears Hartmann posted this paragraph separately

I listened to the show and this paragraph sounded so much like what he said on the radio I couldn't imagine he posted it separately from what else he said.

He thoroughly explained his position on the air.

[AuntPatsy]

23. Then I don't agree...I guess I did not read it all...bad habit that I need to break when time is of

value

[Mithreal]

25. I stand corrected, he posted this paragraph separately

It sounded exactly like what he said on the radio show so I thought it must have been an excerpt. Ugh, sorry about that. He did thoroughly explain his position on the show though, that is still true.

[AuntPatsy]

18. It is not a waste of emotion, one can still aid in Haiti and yet be able to ensure

they keep their eyes open because if anything is allowed to progress unseen, you can be sure, more Haiti's , Katrina's etc will become almost common place...

Would you not agree that one needs to be able to realize why the destruction was as bad as it was? There are obvious reasons, horrifying reasons, they cannot nor should be ignored or such horrors will continue only they will be on different shores and with different names and different faces being the victims...

Having some keep their eyes open and their voices loud enough will help to ensure that those listening, the guilty ones, will realize the reasons are not going to be washed away nor stored indefinitely in favor of good pr is not a wasted emotion nor a waste of our time...

we must not forget that our own infrastructure is at a dangerous level of a break down being catastrophic on our own very shores, the amount of funds needed to repair our countries infrastructure is astronomical and the present money lenders have no wish to waste their valuable future living expenses on such trivial matters as fixing these structures that if allowed to continue to deteriorate will ensure many many more catastrophic events depending on the unexplainable addition of our much misunderstood and every changing mother earth..

For what it is worth, NO;s levees have yet to be fixed...

[Jane Austin]

20. OK,

but why all the negativism?

[AuntPatsy]

26. I did not read the full link, I do not agree that asking bush for anything is a good idea...

The man needs to pay for his crimes in the justice system, not within the good will the people area, to be honest, I am disgusted by the hypocrisy of it all and as I have stated, this country is in shambles and far too many are completely unaware of the many dangers so many of us face inside our own borders with our bridges, levees, buildings etc being nothing more than a catastrophe waiting to happen...

It is a good time to realize that what happened to the people in Haiti and Katrina can easily happen in other parts not only of this world but insider our own borders....

You would be shocked how little man power is delegated to even subjecting most of our much used infrastructure to inspections never mind the ones that have gotten inspected being ignored as to the dangers...

[Mithreal]

27. I screwed up. That was the full link. I thought for sure it was excerpted from the show.

[Jane Austin]

28. "You would be shocked how little man power is delegated

to even subjecting most of our much used infrastructure . . . ."

I would? You must be assuming that I am uninformed and that I do not watch The Rachel Maddow Show faithfully each night.

Any such assumptions would be incorrect.

[glitch]

8. Very interesting in light of what the Heritage Foundation had up on their website, before it was

replaced:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/14/naomi_klein_issues_haiti_disaster_capitalism

"NAOMI KLEIN: But as I write about in The Shock Doctrine, crises are often used now as the pretext for pushing through policies that you cannot push through under times of stability. Countries in periods of extreme crisis are desperate for any kind of aid, any kind of money, and are not in a position to negotiate fairly the terms of that exchange.

And I just want to pause for a second and read you something, which is pretty extraordinary. I just put this up on my website, http://www.naomiklein.org/. The headline is “Haiti: Stop Them Before They Shock Again.” This went up a few hours ago, three hours ago, I believe, on the Heritage Foundation website, http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/13/amidst-the-suffering-crisis-in-haiti-offers-opportunities-to-the-u-s/.

“Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S. In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the image of the United States in the region.” And then goes on.

Now, I don’t know whether things are improving or not, because it took the Heritage Foundation thirteen days before they issued thirty-two free market solutions for Hurricane Katrina. We put that document up on our website, as well. It was close down the housing projects, turn the Gulf Coast into a tax-free free enterprise zone, get rid of the labor laws that forces contractors to pay a living wage. Yeah, so it took them thirteen days before they did that in the case of Katrina. In the case of Haiti, they didn’t even wait twenty-four hours."

More at links. Yeah, I know. How "tasteless" to bring up their behavior when Haiti is in crisis. Too bad disasters happen to be the time when they make their moves.

[sad sally]

10. During the Bush Presidency, the US gave Haiti

$4.5 million in 2004 after their political demonstrations, while in 2008 with a reported 2.5 million people starving in Haiti, the US gave them $150,000. It's right that the former presidents help raise money for Haiti's overwhelming needs at this time, let's just hope Bush does more than a fly-over.

[Octafish]

16. The underwear bomber IS heading up a fundraising program for airport security.

Thom is TOPS!

So is Bozita!

[Mithreal]

24. I misinformed people. Apologies for that.

I thought I was certain this was an excerpt from what he said on the show.