TheAgitator.com
Good Question
Sunday, January 17th, 2010Why the goddamn hell is Barack Obama writing the cover story for next week’s Newsweek? He doesn’t know anything about Haiti outside of what his aides may have told him. He won’t even write it! If the piece is worth publishing, Newsweek should give the byline to its true author.
And this is just one more reason I WONT be renewing NEWSWEEK…it was once an OK mag for a good roundup of the weeks news,but since their re-design they’ve become unreadable.
From the article: Keep in mind that Shah has been USAID administrator all of one week.
Well, shit. They have to write it now. If they wait, there might not be anything good to say about him.
Have they declared “Mission Accomplished” yet? Every time I turn on the news, I see some top American official talking about Haiti. It’s just like when some criminal turns himself in and ten different law enforcement agencies get together for a press conference where they spend fifteen seconds announcing the news and 30 minutes patting each other on the back.
I sometimes think politicians sit around at the office playing cards just passing time until the next crisis occurs so they can claim to have saved the world no matter what the outcome is of their efforts.
I suppose saving lives in Haiti is at least a lot better than their last attempt to rescue thousands of people (you know, where they “liberated” a bunch of people in Iraq by killing them?).
In the same vein, I wonder why the hell Hillary felt she had to go there now. The resources eaten in dealing with her would’ve been better used helping the Haitians.
It’s all about raising money and, more importantly, taking credit for distributing it. I hate to be the cynic, but that’s the motivation behind Obama’s Haiti interest (and most other politicians for that matter).
Donating money to the government’s Haiti relief is like giving a $100 bill to a homeless guy at the highway overpass. You have no way of guiding how it will be spent and there’s a good chance it will go to booze, porn, and drugs.
The government is no different from the homeless drug and porn addict – sometimes quite literally (remember all those FEMA debit cards during Katrina?). Even in its better cases, the layers of government bureaucracy will dilute your donation so much that only pennies on the dollar make it there. And with Obama’s silly and naive worldviews, there’s a good chance that he’ll simply turn the US aid checks over to the corrupt politicians of Haiti, which will spend it on themselves.
If you feel like donating to Haiti, and by all means I encourage you to do so, go out and do the exact opposite of what Obama tells you. Buy blankets, tents, pillows, and the like and donate it to a reputable PRIVATE charity.
…and donate it to a reputable PRIVATE charity.
And, to be sure, Wyclef Jean and Yéle Haiti (Yele.ORG) are definitely NOT one:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0114102wyclef1.html
The thing that is really bugging me about that Post article is that it describes in minute detail how how great of a job Rajiv Shah is doing and how fantastic colleagues believe him to be without ever saying anything he’s actually done.
DC is hype. It’s a hype sorta town. There’s a reason the rest of us in the flyovers states get quesy thinking about it. Massive circlejerk, the whole town. Huge circlejerk.
Self-obsession.
DC is a giant circlejerk.
This bit of masturbation doesn’t hurt anyone. I think the Haiti response has actually been pretty good.
maybe obama’s just taking newsweek for a test drive before he buys it and saves the media industry…
@3,
Come now, you know why Hillary went there – for the 5 minutes of TV coverage.
I don’t want to be the disagreeable guy, but he is, you know, the President. The guy in charge of foreign policy and ultimately the guy responsible for the relief efforts of the US. It’s not like his thoughts on the crisis are irrelevant.
If it is, in fact, largely written by his aides and he only looked over it and OK’d it, that should be made clear, but dismissing him out of hand for writing a piece on Haiti in Newsweek is pretty juvenile, IMHO.
looks like obama’s gonna take newsweek for a test drive before he settles in to saving the media industry.
oops- sorry about babbling the same thing twice!
I guess he’s working on a Pulitzer Prize to go alongside his Nobel.
Why doesn’t Patterico fight these battles? He does not seem to care if innocent people go to prison or even get the death penalty. I would welcome Patterico attacking Martha Coakley’s prosecutorial record. Patterico massive ego and intellect would clearly be no match for some Democratic party hack. But Patterico does not care about that, he would rather go nuts on whether some other blogger made a racial statement more than 10 years ago (but he does get a reader poll to back it up), or banning bloggers over made up death threats by his own henchbitch readers, or attack Radley over reporting the cops getting hoighty about having their parking rights challenged.
Good question? More like a petty one. Here’s how Newsweek editor Jon Meacham responded to the criticism:
“We’ve published Ronald Reagan and John McCain, and we invited George W. Bush to write in our pages. The occasion for the Obama essay is an international tragedy with humanitarian and political implications. There is nothing partisan about the rescue and relief efforts (Rush Limbaugh disagrees, but I think most reasonable people would agree with my view, not his), and the coming debate over the extent of our rebuilding efforts is one that will shaped by the President. Hearing him on our national interests in Haiti is a way to add value for Newsweek’s readers and, we hope, to inform the debate about what will inevitably be a long and costly undertaking in one of the world’s most blighted countries.”
http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0110/Meacham_defends_Obama_piece_Nothing_partisan_about_rescue_and_relief_efforts.html
To be fair, Bush and Clinton wrote article defending their policies. But aid to Haiti is not exactly controversial outside of Rush Limbaugh’s studio. This isn’t a case where the President needs to persuade anyone; it’s a case where he wants to look kind and erudite and Newsweek has obliged him.
On the flip side of Haiti disaster news, when the Belgian U.N. medical crew abandoned a field hospital full of patients, CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta stepped up, being the only MD in sight.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/16/haiti.abandoned.patients/index.html
I’m normally loathe to attribute anything to CNN, but that’s pretty amazing.
Couldn’t care less, you know.
What’s this Newsweek you speak of?
I’m inferring that it’s part of the mainstream media.
There are people who still read the mainstream media?
People worth associating with?
What a freaking waste of 0′s and 1′s this thread is.
Cynical in CA “What a freaking waste of 0’s and 1’s this thread is”
I gave you a 1 for that!
@Boyd: You might not care, but regardless of whether you care or not, he is still the President, the most powerful man in the world. You can not care all day long if you want, but that still doesn’t mean that what he thinks carries no weight.
I bet Jack Shafer thinks that Bill Ayers wrote everything attributed to Obama up to this point and Obama is just a guy who was born in Kenya and can only read a teleprompter.
I bet Jack Shafer thinks that Bill Ayers wrote everything attributed to Obama up to this point and Obama is just a guy who was born in Kenya and can only read a teleprompter.
I’m certain Shafer thinks none of those things. It’s pretty common knowledge that D.C. politicians rarely write their own op-eds, speeches, or articles.
I hate to break it to you but many of the private charities, even the supposedly reputable ones, aren’t any better than USAID (at least in Haiti – I can’t speak to other countries).
With friends like the US, Haiti needs no enemies.
The best thing that could happen for Haiti is for the world to forget they exist. Give them 1000 years of alone time to figure things out for themselves.
It has been US intervention after intervention, US-authored coup after coup, US loan sharking on top of loan sharking for the last 250 years in Haiti. The results speak for themselves.
Just leave them alone already.
“With friends like the US, Haiti needs no enemies.
The best thing that could happen for Haiti is for the world to forget they exist. Give them 1000 years of alone time to figure things out for themselves.
It has been US intervention after intervention, US-authored coup after coup, US loan sharking on top of loan sharking for the last 250 years in Haiti. The results speak for themselves.
Just leave them alone already.”
Exactly. It’s the whole “give a man a fish” deal blown up to an international scale. I’m fine with private donations to whatever charities (obviously our government shouldn’t be sending a damn cent…they’re in enough trouble with money already). If people want to send their cash to line the pockets of some Haitian “official” or other thug, that’s their call. However, I agree that the best thing that the world could do for Haiti is leave them alone, stop giving them handouts, and see if they can survive.
You guys are some of the most ignored ass sons of bitches I have ever encountered. I hope you don’t call yourselves Christian’s because if you are there is a special place in hell with your name on it. I hope God shows mercy on your sole for your heartlessness and your inability to show compassion. Why aren’t you praying for the President and the people in Haiti? Never mind I have my answer you all are pathetic and ignorant. Are you just pissed that you have a black man in command that is far more intelligent then any of you retarded ass people. Get over and deal with it you bigots.