obama sends money to haiti

Originally posted by dadudemon

Also, there are such things as militias and/or private military organizations, you know.

That's incorrect: very strongly incorrect. Not only are there many more lines, but also some of those lines can be stronger than the one established by the government.

facepalm

Originally posted by dadudemon
The opposite is true. Look no further than the events of Katrina. Many private charities and companies were already knee deep in assistance before FEMA even mobilized.

We're talking about foreign aid. In fact, Katrina shouldn't matter to you at all since it was the USG helping US citizens.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Sometimes. However, a private aid organization will be equipped with exactly what they intend to help with, making them a better match. Only when the private organization offers assistance for something it is not equipped to assist with, do we see a deficiency.

No. With the infinite resources of the USG, they can theoretically be equipped for anything, especially since humanitarian relief is a pretty routine function of the US Armed Services. A small organization may be better equipped to handle a situation in X place, but they have nowhere manpower nor supplies to cover a full scale relief effort such as Haiti.

Take Doctors without borders, a respected international organization. They're already in Haiti, and they can provide medical care, but can they provides clean water? digging people out of buildings? air transport? security? food drops? No. They cannot. The USG can provide all these with one centralized command structure

Originally posted by dadudemon
Cool. So, you're telling me that the American people should pay for the military, policing, and security of another nation. Gotcha. Where do I sign up? awesome

Also, there are such things as militias and/or private military organizations, you know.

Yes, I'm sure the good people of Blackwater would love to go to Haiti and provide their emotional support by raping and murdering the Haitian people. Such groups have no accountability. The USG does.

And yes, this is a massive relief effort for a population the size of the entire city of Chicago. Security is essential, especially when the entire Haitian government is in rubble. There are no police, no law. Minimal communications. When you have 3 days to live without water, I'd like to see how long you wait until you turn a gun on someone else while your kids are wasting away.

Apparently you lack a complex understanding of all that takes place in a relief effort.

Originally posted by dadudemon
You're incorrect on both accounts. Not only do they greatly outnumber the government, they are always there, first, before the government. The reasons are many and vary, but one of the main ones would be the lack of red-tape and/or bureaucracy.

They don’t have enough to get them all there immediately. USG Aid programs have very little red tape and bureaucracy. Thats the point. Its damn near instantaneous. And since its one large centralized structure that can do everything from transport to security to recovery to distribution, its far more effective than just sending in a bunch of bits and pieces organizations to make it on their own.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Cool, so a military organization that is built to defend, attack, and patrol, is haphazardly mobilized to fit a function it is not even designed to undertake. And do you wonder why there are problems with coordination and timely response? (You shouldn’t wonder why. It’s obvious.)

And, private organizations have all of those items at their disposal...they just don't have air-craft carriers, Apache's, etc.

Uh....those are the item's I'm talking about. Food drops, moving equipment. Haiti's airport is clogged. The Navy is ferrying ait by see, Helicoptoers have more choices in landing zones. Humvees, ATVs, these are only resources that the military can readily provide in great number, and they're the only ones that can easily GET them there.

Espeically in a country like Haiti that now has no government and poor infrastructure, the military taking over operations at the airport has drastically improved eficiency there, allowing an increased flow of aid and departure of refugees. The military is trained in crowd control. Most aid organizations probably are not.

and haphazardly? The military does this routinely. Thats the point that you're railing against. Remember?

Originally posted by dadudemon
Are you kidding? They still have the same exact "coordination" rules in the sea and in the air. True, that they can get priority traffic for both those modes, but saying they don't have to wait is simply not true. Since they are far more likely to be a day or two behind the private organizations, there will already be people ahead of them anyway. Lol…see what I did there?

You mad a false point based on an assumption? The USG owns their ships, planes, and trucks. Doctors without borders dont have helicopters, they have to fly private companies. That in most cases involved incurring an additional cost, but when Haiti's one airport is in rubble and clogged, good luck getting in right away without the priority of the military..

Originally posted by dadudemon
Because no private person/organization can negotiate? 😆 JK, JK.

They can. The problem is negotation takes longer with someone who is not the USG and with someone who is not dropping you with 100M of aid right off the bat.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Do you remember all the private aid given to the people of Myanmar during that debacle? My point exactly. Governments were constantly shafted and private aid was allowed...due to the political friction that even this golden "negation" you spoke of, wouldn't work.

Hey. Its an exception. It doesn't mean the USG isn't the first best choice. I've never said that private groups are useless, I am demonstrating how the USG is an essential first responder to a disaster. Once the situation is stabilized, private groups easily become the dominant force in providing long term aid. They do however, provide a less effective initial response.

Originally posted by dadudemon
This assumes the very much false idea that no private organization has any sort of connection to another nation.

False. I specifically stated in my first post that private organizations may be established in a nation. However, they would not have an operating force the size of which would be required to deal with a natural disaster, both in terms of equipment or manpower. Giving malaria vaccines is one thing. Digging people out of rubble under gunfire when there is no access to water or roads is another.

Originally posted by dadudemon
On top of that, if one of the private organizations pisses off the nation or another private organization, it is on that private organization.

Yes. Blackwater screwed up but Iraq is actively embracing all other private security firms :/

Originally posted by dadudemon
Incorrect. As fact, the US government is seen as a very corrupt with ulterior motivations, pushy, greedy, PR hungry, etc. etc. etc. Of course, we are not seen “all bad”, but pretty much any idiot knows the US is not perfect by any stretch.

Sorry, I don’t see how the USG is different than any other organization on the planet. Some people are greedy, some are altruistic. They're all a mish-mosh of everything. General Honore really strikes me as a pushy greedy PR hungry bastard. :/ Damn him.

Originally posted by dadudemon
As fact, private organizations spend much more time making a perfect public image and have far greater control over that image. Credibility is definitely one of the top items a private organization has to establish, in addition to nice PR. The private organization is stream-lined for PR and credibility.

Yeah, Red Cross has no bureaucracy whatsoever. lmao. Frankly, who cares? If red cross gives 10M and the USG 100M...

Besides, aid is a wonderful way for the USG to increase its credibility. So why not? Just give up and go home.

Originally posted by dadudemon
To compare a nicely oiled credibility machine to the large, inefficient, sometimes ineffective, US government , is hardly fair. But, to say the US government has more credibility than a private organization is just wrong, dude.

Ok, now you're just engaging in hyperbole.

Originally posted by dadudemon
There's nothing wrong with any of those. And, the small group is more likely to get admission than a large army (literal "army" from the US armed forces) of aid workers. Again, we only have to look back at Myanmar to see that.

A false example for the reasons you previously described. In most disasters (Haiti, Tsunami) it is quite infact the opposite.

Originally posted by dadudemon
In fact, in some places and situations, it's much harder for the military to get in and out of a country than a private citizen: from the individual to the masses.

Yes...book a plane, get diverted to Miami, swim across, walk to Port Au Prince, and then start digging in the rubble with your hands 1 week later.

Besides, if a nation denies the USG, you really think they're going to let a flood of US citizens in? nuh uh. Even Burma did not do that.

Originally posted by dadudemon
But, a smaller organization or private individual has a much higher chance of getting in just about anywhere.

Yeah, just like I have a better chance of bringing water to the moon than using the existing giant infrastructure that is NASA

Originally posted by dadudemon
So, pretty much all of your points are plainly incorrect, or give the US government too much credit and the private sector almost no credit. In fact, looking over you post, it does not appear that you were soundly correct on any of your points.

LMAO. Not in your fantasy land maybe. Though since I hate having to write a paper every time to respond to a post, let me clearly state my main point.

Private aid organizations have a place in providing aid after a natural disaster, but they are better at long term, slowly developing, or small situations when their limited manpower and resources can be best tailored to a specific situation. However, in a the immediate, crisis response to a large scale disaster, only the USG has the 1. Instant monetary resources, 2. Immediate access to the equipment and manpower to cover ALL aspects of a relief effort, and 3. The existing relationship to work with a government on all levels.

Now, how you can turn a simple 12 line response into a karking 5 page one is ridiculous. Please be concise and on topic, because I don’t have time to write more of these. Goddamnit it was even too long to post as one post .
hang

and now the US is inviting the citizens of haiti to come to the states living off of our taxes. what do you say to that ?

who cares. highly doubt you wont be able to buy what you want next week because of the 2 dollars youre losing in taxes to help them.

Originally posted by chomperx9
and now the US is inviting the citizens of haiti to come to the states living off of our taxes. what do you say to that ?

I honestly don't like the idea, even though it's clearly meant to be temporary. Haiti probably needs able bodied people more than the US does anyway.

Originally posted by Ms.Marvel
who cares. highly doubt you wont be able to buy what you want next week because of the 2 dollars youre losing in taxes to help them.

Two dollars here, two dollars there pretty soon it's be four dollars. Can you understand the level of personal loss involved in that? FOUR DOLLARS! And for what, to help save a few thousand people? Those aren't the sorts of values America wants to project.

If only Ron Paul had been made God King President, Blackwater would have sponsored trips to take pot shots at the Hatians and we might be making money off of this.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I honestly don't like the idea, even though it's clearly meant to be temporary. Haiti probably needs able bodied people more than the US does anyway.

Two dollars here, two dollars there pretty soon it's be four dollars. Can you understand the level of personal loss involved in that? FOUR DOLLARS! And for what, to help save a few thousand people? Those aren't the sorts of values America wants to project.

If only Ron Paul had been made God King President, Blackwater would have sponsored trips to take pot shots at the Hatians and we might be making money off of this.

Originally posted by chomperx9
at times like this i dont believe the word temporary. i bet you a 100 bucks they are gonna stay here permenant

Why? It's not as though Haitians will particularly want to stay in a country with fewer jobs opportunities than their own, where they're not fluent in the language and every other person they meet will hate them for being black, French-speaking, poor or foreign.

Rebuilding an capital city is big money, Haitians will want to participate in that for the jobs and obvious emotional reasons.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
Why? It's not as though Haitians will particularly want to stay in a country with fewer jobs opportunities than their own, where they're not fluent in the language and every other person they meet will hate them for being black, French-speaking, poor or foreign.

Rebuilding an capital city is big money, Haitians will want to participate in that for the jobs and obvious emotional reasons.

they should send em to france since they speak french. or canada maybe

Originally posted by chomperx9
many others that come here they want to stay for good. we get 100s of river jumpers a day.

They generally think there will be work. For Haitains there will soon be more work in their own country than there is here.

I still don't think the US should be spending money to bring them to the US and support them. Help rebuild the country, fine, but picking up their population is overkill.

Originally posted by chomperx9
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100116/ts_alt_afp/haitiquakeaidusobamabushclinton_20100116173918

yeah the president can always send me to other countries to help out. but they always forget which country they were elected in. as in how come they cant ever send money to families here who are poor or and that have no homes or cant afford hospitals.

yes i know its nice to help out others. but we do it to much to everyone else and we never get anything in return except for a thank you.

when was the last time a country sent us money for katrina or something big happening here ?

A generous heart doesn't ask these questions. If you need any reminding of how much people care about one another or how much other countries appreciate America, just think back to the worlds response towards America after 9/11.

Many countries aid and support America. Other countries can't help America with it's poverty and economy because that's the responsibilities of each countries government. As for Katrina...,that's entirely different matter. America did not need the help of other countries to clean that mess up. We (our government) didn't step up to task.

Originally posted by Ordo
We're talking about foreign aid. In fact, Katrina shouldn't matter to you at all since it was the USG helping US citizens.

We were talking about the ability to respond, so, obviously, Katrina applies.

Not only does it apply, it further solidifies the point of how slow the US is. If we perform that crappy, domestically, why would it be super fast, foreign?

To Obama's credit, he's doing a great job with this. More on this in another post.

Originally posted by Ordo
No. With the infinite resources of the USG, they can theoretically be equipped for anything, especially since humanitarian relief is a pretty routine function of the US Armed Services. A small organization may be better equipped to handle a situation in X place, but they have nowhere manpower nor supplies to cover a full scale relief effort such as Haiti.

1. The US did not have $100 million to give. In fact, we are in the hole.

2. You're speculating on something that would take lots of time: being equipped with everything is not very helpful when you have about 2-3 days to save the majority of people from death.

3. You're incorrect about Haiti. Not only could the entire operation be handled privately, most of the efforts in the first 24-48 hours were handled by private disaster orgs...because, get this, private orgs are much faster at responding than the government, have the appropriate resources to do so, and are much better at doing it than the USG.

4. I do agree that the USG is better at amassing resources, long term. In fact, the USG should be involved, on some level, in rebuilding another nation after it experiences a natural disaster (IF needed): be it in the form of contracts or working on getting private organizations into the country to assist in cleaning or rebuilding.

Originally posted by Ordo
Take Doctors without borders, a respected international organization. They're already in Haiti, and they can provide medical care, but can they provides clean water? digging people out of buildings? air transport? security? food drops? No. They cannot. The USG can provide all these with one centralized command structure

Isn't it great that DwB is not the only organization that will provide aid.

The comparison you just did is like saying, "I will not shop at Wal-mart because they do not have toilet paper in the bakery section."

It makes no sense. There's plenty of other places to go get toilet paper, even outside of Wal-mart.

And, the majority of "digging out of buildings" is occurring with the citizens of Haiti and volunteers from other nations.

Air transport is being done almost completely by private corporations.

Security? Ha!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011802010.html

That was just the first hit for security in Haiti. I'm sure you can find more.

Clean water for Haiti, huh?

That's being done almost entirely by private organizations. Just type in "clean water in haiti" and see what you get.

So, in other words, every single one of your points is wrong.

Originally posted by Ordo
Yes, I'm sure the good people of Blackwater would love to go to Haiti and provide their emotional support by raping and murdering the Haitian people. Such groups have no accountability. The USG does.

Because the US armed forces have never murdered or raped while in other countries (and certainly not recently...okay, I can't hold it back....they have, and in much larger numbers than any other domestic military organization. The military contractors actually have to "behave" in ways the US government does as they would lose their contract rather quickly. On the same token, they can do things the the US armed forces cannot.), and there is not other organization available besides Blackwater; and blackwater has lost all credibility which is why they aren't being used anymore in foreign military operations.

And, if you didn't know, all of those were sarcasm.

Originally posted by Ordo
And yes, this is a massive relief effort for a population the size of the entire city of Chicago. Security is essential, especially when the entire Haitian government is in rubble. There are no police, no law. Minimal communications. When you have 3 days to live without water, I'd like to see how long you wait until you turn a gun on someone else while your kids are wasting away.

The Haitian government is not in rubble, metaphorically or actually. A building is not the "government", the people that make up the government are the government.

If there are no communications, why are there so many phone calls being placed to locations outside the country, internet is being used in some locations, etc.? I was rather shocked at how much actual communication was taking place, despite the earthquakes.

Also, I'm a Mormon: I have a 2+ week supply of water and a 72-hour food emergency kit for every single one of my family members. This does not include the additional dried and canned goods I have for "living" for well beyond 2 weeks. The food is cycled out and replaced on a regular basis, to prevent it from going stale (we've never had to actually use it, but we came close when there was a 3 inch sheet of ice all over the place, during the Christmas break.) How long would that last out looters? As long as I could keep it a secret. 😄

And, there are police, and there is law. It may not be enforced nearly as well as before, but all of the police, supervision, etc. didn't all die in the earthquake. In fact, very few of them did. 😬

Originally posted by Ordo
They don’t have enough to get them all there immediately. USG Aid programs have very little red tape and bureaucracy. Thats the point. Its damn near instantaneous. And since its one large centralized structure that can do everything from transport to security to recovery to distribution, its far more effective than just sending in a bunch of bits and pieces organizations to make it on their own.

Ah, so, first you make the argument that the USG would be better since they can do the diplomacy thing much more effectively...but now there's less red tape implying no need for the USG to begin with (when it comes to diplomacy, obviously)? It would appear that you've talked yourself in a circle.

And, the rest of that point has already been disassembled throughout this post and the previous one. If what you said about this "speed" and centralized command structure were even true, then why is the USG always a few days behind all of those private locations, do not nearly equal the numbers of the volunteers, etc.?

Originally posted by Ordo
Uh....those are the item's I'm talking about. Food drops, moving equipment. Haiti's airport is clogged. The Navy is ferrying ait by see, Helicoptoers have more choices in landing zones. Humvees, ATVs, these are only resources that the military can readily provide in great number, and they're the only ones that can easily GET them there.

Don't you wish that they could just respond faster and in far greater numbers, then?

Don't you also wish that the majority of the aid efforts were coming from the military and USG in general?

It's not that you're wrong about those items being useful, it's just that the situation is not as "the USG is saving the day" as you think it is.

Originally posted by Ordo
Espeically in a country like Haiti that now has no government and poor infrastructure, the military taking over operations at the airport has drastically improved eficiency there, allowing an increased flow of aid and departure of refugees. The military is trained in crowd control. Most aid organizations probably are not.

We already covered this "no government" idea...

And, it wasn't the military taking over the operations of the airport that improved efficiency there, it was the volunteers from the Air Traffic Organization in the Federal Aviation Administration (part of the DOT) that improved air traffic operations.

And crowd control could be a concern, but that's not the only concern or even close to being a primary concern.

So, you are wrong on all but the last of the sentences in that post.

Originally posted by Ordo
and haphazardly? The military does this routinely. Thats the point that you're railing against. Remember?

Riiiiiight. The military does this routinely. Dude, really...come on.

Now, had you said the national guard, we may have a different story...however, that's STILL not a routine operation of the National Guard. What do you think the NG does when they do their annual training? It certainly isn't figuring out the best ways to ferry clean water and food for Caribbean Island dwellers.

The idea that the military routinely does disaster recovery and disaster aid is very silly.

Posted by Ordo
You mad a false point based on an assumption? The USG owns their ships, planes, and trucks. Doctors without borders dont have helicopters, they have to fly private companies. That in most cases involved incurring an additional cost, but when Haiti's one airport is in rubble and clogged, good luck getting in right away without the priority of the military..

No offense, dude, but you really have no clue what you're talking about.

You just can't leave planes in the air, circling the airport until all military within range have landed. A higher priority in air-traffic doesn't mean that they land first with no delays: it means that they are cleared to land ahead of other planes that very safely delay their landing, and it requires that the air traffic be properly coordinated around the airport to prevent collisions. On top of this, larger planes, and some planes assigned high priorities due to payload, may get pushed ahead of military planes. On top of this, even military aircraft on priority would have to get in line of other priority aircraft. I don't know what the actual air traffic data is, but I can quite easily assume a higher military priority would put it ahead of 2 or 3 commercial only planes, at best. However, with similar payloads (aid), the military craft would not have any higher priority. In fact, I don't see why any aircraft would actually have higher priority just because they are military: I didn't hear or read about any pressing military matters that needed an ASAP.

Posted by Ordo
They can. The problem is negotation takes longer with someone who is not the USG and with someone who is not dropping you with 100M of aid right off the bat.

That's not true a majority of the time, though. This is just one of the reasons why private orgs. get down and dirty right after a disaster and start the recovery process sometimes days before the USG shows up. This point is just silly to argue in the first place.

Posted by Ordo
Hey. Its an exception. It doesn't mean the USG isn't the first best choice. I've never said that private groups are useless, I am demonstrating how the USG is an essential first responder to a disaster. Once the situation is stabilized, private groups easily become the dominant force in providing long term aid. They do however, provide a less effective initial response.

1. The US having trouble getting aid into another nation (military operations) is the norm, not the exception. There's always some sort of red tape/bureaucracy that has to take place. The US is quite conditional on their support.

2. The US is NEVER a "first responder" in any natural disaster.

3. Where do you come up with these things? The private aid groups (collectively) are the dominant force before during and after disaster aid. Get this, during the Katrina debacle, my employer had more people providing disaster aid than the USG had military personnel. We had relief tents setup several days before the National Guard was even announced to show up. That was just my employer, alone. There were much larger private groups there, and many many more. That's just one example. This Haiti disaster is even bigger than Katrina (as far as private volunteerism goes.)

Posted by Ordo
False. I specifically stated in my first post that private organizations may be established in a nation. However, they would not have an operating force the size of which would be required to deal with a natural disaster, both in terms of equipment or manpower. Giving malaria vaccines is one thing. Digging people out of rubble under gunfire when there is no access to water or roads is another.

Cool...but the section that I replied to had you going on about how well connected the USG is, and one centralized line, etc. etc. etc. The implied is that the private participants either:

a: don't have that at all.

or

b: Their influential connections are too small to make a significant impact...making them virtually impotent compared to the USG...which really means point a.

So, you can play a word dance or pretend there's some word semantics to be argued, but that's not happening.

And, private efforts greatly eclipse the manpower the USG provides during natural disasters. In many efforts, even equipment greatly eclipses the USG's.

And now the private volunteers, which greatly outnumber the military personnel, are now under fire? Odd.

I asked my classmate about that (cause he was deployed with part of his battalion was to Katrina.) Guess what? The military personnel were the ones being attacked the most. Some of the guardsmen got to dress down because they were far less likely to be attacked...by looney's on roofs. Go figure, right?

Posted by Ordo
Yes. Blackwater screwed up but Iraq is actively embracing all other private security firms :/

You jest, but, yup, that's pretty much how it is. You do know that there are over 100,000 military contractors being used for Iraq, right? That's hardly scoffing or turning away military contractors.

Posted by Ordo
Sorry, I don’t see how the USG is different than any other organization on the planet. Some people are greedy, some are altruistic. They're all a mish-mosh of everything. General Honore really strikes me as a pushy greedy PR hungry bastard. :/ Damn him.

Thaaaaat's a strawman. We were talking about the USG, not other nations.

Also, you're more than old enough to realize that the USG is not all righteous and pure of heart. Sure, that happens from other nations as well, it's just that the US wields a much larger influential arm and is, therefore, gets ample opportunity to piss people off with ulterior motives and "attachments" to assistance and aid.

Posted by Ordo
Yeah, Red Cross has no bureaucracy whatsoever. lmao. Frankly, who cares? If red cross gives 10M and the USG 100M...

There are several things wrong with what you said, there:

1. I wasn't referring specifically to the red cross, obviously.

2. The Bureaucracy of the Red Cross doesn't even come close to even remotely comparing to that of the USG.

3. $10 million from a private organization would be huge compared to the money volume and borrowing that the USG does. $100 million doesn't come close to $10 million dollars (relative to revenue traffic) from any single wholly private organization.

4. Nothing you replied with actually addresses what I said.

Posted by Ordo
Besides, aid is a wonderful way for the USG to increase its credibility. So why not? Just give up and go home.

I think you're confusing "credibility" with "power and influence."

And, I've been home almost this whole time.

Posted by Ordo
Ok, now you're just engaging in hyperbole.

I dare you to create a scientific poll that compares Google's efficiency, efficacy on their actions, and credibility to that of the USG's, I wonder what you'd come up with?

That's just an example of many you could do. You could try it with Kraft Foods, Proctor and Gamble, Disney, etc. etc. etc.

Hyperbole, it is not. The hyperbole would be thinking that the USG is efficient, effective, and has loads of credibility.

Posted by Ordo
A false example for the reasons you previously described. In most disasters (Haiti, Tsunami) it is quite infact the opposite.

So, you're replaying by saying, "nuh uhhhh!"?

And, it's not a false example. It doesn't even come close to being a false example. In order for it to be a false example, it'd have to be wrong. That was simply not the case. Calling a very nice recent example that inexorably makes your wrong, false, (and you and I both know it), does not make it false.

The point still stands as a very stark example of why you were wrong.

Posted by Ordo
Yes...book a plane, get diverted to Miami, swim across, walk to Port Au Prince, and then start digging in the rubble with your hands 1 week later.

This is another strawman that doesn't in any way actually address what I said. It doesn't even attempt to refute what I said. It's completely unrelated.

Posted by Ordo
Besides, if a nation denies the USG, you really think they're going to let a flood of US citizens in? nuh uh. Even Burma did not do that.

1. I never said that would do that.

2. Compared to no military-based aid, any amount of US citizens being let in would be a, comparatively, a flood.

3. Yes they certainly would let a lot of volunteer citizens and aid in, especially if they checked out as legit.

4. There were quite a few private volunteers in burma. In fact, it was infinitely easier for the friggin' press to get in than the military aid. 😬

5. You're making another strawman argument with the "US citizen" point. If my point was always "US Citizen private volunteers" that's what I would have posted. It's not what I've been talking about. I've been saying "private volunteers" for a reason: they are not just limited to the all righteous and benevolent US.

Posted by Ordo
Yeah, just like I have a better chance of bringing water to the moon than using the existing giant infrastructure that is NASA

You couldn't have used a worse example (k, you might have...but NASA is pretty close to being the worst example). NASA is under quite a large effort to privatize many of their operations. In fact, they are working hard to prop-up some sort of private industry around space technology/exploration. Don't you watch Discovery? hahahaha

In other news, (it's not new...but still important), Obama and co are pushing efforts to get some help (donations) from private industry/people to assist in Haiti. Man o' man, do I love eating my words when it comes to something like this. I couldn't have asked for something better than this, other than a permanent and untouchable fund (untouchable for anything other than disaster aid). This is just great. I gained a new respect for Obama after reading this. I'm glad he's working to encourage the private sector to assist, instead of pledging more government money to Haiti.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/world/americas/17prexy.html?hp

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Originally posted by kangyu
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Originally posted by dadudemon
In other news, (it's not new...but still important), Obama and co are pushing efforts to get some help (donations) from private industry/people to assist in Haiti. Man o' man, do I love eating my words when it comes to something like this. I couldn't have asked for something better than this, other than a permanent and untouchable fund (untouchable for anything other than disaster aid). This is just great. I gained a new respect for Obama after reading this. I'm glad he's working to encourage the private sector to assist, instead of pledging more government money to Haiti.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/world/americas/17prexy.html?hp

There is no more government money. 😂

Originally posted by chomperx9
they should send em to... canada maybe

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
Don't give them any ideas.

we've already said we are taking in refugees and families

Originally posted by inimalist
we've already said we are taking in refugees and families