I do title work for a mom 'n pop title company whose son lives in Sendai, Japan. They have always spoken of its beauty, have visited there a few times, and always bring me back a samurai sword letter opener. I am afraid to ask if they've heard from their son, but I hope he is OK. LV Congressman Charlie Dent (PA-15) issued the following statement on the magnitude 8.9 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan earlier today:
“My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan, who have experienced the incredibly destructive and unpredictable power of nature. The widespread loss of life following today’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami is shocking and heartbreaking. Once a bitter enemy and powerful economic rival, the nation of Japan has become a crucial ally and close friend to the United States. As the President stated earlier this morning, our nation will provide critical support in what will certainly be a complex and difficult recovery effort.
“Thankfully, it appears American states and territories in the Pacific will not experience the devastating effect of a significant tsunami. Reports have indicated local communities, state governments and federal agencies were well prepared for a potential disaster. I applaud officials at every level of government who took the appropriate precautionary step to evacuate thousands of Americans from low-lying, coastal areas.”
30 comments:
They must be since obviously they arent with the folks in the US..While we waste billions on defense the republicans want to cut social security and medicare..Sincer he is so concerned about japan maybe he should go cut their medicare..
The really scary part is the nuke plant were the cooling systems are down. They are releasing pressure by releasing radioactive gasses from the core so it don’t pop. The radioactivity is all ready eight times as high as normal around the plant!
Lee
I lived in Japan for many years and it is a great country and I hope that everyone is ok and that we send help. This is a disaster of epic proportions that need immediate attention by the USA and every other country...
And to anon 3:43: you do speak some truth there...
Not the time to cross swords. An epic disaster unfolding before our eyes. Love thy neighbor..God have mercy on the Japanese and everybody in the path of destruction. Send aid asap...
The Pacific Rim is a very dangerous fault line that encicles the entire ocean and the west coast of America. Nature can be very violent. He didn't say that the creation was perfect..only good.
I was in New Zealand when the earthquake struck just a few weeks ago. Japan selflessly sent an Urban Search and Rescue team and were one of the first with their boots on the ground. The Japanese USAR team was sent to a collapsed building that housed Japanese students learning the English language. Most of their kindred were dead. I hope the world sends assistance with the same expediency that the Japanese shown and with the same compassion. They will need it in the coming days with rescue and recovery.
Bill Hillanbrand
I feel like I am reading Charlie Dent's twitter tweets. Christ, O'Hare is like a 12 year old girl the way he regurgitates every utterance of this guy. Let us know what he had on his toast Bernie.
With Charlie, Angle and Stoffa all up his ass is there any room left there O'Hare.
Charlie Dent is our Congressman. He also sits on the State and Foreign Relations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. When a tragedy strikes in Japan or some other foreign venue, it is important to know what he thinks. Because Dent leads from the front, he has always shared his views. For all the supposed "Dent watches" out there, this blog really does watch and does share his insights. I believe that publication of these statements is a public service, and would do it if Callahan were sitting in Congress, too.
If you don't want to read this, then the answer is simple. Stop reading. You not only read, but have to post derogatory comments at midnight on a Friday about an international tragedy in which we might be called on for some kind of assistance.
It's no surprise that you would even use this tragedy as an excuse to bash Stoffa and Angle, too. This is why you and your kind always lose.
This disaster has wide ranging international implications and is certainly within the purview of Dent.
It's unsettling, to say the least, that a wealthy, sophisticated country with noted earthquake and tsunami "preparation" can be laid so low, so quickly, by something like this. It points up the folly of those who think man can either impact or control nature on any large scale basis.
The news this morning seems worse by the minute. God help them.
I agree with Dave,now is not the time to pull local politics in a posting that was meant to be a sobering taste of reality.There is plenty of time for you anon's to get back to the usual rhetoric.
This is a time to provide whatever aid we can and it is Charlie Dent's opinion,whether you like him or not,that will help to determine what his thoughts and experiences are and to hopefully do what he can to give input in an area in which he is familiar,it is his job. So for once let's just show a little compassion for the people in Japan and all the areas affected by this disaster. God Bless them all and let's see the aid start! And as I am writing this they are discussing the nuclear fallout, So put the politics aside and try something new. Compassion SWW
Everyone has compassion, we don't need Charlie Dent to explain it to us. How about Charlie show some compassion to to the family of the woman who died of ovarian cancer because she lost her health Insurance but made to much for medicaid but not enough to get any insurance because of her condition.
Now that would be substantive compassion not showhorse compassion.
The Truth Hurts
Everyone has compassion, we don't need Charlie Dent to explain it to us. How about Charlie show some compassion to to the family of the woman who died of ovarian cancer because she lost her health Insurance but made to much for medicaid but not enough to get any insurance because of her condition.
Now that would be substantive compassion not showhorse compassion.
The Truth Hurts
Sandy, Thanks for your comments.
Anon 3:16, now is not the time to debate the health care bill and make claims that you can't even substantiate.
"Because Dent leads from the front,"
I hope all goes well in Japan for , but I've lost love ones, seen tragedy, hit and overcome some serious financial roadbumps, etc., as do millions of Americans every minute of every day. Where's our "Thoughts and Prayers"?
Dent, like most pols, runs to the podium and to add his "I CARE damn it" politically advantageous
statement out there every single time there is a crisis anywhere.
Charlie doesn't lead from the front. He bends over, takes his orders from the special interests he serves, and then "leads" with ceremonial bullshit like this.
God, he and his friends on both sides of the aisle are as plastic as they credit card they've overcharged.
Clem, Although I rally don't wnt to get nto a general discussion of Charlie Dent, who has been re-elected three times, he does lead from the front. When Callahan was hiding from as many issues as he could, Dent was out there, opposing the health care overhaul bill. He conducts regular town halls n which he tells voters to their face how he feels about given issues. You can call him many things, but he is no meek follower.
My prayers are with them all!
A shame...mother nature is the most powerful of all
Well put Bernie and one only has to watch an entire village washed away to imagine the state of affairs.And yes we all have had some tragedy in our lives.
But to see that kind of destruction has me thinking of the mortality rate and again I will not bring politics in this.
There is a church group of youngsters in Hawaii,huddled in a hotel some having a hard time reaching home. I listened to one child who finally reached his family,it was moving.Us citizens.
kids all excited to go to Hawaii and then to face that trauma.Hopefully the USA and other countries will send their best to contain that reactor and to provide clean water and whatever else they can get in the country, God Bless Japan SWW
Hopefully , we can show the same compassion to Americans dying due to lack of adequate health care.
That's mot mother natures doing that is the doing of politicians.
Reality
First of all, I think our major focus right now should be the health and welfare of the people of Japan, who are suffering from one of the worst disasters in their history - a disaster which demonstrates clearly that humanity has little ability to impact the forces of nature.
But since some people have, YET AGAIN, decided to utilize someone else's tragedy to promote their own political agenda, I feel the need to set some wrongheaded thinking straight.
That there are legions of people dying from "lack of health care" is a fiction created by those who want to control health care.
Emergency rooms are prohibited BY LAW from turning away someone who's sick. Medicaid and other grant program-eligible folks are enrolled on the spot, and there simply are NOT people dying in the streets for lack of health care.
That said, if anyone doesn't have access to health INSURANCE, that doesn't mean they don't have access to health CARE. There are free clinics, doctors donate their time and skills, walk-in clinics with minimal charges have been established inside of drug stores, etc.
Further - having access to INSURANCE doesn't guarantee access to doctors, either. The bulk of people who will miraculously become "insured" under the PPACA - aka "Obamacare" - will be enrolled in Medicaid, which is already bankrupting states and which provides reimbursements lower than the actual cost of care, so about a third of physicians don't accept it. (Plus, that doesn't kick in until 2014 anyway). So those patients will end up in emergency rooms anyway.
Incidentally, here's another popular lie spread by those who support government-run health care - MOST of the patients in an average emergency room are NOT "uninsured." Most of them already HAVE Medicaid - they just can't find a doctor who accepts its financially unsustainable reimbursements.
Anon 3:16 is making up stories - no hospital would turn away or refuse to treat a woman with ovarian cancer because she didn't have health insurance. There are special programs for cancer patients and all hospitals have access to them.
Further, to suggest that Charlie Dent can't have compassion for BOTH Japan's victims and Americans with problems is ridiculous. Can YOU only feel bad about one other person's problems at a time, Anon 3:16 (if that IS your real name....)?
What's really ironic here is that the people who are making noise about the fact that Charlie DID offer a statement about the tragedy in Japan would probably be screaming just as loudly about his lack of compassion if he didn't say anything at all.
I wonder if they have the same objections to the President's comments on the tragedy? After all, there are problems right here at home that the President should be spending him time on, right?
Ms. Rovito
"That there are legions of people dying from "lack of health care" is a fiction created by those who want to control health care."
Controlled by whom, the Insurance companies and big medicine Inc.? On that we would agree. Legions of people are dying due to poor healthcare. Despite spending more on healthcare than any nation on earth we are at the bottom of the list on industrialized nations and some not so industrialized as to are health. Before you play the "they come here" card; Yes, we are by far one of the best places to come for the newest, most expensive state of the art procedures. We have more specialist than any other country per ca-pita. We suck at general practitioners per ca-pita. Want to know why Ms. Rovito, your cherished profit system in health. I can make more money cutting you open and fixing yup your heart, than working years earlier at preventative steps. Of course the doctors and surgeons make money on cardiac procedures, the pharmacies make money and the hospitals. By treating the end result and not the actual health of the patient, we do quite well. of course it is a backward system that rewards disease and hinders health, but what the Hell. You can't have concern or compassion when you are all about an "ism", any "ism". In your case capital"ism".
"That said, if anyone doesn't have access to health INSURANCE, that doesn't mean they don't have access to health CARE. There are free clinics, doctors donate their time and skills, walk-in clinics with minimal charges have been established inside of drug stores, etc."
Want to list all that information., where, when, how to access, etc.. As with all your statements, no references, just statements that sound good to Fox News listeners ears. 'I can sleep well at night because if someone really needs healthcare, its out there.' Sort of like pray, work hard and all will turn out well. Opium for the masses but you do love to hear it.
"Anon 3:16 is making up stories - no hospital would turn away or refuse to treat a woman with ovarian cancer because she didn't have health insurance. There are special programs for cancer patients and all hospitals have access to them."
Again your use of non-factual hyperbole to dismiss the true suffering of others is amazing to see in a so-called civilized nation. You claim others seize on this time to push a political agenda. When is someone getting important health care a political agenda? The fact is, no hospital must provide service regarding cancer care to anyone without insurance and who has too much money to qualify for medicaid. Even if they sell everything and lose their entire life's assets to battle the disease, medicaid does not provide for all long term therapy. Your level of medical ignorance is no longer astounding but now just sad. I am saddened that after decades of trying to improve education and culture in the United States, people like yourself still can spew such nonsense that is about as relevant to present reality as is the flat-earth society.
"Further - having access to INSURANCE doesn't guarantee access to doctors, either. The bulk of people who will miraculously become "insured" under the PPACA - aka "Obamacare" - will be enrolled in Medicaid,"
Who doesn't play politics? So then I guess I can write about the misrepresentations of the Tea Party Movement-aka "teabaggers". Lets not try sarcastic humor, your crowd isn't very good at humor.
I don't know you, but I am obviously much more informed about the nations healthcare industry. Please supply, references, source materials to back up your outrageous take on our care system.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.
A Doc!
Deny couldn't even shine my shoes properly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJpLXAs57hw
What was the point of this statement? Was there a debate I'm not aware of in regards of whether or not it was good or bad that 10,000 Japanese died that Dent felt he had to take a stand?
The point of this statement is that we should acknowledge a tragedy affecting one of our closest allies, and which may have an impact on all of us.
Seven ships sent to help within hours of the disaster.So lets compare with Bush's response to Katrina.The japanese will get through this monumental recovery and I bet will have better results then we did in New Orleans.
Hey, "Doc," you said:
"So then I guess I can write about the misrepresentations of the Tea Party Movement-aka "teabaggers". Lets not try sarcastic humor, your crowd isn't very good at humor."
No humor here - your use of the term "teabaggers" has caused me to become completely disinterested in any further conversation with you.
And I don't believe for a moment you're a doctor. If you are, sign your name. In the meantime, google me.
No excuse's Donna. Using the term "Obamacare" is no better or worse than "teabagger". As to what you want, I don't give a shit.
A Doc!
"No excuse's Donna. Using the term "Obamacare" is no better or worse than "teabagger". As to what you want, I don't give a shit."
Actually, since "teabagger" refers to a sexual act and Obamacare is merely shorthand for a law with a long uninteresting name, your comparison is specious.
And just for the record - I didn't CALL it "Obamacare," I called it the "PPACA aka Obamacare" so people knew what I was talking about.
Nice vulgarity though, whoever you are. I'm sure you're very proud, although you're still apparently too embarrassed to sign your name.
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