American Morning
Haiti earthquake: How you can help
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) - Aid is reaching earthquake-torn Haiti, but getting it to the people who need it remains a challenge.
Large quantities of medications, baby formula and other relief supplies are sitting on the tarmac and in warehouses at the Port-au-Prince airport, but no one is moving it out, according to CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta.
"It's like everywhere we go, just walking through the airport, outside the airport even, people are saying, 'We need supplies,'" Gupta said.
Gupta found pallets of formula, pain medication and antibiotics standing unattended next to the runway.
U.S. military personnel in a warehouse tent at the airport gave Gupta a trash bag full of supplies to take back to a hospital he had visited earlier but couldn't explain why there seemed to be no organized system for distribution. FULL STORY
Latest updates | Twitter | Full coverage | High-res images | Map | Photos
Learn more about the organizations providing emergency aid, shelter, medical help, food and water - and how you can help. Visit Impact Your World.
Is bipartisanship obsolete?
By Carol Costello and Ronni Berke
When Republican Scott Brown won the race for Senate in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts, he may have ushered in a new mood of bipartisanship.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/22/brown.scott.gi.art.jpg caption="Republican Scott Brown won the race for Senate in Massachusetts, a traditionally Democratic state. "]
In a phone call with President Obama, Brown suggested that he and his daughter take on the president in a bipartisan game of basketball. "I said Mr. President, I know you like basketball, I tell you what? Why don't you pick your best player and I take Ayla? And we take you on two-on-two?"
Some in Washington say Brown's gesture was refreshing after a year of partisan rancor. For two longtime lawmakers, Democrat Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Republican Tim Johnson of Illinois, signs like that are proof that bipartisanship is not dead.
The two independent-minded congressmen are often at odds with their own parties. And even while disagreeing with each other on policy, they have found common ground.
"Dennis is one of my good friends in the process," says Johnson. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Dennis. We actually agree on some number of issues and we don't agree on others."
Kucinich warns against trapping people by labels. "We're all more than just a label. People here have great depth, they have a sense of humanity and when you connect with that humanity, you connect with people heart to heart."
In an age where lawmakers have become so wrapped up in such party labels – Washington is in a state of ideological warfare. In a recent study, "Congressional Quarterly" said partisan voting in Congress is the worst it's been in 50 years. But it doesn't have to be that way, says Kucinich.
Avlon: Independents looking for alternative to angry politics
Editor’s note: John P. Avlon is a senior political columnist for The Daily Beast and author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America." Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/22/wingnuts.olbermann.king.gi.art.jpg caption="On the left, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann; on the right, Rep. Steve King."]
By John Avlon, Special to CNN
In a week dominated by the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake and a seismic political shift in Massachusetts, the wingnuts couldn’t help but weigh in and drag the discourse down.
Keith Olbermann went on an epic rant, calling now U.S. Senator-elect Scott Brown a racist and conservative Congressman Steve King managed to politicize the pain in Haiti with talk of refugee deportation.
It’s a cliché to say that some liberals reflexively reach for the race card when attacking political opponents. But in 2010 that’s just one of the weapons in the identity-politics arsenal. And this week, with the Massachusetts special election hours away, Keith Olbermann threw the entire kitchen sink at Republican Scott Brown. Here’s his summation:
"In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, tea bagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees."
I’m not sure which accusation is most offensive or absurd – “supporter of violence against women” might win that low-blow award. But the attempted call to arms apparently didn’t frighten Democrats to the polls and it might have helped alienate independent voters, who went for Brown in record numbers.
Olbermann is a smart, funny guy and his special commentaries are sometimes incisive, but this might have set a record for the most unhinged since he called President Bush a “fascist” and told him to “shut the hell up.”
We Listen – Your Comments 1/21/10
Editor's Note: With President Obama’s first anniversary in office following Tuesday’s Senate election upset for the Democrats, Thursday’s American Morning audience revived many negative perceptions about the president’s effectiveness as a leader of the Democratic Party and the country.
- Claire: I am so sick of Barack Obama blaming Bush for everything that goes wrong in his administration, including the Mass Senate race. Makes one wonder if Michelle Obama gets pregnant will he blame that on Bush too? This guy needs to put on his "big boy" pants and start taking responsibility for what his administration has fouled up.
- Jerry: Now that Congress and the President are losing constituent confidence for not taking the advice of actual forecast professionals, the Obama Administration is now waking up to the fact. […] It's just time for Congress and the President to get on board in a game on strategy instead of an end game theory that translates where this Nation will monopolize the fact that you get the best results when you give better resolve. And it's as simple as that!
How would you grade President Obama as he celebrates his first anniversary in office? What would you like to have seen him achieve that he did not?
Coast Guard's role in relief efforts
The U.S. Coast Guard was among the first American responders to bring help to the Haitian people. The coast guard now has a number of ships and aircraft there to help with the response. Pilot Lieutenant commander Bill Strickland and Captain James Mcpherson, a spokesman for the coast guard spoke with CNN's Kiran Chetry Thursday.
Rebuilding Haiti
Life in Haiti is largely taking place on the streets and in make-shift communities. In part because survivors are terrified remaining structures could still collapse. So what will it take to rebuild haiti? CNN's Jason Carroll reports.
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