Live Streaming Video- President Obama speaks at miner's funeral

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Video- First Lady Michelle Obama in Haiti

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Cartoon of the Day

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Former FEMA Officials Want to Stress the 2012 Apocalypse

Nothing could go wrong here.

Former Bush and Clinton FEMA officials plan to press the Department of Homeland Security

to stress the need for a public education campaign about the Mayan calendar's prediction of the apocalypse in 2012. No, not that they believe the world will end during President Obama's re-election year bid, but they see it as the perfect hook for a campaign about disaster preparedness. Don't laugh. Vera Chan, a Web trend analyst at Yahoo, says searches for "end times," "2012," and "apocalypse" surge any time disasters occur.

Raw Video: Michelle Obama Visits Haiti

Video- President Obama on WV Mine Tragedy and Justice Stevens

Westboro Church "Protesters" Heading To West Virginia Mine Disaster

Far be it for me to advocate violence, but somehow I think the Westboro idjits might have a few problems if they follow up on this...

MONTCOAL W.V. — Protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., headed to the Upper Big Branch mine Thursday morning to convey the message that the explosion there that left 25 miners dead was a result of e-mail messages allegedly sent from West Virginia threatening the Church and its publisher, according to a statement from the Church.

The church, which is led by Fred Phelps, has attracted attention in recent years by showing up at funerals for soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. At those funerals they carry signs that say that God hates homosexuality and that the death of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is God’s way of punishing the United States for its tolerance of it.

(snip)

The statement said the church had received threats about a trip to West Virginia and Virginia scheduled to begin Thursday.

“So God reached down and smacked one of those mines, killing 25 (and likely four more are dead),” it said. “Now you moan and wallow in self-pity, and pour over the details of the dead rebels’ lives, pretending they’re heroes.”

Video- GWB wipes his hand on Bill Clinton’s shirt after shaking hands with Haitians

Wow, just freaking wow. Via Think Progress.

Raw Video: Quake-Stricken Chile in Ruins

Alot of this crap happening lately.

Cartoon of the Day

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Mid Day Distraction

Doctors Skirt Red Tape to Save Haitian Kids

By GottaLaff

The Hippocratic Oath is alive and well in Haiti:

Doctors skirted a bureaucratic logjam to save the lives of three critically-ill child victims of Haiti's earthquake on Sunday, flying them to U.S. hospitals on a private jet to avoid a military suspension of medical evacuation flights.

A 5-year-old tetanus victim, a 14-month-old boy critically ill with pneumonia and a baby with third-degree burns were sent to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia by the aid group Partners in Health, based in Boston.

The airlift had been in doubt after the U.S. military stopped medical evacuation flights on Wednesday night because of because of an apparent dispute over where seriously injured patients should be taken for treatment.

"This is a good day. These are three children who would have died if they had stayed here," said Luis Ivers, Partners in Health's clinical director in Haiti. "It's the little successes like that that keep us going here."

We need a whole lot more little successes, and we definitely need to keep things going there.

Haitian Americans Overwhelmingly Approve of Obama, U.S. Response

Unfortunately there isn't that much confidence in Haiti itself.

The Miami Herald this morning reports on a new poll of Haitian-Americans by the Miami based Bendixen & Amandi, which finds both deep loss -- 59% of Haitian-Americans say they lost a loved one in the earthquake -- and overwhelming appreciation for U.S. government action.

Pollster Fernand Amandi sent over the fuller results of the survey, which interviewed 400 Haitian-Americans, most of them in Florida and New York. It shows more approval of American action than you'll find almost anywhere, on any issue: 96% of Haitian-Americans approve of the job Obama is doing.

Reports: Blackwater is "protecting" in Haiti

By GottaLaff

For those readers who aren't on Twitter, this comes to us via Jeremy Scahill:


Nice. Good. This should go a long way to improve their image. Why not just send Karl Rove out to defend President Obama's policies while they're at it?

And these thugs are on the government payroll why again? Oh, wait. I know. Our military is stretched tighter than Joan River's face.

Meanwhile, on his web site, Jeremy reports the welcome news that Jan Schakowsky is preparing legislation to ban Blackwater:

Schakowsky says Blackwater has “severely damaged the credibility and security of our military and harmed our relationship with other governments” [...]

As multiple scandals involving Blackwater continue to emerge almost daily, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is preparing to introduce legislation aimed at ending the US government’s relationship with Blackwater and other armed contracting companies.

You can read the whole thing, including Schakowsky's letter, here.

And good for her. That's long overdue.

If you need some background on who these criminals are, read my Blackwater for Dummeez primer here.

Cartoon of the Day

Amen. Click to enlarge, via.

"I don't recall when a poor country actually provided the U.S with anything when disaster struck the U.S"

By GottaLaff

Edeline B. Clermont weeps in the Little Haiti area of Miami as she talks to her sister after both were unable to contact relatives in Haiti, which has been devastated by Tuesday's earthquake. (Alan Diaz/Associated Press)

The following comments were responses to my post of yesterday, "U.S. Should Not Help Haiti Earthquake Victims".

Ignorance is even more widespread than I previously thought:

Anonymous said...

I pay taxes to run my government, not to "AID" other countries.

And I don't recall when a poor country actually provided the U.S with anything when disaster struck the U.S

January 14, 2010 2:45 PM

And there's this, by either the same or a different "Anonymous". If only they weren't so afraid to post a name or pseudonym, we'd know for sure:

Anonymous said... [in part]

You hippies gotta learn the Federal and State governments are NOT charities and shouldn't operate as such, they are there to GOVERN. The money is the taxpayers, and they have no right to use it for charity. If you think money should be sent to Haiti, YOU send it. Communists.

January 14, 2010 2:54 PM

And then there are commenters that should become regulars:

David D. said...

Dear "I don't recall":

Countries and organizations that offered to send aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, mentioned by the State Department, included Afghanistan, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, the European Union, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, International Energy Agency, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, NATO, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Organization of American States, Oman, OPEC, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, the United Nations, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Venezuela and the World Health Organization.

January 14, 2010 2:55 PM

UPDATE, YesBiscuit tweeted:

Haiti offered $36k aid to US after Katrina

T1 adds Mexico to the list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina they stepped in to help out along with a ton of others

Video- President Obama on Haiti relief status

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Bill Clinton, Bush to Lead Disaster Recovery Efforts

Very magnanimous of President Obama on the GWB part. It gives George a chance to make up (a bit) for Katrina. Via Taegan-

First Read: "According to multiple sources, Obama last night called George W. Bush and formally asked him to participate, along with Bill Clinton, in humanitarian relief efforts for Haiti -- in the same vein that Bush's father and Clinton did following the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. Bush 43 said he was ready to do whatever was necessary. A formal rollout of the Clinton/Bush 43-led relief effort will take place as early as tomorrow afternoon, but possibly not until the weekend, as the administration doesn't want to take any attention away in the next 24 hours from search and rescue efforts.

For Bush 43, this is his first real public effort since he left office; it's an opportunity to begin establishing his post-presidential legacy, especially on an issue like disaster relief, which remains a scar on his presidency."

VIDEO- Rachel Maddow Show: Haitian ambassador shames Pat Robertson

By GottaLaff

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Original post about Pat Robertson, with video, here.

Posts about petitions demanding that we don't help Haiti here and here.