Thank God they've stopped cocaine trafficking from Columbia. I hadn't realized it all came from Venezuela and the eeeeevul Chavez these days.

Honesty in headlines is too cruel.

I guess the Heritage Foundation is out in force showing its "concern" for Haitians. A cretin named Ray Walser over at The Corner has written a similar message. The message is, of course, get ready to be the victim again, America.

Even more incredibly, his title is senior policy analyst of Latin America for The Heritage Foundation. Yet until 20 minutes ago he cited Haiti's capital city as some place called "Port of Prince".

Google: (Ray Walser "Port of Prince")for proof.

Isn't this like a supposed hockey expert saying his favorite all-time player is "The Great One", Wally Gretski?

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDQ3OGY2NjYyZWUzYmEzMTAzZmUzOTM0MWYxOWMzNGE=

Chris Floyd has a nice summary article at Empire Burlesque, also highlighted at Disquiet Reservations.

i wonder if politicians and contractors breath a sigh of relief whenever a natural disaster occurs in an "unstable" foreign nation. must make their grifting schemes easier for them.

thus invalidating my theory that all Heritage employees have the part of the brain removed that produces shame.

Whoa, hold on there. I wouldn't abandon that theory so quickly. One can recognize and correct an error without feeling one little bit of shame. If one makes the correction while muttering something like "sure, I'll correct the faggoty French name of your fourth-world capital, you fifth-rate spics," then shame hasn't really come into it. Your theory would hold.

It would be much more interesting to ponder what kind of mental defect would lead a person to English-ify a French name, rather than just accepting it, funny pronunciation and all.

At least he didn't call it "Port o'Prince".

Sadly, Shakesville's being laughbly naive about the real possible goal behind the U.S.' "aid":

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-help-and-info-open-thread_14.html#disqus_thread

I tried to post a lenin's tomb link to show what Hillary Clinton's guilty of supporting(her husband),but they banned me. And now some asshole "corrected" me saying Clinton restored arstide but he never mentioned that they forced him to follow guidelines.

Uh, that was a bit incoherent up there. My apologies:
In a nuthsell: I tried telling them Hillary is one person responsible for keeping Haiti in a neoliberal rut, but somehow I typed it out as Clinton being the one who orchestrated the coup when really it was Bush. But due to my tounge tying,i got banned anyway. I did send melissa an e-mail explaining my argument however.

Does anyone know any good Pat Robertson jokes?

Pat Robertson and the Heritage Foundation are poisonous, racist scum. But the neoliberals in the White House, State Department, and the political class are far more dangerous to genuine development and democracy in Haiti.

Take as exhibit A this fine bit of ignorance-is-strength writing from Mark Leon Goldberg, who Digby recommends as "the best online source to follow the story" (from which I have to conclude that she's completely ignorant of what's gone on in Haiti since 1994):

For nearly five years, the small island nation has made slow but steady progress toward economic development and political stability. But it seems that just as the country is poised to turn a corner, an act of God, like yesterday’s devastating earthquake, sends Haiti reeling back. ...
Both the United States and the UN have invested blood and treasure into Haiti’s transformation from the basket case of the Western Hemisphere to a country on the path toward peace and prosperity. In July 1994, 20,000 U.S. Marines landed in Port au Prince to oversee the re-installation of Jean Betrand Aristide, the popular, democratically elected president who had been deposed in a military coup. Ten years later, the shaky peace imposed by the U.S.-led intervention had fully collapsed. By then Aristide had become considerably less popular and less democratically elected. In February 2004, he fled the country amidst a rebellion.
...
The post-Aristide government appealed to the United Nations to send peacekeepers to provide security during the country’s transition to democracy. Soon, there were about 7,000 troops in Haiti, mostly from Brazil. The peacekeeping mission, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH, has been credited with ushering in an era of security unprecedented in recent decades. It has helped train local police and has fought against notorious organized criminal groups that operated openly in the sprawling slums of Port au Prince.
...
It would seem that with a respected political leadership provided by Preval, increased security provided by the UN, and robust economic support from the United States, Haiti is poised to turn the corner. But for every step in the right direction, Haiti has been dealt an equal and opposite blow. ... [my emphasis]

Not a word about the UN troops' murder of men, women, and children civilians in their homes during sweeps against "organized criminal groups". Nor their firing on unarmed demonstrators, most recently at the funeral this past June of Father Gerard Jean-Juste. Nor the Lavalas activists assassinated, disappeared, and held without charges for years under the "respected political leadership" of Preval.

I'm sorry if anyone takes offense at political commentary offered at an early stage of a massive, terrible human tragedy. Very tasteless of me, no doubt. If so, then how much more tasteless Goldberg's, which is political commentary based on and shot through with lies?

Pat Robertson and the Heritage Foundation are poisonous, racist scum. But the neoliberals in the White House, State Department, and the political class are far more dangerous to genuine development and democracy in Haiti.

Take as exhibit A this fine bit of ignorance-is-strength writing from Mark Leon Goldberg, who Digby recommends as "the best online source to follow the story" (from which I have to conclude that she's completely ignorant of what's gone on in Haiti since 1994):

For nearly five years, the small island nation has made slow but steady progress toward economic development and political stability. But it seems that just as the country is poised to turn a corner, an act of God, like yesterday’s devastating earthquake, sends Haiti reeling back. ...
Both the United States and the UN have invested blood and treasure into Haiti’s transformation from the basket case of the Western Hemisphere to a country on the path toward peace and prosperity. In July 1994, 20,000 U.S. Marines landed in Port au Prince to oversee the re-installation of Jean Betrand Aristide, the popular, democratically elected president who had been deposed in a military coup. Ten years later, the shaky peace imposed by the U.S.-led intervention had fully collapsed. By then Aristide had become considerably less popular and less democratically elected. In February 2004, he fled the country amidst a rebellion.
...
The post-Aristide government appealed to the United Nations to send peacekeepers to provide security during the country’s transition to democracy. Soon, there were about 7,000 troops in Haiti, mostly from Brazil. The peacekeeping mission, known by its French acronym, MINUSTAH, has been credited with ushering in an era of security unprecedented in recent decades. It has helped train local police and has fought against notorious organized criminal groups that operated openly in the sprawling slums of Port au Prince.
...
It would seem that with a respected political leadership provided by Preval, increased security provided by the UN, and robust economic support from the United States, Haiti is poised to turn the corner. But for every step in the right direction, Haiti has been dealt an equal and opposite blow. ... [my emphasis]

Not a word about the UN troops' murder of men, women, and children civilians in their homes during sweeps against "organized criminal groups". Nor their firing on unarmed demonstrators, most recently at the funeral this past June of Father Gerard Jean-Juste. Nor the Lavalas activists assassinated, disappeared, and held without charges for years under the "respected political leadership" of Preval.

I'm sorry if anyone takes offense at political commentary offered at an early stage of a massive, terrible human tragedy. Very tasteless of me, no doubt. If so, then how much more tasteless Goldberg's, which is political commentary based on and shot through with lies?

More U.N. shite here: http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2010/01/14/the-uns-loss/

And here is some more information about UN role.

Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7903623001730810789&hl=en#
1:27:30 - 2 years ago
This is a documentary about the ongoing violence in Cite Soleil in Haiti and the brutal & sensless murder of it's people by the MINUSTAH (Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti) (Translation: United Nations Stabilization Mission In Haiti)

ps please do not get me wrong. UN agencies have done some great work all over the world for people in need but this is not a pretty story.

From an AFP story today

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100115/pl_afp/haitiquakeuspoliticscongress_20100115184929

Pelosi acknowledged "this very sad time" for the Caribbean nation but said: "From my own experience with earthquakes, being from San Francisco, I think that this can be an opportunity for a real boom economy in Haiti."

"They can leapfrog over its past challenges economically, politically and demographically in term of the rich and poor and the rest there and have just a new fresh start," she said after Democrats held an annual policy meeting.
......

Not quite as bad as the Heritage Foundation quote - I guess just the liberal Democratic version.

N E : it's not exactly a Pat Robertson joke, but it's pretty good:

http://tinyurl.com/yd2xucs