Author: Andrew Sullivan

Sam Stein reported yesterday:

Congressional negotiators and White House officials are moving forward with plans to add the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell to the upcoming defense authorization bill, Democratic sources tell the Huffington Post.

Barney Frank doesn't think it matters whether it is included in the bill or not: 

"People should not be worried about whether it’s done in committee or not. That is a procedural detail that will have no effect on the final outcome." Frank noted that a floor vote on repeal would take place either way — whether or not the Armed Services Committees vote to incorporate an end to the policy in their FY 2011 Defense bill.

“If the committee puts it in, there will be a vote to knock it down. If the committee doesn’t put it in, there will be a vote to add it. In both cases, I am confident that we will have the votes on the floor to pass it,” he said of a vote in the House. “In fact, my recommendation would be if there’s any difficulty, not to waste efforts trying to get it in committee, but to add it as an amendment on the floor.”

A reader writes:

By the way, how sad a statement is it that so much of us put our hope in exposing Yoo in the hands of a comedian? Yet, the MSM seems completely unembarrassed or uninterested in the effort.

Yep: a war criminal never really faced down by MSM journalists. Because they cannot say the word torture. This is how democracies perish.

More devastating blogging from Haiti:

Last night was late and short for us. Chris was really shaken when he got home, and understandably. As we were able to sit and talk more last night he shared what he’d been through and it left me with tears, aching for him and the things he had seen and experienced, and for all those that were suffering. After he was able to help the first girl out of the building yesterday he went deeper in and found another girl. He did everything he could with what he had in the limited light and couldn’t get her out. He knew her name and had to walk away. There was no one around to help him and aftershocks were hitting. It was getting

dark.

There have been several times today where [my daughter Olivia] has seen me tear up because of what I’m seeing or reading and she’ll just say, “Mommy sad.” Yes, Mommy is very sad. The more news that comes out online or through other missionaries in Port the more sad and dire the whole situation is. To see pictures of the grocery store where we shopped flattened, or to see pictures of the National Palace destroyed are shocking. We were hearing things last night, but the photos were limited. Just before we went to bed we looked online again and realized that they weren’t rumors, but fact. The feeling was indescribable. The closest I could come is surreal.

Abbas Milani explains "how the Iranian uprising has transformed Shiism":

To varying degrees, thinkers and theologians identified with the democratic movement have been offering a new reading of Shiism that makes the faith more amenable to democracy and secularism. The most significant innovation—found in essays, sermons, books, and even fatwas—is the acceptance of the separation of mosque and state, the idea that religion must be limited to the private domain. Some of these thinkers refuse to afford any privileged position to the clergy’s reading and rendition of Shiism–a radical democratization of the faith. And others, like Akbar Ganji and Mostafa Malekian, have gone so far as to deny the divine origins of Koran, arguing that it is nothing but a historically specific and socially marked interpretation of a divine message by the prophet. The most daring are even opting for a historicized Muhammad, searching for the first time in Shia history for a real, not hagiographic, narrative of his life.

A favorite recipe.

Pat Robertson explains his version of Christianity. It isn't mine. Meanwhile Jerry Falwell's Liberty University withdraws is sponsorship of CPAC because a gay conservative group that supports marriage equality and an end to the military ban has been allowed to be a co-sponsor.

A reader writes:

Just found out, via Facebook of all places, that an American friend of mine, a young PhD student, is okay.  Her status 11 hours ago:

alive. was on the top floor, building completely collapsed. i was trapped but pulled out. molly was on the 5th floor. i'm at the embassy and have some broken bones/cuts but ok. don't know when i will be evacuated. the after shocks are intense. please please pray for molly that she has the same luck as me to be pulled from the wreckage. please.

Shortly after, she posted:

i was in petionville, closer to downtown & the epicenter. the orphanage was further away but no idea yet. nobody here knows anything. i'm the only injured u.s. citizen who's made it to the embassy. roads are destroyed, no idea how my angels got me here. we're expecting people to arrive once it's light out.

5 hours ago:

more injured u.s. citizens have arrived at the embassy and are doing fine. so am I. still no word on evacuation, still no molly or the other two american volunteers in the building. pray, hope, plead.

She and friends have been volunteering in Haiti for the last few weeks.  I can’t even imagine what they are experiencing right now.  Thankfully we were able to find out she was okay via Facebook. We can only hope her friend is safe as well.

(Photo by DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)

TPM is also live-blogging new developments. Renard Sexton calls "Haiti and the United States inextricably linked":

Obama stated in an April speech that, "while the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership."

The key question will be if that partnership for Haiti entails simply a year or two of above-average food-aid and reconstruction assistance, then a drop off the radar screen until the next hurricane, coup or food shortage, or instead something that more fundamentally changes the equation.

Reihan's "brief thought on Haiti":

Every earthquake or tsunami or flood in the developing world yields tragic images. My parents are immigrants from Bangladesh, a country that most Americans know for its natural disasters. Yet the number of people who die in these calamities pales in significance to the number who die because of broken institutions and the resulting absence of the kind of dynamic capitalist economy that we take for granted.