Harold Ford Jr is tossed a softball … and whiffs miserably:
Q. Jets or Giants?
A. I had breakfast about every morning when I am in town, or I should say, several mornings, at the Regency. I see my friends the Tisches. [Giants owner] Steve Tisch is my close personal friend. I have been to more Giants games. I spent the holidays, I had lunch over the holidays with [Jets owner] Woody Johnson. We met for the first time. I am happy for his team.
Pareene pounces.
Did Obama's pledge to start leaving Afghanistan in 2011 actually transform recruitment for the Afghan military and police?
Ou Chum, Cambodia, 2 pm
A reader sends a sobering email:
I was on the ground in Haiti with the Marines in the 2004 peacekeeping operation. After what would have been a fairly mild tropical storm in the U.S., our peacekeeping op turned into a full-on relief and rescue effort near the town of Fond Verette. Because of deforestation the ravines in the mountains became swift-moving rivers of mud, swallowing up whole villages. Then, as now, news was slow to come in. What we thought initially was a few hundred dead turned out to be thousands within three days. The only positive side at the time was that Port-au-Prince was spared.
We had staff estimates then on what the impact to the city would have been, and it was truly frightening. The abject poverty of the area, and the lack of resources to respond to something like this, cannot be underestimated. From that experience I can guess that we have only begun to realize the full extent of the damage. I suspect that the final toll will be in the hundreds of thousands. If the people in this country have any compassion for “the least of these,” they will support quick and massive assistance to that beleaguered country.
That is what the Haitian PM is saying. It is almost certainly prudent to be skeptical of that number. But one fears it may not be so outrageous. Tyler Cowen offers a few hypotheses as to why Haiti is so poor. Ben Smith notes a story about Florida legislators looking to grant undocumented Haitians Temporary Protected Status. And sums up the politics of the disaster:
The crisis comes in the context of rising Haitian-American influence in U.S. politics, something that will encourage sustained relief efforts. The Haitian-American community is an increasingly influential one, for instance, in places like Miami and New York. Major unions, like SEIU, have large Haitian memberships. And the Obama White House includes the most senior Haitian-American official in history, political director Patrick Gaspard.
Laura Freschi posts an e-mail from Saundra Schimmelpfennig, veteran of the 2004 tsunami relief effort and author of the blog Good Intentions Are Not Enough:
Immediately after a disaster is prime fundraising time for NGOs. So they all rush in and put out immediate appeals before there’s any clear idea of what or how much they can actually help. Only fund those that already have an office established in country because of the amount of time and money it takes to get anything more than just search and rescue up and running. If you want to move into anything such as temporary shelters, food distribution, those with an already established presence will know the people and systems better and be able to work more quickly and less expensively.
Laura Freschi has a few suggestions for where to give. One NGO collecting medical aid is Merlin USA. Food For The Poor is also a reputable group.
Richard Morse has just come back online:
When the earthquake first hit I felt like I was trying to surf for the first time..it didn't want to stop..
I see bodies in the street..I see bodies buried in rubble..there are going to be food, medical supply and water issues.. decomposing bodies
I can confirm that many government buildings, churches and homes of the poor are destroyed..little logistical support
Check out Frederic Dupoux:
natural haulocost
good morning haiti ! let's find everybody !
(Photo: a building in Port-Au-Prince by Clarens Renoi/AFP/Getty.)
He emails me an on-the-record quote:
All of our sources understood that they were being interviewed for our book. We conducted none of our interviews off the record. And we violated no agreements we made with any of our sources.
So logically, either Reid told Heilemann and Halperin these things on the record, or he didn't tell them these things in person, but told them to someone else who is the real source for the quote. I have asked John to clarify this. Stay tuned.
Update from JH:
As we wrote in the authors' note, all our interviews were on deep background. But we haven't confirmed that we talked to reid or anyone else — because we promised all our sources that we would not identify them.
Meth may have declined among the gays, but it remains one of the red states' most serious problems. Many red states are beset with higher rates of social dysfunction than many blue ones - the price many rural Americans pay for the denial of Christianism – but they rarely get the attention that is focused on, say, urban African-Americans. But meth is the poor white rural drug; it defines, for example, the town of Wasilla where Palin was mayor. Funny how I haven't heard her mention this crippling problem in "real America." But that's part of the "keeping up appearances" Christianist message Palin projects onto everything she loves. A reader writes:
My daughter grew up in a bucolic, rural setting. However, drugs were everywhere in the community. Linda became involved in drugs when she was in junior high. Up to that point, she had been a straight-A student, a member of the cheerleading squad, and a player of team sports. She was lovely.
We battled drug and alcohol addiction with her for a long time. Many good people tried to help her. She eventually married at a very young age and lived in another small town. Then she found meth. Everything became unbelievably worse. She left her husband and young son and found herself in LA. Thanks to a pimp she was supplied with drugs ranging from heroin to crystal meth. She came back to me once more after some really horrible experiences. But then, she slipped away again. Linda found her way to Spokane, Washington. My only contact was when she would occasionally call but give no indication of where she could be found. She ended up living on the street and being known as "barefoot Linda." Meth became her necessity.
There was a predator who had been killing prostitutes for some time in Spokane. The women knew he was out there but needed their meth more than their safety. Robert Lee Yates found Linda.
He killed her by shooting her in the back of the head. He then took what money she had as a token of his kill. However, he did leave her supply of meth. I can't bear to explain what he did to her after she died.
He was eventually arrested. He was found to be responsible for at least 13 women's deaths and probably more. The DNA evidence was irrefutable. He was eventually given a 400-year sentence with no parole in one venue and the death sentence in another. I asked for the life sentence. The death penalty is against my beliefs. That doesn't mean I forgive him. I probably could personally rip his heart out. But, I didn't want society taking his life in the sacred name of my daughter.
As far as the meth dealers, I wish I could confront each and every one as they are led away to life sentences. It is the most insidious of drugs. It is everywhere. With meth comes the total degradation of the user.
My hope, Andrew, is that as you speak out, people will become educated. It is not a recreational drug; it is death. There needs to be more funded treatment centers, more outreach to the communities that are most vulnerable. Please keep speaking out.
(Photo: the effects of crystal use on a woman who became and addict – and most become an addict as soon as they try one dose.)
As a guide to understanding the death of Ali-Mohammadi, Gary Sick points to the Iranian regime's responsibility for, and public denial of, the infamous “Chain Murders” of intellectuals in the 1990s:
Until proven otherwise, agents of the Iranian government must be considered the prime suspects in this killing. What do they gain? First, they amplify their campaign of intimidation against the Green opposition. You may recall that over the weekend there were attempts to shoot Mehdi Karroubi, one of the key leaders of the opposition. That culprit has also never been captured despite the fact that security forces were all around Karroubi’s car.
Second, but only incidentally, the regime is able to blame outsiders for security atrocities inside Iran.
The second charge is less important since most sophisticated observers will recognize it for the propaganda that it is. But the fundamental question is the implication that outsiders can move about freely inside Iran today and carry out the most atrocious acts without ever being detected or brought to justice. Can the Iranian security services really be this bad? If so, why do they advertise it so widely?
Enduring America's Mr Smith, on the other hand, figures the killers were "rogue elements" within the regime. Max Fisher rounds up other speculation among the blogs.
The Dish 