The Dish

Yes, Virginia, Haiti does have Twitter. Global Voices records some of the more haunting:

There have been eyewitness reports from musician and hotelier Richard Morse, who tweets as @RAMHaiti. Morse posted his initial tweet around 6:00pm Haiti time, reporting that:

were

ok at the oloffson [the hotel he runs] ..internet is on !! no phones ! hope all are okay..alot of big building in PAP [Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital city] are down !

A series of tweets sent an hour later reported:

Just about all the lights are out in Port au Prince.. people still screaming but the noise is dying as darkness sets.

Our guests are sitting out in the driveway.. no serious damage here at the Oloffson but many large buildings nearby have collapsed

people are bringing people by on stretchers

Port au Prince is dark except for a few fires

A huge hospital that was being built across from the Oloffson has collapsed

cars are starting to circulate..I see lights in the distance towards the wharf

Later, Morse re-tweeted @isabelleMORSE, who reported “ much destruction on Grand Rue (Ave Dessalines) Daniel Morel's ok. Police Sta, Cathedral, Downtown teleco, Church St Anne all destroyed“.

Just after 7:30pm Haiti time, Morse wrote that:

Phones are starting to work..got a call from some one who's house fell in, child is hurt but ok. .A few people showing up @ Oloffson..roads are blocked by falling walls..much destruction on Grand Rue. I hear hospital General has collapsed

people are needing medical supplies..food, housing; I don't know water situation;

Then, around 7:45pm:

another aftershock..people are screaming and freaking out down towards the stadium..much singing and praying in large numbers

And at around 8:40pm Haiti time:

another aftershock..a little longer..much screaming downtown..this is going to be a long night

From Haiti’s Le Matin 15 months ago:

The question of the seismic threat to Port-au-Prince is a hot topic. It has been debated in recent days by many people, including high-ranking intellectuals. The conclusions are unanimous: PAP risks being transformed overnight into rubble after a violent quake. “For two centuries, no major earthquake has been recorded in the Haitian capital. The amount of energy accumulated along the fault runs the risk of an earthquake of 7.2 on the Richter scale. Better not even to talk about, there’s no need to panic. But it would be a catastrophe,” said the chief of the Bureau of Mines and Energy.

Every now and again, the vestments slip. Check out this Amazon page where priests can buy communion wafers. Now check out what the frequent buyers of such wafers also bought.

(Hat tip: Buzzfeed)

DiA flags a Bureau of Justice Statistics study on prison rape in juvenile facilities that found "12% of juvenile prisoners report being sexually abused, more than 10% of them by staff":

[E]ven the most hardened law-and-order, three-strikes types ought to find these numbers appalling. They can argue that retribution has some place in sentencing adults, but in juvenile facilities the focus ought to be squarely on rehabilitation, and doing everything possible to make sure these children—and they are children—lead productive rather than ruined lives.

Frum proposes another way to profile:

In the early 2000s, the airlines proposed "trusted traveler" programs. Individuals who wished to pass more easily through airports could volunteer to disclose information to confirm that they presented little threat: length of time at their current residence, for example. These pieces of information would together generate a risk profile, and people who scored low would pass more easily. (The governments of the U.S. and Canada operate an analogous program at North American customs and immigration crossing points.)

 

Repeatedly, however, civil liberties groups objected to these proposals. They complained that the information requested was intrusive and excessive. Perhaps they also surmised that the passengers who would speed through the lines would be older, richer, more employed, more native-born, and more married than those waiting for Murphy-style questioning.
 
But of course it is the younger, poorer, less employed, less native-born and less married who are more likely to commit an attack — and who are thus more appropriate persons for scrutiny.

Huh? The Undie-bomber was a privileged member of the elite. Bin Laden was a former plutocrat. The terror profile is emphatically not poorer than many people. Most of them are fricking engineers. Apart from that, great idea.

Ambers:

Under what rules was Harry Reid operating under when he gave an interview to one of the authors of Game Change?

Heilemann and Halperin – journalists! – won't respond on the record. Greg Sargent notes:

To be clear, there may well be an explanation for what happened with Reid. And producing narrative histories with unclear sourcing in the text is a grand D.C. tradition (see Woodward, Bob). But what’s mystifying is that virtually none of the media figures lavishing attention on this book have broached the sourcing issue, something you’d think would merit a bit of discussion among professional journalists. Discussion of this has been left almost entirely to bloggers.

I cannot square this story with the principles of ethical journalism as laid out by the authors themselves. But once again, the MSM protects itself. My own view is that journalists who will not respond to good faith questions about their ethics have abandoned the responsibility of journalism.

(Full disclosure: I am an old friend of Heilemann and like and respect him immensely. But it's my role to ask uncomfortable questions.)

Kirchick has an Advocate cover story on the subject:

In the wake of the Maine defeat, a coterie of liberal bloggers and activists called for a temporary moratorium on DNC donations. The fledgling movement, which has adopted the motto “Don’t Ask, Don’t Give” and has attracted the likes of legendary gay rights activist David Mixner, hopes to discourage donations to the party until the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of both “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the Defense of Marriage Act. In so doing, these activists are hoping to reshape—if not completely upset—the relationship between gays and the Democratic Party.

Charlie Cook's analysis:

Come November, Senate Democrats' 60-vote supermajority is toast. It is difficult, if not impossible, to see how Democrats could lose the Senate this year. But they have a 50-50 chance of ending up with fewer than 55 seats in the next Congress.

As for the House, we at The Cook Political Report are still forecasting that Democrats will lose only 20 to 30 seats. Another half-dozen or more retirements in tough districts, however, perhaps combined with another party switch or two, would reduce Democrats' chances of holding the House to only an even-money bet. We rate 217 seats either "Solid Democratic" or "Likely Democratic," meaning that the GOP would have to win every single race now thought to be competitive to reach 218, the barest possible majority. But if Democrats suffer much more erosion in their "Solid" and "Likely" columns, control of the House will suddenly be up for grabs.

A reader writes:

I am sure you noticed the almost complete radio silence at the Corner on Olson's piece. Just two notes by Maggie: one on the political awkwardness of the situation and the other just a quote of Olson's comments about civil unions, with no comment from her. Total absolute lack of engagement on the arguments (YOUR arguments). That's because they cannot engage on the arguments.

(And still silence from Jonah and NRO on my simple torture question: which techniques shown at Abu Ghraib does NRO not endorse?) The reader adds to the debate:

Regarding your reader comment that gay people can procreate. One of the arguments that people also forget (and Olson also omitted) is that gay people can adopt as a couple almost everywhere in the US. It is quite a strange situation to be declared a couple fit to adopt and raise a child in NY, and then being denied the right to marry because children should be raised by heterosexual couples and that's what marriage is about (one of the arguments in NY's highest court's shameful decision).

Today on the Dish we covered the case against Prop 8: Rick Jacobs live-blogged, Margaret Talbot took a longer look, Michael Petrelis pointed out the weak arguments, Nate Silver noted the positive effects of marriage equality, and a reader praised gay parents.

In other news, New Jersey came to its senses on cannabis, Ulster's sex scandal spiraled, and another prominent killing cropped up in Iran. McCain continued his downward descent, John Yoo was close behind, and the Clintons appeared alone. Palin fortified her foxhole as readers assessed her religiosity. In media buzz, newspapers started to flee to the firewall while the Atlantic ascended (with Chait well on his way).

In assorted commentary, Goldblog grappled the Leveretts, Friedersdorf went another round with Insta, Clay Shirky and Julian Sanchez talked internets, and the Dish confronted the meth menace. Readers discussed steroids here and here. Another recession update here. Today's dissent here. And we added "The Case Of The Haunted Scrotum" to the annals of best Dish headlines.

Lastly, there was an impostor in the ranks.

— C.B.