Shock Doctrine for Haiti

Lisa Derrick at Firedoglake has a collection of good organizations to give to money for Haiti. Registered nurses can volunteer to go in an effort being organized by the union National Nurses United.

As George W. Bush said about 9/11, “Through my tears I see opportunity.” It turns out that now, according to the Heritage Foundation, similar opportunities are available after the catastrophic Haitian earthquake:

Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S.

In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region…

While on the ground in Haiti, the U.S. military can also interrupt the nightly flights of cocaine to Haiti and the Dominican Republic from the Venezuelan coast and counter the ongoing efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to destabilize the island of Hispaniola. This U.S. military presence, which should also include a large contingent of U.S. Coast Guard assets, can also prevent any large-scale movement by Haitians to take to the sea in rickety watercraft to try to enter the U.S. illegally.

Meanwhile, the U.S. must be prepared to insist that the Haiti government work closely with the U.S. to insure that corruption does not infect the humanitarian assistance flowing to Haiti. Long-term reforms for Haitian democracy and its economy are also badly overdue.

Good to see that, in the midst of the today’s confusion, someone’s focusing on what really matters: making sure America’s 210 years of superhuman cruelty toward Haiti continue without respite.

(Thanks to David Rosnick for sending this.)

AND: Another of Heritage’s anti-experts on Haiti, Ray Walser, referred to Haiti’s capital in National Review as “Port of Prince.” (Click below.) He’s since corrected it, thus invalidating my theory that all Heritage employees have the part of the brain removed that produces shame.

Global Warming = War = Global Warming

Charles Davis has written a great article for Carbon Control News:

Under the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, overseas military activities are generally exempt from regulation…

A 2008 report from Oil Change International that estimated the carbon footprint of the Iraq war found it responsible for “at least 141 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.” Ranked as a country, “it would emit more CO2 each year than 139 of the world’s nations do annually.”

I honestly had no idea wars were completely unregulated in this way (and as the article makes clear, will continue to be even under the best possible international agreements). So we have wars to control the oil that causes global warming, and then global warming will inevitably cause more wars, and then those wars will themselves help cause more global warming. And they told two friends, and they told two friends, and eventually earth was inherited by super-intelligent cockroaches.

Anyway, read it all. I think the best we can hope for is the super-intelligent cockroaches will power their civilization with technology that produces huge amounts of boric acid. Then at least we won’t feel like the planet’s only morons.

The War on Drugs Dealt by People America Isn’t Friends With

Deal opium and don’t do what the U.S. government tells you to do? Instantaneous death from above!

The Obama Administration has also widened the scope of authorized drone attacks in Afghanistan. An August report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee disclosed that the Joint Integrated Prioritized Target List—the Pentagon’s roster of approved terrorist targets, containing three hundred and sixty-seven names—was recently expanded to include some fifty Afghan drug lords who are suspected of giving money to help finance the Taliban. These new targets are a step removed from Al Qaeda. According to the Senate report, “There is no evidence that any significant amount of the drug proceeds goes to Al Qaeda.”

Deal opium and follow orders to our satisfaction? Knock yourself out!

The inclusion of Afghan narcotics traffickers on the U.S. target list could prove awkward, some observers say, given that President Hamid Karzai’s running mate, Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, and the President’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, are strongly suspected of involvement in narcotics. Andrew Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, who has written extensively on military matters, said, “Are they going to target Karzai’s brother?”

Will this massive hypocrisy and brutality generate more than a question or two on the Sunday D.C. talk shows? Nope.

If the U.S. political class will swallow this, is there anything they won’t eat? Would they make trouble if the federal government set up concentration camps on the National Mall? I’m guessing no.

AND: From George Tenet’s book At the Center of the Storm:

The Agency had…been rocked by false allegations in 1996 that some of its members had been complicit in selling crack cocaine to children in California. The allegations were ludicrous, but even attempting to refute them gave legs to a lurid tale.

I like to believe he dictated that while signing off on the next delivery of cash to Ahmed Wali Karzai.

Good Call, James Madison

The Senate today today:

WASHINGTON – In a long-anticipated showdown, liberal Democrats twice failed on Tuesday to inject a government-run insurance option into sweeping health care legislation taking shape in the Senate, despite bipartisan agreement that private insurers must change their ways.

And James Madison explaining more than 200 years ago why the Senate would naturally represent the interests of rich people:

Should experience or public opinion require an equal & universal suffrage for each branch of the Govt., such as prevails generally in the U. S., a resource favorable to the rights of landed & other property, when its possessors become the minority, may be found in an enlargement of the election districts for one branch of the legislature, and an extension of its period of service. Large districts are manifestly favorable to the election of persons of general respectability, and of probable attachment to the rights of property, over competitors depending on the personal solicitations practicable on a contracted theatre. And although an ambitious candidate, of personal distinction, might occasionally recommend himself to popular choice by espousing a popular though unjust object, it might rarely happen to many districts at the same time. The tendency of a longer period of service would be, to render the body more stable in its policy, and more capable of stemming popular currents taking a wrong direction, till reason & justice could regain their ascendancy.

Say what you want about the founding fathers, you can’t claim they weren’t up front about what they were doing.

Banks vs. YouTube

This is an excellent use of YouTube by Ann Minch of Red Bluff, California to call for a U.S. debtor’s revolt—with her going first. I certainly endorse anything that calls Bank of America “evil, thieving bastards.”

Now, it is true (as you can tell from her blog) that she’s mildly right-wing crazy. But she’s certainly no more crazy than America’s Serious Liberals like Robert Morgenthau, last seen here calling for a first strike against the dangerous alliance between Iran, Venezuela and Saturn.

Moreover, while Morgenthau is evil crazy, Ann Minch is just confused crazy. People like her have been completely abandoned by both political parties. There’s almost no one prominent anywhere explaining the world in a way normal people can understand—and for good reason, since just about everyone prominent is implicated in it somehow. Minch is doing her best to decipher the puzzle around her with no help. I think she could learn something from people like us, but I’m also sure we could learn something from her.

If you just want to read was she has to say, it’s here. The Huffington Post also has written a good story about her.