STELLAR WIND: THE NSA's DOMESTIC SPYING PROGRAM Please watch this video. Then call your US Senators and Congresspeople. Tell them to open their ears. The US Constitution is at stake. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/opinion/the-national-security-agencys-domestic-spying-program.html Continue reading

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In short, the white-washing and the kid glove treatment of the Gaddafi regime by leading Western academics may well have discouraged that regime from pursuing deeper political reforms much earlier, and from negotiating in good faith once conflict increased.Fellowtraveler In other words, it probably cost lives. If and when the Gaddafi clan is captured and put on trial, either in Libya or before the ICC, we hope that these courts seize the opportunity to examine the conduct and responsibilty of these neoliberal fellow travelers of dictatorship very closely. Continue reading

How can we get the world's wealthiest scoundrels – arms dealers, dictators, drug barons, tax evaders – to help us pay for the soaring costs of deficits, disaster relief, climate change, and development? Simple: levy a modest withholding tax on untaxed private offshore loot Continue reading

"Spill Baby Spill" - Live feed from Obama's Katrina Continue reading

May 13, 2010 Port au Prince. Today UN spokesperson Edwin Mueller said the UN was opposed to President Rene Preval' decision to seek an extra 3 month emergency term now, delaying the elections scheduled for the end of Nov. 2010. He said the GOH could easily wait til November to determine if emergency conditions existed that required such a delay, and that elections have been held in other countries under much more turbulent conditions. He also said the UN is witholding further aid to the GOH, and will channel it only to NGOs, pending improvement in the GOH's administration of the emergency shelter camps, where at least 1.41 million people -- probably more -- are now living under miserable conditions. Separately, opposition groups have today announced plans for protests next Monday May 17, demanding Preval's resignation. Stay tuned!!! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

En route from Mirabelais to Port au Prince, May 13 2010 Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Is Medical Care In Haiti Really Better Now than Before the Quake? Continue reading

Outside camp at Croix d S'pres, Port au Prince, May 12, 2010. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

"All God's Children" Orphanage, Mirabelais, May 12 2010 Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Alfredo Merat, intrepid Hamptons musician and activist, entertaining the kids at an orphanage in Mirabelais, Central Plateu, Haiti, May 11, 2010. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Alfredo Merat, intrepid Hamptons musician and activist, entertaining the kids at an orphanage in Mirabelais, Central Plateu, Haiti, May 11, 2010. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Jim Henry (Tent camp, road to Mirabelais, May 11 2010.) At the 8:30 am UN Logbase "transitional housing cluster" this morning, a meeting of (overwhelmingly white, non Haitian) representatives more than 25 NGOs and international aid agencies discussed the ongoing challenges involved in meeting the housing and shelter needs of Haiti's quake victims. An interesting new progress report was distributed, which indicated that as of right now, countrywide, there are an estimated 1.4127 mm "people in need of shelter," including precisely 282,538 households. To meet the needs of all these people for housing, the UN says that to date 62,732 tents and 563,558 tarps have been distributed by shelter NGOs. In addition, they have doled out some 58,999 tool kits, 107,735 kitchen sets, 196,053 mosquito nets, 339,151 "hygiene kits," 150,994 sleeping mats, and 490,383 "blankets or sheets." On the housing front, the UN cluster leaders claim an overall coverage ratio of 113%, defined as the sum of "tents plus (# of tarps passed out, divided by 2)" -- though this ratio is still below 50 percent in a few big communes like carrefour (47%) and grande-goave (38%). Some NGOs representatives in the audience expressed some discomfort with these metrics, however... Continue reading

...According to UN temporary shelter coordinators, overall coverage of 283,000 "households in need," with 1.4 mm people, is 113%. But this counts a HH as "covered" if it has been provided with 1 tent or 2 tarps. Quietly, many NGOs -- for example, the Amer Red Cross -- are scared stiff about the lack of preparation for heavy rains and hurricanes. But the focus of this "cluster" was on "transitional" housing; apparently weather resistant housing is someone else's concern. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

...Lots of white faces, except for Sean Penn, who missed this week's meeting...Little discussion of the flooding threat; some debate about whether people should be encouraged to return to homes marked "green," and whether it is cheaper/safer to help people fix "yellow" (damaged but fixable) housing. One black NGO rep: "Many Haitians are staying in the tents because they think people like you will build them new houses...or are unsure what "green" and "yellow" means, if new quakes are a risk." Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

...Countless NGOs (59 big ones), UNICEF, UNCTAD, WFO, USAID...." You can't get enough of what you can't stand." Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

PIH Clinic, near Camp Jean-Louis Vincent, in downtown Paup, 5/11/10. 50,000 people, 15K kids, in this camp alone. Just 2-3k are in school. Haitian gov has stopped free food distribution to the camp since March 31. PIH estimates 40-50 % are hungry. Last week alone its new nutrition center I'd 107 kids with malnutrition, included 40 seriously malnourished. PIH now has 4 such clinics in Paup, 11 more in the central plateau, where its efforts started in the mid-1980s. Last year, before the quake, its $25 mm budget was 2x the entire Haitian gov's Ministry of Health budget. This year, it will spend $40 mm here, supporting more than 5500 community health workers, more than 200 haitian doctors and nurses, the country's only community mental health services, and 100 foreign volunteers. Meanwhile, the GOH continues to fall down on the job. Last week it finally managed to pay some of the doctors and nurses on staff at HUEH gen hospital for the first time since Nov. Its own outpatience clinics, mobile medical services, and mental health service are virtually non-existent; there are only 9 publc health psychiatrists in the entire country, and conditions at the badly-damaged mental hospital in Paup... Continue reading

PIH Clinic, near Camp Jean-Louis Vincent, in downtown Paup, 5/11/10. 50,000 people, 15K kids, in this camp alone. Just 2-3k are in school. Haitian gov has stopped free food distribution to the camp since March 31. PIH estimates 40-50 % are hungry. Last week alone its new nutrition center I'd 107 kids with malnutrition, included 40 seriously malnourished. PIH now has 4 such clinics in Paup, 11 more in the central plateau, where its efforts started in the mid-1980s. Last year, before the quake, its $25 mm budget was 2x the entire Haitian gov's Ministry of Health budget. This year, it will spend $40 mm here, supporting more than 5500 community health workers, more than 200 haitian doctors and nurses, the country's only community mental health services, and 100 foreign volunteers. Meanwhile, the GOH continues to fall down on the job. Last week it finally managed to pay some of the doctors and nurses on staff at HUEH gen hospital for the first time since Nov. Its own outpatience clinics, mobile medical services, and mental health service are virtually non-existent; there are only 9 publc health psychiatrists in the entire country, and conditions at the badly-damaged mental hospital in Paup... Continue reading

Open air ICU, HEUH general hospital (only public hospital still open in Paup, 5/11/10. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

...Landmark P aup P "Addams Family" hotel, used as a hospital by the US Marines, 1915-34; frequented by the NY London early jet set, 1950s (Graham Greene, Sir John Gielgud, Anne Bancroft, Truman Capote, Marlon Brando, etc.; young Mick Jagger), given up for dead and revived again and again -- like Haiti. Since 1988, under the tender care of Haitian-American musician Richard Morse and his family..... Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Pacot, May 9 2010 Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Dadeski, Pacot, Port au Prince, May 9 2010 Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Matisan, May 9 2010 Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading

Marche en Fer, downtown Port au Prince, May 8 2010. It recently caught fire for the second time. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T Continue reading