I say we put Pat Robertson and Rush in boat going to Haiti.

Could argue that to understand the want of relative deprivation necessitates the acknowledgement, acceptance of relative privilege.



"Pat Robertson told his audience in the wake of the earthquake the "true story" that Haiti "swore a pact to the devil" to get "free from the French" and "ever since, they have been cursed." You heard that right. According to Robertson, the Haitian people are cursed and were hit by this horrible disaster because they made a pact with the devil for their freedom." - Media Matters

Kind of makes the Xmas day "underwear bomber" not seem so terror-fying. If there is a god, to quote a friend, "what an asshole."

UN guy: "Exactly what Haiti doesn't need, after all it's been through."

The really fucked-up thing is this might be the only thing that might make the city better. The chance to rebuild seemingly more significant than New Orleans, after Katrina. There will be more resources pouring into the place than ever have, or would, before now. The hurricanes, weather-related or political, of Haiti haven't brought out such an apparently immense response. This seemingly could be on par with a full scale invasion. If the government, only hanging on by a thread before the quake, is undone, the US/UN will have to take over. Martial law could be instated, suspending the country's constitution. This could be parlayed into calls for a constitutional convention of some sort that would be a proxy for installing an even more international friendly government, with US/UN troops remaining for some time.

Nation building anyone? We're doing a bang up job in Iraq and Afghanistan (that's only half sarcasm, and half hope). Though, to my knowledge there's no insurgency in Haiti--yet. And like Katrina, there's a mass exodus of the, presumably, poorer residents of the city.

Some semblance of normalcy, says Clinton. But maybe their normal shouldn't be returned to them, why not make it better?

IMF dude seems to agree, he says "something totally new...at the national level" is needed and the "piece meal approach...is not enough to get rid of the problems of the country."

Last time US troops in Haiti on this scale?

Don't quite get the bodies in the road to protest a slow response, almost ironic.

Mexican illegal immigrants called spoiled cry-baby's

(Actually, boat refugees from Haiti.)

Earlier this week, reports quoting north African immigrants, braving the Mediterranean in ramshackle boats to get to Europe, calling their illegal counter-parts on the U.S.-Mexico border, "lazy," saying they have it "easy."

One north African man, intercepted with others off the coast of Italy, invited Mexicans sneaking into America to try "crossing a sea, sometime" to reach the relative economic prosperity to the north, "not some pansy-ass river."

"Hell, at some points on their border, there's not even any water at all!" a young woman, with three small children, went on to say.

Reminded that border patrol have, in recent years, been buoyed (no pun intended) by trigger-happy, volunteer-patriots on the American side, another man from north Africa replied, "Sharpshooter, schmart-shooter; I'll take my chances with them over the Old Man and the Sea, any day."

Asked what Old Man he was referring to, the illegal-immigrant broke down, sobbing, "Why Spencer, why?

When it was mentioned that similar boat journeys between the Caribbean and the U.S. have similar hardships, often ending in tragedy as well, the group of north Africans refugees responded with a simultaneous, "Ha!"

One young man, with a slight limp, shouted out, with apparent support from the rest, "The Caribbean? Have you ever been to the Caribbean? It's like swimming in bath water."

"Bring it on," he added, as he returned to the group huddled together for warmth around small campfire.

I would definitely hang out with Biden's daughter, even if we weren't doing cocaine.

Because she seems pretty cool, and, well, she's totally hot. We wouldn't even have to do any blow: she's hot. I mean, if Michael Phelps happen to drop buy with some killer stuff, that's one thing. But me and her, we'd have our own thang goin' on--no need for anything illegal. Sure, a few drinks, maybe a Car Bomb or two. She's at least part Irish, right?

In case you haven't heard, someone is trying to peddle a video to the tabloids of people snorting cocaine. We care because, apparently, one of the folks is V.P. Joe Biden's daughter, Ashley.

So, does it matter if it's really her? Of course--this kind of thing (sex, drugs, etc.) usually does. But for no more than our attention span for soft-core-poli-porn fantasies. I hope it was her, just so Biden might come off his usually-high horse about the "drug war" in this country.

But, then again, if it helps obscure further the role her father has played in their state's credit-card-haven, then maybe not. This is part of the "problem with capitalism," usury-gone-wild, that hasn't been addressed, (hopefully just not) yet. Talk about sub-prime. But unlike even a bad mortgage, there's not any equity behind the debt.

Some of the best advice I ever received, definitely the best from high school, was to avoid not only credit cards themselves--this was the mid-90's when dogs and college students started receiving competing company's cards in the mail everyday--but credit as an idea. The principle of owning without rescind comes from cash on the barrel-head.

The administration is talking tough on the world stage about lax banking regulation in Europe and elsewhere, "tax-havens" for U.S. corporations and individuals, which is great, don't get me wrong. But how about states in this country, like Biden's home state, Delaware, that let credit card company's have free reign-ge? What's good for the chicken, the state's other main output, isn't necessarily so for the debtor-industry. Care to guess who has been Biden's largest campaign contributor since the 80's? Yep.

(Whoever guesses the name of the many-time-elected Mayor of a major U.S. city, in the picture below smoking crack with a whore, wins a prize.)

Really, the only reason I wrote this post is so that I could put up the following Biden family photo. Dickie or ascot? You be the judge.