Another Murdoch Puppet in the USA Senate. He is a known bigot and has the IQ of a snail.

S&P +14.20

Dow +115.75

Nasdaq +32.41

I think the stocks markets are over joyed at the election of a Republican Knothead that is easily manipulated by Murdoch Media.

That should send a clear message to the American people. They aren't in control of their vote.

I think the spirit of Ted did the right thing. With Democrats attempting bipartisanship for every measure they were trying to achieve it did nothing but slowed down the process. It is time for Democrats to actually deliver on legislation that needs to be passed. It is time to get it done and can Joe Lieberman off Homeland Security. He has other priorities. Get him off that committee and be happy with 51 Democratic votes in the Senate.

Lieberman was never truly on the side of the Democrats or happy about the Obama victory. Face reality and get on with what needs to be done.

I exceedingly happy the Democrats don't have to bargain with Republicans at all anymore. Let's get the job done. Public Option and/or Single Payer. Carbon Dioxide Regulation and strong conservation laws.

It is time to go to work and I am pleased this happened. We weren't getting anywhere having to deal with Republican idiots with strings attached to Talk Radio.

The World will never know the number of people lost in Haiti. NASA found landslides. Looks as though extensive deforestation was occurring as well.

Haiti’s steep mountains combined with its tropical rainfall pose a threat for landslides. The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the country on January 12, 2010, may have also triggered landslides and shifted earth so that landslides are more likely in the future. This true-color image highlights potential new landslides around the earthquake’s epicenter, which is just beyond the edge of the image. The landslides are bright streams of exposed earth that contrast with the dark green plants and tan soil around them. Some, but not all, of the potential landslides are labeled....

The geology of Haiti works against the people from every imaginable direction. It will be a chronic project for all those countries involved.

Haiti is a challenge.

We just keep at it.

We don't need impoverished and desperate people vulnerable to potential terrorist networks in the Western Hemisphere.

The Big Banks are necessarily going to recover. They provide an injustice to the people of the USA.

The Robber Barons got what they wanted. They paid off the captains of their 'Wealth Fare' state and they never reached out for a partnership with their sponsors, The American Taxpayer. Finally, today, the people of the USA are coming to terms with "The Two Americas." We know we have to build our own infrastructure to improve our lives.

This is EXACTLY the problem with returning Republicans to any office. They are corrupt and pledge their allegiance to Wall Street and not Main Street. They only seek to manipulate Main Street to facilitate their own personal wealth and those of their cronies.

It is a huge leap to realize how completely disconnected these two aspects of the USA are, but, it is true. The American people need to remove their indoctrination to Wall Street being necessary to their everyday lives. It isn't. Not by a long shot.

...Still, Citigroup plans to hand out large bonus checks in the coming weeks. Bank employees, on average, took home about $94,000 in pay last year, slightly less than the $96,000 average in 2008. Top investment bankers and traders, however, could receive bonuses worth at least several million dollars. Overall, the bank paid a total of $25 billion in compensation, about 20 percent less than in 2008 although the company has almost 100,000 fewer employees.

As has been the case, losses in Citigroup’s domestic mortgages and credit units overwhelmed gains from investment banking, a trend that is likely to continue. Bank executives set aside another $700 million in the fourth quarter to cover future losses, bringing the total amount of reserves to about $36 billion.

After two years at the helm, Vikram S. Pandit, Citigroup’s chief executive, is facing a crucial year. Mr. Pandit must staunch the losses in the bank’s consumer businesses and shift the bank’s strategy. He must mollify his top managers and discourage bankers and traders from fleeing. All the while, he must address the demands of a multitude of government overseers. Although Citigroup has repaid its bailout money, taxpayers still own 34 percent, as well as preferred stock worth billions of dollars...

It is time for the Marines to take over. And don't scrimp on the body armor.

There is an article in the NYTimes today that tells of the 'cruelty of desperation.' Some elderly have survived the quake and its aftermath, but, are succumbing to starvation and possibly thirst.

As soon as people see USA Marines looking like The Terminator they will fall into line. The USA has done everything the right way. I sort of think of this as 'Phase Two.'

People are receiving supplies and staying alive. That is a huge accomplishment when one considers we are seven days out from the quake and most of those alive today wouldn't be without the help they have been receiving.

The medical attention and evacuation of those that needed advanced medical care has been incredible and the bravery of all involved in aiding the people of Haiti is astounding. But, there will come a time when hording is a way of life and that can't be tolerated in anyway if it is going to cost those that survived their lives.

The criminals are out and about and the USA military can easily set up policing forces, encampments and prison facilities. I don't believe people have to be rounded up in an effort to find criminals that have escaped the Haiti prison, but, they can be arrested for new crimes against humanity. There is absolutely no reason for hording supplies. There is plenty of them and they are continuous. It is a matter of organizing distribution and helping people re-establish productive lives. Caring for each other, the sick, the young without families and the elderly is a very good start. That won't necessarily occur without a 'Police Action.'

The Marines can look for volunteers among the people as well that might have police experience and are willing and able to put on a uniform and bring supplies to people. It would be a good start back to infrastructure that works for the people. Fighting corruption among re-established police forces will be a high priority. Corruption could lead to militias and more instability. It is a process, but, it sounds like it can't wait if we are going to keep people alive.

...For Richard Domand, (click title to entry - thank you) a homeless man in his 70s who was partially paralyzed by typhoid, it was too much.

He arrived in the morning but made it only halfway up the hill, where into the late afternoon he was lying on the ground next to his cane. A woman had given him one of the two bottles of water she had gotten from the Americans, but he said he had gotten no food.

“I cannot make it up,” he says.

Even as more aid flows into Haiti nearly a week after a devastating earthquake, the challenges faced by the 82nd Airborne in handing out food and water here illustrate the hurdles in distributing it across the city. Roads are clogged with traffic and rubble. Confusion is rampant. Everywhere, people ask, “Where do I go?”...

USS Aircrift Carrier Carl Vinson produces large capacity of potable water daily.

The American culture is one of 'readiness, innovation and compassion.' We have to maintain a strong and agile military force to protect the Homeland, but, also as an outreach of compassion to countries unable to achieve our status.

We simply can't let this happen in Haiti anymore. The substandard buildings are completely unacceptable. It might be that we have to 'rethink' Haiti and its potential to modernize. The 'state' of the country is that it lies on a huge fault that is suddenly and severely stricken when the North American Plate moves. If modern architecture can build Condos that will sustain those type of quakes then we should proceed, but, to build even reinforced structures that will need huge amounts of monies in repair the Haitian government cannot afford, we will not have achieved our goals.

There is much to think about and plan for Haiti when it comes to reconstruction. In the immediate future returning as many jobs to them as possible including a working Port and Dock system that can receive supplies will be the best we can achieve.

This is a tragedy beyond simply attempting to save the lives of the Haitian nation, it is a tragedy that will demand the best of USA engineering to accommodate such incredible dynamics. This isn't going to be easy to recover this nation. The work in rebuilding can begin with small structure and ultimately larger structures as we grow more confident of the actions along this fault line and how well new construction will withstand those dynamics.

For now. Simply cleaning up while helping these people stay alive is more than most countries can afford. The USA should be proud of itself in being available to this magnitude.



January 17th, 2010 8:45 AM

Aircraft Carrier Purifies Water; Challenge Is Delivery

By Nicholas Casey

ABOARD THE USS CARL VINSON–Help is now headed to Haiti from the nuclear reactor of an aircraft carrier. And it’s not power, it’s water.

The USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered vessel sitting five miles off the coast of Port-au-Prince, has begun producing purified water for the devastated country at the rate of 100,000 to 150,000 gallons a day.

The process involves using excess heat from the vessel’s reactor to evaporate sea water, separating it from the salt. “It’s absolutely pure,” said Captain William McKinley the Carl Vinson’s officer in charge of the reactor.

The Carl Vinson is equipped with four distilling units which each produce 100,000 gallons of water daily, for a total of 400,000 gallons. About three-quarters of that are used in the daily operations of the ship – the rest is considered excess and can be used for relief work.

The challenge remains in getting the water from the vessel to Haiti. “I don’t think it’s a matter of our (production) capacity, it’s a matter of our containers and the ability to transport it,” said Mr. McKinley. The Carl Vinson was beginning Saturday to evaporate the water and put it into large “bladders” to be sent by helicopter into Port-au-Prince.

Ist airdrop into Haiti by USA C17

...A C-17 cargo plane left Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina shortly after noon, and three hours later dropped 40 pallets -- or "bundles" as the Air Force refers to them as -- holding bottled water and Meals, Ready-to-Eat, or MREs, on a field just north of the Port-au-Prince airport in Haiti.

It was the first airdrop of humanitarian supplies by the U.S. military into Haiti since the deadly earthquake there nearly a week ago.

"There are so many relief agencies funneling through the airport that it has kind of created a bottleneck," U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Leon Strickland told CNN en route to the drop point. "We're going to put things directly out of the air onto the ground and open up another distribution point north of the [Port-au-Prince] airfield."...

Military Tackles Haiti Logistics

There are probably supplies in the containers at the Port.

Divers seek ways to clear damage at Port-au-Prince Seaport

U.S. military forces are leading efforts to punch through sea, air and road bottlenecks slowing the delivery of food and supplies to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

The USNS Grasp, a rescue and salvage vessel of the Navy’s Military Sealift Command, arrived Monday with Army divers to assess underwater obstacles and damage that have closed the seaport at Port-au-Prince. The vessel had been off the coast of Belize and diverted to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to refuel and collect food and relief supplies before heading to Haiti.

Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said reopening the port is crucial. He said the first priorities were quickly reopening the Port-au-Prince airport and clearing an overland route from the neighboring Dominican Republic but scale of the disaster requires resumption of seaborne shipments.

“We’re getting supplies in through the air. But the airfield by itself will not sustain the long-term requirement because there are so many people in need,” Fraser told reporters at a Miami briefing. “That’s why we’re bringing in the capability in ships, why we’re looking at how we get supplies across the shore.”

Having visited Haiti only three months before the earthquake, Fraser said he knew before receiving damage reports that the logistical challenges would be immense. “We knew that there was a single airfield where we could use capacity,” he said. “We had a limited capacity, even when the port was running, of what the port could support.”

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake wrecked the port’s pier and toppled its container crane and two smaller cranes. The extent of the underwater damage won’t be known until divers can take a look....