Category: Uncategorized

Haiti aid still lacking a month after quake (CBC)

Millions of people in Haiti still lack adequate food, shelter and security a month after the massive earthquake, problems sure to be exacerbated by the Caribbean country's looming rainy season.

Food has yet to reach all of the three million people who need it. Infrastructure problems and supply backlogs continue to hamper an international aid effort that has drawn about $113 million from Canada alone. Schools remain closed.

And on Thursday morning, in a taste of the new horrors the impending rainy season promises to bring, an early-morning downpour muddied the dirt in which 1.2 million people have pitched a makeshift camp.

We are being neglected': One month on from Haiti quake (BBC)

Video:  one quarter missing, 90% homeless, rains will come in May–superb video overview. Five hour wait for a small box of suppiies, only two boxes per person in entire time since earthquake. “Major UN agencies conspicuous by their absence.”

Rain soaks homeless Haitians, collapses shacks (Dallas News)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A predawn rain shower soaked tens of thousands of people Thursday, turning dirt to mud in their makeshift camps and giving an early warning of the misery that the impending rainy season could bring to this earthquake-ravaged country.

Rain collapsed cardboard shacks and soaked clothing and bedding at the Marassa 14 camp, where about 2,500 displaced people are living in a dry riverbed.

Most of the estimated 1.2 million people who the U.N. says are living in temporary camps across Haiti dwell in simple structures made of bed sheets and plastic sheeting. Officials warn that more permanent shelter must be in place before the rainy season begins within weeks.

US repatriates 78 Haitians picked up at sea (Caribbean Net News)

MIAMI, USA (AFP) — A US Coast Guard cutter on Thursday took 78 Haitians picked up on an overloaded sailboat off the Bahamas back to their quake ravaged country, delivering them to Cap Haitien, officials said.

The repatriation signalled US determination to turn back Haitian boat people even though it is letting Haitians already illegally in the United States stay for the time being because of the January 12 quake.

Journal: Haiti Rolling Directory from 12 January 2010

COMMENT:  I know senior retired military officers who object to highlighting political corruption and ethical shortfalls.  Marcus

Phi Beta Iota: Sadly, the raw fact is that until we get the truth on the table and achieve transparency, the corrupt few will continue to be a cancer in the body politic.  Judicial Watch is a serious accredited non-profit and renders a public service.  This is a time de-limited list, focused on the current “public servants” in power, and it therefore does not include the many equally pernicious qualified individuals from the other party monopolizing the power to loot the public purse.  Visit the source to read the full indictment for names as listed.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009

Contact Information:
Press Office 202-646-5172, ext 305
Washington, DC

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2009 list of Washington's “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

01 Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
02 Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
03  Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
04  Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner
05  Attorney General Eric Holder
06  Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) Senator Roland Burris (D-IL)
07  President Barack Obama
08  Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
09  Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven
10  Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

IEDs. Update. The Taliban claim they have invented a new bomb that defeats US detection vehicles and technology.  A BBC report from the UK forces supporting Operation Together” in Marjah lends credence to the Taliban claim, after the detection vehicle was disabled by a bomb it was supposed to detect yesterday.

The Taliban posted to the Net the following statement, “After assessing the enemy's new technology, the mine makers and explosives experts of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan modified the types and construction of their bombs. They now have adopted such a technology which the enemy detection equipment cannot detect.”

”A bomb making expert of the Islamic Emirate told the Al-Emarah website: “The mojahedin have now made a special remote-controlled bomb called Omar which is more powerful then the other mines. The main characteristic of this bomb is that it is more difficult to detect. The mojahedin have tested this new remote-controlled bomb and the results have been positive. We have used this bomb in various parts of the country against the enemy mine-detector vehicles and the results were successful.”

”He said their technique was very simple and cost little and that they can make a powerful bomb. An average mine costs only 85 dollars which is not that much, but in turn it inflicts millions of dollars worth of damage on the enemy in addition to the loss of life.”

Comment:  No other source has reported on the use of a new bomb.  A key point is that the Afghan Taliban are innovative. They learn, as do all living systems. That makes them much more sinister than an adaptive organism, which is one that just learns to cope.

The Taliban aim to win, not to co-exist.  Co-existence in the form of power sharing is a political tactic in a campaign to achieve ultimate political victory.  Innovation is what they apply to the battlefield, as they can.  It is important to get the definitional language correct, if one hopes to discover or devise an effective response. The key teaching point is that Taliban learn and get better.

Phi Beta Iota: In El Salvador in 1980 the populist leftists fighting the extremists 14 families and their military mafia learned very quickly that mines inside wooden boxes could not be detected by the US and its local collaborators.  This was the basis of the top USMC requirements for Measurements & Signatures Intelligence (MASINT) in 1988: detect explosives at a stand-off distance regardless of container.  Years later an Israeli officer was asked how they did it and he laughed: “we use a dog.”  While MASINT has fooled around with “living tissue” experiments and this has enormous potential for both drug detection and mine detection, somewhere within the $75 billion a year we spend on secret sources and methods the original USMC requirement appears to have been misplaced.  Still needed.

NIGHTWATCH HOME

Core Chicago Team Sinking Obama Presidency

Financial Times Washington Bureau Chief Edward Luce has written a granularly informed insider account about those who hold the keys to the inner most sanctum of Obama Land — Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod.

See also:

Journal: Wall Street Dumps Democrats

Journal: From Rhetoric to Reality–Four in Power

The Tea Party is still taking shape (Washington Post)

Six hundred tea party leaders arrived Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010, for the first-ever three-day National Tea Party Convention. Organizers announced the creation of a political action committee called Ensuring Liberty Corp.

Phi Beta Iota: 1,100 reportsed to be present for the keynote by Sarah Palin.

Tea party' convention a forum for woes, worries (Los Angeles Times)

Reporting from Nashville – Ask Gail Hathaway, a warm 61-year-old retired nurse from Vonore, Tenn., what she wants out of the “tea party” movement, and she returns the quizzical look of someone worried she's been asked a trick question.

The Other Tea Party Convention: Activists Meet In DC (The Atlantic Online)

The activists and organizers at the DC meeting did not attempt to draft any kind of doctrine, though one activist in attendance, Ryan Hecker, is working on a document that will state Tea Party principles. He plans to take thousands of suggestions, posed by Tea Partiers themselves, and let activists vote on them online–open-sourcing a loose sort of Tea Party platform, in effect.

“The goal is to create a grassroots, bottom-up contract with America,” Hecker told the reporters and activists in attendance.

Continue reading “Journal: The Tea Party Phenomenon”

Recall North America will be hosting a two-day User Conference Feb. 22-23 in Riverside, Calif. There is no cost to attend the meeting.

During the two day event, attendees will be able to network with other industry executives, including representatives from Recall. During the first day, attendees can obtain certified records manager continuing education credits by attending courses designed by ARMA International.

On the second day, Recall is hosting the grand opening of its newest information management facility, with live demonstrations of its service offerings including Radio Frequency Identification and other innovative technologies.

Course topics include: Successfully Implementing Enterprise-Wide Electronic Records Management Programs; From Records Management to Information Risk Management; Enterprise Information Mapping: Protect Your High Risk Information; The Revised Federal Rules and the RIM Professionals’ Role at Counsel’s Table.

“Our User Conference is a phenomenal opportunity for industry professionals to educate themselves on the latest trends, maintain their certified records management status and witness Recall’s cutting-edge technologies first-hand,” says Mark Wesley, president, Recall North America.

According to ARMA International’s Executive Director Marilyn Bier, “Since 1955, ARMA International has been the premier provider of education and training for information management professionals. We’re pleased to bring our expertise to the Recall User Conference as we help information management professionals prepare for tomorrow’s challenges and today’s opportunities,” says Marilyn Bier, ARMA International’s executive director.

Conference Information