NYC Mayor Bloomberg Does an About-Face on New York Marathon, Rejects Bourogh President's Request for National Guard

After increasing public criticism, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced the cancellation of the 2012 New York City Marathon. This is the first cancellation in the history of the marathon and reverses an earlier decision from the mayor's office to hold the event despite diverting valuable city resources from assisting in the cleanup in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Bloomberg, who as late as Friday afternoon insisted the world's largest marathon should go on as scheduled Sunday, changed course shortly afterward amid intensifying opposition from the city comptroller, the Manhattan borough president and sanitation workers unhappy they had volunteered to help storm victims but were assigned to the race instead. The mayor said he would not want "a cloud to hang over the race or its participants."

We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event — even one as meaningful as this — to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track," Bloomberg said.

No one can say they are truly shocked at the cancellation, but what can be shocking is the announcement so close to the race. Participants might have been able to delay flights, change bookings and released hotel space to people without shelter after power outages. Bloomberg has a little egg on his face after relentlessly insisting the race will go on all last week, only to reverse his decision a day and a half before the race, when most participants are already in the city. The suddenness of it all forced runners to deal with an unexpected twist, what to do with no race?

Many New Yorkers had pointed out that if the marathon went on as scheduled would've diverted much-needed police, fire and public works resources from parts of the city. The on-again-off-again decision-making for the Marathon isn't the only post-Sandy decision that Bloomberg has been criticized for.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg dismissed Brooklyn Bourogh President Marty Markowitz's request to send National Guard troops to the hard-hit sections around Coney Island.

Mayor Bloomberg has snubbed Borough President Markowitz’s impassioned plea to bring the National Guard to Hurricane Sandy-scarred Brooklyn — arguing that approving the Beep’s request would be a waste of federal manpower and turn the borough into a police state.

“We don’t need it,” Mayor Bloomberg said on Wednesday during a press update on the city’s ongoing Hurricane Sandy cleanup. “The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns.”

Markowitz demanded the National Guard’s help just an hour before Bloomberg’s press conference, claiming that the NYPD and FDNY are “brave — but overwhelmed” by all the challenges Sandy brought when it visited the borough on Monday night: flooding, power outages, and looting.

“All of our resources have been stretched to the limit,” Markowitz said. “In the name of public safety we need to send more National Guard personnel into Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Red Hook, and any other locations.”
Mayor Bloomberg has snubbed Borough President Markowitz’s impassioned plea to bring the National Guard to Hurricane Sandy-scarred Brooklyn — arguing that approving the Beep’s request would be a waste of federal manpower and turn the borough into a police state.

“We don’t need it,” Mayor Bloomberg said on Wednesday during a press update on the city’s ongoing Hurricane Sandy cleanup. “The NYPD is the only people we want on the street with guns.”

Markowitz demanded the National Guard’s help just an hour before Bloomberg’s press conference, claiming that the NYPD and FDNY are “brave — but overwhelmed” by all the challenges Sandy brought when it visited the borough on Monday night: flooding, power outages, and looting.

“All of our resources have been stretched to the limit,” Markowitz said. “In the name of public safety we need to send more National Guard personnel into Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Red Hook, and any other locations.”

There have been sparodic reports of looting in New York's outer boroughs as an estimated 2.5 million households in the New York metropolitan area are without power heading into the weekend.

Hundreds of Thousands Without Power As Death Toll From Hurricane Sandy Expected to Rise

Storm surge from Hurricane Sandy inundating the Inlet section of Atlantic City, NY as seen from above Dan Cuellar photo

From Labrador to South Carolina, much of the eastern seaboard is digging out from the havoc wrought by Hurricane Sandy's impact and local officials are starting to assess the damage as the death toll from the storm is expected to climb.

Hurricane Sandy- dubbed Frankenstorm after some meteorological projections put it on a collision course with another winter storm system moving in from the Midwest- made landfall just south of Atlantic City, NJ on October 30 before moving inland into Pennsylvania. Although it lost strength after moving inland, all five boroughs of New York City were hit particularly hard by the outer bands of Sandy.

Sandy's impact on the Big Apple was a double whammy of storm surges coming around the same time as high tide. From lower Manhattan to Queens, streets, tunnels and subway lines were flooded, stranding residents and forcing the NYPD and FDNY to respond to a number of calls by boat. In the Breezy Point section of Queens, as many as 110 homes were lost during a 5-alarm fire since the FDNY's trucks could not navigate the flooded streets to reach the homes until the tide receded.

State Island was the hardest hit out of all the boroughs in New York City. Portions of the island were under an evacuation order, but a number of residents chose to ride it out after Staten Island was left relatively unscathed by Sandy last year. According to officials 15 of the 39 confirmed fatalities in New York City from Sandy were on Staten Island.

Even amid the storm, several New York City hospitals took the unprecedented step of evacuating hundreds of patients as backup generators failed. Bellvue Hospital, which had received patients from elsewhere during the storm, began evacuating about 400 patients to Mt. Sinai. A New York City Health and Hospital Corporation official said that National Guardsmen activated due to Sandy instrumental in bringing in much needed fuel for the generator and assisting staff with transporting patients into waiting ambulances. Some of the patients had to be moved down 17 flights of stairs.

With some subway lines still inundated with saltwater, New York's MTA announced that it will resume limited subway service in Manhattan beginning Friday.

While power had been restored to some 4 million households throughout the region, at least 2.5 million are still without electricity in the New York metropolitan area. Across the Hudson in New Jersey, people have been lining up by the hundreds at gas stations to fill their cars or keep their generators running. Many gas stations are without power and remain closed while the ones that are open sell out quickly and it could be days before they're resupplied. This means that many in the slow-moving gas lines- some nearly two miles in length- will have waited in vain.

Amtrak announced that limited intercity service to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC will resume out of New York's Penn station beginning Friday.

Downtown Elkins, WV under a blanket of snow from the western portion of Hurricane Sandy. Higher elevations in the Appalachians received anywhere from 2 to 3 feet of snowfall. AP Photo/Vicki Smith

To the west, Sandy dumped several feet of snow in West Virginia and central Pennsylvania. At least 6 people were confirmed killed in West Virginia and an estimated 109,000 customers throughout the state were still without power on Thursday, prompting Gov. Tomblin to seek a federal disaster declaration. At least 36 state highways remained shut down on Thursday due to rising floodwaters, fallen tree limbs and heavy snowfall. The melting snow is also expected to saturate the Potomac watershed in the coming weeks.

Storm Spawns Deadly Weekend Tornadoes Tearing Through North Carolina

At least 22 people were killed and another 130 seriously injured over the weekend when tornadoes tore through at least 20 counties across the state.

The fatalities occurred in Wake, Johnston, Cumberland, Harnett, Lee, Bertie and Bladen counties, said Julia Jarema, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

The worst-hit area appears to be Bertie County, where authorities say 11 people are dead. About 75 people were going from door-to-door looking for victims and survivors Sunday.

Several of the dead were all from one family, Bertie County Manager Zee Lamb said.

"It's very devastating. These kinds of fatalities are not something we're used to," he said.

Some people survived even as their homes were torn apart around them, he said.

"There were several cases of houses being totally demolished except for one room, and that's where the people were," Lamb said. "They survived."

The US Army's Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC and USMC's Camp Lejeune outside of Jacksonville, NC lost power and had structures damaged in the storms. Although there were no reports of injuries or fatalities, Fort Bragg was closed off to non-essential personnel for the remainder of the weekend as utility crews worked to restore power and clear fallen trees and debris. Some 70 miles to the east a tornado struck a USMC family housing area in Camp Lejeune. There were no reports of fatalities, but Marines pulled a 23 month old boy from the rubble of one home. He was life-flighted to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, NC with fractured ribs, a cracked pelvis, broken femur and collapsed lung.

Sgt. Jarred Boone, Lance Cpl. Thomas Dickerson, and Sgt. Greg Shafer said they had run to the aid of a screaming woman while the tornado winds continued to blow. Clearly injured herself, with cuts on her face and a tooth puncturing her lip, the woman told them she couldn’t find her baby. The Marines began to root through a home that had been reduced to boards, finally lifting a wall to find the toddler underneath.

“The baby was blue,” Shafer said. “I lifted that wall up, and we brought him in the back door of (Dickerson’s house) and laid him on the floor.”

The men said one of the other heroes of the day had been a Navy medical officer who appeared seemingly from nowhere, administered CPR and kept the baby alive until officials from the appear Provost Marshal’s Office could arrive.

The man, Lt. J.G. Jonathan Hamrick, a Navy critical care nurse, told The Daily News via email he lived in a home nearby and had operated on adrenaline, rushing to the aid of the distraught mother.

Although Hurricanes are a common hazard in the Carolinas and smaller tornadoes aren't completely unheard of, it's unusual for a storm to spawn this many funnels outside of tornado alley in the midwest.

Japan Update: Trouble Persists at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant; More Dramatic Video Surfaces; Death Toll Mounts as Rescuers Still Finding Survivors

Workers attempting to bring the damaged reactors at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control were evacuated temporarily on Monday after a plume of grey smoke rose from the plant's reactor #3.

The news came after TEPCO confirmed power cables had been connected to all six nuclear reactors at the stricken power plant

The last two reactors to be hooked up to power from the main grid today were reactors No. 3 and No. 4, the two most badly damaged units, company officials told a briefing.

The company, meanwhile, is checking for damage to the plant's reactor cooling systems and other plant machinery before attempting to power them up.

It is operating equipment using grid power at reactor No. 5 only, one of the least damaged reactors, the officials said.

The cooling systems - designed to protect the plant's six reactors from a potentially disastrous meltdown - were knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and engineers have been battling rising temperatures ever since.

Workers had been struggling all week to shut down the quake damaged reactors after the strongest quake in Japan's recorded history and subsequent tsunami damaged some of the backup power and cooling systems. While the surrounding 12 miles of the plant were evacuated, some 200 Volunteers have been working in shifts of 50 each to operate the equipment, monitor gauges and clear obstructions from the various pipes in the facility.

The JSDF had also been called in last week to use Chinook helicopters to dump seawater and a compound consisting of boron onto the overheating reactors. This step was considered a 'last resort' by many observers as the salt water would be highly corrosive, meaning that the reactors could never be used again. The JSDF had also brought in at least six fire trucks capable of continuously pumping seawater onto spent fuel rods and overheating reactor #3.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, the Japanese government had reported that higher than normal levels of radiation were found in spinach and milk at farms in the vicinity of Fukushima- some farms as far as 100km away. While positioned off of Japan's east coast, the USS Ronald Reagan had detected increased levels of radiation last week and 17 crew members had to undergo decontamination after returning to the carrier from search and rescue duties.

ELSEWHERE IN JAPAN: As the situation unfolds in Fukushima Daiichi, more eyewitness video is surfacing demonstrating the staggering impact of the quake (which the USGS has officially changed to 9.0) and subsequent tsunami. This video embedded below shows black, churning water cascading over a seawall at Miyako in the Iwate prefecture while boats and cars caught up in the wave getting tossed around like bathtub toys



Another videotape has surfaced that was filmed from inside a car driving right next to the coast when the tsunami hit.

Searchers and rescue workers have discovered survivors in the rubble or washed out to sea in the week following the quake, including a 4 month old baby girl in the town of Ishinomaki, an 80 year old woman and her 16 year old grandson were pulled from the rubble of their home in the same town nearly a week later and a 60 year old man was rescued after being stranded on the roof of his demolished home that was washed 10 miles out to sea.

Queensland Assesses Damage, Rebuilds After Cyclone Yasi Cuts Swath Through North

Still reeling from last month's floods, the Australian state of Queensland was dealt the other half of a one-two punch from nature when the most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in nearly a century made landfall south of Cairns on Feb. 3rd.

Getty Images- Daily Mail

Cyclone Yasi made landfall at Mission Beach, Queensland on the morning of Feb 3rd as a Category 5 storm (stronger than Hurricane Katrina when she made landfall in 2005) bringing with it winds of more than 180 miles an hour and storm surges more than 20 ft high.

Yasi ripped across the coast near Cairns on Wednesday night, tearing apart dozens of homes and damaging hundreds more, cutting power to tens of thousands of people and flattening millions of dollars worth of crops.

Police and army personnel moved through the storm-savaged coastal town of Tully Heads on Saturday, going door-to-door accounting for residents.

Officials spray painted "No Go" as a warning on the worst-hit homes. A few houses were reduced to rubble. A layer of brown sludge covered the ground, leaving a sickening smell wafting throughout the community.

The massive surge of water ripped through homes, taking out walls and pushing resident's belongings into other people's houses and yards.

Residents spent Saturday sifting through the wreckage and dragging people's possessions back to their owners.

Rob McCarrol- The Australian

Amazingly, there were no reports of fatalities in the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi. But with the flooding throughout Queensland in January causing an estimated $5 Billion in damages to the region's economy before Yasi was even fully formed as a storm, the cyclone dealt another blow to Queensland, flooding highways and railroad tracks and cutting off entire towns from the rest of the country.

Suart Mceveoy- The Australian

Mining activity was shut down throughout much of Queensland in anticipation of Yasi's arrival, but most of the state's main zinc, copper and coal mines escaped relatively undamaged from the cyclone. However, nearly half of the state's sugarcane crop was thought to have been destroyed and as much as 75% of Queensland's banana crop was wiped out in the storm. With widespread damage to roads and structures, tourism in Queensland will decline as well.

Australia's military has been pressed into service to help clear debris, reopen highways and bring in emergency supplies to those left without food, shelter or fresh water. Some 500 troops were already stationed in nearby Townsville when the cyclone hit and another 3500 are ready to mobilize.

Wyclef Jean Left off of Ballot for Upcoming Haitian Elections; Plans to Appeal

Given how Wyclef Jean has run Yele Haiti, it's probably best that he was left off of the ballot. I suspect that governing a state- even a failed state- requires far more effort than a few months of gimmickry and publicity stunts while campaigning.

Haitian hip-hop star Wyclef Jean has said he will appeal against a ruling that he cannot run in Haiti's presidential election.

Haiti's electoral commission said that Mr Jean was ineligible to stand as the Haitian constitution requires candidates to have lived in the country for five years prior to an election.

The 40-year-old singer lives in the US.

But he argues that his role as a roving ambassador for Haiti since 2007 exempts him from the residency requirement

The comission made its ruling on Friday, and a statement issued saying that while he disagreed with their opinion, he would accept their ruling. However, Wyclef Jean tweeted over the weekend that his legal team would appeal the electoral comission's ruling.

Haiti's presidential elections were scheduled for February 28, 2010. However, after the devestating Magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck on January 12th, it was decided to move the polling date back to at least November 28. As many as 230,000 were feared killed in the quake.

Candidates will also be running for ten senate seats and 98 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

State of Emergency Delcared as Rhode Island Battered by Record Floodwaters

(Charles Krupa/AP)

All five counties in Rhode Island were declared disaster areas in the wake of this week's earlier heavy rains and floodwaters.

The Pawtuxet River overflowed its banks and managed to shut down portions of Interstate 95, the connector road accessing Providence's T.F. Green International Airport and Amtrak's Washington D.C. to Boston Northeast Corridor. Woonsocket, RI- based CVS Phamacies [NYSE: CVS] reported that flooding from the nearby Blackstone River knocked out its computer system, temporarily affecting prescription services for the nationwide chain.

High waters from the river also flowed over the protective levee built around the city of Warwick, RI's sewage treatment plant, adding to the misery and further contaminating the Pawtuxet's floodwaters.

Governor Carcieri had activated around 220 members of the National Guard to help with evacuations, placing sandbags and detours this week. The floodwaters are expected to recede over the weekend, at which point the damage can be more thoroughly assessed.

Chile Earthquake Update- Sebastian Pinera to be Sworn In; Looters Have Amnesty Before Crackdown; USAF Sends Medical Personnel; Go West?

Sebastian Pinera, the Chilean tycoon who made his fortune introducing credit cards to the South American nation, will be sworn in as Chile's newest president Thursday, replacing outgoing socialist president Michelle Bachelet less than three weeks after the nation was rocked by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The conservative Pinera won a January runoff election against center-left Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. The 60 year old billionaire said "We won't be the government of the earthquake, we'll be the government of reconstruction". Pinera ran on a platform of creating jobs, reducing crime and boosting economic growth in 2009. Pinera's election win will end more than 20 years of center-left rule in Chile.

Although Bachelet has come under criticism for the government's slow initial response to the Febuary 27th earthquake, some polls show her as having an approval rating of more than 80%.

Police and military in Chile gave the looters that struck in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake an ultimatum this weekend- return the stolen items no questions asked by Sunday or face a crackdown. Items like fans, cases of liquor, Television sets, furniture, washing machines and stereos were left on the street for the soldiers and Carabineros to pick up and process. Acting on tips from residents, authorities in Concepcion had arrested 20 people in possession of looted merchandise. Police and the Army said they were ready to search house-to-house after televised images of looting shocked viewers in the normally orderly South American country.

The United States Air Force Southern Command announced in a statement on Tuesday that they were sending 84 Airmen to Chile, 63 of them medical personnel. The support team will be equipped to perform surgeries as well as dental, radiological, pharmaceutical and diagnostic work, US Military officials said. The team will relieve Chilean personnel taking part in the relief effort.

Apparently the earthquake was strong enough to move the city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west. Chile's capital of Santiago reportedly moved 11 inches to the west-southwest while on the other side of the Andes, the city of Mendoza reportedly moved significantly and Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires moved an inch to the west. Researchers and geologists were able to measure the shift by comparing GPS date from before the quake with readings taken 10 days later.

Chile Earthquake Death Toll Revised; Chile's President Meets W/Clinton, UN Secretary General Moon; More Strong Aftershocks Rock Concepcion

(Reuters/Victor R Caballero)

Authorities in Chile were revising their death toll from last weekend's 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Concepcion as the nation's military started pouring into the stricken areas to restore order and deliver food and emergency supplies.

On Thursday, Chile's Office of Emergency Management listed an estimated 200 attendees at a festival on the island of Orrego near the city of Constitucion as 'missing' instead of confirmed dead. Forensic experts are also arriving in an effort to positively identify some of the bodies pulled from the rubble.

UN Secretary General Ban Kai Moon pledged some US$10 Million from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund for Concepcion and other quake-stricken municipalities as well as emergency supplies like water filters. The Secretary General appeared with outgoing president Michelle Bachelete on a live fundraising telethon this week and will tour the devastated city of Concepcion this weekend.

Earlier in the week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had visited both president Bachelet and Chile's President-elect Pinera to assess Chile's immediate needs (generators, portable kitchens, portable kitchens). The initial supplies from the USA include at least 60 satellite phones, a mobile field hospital and emergency shelter materiels.


An aftershock registering magnitude 6.6 on the Richter scale rocked Concepcion early Friday morning, the strongest aftershock since a magnitude 6.9 temblor shortly after last week's quake. Buildings were evacuated and some patients in Concepcion's hospital were sent home as authorities feared the structure would collapse. Many residents in the region had taken to sleeping outside in the streets, concerned that a strong enough aftershock could collapse their homes.

Chile Earthquake Update- Death Toll Rising Amid Deteriorating Security Situation

(Aliosha Marquez/AP)

Chile's central government moved to position additional Army personnel and Carabineros (Chile's national uniformed police force) officers in Conepcion, Talcahuano and other municipalities close to the epicenter of Saturday's magnitude 8.8 earthquake in a bid to quell looting in those areas. Over the weekend, looters emptied supermarkets, clothing stores, gas stations, grain silos and electronics stores, burning some of them to the ground afterwards. Authorities in Concepcion had declared a curfew and police had 55 people in custody for curfew violation on Sunday.

(Natacha Pisarenko/AP)

Outgoing Chilean President Michele Bachelete promised to deliver aid to the quake-stricken regions as the death toll went past 700, with 723 dead and at least 19 missing. Firefighters in Concepcion had pulled 25 survivors and eight bodies from a collapsed apartment complex while firefighters, soldiers and urban search and rescue teams were searching for signs of life in other collapsed buildings. Many survivors had taken to sleeping outside on the sidewalks, anticipating another quake.

The price of copper saw a brief spike on international trading, as Chile is the world's largest exporter of copper. Officials say the quake and its aftermath is expected to slow, but not halt the production and export of copper.

And at this time, Not Another New England Sports Blog! would like to salute Chilean tabloid La Cuarta for not only providing images and updates on the quake's aftermath throughout the weekend, but also providing Chileans with completely gratuitous T&A in their hour of need.

Mil Gracias, La Cuarta! Como se dice 'NSFW'?

Massive Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake and Aftershocks Rock Central Chile

(La Nacion- Argentina)

(La Nacion- Argentina)

(Reuters)

(Reuters)

Buildings were toppled while electricity and telephone lines were severed after a magnitude 8.8. earthquake struck central Chile early Saturday morning. The capital city of Santiago shook for over a minute and multiple aftershocks, some as strong as 6.9, struck the region. The USGS placed the epicenter of the quake about 70 miles outside of Concepcion, Chile's second largest city with a population of 200,000.

Early reports indicate that 47 people were killed, but that figure is expected to rise. Chilean President Michele Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" for the central region of the country and the Pacific Tsunami Center issued a warning for the coast of Chile and Peru. Authorities in Chile will have a better chance to assess the damage once daybreak comes.

UPDATE: The death toll has been revised to at least 214 and photographs illustrating the extent of the damage are beginning to circulate online. I found some images courtesey of the online edition of Argentina's La Nacion newspaper.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck a Saturday afternoon off the coast of Valparaiso, headquarters of the Chilean Navy and the nation's largest seaport. The port was ordered to shut down while it was the facilities were inspected for damage.

Tsunami warning have been issued for California, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, Hawaii and British Columbia by NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

HAITI UPDATE: Aftershocks Rattle Port Au Prince; USNS Comfort Arrives; Chunky Venezuelan Conspiracy Theorist Rambles on; Cruise Ships Not Welcome?

(File photo; US Navy)

The US Navy Mercy class Hospital ship USNS Comfort arrived near Port Au Prince last Wednesday and took on it's first patients. The first two were flown in by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and included a 6 year old boy and a 20 year old man. The 894-foot vessel can accommodate 1000 hospital beds and has a compliment of over 900 medical personnel.

ELSEWHERE: Aftershocks as strong as 5.9 on the Richter scale jolted Port Au Prince on Wednesday, sending survivors out into the street fearing a repeat of the devastating quake that struck 8 days prior. Reuters is reporting that looting and sporadic violence has subsided with the arrival of American Marines and soldiers to provide security and oversee distribution of aid. Both the Haitian government and United Nations peacekeepers suffered casualties in the initial earthquake.

*Actor George Clooney and singer Wyclef Jean organized a live telethon simulcast from Los Angeles, New York and Haiti that managed to raise $57 million in relief efforts towards Haiti.

*French and Greek rescuers pulled out a man from the ruins of a collapsed grocery store in Port Au Prince some 11 days after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake levelled the Haitian capital. Rescuers discovered 24 year old Wismond Exantus under the rubble the same day the Haitian government ordered search and rescue teams to call off their search.

*Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines [NYSE: RCL] has come under fire for their decision to dock at a resort in northern Haiti shortly after the quake. The company defended the docking of Navigator of the Seas at Labadee, which was largely unaffected by the quake, saying that the company employs hundreds of Hatians and the devestated island nation's economy could use the infusion of capital that tourism provides. The company also said it was forwarding rice, fresh water and beans to the disaster stricken island nation. Two other vessels from the Royal Caribbean Lines, including the worlds largest ocean liner- Oasis of the Seas, are scheduled to dock in Labadee later on this month.

And finally, might I suggest tHugo Chavez help himself to a nice big, steaming cup of shut the fuck up? Particularly when Los Angeles County is sending more aid to Haiti then the oil-rich tropical paradise that he seems intent on pile-driving into the ground called Venezuela. This time, the Venezuelan dictator is claiming the devastation wrought in Haiti was a byproduct of a sooper-seekrit 'tectonic weapon' deployed by the US Navy and that it was used on the island nation of Haiti so we could help ourselves to the country's vast oil reserves? Wait....scratch that. It was clearly so the gringo yanqui imperialists could help themselves to Haiti's nearly limitless mineral wealth, with all those gold, platinum, copper and palladium mines- wait, that's not it either. I got it! It's all those skilled baseball players.....oh no- that's the other half of the island.

This kind of begs the question.....if the US military had such a weapon at their disposal, why not use it against Caracas, since....by using their logic, they already know too much and have all those precious energy and mineral deposits that a rapacious imperialistic war machine just can't get enough of. If such technology exists, I beseech the United States Military to deploy it only when Danny Glover and tHugo Chavez are meeting together.

And yes, I'm well aware of what Pat Robertson said shortly after the quake...and frankly, I thought the comments themselves were sanctimonious, self-righteous crap, but would also serve as a convenient and intellectually lazy way for people who disdain religon in general to harp on Christians as being intolerant and self-righteous. Patricularly disengenuous when you consider how many Christian charities and aid groups were active in Haiti before the earthquake. I mean...seriously- what kind of piece of crap would go out of their way to defend Danny Glover's statements?

HAITI UPDATE: tHugo Chavez Claims US 'Occupying' Haiti; Wyclef Jean's Charity Questioned; US GI Finds Kin in Haiti; CNN Doc Pressed Into Service

(Haiti's Presidential Palace before the earthquake- Garrett Crawford)

(and immediately after the earthquake- hotindienews)

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez took time from his busy schedule of nationalizing private retailers and rationing electricity to second-guess the American Aid efforts in Haiti.

"I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that's what the United States should send," Chavez said on his weekly television show. "They are occupying Haiti undercover."

Chavez said he did not wish to diminish the humanitarian effort made by the United States and was only questioning the need for so many troops.

Nooo....of course not. Seems kind of silly that the soldiers and Marines we're sending to Haiti should be armed. I mean it's not like there's no functioning government, the UN Peacekeepers assigned to the capital were killed in the earthquake or rampant gangs of machete-wielding looters might attack aid groups distributing supplies or anything.

French Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet was also critical of the American Military presence in the devestated capital of Port Au Prince. 'This is about helping Haiti, not occupying Haiti' Joyandet said from the comfort of Brussels.

Speaking of imperialist American soldiers occupying Port-Au-Prince, I came across this story earlier of a Hatian immigrant who's now a staff sargeant with the 82nd Airborne Division now deployed to Haiti.


Quake survivors implore the soldiers in halting English for more food and water and for medical help. Florestal responds in Creole — and surprised Haitians waiting in lines slap him on the back and shake his hand.“They feel good that there are Haitians in the U.S. Army,” he said.
Amazingly, he found one of his cousins, who told him most of his family survived. Later, he called his mother, who had been crying and still unable to reach any relatives in Haiti from her Orlando, Florida, home. She was overjoyed to hear that her sister and brother were alive, he said.

ELSEWHERE: CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, was the only doctor remaining at a field hospital set up in Port-au-Prince after Belgian doctors and staff had evacuated over security concerns. Some 25 patients were left in the doctors care as the Belgian medical personnel departed and took their supplies with them. [Full disclosure, I'm no fan of CNN, but way to go Dr Gupta!- NANESB!]

The Smoking Gun, Associated Press, Better Business Bureau and others have brought into question the spending practices of Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti charity over the last few days. Art Taylor of the BBB's Wise Giving Alliance said that IRS tax returns for the Yele Haiti Foundation between 2005 and 2007 were filed on one day- August 10, 2009- which can be considered a red flag. Also, in 2007, the foundation's spending of $411,000 exceeded its revenues of $79,000. It's revenue in 2008 was en estimated $1.9 million. Jean had been imploring the public to raise funds for Yele Haiti this week by texting 'Yele' to 501501 to donate $5 for earthquake relief. Estimates are that he managed to raise nearly $2 million via text, however the foundation cannot collect until the phone bills come due for each respective donor. Foundation president Cliff Locke said that the organization is seeking bridge funding for between the time the funds were pledged via text message and when the donors pay their bills.

UPDATE: For whatever reason, Goodsearch has Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti featured under their 'Who's Doing Good?' section on the main page. Maybe this has been cleared up to a degree, or the organization will perform beyond expectations with the increased scrutiny. Or maybe Goodsearch is still unaware of the accusations leveled against Yele Haiti.

Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake Levels Capital of Country That Wasn't In Great Shape To Begin With

Port-au-Prince, Haiti was rocked by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that was followed by magnitude 5.9 and 5.5 aftershocks yesterday afternoon. Casualties are feared to be in the thousands, according to most relief agencies in the impoverished nation.

Already the FBI is warning about opportunistic scams masquerading as charities to play on the public's concern over the scope of the disaster.

Concerned readers can find out more about donating through relief organizations like the Red Cross or Catholic Relief Services.