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Saturday, January 16, 2010

The Morning News: Haiti, Health Care, Hack the Planet

Posted by on Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 8:49 AM

Posted by news intern Sarah Anne Lloyd

Inquest: Ordered for the shooting of Maurice Clemmons by a police officer on December 1. Clemmons allegedly shot and killed four Lakewood police officers.

Creepy: Kent man charged with kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl, even after she supposedly agreed to "a sex act."

Sad: The body of a 22-year-old Port Orchard woman has been found in Haiti earthquake wreckage.

"Safe Internet Use": 28 students at McClure middle school have been suspended for cuberbullying after creating a Facebook page targeting the victim.

"Paradise Park"? Perugia's mayor and the Capitol Hill Community Council weigh in on Seattle Parks and Recreation's decision not to name a Capitol Hill park after Perugia, Italy.

"We're F—d": A close senate race in Massachusetts for the seat formerly held by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy has Senate democrats worried - a win by Republican Scott Brown would reduce the Senate Democratic Caucus from 60 to 59.

Meanwhile: Democratic US Representative Vic Snyder announces he is not running for reelection.

In TV: Deal almost completed for "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien to leave NBC, leaving his spot open for Jay Leno to take back.

Wyclef Jean Pays Self $100,000 For Concert: Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti foundation's spending is under close scrutiny, especially since raising $1.5 million after an earthquake hit Haiti on Friday.

Also: The US has offered Haitians living illegally in the US protection from deportation for 18 months and eligibility to work.

Bagram Detainees Names Released: The US government released names of detainees held at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan as part of a lawsuit.

China Allegedly Hacks Google: US to make formal protest over China's alleged "cyber-attacks" on Google.

Scary: Iranian authorities have warned protesters against using texts and e-mail messages to organize rallies.

Condiments! Women on the Newlywed Game in the 70's have no idea what a condiment is! HILARITY ENSUES.

 

Comments (39) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
I wanted to name the park "Awesome Park"... but apparently the name has to be historic or some shit like that. Here's what life would be like without bureaucratic park naming nonsense:

"Where do you want to go to smoke this joint?"
"Awesome Park."

And wasn't that supposed to be built like two years ago?
Posted by Repunzel on January 16, 2010 at 9:07 AM
2
re: Massachusetts Senate Seat-

The drama is thick.

The seat held by Socialism Teddy
could be the last nail
in the Democrats' Health Care fiasco.
Ironic, much?
The kicker is that the Republican
is pointedly running as a vote
AGAINST the Democrats' plan
and
gaining in the polls as a result.
In Liberal Massachusetts.

rich....

(I blame it on 5 years of Gay Marriage)
Posted by GOP on January 16, 2010 at 9:19 AM
3
Can you please stop using the word 'alleged' when it comes to Maurice Clemmons.

Shouldn't the bullet in his stomach from the cop at the coffee shop who returned fire be enough evidence to remove any question about it?
Posted by Bhamjason on January 16, 2010 at 9:19 AM
Fnarf 4
The US has dropped the ball in Haiti. Our response isn't any more impressive than it was after Katrina, frankly. They're saying "9,000 troops on Monday". MONDAY? What the fuck is Monday? It's an hour away. 3 million people have been without food or water for THREE DAYS. A few boxes of food don't mean FUCK ALL. They need thousands of troops on the ground NOW -- today -- 9 AM, not fucking Monday.

The death toll is going to be 500,000. Just watch.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on January 16, 2010 at 9:30 AM
5
@3: it never went to trial. Legally and ethically, I need to use alleged.
Posted by Unpaid Intern on January 16, 2010 at 9:36 AM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 6
>>Republican Scott Brown

Anyone for tea?

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://yrihf.com on January 16, 2010 at 9:42 AM
7
fnarfy is right.

we should be parachuting 40,000 troops TODAY. we should be dropping 100,000 individual aid packages by parachute TODAY.

we should be helicoptering in 10,000 bulldozers 24/7 from Miami shuttling to guantanamo with a national call out to all unemployed operating engineers.

you we did invade haiti once with tens of thousands of troops. we have all the maps. we even have THOUSANDS of army and police officers FROM HAITI.

I'd like Obama to really step it up and make this one of the signature efforts of his administration.

And yes if they were white and or european stock...if there were 200,000 dead candadians and 4 million more dying of thirst right now in say, Winnipeg...say, after some earthquake megablizzard knocking out all shelter and power....in january...all about to die...we'd be fucking invading with aid.

but these people are black. and what is more as pat robertson said they had the effrontery to revolt and not take slavery like good little slaves, so who gives a shit?

5,000 troops is about what we throw down just to protect a G 7 meeting.....
Posted by misanthropc on January 16, 2010 at 9:49 AM
Fnarf 8
How about....Meredith Kercher Park?
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on January 16, 2010 at 10:02 AM
Baconcat 9
Senate Dems are worried that once they lose their 60 vote advantage, folks will make a startling realization about their effectiveness.
Posted by Baconcat on January 16, 2010 at 10:06 AM
dnt trust me 10
at least 100 comments could fill that 20 second newlywed clip:
-television hasn't progressively evolved
-people are still dumb
-people don't laugh at, but look down upon those that don't get the pop culture references on 30 Rock
-Bob Eubanks cameo in Michael Morre's early film 'Roger and Me'
-Sasha Baron Cohen
-hooray, i'm married, i'm a star
-fat woman host who does the new newlywed game
-thank you for telling me that 'hilarity ensues', i kept that in mind while watching the clip, otherwise i would have missed it.
-thank god for educational media sources like yours.
Posted by dnt trust me on January 16, 2010 at 10:07 AM
11
9
It's hard to see how the "60th" seat will matter much since it is impossible to see anything Dems have accomplished with the "SuperMajority" so far anyway...
Posted by sandie on January 16, 2010 at 10:11 AM
12
Arkansas Congressman Vic Snyder is a rare Liberal representing a Southern state.
He is also a physician.
He won his last election by 20 points.

The fact that he wants out bodes ill for the Health Care Plan and Democrats.

Replacing him with a former Karl Rove aid would be a huge step backwards.

Snyder had a liberal voting record in the House, standing against proposed federal bans on same-sex marriage and late-term abortions, and he voted for health care reform.
His politics have made him a target of Republican critics.

Snyder’s health care stance is thought to have weakened him this year.

Snyder said he hired a campaign manager two weeks ago, but changed his mind about running after talking with family and close friends.

Republican Tim Griffin, a former interim U.S. attorney and Karl Rove aide, has been running since the fall for the Republican nomination.
Posted by Ark.homo on January 16, 2010 at 10:17 AM
jezbian 13
i was going to donate to yele, but when i got there and clicked through to the page where they wanted my credit card info and saw there was no "s" after the "http" i decided to give elsewhere - my brother who's been working in IT for a couple decades now (after getting a degree in it) long ago advised me to never give out any sensitive information online unless i saw "https" at the beginning of the url.

yele's site claims to process everything 'safe' and 'secure' or the like, but without that 's' there the other day i opted for americares.

if any IT folks are on here and can affirm or deny whether or not looking for the "https" is still suggested, i'd love to hear your take(s) on it. thanks.
Posted by jezbian on January 16, 2010 at 10:25 AM
Fnarf 14
The bigger worry with Yele isn't the lack of a secure website but the question of where the money goes. Not much of it actually goes to charitable work. I have no idea whether Wyclef Jean is a good guy or not, but it doesn't really matter: what matters is low administrative costs and effective action. I don't see either at Yele. The blatantly corrupt payments are a bad sign.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on January 16, 2010 at 10:36 AM
jezbian 15
fnarf: i understand the bigger issue with yele, however i was trying to get anyone with more IT information than i have to answer my question as to whether or not i should still be looking for "https" before i give any credit card (or other sensitive) information out on a site. my brother is on a work trip and doesn't like to be bothered by non-emergency things such as this, and i thought that there'd be a chance of someone reading the slog this a.m. who would have some insight for me.

and yes i know that i could just get my virtual ass over to questionland and ask it there, but the news item triggered my memory of wanting to ask about it, and from my experience there are many tech-savvy readers of slog on here already.

i checked out americares before i donated to them, and they looked pretty good in terms of administrative/overhead costs vs. % of money that actually goes through to the charities on the other end.
Posted by jezbian on January 16, 2010 at 11:01 AM
Cato the Younger Younger 16
And losing the 60 seat magical majority will change what exactly?

Remember when the Democrats in 2008 promised us that if they JUST could have 60 votes in the Senate......

Yeah, and we all know that those same Democrats will use every fear tactic that they can this year to hold on to whatever seats they still have. So they will have taken a lesson from Karl Rove: If you can't run on your record run on fear of the other guy!!
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on January 16, 2010 at 11:12 AM
NumberOne 17
That 14 year old who was raped? Creepy is not the right word for it. More like hideous and disgusting.

"He allegedly took her to a series of motels, where he made her smoke meth, perform sex acts and dress in clothes he provided."

How gut wrenching. I hope she gets the help she will need after being put through this.
Posted by NumberOne on January 16, 2010 at 11:12 AM
Greg 18
You could also donate to Medical Teams International. They have secure (https) web donation, they meet all the Better Business Bureau's 20 criteria for a good charity, and they already sent doctors from Washington and Oregon to Haiti last week. That's who I donated to and I've been very happy with the whole process.
Posted by Greg on January 16, 2010 at 11:13 AM
19
Park naming is in the pit it seems.

A small corner, to become a pocket park, named as paradise ... nawwww.

HEY, just named it ... Pocket Park.

WoW
Posted by R G B on January 16, 2010 at 11:26 AM
Fnarf 20
@15, yes, https indicates a secure website, at least the part where you're typing into it. No telling what they do with the data afterwards, of course.

The problem is, all the money in the world does no good right now. They have TOO MUCH aid, too many supplies. What they lack is command and control: a distribution system, storage, and most of all FIELD HOSPITALS. I just hear a doctor on TV say that a THIRD of all the patients there are going to die in the next TWENTY FOUR HOURS if they don't get surgery -- but there are no surgical facilities. AT ALL. This is where the army comes in: the Army can set up a field hospital in a few hours; that's one of the things they're trained for. They can fix airports. They can fix roads. They can organize distribution and storage. They can provide security -- looting in rampant now, amid constant gunfire. People are being killed over cups of water.

US ARMY NOW.

I do not understand this "Monday" bullshit.

We're going to celebrate Martin Luther King Day by sending troops to collect a half million corpses.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on January 16, 2010 at 11:48 AM
Will in Seattle 21
Whenever I cuberbully, I always use cubed cucumbers.

It's how McClure rules.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on January 16, 2010 at 11:49 AM
Max Solomon 22
sorry, perugia: no justice, no park.
Posted by Max Solomon on January 16, 2010 at 11:57 AM
More, I Say! 23
@1 - hell yeah! i've been living across the street for three years, two of which i've spend going "just you wait - soon there will be an awesome park here, and we can smoke a joint at it." two years later, still no park, but i will definitely smoke a j at awesome park when i can...
Posted by More, I Say! on January 16, 2010 at 12:09 PM
24
Democrats are universally ineffectual. That's why I plan on voting straight GOP the next election. It's better to be with the people you know hate you than be with the people who only pretend to like you.

Sarah Palin is an idiot, but it would be great to see a woman in the White House, so why not? After all, Obama has proven that the office is ineffective. It's all about the Supreme Court, when you get down to it, and we are already screwed when it comes to them.

Seriously - isn't it better to know where we stand?
Posted by Grad student realist on January 16, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Irena 25
But Fnarf, their infrastructure is destroyed; their airports are overwhelmed. Where are those troops supposed to land?

It's a terrible situation, but it sounds to me like par for the course with a disaster of this magnitude:
Jan Egerland, a former UN humanitarian chief, told the BBC: "We're in a very classic development. Days three, four and five are the most frustrating. Everybody knows the whole world is mobilising and everyone has heard the promises. But it takes time to reach the beneficiaries. The infrastructure has either gone or is totally clogged up."

It's awful, but realistically, what can they do? Are there viable alternative approaches that have been shown to work? Do you think the problem is systemic, or is it based on a lack of leadership?
Posted by Irena on January 16, 2010 at 12:31 PM
26
25: Of course there are no viable alternatives. Fnarf is a bitchy liberal. Just like the rest of the moody progressive wimps that post here.
Posted by JMS on January 16, 2010 at 1:17 PM
lark 27
Good Afternoon,
For those of you interested, here's a brief and recent history of Haiti from Foreign Policy:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/20…

Wow, what an unfortunate country.
Posted by lark on January 16, 2010 at 1:33 PM
Fnarf 28
@25, 26: our troops are capable of moving in ANYWHERE. How much infrastructure do you think there was in Iraq or Afghanistan after we'd bombed the shit out of them? They can DROP in. They can land on the beaches.

And there is a runway open at the airport, which the Army could commandeer. It's currently being used to land supplies that aren't needed because there's no way for the clueless UN twats to move them anywhere. That's the situation they're in right now: they have TOO MUCH aid. They're swamped with supplies that are just stacking up and impeding progress, not forwarding it. That's what they need the Army for, to build emergency infrastructure.

Meanwhile the UN is telling the only functional hospital that all the patients have to get out and move to other field hospitals so they can use the space as a fucking WAREHOUSE. And there ARE NO OTHER HOSPITALS for them to go to, and no way to get there if there were. They've been sending hundreds of patients to scattered field hospitals that can only take a dozen patients each, forcing them to turn around and come back to the facility they're being forced to leave. The UN doesn't have a fucking clue, it's clear.

These people are going to die TODAY. The doctor on the TV was describing the screams of people with compound fractures of the pelvis -- bones sticking out. Lying in the road.

The fucking Army can land anywhere they want to.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on January 16, 2010 at 1:54 PM
Fnarf 29
Sorry if I sound a little agitated, Irena. It's a really ugly situation, and from here it looks just like Katrina, only worse.

Leadership? Haiti doesn't have a government right now. There's a handful of dudes who are totally outmatched by the complexities of an office chair, let alone a disaster of this magnitude. They have absolutely nothing to offer anyone. There's a lot of manpower sitting around, but they need someone to tell them what to do. That's where military command and control comes in handy; it's not just about bodies but command. The army can get a thousand men working right away on clearing a runway by hand, if necessary, and repairing the roads to the point where they can move the supplies. NGOs can't do those things, and neither can the UN; they can only do the stuff they know how to do, like hand out food or do medical work -- IF they have facilities. Who's going to build the facilities? Who knows how to build a field hospital in three hours? The military.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on January 16, 2010 at 2:08 PM
30
The Dems have never had a true 60 votes or super majority as they say. What with Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and other "Blue Dog" Democrats, they have had maybe 50. These Blue Dog Democrats really are more like Republicans. I think they should be not supported by the Democratic Party.
www.clearwirelessinternetprovider.com
Posted by florinosci on January 16, 2010 at 5:20 PM
Irena 31
Katrina is obviously casting a big shadow over this whole situation. I understand why there would be high expectations for the U.S. to redeem itself by using its military to do something really heroic for once -- to live up to the promise that with America in charge, the world will be a better place. A spectacular show of heroism, like that "thousand men working right away on clearing a runway by hand" image -- yeah, that would go a long way to justifying America's role as THE military superpower. I'm still not sure if it's even feasible, but I think it's a good question to ask: is the delay of troops based on logistics, or will?
Posted by Irena on January 16, 2010 at 6:01 PM
32
Intern @ 5 says: "Legally and ethically, I need to use alleged."

Ethically, you don't. Legally, you don't either. It is perfectly legal to drop the alleged. Watch. I say: Maurice Clemmons is unequivocally guilty of murder. Now let's see if I'm convicted of a crime.

What is undoubtedly true is this: the Stranger's corporate policy requires writers to put some variant of "alleged" before any crime, so as to absolutely ensure that the Stranger cannot be sued for libel. You may not understand the difference between corporate policy and law now, but sometime in your education as a journalist, you really ought to study it.
Posted by David Wright on January 16, 2010 at 11:01 PM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 33
#33 as far as I can see, Haiti's devastation is being over exaggerated by hyper-caffinated journalists and narrow field photography.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://yrihf.com on January 17, 2010 at 12:59 AM
34
32
'ethically' doesn't mean what you think it does
Posted by What is undoubtedly true on January 17, 2010 at 6:01 AM
35
Watch. I say: David Wright is unequivocally guilty of being an AssHole.

see how that works?
Posted by Leave the Intern alone. AssHole. on January 17, 2010 at 6:03 AM
Fnarf 36
@33, and just how far is that, exactly? Aren't all your windows covered with tinfoil to block the mind-control rays? Or is the colander sufficient?

Jackass.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on January 17, 2010 at 7:35 AM
Roma 37
3: Can you please stop using the word 'alleged' when it comes to Maurice Clemmons.

Shouldn't the bullet in his stomach from the cop at the coffee shop who returned fire be enough evidence to remove any question about it?


This reminds me of all the news stories about mass murderer Major Nidal Malik Hasan, how he's always referred to as the "suspected shooter" even though numerous eyewitnesses saw him mowing people down. I'm sure it's the policy of newspapers and magazines and the like to refer to people who clearly committed a crime as "suspected" or "alleged" as long as they haven't been tried and convicted -- even if there were hundreds of eyewitnesses and cameras rolling -- but, on the other hand, it does seem rather silly in cases where the person clearly committed the act.

As far as Clemons goes, if an attorney like Johnnie Cochran was defending him, I'm sure he'd argue (and possibily convince a jury) that the bullet in Clemons' stomach was planted there by racist white cops.

Posted by Roma on January 17, 2010 at 1:27 PM
lark 38
@37Roma,
Yeah, I agree with you. I believe virtually anytime a lone officer shoots and kills a suspect, the SPD and other departments routinely order an inquest. It's probably procedural. I remain convinced that Clemmons was the culprit in the Lakewood Massacre largely because it was reported that Clemmons had in his possession one of the service revolvers/pistols of the officers killed in addition to a blood match at the scene of the crime. True, he was never brought to trial for the crime. As a result, he was never convicted. But, that doesn't make him any less guilty. Personally, I don't think it, the inquest worth reporting. It was a bloody sad affair that probably is best forgotten. However, the officers killed are never to be forgotten.
Posted by lark on January 17, 2010 at 2:55 PM
39
38
It would be really simple to plant a service revolver on the body of a dead suspect.
Posted by JoesephFriday on January 17, 2010 at 7:01 PM

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