Haiti Update

The on-ground situation, as expected, is dire. Foreign media posted outside the country are finding getting into the epicenter Port-au-Prince, extremely difficult, so details are still thin.

What is known is that the quake's epicenter was only a few kilometers away from the Haitian capital. The quake, because it was shallow, caused even greater magnification and destruction to one of the most impoverished and depleted cities in the world. It's difficult to determine the human casualties, but these natural disasters never end up going well when focused on the poorest centres of the poorest nations.

One bit of positive news is that the main runway into Port-au-Prince was left relatively undamaged, which means relief supplies and rescue officials will be transported quickly and directly to the disaster area. In fact, many supplies and human personnel are already streaming in. Strange, it seems that so much relief could come so soon (less than 24 hours), while by contrast, it took days for substantive relief to flood into New Orleans after that city was pounded by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Major Catastrophe in Haiti

Word is slowly coming out this morning that the earthquake that struck Haiti early Tuesday may be extrodinarily dire. More on this later today.

RNC Chair in Deep Trouble?

News out this morning via the ever-handy Twitter that Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele was (and might still be) called into an "emergency meeting" comprised of senior elected Party officials. Word is Steele's about-to-be-released book has pretty much gone over like a ton of bricks amongst the big wigs. Could this be Steele's Waterloo? He's been pretty much embattled as Chairman since the first day he won the job.

UPDATE: According to the Washington Post, Steele's big problem not be only that he apparently failed to tell anybody about his book (a 12-Step Formula to defeating the Obama agenda, at least if the title is any indicator), but perhaps more importantly, he might have overstepped the conditions of his employment by signing a book deal. Being RNC Chair means you act and speak for its benefit, not your own.

Steele could, of course, argue that his book is meant to benefit the Party, since it's supposedly a blueprint for attacking Obama. But that's a pretty veiled defense, at best.

Flight 253's Report Release

We're just a few hours away from the release of a White House report of the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The report, which is believed to contain details on how Abdulmutallab, already a known threat, was still allowed to board the Detroit-bound flight.

Even though more then eight years have passed since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and even after the very public 911 Commission, American security agencies continued to be hampered by their dyslexic relationships, whereas intelligence is hoarded and not shared. The Adulmutallab incident appears to be another case of agencies either unable, or unwilling, to communicate with others. In this case, it appears that Adulmutallab was flagged as a possible threat in November when his father approached the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria with fears that his son could be a possible threat. That information was apparently relayed to American intelligence Departments and agencies, including the FBI, CIA, U.S. State and Justice Departments, and Homeland Security. At that point, it appears communication broke down, and nothing was done to keep Adulmutallab off that flight.

There's been wide speculation that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and/or National Security Advisor James Jones will eventually resign over this incident, but I cannot imagine President Obama is prepared or willing to take the political hit that would result from such high level resignations. It is clear that he's read the riot act to both Ms. Napolitano and Mr. Jones, which probably means they're each going to get one more chance to get the intelligence agencies to start working cooperatively with each other.

If there's another highly publicized security breach, it's a good bet that one, or both, will be fired.

Democrats Headed for Trouble in 2010

News out tonight that Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan will not seek reelection in 2010, which apparently caught just about everyone by surprise. Dorgan's retirement means that the Republicans will be heavily favored to pick up the seat this November.

While the Dems almost certainly won't lose control over the upper chamber this cycle, their House majority looks iffy at best. If the Democrats were to lose control of one (or both) wings of Congress, President Obama will have a very difficult time moving his agenda forward over the last two years of his term.

Iceland on the Tipping Point?

News today that the President of Iceland refused to sign a bill that would have seen about $5 billion paid out to foreign investors who lost their savings when Iceland's banks went belly-up. The bill was hugely unpopular amongst Icelanders, and President Olafur Grimsson's about-face not only puts Iceland's $10 billion IMF loan in question, but would almost certainly end Iceland's current hopes to become part of the European Union.

The current coalition government was in a huge catch-22. If they had let the bill be signed into law, public outrage might have ended its tenure. With the bill now vetoed, the emergency cash injection from the IMF may be cut off, which could put the entire Iceland economy on the brink of collapse.

The big question is, if Iceland goes, will others soon follow?

Circling the Wagons

We hear a lot of nonsense on cable news television - to the extent that most of the self-expressed indignation is diluted into a pool of noise that's forgotten within 24 hours, but the comments made by Brit Hume this weekend on Tiger Woods converting from Buddhism to Christianity to save himself may have gotten the news anchor into some real trouble:



It's difficult to determine whether this will just fade away into the ashcan of forgettable (it probably will), but there's a certain line crossed when anyone from a secular medium attempts to proselytize in such a public fashion.

Hume probably won't lose his job, but he's clearly feeling the heat. Ergo, his appearance last night to defend the comments.

Are Hockey Players the Cheapest Athletes in the World?

It's been said that your typical professional hockey players are amongst the most miserly millionaires to exist on planet Earth. It's a heresy assumption, but this story from Edmonton, Alberta is pretty strong evidence there may be something to that belief.

Apart from the bigger story (over-serving alcohol in a licensed establishment), I was amused to read that the players from the Edmonton Oilers were said to have gone "ballistic" when they received an $18,000 bill for the food and drinks. I thought it one hellova tab until I realized that it wasn't for a table of four, but for a group of *45* players.

If your math is bad like mine, here's the breakdown. Assuming there's a 10% gratuity (which is low), the original bill works out to $360 per player, which for a five star restaurant, with all the reported food (and especially) the numerous bottles of alcohol consumed, it's actually a pretty good deal.

Apparently the Oilers and the restaurant manager settled on 12 grand, which without any gratuity included, works out to just $267 per player.

What a ridiculous story - from the government "investigating" the dinner, to the abhorrent cheapskatery of those hockey players.

Oh to Have Been a Fly on that Wall ...

The New York Times tonight has an inside scoop on last minute wheeling and dealing at Copenhagen. Seems as though Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao tried to pull a fast one by usurping a scheduled meeting between himself, President Obama, Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvia of Brazil and Manmohan Singh, Prime Minster of India. The five leaders represented the five key players at the talks, and the path towards an agreement was reportedly being hampered by Chinese foot-dragging.

Obama officials were horrified to discover that President Wen started the meeting early, without tipping off Obama. The President was rushed to the meeting room, where Obama, and Hillary Clinton stormed into the room.

What happened after that is anyone's guess, but Obama was not particularly pleased with Mr. Wen. Oh, to have been there.

Canada? Who knows? One might assume that the delegation had already packed up and waiting for a plane to head back home.

The Deal is Off?

Not unexpectedly, overtime talks have been going on through Friday night/Saturday morning in Copenhagen. Apparently there is great dissatisfaction with the draft of the "preliminary" deal that was struck on Friday evening.

The whole thing could just collapse into nothing, which given the overwhelming negative reaction to the very weak targets contained in the preliminary deal, might not be a bad thing.

A Deal is Struck, So What?

As expected, they hammered out an agreement today - although the devil being the details, the key agreement doesn't amount to very much. A target to cap the rise of global temperatures by no more than 2 degrees Celsius. Given that the general scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced, not curtailed, to avoid catastrophe, the Copenhagen Protocol, or whatever it's called, will probably be deemed a failure.

Lots of blame to go around - foot dragging by China, passive participation by the United States. It appears that only the developing countries from Africa were willing to step up and offer significant compromises.

Obama? He, and others might end up having something to sign, but perception might dictate that what he was able to deliver for climate change might as falling far short of expectations.