Bill Clinton has an op-ed in Thursday's Washington Post on how to help Haiti.

MSNBC's David Shuster is hosting a show at midnight ET on Haiti, with reports from a few hours ago from those on the scene, including Brian Williams, Kerry Sanders, Al Roker and Ann Curry. (If you saw Olberman, you've probably already seen them.) Kerry Sanders is predicting anarchy will set in. Air traffic control is being set up. The flights are starting to come in. The Canadian military has arrived.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has canceled her trip to Australia and is heading back to Washington from Honolulu due to the Haiti crisis.

Some experts are saying the death toll could reach 500,000 and rival the 2004 tsunami which killed 230,000 people. That seems to include people who will die from lack of treatment and after-effects, in addition to those killed in the actual earthquake, although all numbers seem to be guestimates right now. . From ABC News Australia: [More...]

Will flying without an overcoat be the next item to place you on the terrorism watch list?

The would-be Christmas Day bomber boarded his flight in Amsterdam to frigid Detroit with no coat — perhaps the final warning sign that went unnoticed leading up to what could have been a catastrophic terrorist attack, lawmakers were told.

..."He was flying into Detroit without a coat. That's interesting if you've ever been in Detroit in December," New Jersey Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said after a briefing by presidential counterterrorism adviser John Brennan.

How will they distinguish between someone who originated their trip in a cold climate, flew to warm climate and then was on their way back to the cold? When I've flown home to Colorado in the winter from a warm climate, I don't have a coat with me. I've either left one in the car I parked at the airport or asked the person picking me up to bring it. Who wants to schlep a winter coat to the tropics?

As for not having luggage, many people (including me) ship it via Fedex ahead of time. [More...]

Homeland Security Secret Janet Napolitano announced today the U.S. will temporarily halt deportations to Haiti.

Those with deportation orders will be allowed to remain in the U.S. Those held in detention centers will remain jailed, Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said.

The Haitians who are here should receive TPS (Temporary Protected Status.) Homeland Security can designate a country for TPS based, among other things, on internal armed conflict, overwhelming natural disaster, or extraordinary temporary conditions preventing safe return of its nationals.

Several members of Congress who represent Haitian communities have been pressuring the Obama administration to give temporary protected status, or TPS, to Haitians illegally in the U.S. The designation would allow Haitians to remain and work legally in the U.S. The latest disaster gave new urgency to the lawmakers' demand.

According to Homeland security, 30,000 Haitians in the U.S. have orders to leave and about 160 are in detention.

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds morphine and other opioids are effective in treating PTSD, particularly right after the traumatic event.

In a large study of combat casualties in Iraq, Navy researchers reported Wednesday that prompt treatment with morphine cut in half the chances that troops would develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress later on. Other opiates are likely to have similar effects, experts said.

In previous work, researchers had found that larger doses of morphine given to children with severe burns also reduced post-traumatic symptoms, like flashbacks, depression and jumpiness. These symptoms have become lasting in about one in eight service members returning from Iraq.

The results of the study could have wider-ranging impacts -- such as with victims of rape and muggings. The study is here. It concludes: [More...]

d-day writes:

You may think that House Democrats warning that the health care bill is in a lot of trouble reflects nothing more than posturing. Why is Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) saying in the above clip that the bill might go down on the first pass and then return to the House before it passes? Consider the math. [. . .] Maybe Nancy Pelosi can flip some of the no votes, especially with the more conservative Senate bill being the base, and the public option likely dead. [. . . But] there will not be more than a small handful of no-to-yes flips available. [. . .] But there’s a HUGE universe of yes-to-no flips that are at least possible. [. . .] Virtually everyone in the Democratic caucus has some problem or other with the bill.

The problem is that the Obama Administration and the Senate Dems acted with too much hubris. They have produced a bill that virtually no one likes and many detest. There is, as d-day notes, little political upside for anyone in this bill. The Ben Nelsons and Blanche Lincolns never wanted to vote for a health bill in any form. Accomodating them has created a situation where they may still be Nos and a whole bunch of progressives in the House may be nos. This is looking like a debacle. Reconciliation may be the only way to save it.

Speaking for me only

The American Needle v. NFL Supreme Court argument transcript is available here (PDF). I have not read it. when I do I'll provide some comment. I discuss the case in a previous post.

Pains me to say it, but it seemed to me Justice Scalia had the best grasp of the issues in the case. Based on his questions, I see him as rejecting the NFL's argument.

Speaking for me only

Matt Yglesiasdemonstrates again that Democrats do not know how to bargain. In this case, he points to the fact that insurance companies are running ads against the health bill. Yglesias states that:

The fact of the matter is that even though the new mandate/subsidy structure will give at least some insurers a bunch of new customers, the medium-run trajectory of reform is bad for private insurers.

Let's suppose it is. That has little to do with the health insurance industry's strategy here. They are bargaining STILL. Let's accept that the status quo is their preferred result. That does not mean that they will not try and shape the bill to be more to their liking. Indeed, that is what they have done and will continue to do. More . . .

Kevin Drum is engaged in a discussion with Scott Winship about whether middle class wages are stagnating. It is an interesting discussion, but I want to focus on one part of Winship's analysis:

[T]he Economic Policy Institute estimates that the median male worker’s hourly wage was $16.88 in 1973 and $16.85 in 2007. However, EPI’s figures show that when fringe benefits are taken into account, the median male worker’s hourly compensation increased by somewhere between 5 and 10 percent over this period.

(Emphasis supplied.) Setting aside the accuracy of Winship's analysis, what is striking is the inclusion of fringe benefits as income. The biggest fringe benefit is of course health insurance. Currently, health insurance benefits are not taxed. But the proposed excise tax would indeed tax them. As R.J. Eskow notes, even given the rosy assumption of a 1:1 transfer of fringe benefit value to wages, such transfer will lead to a reduction in after tax income:

Haiti's prime minister says more than 100,000 likely died in the earthquake. The U.S. says there are no tallies yet and thinks that number is high.

Twitter has live first hand reports here.

The main prison in Haiti has collapsed. I hope the prisoners got out or are getting help.

Doctors Without borders says ALL hospitals in Haiti's Port au Prince area have either collapsed or been abandoned.

More pictures here.

The Red Cross has now committed $1 mllion. Here are President Obama's remarks today.

Busy day.

Open Thread.

Apparently, $708 billion isn't enough for the Defense Department for the coming year. The AP reports that military commanders briefed on an upcoming report say President Obama will ask Congress to approve another $33 billion when it submits its budget request in February.

What for? Supposedly for beefing up the war in Afghanistan, but it sounds more like the global war on terror, even though Obama insists on not using that phrase.

The administration also plans to tell Congress next month that its central military objectives for the next four years will include winning the current wars while preventing new ones and that its core missions will include both counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations.

[More..]

Update: Live updates from ReliefWeb.

The situation in Haiti is a mess. More here.

The U.S. is sending disaster teams.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. Unicef is asking for donations. So is the Red Cross. Here is the link to their disaster newsroom. If you can't access their website, follow along on their twitter feed. Via the State Department:

To help, text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill. Or visit Red Cross and Mercy Corps to contribute. Also call 1-888-407-4747