Ron Paul is authentic and consistent

I really wasn't sure where Newt was on TARP. For me, supporting TARP is unforgivable. Heck, I was thrilled to hear about the chants "TARP, TARP, TARP..." as Senator Bob Bennett (R-UT) went down in flames during his 2010 GOP convention.

It was a non-starter to me in September 2008. And it's still a dealbreaker.

Anyway, the RP ad includes a quote that led me to this excerpt from a September 29, 2008 ABCNews piece:

ABC News’ Teddy Davis Reports: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich reversed course on Monday, issuing a statement saying that if he were still in office he would "reluctantly and sadly" support the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill.

Gingrich, who led the charge against the bailout last week, explained his change in position by saying that the House Republicans, "reinforced by John McCain," have improved the bill "significantly" so it is "less bad" than the original proposal offered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The rest of the article places Newt in a somewhat improved light. But ultimately, he publicly supported TARP when America needed real leadership to oppose what Newt knew would come to be... increased corruption. No thank you.

We need a complete cleansing of The Swamp.

Tim White

Haitians don't have a lot, but they use what they have

Haitians don't have a many material things. But they do have their fair share of coconuts. And the "coco-ay" makes it into many dishes:And as I said, they don't have many material things, including things like graters. So take a look at this grater a bit more closely:Haitians recycle a lot! Graters tend to be made from recycled spray cans. They'll chop off both ends, split the tube from end to end with one cut, flatten it to a rectangular shape, then punch holes throughout the flat piece of metal.

Voila... a free homemade grater!

As for the pot, it was probably made in Haiti from melted aluminum soda cans.

Whether it's Haiti, Vietnam or other poor places I've been, I find that people tend to get very creative when they have very little.

Tim White

The beauty of storm drains & garbage collection

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This is the view of the street I normally see in front of my place:

This is the view I had a few days ago:And this is just a few feet up the road:The kid in the photo was shoveling garbage to keep the water flowing. Also, the floods are effectively used as a cleaning mechanism.

Storm drains and garbage collection are a wonderful invention.

Tim White

A day in the life: Helping earthquake victims

I happened to have my camera at work today. One of the earthquake victims stopped by for some assistance. This is one of the big reasons I decided to come here:

He's a good kid who happened to be in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake and you can see what happened. As for his story beyond PAP and connection to us... he lives here in Jeremie. And that's how we got involved. But he periodically travels to a distant town in Haiti to get help with a prosthetic leg. And while other groups have generously helped in providing victims with prosthetic limbs free-of-charge, they cannot cover travel and food. That's where we enter the picture.

As for the guy behind the computer, that's Junior. He's one of the guys who works for me. He's great. Works extremely hard and good at his job.

There are some great people here. I think what I appreciate most is knowing how hard a life it is for some, but they're always smiling.

Tim White