Haitian Protests Cause Speculation

Haitian Protests Cause Speculation — Yesterday’s (Nov. 18) commemoration of the Battle of Vertières included massive protests and a government reaction that has left at least six dead in Haiti.

The demonstrators’ motive is reportedly massive government corruption, namely the squandering of billions  from socialist Venezuela’s discounted PetroCaribe oil program.

Not being reported is the massive corruption connected to the Clinton Foundation and the allegations of Haiti being a major source for child trafficking.

Also not being widely reported are allegations that a UN security team was involved in a massacre.

The Battle of Vertières on Nov. 18, 1803 was a victory of Haitians over the French and established the nation’s independence.

Haitian Protests Cause Speculation

 

Haitian Protests Cause Speculation

Rendell Haitian Trip Hot Blonde Glory Grab

Rendell Haitian Trip Hot Blonde Glory Grab —  Jason Altmire had been a lobbyist for, and former acting vice president at, UPMC, an integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Pittsburgh that is affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh.

In 2006, he was elected to Congress to represent Pennsylvania’s Fourth District as a Democrat.

Rendell Haitian Trip Hot Blonde Glory Grab
Gov. Rendell with Leslie Merrill McCombs at a 2007 Pittsburgh Pirates game.

Mary Beth Buchanan, a Republican former U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania  who had announced she was considering a run against Altmire this November, began organizing a mission two days after the Jan. 12 Haitian earthquake to render aid to Jamie and Ali McMutrie, Pittsburgh-area sisters who were running a orphanage in Port-au-Prince and rescue the orphans.

She enlisted Valerie May, a Pittsburgh immigration lawyer, to smooth the way for the children’s entrance and contacted Dr. Mary Carrasco, an old friend who was director of A Child’s Place, based at UPMC Mercy hospital who connected her with Kathy McCauley, a grants consultant, who began gathering supplies.

By the end of the day she had received permission from Joseph Klaus, U.S. Customs port director for Pittsburgh, for the children to enter the country  humanitarian parole.

It was then that Leslie Merrill McCombs appeared on scene.

Mrs. McCombs is the hot blonde senior consultant for government relations at UPMC who developed a close working relationship with Gov. X-Man Rendell while successfully lobbying on behalf of Lions Gate Entertainment for the $75 million 2007 Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit program.

Mrs McCombs never disclosed the relationship — with Lions Gate that is albeit she vociferously denied having one with X-Man– and wound up being fined $5,025 in July 2009 for failing to reveal being a lobbyist.

Anyway, Mrs. McCombs told Mrs. Buchanan that UPMC would be the sole handler of the rescue mission, a mission that would eventually include Gov. Rendell, Congressman Altmire, but not Mrs. Buchanan.

Wonder what Congressman Altmire and Gov. Rendell have in mind to pay her and UPMC back?

Rendell Haitian Trip Hot Blonde Glory Grab

Was Rendell’s Haitian Rescue A Glory-Grab, After All?

PaWaterCooler.Com is reporting that Gov. Rendell flew to Haiti to deliver medical supplies and rescue 54 orphans after a woman who is a former U.S. attorney for Western Pennsylvania did  the work in organizing the effort.

Mary Beth Buchanan spent four days, according to PaWaterCooler, obtaining clearance for the children to enter the United States, medical supplies,  physicians to escort the children and  an airplane cleared to land in Haiti.

The only thing she failed to get was the airplane, in lieu of which came an interrogation from a senior consultant for UPMC — a major health facility headquartered in Pittsburgh — regarding the details  of her mission. The supplies Ms. Buchanan had gathered were the ones carried to Haiti by Rendell.

Ms. Buchanan is openly mulling a challenge to incumbent Congressman Jason Altmire (D-Pa4). Altmire is an ally of Rendell and has close connections with UPMC where he was a former acting vice president.

God Bless Rendell (for a change)

Ed Rendell has not been the most competent governor to lead our state but God bless him for the effort he put out to rescue those 54 orphans from Haiti and for persevering through the garbage thrown at him to get the job done.

Here’s a story about what the mission had to go through before a successful end.