Obviously death toll news is beside the point in Haiti. For the record, though, Haiti's president is now, sort of, putting forward a number: "I don't know... up to now, I heard 50,000 ... 30,000." Relatedly, I am willing to forgive Max Blumenthal's seriously irksome Twitter posting last night ("I'm hearing casualty estimates of 1 mil.") because his complex 2004 story on Haiti and the U.S. is absolutely worth a fresh read now. As is Naomi Klein's 2005 piece on Aristide. (See also: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.)