Hasta la muerte! “To the death,” chanted 12 hunger strikers outside the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. General Motors subsidiary Colmotores had fired the workers a year ago, claiming they were dismissed because of declining productivity. In truth, they were injured on the job and deemed no longer useful. On August 1, they sewed their mouths shut in protest.

Yesterday, the German Parliament relented and agreed to let the Greek debt restructuring go forward, but only the price of crushing austerity for the Greek economy. This is a widespread attitude in Germany, where aid to the Greeks is unpopular.

The other day, Jörg Krämer, chief economist for Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said of the Greeks, “If you live beyond your means, then you can repair your balance sheet only if your consumption goes down.”

But the Germans might take a moment and reflect on their own history.

Responding to a federal lawsuit arguing that Arizona's recent anti-immigration measures violate U.S. law, Jan Brewer has filed a lawsuit of her own alleging that the federal government has violated its own Constitutional responsibilities. If you squint really hard, the lawsuit is not entirely without textual support. The basis of the lawsuit is Article IV of the Constitution, which requires the federal government to "protect each [State] against Invasion." The Arizona government contends that the federal government is not fulfilling its responsibilities.

I don't spend enough time on libertarian blogs, so I can't tell if Reason's Tim Cavanaugh is joking or not when he cites Cuba's massive lay-off of government employees as evidence that the failed worker's paradise is "more capitalist than [the] USA":

While the United States, under local, state and federal leadership that could collectively be described as Bloomschwartzenbama, can't seem to stop the growth of government employment, the Castro Brothers -- who directly employ most of Cuba's population -- plan to lay off half a million government employees by March and expand the issuing of "licenses for self-employment."

Ten American missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children were formally charged with abduction and conspiracy by a Haitian court yesterday. Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, says he hopes the move sends the message that Haiti's government is alive and well after the earthquake. From the Christian Science Monitor:

Jonah Golberg has a great idea for how best to help Haiti. So stop your measly text donations now and give Haiti some "tough love."

Golberg doesn't spell out a tough love prescription, but it must have something to do with correcting the lack of work ethic he sees in Haiti's "poverty culture."

Even if blame lies everywhere except among the victims themselves, it doesn’t change the fact that Haiti will never get out of grinding poverty until it abandons much of its culture.

Pat Robertson weighs in on the reasons why Haiti is being "punished" with an earthquake: