Despite having evaded being of any particular relevance in the past couple of decades, Charlie Sheen has somehow become the single most important person in the media. Whether he’s “living a grandiose life” or having a breakdown or being so erratic he’s creeping out other sitcom stars on Twitter, the media have embraced him with open arms (at the expense of, say, crises in Libya and Cote d’Ivoire). But Sheen knows that with great power comes great responsibility, and is taking his spotlight all the way to where people need it the most: Haiti.

Former Haitian leader Jean-Claude Duvalier has decided to return to the island, much to the concern of those opponents whose political wounds are still far from healed. On his road home he has found an unlikely ally in his attorney, former U.S. Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, who today argued that Haiti was significantly worse now than during “Baby Doc”‘s tenure– which may be technically true, but probably merits an asterisk.

Former president Bill Clinton is weighing in on the political implications of the shooting spree in Tucson, telling the BBC “we cannot be unaware of the fact that–particularly with the internet–there’s this huge echo chamber out there.”

Clinton argues that politics must change post-Arizona, and that disagreement must not “degenerate into demonization.”

During her visit to Haiti this past weekend, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told reporters that anyone considering lifting US government aid to Haiti should visit the disaster-torn nation first, a reference to Senator Patrick Leahy‘s statement calling for an aid freeze in response to Haiti’s contested elections. Leahy later clarified, through a spokesperson, that he “was not referring to humanitarian or reconstruction aid.”

Last night Greta van Susteren revealed footage of her trip to Haiti with former Governor Sarah Palin, Rev. Franklin Graham, and Graham’s relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse. Although Palin is unable to do much other than learn how to build a house, watch people wash their clothes, and hand out Christmas gifts, Palin’s visit enables the worsening situation in Haiti to receive renewed interest and much needed media coverage for a crisis that has been unfortunately forgotten.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin visited cholera-ravaged Haiti this weekend, accompanying a delegation from Franklin Graham‘s Samaritan’s Purse charity, and accompanied by Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren. While there has definitely been some less-than-gracious sniping about Palin’s visit, it was the caption from this Associated Press photo, linked to a Free Republic blog, that prompted Palin to tweet “This takes the cake. Really?”

Wyclef Jean‘s failed bid for President of Haiti is now in the post-eligibility ruling trash-talking phase.

Remember when Sean Penn and his former bandmate Pras took some knocks at Wyclef? He’s got a response in the form of a remixed song.

Remember all that talk about musician Wyclef Jean running for President of Haiti? Well now that’s not happening.

An election council rules Jean ineligible to run as a presidential candidate tonight.

Musician Wyclef Jean is running for President of Haiti, and the campaign has already drawn criticism from actor and activist Sean Penn.

How could this get stranger? Well Pras, formerly of The Fugees with Wyclef, has come out and endorsed…Wyclef’s rival.

Actor/activist Sean Penn seems very suspicious of singer/song-writer Wyclef Jean recently announced plans to run for President of his native country Haiti. Penn told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer “I haven’t seen or heard anything of him in these last six months that I’ve been in Haiti,” and “I’m very suspicious” because Jean had been a “non-presence” while Penn was in Haiti. The only thing weirder than Sean Penn thinking that he knows more about the current plight of Haiti than Wyclef Jean is that he may very well be right!

Sometime between musician Wyclef Jean‘s announcement on CNN that he will be running for President of Haiti and Sean Penn‘s very clear non-endorsement, Wyclef and Wolf Blitzer were talking about the financial problems the candidate has in the United States.

Then Wolf started speaking Creole and things just got awkward.

It’s official, and straight from the horse’s mouth this time: musician Wyclef Jean is running for president of Haiti. Jean joined Wolf Blitzer on Larry King Live tonight to explain his decision and what he offers to the people of Haiti.

Some celebrities spend a lifetime trying to legitimize their political opinions through the media. Soon, it is expected musical artist Wyclef Jean will be trying to legitimize it through his country’s political system, announcing a bid for president of Haiti.

Armed with only one mass communications outlet, Rush Limbaugh has to put in that extra mile to keep up with radio-TV-book triple threats like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. After a brief period of peace from his program, he dove straight back into what he does best by turning a valid criticism of the United Nations into an all-out attack on “the Haiti relief effort”– all of it.

While former President Bill Clinton has been showing up all over the news this past week to discuss violent rhetoric, most of his time recently has been spent working on his many philanthropic endeavors. Over the past few years, he’s started numerous charities and appeared on TV to support them, typically while flanked by a member of the Bush family. However, since he’s run out of presidential Bushes, this morning he chose to join the one who’s a correspondent for the Today Show: Jenna Bush Hager.

Former President’s George W. Bush and Bill Clinton made their first joint visit to Haiti this week, touring and helping out in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital city devastated by the January earthquake.

It’s an admirable visit, but something else happened while down in Haiti – it appears Bush wiped his hand on Clinton’s shirt. Let’s go to the videotape!

After Sean Penn told CBS News that critics who question his involvement in the Haiti relief fund should all die “screaming of rectal cancer,” you’d think that the actor would be willing to amend/explain his statement to the press. Not so: When Washington Examiner reporter Tara Palmeri asked Penn about his statement, she was publicly yelled at by Penn, threatened by his publicist C.J. Jordan and removed by police from a gala at the Washington Hebrew Congregation. Palmeri was on Fox’s Red Eye this morning to discuss the incident.

Not a great way to start your weekend, but warnings have been issued to Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, South America, and Russia after Chile was been hit by an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude yesterday. The quake was one of the top 7 of all time, according to a U.S. Geological Survey. With many resources still tied up in Haiti, how will the government respond to the latest natural disaster?

US media was lauded for its quick response and comprehensive coverage. And while one month later, the coverage of the disaster has abated rather dramatically, it still gets consistently thorough coverage on many outlets — which one might think is a good thing. Not so, says comedian/provocateur Bill Maher. Too much Haiti coverage? “It’s disaster porn” he says.

MA Sen. Scott Brown and his daughter Ayla may be the most masterful self-promoters in America this side of Snooki and The Situation. In a move perfectly in sync with the happy-go-lucky everyman character he created for himself on the campaign trail, Brown had proposed to Pres. Barack Obama in his victory speech that he could defeat him in a two-on-two basketball game with college basketball star Ayla on his side. Now, Politico reports the Brown family is claiming they are “serious” about the challenge, and have found a good reason to stage the event: helping out Haiti.

Big Journalism correspondents usually stick to pointing out often legitimate spin against the right wing in the mainstream media, but Archy Cary went one step further to analyze the well-documented media bias against victims of natural and political disasters.

Is Simon Cowell hoping that the “We are the World” remake benefiting the victims of the Haitian earthquake is a failure? Although he’s not wishing ill to the people of Haiti, he has his own charity single coming out, and he’s not about to let Quincy Jones beat him on the pop charts if he has his way.

Last night The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart brought Brian Williams from NBC’s Nightly news onto his program for the third time in the last 12 months. Williams’ ease around Stewart and with comedy in general make it no surprise he’s asked back as a guest so often, but a possible slip by Stewart a couple minutes into their interview did offer a surprise.

Hardly two weeks have elapsed since Pat Robertson, of The 700 Club, made headlines for the unusual bit of theodicy with which he sought to justify the earthquake that routed Port-au-Prince. Yesterday, Robertson was again in the news, in an article on the denouement of the murder trial of Scott Roeder for the assassination of Dr. George R. Tiller, that Roeder claimed Robertson’s show spurred him to take up arms against abortionists.

Former NBA benchwarmer Paul Shirley has gained a measure of fame through the years, but little of it is directly basketball-related. Thanks to his recent comments about not giving aid to Haiti, that trend continues – and thanks to the nature of the comments, it could be the last headline Shirley ever makes.