North Anna - Fuhushima - Alexander Higgins - Fairewinds Associates

I received an email, alerting to the earthquake that hit the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant in Virginia. Only because it is personally au courant, (I plan to attend a local meeting later in the week on the subject of fracking) that I wondered if indeed fracking had played a role in the event.

That doesn't appear to be the case, or none that I could find. Rather more a case of building the thing in the wrong goddamned place to start with. Let me paraphrase: Nuclear power plants are the world's most expensive fault-line detectors.

The Daily Kos has a bit on the cover up sighting of the plant:

Louis Zeller, the League’s legal representative, said that Dominion covered up evidence of a geologic fault in the 1970’s and that they now want a variance because they cannot meet safety standards.

The Daily Kos thing came up as a result doing the rounds to see how the main stream media were spinning this. But like any of us these days, unless absolutely forced, the MSM is not a pool we like to paddle in, and the case never more so, than when money and nuke power are involved.

Choosing rather, to gather our information, to visit those who we feel are telling it like it is. My first ports of call for things nuclear are, Fairewinds Associates and blogger Alexander Higgins. Fairewinds had nothing on the North Anna plant as yet, but that didn't surprise me greatly, Fairewinds aren't a ''daily scoop'' kind of a site, preferring as they do to analyse the data first before issuing their findings.

No, to keep abreast of the breaking and daily news, it is to Alexander Higgins that I go. And having said that, I am going to leave no more than this link to the North Anna story, because it is after all Arnie Gunderson's latest report on Fukushima that I want to bring to the fore. Update here. But for real scary stuff there is this video report from Helen Caldicott, who touches on many things, Chernobyl, food, Depleted Uranium, Iraq birth defects et al.

In fact the clip is so compelling I am going to embed it. But do visit web page, for there is much more to be found there, including another Arnie Gunderson clip.





Though based on nothing more than I have read, other than that is, applying that which I hold dear to me, hold more dearly than brains, for it is oft the case that just one ounce of common sense is worth a pound of the grey matter, and it is that which I apply to the situation in Fukushima, common sense. It is such an application that caused me to write this.

The potential for a collapse of a society is I think a very real threat. That great swathes of this comparatively small country are almost certain to become uninhabitable, its level of food production decimated and groundwater contaminated forever, cannot be underestimated or written off.

Add to these not insignificant woes, the future prospect of untold numbers of health related problems, the future does indeed look grim. And to be taken into consideration, the very real threats to Japan's manufacturing industries and potential loss of markets, it becomes increasingly difficult to see how Japan can perform as a functioning society.

The seemingly devil may care attitude by vast majority to what is actually happening in Japan reminds me of a story once told to me by a friend, John.

John and a colleague had occasion to conduct some business north of the border and found themselves on a domestic flight in a gale of wind, bound for one or other of the Scottish airports.

Both ex pilots, thoroughly aware of the conditions, the wind speed and direction, and not least the layout of the only runway that would be available to them, were, in their own words, shitting themselves. Strapped in with an eye on the nearest exit, all the while surrounded by fellows reading the Evening Standard and calling for ''just another gin Giovanni, before we land.''

But the difference between that flight and the situation at Fukushima is, that flight did eventually get down on the ground. Fukushima has been, and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, constantly on final approach. Japan is Fucked Short Term Long Term

Which brings us to Arnie Gunderson's latest report, the content of which I am sad to say, does nothing to counter my opinion, but rather endorse it. The details given out in the report get progressively more alarming throughout the clip, culminating with Gunderson's take on Japan's apparent philosophy concerning the status quo.

''Japan has a problem, a tough problem, but in order to solve a tough problem, first you have to recognise there is a tough problem. Ans this constant ignoring of the significance of the problem by the Japanese Government is in fact making it longer, and eventually more costly than doing it right the first time....''

New Data Supports Previous Fairewinds Analysis, as Contamination Spreads in Japan and Worldwide from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Newly released neutron data from three University of California San Diego scientists confirms Fairewinds' April analysis that the nuclear core at Fukushima Daiichi turned on and off after TEPCO claimed its reactors had been shutdown. This periodic nuclear chain reaction (inadvertent criticality) continued to contaminate the surrounding environment and upper atmosphere with large doses of radioactivity.

In a second area of concern, Fairewinds disagrees the NRC's latest report claiming that all Fukushima spent fuel pools had no problems following the earthquake. In a new revelation, the NRC claims that the plutonium found more than 1 mile offsite actually came from inside the nuclear reactors. If such a statement were true, it indicates that the nuclear power plant containments failed and were breached with debris landing far from the power plants themselves. Such a failure of the containment system certainly necessitates a complete review of all US reactor containment design and industry assurances that containments will hold in radioactivity in the event of a nuclear accident. The evidence Fairewinds reviewed to date continues to support its April analysis that the detonation in the Unit 3 Spent Fuel pool was the cause of plutonium found off site.

Third, the burning of radioactive materials (building materials, trees, lawn grass, rice straw) by the Japanese government will cause radioactive Cesium to spread even further into areas within Japan that have been previously clean, and across the Pacific Ocean to North America.

And finally, the Japanese government has yet to grasp the severity of the contamination within Japan, and therefore has not developed a coherent plan mitigate the accident and remediate the environment. Without a cohesive plan to deal with this ongoing problem of large scale radioactive contamination, the radioactivity will continue to spread throughout Japan and around the globe further exacerbating the problem and raising costs astronomically. Fairewinds

Denial Ain't Just a River in Egypt: CIA Experiments on Vets

You can read this before or after you read the main story, but whatever you do read it.

But Any Country That Did This to Their Citizens Wouldn't Qualify as The Greatest Nation on Earth!

And then you can decide if you believe a goddamned word that the CIA are coming out with on this subject.

Yes I know, but I have to word it somehow.

CIA Disputes Secrecy Oaths in Drug Experimentation Case
By Nick McCann
August 19, 2011

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) - The CIA fortified its efforts to toss a lawsuit alleging that the government used U.S. veterans as human guinea pigs in Cold War-era drug experiments. It says the case hinges on "secrecy oaths" the soldiers say they were forced to take.

Vietnam Veterans of America filed a class action against the Army and CIA in 2009, claiming that at least 7,800 soldiers had been used as guinea pigs in "Project Paperclip."

The government allegedly administered soldiers with at least 250 and as many as 400 types of drugs, including lethal Sarin, amphetamines, barbiturates, mustard gas, phosgene gas and LSD.

Using tactics it often attributed to the Soviet enemy, the U.S. government sought drugs to control human behavior, cause confusion, promote weakness or temporary loss of hearing and vision, induce hypnosis, and enhance a person's ability to withstand torture, according to the complaint.





The veterans say that some soldiers died, while others suffered seizures and paranoia. They also said the CIA made them take "secrecy oaths"

Earlier this month, the CIA sought summary judgment and dismissal, claiming the Vietnam Veterans' remaining claim on the validity of "secrecy oaths" had no merit. It claimed that the veterans "have not identified any service member who purportedly had such an oath with the CIA" and do not have "specific facts to support this claim at the time they filed their complaint (or at the present time)." (Parentheses in original.)

"This record makes clear that plaintiffs have never seriously pursued their 'secrecy oath' claim against the CIA," Justice Department attorney Kimberly Herb wrote for the CIA. "Due to the absence of allegations concerning the CIA with regard to this sole remaining claim and plaintiffs' own admissions that they do not have specific facts to support it, the CIA has repeatedly asked plaintiffs to voluntarily withdraw the claim."

On Aug. 9, Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the court would only hear the CIA's motion for judgment on the pleading, and set a hearing on the matter for Sept. 1.
The veterans opposed the CIA's position last week, calling the CIA's motion "the latest salvo in the CIA's effort to avoid its discovery obligations in this matter."

They said the CIA is "plainly wrong" in boiling the veterans' lawsuit down to a dispute over secrecy oaths. The CIA "has not mentioned, briefed, or moved to dismiss plaintiffs' constitutional due process claims," according to the Aug. 11 answer authored by Gordon Erspamer.

"Thus, the CIA's argument that the entire action against the agency would end if the court were to dismiss the secrecy oath claim is patently frivolous," Erspamer wrote. "The court should reject the CIA's slight-of-hand effort to dismiss plaintiffs' constitutional claims by implication."

The veterans also disputed the CIA's claim that the complaint fails to specifically allege that the CIA itself administered secrecy oaths. Even if the complaint implies that the Army administered the oaths, the complaint has alleged that "the testing programs were carried out through concerted action between the CIA and the Army," Erspamer wrote. "The fair 'implication' of those allegations is that the CIA indeed was also involved in the administration of secrecy oaths, and in fact may have originated them."

Regardless of how U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken rules on the agency's motion for judgment, the CIA should remain a defendant in the action, the veterans say.
On Thursday, the CIA filed a response to the veterans' opposition, again emphasizing that the veterans could not demonstrate standing to challenge alleged "secrecy oaths."

Justice Department attorney Kimberly Herb said the veterans' complaint contradicts itself regarding the CIA's role in the oaths.

While the vets claim "fair implication" on one hand, they also claimed to "not currently have facts identifying specific circumstances where the Central Intelligence Agency directly administered secrecy oaths to plaintiffs," Herb wrote.
"If plaintiffs truly believed they had independent, viable claims for notice and medical claims under the Constitution, it is curious that they did not mention them anywhere in their opposition," Herb wrote. Courthousenews

London Roits SUS Laws Darcus Howe BBC Democracy Now

I didn't run with it at the time, in part due to its length (30m) and I thought the content perhaps a little too esoteric for a global readership. That said, it wasn't until watching a clip sent in by reader, Maren, that the original interview between Amy Goodman and journalist, black activist, Darcus Howe, that my interest was rekindled.

My reasons for that in a moment, but firstly, and having just watched again, the Goodman/Howe interview, quite a few things get a mention, not least the UK's stop and search law. (SUS) What didn't get a mention however, was the controversial scrapping, just one year ago, of the monitoring of the instances that police applied the SUS laws to young black males.

What did get a mention though, was the circumstances surrounding the death (murder?) of David Emmanuel, aka Smiley Culture. Circumstances so bizarre, that if you believe the police's account of things, then I have a bridge I want to sell you.

If anyone has ever watched an arrest going down, and particularly in a drugs bust which this supposedly was, the arrested person is seized by two cops, securing both wrists and elbows in order that the suspect be given no chance to discard his stash.

To believe in the first place, that under these circumstances, David Emmanuel was allowed to go unaccompanied into his kitchen, borders on the incredible. But that he then picked up a knife and stabbed himself to death with a single blow to the heart, well, we're getting into two bridges territory in being asked to believe that chain of events. Basics of the case here, much more at this link.

I have said this before on more than one occasion, although if you were to read my correspondence from the BBC you might doubt it, they certainly seem to have trouble accepting the fact that I don't have a television set.

Por que? Well, I suppose it started before the McCann case, but I think it was the BBC's handling of that particular fairy story that finally gave way to the decision to say fuck the BBC, its propaganda and its licence fee.

Reserving as I do, a special place in my heart for propaganda extraordinaire, courtesy of regional BBC East Midlands. Such fine examples of what passes for journalism at BBC East Midlands can be found at these links below. Though I must stress that I furnish them, not as a reflection of the McCanns, but rather as a reflection of the BBC in its own jaundiced looking glass.

And nothing more indicative of the bias shown by BBC, than their employment of sycophantic brown-nosing hack Mike O'Sullivan, of BBC's East Midlands Today. You remember him better of course for his reporting of Goncalo Amaral's outburst ''Fuck the McCanns.''

A reminder here of that occasion, only reported here by the Mirror, and all the better for it, I mean it wouldn't do to make this post on bias a uniquely BBC thing. Although as you can well imagine, the Mirror was far from alone in reporting this, as the next link will demonstrate.

Which unfortunately for the BBC, O'Sullivan, and for Amaral as well, the damage already having been done, that wasn't quite what Dr Amaral uttered. But then what might we expect when the BBC sends a provincial hack to cover a story in a foreign land, all be it a third rate country that munches sardines and doesn't speak English, that tells you all you need to know about the place I'm sure.

Such blatant misrepresentation of this little event forced the BBC to apologise on this occasion, rather than its normal course of action, let's ignore it, it doesn't fit our agenda. Eager enough, and seemingly with no little amount of glee, eager enough to report on the shameful action of Portuguese court to allow an injunction banning the sale of Dr Amaral's book, A Verdade Da Mentira, which can be read here in English, there appeared to be on the behalf of the BBC, no such glee in reporting that the injunction was eventually overturned. Going so far in fact, that I never saw a word of such a decision reported by the BBC. Nor for that matter unsurprisingly, not one from the McMail either.

But of all the links to be found here, which are all internal, and apart from the
correspondence from the BBC, all germane to the bias of the BBC, I think it is this post above all that shows Mike O'Sullivan for the true arse licking hack that he is. What Now BBC? What Now Mike O'Sullivan? But having said that, there is also The Dedicated to, Mike O'Sullivan BBC East Midlands, Gallery, that might qualify as the definitive post on this wretched little McCann shill, but whatever, both posts carry clips of O'Sullivan trying desperately to crawl up the arse of his beloved Gerald McCann.

Just these three below, also posted for their relativity, and then on to Marcus Howe.

BBC East Midlands. Let Me Answer That (This at a time when Tony Bennett had in me an ally, all be it an extremely reluctant one. For the sake of the cause of justice, I put away my normal detestation for Bennett and his ilk, for it is a fact that under normal circumstances, I wouldn't piss on the whole on the whole sorry bunch of them if they were on fire, least alone associate, no matter how loosely, with those that I can only describe as, a disgrace to our species.)

Gallery Eighty (Link at the bottom of the page)

BBC Once a Whore Always a Whore



I think by now you may have an inkling of what to expect, if not from the second clip, then surely the first. Watch this filmed off the TV clip of the BBC in action, and compare it to Amy Goodman, who I have to admit, certainly gives Marcus Howe his head, perhaps a tad too much in places, because ''old West Indian Negro'' or not, he can rattle on with the best of 'em.


August 10, 2011 Democracy Now

Unrest continues to spread across England after protests erupted Saturday in London when police shot to death Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man. Mobs firebombed police stations and set shops on fire in London, Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham. After waiting for several days, Prime Minister David Cameron has cut short his vacation and recalled Parliament from summer recess. Scotland Yard has ordered its officers to deploy every available force to stop the unrest, including water cannons and possibly the use of plastic bullets. London has been flooded with 16,000 officers, the largest police presence in the city’s history. We go to London to speak with journalist Darcus Howe, a longtime critic of police brutality in black and West Indian communities across the U.K., and author and blogger Richard Seymour of the popular British site "Lenin’s Tomb." "There is a mass insurrection. And I’m not talking about rioting; I’m talking about an insurrection that comes from the depths of society, from the consciousness, collectively, of the young blacks and whites, but overwhelmingly black, as a result of the consistent stopping and searching young blacks without cause," says Howe of the uprising. Seymour notes that anti-terror legislation has led to an unprecedented number of stops, predominantly of youth of color, but protests against the stops have been largely ignored by the British media. "A political establishment, a media, and a state system that gives people…the impression that they won’t be listened to, unless they force themselves onto your attention, is going to lead to riots," says Seymour. more Democracy Now

A little extra, the Flanagan post is particularly recommended.


For the ultimate example of bias, try this Ronnie Flanagan related post courtesy of IndiMedia Trust us, we're the BBC. Shurely Shome Mishtake

And while we're dealing with peripherals, there is this fellow. Dear Mr Marr, "It IS going to replace journalism."

Unedited

John Pilger: Insurrection in Britain (Illustrated)

Damn It Or Fear It, The Forbidden Truth Is An Insurrection in Britain
By John Pilger
August 19, 2011

On a warm spring day, strolling in south London, I heard demanding voices behind me. A police van disgorged a posse of six or more, who waved me aside. They surrounded a young black man who, like me, was ambling along. They appropriated him; they rifled his pockets, looked in his shoes, inspected his teeth. Their thuggery affirmed, they let him go with the barked warning there would be a next time.



For the young at the bottom of the pyramid of wealth and patronage and poverty that is modern Britain, mostly the black, the marginalised and resentful, the envious and hopeless, there is never surprise. Their relationship with authority is integral to their obsolescence as young adults. Half of all black British youth between the ages of 18 and 24 are unemployed, the result of deliberate policies since Margaret Thatcher oversaw the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top in British history. Forget plasma TVs, this was panoramic looting.



Such is the truth of David Cameron's "sick society", notably its sickest, most criminal, most feral "pocket": the square mile of the City of London where, with political approval, the banks and super-rich have trashed the British economy and the lives of millions. This is fast becoming unmentionable as we succumb to propaganda once described by the American black leader Malcolm X thus: "If you're not careful the newspapers will have you hating the oppressed and loving the people doing the oppressing."



=As they lined up to bay their class bigotry and hypocrisy in parliament, barely a handful of MPs spoke this truth. Heirs to Edmund Burke's 18th century rants against the "mob rule" of a "swinish multitude", not one referred to previous rebellions in Brixton, Tottenham and Liverpool in the 1980s when Lord Scarman reported that "complex political, social and economic factors" had caused a "disposition towards violent protest" and recommended urgent remedial action. Instead, Labour and Liberal bravehearts called for water cannon and everything draconian:

More Spiegel

among them the Labour MP Hazel Blears. Remember her notorious expenses? None made the obvious connection between the greatest inequality since records were kept, a police force that routinely abuses a section of the population and kills with impunity and a permanent state of colonial warfare with an arms trade to match: the apogee of violence.



It hardly seemed coincidental that on the day before Cameron raged against "phony human rights", NATO aircraft - which include British bombers sent by him - killed a reported 85 civilians in a peaceful Libyan town. These were people in their homes, children in their schools. Watch the BBC's man on the spot trying his best to dispute the evidence of his eyes, just as the political and media class sought to discredit the evidence of a civilian bloodbath in Iraq as epic as the Rwanda genocide. Who are the criminals?



This is not in any way to excuse the violence of the rioters, many of whom were opportunistic, mean, cruel, nihilistic and often vicious in their glee: an authentic reflection of a system of greed and self-interest to which scores of parasitic money-movers, "entrepreneurs", Murdochites, corrupt MPs and bent coppers have devoted themselves.



On 4 August, the BBC's Fiona Armstrong - aka Lady MacGregor of MacGregor - interviewed the writer Darcus Howe, who dared use the forbidden word, "insurrection".

Armstrong: "Mr. Howe, you say you are not shocked [by the riots]? Does this mean you condone what happened?"

Howe: "Of course not ... what I am concerned about is a young man Mark Duggan ... the police blew his head off."



Armstrong: "Mr. Howe, we have to wait for the official enquiry to say things like that. We don't know what happened to Mr. Duggan. We have to wait for the police report."



On 8 August, the Independent Police Complaints Commission acknowledged there was "no evidence" that Duggan had fired a shot at police. Duggan was shot in the face on 4 August by a police officer with a Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine gun - the same weapon supplied by Britain to dictatorships that use them against their own people. I saw the result in East Timor where Indonesian troops also blew the heads off people with these state-of-the-art weapons supplied by both Tory and Labour governments.



An eyewitness to Duggan's killing told the Evening Standard, "About three or four police officers had [him] pinned on the ground at gunpoint. They were really big guns and then I heard four loud shots. The police shot him on the floor." (watch 6m 15s mark)



This is how the Metropolitan Police shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes on the floor of a London Underground train. And there was Robert Stanley and Ian Tomlinson, and many more. The police lied about Duggan's killing as they have lied about the others. Since 1998, more than 330 people have died in police custody and not one officer has been convicted. Where is the political and media outrage about this "culture of fear"?



"Funny, too," noted the journalist Melanie MacFadyean, "that the police did nothing while some serious looting went on - surely not because they wanted everyone to see that cutting the police force meant more crime?"



Still, the brooms have arrived. In an age of public relations as news, the clean-up campaign, however well-meant by many people, can also serve the government's and media goal of sweeping inequality and hopelessness under gentrified carpets, with cheery volunteers armed with their brand new brooms and pointedly described as "Londoners" as if the rest are aliens.



The otherwise absent Boris Johnson waved his new broom. Another Etonian, the former PR man to an asset stripper and current prime minister up to his neck in Hackgate, would surely approve. John Pilger

- - - - -

Why persecute the poor for being poor?

Raquel Nelson's conviction for causing her own child's death by jaywalking shows America's indifference to the cost of poverty

This story is a follow up to this one.

A Start For Common Sense

England riots: Woman wins sentence appeal

A judge has released a woman who was jailed for accepting looted shorts in what is thought to be the first appeal against a sentence over the unrest.

Ursula Nevin, 24, was jailed for five months in Manchester, but has now been ordered to do voluntary work.

MPs and campaigners have said some of the sentences given to those involved in England's riots were too harsh. More BBC

We Don't Need No Yankies Mr Cameron

There must be somethings, surely there must; but as I sit here I'm having a great deal of difficulty in trying ascertain just exactly what it is that we might wish to import from America.

I have no such difficulty however in deciding those things that what we don't want to import from the greatest nation on earth, those things being anything remotely resembling, policing USA style, a judicial system USA style and a penal system of the same brand.

Por que? Because nowhere is to be found, in any, or all of these branches of government, one redeeming factor, not one, absolutely and unequivocally not one redeeming factor, not one enviable trait, and not one positive attribute.

What you will find however, and heaven knows we have enough of our own without importing it, is corruption, all three sectors, are not just dripping with it, they are awash with the stuff; corruption and injustice in every department and at every level.

Be it mind boggling levels of entrapment that masquerade as law and order, both in local and state police, and the FBI for that matter, the Feds are just as likely to stitch you up and send you up the river as are the knuckle dragging mouth breathers of the gangs with badges.

But it is a misnomer to call these inadequates police, let's call them for what they are, paramilitary thugs; better armed and less accountable than many small country's armies.

Paramilitary thugs who think they are the law, not someone who is charged with upholding it. Try asserting your rights with one of these storm-troopers and see how far it gets you. If you're very lucky you'll get the handcuffs and a night in the slammer, if you're not so lucky you'll get the handcuffs and a night in the slammer after being pepper sprayed and tasered. And if you're really unfortunate, if you're still alive after the tasering, and the beating, the bastards will rob you blind.

The Department of Justice, now there's another misnomer if ever there was, the last thing in the world that is dispensed from this particular department is justice. It wouldn't recognise justice if it got run over by it, all eighteen wheels of it.

Occasionally some rich white cocksucker might get his, as I pointed out in this previous post' as equally I pointed out not all the cocksuckers of this world get their just deserts. But it is invariably disenfranchised black youth that end up on the merrygoround......



All the rant has gone out of me, I have just heard that the West Memphis Three have been released, so I shall post this as is, though I shall add one or two pertinent links shortly.

For the Department of Corrections, just look under the Prison Nation tag in the sidebar, there's enough there to open anybody's eyes.

Later then.

Welcome to the Terrordome.
British Regime Jealous of America’s Savage Police
By Glen Ford
August 18, 2011

In the wake of rebellions that spread to much of urban Britain, the ruling Conservative Party government is not only sounding like their racist American cousins, they were at least toying with the idea of importing William Bratton, the former police chief of New York, Los Angeles and Boston, to put the fear of the law into the U.K.’s darker residents. On first examination, it seems counterintuitive that anyone would look to the United States for role models in the criminal justice arena. The U.S. is by far the most violent among the wealthy nations of the world. Gangs are endemic, the U.S. is the drug marketplace of the planet. Guns are everywhere, both legal and illegal. It’s a scary place to live. What could the British possibly find to envy about America, when it comes to law and order?

The United States is the Great Gulag Nation, the planetary prison dungeon, home to 25 percent of its prison inmates. One out of every eight imprisoned persons in the world is a Black American….

Wait a minute! That’s got to be the allure to the white racists in Britain. They are jealous of the absolute savagery of the U.S. criminal justice system’s treatment of Black people. They look with awe on American cops like Bill Bratton whom, they imagine, would punish British Blacks in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester as he did it America’s big cities.

Not that the Brits aren’t trying to live up to American standards of racist law enforcement. Blacks in the U.K. are 26 times more likely to be stopped and frisked on the streets than whites, and seven times more likely to go to prison. But it’s all in the scale of things. The Americans stop, arrest, and imprison far larger numbers of people, both by percentage and in raw numbers. Whereas 150,000 people were stopped and frisked on all the streets of England and Wales in 2008, nearly 600,000 were stopped in New York City alone. Britain’s total incarcerated population is less than 100,000 people. The U.S. is only five times as large as Britain, but imprisons 24 times as many people: 2.4 million. And, when it comes to shooting Blacks and Latinos down in the street like dogs, nobody beats the American cop, in eagerness to fire his weapon or the number of bullets he’s willing to pump into a Black body.

The Brits, having a “special relationship” with the United States, know all this, but they want to follow in America’s bloody footsteps, anyway. Because, for white racists in Britain, just like their counterparts in the U.S., it’s not about efficient and effective policing, or any civilized notion of justice. It’s about hate. It’s about racial dominance. It’s about keeping Black people in their place.

That’s why the British courts are sending 60 percent of people arrested in the rebellion to jail to await trial, rather than the usual ten percent. That’s why a single mother who accepted the gift of a pair of shorts that turned out to be looted got five months behind bars. And that’s why the prime minister is spouting racist nonsense about the inferior culture of non-whites – especially Blacks – in Britain.

It’s all so very familiar to us on the western side of the Atlantic, in the nation that was built on genocide, slavery and racial supremacy. To the Black people of Britain we say, “Welcome to America.” Welcome to the Terrordome. ICH

No, we don't need shit like this.








Previous related:

Taser The Citizens Not

FBI Planned Mass Arrests

"He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon." Said Cop

Americans Are Not Safe Anywhere From Police.

Places I Wouldn't Want To Live And People I dont Want To Meet: Utah And Cops

Florida Cops Tip Quadriplegic Out Of Wheelchair

Further Tales From A Police State

SWAT Teams: All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go

Don't Flush The Loo In Oceania

Indiana Official Police State

Further Tales From a Police State and The Big Fascist Picture Show

OK, I think you get the idea, but there's plenty more under the various tags, Police, Fascism, Racism, Paul Craig Roberts, et al. Perhaps just as well that this is a half finished post, because these links are just a few cop related, never mind Justice and Corrections.

But I have to leave you with this last one, for no other reason than I state here.

Isn't it amazing how the law and order brigade have a road to Damascus moment when they find themselves in the hands of "law and order."

There's nothing like a basin full of reality to sweep away the illusions is there. I love stories like this, it's better than.....

Further Fascist Fun In Florida

Breaking News: West Memphis Three Released

I was just over at the very worthy law blog, Talk Left, looking for a reference for a post that I'm putting together, and this story was at the top of the page. Do pay the blog a visit for details of the case, there is much to be found there, on this and other cases of injustice.

As I say, this is breaking news, and whereas there are but three comments as yet, one of which I'm going to borrow because it echoes my feelings exactly, there will be plenty more soon enough on what used to be, I don't know whether it still is, a very vibrant comments section.

This seems to me to be an extortion for their freedom. "Plead guilty and we will let you go, insist on your innocent, and remain in jail."

To me if they are letting someone who was on death row, and two lifers out, they don't believe they did the crime. So why make them cop to anything, they have served over 15 years.

Update: West Memphis 3: Alford Pleas for Freedom, Release

West Memphis 3 to Be Released
By Jeralyn, Section Innocence Cases
Thu Aug 18, 2011

A surprise hearing has been scheduled tomorrow for the West Memphis 3 , Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin. A gag order is in place, but WREG reports that two of them, including Damien Echols who was sentenced to death, will be released. Reports are that a plea deal has been arrived at under which all three would plead guilty to lesser charges and two would be released. Some reports say all three would be released immediately. The reports emanate from the families of the murdered youths, who were told about the deal but asked not to discuss it until tomorrow. The three have already been moved from their respective prisons for tomorrow's hearing in Jonesboro:

The Arkansas Department of Corrections says all three have left their prisons and are now in the custody of the Craighead County Sheriff's Office, taking all their belongings with them.

The Court released this statement:

The court will take up certain matters pertaining to the cases of defendants Baldwin, Echols and Misskelley on Friday, August 19, 2011. One session will be conducted out of public presence with all defendants present, and another session will be conducted in open court. The session conducted in chambers will likely begin at 10 a.m., followed by a public session, which will begin about 11 a.m. Space will be limited for the public session, first to the parties, counsel, and court personnel, then to family members of the victims and family members of defendants, with remaining seating to be occupied by media representatives and the public. There will be approximately fifteen (15) minutes between the chamber session and open session for media and public to be seated.”

The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a new evidentiary hearing in the case which was set for December. The hearing could have resulted in new trials being ordered. No DNA links to the WM3 to the murders.

The WM3 website has this description of the injustices in the case, as taken from their February, 2011 brief. If you are not familiar with the case, here's their summary. Talk Left WM3

It was Talk Left and reading about the injustices there, that influenced the direction of my blogging ''career.''

I use the Exonerated tag loosely, because in the real world they have been exonerated, all be it eighteen years down the road.

The UK Riots and the Criminality of Jack Straw

We live in dangerous times, and I'm not talking about the Iraq war. What I do have in mind is the threat to our civil liberties posed knee jerk reactions by a huffing and puffing ineffectual wanker who is totally out of his depth. Call me, bollocks to due process, or just call me, bollocks Cameron. Jesus H, I should hate to see how this wanker would react to a real crisis.

How are things going in Libya, that Arab Spring thing, the spreading of democracy via the blunt end of NATO bombs? Shame about the casualties though, but then I don't suppose you can have a regime change without a few sand niggers getting blown to pieces. Serves 'em right for living there on top of all that oil.

The UK riots and the criminality of Jack Straw

What price justice when war criminal Jack Straw is free to call for more prisons to be built so young people caught stealing a £3.50 case of water can be jailed for six months?

By Robin Beste
Stop the War Coalition
14 August 2011




Jack Straw, former foreign secretary in Tony Blair's government, was quick to his feet, following David Cameron's speech on the UK riots in Parliament on 11 August.

"We need more prisons," Straw told Cameron and the House of Commons.

He may get his wish, looking at some of the sentences that have already been handed down in the hundreds of cases rushed through emergency courts -- no doubt at the government's bidding, to show that instant retribution will take precedence over justice.

A mother of two, who was asleep at home during the riots, has been given a five-month jail sentence for accepting running shorts stolen by someone else.

A 23-year-old student got six months for stealing a £3.50 case of water from a supermarket.

A 43-year-old man is in jail pending sentence for stealing items worth £1 from a newsagent.

But, if Jack Straw is right and we need more prisons, he should be one of the first inmates, alongside Tony Blair, who he served so loyally throughout the 13 years of New Labour government.

Jack Straw was foreign secretary during the run up to the Iraq war in 2002-3. He was, the Iraq Inquiry tells us, the only member of Tony Blair's cabinet to be fully informed of the prime minister’s discussions, negotiations and plans.

Straw knew that when George Bush and Tony Blair met at Bush's Texas ranch in April 2002, they "signed in blood" a secret deal to invade Iraq, whatever the views of the United Nations or the people of the United States and Britain.

Just prior to that meeting, Straw told Blair in a secret memo that "legally there are two potential elephant traps". Firstly, that "regime change per se is no justification for military action". And secondly, that "the weight of legal advice here is that a fresh mandate [from the United Nations] may well be required".

And it was Straw who was central in the attempt to bounce the United Nations into that second resolution to give a fig-leaf of legality to a war of unjustified aggression. He was rarely off our screens in 2002 telling us how Iraq was not giving access to the UN weapons inspectors, knowing that this simply was not true, as Hans Blix the chief UN inspector has pointed out, noting Straw's "incorrect answers" -- better known as lies -- to the Iraq Inquiry.

And Straw knew it was a lie when on 11 February 2003, a few days before the biggest anti-war demonstration in British history, he said: "We have to strain every sinew, even at this late stage, to avoid war."

Straw had already told Blair in his March 2002 memo that the US was going to war regardless, and later he was left in no doubt by the US secretary of state Colin Powell in March 2003, who told him, "We are going to war whatever Saddam does."

The only sinew Straw was straining was to find a way to justify a war which was going to happen regardless of legality or whether most countries and most people in the world opposed it.

This is why he rejected the advice of his senior legal advisor at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Sir Michael Wood, who told him in a memo that invading Iraq "would amount to the crime of aggression" and would be illegal under international law. It was the only time in Wood's career, before or since, that his legal advice had not been accepted by a minister.

And this is why Straw was dismissive of Sir Michael's deputy FCO, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, who stated in her letter of resignation in March 2003, " I cannot agree that it is lawful to use force against Iraq without a second [UN] Security Council resolution."

Yet, despite all this evidence to the contrary, Jack Straw told the Iraq Inquiry that he would never "have been a party" to a war of regime change, which he said would be "improper and self-evidently unlawful".

Straw is clearly a congenital liar whose ability to speak untruths is limitless. But he knew what would be the consequences of the war on Iraq, legal or not, because he described them in February 2003: more stopwar.org.uk

Check out Robin Beste's other articles in the sidebar.


Related:
Jack Straw: Porkies!
Blair Too Spineless To Confront Bush
Iraq Inquiry: Goldsmith Bottle Going
Blair Roundup: Regrets I've Had a Few

Not All Looters Are On The Streets of London

I don't blame you Hugo, I think I'd be doing the same after the Libya debacle.

Venezuela Makes A Huge Transfer Of Gold From Switzerland To Banks In China, Russia, And Brazil
by Robert Johnson
Aug. 17, 2011

Just days after returning home from another round of chemotherapy in Cuba, Hugo Chavez has ordered billions of dollars in cash and hundreds of tons of gold to be relocated.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Venezuela will move the cash from Swiss and English banks to Russia, China, and Brazil while moving hundred of tons of bullion from abroad into its own central bank vaults.

No official statement has been released, but following the U.S. debt ceiling crisis senior Venezuelan officials have been vocal about "a crisis of uncertainty" with their dollar based monetary system.

Banking officials call the move a big risk that could be prompted, in part, by litigation to recover damages from the nationalization of Venezuela's oil fields -- a bill that could range from $10 to $40 billion.

Documents released by Venezuala's foreign minister also mention "the powers of the North" have "pillaged" Libya's European held reserves and notes a plan should be made to avoid a similar fate.

This leads to further speculation about Chavez's cancer, next year's elections, and potentially drastic political maneuvering that could incur international sanctions.

Following the announcement, three lines of credit for $4 billion were extended to Venezuala from China, Russia, and Brazil -- with a portion of the Russian funds specifically slated for military use. businessinsider.com

A Matter of Respect

A Matter of Respect
by Mike Hitchen
17 August 2011

Cameron, since the outbreak of rioting that blissfully for you, detracted from the hacking scandal you were struggling to survive, you have harped on about young people having respect for authority.

Good point - excellent old chap. Here here. Jolly well said.

Just one question.

With a whole list of county set Chief Constables, Deputy Chief Constables, police lawyers, and senior officers under investigation for alleged criminal activity; apart from the police canteen waitress, just who is left for the disenfranchised youth left to respect?

You perhaps?

The man who has caused chaos in Libya? The man who tried to sell arms to an unstable political system in Egypt? The man who believes that anyone who, quote: "screws up" deserves a, quote: "second chance" when referring to Andy Coulson, a man whose integrity and honesty has at the very least, come under close and warranted scrutiny?

If a seventeen year old in Clapham was mixing with lads of dubious character, you would criticize everyone from the parents to social workers, to Margaret Thatcher, left wing do-gooders and Doctor Spock.

So why does Coulson, a man of questionable integrity, deserve a second chance, while those committing trivial offences deserve jail? Why is he worthy of your spirited and determined defense?
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Does Coulson have something that the others do not?

And you can interpret that question any damn way you like Cameron.

I wouldn't normally post the full article from another blogger, preferring to send rightful traffic to the source, but Hitchens is on a roll, so there is plenty more on the front page

By the by, is that Dick Emery, Bovver Boy, in the thumbnail?

Interviewer: Excuse me, sir.
Bovver Boy: Yer?
Interviewer: Is there anything in life that you feel you've missed?
Bovver Boy: Yer. I never learnt to drive.
Interviewer: That's no great handicap, not being able to drive.
Bovver Boy: It is when you're a car thief.

Tony Bennett: One ''Paedo'' Too Many

I notice, though there seems to be great reluctance among Bennett acolytes to discuss the matter, that Tony Bennett is about to get the arse sued off him.

The details of which I have no idea, and even less interest, other than these few lines here.

What it is exactly that has caused Edward Smethurst to instigated proceedings against Bennet, is not something with which I am au fait, but given my knowledge of Bennett's unhealthy preoccupation with the sex lives of others, I can well imagine.

But it is the bottom line, the result of any such action, that seems to elude Bennett's disciples faithful, the damage done to the cause, and not least the damage done to the sincere hard work of others by this attention seeking barmpot. Perhaps one day it might get through to some, that this man is a disaster, not just to seeking justice for Madeleine McCann, but to any cause he latches on to.

This, only stumbled on today, discourse between ''Blackwatch'' and Tony Bennett might give some indication as to the probable content. But if that isn't totally convincing, there are examples a plenty to be found of just what obsesses the mind of this attention seeking creature, just seek out some of the older posts at the links provided.

For now, my little fans, ciao.

BLACKWATCH: Bennett follows this up with the following statement, referring to the pornography websites the Police File record Robert to have visited:

BENNETT: "I am of course driven by a strong conviction that Madeleine died in Apartment 5A and that there has been an organised cover-up of the truth. I tend to think that this may be connected with something illegal going on, be it sexual, drugs or perhaps medical. And again, as you mention, the Redclouds site plus the encrypted material on his computer plus the things said about his sexual preferences/perversions by Carlos Costa and the anonymous female witness all conflict with the idea that they are all devout JWs. Further, it cannot surely be coincidence that Brian Kennedy is also a Jehovah's Witness."

To which I replied:

BLACKWATCH: "I think some may have speculated (and I mean speculated) on drugs running - but there's diddly squat evidence. Having said that Amaral headed up the Narcotics Division and Metodo 3 detectives seem to have dabbled in the trade according to some reports. Porn and drugs pertains to organised crime I suppose ... Of course, it's very tempting to entertain the idea of one or more members of the Tapas group being involved in communities like Redclouds. Membership appears to be on the increase. A natural progression of swinging? Not so sure. allowing yourself or your partner to be filmed having sex is a world away from allowing your 4 year old daughter to be used or filmed"

Bennett's response to this was no less insistent:

BENNETT: "BW, I would suggest that for some people, it is not a world away but a STEP away, There is a great deal of evidence that people who develop an obsession with or addiction to sex look for ever more exciting ot novel ways of developing their interest. No need to go into details, but I am aware of some case histories where 'swingers' have indeed gone on to take an interest in sex with young children. Or to put it another way, amongst 100 'swingers', you might find one or two paedophiles lurking secretively amongst them." Full article

Blimp Crashes: If You Say So

Posted not for its news content, but for its bizarre presentation. I have never seen the likes of it before, but the first thing that crossed my mind was just how such a method is open to abuse. It wouldn't take a lot of imagination to see this as Fox News 201-.

Bizarre to say the least.

WORTHINGTON, Ohio, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- A blimp that broke away from its moorings at Ohio State University's Don Scott Field has been found, officials said.

The 128-foot-long blimp was missing for more than seven hours before it was found crashed in Worthington about 7 a.m. Sunday, the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported.

High winds tore the blimp from its moorings. The blimp displayed advertisements for Hangar 1 Vodka, the State Highway Patrol said.

Officials said the Federal Aviation Administration, Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration were notified of the potential danger before the craft was discovered wrecked. source

Fred Reed: Not Good

And on this occasion, not funny. But given the subject matter, not surprising.

Not Good
Dismal Racial Premonitions

August 8, 2011

Like everyone else, I suppose, I've been watching the racial riots that have erupted across England. The newsies of the BBC carefully avoided saying who was rioting, vandalizing, and stealing, and the footage was all fuzzy long shots or of rioters from the back. They were, however, as a reporter for The Independent pointed out, heavuly black. The crime stats for London reflect the same pattern.

There was the usual puzzled, or pseudo-puzzled wondering: Why did the “youths”--they are always called youths—doing it? Curiously, it was a black conservative on Hardtalk (of the BBC) who said it: the rioters were , criminal, unsocialized to civilized norms and simply wanted to rob stores selling things they liked.

Which led me to think about the US. It 's a little more complicated. Imagine a black kid of seventeen in Detroit. He can't read or, if he can, barely. He has never read a book, and never will. He doesn't know where England is, or Africa, or the United States. His mental world is small beyond the imagining of the literate. He has no grasp of government, and has never heard of any author. He cannot do simple arithmetic. He has perhaps never seen a checkbook, and will never have one. He doesn't watch the news. If he did, would not understand what he was seeing. Ideas like prime minister, exchange rate, and United Nations are utterly beyond him.

I am not being cruel. I am describing a condition, the normal, usual, unexceptional condition of American blacks of the urban slums.

Of history, the kid knows only that blacks were enslaved by whites. He cannot approximate the dates of the Civil War (as neither, astoundingly, can many white “college graduates”) and cannot name a single country in Africa, but he knows that blacks were stolen from their homes and very badly treated.

He has in all likelihood never been out of Detroit, or perhaps his neighborhood. He has no contact with the larger society except through the police and television, where he sees whites leading glamorous lives in a wide world beyond his grasp. He would be very uncomfortable in a small town in white America, having less familiarity with the culture that would an American in a small town in Italy. Further, he speaks something so far from standard English that he would have difficulty talking to most whites.

He doesn't have a job or, if he does, it will be of a very low level with no future that he can see. There is a reason why cash-register keys in fast-food chutes have pictures of hamburgers and milk shakes instead of words, why the registers make change automatically. The kid in Detroit can't make change. Little commercial demand exists for the illiterate and innumerate who have very bad attitudes.

Which the kid has. He hates whites, whom he blames for all of his troubles and inadequacies. He hates Asians, who excel in school. It is an ugly hatred on a hair trigger and explodes readily in savage violence. The media play this down, hard, but what you pretend doesn't exist still does.

The kid from Detroit has no loyalty at all to the United States. Why would he? It is a white country, and he hates whites. He doesn't know who fought in World War Two, or when it took place, but he knows that whites enslaved blacks, and that he ison the bottom of things. He blames whites. “Country” is too large an abstraction for him.

Now, intellectuals and quasis of the salon classes, few of whom have the slightest familiarity with kids from Detroit, prattle of oppression and opportunity and social this and social that, and blame blacks, or whites, or God, or sunspots—but chiefly, each other. Racial discourse in America usually consists of liberals and conservatives battling each other, neither having much interest in blacks. Both offer solutions of which the kid is perfectly incapable. Liberals believe that with enough federal uplift and and warm-and-fuzziness he will have better self-esteem and begin to study and prosper—which for a variety of reasons he hasn't, isn't, and won't. Conservatives think that if he only worked hard and read the Founding Fathers, he would rise like Rockefeller, which he can't and won't.

What we have then in England and the US are large concentrations of people who do not share the values of Caucasian civilization. This matters. A society's accepted values, not its laws, determine its behavior. When the tidal waves wrecked Japan, how many mobs of looters attacked the unguarded shopping centers? For the mathematically advanced reader, I will offer a hint: It is a non-negative integer less than one. Years back, I wandered the side streets of Tokyo after midnight, without fear, and saw dating couples doing the same thing. The Japanese do not refrain from violent criminality because the police watch them, but because they agree that they do not want a violently criminal society. conclusion

Bellefonte, Jackson County, Alabama - TVA - NRC

It's an ubiquitous little phrase, employed readily by lots of folk, but I don't think I have ever come across a proposal so fitting of the term, you just couldn't make this shit up! Going even further as to include it, for it is eminently worthy, of being included in the John McEnroe school of philosophy, and we all know the bottom line of that one, you really cannot be serious man!

I think you might agree with me after you have watched/read this clip from Arnie Gunderson. But equally you might have the same problem as I, in deciding which of the two is the more criminally irresponsible, the Tennessee Valley Authority, for proposing this hair-brained scheme, or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for giving the go-ahead.

And if this is the situation today, just imagine what it might be like under the auspices of the Michele Bachmanns of this world. She's talking about a different agency here I grant you, but you already know in your heart of hearts that the same fuck the planet attitude would apply across the board.

“I pledge to you I’m not a talker. I’m a doer, and I guarantee you the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) will have doors locked and lights turned off and they will only be about conservation.” source

Or, for everything you want to know about Michele Bachmann if one fell swoop, Michele Bachmann On The Issues.

Fairewinds Report for Southern Alliance for Clean Energy on TVA Bellefonte Plant from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

08-10-2011

Hi, I'm Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds Associates.

I was hired by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to write a report to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board of Directors concerning a power plant they are planning to construct in Alabama. I have some really serious concerns about the power plant and if it can ever be constructed, let alone operated, that I would like to share with you today.

This plant was designed in 1968, that is at the height of the Vietnam War. Engineers used slide rules back then; I know, I was one of them. It was authorized to begin construction in 1974 and between 1974 and 1988, in fits and starts, the Tennessee Valley Authority began to build it. It was 80% complete in 1988 and Tennessee Valley Authority decided to put it in mothballs.

What that means in a nuclear plant is that it is put in a protective environment so that rodents do not eat the wires, and so that gasses are maintained to prevent rust, and also, equally important, that the paperwork, the quality of the plant is assured.

In 2005, Tennessee Valley Authority said they did not want to do that anymore, they wanted to destroy this plant, cannibalize it, sell it for scrap and move on.

They went to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said sure that's OK. About two years later in 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority had a change of heart. And they said, we made a mistake; we really should be attempting to build this plant and they went to the NRC.

Incredibly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, sure no problem you can construct it again, even though you have cannibalized it for the last two years.

This month in August, Tennessee Valley Authority is going to make the decision if they can build this plant. If they do, it will go on line in about 2018. That is 50 years from the time it was initially designed. The plant will be 50 years old before it begins to generate one electron. If it runs for 60 years beyond that, as most nuclear power plants are proposed to do, it will be 110 years old at the time it will be shut down. I think there are some grave concerns that the Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors needs to look at. I have identified 7 of them in the report that I have presented today. I would like to share those 7 ideas with you in this short video.

The first thing I have looked at was this unique design of the Bellafonte unit. It was built by a company called Babcock and Wilcox. Babcock and Wilcox built 8 nuclear reactors worldwide. There are 440 nuclear plants, so 8 divided by 440 means that only 2% of all the power plants in the world are of a design like being proposed for Bellafonte.

But it is even more unique than that. The existing 8 Babcock and Wilcox reactors are all what is called a 177 design; it is smaller. This is called the 205 design. It is bigger. This will be the only plant of that design in the entire world. And, oh by the way, the Babcock and Wilcox design is the design that was constructed and operated at Three Mile Island.

The second issue is ground water. When this plant was being built in the 1970's, they discovered there was an awful lot of ground water. And anybody who has every put concrete in the ground knows that water sucks out the calcium from concrete and makes it weak. At Bellefonte, they put in pumps. Sump pumps continually pull that water out of the ground and keep the foundation strong. In 2005, when the Tennessee Valley Authority decided to cancel this plant and cannibalize it, they turned the sump pumps off. So for a period of years, ground water has been in contact with that foundation and has weakened the foundation.

It is an impossible area to evaluate because you cannot dig underneath a nuclear plant to see how bad the ground water has occurred. But ground water has been eating away at the foundation of that plant because Tennessee Valley Authority made the decision to turn the pumps off.

The third area is quality assurance records. A nuclear power plant is only as good as the paperwork that supports whether or not the welds are any good, whether or not the components are any good, whether or not they can be traced to something that is built by a quality assurance vendor.

In 2005, that entire system was destroyed. The quality assurance staff was laid off.

The records were left in disarray. Without records, the quality assured nuclear plant does not exist. Now that may sound like a small thing, but in fact, that is what makes a nuclear plant, a nuclear plant.

It is a little bit like having an AKC dog. You have paperwork to prove that it is an AKC dog. But what if you let your AKC dog loose in the dog park for 6 hours? Could you be sure that the puppies are really AKC? The answer is no. Similarly, when Bellefonte lost control of it's records, it is very, very difficult to go back and determine what is, and what is not, a quality assured piece of material.

The fourth area is that the Bellefonte plant was cannibalized. Demolition crews were allowed in, in 2006 and 2007, to rip out major components, nuclear pipe, nuclear valves, and to cut the nuclear steam generators in order to sell the copper on the scrap market.

Tennessee Valley Authority recognized after about 2009, that they had a problem. They filed what is called an LER, License Event Report, that said they have lost control of the configuration. That means that they have no idea what is in that power plant anymore. It is a little bit like the book that goes with an airplane. Every airplane has a book and in that book is every single change to that airplane. When Tennessee Valley Authority decided to cannibalize the plant, they threw the book out. And now, as they are looking back and trying to determine exactly what is in that power plant, they have discovered they cannot. This is a serious problem.

Construction crews have been ripping the plant apart for years. Controls in the environment, mice eating the pipes, eating the wires, causing electrical short circuits, the wrong material inside the containment, all of these problems have occurred as a result of the unit being cannibalized.

7:45

The fifth area of concern is the containment vessel itself. It looks substantial from the outside, but in fact, the steel tendons that hold it together have begun to rot. Workers were inside the plant and they heard what they thought was a shotgun. It turned out that it was a steel tendon snapping. As they evaluated that, they determined that other steel tendons had things called sulfites on them and others had water, which was causing rust.

Now this containment at Bellefonte is really similar to the containment at Crystal River. We have talked about Crystal River before. A 60 foot long by 20 foot wide crack has developed in the Crystal River containment. It is possible that when they try to fix the Bellefonte containment, they try to retighten it a result of this exploded tendon, that it too, could develop a 60 foot long crack, just like at Crystal River.

The Crystal River reactors will be shut down for 5 years to correct that crack and it won't be til 2014 til we know we have got it right. So to move forward on Bellefonte now, is a grave risk, financial risk, to Tennessee Valley Authority because they won't know for sure if that containment can be fixed until Crystal River gets it right and that is not going to be at least until 2014.

9:15

The sixth area is that there are historical precedents of people trying to start up a nuclear power plant and failing. And Tennessee Valley Authority does not seem to be paying attention to the fact that history is not on their side. The first reactor is Zimmer. Zimmer was built in Ohio, was 98% complete when the utility decided the paperwork, the quality assurance records to make sure that the welds were really nuclear grade welds, were not adequate. The plant was mothballed and then destroyed and turned into a coal plant.

The other plant was Washington Public Power Unit 1. That is identical to the Bellefonte Unit. About 8 years ago, the Board of Directors at Washington Public Power faced the same decision that Bellefonte did. And they said, whoa, this is way too risky. As a matter of fact, it was an easier decision to make for the Washington Public Power District because that plant had never been cannibalized. So Washington Public Power and Zimmer threw in the towel because of quality problems in trying to start up a nuclear plant that was long delayed.

Bellefonte has been delayed even longer. It will be 50 years old before it ever goes on line. And yet, the Board of Directors at Tennessee Valley Authority is being told by management that it is a prudent expenditure to move forward on the design. I do not think so.

The final point I made to the Board of Directors at the Tennessee Valley Authority is that 5 nuclear accidents have occurred after this plant got it's construction permit in 1974. There are lots of lessons that have to be learned and the lessons from Fukushima will not be learned immediately. They will be 4 or 5 or 6 years in the making. Containment issues at Fukushima though, should be known to everybody. Three out of three of the containments have blown up. But yet, the Bellefonte containment has problems already. Tendons have been known to explode. The reactor very similar to it at Crystal River has a crack in it. How can we move forward on the Bellefonte reactors until we have completely learned the lessons from Fukushima?

To sum up the report, this plant was built by men and women with slide rules in 1968. The first dirt was moved in 1974. It was mothballed in 1988. It was cannibalized in 2006. And yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Tennessee Valley Authority think it would be a good idea to put it back together and operate it beginning in 2018.

It will be 50 years old if it can be constructed on the schedule that Tennessee Valley Authority claims. Then Tennessee Valley Authority proposes to run it for another 60 years. It will be 110 years old, the oldest plant in the world by a long shot, if this plant is allowed to go forward.

I recommend to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Board of Directors that they have another look at this. I think there are too many risks, and too many schedule delays, cost overruns and the likelihood of serious operating problems in the future if they continue to build the Bellefonte plant.

The full report I have written is on the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy's website.

Thank you very much. Fairewinds Associates

- - -

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

The history of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Bellefonte site in Jackson County, Alabama spans nearly 40years. A total of four reactors have been proposed, and billions of dollars have been spent, but not a single kilowatt of electricity has ever been produced. After allowing the site to sit idle for more than 20 years and scrapping the facility for spare parts, TVA is now proposing to restart construction of the Bellefonte Unit 1 reactor, which may be one of the greatest gambles in the agency’s history.

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has serious concerns about TVA’s push to complete the mothballed, abandoned Bellefonte reactors. Bellefonte’s unique and complicated history is compounded by that fact that, in order to complete construction of the reactors, TVA faces unique and complicated problems—many worse than any other reactor project has previously faced. This report documents some of our concerns and makes it clear that finishing Bellefonte is not a gamble worth taking. Our concerns include Bellefonte's long, complicated history; multiple safety concerns that have not been addressed; the troubled history of the Babcock &Wilcox “Mark-C 205” design; the unnecessary and costly nature of Bellefonte; and additional obstacles.

In addition to our analysis, we have included an expert technical report from Mr. Arnold Gundersen, Chief Engineer of Fairewinds Associates, Inc. Mr. Gundersen is a nuclear engineer with over 39 years of nuclear industry experience and oversight including as a former Senior Vice President Nuclear Licensee and reactor operator. The Fairewinds report can be found in its entirety in Appendix 1.2

Mr. Gundersen’s expert analysis identifies seven specific areas of risk that, in Fairewinds’ opinion, will cause further delays, additional costs, and even possible suspension of the Bellefonte project if TVA decides to move forward with its construction. They are: Report here PDF

Rick Perry's Army of God Extremists Update

Meet Forrest Wilder, the man who has done his homework on these disciples and prophets batshit crazies.

Wilder's previous comprehensive article here, which, like the video, is certainly worth your attention, because as I say, Wilder has certainly done his homework and has marked a card or two.

I don't know which of the two would be the scarier to lead any country, let alone one with a nuclear capability, Rick, end times Perry, or this skriking harridan.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is expected to announce his entry into the 2012 presidential race. Perry will make the announcement Saturday at a conference in South Carolina organized by Erick Erickson’s RedState.com. Early backers of Perry’s presidential run have heralded him as being behind the so-called Texas economic miracle. However, many have questioned Perry’s economic claims in Texas. Questions have also arisen over Perry’s close ties to the radical wing of the Christian evangelical movement. Last Saturday, Perry helped organize and spoke at a controversial seven-hour Christian prayer rally in Houston titled "The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis." While the prayer session drew 30,000 participants and received national press, little attention was paid to the Christian evangelicals Perry worked with to organize the event. The Texas Observer has just published an explosive article titled "Rick Perry’s Army of God." It exposes how a group of radical Christians and self-proclaimed prophetshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif from a little-known movement known as New Apostolic Reformation have been quietly pushing for Perry’s presidential bid. We speak with the Texas Observer’s Forrest Wilder.Democracy Now

Further analysis of Forrest Wilder's article at AlterNet

Give this fellow a try, he has done a little analysis of his own.



More Old Fart rants here. http://www.youtube.com/user/oldfartrants