Clarence Thomas, the Anti-Black

Clarence Thomas, the Anti-Black

Thomas is often described as a "complicated" personality, but that's just a euphemism for being a self-loathing ally of the worst sections of the white ruling class.
October 13, 2007

Clarence Thomas is a deeply troubled man -- a grotesquely twisted, "Down Home"-grown Black personality at war with the demons of his dark-skinned, dirt poor youth. Although Thomas has accumulated many "enemies" -- earned and imagined -- since his entrance to the white world in the 10th grade in Savannah, Georgia, his core pathology is Black-directed -- a trait so obvious it was immediately perceived by a succession of white Republican racists who rocketed him to the U.S. Supreme Court with obscene haste to become a hit-man against his own people.

Thomas is a perverse right-wing joke played on Blacks and, being of above average intelligence despite his mental illness, he knows it. But it is a knowledge he cannot endure, a burden that has made him a pathological liar, who blurts out contradictions so antithetical to each other that they cannot possibly coexist in the same brain without a constant roiling and crashing that puts him at flight from himself and all those who remind him of his now hopelessly entangled torments and tormentors.




If African Americans had our own insane asylum, Thomas would be welcomed in and cared for, with proper compassion for the sorely afflicted. But there are no such facilities available to treat a man who forgives whites for Jim Crow and every other aspect of past and present discrimination -- indeed, embraces the most racist among them -- but can never forgive Blacks for the way they treated him in Savannah, Georgia and the outlying shanty town of Pin Point.

Thomas, the affirmative action kid, should have gone to Yale, where he proved to be as adept at navigating the curriculum as at least half the rest of the class. He should not have ascended anywhere near the U.S. Supreme Court, or to any government agency that affects the fate of the people he despises, and has since childhood felt despised by: African Americans, the only group that could make his young psyche scream by calling him "ABC" -- "America's Blackest Child."

Thomas titled his first and only book My Grandfather's Son, in honor of grandfather Myers Anderson, who physically rescued him from the abject poverty of Pin Point at age seven, at his destitute mother's request, but never let young Clarence forget that he was born in the mud of deepest, lowest class, Gullah-speaking (Geetchie) Blackdom. "Whenever he'd get angry at Clarence," a childhood friend of Thomas told Washington Post reporter Juan Williams, in 1987, "he'd say, 'Oh, you from Pin Point.' " Grandfather Anderson, a self-made, semi-literate businessman, alternately wielded "Pin Point" as the most cutting insult to the boy's value as a human being, and as the low-life nightmare to which Clarence must return if he did not show himself worthy of elevation above the mud.

Grandfather Anderson was a committed member of the NAACP, a regular contributor of money to the cause. He coerced Clarence to read his good grades aloud in front of NAACP meetings, an experience the shy child found painfully intrusive. When Clarence gained entrance to an almost lily-white Catholic seminary, with vague ideas about becoming a priest, old man Anderson warned, "don't you shame me and don't you shame your race.'"

Too much pressure for the emotionally fragile kid, who had been ceaselessly reminded that his Pin Point background was a shame on its face, and that he must begin his climb up from a deep hole to rise to the standards of the upscale-dominated Savannah NAACP -- a tall order for "America's Blackest Child." In a 2002 interview with Washington Post Reporters Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher, Thomas said he "can't think of any" good the NAACP ever did. Civil rights leaders, in general, just "bitch, bitch, bitch, moan and moan, whine and whine."

The overbearing, unrelenting Granddaddy Anderson pinned his hopes on Clarence graduating from the Catholic seminary and using his credentials and education to assist other Blacks. However, Clarence quit in 1968, and Anderson put him out of the house. Thomas' lying memory begins to dominate the narrative at this point in his 19-year-old life, with estrangement from his Black anchor and hate-love object, Granddaddy Anderson. The old man and the NAACP expected great things from young Clarence, based on their standards, schedule and mission. Thomas claims he quit the seminary when, on news of the shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he overheard a white student say "Well, that's good. I hope the SOB dies" -- evidence that the Catholic Church had failed him.

Note that Thomas does not punch the white kid out, for which he might have been expelled. He just quit, and in so doing quit his grandfather and the NAACP, as well. Although the alleged remark is totally plausible, given the blatant, unabashed racism that prevailed in Sixties white Georgia campuses, parochial and public, it is equally implausible that Thomas had not heard, and been personally subjected to, many verbal racial assaults during his time at the seminary -- and never reacted. It is much more likely that Thomas, having already charted his exit from Black Savannah and a path to the Ivy league, later invented or used the incident to cast himself as a "radical" -- the pose he (possibly after-the-fact) adopted during his scholarship-assisted and affirmative action-arranged stay at Yale, his next stop.

Thomas was sick and tired of Savannah Black society and the loathsome burden of his Pin Point origins, and the skin-curse of being "ABC." He would exit the former and use the latter as a swinging broadsword to flail his Black "tormentors" and garner the assistance of racist whites in search of an African American who harbored animosities against Blacks as intense as their own. more alternet

Related: Justice Thomas He's a Louisiana Man

Bangladeshi Coal - America Dirty

Energy at What Cost? Protests Against Forced Eviction from US-Backed Coal Mine Continue in Bangladesh
by Kate Hoshour and Christine Shearer
8 April 2011

As the sun rose on March 28, 2011, roughly 2,000 people gathered to demonstrate against a mining project that would displace tens of thousands of people in northwest Bangladesh and establish one of the largest open pit coal mines in the world.

Located in an agricultural region that is home to thousands of farming and indigenous families, the Phulbari Coal Project has been fiercely opposed by Bangladeshi citizens for over six years. Regardless, the UK-based company pursuing the project, Global Coal Management Resources, or GCM (formerly the Asia Energy Corporation), is expressing confidence that the mine will go forward.

In their most recent action to halt the project, protestors enforced a six-hour blockade of Bangladesh's railways and highways that began at 6 AM, reportedly forcing railway authorities to reschedule seven intercity trains and disrupting roads between the northwestern district of Dinajpur and other parts of the country.

In Phulbari, educational and business institutions reportedly remained closed during the blockade.

The demonstrators built on a demand made exactly one month ago: for the government to halt the mine and expel GCM Resources from the country. This time, they said, they will allow 15 days for their demands to be met.

Responding to announcements of the protest, police and members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were deployed in advance to guard GCM's office, the Phulbari railway station and other key establishments.

RAB, set up as an elite anticrime and antiterrorism force, has become notorious for what several human rights groups describe as the routine use of torture and an alarming number of extrajudicial killings that occur in RAB custody.

Although RAB has been denounced by Human Rights Watch as a "government death squad," diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2010 revealed that the UK has provided support to RAB, including training in "investigative interviewing techniques" and "rules of engagement."

The Phulbari Coal Project is now at a critical juncture. It was stalled in the planning phase when political instability in the country and widespread protests led to the imposition of emergency rule in Bangladesh in 2007. Following national elections in 2008, a new administration began actively reconsidering the mine.

The recent release of another WikiLeaks cable shows that the US has been exerting diplomatic pressure for the project's approval, citing US corporate interests.

Forced Eviction on a Massive Scale

According to GCM's project plans, the Phulbari coal mine would have a lifespan of at least 36 years and extract 16 million tons of coal annually at peak production. Of this, three million tons would be used for domestic energy consumption, with the construction of at least one 500 megawatt coal-fired electricity plant. The remaining coal would be exported.

The project's draft resettlement plan calls for the open pit mine and associated infrastructure to acquire nearly 6,000 hectares of land.

Estimates of the number of people who would be evicted from their homes and lands in order to make way for the immense mega-project vary widely and are disputed. more truthout

Radiation, Japan and the Marshall Islands

Radiation, Japan and the Marshall Islands
by Glenn Alcalay
8 April 2011

When the dangerous dust and gases settle and we discover just how much radiation escaped the damaged Fukushima reactors and spent fuel rods, we may never know how many people are being exposed to radiation from the burning fuel rods and reactor cores or how much exposure they will receive over time. Minute and above-background traces of iodine-131 are already showing up in Tokyo's water supply - 150 miles southwest of the leaking reactors - and in milk and spinach (with a dash of cesium-137) from 75 miles away. The Japanese government has recently warned pregnant women and children to avoid drinking Tokyo tap water, and I-131 levels 1,200 above background levels were recorded in seawater near the reactors.

Aside from sharing the dubious distinction of having been at the receiving end of America's nuclear weapons, Japan and the Marshall Islands now share another dubious distinction. The unleashed isotopes of concern from the damaged Japanese reactors - iodine-131, cesium-137, strontium-90 and plutonium-239 - are well known to the Marshall Islanders living downwind of the testing sites at Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Central Pacific following 67 A- and H-bombs exploded there between 1946 and 1958. In fact, it is precisely these isotopes that continue to haunt the 80,000 Marshallese 53 years after the last thermonuclear test in the megaton range shook their pristine coral atolls and contaminated their fragile marine ecosystems.

In fact, it was the irradiated downwind Marshallese on Rongelap and Utrik in 1954 caught in the Bravo fallout - and I-131 - that taught the world about the thyroid effect from the uptake of radioactive iodine.

The United States' largest (fusion) hydrogen bomb, Bravo, was 1,000 times the Hiroshima atomic (fission) bomb and deposited a liberal sprinkling of these and a potent potpourri of 300 other radionuclides over a wide swath of the Central Pacific and the inhabited atolls in the Marshalls' archipelago in March 1954 during "Operation Castle."

The Rongelap islanders 120 miles downwind from Bikini received 190 rems, or 1.9 Sieverts (Sv) of whole-body gamma dose before being evacuated. The Utrik people 320 miles downwind received 15 rems (150 mSv) before their evacuation.[1] Many of the on-site nuclear workers at Fukushima have already exceeded the Utrik dose in multiples.

Also entrapped within the thermonuclear maelstrom from Bravo was the not-so-Lucky Dragon (Fukuryu Maru) Japanese fishing trawler, with its crew of 23, fishing for tuna near Bikini. [2]

As the heavily exposed fishermen's health quickly deteriorated after Bravo, the radio operator Aikichi Kuboyama died of a liver illness six months after his exposure; his is now a household name in Japan and is associated with the "Bikini bomb."[3]

Meanwhile, the Japanese fishing industry was rocked when Geiger counters registered "talking fish" (what the Japanese called the clicking sound of the contaminated fish being monitored) among the 800 pounds of tuna catch of the Lucky Dragon in Yaizu and in local fish markets. Much of the Japanese tuna at the time was caught by a fleet of 1,000 fishing boats operating in the fertile tuna waters near the United States' Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshalls. more truthout

Louisiana's Fucked Up (The Arse) Laws

Louisiana's Fucked Up (The Arse) Laws

But it isn't just Louisiana is it? It starts with the Federal Government and filters down to each and every state. What am I talking about? getting fucked up the arse. I guess I am, in a literal sense as far as Louisiana goes, and metaphorically regarding the country as a whole.

Am I being fair if I call it, the Constitution of the United States, the biggest crock of shit ever written, after all it was only a bit of politicking when all said and done. Well if it wasn't a crock when it was written, every subsequent administration since, has done damnest to ensure it is one now.

....dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Well that fucker can go straight in the bin for a start.

But for my purposes today it is this line that is of interest, specifically the last bit.

...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Government for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Well old love, just like yourself it perished long ago, only whereas you are duly boxed and buried, this one's still around stinking up the place with its fetid carcass. That it should have long ago joined you under the earth there is no doubt. But shabby Pols keep the thing handy, wheeling it when occasion warrants, to serve some self interest, or to foster in the plebs the illusion of democracy, a democracy that stinks more than than the long dead promise itself.

For there is one thing you can be sure of, this is no government for the people. Governments for the people don't toil endlessly, bringing to the statutes every petty, mean, insidious, unjust law that they can dream up, and every one of those laws aimed at ruining the lives of its citizens.

And not just ruined for whatever unjust and over-long period of incarceration that it can inflict on its hapless citizens, but ruined forever by implementing legislation, so deliberate, that it ensures any kind of return to normality by a once convicted felon, is virtually impossible.

No government for the people, spends in such proportions, time and money to entrap its citizens and then try to pass it off as law enforcement. And its not just the hooker and john merrygoround that springs to mind, how about Operation Lucky Bag, justice! fuck me you couldn't make it up. Here, have bit more, a story to get your dick out for, or maybe not. America The Shabbiest Country On Earth

No government for the people brings before the court its citizens on charges, so petty, so mean, that these charges would be laughed out of court in the majority of industrialised nations. Laughed out of course, if they were ever to be brought, but first they would have to be on the statute books.

No government for the people sets mandatory minimum sentences, sentences so arbitrary, so draconian, so utterly unjust, that they make a mockery of the very word justice.

No government for the people, goes to such measures to extend its punishment of felons, post release. Felons have done their time, who have paid their debt to society, as we see in this example below. Going so far as to deny them a bite to eat no less. But look at the whole thing, no welfare, no shelter, no food, and as much a chance of getting a job as a snowball in hell. What then he going to end up doing in order to try and feed himself?

Under federal law persons with drug convictions like Garner are permanently barred from receiving financial aid for education, food stamps, welfare and publicly funded housing.

But only drug convictions trigger these exclusions under federal law. Violent bank robbers, white-collar criminals like Wall Street scam artists who steal billions, and even murderers who’ve done their time do not face the post-release deprivations slapped on those with drug convictions on their records, including those imprisoned for simple possession, and not major drug sales. more Mass Incarceration Creates Costly Disaster Across America

Right so, we will leave the government of the people and take look at the government of Louisiana, who by strange coincidence I featured the other day in an article, The Five Most Ruthless Police States in America, you wouldn't like to hazard a guess to who came out on top would you?

These aren't axe murderers, they're sex workers for fuck's sake.

Those who have been victimized by this law must carry a state identification card with the words "sex offender" printed below their name. If they have to evacuate because of a hurricane, they must stay in a special shelter for sex offenders that has no separate facilities for men and women. They have to pay a $60 annual registration fee, in addition to $250-$750 to print and mail postcards to their neighbors every time they move. The postcards must have their name and address, and a photo is often required, as well. Failing to register and pay the fees, a separate crime, can carry penalties of up to ten years in prison.

These sex workers' names, addresses and convictions are also printed in the newspaper and on a public online sex-offender database, and are also displayed at public sites like schools and community centers. Women

Have at it, justice Louisiana style.

Sex Workers File Civil Rights Suit Against Louisiana's "Crime Against Nature" Law
7 April 2011
by Jordan Flaherty, Truthout

The third week of February, attorneys from New Orleans-based and national organizations brought a federal civil rights complaint against Louisiana's 205-year-old "crime against nature" statute, a law designed to penalize sex acts associated with gays and lesbians. The law, as enforced, specifically singles out oral and anal sex for greater punishment for those arrested for prostitution, including a requirement that those convicted register as sex offenders in a public database. Advocates say the law has further isolated women on the fringes of society, including those who are forced to trade sex for food or a place to sleep at night.

In 2003, the Supreme Court outlawed this country's sodomy laws with its decision in Lawrence v. Texas. However, instead of striking down Louisiana's law in its entirety, the state has chosen to only enforce the portion of the law that concerns "solicitation" of a crime against nature.




The decision on whether to charge those who are accused of selling sex of committing a "crime against nature," which is a felony, instead of misdemeanor prostitution is left entirely in the hands of police and prosecutors. "This leaves the door wide open to discriminatory enforcement targeting poor black women, transgender women and gay men for a charge that carries much harsher penalties," says police misconduct attorney and organizer Andrea J. Ritchie, a co-counsel in the lawsuit. Seventy-five percent of those on the database for crime against nature offenses are women, and 80 percent are African-American. Evidence gathered by advocates suggests a majority are poor or indigent.

Louisiana is the only state that requires people who have been convicted of crimes that do not involve sexual violence or sex with minors to register as sex offenders. In 1994, Congress passed Megan's Law, also known as the Wetterling Act, which mandated that states create systems for registering sex offenders. The act was amended in 1996 to require public disclosure of the names on the registries and again in 2006 to require sex offenders to stay in the public registry for at least 15 years.

The Wetterling Act, also known as the Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act was clearly not targeted at prostitution. However, Louisiana lawmakers opted to apply the registry to the crime against nature statute as well, and at that moment started down the path to a new level of punishment for sex work. "This archaic law is being used to mark people with a modern-day scarlet letter," says attorney Alexis Agathocleus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, another party in the lawsuit. "Inclusion on the sex-offender registry violates basic constitutional equal protection principles and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment."

Those who have been victimized by this law must carry a state identification card with the words "sex offender" printed below their name. If they have to evacuate because of a hurricane, they must stay in a special shelter for sex offenders that has no separate facilities for men and women. They have to pay a $60 annual registration fee, in addition to $250-$750 to print and mail postcards to their neighbors every time they move. The postcards must have their name and address, and a photo is often required, as well. Failing to register and pay the fees, a separate crime, can carry penalties of up to ten years in prison.

These sex workers' names, addresses and convictions are also printed in the newspaper and on a public online sex-offender database, and are also displayed at public sites like schools and community centers. Women - including one mother of three - have complained that because of their appearance on the registry, they have had men come to their homes demanding sex. A plaintiff in the suit had rocks thrown at her by neighbors. "This has forced me to live in poverty, be on food stamps and welfare," explains a man who was on the list. "I've never done that before."

In Orleans Parish, 292 people are on the registry for selling sex, versus 85 people convicted of forcible rape and 78 convicted of "indecent behavior with juveniles." Almost 40 percent of those registered in Orleans Parish are listed solely because they were accused of offering anal or oral sex for money. Legal advocates credit on-the-ground organizing and the advocacy of Women With a Vision (WWAV) for making them aware of this discriminatory law. WWAV, a 20-year-old New Orleans-based organization, provides health care and other services to marginalized communities, including women involved in survival sex work. "Many of these women are survivors of rape and domestic violence themselves," says WWAV executive director Deon Haywood, "yet they are being treated as predators."

Speaking anonymously on a recent phone call set up by advocates, some of the plaintiffs in the suit shared their stories.

"Ian Doe" was homeless from the age of 13 and began trading sex for survival. When an undercover officer approached him and asked him for sex, "All I said was, 'Fifty dollars,' and they put me away for four years," he said. In prison, Ian was raped by a correction officer and by other prisoners and contracted HIV. Now, he says, potential employers see the words "sex offender" written on his ID and will not hire him. "Do I deserve to be punished any more than I've already been punished?" he asks. "I was 13 years old. That's the only way I knew how to survive."

"Eve Doe" is a transgender woman living in rural southern Louisiana. She was molested as a child and kicked out of her home at the age of 14. She spent two years in prison. During her time behind bars, she was raped and has also contacted HIV. "I have tried desperately to change my life," she says, but her status as a sex offender stands in the way of housing and other programs. "When I present my ID for anything," she says, "the assumption is that you're a child molester or a rapist. The discrimination is just ongoing and ongoing."

"Hiroka Doe," a New Orleans resident, was the last person to speak on the call. "I had just graduated from high school and was just coming out as transgender," she says. Hiroka was arrested and convicted while still a teenager. As she began to describe her experience, Hiroka's voice began to shake. "I was being held with men in jail at the time.... " she began. Then there was silence on the line. Holding back tears, Doe then apologized for being unable to continue.

The Louisiana legislature recently passed a reform of the crime against nature statute, but for the vast majority of those affected, the reform makes little to no difference. Although the new law takes away the registration component for a first conviction, a second conviction requires 15 years on the registry, and up to five years imprisonment. A third conviction mandates a lifetime on the registry. More than 538 men and women remain on the registry because they were convicted of offering anal or oral sex, with more names added almost every day.




The lawsuit, called Doe v. Jindal, has been filed in Louisiana's US District Court Eastern District on behalf of nine anonymous plaintiffs. It was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ritchie and the law clinic at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. The anonymous plaintiffs include a grandmother, a mother of four, three transgender women and a man, all of whom have been required to register as sex offenders from fifteen years to life as a result of their convictions for the solicitation of oral sex for money. truthout

And just to finish off, this from NOLA, not new but part of my ''recommended for you'' at Youtube. It's the Billo bit we are interested in, it in turn promoted me to dig out the second clip. Wouldn't you think New Orleans had enough problems already, without making the efforts it does to fuck up yet more lives?

I don't know what proportion of these guys are sex offenders, but it is under a bridge that they usually end up, the result of the draconian conditions of abode set them by the State.






What's wrong with Lolita?




http://justtellmewherethebridgeis.blogspot.com/

John Pilger: David Cameron's Gift of War and Racism

David Cameron's Gift of War and Racism, to Them and Us
7 April 2011
John Pilger, Truthout

The Euro-American attack on Libya has nothing to do with protecting anyone; only the terminally naive believe such nonsense. It is the West's response to popular uprisings in strategic, resource-rich regions of the world and the beginning of a war of attrition against the new imperial rival, China.




President Barack Obama's historical distinction is now guaranteed. He is America's first black president to invade Africa. His assault on Libya is run by the US Africa Command, which was set up in 2007 to secure the continent's lucrative natural resources from Africa's impoverished people and the rapidly spreading commercial influence of China. Libya, along with Angola and Nigeria, is China's principal source of oil. As American, British and French planes currently incinerate both "bad" and "good" Libyans, the evacuation of 30,000 Chinese workers is under way, perhaps permanently. Statements by Western officials and media that a "deranged and criminal Colonel Qaddafi" is planning "genocide" against his own people still await evidence. This is reminiscent of fraudulent claims that required "humanitarian intervention" in Kosovo, the final dismemberment of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the biggest US military base in Europe.

The detail is also familiar. The Libyan "pro-democracy rebels" are reportedly commanded by Colonel Khalifa Haftar who, according to a study by the US Jamestown Foundation, set up the Libyan National Army in 1988 "with strong backing from the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]." For the past 20 years, Colonel Haftar has been living not far from Langley, Virginia, home of the CIA, which also provides him with a training camp. The Mujihadeen, which produced al-Qaeda, and the Iraqi National Congress, which scripted the Bush/Blair lies about Iraq, were sponsored in the same time-honored way, in leafy Langley.

Libya's other "rebel" leaders include Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Qaddafi's justice minister until February, and Gen. Abdel-Fattah Younes, who ran Qaddafi's interior ministry: both with formidable reputations for savagely putting down dissent. There is a civil and tribal war in Libya, which includes popular outrage against Qaddafi's human rights record. However, it is Libya's independence, not the nature of its regime, that is intolerable to the West in a region of vassals; and this hostility has barely changed in the 42 years since Qaddafi overthrew the feudal King Idris, one the more odious tyrants backed by the West. With his Bedouin hyperbole and bizarre ways, Qaddafi has long made an ideal "mad dog" (Daily Mirror), now requiring heroic US, French and British pilots to bomb urban areas in Tripoli, including a maternity hospital and a cardiac center. The last US bombing in 1986 managed to kill his adopted daughter.

What the US, British and French hope to achieve is the opposite of a people's liberation. In undermining efforts by Libya's genuine democrats and nationalists to free their country from both a dictator and those corrupted by foreign demands, the sound and fury from Washington, London and Paris has succeeded in dimming the memory of January's days of hope in Tunis and Cairo, and distracting many who had taken heart from the task of ensuring that their gains were not stolen quietly. On 23 March, the US-backed Egyptian military issued a decree barring all strikes and protests. This was barely reported in the West. With Qaddafi now the accredited demon, Israel, the real canker, can continue its wholesale land theft and expulsions. Facebook has come under Zionist pressure to remove a page calling for a full scale Palestinian uprising - a "Third Intifada" - on 15 May.

None of this should surprise. History suggests nothing less than the kind of machination revealed by two senior diplomats at the United Nations, who spoke to the Asia Times. Demanding to know why the UN never ordered a fact-finding mission to Libya instead of an attack, they were told that a deal had been done between the White House and Saudi Arabia. A US "coalition" would "take out" the recalcitrant Qaddafi if the Saudis put down the popular uprising in Bahrain. The latter has been accomplished, and the bloodied king of Bahrain will be a guest at the royal wedding in London.




The embodiment of this reaction is David Cameron, whose only real job has been as PR man to the television industry's asset stripper, Michael Green. Cameron was in the Gulf selling arms to the British-invented tyrannies when people rose up against Yemen's Abdullah Saleh; on 18 March, Saleh's regime murdered 52 demonstrators. Cameron said nothing of value. Yemen is "one of ours," as the British Foreign Office likes to say. In February, Cameron revealed himself in an attack on what he called "state multi-culturalism" - the code for Muslims. He said, "We need a lot less of the past tolerance of recent years." He was applauded by Marine Le Pen, leader of France's fascist National Front. "It is exactly this kind of statement that has barred us from public life for 30 years," she told the Financial Times. "I can only congratulate him."

At its most rapacious, the British Empire produced David Camerons in job lots. Unlike many of the Victorian "civilizers," today's sedentary Westminster warriors - throw in William Hague, Liam Fox and the treacherous Nick Clegg - have never been touched by the suffering and bloodshed which, removed in culture and distance, are the consequences of their utterances and actions. With their faintly trivial, always contemptuous air, they are cowards abroad, as they are at home. War and racism and the destruction of Britain's hard-won social democracy are their gift. Remember that when you next take to the streets in your hundreds of thousands, as you must. truthout

Exposing Sexual Violence Behind Bars

Former Angola Prisoner Wilbert Rideau Receives George Polk Journalism Award for Exposing Sexual Violence Behind Bars



Wilbert Rideau was imprisoned for 44 years at the Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary before he won his release in 2005. While he was in prison he was editor of The Angolite, a newspaper produced by inmates, and became an award-winning journalist. He received the George Polk Award for Special Interest Reporting in 1979 for his outstanding contributions to public understanding of the criminal justice and prison systems. More than three decades later, he will be honored today at the 62nd Annual George Polk Awards for journalists. "Back in 1979, the way [prison officials] portrayed sexual violence in prisons to the public was that this was something that was done by homosexuals," says Rideau. "And the sexual violence, what I did was essentially told what it really was. And it wasn’t the homosexual, it weren’t the gays; in fact, they were quite often victims. And it was the heterosexuals who were doing the raping and the violence and whatnot, and it was being done with the tacit approval of prison authorities."

Forty four years, you can't conceive being locked up for that length of time can you?
Democracy Now, eight minute video or transcript, worth watching.

Fukushima Not Much To Smile About: US Report

U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
By James Glanz and William J. Broad
April 5, 2011

United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Among the new threats that were cited in the assessment, dated March 26, are the mounting stresses placed on the containment structures as they fill with radioactive cooling water, making them more vulnerable to rupture in one of the aftershocks rattling the site after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11. The document also cites the possibility of explosions inside the containment structures due to the release of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater pumped into the reactors, and offers new details on how semimolten fuel rods and salt buildup are impeding the flow of fresh water meant to cool the nuclear cores.

In recent days, workers have grappled with several side effects of the emergency measures taken to keep nuclear fuel at the plant from overheating, including leaks of radioactive water at the site and radiation burns to workers who step into the water. The assessment, as well as interviews with officials familiar with it, points to a new panoply of complex challenges that water creates for the safety of workers and the recovery and long-term stability of the reactors.

While the assessment does not speculate on the likelihood of new explosions or damage from an aftershock, either could lead to a breach of the containment structures in one or more of the crippled reactors, the last barriers that prevent a much more serious release of radiation from the nuclear core. If the fuel continues to heat and melt because of ineffective cooling, some nuclear experts say, that could also leave a radioactive mass that could stay molten for an extended period.

The document, which was obtained by The New York Times, provides a more detailed technical assessment than Japanese officials have provided of the conundrum facing the Japanese as they struggle to prevent more fuel from melting at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. But it appears to rely largely on data shared with American experts by the Japanese.

Among other problems, the document raises new questions about whether pouring water on nuclear fuel in the absence of functioning cooling systems can be sustained indefinitely. Experts have said the Japanese need to continue to keep the fuel cool for many months until the plant can be stabilized, but there is growing awareness that the risks of pumping water on the fuel present a whole new category of challenges that the nuclear industry is only beginning to comprehend.

The document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown “up to one mile from the units,” and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be “bulldozed over,” presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed. more

Japan is Fucked Short Term Long Term

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.

Fukushima: A Nuclear Threat to Japan, the U.S. and the World
Japan Disaster Could Have Far-Reaching Consequences

It will take the equivalent of billions of dollars for the Japanese to recover from these disasters and the U.S. economy is closely linked to theirs. The Japanese government and Japanese investors comprise the second largest holders of U.S. Treasuries, at $885 billion. The Bank of Japan also is reported to hold $493 billion in its reserve balance to avert credit problems. Some financial observers have speculated that the earthquake and tsunami may force Japan's government and investors to liquidate much of the U.S. debt they hold. This possibility doesn't even consider that there is no transparency as to what plans exist for using these funds.

The wholesomeness of much of Japan's food supply has come under question. Farmers have been forced to destroy crops and dispose of dairy products. Because of continuing contamination of seawater, the healthfulness of seafood from the Pacific Ocean is in question. Japan is already a net food importer. In response to a continuing shortage of Japanese home-grown food, the Japanese government may encourage importation of even more foreign food, which is likely to increase the price of food in a nation where food is already an extremely expensive commodity. Worldwide, increased competition for food is likely to affect prices, causing some people in marginal economies to go hungry.

Japanese manufacturers are increasingly in competition with other Asian countries. With the domestic Japanese industrial base severely damaged by the earthquake, delivery of Japanese-manufactured products to the U.S. has been disrupted. Some U.S. plants using Japanese parts have been forced to slow down or halt production. They will probably recover when Japan begins exporting a full supply again, but in an already shaky economy, that could take months. If severe enough, the postponements could cause demand to disappear.

Some industries where Japan now has a predominant position are already threatened. Pre-Fukushima Japan produced a significant percentage of the world's supply of silicon wafers, the base on which integrated circuits and memory chips are made. Because of the earthquake, it has been estimated that wafer supply has diminished by 25 percent.

A shortage of silicon wafers is likely to cause the price to rise, thus increasing the price of chips worldwide, which would have impact on the price of all sorts of goods from jumbo jet airplanes to programmable coffee makers. Korean manufacturers said they would fill the void. If customers establish supply agreements with new manufacturers in Korea, return to their former suppliers in Japan will become even more difficult.

Japan is a culturally unified nation, with more than 98 percent of its population sharing the same ethnicity. It also is a nation where the social norm is to achieve consensus and conform to standards. Japanese people are careful about expressing dissent or participating in controversy. Yet, we are seeing increased, almost unprecedented criticism of TEPCO and the government beginning to be expressed. If this is possible in such a polite and restrained society, imagine the response to a similar disaster elsewhere.

Increasingly, reports of heroic workers, dubbed the Fukushima Fifty by the press, have made their way into Western news media. There may be as many as 1,000 workers who are sacrificing themselves to prevent additional damage and repair existing damage to the nuclear reactors. It is possible some of these workers have been exposed to so much radiation that their lives will be changed in unforeseeable ways. It is likely many of these workers will suffer the long-term effects of radiation exposure, including increased likelihood of leukemia within a few years and other cancers as much as a decade or more from now. DNA damage to workers could become apparent only when these workers have children.

Though the aftermath of Fukushima will be with us for decades, and perhaps generations, immediate attention to this matter is imperative to save lives, provide knowledge that will avert a similar disaster elsewhere, and minimize domestic and worldwide economic impact.

After almost a month, there continue to be more questions than answers. There has been marginal success in cooling the at-risk reactors and little success stemming the flow of radioactive waste water. We have no credible estimate of the impact this disaster will have on the Japanese economy in particular or the world economy in general. There have been no credible steps in the U.S. or by the International Atomic Energy Agency to begin learning from this event and its aftermath and to apply those lessons to avert or minimize future tragedies.

The Japanese authorities, with the help of other experts, will have to muddle through this disaster, making up solutions as they go along. Hopefully, the damaged reactors will be brought under control before serious permanent harm is inflicted on national and international resources. more page 3

The Holy Ghost People, Taking Up Serpents and Tales From Stump Holler

I would hardly describe myself as a cultural anthropologist, far from it in fact. More, what shall I say, watcher, no not watcher, observer, yes observer, that fits better. Observing peoples or cultures, brings with it various rewards in varying degrees, from the absolute negative, as in the case of Islam, to to the quite positive, experiencing a certain fascination and often respect for a people, its culture and its practices.

This fascination and respect, invariably, but not exclusively, reserved for that dwindling group of cultures, some who have hardly been touched by the influence and trappings of man and modernity, yet manage to maintain a society more civilised and more just than anything you could hope to find among, we the enlightened; a rare group indeed.

The other group that oft fascinates and for the most part earns respect, be it given grudgingly or otherwise, are those that, inspite of the modernity that surrounds them, still live a traditional lifestyle and follow traditional ways, availing themselves of modern society only when needs must. Be that the want of a steel axe, a bag of salt, or a shot of penicillin, or whatever.

But there is another group, a group for reasons manifold, that has always fascinated me and earned my respect, and far from grudgingly I add. Finding themselves due to geographic location and circumstances of birth, quite often undereducated, invariably impoverished and often downtrodden, yet despite such adversities, display a degree of tenacity, a humble pride under-spoken, and all the more meaningful for it, and integrity inherent, that, if it is not the envy of America, then it should be. I speak of the communities of the hills and mountains of Appalachia.

I quite recently posted on one such community, and freely admit to waxing lyrical about the documentary that catalogued the trials and tribulations of this community, as they fought with the mine owners over their right to belong to, and have that right recognised by the pit bosses, to belong to the United Mineworkers Union. Given what we are witnessing today in Wisconsin, the struggle of the miners of Harlan County, must qualify as one of the all time irony of ironies.

So what's on offer today? First up, by way of an explanation, a brief history of Pentecostal snake handlers and in turn acting as an introduction for a reminisce of one, Cletis L Stump of Stump Holler, Kentucky. The Kentucky part you can believe, the rest of it, I wouldn't bet the farm on.

But what you can believe is that Cletis L Stump grew up around those parts, informing me no less than he is in fact, a Harlan County boy

Following the trip down memory lane with Cletis we come to the main feature as it were, but not only by virtue of its length. The magic of this fifty five minutes or so is, just like Barbara Kopple’s film, Harlan County,

Peter Adair's 1967 documentary, shot at a Pentecostal service in Scrabble Creek, West Virginia. Documenting the ostensible healing laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, and snake handling as a testament of faith.

it is a wonderful social history piece. There are more ''entertaining'' clips on snake handling as there are equally better clips of Pentecostals getting their freak on, because let's face it, nobody gets their freak on like these lads n lasses; it's like watching a rave where ''Jesus is my E.'' But to do that would be to miss the point entirely; this documentary shows simple folk in simple churches coming together as a community and getting it on with their Lord.

As the inimitable old darling once said: Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief. Well 'taint so in the hills of West Virginia, these are the believers, these aren't mega churches where every last sanctimonious motherfucker with a bible in his hand seeks to be recognised by his equally sanctimonious and disingenuous neighbour and peer, just simple shacks for simple needs. And I have to add, showing more true Christian charity as your ever likely to see. (last clip)

And at the risk of sounding terribly patronising, I will allow them their religion, I will allow them their self induced hysteria, drive on for Jesus. Continued below.

eta. Links for a sixty minute historical documentry, Bluegrass Roots, added below.

A Question of Faith

By Jerry Richardson (Cletis L Stump)

It was the summer of my divorce and I was down visiting my sister in the western part of Kentucky. I thought I'd stop by and see my friend Duane on the way home. Duane lived in Louisville where he was and I believe still is working for General Electric. I asked him if he could give me a ride home. He said he couldn’t take me all the way but would take me as far as Corbin where he was going to visit his brother, the dentist.

This was how I found myself on 25E just east of Corbin on a muggy summer evening with about a hundred miles to home. Home was Lynch, Kentucky, a small mining town which once boasted the largest coal tipple in the world. Until recently, it was the sole property of U.S. Steel. Now, it belongs to Arch Mineral but nothing much has changed.

Lynch is a quiet place located in Harlan County where nothing of excitement has happened since the union wars of the 1930s. The pace of life is slow and predictable and I thought it would be a good place to calm my nerves. Mom and Dad still lived there and I figured I’d be home for a late supper. I made Pineville around seven o’clock and the rest should have been easy. It wasn’t.

Eleven-thirty found me outside of Harlan on a dark stretch of under-construction highway; twenty-two miles from Cumberland and five more to Lynch. I had covered about seventy miles in nine hours of hitch-hiking and was worn out. I was about to crawl under a bridge to sleep when I saw two weak lights bouncing toward me through the distance. The car rattled to a stop and an old face called out from under the brim of a faded hat.

“Where you going boy?”

“Up to Lynch, sir. My mom and dad live there.”

“Well, get in. We’re going to Whitesburg and we’ll take you as far as Cumberland.”

“That’ll be good,” I said. “I appreciate it.”

“Just climb on in. Push them baskets and things out of your way and scoot on in there.”

I climbed in to the backseat of what I believe was a two-door Ford Falcon and settled myself beside five or six wicker baskets. It was a tight fit but I wasn’t complaining.

It was dark and difficult to see but the men appeared to be in their late fifties or early sixties. They were not dressed like coal miners and gave more of an impression of being farmers. Each wore his hat pulled low over his face and sat motionless as if hypnotized by the road ahead.

As we bumped along the construction and on to the black snake curves of the old Harlan Road, the passenger shifted slightly as if to speak. I leaned forward to hear above the groans of the old car.

“You say you’re going to Lynch?”

“Yes sir. My mom and dad live there … just down from the Methodist church.”

“What’s your surname?”

“I’m a Richardson. My daddy’s Vivian Richardson.”

“Can’t say I recollect him.”

He didn’t say any more and I knew he probably wouldn’t. I sat back, glad to be off of my feet, and looked around. Except for a faint glow from the dash the interior of the car was dark. The men in front looked more like silhouettes than men and sat as if spotting prey in the on-rushing road. It was quiet and the only sound was the rustling of the wind through the baskets beside me. After a time, I leaned forward and spoke again.

“My mom’s got a brother over near Whitesburg,” I said. “His name’s Ott Hicks.”

“Hicks?” He turned his head and leaned back. “Now, that sounds familiar. Are they church people?”

“Yes sir --- they’re real good people,” I said. “My cousin married a boy who lives over there. His name’s Billy Conn.”

“Billy Conn!” he exclaimed. “Lord yeah, we know Billy! He’s one of the finest boys who ever lived. He does the work of the Lord, don’t he?”

“Yes sir, he’s a preacher,” I said. As I spoke, I edged closer and brushed the basket beside me. It made a faint rustling sound like that of a small animal moving through dry leaves.

“Do you all go to Billy’s church?” I asked.

“No,” he said, “we don’t hold the exact same beliefs Billy does.”

“Are you a different denomination?” I asked.

“No, nothing like that,” he said. “We all serve the Lord Jesus but we pick up the serpents and Billy don’t.”

It took a second but as the blood drained from my face I knew. I grew smaller and squeezed deeper into the corner of the backseat.

“Matter of fact,” he said, “we’re just coming from a meetin’ over on Crank’s Creek. They can’t get out though. Them lids are on there good … and even if they did the Lord wouldn’t let em’ bite you.” I wasn’t sure the snakes couldn’t get out of the baskets. I was sure I couldn’t get out of the car. I tried.

After that, the conversation tapered off and we rode in silence until eventually Cumberland came into view. I believe they helped me out in front of the old Corlee Theatre where the road forks toward Whitesburg. I crossed the street to the Texaco station and watched the snakes and the Falcon disappear along the river road toward home.

For once, the five miles separating Cumberland from Lynch were a welcome sight. I set out with a joyous step but had barely covered twenty yards when a familiar rattle pulled alongside and the old face leaned back out.

“Get on in here,” he said. “The Lord would never forgive us if we left you out here this late at night.”

“Yes, he would,” I said quickly. “You men have done you part. Really, I … I like to walk. It’s getting late and your people will be worried.”

“Nonsense,” the old man said as he got out of the car and pulled back the seat. “We won’t hear of it. Now, get on in here.”

It was after one o’clock when they finally let me out in front of our house on Church Street. I managed to say thank you and again watched the Falcon pull away. I knocked on the door and when Mom finally answered she said I looked sort of pale and allowed I had been drinking.

Jerry Richardson (Cletis L Stump)

Similar: The Book of Cletis - Prospectors





Below: But then, and there is no allowance for this display of self induced hysteria; but then we have to round off, a couple of minutes and a couple of cunts from Texas, I'm sorry but there's no more befitting description I can think of for these two sanctimonious little fuck cunts for Jesus. The first little cunt is bad enough, but the second one!? fuck me! I haven't got the words for her, other than to say, pity the bloke this little cunt traps at the alter, pity him indeed.

Update: I am in error in describing the above as starring two individuals, it is in fact the same little fuck cunt for Jesus in both scenes.

Bluegrass Roots: On The Road With Bluegrass Musicians

This is the 1st TV Special (1964) shot documentary style in the Mountain of North Carolina. It follows Old Man Bascom Lunsford as he casts the talent for his Asheville Mountain Music Festival (also the first such event)."Bluegrass Roots" takes viewers presents a who's who of the most extraordinary singers, players and dancers the Bluegrass Mountains had to offer. Many later became famous. Songs Include: Groundhog, Johnson Boys, East Virginia Blues, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Blue Ridge Mountain Blues, and Heavenly Light is Shinning On Me.

Reviews:
"Most of the amazing performers presented are now long gone on. It is a treat to see and hear them again..." Bill Morrison, The News and Observer, Raleigh, North

Absolutely brilliant, there's some pickin' n' a fiddlin' n' some dancin' going on there boy, n' scenes and characters that ain't never goin' to be seen again. Magic stuff.

Download or view stream here.


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716MB total. Join with hjsplit, no pass

Obama: Natural Born Citizen Equivocator

Obama's Mysterious Past: The Walls Close In

Donald Trump recently raised the issue of Barack Obama’s mystery birth certificate on the TV show, “The View,” suggesting the president should just release it, and get it over with. Not unpredictably, Whoopie Goldberg immediately blew her gasket citing (what else?) Racism! “No white president has ever been asked for his birth certificate,” she said. ‘So, why Obama?” insinuating it’s only because of his skin color.

Answer to Whoopie: This has nothing to do with Race. Never in the history of this country has so much secrecy shrouded a president. The so-called “transparency” of Barack Obama has become the ultimate oxymoron.

First: It is a daunting question, indeed, that anyone would spend so much effort and money in legal fees to prevent disclosure about a basic question of identity, particularly the president of the country.

Second: The reason for the constitutional requirement, is to ensure that no leader of this country will ever hold a dual allegiance to any foreign entity.

Third: The issue of trust. Even if the laws did not preclude Obama from being a president, how can the media and the public, in general, trust someone who will not disclose a basic document that all government employees — city, state and federal — routinely disclose throughout America?

Fourth: In fact, John McCain ( he’s a white man, Whoopie) – and Obama’s opponent — was required by congress to verify his eligibility. In April of 2008, the U.S. Senate approved a resolution recognizing McCain’s eligibility to run. But, not Obama, who’s father was not a U.S. citizen and who has not authorized the release of his alleged Hawaiian birth certificate.

Fifth: Interesting to note that the newly elected Democratic Governor of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, when taking office recently, made a public statement declaring he would settle the birth certificate question forever. Not long after, he retracted, admitting that document may not exist.

Click here: Hawaii governor can’t find Obama birth certificate

More questions have surfaced which add fuel to the fires of distrust. Let’s start with the mystery Social Security Number:

042-68-4425

This is the number Mr. Obama has been using since 1980-81. However, records indicate that it was issued in the State of Connecticut, where Obama never resided. Hmmm. In the spring of 1977, when Obama was sixteen living in Hawaii, the same number was used by a Connecticut resident who was born in 1890. Strange.

These facts were dredged up by licensed investigators working with Dr. Orly Taitz, who has initiated a number of legal actions against Obama in pursuit of the truth. This kind of information would be accessible to any tenacious and seasoned investigator. (For details, see links below) In fact, there have been at least seventeen other social security numbers that have been used by someone with the name Barack Obama, but that’s not to say they belong to the president, however odd. However, the fact that the president is using a social security number of deceased individual, and not issued to him, could suggest social security fraud for which penalties are attached. For me, and anyone, it raised a bigger question: Why even do it?

The same investigators endeavored into another mystery surrounding the president: His college records.

In Obama’s memoirs and speeches, he claimed that, while living in New York, he attended Columbia University two years between September of 1981 and May of 1983. Some folks might recall other past students of note who have said they never saw Obama there, including George Stephanoplous and Wayne Root, also a political science major, same years. But, okay, it could be that Obama was a low-key student and didn’t make many acquaintances.

Or … there’s another reason. Obama was not at the school during all the times stated in his memoirs. According to Columbia University records, he only attended Columbia from September of 1982 to May of 1983. That gives us one entire missing year, not to mention the lie.....more

An American Success: The Prison Industrial Complex

In the year 2000, 2 million or 25% of the world's 8 million prisoners were housed in the U.S. Which only has 5% of the world's population.

Not much more needs saying, does it?

The Prison Industrial Complex

The Five Most Ruthless Police States in America

This past decade has seen such a large increase in the U.S. prison and jail population that there can be no historical comparison, reports the National Institute of Corrections. If the number of those incarcerated were added to the unemployment rate, the rate would be 2% greater. In the year 2000, 2 million (or 25%) of the world's 8 million prisoners were housed in the U.S. (which only has 5% of the world's population). That figure grew to nearly 2.3 million in 2010.

There is little demonstrative correlation between actual crime rates and imprisonment policies. Incarceration policies in the U.S. disproportionately impact minorities, particularly African Americans. The amount of money spent to incarcerate 1.2 million nonviolent offenders is six times that spent on child care for 1.25 million children.

In 2010 there were 1,612,071 state and federal prisoners in the U.S, an incarceration rate of 502 people per 100,000. But some states stand out from the rest when it comes to the number of residents locked up. The remaining 687,000 are locked up in city and county jails.

Here are the top five states you might want to think twice about visiting or relocating to if you have a particular aversion to spending time behind bars.

5 States with the Highest Incarceration Rate

Louisiana - Where Everyone Has a 2% Chance of Landing Behind Bars

1 in 55 Residents Incarcerated

While the crime rate in Louisiana is about 18% higher than the national average, its incarceration rate is a disproportionate 48% higher than than the national average, according to the NationalInstituteofCorrections. Louisiana incarcerates about 881 people per 100,000. That means one out of every 55 Louisiana residents is behind bars, the highest incarceration rate of any state, according to research released in 2009 by the PewCenterfortheStates, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Louisiana continues to lock-up too many elderly prisoners and too many people whose biggest problem is addiction. June, 2008 figures from the Louisiana Department of Corrections show that 13% of the prison population in Louisiana is over the age of 50. More than 30% of inmates were convicted of drug offenses. Louisiana also disproportionately incarcerates African-Americans, with more than 60% of its prisoners being African-American.

Of Louisiana’s 37,164 prisoners held in 2009, 2,616 were female and 37,164 are male, according to statehealthfacts.org. Louisiana is home to 40,025 probationers and 24,636 parolees.

There are 116 jail or prison facilities throughout Louisiana's 64 parishes, including two private prisons. more

Japanese Ninja Radioactive Mutant Turtles Coming Soon

Say hello to Cyclops the mouse.

Fukushima creating monster-mutated animals
04 April 2011

As frantic nuclear workers battle melting reactors and plutonium radiation in Tokyo Electric's Fukushima reactors a new fear has surfaced...

Radioactive nuclear monsters may soon appear

No, the mutated animals will not be giant radioactive ants or grasshoppers like 1950s monster movies. But they can be terribly mutated monstrosities with DNA horribly twisted by nuclear poisoning.

Things of horror emerged from the southwestern desert after the early atomic tests by the U.S. military. Although much was hushed up, some of the mutated terrors leaked into scientific reports of the time.

Lurid news articles about mutated plants and animals encouraged Hollywood studios like Warner Brothers to give the nod to such atomic doomsday thrillers like Them!--a scary tale of humanity's war against giant ants that invade Los Angeles. Other B-movies had Chicago attacked by hordes of 12-foot locusts and a titanic preying mantis terrifying Manhattan Island.

A giant ant appears in Them!

Although atomic bombs can affect DNA, the affect is short term. Long term radioactive contamination from nuclear reactor accidents is much worse and has a greater impact on surrounding plants and animals.

Chernobyl's nightmares

Chernobyl - mutant boy in hospital

Russian scientists discovered first hand the nuclear nightmare world of mutants in the months following the Chernobyl disaster. Although the radioactive plume drifted around the world, the most severe impact was seen in the region of the reactor and adjacent countryside. Not only plants and animals, but humans too were mutated.

As authorities desperately evacuated people, animals roamed into the highly radioactive land. Plants soaked up Strontium-90 and Caesium-137. They also absorbed deadly plutonium that leached into the soil and ground water. Rogue neutron rays swept the countryside.

Mutant plant discovered in Radiological Reserve

Animals drank from rivers and streams; the water glowed a faint blue at night.

The surrounding forest turned rust-colored red and the biodiversity mutated radically. Some observed gigantism appearing in animals and trees grew weird, gnarled branches, some grew roots at their top instead of in the ground.

As the radiation spread and humans abandoned it, the area became a refuge for mutant plants and animals--a living zoo of Twilight Zone proportions that some in Kiev, the nearest major city to the site of the disaster, have called a Forest of Wonders.

Mutant monkey - early atomic tests

Naturalists have coined the three square miles around the former facility--the most radioactive region on Earth--a Radiological Reserve.

Misshapen birds roost inside the partially destroyed reactor housing. Some have stunted tail feathers and leathery bodies. Others have multiple legs and stumps for feet.

Mutated DNA creates mutant mouse

Weirdly massive and mutated tailess wolves, fanged beavers, one-legged storks and giant-beaked eagles have been reported by frightened hikers. more

Mankind Is a Bollocks Nuclear Edition

This is a funny kind of post on Bluegrass culture. Starting out to collect apples, I've ended up with pears.

First up, the wonders of nuclear fission, brought to you by General Electric. Now where have I heard that name lately?

Animated classic presenting what an atom is, how energy is released from certain kinds of atoms, the peacetime uses of atomic energy and the byproducts of nuclear fission.

As bullshit goes, nobody bullshits like the Pentagon. This little wonder, testament to its wisdom and understanding, brought to you courtesy of the USAF. The climate of fear! shurely shome mishtake?

The video shows military troops participating in Camp Desert Rock Exercises and witnessing the power and fury of an atomic blast. The underlying message given is that if citizens remain calm and "face it," they can survive the bomb."

What to do after a visit from Ivan, pesky old fallout. Animated nuclear preparation film.



More nuke testing stuff here, along with lots of other archival footage, which I am about to explore further myself.

Barack Obama: Nowhere Man

You might think a poem about George Bush is a funny way to introduce a post about Barack Obama, but for me it makes sense, there is a parallel, which I'm sure won't be lost on you.

Whereas Bush squandered the good will of the world, as described by the Australian poet, Manfred Vijars, Obama has done something far more unforgivable to something far more precious than goodwill. He has taken the hope that was placed in him by a trusting electorate, the hope for a genuine new beginning, hope for change, hope for some kind of justice for all Americans, he has taken that hope, not squandered it, for in fact hope cannot be squandered, it can only be, in the case of Obama, crushed, cast to the ground as something worthless and trampled underfoot.

Not a criminal act, as those of his predecessor, but something rather worse, something quite heinous in fact, betrayal. He betrayed his people, but he has betrayed hope itself.

I first posted this in 2007, there a few lines in there that could have been written yesterday.


Dubya You've Spent What Wasn't Yours To Spend

You have spent the good will of the world

A Poem From Oz
A Cynical Sceptic

This piece came about as a result of the Cole enquiry into the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) inquiry paying "commissions" to Saddam Hussein to accept our exports.
Not a single individual (in the AWB) received a benefit, but our wheat-farmers retained their Iraqi market short term.

A Cynical Sceptic

There's a bucket load of crap that's being spread around the world
and were tugging on the coat tails of the biggest flag unfurled,
I can't believe the bullshit that our pollies try to push-
For "Freedom and Democracy" and their pall bearer "Bush"!

The world stood 'with' our Yankee mates that sad September day
and strained real hard against the bit to leap into the fray
to show those evil mongrels that you just can't do that stuff!
We waited for the invite so we'd stand together tough.

And George, your European allies, you treated with disdain?
Piss on your mates to stand alone? where's your bloody brain?
The principals you represent, you've trampled underfoot.
Withdrawal of rights! pre-emptive strikes! (Morality's hard put!)

We joined you in Afghanistan. That was just and right!
But you bombed a bit, sprayed some shells and then just left the fight?
Hell-bent on another path - left the Afghans in the mire
to purse some flaky doctrine that your "Neocons" aspire.

The mongrels of September hailed from countries far and wide
Tunisia, Algeria and Saudi 'rabia's side.
Were trained in the Afghan', Sudan and Yemenee
their funds came through Italian banks and those of Germany.

Some met in Indonesia and Malaysia no duress-
were taught to fly, (and here's the rub) you guessed it-the Us!
Those countries-"there" were all involved in that September's whack.
The logical response? You say - "We must attack Iraq!"

That despots should be toppled so their people can be free
is appropriate, but bloody hell, not so selectively.
Mugabe is an evil prick who gives his people hell
but do you care for suffering there? Not that I can tell!

To justify agendas "hid" you create a smoking gun!
Bullshit is still bullshit mate, no matter how it's "spun."
No Balkan Coalition where the World united stood
against one mongrel despot to get rid of him for good!

Now we can't point the finger 'cause we're also hypocrites
in our trading practises and that gives me the shits!
We slip some backdoor money to the biggest prick around
while standing tall with hand on heart, profess we're honour bound.

Howard, Vale and Downer are three pretty astute blokes
yet their amnesia's "collective"? - More like collective jokes.
Three hundred million dollars, and they can't remember squat?
If we tried that, we wouldn't last! they'd have us damn well shot!

Our leaders puff their chests out while strutting on World's stage
treating us like kindergarten kids not not quite of age.
Beating drums for false crusades through doctrines they impel -
you lied to us you bastards! May you rot in fucken hell!!

Reprinted with kind permission of Manfred Vijars copyright - 2006

The Nowhere Man
by William Rivers Pitt,
5 April 2011


So, yeah, Obama is in. The President of the United States officially threw his hat into the 2012 election ring on Monday morning, and the nation reacted with a resounding, "Oh."

What a mess.

It wasn't even two and a half years ago. Can you believe it? Two and a half years ago, there was a detonation of optimism that echoed across the country once the returns were in on that November night. People took to the streets here in Boston, literally banging pots and pans together as they danced and shouted in celebration. The scene was repeated in city after city and town after town, and even the "mainstream" media gushed from election night to Inauguration Day about the spectacular moment in American history we were all witnessing together.

Hindsight, however, tells us today that much of that optimism was wildly misplaced. The long shadow of George W. Bush still hung low and dark over the land, as it does even now. That was part of it, of course, part of the sense of expiation and purgation so many felt once the deal went down; on that November night, the national nightmare of Mr. Bush's presidency was writing its final pages, and then came January, and he was gone. Despite all the failures and disappointments that have since come, those were two very good days.

And there have been disappointments. A great, great many of them. The words we heard were beautiful back then, soaring and sure, and many believed. How could they not? Here was this new president who could sing the birds down from the trees, who was introduced to the country in 2004 by way of a convention keynote address that blew the roof off the joint. Some years later, along the jagged, wending path of a brutal primary campaign, candidate Obama was carried to the nomination by the power of his words, and yes, many believed, even in spite of themselves.

But then he won it all, and two and a half years later, many of his most ardent supporters now hear his words and taste ashes in their mouths. You campaign in poetry, someone once said, but you govern in prose. The poetry was magnificent. The prose, in far too many ways, has been dreck, and those who believed now find themselves more demoralized than they can easily describe.

He and his fellow Democrats all but folded on health care, leaving us with less than half a loaf. He backtracked on Guantanamo, and doubled down on Afghanistan. He promised to erase Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, and broke his oath shamelessly, to his party's great lament in 2010. Wall Street stands unmolested at the center of his counsel, while Main Street withers on the vine. He is flipping missiles into Libya while flipping off the American people by racing to "compromise" with brigands and thieves on the matter of how many billions to cut. He has, to be sure, had his share of victories, but in so many critical ways, he has been the Nowhere Man, the absence of what was so seemingly present when he was elevated to his current station.

What galls the most, what infuriates and confounds, is the brazen clarity of the situation at hand. Mr. Obama has not been losing policy arguments to reasonable people. He has been losing policy arguments to people who are, in many instances, absolutely and unabashedly barking mad. He is losing policy arguments to people who sought elected office in government in order to denude and destroy that very government. Listen to them talk and the matter is plain: they got the job to destroy the job, and are so blinded by the fervour of their political catechism that they cannot be reasoned with under any circumstances. They are destroyers and usurpers, but Mr. Obama has time and again bared his neck to them, and we have all suffered with their sundry victories, and his sundry defeats. more truthout