Obama Hamstringing Gitmo Lawyers?

I might not have run with this story, though must be said it's a worthy read in its own right, had I not previously featured this, this, I don't know how best to describe really, perhaps it's suffice to say that the setting is Louisiana. (Again)

....The mayor was quickly convicted of both charges but lawyers have raised challenges to the convictions, bringing a number of legal complaints. For example: in a town that is 60% African-American, Mayor Higginbotham had only one Black juror. Higginbotham’s counsel was disqualified by the DA, and the public defender had a conflict of interest, leaving the mayor with no lawyer. Two days before trial began, the DA gave Higginbotham 10 boxes of files related to his case. Higginbotham’s request for an extension to get an attorney and to examine the files was denied.

There’s more: during jury selection, when Higginbotham – forced to act as his own lawyer – tried to strike one juror who had relationships with several of the witnesses, he was told he could not, even though he had challenges remaining. There was also a problem with a sound recorder that the court reporter was using, and as a result there is no transcript at all for at least two witness’ testimony. Finally, during deliberation, the judge gave the jury polling slips that had “guilty” pre-selected, and then later hid the slips. I Don't Know What Justice Looks Like But I'm Sure It Doesn't Look Like This: Waterproof Louisiana

But don't you think in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the rest of these ''high value'' detainees, it's past time for America to end the charades, put away the hypocrisy for once, and just put these guys against the wall and shoot the fuckers, innocent or guilty. Because let's face it, there is only ever going to be one verdict for those that might one day see a ''trial.'' I know there's not a bit of shame to be found anywhere in America, its Presidents past, or its President present, Bush lite, Barack Obama. Because for shame, how on earth do you put a fellow in the dock that you have waterboarded a hundred and eighty three times and still call it a trial?

Hypocrisy, it's the American way, not arf!

Did Obama Kneecap the 9/11 Suspects' Defense Lawyers?

What an investigation into Gitmo attorneys means for the pending trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants.
By Nick Baumann

Last week, on the same day President Barack Obama launched his re-election campaign, his administration announced that it had officially reversed its decision to try the accused 9/11 plotters—including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed "mastermind" of the attacks—in federal court and would instead prosecute them via the military commissions system.

But, as the military commissions gear up for what could be their first cases to end in death sentences, a shadow hangs over the lawyers representing these most unsympathetic of defendants. For well over a year, civilian and military defense lawyers representing so-called "high-value detainees" at Guantanamo Bay were caught up in a secret Justice Department investigation. (The agency won't say whether the investigation is still ongoing.) Can Guantanamo lawyers mount full and fair defenses of the 9/11 conspirators while under the pressures of a past or present DOJ investigation—and the threat of a future probe by the Pentagon itself, as some congressional Republicans have called for? We're about to find out.




The genesis of the DOJ probe dates back at least to the summer of 2009, when guards at Guantanamo found a series of photos in the cell of Mustafa Ahmad al Hawsawi, an accused Al Qaeda financier and one of KSM's four co-defendants. The photos, according to multiple reports, showed CIA employees suspected of involvement in the interrogation of high-value detainees, including al Hawsawi himself.

The CIA, unsurprisingly, was deeply alarmed. John Rizzo, then the agency's top lawyer, demanded an investigation. He later described the incident as "far more serious than Valerie Plame," referring to the Bush-era leak of an operative's covert status. He wasn't alone in his concerns. "This is an agency that has reasons to be concerned as to whether or not somebody's got their back," another high-ranking former intelligence official told Mother Jones last year. "It's always operating out there on the edge, not unlawfully, but generally at the farthest reaches of executive prerogative."

The Justice Department launched an investigation, headed by Donald Vieira, a former Democratic Hill staffer. Vieira soon found that the photos had been taken for a reason. Since any successful defense of a high-value detainee would likely require proving torture—and calling the alleged torturers, if they existed, to the stand—members of the Gitmo defense bar felt they needed to identify whom, exactly, had interrogated their clients.

In any other criminal case, this would normally be a breeze—defense lawyers generally know which cops or FBI agents questioned their clients and can call them as witnesses if necessary. But when you're dealing with the CIA, it's a whole different story. more

Copy and Paste Propaganda?

I have an idea where yer man is coming from but I'm not sure he can make an argument for all news sources being the same when his keyword search utilises the same words as the latest wire story headline. Google might well be guilty of sanitising its news sources, but what this story does highlight, is just how woefully inadequate the main stream media has become as a news source. But there again, this parroting of an AP release is hardly new, it must be four years past since I wrote about the exact same thing, but at a place other than this, so I ain't going looking for it just to prove my point, you will have to take my word on this one.

This from halfway down the article

Copy and paste the propaganda

Now, keep in mind that these news sources are considered the "trusted" news sources by Google News and most consumers. And yet, when you really get right down to it, these are all news sites that merely copy and paste the same exact stories from Associated Press or Reuters. In other words, these sites aren't even writing their own news! They are worse than bloggers who at least offer some unique analysis of the news.

Worse than bloggers! cheeky twat. How's that for some unique analysis?

Google says its search engine penalizes sites for carrying "duplicate content." And yet we see no evidence of penalties for these mainstream news sites that rip off the same exact news, word for word, from the AP and Reuters news wires. After all, these are the top-ranking search results -- and they're all exactly the same!




If anybody other than the mainstream media did this, they would be immediately accused of running a "content farm" and be banned from the Google index. For some reason, Google seems to allow the mainstream media a free pass on the mass duplication of the exact same content. In fact, Google News actually seems to favor it! The more you parrot AP and Reuters, the more they love ya!

Do you have original news content? They aren't interested in that. But if you copy and paste Associated Press stories, you get top billing! more

Deconstructing the U.S. Military

Deconstructing the U.S. Military; or How to Cut a Cool Trillion Dollars a Year from the U.S. Budget


......In the mid-1960s, political scientist Hannah Arendt published a book-length study of how some of the great evils of history, such as slavery and the Holocaust, managed to occur. Her book, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, concluded that generally such crimes are not carried out by fanatics or sociopaths, but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their superiors and their state and therefore do what they are told to do, and participate with the view that their actions are normal. The word "banal" is defined as "something that is trite, normal, and commonplace." The root of the word comes from the Old French word ban, referring to feudal military service, which was compulsory and thus commonly accepted. Thus, military culture is by definition synonymous with banal, which my acquaintances at Camp Eggers demonstrated as they strove to find orders to follow and avoid responsibility for their actions.

Most members of the military establishment receive extensive training in combat techniques, including of course how to kill other human beings. One common drill at boot camp is to have recruits lunge repeatedly at mock human targets with mounted bayonets, shouting "Kill! Kill!" as they stab their imaginary victims. After months of such training, killing itself becomes banal, something normal and commonplace. The military culture of thoughtless submission to authority combined with heavy conditioning to snuff out human life creates a wide path towards the "great evils" that Hannah Arendt addressed.

Examples of what a sane society would call evil acts abound in the annuals of our current wars. For example, in 2010 a group of five American soldiers murdered a number of Afghan civilians "for sport," and collected fingers of their victims as trophies. Killing for them had become normal and banal; it was in fact what the soldiers were trained to do.

In March of 2011 two U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopters came upon 10 Afghan children ages 7 to 13 gathering brush to warm their huts and attacked them with heavy machine gun fire. When the parents of the children arrived on the scene, attracted by the gunfire, they could only collect body parts of their children. For the pilots of the helicopters, killing was their job, a normal part of military life.

On March 12, 2006, four U.S. soldiers entered the home of a 14-year old girl in the Iraqi city of Mahmudiya, took her mother, father and sister into a bedroom and shot them, and then gang-raped the girl. Afterwards, they shot her in the head and attempted to burn her body. They then reported the deaths as being the result of an insurgent attack.

On March 25, 2003, Marine Sgt. Eric Schrumpf was participating in the U.S. invasion of Iraq when he spotted an Iraqi soldier in his field of view behind a female Iraqi citizen. He couldn’t get a clear shot with the woman blocking his line of sight, so he shot her to get her out of the line of fire. "I’m sorry, but the chick was in the way," Schrumpf explained. Later he elaborated, "We had a great day. We killed a lot of people."

Over the long term, most soldiers committing such murders become victims of their own lack of judgment, unable to live with the profoundly antisocial acts they have committed. Sergeant Schrumpf is himself now debilitated by PTSD, and can scarcely function in civilian society. He has attacked people in movie theaters because he mistakes their cans of Coke for military weapons. "I'll never be the same again," says Schrumpf, who seems somehow mystified by the etiology of his emotional dysfunction.

Similar stories of the fruits of combat duty are limited only by time available to tell them. After serving in the Marines during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Lance Cpl. Walter Rollo Smith returned home and soon killed his wife, Nicole Marie Speirs, the 22-year-old mother of his twin children. He drowned her in a bathtub without any evident provocation or reason. In reflecting on his heinous crime, Smith said, "I know for a fact that before I went to Iraq, there’s no way I would have taken somebody else’s life."

After serving in the Army in Iraq in 2004, Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, of Wilkesboro, N.C, came home and stabbed his wife Nabila Bare, 18, at least 71 times with knives and a meat cleaver. About three dozen of the wounds were on her head and neck. Killing is what he was trained to do.

Mental angst and dysfunction in soldiers returning from combat is commonplace. A recent study indicates that 62% of soldiers returning from the war in Iraq have asked for mental health counseling, with 27% showing dangerous levels of alcohol abuse. Suicide rates among soldiers and vets have increased dramatically in recent years. Over 100,000 Vietnam vets have now killed themselves, far more than died in the Vietnam War. More than 300,000 veterans of the U.S. military are currently homeless, another study reveals.

If war is in fact destroying the youth of America by turning them into trained and traumatized killers, one could at least hope that the wars themselves have some value to American society. Objective evidence indicates otherwise. The actual conduct of war bears more resemblance to a circus act than the noble endeavor it is often portrayed to be. To cite one of the many examples of the senselessness of war related in the book Achilles in Vietnam, author and Vietnam vet Jonathan Shay describes how, "During one patrol in the dry season, a U.S. Army squad ran out of water and was not resupplied. They walked for a day and a half in search of water in Vietcong-controlled territory. When men started to collapse from dehydration in the heat, an officer’s plea for emergency resupply was heeded: a helicopter flew over and "bombed" the squad with cases of Tab, seriously injuring one of the men. The major whose helicopter dropped the Tab was recalled to evacuate the casualty. There was no enemy activity. I subsequently read in the division newspaper that the major had put himself in for and had received the Bronze Star for resupplying the troops and evacuating the wounded ‘under fire.’ " Remember that story the next time you see a soldier’s chest full of medals.

The Vietnam war itself was fought because at the end of World War II, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam’s independence from the colonizing French, reading from the U.S. Declaration of Independence to emphasize his people’s reasonable claim to self-determination. Instead of supporting this universal urge that humanity has for freedom, the U.S. supported the French effort to regain their colony for 10 long years (1945-1954). After the French were defeated, the U.S. fought the Vietnamese for another 22 years (1955-1975). Thus, 32 years of brutal mayhem took place, when all the Vietnamese people were asking for was their independence. The American lives that were ruined – the 58,000 combat deaths, 100,000+ suicides, 300,000 homeless men – were all expended for nothing, as were the 3.4 million Vietnamese who died in that war. To briefly mention another of our recent wars, today the nation of Iraq lies in ruins, the people impoverished, a million dead and 5 million living as refugees, while the entire basis of the U.S. invasion in 2003 is widely acknowledged to have been a complete fabrication. more

In U.S. Prisons, Inmates Sold Into Sex Slavery

Scary stuff.

In U.S. Prisons, Inmates Sold Into Sex Slavery
by Claudia Núñez, New America Media
11 April 2011

In prisons across the country, gangs are selling their fellow inmates into sex trafficking in order to increase their power and profits.

Ex-convict Scott Howard, a survivor of the prison sex trade, described being smuggled from prison to prison over a two-year period. His "owners" -- members of a white supremacist gang -- sold him to a group of Norteño gang members, who forced Howard to prostitute himself in exchange for $7 to $20 per sexual encounter, an abuse that was repeated over the course of many years.

"The situation is an epidemic. Dozens of us were being forced into prostitution, and I can assure you that as I speak there are other (prisoners) who are being forced into prostitution. The last time I was sold (for sex), the 'client' paid with four boxes of cookies. It's horrible what goes on, and in prison no one comes forward to help us!" said Howard, who was released from prison in December 2010, after serving 10 years on fraud charges. He now works as a reformer, seeking solutions that will protect prisoners from sexual abuse.

The sex trade is dominated by national criminal organizations such as the Mexican Mafia, the Sureños and the Norteños, who sell young prisoners for sex in order to finance their activities, according to an annual report issued by the National Center on Gang Intelligence.

The report, despite participation from local, state and federal agencies, does not include statistics on the overall scope of sex trafficking networks in prisons.

According to Howard, the underworld of prison prostitution networks range in size from prison to prison. Within a three-month period, Howard said, he was transferred to five different correctional facilities within the state of Colorado, and at each one, new gang members were awaiting his arrival so they could continue selling his body for sex.

Lovisa Stannow, executive director of Just Detention International (JDT), an organization that advocates for the protection of prisoners and seeks to eliminate sexual assault behind bars, said a key part of the problem is the secrecy under which detention centers operate throughout the country. more

Fukushima Head 'Em Up Move 'Em Out

At last, but buggering about with ten kilometres at a time only has the potential to achieve a lot of dead men walking. What are the odds in another week or ten days, another ten klicks?

Japan expands nuclear evacuation zone as new quake hits


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan on Monday expanded the evacuation zone around its crippled nuclear plant because of high levels of accumulated radiation, as a strong aftershock rattled the area one month after a quake and tsunami sparked the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

A magnitude 7.1 tremor shook buildings in Tokyo and a wide swathe of eastern Japan on Monday evening, triggering a small tsunami alert. NHK state television said it caused the off-site power supply for two damaged reactors to shut down.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the aftershock struck 38 km (24 miles) west of the city of Iwaki, at a depth of 13 km (8 miles).

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which operates the plant, said workers had stopped pouring cooling water on reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 at Fukushima.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said villages and towns outside the 20 km (12 mile) evacuation zone that have had more accumulated radiation would be evacuated. Children, pregnant women, and hospitalized patients should stay out of some areas 20-30 km from the Fukushima nuclear complex, he added.




The decision to widen the evacuation band around the Fukushima plant was "based on data analysis of accumulated radiation exposure information", Edano told a news conference.

"These new evacuation plans are meant to ensure safety against risks of living there for half a year or one year," he said. There was no need to evacuate immediately, he added.

Japan had resisted extending the zone despite international concerns over radiation spreading from the six damaged reactors at Fukushima, which engineers are still struggling to bring under control after they were wrecked by the 15-meter tsunami.

Residents of one village, Iitate, which is 40 km from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, have been told to prepare for evacuation because of prolonged exposure to radiation, a local official told Reuters by phone. It has a population of 5,000.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has urged Japan to extend the zone and some countries, including the United States, have advised their citizens to stay 80 km away from the plant.

TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu visited the area on Monday for the first time since the March 11 disaster. He had all but vanished from public view apart from a brief apology shortly after the crisis began and has spent some of the time since in hospital.

"I would like to deeply apologize again for causing physical and psychological hardships to people of Fukushima prefecture and near the nuclear plant," said a grim-faced Shimizu.

Dressed in a blue work jacket, he bowed his head for a moment of silence with other TEPCO officials at 2:46 p.m. (0546 GMT), exactly a month after the earthquake hit.

Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato refused to meet Shimizu during his visit, but the TEPCO boss left a business card at the government office.

Sato has criticized the evacuation policy, saying residents in a 20-30 km radius were initially told to stay indoors and then advised to evacuate voluntarily.

RADIOACTIVE WATER

Engineers at the damaged Daiichi plant north of Tokyo said they were no closer to restoring the plant's cooling system which is critical if overheated fuel rods are to be cooled and the six reactors brought under control.

In a desperate move to cool highly radioactive fuel rods, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has pumped water onto reactors, some of which have experienced partial meltdown.

But the strategy has hindered moves to restore the plant's internal cooling system, critical to end the crisis, as engineers have had to focus how to store 60,000 tons of contaminated water.

Engineers have been forced to pump low-level radioactive water, left by the tsunami, back into the sea in order to free up storage capacity for highly contaminated water from reactors.

China and South Korea have both criticized Japan for pumping radioactive water into the sea, with Seoul calling it incompetent, reflecting growing international unease over the month-long atomic disaster and the spread of radiation.

TEPCO hopes to stop pumping radioactive water into the ocean on Monday, days later than planned.

Engineers are also pumping nitrogen into reactors to counter a build-up of hydrogen and prevent another explosion sending more radiation into the air, but they say the risk of such a dramatic event has lowered significantly since March 11.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

The triple disaster is the worst to hit Japan since World War Two after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a huge tsunami battered its northeast coast, leaving nearly 28,000 dead or missing and rocking the world's third-largest economy.

Concern at Japan's inability contain its nuclear crisis is mounting with Prime Minister Kan's ruling party suffering embarrassing losses in local elections on Sunday.

Voters vented their anger at the government's handling of the nuclear and humanitarian crisis, with Kan's ruling Democratic Party of Japan losing nearly 70 seats in local elections.

The unpopular Kan was already under pressure to step down before March 11, but analysts say he is unlikely to be forced out during the crisis, set to drag on for months.

"The great disaster was a double tragedy for Japan. The first tragedy was the catastrophe caused by the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear accident. The other misfortune was that the disaster resulted in prolonging Prime Minister Kan's time in office," Sankei newspaper said in an editorial on Monday. Raw Story

($1=85.475 Japanese yen)

Japanese Government - TEPCO Taking The Piss

And the Government's answer to all this? Move the goalposts.

The Japanese government is considering revising their radiation limits on agricultural products, fishing, water, soil, and even human exposure given the increase in radiation. With no hope in sight of alleviating the tragedy, and with only the news that this will continue for months or years, we can expect further increases in radiation readings and accumulation in the food chain.


Extremely High Radiation Levels in Japan: University Researchers Challenge Official Data

An independent assessment by university researchers from Kyoto University and Hiroshima University finds that the radiation levels are not being correctly reported by the Japanese government nor TEPCO.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is often touted as being of less concern than the Chernobyl disaster. We are reserving judgement on that, but generally feel the situation is far worse. We base this on facts, not opinion. This latest article only increases our awareness of how much has been hidden from us, and how the officials are spinning the story. Of great concern are their findings that outside of the recommended 30 kilometer zone, extremely high radiation has been detected. They are 400 times normal radiation levels and exceed what normal evacuation procedures would consider dangerous.

Although the American government suggested a 80 km evacuation zone after the March 11 radiation leak, the Japanese only mandated a 20 km zone, with a recommendation that people leave within the 30 km zone. Yesterday was Sunday in Japan, and the American government downgraded their recommendation to 40km. This is quite remarkable considering that high levels were known to be occuring at Iitake village, which is outside the 30km evacuation zone, and given this latest disclosure from the Asahi news agency.

Radiation was detected in ranges from “590,000 to 2.19 million becquerels/cubic meter outside the 30km range.” These numbers far exceed the levels at Chernobyl which ranged below 550,000 becquerels/cubic meter. Of most concern is that both measurements were of the same radioactive isotope: Cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years. To this day, wide areas of the area surrounding Chernobyl are ghost towns. No humans can live there without causing extremely strong health affects and birth defects. Numerous documentaries have been made concerning children born with deformities and mentally incapacitated during this period, and people who suffered from the effects of the Cesium poisoning.

The Japanese government is considering revising their radiation limits on agricultural products, fishing, water, soil, and even human exposure given the increase in radiation. With no hope in sight of alleviating the tragedy, and with only the news that this will continue for months or years, we can expect further increases in radiation readings and accumulation in the food chain.

While Chernobyl was an enormous unprecedented disaster, it only occurred at one reactor and rapidly melted down. Once cooled, it was able to be covered with a concrete sarcophagus that was constructed with 100,000 workers. There are a staggering 4400 tons of nuclear fuel rods at Fukushima, which greatly dwarfs the total size of radiation sources at Chernobyl. The Daiichi plant has a total of six reactors. As yet there are no plans to concrete the structures since they are not cool yet, nor has TEPCO announced plans to do so. One can imagine the enormous manpower needed to construct and support six concrete sarcophagi: 600,000 workers? I doubt the Fukushima 50 can do it alone. It should be noted that today the government revised worker exposure from 100 milliSeverts to 250 milliSieverts. Outside contractors working on the facility refused the higher standard. Source and photo's.

TSA FFS Stop!

Brings a whole new meaning to grab 'em young, I've heard of conditioning, but stroll on! Do parents never get irate when this sort of shit is going down?

Do you know something, it's not an awful stretch of the imagination, to a scenario, where if you want to get on a plane it will be a case of, have chip, can travel.

A video appeared on the Internet Saturday of a female TSA agent allegedly giving an invasive pat down to a 6-year-old girl.

Tsunami Debris Floats Towards US West Coast

It's not the west coast of America that's going to be the problem, it's all this junk joining the Pacific gyres and turning an already ecological disaster into a nightmare of rubbish.

Japan earthquake and tsunami debris floats across the Pacific toward the US west coast (27Pics)
April 9, 2011

The tsunami was caused by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale on March 11, 2011. This image by Sadatsugu Tomizawa shows the tsunami waves hitting the coast of Minamisoma.


"It is very large and it's a maritime hazard," Lieutenant Anthony Falvo, deputy public affairs officer for the US Navy's 7th Fleet



The largest "island" of debris stretches 60 nautical miles (69 miles) in length and covers an expanse of more than 2.2 million square feet, according to the US Navy's 7th Fleet, which is closely monitoring the floating rubbish.



A graphic depicting the predicted location of the Japan debris field as it swirls towards the U.S. West Coast. Scientists predict where the first bits of rubbish will wash up.

- - -

Man Made Continent of Trash a Fantastic Story

The Gyre contains a floating continent of Plastic debris the size of Texas. Captain Charles Moore was on his way home from a sailing trip, Los Angeles to Hawaii when he decided to cut across the area, little traveled by seaman on his way back to California. Moore explains the Gyre as a Spiral that moves in a clockwise rotation created by ocean currents.

This spiral traps debris in its current and holds them in place.

Moore estimates that plastic started showing up in the 1950s and has grown to an alarming size, thousands of miles across.

The plastic is submerged just below the surface, undetectable from satellite images because of the reflection caused by the water.

Garbage had historically broken down in the oceans until plastic came along. more

Japan Bans Planting Rice in Radioactive Soil

We are talking about an extraordinary amount of rice on a national scale.

Japan produced 8.5 million tons of rice in 2010, almost all for domestic consumption. It exported just 1,900 tons for sale last year, with Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan the top recipients. It imported about 664,000 tons last year.

Japan bans planting rice in radioactive soil
By Ryan Nakashima

TOKYO (AP) - Fears of radiation spread to rice as the planting season began in Japan, prompting the government to ban its cultivation in contaminated soil as fallout leaking from a tsunami-damaged nuclear plant dealt another blow to the national diet.

Vegetables and milk were the first foods that sparked concerns about the safety of Japanese agriculture after the March 11 tsunami flooded the nuclear plant and its reactors began to overheat and spew radiation. But those worries intensified when highly radioactive water was spotted gushing from the complex into the Pacific and contaminated fish showed up in catches.

Those concerns have abated somewhat after the leak was plugged and bans on produce from some areas were lifted.

But rice has now come under the microscope as the planting season begins in April and May.

"We had to come up with a policy quickly because we are in planting season," said Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano, who announced the ban Friday.

The ban will apply to any soil found to contain high levels of radioactive cesium, and farmers who cannot grow rice will be compensated. Rice grown in uncontaminated soil will be screened.

Yoshiyuki Ueda, a 47-year-old rice farmer from the town of Futaba, where the damaged nuclear plant is located, said he had already given up on trying to plant this year's crop because of radiation fears.

"The ground is ruined," Ueda said. "I think it will be a long time until things return to normal." more

NE Japan: McCleanup But Who For?

McDonald’s Wage For Nuclear Job Shows Japan Towns Fading


A week before becoming ground zero for the world’s biggest nuclear crisis since 1986, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant offered $11 an hour for full-time maintenance work in an area of Japan that was lagging even before last month’s earthquake and tsunami struck.

The wage, the same as McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) pays for part-time work in Tokyo, shows the scale of the northern Tohoku region’s economic blight and indicates towns may never recover from the disaster. Almost 28,000 people are dead or missing and 150,000 are homeless in Tohoku, where 25 percent of the population is 65 or older and job seekers outnumber jobs by two-to-one.

Once the rescue and clean-up is over, Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government will have to decide whether to rebuild homes, roads and businesses or relocate tens of thousands of people. The challenge: structure investment plans to bring private job creation, beyond the short-term bump from public works.

“To put it very crudely, there won’t be a lot of people left in these communities,” Takayoshi Igarashi, Kan’s special adviser on addressing population decline and rural decay, said in an interview. “Old people will pass away and the young will surely leave for Tokyo. The government now faces this awful choice of whether to invest in rebuilding these areas or leaving them behind.” more

Louisiana Tops Again: Shut Your Mouth Or I'll Smash Your Face In

‘U.S. Peace Index’ finds most violence in conservative southern states

Southern states are more violent than any region, according to a recently released crime index created with U.S. government statistics.

The Institute for Economics and Peace said the index was their first U.S. Peace Index, and pulled from data compiled by compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the FBI, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Louisiana came in dead last, while Maine came in first.

A list of the top ten least-peaceful states follows:

1. Louisiana
2. Tennessee
3. Nevada
4. Florida
5. Alabama
6. Texas
7. Arkansas
8. Oklahoma
9. South Carolina
10. Maryland

Here are the top ten most-peaceful states: more

''K'' Gets You Twisted

Tell me about it.

Club Drug ‘Special K’ Could Leave Users Incontinent

SUNDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) — Long-term abuse of the recreational drug ketamine, often called “Special K” by the young partygoers who use it, is now linked to a heightened risk for pelvic pain and urinary incontinence. more

Income 20 shillings, expenditure 20 shillings and sixpence, result misery: Federal Debt

Debt Jumped $54.1 Billion in 8 Days Preceding Boehner-Obama Deal to Cut $38.5 Billion for Rest of Year
By Terence P. Jeffrey
April 09, 2011

(CNSNews.com) - The federal debt increased $54.1 billion in the eight days preceding the deal made by President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) to cut $38.5 billion in federal spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, which runs through September.

The debt was $14.2101 trillion on March 30, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and $14.2642 on April 7.

Since the beginning of the fiscal year on Oct. 1, 2010, the national debt has increased by $653.4 billion. cnsnews

Pro-Lifers for Mass Murder

Pro-Lifers for Mass Murder
by Laurence M. Vance
January 24, 2011


"Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh." (James 3:10-12).

Pro-lifers are dedicated to the idea that God values all human life, they are committed to educating women about the dangers to their physical and emotional health if they undergo abortions, they are relentless in pointing out the horrors of abortion – and they are some of the most bloodthirsty warmongers on the planet.

Beginning in 1984, the Sunday in January closest to January 22 has been designed by many pro-life and religious organizations as Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. This is designed to coincide with the anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973 that overrode most state abortion statutes and effectively made abortion a fundamental constitutional right.

Every year on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday churches of all denominations observe this day with special sermons, prayers, and presentations, testimonies from former abortionists, recognition of pro-life organizations, denunciations of pro-choice politicians, Planned Parenthood, and the Roe v. Wade decision, calls for legislation to restrict abortion, and distribution of anti-abortion literature.

As both a Christian and a steadfast opponent of abortion (see my articles "For Whom Would Jesus Vote?" and "Is Ron Paul Wrong on Abortion?" and "The Pro-Life Assault on Ron Paul and the Constitution"), I sympathize with the pro-life cause. But I go much further than the typical pro-lifer. I don’t think abortion is okay after the third trimester; that is, I believe in the right to life for everyone – including adults and foreigners.

How many churches on the recent Sanctity of Human Life Sunday mentioned the right to life of countless numbers of Iraqis and Afghans who have been killed by American bombs and bullets in unjust wars instigated by the United States? How many churches mentioned the right to life of U.S. soldiers who have died in vain and for a lie in senseless foreign wars? If the pro-lifers in churches that observed Sanctity of Human Life Sunday care about innocent children then surely they mentioned children in Iraq and Afghanistan who have lost their parents because of the U.S. waging war on their countries, children born with birth defects due to the U.S. military using depleted uranium, and children in Iraq killed by brutal U.S. sanctions? Surely they mentioned the orphaned and emotionally scarred children of dead and injured U.S. soldiers?

Although some churches may have mentioned these things, I suspect that the number is rather small or, in the case of most evangelical churches, very insignificant. And if it be argued that the churches that observed Sanctity of Human Life Sunday should be excused because the day is just about abortion then what about the rest of the year? Do not adults have the same right to life as unborn children? Do not foreigners who are not a threat to this country have the same right to life as American babies? Do not U.S. soldiers have the same right to life that other Americans have?

But in some churches it is even worse. Not only is no mention ever made of these things, the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are defended and celebrated. Although they may call themselves evangelical churches, they are warvangelical churches. They are churches that worship God and venerate the institution of the military; they are churches that preach Christ and promote warmongering Republican politicians. They are pro-lifers for mass murder.

It is only natural that most pro-lifers love Republican politicians. At the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit held in Washington DC this past September, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) was the top choice of conservative activists. This same group named abortion as the top issue they were concerned about. Pence was also the top pick for vice president.

The German Nazis fought for the fatherland. The Soviet Red Army fought for the motherland. Mike Pence wants Americans to fight for the homeland. He "supported creation of the new Department of Homeland Security, the largest reorganization of the government since the beginning of the Cold War." Because of the Department of Homeland Security, "our ability to defend the homeland is more effective, efficient and organized." Pence is a committed supporter of the bogus war on terror. He even repeats the ridiculous canard that "we must take the fight to the terrorists overseas so we don’t have to face them here at home."

The runner up to Pence in the Values Voters straw poll was the former preacher Mike Huckabee, who won the top spot last year. Huckabee not only supported the sending of more troops to their death in Iraq, he actually maintained that we should not withdraw from Iraq because "we are winning." This advocate of perpetual war in the Middle East had only one criticism for Bush regarding his handling of the war in Iraq: he was too timid and not sufficiently bloodthirsty.

Pence and Huckabee are no different from DeMint, Romney, Gingrich, Giuliani, McCain, Graham, Palin, and Santourm – they are all ardent supporters of war, empire, and police statism. Yet, any one of these individuals would get the support of most evangelicals as long as they played the pro-life card. Once a Republican candidate passes a pro-life litmus test (applied to just American babies), nothing else about them seems to matter. They could call for bombing Iran, Pakistan, or Yemen back to the Stone Age and it wouldn’t change anything.

Why are pro-lifers so indifferent to, and in some cases so defensive of, war, militarism, and nationalism? I think the main reason is ignorance. Ignorance of the Republican Party. Ignorance of U.S. foreign policy. Ignorance of history. Ignorance of the military. Ignorance of the Bible they profess to believe. This is especially true if all one does is listen to SRN News on radio, watch Fox News on television, and read news by the American Family Association on the Internet. The importance of LewRockwell.com must here be mentioned. I have lost count of the number of Christians that have written me about how LRC has been instrumental in changing their thinking.

Pro-lifers should be just as concerned about their government sanctioning the killing of foreigners on the battlefield in an unjust war as they are about their government sanctioning the killing of babies in the womb in an abortion.

It is hypocrisy in the highest degree to talk about the sanctity of life and the evils of abortion and then turn around and show contempt for, or indifference to, the lives of adults and foreigners.

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. Pro-lifers, these things ought not so to be. lewrockwell.com

Warmongering vs. the Sanctity of Life

Warmongering vs. the Sanctity of Life
by Laurence M. Vance


Pro-life Hypocrisy

Churches all across America observed Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on January 24. Literature was passed out on the evils of abortion. Sermons were preached on the sin of abortion. The 1973 Supreme Court decision in the case of Roe v. Wade was denounced. The immorality of being a doctor who performs abortions was proclaimed. The horrors of partial-birth abortion were explained. Testimonies were read of women who regretted having abortions and doctors who felt guilty in having performed them. Prayers were made on behalf of women contemplating having an abortion. Gruesome pictures of abortions gone awry were shown. Calls were made for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. Planned Parenthood was singled out for special condemnation. Yet, nary a word was said about the ongoing slaughter of innocents that is funded by the U.S. government.




Although I sympathize with the pro-life cause, believing with Ron Paul that "a fetus is a human life deserving of legal protection, and that the right to life is the foundation of any moral society," I must point out that many pro-lifers are hypocrites with a warped view of what it means to be pro-life.

Do adults have the same right to life as unborn children? Do foreigners have the same right to life as unborn American babies? Many pro-lifers don't think so. It is hypocrisy in the highest degree to talk about the sanctity of life, the evils of abortion, the horrors of partial-birth abortion, and to vocally claim that one is pro-life, but then turn around and show contempt for, or indifference to, the lives of adults and foreigners. Are the lives of unborn children more valuable than the lives of adults? Are the lives of unborn American babies more valuable than the lives of foreigners?

Absent from most churches on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday was any reference to the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans in unjust, unconstitutional, immoral wars instigated by the United States. U.S. soldiers have now been fighting in Iraq for seven years. They have been fighting in Afghanistan even longer. Countless numbers of Iraqis and Afghans have been killed by American bombs and bullets in senseless wars of imperialism and occupation. Thousands of U.S. soldiers died in vain thanks to the lies of the Bush administration. Hundreds more have died under the Obama administration thanks to the president's failure to bring the troops home from Iraq as promised and the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Do U.S. soldiers have a right not to have to give their life in vain? more

They Died in Vain.

I quite recently brought you a post that included among other things a few thoughts of my own on the most expensive hard-on in history, George W Bush's invasion of Iraq. Pardon me, Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Shame and decency are not to be found.

Yet they offer the parents of the dead a free headstone if it bears the inscription "Operation Iraqi Freedom"

Shameless, and overflowing with abject hypocrisy. Bush knows all too well why the troops died, I hope the spirit of the countless thousands, the spirit of every dead man woman or child haunts the son of a bitch to the grave and beyond.

But he cannot see the irony of this “magnanimous” gesture, forever and a day will that inscription, “Operation Iraqi Freedom” etched in stone, mock the man and his presidency for what they truly are.

But the bitterest of ironies is lost on this fool, because forever and a day those words will be synonymous with: More

“They died for nothing.”

Words that preceded an article by Laurence M. Vance, Thank a Vet? A good enough article at the time to accompany my own little offering, but that original choice now superseded by another, and much more apt, Vance offerings, They Died in Vain.

When the number of Americans killed in Iraq surpassed the 1,000 mark in September of 2004, President Bush said of the families of the dead during a campaign rally: "My promise to them is that we will complete the mission so that their child or their husband or wife has not died in vain." Well, the death count of U.S. soldiers has now reached 4,000, and the completion of the mission is nowhere in sight........

.......Now, if Bush's mission were to destroy civil liberties, shred the Constitution, enrich defense and security contractors, construct permanent bases in Iraq, establish an imperial presidency, confirm him as a war president, build his legacy, expand the national debt, wreck the economy, and further increase the power of the warfare state then I would certainly say that the mission has been completed.

But at what cost?

The terrible cost of Bush's mission is the lives of 4,000 American soldiers. None of these soldiers had to die. They didn't die for their country. They didn't die for our freedoms. They didn't die for a noble cause. Every one of them died for George W. Bush's bogus mission. They all died in vain. Their lives were wasted. They Died in Vain.

It wasn't my intention to put before you this article, quite the contrary, but it was another article by Vance, one that I had kept as a draft, but only just rediscovered. Given that we purchased our soapboxes at the same, anti war, anti religion, don't give me that hypocrisy shite, store, it's little wonder that I am availing myself of, and thoroughly recommending, that you have a trawl through the not insignificant archives of Laurence M Vance.
Coming next, Pro-Lifers for Mass Murder.

With God (and Eddie Izzard) By My Side

Don't ask me how Eddie Izzard got in on the act, I must have gone in search of something and ended up being sidetracked, as you do now and again, and again and.....

But the post is none the worse for doing so, and I have had a great couple of hours entertainment in the meantime. I'm in such a good humour, I shall even forego the rant that becomes mandatory, whenever I'm confronted with the mix of God, guns and hypocrisy.

To Libya With God On Our Side
By Saul Landau and Nelson Valdes

“The United States …should not try or be widely perceived as trying to manipulate religion in pursuit of narrowly drawn interests.” The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, February 22, 2011 Task Force report [Engaging Religious Communities Abroad: A New Imperative for US Foreign Policy].

“I will never hesitate to use our military swiftly, decisively, and unilaterally when necessary to defend our people, our homeland, our allies and our core interests. That's why we're going after al-Qaida wherever they seek a foothold… God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.” Obama speech on Libya, March 28, 2011

“If the president orders assassination, it must be legal... If the president orders torture, it must be legal.” - Condoleezza Rice (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11488.htm ).

April 09, 2011 "Information Clearing House" -- Grabbing other people’s land and interfering in their affairs became as American as apple pie before the annexation of Texas, and “Manifest Destiny” as the engine of U.S. foreign policy.

In 17th Century inspirational moments God sent His chosen from England to found the “city on a hill” (Boston). He had dispatched other select British subjects to settle “the promised land” (Virginia).

According to John L. O’Sullivan in 1839, God intended “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”

See how Americans talked to God before Pat Robertson – before God punished us with Hurricanes for allowing homosexuals to cavort.

In 1898, God, doubling as President McKinley’s National Security Adviser while simultaneously suggesting headlines for William Randolph Hearst, answered McKinley’s prayers for advice. The Big Guy told me to “take the Philippines,” McKinley explained to the press as he launched the Spanish American War.

Secretary of War Elihu Root extolled the virtues of that war because "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the world began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness." (In Peter Maguire, Law and War: AN AMERICAN STORY. Columbia University Press, 2002, pp.53-54)

Root omitted discussion of U.S. troop’s involvement in massacring suspected Philippine resisters. Our vanguard soldiers killed some 600,000 before President Herbert Hoover ended the U.S. occupation in January 1933. (Howard Zinn, Common Dreams, June 6, 2007)

Woodrow Wilson fought a holy war for democracy. Harry Truman to stop an atheist Communist dictator in North Korea and prop up a Christian fascist one in South Korea. And Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon all invoked His name.

Reagan invaded Grenada, but didn’t recall who advised him and Bush I ordered the hit on Panama after his third lunchtime martini. The born-again Bush II knew his direction came from above. The Iraqis and Afghans will remain ever grateful for those wars.

Making war without congressional declaration has become traditional. Some thought the Nobel Peace Prize winner would challenge that behavior. But, he explained, he had to kill (he used euphemisms) bad Libyans to save good ones. “God bless us all,” he added at the end of his speech.

Was the photo of smiling Obama shaking hands with President Gadhafi taken before or after Obama knew he was a bad Libyan? Did Obama’s smile came from constipation, or did God only recently inform him after prayer that Gadhafi was evil? Did Divine consultation convince Obama not to save rebels’ lives in Bahrain and Yemen? He did nothing when their nasty leaders murdered them for protesting.

Or did God, again as national security adviser, explain the important religious functions of Bahrain’s King (hosting the U.S. fleet) and Yemen’s President (torturing Washington’s Al-Qaida suspects). GIs with cell phone cameras might send email photos of naked prisoners to loved ones and thus reveal national security secrets as they did in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo!

Obama couldn’t let all the despots that obeyed the U.S. kill their people with impunity; so with NATO allies he launched a “humanitarian” intervention. Warplanes and ships fired missiles against Libyan targets, speculating correctly that the mainstream media would not inquire whether these impressive explosive displays killed civilians. Well, even if some died, it wasn’t intentional.

Later their families might even collect compensation. We’re generous in war spending. By calling the mission “humanitarian” we distinguish it from older missions when Belgians in 1911 massacred about 12 million Congolese. Germans between 1903-1906 killed 60,000 Hereros in Namibia.

In 1964, the CIA provided names of some one million plus suspected atheist-communists in Indonesia. Our anti-communist friends in that obedient Muslim nation wiped them out -- humanely.

Our soldiers killed some 4 million (mostly civilians) in Vietnam – hard to remember why. And our zealous Latin American friend General Rios Montt (a religious Christian) exterminated about 70,000 Guatemalan peasants (1965-77) – and so on.

The United States claims authority to kill people in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, without formal accusations – forget due process – if the President (after praying) decides they might be enemies. So, U.S.

Kill Teams (ah, cooperation!) and drones (hi-tech is super!) waste suspected enemies (God’s enemies, of course). Do these newly named entities kill more than that G.. damned Gadhafi? Oops. Almost used God’s name in vain – a sin. But we not need worry, the weapons Obama instructed the CIA to deliver to “free Libyans” will carry Jesus’ blessing.

God Bless America!

Saul Landau’s new film WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP is available through cinemalibrestudio.com.

Nelson Valdes is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico. ICH

If you watch this below, then the one below this becomes a must watch.

Ceop Website Form 'could have put children at risk'

Risk ''hypothetical'' ''Madeleine now aged six'' "We absolutely support the McCann family" says CEOPs.

I've had a word or two to say myself, even going so far as to say it in pictures.

Ceop website form 'could have put children at risk'
10 April 2011

An investigation is under way after a web page - set up to protect children online - was found to be insecure.

A member of the public found a form on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre's website - to report alleged offenders - was unencrypted.

Security experts have described the breach of data as a serious error which could have put children at risk.

The agency told the BBC the risk was hypothetical and it has now been fixed so any crime can be reported safely.

There will now be a full investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office.

The unencrypted pages meant personal details entered on the site could have been visible to anyone with a sinister motive.

Ceop was set up in 2006 to help find and convict paedophiles, as well as working to keep young people safe from online predators.

It has run several campaigns and educational programmes for schools designed to alert children to such dangers.

A plan to merge Ceop with a new National Crime Agency in 2013 was announced in July by the Home Secretary Theresa May.

The decision prompted the resignation of its former head, Jim Gamble. BBC

Japan is Irradiating The Planet: United States Being Poisoned Now The Rest Of Us To Follow

And with no end in site and seemingly nobody giving a damn, it's a situation that is hardly likely to improve.

There is a dedicated website, Alexander Higgins.com, monitoring this continuing disaster, a site that contains so many reports and so much information, that I wouldn't know what to put before you for the best, so quite simply, I won't even try.

It certainly is one to bookmark.

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/

The Engine in The Car Goes Round and Round: New Rotary Engine Concept

New engine sends shock waves through auto industry
Prototype could potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent

Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine.

However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids. Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines.

The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy.

The Wave Disk Generator uses 60 percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent. As a result, the generator is 3.5 times more fuel efficient than typical combustion engines.

Researchers estimate the new model could shave almost 1,000 pounds off a car's weight currently taken up by conventional engine systems.

Last week, the prototype was presented to the energy division of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is backing the Michigan State University Engine Research Laboratory with $2.5 million in funding.

Michigan State's team of engineers hope to have a car-sized 25-kilowatt version of the prototype ready by the end of the year. msnbc

California Iradiated Milk: FDA It's Safe - Wonks Oh No It's Not

Radiation From Japan's Nuclear Meltdown Finds Its Way Into California's Milk

Experts say the government isn't telling the public the whole story about the risks of radioactive milk.
April 6, 2011 |

Analyses indicate radiation from Japan’s nuclear “fallout” has found its way into the California milk supply.

Last week, samples taken from a farm in San Luis Obispo and Spokane, Wash., showed contamination with low levels of the radioactive isotope, iodine 131.

Not surprisingly, there was instant speculation about whether that milk posed a threat to human health. Government officials were quick to say the levels were low and posed no risk.

“Radiation is all around us in our daily lives, and these findings are a miniscule amount compared to what people experience every day,” wrote Patricia Hansen, a Food and Drug Administration scientist, in response to the milk findings.


“For example, a person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round-trip cross-country flight, watching television, and even from construction materials,” she wrote.

There was an almost immediate backlash to her statement.

A coalition of scientists and environmentalists insisted ingesting radiation is not the same as background exposures from airplane flights.

“The FDA spokesperson should have informed the public that radioiodine provides a unique form of exposure in that it concentrates rapidly in dairy products and in the human thyroid,” wrote Robert Alvarez, a former senior policy adviser to President Clinton’s U.S. Secretary of Energy.

“The dose received, based on official measurements, may be quite small, and pose an equally small risk," Alvarez said in a statement. "However, making a conclusion on the basis of one measurement is fragmentary at best and unscientific at worst. As the accident in Fukushima continues to unfold, the public should be provided with all measurements made of radioactive fallout from the Fukushima reactors to allow for independent analyses.”

Indeed, just how radioactive particles – particularly iodine 131 and the more dangerous cesium 137 – move through the food chain remains unclear.

Here's what we do know:

Iodine 131 has a fairly short "half-life" of eight days, which means that in about 80 days, the isotope is cleared from the body. Scientists also know that it targets the thyroid.

Cesium 137, on the other hand, has a half-life of 80 years, and goes straight for the bones.

But knowing those details doesn’t address questions regarding the effects of chronic or cumulative intake of these substances. For instance, how are people affected when they drink contaminated milk, water or vegetables on a daily basis?


According to a fact sheet I found from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the half-life of the chemical doesn't matter when chronic exposure occurs, “because new releases occur continuously.”

Therefore, a contaminated milk supply represents a continuous and chronic exposure.

So, what does that mean? Do the isotopes biomagnify – or concentrate – as they move up the food chain, as dioxins and some other toxins do? And will fatty milk, or cream, have more radioactive nucleotides than skim milk?


Getting concrete answers for these questions was difficult.

Here's what I found: Cows, sheep and other grazing animals ingest radiation when radioactive particles drift and drop onto grass and feed. If rainwater is contaminated, that can increase the concentration of radioactive particles an animal is exposed to.

Once the animal has ingested the contaminated particles, some is released into its milk. And according to the Agency for Toxic Substances, different animals have different concentration levels of radioactive particles. For instance, goat and sheep’s milk have higher levels of iodine 131 than cow’s milk. Whether that is due to their size, or the fat concentrations in the milk, I was not able to determine.

However, it should be noted that radioactive concentrations in food drop with time. So the longer a gallon of milk sits on the store or refrigerator shelf, the less the amount of radiation – specifically iodine 131. That’s because of iodine 131’s eight-day half-life.

What about mothers who are breast-feeding? Presumably, if cows, sheep and goats can pass radiation along in their milk, so can humans.

It was this concern that enraged Michael Mariotte, the executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, when the federal government released its statement downplaying the milk situation.

“No mother should ever have to wonder if the milk she feeds her child might be harmful,” he wrote in a statement. “Having worked on nuclear issues for 25 years, I know the difference between internal exposures and background radiation. But lots of people don’t. As the father of an 11-month old daughter, I’m personally furious at the government for this misleading information.”

However, because humans aren’t grazing irradiated grass and feed, their concentration is presumably less than a cow or sheep's.

But, what does this all mean?

Paul Carroll, a nuclear expert with Ploughshares Fund, a San-Francisco-based international nuclear security foundation, said the information on long-term chronic exposure and food chain effects is murky.

Scientists learned a lot from the bombs that dropped on Japan at the end of World War II, and from Chernobyl. But a lot of the questions we ask now about radiation exposure we didn't know to ask back then. And long-term epidemiological studies on people can't always give definitive answers to questions such as, "How much radiation causes cancer?" or "How long do you have to be exposed?"

The bottom line, he said, is that “any additional exposure to radiation will increase your risk of developing cancer.” alternet

Ongoing Cover Up of Nuclear Crisis By American and Japanese Governments and Companies

For what it's worth, and yes the subject is Dacre's Daily Mail, but of the five back issues of the Mail that I was skimming through at my mothers yesterday, not one column inch could I find on the situation at Fukushima.

This is an informative article, and it will be a nightmare if I try to paste more than a few line, but do go and have a read.

Ongoing Cover Up of Nuclear Crisis By American and Japanese Governments and Companies

I've previously documented that Japanese seismologists and nuclear engineers warned years ago that the risk of a large-scale nuclear accident in Japan were high, with one Japanese seismologist warning in 2004 that the risk of a nuclear accident was

Like a kamikaze terrorist wrapped in bombs just waiting to explode. more

Japan Weighs Wider Evacuation Zone: In Your Own Time Now

Japan Weighs Wider Evacuation Zone
April 7, 2011

TOKYO—Japan's government said Thursday it is considering extending the evacuation zone around its hobbled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, as the government recalculates the risk of radioactivity that continues to issue from the plant four weeks after Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Later on Thursday, Japan suffered its strongest temblor since the March 11 quake, highlighting the ongoing uncertainty over whether further aftershocks could damage the reactors further and release more radiation, or put other nuclear plants at risk. Some other plants were running on emergency generators but no operating problems were reported in the hours after the 7.1-magnitude quake.

The government's top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, said Thursday the current 20-kilometer (12-mile) evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant may need to be enlarged, because the original parameters were established to protect against too much exposure in the short term and radiation continues to emanate from the complex.

Officials intended the evacuation zone to prevent anyone getting more cumulative exposure to radiation than a nuclear plant worker is limited to in a year—50 millisieverts.

"Current evacuation orders apply to areas where people are in danger of having received 50 millisieverts [of cumulative exposure]," Mr. Edano said. "We are now looking into what to do with other areas where, with prolonged exposure, people may receive that amount."

Two weeks ago, a state-funded monitoring body released a computer simulation that showed that in the first 12 days of troubles at the plant, certain areas beyond the evacuation zone had exceeded Japan's recommended cumulative exposure.

The body, the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, hasn't released an updated assessment since. A commission official said Thursday the group is collecting more data to improve the quality of its model.

Tepco said it has provided radiation figures from several locations near the complex and is awaiting government analysis before making the data public.

The government hasn't said when it would make a decision on expanding the zone, what measures it would use or how it might house those it relocates. It said it hasn't set a timetable.

The discussion is likely to renew international scrutiny of the government's 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone, which is smaller than 80-kilometer (50-mile) zone recommended by U.S. officials.

Several municipal officials in the area expressed anger at the government's handling of the situation. The mayor of one town just outside the 30-kilometer radius said the government should have thought ahead earlier in the crisis.

"We are hearing that it may take months for the plant to settle down—and only now are they talking about expanding the zone?" said Michio Furukawa, mayor of Kawamata, a town to the northwest with elevated radiation levels that is one of seven municipalities from which sales of local produce have been banned. "When this will all end?"

Last week, the government reported that just a handful of people have remained inside the 20-kilometer exclusion zone. It said thousands remain in the band 20 to 30 kilometers from the plant, where the government has urged residents to remain indoors as much as possible. It said others travel into the band daily to check on people and property.

Senior nuclear regulator Hidehiko Nishiyama apologized for the possible further dislocation to those living in the area. He identified a series of hydrogen explosions at the plant days after the earthquake as the primary cause of the widespread radiation.

"The explosions sent radioactive materials flying to areas far outside the nuclear complex," Mr. Nishiyama, of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a news conference. "Radioactive materials, once spread, cannot be put back. The best we can do is to stabilize the damaged reactors and prevent further emissions of radiation."

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in a March 26 assessment of the plant that was made public this week, said a hydrogen explosion in a spent-fuel cooling pool threw particles of nuclear fuel up to a mile from the complex. more page 2

Related: Japan is Fucked, The Planet is Fucked, We're All Fucked

Japan: Radiation Up Tourism Down Neighbours Alarmed

Japan's neighbors alarmed over risk of radiation threat
April 7, 2011


The world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years is also raising concerns over safety in the United States, which has more atomic reactors than any other country, especially at one plant which is similar to the one in Fukushima wrecked by last month's 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami.

Engineers, who sealed a leak this week that had allowed highly radioactive water into the sea, are now pumping nitrogen into one reactor to prevent the risk of a hydrogen gas explosion.

Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T) said the chances of a repeat of the gas explosions that ripped through two reactors in the first days of the disaster were "extremely small."

But as engineers battle multiple crises -- some the result of efforts to try to cool reactors -- officials admit it could take months to bring the reactors under control and years to clear up the toxic mess left behind at the plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

"Data shows the reactors are in a stable condition, but we are not out of the woods yet," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

The government has already set up a 20 km (12 miles) exclusion zone around the plant, banned fishing along much of the northeast coast and set up evacuation centers for the tens of thousands forced to leave their homes following the crisis.

An estimated 28,000 people were killed or are missing following the disaster.

China's health ministry said traces of radioactivity in spinach had been found in three provinces.

India earlier this week banned Japanese food imports for three months.

In South Korea, some schools closed because parents were worried that rain across the country could be toxic.

"We've sent out an official communication today that schools should try to refrain from outdoor activities," an education official in South Korea said.

South Korea's nuclear safety agency reported a small level of radioactive iodine and caesium particles in rain in the south but said it was not enough to be a public health concern.

Nevertheless, many Koreans donned face masks, and streets near schools in Seoul were more congested than usual as parents drove children to work rather than let them walk.

"We are geographically closer to Japan than others like the United States or Europe. We people are bound to be more worried," said President Lee Myung-bak, who has set up a ministerial task force to ensure public health and food safety. more page 2

Justice Thomas He's a Louisiana Man

Clarence Thomas apart, prosecutors who pull stunts like this should be charged, not with malicious prosecution, but with attempted murder, because it's nothing short of it.

And what would we charge Clarence Thomas with, being a disgrace? Seeing as the scene is Louisiana, perhaps "a crime against nature" would be more fitting, because he certainly fucked this fellow in the ass.

What Does Clarence Thomas Have Against Black People?
Tonyaa Weathersbee, New America Media
8 April 2011

Maybe John Thompson reminded Clarence Thomas of a childhood nemesis.

Maybe Thompson, who spent 14 years on Louisiana's Death Row when prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence that would have proved his innocence, reminded the Supreme Court justice of one of the bullies who taunted him about his coal-black skin.

Or maybe, at least in Thomas' eyes, Thompson quickly morphed into a black man who was looking for a handout instead of justice.

Or maybe it's all of the above. It has to be. Because there's no way that any fair-minded jurist would turn the sort of legal cartwheels

that Thomas and his four other conservative colleagues on the high court recently turned to side with the New Orleans District Attorney’s Office in tossing out a $14 million verdict in Thompson’s favor.

Here's what happened. In 1985, Thompson, then 22, was convicted of murder and armed robbery in Louisiana. He was sentenced to death on the murder conviction and came within weeks of being executed in 1999 when his investigators learned that prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that would have freed him.

Among that evidence was the fact that the main informant had received a reward from the victim’s family and that the eyewitness identification didn't match. Most of all, prosecutors deliberately concealed blood evidence and a lab report that would have cleared Thompson.

This they hid for 20 years.

Thompson's convictions were overturned, and he sued Harry Connick Sr., the district attorney for Orleans Parish, for not schooling his prosecutors about their legal obligation to turn over such evidence to the defense. That obligation was laid out in a 1963 case, Brady v. Maryland, in which the Supreme Court said that to withhold such evidence is a violation of the defendant's constitutional rights.

Connick, in fact, even conceded that he didn't completely understand what Brady encompassed. A jury awarded Thompson $14 million.

But it seems that Thomas – who wrote the majority opinion in tossing out the verdict – was more than willing to join his white conservative cohorts in trampling the Constitution to give the powerful more ammunition to keep the powerless in their place.

Incredibly, in writing for the 5-4 majority, Thomas said that Thompson didn't deserve any money because he couldn't prove that there was a pattern of similar violations in previous cases, or that prosecutors deliberately set out to violate the Constitution.

He and his buddy, Antonin Scalia, basically said it was unfair for the entire prosecutor's office to be held responsible for one bad act. As if it wasn’t unfair for Thompson, who is now 40, to have spent 18 years of his life – 14 of those on Death Row – locked up for a crime he didn't commit.

That's a heartless, wrongheaded decision – and one that flies in the face of what Thomas is supposed to be about.

Thomas is, after all, a man who is supposed to be a champion of individual responsibility for black people.

So then, why doesn't he extend that expectation of responsibility to powerful institutions, such as district attorney's offices, to make sure that prosecutors don't almost cause an innocent person to be put to death because they withheld evidence that could free them?

Why is it that Thomas, a black man who grew up in Georgia during a time of lynchings and other injustices against black men, is so willing to contort the Constitution and human decency to make a decision that will invariably give prosecutors more leeway to get innocent black people like Thompson killed?

I have to believe it's either a need for revenge against his childhood tormentors or all those blacks who cheered on his adult nemesis Anita Hill. Or maybe it's a just a need to be different.

Many times, for black people, being different means having no history. It means being willing to sidestep the truth and fairness to show how colorblind they are and how they are not like all those other black people.

And, in the end, it's a sad place to be. newamericamedia

Related: Clarence Thomas, the Anti-Black

Remember Nifong, one day in jail?