Archive for March, 2011

In Fuel-Cooling Pools, a Danger for the Longer Term

Even as workers race to prevent the radioactive cores of the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan from melting down, concerns are growing that nearby pools holding spent fuel rods could pose an even greater danger.

The pools, which sit on the top level of the reactor buildings and keep spent fuel submerged in water, have lost their cooling systems and the Japanese have been unable to take emergency steps because of the multiplying crises.

By late Tuesday, the water meant to cool spent fuel rods in the No. 4 reactor was boiling, Japan’s nuclear watchdog said. If the water evaporates and the rods run dry, they could overheat and catch fire, potentially spreading radioactive materials in dangerous clouds.

Shigekatsu Oomukai, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said the substantial capacity of the pool meant that the water in it was unlikely to evaporate soon. But he said workers were having difficulty reaching the pool to cool it, because of the high temperature of the water.

Full Story Here: In Fuel-Cooling Pools, a Danger for the Longer Term – NYTimes.com.

The South Korean FTA – The Final Nail in Our Economy’s Coffin

Who wants the South Korean FTA and Why?

Senate Republicans are willing to pass three leftover trade agreements from the Bush era by any means necessary, even if that means figuratively holding the president’s nominee to head the U.S. Commerce Department hostage to extract what they want.

With former Commerce Secretary Gary Locke headed to China to become U.S. Ambassador to the Asian powerhouse, the position is currently empty, and any replacement must be confirmed by two-thirds of the Senate.

“So important are these deals to our economy and our relations with these key allies in Latin America that, until the president submits both agreements to Congress for approval and commits to signing implementing legislation into law, we will use all the tools at our disposal to force action, including withholding support for any nominee for commerce secretary and any trade-related nominees,” the letter, signed by McConnell and 43 other GOP senators, states.

Full Story Here: The South Korean FTA – The Final Nail in Our Economy’s Coffin | Economy In Crisis.

Worse Than a Meltdown

Mike Whitney: :

News of a third explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant sent stocks plunging on the Nikkei exchange which dropped 1,015 points on the session. After 2 days of battering, the stock index is off more than 1,600 points in its worst performance since Lehman Brothers failed in September 2008.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has ordered the evacuation of all people living within a 18 mile radius of the power station and warned homeowners to remain indoors to avoid contact with “elevated levels of radiation”.

“Substantial amounts of radiation are leaking in the area,” Kan said in an emergency broadcast on television at 0200 GMT.

Already, the disaster at Fukushima is the second biggest nuclear catastrophe on record, just behind Chernobyl. But reactor volatility suggests that the problem could persist for some time to come, perhaps months.

According to CBS News:

Full Story Here: Mike Whitney: Worse Than a Meltdown.

The Key to Rebuilding Workers’ Power: Unrig the Rules

Dean Baker: :

The battle in Wisconsin over the rights of public-sector workers holds the potential to reawaken workers across the country to demand their fair share of the economic pie. This could be an important turning point. However, if workers are to make real progress they must move to alter the rules of the game. These rules have been deliberately rigged against them over the last three decades.

The most obvious of these rules are those governing the rights to unionize, such as those that Gov. Walker directly attacked in Wisconsin. However, this is just part of the story. Unionization has become almost impossible in the private sector, since companies routinely fire workers engaged in an organizing drive.

It is illegal to fire workers for trying to organize, but the penalties are trivial, even if a fired worker presses a case before the National Labor Relations Board long enough to win. Companies will gladly pay a few dollars to the organizers they fire in order to avoid having a union.

Full Story Here: The Key to Rebuilding Workers’ Power: Unrig the Rules | Common Dreams.

Our Right-Leaning Public Media

Ralph Nader: :

The tumultuous managerial shakeup at National Public Radio headquarters for trivial verbal miscues once again has highlighted the ludicrous corporatist right-wing charge that public radio and public TV are replete with left-leaning or leftist programming.

Ludicrous, that is, unless this criticism’s yardstick is the propaganda regularly exuded by the extreme right-wing Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. These “capitalists” use the public’s airwaves free-of-charge to make big money.

The truth is that the frightened executives at public TV and radio have long been more hospitable to interviews with right of center or extreme right-wing and corporatist talking heads than liberal or progressive guests.

PBS’s Charlie Rose has had war-loving William Kristol on thirty one times, Henry Kissinger fifty five times, Richard Perle ten times, the global corporatist cheerleader, Tom Friedman seventy times. Compare that guest list with Rose’s interviews of widely published left of center guests—Noam Chomsky two times, William Grieder two times, Jim Hightower two times, Charlie Peters two times, Lewis Lapham three times, Bob Herbert six times, Paul Krugman twenty one times, Victor Navasky one time, Mark Green five times and Sy Hersh, once a frequent guest, has not been on since January 2005.

Full Story Here: Our Right-Leaning Public Media | Common Dreams.

Fukushima’s Spent Fuel Rods Pose Grave Danger

Four atomic reactors in Fukushima, Japan, seem to be in partial meltdown. One of them, reactor No. 2, seems to have ruptured. The situation is spinning out of control as radiation levels spike. The US Navy has pulled back its aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, after seventeen of its crew were exposed to radiation while flying sixty miles off the Japanese coast.

But despite three major explosions—at reactor No. 1, then No. 3, then No. 2—the Fukushima containment vessels seem to be holding. (Chernobyl lacked that precaution, having only a flimsy cement containment shell that collapsed, allowing the massive release of radioactive material.)

But there is another, potentially far more dangerous problem: the spent fuel rod pools that sit right next door to the reactors. The storage pools are packed with radioactive uranium, rise several stories above ground and are always close to the reactor, thus facilitating easy transfer of the fuel rods. Their name—especially “spent” and “pool”—conveys calm dissipation. But spent fuel rod pools are actually highly radioactive, very unstable, extremely dangerous and, compared with reactors, not well supported, contained or looked over.

Full Story Here: Fukushima’s Spent Fuel Rods Pose Grave Danger | The Nation.

Fresh Fire at Japan Nuclear Reactor: Operator

A fresh fire broke out at a reactor of Japan’s quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant early Wednesday, operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said.

An employee confirmed smoke was pouring from the roof of the number-four reactor at the plant, a TEPCO spokesman told reporters.

“We immediately informed local authorities and the fire department about it,” the spokesman said. “We are battling the fire now.”

A blaze and explosion hit the same reactor on Tuesday, causing a crack in the roof.

The government has separately reported apparent damage to part of the container shielding the number-two reactor at Fukushima 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo.

Full Story Here: Fresh Fire at Japan Nuclear Reactor: Operator | Common Dreams.

Arctic faces record ozone loss this spring

Earth’s protective layer down by half, scientists say

Make sure you slap on lots of sunscreen this spring, because there’s a growing hole in the protective layer which keeps harmful rays of ultraviolet light from reaching the surface of the earth.

The ozone layer, which wraps around the planet like a blanket, about 20 kilometres above the surface, filters out these ultraviolet rays.

But there’s only about half the ozone there should be above the Arctic, say European scientists.

Full Story Here: NunatsiaqOnline 2011-03-15: NEWS: Arctic faces record ozone loss this spring.

Reactors At Heart Of Japanese Nuclear Crisis Raised Concerns As Early As 1972, Memos Show

In the early 1970s, just as a number of reactors were about to be licensed, Stephen Hanauer, a senior member of the Atomic Energy Commission staff, suggested banning “pressure suppression” methods to contain radiation in the event of a meltdown — methods built into General Electric’s Mark I and Mark II containment designs as well as Westinghouse’s ice condenser design. The advice was considered and disregarded.

“Steve’s idea to ban pressure suppression containment schemes is an attractive one in some ways,” Joseph Hendrie, then a deputy director with the AEC, wrote in a Sept. 25, 1972, memo. Hendrie acknowledged that alternative, “dry” containments — featuring the towers or domes commonly associated with nuclear plants — had the “notable advantage of brute simplicity in dealing with a primary blowdown, and are thereby free of the perils of bypass leakage.”

But regulators ultimately decided that the technology developed by General Electric and Westinghouse was “firmly embedded in the conventional wisdom.” Banning it, Hendrie wrote, “would generally create more turmoil than I can stand.” His memo was obtained by the Union of Concerned Scientists through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Full Story Here: Reactors At Heart Of Japanese Nuclear Crisis Raised Concerns As Early As 1972, Memos Show.

Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest

Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing — the Mark 1 — was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.

Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday’s earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.

“The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant,” Bridenbaugh told ABC News in an interview. “The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release.”

Full Story Here: Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest – ABC News.

Leaked cable: Japanese lawmaker pointed to cover-up of nuclear accidents

As engineers and scientists struggle to control six Japanese nuclear reactors, three of which are in near-meltdown status, the world watches with horror.

But even as efforts continue in earnest across Japan, the search for why this is happening has already begun.

At least one man might have some theories.

His name is Taro Kono, a liberal Democrat and member of Japan’s DIET, or parliament. Kono’s father was the president of the liberal Democrats. He’s been an outspoken critic of the country’s nuclear program, and once resigned a high-ranking post in the House of Representatives in protest of the Iraq War.

Full Story Here: Leaked cable: Japanese lawmaker pointed to cover-up of nuclear accidents | The Raw Story.

US overdue for huge Pacific quake: experts

The western United States is overdue for a huge earthquake and tsunami much like the one that devastated Japan last week, and is nowhere near ready to cope with the disaster, experts say.

A volatile, horseshoe-shaped area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire has recently erupted with quakes in Chile, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand, and seismologists say it is just a matter of time before the next big one hits.

Twin fault lines place the US west at risk: the San Andreas fault that scars the length of California and the lesser-known but more potent Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Pacific Coast.

Full Story Here: US overdue for huge Pacific quake: experts | The Raw Story.

Boycott targets contributors to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

Wisconsin citizens upset with Gov. Scott Walker’s attack on public employees’ collective bargaining rights have launched a boycott campaign aimed at his campaign contributors.

The Republican governor signed a bill Friday that eliminates most union rights for public employees.

One Wisconsin resident, Sam Hokin, started a Facebook page that lists companies and political action committees that had at least one contribution of $5,000 or more to Scott Walker’s campaign, Channel3000 reported.

“I just grabbed the top contributors off of wisdc.org and put them up on a Facebook page,” Hokin said. “We’ve had companies say, ‘We give to both sides. It’s not fair for you to boycott us.’ It’s not an issue of fair. If I don’t want to buy your products, I’ll choose not to buy your products.”

Full Story Here: Boycott targets contributors to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker | The Raw Story.

Gingrich: NAFTA Worked Because It Created Jobs In Mexico

Senate Republicans yesterday vowed to block any potential nominees for Commerce Secretary or other trade posts until the White House moves ahead with free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama. But Republicans need look back only to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of the ’90s to see the potential downsides to these types of deals.

One of NAFTA’s biggest promoters, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, appeared on the Howie Carr radio show yesterday evening and was asked about the watershed trade pact between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada he helped create. Responding to a caller who asserted that NAFTA killed American jobs, Gingrich didn’t disagree, but retorted by touting the fact that NAFTA had created jobs “close to the United States” in Mexico:

CALLER: Back in the ’90s I remember Ross Perot saying that there was going to be the giant sucking sound of jobs if NAFTA passed. I think it ended up being true, right? And I know you were a big free trader.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Gingrich: NAFTA Worked Because It Created Jobs In Mexico.

Jim DeMint’s Theory Of Relativity: ‘The Bigger Government Gets, The Smaller God Gets’

It is nothing new for conservatives to dress their political ideology in religious language. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) justified his opposition to controlling greenhouse gases because “you can’t regulate God.” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) of “disrespecting” Christians by considering keeping Congress in session in order to overcome GOP obstructionism. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) even went so far as to compare Democrats to Pontius Pilate, the ancient Roman official who sentenced Jesus to be crucified.

Last week, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) added his voice to the chorus while being interviewed on the Family Research Council’s weekly radio show. DeMint told host Tony Perkins that the size of government and the size of God exist in an inverse relationship – “the bigger government gets, the smaller God gets”:

DeMINT: Some are trying to separate the social, cultural issues from fiscal issues, but you really can’t do that. America works, freedom works, when people have that internal gyroscope that comes from a belief in God and Biblical faith. Once we push that out, you no longer have the capacity to live as a free person without the external controls of an authoritarian government. I’ve said it often and I believe it – the bigger government gets, the smaller God gets. As people become more dependent on government, less dependent on God.

Listen here:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Jim DeMint’s Theory Of Relativity: ‘The Bigger Government Gets, The Smaller God Gets’.

U.S. Chamber Hires Bush’s Attorney General To Help Weaken Ban On Corporate Bribery

As ThinkProgress reported in October, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing to overhaul the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the government’s main enforcement mechanism to stop American-based multinational firms from bribing foreign governments in order to win special business advantages. The Chamber thinks the law is too burdensome for American businesses and makes them less competitive compared to foreign companies, which are freer to engage in corruption.

The Blog of Legal Times reports the Chamber has now enlisted a powerful ally to fight the scourge of anti-corruption — President Bush’s Attorney General Michael Mukasey:

Debevoise & Plimpton, where Mukasey is a partner, filed lobbying registration papers on his behalf this month, according to Senate records. The registration is for the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform and is effective back to March 3. It covers possible FCPA amendments and other issues “related to criminal law and policies affecting U.S. corporations.” [...]

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » U.S. Chamber Hires Bush’s Attorney General To Help Weaken Ban On Corporate Bribery.

| Department of Defense Funded Christian Ministry That Promotes The Glorification of Suicide Bombing

“Check it out! We’re stoked to present Tedashii’s music video for “Make War” off his last album, Identity Crisis. Hope you dig it…be sure to pass it on to your friends!”

—Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Ransom ministry, November 3, 2010.

In September 2010, the Department of Defense, via Fort Bragg in Georgia, funded a Christian ministry that two months later was promoting an artist who celebrates suicide bombing as an example of Christian commitment to the cause. Here are the details.

Last September 2010, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) staged an evangelical rock concert, “Rock The Fort”, at Fort Bragg in Georgia. The base both co-sponsored, endorsed, and even funded the event, which by one estimate cost US taxpayers over $100,000. “Rock The Fort” was billed as being part of an official “spiritual fitness” program.

Full Story Here: | Department of Defense Funded Christian Ministry That Promotes The Glorification of Suicide Bombing.

GOP 2011-12 Agenda: Union and Voter Suppression

Twenty months out from the 2012 election, the GOP’s voter suppression strategy is taking shape. By crushing public sector unions and expanding felon and student disenfranchisement, they hope to weaken Democratic turnout. While they have always supported these strategies, the margins Republicans gained in state houses in the November elections have empowered them to launch a much stronger voter suppression campaign.

There is reason to hope that their efforts to gut public sector unions will backfire, as evidenced by recent public opinion polls regarding Governor Walker’s union-busting campaign in Wisconsin. The fact that Walker exempted the three unions that supported him is proof enough that his primary objective is to disempower public unions because they have provided significant support for Democratic candidates.

In Florida, Governor Scott and his cohorts on the all-Republican Executive Clemency Board are setting a new standard for shameless partisan sleaze, with a racist twist. Here’s how Peter Wallsten’s Washington Post article explained this bit of political chicanery:

Full Story Here: GOP 2011-12 Agenda: Union and Voter Suppression | Democratic Strategist.

Japan’s nuclear crisis worsens; the world reacts

The nuclear crisis in Japan escalated on Tuesday after a new explosion and fire broke out at Fukushima’s plant #1, where successive accidents since Friday’s earthquake have probably caused more than 10,000 deaths.

This sequence of events has raised strong fears of radioactive contamination in the archipelago, as well as in neighboring countries such as Russia and China.

As a precaution, Prime Minister Naoto Kan has expanded the security zone around the plant by asking for people within a radius of 30 km to remain indoors, close their windows, turn off any fans and to keep their clothes on. This is in addition to the evacuation of more than 200,000 people living near the plant on the northeast coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Full Story Here: Japan’s nuclear crisis worsens; the world reacts – National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com.

Poll: Nearly two-thirds of Americans say Afghan war isn’t worth fighting

Nearly two-thirds of Americans now say the war in Afghanistan is no longer worth fighting, the highest proportion yet opposed to the conflict, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The finding signals a growing challenge for President Obama as he decides how quickly to pull U.S. forces from the country beginning this summer. After nearly a decade of conflict, political opposition to the battle breaks sharply along partisan lines, with only 19 percent of Democratic respondents and half of Republicans surveyed saying the war continues to be worth fighting.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans say Obama should withdraw a “substantial number” of combat troops from Afghanistan this summer, the deadline he set to begin pulling out some forces. Only 39 percent of respondents, however, say they expect him to withdraw large numbers.

The Post-ABC News poll results come as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, prepares to testify before Congress on Tuesday about the course of the war. He is expected to face tough questioning about a conflict that is increasingly unpopular among a broad cross section of Americans.

Full Story Here: Poll: Nearly two-thirds of Americans say Afghan war isn’t worth fighting – The Washington Post.

Icahn returns investors’ cash amid fears of downturn

Carl Icahn, the activist shareholder, has decided to return money to outside investors, citing an unwillingness to manage their money through another downturn.

“Given the rapid market run-up over the past two years and our ongoing concerns about the economic outlook, and recent political tensions in the Middle East, I do not wish to be responsible to limited partners through another possible market crisis,” he said in a letter to investors.

The 75-year-old Mr Icahn joins a growing list of high-profile managers choosing to return capital to investors.

Chris Shumway, founder of Shumway Capital Partners, last month announced that he would return cash to clients of his $8bn hedge fund. Investors had balked at the decision to step back from his role as chief investment officer in November, prompting $3bn in redemption requests.

Full Story Here: FT.com / Companies / Financial Services – Icahn returns investors’ cash amid fears of downturn.

China Makes Startling Announcement Regarding Currency

The Chinese government, in its latest five-year plan, has stated its intentions to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross-border trades in the yuan by this year, the central bank said as part of plans to grow the currency’s international role, which has severe ramifications for the economies of the U.S. and China.

“In essence, it will change the character of China’s economic model – moving from the export- and investment-led structure of the past 30 years toward a pattern of growth that is driven increasingly by Chinese consumers. But there is a catch: in shifting to a more consumption-led dynamic, China will reduce its surplus saving and have less left over to fund the ongoing saving deficits of countries like the U.S.,” Morgan Stanley senior executive and Yale professor Stephen Roach said.

Our trade deficit has exploded in the past few decades, and our trading partners such as China have been using their surpluses to buy U.S. debt and assets, literally buying our country out, but also propping up the value of the dollar. As more and more nations shift away from using the dollar to trade, its value comes into question, which will make goods increase in price for Americans.

Full Story Here: China Makes Startling Announcement Regarding Currency | Economy In Crisis.

Papantonio: Dissecting the Koch’s Media Machine

Mike Papantonio and Ed Schultz discuss the far-reaching tentacles of the “Kochtopus” and the US Chamber of Commerce and how they are controlling Republican politicians from the local to federal level.

Dennis Kucinich speaking at Workers’ Rights Rally in Madison, WI

Dennis Kucinich speaking at Workers’ Rights Rally in Madison, WI

Agriculture Industry Pushes To Make Undercover Filming Of Farm Animal Abuse Illegal

Angered by repeated releases of secretly filmed videos claiming to show the mistreatment of farm animals, Iowa’s agriculture industry is pushing legislation that would make it illegal for animal rights activists to produce and distribute such images.

Agriculture committees in the Iowa House and Senate have approved a bill that would prohibit such recordings and punish people who take agriculture jobs only to gain access to animals to record their treatment. Proposed penalties include fines of up to $7,500 and up to five years in prison. Votes by the full House and Senate have not yet been set.

Doug Farquhar, program director for environmental health at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Iowa would be the first state to approve such restrictions but Florida is considering similar legislation. The Iowa measure was introduced after a number of group released videos showing cows being shocked, pigs beaten and chicks ground up alive.

“It’s very transparent what agribusiness is attempting to do here,” said Bradley Mill

Full Story Here: Agriculture Industry Pushes To Make Undercover Filming Of Farm Animal Abuse Illegal.

The Consumerist Returns For Another Year Of ‘The Worst Company In America’ Contest

Hey everyone, it’s March Madness time! You know what that means, right? First of all, it’s the time of year where you loathe yourself for picking Duke, Ohio State, Notre Dame and BYU for your Final Four pool. Because, what? That’s crazy. Happily, it’s also a time where you can work out all of your frustrations with corporate America, as the good people at The Consumerist have once again rolled out their perennial March feature, the Worst Company In America brackets, now in its sixth year.

Consumerist reports that this year was the best year ever for user submissions — thousands of companies were nominated, but only 32 were selected. Six slots were taken by banks, including bailout babies Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Chase. Reigning champion Comcast is also back in the mix, and your health care industry is well represented by United Health Group and Wellpoint. (One preexisting condition is that they will face one another in the first round.)

Consumerist highlights some newcomers, including one very obvious one:

Full Story Here: The Consumerist Returns For Another Year Of ‘The Worst Company In America’ Contest.

Tokyo sees rolling blackouts as 11 of 54 nuclear reactors shut down

Beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power on Monday said it had begun a power outage in an area covering some parts of Tokyo and eight prefectures, affecting around 333,000 households.

Authorities have announced plans for scheduled rolling power cuts in areas served by TEPCO to make up for the loss of power from crippled nuclear plants, including the Tokyo utility’s troubled Fukushima Number One facility.

The outage began at around 5 pm (0800 GMT) and was expected to last around two hours. A TEPCO official told AFP that affected areas included some municipalities in Ibaraki prefecture, east of Tokyo, and Shizuoka southwest of the capital.

Full Story Here: Tokyo sees rolling blackouts as 11 of 54 nuclear reactors shut down | The Raw Story.

Top 10 most shocking spending cuts Republicans voted for

House Republicans recently passed over $60 billion in spending cuts from current levels for fiscal 2011, pitched as necessary to reduce the massive budget deficit.

From disaster relief funding to aid fr abused women, the GOP went after the government’s 2011 budget with a zeal it normally reserves for tax cuts. Though the Democratic-led Senate rejected the proposal, here are some of the most shocking programs Republicans voted to slash.

1) The National Weather Service

The bill stripped $126 million from the Natural Weather Service, the agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tasked with preparing us for natural disasters such as tsunamis, hurricanes, blizzards, floods and fires.

Full Story Here: Top 10 most shocking spending cuts Republicans voted for | The Raw Story.

U.S. millionaires say $7 million not enough to be rich

A million dollars ain’t what it used to be.

More than four out of ten American millionaires say they do not feel rich. Indeed many would need to have at least $7.5 million in order to feel they were truly rich, according to a Fidelity Investments survey.

Some 42 percent of the more than 1,000 millionaires surveyed by Fidelity said they did not feel wealthy. Respondents had at least $1 million in investable assets, excluding any real estate or retirement accounts.

“Every person in the survey is wealthy,” said Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of National Financial, a unit of Fidelity. “But they are still worried about outliving their assets.”

The average age of respondents was 56 years old with a mean of $3.5 million of investable assets. The threshold for “rich” rose with age.

Full Story Here: U.S. millionaires say $7 million not enough to be rich | The Raw Story.

US ill-prepared for emergency radiation: study

Most American states are not prepared to cope with a major nuclear radiation event, said a study published Monday that happened to coincide with a feared nuclear disaster in quake-hit Japan.

The survey of state health departments was conducted in 2010 and found that almost half of the 38 states that took part had no plan for protecting public health in the event of a radiation emergency.

“Most states had completed little to no planning for public health surveillance to assess potential human health impacts of a radiation event,” said the study in Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, a journal of the American Medical Association.

Full Story Here: US ill-prepared for emergency radiation: study | The Raw Story.

Germany and Switzerland freeze development of nuclear reactors

Germany and Switzerland said Monday that they would be the first industrialized nations to freeze development of nuclear power facilities while they reassess safety procedures, in the wake of Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis following last week’s devastating earthquake.

Despite assurances, six of their reactors are said to be melting down or in near-meltdown status at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, following last week’s massive earthquake and tsunami. All of the reactors were constructed in the 1970s.

As a result, the Swiss said they would suspend three forthcoming nuclear sites and launch an in-depth study of how Japan’s crisis was created and whether their own reactors posed a similar threat.

Full Story Here: Germany and Switzerland freeze development of nuclear reactors | The Raw Story.

DeLay judge abruptly steps aside after suggesting plea bargains

A Texas judge who’s spent years overseeing the high-profile trial of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) has recused himself from the trials of two DeLay co-defendants, abruptly stepping aside after he reportedly suggested plea bargains to attorneys for the defense.

District Judge Pat Priest made the suggestion while conferring with attorneys for DeLay co-defendants John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, both of whom were indicted in 2005 and hit with numerous charged related to money laundering and improper political donations.

But with Judge Priest stepping aside, a new judge will have to be appointed. A new pre-trial hearing has been scheduled for mid-May and it was unclear who the new judge would be.

Full Story Here: DeLay judge abruptly steps aside after suggesting plea bargains | The Raw Story.

Wisconsin Democrats nearly halfway to recalling GOP state senators

Almost half of the signatures needed to recall key Republican Wisconsin state senators have been collected by the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Democrats have collected over 56,000 signatures supporting a recall of eight state senators who aligned themselves with Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair bill, The Washington Post reported.

“This morning citizens from around the state took the first steps by filing recall papers against key Republican Senators who have stood with Scott Walker and pushed his partisan power grab that will strip thousands of middle class teachers, nurses, librarians and other workers of their right to collective bargaining,” the Wisconsin Democratic Party said in an email two weeks ago.

Full Story Here: Wisconsin Democrats nearly halfway to recalling GOP state senators | The Raw Story.

Michigan’s GOP Gov. Slashes Corporate Tax Rate by 86 Percent, Hikes Taxes for Working Poor

As we’ve been documenting, several conservative governors have proposed placing the brunt of deficit reduction onto the backs of their state’s public employees, students, and middle-class taxpayers, while simultaneously trying to enact corporate tax cuts and giveaways. Govs. Rick Scott (R-FL), Tom Corbett (R-PA), and Jan Brewer (R-AZ) have all gone down this road.

Following suit, Gov. Rick Snyder (R-MI) has proposed ending his state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, cutting a $600 per child tax credit, and reducing credits for seniors, while also cutting funding for school districts by eight to ten percent. At the same time, as the Michigan League for Human Services found, the state’s business taxes would be reduced by nearly $2 billion, or 86 percent, under Snyder’s plan:

Business taxes would be cut by 86 percent from an estimated $2.1 billion in FY 2011 to $292.7 million in FY 2013, the first full year of the proposed tax changes…Taxes on individuals from the state income tax would rise by $1.7 billion or nearly 31 percent, from an estimated $5.75 billion in FY 2011 to $7.5 billion in FY 2013, the first full year of the tax changes.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Michigan’s GOP Gov. Slashes Corporate Tax Rate by 86 Percent, Hikes Taxes for Working Poor.

Virginia GOP Use Emergency Rule To Impose Anti-Abortion Rules, May Force 17 Of 21 Clinics To Close

In their battle against a woman’s right to choose, anti-choice Republicans have adopted a new tactic to enforce their agenda: deem any anti-choice bill an “emergency.” In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R) saddled a forced sonogram bill with an “emergency item” status to allow the state GOP to drive it through the legislature “within the first 30 days of the current legislative session.”

Virginia Republicans are now following suit. Last month, the Virginia legislature passed a bill requiring the state’s 21 abortion clinics to be regulated like hospitals. Currently, the clinics — which handle only first-trimester abortions — are subject to “the same regulations as physician practices that perform any number of invasive procedures” like cataract surgery, spinal taps, or plastic surgery. But the health bill now before Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) mandates hospital regulations that “would compel them to undergo retrofitting of their facilities that at least 17 of them could not afford” and that would ultimately force them to close.

But to make sure of this result, the anti-choice bill also “triggers the state’s emergency regulatory process,” meaning that the new regulations must be written “no more than 280 days” after McDonnell signs the bill into law. This process would give the State Board of Health only one chance to weigh in on regulations that “longtime opponent of abortion” McDonnell will essentially write, alter, and implement however he chooses:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Virginia GOP Use Emergency Rule To Impose Anti-Abortion Rules, May Force 17 Of 21 Clinics To Close.

After Accepting $5 Million From Big Oil In 2010, Haley Barbour Accuses Obama Of Cheering On Higher Gas Prices

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), former RGA Chair and lobbyist, has gone on the attack. In a speech to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce today, he accused President Obama of purposely trying to drive up the price of oil, saying that “the Obama energy policy basically boils down to this: increase the price of energy so Americans will use less of it. That’s an environmental policy, not an energy policy.” But it’s nothing new for Barbour. Last week he claimed Obama’s energy policies “are working – pushing gas prices near $4.” And a few weeks ago, he attacked the administration and its energy policies, claiming they “have been designed to drive up the cost of energy.” The AP was quick to point out the glaring fallacy in that statement – that Middle East turmoil is the primary factor in rising gas prices, not Obama’s policies.

But it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Barbour continues to shill for the oil and gas industry. Barbour raised significant amounts in campaign contributions from the industry, and from 1999 to 2003, was a lobbyist for various energy interests. Even as oil was touching Mississippi shores in the summer of 2010, Barbour downplayed the effects of the catastrophic spill. A ThinkProgress review of IRS documents revealed that with Barbour at the helm, the RGA received over $5 million in contributions from the oil and gas industry – including four of the Big Five oil companies – in just one year:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » After Accepting $5 Million From Big Oil In 2010, Haley Barbour Accuses Obama Of Cheering On Higher Gas Prices.

WTO Sides With Chinese State Capitalism Against the U.S.

Ian Fletcher: :

The World Trade Organization has a long history of anti-American actions.  They’ve just handed us another one, and in the process handed a big freebie to Chinese state capitalism.

Unbeknownst to most Americans, huge sections of our nation’s trade policy aren’t set in this country anymore.  They are set by panels of WTO judges in Switzerland, to whom we have signed over the right to rule on the legitimacy of our policies.

At issue in a WTO ruling handed down last Friday is how much scope the U.S. is entitled to in trying to level the playing field for American companies competing against companies subsidized under China’s system of state capitalism.

The specific products at issue in the ruling are steel tubing, off-road tires, and woven sacks.  However, as in domestic legal rulings, the implications go far beyond the immediate subject matter.

Since July 2008, the U.S. has imposed tariffs on $200 million worth of steel pipe imports from China, South Korea, and Mexico.

Why?  The American position is that we are entitled to apply what are called “countervailing duties” against products that are subsidized by foreign governments. And on top of that, we are also entitled to apply duties designed to counteract the practice of dumping, or selling a product below cost in order to destroy foreign competitors.

Both these responses on our part have long histories of being accepted as legitimate, both under international trade law and in economics.  (This is why the WTO had originally accepted our position; the new ruling is actually the result of an appeal by China.)

In terms of international law, one can trace the legitimacy of our policies at least as far back as the founding of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the WTO’s predecessor, in 1947.

In terms of economics, their justifying logic is very simple.

In the case of subsidies, free trade only makes sense if it really is free, which means that a thumb on the scale at one end of the transaction justifies a tariff, or counter-subsidy, at the other end.

In the case of dumping, free trade is not justified if one side sells below cost in order to wipe out the other and thus eventually grab the market (or most of it) for itself.  Even if the attempt fails, the damage done to our industries will be real, and by then it will be too late.

There’s no serious question about whether China engages in subsidies and dumping.  That’s why, in this case, we imposed duties of up to 200 percent to offset their subsidies, plus up to 265 percent to counteract their dumping.

Enter state capitalism. The flashpoint of the current dispute centers on the vexed question of what price constitutes dumping in a non-free-market economy.

In a free-market economy like our own, dumping is considered to occur when a product is sold abroad for either less than its production cost, or less than what it is sold for domestically.  Unfortunately, in an economy like China’s, which is so tightly controlled by the government that many prices are essentially whatever the government says they are, this logic doesn’t work.  There are no normal prices to observe in order to figure out how big the subsidy is.  So the U.S. Government has been using various statistical techniques to calculate the relevant prices.

The WTO has ruled that our techniques are not legit.  Bottom line? We’re supposed to overlook the vast panoply of subsidies—ranging from free land to cheap loans and a million different tax credits—because state capitalism makes them tricky to calculate.

Free traders are celebrating this ruling.  Unfortunately, “free” is the last thing trade with subsidized state capitalism is. It’s controlled.  Just not in our interests.

As with many of America’s trade problems, it’s not like we didn’t see this coming.  As Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, has rightly pointed out in protest against this ruling,

When China joined the WTO in 2001, it agreed to be treated as a non-market economy in dumping cases and to be subject to countervailing duty laws, but today the Appellate Body appears to have created special carve outs for China that neither the U.S. nor anyone else agreed to ten years ago.

When will we ever learn?  China views trade as economic warfare by other means, and we keep expecting the WTO to somehow make them play fair.  We will keep losing jobs and industries until we wise up.

 

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank founded in 1933 and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.

Wisconsin GOP Senator Most Vulnerable to Recall Found to Be Living Outside District with Mistress

Revelation Calls into Question Sen. Hopper’s Claim That He Received a Death Threat

Last week, GOP candidate for president Newt Gingrich came up with the best pretext yet to explain his serial adulteries and multiple marriages:

NEWT GINGRICH: There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and that things happened in my life that were not appropriate.

Wisconsin state Sen. Randy Hopper, R-Fond du Lac — the most vulnerable of the senators facing a recall because of their support for Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting bill — may need to try that excuse himself now that his constituents have discovered that a) he is having an affair with with a much-younger lobbyist and b) he has left his wife and two children and is living with his girlfriend in the state capital. It appears he has been living outside his district since he filed for divorce last August, if not before.

Full Story Here: Pensito Review » Wisconsin GOP Senator Most Vulnerable to Recall Found to Be Living Outside District with Mistress.

Nuclear Power Madness

Norman Solomon: :

Like every other president since the 1940s, Barack Obama has promoted nuclear power. Now, with reactors melting down in Japan, the official stance is more disconnected from reality than ever.

Political elites are still clinging to the oxymoron of “safe nuclear power.” It’s up to us — people around the world — to peacefully and insistently shut those plants down.

There is no more techno-advanced country in the world than Japan. Nuclear power is not safe there, and it is not safe anywhere.

As the New York Times reported on Monday, “most of the nuclear plants in the United States share some or all of the risk factors that played a role at Fukushima Daiichi: locations on tsunami-prone coastlines or near earthquake faults, aging plants and backup electrical systems that rely on diesel generators and batteries that could fail in extreme circumstances.”

Full Story Here: Nuclear Power Madness | Common Dreams.

Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes

Crown Prince of Bahrain expected to invite Saudi support following anti-government demonstrations in capital

Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighbouring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island’s royal family since demonstrations began a month ago.

The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council.

Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain’s financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital’s central roundabout, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university.

Full Story Here: Saudi Arabian forces prepare to enter Bahrain after day of clashes | World news | The Guardian.

Another Inside Job

Paul Krugman: :

Count me among those who were glad to see the documentary “Inside Job” win an Oscar. The film reminded us that the financial crisis of 2008, whose aftereffects are still blighting the lives of millions of Americans, didn’t just happen — it was made possible by bad behavior on the part of bankers, regulators and, yes, economists.

What the film didn’t point out, however, is that the crisis has spawned a whole new set of abuses, many of them illegal as well as immoral. And leading political figures are, at long last, showing some outrage. Unfortunately, this outrage is directed, not at banking abuses, but at those trying to hold banks accountable for these abuses.

The immediate flashpoint is a proposed settlement between state attorneys general and the mortgage servicing industry. That settlement is a “shakedown,” says Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. The money banks would be required to allot to mortgage modification would be “extorted,” declares The Wall Street Journal. And the bankers themselves warn that any action against them would place economic recovery at risk.

All of which goes to confirm that the rich are different from you and me: when they break the law, it’s the prosecutors who find themselves on trial.

Full Story Here: Another Inside Job – NYTimes.com.

Nuclear Hubris: Could Japan’s Disaster Happen Here?

| The Nation: :

The “impossible” is underway in Japan. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake has badly shaken up several “indestructible” nuclear plants. Reactor No. 1 at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is in partial meltdown, and reactor No. 3 may soon join it. In an act of naked desperation, plant officials are blindly pumping seawater into reactor No. 1 in an effort to cool its fuel rods.

In all, four nuclear plants across northeast Japan are damaged, with a total of six reactors now having trouble cooling their radioactive uranium fuel rods. One major problem is that the quake destroyed all backup electrical power systems, so there is now very little juice to run equipment.

The worst off is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, where the No. 1 reactor containment building exploded on Saturday when radioactive hydrogen gas was vented from the containment vessel inside it. Mixing with oxygen, the hydrogen ignited. More venting is due at reactor No. 3, thus a second such explosion is feared imminently (and may have occurred by the time you read this).

As day three of this disaster drew to a close, I reached former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Peter Bradford by phone at his home in Peru, Vermont. Now an adjunct professor at Vermont Law School, Bradford was a Carter-appointee to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and was on duty for the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979.

Full Story Here: Nuclear Hubris: Could Japan’s Disaster Happen Here? | The Nation.

OPS: Answer is not “could” but “When”

Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear Plants in Texas

Greg Palast »

The no-BS info on Japan’s disastrous nuclear operators

I need to speak to you, not as a reporter, but in my former capacity as lead investigator in several government nuclear plant fraud and racketeering investigations.

I don’t know the law in Japan, so I can’t tell you if Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) can plead insanity to the homicides about to happen.

But what will Obama plead?  The Administration, just months ago, asked Congress to provide a $4 billion loan guarantee for two new nuclear reactors to be built and operated on the Gulf Coast of Texas — by Tokyo Electric Power and local partners.  As if the Gulf hasn’t suffered enough.

Here are the facts about Tokyo Electric and the industry you haven’t heard on CNN:

The failure of emergency systems at Japan’s nuclear plants comes as no surprise to those of us who have worked in the field.

Full Story Here: Greg Palast » Tokyo Electric to Build US Nuclear PlantsThe no-BS info on Japan’s disastrous nuclear operators.

Chris Hedges: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand

Chris Hedges

The liberal class is discovering what happens when you tolerate the intolerant. Let hate speech pollute the airways. Let corporations buy up your courts and state and federal legislative bodies. Let the Christian religion be manipulated by charlatans to demonize Muslims, gays and intellectuals, discredit science and become a source of personal enrichment. Let unions wither under corporate assault. Let social services and public education be stripped of funding. Let Wall Street loot the national treasury with impunity. Let sleazy con artists use lies and deception to carry out unethical sting operations on tottering liberal institutions, and you roll out the welcome mat for fascism.

The liberal class has busied itself with the toothless pursuits of inclusiveness, multiculturalism, identity politics and tolerance—a word Martin Luther King never used—and forgotten about justice. It naively sought to placate ideological and corporate forces bent on the destruction of the democratic state. The liberal class, like the misguided democrats in the former Yugoslavia or the hapless aristocrats in the Weimar Republic, invited the wolf into the henhouse. The liberal class forgot that, as Karl Popper wrote in “The Open Society and Its Enemies,” “If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”

Workers in this country paid for their rights by suffering brutal beatings, mass expulsions from company housing and jobs, crippling strikes, targeted assassinations of union leaders and armed battles with hired gun thugs and state militias. The Rockefellers, the Mellons, the Carnegies and the Morgans—the Koch Brothers Industries, Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart of their day—never gave a damn about workers. All they cared about was profit. The eight-hour workday, the minimum wage, Social Security, pensions, job safety, paid vacations, retirement benefits and health insurance were achieved because hundreds of thousands of workers physically fought a system of capitalist exploitation. They rallied around radicals such as “Mother” Jones, United Mine Workers’ President John L. Lewis and “Big” Bill Haywood and his Wobblies as well as the socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs.

Full Story Here: Chris Hedges: Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.

OPS: “…without a demand”?  try: without a gun to it’s head

Bank Of America Leak: Anonymous, WikiLeaks Sympathizer, Plans Monday Release

Anonymous, a hacker group sympathetic to WikiLeaks, plans to release e-mails obtained from Bank of America Corp early Monday morning, according to posts on the group’s Twitter feed.

The group, unrelated to the document leak website founded by Julian Assange, said it plans to release documents exposing “corruption and fraud” at the largest U.S. bank by assets.

A representative of Anonymous said the documents relate to the issue of whether Bank of America has improperly foreclosed on homes. The representative added that he had not seen the documents, but he has been briefed on their contents.

Full Story Here: Bank Of America Leak: Anonymous, WikiLeaks Sympathizer, Plans Monday Release.

TSA to retest airport body scanners for radiation

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

The TSA says that the records reflect math mistakes and that all the machines are safe. Indeed, even the highest readings listed on some of the records — the numbers that the TSA says were mistakes — appear to be many times less than what the agency says a person absorbs through one day of natural background radiation.

Even so, the TSA has ordered the new tests out of “an abundance of caution to reassure the public,” spokesman Nicholas Kimball says. The tests will be finished by the end of the month, and the results will be released “as they are completed,” the agency said on its website.

TSA officials have repeatedly assured the public and lawmakers that the machines have passed all inspections. The agency’s review of maintenance reports, launched Dec. 10, came only after USA TODAY and lawmakers called for the release of the records late last year.

Full Story Here: TSA to retest airport body scanners for radiation – USATODAY.com.

Could Radiation from Japan Reach the US?

Experts have suggested that in the event of a reactor breakdown the radioactive cloud would likely be blown out towards the West Coast.

California is closely monitoring efforts to contain leaks from a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear plant, a spokesman said Saturday, as experts said radiation could be blown out across the Pacific.

While officials downplayed any immediate danger, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission deployed two experts to Japan, where the Fukushima plant, which was rocked by a large explosion earlier in the day in the aftermath of Japan’s strongest-ever earthquake.

“At present there is no danger to California. However we are monitoring the situation closely in conjunction with our federal partners,” Michael Sicilia, spokesman for California Department of Public Health, told AFP.

“California does have radioactivity monitoring systems in place for air, water and the food supply and can enhance that monitoring if a danger exists,” he added.

Full Story Here: Could Radiation from Japan Reach the US? | World | AlterNet.

OPS: will it end up in your next pair of Hello-Kitty jammies or Sony TV?

How Does the Drug Industry Get Away with Broadcasting Those Deceptive Ads?

The U.S. is one of only two countries in the world that allows Big Pharma to advertise directly to consumers. How did we get here?

We’ve all seen them in newspapers and magazines, on TV and the Internet — cheerful people in glossy, picturesque ads claiming that by taking a little magic prescription pill their lives were immeasurably improved.

As the TV ad fades, a cautionary voice quietly recites a host of “risk factors,” potentially catastrophic consequences that could result from taking the magical pill. One can’t but wonder if the cure is worse than the ailment.

A well-known ad features Dr. Robert Jarvik, a pioneer in the development of the artificial heart, pitching Pfizer’s cholesterol drug Lipitor.  He comes across as a trusted expert with your best interest at heart, but viewers would not know that he is neither a cardiologist, nor licensed to practice medicine. (Lipitor’s 2009 sales were $5.4 billion.)

Full Story Here: How Does the Drug Industry Get Away with Broadcasting Those Deceptive Ads? | Media | AlterNet.

Promises, Promises: Obama Rebuffs Invites to Stand with Workers

Union leaders urged Vice President Joe Biden during a White House meeting last month to go to Wisconsin and rally the faithful in their fight against Gov. Scott Walker’s move to curtail collective bargaining rights for most public employees.

Request rebuffed, they asked for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

So far, however, the White House has stayed away from any trips to Madison, the state capital, or other states in the throes of union battles. The Obama administration is treading carefully on the contentious political issue that has led to a national debate over the power that public sector unions wield in negotiating wages and benefits.

Some labor leaders have complained openly that President Barack Obama is ignoring a campaign pledge he made to stand with unions; others say his public comments have been powerful enough.

Full Story Here: Promises, Promises: Obama Rebuffs Invites to Stand with Workers | Common Dreams.

Japan Frantic to Avert Multiple Nuclear Meltdowns

Japan’s nuclear crisis intensified Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and more than 170,000 people evacuated the quake- and tsunami-savaged northeastern coast where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination.

Nuclear plant operators were frantically trying to keep temperatures down in a series of nuclear reactors – including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be happening Sunday – to prevent the disaster from growing worse.

If a full-scale meltdown were to occur, experts interviewed by The Associated Press said melted fuel would eat through the bottom of the reactor vessel, then through the floor of the containment building. At that point, the uranium and dangerous byproducts would start escaping into the environment.

Full Story Here: Japan Frantic to Avert Multiple Nuclear Meltdowns | Common Dreams.

Groundbreaking New UN Report on How to Feed the World’s Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture

A new report from the UN advises ditching corporate-controlled and chemically intensive farming in favor of agroecology.

There are a billion hungry people in the world and that number could rise as food insecurity increases along with population growth, economic fallout and environmental crises. But a roadmap to defeating hunger exists, if we can follow the course — and that course involves ditching corporate-controlled, chemical-intensive farming.

“To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming techniques available. And today’s scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production in regions where the hungry live,” says Olivier de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Agroecology is more or less what many Americans would simply call “organic agriculture,” although important nuances separate the two terms.

Used successfully by peasant farmers worldwide, agroecology applies ecology to agriculture in order to optimize long-term food production, requiring few purchased inputs and increasing soil quality, carbon sequestration and biodiversity over time. Agroecology also values traditional and indigenous farming methods, studying the scientific principals underpinning them instead of merely seeking to replace them with new technologies. As such, agroecology is grounded in local (material, cultural and intellectual) resources

Full Story Here: Groundbreaking New UN Report on How to Feed the World’s Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture | Food | AlterNet.

Is The Republican Party Becoming Fascist?

Republicans have been busy since they took power in January. Busy alienating every single group of people they can think of, except themselves. The United States is being transformed into a fascist state before our eyes and now is the time we must fight back and turn this evil tide.

Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy like they were elected to do, Republicans have used the excuse of budget crises whether real or not, to take rights away from us. In the 1920′s and 1930′s, fascists in Europe used economic crises to gain power and that is exactly what Republicans are doing now. Using the recession as an excuse to create a police state. Let’s examine how Republicans are frighteningly similar to fascists.

Fascism is the ultimate manifestation of social change and moral revolution, and glorifies nationalism. Sound familiar? It should. Republicans are all about culture wars and preach morality and how great America is. Fascists, like Republicans today, reject democracy and liberalism. Many Republicans called for violently overthrowing the government if the 2010 midterm elections didn’t go their way and have viciously attacked liberalism. Fascists also reject internationalism and pacifism and support militarism and war. Republicans have been calling for the United States to pull out of the United Nations since the 1950′s and have since 2001, been the party of war as evidenced by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the calls to attack Iran, North Korea, and most recently Libya. Fascists also promote heroism, vitalism and violence. Ever notice how Republicans promote themselves by chopping wood or firing guns or some other “manly” activity? They are trying to prove how tough they are. And the examples of violence are aplenty. Just look at the shooting in Arizona and the calls to shoot liberals in the forehead and the threats of “second amendment remedies” among many others. Republicans have ALL of these traits. Now let’s examine how fascists and Republicans agree on the issues.

Full Story Here: Is The Republican Party Becoming Fascist? |.

OPS: The answer is NO, because the Republicans have been a textbook definition of Fascist organization since even before Prescott Bush (father  of HW and Grandfather of W) was part of a Coup attempt against FDR. It’s the Dempcrats that we have to worry about now.

Water, power, food scarce in vast swaths of Japan

People across a devastated swath of Japan suffered for a third day Sunday without water, electricity and proper food, as the country grappled with the enormity of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than 10,000 people dead in one area alone.

Japan’s prime minister called the crisis the most severe challenge the nation has faced since World War II, as the grim situation worsened. Friday’s disasters damaged a series of nuclear reactors, potentially sending one through a partial meltdown and adding radiation contamination to the fears of an unsettled public.

Temperatures began sinking toward freezing, compounding the misery of survivors along hundreds of miles (kilometers) of the northeastern coast battered by the tsunami that smashed inland with breathtaking fury. Rescuers pulled bodies from mud-covered jumbles of wrecked houses, shattered tree trunks, twisted cars and tangled power lines while survivors examined the ruined remains.

Full Story Here: Water, power, food scarce in vast swaths of Japan – Yahoo! News.

OPS: Sadly, the dead and missing numbers are already way out of date

Gaddafi’s army will kill half a million, warn Libyan rebels

Rebels flee Ras Lanuf and call on UN to impose no-fly zone as Gaddafi’s forces recapture strategically important towns

Full Story Here: Gaddafi’s army will kill half a million, warn Libyan rebels | World news | The Observer.

Thousands form human chain in protest against nuclear energy in Germany

The explosion at the Japanese nuclear power plant has given new fuel to a long-running dispute in Germany, where tens of thousands demonstrated on Saturday against plans to extend the life of the country’s nuclear power stations.

According to the police, some 50 000 people took part in the protest which saw a human chain spread from a nuclear power plant in Neckarwestheim to the city of Stuttgart.

Those participating in the demonstration said it was time for the German government to move away from nuclear power.

Full Story Here: Thousands form human chain in protest against nuclear energy in Germany | euronews, world news.

Japanese volcano erupts

A volcano in southwestern Japan erupted Sunday after nearly two weeks of relative silence, sending ash and rocks up to four kilometres (two and a half miles) into the air, a local official says.

It was not immediately clear if the eruption was a direct result of the massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked northern areas Friday, unleashing a fierce tsunami and sparking fears that more than 10,000 may have been killed.

The 1,421-metre (4,689-feet) Shinmoedake volcano in the Kirishima range saw its first major eruption for 52 years in January. There had not been any major activity at the site since March 1.

Authorities have maintained a volcano warning at a level of three out of five, restricting access to the entire mountain.

Full Story Here: Japanese volcano erupts – Times LIVE.

Japan Earthquake, ‘Chernobyl in The Making’ Nuclear Dangers Discussed by Dr. Michio Kaku

Nuclear Power Plants:

According to the Associated Press, Japan has declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Officials say there has been no leak of radiation or radioactive material.

One facility in Fukushima developed a mechanical failure in the reactor cooling system after it was shut down and emergency power supply failed but there was no radiation leak. Past midnight local time, it was reported that The Tokyo Electric Power Company was considering venting out superhot gas from the reactor vessel into the atmosphere, which could result in the release of radioactives. The core of the reactor remains hot however, so cooling is still required. Unnamed officials at the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported that due to lack of electricity the emergency cooling system is currently powered by a battery, which lasts about eight hours. Another six batteries have been secured, and the government may use military helicopters to fly them in. A precautionary state of emergency has been declared. More than 2,000 residents living within a 3-kilometer (1.9 mi) radius of the plant were evacuated, while residents living within a zone 3 to 10 kilometers (1.9 to 6.2 mi) away were asked to evacuate.

YouTube – Japan Earthquake, ‘Chernobyl in The Making’ Nuclear Dangers Discussed by Dr. Michio Kaku, 12/03/2011.

Japan tsunami earthquake – Video

North-east Japan has been swamped by a major tsunami – and the entire Pacific region is now on alert. It was caused by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck 130 kilometres off the eastern coast – sending a reported 10-metre wall of water inland, causing widespread devastation. 32 people are confirmed dead – but that number’s expected to rise. The wave has also reached Russia’s Kuril islands to the north, reportedly around a metre high. In Japan, 200 people have reportedly been washed away, with several others missing in Japan’s Sendai city. Tokyo’s been all-but shut down – with fires and injuries widely reported there. Millions are without electricity. Norita International Airport is also closed. 20 powerful aftershocks have been recorded since the first quake, which was the strongest ever recorded in Japan – and the 6th biggest-ever. An earthquake has now been felt in Hawaii – measuring 4.5 – with tsunami waves expected within a few horus.

11 YRS OLD EXPOSES MONSANTO AND TELLS MONSANTO WHERE THEY CAN SHOVE IT .. BRAVE CHILD.

this is great!! more kids need to get out of the whole brainwashed mindset.. and start looking into this themselves!

this kid has some balls… and he doesn’t care what people think( the most important thing!!)

ALOT OF PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW THAT MONSANTO IS A WEAPONS COMPANY THEY CREATED WEAPONS SUCH AS AGENT ORANGE, DDT, AND MANY OTHERS… DO WHAT THIS YOUNG MAN DID AND RESEARCH!! RESEARCH!! AND THEN ONCE YOU’VE RESEARCHED PASS THE INFO ON TO OTHERS!!

BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.

Veteran DESTROYS people verbally in Modesto, CA at MJC Budget Cuts meeting

at MJC Budget Cuts meeting – Video

YouTube – MUST SEE! Veteran DESTROYS people verbally in Modesto, CA at MJC Budget Cuts meeting (w/captions!).

Banks fight back over cap on interchange fees – and why you should care

The banking industry and the Federal Reserve are about to do battle. And they’re squaring off over 12 cents.

Twelve cents that add up to billions of dollars per year on debit card transactions.

Right now, every time you pay for something with your debit card, your bank makes an average of 1.14% of the purchase, or 44 cents per transaction. That adds up to about $16 billion per year.

But the Federal Reserve wants to limit this so-called interchange fee to just 12 cents per swipe. That could cost the industry upwards of $13 billion, according to CardHub.com.

Banks, naturally, are not happy about the huge potential losses. Take a $1,000 purchase, for example. Today, banks could make more than $10, which is paid to them by the retailer. But under the Fed’s proposed rules, they would get just 12 cents. And that, they say, is not enough to cover their costs.

Full Story Here: Banks fight back over cap on interchange fees – Mar. 11, 2011.

Capitol Square overflows in largest Wisconsin labor solidarity demonstration yet

The day after Scott Walker’s ceremonial signing of a bill stripping collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin’s public employees, tens of thousands of protestors once again filled the Capitol Square Saturday. “Kill the bill” was no longer heard, but a new chant rose to take its place: “What’s the word? Kloppenburg!”

Although they lost a battle in the legislature, pro-union protestors have pledged to win the middle class war. Their newest slogans centered around this goal, urging protesters to recall the eight eligible Senate Republicans, and to vote JoAnne Kloppenburg to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

To that end, clipboard-wielding activists commandeered a Carroll Street bus shelter, urging protestors parading past to sign (if they hadn’t already) their senator’s recall petition. “Vote for Kloppenburg” signs suddenly became a ubiquitous fixture of the protest landscape.

Full Story Here: Capitol Square overflows in largest Wisconsin labor solidarity demonstration yet – Isthmus | The Daily Page.

iPad 2 Alternatives: 7 Tablets To Try Instead Of Apple’s Latest

Critics are gushing about the iPad 2. It’s being called “even better than the original” and “the best tablet on the market.” But not all consumers want to commit to Apple’s new tablet.

Apple’s “closed” ecosystem is often cited as one of the platform’s biggest drawbacks. Furthermore, the iPad 2 doesn’t run Adobe Flash player, while many of its competitors do; it also lacks a 4G offering, which some big-name alternatives now tout.

For those of you who won’t be picking up an iPad 2 after March 11, we’ve got a list of non-Apple tablets that may strike your fancy.

Look through our slideshow of the iPad alternatives–from the small to the beefy, the feature-rich to the bare-bones–and vote for your favorites. Seen any great slates that didn’t make our list? Leave your suggestions in the comments (below), or email us at technology[at]huffingtonpost.com. You can also check out our iPad 2 review roundup to see what critics have to say about Apple’s new tablet.

Full Story Here: iPad 2 Alternatives: 7 Tablets To Try Instead Of Apple’s Latest (PHOTOS).

Endangered Monkeys Invent New Fishing Method

Monkeys are apparently quite good at fishing… for termites. New observations have found that blonde capuchin monkeys have invented a “fishing pole” method to capture termites from tree nests.

The new method was reported in the recent Royal Society Biology Letters. Scientists observed that a monkey first taps the side of a termite nest, then breaks off a small tree branch. The monkey then rotates the branch, sticks it into the nest, and retrieves termites for consumption.

According to Discovery News, these actions are innovative for two reasons. First, by tapping the side of the nest, termites are on high alert. Scientists predict that when the stick enters the nest, they swarm to it, prepared to attack. (Although, apparently they aren’t prepared enough, since they are then eaten!) This method is also smart because rotating the stick helps to create a hole in the nest — the rotation movement acts similarly to a drill. According to the journal report, “Remarkable manual skills linked to a varied diet seem important in promoting tool use in different contexts.”

Full Story Here: Endangered Monkeys Invent New Fishing Method.

Is Flaxseed Enough Omega-3 For Men?

Debate over the health benefits and risks of flaxseed and omega-3 fatty acids, in particular alpha-linolenic acid (ALA- a form of omega-3 fatty acids), is ongoing and often contentious. People tend to become very defensive about their food choices, especially when they are making those choices because they are trying to prevent and/or treat a serious health problem, such as prostate cancer.

One controversy related to omega-3 fatty acids is whether ALA and flaxseed, which is a rich source of ALA, are beneficial or harmful to prostate health. According to medical oncologist and prostate cancer researcher Snuffy Myers, M.D., flaxseed and ALA, contrary to popular marketing, are not helpful for overall health nor for prostate health. Myers also states there is little to no evidence in the medical literature to support the use of flaxseed or flaxseed oil, that these products are hyped by marketers, and that people should turn to fish and fish oil as the best sources of omega-3 essential fatty acids. (1)

Full Story Here: Craig Cooper: Is Flaxseed Enough Omega-3 For Men?.

Gaddafi Forces Shell Major Oil Terminal In Brega As Troops Advance Against Rebels

Troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi shelled an oil town in eastern Libya on Sunday, pounding pockets of resistance during their swift advance on the country’s poorly equipped and loosely organized rebels.

Rebel officials in their stronghold of Benghazi told The Associated Press that Brega, the site of a major oil terminal, came under heavy shelling Sunday. Libyan state television reported that government troops had retaken the town, but the report could not immediately be verified.

Libyan TV has issued faulty reports claiming territory in the past.

The loss of Brega would be the latest in a series of setbacks for opposition forces who just a week ago held the entire eastern half of the country and were charging toward the capital, Tripoli. But Gaddafi’s troops have reversed many of those early gains, bearing down on the rebels with superior firepower from the air.

Full Story Here: Libya: Gaddafi Forces Shell Major Oil Terminal In Brega As Troops Advance Against Rebels.

Former McCain Campaign Chief: Sarah Palin Made ‘Short List’ Because Of Gender

In a profile of the man who was responsible for vetting a running mate for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during the 2008 presidential campaign, the former manager of the political operation is mentioned suggesting how Sarah Palin landed on the then-candidate’s “short list,” Ben Smith reports.

In the story featured in the latest edition of the Washingtonian on attorney A.B. Culvahouse, which is currently unavailable online, the one-time campaign manager for McCain suggests Palin made the cut because of her gender. According to an excerpt of the story relayed by Smith, McCain had requested that at least one woman be included on the list of possible contenders.

“As the clock was running out, [campaign manager Rick] Davis says McCain asked to have at least one woman on the short list. His advisers went back to the long list and plucked out Palin’s name,” the magazine reported.

Full Story Here: Former McCain Campaign Chief: Sarah Palin Made ‘Short List’ Because Of Gender.

Wisconsin Protesters Refuse To Quit

Clogging the Wisconsin Capitol grounds and screaming angry chants, tens of thousands of undaunted pro-labor protesters descended on Madison again Saturday and vowed to focus on future elections now that contentious cuts to public worker union rights have become law.

Protests have rocked the Capitol almost every day since Gov. Scott Walker proposed taking nearly all collective bargaining rights away from public workers, but the largest came a day after the governor signed the measure into law. Madison Police estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people – along with 50 tractors and one donkey – by late afternoon. No one was arrested.

Speakers delivered angry diatribes while the crowd carried signs comparing Walker to dictators and yelled thunderous chants of “this is what democracy looks like.”

Full Story Here: Wisconsin Protesters Refuse To Quit.

Japan Earthquake Shifted Coastline 8 Feet, Earth’s Axis 4 inches

The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Japan and triggered a powerful tsunami on Friday has had a profound effect on both the surrounding terrain and the planet as a whole.

Dr. Daniel McNamara, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told The Huffington Post that the disaster left a gigantic rupture in the sea floor, 217-miles long and 50 miles wide. It also shifted Japan’s coast by eight feet in some parts, though McNamara was quick to explain much of the coast likely didn’t move as far.

McNamara found the way in which the quake actually sunk the elevation of the country’s terrain to be more troublesome than coastal shifting. “You see cities still underwater; the reason is subsidence,” he said. “The land actually dropped, so when the tsunami came in, it’s just staying.”

The enormous tremor also shifted the Earth’s axis. According to CNN, the earthquake moved the planet’s axis approximately 4 inches.

Full Story Here: Japan Earthquake Shifted Coastline Maximum Of 8 Feet, Scientists Say.

New York man faces five years in jail for ‘linking’ to online videos

You may want to think twice the next time you share a link to your favorite video.

In a case against a New York website owner, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is claiming that merely linking to copyrighted material is a crime.

DHS, along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seized Brian McCarthy’s domain, channelsurfing.net, in late January. The site has now been replaced with a government warning: “This domain has been seized by ICE – Homeland Security Investigations, Special Agent in Charge, New York Office.”

Full Story Here: New York man faces five years in jail for ‘linking’ to online videos | The Raw Story.

New claim on location of Atlantis

American researchers claim to have found convincing evidence that locates the site of the lost kingdom of Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus.

The team spent six days scanning the Mediterranean sea bed between Cyprus and Syria using sonar technology.

They believe they found evidence of massive, manmade structures beneath the ocean floor, including two straight, 2-km (1.25 mile) long walls on a hill.

They say their discoveries match accounts of the city written by Plato.

‘Greatest coincidence’

Team leader Robert Sarmast said the walls appear to be sited on a flat-topped hill where the temples of Atlantis once stood.

Full Story Here: BBC NEWS | Europe | New claim on location of Atlantis.

OPS: We find this interesting but…. Plato was clear that Atlantis was “beyond the pillars of Hercules”. This location is well east of Gibraltar.

U.S. issues second post-spill drilling permit in Gulf

The government has given BHP Billiton the second new permit to drill in the Gulf of Mexico since the Macondo oil spill, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said on Saturday.

A BHP spokesman confirmed that the new permit has been issued for resumption of drilling of a production well at Shenzi.

“We are very pleased to be resuming work,” BHP spokesman Ruban Yogarajah said.

The well was being drilled in waters 4,234 feet deep, 120 miles off the Louisiana coast south of Houma, at the time BP’s Macondo well blew out in April 2010. The Macondo blowout, about 150 miles northeast of Shenzi, triggered the worst U.S. marine oil spill. Eleven workers died.

Full Story Here: U.S. issues second post-spill drilling permit in Gulf | The Raw Story.

Japan scrambles to avert nuclear meltdown

Japan fought on Sunday to avert a disastrous meltdown at two earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors as estimates of the death toll from the tsunami that charged across its northeast rose to more than 10,000.

Broadcaster NHK, quoting a police official, said more than 10,000 people may have been killed as the wall of water triggered by Friday’s 8.9-magnitude quake surged across the coastline, reducing whole towns to rubble.

Officials worked desperately to prevent the fuel rods in the damaged plants from overheating after radiation leaked into the air. The government said a building housing a second reactor was at risk of exploding after a blast blew the roof off a different plant the day before.

Full Story Here: Japan scrambles to avert nuclear meltdown | The Raw Story.

California ‘closely monitoring’ Japan nuclear leak

California is closely monitoring efforts to contain leaks from a quake-damaged Japanese nuclear plant, a spokesman said Saturday, as experts said radiation could be blown out across the Pacific.

While officials downplayed any immediate danger, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission deployed two experts to Japan, where the Fukushima plant, which was rocked by a large explosion earlier in the day in the aftermath of Japan’s strongest-ever earthquake.

“At present there is no danger to California. However we are monitoring the situation closely in conjunction with our federal partners,” Michael Sicilia, spokesman for California Department of Public Health, told AFP.

“California does have radioactivity monitoring systems in place for air, water and the food supply and can enhance that monitoring if a danger exists,” he added.

Full Story Here: California ‘closely monitoring’ Japan nuclear leak | The Raw Story.

Quake moved Japan by 8 feet: USGS

Japan’s recent massive earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, appears to have moved the island by about eight feet (2.4 meters), the US Geological Survey said.

“That’s a reasonable number,” USGS seismologist Paul Earle told AFP. “Eight feet, that’s certainly going to be in the ballpark.”

Friday’s 8.9 magnitude quake unleashed a terrifying tsunami that engulfed towns and cities on Japan’s northeastern coast, destroying everything in its path in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan said was an “unprecedented national disaster.”

Full Story Here: Quake moved Japan by 8 feet: USGS | The Raw Story.

Mass protest against Republican cuts to services, union rights

Farmers on tractors joined a massive crowd surrounding Wisconsin’s capitol Saturday to protest Republican moves to undermine unions and slash government services in a battle spreading across the United States.

Cheers and bells rang out as tractors bearing signs declaring “Walker’s budget = war on workers, middle class” and “pull together — support working families” slowly circled the towering statehouse which has been the scene of mass protests for weeks now.

The battle began when Wisconsin’s newly-elected Republican governor Scott Walker proposed a controversial bill to strip public workers of bargaining rights.

Full Story Here: Mass protest against Republican cuts to services, union rights | The Raw Story.

Japan doubles troops for quake help, world offers aid

Japan on Sunday committed 100,000 troops to help earthquake and tsunami survivors as the world rallied behind the disaster-stricken nation and a US aircraft carrier arrived off the shattered coast.

The deployment, ordered by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, doubles the number of troops already on the ground, after the massive scale of the devastation wrought by the twin disasters emerged.

“I ask for utmost efforts to save the lives of as many people as possible,” Kan told a meeting of the government’s emergency disaster headquarters, Kyodo News reported.

Full Story Here: Japan doubles troops for quake help, world offers aid | The Raw Story.

Missouri Legislature Poised To Repeal Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Referendum

For years, Missouri earned the dubious distinction as the nation’s “puppy mill capital” because its lax humane regulations and enforcement allowed dog breeders to raise puppies at low costs in terrible, overcrowded conditions. Last fall, Missouri voters approved a referendum to finally solve this problem — the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act — which mandates regular veterinarian inspections of breeding facilities and ensures a basic level of treatment for dogs, such keeping temperatures between 45 and 85 degrees. Tea party groups stridently opposed the referendum, arguing it was “just another example of big government meddling in people’s lives.” Now, capitalizing on the big gains they made in November, Republicans in the state legislature are poised to repeal the regulations Missouri’s voters enacted:

Saying the new requirements would put the dog breeding industry out of business, the state Senate voted 20-14 on Thursday for a wholesale rewrite.

On the cutting room floor: rules limiting kennels to 50 breeding dogs and requiring annual hands-on veterinary exams and larger, ground-level cages with access to the outdoors.

Instead, veterinarians would do walk-through inspections at least twice a year and provide exercise plans for dogs. Dogs could be confined in stacked cages so long as they had solid surfaces to lie on.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Missouri Legislature Poised To Repeal Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Referendum.

Nearly Identical Anti-Labor Bills Appear In Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Other States

Reporting for the progressive Maine blog Dirigo Blue, Gerald Weinand has discovered that a proposed “right to work” law in Maine mirrors similar proposals in several other states, like New Hampshire and Missouri. The legislation in Maine, LD788, sponsored by State Rep. Tom Winsor (R), would make Maine like other low-wage anti-labor states by weakening unions. Right to work laws typically allow workers to opt-out of union dues while benefiting from union contracts, a cycle that usually kills a labor union over time. But the assault on worker rights in Maine appears to be part of a larger attack coordinated by conservative front groups. Winsor’s bill contains phrases and language strikingly similar to other right to work proposals from Republicans across the country:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Nearly Identical Anti-Labor Bills Appear In Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Other States.

OPS: The Koch’s OWN the Republican Party, quite literally.

Bachmann Flubs Fifth Grade American History

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) made a high profile trip to New Hampshire today as part of a potential 2012 presidential run, but the tea party favorite, who often refers to the early days of the Republic in speeches and media appearances, embarrassingly mangled basic American history, incorrectly stating that the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock, to have occurred in New Hampshire, instead of Massachusetts:

“What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty,” the potential GOP presidential candidate said. “You’re the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history.” [...]

“I’m thankful that you are the first in the nation state because you are the liberty state,” Bachmann said. “That is your charge. You keep that baton of liberty. You’ve done it very well for almost 20 generations from the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and I’m sure the very first one came up to New Hampshire and said, ‘This is where I want to be.’

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Bachmann Flubs Fifth Grade American History.

IAEA: 170,000 evacuated near Japan nuclear plant

The U.N. nuclear watchdog says Japan is evacuating 170,000 people from the area near a nuclear power plant damaged in the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna, says the people were ordered out of a 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius surrounding the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Full Story Here: IAEA: 170,000 evacuated near Japan nuclear plant.

OPS: Japan has 54 of these time bombs

Free Trade and the Tea Party: Puppets or Rebels?

Ian Fletcher

My job deprives me of the luxury of partisanship, as I have to reach out to both sides on the issue of free trade–a disastrous policy one can give impeccably liberal or conservative reasons to be against. So I can’t offer any opinion of the Tea Party movement per se. But I can tell you that the way they’re handling the issue of free trade reveals a lot about them.

Over the last year, I’ve interacted with the Tea Party about the issue at both the local level and with some of their leadership. And I’ve observed a few things.

The main thing is just how utterly conflicted they are, in two very different ways.

The first way is simply that the base of the Tea Party has views of free trade very different from its Washington leadership, and very different from the Republicans they’ve elected to Congress. (In this respect, the Tea Party’s base is not all that different from a lot of disappointed liberals who voted for Obama.)

Polls show that 61% of the grass roots of the Tea Party think free trade agreements have been bad for the country. (This is not a perfect proxy for free trade per se, but it’s close enough to make the point, especially when these agreements are the flashpoints of the issue.) But there’s no sign of such skepticism in their leadership, which seems to think that it’s leading the Ayn Rand Party, not the Tea Party. The leadership is utterly gung-ho for new free trade agreements with Korea and now Panama and Colombia.

More importantly, the Tea Party’s grass roots are themselves conflicted–between what they believe, and what they want.

What they believe about economics, if you ask them, is similar to what they say they believe about many other issues: America should return to this country’s founding principles, get the overweening government out of the way, etc. It’s the familiar classical liberal vision of society.

But if you ask them what they want in economics, i.e. what outcomes they want to see happen, you get a very different story: they want good jobs with good wages, an industrial base strong enough for us not to be beholden to foreign nations, no more endless accumulation of foreign debt, etc.

It’s 1776 vs. 1956.

The problem here is that A doesn’t follow from B. The reality, in both this country and abroad, both today and a hundred years ago, is that prosperous economies do not come from a pure less-government strategy. While government must respect its limits, every nation that has became a developed nation–and every nation that has stayed that way–has done so thanks to a long list of proactive government policies designed to make this happen. Laissez faire is simply false economic history.

This isn’t just a liberal or Democratic insight, though obviously FDR and the New Deal would be obvious examples of effective government interventions. It’s also a Republican insight, thanks to the interventionist policies of great Republican presidents like Lincoln (“give us a protective tariff and we will have the greatest country on earth”) and Teddy “the trustbuster” Roosevelt.

Now here’s where the Tea Party actually has a fighting chance to sort out its own conundrum, because, for all its intellectual limitations , it does at least claim to take history seriously. (By the way, the free trade issue will help reveal if this is, in fact, true.)

So if Tea Partiers ask, for example, what the Founding Fathers really thought about free trade, they will find out very fast that they were explicitly against it, thanks to Alexander Hamilton, America’s first Treasury Secretary and the one serious economist among the Founders.

And if Tea Partiers want to get back to the original intent of the Constitution, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution says plain as day that Congress has the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations.”

Clearly, a lot of the Tea Party grass roots already gets this. So–can this eventually put an end to the paradox that they have mostly elected Republicans who support free trade once in office? Obviously, that’s a tough nut to crack, because conservatives in this country have a long history of being used as electoral cannon fodder by a corporate-centered Republican establishment that despises them and sniggers at their beliefs behind their backs.

But the Republican establishment doesn’t have a magical grip on the Republican party. It has a grip that depends on certain finite kinds of institutional and financial power, and it has been challenged before. The most famous example, of course, is the revolt against liberal “Rockefeller” Republicanism that nominated Barry Goldwater and eventually put Ronald Reagan in the White House.

The Republican establishment has already lost a few battles in Republican primaries against the Tea Party. So it could quite possibly lose control of the party.

America’s economic situation probably has to get quite a bit worse before trade will boil hot enough as an issue for this to happen, but this may, of course, be in the cards. And obviously there are huge risks involved whenever a populist insurgency takes over a party, as insurgents generally lack a lot of the political skill and prudential judgment that establishments, for all their flaws, bring to the table.

But yes, there is hope, and–to answer some of my liberal friends–no, the Tea Party is not entirely a puppet show orchestrated by selfish billionaires. Neither, as shown by its surprising willingness to countenance cuts in defense spending, is it a pack of mindless right-wing drones incapable of new thinking.

Somebody is going to have to save this country’s economy from free trade, and honestly, I don’t really care which end of the spectrum does it. If it turns out to be a right-wing-populist insurgency, liberals will have only themselves to blame for not having gotten the job done first.

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank founded in 1933 and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.

THE ANTI-DEBT AGENDA

A BLUEPRINT FOR RADICAL REFORM
By Robert Hertz – Director, The Health Care Crusade

Millions of Americans carry too much debt – student loans, car loans, credit cards, first mortgages, second mortgages, payday loans, auto leases, etc. The average American works ten years of their lives just to pay interest in one form or another. Our federal government cannot get through one day without going further into debt. Young people often enter marriage with six years of debt – while they should have six months of savings. Americans as a whole spend 16% of their incomes on debt service. As of July 2010, we had $820 billion in credit card debt and $829 billion in student loans. No wonder fewer people can actually buy anything.

A Letter to Scott Walker From a Wisconsin Teacher

On Saturday, February 19, 2011, I sent the following letter to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. It has since been reposted and blogged a number of times, for which I am grateful. However, this blog would not be complete unless I included a copy of it here. And so, here is where it all began:

To the Duly-Elected Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker (and anyone else who gives a hoot):

It has only been a week, and I grow weary of the political struggle that your Budget Repair Bill has caused. I am tired of watching the news, though I have seen many of the faces of those I hold dear as they march on the Capitol. I am tired of defending myself to those who disagree with me, and even a bit tired of fist-bumping those who do. I am tired of having to choose a side in this issue, when both sides make a certain degree of sense. And so I offer you this desultory (aimless or rambling) philippic (angry long-winded speech), because at the end of the day I find that though this issue has been talked to death, there is more that could be said. And so, without further ado, here are my points and/or questions, in no particular order.

Full Story Here: A Letter to Scott Walker From a Wisconsin Teacher | Mother Jones.

Massive crowd gathers to protest Wisconsin union law (2011-03-12)

A massive crowd gathered at the Wisconsin state Capitol on Saturday, one day after Republican Governor Scott Walker signed into law union restrictions that have sparked a national confrontation with organized labor.

Madison Police predicted the 27th consecutive day of demonstrations against the law to severely restrict the power of public sector unions would approach the 70,000 to 100,000 on February 27, which was the largest demonstration at the state Capitol since the Vietnam War.

Though an official count was not yet available, the crowd Saturday seemed to surpass those numbers.

Democratic state Senators who left Wisconsin for Illinois, and stayed for three weeks to block the measure’s path to approval, appeared at the afternoon rally. Though they ultimately failed to stop Republicans from passing the law, they received a hero’s welcome from union members and their supporters.

Full Story Here: WBFO: Massive crowd gathers to protest Wisconsin union law (2011-03-12).

Aristide returning to Haiti in days

Ousted ex-Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide will return within days to his homeland ending seven years in exile, a South African official said Friday. The former slum priest remains hugely popular and his return could disrupt elections this month in his earthquake-ravaged country.

In Haiti, an official with Aristide’s party confirmed that his “return is imminent,” but declined to say how or when he’s coming back.

“It’s an important event for the people in Haiti because they have waited so long for this,” said Maryse Narcisse, the head of Lavalas’ executive council. “He will not be traveling incognito. People will know he is coming.”

Full Story Here: The Associated Press: APNewsBreak: Aristide returning to Haiti in days.

Thom Hartmann: Brunch with Senator Bernie Sanders

Westboro Church Plans Protest Of Funeral For Pa. Children

Westboro Baptist Church, the controversial group that just won a free speech Supreme Court case, said it plans to protest at a funeral for seven Pennsylvania children who died in a fire Tuesday (March night.

“I’m baffled that they would choose this,” said Perry County District Attorney Charles F. Chenot III. “This is a family that’s obviously apparently Christian in their beliefs and certainly shouldn’t conflict with the beliefs of the Westboro Baptist Church.”

Westboro says the children’s deaths are linked to the recent Supreme Court decision, in which a father sued the church after it protested his slain Marine son’s funeral in 2008.

Full Story Here: Westboro Church Plans Protest Of Funeral For Pa. Children.

Video of blast at Fukushima nuke plant, radiation leak reported

An explosion at a Japanese nuclear power station tore down the walls of one building on Saturday as smoke poured out and Japanese officials said they feared the reactor could melt down following the failure of its cooling system in Friday’s powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Japan Nuclear Plant Explosion Raises Fears Of Meltdown; Earthquake Death Toll Rises

An explosion shattered a building housing a nuclear reactor Saturday, amid fears of a meltdown, while across wide swaths of northeastern Japan officials searched for thousands of people missing more than a day after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE BLOG

The confirmed death toll from Friday’s twin disasters was 686, but the government’s chief spokesman said it could exceed 1,000. Devastation stretched hundreds of miles (kilometers) along the coast, where thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers cut off from rescuers, electricity and aid.

The scale of destruction was not yet known, but there were grim signs that the death toll could soar. One report said four whole trains had disappeared Friday and still not been located. Others said 9,500 people in one coastal town were unaccounted for and that at least 200 bodies had washed ashore elsewhere.

Full Story Here: Japan Nuclear Plant Explosion Raises Fears Of Meltdown; Earthquake Death Toll Rises.

Firefighters shut down bank that supported Walker

As the protesting spirit spreads in Wisconsin, one tactic that union members are now adopting is to take aim at institutions that have donated heavily to Governor Scott Walker.

Members of the Wisconsin firefighter’s union set out for a local branch of the M & I Bank on Thursday to withdraw their personal savings. The UpTake, which describes itself as “a citizen-fueled, online video news gathering organization,” reports that “on Thursday members of the union withdrew close to $200,000 from the bank.”

A website titled “Keep on eye on Marshall & Ilsley Bank” had been targeting the M & I Bank since last month. “After working families gave Marshall and Ilsley Bank (M&I) a $1.7 billion bailout in 2008,” the site explains, “their executives did an about face and funded Governor Scott Walker’s attack on our right to collectively bargain. In fact, their financial help combined was more than what the Koch Brothers contributed. And while Governor Walker was demanding austerity from working people, M&I CEO Mark Furlong got an $18 million golden parachute. Even after the bank was having diffulty paying back its TARP loan.”

Full Story Here: Wisconsin protesters target bank that supported Governor Walker | The Raw Story.

Daniel Ellsberg: Obama ‘needs to get a grip’

Vietnam War era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg slammed President Barack Obama’s assertion Friday that the Pentagon has assured him the terms of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s confinement “are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.”

Manning has been in a military brig since last summer under suspicion of being the source of a massive transfer of secret United States documents to WikiLeaks and has been subjected to increasingly harsh conditions,

Ellsberg, a former military analyst known for having leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other papers in 1971, fired off a quick response to Obama’s remarks in an op-ed for the Guardian, writing, “If Obama believes that, he’ll believe anything. I would hope he would know better than to ask the perpetrators whether they’ve been behaving appropriately.”

Full Story Here: Daniel Ellsberg: Obama ‘needs to get a grip’ | The Raw Story.

‘Upwards of 150,000 people will show up around the capital of Madison today’

People in Wisconsin are taking to the streets once again to protest the latest measure by Governor Scott Walker to undermine state unions and cut workers’ pay. The bill was recently signed into law.

Now, ordinary people, unions, farmers, and various organizations have organized a large rally for today to take place in Madison.

To find out the latest in this mass protest, we spoke with Norman Stockwell who is reporting live from the Capitol. Stockwell is the Operations Coordinator at WORT 89.9 FM Radio.

He told the US Desk in Press TV that people have started to gather and tractors from all over the state of Wisconsin from the Wisconsin Farmers Union and an organization called Family Farm Defenders are making their ways towards the protest site.

Full Story Here: PressTV – ‘Upwards of 150,000 people will show up around the capital of Madison today’.

NH GOP Senator Says The Mentally Ill Are ‘Defective People’ That Should Be Shipped Off To Siberia

State “budget writers looking for cash to balance the books have stripped a cumulative $1.8 billion from mental health services over the last 2 1/2 years,” with some states like Kentucky slashing their spending by as much as 47 percent. This is particularly alarming when viewed alongside incidents like the mass shooting by Jared Loughner, who many suggest was mentally disturbed.

In light of this huge wave of cuts, Sharon Omand, a community health care center manager and resident of Stafford, New Hampshire, called her state senator Martin Harty (R) recently to request more funding for community mental health programs and for the homeless. Omand was shocked by Harty’s response. The state senator told her “the world is too populated” and that there are too many “defective people.” When Omand asked what should be done with these “defective people” that are mentally ill, Harty suggested sending them to Siberia, something that he said Hitler was “right” to do

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » NH GOP Senator Says The Mentally Ill Are ‘Defective People’ That Should Be Shipped Off To Siberia.

Gov. Scott Walker Refusing To Release Details Of Contacts With Koch Industries

Shortly before signing the controversial bill that ends collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker appeared on Morning Joe today to lambaste the pernicious influence of “union bosses” and “outside money” on the debate in Wisconsin. Watch it:

It’s reasonable to expect national union leaders to be interested in “the largest assault on collective bargaining in recent memory.” Moreover, it is highly ironic for Walker to complain of supposedly shady outside interests.

Over two weeks after receiving a request from One Wisconsin Now, Walker’s administration has refused to release details of its contacts with lobbyists from Koch Industries, run by billionaire arch-conservatives Charles and David Koch. The group requested “all email and written communications between Koch Industries’ lead Wisconsin lobbyist and the office of Gov. Scott Walker and the Department of Administration,” but has not yet received the information.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Gov. Scott Walker Refusing To Release Details Of Contacts With Koch Industries.

New Three-Week GOP Funding Resolution Would Slash Funds For Tsunami Monitoring And Disaster Response

As ThinkProgress noted this morning, House Republicans’ budget would make massive cuts the country’s ability to monitor and respond to disasters like the tsunami that struck Japan last night. That proposal was stopped in the Senate this week. But today, in an unfortunate bit of bad timing, House Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) introduced a new continuing resolution to fund the government for the next three weeks, while implementing more than $6 billion in budget cuts — including more than $100 million from the agency responsible for handling tsunamis. Beyond slashing funds to NOAA, the GOP plan would strip money from the agency that monitors earthquakes, along with other critical programs:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » New Three-Week GOP Funding Resolution Would Slash Funds For Tsunami Monitoring And Disaster Response.

Caught On Live Mic: Iowa GOPer Refers To GOP Gun Law As ‘The Crazy, Give-A-Handgun-To-A-Schizophrenic Bill’

The Republican-led Iowa state House is considering a bill that would allow Iowans to carry a weapon openly or concealed in public without a license, permission from a sheriff, background check, or any training. The bill is known as “Alaska carry,” or the “Alaska bill,” because Alaska was one of the first states in the country to implement it. Arizona and Wyoming have similar laws.

In a “snafu” on the House floor yesterday, House Speaker Pro Tem Jeff Kaugmann (R) was caught privately acknowledging the danger of the bill while speaking near a microphone he thought was off, but was in fact turned on:

REP. STEVE LUKAN (R): The Alaska bill – what’s the Alaska bill? [...]

KAUFMAN: The crazy, give-a-handgun-to-a-schizophrenic bill.

AIDE OFF CAMERA: His microphone is on.

[Microphone goes dead]

Watch it:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Caught On Live Mic: Iowa GOPer Refers To GOP Gun Law As ‘The Crazy, Give-A-Handgun-To-A-Schizophrenic Bill’.

Pharmaceutical Company Hiking Price Of Drug That Prevents Premature Births From $10 to $1,500

Next week, the cost of preventing premature childbirth will skyrocket when a drug given to high-risk pregnant women goes from around $10 a dose to $1,500 a dose. The drug, called Makena, which has been made cheaply for years and is given as a weekly shot, could make the total cost during a pregnancy as much as $30,000. Why? Because KV Pharmaceutical of St. Louis recently won FDA approval to exclusively sell Makena last month.

By receiving “orphan drug status,” KV’s subsidiary Ther-RX Corp. will now be “the sole source of the drug for seven years.” In justifying the 14,900 percent price hike, KV Pharmaceuticals says that pregnant women will be willing to pay the new price because if they don’t, they could have a premature baby, or “preemie,” which could cost much much more:

The cost is justified to avoid the mental and physical disabilities that can come with very premature births, said KV Pharmaceutical chief executive Gregory J. Divis Jr. The cost of care for a preemie is estimated at $51,000 in the first year alone.

“Makena can help offset some of those costs,” Divis told The Associated Press. “These moms deserve the opportunity to have the benefits of an FDA-approved Makena.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is not involved in setting the price for the drugs it approves.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Pharmaceutical Company Hiking Price Of Drug That Prevents Premature Births From $10 to $1,500.

W.Va. delegates support Wis. state employees

West Virginia delegates voted 65-34 to pass a resolution in support of Wisconsin state employees and others affected by legislation introduced by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

The resolution came as a result of “enormous demonstrations” in opposition to legislation by Walker. According to the authors of the resolution, Walker’s legislation would be detrimental to municipal employees, public school employees and university employees.

“It’s about more than balancing the budget. It’s about busting unions,” Delegate Mike Caputo, D-Marion, said. “That’s what it’s about. It’s about squashing the American right of forming, joining and organizing a union.

Full Story Here: W.Va. delegates support Wis. state employees » Local News » The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia.

Atomic Safety Agency: Reactor Fuel Rods May Have Begun to Melt

A nuclear reactor in the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power station about 220 kilometers (140 miles) north of Tokyo may be starting to melt down after Japan’s biggest earthquake on record hit the area yesterday.

Fuel rods at the No. 1 reactor at the plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. may be melting after radioactive Cesium material left by atomic fission was detected near the site, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, spokesman Yuji Kakizaki said by phone today.

“If the fuel rods are melting and this continues, a reactor meltdown is possible,” Kakizaki said. A meltdown refers to a heat buildup in the core of such an intensity it melts the floor of the reactor containment housing.

Full Story Here: Japan Reactor Fuel Rods May Have Begun to Melt, Atomic Safety Agency Says – Bloomberg.