The last time America’s wealth gap between the Super Rich and the other 99% was this big was just before the 1929 Crash and the Great Depression.
THE HORROR IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Real Story of Our Economy: Why Our Standard of Living Has Stalled Out
Do public sector workers earn more than private sector workers? Who cares? This boneheaded question has us fighting over the crumbs. (And the answer is no -- all credible studies show that when you account for educational levels, the total compensation packages are about the same.)
The real question is: Why have most workers seen their standard of living stall over the last generation?
The answer is both obvious and appalling. More and more of our nation’s wealth is going to the few, while the many have seen their real wages actually decline. It’s a disgrace.
It wasn’t always so. For more than a quarter century after WWII the fruits of America's productivity were shared with average working people, year in and year out. But what exactly was being shared?
MORE
The real question is: Why have most workers seen their standard of living stall over the last generation?
The answer is both obvious and appalling. More and more of our nation’s wealth is going to the few, while the many have seen their real wages actually decline. It’s a disgrace.
It wasn’t always so. For more than a quarter century after WWII the fruits of America's productivity were shared with average working people, year in and year out. But what exactly was being shared?
MORE
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wisconsin Union Law Fight Sees Fresh Controversy
(Reuters) - Opponents of a bill stripping Wisconsin public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights rallied at the state Capitol on Saturday, the day after a state agency published the measure despite an order barring such a move.
Republican supporters of the measure said the action by the state's Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), which published the bill electronically on Friday, was legal and meant the controversial anti-union measure was now in effect.
But Democrats insisted the temporary restraining order (TRO) on publication issued last week by a judge remained in effect and rendered Friday's publication by the LRB moot.
MORE
Unfortunately, it is still several months before the traitorous guv'ner can be impeached.
Anyhoo, we experimented with giving Republicans limited power in state and federal government, and the experiment has failed. Time to do a fix in 2012.
Republican supporters of the measure said the action by the state's Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB), which published the bill electronically on Friday, was legal and meant the controversial anti-union measure was now in effect.
But Democrats insisted the temporary restraining order (TRO) on publication issued last week by a judge remained in effect and rendered Friday's publication by the LRB moot.
MORE
Unfortunately, it is still several months before the traitorous guv'ner can be impeached.
Anyhoo, we experimented with giving Republicans limited power in state and federal government, and the experiment has failed. Time to do a fix in 2012.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Billionaire self-pity and the Koch brothers: Glenn Greenwald
Recently the poor, poor, misunderstood Koch Brothers whined to "The Weekly Standard" how terribly mistreated they are while complaining Obama is "antibusiness, anti-free enterprise," with "internalized Marxist" ideas in the Kenyan socialist tradition. Meanwhile, here in REALITY, corporate profits are at an all-time high, income & wealth inequality are at Third World levels & the wealthiest pay little or no taxes.
RepublicanDirtyTricks.com
Since the financial crisis of 2008, one of the most revealing spectacles has been the parade of financial elites who petulantly insist that they are the victims of societal hostility: political officials heap too much blame on them, public policy burdens them so unfairly, the public resents them, and -- most amazingly of all -- President Obama is a radical egalitarian who is unprecedentedly hostile to business interests. One particularly illustrative example was the whiny little multi-millionaire hedge fund manager (and CNBC contributor), Anthony Scaramucci, who stood up at an October, 201o, town hall meeting and demanded to know: "when are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Street pinata?"
The Weekly Standard now has a very lengthy defense of -- including rare interviews with -- Charles and David Koch, the libertarian billionaires who fund everything from right-wing economic policy, union-busting, and anti-climate-change advocacy to civil liberties and liberalized social policies -- though far more the former goals than the latter. In this article one finds the purest and most instructive expression of billionaire self-pity that I think I've ever seen -- one that is as self-absorbed and detached from reality as it destructive. It's really worth examining their revealed mindset to see how those who wield the greatest financial power (and thus the greatest political power) think of themselves and those who are outside of their class.
SALON.COM
RepublicanDirtyTricks.com
Since the financial crisis of 2008, one of the most revealing spectacles has been the parade of financial elites who petulantly insist that they are the victims of societal hostility: political officials heap too much blame on them, public policy burdens them so unfairly, the public resents them, and -- most amazingly of all -- President Obama is a radical egalitarian who is unprecedentedly hostile to business interests. One particularly illustrative example was the whiny little multi-millionaire hedge fund manager (and CNBC contributor), Anthony Scaramucci, who stood up at an October, 201o, town hall meeting and demanded to know: "when are we going to stop whacking at the Wall Street pinata?"
The Weekly Standard now has a very lengthy defense of -- including rare interviews with -- Charles and David Koch, the libertarian billionaires who fund everything from right-wing economic policy, union-busting, and anti-climate-change advocacy to civil liberties and liberalized social policies -- though far more the former goals than the latter. In this article one finds the purest and most instructive expression of billionaire self-pity that I think I've ever seen -- one that is as self-absorbed and detached from reality as it destructive. It's really worth examining their revealed mindset to see how those who wield the greatest financial power (and thus the greatest political power) think of themselves and those who are outside of their class.
SALON.COM
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The economic outrage of 2010: Cowardly leaders failed to help working people -- and coddled the rich
"Some of the pain felt by the middle class could have been averted if our politicians had gotten up the gumption to pass a second round of stimulus. Instead, Congress passed a tax cut...much of the benefit went to the bankers responsible for the crisis." - Joseph Stiglitz
As we look back on 2010, the most significant economic event of the year was what didn't happen: Unemployment failed to come down, stubbornly hovering around 9.5% almost four years after the bubble broke, three years after the beginning of the recession and more than two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
And, above and beyond any other reason, this stagnation persisted because our political leaders failed to muster the requisite courage to tackle our problems at their source.
With one of six Americans who would like a full-time job still not able to get one, with more than 40% of those unemployed being without a job for more than six months - a level not seen since such records were kept - but with the bankers who caused the whole mess receiving the same megabonuses as before the crisis as if nothing had happened, no wonder the anger within the country is palpable.
The bankers had used their money and political influence first to buy deregulation, then to get a massive bailout and finally, this year, to prevent effective reregulation.
Read more
And, above and beyond any other reason, this stagnation persisted because our political leaders failed to muster the requisite courage to tackle our problems at their source.
With one of six Americans who would like a full-time job still not able to get one, with more than 40% of those unemployed being without a job for more than six months - a level not seen since such records were kept - but with the bankers who caused the whole mess receiving the same megabonuses as before the crisis as if nothing had happened, no wonder the anger within the country is palpable.
The bankers had used their money and political influence first to buy deregulation, then to get a massive bailout and finally, this year, to prevent effective reregulation.
Read more
Friday, March 25, 2011
More Bad Nuke News From Japan
TOKYO (AP) - A suspected breach in the core at one reactor at a stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday - a situation the prime minister called "very grave and serious."
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials said they suspected a breach at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that would be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the facility from leaking radiation.
The uncertain situation halted work at the nuclear complex, where dozens had been trying feverishly to stop the overheated plant from leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.
HERE
Three men working inside the No. 3 reactor stepped into water this week that had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that locale, Nishiyama said. That water likely indicates "some sort of leakage" from the reactor core, signaling a possible break of the containment vessel that houses the core.
The containment vessel is designed to prevent radioactive material from escaping into the atmosphere, even if other parts of the reactor are damaged. A rupture in the containment vessel could pose problems for workers who are trying to prevent that, depending on its severity.
The three workers who were exposed to radiation by stepping in the contaminated water had the highest levels of radiation recorded so far, said Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the plant.
HERE
TOKYO (Reuters) – The most difficult thing in a nuclear crisis, the Tokyo firefighter said, was the inability to sense where the danger was.
The Tokyo Fire Department's elite rescue team was among those called in to cool down a nuclear plant north of the capital that was badly damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami and was leaking radiation.
"We usually detect dangers, like fire and smoke, with our eyes, ears and nose, and eliminate some of them, if not all," said Yukio Takayama, a leader of the team.
Japanese firemen battle invisible danger
More Japanese crew exposed to radiation
(CNN) -- Colorado and Oregon have joined several other Western states in reporting trace amounts of radioactive particles that have likely drifted about 5,000 miles from a quake and tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan, officials say.
But, on a portion of its website dedicated to tracking such radiation, the Environmental Protection Agency noted Wednesday that these and other readings "show typical fluctuation in background radiation levels" and -- thus far -- "are far below levels of concern."
Sampling from a monitor in Colorado -- part of a national network of stations on the lookout for radioactivity -- detected miniscule amounts of iodine-131, a radioactive form of iodine, the state's public health and environmental department said Wednesday in a press release.
On the same day in Portland, Oregon, tiny quantities of iodine-131 were also detected by an Environmental Protection Agency air monitor, Oregon public health officials said.
HERE
A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials said they suspected a breach at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that would be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the facility from leaking radiation.
The uncertain situation halted work at the nuclear complex, where dozens had been trying feverishly to stop the overheated plant from leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.
HERE
Three men working inside the No. 3 reactor stepped into water this week that had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that locale, Nishiyama said. That water likely indicates "some sort of leakage" from the reactor core, signaling a possible break of the containment vessel that houses the core.
The containment vessel is designed to prevent radioactive material from escaping into the atmosphere, even if other parts of the reactor are damaged. A rupture in the containment vessel could pose problems for workers who are trying to prevent that, depending on its severity.
The three workers who were exposed to radiation by stepping in the contaminated water had the highest levels of radiation recorded so far, said Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns the plant.
HERE
TOKYO (Reuters) – The most difficult thing in a nuclear crisis, the Tokyo firefighter said, was the inability to sense where the danger was.
The Tokyo Fire Department's elite rescue team was among those called in to cool down a nuclear plant north of the capital that was badly damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami and was leaking radiation.
"We usually detect dangers, like fire and smoke, with our eyes, ears and nose, and eliminate some of them, if not all," said Yukio Takayama, a leader of the team.
Japanese firemen battle invisible danger
More Japanese crew exposed to radiation
(CNN) -- Colorado and Oregon have joined several other Western states in reporting trace amounts of radioactive particles that have likely drifted about 5,000 miles from a quake and tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant in Japan, officials say.
But, on a portion of its website dedicated to tracking such radiation, the Environmental Protection Agency noted Wednesday that these and other readings "show typical fluctuation in background radiation levels" and -- thus far -- "are far below levels of concern."
Sampling from a monitor in Colorado -- part of a national network of stations on the lookout for radioactivity -- detected miniscule amounts of iodine-131, a radioactive form of iodine, the state's public health and environmental department said Wednesday in a press release.
On the same day in Portland, Oregon, tiny quantities of iodine-131 were also detected by an Environmental Protection Agency air monitor, Oregon public health officials said.
HERE
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Republican Assault On Working Families
If you're the 1 out of 8 Americans receiving food stamps and ANYONE in your family participates in a strike, Repugs want to kick you off the program. It's a Republican twofer - starve the poor AND destroy the working class! Now get to work, peon... and don't dare question your "betters!" Your reward will come in Heaven.~Republicandirtytricks.com
House bill would cut off food stamps to striking workers’ families
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/03/house-bill-would-cut-off-food-stamps-to-striking-workers-families-shirtwaist-fire-anniversary-comes-amid-labor-war/
House bill would cut off food stamps to striking workers’ families
http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/03/house-bill-would-cut-off-food-stamps-to-striking-workers-families-shirtwaist-fire-anniversary-comes-amid-labor-war/
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Radical Right Wing Agenda: Tentherism
AZ Senate President Russell Pearce Takes Tentherism To New Level: ‘You Are Not A Citizen Of The United States’
One of the most radical offshoots of modern conservatism in the United States is called “tentherism,” which invokes the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment to claim that a whole host of federal government powers are illegitimate, from the operations of the Social Security program to the national highway system, and that states are supreme.
During a speech at the Oceanside Tea Party rally in recent months, Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R) took this philosophy to a new extreme. In the speech, where he denounced the federal government’s efforts to stop the implementation of the state’s radical anti-immigrant law, Pearce claimed that Americans aren’t even citizens of the United States, that they are rather citizens of “sovereign states,” meaning that we should be loyal to the laws of individual states rather than the federal government: WOW
One of the most radical offshoots of modern conservatism in the United States is called “tentherism,” which invokes the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment to claim that a whole host of federal government powers are illegitimate, from the operations of the Social Security program to the national highway system, and that states are supreme.
During a speech at the Oceanside Tea Party rally in recent months, Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R) took this philosophy to a new extreme. In the speech, where he denounced the federal government’s efforts to stop the implementation of the state’s radical anti-immigrant law, Pearce claimed that Americans aren’t even citizens of the United States, that they are rather citizens of “sovereign states,” meaning that we should be loyal to the laws of individual states rather than the federal government: WOW
15 of the deadliest US corporations
These U.S. corporations, if they were individual human beings, would be locked up for life. Instead, they continue raking in the big bucks. Human rights abuses, murder, war, eco disasters, and animal exploitation keep these evil companies raking in the green.
THE SHOCKING NEWS HERE
THE SHOCKING NEWS HERE
Sunday, March 20, 2011
VIDEO COMPILATION: Fox News is pushing a new line of attack on Obama that he's "on vacation" during the conflict in Libya.
“He’s going on vacation; he’s going to Rio!” an incredulous Steve Doocy commented. “He’s on vacation in Rio,” Fox contributor Ralph Peters said, echoing the network’s attack. Referencing Rio, Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt opined, “President Obama has absolutely abdicated his role as leader of the free world.” Watch a compilation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfP8QY3wD4&feature=player_embedded
Obama’s pre-scheduled Latin American trip is intended to strengthen the U.S.’s trading role with some of the world’s fastest growing markets. But the agenda of the trip has been overshadowed, as Obama has turned his focus to Libya.
HOW DARE OBAMA TRY TO FIX OUR ECONOMY WHILE REPUBLICANS LUST OVER ANOTHER WAR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfP8QY3wD4&feature=player_embedded
Obama’s pre-scheduled Latin American trip is intended to strengthen the U.S.’s trading role with some of the world’s fastest growing markets. But the agenda of the trip has been overshadowed, as Obama has turned his focus to Libya.
HOW DARE OBAMA TRY TO FIX OUR ECONOMY WHILE REPUBLICANS LUST OVER ANOTHER WAR
Saturday, March 19, 2011
A Biologist Refutes Ann Coulter
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/03/will_radiation_hormesis_protec.php
Guess Who Isn't 'Sharing The Sacrifice'?
Republicans in Congress have told us we must all 'share the sacrifice'. While the poor and middle classes do some 'sharing', guess who isn't...
For many U.S. chief executives, bonuses bounced back last year at a speedy clip.
CEO bonuses at 50 major corporations jumped a median of 30.5%, the biggest gain in at least three years, according to a study of the first batch of corporate CEO pay disclosures by consulting firm Hay Group for The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206903329068840.html
Meanwhile, for the rest of us...
Austerity nation – 45 million Americans on food assistance programs. Americans shopping at discount dollar stores confronting the realities of a shrinking dollar and disappearing middle class.
From November to December of 2010 487,000 Americans were added to the food stamp program. Keep in mind this all occurred while the stock market continued to soar and has rallied nearly 100 percent from the lows reached in March of 2009. Working and middle class Americans barely have enough to pay for the monthly bills so speculating in Wall Street is likely the least of their concerns. The data on food stamp usage usually trails the current calendar date by one quarter. The latest data we have is from December of 2010. However, we are adding roughly 300,000 people per month to the food stamp program called SNAP. If that is the case, as of today we now have 45,000,000 Americans participating in the food stamp program. We’ve noted trends in the economy where people line up at mid-night during certain key dates in the month at Wal-Mart locations waiting for their debit cards to refill so they can purchase food for their families.
http://www.mybudget360.com/austerity-nation-45-million-americans-on-food-assistance-programs-financial-shrinking-middle-class-hittng-wallets/
For many U.S. chief executives, bonuses bounced back last year at a speedy clip.
CEO bonuses at 50 major corporations jumped a median of 30.5%, the biggest gain in at least three years, according to a study of the first batch of corporate CEO pay disclosures by consulting firm Hay Group for The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206903329068840.html
Meanwhile, for the rest of us...
Austerity nation – 45 million Americans on food assistance programs. Americans shopping at discount dollar stores confronting the realities of a shrinking dollar and disappearing middle class.
From November to December of 2010 487,000 Americans were added to the food stamp program. Keep in mind this all occurred while the stock market continued to soar and has rallied nearly 100 percent from the lows reached in March of 2009. Working and middle class Americans barely have enough to pay for the monthly bills so speculating in Wall Street is likely the least of their concerns. The data on food stamp usage usually trails the current calendar date by one quarter. The latest data we have is from December of 2010. However, we are adding roughly 300,000 people per month to the food stamp program called SNAP. If that is the case, as of today we now have 45,000,000 Americans participating in the food stamp program. We’ve noted trends in the economy where people line up at mid-night during certain key dates in the month at Wal-Mart locations waiting for their debit cards to refill so they can purchase food for their families.
http://www.mybudget360.com/austerity-nation-45-million-americans-on-food-assistance-programs-financial-shrinking-middle-class-hittng-wallets/
Friday, March 18, 2011
Ann Coulter: Radiation is good for you
I can't figure out if Ann Coulter is a she or a he. Anyhoo, I'm pretty sure he/she isn't a medical expert, especially after reading this story!
Ann Coulter appeared on Thursday's "O'Reilly Factor" to advance an argument that she made in a column this week: that radiation is "good for you."
There has been a high degree of concern about the levels of radiation being released into the environment due to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. But, in a column called "A Glowing Report On Radiation," Coulter said that many scientists have been studying the effects of radiation and have found that, as she put it," at some level--much higher than the minimums set by the U.S. government--radiation is good for you," and actually reduced the risk of cancer.
She repeated this assertion to a skeptical Bill O'Reilly, who told her that, even if there was scientific discussion going on about the effects of radiation, it was the media's job to be "responsible" and "err on the side of caution" about radiation. "You have to report the worst-case scenario," he said, adding that there is a clear scientific consensus that "some radiation will kill you."
Coulter said she disagreed, and said that the scientific consensus has changed, but that the media are not reporting it.
"So by your account we should all be heading towards the nuclear reactor," O'Reilly said.
GLOW IN THE DARK
Ann Coulter appeared on Thursday's "O'Reilly Factor" to advance an argument that she made in a column this week: that radiation is "good for you."
There has been a high degree of concern about the levels of radiation being released into the environment due to the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. But, in a column called "A Glowing Report On Radiation," Coulter said that many scientists have been studying the effects of radiation and have found that, as she put it," at some level--much higher than the minimums set by the U.S. government--radiation is good for you," and actually reduced the risk of cancer.
She repeated this assertion to a skeptical Bill O'Reilly, who told her that, even if there was scientific discussion going on about the effects of radiation, it was the media's job to be "responsible" and "err on the side of caution" about radiation. "You have to report the worst-case scenario," he said, adding that there is a clear scientific consensus that "some radiation will kill you."
Coulter said she disagreed, and said that the scientific consensus has changed, but that the media are not reporting it.
"So by your account we should all be heading towards the nuclear reactor," O'Reilly said.
GLOW IN THE DARK
Mayor of town near stricken Japanese nuclear plant claims his people have been 'abandoned'
The voice on the phone was calm and dignified, as befitted a proud Japanese mayor, yet this somehow made his fury more forceful.
Hours after the tsunami struck, Katsunobu Sakurai told me, he had sought advice from the government on whether to evacuate the 71,000 people in his city, which is just 12 miles downwind of the Fukushima nuclear plant.
At first ministerial officials simply ignored his calls. When he did manage to speak to them, they assured him there was no cause for concern; a message he accepted and dutifully relayed.
He had toed the line because that is what Japan's civic leaders invariably do. But yesterday, far too late, the mayor of Minamisoma finally realised that he had been deceived, at best, and perhaps even lied to.
'Of course I am angry,' he told me through an interpreter yesterday. 'I was ignored and then badly misled, and as a result the people were abandoned here to die.
HAY, WHAT ABOUT US?
Hours after the tsunami struck, Katsunobu Sakurai told me, he had sought advice from the government on whether to evacuate the 71,000 people in his city, which is just 12 miles downwind of the Fukushima nuclear plant.
At first ministerial officials simply ignored his calls. When he did manage to speak to them, they assured him there was no cause for concern; a message he accepted and dutifully relayed.
He had toed the line because that is what Japan's civic leaders invariably do. But yesterday, far too late, the mayor of Minamisoma finally realised that he had been deceived, at best, and perhaps even lied to.
'Of course I am angry,' he told me through an interpreter yesterday. 'I was ignored and then badly misled, and as a result the people were abandoned here to die.
HAY, WHAT ABOUT US?
"Chernobyl solution" may be last resort for Japan reactors
TOKYO, March 18 (Reuters) - A "Chernobyl solution" may be the last resort for dealing with Japan's stricken nuclear plant, but burying it in sand and concrete is a messy fix that might leave part of the country as an off-limits radioactive sore for decades.
Japanese authorities say it is still too early to talk about long-term measures while cooling the plant's six reactors and associated fuel-storage pools, comes first.
"It's just not that easy," Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California, said when asked about the so-called Chernobyl option for dealing with damaged reactors, named after the Ukrainian nuclear plant that exploded in 1986.
"They (reactors) are kind of like a coffee maker. If you leave it on the heat, they boil dry and then they crack," he said.
"Putting concrete on that wouldn't help keep your coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes, you could build a concrete shield and be done with it."
COVER IT AN' FUGEDDABOUDID
Japanese authorities say it is still too early to talk about long-term measures while cooling the plant's six reactors and associated fuel-storage pools, comes first.
"It's just not that easy," Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California, said when asked about the so-called Chernobyl option for dealing with damaged reactors, named after the Ukrainian nuclear plant that exploded in 1986.
"They (reactors) are kind of like a coffee maker. If you leave it on the heat, they boil dry and then they crack," he said.
"Putting concrete on that wouldn't help keep your coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes, you could build a concrete shield and be done with it."
COVER IT AN' FUGEDDABOUDID
Nuclear Crisis in Japan Follows Decades of Faked Safety Reports, Accidents
The unfolding disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant follows decades of falsified safety reports, fatal accidents and underestimated earthquake risk in Japan’s atomic power industry.
The destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the world’s biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked repair records forced the resignation of the company’s chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its reactors.
With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in the world’s most earthquake-prone country.
Nuclear engineers and academics who have worked in Japan’s atomic power industry spoke in interviews of a history of accidents, faked reports and inaction by a succession of Liberal Democratic Party governments that ran Japan for nearly all of the postwar period.
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH SO WE'LL FAKE IT UP FOR 'YA
The destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the world’s biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked repair records forced the resignation of the company’s chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its reactors.
With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in the world’s most earthquake-prone country.
Nuclear engineers and academics who have worked in Japan’s atomic power industry spoke in interviews of a history of accidents, faked reports and inaction by a succession of Liberal Democratic Party governments that ran Japan for nearly all of the postwar period.
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH SO WE'LL FAKE IT UP FOR 'YA
BULLETIN: JUDGE BLOCKS IMPLEMENTATION OF WISCONSIN ANTI-COLLECTIVE BARGAINING BILL
A Wisconsin judge just issued an order temporarily blocking Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on collective bargaining rights from going into effect.
WORD ON THE RULING
WORD ON THE RULING
How Corporations Cheat Uncle Sam And The Taxpayers
Corporations depend upon America's infrastructure, but they don't want to pay for it!
CHEATIN' THE TAXPAYER
CHEATIN' THE TAXPAYER
Thursday, March 17, 2011
UN Authorizes Military Action In Libya!
(Reuters) - The United Nations authorised military action to curb Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Thursday, hours after he threatened to storm the rebel bastion of Benghazi overnight, showing "no mercy, no pity."
"We will come, zenga, zenga. House by house, room by room," he said in a radio address to the eastern city.
Al Jazeera television showed thousands of Benghazi residents in a central square celebrating the U.N. vote, waving anti-Gaddafi tricolour flags and chanting defiance of the man who has ruled for four decades. Fireworks burst over the city.
Gaddafi had warned that only those who lay down their arms would be spared vengeance to be exacted on 'rats and dogs'.
"It's over. The issue has been decided," Gaddafi said. "We are coming tonight...We will find you in your closets.
"We will have no mercy and no pity."
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone to halt government troops now around 100 km (60 miles) from Benghazi. It also authorised "all necessary measures" -- code for military action -- to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.
But time was clearly running short for the city that has been the heart of Libya's revolution.
Residents said the Libyan air force unleashed three air raids on the city of 670,000 on Thursday and there has been fierce fighting along the Mediterranean coastal road as Gaddafi moves to crush the month-old insurrection.
French diplomatic sources said military action could come within hours, and could include France, Britain and possibly the United States and one or more Arab states; but a U.S. military official said no immediate U.S. action was expected following the vote.
WAR ON KADDAFI
"We will come, zenga, zenga. House by house, room by room," he said in a radio address to the eastern city.
Al Jazeera television showed thousands of Benghazi residents in a central square celebrating the U.N. vote, waving anti-Gaddafi tricolour flags and chanting defiance of the man who has ruled for four decades. Fireworks burst over the city.
Gaddafi had warned that only those who lay down their arms would be spared vengeance to be exacted on 'rats and dogs'.
"It's over. The issue has been decided," Gaddafi said. "We are coming tonight...We will find you in your closets.
"We will have no mercy and no pity."
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone to halt government troops now around 100 km (60 miles) from Benghazi. It also authorised "all necessary measures" -- code for military action -- to protect civilians against Gaddafi's forces.
But time was clearly running short for the city that has been the heart of Libya's revolution.
Residents said the Libyan air force unleashed three air raids on the city of 670,000 on Thursday and there has been fierce fighting along the Mediterranean coastal road as Gaddafi moves to crush the month-old insurrection.
French diplomatic sources said military action could come within hours, and could include France, Britain and possibly the United States and one or more Arab states; but a U.S. military official said no immediate U.S. action was expected following the vote.
WAR ON KADDAFI
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