COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, March 18, 2011

Allah be praised, France, Obama and the UN to the rescue in Libya.


France was prepared to act on enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya as soon as the UN Security Council approves a new resolution, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Thursday. China and Russia abstained along with Brazil, India and Germany, who said they did not want to getsucked into a war. The operation is likely to be mounted from French air force bases in the south of the country – which is less than 1,000 miles from the Libyan coast – as well as from RAF bases in Cyprus. Italy has also said it is prepared to make its military bases available to enforce a no-fly zone.

Arab involvement was a priority for London and Washington, which are anxious to avoid a perception of outside meddling in Arab affairs.


In a 10 to 0 vote, with five abstentions, the Security Council called for an immediate cease-fire in Libya and approved the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libyan territory and the interdiction of ships carrying supplies to Gaddafi’s government. In broad language, the council approved the use of any means short of “foreign occupation” to end strikes against “civilian populated areas under threat of attack . . . including Benghazi.”

The vote marked a dramatic turn in the world’s response to the Libyan crisis after weeks of debate and reluctance by many to intervene, and it comes as rebel forces were said to be on the brink of defeat.

Celebrations erupted across Benghazi as word of the vote reached the rebels. Clerics chanted “God is great” over mosque loudspeakers, and the streets were filled with celebratory gunfire and people waving the pre-Gaddafi Libyan flag adopted by the rebels.


France said it was prepared to launch attacks within hours, and Britain also indicated that it was prepared to act quickly. Initial strikes are likely to target air defense systems and runways; it was unclear whether plans were also in motion to strike at tank columns and other government ground forces headed east.

U.S. officials said that it would probably take several days for a full operation to be undertaken and that President Obama had not yet approved the use of U.S. military assets. Obama has preferred to let other nations publicly lead the response to the Libyan crisis, and White House officials said he would not appear on camera Thursday night to speak about the U.N. vote.

Washington Post

83 comments:

  1. Gadhafi, meanwhile, dismissed the legitimacy of U.N.-sanctioned action, and threatened to respond.

    “The U.N. Security Council has no mandate. We don’t acknowledge their resolutions,” he told Radiotelevisao Portuguesa.

    He pledged to respond harshly to U.N.-sponsored attacks. “If the world is crazy, we will be crazy too,” he said.


    Crisis Mounts

    ReplyDelete
  2. Get this straight: There is no such thing as just a being a 'Libyan.'

    There seems to be a common conception of this conflict in Libya as Gaddafi vs. the people, but this is simply not the case. Libya is comprised of numerous tribes, of which Gaddafi's is currently (or was) in a position of eminence. These tribes have been part of internecine struggle, and numerous wars and skirmishes for the past thousand years or so, further complicated by the movements of the Bedouin peoples who live there.

    The state of Libya was created only 100 years ago, when lines were drawn on a map by the Italians and the various peoples were clumped together into one state. This continued through British rule of the region, through to the Monarchy and independence. Gaddafi rose to power on a wave of popularity, deposing the corrupt Monarch who was seen as a puppet of the Colonial powers, (the current saviours).

    Let the Arab problem be sorted out by the Arabs is a much more sensible plan and will have one asking more than just a few very awkward questions, should any gung ho wild westerners be involved at all, in what is essentially an internal affair, albeit with global repercussions in manipulated markets.

    ReplyDelete
  3. winning hearts and mindsFri Mar 18, 12:59:00 AM EDT

    A firm stand with oppressed people seeking freedom and rights against tyranny, and backing that up with action if need be. This is indeed a great day for humanity, and one feels that collectively as humans we "grew up a little".

    People who care about the oppressed who are asking for help don't have the luxury of waiting and seeing how things go. If these rebels are not helped the massacre would be far greater. If they are helped there will be a cost in human lives too.

    We cannot sit back in our safe and free countries and do nothing to help other people who want what we have. We are one world, our common humanity transcends borders, all races, religions and nationalities must rise up against tyranny and dictatorship.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Keep out of it! Let the Arab Nations sort Gadaffi out. This will become a quagmire if we become involved militarily in Libya.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Governments pushing the hardest for wholesale killing and destruction- from a safe distance, of course, are those that are in debt to their eye balls.

    Nobody is interested in the fake democracy model that is being peddled by the shrillest and loudest in the democracy crowd.

    Gates said, "A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses." What if some of these bases are located near civilians areas? It only takes one missile from a plane directed at an anti-aircraft station to hit a civilian area, and then what? Please think through it before you let your heart rule your mind assuming you have one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I back. I had good phone with my friend Barack still cool in the face of the false disaster by the warmonging Japanese. Hillary just finished call with Barack saying, "We must bomb Libya to defend liberal values, as championed by other Arab beacons of progress such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Egypt and Yemen." All good business partners I must feel free to add to this conversation.

    I support the most courageous and altruistic initiative of France, the UK and now the US in democratizing the Libyan oil wells for freedom of exploitation. China had to abstain, sorry that I am to explain, but my friend Barack had to make his move to take the lovely Michelle for big weekend in Rio, as I explained that I go as well to return so we are too busy to say much more.

    I have to go now.

    ReplyDelete
  7. My popcorn is quite delightful..
    The death toll today of moslem killing moslem has been broad and varied...

    From car bombs in iraq, to riots in syria, to snipers in bahrain to simple kidnapping and torture in gaza and the west bank, and that doesnt even talk about pakistan, afpak and ubekistan!!!!

    So many moslems, killing so many moslems...

    from one end of the islamic world to the other, stabbings, bombings, beheadings, rape and all sorts of islamic ied's!!!

    Not enough popcorn to keep me going while i try to add up the day's tally....

    I think libya will be a good score tomorrow, as well as pakistan....

    one can only hope....

    ReplyDelete
  8. There were three black ladies getting ready to take a plane trip for
    the first time. The first lady said, "I don't know 'bout y'all, but I'm gunna wear me sum hot pink panties beefo I gets on dat plane."


    "Why you gonna wear dem fo?" the other two asked.

    The first replied, "Cause if dat plane goes down and I'm out dare laying butt-up in a conefield, dey gonna find me first."

    The second lady said, "Well, I'm a-gonna wear me some floe esant orange panties."

    "Why you gonna wear dem?" the others asked.

    The second lady answered, "Cause if dis hare plane is goin' down and I be floating butt-up in the oshun, dey can see me first."

    The third lady says, "Well, I'm not gonna wear any panties."

    "What? No panties?" the others asked in disbelief.

    The third lady says, "Dat's right, girlfriends, you hears me right. I ain't wearin' any panties, cause if dis plane goes down, honey, dey always look fo da black box first."

    ReplyDelete
  9. You cannot blame this mess on Obama. Obama may be very smart or clueless but in retrospect, the removal of Saddam Hussein cost American taxpayers over 700 billion dollars (and still counting), thanks to George W. Bush the Moron. Obama was against US intervention in Iraq. The goal of US foreign policy should be to make the world safe for democracy, not to make the world democratic.

    Our supposed moral superiority in intervening to "save" human rights is a mask for years of supporting dictators who have oppressed the very human rights politicians claim we must now defend. This is a Civil War and the UN and the US have no right to intervene at the moment, as no proof of genocide has been proven. This could be the end of the UN and many countries will claim it is bias and only intervenes when the west ideology is at stake. Maybe we should rethink our foreign policy from the ground up, rather than bombing someone else's country into dust to compensate for our lack of moral rectitude.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Try and let go of your hatred for Obama.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's puzzling, but for some reason that picture is more of a turn-on than a typical Victoria's Secret pic.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Bungling, cover-ups define Japanese nuclear power

    TOKYO (AP) - BEHIND Japan's escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses.

    Leaks of radioactive steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all.

    In one case, workers hand-mixed uranium in stainless steel buckets, instead of processing by machine, so the fuel could be reused, exposing hundreds of workers to radiation. Two later died.

    'Everything is a secret,' said Kei Sugaoka, a former nuclear power plant engineer in Japan who now lives in California.

    'There's not enough transparency in the industry.' Mr Sugaoka worked at the same utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant where workers are racing to prevent a full meltdown following Friday's 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami.

    In 1989, Mr Sugaoka received an order that horrified him:
    edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video being submitted to regulators.

    Mr Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co, but nothing happened. He decided to go public in 2000. -- AP

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hey T:
    Put on your thinking cap and solve this one:

    Find Marizela

    Interview with Michelle Malkin about Marizela

    Michelle's 18 year old cousin is missing in Seattle area.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Arab woman do have very erotic tastes in their selection of underwear. Your hound dog detector must be working.

    ReplyDelete
  15. We have to bomb them to save them?

    Has everyone gone mad? Iraq military intervention bad, Libyia intervention good?

    Senator Lindsey Graham: "I learned that it's not too late, that the opposition forces are under siege but they are holding, and that with a timely intervention, a no-fly zone and no-drive zone, we can turn this thing around."

    Our collective governments ignore humanitatian atrocities (many ongoing) in countless African states, but just happen to get their act together for what in Libya? A populous adriot with social media?

    No no it's oil again.

    I cannot believe this has been so obliging accepted and encouraged in the west.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Con Coughlin says in the Telegraph that a Bahrain rebellion is a bigger threat to the West:

    "Saudi Arabia's support for the Gulf state risks drawing Iran into the conflict... There is little doubt that, in light of his 41-year tyranny and what he has said and done to repress and kill his opponents during the uprising, Kadafi will commit atrocities against a large portion of the Libyan population if he prevails. His recent pledge to grant amnesty to rebels who disarm is laughable. The same is true if his regime merely survives, crippled but in control of much of Libya."

    Where does this end? Has it been determined that Iran is to be the new hegemonic power in Central Asia? No one wants that but think it through. As the dictators fall, relative stability will vanish. Iran will not ease up on their national goal, established under the Shah, continued under the mullahs, to become the dominant power in the region. If we give military support on one side or another, what happens when Israel demands that it cannot standby and tolerate an ascendent Iran? Do we support an Israeli attack on Iran and suffer the consequences? Israel can deter any agression from Iran but Israel cannot take agressve action against Iran and finish the job herself.

    Germany has enough sense to stay out of this and the Russians after Aghanistan and Chechnya have had their fill.

    The American people do not need a third war. Congress needs to be heard from and Congress needs to say NO.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hu Dat good perceptive man full of incite!

    Hu Dat wrote:

    "Hillary just finished call with Barack saying, "We must bomb Libya to defend liberal values, as championed by other Arab beacons of progress such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Egypt and Yemen." All good business partners I must feel free to add to this conversation."


    It is ironic that so many of those who thought Saddam was a bad man who had to go now rail against taking out the bad man Qaddafi. He is a bad man, by the way, who is slaughtering folk with his store bought military. Ironic too that France appears to be in the lead this time around. Have they got a lot of oil interest in the country?

    hmmm top result in bing for "France Oil Libya" yeilds:

    France to use oil stocks if Libya supply stopped


    PARIS Feb 22 (Reuters) - France, which imports about 15 percent of its crude oil needs from Libya, will quickly have to start using its strategic stocks if supply from the country is stopped, the president of the French oil industry union said."

    ReplyDelete
  18. .

    He is a bad man, by the way, who is slaughtering folk with his store bought military.

    Like a hundred other 'bad men' slaughtering folk with their store bought military. It amazes me how people who don't actually have to worry about actually fighting (or paying for it) are so morally righteous.

    I suggest we send in the Canadians and the French to handle the situation in Libya.

    Oh yea, since BP's oil contracts with Libya no longer factors into their decisions, the British may as well tag along.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  19. .

    Con Coughlin says in the Telegraph that a Bahrain rebellion is a bigger threat to the West:

    And why did the SA and the UAE send in troops to Bahrain? Based on past history, they would never have done it, especially in the face of U.S. opposition?

    Strictly my opinion, but I believe it is because the U.S. is now considered a weak sister, blowing with the wind. SA saw the U.S. kick Mubarick, a long-time ally, to the curb within the timeframe of a week.

    They see people talking about the "poor Shia". And they start thinking they may be the next sold down the tubes.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  20. Canada appears to be ponying up 6 CF-18 fighter jets. I believe they are on their way as we speak as liberals proudly wave the 'duty to protect' flag and join in the conservative championed war in arabia. I'm sure the Israelis are smiling as additional assets are deployed.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Try and let go of your hatred for Obama? That's rich.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Well the UN no-fly zone has put a leash on Ghaddafi, he issued a cease-fire forthwith, lest those blue airplanes start wagging their wings at him. He could not imagine a Libya without flies.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ghaddafi smarter than Saddam it seems. What will the west do now?

    ReplyDelete
  24. .

    Well the UN no-fly zone has put a leash on Ghaddafi, he issued a cease-fire forthwith,...

    And if you believe that one...

    .

    ReplyDelete
  25. Why wouldn't he offer up a ceasefire Quirk? There is no way his military can stand up to the west. He sacrifices Benghazi (or whatever that rebel town is called) and he remains in power with the territory he currently holds. Or will the west press on regardless?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Reminds me of him giving up his Nuke program.

    He'll never forget RR's attack on his tent.

    ReplyDelete
  27. US backing for world currency stuns markets

    US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner shocked global markets by revealing that Washington is "quite open" to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund.

    ReplyDelete
  28. 300 Volts are sold every month!

    The electric revolution is upon us.

    ReplyDelete
  29. .

    I just saw a feed out of Misrata where the bombs are currently dropping. Cease fire? Why would he do that?

    The Un says they will be able to start bombing operations by Sunday or Monday. The loyalists are mopping up the towns around Bengazi as we speak. By Sunday if things went well for them, they could actually be in Bengazi making it much harder for the UN to bomb without creating collateral damage.

    Why would the Loyalists give up the only advantage they have at the moment which is momentum.

    As for Ghadaffi holding onto the territory he now has? How did that work out for Mubarak? Plus they are talking about trying him in front of the World Court. What would you do if you were him?

    The US is talking about taking the Libyan money they have frozen and giving it to the "rebels". (Kind of reminds me of those trucks full of cash the military was handing out in the early days of Iraq with no accountibility.) They have no idea who the "rebels" actually are. To them, the most important thing is to be seen doing something. Anything.

    In a situation like that, with no place to run no place to hide, would you tell your troops to put up your arms we've got a cease fire going here because it will gain me some sympathy.

    Perhaps Ghadaffi is a moron. He would have to be to do it.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  30. I don't hate the man. I despise what he is about, but it is nothing personal and my contempt is not limited to the Democrats. We are in term three of incompetent presidents and have an insipid Republican opposition that keeps Obama in contention. What else could possibly go wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  31. quirk wrote:

    "would you tell your troops to put up your arms we've got a cease fire going here because it will gain me some sympathy."

    I don't think he'd offer a ceasefire looking for sympathy but rather to knock the rationale out from under the west for joining in the battle - i.e. if he isn't killing civilians anymore they'd not have reason to attack him (at least according to the UN resolution).

    ReplyDelete
  32. .

    I used the word sympathy somewhat tounge in cheek.

    If you believe the UN's aim is anything less than to depose Ghadaffi, you and I are on different pages.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  33. "The UN's aim.." That's a hard one to wrap my mind around what with the UN being simply the sum of its parts (well, at least the parts on the Security Council).

    There are certainly many who want Ghaddafi deposed but the actual resolution (which I can't find online) seems to specify 'no fly' zone and, according to what I heard on the radio, specifically does not include ground forces. So...

    Will the 'UN' (i.e. who's leading the command) fly missions in support of the rebels if they should choose to advance again toward Tripoli? I'm not convinced they will at this point in time...

    ReplyDelete
  34. ...what is the end game here? Like you mentioned before about ad hoc foreign policy so too this Libyan response appears to be.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hillary's got some balls.

    Barack's in Rio.

    Gadafi will be chained.

    Hooray.

    ReplyDelete
  36. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/03/hillary_clinton_fed_up.html


    Hillary is my superheroine.

    ReplyDelete
  37. .

    When Paul Krugman sounds like the voice of reason, you know we are in deep doo doo.

    "More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed.

    Jobs do get mentioned now and then — and a few political figures, notably Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, are still trying to get some kind of action. But no jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts.

    So one-sixth of America’s workers — all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job — have, in effect, been abandoned.

    It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon. But unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape. There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.

    In short, we’re well on the way to creating a permanent underclass of the jobless. Why doesn’t Washington care?

    ...So the next time you hear some Republican declaring that he’s concerned about deficits because he cares about his children — or, for that matter, the next time you hear Mr. Obama talk about winning the future — you should remember that the clear and present danger to the prospects of young Americans isn’t the deficit. It’s the absence of jobs..."


    No Jobs

    .

    ReplyDelete
  38. I believe Clinton sent the missile up his ass and tent, not RR.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Hillary is acknowledging the obvious. When will the public get it? Obama has the qualifications of a doorman or chauffeur. He looks good in black and he can talk sports. He knows smooth and living large. He moved on up and I knew we were screwed when he sat in one of those big leather seats on AF-1 and said in the rising vocal tone of black southerners, "This is pretty nice."

    Several years ago, had Saturday Night Live did a skit of a black president doing b-ball brackets while the world was falling off its axis, there would have been howls of racism. The only reason this man got to Harvard, became senator and then president is because he is black.

    The left, liberals and dreamers wanted to prove they were color blind by being keenly color aware. We can only hope that enough people will see the foolishness of electing this man, without any qualification or experience, because of his color. The hard truth is that was the only reason he was elected.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Sorry Gag, but it was RR. F-111 Aardvarks carried the load. Around French airspace. Ironic who's leading the charge for bombing today...

    ReplyDelete
  41. My bad, I thought Bill Clinton was holding the White Castle at the time. Good to hear from you DDay.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Ah... Yemen, 25 dead, Bahrain, 7 dead, Iran who knows how many dead, Libya 25 dead...

    Now that is what I call an Islamic day of rest...

    Cease Fire?

    ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

    As for Obama?

    He is a great President in the line of Arafat & Mao...

    But I hope the USA retires him asap...

    And as for a doorman?

    He aint qualified...

    America voted for the idiot?

    America got what it wanted..

    DO you miss George Bush yet?

    ha h aha h ah ah ah ah ah ah ah

    ReplyDelete
  43. .

    DO you miss George Bush yet?

    No.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  44. "Several years ago, had Saturday Night Live did a skit of a black president doing b-ball brackets while the world was falling off its axis, there would have been howls of racism."

    Ain't that the truth.

    They should do one now, use that great look-a-like black guy who plays him now and then.

    ReplyDelete
  45. http://www.nysun.com/opinion/palin-doctrine-emerges-as-arab-league-echoes-her/87263/

    ReplyDelete
  46. .

    :)

    Sarah Palin is on the same page as Ahmed Chalabi.

    Nuff said.

    Palin Doctrine?

    Hysterical.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  47. The Palin doctrine?

    All abortion is murder and anyone having or performing one, even in the case of rape or incest, should be punished by the law.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Deuce: "...had Saturday Night Live did a skit of a black president doing b-ball brackets while the world was falling off its axis, there would have been howls of racism."

    You nail it, pal!

    ReplyDelete
  49. Fukushima

    NISA News Release, c. 1500h, 3-18-11

    Spent fuel shared storage facility water temp. 55 C

    Reactor data summary:

    Unit: 1
    Water depth over rods, mm: 10596
    Water temp, deg C: 32

    Unit: 2
    Water depth over rods, mm: 10146
    Water temp, deg C: 26

    Unit: 3
    Water depth over rods, mm: 7504
    Water temp, deg C: 43

    Unit: 4
    Water depth over rods, mm: 8905
    Water temp, deg C: 33

    Quick scan of ambient radiation data from 20 km stations indicated most levels under 10 micro Sieverts/hr. Admittedly fast scanned data...some may be over.

    For comparison, an air traveler on a round trip, Tokyo-NYC receives approx 200 microSieverts/RT.

    Fire engines and emergency personnel holding the line wrt external cooling efforts, aided by some US pumping equipment.

    Inside control & equipment connections to restored grid power too complicated to unravel briefly.

    Link

    ReplyDelete
  50. Teresita said...
    The Palin doctrine?

    All abortion is murder and anyone having or performing one, even in the case of rape or incest, should be punished by the law.




    Dam those women that actually are married to men, have families and do not support abortion as birth control and actually have the balls to not terminate a pregnancy with the potential life has downs syndrome.

    To attempt to smear Palin by putting words in her mouth that she has never said, nor when she actually held office as Governor did she take any legal steps to what you allude to....

    Put up or shut up....

    ReplyDelete
  51. CNN--Breaking News--

    -- President Obama says Libyan leader Gadhafi has "lost the confidence of his own people and the legitimacy to lead."

    LOL...when will he say the same about himself?

    ReplyDelete
  52. I regular and back. I fitted with new suit by tailor for my Rio trip with Barack. I see newspaper at tailor and read the headline right! "How would you feel about Charlie Sheen being the next President of the United States?"

    Nobody make party better than She Han. Republican and Democratic party no match. Paper say Mr She Han makes number one ass kick with President Obama and Sar ah Pa Lin in election matchup. Charlie big winner in first and second case. Democratic voters say She Han over Pa Lin 44-24. Republican voters number one with She Han when matched with my friend Barack 37-28. For independent party makers She Han 41-36 against Pa Lin.

    I not bring paper on airplane no mention to Barack.

    I have to go now.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Linear Thinker and Doug are in full retreat and were last seen entering a Sushi bar in Tokyo --

    "Radiation hampers efforts to restore power to nuclear plant in Japan


    Efforts to try to restore power to reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi complex are interrupted as high radiation forces the withdrawal of workers. But it's unclear whether a return of power will help. Spent fuel rods remain the biggest concern."

    ReplyDelete
  54. Ann Coulter quotes study showing a little above average radiation is good for you --
    24% less cancer and 25% lower death rate -- man up Linear Thinker and Doug. Get back in there.


    See Radiation Hormesis -- the good effects of radiation -- or go to
    Ann Coulter's Web page.

    go glow glow go

    ReplyDelete
  55. "I was, frankly, very disappointed that [Nicolas] Sarkozy did not share with us his Final Four picks," Gingrich said, referring to the French president, who's nation has led the push for military intervention in Libya. "And i think it's his failure to understand the Final Four that allowed him to focus on Libya on a way tha. Clearly, if he had understood the American system he would have understood that his is not a good week to deal with Libya because this is the week to deal with Kansas, Ohio State, and you know things that were really important."

    ReplyDelete
  56. Who ya gonna believe?

    Drudge Headlines, 1:51 PM 3/18/2011:

    Japan govt finally admits radiation leak serious enough to kill...

    It is now officially on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania in 1979. Only the explosion at Chernobyl in 1986 has topped the scale.

    TMI killed no one. No one injured IIRC. Weeping plant mgr big news...

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367684/Nuclear-plant-chief-weeps-Japanese-finally-admit-radiation-leak-kill-people.html#ixzz1GzFB27UY

    Radiation Drives back crews attempting to rein in reactor...

    Crews rotated due to time of exposure during re-wiring of control room...SOP...yesterday's news...

    'Very Grave'; Winds Shift...

    A 9.1 quake and record tsunami create grave situations. Winds always shift...check the data at the monitoring sites at 20 km...


    AP: 'Minuscule fallout' reaches USA...

    A diplomat with access to radiation tracking by the U.N.'s Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna cited readings from a California-based measuring station of the agency as about a billion times beneath levels that would be health threatening. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the CTBTO does not make its findings public.

    Meanwhile, air pollution regulators in Southern California also said they have not detected increased levels of radiation from the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors.


    REUTERS: 'Very low radiation' detected on west coast...

    California seeing no radiation level increase...

    ...also, see above...

    Rads Whitewash?

    Alex Jones says so...he's a regular on Coast-to-CoastAM ever since the Art Bell days...popular in Idaho among the cognoscenti...

    Storage pools big worry...

    "If you look at the photos" of the Fukushima Daiichi facility in northeastern Japan, "you see at least two pools are exposed to the open sky," Alvarez said.

    Alvarez is a Clinton era DoE employee looking at days old photographs in Washington, DC...

    Man up anonymous...you're a whiner...

    ReplyDelete
  57. Temperatures in reactors 1-4 continue to fall...water levels over rods continue to increase.

    Reactors 5 & 6 normal as might be expected after 9.1 quake and tsunami.

    I don't eat sushi...isn't that some kind of fish bait?

    Where's Doug? His wading pools and garden hoses solution seems to have saved the day. Take a bow, Douggo!

    ReplyDelete
  58. 67. Doug
    52. 13times

    Tokyo Electric is still up to it’s sneaky cover up tricks:

    It headlines the temperature of the Spent Fuel *Shared* Storage Facility, which nobody is worried about.

    You have to scroll way down the page to read the temperature of the transfer pool atop unit #4.

    Then, if you look closely, the last reading was taken on March 14.

    The more things change…

    http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/03/17/who-else/#comments

    ReplyDelete
  59. Chernobyl: the true scale of the accident

    Poverty, “lifestyle” diseases now rampant in the former Soviet Union and mental health problems pose a far greater threat to local communities than does radiation exposure.

    About 4000 cases of thyroid cancer, mainly in children and adolescents at the time of the accident, have resulted from the accident’s contamination and at least nine children died of thyroid cancer; however the survival rate among such cancer victims, judging from experience in Belarus, has been almost 99%.

    Most emergency workers and people living in contaminated areas received relatively low whole body radiation doses, comparable to natural background levels.

    As a consequence, no evidence or likelihood of decreased fertility among the affected population has been found, nor has there been any evidence of increases in congenital malformations that can be attributed to radiation exposure.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Furthermore, Doug, comparisons between Chernobyl and Fukushima are as apples to avocados, at least to date.

    Lack of pool data at #4 is troubling, but I tend to put more credibility in the TEPCO-NISA reporting than I do in AP reporting of the bloviating by DC experts whose closest inputs are staffers sitting in Tokyo. Water cannons are spraying that pool enclosure as we speak, and have been for 24 hours.

    IAEA supports my contentions, but I don't believe all I hear from IAEA.

    My bottom line continues to be that your TV is your biggest radiation threat at present.

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  61. So. Is anything working in Japan?

    Why, yes. Yes it is. Japan has 10 Gigawatts of Wind power, and The Japanes Wind Turbines are Working Just Fine.

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  62. They'd do well in NW Mississippi, too.

    ReplyDelete
  63. sssssssssssssp!

    ahhhhhhhhh!

    Good plutonium man!


    There is a venomous tone towards Mr Obama in press comment in Britain, which has traditionally looked to the US for leadership. The Times blames Mr Obama for turning the tide of north African revolutions, calling him "feckless" and "a brutal disappointment".

    There is a strong element of hypocrisy here. Britain has just slunk out of Iraq and is trying to get out of Afghanistan as soon as is decent, so what business is it of London to goad the US into another military adventure in a Muslim country? And particularly one that is of greater strategic interest to Europe than to the US.

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  64. I suppose the earthquake and the tsunami were G-d's wrath against the Japanese for not supporting Israel building housing units over the Green Line.

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  65. Breaking World News --

    WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is staying with defending champion Connecticut in the women's basketball bracket.

    For the second straight year, Obama has filled out an NCAA women's tournament bracket for ESPN. He says top seeds Connecticut, Baylor, Stanford, and Tennessee will make the women's Final Four.

    Obama has the Huskies beating the Lady Bears in the national championship game.

    The Huskies have won the last two national championships and lost only one game since Obama took office. That loss was to Stanford in December and snapped UConn's 90-game winning streak.

    His pick to win it all was revealed Friday on SportsCenter.

    Obama correctly chose Connecticut to beat Stanford for the championship last season.

    He picked Kansas to win the men's title this year.
    ...

    ReplyDelete
  66. Teresita said...
    I suppose the earthquake and the tsunami were G-d's wrath against the Japanese for not supporting Israel building housing units over the Green Line.


    Nice attempt at Jew baiting, notice how you DONT explain your full of shit comment about Palin?

    Change the topic, Jew Bait...

    Put up or shut up.

    Palin never said anything you attributed to her.

    As for your sad attempt for Jew Baiting?

    yawn...

    work on it...

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  67. NPR had on a radiation oncologist from Japan and she said something like, "The hydrogen in the plant exploded, so it was a hydrogen bomb, worse than Hiroshima."

    So it's not just US public schools...

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  68. I have been following this blog for some time and am pleasantly surprised that the cheerleading for military intervention has diminished.

    The facts as I see them are that the Gaddafi government is the Libyan government . The anti-Gaddafii forces are rebel forces. They are not just anti-Gaddafi forces, they are anti-government forces, a government and member of the UN.

    The government forces in Libya are the same as government forces in any other nation that has an uprising. They are the national forces. They are to protect the government.

    The United Nations, European powers and the United States are engaging in supporting a rebellion, destabilizing an existing member of the United Nations.

    Where does the United Nations get this authority?

    Is the United Nations promoting World Peace? Is it "nation building"?

    Th UN is encouraging a rebellion that cannot succeed and establishing a very bad precedent.

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  69. The United Nations, European powers and the United States are engaging in supporting a rebellion, destabilizing an existing member of the United Nations.

    All I can say is I don't ever want to hear libs whine about "warmonger Bush" again after we get in the middle of this third war against Muslims.

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  70. Jesus Christ, Adam, the fucker has killed hundreds of Americans, and Libya is, was rather, on the UN Human Rights Commission.

    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
    Eleanor Roosevelt


    I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.
    Eleanor Roosevelt

    One of my wife's favorites.

    After all this grim news for a week on Fox News, it was nice to see a good Subaru ad.

    "Daddy, o..kaaay"
    Little girl says, perfectly, when being instructed by her father in driving.

    Morphes into the tennager driving away, "don't drive on the freeway".

    Nice cheerful ad. They got it just right.

    ReplyDelete
  71. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qf8OGLqE1s


    Subaru ad.

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  72. Even the Arab League!! wants his ass gone, Adam.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Priorities, priorities --

    Dear Friend,

    I wanted to share with you the following update from Ashley Fruno, a senior campaigner with PETA Asia—who, along with Isabella Gallaon-Aoki of Animal Friends Niigata, was the first responder from any international animal rights group to reach the disaster area in Japan after taking the first flight to Tokyo after the airport reopened Saturday night—and to ask for your URGENT support for our relief efforts in disasters like this one:
    At first glance, my team and I didn't realize how devastated the area that we were driving into really was. It was only when we started seeing cars with their windows broken from the force of the water in the middle of rice fields that we realized we were in one of the hardest hit areas....

    We spent the rest of the day today at evacuation centers handing out pet food and asking for any leads on abandoned animals. One of the center coordinators told us a very touching story about his Akita, named Shane. After notifying his neighbors, he tried to get back to his house after the earthquake to get Shane, but the tsunami was rapidly approaching, and he was forced to go to the local school on higher ground. He said that he had given up hope of ever seeing Shane alive again. However, six hours later, one of the people staying in the center mentioned seeing a dog outside. Shane had never been to the school before, but somehow he managed to swim through chest-high water before being reunited with his guardian. We instructed the guardian on how to clean Shane's wounds and provided some ointment to help ward off infection....

    The local veterinarian we had contact with will serve as the "mobile vet" for Sendai. He is working on obtaining a list of local evacuation centers and will visit all of them, distributing food and administering veterinary care to animals who need it.
    The situation for animals in Japan is desperate. Right now, Ashley and her team are on the ground providing food, water, and care to animals in some of the country's most devastated areas through the Animal Emergency Fund.

    We need your help TODAY to support Ashley's team in Japan and prevent the needless suffering and deaths of animals whose lives are at risk because of calamities such as last week's earthquake and tsunami. This fund not only helps teams such as Ashley's but also supports the rescue of animals in other crises throughout the world, from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to last year's massive earthquake in Haiti.

    Efforts such as these are funded through the generosity of individual donations from people like you, and animals in danger—in Japan and around the world—need your support now more than ever.

    Please make a special donation right now to support our Animal Emergency Fund and our urgent work to help animals who are in harm's way.

    For everything that you do to help animals in need, thank you.

    Kind regards,


    Ingrid E. Newkirk
    President

    Bless them

    ReplyDelete
  74. Linear,

    I cited the Chernobyl figures to show that the worst case was not that bad.

    Hiroshima survivors likewise suffered much less than one would imagine from MSM and Left Wing Hysteria.

    ...about the same as Chernobyl.

    But Tokyo Electric's done a piss poor job of handling the situation.

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  75. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  76. .

    The following Opinionator piece from the NYT is a little long but it offers up both pro and con assessments of the US position on Libya as outlined by Obama today. It offers the opinions of various columnists.

    Libya Libertas

    Nothing in the articles changed my mind from the position that our actions there are ill-advised.

    One column from the peiece:

    Earlier in the week, Glenn Greenwald at Salon questioned not Qadaffi’s motives, but those of the U.S.:

    As our other good friends Saudi Arabia and Bahrain collaborate on attacking civilian protesters, there are no calls for U.S. intervention there — even though that’s arguably more serious than what’s happening in Libya — because those governments serve our interests.

    Nor is there much anger among Americans (as opposed to Egyptians) over our decades-long support for the dictator of Egypt (and most of the other tyrants now suddenly being vilified). That’s because our conduct in the Middle East isn’t driven by humanitarian objectives no matter how manipulatively that flag is waved. It’s driven by a desire to advance our perceived interests regardless of humanitarian outcomes, and exactly the same would be true for any intervention in Libya.

    Even if we were capable of fostering humanitarian outcomes in that nation — and that’s highly doubtful — that wouldn’t be our mission...


    .

    ReplyDelete
  77. .

    This is another blerp from the Opinionator piece linked above.

    A visceral response from Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Dish soon followed:

    The president’s speech was disturbingly empty. There are, it appears, only two reasons the US is going to war, without any Congressional vote, or any real public debate. The first is that the US cannot stand idly by while atrocities take place. Yet we have done nothing in Burma or the Congo and are actively supporting governments in Yemen and Bahrain that are doing almost exactly — if less noisily — what Qaddafi is doing. Obama made no attempt to reconcile these inconsistencies because, one suspects, there is no rational reconciliation to be made.

    Secondly, the president argued that the ghastly violence in Libya is destabilizing the region, and threatening world peace. Really? More than Qaddafi’s meddling throughout Africa for years? More than the brutal repression in Iran? And even if it is destabilizing, Libya is not, according to the Obama administration itself, a “vital national interest”. So why should the US go to war over this?

    None of this makes any sense, except as an emotional response to an emergency. I understand the emotions, and sympathize with the impulse to help. But I can think of no worse basis for committing a country to war than such emotional and moral anxiety.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  78. .

    Banks are still sitting on about $30 billion in bailout funds.

    Some of them need the money to hang on. Others, well...

    ...others will be slower to part with their federal money. A number of institutions like Synovus Financial and Regions Financial are struggling to return to profitability.

    Relatively healthy banks like M&T Bank and MB Financial are holding on to their emergency cash, while using the money to acquire other banks, make more loans and buy investments for their portfolios.


    Heck why not?

    .

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  79. I understand, Doug. I meant only to underscore what you'd offered re Chernobyl. Sorry if it read differently.

    Still watching for new data from #4 pool.

    If they get it controlled, the rest will be mop up, barring another quake and tsunami.

    It's gratifying to hear Japan has wind power to fall back on, Rufus. Who'd a thought we'd see wind backing up nuclear?

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  80. Ya know how sickening the pictures of them Oil Soaked Pelicans were?

    If we put windymills down there instead, we won't just get to see pics like that from time to time:

    We'll have chopped up Pelicans year 'round, and then after a few years, no more pelicans, flying, or chopped.

    Now won't that be better?

    No more disturbing Pelican Pictures.

    Forever

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  81. .

    By 2030, you 'may' have significant (percentagewise) wind generating power. That's if projected plans are implemented. Chances of those optimistic plans happening? Who knows.

    Wind power to fall back on?

    In fact, wind and solar power companies took a big hit on the market after the problems in Japan.

    I jumped into Peabody (BTU) and am doing pretty well. After all China is still putting up a new coal powered plant every week.

    Idealism is one thing. Trying to make a buck is something else.

    .

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  82. The most ideal idealism
    is trying to make a buck.

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