UN Sanctions No Fly Zone In Libya, Experts Debate Nuke Disaster In Japan, House Votes to Defund NPR
March 18th, 2011 - by: danny
NOTE TO READERS: We are making improvements to our various Globalvision sites and not all will be available for the next few days. Please bear with us.
Listen today at 1 PM: The News Dissector Radio on the ProgressiveRadioNetwork.com. Topic? The Nuclear crisis with guests: Arjun Makhijani is President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He earned his Ph.D. in engineering at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972, specializing in nuclear fusion and Harvey Wasserman, a world renown expert on utility deregulation, atomic power and the renewable alternatives. Since 1973, when Harvey coined the phrase “No Nukes,” he has helped lead the charge against nuclear power for such groups as Greenpeace, Musicians United for Safe Energy and the Clamshell Alliance. In the second half hour, we will discuss how the media covers and miscovers nuclear energy issues with Rory O’Connor and Richard Bell, authors of Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Myths, and Mindset.
The Left Forum: My Bit Part
On Sunday, I will be speaking on two panels at the Left Forum at Pace University. At Noon, I will be discussing film and social change, At l:30, I will be joining World Can’t Wait to discuss the impact of WikiLeaks.
And, now, the news we need to dissect:
The Latest, This AM: WP, Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa says Libya is declaring an immediate cease-fire and stopping all military operations.
Friday’s decision comes after the United Nations voted to authorize a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures” to protect the Libyan people, including airstrikes.
Foreign Intervention In Libya Drawing Closer: Air Strikes Expected In Hours
Washington Post: News Alert: U.N. approves ‘all necessary measures’ to protect Libya’s civilians
On a 10 to 0 vote with five abstentions, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the international community to take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians in Libya.
The resolution demands an “immediate cease-fire in Libya, the complete end of violence and all attacks against and abuse of civilians,” and unspecified action to protect “civilians and civilian population areas under threat of attack.” It also establishes a ban on all flights in the airspace of Libya except for humanitarian and evacuation flights. =
NYTimes: U.N. Security Council Approves No-Flight Zone in Libya
The United Nations Security Council approved a measure on Thursday authorizing “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians from harm at the hands of forces loyal to Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi.
The measure allows not only a no-flight zone but effectively any measures short of a ground invasion to halt attacks that might result in civilian fatalities. It comes as Colonel Qaddafi warned residents of Benghazi, Libya, the rebel capital, that an attack was imminent and promised lenient treatment for those who offered no resistance.
Michael Williams, ICH: The Fatally Flawed Logic Of A No Fly Zone
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.
Financial Times: US and Allies To Late To Help Libya
Eric Margolies, Toronto Sun, On Col.G
I recently wrote that Libya’s “Leader,” Muammar Gadaffi, had used up all of his nine lives. After being written off by great powers and world media, Gadaffi, the dictator we love to hate, is still in power and making rude gestures at his assorted foes.
We should call Gadaffi Mr. Lucky. As the western powers were edging ever closer to a war to “liberate” Libya’s high-grade oil, along came Japan’s awful tsunami which washed Libya off the front pages of the news.
Chances of a nuclear and financial meltdown in Japan gripped world capitals, overshadowing Libya’s civil strife.
Meanwhile, the normally do-nothing Arab League had bestirred itself to pass a resolution calling for the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya — a euphemism for war. Most of the Arab states hate Gadaffi and would love to see him strung up. For decades, Libya’s “Leader” has been calling them American and Israeli stooges, cowards, and thieves.
Gadaffi’s choicest barbs were reserved for the Saudi royal family, whom he scathingly described as “old women in robes.” Ouch! This from a zany despot who loves to wear comic opera military uniforms made by Italian tailors.
Foreign Policy: Keeping Up With The Gadaffis (Photos)
Bahrain Movement Under Attack: Bahrain moves to quash opposition
FT: Bahrain’s security forces have continued their attempts to break the back of the island kingdom’s mainly Shia opposition movement with a series of arrests and more attacks on Shia villages outside the capital.
Japanapocalypse
The Latest:
CNN Reports: Threat level at Japan nuclear plant now at 5, same threshold as 1979 Three Mile Island incident, safety agency says.
NY T: Radiation Spread Seen; Frantic Repairs Go On
The first readings from American data-collection flights over the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan show that the worst contamination has not spread beyond the 19-mile range of highest concern established by Japanese authorities.
National Journal: How Prepared Is the U.S. for a Japan-Style Disaster?, Obama’s Fuzzy Oil Production Math, and More
Five Ways We’re Better Prepared Than Japan…
If a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck at the New Madrid fault line along the Mississippi River, causing massive flooding and emergencies at nuclear plants in Illinois, would the United States be better prepared to respond than Japan?
…And Three Ways We’re Not.
But before you get too comfortable, Marc Ambinder also runs down the three ways we’re at a disadvantage to Japan when it comes to disaster response.
Obama: No U.S. Radiation Risk
In a Rose Garden statement today, President Obama sought to reassure Americans, including those on the West Coast, and in Hawaii, Alaska, and U.S. territories in the Pacific, saying “I want to be very clear we do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States.” Matthew Cooper reports.
Institute of Southern Studies:
http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/03/problematic-design-of-japans-imperiled-nuclear-reactors-common-in-us.html
PROBLEMATIC DESIGN OF JAPAN’S IMPERILED NUCLEAR REACTORS COMMON IN U.S.: The U.S. has 23 nuclear reactors like the ones that have failed at Japan’s Fukushima plant — including several along the East Coast. Their design has long been criticized as susceptible to explosions and containment problems. (3/14/2011)
CONGRESSMAN: U.S. MAY NOT BE PREPARED TO RESPOND TO NUCLEAR DISASTER: A disaster preparedness expert compares the nation’s readiness to respond to a major nuclear incident to what happened in the Gulf after Hurricane Katrina. (3/17/2011)
NY Times: With Quest to Cool Fuel Rods Stumbling, U.S. Sees ‘Weeks’ of Struggle
Amid growing alarm about Japan’s nuclear crisis, the authorities reached for ever more desperate methods on Thursday.
Crisis Prompts Exodus of Executives From Tokyo
Japan’s nuclear crisis has prompted a steady departure of business executives from Tokyo, with many heading to Osaka, Fukuoka or other cities farther from the damaged reactors.’
Bailout Underway: Group of 7 Plans Intervention in Currency Markets to Stabilize Yen
The United States and other major economies will join Japan in a highly unusual effort to stabilize the value of the yen
by intervening in currency markets, the Group of 7 nations announced Thursday night in a joint statement.
ANTI NUKE PROTESTS IN EUROPE: Crisis in Japan Sparks Global Protests
Berlin, March 14 (RHC)– The nuclear crisis in Japan touched off mass
anti-nuclear protests across Europe this weekend.
In Germany, some 50,000 protesters formed a 27-mile human chain from
Germany’s Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant to the city of Stuttgart.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently announced plans to extend
the life of 17 German nuclear plants for an average 12 extra years.
A large anti-nuclear protest was also held in France. A French member
of the European Parliament, Eva Joly, said: “We know how to get out of
nuclear plants: we need renewable energy, we need windmills, and we
need solar energy.”
Economic Consequences of Global Systemic Crisis Feared By LEAP, European Research Group:
Beyond its tragic human consequences (1), the terrible disaster that has just hit Japan weakens the shaky US Treasury Bond market a little more. In the GEAB No. 52, our team had already explained how the sequence of Arab revolutions, this fall of the “petro-dollar” wall (2), would translate during 2011 into the cessation of the massive purchases of US Treasury Bonds by the Gulf States. In this issue, we anticipate that the sudden shock experienced by the Japanese economy will lead not only to the halt in US T-Bond purchases by Japan, but it will force the authorities in Tokyo to make substantial sales of a significant portion of their US Treasury Bond reserves to finance the enormous cost of stabilization, reconstruction and revival of the Japanese economy (3).
With Japan and the Gulf States alone accounting for 25% of the total 4.4 trillion USD of US federal debt (December 2010), LEAP/E2020 believes that this new situation which is asserting itself during the first quarter of 2011, against a background of China’s increasing reluctance (holding 20% of US Treasury Bonds) to continue to invest in US government debt (4), carries the seeds for the collapse of the US Treasury Bond market in the second half of 2011, a market that now has only a single buyer: the US Federal Reserve (5).
Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism, Behind the US Pressure on Japan
Having worked with the Japanese (I was the first gaijin hired into the Japanese hierarchy at Sumitomo Bank when it was a leading player), let me hazard some informed guesses:
1. Japan is military protectorate of the US, so we are used to throwing our weight around when conditions warrant. But why is this unseemly display warranted?
2. Japan is not a high disclosure society. Being explicit is considered rude (it’s seen as self absorbed, talking for the sake of hearing your own voice). So not telling the public very much, sadly, is pretty normal.
3. Japanese are also not very good in organizing on the fly group responses. When working with foreigners or independently, Japanese are just as adaptable as any other people. But their group/power dynamics impede taking prompt corrective measures when circumstances move outside anticipated scenarios.
So far, this may seem like tired cultural cliches. But now consider the role of TEPCO. Even allowing for the sluggishness of Japanese decision making in crisis settings, TEPCO looks to be over its head. And the Japanese government is stuck. It doesn’t have a ready source of independent expertise; the plants are TEPCO’s, after all. The authorities really need staff who know the facilities to handle most of the disaster containment measures.
So why the ugly American noisemaking? It called gaijin pressure, and it has a proud tradition in Japan. Gaijin pressure has often served as the excuse for Japan to push through politically contentious measures that were clearly necessary but opposed by a well placed minority.
So in this case, the unusually public US expression of doubts were likely necessary to allow the US to monitor the plant and prod TEPCO to consider other plans of action. It would have been problematic in Japan for the government to do so; it might have been seen as undermining TEPCO (and now the self defense forces working with TEPCO). But foreigners, particularly Americans, can act like bulls in the china shop and get away with it. See Naked Capitalism.com for more.
SHORTAGES HIT PRODUCTION COMMUNITY
Broadcasting & Cable reports: Japan Quake Leaves U.S. Production Community Facing Shortages, Price Hikes
The tragic 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan are beginning to have an impact on professional products for the TV and production industries, with some distributors telling clients they may face shortages in tapes widely used in TV production and other analysts predicting both shortages in electronic components and price hikes in equipment in upcoming months.
Gareth Porter and Shah Noor, IPS: U.N. Reported Only a Fraction of Civilian Deaths from U.S. Raids
WASHINGTON/KABUL, Mar 17, 2011 (IPS) – The number of civilians killed in U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids last year was probably several times higher than the figure of 80 people cited in the U.N. report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan published last week, an IPS investigation has revealed.
The report also failed to apply the same humanitarian law standard for defining a civilian to its reporting on SOF raids that it applied to its accounting for Taliban assassinations.
The Mar. 9 report, produced by the Human Rights unit of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) jointly with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), said a total of 80 civilians were killed in “search and seizure operations” by “Pro-Government Forces” in 2010.
But AIHRC Commissioner Nader Nadery told IPS the figure represented only the number of civilian deaths in night raids in the 13 incidents involving SOF units that the Commission had been able to investigate thoroughly.
Afghan Women’s Leader Denied Access to the US
The United States has denied a travel visa to Malalai Joya, an acclaimed women’s rights activist and former member of Afghanistan’s parliament. Ms. Joya, who was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2010, was set to begin a three-week US tour to promote an updated edition of her memoir, A Woman Among Warlords, published by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Colleagues of Ms. Joya’s report that when she presented herself as scheduled at the U.S. embassy, she was told she was being denied because she was “unemployed” and “lives underground.” Then 27, Joya was the youngest woman elected to Afghanistan’s parliament in 2005. Because of her harsh criticism of warlords and fundamentalists in Afghanistan, she has been the target of at least five assassination attempts. “The reason Joya lives underground is because she faces the constant threat of death for having had the courage to speak up for women’s rights — it’s obscene that the U.S. government would deny her entry,” said Sonali Kolhatkar of the Afghan Women’s Mission, a U.S. based organization that has hosted Joya for speaking tours in the past and is a sponsor of this year’s national tour.
Simon Johnson Baseline Scenario.com, Right Targets Elizabeth Warren and Consumer Protection
The next big political battle in Washington — after the budget debate is declared “over” — will likely feature the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in particular the fight to determine whether Elizabeth Warren can become as the agency’s first official head.
But will this fight feature a classic left vs. right set-piece confirmation showdown in the Senate? Or it will it be resolved with cloaks and daggers closer to the White House — with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner managing to prevent Professor Warren’s nomination?
There is much to commend the left vs. right scenario. The Republicans, after all, want to argue that regulation is excessive in general and regulation of financial products is somewhere between unnecessary and dangerous for economic growth in particular. This theme came up during the Dodd-Frank legislative debate on financial reform last year but it was largely lost in the larger conversation.
Now Spencer Bachus, Republican chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has Elizabeth Warren firmly in his sights — with the mortgage settlement negotiations as the flashpoint.
In a recent letter to Secretary Geithner, Mr. Bachus says,
“”In addition, reports about the role played by political appointees in the Treasury department – including those affiliated with the [CFPB], an agency that does not yet have any regulatory or enforcement authority – raise further questions about the [mortgage settlement] process.”
No matter that the CFPB only became involved when state law enforcement officials, in the form of attorney generals, asked for provide advice. Mr. Bachus is taking the opportunity to follow up on what he is reported to have said recently,
“In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”
The industry is unhappy because the proposed settlement — or, you could say, their transgressions with regard to foreclosures – could cost them up to $20 billion.
Mr. Bachus would not have a direct voice in any nomination hearing, of course, but there are plenty of Republican Senators who are inclined to share his views — including Senator Richard Shelby, the ranking minority member of the Senate Banking Committee (and, like Mr. Bachus, from Alabama).
Ms. Warren actually represents a much more nuanced view — arguing that transparency and simplicity, from the perspective of customers, creates a more even playing field and is good for the industry. At least some community bankers seem to be on her side. She is also good at explaining this view and a confirmation hearing would be the perfect place for the country to witness and hopefully participate in this discussion. (Read her recent speech to the Credit Union National Association and make up your own mind.)
As Senator Sherrod Brown (D, OH), also a member of the Senate Banking Committee, pointedly framed the issues for the foreclosure debacle,
“No person or company is above the law. And that’s good for capitalism, it’s not anti-business, and it’s not a minor inconvenience that can be ignored in pursuit of bigger profits.”
But before you set aside time in the early summer for potentially gripping television from Capitol Hill, Ms. Warren has to get past Secretary Geithner.
If anything, Mr. Geithner at this stage is more pro-banking lobby than even Mr. Bachus.
HP: Ex-Goldman Banker Behind WSJ Attack On Elizabeth Warren
People for The American Way: Congress Votes To Defund NPR
First ACORN. Then Shirley Sherrod. Then Planned Parenthood. Now NPR? After a supposed “sting operation” targeting NPR executives was debunked last week, right-wing members of Congress have once again proven their willingness to overlook the truth in their ruthless pursuit of a destructive ideological agenda. House Republicans voted today to completely defund NPR. It’s now up to the Senate to save public broadcasting.
Federal funding is a small part of NPR’s budget, but it’s what keeps hundreds of stations in rural and low-income areas up and running…ensuring that all Americans have access to the high quality, reliable news NPR provides. Like many of the Republicans’ planned budget cuts, cuts to NPR would hit low-income Americans hardest…while weakening a critical American institution.
Aristide Returning:
Guardian news Danny Glover to escort Aristide back to Haiti
Amy Goodman Reports From The Plane Carrying Aristide Home
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman filed this report minutes before taking off in a plane with the Aristide family from South Africa on Thursday. In defiance of the Obama administration, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was headed back to Haiti for the first time since being ousted in a 2004 U.S.-backed coup. Joining them on the flight was his wife, Mildred Aristide, attorney Ira Kurzban and actor Danny Glover. Listen to anMP3 of the report
Julian Assange Grills Julia Gillard on Live Television
Video
Julia Gillard appears on live Australian television and is surprised with a question from Julian Assange.
Will Youmans writes about Al Jazeera:
It was nice seeing you again at the forum last weekend.
I wanted to share with you a new paper I did about American viewers’ prejudice against AJE
We find that Americans on average do not watch with an open mind. Also, their views on AJE are linked to political ideology and views towards Arabs. Given how resistant to risk cable companies are, this does not bode well.
NY Times To Charge For Online Content
EJC: The New York Times has started charging its most loyal readers for access to the website, the latest attempt by a newspaper to encourage people to pay for online content and raise money to offset circulation declines of their print editions. The paper said that it would limit readers to 20 articles per month, after which they would have to pay a subscription fee of at least USD 15. The model, announced by the publisher Arthur Sulzberger Thursday, stops far short of the hardline paywall adopted by Rupert Murdoch for The Times and The Sunday Times in the UK. Articles reached via links from other sites, including Facebook, Twitter or search engines such as Google, will always remain free, Mr Sulzberger said. An estimated 85 per cent of visitors to The New York Times will not be asked to pay.
“The change will primarily affect those who are heavy consumers of the content on our website and on mobile applications,” Mr Sulzberger said. The New York Times has immediately started charging for web access in Canada, and the system will launch worldwide on 28 March. The paper has been deliberating on different payment models since announcing last year it would end unlimited free access to its site. The new scheme is the second attempt by the Times at raising subscription revenues from online readers. In the middle of the last decade, it put its most popular columnists behind a paywall, but abandoned the experiment after only a few readers signed up. (The Independent)
That’s it for now: Your comments and stories welcome. Write Dissector@mediachannel.org
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A World Of Trouble: Japan’s Radiation Threat, Nukespeak, Amy Goodman’s View
March 17th, 2011 - by: danny
COMING UP: Tomorrow, Friday, at l PM (EDT) News Dissector Radio Show on the Progressive Radio Network.com. Topic: The crisis in Japan. This weekend: Sunday at noon, I will be speaking on a panel on Film and Change At the Left Forum, Pace University in Lower Manhattan (Across from New York City Hall). AFter that I will be joining a panel sponsored by the World Can’t Wait to discuss Wikileaks.
As We Approach the Anniversary of The Lauch Of The War On Iraq. Some words to remember:
“I won’t apologize for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are.” The speaker: George W Bush.
HELP THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN:
If you choose to do so, please make your contribution to the Japan Society at their web site
The World Needs The “Luck” Of The Irish (So Do They!)
St Patrick’s Day is here, as Ireland remains stuck in a financial crisis but there are hopes that a new government will make a difference. Huffington Post had this:
“The two leaders of the new Irish government have landed in America for St.Patrick’ Day with a spring in their step and a desire to write a new chapter in the history of Ireland and America.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny and Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore, leaders of the two coalition parties, Fine Gael and Labour, have inherited a decrepit economy, 1,000 young people a week leaving and enough problems to give an aspirin a headache.
But the mood music could not be more different since they took power. In the end the old regime was seen as hopelessly corrupt and incompetent and the Irish electorate punished the Fianna Fail led government savagely on February 25th.
Television stars like Jay Leno have no interest in these realities. Instead.
| Thursday (March 17), the Late-night Show Will Attempt To Set Guinness World Record for the Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Leprechauns |
On To Japan: The National Journal reports:
CLG: Nuclear Plume Expected Over California Friday.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu told Congress that the explosions at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant “actually appear to be more serious than Three Mile Island,” referring to the 1979 meltdown near Harrisburg, Pa., that led to a three-decade freeze on nuclear-plant construction in the U.S.
The US seems to be more worried about nuclear radiation levels in Japan than the Japanese government which may be downplaying problems so as not to alarm the public.
Today’s News:
NY Times: U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High,’ Sees Japan Nuclear Crisis Worsening
The chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave a bleaker appraisal of the threat, but Japanese officials played down the concerns.
NEWS ANALYSIS Flaws in Japan’s Leadership Deepen Sense of Crisis
Never has Japan’s weak, rudderless system of governing been so clearly exposed or mattered so much.
Boston Globe: Here in the US, “Lobbyists step up efforts to reassure on nuclear energy”
Richard Falk notes: There is a lack of credibility based, especially, on a long record of false reassurances and cover ups by the Japanese nuclear industry, hiding and minimizing the effects of a 2007 earthquake in Japan, and actually lying about the extent of damage to a reactor at that time and on other occasions.
New York Times: U.S. Calls Radiation ‘Extremely High’ and Urges Deeper Caution in Japan
The vessel that possibly ruptured on Wednesday had been seen as the last fully intact line of defense against large-scale releases of radioactive material.
The UN is also worried: ‘The UN’s nuclear watchdog the IAEA warned Japan’s nuclear crisis was “very serious” Wednesday as Tokyo resorted to increasingly desperate measures to cool overheated reactors and fuel pools at the stricken Fukushima plant
Japan Was Wiki-Warned:: Japan earthquake: Japan warned over nuclear plants, WikiLeaks cables show
Japan was warned more than two years ago by the international nuclear watchdog that its nuclear power plants were not capable of withstanding powerful earthquakes, leaked diplomatic cables reveal.
An official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in December 2008 that safety rules were out of date and strong earthquakes would pose a “serious problem” for nuclear power stations.
Global Research: Emergency Special Report: Japan’s Earthquake, Hidden Nuclear Catastrophe
“As an investigative journalist who has covered the Hanshin (Kobe) earthquake and the Tokyo subway gassing, I beg to differ. Japan is just better than elsewhere in organizing official cover-ups.
The recurrent tendency to deny systemic errors – “in order to avoid public panic” – is rooted in the determination of an entrenched bureaucracy to protect itself rather than in any stated purpose of serving the nation or its people. That’s the unspoken rule of thumb in most governments, and the point is that Japan is no shining exception.
Rory O’Connor, Media Is Plural, Nukespeak is Back
Amy Goodman: Japan Still A Warning To The World
AU Report on the Lobbying Strategy of the Nuclear Industry
This week, as the NY Times reports, the Administration in its proposed budget plans to triple the size of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program for the nuclear industry to $54 billion, which could support the construction of seven to 10 new reactors. “We are working hard to restart the American nuclear power industry,” Energy secretary Steve Chu tells the Times, asserting that nuclear is an important part of the strategy to combat climate change.
As I detailed in a side bar to an article at the journal Environment last year, over the past decade, the nuclear energy industry has been laying the perceptual groundwork for a rebirth in political discourse, public image, and support, framing nuclear energy as a “middle way” forward on climate change. [On food biotechnology, a similar communication strategy has been pursued by Monsanto, resulting most recently in the once deeply troubled company being named the company of the year by Forbes.]
This month, more detail on the lobbying and PR strategy of the nuclear energy industry is uncovered in a special report by American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop, co-published with McClatchy Newspapers.
Financial Times Is Optimistic: Japan’sgrowth will barely be affected by the earthquake and tsunami, and the economy may even expand faster than expected, its economy minister believes, as spending on rebuilding shores up output.
CIA AGENT FREED IN PAKISTAN AFTER RANSOM IS PAID
Davis started weeping after he was released from jail and seemed to be in a state of trauma, said sources.
I watched NBC and CBS report on Hilllary Clinton’s jaunt through Tarir Squiare. What I didn’t see was this report from ABC Radio
Mail & Guardian, South Africa, War in Libya:
Gaddafi announces ‘decisive battle’
Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi said his forces would fight a “decisive battle” on Thursday.
Gaddafi pummels rebels as war outpaces diplomacy
Gaddafi’s son says revolt will be over in 48 hours
Gaddafi forces push towards rebels, no UN move yet
Young Leaders of Egypt’s Revolt Snub Clinton in Cairo
A coalition of six youth groups that emerged from Egypt’s revolution last month has refused to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrived in Cairo earlier today, in protest of the United States’ strong support for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who was ousted by the uprising.
“There was an invitation for members of the coalition to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton but based on her negative position from the beginning of the revolution and the position of the US administration in the Middle East, we reject this invitation,” the January 25 Revolution Youth Coalition said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
Is The Effort To Get Rid Of Gadaffi the first step in a scheme to go after Iran?
Noam Chomsky Decries” Fake Democracy
Contours of Global Order: Domination, Stability, Security in a Changing World: The rise of Xenophobia in the West.
TAX THE RICH MEASURE INTRODUCED INTO CONGRESS
WASHINGTON, DC (March 16, 2011) — Today Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), member of President Obama’s 18-member Fiscal Commission, introduced the Fairness in Taxation Act, which would create new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires. Original co-sponsors include co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), as well as Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR).
Income inequality in America is the worst we’ve seen it since 1928. Wages have stagnated for middle and lower income families despite enormous gains in productivity. Where has all the money gone?
“In the United States today, the richest 1% owns 34 % of our nation’s wealth — that’s more than the entire bottom 90%, who own just 29% of the country’s wealth,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “And the top one-hundredth of 1% now makes an average of $27 million per household per year. The average income for the bottom 90% of Americans? $31,244. It’s time for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, which is why I introduced the Fairness in Taxation Act. This isn’t about punishment or revenge. It’s about fairness. It’s about avoiding budget cuts that harm middle class families and those who aspire to it. We can choose to cut education, job creation and health care, or we can choose to ask those who can contribute more to do so.”
The current top tax bracket begins at $373,000 in income and fails to distinguish between the “well off” and billionaires — like the top 20 hedge fund managers whose average income last year was over $1 billion.
Dan Osso commented
“This is a good start, now they should also raise the cap on social security (SSI) contributions to above $107,000.00. For those not familiar with this, you ( and your employer) pay a total of 15% of your wages up to $107K into social security. If you make more than that; even a bilion dollars, you still only pay 15% on the first $107 K – the rest is free an clear except for Fed and State income taxes. And they are worried that SSI is going broke…no wonder. 60 – 80 million boomers are retiring by 2015 and will be collecting (not contributing) to SSI.”
Intread of Jail, A Gift To The Banks May Be Next
The NY Times Deal Book reports: Banks May Get a Gift in Mortgage Settlement:
A deal being devised by state attorneys general relating to improper loan servicing and foreclosure practices might let lenders avoid tens of billions in write-downs, writes Jesse Eisinger of Pro Publica in his column for DealBook. How? The proposed agreement would allow banks to treat second mortgages, like home equity lines of credit, just like the first mortgages.
FT: Banks served Libor subpoenas
Regulators probing alleged manipulation of a key interbank lending rate have focused their demands for information and interviews on five global banks, according to people familiar with the investigation.
From David Degraw: A Resistance is Mounting
“In an exclusive, Anonymous goes on the record about the big banks and a movement that they feel their opponents should ‘be afraid’ of.”
for more info – here’s the new video – already 130,000 views on youtube
Here’s an interview where i discuss this with Max Keiser
Jet lag has caught up with me so I will have to end it here.
Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
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Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare Escalates, US Nuclear Energy Policy, Back From Al Jazeera
March 16th, 2011 - by: danny
The Latest Of The Gravest: This Morning as Of 6:30 AM
CNN: Workers at Japan’s damaged nuclear power plant have returned after being evacuated, Tokyo Electric Power Company says.
NY Times: A small crew of 50 technicians, braving radiation and fire, became perhaps Japan’s last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe.
Washington’s Blog:
Nuclear Plant Operator: Water in Pool Storing Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods May Be Boiling, an Ominous Sign for Release of Radioactivity
Kyodo News reports:
A nuclear crisis at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant deepened Tuesday as fresh explosions occurred at the site and its operator said water in a pool storing spent nuclear fuel rods may be boiling, an ominous sign for the release of high-level radioactive materials from the fuel.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the water level in the pool storing the spent fuel rods at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant’s No. 4 reactor may have dropped, exposing the rods.
The firm said it has not yet confirmed the current water level or water temperature in the pool and will try to pour water into the facility from Wednesday through holes that were created following an explosion earlier Tuesday in the walls of the building that houses the reactor.
Unless the spent fuel rods are cooled down, they could be damaged and emit radioactive substances.
Financial Meltdown In Wake Of Nucear Calamity
First there was the earthquake, and then the tsunami and then the nuclear meltdowns and now this, according to the Financial Times: - An escalating nuclear crisis in Japan spread fear across financial markets on Tuesday, sparking a rout in stocks that wiped out about $650 billion in value and driving investors to the safety of government …
Mikka Pineda: Roubini Site Compares Japan ‘s Reactors to Chenobyl and Three Mile Island
This year marks Chernobyl’s 25th anniversary, and how ironic it is that the world has a new nuclear emergency on its hands: Japan’s Fukushima power plant, operated by TEPCO. The situation at Fukushima continues to worsen, with explosions at two more reactors and the radiation released surpassing that of Three Mile Island. The 40-year-old reactors, designed by General Electric, were due for decommissioning at the end of this month.
The Fukushima nuclear incident will likely be upgraded from a level 4 to a 5 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. The scale runs from 0 to 7 – the most severe. The incident will remain “an event with local consequences,” although this excludes the consequences for the expansion of nuclear power generation around the world. Three Mile Island was a level 5; Chernobyl was a level 7 – the only level 7 event so far.
…The problem with light water reactors in general is the vicious cycle of needing to vent coolant to relieve pressure and then having less to cool the core, which progressively generates more heat and pressure that then needs to be relieved. If the core heats up enough, the zirconium cladding around the core causes the water to release hydrogen. The hydrogen builds up outside the reactor vessel, eventually causing the exterior walls of the containment building to explode.
Add to this the problem with Fukushima in particular, which is that once the main power supply (the nuclear plant) is shut off – in this case because the earthquake triggered an automatic shutdown – the reactors still need an alternative power supply to run the cooling systems. Fukushima 1′s batteries last only eight hours, and the emergency diesel generators lasted only a total of 24 hours.
Join Me Friday at 1 PM on News Dissector Radio to Discuss More On The Nuclear Calamity With Veteran Anti-nuke writer and activist Harvey Wasserman. (Progressive Readio Network.Com)
RSN: Harvey Wasserman | Japan’s Quake Could Have Irradiated the Entire US
Harvey Wasserman writes, “Had the massive 8.9 Richter-scale earthquake that has just savaged Japan hit off the California coast, it could have ripped apart at least four coastal reactors and sent a lethal cloud of radiation across the entire United States. The two huge reactors each at San Onofre and Diablo Canyon are not designed to withstand such powerful shocks. All four are extremely close to major faults.”
AFP: BEIJING Chinese authorities said Wednesday they were stepping up checks of incoming travellers and goods for possible radiation contamination as Japan’s quake-triggered nuclear crisis escalated.
Bahrain police clear protest roundabout
Police cracked down on the heart of Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement, launching tear gas against protesters rallying at the Pearl roundabout in Manama, the capital, early on Wednesday.
EJC: Hungary Marches for a Free Press
About 30,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Budapest Tuesday to support press freedom in the third and largest protest of its kind and despite amendments to controversial laws governing the media. The demonstration was organied over the Internet and was much bigger than its January 14 predecessor, which brought out about 10,000 people.
The country’s parliament voted earlier this month to amend its disputed legislation on issues such as media registration and balanced reporting, following criticism from the European Union. However, no changes were made to the Media Council, a body that oversees all coverage and is made up entirely of close allies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party, critics noted. The organizers of the protests called on the government to scrap the law, seen as an attempt to muzzle the press. The organizers said sympathy protests had taken place in Frankfurt, New York and Bucharest. (AFP via EU Business)
The Revolving Door Between Government and Industry Revolves Again
Former FCC Head Michael Powell will Now head the Cable Industry organization; former head goes to Comcast.
Broadcasting and Cable Reports:
As expected, former (Bush Admin) FCC Chairman Michael Powell (son of Colin, DS) has been named the successor to NCTA President Kyle McSlarrow, who is joining Comcast in Washington next month.
Powell is currently chairman of the MKPowell Group and a senior adviser to Providence Equity Partners. Powell’s first day on the job at NCTA will be April 25.]
T H E N U C L E A R N I G H T M A R E
Sophie DeVries writes:
This article by a leading German newspaper, out today, shows how *even* Japan’s government has not been able to get accurate information from Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) up until now. The prime minister finally “lost it”.
The Obama administration recently allocated several billion dollars for the construction of two nuclear power plants in Texas – to be built and operated by TEPCO and local partners. This plan is just plain nuts and may ultimately bring harm to America.
We are at a crossroads and must choose between the following: whether to allow nuclear power to become more prevalent in our country or to look toward safer and better options. We must not let the White House – coupled with corporate interests – make the hard decisions for us.”
Obama’s ‘backroom deal’? by Michael Dobbs
Excelon is a nuclear energy corp based in Chicago and was one of Obama’s top contributors in the 2008 election and as a matter of fact, throughout his career:
Obama Nuclear Plant: President To Announce Loan Guarantee For More Than $8 Billion
Mike Whitney: ”The Situation is Japan is Dire. It’s Grave”
The magnitude of the crisis is hard to grasp. Another two reactors saw their cooling systems breakdown late Monday increasing the probability of a meltdown.
CLG: New Fire at Reactor 4 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan 15 Mar 2011
Another fire broke out at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Wednesday, according to reports, citing Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco. The latest fire follows three explosions and one fire at the nuclear complex since last Friday, when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country. A fire on Tuesday at the No. 4 reactor was reportedly the cause of a spike in radiation levels around the plant
Panicked residents start to flee Tokyo as radiation levels rise after THIRD blast at stricken nuclear power plant –Radiation leaking directly into the air from stricken Fukushima nuclear plant –Power station has now suffered three reactor explosions and one fire –One reactor core ‘exposed to the atmosphere’ through crack in containment wall –Radiation levels up to ten times higher than normal in Tokyo 15 Mar 2011
U.S. Navy Detects Radiation 200 Miles From Japan Nuclear Plant 15 Mar 2011 The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that very low levels of airborne radiation were detected at Yokosuka and Atsugi bases, about 200 miles to the north of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Fox News has confirmed that a small number of U.S. service members have been exposed to radiation Tuesday and are being treated with potassium iodide pills.
Japanese authorities impose no-fly zone above blast-hit nuclear plant 15 Mar 2011 The Japanese Transport Ministry declared a no-fly zone within the range of 30 km from the blast-hit Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant, the Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday. The ban does not include planes and helicopters involved in rescue efforts and delivering aid to quake-hit areas.
ASSANGE IN GUARDIAN: Web Has Become Spy Machine: Could Create a “Totalitarian Spying Regime”
Alternet: Assange said the web could allow greater government transparency, but also gave authorities their best ever opportunity to monitor and catch dissidents.
Michael Munger: US Policy stifles democracy in the Middle East
Letting our enemies choose our friends is dangerous. The U.S. supplied the rockets that the mujahideen used to attack Russian helicopters in Afghanistan. Now we call the mujahideen the Taliban, and they kill Americans.
Will It Be Killed InVitro? New Consumer Agency Under fire by Banks and GOP
AP: WASHINGTON (AP) Four months before formally opening its doors, the new federal watchdog for policing mortgages, credit cards and other financial products is under attack from Republicans and banks.
Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who championed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is now in charge of setting it up, faces the hostile fire directly on Wednesday. Republicans running the House Financial Services Committee will press her to answer their concerns shared by banks and other business interests that the agency and its director will have unfettered power over financial products used by millions of people and might abuse it.
James C. Goodale, ICH: Is Assange On His Way To The U.S.?
If the Obama Administration has anything to say about it, he will.
The Click Group: Is Anonymous The New Wikileaks?
After defending WikiLeaks late last year, hacktivist collective Anonymous may have just scooped it. An Anonymous member who goes by the Twitter handle OperationLeakS released a series of e-mails with an employee at a Bank of America subsidiary, who is accusing the bank of fraud through inappropriately tracking loan documents. Anonymous is not an institution like WikiLeaks. It is global, has no leader, no clear hierarchy and no identifiable spokespeople. Such is the nature of Anonymous— global, fluid, intelligent, impossible to pin down— that it is could become an increasingly popular go-to for people wishing to vent damaging information about an institution with questionable practices. The collective already receives dozens of requests each month from the public to attack all manner of unsavory subjects. Yet for all its facets as both hot-tempered cyber-vigilantes and enlighteners of truth, Anonymous is becoming increasingly approachable, as the latest emails between OperationLeakS and the former BoA employee show. Assuming this particular employee doesn’t end up languishing in jail like Manning, more people may now be inclined to follow suit.
In Memorium: The Acid King Has Left Us
Robert Fitch, Writer and Activist. Doug Henwood writes in The Nation
My old friend Robert Fitch, a brilliant and prolific radical journalist and troublemaker, died on March 4 at the age of 72. Sadly, too few people know what a loss that is.
The View From Al Jazeera: My report revised and updated… Al Jazeera Debates the Winds of Change in the Arab World…
Political Leaders and Activists Ask: Has the Future Arrived?
Doha, Qatar: When I arrived in the capital of Qatar, as one of the guest participants in the 6th annual Al Jazeera Forum focused on the Arab world in transition, it was clear the mood had changed.
In years past, the humiliation and oppression of the region was driving the discourse, but this year, events had taken a positive turn with popular youth revolutions catapulting the Al Jazeera TV networks into the global spotlight with governments falling and a new future emerging.
A revolt in Libya was topping the news, being described as civil war – whether it is or isn’t – with Western intervention in the form of a no-fly zone on the horizon to either protect that country’s people from a mad dictator, or in Col. Gadaffi’s view, use humanitarianism as a cover for an armed effort by foreign interests to seize the country’s oil wealth.
Just as the Forum begun, we learned that an Al Jazeera Cameraman, Hassan Al Jaber, who I met at an earlier Forum was killed in Libya, likely a targeted killing because the Al Jazeera people I met believe Gadaffi put money for their heads.
Soon, the story it came to discuss also lost its standing at the top of the media agenda. The disaster in the East had displaced the crisis in the Middle East.
News waits for no man or TV network , so within a few hours, as fate would have it, the natural calamity in Japan riveted the world.
Even Al Jazeera was leading with it, with some excellent reporting from the scene. The channel also tapped some of the images and analysis on Japan’s NHK which offered a round the clock funereal telethon of a region dying along with it so many of its people. It was as gripping as it was so unbearably sad.
A natural earthquake and tsunami had displaced a man made one. We clearly need to know more about Japan’s nuclear plants, especially since the Obama Administration was planning to shovel billions to the same company whose plants are exploding and melting down.
The sounds of freedom in Tahrir Square had become yesterday’s story even though that revolution is unfinished and demands follow-up. When the cameras go, public awareness often goes with them.
There have been rising death counts in the battles in Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya. Now Syria has seen protests and even Qatar is bracing for a “day of rage.’
Political disruptions pale in importance as the world’s attention is mesmerized by the dreadful sights of villages and peoples being destroyed by a crush of water and moving earth. Exploding nuclear plants gave us all something new to worry about, just before Hollywood releases a new wave of terrifying disaster movies. Apocalyptic fiction can never keep up with harder to comprehend ‘faction.’
Back at the opulent Sheraton Hotel in Doha, ironically and perhaps prophetically designed to look like a pyramid, the young bloggers and activists who came to tell their story seemed a bit out of place. Sleeping in a posh hotel certainly beats sleeping in the streets, but the setting added to the surrealistic spectacle of a people-oriented gathering held where the elite meet to eat.
On the other hand, why not some luxury for these media warriors? Why shouldn’t some of the kazillions earned in Qatar from fueling the cars of the west go into funding Middle East movements for justice?
The Gulf States can afford to pay back (or forward) – and should, even as their rulers of Saudi Arabia and The Emerites have invaded Bahrain to try to contain protests that could come their way.
The theme of the event was “winds of change,” a term that first gained currency about the fight against apartheid.
“The success or failure of these political transformations will determine the future of the entire region,” Al Jazeera’s program reads.
“What are the odds that these uprisings will give rise to a new political order, given the forces of the old regimes and external forces exerting pressure to retain crucial levels of control?”
Two days of panels explored these issues in the context of social justice, democracy, transparency, global politics and more local concerns. As someone who focuses on media as politics, I didn’t have far to look for a media angle.
This revolution itself is amplified by media. It is promoted, in part, by new social media and publicized in “old” media.The blogs, the cellphones, Facebook and Twitter are all part of it.
Yes, this revolution is also being televised as the ultimate state of the art multi-media experience.
The Al Jazeera anchorwoman who opened the Forum made clear that social media and TV media can work together – and does. It converges as much as diverges; it builds a cumulative impact reinforcing each other but it is the people who stood up to resolve their grievances made it happen. They deserve the credit.
Yes, the mediagenic images and interactive energy has an appeal for a media savvy, web-focused generation that doesn’t just watch someone else’s tubes but wants to shape their own.
Al Jazeera was, nevertheless, at its center, providing visibility and legitimacy. It is no longer a small alternative outlet, even though most Americans don’t know that because the world’s most important network is barely available in a land that touts its “free” media.
Denigrated by politicians and shunned by nervous cable outlets, Al Jazeera is still fighting for airtime in the USA even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton now praises it as “must watch, real journalism.” Her remarks, of course, served a promotional agenda since they were uttered at a hearing seeking funding for government propaganda outlets. Even she is using Al Jazeera’s popularity to better fund networks that she hopes can compete with it.
Started in 1996 out of a failed BBC experiment, it has grown into a multi-channel meganetwork with documentary and sports outlets and news channels in Arabic, English Turkish, Balkan languages and Swahili, so far.
It has a study center, a training center and offers a range of social media platforms. Its web sites are big and getting bigger.
• Al Jazeera Network has more than 65 bureaus across the globe — the majority are rooted in the global South.
• Al Jazeera Network has more than 3,000 staff members across the world, including more than 400 journalists from more than 60 countries.
• Al Jazeera English has more than 1,000 highly experienced staff from more than 50 nationalities, making AJE’s newsroom among the most diverse in the world.
I was told that a recent commentary of mine about Bernie Madoff on AlJazeera.net drew a whopping 238,000 page views worldwide.
One of the panels here was focused on discussing how what was once called the “CNN effect” has been displaced by the “Al Jazeera effect.” The former was about a cable network that won influence with the men at the top; the latter is about winning credibility and respect from people at the bottom.
I heard a term there on the lips of an Al Jazeera executive that I never heard uttered by any American media exec in my years of media watching and working at ABC, CNN, and CNBC among others. The term is “oppression” – as in being a voice for the voiceless, standing up for oppressed people.
Al Jazeera explicitly links its media efforts to the fight for democracy and free speech.
CNN, these days, like Fox and MSNBC, is more about supercharged domistic partisan opinion. Al Jazeera is more about universal human rights, facts and journalism, although when it does offer opinions it always offers more than one.
Its slogan has always been, “the opinion and the other opinion.”
Al Jazeera credits its success to being a trusted and vital source of information. It does real reporting and its own investigations.
Their multi-ethnic army of global correspondents comes from the world’s leading media outlets while it also taps diverse freelancers. It can compete with and often out-scoop BBC and CNN because top staffers once worked for those outlets and know how to do it.
And it has no sacred cows. Its “Palestinian Papers” exposed the Palestinian Authority’s complicity with Israel in negotiations. The PA is now among the channel’s detractors even as the audience in the region was glued to its embarrassing findings.
Some of the panels seemed uneven with a predictable discourse but speeches by Turkey’s Foreign Minister and Brazil’s ex-President Lula livened it up.
The Al Jazeera Forum asks: “has the future arrived”?
The answer is a qualified yes but not as an end point. Most of the delegates seem to agree, change is a process, and it is underway. One speaker compared the recent uprisings to the events of 1968 which I played a small role in.
The future is always arriving, and whatever happens, will continue to do so as long as the sun rises in the morning.
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
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