Possible Experience

TEPCO plans to replace Fukushima unit two reactor thermometer

2012-03-03T19:29:00.001-05:00

In light of high readings in one of the thermometers in Fukushima unit two, owner/operator TEPCO is developing plans to replace it. The process won't be easy, though, and cannot begin until July.

According to a report to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, the utility is considering putting a thermometer down to a depth of 15 to 20 meters through an existing pipe to gauge the temperature of water at the bottom of the No. 2 reactor.
But the company said it may be able to start the work in late July at the earliest, citing the need for complicated work such as passing a thermometer through a tiny hole measuring only 6 millimeters in diameter.
TEPCO also said the No. 2 reactor is equipped with 41 thermometers, of which 16 are currently usable.
Readings of one of the three thermometers rose abnormally at the bottom of the unit last month, temporarily topping 400 C, while the two others read around 30 C. TEPCO concluded the thermometer had broken down.

Take this to your next meeting

2012-03-02T21:46:00.000-05:00

SpeechJammer!

Rapp rape anti-abortion bill delayed in PA House

2012-03-01T09:13:00.000-05:00

Kathy Rapp's medical rape anti-abortion bill is being held up in the PA House. Apparently, some of the co-sponsors took the time to read it and had second thoughts, as does the GOP leadership.

Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, told his members via email Wednesday that he has canceled a March 12 floor debate on the bill because of “concerns raised by the medical community, among others.” The bill would mandate access to images and other information from ultrasounds for women seeking abortions

House Bill 1077, sponsored by Rep. Kathy Rapp, a Republican from rural Warren County, would require anyone planning an abortion to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours before that procedure, with screens showing a real-time image in the expectant mother’s line of sight.

Patients could avert their eyes from the screen, but would still have to be told the results of the test’s findings about the fetus’ viability, sign a written report to give to the abortion provider and receive a sealed copy of the ultrasound image.

The point, proponents say, is that if some women see an image of the fetus’s heartbeat or other signs of life, they might have second thoughts about going ahead with the procedure.

Supporters of abortion rights have called the bill — with its mandate for what in many cases would be a vaginal ultrasound — one of the worst governmental intrusions into women’s health they have ever seen.

..........................

Rep. Glen Grell, R-Hampden Township, on the other hand, applauded Turzai’s decision and said he was withdrawing as a co-sponsor because, after his own review of the legislation, Rapp’s initial memo inviting co-sponsors for her bill “is vastly different from what ended up in the legislation.”

Co-sponsorship memos typically are circulated before bills are introduced, and Grell, who is not a member of the Health and Human Services Committee that took the bill up for vote Feb. 6, said he had not reviewed Rapp’s bill until this week.

Another co-sponsor, Rep. RoseMarie Swanger, R-North Lebanon Township, said she can live with the delay, too. “I have no problem with delaying the bill and having it fully vetted,” Swanger said. “In my opinion, the more information the better, for anything.”

San Onofre steam generator damaged before delivery

2012-02-29T16:03:00.001-05:00

The Mitsubishi steam generator installed in the San Onofre unit three nuclear reactor was cracked and damaged before it was installed at the plant.

Cracks and damage were found in a Japan-made steam generator for a nuclear reactor in Southern California in 2009 before its delivery to the plant, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents showed Tuesday.
The steam generator, produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., was installed at the unit 3 reactor at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California, which suffered a minor radiation leak in late January.
It remains unclear whether the cracks and the radiation leak were related.
At the nuclear plant, operated by Southern California Edison, abnormal attrition was also found earlier this month in the tubes of another Mitsubishi-made steam generator installed at the unit 2 reactor.

Whether the defective equipment is related to the leaks might remain "unclear", if 'unclear' means: strongly supported by the evidence yet still possibly false.

Who is writing all these anti-abortion ultrasound bills?

2012-02-29T13:35:00.001-05:00

These bills are proliferating like stink bugs around the country. They are already on the books in Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina (though enjoined pending court action in the latter two), just passed in Virginia, and are pending in Pennsylvania and Alabama (and probably elsewhere). There is so much similarity in these bills that the natural thought is that they are being written by a central coordinating body pushing anti abortion restrictions around the country. My friend google so far has been unable to tell me what that body is (if it exists). I find no evidence that it is ALEC.

Does anybody out there know who is behind these bills?

PA Medical Society Opposes Rapp's Medical Rape Bill

2012-02-28T15:47:00.001-05:00

Pa. state representative Kathy Rapp the rapist is pushing her medical rape by ultrasound bill, coyly entitled "Women's Right to Know Act" which was sent out of committee a few days ago, despite the opposition of the Pennsylvania Medical Society, representing Pennsylvania's physicians.

In a Feb. 10 letter, Pennsylvania Medical Society President Marilyn J. Heine urged lawmakers to vote against the proposal sponsored by Rep. Kathy Rapp, R-Warren, because “it sets a dangerous medical precedent by legislating specific diagnostic protocols.
“For that reason alone, we oppose [the bill] and respectfully urge you to do the same,” Heine wrote. The medical society represents about 18,000 physicians across Pennsylvania.
Rapp has defended her legislation, arguing that it will help women make informed decisions before they decide whether to go through with an abortion.
Critics say provisions in the bill, which include a requirement that the view screen for an ultrasound to be placed within a woman’s field of vision is intended to make women change their mind. Rapp’s bill would allow women to look away from the display.
In addition, the doctor or technician who performs the ultrasound would have to verify in writing whether the woman accepted or refused opportunities to view the image of listen to the fetal heartbeat when it’s present and detectable. That documentation would be placed in the woman’s permanent medical record.
Critics further charge that the bill would require women, who already receive an ultrasound when they seek an abortion, to go through what would most likely be a second, medically unnecessary procedure.
And because most abortions take place in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, women often receive a trans-vaginal ultrasound, in which a probe is inserted into the vagina and maneuvered until an image appears, they said.

The letter is available here. Call Rapp the rapist and let her know what you think.

District Offices
404 Market Street
Warren, PA 16365
Tel: 814-723-5203
Fax: 814-728-3564
*Toll-free 866-854-5294

8 Field Street
Kane, PA 16735
Tel: 814-837-0880
Fax: 814 837-2257

Capitol Office
161B East Wing
PO Box 202065
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2065
Tel: 717-787-1367
Fax: 717-787-5854
Staff: Annette Mioff

Kathy Rapp wants to rape Pennsylvania women with transvaginal ultrasound probes

2012-02-28T13:14:00.000-05:00

Kathy Rapp is a PA state representative who is fronting a bill, just reported out of committee, which is even more outrageous than Virginia's bill---it features rape by state mandated transvaginal ultrasound probe, personalized copies of images foisted onto women seeking abortion, and complex hoops for doctors, technicians and patients to jump through.

Here is Rapp's contact information. Call and ask her why she thinks Pennsylvania should be in the business of raping women seeking abortions, and mandating that doctors and technicians be instruments of that rape.

District Offices
404 Market Street
Warren, PA 16365
Tel: 814-723-5203
Fax: 814-728-3564
*Toll-free 866-854-5294

8 Field Street
Kane, PA 16735
Tel: 814-837-0880
Fax: 814 837-2257

Capitol Office
161B East Wing
PO Box 202065
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2065
Tel: 717-787-1367
Fax: 717-787-5854
Staff: Annette Mioff

Moral Clarity from Atrios

2012-02-28T09:48:00.001-05:00

Sometimes issues are complex. Sometimes they are not. What I appreciate the most about Atrios is his ability to discern the difference.

Rand Paul: Romney VP?

2012-02-27T13:40:00.001-05:00

Think Progress has kept the books and run the numbers, et voila! RonPaul has never attacked Mittens. What's more, they are phone buddies and Romney once offered to lend RonPaul a spare plane when RP's broke down. Given this, and the increasingly volume of whining about it coming from dirty little Rick frothy mixture Santorum, it seems to me that RP is laying the groundwork for a VP nod---for his son, Rand, on a Romney ticket. I wonder what Mittens thinks, or Senator Paul.

Musical chairs at Fukushima

2012-02-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

Reenacting that tired old script "rearranging the seats on the Titanic", the Japanese government is apparently rearranging the seats on the board of TEPCO, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear facility.

The government is set to demand that all 17 board members of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, resign at the utility's next shareholder meeting in June, government sources said.
In return for the planned infusion of about 1 trillion yen in public funds, officials have deemed it necessary to replace all TEPCO's board members to clarify their responsibility for the nuclear crisis.

Exactly how changing out board members helps deal with the possible rise in temperature in reactor 2 is a mystery to me. Nor do I fathom how it helps deal with radiation readings suggesting that generations will pass before people are able to return to nearby towns.

High levels of radiation have been detected in municipalities in evacuation zones around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with the highest reading of 470 millisieverts per year recorded in one town, a midterm report on an Environment Ministry survey showed Friday.

A survey conducted between Nov. 7 and Jan. 16 showed that the annual readings topped 50 millisieverts -- a level deemed uninhabitable under a proposed new classification -- in many spots north-northwest of the plant that was crippled by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
The highest level of 470 millisieverts was logged at a spot in Futaba, northwest of the plant, while the lowest level of 5.8 millisieverts was detected in another part of the same town, the survey said.
The results were similar to those in an earlier survey by the ministry of science using airplanes.
The Environment Ministry plans to compile a final report on the survey by the end of March so the government can use the data to reclassify a no-go zone and evacuation zone near the plant into three categories in April.
The three categories are an uninhabitable area with annual radiation levels of 50 millisieverts or more, an area with levels between 20 and 50 millisieverts where residents would be restricted, and another area with levels below 20 millisieverts where residents would be allowed to return in stages.

Biggus Dickus Does Logic

2012-02-24T11:51:00.000-05:00

If you grow weary with feeling outrage, not matter how justified, you can find solace in the abstract and formal--- the world of symbolic logic and philosophy. Only instead of enjoying a view of the universe sub specie aeternitatas, you may find this, authored by this Danish philosopher, who has inadvertently brought the philosophical world together in a moment of rare near universal agreement.

Something else that might not exist:superluminal neutrinos

2012-02-23T13:32:00.001-05:00

As many suspected, a technical glitch could have been responsible for the results indicating faster than light speeds for neutrinos.

The shocking result that neutrinos apparently travelled from Switzerland to Italy faster than the speed of light may have been due to a malfunctioning fibre-optic cable, says OPERA, the Italian collaboration of physicists that made the first, surprising claim.
"If the mistake is confirmed, it was clearly due to a human error," says Luca Stanco, one of 15 members of the 160-strong OPERA collaboration who did not sign their names to the initial report of the results because they considered it too preliminary. "I tried to say, please be more careful," he adds.
The faulty cable suggestion is one of two possible problems with the initial result that OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) flagged today. The other would mean the neutrinos travelled even faster than initially thought.

..............................

The next step is to rerun the experiment with the connector working properly – something that will be done in May when CERN can provide a beam of neutrinos, says Stanco.
Which result is more likely? Stanco's personal belief is the second, cable explanation – because it fits with scientific expectation. But he admits that "the reality may be different". "I think we should distinguish between our beliefs and the results of our experiments," he says.

Exactly. This redo of the experiment signals a healthy science. I look forward to the results, which, if the experiment is repeated in May, should be available in 2011 or so.

ALEC* is taking notes

2012-02-23T10:16:00.000-05:00

Today an Onion parody, tomorrow a Virginia anti-abortion bill:
New Law Requires Women To Name Baby, Paint Nursery Before Getting Abortion

* American Legislative Exchange Council

Governor plans to review legally mandated medical rape of Virginia women

2012-02-22T10:00:00.003-05:00

How special---the governor of Virginia is willing to review before signing a bill which mandates the medical rape of women seeking abortions.

Until this weekend, McDonnell (R) and his aides had said the governor would sign the measure if it made it to his desk. McDonnell, who strongly opposes abortion, will no longer make that commitment.

But delegates and governor’s staff were scheduled to meet Tuesday night to strike a compromise after learning that some ultrasounds could be more invasive than first thought, according to two officials who were aware of the meeting but not authorized to speak about it publicly. Many of the bill’s supporters were apparently unaware of how invasive the procedure could be, one of the officials added.

.........

McDonnell’s office would say Tuesday only that the governor will “review” the bill if it is approved.
“Our position is: If the General Assembly passes this bill the governor will review it, in its final form, at that time,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said in a statement. He declined to explain the change in approach, but Virginia’s governors can sign, veto or amend legislation.
The House and Senate have approved their versions of the bill. On Tuesday, the House postponed a final vote on the legislation— as well as votes on other measures on guns and adoption — for the second day in a row.

Let's get this straight: anti-abortion law makers wrote and supported a bill mandating medical procedures they don't understand. If these laws pass, they bring the police and district attorneys into the office of every gynecologist and into the medical record of every woman in Virginia.

Any doctor, lawyer or other professional who went ahead with a product or procedure without having basic relevant knowledge and competence would be sued for gross negligence and malpractice. If only lawmakers had the same liability.

Iran threatens to pre-empt Israel's pre-emption

2012-02-21T10:04:00.000-05:00

No real surprise: Iran responds to escalating Israeli threats to launch a pre-emptive attack against Iran with a threat to pre-empt Israel's pre-emption and strike first.

Iran would take pre-emptive action against its enemies if it felt its national interests were endangered, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic's armed forces was quoted by a semi-official news agency as saying on Tuesday.
"Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran's national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions," Mohammad Hejazi told Fars news agency.

It's only rational.

Virginians protest rape by ultrasound probe bill

2012-02-21T09:25:00.000-05:00

Real human beings stood silently outside of the Virginia Capitol in Richmond yesterday in protest against the imminent passage of the mandatory rape by ultrasound probe law.

On Monday, about 1,000 people appeared at the Capitol to oppose the measure as part of a women's rights rally that came together quickly through social media and word of mouth.
Thanks in part to left-leaning political pundits such as MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and a satirical take on the issue from "Saturday Night Live," the legislation has made its way into the national spotlight, raising a furor from opponents who see the proposed requirement as wildly invasive.
That's due in part to the fact that trans-vaginal ultrasounds are the only method available to doctors that early in a woman's pregnancy.
Del. L. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax, said in a speech on the House floor Monday that the requirement would force women to "submit to involuntary vaginal penetration."
Added Kory: "This (legislative) body is mounting an assault on the freedom and liberty of women in the commonwealth of Virginia."
Shortly after the protesters locked arms and silently lined the sidewalks and streets of Capitol Square, the House delayed until today a final vote on the measure, Senate Bill 484, sponsored by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier.

In any other context, coercively penetrating a woman's vagina with an object such as a penis, finger, or plastic device is sexual assault. In Virginia, apparently, it is protecting the flower of southern womanhood from her own choices.

Update: lawmakers in Virginia seem eager to protect all Virginia voters from their choices, and are rushing through the medical rape by ultra-sound probe as well as the 'every sperm is sacred bill' despite majority opposition. After all, not all those opposed have genuine views---they are only women.

German Forest Boy Invented His Story

2012-02-20T15:51:00.001-05:00

Sad but predictable turn in the German Forest Boy case: he is a fabulist, whose story was invented. The details, authorities say, do not check out. Sadly, his DNA did not match that of the families which came forward in the hopes he was their missing child.

Police said that they have now checked against almost every database of missing people in the world, but the young man is not on it. "There are no data that match his," said a Berlin police spokeswoman. "He hasn't been recognised by any other police abroad. Several parents from different countries have contacted Berlin police hoping that Ray might be their missing child. But DNA tests never showed any connection."

I hope the authorities are giving him the help he needs, however old he is. There is something to be applauded about self-invention, but fabrication differs---it ensnares other people into a game they are fooled into not knowing they are playing. But I suspect in many cases, including 'Ray's', it flows from sadness and pain.

Fukushima management denies temperature rise

2012-02-20T15:35:00.000-05:00

Fukushima's management continues to downplay high temperature readings from reactor #2.

Asked repeatedly to explain the dramatic rise in temperature, Takahashi said the cause had been traced to a faulty thermometer, one of three inside the unit.
"The plant has reached a state of cold shutdown," he said. "We will now try to allow people to return to their homes as soon as possible."
Takahashi, who looked pale and exhausted, dismissed questions about his health. He took charge of the plant in December after his predecessor, Masao Yoshida, took early retirement to receive treatment for cancer of the oesophagus.
Tepco officials said Yoshida's diagnosis was not linked to his exposure to high radiation levels in the early days of the crisis when, he later admitted, he and his colleagues were convinced they would die.

The Guardian article provides a glimpse of working conditions at the facility:

Yasuki Hibi, an engineer for a construction firm, said conditions at the plant had improved significantly in recent months, but added that workers were still limited to two three-hour shifts a day. "Radiation levels inside reactor No 3 are still too high for us to enter," he said.
About 3,000 people continue to work at the plant each day, according to Tepco. They monitor radiation, decontaminate workers and vehicles, prepare uniforms and equipment, and clear radioactive rubble and other material.

Onward Christian soldiers

2012-02-17T13:00:00.001-05:00

Matt T hears the drumbeats of war from the msm:

There’s a weird set of internalized assumptions that media members bring to stories like this Iran business. In fact there’s an elaborate belief system we press people adhere to, about how a foreign country may behave toward the U.S., and how it may not behave. It reminds me a little of a passage in Anna Karenina about the belief system of noblemen in Tolstoy’s day:
Vronsky’s life was particularly happy in that he had a code of principles, which defined with unfailing certitude what he ought and what he ought not to do… These principles laid down as invisible rules: that one must pay a cardsharper, but need not pay a tailor; that one must never lie to a man, but one may lie to a woman; that one must never cheat anyone, but one may a husband; that one must never pardon an insult, but one may give one, and so on.
We have a similar gentleman’s code, a “Westernized industrial power” code if you will, that operates the same way. In other words, our newspapers and TV stations may blather on a thousand times a day about attacking Iran and bombing its people, but if even one Iranian talks about fighting back, he is being “aggressive” and “threatening”; we can impose sanctions on anyone, but if the sanctioned country embargoes oil shipments to Europe in response, it’s being “belligerent,” and so on.

Which is why the recent Onion story is so apt:

Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America's uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon. "Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran," said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and "everything they need" to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material.

As are the lyrics to the Christian hymn, Onward Christian soldiers:

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, 
 with the cross of Jesus going on before. 
 Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; 
 forward into battle see his banners go! 
Refrain: 
 Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, 
 with the cross of Jesus going on before. 

2. At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee; 
 on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory! 
 Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise; 
 brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise. 
 (Refrain) 

3. Like a mighty army moves the church of God; 
 brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. 
 We are not divided, all one body we, 
 one in hope and doctrine, one in charity. 
 (Refrain) 

4. Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, 
 but the church of Jesus constant will remain.
 Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail; 
 we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail. 
 (Refrain) 

5. Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng, 
 blend with ours your voices in the triumph song. 
 Glory, laud, and honor unto Christ the King, 
 this through countless ages men and angels sing.
 (Refrain)

Laws against abortion kill and maim real people

2012-02-17T11:36:00.000-05:00

Hello, Virginians. You might be interested to know that your recently passed anti-abortion laws, besides requiring medical professionals to rape abortion patients with a plastic probe, lead women to seek non-medical abortions. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't.
(from David Grimes. Unsafe Abortion:the silent scourge. British Medical Bulletin (2003) 67 (1) )

Bowel trauma
Bowel injury is a common consequence of uterine perforation, either with pointed instruments or grasping forceps. The distal ileum appears to be most vulnerable to injury, followed by the sigmoid⁴⁹. Figure 1 depicts small bowel herniated through a perforation of the utero-vesical space during an attempted midtrimester abortion; the uterus was intact. Resection and reanastomosis of the necrotic bowel were required to save the patient’s life.

Fig. 1

Loops of gangrenous small intestine protruding from the vagina, 20-year-old patient at 16 weeks’ gestation, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Lagos, Nigeria. Reproduced from Oye-Adeniran BA, Umoh AV, Nnatu SSN. Complications of unsafe abortion: a case study and the need for abortion law reform in Nigeria. Reproduced from Reprod Health Matters 2002; 10:18–21 with permission from Elsevier.

Plugging some leaks at San Onofre

2012-02-17T09:21:00.002-05:00

Good news, Californians. Southern California Edison is plugging some of the prematurely worn and leak prone steam generator tubes at its San Onofre nuclear power facility.

The cause of the premature wear on these tubes, there and elsewhere, is still under investigation.

Scott Burnell, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Washington, said faster-than-expected wear on tubes in replacement generators has been documented in recent years at the Three Mile Island plant south of Harrisburg, Pa.; Arkansas Nuclear One in Russellville, Ark.; and the St. Lucie plant near Fort Pierce, Fla.
Plant operators, Burnell said, have been able to make adjustments and operate safely. But a mechanical mystery endures.
“The ultimate cause for this wear remains to be seen. We’re still looking into it,” Burnell said. “The effect is purely one of parts rubbing up against each other.”

Too bad aspirin doesn't cure stupid

2012-02-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

Stupid is as stupid does. May I suggest another use of aspirin to the moronic Mr. Friess : hold one between your lips before you speak. And keep it there.

R2P and the new colonialism

2012-02-15T12:44:00.000-05:00

In Foreign Policy, David Rieff points to the religious zeal of proponents of R2P ('responsibility to protect') currently ramping up the drumbeats for military intervention in Syria.

Welcometo the "End of History," human-rights style. Like Francis Fukuyama's famousargument, there is simply no basis other than our hopes and our preferences tomake us think that though the road toward this radiant future, to use the oldSoviet expression, will be neither straight nor smooth, nevertheless it onlygoes one way, and that is in the direction of progress, peace, justice, andrights.
Itis this religious quality to the support for R2P that helps account for the odd reaction among those who believe that something must be done tostop the Assad regime's war against much of its own people despite the Russianand Chinese vetoes. Obviously, some of this is purely political posturing.But it is not only spin. The moral outrage, however misplaced, is real enough.In her contribution to the New Republicsymposium, Suzanne Nossel -- formerly Richard Holbrooke's deputy when he wasthe U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, founder ofDemocracyArsenal.org, former chief operating officer of Human Rights Watch, and nowexecutive director of the U.S. branch of Amnesty International -- illustratedthis faith-based ethical triumphalism perfectly when she insisted that though the Russian and Chinese vetoes of the Security Council resolution had been "asharp political defeat," it had also represented a "potent moral victory" and a "tectonic shift" in the advancement of a global human rights regime whosevictory is now inevitable, no matter what kind of sovereigntist rear-guardactions the Russians and Chinese may continue to mount.
Theimplication is clear. Three years after the adoption of R2P by the U.N. GeneralAssembly and more than a year after the beginning of the Arab Spring, not onlyis the Assad regime on the wrong side of history, but the Russians and Chineseare as well. In her New Republicpiece, Nossel even goes so far as to imply that the Russians and the Chineseknow this themselves. They cast their votes out of fear of this humanrights-based future, she writes, claiming that the "bell of internationalcondemnation and isolation tolling now for Damascus sounds an uneasy note inBeijing and Moscow." Even by the hubristic standards of the human rightsmovement, these are extraordinary claims. One doubts, however, that they willcause either Vladimir Putin or Hu Jintao to quake in his boots as this owl of Minervaflies by, presumably with a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rightsheld in its beak.

I've been reading several critiques of 'human rights' ideology recently, critiques aimed at its impoverished philosophical basis or at their utility in justifying humanitarian interventions with disastrous results. As an ideology, the theory of human rights is either very thin, too thin to support the moral judgments we make about how human beings ought or ought not to be treated, or too unsupported unless anchored to a theological framework. Bentham famously wrote that rights talk was "nonsense on stilts'. By that he meant that when you dig into what is meant when people affirm rights, you find out that there isn't enough 'there' there. These days, when people affirm rights strong enough to justify military intervention for their protection, there might be too much 'there' there, but what is there is unable to be protected, and might ultimately be harmed, by military intervention by foreign powers, judging from the record of the last decades.

My suspicions of R2P, laid out in an earlier post, have only deepened since I started thinking about it. People being 'protected' by bombs and automatic weapons wielded by foreign troops tend to die more than flourish. True, the impetus is to protect ordinary folks from their local armies and militias now being used to terrorize and control them. But adding more armies to the mix hasn't tended to ramp down the violence and atrocities, except when they were already on a downward trend.

R2P seems like internationalized colonialism, supported by the same kind of religious missionary zeal the as its 19th century antecedents, (I don't have to quote Kipling here, do I?) and unlikely to secure for those whose rights are being 'protected' net benefits. I hope it doesn't lead to military intervention in Syria, though I fear it might.

Rick frothy mixture Santorum's dirty hands

2012-02-15T10:28:00.000-05:00

They are not just dirty from a mixture of lubricant and fecal matter either. They are dirty from diverting money ostensibly donated to a charity he started and controlled, "Operation Good Neighbor", and using it to support his political operation. This organization was supposedly set up to support poor families in Pennsylvania.

But homeless families and troubled children were not the biggest beneficiaries of Operation Good Neighbor. Instead, the foundation spent most of its money to run itself, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for fundraising, administration and office rental paid to Santorum’s political allies.
The charity also had significant overlap with the senator’s campaigns and his work on Capitol Hill. Among the leading donors to the foundation were Pennsylvania development and finance firms that had donated to his election efforts and had interests that Santorum had supported in the Senate.

Good Neighbor turned out not to be such a good neighbor, except to itself.

Before it folded in 2007, the foundation raised $2.58 million, with 39 percent of that donated directly to groups helping the needy. By industry standards, such philanthropic groups should be donating nearly twice that, from 75 to 85 percent of their funds.

Santorum also chanelled the lion's share of money from his leadership PAC, America Foundation, to himself and his political operatives.

Lawmakers often use such committees, known as “leadership PACs,” to dole out money to political allies.
Santorum kept the committee going, even after losing his seat in 2006, and has raised $5.5 million over the past five years.
When he was in office and running for reelection, he gave 20 percent of the funds to other GOP candidates in federal races. But after Santorum left the Senate, that figure dropped to about 3 percent, although he also gave a small amount to local Republicans in key primary states.
The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found in a 2011 study that leadership PACs run by lawmakers commonly give away 80 to 90 percent of their money to other candidates or political committees.

After he left the Senate, Santorum spent most of his PAC money — more than $3 million — on campaign-style expenses criticizing Democrats, including direct mail, polling and political consultants, disclosure records show. An additional $1.4 million went for travel, salaries and other administrative costs.
As with the charity, hundreds of thousands of dollars of the PAC money went to loyal aides with close ties to Santorum. Bickhart and his firm, for example, have received nearly $780,000 from America’s Foundation since 2001, records show.
In a January 2010 letter seeking donations, Santorum said he needed money to “reinforce our conservative allies” in Congress and retake control of the House. Though Santorum had not then registered as a presidential candidate, he also wrote he was “actively considering” a presidential run and hoped to “kick the Obama administration to the curb,” according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Here is the GOP dream date: a moralizing self-proclaimed man of rectitude running a con job on America.

Happy Valentine's Day from Brunnhilde and Siegfried

2012-02-14T15:20:00.002-05:00

The hell with flowers. Burning down Valhalla is the way to memorialize your love.

Anne Evans in glorious voice, with Barenboim conducting, in the lame Kupfer production in Beyreuth 1991.

Critique of Pure Chocolate: A Priori Grounding of the Possible Experience of a Valentine

2012-02-14T13:24:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Day is empirically real, transcendentally ideal and a faux celebration. Nonetheless, best wishes for an unconditionally good day, conveyed with images courtesy of Intellectual Valentines Day and philosophy from the thinker who married sense intuition to the understanding and gave legitimacy to their offspring, knowledge.

Thanks to Intellectual Valentines Day. Click here for more

Digby is right again

2012-02-13T15:33:00.001-05:00

It has puzzled me for years: what is the attraction of right wing libertarianism? Why are RWL's so hostile to laws regulating business, finance, health, guns, etc., yet so accepting of (at least) state and local laws regulating women's fertility?

Today, Digby has provided at least a partial answer: it isn't about freedom, it is about power and control of subordinates.

Why do so many more libertarians join the right wing instead of the left wing? Because they care more about maintaining traditional, private realms of power than anything else. And that translates to dominance over women in the home and workers in the offices and factories. The people who are drawn to that ideology have no problem making common cause with social conservatives because ultimately, they care about the same thing, the social cons would just have the state enforce it. And as we've seen, Ron Paul and many of his followers are fine with that too --- as long as it isn't the centralized state doing the enforcing. Tyranny on a local, private level isn't tyranny. It's natural.

From the point of view of RWL, Federal power treats locally and privately powerful husbands, fathers, businessmen and doctors as women: unruly subjects to be controlled.

There are more, many more, complex threads to untangle here, not the least of them the complex history of 'state's rights': the confederate and later southern anti-civil rights struggle against federal power.

Reactor core reheating or sensor failure at Fukushima?

2012-02-13T09:39:00.000-05:00

TEPCO blames sensor failure for high temperature readings in Fukushima unit 2, (which is supposed to be in 'cold shutdown', requiring that the temperature stay below 80 degrees celsius). But the unreliability of the temperature sensors is cause for worry.

According to TEPCO, readings from the suspect sensor -- which registered 94.9 degrees Celsius at the bottom of the reactor's pressure vessel on Feb. 13 -- have been rising since the end of January this year. At the time, unable to determine if the elevated readings were real or not, the utility injected extra water into the core to prevent overheating. However, TEPCO began to suspect a malfunction on Feb. 12, when readings from the sensor -- one of three in the reactor -- fluctuated wildly between 75 and 90 degrees. The "safe" temperature for maintaining cold shutdown has been set at 80 degrees.
The sensor in question uses metal components whose electrical resistance changes with temperature, and calculates the ambient temperature based on changes in the electrical current. TEPCO plans to confirm the sensor's condition by rechecking its electrical resistance, among other measures.
However, the very fact that the sensor may have malfunctioned casts doubt on the cold shutdowns of reactors No. 1-3, declared by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in December last year. The declaration was based on readings showing pressure vessel temperatures had come below 100 degrees. Since then, TEPCO has assumed a maximum margin of error of 20 degrees Celsius. Even so, the admission of a possible sensor failure calls all the temperature data collected thus far into question, and with it the condition of the reactor cores.

"Because we haven't been able to grasp how the nuclear fuel in the cores has been distributed, it's impossible to rule out localized high temperature spots," says Kazuhiko Kudo, a special professor of nuclear engineering at Kyushu University. "As the high radiation rules out installing new temperature sensors, if the last two sensors (in the No. 2 reactor) fail, the situation will be much more serious indeed."

TEPCO has been pumping more water into the reactor to cool it.

Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, said it was able to bring the temperature down at two other places in the reactor to about 33C from over 40C a week ago by pumping more water into it.
"Following our cooling efforts temperatures at the two other locations are declining steadily while that at the location in question keeps rising. This leads us to think that the thermometer at the location in question is not functioning properly, rather than the actual temperature rising," Junichi Matsumoto, Tepco's general manager, told reporters on Monday.

To sum up: TEPCO is skeptical of the high temperature readings over the past weeks, is making efforts to cool the reactor, which have lowered the temperature readings from some locations, and now attributes the high readings from one location to sensor failure.

Temperature readings rising in Fukushima unit two

2012-02-12T16:35:00.000-05:00

Temperature readings in the Unit two reactor at Fukushima are rising, suggesting the reactor is heating up, even though the Japanese government and TEPCO declared it in cold shutdown two months ago.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the temperature inside No 2 reactor – one of three that suffered meltdown after last year's earthquake and tsunami – may have reached 82C on Sunday.
Tepco said there was no evidence that the melted fuel inside had reached criticality. The utility reportedly increased the amount of cooling water being injected into the reactor along with a boric acid solution, which is used to prevent the fuel from undergoing sustained nuclear reactions.
Confirmation that the temperature has risen above 80C could force the government to reverse its declaration two months ago that the crippled plant was in a safe state known as cold shutdown.
Cold shutdown is achieved when the temperature inside the reactors remains below 100C and there is a significant reduction in radiation leaks. Given that Tepco assumes a margin of error of 20C, the actual temperature could have risen to 102C.
Plant workers are unable to take accurate readings of the temperature inside the damaged reactor because radiation levels are still too high for them to enter and examine the state of the melted fuel, which is thought to be resting at the bottom of the reactor's pressure vessel.
The result has been a series of wildly different readings: two other thermometers positioned at the bottom of No 2 reactor showed the temperature at 35C, local media reported.
Tepco said it did not know the cause of the apparent temperature rise, but speculated that it might be due to problems with the supply of coolant or a faulty thermometer.
"We believe the state of cold shutdown is being maintained," said Junichi Matsumoto, a company spokesman. "Rather than the actual temperature rising, we believe there is high possibility that the thermometer concerned is displaying erroneous data."

Murdocholypse continuing

2012-02-11T08:51:00.001-05:00

Five senior editors at Murdoch owned tahloid, the Sun, were arrested for bribing police and public officials, and Rupert Murdoch is flying back to London to do....what? restore journalistic honor and dignity? From the Guardian:

The five Sun journalists are understood to be: deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and reporter John Sturgis.
The Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan, said: "I'm as shocked as anyone by today's arrests but am determined to lead the Sun through these difficult times. I have a brilliant staff and we have a duty to serve our readers and will continue to do that. Our focus is on putting out Monday's newspaper."
A News International source said Mohan was "not resigning" but added that it was "obviously a dramatic day for him".
Sky News reported that Rupert Murdoch is flying into the UK to reassure Sun staff that he will not close the paper in the wake of the latest arrests.
The worsening crisis at the tabloid could have wider ramifications for the Murdoch media empire, according to some media experts.
Clive Hollick, former chief executive of United Business Media, said the latest arrests could intensify the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation into News Corp in the US.
In a post on his Twitter account he added that the arrests "may lead to fines, director oustings and asset sales".
He also suggested that the developments could lead to the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom review Murdoch's control of Sky television in the UK.
Hollick tweeted: "Will Ofcom conclude that Sun arrests on top of hacking render NI not fit and proper to hold #Sky license and make them sell shareholding?"
A Surrey police officer, 39, a Ministry of Defence employee, 39, and a member of the armed forces, 36, were also arrested at their homes on Saturday on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to both.

Take a look at the Sun's homepage today. Do you see anything about this story there? I didn't.

Ask a fish head anything you want to

2012-02-10T19:48:00.000-05:00

It's February. The world makes no sense. Time for some fish heads:

Israel, MEK team up to kill Iranian scientists

2012-02-10T12:14:00.000-05:00

NBC news reports an unnamed administration officials confirm that MEK working with Israel is responsible for the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and other attacks.

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.

The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

........................................

Two senior U.S. officials confirmed for NBC News the MEK’s role in the assassinations, with one senior official saying, “All your inclinations are correct.” A third official would not confirm or deny the relationship, saying only, “It hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet.” All the officials denied any U.S. involvement in the assassinations.
As it has in the past, Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined comment. Said a spokesman, "As long as we can't see all the evidence being claimed by NBC, the Foreign Ministry won't react to every gossip and report being published worldwide."

To recap: MEK is an Iranian opposition fringe group run by a husband and wife team which sided with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and has been camped out in Iraq since then, under the protection of the US occupation despite the fact that it is a terrorist organization. Since the withdrawal of US forces, NBC reports that the plan is to resettle its members in 'unspecified democratic countries".

For the United States, the alleged role of the MEK is particularly troublesome. In 1997, the State Department designated it a terrorist group, justifying it with an unclassified 40-page summary of the organization’s activities going back more than 25 years. The paper, sent to Congress in 1998, was written by Wendy Sherman, now undersecretary of state for political affairs and then an aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The report, which was obtained by NBC News, was unsparing in its assessment. “The Mujahedin (MEK) collaborated with Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the former shah of Iran,” it said. “As part of that struggle, they assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of the American hostages.” In each case, the paper noted, “Bombs were the Mujahedin's weapon of choice, which they frequently employed against American targets.”

....................................
Another thing about the MEK: it has a lot of money and a lot of supporters (or paid lobbyists, among them, shamefully, Howard Dean). Glenn Greenwald observes:

Yet here we have numerous American political figures receiving substantial fees from a group which is legally designated under American law as a Terrorist organization. Beyond that, they are meeting with the Terrorist leaders of that group repeatedly (Howard Dean told NPR last year about the group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi: “I have actually had dinner with Mrs. Rajavi on numerous occasions. I do not find her very terrorist-like” and has even insisted that she should be recognized as Iran’s President, while Rudy Giuliani publicly told her at a Paris conference in December: “These are the most important yearnings of the human soul that you support, and for your organization to be described as a terrorist organization is just simply a disgrace”). And, after receiving fees from the Terrorist group and meeting with its Terror leaders, these American political figures are going forth and disseminating pro-MEK messages on its behalf and working to have it removed from the Terrorist list.

.......................

Then there’s long been the baffling question of where MEK was getting all of this money to pay these American officials. Indeed, the pro-MEK campaign has been lavishly funded. As the CSM noted: ”Besides the string of well-attended events at prestigious American hotels and locations, and in Paris, Brussels, and Berlin, the campaign has included full-page advertisements in The New York Times and Washington Post — which can cost $175,000 apiece.” MEK is basically little more than a nomadic cult: after they sided with Saddam Hussein in his war with Iran, they were widely loathed in Iran and their 3,400 members long lived in camps in Iraq, but the Malaki government no longer wants them there. How has this rag-tag Terrorist cult of Iranian dissidents, who are largely despised in Iran, able to fund such expensive campaigns and to keep U.S. officials on its dole?

The only* Catholics in the US who don't use birth control are the bishops

2012-02-10T09:37:00.000-05:00

Wait a minute: we're against Sharia law in the US, but we're for Vatican rule?

*almost

Another thought: since contraceptive coverage rules have been in effect for years, one can only wonder whether the bishops are trying to distract attention from the church child sex abuse scandals.

Every sperm is sacred

2012-02-08T15:52:00.000-05:00

Brava Senator Constance Johnson!

State Senator Constance Johnson of Oklahoma City has served Oklahoma's 48th Senate District since 2005, but it was yesterday's introduction of Senate Bill 1433 that really pushed her over the edge. The bill sought to define human life as beginning at the moment of conception, before it's even implanted in the womb, and offers full legal protection to those tiny multicelled lumps. In the words of the bill, "the unborn child at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state."
Johnson submitted an amendment of her own to the bill, which would have added the language,
However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman's vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.

I am a little disappointed that she withdrew the amendment. Men, your sacs are sacred vessels, carrying trillions of potential beings, each potentially made in the divine image. Spilling your seed is like killing god, so use your equipment worshipfully.

Rick frothy mixture Santorum: the GOP dream date

2012-02-08T13:29:00.002-05:00

Some prescient wisdom from Rich Lewis, written a month ago: Rick Santorum is the perfect anti-Romney candidate.

In their seemingly desperate search for an alternative to MittRomney, Republicans tried on candidates like shoppers in a shoestore - squeezing their feet into all kinds of cool-looking optionsbut finding it impossible to walk more than a few steps in any ofthem. Meanwhile, the perfect pair sat on the shelf, virtuallyunnoticed. I watched the last seven televised Republican presidential debates,trying to be objective and putting aside my own liberal biases.Each of the candidates had good nights and bad nights, but by theend the overall picture was very clear.

.............................

In contrast, Santorum was steady throughout all the debates. He waswell informed, could point to substantial legislative experience,and expressed himself well. His performances weren't flawless, buthe consistently made his presence felt, and avoided any seriousgaffes.
Above all, he was solidly in line with the Republican party base onvirtually every issue - strongly pro-business, rigidly conservativeon social issues, and eager to aggressively confront those heconsiders enemies of the United States, including saying he wouldbomb Iran and wanted a "war" with China.

He's right: Santorum is the perfect fit for the GOP. And he's right about this, too:

On the other hand, Santorum also has some personal and financialbaggage that hasn't been exploited by his opponents because theysaw no reason to do so. They do now. He might be Newted.

As I have noted, Santorum's record oozes scandal: pay for play, vote selling, lobbying, shady financial doings with a 'charitable' foundation, I suspect the Romney machine will crank out the attack ads by the end of the week,

But until then, "Santorum" doesn't only mean 'asshole' in Latin; it also means 'republican dream date'.

Dirty little frothy mixture Ricky

2012-02-08T09:49:00.000-05:00

The only reason little Ricky is not cell mates with Rod Blagojevich is because Patrick Fitzgerald wasn't US attorney in Pennsylvania. But I repeat myself. Still, the point cannot be made often enough: Santorum sold earmarks and votes for cash while he was in the Senate. After he left, he he did the usual DC presto-chango and turned into a lobbyist. No training required, since he knew the ins and outs of the business from his years on the seller's side. And there are other festering sores of self-dealing and scams. If the msm did not equate moral rectitude with having a stick up your ass about sex, Santorum would have long been seen as one of the most corrupt players in DC.

Manssor Arbabsiar trial set for October in the Saudi ambassador bomb plot

2012-02-07T15:03:00.003-05:00

Manssor Arbabsiar is slated to go to trial in October, following a pre-trial hearing today.

At a pre-trial conference Tuesday, Manhattan Federal Court Judge John Keenan set an Oct. 22 trial date saying he doesn't want “this thing dragging on.”
Keenan told both sides they have had more than enough time to prepare since Arbabsiar’s indictment last October. Arbabsiar has been held without bail since then.
“I’ve never heard of a case where you need more than a year to prepare it,” the judge said. “If that’s not long enough to prepare a case, then I’ve been in the wrong business for my whole professional career.”
The intended victim was Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir.
Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, a member of the Quds Force Iranian military unit, were charged with plotting the murder in a ficticious Washington, D.C, restaurant.

Defense attorney Sabrina Shroff objected to the October date.

Shroff told the judge that she will submit a letter to ask him to move the date to November."The case itself is complex. The indictment is complex," she told the judge.
"I don't want this thing dragging on," Keenan said. "It's not fair to the defendant, and it's not fair to the government, and it's not fair to the witnesses."

Disquiet on the middle eastern front

2012-02-06T12:53:00.002-05:00

It is an old lesson from nuclear war doctrine: the belief your opponent is planning to attack your military assets provides the rational grounds for a pre-emptive first strike: use 'em or lose 'em. I've been thinking about this over the last few days amid all the drumbeats about an Israeli strike on Iran. The worry is that the rational response by Iran is to launch a pre-emptive strike to destroy or damage Israel's capability to strike Iran's nuclear sites. It turns out that others have the same worry about escalating, including retired Israeli military leaders.

The discussion here of an Israeli attack has grown so loud lately that some now worry that it has become counterproductive as a diplomatic tool. Amos Yadlin, a retired general who used to direct military intelligence in Israel, said on the radio on Sunday that it was time to quiet that talk.
“These statements have reached the point where they have crossed the line from bringing benefit and are beginning to cause damage,” he said. “I’ll give you an example. I saw on an Iranian Web site this morning thoughts like, ‘If this is the situation, maybe we should attack first.’ I think there is a danger of escalation that will get out of control. Right now we should do what Israel knows how to do well — keep quiet.”

In today's Jerusalem Post we find similar sentiments from another retired Israeli military leader.

"My number one priority continues to be the security of the United States, but also the security of Israel, and we are going to make sure that we work in lockstep as we proceed to try to solve this, hopefully diplomatically," he told NBC.
Responding to Obama's comments, former IDF chief of General Staff Dan Halutz said that while Israel should do everything to avoid any clash with its "only long-term ally (the United States)," when it comes to issues critical to Israel, Jerusalem need not sacrifice its interests for Washington.
With that in mind, Halutz said, Israel is waiting to see the effectiveness of international sanctions against Iran without taking any options off the table.

The former Air Force commander also criticized the US and Israeli security and political establishments for "talking too much" about a possible strike on Iran.
"The fact that senior officials in the security establishment drop fragments of information every once in a while is irresponsible," Halutz said in an interview with Army Radio on Monday.

Unfortunately, quieting the war talk won't help at this point, since Iranians will have already calculated the likelihood that silence signals an impending attack. First strike threats are speech acts with long term consequences: once made, threats of first strike are hard to defuse by speech or silence. Iran would be foolish not to interpret a future silence from Israel in the same way they are probably interpreting the threats today. And this motivates both sides to shore up their second strike threats, nuclear and otherwise.

Of course, it is possible that Israel is using war talk and perhaps upcoming tactical silence in order to motivate Iran to launch its first strike, giving Israel the cover it needs with the US to strike Iran, and perhaps giving the US rationale for partnering with Israel in doing so.

Peliggi's vote stealing plan wakes up PA dems

2012-02-06T10:28:00.000-05:00

Remember Dominic Pileggi and his plan to rob Pennsylvania's voters of their presidential votes? Pennsylvania democrats have just woken up from their slumbers and posted this ad:

Pennsylvania Republicans are trying to change the rules of how our votes will be counted in the 2012 Presidential election. As the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “state Republicans are trying to rig the nation’s antiquated election system to their advantage.” This is nothing short of an effort to steal the Presidency and disenfranchise the people of Pennsylvania – and we need your help to fight back.
Instead of awarding Pennsylvania’s electoral votes as a unified state, Republicans want to localize the electoral votes by Congressional District. This will guarantee that Republicans get a significant number of electoral votes from Pennsylvania and sacrifice our Commonwealth’s power as a swing state.
Enough! Use the form to the right to stand with Pennsylvania Democrats against this historic power grab and assert your right to be counted in Presidential election.

Pileggi's plans were to resurrect his vote stealing proposal this spring. Let's see what transpires.

Downton Abbey Superbowl mash-up

2012-02-05T16:43:00.001-05:00

(h/t Digby)

Debt statute of limitations

2012-02-05T13:03:00.000-05:00

Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post writes that the FTC is going after a debt collection agency for ignoring statute of limitations on old debts and other deceptive practices. Each state has a statute of limitations for collecting debt, after which collection is legally 'time barred':

The federal government also is concerned that debt collectors are going after “time-barred debt.” Debt collectors have a limited number of years or a statute of limitations in which they can sue someone to collect. After the time runs out, unpaid debts are considered “time-barred.”
Many consumers, however, aren’t aware that their debt is no longer collectible. The statute of limitations varies from state to state. Debtors also don’t know that many states allow the time-barred clock to reset if they make a small payment on the debt.
The FTC alleged that Michigan-based Asset Acceptance violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act by, among other things, failing to disclose to consumers that their debts were too old to be legally enforceable, misrepresenting that people owed a debt when the company couldn’t substantiate the debt was theirs and providing inaccurate information to credit reporting agencies.

SOL's differ by state: for example, Pennsylvania and California have 4 year SOL's, while Florida is 5 and New York 6.Here's some more information.

What a statute of limitations is, how it works
Creditors and debt collectors have a limited time window in which to sue debtors for nonpayment of credit card bills. That limit is set by a state's statute of limitations. Anyone with credit card debt should know their state's statute.
"In most states, the statute of limitations period on debts is between three and 10 years; in some states, the period is longer," according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commisison (FTC). Debts that have lingered longer than the statutes allow are often referred to as "time-barred debts."
Time-barred debt
"If a debt collector sues you to collect a time-barred debt, you can have the suit dismissed by letting the court or judge know the debt is, indeed, time-barred," according to the FTC.
Debt collectors and consumer advocates, however, caution that the statute of limitations (SOL) does not prevent debt collectors from attempting to collect on debts. They just cannot successfully sue to collect the debts -- assuming the debtor shows up in court to assert his or her rights.

Click here for the map and further information.

A friend of this blog commented a few weeks ago that standardizing and in some states, accelerating the SOL for debts could be a real boost for the economy, and help people who are currently suffocating under unpayable bills. True, defaulting on debt will destroy their credit ratings, but their credit in most cases is already destroyed. More to the point, they shouldn't have credit, at least at that point in their lives. At least, getting out from under old debt will allow people to more sensibly structure their financial lives---on a cash only basis.

Update on San Onofre

2012-02-04T20:10:00.000-05:00

Update on the San Onofre nuclear plant:

Inspectors at the San Onofre nuclear plant will have to wait until the middle of next week to enter a reactor and search for a radioactive steam leak.
Temperatures were still too hot — 105 degrees — inside the southernmost of two reactors on Friday for crews to start work inside. That reactor was shut down Tuesday for an indefinite length of time after air radiation alarms sounded at a turbine deck building.
Small traces of radioactive gas from the leak may have reached the atmosphere without endangering workers or residents near the oceanfront power plant 45 miles north of San Diego, according to nuclear regulators.
Plant operator Southern California Edison said it was too soon to say how long repairs would take, and it could not provide a cost estimate for the unplanned shutdown.
“The reactor operates at extreme temperatures,” said Jennifer Manfre, a spokeswoman for Edison. “This is just how long it takes after you do a shutdown until they can go in.”
A day of replacement power for each reactor cost between $600,000 and $1 million during the 1990s and shortly beyond, when nuclear engineer Murray Jennex still worked at the plant.
Jennex, now a business professor at San Diego State University, said prices still vary based on the power source and market fluctuations.
The dual reactor San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station supplies about 20 percent of the area’s electricity at full capacity — enough to power about 2.1 million homes.
A routine inspection of the northern reactor, initiated in early January, has found excessive wear on its 2-year-old generator steam pipes. The inspection of those tubes was still under way on Friday after four days.
Maintenance and refueling on that reactor should be completed in early March.
Generators in both reactors were replaced over the past two years with new equipment manufactured in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at a total cost of $670 million.
Heat-transfer tubes measure about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, with walls roughly the thickness of a dime. They gradually degrade and are plugged over the life of a generator, reducing efficiency until it becomes cost effective to replace them.

The facility had three nuclear reactors. Unit 1 was permanently shut down in 1992 and dismantled. It is now being used for storage of spent fuel. Unit 3 experienced the leak. Unit 2 was shut down for refueling and maintenance when inspectors found excessive wear in its generator steam pipes.

Long standing concerns about steam generator tubes

2012-02-03T09:25:00.000-05:00

The OC Register reports that steam generator tubes have been a long standing concern, and not just at the San Onofre Nuclear Generator (SONGS):

But what's clear right now from a quick survey of NRC documents is that nuclear plants that use the pressurized water reactor (PWR) design have struggled for more than 30 years with degradation problems inside of the steam generators, which are sort of a giant radiator that extracts the heat from the nuclear fission process and transfers it to a non-radioactive steam system that drives the generators that produce electric power.
The PWR designers, primarily Westinghouse, intended the steam generators to last for the life of the plants but that has not proven viable. Some plant operators have been slow to repair and/or reluctant to replace degraded generators and as a result there have been at least eight ruptures in steam generators at PWR plants, most of which resulted in some small leak of radioactive gas and all of which forced the temporary shutdown of the plants.
A leak of radioactive gas from the steam generator at the Indian Point 2 plant in Buchanan, New York in February 15, 2000, (which was also described as minor), opened what had been mostly an insider controversy to public view. The high-profile plant provides about a quarter of the power to New York City and Westchester, but has been dogged by leaks and other problems.
Investigators determined that NRC inspectors had known of severe degradation in the Indian Point steam generator for years but had not pressed the plant operators to make proper (and expensive) repairs.
Particularly alarming were the dissenting views of Dr. Joram Hopenfeld, an engineer from the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, who had been sharply critical of the NRC's lax handling of steam generator issues for years. In a memo Hopefeld wrote in December of 1999, three months before the Indian Point accident, he sharply criticized NRC officials for downplaying the dangers of degraded steam tubes:
To be credible, risk-informed regulation mandates statistically valid and scrutable data, competent insights of accident scenarios and their consequences, and of accident prevention strategies, as well as meaningful public involvement. In reality, the staff examines accident scenarios and their consequences in a superficial manner; accident prevention is apparently dictated primarily by financial considerations, and the public is being excluded from meaningful participation in the NRC deliberation process.
Following the accident and more criticism from the US Inspector General the NRC developed action plans and became more scrupulous about requiring plant operators to check and repair degraded generators.
Fast forward to 2009, when SC Edison began replacing both the steam generators at San Onofre with new units manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Edison said the new generators would last until the plant's license expires in 2022.
Instead, a leak developed in one of the tubes in Unit 1 and and radiation monitors detected an increase in radioactivity levels on Tuesday, forcing Edison to make an unplanned shut down of the reactor. Full details on the problem that led to that leak have not yet been made public; we'll link to them when they are.
Meanwhile, according to the NRC, SONGS workers doing maintenance at the second reactor, unit 2, checked the new steam generator as part of routine maintenance and found that:
"Two of the tubes have thinning so extensive that they need to be plugged and taken out of service. Sixty nine other tubes have thinning greater than 20 percent of the wall thickness, and a larger number have thinning greater than 10 percent of wall thickness."
It should be noted that the nuclear power industry, now with 30 years of experience with this problem, is well equipped to plug or sleeve degraded tubes and return the steam generator to service. The generator contains thousands of tubes so even if some must be blocked the generator can still be used.
What's not clear is why these problems developed so soon after replacement and what it means for the next 20 years of SONGS service.
| Article Videos

Another troubling point: the problematic steam generator tubes at Three Mile Island and Arkansas Nuclear One reported this weekend were manufactured by French company Areva. San Onofre's came from Mitsubishi.

US warns Israel against Iran attack: unnamed sources

2012-02-03T07:37:00.000-05:00

There's more kabuki signalling between the US and Israel over Iran, with leaks from Leon Panetta indicating that the US believes Israel will attack Iran this spring and a leak from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey that the US will not join in any attack, even as Israeli leadership continue to indicate that an attack is coming. From the Washington Post:

“Whoever says ‘later’ may find that later is too late,” Barak said. He switched from Hebrew to English for the last phrase: “later is too late.”
The language reflected a deepening rift between Israeli and U.S. officials over the urgency of stopping Iran’s nuclear program, which Western intelligence officials and nuclear experts say could soon put nuclear weapons within the reach of Iran’s rulers.
Although accepting the gravity of the Iranian threat, U.S. officials fear being blindsided by an Israeli strike that could have widespread economic and security implications and might only delay, not end, Iran’s nuclear pursuits.
In a series of private meetings with Israeli counterparts in recent weeks, Western officials have counseled patience, saying recent economic sanctions and a new European oil embargo are pummeling Iran’s economy and could soon force the country’s leaders to abandon the nuclear program. Yet Israelis are increasingly signaling that they may act unilaterally if there is no breakthrough in the coming months, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials.

Gareth Porter writes in IPS:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told Israeli leaders Jan. 20 that the United States would not participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel without prior agreement from Washington, according to accounts from well-placed senior military officers.

Dempsey's warning, conveyed to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, represents the strongest move yet by President Barack Obama to deter an Israeli attack and ensure that the United States is not caught up in a regional conflagration with Iran.

But the Israeli government remains defiant about maintaining its freedom of action to make war on Iran, and it is counting on the influence of right-wing extremist views in U.S. politics to bring pressure to bear on Obama to fall into line with a possible Israeli attack during the election campaign this fall.

Obama still appears reluctant to break publicly and explicitly with Israel over its threat of military aggression against Iran, even in the absence of evidence Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon.

Dempsey's trip was highly unusual, in that there was neither a press conference by the chairman nor any public statement by either side about the substance of his meetings with Israeli leaders. Even more remarkable, no leak about what he said to the Israelis has appeared in either U.S. or Israeli news media, indicating that both sides have regarded what Dempsey said as extremely sensitive.

The substance of Dempsey's warning to the Israelis has become known, however, to active and retired senior flag officers with connections to the JCS, according to a military source who got it from those officers.

A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander Patrick McNally, offered no comment Wednesday when IPS asked him about the above account of Dempsey's warning to the Israelis.

Pink ribbons don't save women's lives

2012-02-02T08:14:00.000-05:00

My mother had breast cancer. She survived it. My sister had it too, only she didn't. I plan on honoring their memories, and those of thousands of other sisters and mothers by donating to Planned Parenthood.

Karen, this click is for you.

Steam tubes leak radiation at San Onofre nuclear power plant

2012-02-01T19:30:00.001-05:00

More steam tube defects shutter yet another nuclear reactor, this one the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California, where the bad tubes leaked small quantities of radioactive gas into a building there.

A small quantity of radioactive gas leaked inside one of the buildings at San Onofre nuclear power plant north of San Diego, according to a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The spokesman said the radiation levels were “barely measurable,” but the plant was shut down as a precaution.
“At no point were the public or our workers in any danger,” Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander told ABC News.
Officials say the radiation leak likely occurred in the steam generator tubes of San Onofre’s reactor #3. The steam system, which is supposed to be shielded from exposure to radiation, was replaced in December 2010. Alexander said plant officials will be conducting an investigation into why the new steam tubes leaked.
Gary Headrick is part of the environmental group San Clemente Green and lives just eight miles away from San Onofre.
“If we don’t make them shut it down, it’s going to be too late,” Headrick said.
San Onofre is one of dozens of U.S. reactors facing new scrutiny after Japan’s nuclear crisis. It is located right on the coast, and in the heart of America’s earthquake country.
It also is right next door to Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base, where 70,000 sailors, marines and their families would be in immediate danger if there’s ever a meltdown.
ABC News visited San Onofre the day the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan melted down. At the time, plant officials were eager to reassure the public that the same thing could not happen on the California coast.
“This plant is safe,” California Edison’s Chief Nuclear Officer Pete Dietrich told ABC News.

Sure.

Help facebook celebrate its IPO by taking a vacation from Facebook

2012-01-31T22:37:00.000-05:00

Facebook will file for its first IPO tomorrow. It occurs to me that an appropriate way to celebrate the event is by staying off Facebook---maybe not permanently, but just for a while. Think of it as a little facebook vacation. Like a regular vacation, it can be very restful. I've been off for a little while now, and though I missed the chatter among my friends at first, I quickly began to relish regaining the time and focus I regained. When I checked in after a week I realized I hadn't missed much. And I enjoy the idea of withdrawing from the crowd that Zuckerberg et al. sell to data miners and advertisers.

So consider taking a little midwinter vacation. You might find yourself enjoying it.

"Unusual event" at Byron nuclear station caused by insulator failure

2012-01-31T21:28:00.000-05:00

For want of an insulator, the power is lost. That is the story Exelon is telling about the low level emergency at its Byron nuclear power plant, which experienced a shutdown and release of tritium laden steam after power failed.

Exelon Energy officials say they've traced a power failure at a nuclear reactor in northern Illinois to an electrical insulator in a switchyard.

The insulator failed and fell off Monday morning, causing one of the reactors at the Byron Generating Station to shut down automatically, company spokesman Paul Dempsey says.

The bad insulator will be sent to a lab for analysis and officials hope to replace it by Tuesday evening. It's unclear how soon before the reactor could return to service.

Steam containing low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is being vented to reduce pressure within the reactor. But federal and plant officials say the levels are safe for workers and the public. The plant is 95 miles northwest of Chicago.

The switchyard is similar to a large substation that delivers power to the plant from the electrical grid and from the plant to the electrical grid.

Diesel generators were supplying the reactor with electricity, though it hasn't been generating power during the investigation into what happened. One question is why smoke was seen from an onsite station transformer, though no evidence of a fire was found when the plant's fire brigade responded, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokeswoman Viktoria Mitlyng said.

She said Exelon was testing equipment and inspecting various systems to determine exactly what went wrong, and no repairs would be made until the root cause was found.

"If you do a Band-Aid fix and have the same situation, it's not in anybody's interest to have a repeat," Mitlyng said, adding that the NRC is monitoring the activities.

'Unusual event' at Byron nuclear station leads to venting tritium laden steam

2012-01-30T21:30:00.001-05:00

Yet another nuclear incident, this one in Illinois at the Byron Generating Station. The 'unusual incident' is being attributed to equipment failure in the electrical system delivering power to the facility.

A nuclear reactor at a northern Illinois plant shut down Monday after losing power, and steam was being vented to reduce pressure, according to officials from Exelon Nuclear and federal regulators.
Unit 2 at Byron Generating Station, about 95 miles northwest of Chicago, shut down at 10:18 a.m., after losing power, Exelon officials said. Diesel generators began supplying power to the plant, and operators began releasing steam to cool the reactor, but from the part of the plant where turbines are producing electricity, not from within the nuclear reactor itself, officials said.
The steam contains low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, but federal and plant officials insisted the levels were safe for workers and the public.

(h/t Embattled Farmers)

Pipe problems at Fukushima

2012-01-30T21:17:00.002-05:00

This seems to be the season for pipe problems. Now, cold weather seems to be making pipes leak at Fukushima unit one. The story in Japan Times is confusing, but the spent fuel pool in unit 4 also seems to be leaking.

Two more water leaks were found at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant Monday in addition to 14 found Sunday that prompted Tokyo Electric Power Co. to halt the cooling of reactor 4's spent-fuel pool for two hours.
The leaks are believed to have been caused by freezing. The leaked water included radioactive water that had been purified, the utility said, adding that the contamination level is low.
The water temperature in the spent-fuel pool remained almost flat at 21 degrees, it said.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency instructed the utility to investigate the leaks and take preventive steps.
Tepco said Monday that its measures for dealing with the effect of cold weather on piping were insufficient and that it would replace the pipes with polyethylene ones that are wrapped with insulating materials.
Tepco said that around 40 liters of real water leaked from the pool-cooling system at reactor 4 Sunday morning, while probably 600 liters of purified water were found to have leaked from another facility. Water also leaked at other facilities. Another 30 liters leaked Monday, it said.
It is believed the water did not flow into the ocean, it said.

If the water didn't flow into the ocean, where did it go? Did it just vaporize, like the 1.2 billion vaporized dollars from MF Global?

Three Mile Island steam tubes wearing thin

2012-01-29T11:45:00.001-05:00

New steam tubes, manufactured by the French company Areva, in the functioning unit one nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island show unexpected wear.

After just one operating cycle, inspectors at Three Mile Island nuclear facility have detected unexpected flaws in the facility’s new steam generators.
There’s no indication radiation was released.
Officials say the flaws are well below regulatory thresholds, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a meeting Thursday morning to get more information.
The two 70-foot, 510-ton “once-through” generators sit on either side of the nuclear core, and were installed at TMI in 2009.
Each cost more than $140 million.
Each is filled with more than 15,000 high-chromium nickel alloy tubes, through which flows hot radioactive water from the core. The radioactive water in the tubes is under high pressure to keep it from boiling. It heats nonradioactive water outside the tubes, turning it to steam that powers the plant’s turbines.
The tubes are one of the primary barriers between the radioactive and nonradioactive sides of the facility. If one were to break, radioactive water from the reactor core could pass into the steam mechanism and escape as steam into the atmosphere.
When TMI shut down in October to change fuel, inspectors discovered some of the tubes had unexpected wear marks — from rubbing against each other.

Areva steam tubes have also been found to show tube to tube wear in the Arkansas Nuclear One plant, in Russellville, Arkansas, indicating that this is a more widespread problem.