what a mess

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I don't know why any of us bother to look anymore.

Sliming penguins....

Doomed dairy....

Goldstone gives in....

BP drilling in the Gulf....

The war drones on as though it's stopping tomorrow....

Polymer didn't work....

Information that will not land on your synapses....

Maybe I'll have the strength to add to this later.

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Worse than Dubya....

Corbett Report....

The banks....

UNSPEAKABLE....

Fidel....

For Phil....

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love, 99
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barackhenten's creed: take a long time to dazzle 'em with your bullshit

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Spectacularly late assessment of the blowout... and "lessons learned". I don't know if I can stand to read it. Truly. The decimation of any vestige of sense or good faith action is complete everywhere you turn. This cannot be any actual deviation from that, now can it?

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love, 99
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the super orwellian spin cycle

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Excuse me?

Neutron beam observed 13 times at crippled Fukushima nuke plant

TOKYO, March 23, Kyodo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.

TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear plant, said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 kilometers southwest of the plant's No. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour and that this is not a dangerous level.

The utility firm said it will measure uranium and plutonium, which could emit a neutron beam, as well.

In the 1999 criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant run by JCO Co. in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, uranium broke apart continually in nuclear fission, causing a massive amount of neutron beams.

In the latest case at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, such a criticality accident has yet to happen.

But the measured neutron beam may be evidence that uranium and plutonium leaked from the plant's nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuels have discharged a small amount of neutron beams through nuclear fission.

A what?

How many times?

And this isn't the first?

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Oh, so someone is measuring the radioactivity....

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Are you properly mindful that this is completely out of control?

China found two Japanese travellers arriving with high radiation levels Friday in the latest consequence of contamination from a crippled nuclear plant two weeks after the Asian nation's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

China's customs body said the pair had medical treatment for radiation levels "seriously" over the limit, but they did not present a risk to others after flying to Wuxi in the east.

I don't see much of it out there, no matter how many images and hints like this one are slid under our noses.

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Unit three is beginning to show its true colors.

Japanese nuclear safety officials said Friday that they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have breached, raising the possibility of more severe contamination to the environment.

"It is possible that somewhere at the reactor may have been damaged," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency. But he added that "our data suggest the reactor retains certain containment functions," implying that the damage may have occurred in Unit 3's reactor core but that it was limited.

Officials say the damage could instead have happened in other equipment, including piping or the spent fuel pool.

Operators have been struggling to keep cool water around radioactive fuel rods in the reactor's core after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami cut off power supply to the plant and its cooling system.

Damage could have been done to the core when a March 14 hydrogen explosion blew apart Unit 3's outer containment building.

This reactor, perhaps the most troubled at the six-unit site, holds 170 tons of radioactive fuel in its core. Previous radioactive emissions have come from intentional efforts to vent small amounts of steam through valves to prevent the core from bursting. However, releases from a breach could allow uncontrolled quantities of radioactive contaminants to escape into the surrounding ground or air.

Operators stopped work Friday at units 1 through 3 to check on radiation levels.

Or, more accurately, the officials are becoming less able to conceal theirs.

I mean, uhm, I think you can BET China had a couple thousand things to say about the seriously irradiated couple who showed up on their doorstep... but that's just me imputing humanity to foreigners again.

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love, 99
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killers liars mindfuckers sociopaths

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It isn't going to stop. It's getting worse.

WHAT IS GOING ON?

New drilling permits being issued....

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love, 99
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lab rats?

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Try "toilet paper".

"I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body," 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga of Hazlehurst, Mississippi told Al Jazeera. "Yesterday I went to see another doctor to get my blood test results and the nurse said she didn't know how I even got there."

Aguinaga and his close friend Merrick Vallian went swimming at Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2010.

"I swam underwater, then found I had orange slick stuff all over me," Aguinaga said. "At that time I had no knowledge of what dispersants were, but within a few hours, we were drained of energy and not feeling good. I've been extremely sick ever since."

Not to be a broken record, here, but the people of the Gulf Coast are less than zero. If they don't or can't or won't move away, their health is gone for the rest of their lives. Could be they are lab rats to see if their offspring can become impervious to these toxins, but... probably not.

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love, 99
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looting antiquities

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I know Toucans are not from Egypt, but there is a connection between ancient Egypt and ancient America and I want to contemplate that instead of all this creepy stuff I'm also attending.

Former Egyptian museum director Wafaa el-Saddik said the National Museum in Cairo was looted by its own security guards and that the Memphis Museum, south of Cairo, was "completely emptied" by looters.

"I alerted an army general but it was too late," he said.

Looters also emptied an entire warehouse at the Qantara Museum, near the city of Ismailia, that contained 3000 objects from the Roman and Byzantine periods, a tourism police source said.

Egyptian museum official Mohamed Megahed said there had been "immense damage" to the ancient burial grounds of Abusir and Saqqara.

"Only the Imhotep Museum and adjacent central areas were protected by the military. In Abusir, all tombs were opened with gangs digging day and night," he said.

It seems the looting has been quite more extensive than I've seen so far, and I'm bummed about this, and:

This lies in the background of President Mubarak’s appointment of Egypt’s antiquities Tsar, Zahi Hawass, to a cabinet level post. Given Hawass’ own background and connections to the western elites, this is not a surprising move, but it is one that subtly implies that elite’s interest in Egyptian antiquities.

So I, along with the irascible Phil, am not feeling comforted by this elevation of the prime headache for Egyptologists... often seemingly completely at whim.

Anyway, It's 11am in Cairo, and hour before Friday prayers, and Tahrir Square is already full. In addition, there are people blocking ingress to State TV and various government offices and no word of the contingent that lit out for Mubarak's palace last night, but more on the way.

The army brass have been meeting this morning—without Mubarak or Suleiman—and have promised a statement before prayers. So I will try to stay awake for it... but I'm fading fast....

The people seem to hotly desire that the military take over the interim government. They want them to take out the regime. This is a very, very popular opinion, with also quite a few who feel Mubarak has been tamed and they can wait a few more months. Some of those will be wishing that out of gratitude for what they think Mubarak did for them in the past, some out of weariness and fear, and some because their businesses are tanking beyond help if this goes on much longer.

They are expecting 20 million demonstrators across the nation today.

I'm hoping the military will just announce to everyone before any violence kicks up that they have escorted Mubarak out of the palace and will be running things and facilitating the writing of the new "connestetution" is being written... but you know me. Fairy dust hippie and all....

This post, as with yesterday's, will likely be updating all day, so the people on the feed might want to know that.

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love, 99
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a little meditation on the blowout, thirty hints

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☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ☼ — ...

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love, 99
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solid machine gunfire from near the museum for two hours

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That's the first thing I heard as I snapped al Jazeera back on just now.

I'm going to have to snap it back off pretty soon, because I can't stand listening to them sound as though any of this "Mubarak supporters" crap has any veracity whatsoever. "Not so much pro-Mubarak as they are anti-protestors and anti-al-Jazeera..." "Five people confirmed dead and fifteen injured by gunfire." "If the world cares so much, how can this be happening?"

So you can see why I might not be able to stand this very long.

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I have to ask: How easy would it be to hire "counter-protestors" in a country where most people try to live on two dollars a day? Dirt easy.

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Midnight in California... I mustered the fortitude to turn it back on and have been listening for the past couple hours. The official word is: 5 killed and 800 injured and 86 hospitalized. IDs found on the "pro-Mubarak" forces show that they are party members and police out of uniform. The battle at Liberation Square lasted fifteen or sixteen hours, and was a couple hundred men armed with sticks and bottle bombs and rocks and knives and at least one of them with a gun against a few thousand people in the square. Women and old men and children were kept in the middle of the square while young men fought off the aggressors. They say they finally managed to beat them all back and secure the ingress to the square against more, but it seems more likely that the aggressors simply went off shift... or were ordered back. The army did nothing to prevent any of it beside shoot in the air when combatants got too near.

I only broke down and sobbed once, when one of the men sworn to hold the square was recounting his experience. He said he didn't think, since they were willing to die for it, that they could lose. And they ARE willing to die for it. They ARE dying for it. People in the square are all bloodied and bandaged and limping. The rest of the time I have kept my analytical cool.

Of particular note, al Jazeera has been reporting over the last over an hour that "Secretary Clinton has told the new vice-president to hold those responsible for the violence accountable." I suppose this doesn't necessarily mean she actually told him to do it. I'm sure, if questioned, she would say she told him the United States expects Egypt to prosecute criminals, or some such, but it's telling that al Jazeera would keep reporting it to sound as though she were ordering him around. Then one must consider: Who does she think is responsible for it? Or, well, who does she want us to think she thinks is responsible for it? Everyone on the square seems pretty damn certain who is behind it and some now say they want Mubarak tried and executed for it.

I'd say it's only 50/50 whether it was Mubarak or our covert ops behind it. I wouldn't give that much weight to Mubarak except for two points: [1] he's clearly fighting the powers who are ousting him, under no illusions about that, and wanting to make them suffer more; and [2] he's clearly such a megalomaniacal narcissist, who has let an insane number of people to be damaged badly and killed behind his own pride, he could well be trying to enhance the consolation of those numbers it took to get him out.

In any case, this is being extremely well-managed. Everyone they managed to subdue from their attackers had their IDs taken from them, so there will be people to hold responsible, to prosecute, as a symbol of the glorious new "rule of law" in "democratic" Egypt.

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12:35am... Things are starting up again now. They found a pro-Mubarak guy in the crowd and a bunch of them started hitting him and dragging him out. The crowd is yelling to them to be peaceful, not hit him.

Human Rights Watch spokesman says there's no doubt the aggression was ordered by Mubarak.

ElBaradei says Mubarak will be held personally responsible if there is any more violence.

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An entirely lamentable Mubarak supporter....

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You guys... it's quarter after eleven in the morning in Cairo. All the entrances to the square have been closed off, except one. People are filling the square after their IDs are checked and they are searched for weapons... by the resistance, not cops, not army... self-policing.

Even after the epic battle that lasted into the wee hours, with all those casualties, thousands and thousands are people are filing into Tahrir Square right now. I hope someone is keeping a timeline of this. We need it as a manual for our uprising. We need to know what to do, what to expect, how to support the gorgeous young men and women putting their lives on the line.

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The new prime minister is going to make a statement soon. He's asked for cameras to follow him into a cabinet meeting. Rumors the new vice-president is talking to opposition people, despite his vow not to until the square was cleared and their vow not to until Mubarak steps down. "More than a thousand people injured." "Up to seven people dead."

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I don't know what these women are on, but, well, it's kind of uplifting, so I thought I'd throw it in....

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love, 99
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genocide

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Have I mentioned lately how much I hate this guy?

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love, 99
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predators and prey

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It is not enough to riot and revolt, people need to keep at it until the danger of the wrong changes moving in has passed. This would be why movement leaders need to be clear on the goal before they urge people to the streets. Yes, sometimes the people don't wait for enlightened leadership to emerge, and sometimes I wonder if enlightened leadership is even possible anymore, those tending toward it being either completely disinclined to leadership or not enlightened in fact, but more corruptible power freaks is the norm. It's the norm that needs overturning. This means the people have to lose their default settings along with their patience for tyrants.

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Three people were shot dead as protesters fought police outside Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha's office on Friday during a rally to demand the government resign over corruption allegations. ...

This would be the prime reason no one in the United States wants to get out there to demand the resignation of our corrupt government. Fat people find it safer to use sophistry to avoid risk than to eliminate it. The harder it is to reconcile such an attitude with facts, the more superior the tone of the sophistry becomes. When the facts keep heaping up—despite the most elaborate and finely-wrought sophistry, complete with experts—the tone turns shrill, lots of sanctimony gets thrown in for good measure, and polemics turn to hard and heavy shit-slinging. If none of that works, it gets still louder, loftier on one side and lower on the other, by turns, and yet less amenable to even short lulls. We couldn't be lucky enough to have another civil war... let alone another revolution.

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love, 99
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how do you think this will play out?

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This statins in our burgers has morphed into statins in our drinking water.

On Friday, the president travels to Schenectady, N.Y., birthplace of the General Electric Co., to showcase a new GE deal with India and announce a restructured presidential advisory board to focus on increasing employment and competitiveness.

Obama is naming GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt as the head of a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

So, uh, how do you think any of this will play out?

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love, 99
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the new normal

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I can't believe we're just sitting here.

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love, 99
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jesse ventura blows my mind

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This will Blow. Your. Mind.

ELEVEN DAYS BEFORE THE BLOWOUT. ELEVEN DAYS.

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love, 99
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yes, complacency is lethal for sure

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I mean, ya think? It's just NEVER any good, especially when Halliburton is involved, now is it?

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love, 99
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algae, yeah, that's the ticket, algae

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There are about ten things wrong with the government's explanation, stuff a kid could point out, and so we're left to wonder why they bothered to make it. Or see it and make of it what we make of it.

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love, 99
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good question

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Where is the outrage? Stupid punchline. She has faith in Obama's commission. She has hope. Fucking beyond pathetic.

I'm thinking about that one way trip to Mars BB2 was telling me about.

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A short, less irritating, version....

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love, 99
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bottomless, it's bottomless

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Never any respite.

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love, 99
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is this getting any coverage on any mainstream outlet?

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I never catch it on my infrequent forays to survey Groupthink and, except for Dahr sticking like oil on pelican, I think that about covers the national or international coverage, no?

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love, 99
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the playbook

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There is a manual. It works.

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love, 99
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the world teaches

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And we don't learn.

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love, 99
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