Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 18

As highly radioactive water continues to leak from the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, Greenpeace is urging Japanese officials to widen the evacuation zone.

A partial meltdown of fuel rods inside the reactor vessel was responsible for the high levels of radiation at that reactor although Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the radiation had mainly been contained in the reactor building.

TEPCO later said radiation above 1,000 millisieverts per hour was found in water in tunnels used for piping outside the reactor.

That is the same as the level discovered on Sunday. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a single dose of 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause hemorrhaging.

TEPCO officials said the underground tunnels did not flow into the sea but the possibility of radioactive water seeping into the ground could not be ruled out.

Greenpeace said its experts had confirmed radiation levels of up to 10 microsieverts per hour in a village 40 km (25 miles) northwest of the plant. It called for the extension of a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone.

"It is clearly not safe for people to remain in Iitate, especially children and pregnant women, when it could mean receiving the maximum allowed annual dose of radiation in only a few days," Greenpeace said in a statement, referring to the village where the radiation reading was taken.

More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from an area within 20 km (12 miles) of the plant and another 130,000 people within a zone extending a further 10 km are recommended to stay indoors. They have been encouraged to leave.

Of course, TEPCO officials are disputing Greenpeace's readings and they are of course saying everything is fine, even while admitting to the partial meltdown, something I called weeks ago.  Meanwhile, they have appealed to French nuclear technicians for assistance.  Whether or not that will make a difference here at this partial meltdown juncture is anyone's guess.

TEPCO stock is limit down on the Nikkei at this hour again.  It's lost two-thirds of its value in the last two weeks, going from 2,100 yen a share to under 700.

Empire State Building (A Budget)

If New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo's budget agreement looks familiar -- eliminating a surcharge tax on the state's wealthy, making cuts to Medicare and education, and laying off state workers -- there's a reason for that.  Even relatively blue states like New York have to deal with Republicans that control at least one chamber in the statehouse, and in the case of the state senate, Cuomo did much of their austerity work for them.

Dashing the hopes of many Democratic lawmakers, including the bulk of the New York City delegation, the budget did not include an extension of a temporary income tax surcharge on wealthy New Yorkers, a measure that has drawn support among Democrats and even some Senate Republicans as a way to further offset Mr. Cuomo’s proposed cuts in money for schools and other programs.

Mr. Cuomo persuaded legislative leaders to agree to a year-to-year cut of more than $2 billion in spending on health care and education, historically the two largest drivers of New York’s budget. Over all, officials said, the budget deal would reduce year-to-year spending by about 2 percent.

For both Medicaid and education, the deal calls for a two-year appropriation instead of the traditional one year’s worth of financing, locking in fixed rates of growth through Mr. Cuomo’s second year in office and potentially allowing him to avoid a repeat of the battles he fought this year with teachers’ unions and other special interests.

In exchange, Mr. Cuomo agreed to add $250 million — a modest amount by Albany standards — to his executive budget proposal, including more money for schools, the blind and the deaf, human services, higher education, and prescription drugs for the elderly. 

So it's actually not quite as bad as Cuomo first proposed, and this is coming from a Democrat.  That's the best thing you can say about the state's budget.  Keeping the surcharge on finance tycoons would have made up for the end of stimulus dollars from Washington, but the former state AG who ran on cleaning up Wall Street is now helping the fat cats clean out the state's treasury.  They get tax cuts, the rest of the state gets spending cuts.

Even the Democrats look like Republicans in 2011.  The battle over budget austerity has long been lost by the American people, and in state after state taxes on the wealthy are being chopped to fight over what few corporate jobs these multinationals are creating in the US...corporations sitting on record profits, mind you, screaming that they need tax relief or else, playing states against each other in order to get the best set of incentives.  Meanwhile, state taxpayers are picking up the bill and taking the financial pain.

Of course, what did you expect from the Wall Street State?

StupidiNews!

• President Obama will address the nation tonight on Libya from the National Defense College.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party looks to face yet another historic defeat in state elections, this time in Baden-Wuerttemberg, facing an anti-nuclear Green Party surge.
• A truck bomb in the eastern Afghanistan province of Paktika has killed at least 20 and injured dozens.
• Ireland is looking to make senior bondholders pick up some of the country's bailout tab in order to win concessions from the EU on a better rate.
• A new study shows college professors who use their personal Twitter accounts to communicate with students are seen as "more credible".

Last Call

I like Brad DeLong's term referring to the Reagan/Bush and Dubya economic teams as "budget arsonists".  He's used the term before to define the Catfood Commission plan as well as tagging former Dubya economist Grag Mankiw with it.  This weekend he tags Mankiw again, as the former Bush official took to the NY Times today to write a self-serving "Presidential address from 2026".

The seeds of this crisis were planted long ago, by previous generations. Our parents and grandparents had noble aims. They saw poverty among the elderly and created Social Security. They saw sickness and created Medicare and Medicaid. They saw Americans struggle to afford health insurance and embraced health care reform with subsidies for middle-class families. But this expansion in government did not come cheap. Government spending has taken up an increasing share of our national income.... If we had chosen to tax ourselves to pay for this spending, our current problems could have been avoided. But no one likes paying taxes. Taxes not only take money out of our pockets, but they also distort incentives and reduce economic growth. So, instead, we borrowed increasing amounts to pay for these programs. Yet debt does not avoid hard choices. It only delays them. After last week’s events in the bond market, it is clear that further delay is no longer possible. The day of reckoning is here....

Brad DeLong is having none of it.

It is important to notice that when Greg Mankiw writes "if we had chosen to tax ourselves..." and "they saw sickness and created Medicare..." and "we borrowed increasing amounts..." he is talking about himself and his fellow budget arsonists. He is not talking about President Clinton, Clinton's appointees, and Clinton's supporters--they sweated blood to cut spending below and raise taxes above the baseline and actually balanced the budget. He is not talking about President Obama, Obama's appointees, and Obama's supporters--Obama's excise tax on high-cost health plans and the supermajority entrenchment of the Medicare cut recommendations of the Independent Payment Authorization Board are--if they are not repealed--the largest acts of fiscal responsibility ever undertaken in America.

Mankiw is talking about President Reagan, his supporters, and his appointees. Mankiw is talking about President George W. Bush, his supporters, and his appointees. And--as one of George W. Bush's cabinet-level appointees, Chairman of the Presidents Council of Economic Advisers in 2003-2004--he is talking about himself.

Is it too much for me to expect, from him, an apology to America? A whispered: "I am sorry"? An admission that the unfunded 2001 tax cuts that he cheerled for were a mistake, and that we as a nation would have been better off had they not been passed? An admission that the unfunded 2003 tax cuts that he cheerled for were a mistake, and that we as a nation would have been better off had they not been passed? An admission that the unfunded 2003 Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit that he cheerled for was a mistake, and that we as a nation would have been better off had it not been passed?

Is that too much to ask?

Indeed.  The biggest single contributor to our deficit in the future is the Bush tax cuts...tax cuts which only served to create the housing bubble and transfer of wealth upward that eventually led to the financial crisis of 2008.  That, along with the Medicare Part D spending, is what in the space of a decade wiped out the Clinton surplus and put us in a massive hole.

To repeat, we had a balanced budget under Clinton.  Then the Republicans happened.  Then the budget arsonists burned our country down.  "We're running a surplus.  We need to give that money back to the American people."  They did and then some, to the tune of trillions and trillions.  Obama didn't create the Greenspan housing bubble, or the tax cuts, or the Medicare giveaway.  But now he has to clean it up.

Or he would, if the Republicans would let him.  But they don't want him to.  Instead, Republicans are happily saying that if we make massive cuts in government spending -- and cut hundreds of thousands of government jobs as a result -- the private sector will magically create more jobs as higher unemployment will drive down wages, freeing up capital to create more public sector jobs.

Or, if we go back to our budget arsonist theory, quite literally they mean setting an unemployment wildfire will mean brisk additional business for fire hose manufacturers, industrial cleaning companies, landscapers and foresters, and building contractors.  We'll get back those eight million jobs or so lost in the last 3 years, only the wages paid for those jobs will be significantly less, and that's a win for America's businesses!

For the American worker, not so much.

And yes, the Republicans are now saying that in order to create jobs, significantly higher short-term unemployment through the destruction of thousands of jobs in order to replace them with a larger number of crappier, lower paying jobs is exactly what America needs right now. 

Of course, the problem is many Republicans believe exactly this.

The Badger Awakens, Part 4

It looks like Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans in Wisconsin may be congratulating themselves a bit too early on having sidestepped the judicial question of the union-busting law and violating a court order by publishing it.

Since the bill is now being treated as having gone into effect, it's now a viable target for attempts to overturn the measure based on legal grounds.

That could actually simplify the case that District Attorney Ismael Ozanne is seeking to make on the alleged open meetings violation if he doesn't have to worry about whether a judge has the authority to stop legislation before it takes effect, said Madison lawyer Lester Pines.

"I suspect that if Judge Sumi was willing to take up a (temporary restraining order) against publication I suspect she'd do the same thing on enforcement" of the new law, Pines said.

Pines said it would also open up legal channels for other groups who have been waiting to challenge the law but had to wait until it was enacted.

"This is going to unleash a tsunami of litigation," Pines said.

By going back and having the law go through normal channels, Walker and his GOP buddies would have eliminated the legal challenges to the bill.  But as published state law, the union-busting measure can be challenged in court, and possibly struck down.

What Republicans don't want is another batch of protests and national media attention on this story.  They want this behind them as quickly as possible so they can move on to using the law to carry out their revenge against those who sided against them, starting with Wisconsin state employees.  They're charging forward and counting on the status quo protecting them.

They're won a battle, but the war just took a nasty turn for them.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Yes, the riots in England are pretty visceral.  They are however not shocking if you've been paying attention.  I want to highlight two very different reactions to the events this weekend in London.  First, Steve M.:

I don't want to see it happen in England or in any other country. But what I do want to see happen -- a real reckoning for the worst abusers in the global financial system, accompanied by "shared sacrifice" that's actually shared, all the way to the top -- apparently will never happen through peaceful means.

(If you think I'm exaggerating, consider the wrist-slaps that have been doled out in America for large-scale economic crime, and then read Joe Nocera's New York Times story about a guy who's doing serious time for taking a "liar loan" during the economic boom. Think of this as like the drug war, except we've made a conscious, overt decision not to jail any leaders of the cartels, or even mid-level soldiers -- only the customers.)

Yeah, the riot in England was awful. Want to avoid more of it, authorities? Do the right thing. (And yes, I say that knowing you won't.)

The primary goal of a democratic government, by and of the people, is justice for all, according to Steve.  Compare that with John Hindraker's response:

The first duty of any government is to maintain order. Peaceful demonstrations are fine, but mob rule is incompatible with civilization. Any government that cannot maintain order deserves to fall, and will. Napoleon had his faults--well, to be blunt, he was crazy as a loon--but he had the right prescription for dealing with mobs: a whiff of grapeshot.

When left to their own devices, any conservative eventually turns to the iron fist that must be used on "them" in the name of "maintaining order".  No, the mob mentality in London is wrong.  But the wise government leader would ask "Why is this happening?"

I mean it's funny, Hindraker has no problem calling Qaddafi authoritarian and saying that he supports our efforts to liberate Libya, as armed rebels fight a war against a dictator, but if people protest and cause damage to shops in London, well it's an unruly mob that must be put down by any means necessary.

Conservatives always come back to using force to maintain the class status quo, given enough time the arguments, reasoning, and debate will always, always devolve into "anything that might disrupt America's moneyed elite will not be tolerated."

This Week's WTH

Aaaaand we start the week off early with this little slice of nonsense:

(CNN) -- No stranger to controversy, U.S. retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has come under fire for offering a push-up bikini top to young girls.  Its "Ashley" bikini -- described as "padded" and a "push-up" -- was posted on the Abercrombie Kids website earlier this week.

The company declined to comment Saturday but noted it has since updated the description of its bikini online.  The product is now being offered as a padded, "striped triangle." Bottoms are sold separately.

Sure, you know me well enough to realize this would annoy me to no end.  But for some reason, it's bothering me more than I expected.  As I get older, the way children are sexualized in some roles really grosses me out.  I don't know if I am just more aware, or if it has progressed, but this is just an automatic Bad Idea in my book.

Sad Day

Today, I learned of two amazing women who are no longer with us.  First, a tremendous sadness at the passing of Geraldine Ferraro.  I was too young to know much at the time, so most of my knowledge of her came years after her 1984 run.  Still, she was a strong leader and paved the way for women in politics, and it is this that she will be remembered for.  She took many a strong stance and was not afraid to speak her mind.  She took criticism and admits she would not have subjected her family to the intense media scrutiny if she had known how extensive and traumatic it would be.  I think I admired her most for her unapologetic and straightforward personality.  She was smarter, stronger and sharper than most people, and she knew it. 

I also want to say a sad goodbye to Jean Bartik, a computer pioneer who worked on ENIAC and was celebrated with the like of Linus Torvalds in the Computer History Museum and fellow ENIAC coworkers in the WITI Hall of Fame.   Always an optimist, she said not too long ago that women had come a long way in technology but there was always opportunity for improvement.  She was 86, and witnessed the birth of technology we take for granted, hatched from an idea to a global revolution.  Bartik and women like her make me proud to be a she-geek. 

Three Arab Countries Facing Protests, Three Different Outcomes

As of today, protests continue in Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria with the opposition in those countries having differing levels of success.  In Yemen, talks aimed at the exit of President Saleh are continuing but stalled.

Officials on both sides of yesterday’s talks, which were attended by the US ambassador, said the parties refused to give any ground.

After six weeks of unprecedented protests in Yemen, Saleh says he is willing to step aside in a peaceful transition of power, but has left himself room for maneuvering by adding the condition that he wants to leave the country in “safe hands.’’

In the TV interview, he insisted he would not leave the presidency “humiliated’’ and that even if he stepped down as president, he would remain head of his Congress Party, leaving the door open for his continued involvement in the nation’s politics.

“I will not give up on my supporters,’’ he said.

The protesters — whose ranks have been bolstered by defecting military commanders, lawmakers, Cabinet ministers, diplomats, and even Saleh’s own tribe — are insisting he go immediately. The demands and defections have only grown since government security forces shot more than 40 demonstrators to death in the capital of Sana a week ago.

That is very different from the brutal crackdown imposed by Bahrain's ruling Al Khalifa regime where security forces operating under martial law has effectively crushed the opposition.

Police have broken up small scattered protests in Manama, Bahrain's capital, using tear gas after calls for a "Day of Rage" were quashed by a heavy security force presence.

Helicopters, extra checkpoints on major highways and visible security forces appeared to have prevented any major demonstrations from gathering support.

A 71-year-old man died of asphyxiation in his home after police fired tear gas in the village of Mameer, the main Shia protest group said.

Al Jazeera's correspondent in Manama said: "As far as we can see there are clouds of tear gas that have been rising in recent minutes.

"People will march down the streets and a helicopter will appear, the police will move in, and people move indoors.

"Quite a tense situation here, but the call for the big protests ... seems to have been quashed by the authorities here.

"Some protesters tried to mess with the statue and at that point the police opened fire."

And in Syria, it's unknown as to who has the upper hand, protesters or President Bashar Assad.

Scores of Syrians were killed and injured as anti-government protests swept across the country, officials said.

Syrian troops reportedly entered the port town of Latakia Sunday, deploying in areas where protests occurred Saturday, Israel Radio reported.

Protesters used to mobile phones to film the carnage in Daraa Friday, Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported. Locals said at least 25 people were killed and hundreds were injured in their town alone, the newspaper said. Deaths were also reported in Homs, Latakia, Sanamein and Damascus. Exact numbers were not known.

Because the Syrian government barred the entry of foreign news networks, the images filmed by protesters could not be verified.

Three countries, three different situations, but all three unstable and people are being killed in all three countries.  It could explain why the US is so eager to hand over Libya to NATO...we have bigger problems over on the Arabian Peninsula.

[UPDATE]  BooMan catches former Dubya National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams laying the groundwork for pulling a Libya in Syria, one of the outcomes I warned about when I said "Hey, going into Libya may not be such a great idea."

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 17

Radiation leaking from Fukushima Daiichi reactor #2 is so bad now that workers have been evacuated from the control room area.

Extremely high levels of radiation were detected in water leaking from reactor two of the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, forcing the evacuation of workers, its operator said Sunday.

A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said the level of radiation found in the leaked water in the turbine room was 10 million times higher than it should be for water inside the reactor, indicating damage to the fuel rods.

"We detected 1,000 millisieverts per hour of radiation in a puddle of water at the reactor number two. This figure is 10 million times higher than water usually kept in a reactor," the spokesman said.

"We are examining the cause of this, but no work is being done there because of the high level of radiation.

"High levels of caesium and other substances are being detected, which usually should not be found in reactor water. There is a high possibility that fuel rods are being damaged."

You think?   TEPCO says the radiation is coming from Iodine-134, which has a half-life of days, so there's "little chance" of it surviving long enough to cause harm outside the plant.  Of course, if radioactive iodine is loose at all, that definitely means the fuel rods are damaged.  Best part:

The company became aware of the high radiation in the turbine building of the No. 2 unit, a Tokyo Electric official said, when a worker attempting to measure radiation levels of the water puddles saw the reading on his dosimeter jump beyond 1,000 millisieverts, the highest reading. The worker left the scene immediately, and the company does not have an accurate reading, he said. 

At this point, after 16 days, it looks like TEPCO has lost control of at least one reactor. More may follow.  The cooling equipment may be back on-line to an extent, but it's not going to be enough.  The odds that Fukushima Daiichi will have to be buried is approaching "just a matter of when they admit defeat" territory.

[UPDATE]  TEPCO officials are now saying that these very high radiation readings were "completely wrong".

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) vice-president Sakae Muto apologized for Sunday's error, which added to alarm inside and outside Japan over the impact of contamination from the complex which was hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

Radiation in the water was a still worrying 100,000 times higher than normal, rather than 10 million times higher as originally stated, Muto said.

Yeah, it's a mistake anyone could make.

Taxing America's Patience

Boss Hogg can't help himself.  He has to lie about Obama and taxes.  It's ingrained into Republicans.

Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, to a crowd of conservative activists, the potential 2012 GOP presidential contender said, "When the government sucks all the money out of the economy, how is the private sector supposed to create jobs?"

Barbour slammed the Obama administration's tax policies for placing an extra burden on taxpayers and inhibiting job growth.

"The president from the beginning has been calling for the largest tax increase in American history," Barbour said, adding "the policies of this administration in every case have made it harder to create jobs."

Barbour also struck out at taxes placed on the oil industry, saying they would be passed on to consumers.
"Who’s he think is going to pay that? Exxon?" Barbour said, "That's going to be paid by the people who are pumping gas and diesel fuel into their cars & trucks."

Citing the need to jumpstart the economy, Barbour told the crowd that reducing spending would be key.

"I urge you to remember the most important thing, cutting spending is the means to an end, the end is to continue to grow our economy,” he said.

Obama lowered taxes for a vast majority of Americans.  He also kept the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.  He even instituted additional tax breaks for businesses.  Hell, General Electric paid a grand total of ZERO taxes in 2010.  Can't get much less than zero, folks.

So where are the jobs these lower taxes are supposed to create?   Gosh, Republicans certainly can't explain it.  They want us to go into austerity next, like Britain and Greece and Ireland...countries that have seen sharp reductions in government spending and surprise... now they are seeing major increases in unemployment!

So in fact Obama is doing exactly what Republicans are wanting him to do.  He has lowered taxes, especially on businesses.  Democrats continue to talk about cutting spending and cutting programs.  But the jobs aren't being created!

They're not being created of course because cutting spending when the government is the buyer of last resort and corporate America continues to sit on trillions in cash rather than expand...you see there's no point in expanding production capacity and adding jobs in America when Americans don't have the money to buy more products and take on more debt...so these jobs are going overseas, along with expansion plans.

So the rich are getting an even larger slice of the country's growth.  The other 90% of the country is losing net worth as housing prices continue to fall, wages stagnate, and jobs are lost.  Right now some half a million people gathered in London for a massive protest against government program cuts.  Britain is right now where we would be if Republicans controlled everything:  rising unemployment, draconian social cuts, and unrest bordering on riots.

We're doing what Haley Barbour and the austerity hysterics want, and austerity is failing miserably worldwide.  OBAMA CUT TAXES ON TENS OF MILLIONS OF AMERICANS.  This is fact.

So where's the jobs?

How Dare They Say The Truth?

The right is soiling itself in victimization over this Politico (natch) article portraying the "war against FOX News" by the most evil supervillain organization ever conceived: the guys pointing out that FOX is full of crap over at David Brock's Media Matters.

In an interview and a 2010 planning memo shared with POLITICO, Brock listed the fronts on which Media Matters — which he said is operating on a $10 million-plus annual budget — is working to chip away at Fox and its parent company, News Corp. They include its bread-and-butter distribution of embarrassing clips and attempts to rebut Fox points, as well as a series of under-the-radar tactics.

Media Matters, Brock said, is assembling opposition research files not only on Fox’s top executives but on a series of midlevel officials. It has hired an activist who has led a successful campaign to press advertisers to avoid Glenn Beck’s show. The group is assembling a legal team to help people who have clashed with Fox to file lawsuits for defamation, invasion of privacy or other causes. And it has hired two experienced reporters, Joe Strupp and Alexander Zaitchik, to dig into Fox’s operation to help assemble a book on the network, due out in 2012 from Vintage/Anchor. (In the interest of full disclosure, Media Matters last month also issued a report criticizing “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy’s criticism of this reporter’s blog.)

Brock said Media Matters also plans to run a broad campaign against Fox’s parent company, News Corp., an effort which most likely will involve opening a United Kingdom arm in London to attack the company’s interests there. The group hired an executive from MoveOn.org to work on developing campaigns among News Corp. shareholders and also is looking for ways to turn regulators in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere against the network.

The group will “focus on [News Corp. CEO Rupert] Murdoch and trying to disrupt his commercial interests — whether that be here or looking at what’s going on in London right now,” Brock said, referring to News Corp.’s — apparently successful — move to take a majority stake in the satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Now, if you think that Media Matters is somehow vastly more powerful than FOX and News Corporation, well you're reading the wrong blog anyway.  What the right is truly terrified of is Media Matters using FOX's own tactics against it, and just the thought of that has the usual suspects dragging out the specter of promised revenge.

At least one conservative is taking the long view in the wake of the NPR stings and has a light bulb moment.

The media is tasked with watching the government and our politicians for us. But this begs the old question, who will watch the watchers? If you want to be upset about anything, perhaps you should be put off that there isn’t a better organized set of similar watchdogs digging in to MSNBC as well as the major network news shops, papers and radio.

This, I can guarantee you, is coming now.  Under the cry of "Well that's what Media Matters is doing to FOX so all's fair in love and war" the dismantling of every non right wing noise machine media outlet in the country is on the agenda, and anyone left standing will soon be playing the "Some say the earth is flat but other critics differ, let's hear why there's a growing debate on this issue" game.

The "Lamestream media" just became the top target for 2012.  You will see Republican politicians running on "reigning in the liberal media".  Count on it.

[UPDATE] Oliver Willis with the win:

You can also check out the numerous conservative blogs here explaining just how irrelevant Media Matters is. Think about it.

Yep.  Methinks the wingers doth protest too much...

The Juicebox Mafia Is Loose

Not sure what's more disturbing in this NY Times article on the new "young pundits" in DC: that the Times' Sridhar Pappu considers Dave Weigel, Ezra Klein, and Brian Beutler as wet-behind-the-ears kids (they're younger than I am by a good 6 years or so) defined primarily by their youth, that they are grudgingly recognized and then summarily dismissed as college kids from the Facebook generation, or that none of these hot young guns are women and that Pappu doesn't seem to think there are any under 30 who might be worth listening to in the DC area.

There is precedent for such packs of smart, self-important young men in other capital cities. More than 50 years ago, Gay Talese wrote of “the witty, irreverent sons of a conquering nation,” led by George Plimpton, who once tromped through Paris.

Of course, Washington is not and never will be Paris. In a city where Ms. Haddad’s brunch is known simply as “Tammy’s” and where young Congressional staffers and reporters still cling to the bars on Capitol Hill, the scene these young men inhabit is as foreign as Mars. On Friday evenings it’s not uncommon to spot them at rock places like Black Cat or the 9:30 Club, or (juice boxes forsooth) drinking overpriced beer from cans — or even Mason jars — in grungy enclaves like the American Ice Company. But they’ve also rerouted the aspirations of young journalists here, for whom a job in print media was once the holy grail.

“This is the age of the individual voice, liberated by the new media,” the former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan — whose reinvention as a prodigious, immensely well-read blogger has inspired many to take to their laptops — said in an e-mail. “Anyone in the younger generation who yearns for a column on the Washington Post op-ed page is seeking oblivion.”

That hasn’t stopped traditional outlets from reaching out to them — with mixed results. In the years surrounding the 2008 presidential election, The Washington Post employed Mr. Weigel; and The American Prospect and then The Post made his peer Ezra Klein into a multiplatform superman of blogging-twittering-column writing. The Atlantic and then Think Progress — the online arm of the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund— transformed Matt Yglesias from a formerly bored Harvard kid who hated reporting into an Internet star.

They are cognizant of their evolution. 

Yeah, note how it's The Wise Media Mavens of Washington who picked these guys up by their bootstraps and thrust them into the spotlight.  They couldn't possibly have gotten there on talent or hard work, like these guys won the lottery or something and are really just a bunch of frat dudebros with netbooks, as a wistful Sully looks on.

Of course the fact that Pappu can't find a single woman to challenge this all-male boys club meme only makes it all the worse.  Ugh.

Epic Win: Girl Scouts Edition

PARMA, Ohio – The Girl Scouts were selling their cookies the old-fashioned way, pulling a creaky-wheeled red wagon laden with Thin Mints and Samoas down a suburban street. But the affair took a decidedly 21st-century twist when, with a polite smile, one of the girls pulled out a smartphone and inquired: "Would you like to pay with a credit card?"

The girls are among about 200 troops in northeast Ohio who are changing the way Girl Scouts do business. For the first time, the girls are accepting credit cards using a device called GoPayment, a free credit card reader that clips onto smart phones. Girl Scout leaders hope that allowing customers to pay with plastic will drive up cookie sales in a world where carrying cash is rapidly going the way of dial-up Internet. Keeping pace with changing technology is a priority lately for the historic Girl Scouts, an organization that's preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

Despite the coolness of this, I have to wonder just how safe it is going to be to have a credit card after this technology becomes widely available.  I'm just saying, if an adorable eight-year-old can swipe a credit card we need to establish some safety rules. Actually, the Girl Scouts are actually leading a charge (pun intended) to a new way of doing business.  While cash isn't going anywhere soon, businesses can and do refuse to accept cash payments.  That means plastic and ways to use it will be developing at rapid speed.  Here's hoping the safety risks are caught on the fly. 

Up In Smoke: Whoopi Style

Whoopi Goldberg has admitted she was nervous the night of the Academy Awards.  She also says it is her habit to smoke a little pot, and that night she was so nervous that she indulged.  When her name was called for her role in Ghost, she was so toasted she had to focus to get up to the stage.

More and more people are making sure pot is a non-issue.  I'm going to predict that by 2015 it's legal.

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 16

Japanese radiation monitoring has gone crowdsourced as seawater radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi plant is reaching disturbing levels.

Radioactivity levels are soaring in seawater near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan's nuclear safety agency said on Saturday, two weeks after the nuclear power plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Even as engineers tried to pump puddles of radioactive water from the power plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, the nuclear safety agency said tests on Friday showed radioactive iodine had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal in the seawater just offshore the plant.

But everything is fine, despite nearly daily "spikes" in radiation levels for the last two weeks.  The reality of radiation in Japan looks like this:





Here's the reality.  The spin continues.

Officials said iodine 131 levels in seawater 30 km (19 miles) from the coastal nuclear complex were within acceptable limits established by regulations and the contamination posed little risk to aquatic life.

"Ocean currents will disperse radiation particles and so it will be very diluted by the time it gets consumed by fish and seaweed," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a senior official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Despite that reassurance, the disclosure may well heighten international concern over Japanese seafood exports. Several countries have already banned milk and produce from areas around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, while others have been monitoring Japanese seafood.

Yes, everything's fine in Japan.  Nothing to worry about in the seafood or the plants or the leafy vegetables or the milk or the rain.  So much not to worry about, the UN isn't reconsidering worldwide nuclear safely regs or anything.

The prolonged efforts to prevent a catastrophic meltdown at the plant have also intensified concerns around the world about nuclear power. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was time to reassess the international atomic safety regime.

You think?  Gives Earth Hour a whole new meaning today, doesn't it?