Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 28

Time for a two-month mark check on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.  First, the plant itself continues to remain in crisis with fully exposed fuel rods and the reactors are still out of control as the coolant systems are still damaged and the radiation is making it nearly impossible to repair.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said fuel rods are fully exposed in the No. 1 reactor at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, setting back the utility’s plan to resolve the crisis.

The water level is 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said. The company doesn’t know how long the rods have been exposed, he said.

Tepco is trying to contain the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl after a quake and tsunami two months ago knocked out power and cooling systems at the Fukushima station. The utility planned to flood the No. 1 containment chamber, which surrounds the reactor vessel, in a procedure known as water entombment to prevent fuel from overheating.

“I’ve been saying from the beginning the water tomb plan won’t work,” said Tadashi Narabayashi, a professor of nuclear engineering at Hokkaido University. “Tepco must work on a water circulation cooling system as soon as possible. They’ve been going round and round in circles and now realize this is what they need to do.”

It’s unlikely the situation has worsened with the discovery the rods are exposed because they’ve probably been out of the water since shortly after the crisis started, Narabayashi said. 

In other words, the fuel rods in Reactor 1 have been exposed and in a slow meltdown cycle for close to two months.  TEPCO's plan to flood the reactors with water to cool them is failing because of the quake and explosion damaged containment vessels, which are clearly full of leaks and unable to keep the water in the reactor core.  Reactor 1 has been in meltdown for dozens of days now.  TEPCO is simply hoping nobody notices.


So the environmental and human nightmare in Japan still continues.   Meanwhile, Japan's politics are getting distinctly ugly.  TEPCO quietly agreed to a de facto government takeover Wednesday.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Wednesday accepted six government conditions to ensure state support for the payment of massive compensation over the damage caused by the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

The conditions included confirmation that no ceiling would be set on compensation and that the utility would comply with a third-party investigation into its financial situation.

The latter condition means that TEPCO in effect will be put under public management.

TEPCO's acceptance of the six conditions laid the foundation for a compensation scheme calling for the establishment of a new entity to deal with damages payments.

And oh, are those damage payments going to be massive.  I think the total damage in cleanup and compensation costs will be in the trillion range, and that's dollars, not yen.  Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan is desperately trying to keep his government in one piece, and he's having to give in on nuclear plants in Japan completely.

Japan is reassessing how it produces electricity after March's earthquake and tsunami sparked a crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan this week persuaded the operators of another nuclear plant west of Tokyo to temporarily close it to make safety improvements. And he is canceling a plan to build more nuclear facilities.

Kan's decisions to back away from nuclear power came after an unusual number of public demonstrations. The protests have been more frequent because many Japanese have grown impatient with the government, says Koichi Nakano, who teaches political science at Sophia University in Tokyo.

"Skeptics argue that, in fact, Japan has enough energy already as of now without nuclear power plants, using fossil fuels and hydro-electronic power generation, and so I think people are now becoming gradually exposed to those new facts," Nakano says.

We're looking a sea change in Japanese culture, folks.  The Fukushima Daiichi disaster is going to do for Japan what 9/11 did for us...only there's no "bad guy" to get...except maybe TEPCO itself.

The Ryan Unicorn Plan Would Destroy Medicaid, Too

A lot of attention has been given to the Ryan Unicorn Plan's privatization of Medicare.  But the plan also includes turning Medicaid into a block grant program, and that would end up cutting trillions just from Medicaid over the years, all but destroying the program.  Jon Cohn calls it what it is:  Couponcare.

The Affordable Care Act will guarantee access to a level of benefits and, for the poor and most of the middle class, it will limit what individuals can spend on premiums and out of pocket expenses. The Dutch system already does the same thing for the people who live in the Netherlands, only it does so (much) more generously.

Compare this to the Republican proposal for Medicare, which critics have rightfully started calling "Couponcare." The government's contribution towards insurance would rise far more slowly than the cost of health care. It would not guarantee a fixed set of benefits or protection from individual expenses. Only the very poor would get extra financial assistance and, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation briefing paper, even that assistance would likely be inadequate for many (possibly most) of the people receiving it.

This distinction is entirely intentional. It’s why the Republican budget, on paper, seems to save so much taxpayer money in the long run. But the effects on individuals would be devastating, as the Congressional Budget Office noted in its assessment. By 2030, the average senior would be individually responsible for about two-thirds of his or her medical costs. Even with heroic assumptions about the ability of consumers to reduce prices through active shopping, it’s impossible to imagine that scheme not leaving many seniors with punishing health care costs.

Saying the Republican Medicare proposal is a variation on the Affordable Care Act or Dutch national health insurance is a bit like saying that a bicycle is a variation on the 747. Sure, you can get across the country on either one. But opt for the former and you will struggle mightily. You might even die on the way.

And that Kaiser Family Foundation report is grim:

Projected federal spending on Medicaid for the 10-year period 2012 to 2021 would fall by $1.4 trillion, a 34 percent decline. By 2021, states would receive $243 billion less annually in federal Medicaid money than they would under current law, a 44 percent reduction.

The effect on enrollment in state Medicaid programs could vary widely. By 2021, between 31 million and 44 million fewer people nationally would have Medicaid coverage under the House Budget Plan relative to expected enrollment under current law, the analysis finds, examining three possible scenarios using different assumptions about how states might respond to lower federal funding. Most of those people, given their low incomes and few options for other coverage, would end up uninsured.

That's right:  under the Ryan Unicorn Plan, the cost savings would come directly from kicking tens of millions of people off of Medicaid and hoping they can magically afford their own private insurance.  And nearly every single House Republican voted for this.

Any wonder then that Democrats have come roaring back in the generic congressional ballot race?

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday, the Democrats have a four-point margin over the Republicans in the battle for control of Congress. The poll indicates that 50 percent registered voters say if the election for Congress was held today, they would vote for the Democrat in their district, with 46 percent saying they would cast a ballot for the Republican in their district. The Democrats' four-point margin is within the poll's sampling error.


The GOP won 63 seats in last year's midterm elections, taking back control of the House for the first time in four years. CNN's last poll conducted before the midterms indicated the Republicans had a six-point advantage over the Democrats.

That's a ten-point swing in less than eight months.  The Republicans have already blown their "mandate" and the Ryan Unicorn Plan is a big, big reason why.  Americans were certainly turned off by "Obamacare" and voted for the Republicans.  Then they saw what the Republican alternative is, tens of millions of people losing their Medicaid insurance, seniors having to pay tens of thousands to make up the difference in GOP's privatized Medicare scheme, and all to pay for even more tax cuts for the top 1%.

Gosh, Americans don't like that.  And the more they find out, the more they don't like.

Facebook Epic Fail... And I Mean Eh-PICK

Symantec has published a report claiming that for several years nearly 100,000 Facebook apps have been leaking access codes belonging to millions of users' profiles.

Symantec's report says that an app security flaw may have given advertisers and other third parties access to Facebook users' profiles, though a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement that there is "no evidence" of this occurring.

Writes Symantec:

We estimate that as of April 2011, close to 100,000 applications were enabling this leakage. We estimate that over the years, hundreds of thousands of applications may have inadvertently leaked millions of access tokens to third parties.

There is no evidence that this happened, but you can bet it has.  Facebook has to get the privacy issue under control or this could lead to the end of their growth.  People love their Facebook chat, but the line of stupidity has been crossed a while back.  This has the potential to be one of the worst leaks ever, in the history of information leaks.  Partly because of the length of time, partly because of the depth of the information that can be harvested from our Facebook profiles.

Why Bon's Soul Is Dying Slowly

Street slang including thang, innit and grrl along with words from the internet such as Wiki and Myspace have been added to an "official" reference for Scrabble players.

Robert Groves, editor of Collins English Dictionaries and editor of the latest wordlist for Scrabble users, said: "The latest edition adds nearly 3,000 new words to the existing quarter of a million available to Scrabble players.

"These additions are an eclectic mix of new technological jargon, overseas English, recent colloquialisms, street slang and a few fairly well-established phrases that had not made it on to the list until now.

"It is the essential reference for all Scrabble players, from tournament enthusiasts to families battling it out in their front rooms.

I admit it, I'm a word snob.  I am not necessarily against the additions (at least, not all of them) but I admit that I'm a bit bothered by grrl and innit.  A few websites have had discussion about the additions, including some who point to how the words are used, and that they are not intentionally dumbing down our language.  I suppose I will have to be content with the fact that our dumbing is purely accidental.

Sigh.

From The Bwahahaha Files

The suspect, later identified as 54-year-old Richard J. McCandles, demanded that the driver hand over his keys, police said.

But investigators said McCandles made one critical mistake — he selected a target who was bigger than him.

After beating McCandles up, the driver got into his car and drove off, Alvarez said. Officers said they arrived to find the McCandles lying on the ground.

I've been mugged.  I know how suddenly you can find yourself threatened.  With crime on the rise, it's good to know some folks can take care of themselves.  And the giggle was nice, too.

Pass On El Paso

Reactions to President Obama's speech in El Paso yesterday on immigration reform?  Not so good.

One Latino advocacy group -- Presente.org -- released a statement before Obama's speech criticizing the president for failing to issue an executive order stopping the deportation of young undocumented immigrants until legislation such as the DREAM Act is passed.

"All we have heard from President Obama are empty speeches," the statement said.

Republican opponents equate the measure to amnesty, and have said it would signal to the world that the United States is not serious about enforcing its laws or its borders. They have also called the bill unfair to immigrants who, in many cases, waited years to come to the country legally.

"The president will have to present a plan that takes amnesty off the table and focuses, instead, on making a real commitment to border and interior security," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said Tuesday morning.

"If the president does these two things, he will find strong bipartisan support. If he doesn't, he won't."

Anything that does give a path to citizenship will be called "amnesty" by the Republicans and blocked.  Anything that doesn't will rightfully be rejected by Latino advocacy groups.  You would think people would figure out that the problem here, as the President keeps saying, is that nothing will be acceptable to the GOP short of rounding up and deporting millions.

But no, it's all Obama's fault.

The Trump Rang Out And The Walls Fell

Tom Jensen's outfit notes scientists have discovered a powerful imploding event horizon:  The Donald's poll numbers.

Donald Trump has had one of the quickest rises and falls in the history of Presidential politics. Last month we found him leading the Republican field with 26%. In the space of just four weeks he's dropped all the way down to 8%, putting him in a tie for fifth place with Ron Paul.

Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are at the top of the GOP race with 19% and 18% respectively. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin are further back at 13% and 12%, followed by Trump and Paul at 8%, Michele Bachmann at 7%, and Tim Pawlenty at 5%.

As Trump got more and more exposure over the last month Republicans didn't just decide they weren't interested in having him as their nominee- they also decided they flat don't like him. Only 34% of GOP voters now have a favorable opinion of Trump to 53% who view him in a negative light.

Trump really made hay out of the 'birther' issue and as the resonance of that has declined, so has his standing. In February we found that 51% of Republican primary voters thought Barack Obama was not born in the United States. Now with the release of his birth certificate only 34% of GOP partisans fall into that camp, and Trump's only in fifth place with that now smaller group of the electorate at 9%.

Beyond the Trump angle the other thing particularly notable in these numbers is that they confirm Romney and Huckabee starting to pull away from Gingrich and Palin. Most of our polling over the course of 2010 basically showed a four way tie at the top with that quartet of contenders but over the last few months a clearer divide has started to show up in both our state and national polling with Huckabee and Romney more consistently outpolling Gingrich and Palin.

Can't say I'm sad to see Trump disintegrate like this.  But if GOP regulars are flocking to Mittens and the Huckster, neither Huckabee nor Romney have a serious chance of winning the primary in such a way that would make them more palatable to middle of the road swing voters.  Romney is never going to be able to break out from under MassCare's shadow, and Huckabee has his own serious issues.

Both are going to have to tack deep into Bachmann/Sharron Angle territory to win the primaries, and doing so will doom them in the general.

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter Part 70

The Foreclosuregate fiasco continues as the banks have made a chump change settlement offer:  $5 billion.

The proposal made by banks yesterday during settlement talks in Washington came after state attorneys general and federal officials offered revised settlement terms and a proposal for banks to fund principal writedowns for homeowners.

The probe by all 50 states was triggered by claims of faulty foreclosure practices after the housing collapse, which state officials said may violate their laws. The original settlement proposal offered by states and federal agencies drew criticism from banks and Republican attorneys general opposed to a deal that would reduce principal amounts for borrowers.

In a new proposal, officials called for a fund, administered by state and federal officials, that would in part pay for principal writedowns, said Geoff Greenwood, a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. Miller, a Democrat, is leading the negotiations for the states. Attorneys general haven’t made a proposal for a monetary payment by the banks, he said. 

Of course Republicans are rejecting the offer.  They don't want the banks to pay a dime.  On the other hand, $5 billion's not even a drop in the bucket for the kind of principal reduction needed to clear up the housing depression.  That's only enough money to help a small fraction of homeowners underwater...and Republican attorneys general involved in the case are objecting even to this pittance.

Republican attorneys general criticized the original settlement proposal, saying the plan for principal reductions would encourage borrowers to default on their loans to reduce their payments. Some of those attorneys general met yesterday in Atlanta to discuss the issue, said Adam Temple of the Republican State Leadership Committee.

Bob Davis, an executive vice president with the American Bankers Association, spoke to the group in Atlanta, telling them principal reductions don’t work, he said in an interview. Loan balances must be reduced so much for borrowers struggling to make payments that it’s a better deal for lenders to foreclose instead, he said.

“Principal reductions don’t substantially improve the cash flow problem,” Davis said. “You can’t lower principal enough to make it an attractive tool.” 

News flash:  the bankers don't like it, and they are expecting the Republicans to scuttle the deal.  For their part, the Republicans are looking like they plan to do just that:

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a Republican, said last month that he may negotiate an alternative accord with the banks if the national settlement turns out to be “inconsistent with our conviction.” 

In other words, expect Republican states to start dropping out of this settlement and negotiate their own "solution" as the whole national thing falls apart.  The banksters are going to walk completely.

Count on it.

StupidiNews!

• A memo detailing the US Navy's possible use of chaplains overseeing same-sex ceremonies in a post-DADT world has been abruptly suspended.
• The Associated Press, Reuters, and other news outlets are demanding that the White House release the photos of Osama bin Laden's body.
• Officials in Durango, Mexico continue to unearth dozens of bodies in a huge mass grave there, warning that it may be the largest ever found in North America.
• Germany is leading the EU effort to put the brakes on more aid to Greece as that country's economy continues to be wracked by general strikes.
• A revised internet censorship bill would require government, businesses, and now search engines to block foreign "rogue sites" or face steep fines and penalties.

Last Call

As we approach graduation season, a new poll in TIME Magazine finds some five out of six college graduates are heading back home to Mom and Dad's basement, with unemployment for new graduates in the US over 50% in some cases.

Surprise, surprise: Thanks to a high unemployment rate for new grads, many of those with diplomas fresh off the press are making a return to Mom and Dad's place. In fact, according to a poll conducted by consulting firm Twentysomething Inc., some 85% of graduates will soon remember what Mom's cooking tastes like.


Times are undeniably tough. Reports have placed the unemployment rate for the under-25 group as high as 54%. Many of these unemployed graduates are choosing to go into higher education in an attempt to wait out the job market, while others are going anywhere — and doing anything — for work. Meanwhile, moving back home helps with expenses and paying off student loans.

The outlook isn't sunshine and roses: Rick Raymond, of the College Parents of America, notes, "Graduates are not the first to be hired when the job markets begins to improve. We're seeing shocking numbers of people with undergraduates degrees who can't get work."

I can believe it.  At the end of last year the unemployment rate for college graduates overall was the worst in four decades.  The cost of a four year degree at even a public university is almost 80 grand these days, and $140,000 for a private school.  When you're starting out six digits in the hole and you have to take a job at the big box store, you're in real trouble.  It was bad enough in my day in the late 90's and especially after the dot-com bubble popped ten years back, that knocked a whole lot of folks in my generation back big time.

It's a lot worse for graduates now, and it's not going to get any better anytime soon.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

Amanda Marcotte notes that South Dakota may have become the first state to functionally outlaw all abortions, period.

How did South Dakota do it?  The new law requires women seeking abortion to speak to the doctor, then wait 72 hours, then get counseled at an anti-choice propaganda station called a “crisis pregnancy center,” only after which would she be allowed to obtain an abortion. This law received quite a bit of attention for overt misogyny inherent in the implication that women are too stupid to be aware of what they’re asking for when they seek abortion, or that women are so ignorant and incurious that they can’t be expected to have considered anti-choice arguments unless forced.  But it’s looking like this law may do more than that, and may actually make abortion impossible to get in South Dakota.

This works in two ways.  Right away, it was clear that the 72-hour waiting period was an attempt to force the sole abortion provider in the state, a Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls, to drop the service.  The doctor that performs abortions flies in to provide the service, and this requirement is obviously intended to push out any doctor who doesn’t work full time at the clinic by making the travel requirements onerous.

The “counseling” requirement seemed more condescending than truly burdensome at first, though it is true that many women seeking abortion really don’t have the flexible schedule to work in a few hours to be hectored by anti-choicers before obtaining their abortion, which pushes this requirement from being irritating and sexist to being truly an obstacle.  But recent news indicates that something more devious is likely going on. As Robin Marty reported last week, not a single crisis pregnancy center has agreed to counsel patients seeking abortion so that those patients can fill their requirements to get their abortions.  Not even the centers that lobbied to get the requirement pushed through.  Without centers willing to say they saw the patients seeking abortion, patients could be caught in a red tape nightmare that makes getting abortions impossible.

It’s always possible that this is a paperwork oversight, but experience tells us that anti-choicers don’t play by the normal ethical rules of fair play (which comes with the territory when you’re organized around the immoral desire to force unwilling women to bear children), so we have to consider the alternative, that this was the plan all along.  At the end of the day, the “counseling” requirement is using bureaucratic nonsense to create a situation where women who want abortions have to get consent from people who think that every woman should be forced to have a many children as possible, whether she likes it or not.  Of course they’re going to refuse to give that consent.  Through a paperwork shuffle, the state of South Dakota has given the power to control abortion access to anti-choicers, and their choice---surprise, surprise---is a ban.

And thus, it's virtually impossible for a woman in South Dakota to now get an abortion.  There's no way the requirements of the law can be satisfied, literally no way a woman can jump through all the hoops the new law requires.  Because there are no crisis pregnancy centers that have registered to give "counseling" to women who want an abortion, no abortions can be performed in the state.

Sure, the provision will be challenged in the courts.  But by that time, the state's lone provider will be long gone.  Game, set, and match.

The Ultimate Hoffman Effect

If there's one bright spot in the GOP taking control of the House, it's that the conserva-schism between the country club Wall Street types and the Tea Party wingnuts has gotten bad enough now that for the first time a majority of Republicans now say a major third political party is needed in order to reflect their views.

Fifty-two percent of Republicans, and an even stronger number of Tea Party supporters, support the creation of a major, third political party, underscoring the occasional tensions between grassroots conservatives and the GOP establishment.

An overall majority of Americans, 52 percent, said that a third political party was needed; the most profound shift has come among Republicans.

The number of Republicans who said that a third political party was necessary was at an all-time high since Gallup first began tracking opinion on the issue in 2003. And while support for a third party has crept steadily upward in the GOP, for the first time, it represents a majority opinion.

Supporters of the Tea Party are even more likely to back a third party, the poll found. Sixty percent of Tea Party supporters back a third party, while 32 percent say the existing two parties are adequate. By contrast, 47 percent of Tea Party opponents said the bipartisan system is adequate, and 44 percent favored a third party. 

It's painfully clear that the Tea Party right finds the current GOP wholly inadequate in implementing their fundamentalist theocracy, and this is literally only after three and a half months of actual GOP control of the House.  It will be interesting to see how bad this split gets.  Many believe that no matter how mediocre the GOP candidate is in 2012, you won't see the Tea Party sit out the election like Democrats did in 2010.

On the other hand, if some sort of third party candidate shows up and pulls a Ross Perot, things could get very, very interesting.  Either way, expect the GOP to continue to lurch to the right on a daily basis.

Pak-ed With Questions, Part 3

Things between the United States and Pakistan have gotten considerably worse since the raid May 1 that ended OBL, and Pakistan is delivering sharp warnings to President Obama to back off...or else.

Amid a deepening crisis between the two uneasy partners, Washington pressed for access to three of the dead Al-Qaeda chief's widows, who it believes may have valuable information on bin Laden's movements and on the terror group.

In a further sign of tension over last week's daring covert raid in Abbottabad, the New York Times meanwhile reported that Pakistani authorities had retaliated by leaking the name of the CIA chief in Islamabad to the media.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, under intense domestic pressure over his country's failure to detect the stealth US special forces raid, earlier hit out at American unilateralism and warned against future US action.

He also insisted Pakistan reserves the right to "retaliate with full force," although he stopped short of spelling out what, if anything, would be done if US President Barack Obama ordered another unilateral anti-terror raid.

But at the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was convinced he had done the right thing by sending in special forces at the dead of night in a raid in which bin Laden was killed in his Pakistani lair.

"We obviously take the statements and concerns of the Pakistani government seriously, but we also do not apologize for the action that we took, that this president took," Carney said.

Pakistan ratting out the CIA station chief in Islamabad should have been expected, but the rest of the chest beating is clearly a sign that Pakistan expects the status quo to continue, including the country receiving billions in foreign aid from the US as well as military aid.

On the other hand, that's going to be a tough sell unless Pakistan gives us somebody to blame for bin Laden hiding in the country for six years plus while calling us a valuable ally.  The negotiations on the price of the final bill will be interesting, but in the end I don't see how much will change between the US and Pakistan...co-dependent relationships are like that.

Pretty Darned Cool

Zombies aside, it's cool to see common house architecture return to safety and thoughts of potential disaster.  The world is full of uncertainty, and why have a panic room when you can have a panic house?

Check this page to see the Zombie Apocalypse Home Of The Future!

Brainsssssss - sorry, it had to be said.

Choice Of A New Generation

(CNN) -- The days of sliding a few coins into a vending machine and waiting for a can of soda to tumble down are now numbered.

Last week PepsiCo unveiled a prototype of a "social vending system" branding it as "the next generation in interactive vend technology."

The machine features a touch-screen that allows users to buy a drink as well as gift one to someone. By entering the recipient's name, mobile number and a personalized text message, the machine generates a code and instructions on how to redeem the beverage at another social vending machine.

Some folks are skeptical, but I think this is a neat idea. It lets people stay connected and share a cold beverage.  There's nothing wrong with that.  And as someone who drops money for the person behind me in line, I like the random acts of beverage idea as well.