Three Mile Island

I and my two compatriots are the subject of a story that's getting some wide recognition lately as a result of the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident. Sue Sturgis wrote the story for Facing South and it has since been published in a variety of online resources including Wikipedia, Alternet and Common Dreams. Links below.

It was April Fool's Day, 1979—30 years ago this month—when Randall Thompson first set foot inside the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pa. Just four days earlier, in the early morning hours of March 28, a relatively minor problem in the plant's Unit 2 reactor sparked a series of mishaps that led to the meltdown of almost half the uranium fuel and uncontrolled releases of radiation into the air and surrounding Susquehanna River.

It was the single worst disaster ever to befall the U.S. nuclear power industry, and Thompson was hired as a health physics technician to go inside the plant and find out how dangerous the situation was. He spent 28 days monitoring radiation releases. Today, his story about what he witnessed at Three Mile Island is being brought to the public in detail for the first time; and his version of what happened during that time, supported by a growing body of other scientific evidence, contradicts the official U.S. government story that the Three Mile Island accident posed no threat to the public.
"What happened at TMI was a whole lot worse than what has been reported," Thompson told Facing South. "Hundreds of times worse."

Wikipedia
Alternet
Common Dreams
Indy Week
Oxdown Gazette/Firedog Lake
Undernews Progressive Review
concerned citizens for Nuclear Safety
Online Educational Resources
Millinium Ark

The story is now getting some attention on the air waves as well. David Bear, whom we enlisted to help investigate the accident during the first month following the meltdown, appeared Friday, April 24th, on San Francisco's largest News/Talk radio station KGO AM 810 with host Pat Thurston. You can listen to the one hour audio HERE.

It's a great interview and David covers a lot of ground in the short time he had. It also includes a call from a retired nuclear aircraft carrier Captain who challenged David, only to be handed the cruel reality of the difference between military and commercial reactors.

Losing Lucy

We had a rough day. Our dear dog Lucy passed away this afternoon. We just returned from the bottom of the garden to lay her to rest with the many other fine animal friends who have owned our hearts through all our years here.

Lucy was about 11 years old and will go down in history as the most loyal of all our doggie wonders. Joy found her at the mailbox with a too large collar. We guessed her to be maybe six weeks old and was tiny enough to fit in a coat pocket. She grew to be quite the lady. Amanda did change her name for awhile after she chewed up her new sandals, but other than that, she was pretty wonderful.

She had also helped raise many other dogs and cats and kept them in line with an iron paw. Well, more than an iron paw actually. She was in fact, quite the Dom bitch to all her charges. But to her humans, she was all sweetness and innocence. She herded many a child away from harm, kept a sharp ear and eye out for danger and could run like the wind.

We are still blessed by the cooing of our 16 year old magical white dove Noel, so we're not without an animal friend, but it feels pretty empty nonetheless.

Bye Lucy Loo, we're sure going to miss you. Thanks for being such a great friend and protector.

Tea Baggin

Dear Jane,
I think the most disingenuous thing about the tea bag day, is that it is far right Republican show off escapade being painted as spontaneous and grass roots. It is not and everyone knows it.

Digby has the scoop, and as usual, the reasoning. Corporate grassroots.

Now, none of this means that the people who show up at the rallies don't actually believe in what they're rallying for. It's primarily a team sport for them, and this is the conservative team's play. But most of them probably don't realize (and wouldn't believe if you told them) that they are rallying on behalf of a major media conglomerate and other vastly wealthy interests to support rich people and corporations at the expense of people like themselves. Of course, that is the organizing principle of the Republican Party in general, but it is spectacularly arrogant at a time like this.

If the press were to do its job, it would inform the public of this instead of regurgitating professional beltway press releases and pretending that these tea bagger parties are even coherent much less representing a legitimate grassroots anti-tax movement.

Save the Rich has become the most comprehensive site for understanding the truth about this gimmick. Below are some highlights for all you gentle seekers of the truth.

• Corporate lobbyists and their consultants are organizing behind the scenes.
• Fox News is encouraging turnout, sponsoring, and covering "Tea Parties" across the country.
• Republican officials are driving turn out.
• Protesters have no idea what they're talking about. At Tea Parties that have taken place over the last few days, attendees are more concerned with Obama's birth certificate than high taxes or government spending. Fringe gun groups, secessionists, anti-immigration activists and neo-Nazis are out in force.

I too applaud the efforts of Americans everywhere, regardless of political affiliation, to make their voices known. Fox News however is not a news organization. It is a propaganda device, nothing more. It is the primary media mover here.

Freedom Watch is a right wing Republican corporate activist organization led by the notorious Dick Armey. There is nothing spontaneous or even remotely non-partisan here. That's the truth.