Dioxin Update

Dow is backsliding on its estimates of the dioxin concentration at the Wickes park hot spot. They say that they have measured between 7000 ppt and 18000 ppt on other tests of the Wickes sample, well below the 1.6 million ppt previously reported.

This raises a lot of questions. Was the 1.6 million reading due to extremely uneven distribution of dioxin in the soil? Or are they doing something in their retests that biases the results low?

Dr. Garabrant is still downplaying the exposure of Tittabawassee/Saginaw residents.

See the Saginaw News reports on Dow's spin and the quarterly community meeting with Garabrant's quote.

State Department Incompetent (not breaking news)

The State Department is faking it, by trying to pass off press reports as its own "Iraq Weekly Status Report".

In some ways, it is not fair to label competent, career State department employees who are trying to resist the Rice Incompetance Machine as incompentent over this stuff. I think they must wrestle everyday over whether they are helping more, by trying to amelioriate the destruction of the department by Rice, or hurting more, by lending their positive reputation to a relentless disaster. (see Colin Powell.)

Based on the results, I would have to say that on the whole, the "stay and ameliorate" wing has not been particularly effective. Nor has the "resign, make a stink, and wake people up" wing.

I would add to Americablog that a more troubling aspect of this is how thoroughly subservient the press must be to have their stuff served up raw by Madame Condoleeza's propaganda ministry.

Dioxin in Saginaw: 1.6 million ppt

This EPA press release says that Dow will clean up a previously unknown 'hot spot' of dioxin in the Saginaw/Tittabawassee River basin. This hot spot has a concentration of 1.6 million ppt. This is 50 times as large as the hottest previously known hot spot, and the largest dioxin concentration ever reported anywhere.

There is a wealth of information, see Tittabawassee River Watch. Particularly, look at "Where is it?", "How much?", and "Dioxin Source".

It is interesting that this hot spot is in the Saginaw River, well downstream of Dow's facilities in Midland. TRW has some satellite imagery of the Saginaw River sediment plume in Saginaw Bay.





Compare the images of the Saginaw Bay sediment plume, and the map that shows where the Saginaw-Midland water system gets its water, 65 miles north of Midland. It makes me wonder whether they are pulling dioxin into the water system, and it makes me wonder what Dow told the water company about where to build the pipeline back in the 1940s.

The UM dioxin study flaunts their statistical machinery, and jets off to Oslo and Japan to present their findings, but their reports to the residents of the area have emphasized that the effect of living on contaminated soil is small. Given that they were funded by Dow, their credibility was always suspect, but this could lower it further.

Rural America is Pissed

For the thanksgiving holiday we went visiting relatives, and drove along a two lane highway in a rural area. Along a twenty mile section of highway, we saw about 8 "Support the troops, end the war" signs, a hand painted "Impeach Bush" sign, and a large handmade "Ron Paul for President" banner.

Needless to say, this is the kind of area where the democratic voters are likely to be Reagan democrats, and also an area where a disproportionately high fraction of people serve or have served in the military.

On the surface, it appears that this group has turned on the pro-war wing of the Republican party. (Is there any other wing, Mr. Paul notwithstanding?) There is probably a remnant of support for Bush in this group, probably mostly among family of people currently in Iraq, hoping that things hold together long enough for their relative to come home.

Mostly, however, this is a group that once you lose, you aren't getting back very easily.

As for what this means for the presidential election, it tells me that Ron Paul is going to do a lot better than even the current optimistic prospects. This is his base, not libertarian geeks. The Republican primaries are going to look a lot like the democrats in 1988, when Jesse Jackson threatened to run away with the nomination while the mainstream candidates splintered the rest of the vote. Remember then, the Democratic insiders got together and relectantly settled on Dukakis (instead of Gore) as the great white hope to 'save' the party from Jackson.

I can see the same thing happening, with the Republican establishment splintered among Rudy, Romney, Red Truck, and the Huckster. (McCain's base will all be voting for Paul this year. He is toast.) Despite Pat Robertson, the anti abortion obsessors will never accept Rudy, the bluebloods will not go for Huckabee, they are both leary of Romney, and Fred, who was supposed to waltz away with the savior's role, seems not to play in Peoria. It will be very interesting, but I think the Republican establishment will settle on Romney as the anti-Paul.

As for the Democrats, they should not be heartened that a key component of the Republican base has turned against the war. They were a part of the 2006 vote that gave Democrats control of congress, and if they feel like they got screwed in that election, they will sit home rather than vote for losers of either party. If the Democrats want the votes of the large swath of rural america that has turned against the war, they had better get off their butts and do something serious about ending the war before November 2008.

The horror

Mike Whitney writes on the predictable consequence of suicide among those who have fought in the Iraq war. Those who have read Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon, or even seen The Deer Hunter",
this can't be a big surprise.

A little Wilfred Owen to remind us:

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori."

Virtually Unemployed

Recipe for joining the private sector:

1. Say something incredibly ridiculous, suggesting that one is unqualified for the job one is holding (and has held for over four years?!)

2. Lay low for a few weeks or months.

3. Resign during a holiday week.

Of course, most people have no idea who Fran Townsend is (me included, really), and have forgotten her Ricean phrase, "virtually impotent", rashly uttered in reference to OBL on the sixth anniversary of his nonapprehension. However, my blogging about it did generate the ort of publicity that this woeful blog has received.

IAEA Verifies Non-diversion of Nuclear Material in Iran

Quote: 'Finally, the IAEA is also quite explicit that “the Agency has been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran. Iran has provided the Agency with access to declared nuclear material, and has provided the required nuclear accountancy reports in connection with declared nuclear material and activities.” '

Big news, this is. Google News hits are IRNA, Bay Area Indymedia, Foreign Policy, U.S. News, Dissident Voice, Korea Times,
Center for Research on Globalization, CASMII, CBS News, and Asia Times. You'll have to google your own links.

Mostly, just read this article.

Hail to the Thief

Consortium News recalls the chant of 'Hail to the Thief' at his inauguration.

At the time, he had only stolen an election. Now the list is a bit longer..

He has stolen our economy, by trashing the economy for his looting, Cayman bound cohorts. Bush is a guy who bankrupt every organization he ran, always getting bailed out by his buddies. He's done it again, only this time the bailout is his corrupt cronies bailing on the u.s.

He has stolen our freedom. Intrusive spying, imprisoning and torturing people (including U.S. citizens, e.g., Jose Padilla) without charges, patriot act, Gonzales and Mukasey, Alito & Roberts.

He has stolen our environment, with orwellian named pollution permission laws.

He has stolen our safety, abandoning New Orleans, allowing 9-11, consuming the national defense in his mad obsession with Iraq.

2009-01-20

Support the Troops, Support the War

I am starting to get a little bit of a feel for what the cultural divide in the Vietnam years might have been. After four and 1/2 years of fighting, it is hard to continue to accept the idea that the people who are joining the Army today are idealists who want to defend their country. Surely they know they will be sent to fight an occupation of a country that did not attack us. They have a choice to join in the fight or not, and they choose to join in.

Now maybe some people are desparate for the bonuses and bribes being offered to volunteers. Maybe they are fooled by the propaganda from the right wing wimp machine. Maybe they are just not paying attention. So it is conceivable that they are not totally with the the Bush agenda.

You could also make the similar arguments about telemarketers. That would not make them any less annoying. The arguments about new recruits also do not make them any less complicit in their support for Bush's criminal war that is ruining the U.S.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers.

Pelosi Getting Tough?

The intrepid Russell Mokhiber is doing a 'Pelosi and Me' series, and some of the results are at Counterpunch.

Mokhiber asked Pelosi about Jim VanderHei and John Harris's suggestions for doing more to end the war. Pelosi replied, "watch to see what unfolds in the next few weeks and I think you will see some of the approaches".

Does this mean that she is going to keep the House in session over Thanksgiving? After all, this is going the be the fifth Thanksgiving that the soldiers will be languishing in the sand instead of enjoying turkey, cranberries, and apple pie with their families. Working through the holiday would be a small sacrifice compared to the soldiers.

Democrats cooperate with Republican Fascism

The Senate's unjudicious Judiciary committee forwarded the nomination of Mukasey to the full Senate, where he awaits apparently certain confirmation. This is occuring despite his failure to recognize a simple legal fact, that waterboarding is illegal under the law and constitution of the U.S.

Democratic votes are needed for both steps in the confirmation process. If they can't stop a nominee so obviously unsuited for the job, what will they do? I would say that they are playing dead, except I don't think they are playing.

Mukasey: Incompetent or War Criminal?

AG nominee Mukasey seems to be confused about whether waterboarding. Let me spell it out for you, Mikey: It is torture.

As an attorney, you should be well aware that waterboarding is illegal and has been for at least a century. The U.S. court-martialed soldiers for waterboarding during the Philippines and Vietnam wars. The U.S. prosecuted a Japanese military officer for waterboarding during WWII.

If you want to be attorney general, you should be able to answer a simple question about whether an action that is obviously illegal is, in fact, illegal. If you can't do that, how can you do the job?

Worse, even some Democratic Senators appear ready to overlook this clear disqualification.

Any of these Senators who think waterboarding is not torture ought to try it. C-Span could show it, probably highest ratings they would ever get. Bet none of those wimps could last 14 seconds.

Hayden: We have tortured at least 30 al-qaeda

The Independent reports CIA director Michael Hayden said aggressive interrogation methods in which a prisoner believes he is about to die have been used on only about 30 of the 100 al-Qai'da suspects being held by the US. The U. S. statute that prohibits torture includes the threat of imminent death as one criterion for defining torture.

On the other hand, the Post quotes Hayden as saying "we do not torture". I do not know whether the Independent is mischaracterizing what Hayden wrote, or whether the Post is not being fully forthcoming. The Post says that Hayden says the thirty were subject to "special methods of questioning." I wish someone would post the text memo so we can find out.

Significantly, Hayden's refusal to say that the CIA does not waterboard, or that waterboarding is illegal, casts substantial doubt on his claim that the CIA does not torture. He may not mean the same thing as the rest of us when he uses the word 'torture'.

Juan Cole turns up the heat

Moderate academic and blogger extraordinare Juan Cole has turned up the heat on the pro-war faction of the government. First, he called for the closing of the American embassy in Baghdad. Second, he called on bloggers to 'Team B' the government's so-called intelligence on Iran.

To help in the effort, it would be nice to have a good web resource on U.S. intelligence on Iran. The establishment oriented Council on Foreign Relations has a start on Team B, although they would surely not characterize their work that way. This right wing article from the belly of the beast suggests that Team B members should not forget that any doubts they raise about Iran intelligence will be spun as an even greater reason to fear Iran by the pro war fanatics. I am not sure it qualifies as 'intelligence', but this report by the staff of the House intelligence committee from 2006 gives some insight into pro-war thinking.

Here are 2006's recent developments on Iran according to the Congressional Research Service. You can always check out Atomic Archive.