Kicking The Baby

The Kyl Defense

Jon Kyl, Explaining Recent Fish Catch Was As Big As He Claims

Of course, all sentient beings now living know of U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Bedlam)'s comment in a speech on the floor of the Senate about Planned Parenthood ( an organization so evil all conservatives must publicly hate it, and so pass a crucial litmus test with evangelical and conservative Catholic voters):

"...You want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood; that's where ninety per cent of that money [i.e., budgeted Federal support to the organziation] goes."

This was, of course, utter bullshit. In truth, three per cent of Planned Parenthood's budget is spent on abortion services. Kyl's office later provided a press release in clarification, saying "The senator's comment was not intended to be a factual statement."

Right. Well, now that concept just has so many uses, doesn't it?

SENATOR JON KYL (R-Idiot): Sir, don't you understand the gravity of the threat to Our Great Nation™ ? Do you know that, as we're sitting here today -- your daughter is in an Al-Qaeda training camp in the middle of nowhere, Afghanistan? Learnin' how to make explosive devices to butcher helpless, defenseless American civilians? Do you??

And you thought she was going to Vassar! Well, I'm disgusted -- and what's more, I know all real Americans join me in saying your daughter is a traitor and no better than a two-dollar hoor.

WITNESS: What are you talking about? That-- that's insane! I had breakfast with my daughter this morning before coming to the Capitol, Senator; she was just in this room until a few minutes ago!! What in the -- what do you mean, she's in a terrorist training camp??

SENATOR JON KYL (R-Idiot): Well, sir; that was not intended to be a factual statement. It merely illustrated my point.

WITNESS: What?

[** Hat Tip To Roger J. ('El Rog The Magnificent') **]

This kind of thing happens in Little Rupert's "News" or on Lard Boy or Little Glenny's programs quite often. But I've had about all an adult Dog can stand about this kind of willful obfuscation, and so inaugurate a new blog category, Kicking The Baby:


(Courtesy Of UTub: See The Big-Screen Version Here.)

As seen on South Park, Kyle has fun by "Kicking The Baby" -- which means making it appear as if Ike (the baby) had done something wrong. Ascribing qualities or behavior to Ike that were not accurate, in order to portray The Baby in the worst possible light. Or, if you prefer, Lying About Ike The Baby.

So, using the Kyl Defense, just about any position is defensible -- so long as you grossly distort and lie about someone or something in your remarks, and later state they were only made to illustrate and underline your main point. Whatever it was.

MONGO: You know, John Kyl is an unindicted pederast who continues to be one of the largest distributors of child pornography in North America.

NOT MONGO: Are you nuts?? There isn't a shred of accuracy in any of that; it isn't true! And isn't his name spelled "Jon" Kyl?

MONGO: Oh, I'm sorry. Let me explain: It wasn't intended to be a factual statement.

Jon Kyl: All American (What the hell kind of name is 'Kyl', anyway? Armenian? Czech? Bondostan?) And do I really need to explain this further?

No? Ausgezeichnet, Kinder.

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UPDATE: I was trying to determine a basis for Kyl's statements and actions generally, along with other Tea Partei and Rethug themes, and I thought: Kyl is getting along in years.

It's my personal theory that past a certain age, you just don't give a damn anymore. You're liable to say and do things that you think are sharp 'n classy, but really just make you look clueless, and full of shit. You realize this, somehow, but rather than pause in reflection about that, you double down with more outrageous behavior. Think of Donald Rumsfeld.

I believed I was on to something here. Then, I thought about Eric Cantor; or Little Michelle Bachmann (workin' on being Mike Bachmann; yeah!), and the whole theory just fell apart... like a used teabag.

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Thugs

After The Ball Was Over

Paul Krugman writes:

... Mr. Obama is conspicuously failing to mount any kind of challenge to the philosophy now dominating Washington discussion — a philosophy that says the poor must accept big cuts in Medicaid and food stamps; the middle class must accept big cuts in Medicare (actually a dismantling of the whole program); and corporations and the rich must accept big cuts in the taxes they have to pay. Shared sacrifice!

I’m not exaggerating. The House budget proposal that was unveiled last week — and was praised as “bold” and “serious” by all of Washington’s Very Serious People — includes savage cuts in Medicaid and other programs that help the neediest, which would among other things deprive 34 million Americans of health insurance.

It includes a plan to privatize and defund Medicare that would leave many if not most seniors unable to afford health care. And it includes a plan to sharply cut taxes on corporations and to bring the tax rate on high earners down to its lowest level since 1931.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center puts the revenue loss from these tax cuts at $2.9 trillion over the next decade. House Republicans claim that the tax cuts can be made “revenue neutral” by “broadening the tax base” — that is, by closing loopholes and ending exemptions. But you’d need to close a lot of loopholes to close a $3 trillion gap; for example, even completely eliminating one of the biggest exemptions, the mortgage interest deduction, wouldn’t come close. And G.O.P. leaders have not, of course, called for anything that drastic. I haven’t seen them name any significant exemptions they would end.

... the nation wants — and more important, the nation needs — a president who believes in something, and is willing to take a stand. And that’s not what we’re seeing.

Josh Marshall at TPM [Paragraphing Added]:

It's now taken for granted that the White House must make major concessions if Rep[resentatives] Boehner and Cantor are to allow a vote to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

A few months ago, even Cantor was saying that at the end of the day, the vote would be held and the limit raised. But coming off his Friday deal, even Boehner is threatening to let the nation go into default on its [national] debt unless the President offers a package of concessions with "something really, really big attached to it"...

Take a moment to consider what is involved in the whole question of national indebtedness. Those who are pressing the issue the hardest argue that at some date in the not-to-distant future, the country will no longer be able to manage the scale of its debt. The costs of financing it will go through the roof as foreign lenders lose faith in our ability to pay it off and/or we'll enter into some mammoth debt crisis... an arbitrary decision to stop paying our debts is the only way to trigger the sort of catastrophe these folks claim they are worried about.

...Even if you set aside the more apocalyptic scenarios, welching on the national debt is very likely to provide a severe shock to the still fragile economic recovery and woud likely raise the cost of borrowing into the indefinite future -- something that really would make our financial predicament significantly worse than it is.

The whole thing is crazy. It's holding a gun to the head of the country and saying, "Give me what I want or else." Accepting it as a given about how this year is going to be conducted is even crazier.

The president needs to start saying now that Boehner and Cantor need to pass a clean no-conditions bill to raise the debt ceiling. You can't negotiate with hostage takers -- not at the local bank heist, not in the Middle East, not at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

The President made a bad deal to keep the government from shutting down; we don't even know the details. But the concensus opinion is that by compromising on Friday, just to fund the government in this year, he's emboldened the Thugs to up the ante.

This is 'bipartisan negotiation' as the Thugs have practiced it, every time. I've read some comments that claim this situation is on a par with Clinton-vs-GOP in the 1995 government shutdown over the Federal Budget; I don't agree. That occurred when the economy was stable, even booming. This time, it's different.

Now, the stakes are very high. What we're witnessing is another red-letter moment -- when America's conservatives used the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression not as a wake-up call to help the country, but as a rallying cry for Teh Crazy, and to use the crisis as a lever to force an end to the New Deal, a thing they could never legitimately achieve in an honest election -- and that's what the Democrats will give them, or (it's strongly suggested) they won't vote to raise the National Debt ceiling.

That would mean the U.S. defaults on its public debt, which affects other countries buying U.S. Treasury bonds (read: China, Saudi Arabia), or doing business with America (read: The Entire Planet). The Rethugs are saying Get Rid Of The New Deal, Yo, or we burn down your m___________' house.

The only thing to prevent it are the efforts of the Democratic leadership -- the President, and Democratic Members of Congress. And, Obama has compromised any Democratic or Progressive bargaining position so badly that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to hold in the face of the Thugs. He's given up too much ground, just as he did with the banking and investment houses in 2009.

America is a nation -- an Empire, like others in history. We are not special. We are not exempt from suffering cowardly and greedy political or social leadership, who make rabidly bad choices that result in more wealth and comfortable living for the Happy Few; and penury, fast-food healthcare, and wage slavery for the rest: That's where we seem to be going; that's your 'Shining City On A Hill'.

At this point, I don't know what's more radioactive and harmful to human life -- the Fukushima reactors, or the decisions of Mr. Obama and his administration.

I get the feeling that if Very Bad Aliens landed on the White House's south lawn tonight, and demanded that we surrender and provide them with Sandra Bullock for xeno-interspecies sex, we'd all be working as slave asteroid miners by the end of the week and Sandra would be carrying an alien baby that looked a great deal like Yertle The Turtle Mitch McConnell.

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MEHR: The New York Times writes editorials.

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Hotter Than A Little Red Pistol

More Fukashima Daiichi Fun

The New York Times reports that any estimate of how long it will take to contain and begin 'cleanup operations' at Tokyo Electric Power Company's Fukushima Daiichi reactor complex is hampered by one critical factor: No one knows the exact conditions inside the four damaged reactors.

Think of it this way: You're a surgeon, dealing with what you know is a condition that could be fatal to the patient if not treated. Based on observed symptoms, you believe the best course of treatment is X.

But -- you only have a poor set of X-Rays to work with. CT scans and MRIs can't be performed. And some of the test result you have are suspect because equipment at the lab may be malfunctioning. You're making life-and-death decisions, based on incomplete data and your deductions of the state of the patient's internal organs -- not what you actually know them to be.

Oh, and to make it really interesting -- if you decide to perform exploratory surgery the patient's condition will mean that some or all of your surgical team will die. It's like an episode of "House", on Steroids.

And to make it really, really interesting -- some members of your diagnostic and surgical teams do not trust each other; some are withholding information about the patient; there is an atmosphere of suspicion, mistrust, and office politics.

What kind of an outcome do you think you'll get from that? Good? Bad? Evacuate central Japan and go for pizza for 25,000 years?

Nearly one month after Japan’s devastating nuclear accident... How much danger is still posed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?

That depends to a considerable extent on how hot the uranium fuel rods at the power plant remain, and whether fuel has escaped its containment, or might still do so. Yet remarkably little is known for sure about what is really happening inside the reactors because some areas remain far too radioactive for workers to approach, and some instruments have malfunctioned...

The commission speculated this week that the nuclear fuel in the core of one of the stricken reactors had probably leaked from its thick steel pressure vessel, its most important protective barrier. If that proved to be accurate, it would raise the prospect of continuing fuel leaks and high levels of radioactive releases ...

But Japanese officials said there was no evidence of a compromised pressure vessel, and they wondered why they were reading about it in the newspapers.

“If they have a concern, they should inform us,” said Kentaro Morita of Japan’s nuclear regulatory body... after its American counterpart sounded the alarm over a possible nuclear fuel leak at the plant’s Reactor No. 2, clearly contradicting Japanese accounts...

Much of the automated measurement equipment in the reactors has been damaged, either by explosions in the early days of the crisis or by intense radiation since then. Damage to the reactors, as well as high radiation, has prevented technicians from making detailed assessments.

Looks like pizza for everyone on Honsho -- 25,000 years; leave note: "Gone for pizza -- back in April, 27,011". Simple!

Unless that's not an option.

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Shutdown, The Short-Form Version

It's plain that this isn't about spending cuts. It's about certain expenditures which a minority of the Rethugs don't like because they don't really like girls ('ecpt to have as servants and repositories of, uh, man-seed), and they are willing to do anything which makes clear just how willfully stupid, bigoted, and misogynistic they are.

All except for Lil' Michele Bachmann, who wants all the cuts and prays to be changed into a real, live boy, every night. Or, a toaster.

Jay Ackroyd at The Great Curmudgeon:

So what this "voodoo economics, with an extra dose of fantasy, and a large helping of mean-spiritedness" [Krugman] is really intended to be is an iteration of Bush's [Social Security] privatization plan--meant to have Mark Halperin et al force the Democrats to concede the principle that Medicare must be gutted, and then shift the discussion to one over the numerical details: the means test, the vouchers' value, and the allowable rate of increase of the vouchers. And do keep in mind that there is much sympathy among the Democratic elite for this approach, of moving seniors onto the insurance exchanges. Oh, and to permanently take taxing the top income decile off the table.

But, remember Speaker Pelosi. Atrios reminds us that her response to [Lil' Boots Bush's Social Security] privatization gambit was simple.

"Never. Is that good for you?"

As E.D. Kain points out, same here. There's no need to respond to this claptrap.

A lot of people are saying things like “The ball is in Obama’s court” and what-have-you. The problem is that the ball has never really left the Republican court. Until Republicans agree to tax increases, why should Democrats agree to spending cuts? Why should Democrats take Republicans seriously at all if Republicans are completely unwilling to repeal the Bush tax cuts?

No, the ball is still in the GOP’s court. When they come up with a serious proposal – when they realize that politics is the art of compromise – then we can say the ball is in Obama and the Democrats’ court. Until then, well, the math doesn’t work.

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We Regret That We Did Not Pay Off The Coppers Better

Fear and Ballast

Little Rupert Watches His Favorite Film, Leni Reifenstahl's
Tiumph Of The Will (Graphic By Mongo)

The New York Times reports that News International, the British newsprint publishing division of Little Rupert Murdoch’s oligarchy, apologized today for illegally intercepting the voicemails of a number of international celebrities. The illegal acts were performed by bottom-feeding suckerfish journalists at News International's News of the World tabloid. They also announced settlement payments to some of the victims of a total of twenty million Pounds ($32 Million US).

Earlier this week, the Times reported, two of the employees of a sociopathic right-wing scumbag and the embarrassment of all Australia journalists "were arrested, questioned and released on bail as part of a renewed criminal inquiry into the five-year-old case."

Some of the celebrities whose private communications had been hacked include (primarily British) actors and actresses; British politicians; and sports agents, designers and publicists whose voicemails would have come from clients (or lovers, or business partners, or family; even British Royals, who knows?) not yet named in British court.

This went on for years. Little Rupert's empire had quite the window into the private lives of Britons who were wired into the establishment and the arts; and that's a very small and interconnected group in England. Cheers!

The phone hacking scandal was consuming increasing amounts of corporate time and attention, and as more lawsuits were filed, it threatened to become increasingly expensive and damaging for the reputation of the company, part of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation empire.

The scandal has also engulfed Scotland Yard, which was criticized for what some critics called a lax original investigation in 2006 and for failing to inform all the victims of phone hacking by the News of the World. Scotland Yard, which reopened the investigation earlier this year, said on Friday that it had no comment on News International’s announcement.

The scandal also claimed the scalp of the newspaper’s editor, Andy Coulson, who left the newspaper after the hacking episode in 2007. He went on to become communications director for Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr. Coulson denied ever knowing of hacking under his editorship, but he was nonetheless forced to resign from his position in the Conservative government in January over the growing publicity for the scandal.

In its statement to the press, News International said, "It is now apparent that our previous inquiries failed to uncover important evidence and we acknowledge our actions then were not sufficiently robust." You can, in One Dog's Opinion, read that as Ahhh; them Politicos and Coppers jus' wouldn't stay bought.

For a scabrous piece of filth person of Rupert's ilk, $32M is just a cost of doing business; he'll make that back in a season of ad revenue from Fox sports. And, with a nod and a wink from Britain's conservative government, Little Rupert's poised to monopolize the UK's cable teevee soon, too -- where he intends to run the "liberal" BBC into the ground (with a nod and a wink from Britain's conservative government), just as Rightists in America would like to do to "liberal media " NPR and PBS.

With that terrible, liberal-dominated part of the media gone, people will just have to read or watch a News Corp subsidiary. They're so Fair; so Balanced. Yes, yes; thay have all that right-wing stuff -- but they have The Simpsons, too! They have Family Guy too! They're funny, huh.

And what about the accuracy of their broadcasts? Well... the truth is a pliable thing. Little Rupert could show you that -- and does, in fact, every day. Don't worry your little heads about it. Have a beer and watch that Bill O'Reilly.

So, does the "News Of The World" scandal mean that News Corp. will shortly release a statement, admitting its business model relies on the cynical manipulation of viewers and readers through deceit and fabrication, presented as "news" -- just to increase the personal wealth and political power of Little Rupert and his Issue?

Not Bloody Likely, Mate.

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Glenny's Ready For His Close-Up, Mr. Ailes

Strangely Long Trip, Its Been, Yes

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I am turnin' into a friggin' televangelist.
--Little Glenn Beck, Four Years Old, 2010

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It was announced today that Little Glenn Beck, who speaks for god and Goldline, will be leaving Fox's "Glenn Beck" for more multitudinous media outlets -- some with Fox, some not -- which will allow Glenn Beck to be more.... well; more of what he has shown himself to be.

It's amazing, isn't it? And, predictable, too: Little Glenny, less than a year ago the organizer and headliner of a Teabagger rally at the Lincoln Memorial (really, just an extension of his Poxed Network show); and now, Little Rupert and his Blimpy employee, Roger Ailes, have decided to part ways with The pudgy Beck Man.

What happened? Glenny misjudged the reality around him -- Er hat uns vermessen: (A)He believed his own press; and (B)Didn't understand that he was working in the entertainment business.

When Glenny was pulling in viewers, and before he began sounding like Robert Anton Wilson on steroids, Little Rupert and Roger The Dodger loved him. When his audience shrank, and advertisers (not eager to host a man who suggested that a Holocaust survivor had lived by being an opportunistic collaborator of the nazis, for example) dropped away, Glenny wasn't useful to Little Rupert any longer.

Big Roger also wasn't willing to treat him like a divinely-inspired diva -- which made Glenny sad, because aber natürlich it says in the bible, somewhere, that people are supposed to be nice to him and give him treats and listen with rapt attention to whatever pours out of his mouth.

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[Obama] has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or white culture; I don't know what it is with this guy...
--Little Glenn Beck, 2009

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The New York Times noted: "Mr. Beck is a hugely popular figure on Fox News, averaging 2.2 million viewers each weekday, though his ratings have fallen somewhat in the last year. He is beloved by his fans for speaking out against what he sees as threats from progressives, socialists and people he deems 'radicals.' His opponents — and there are many — condemn him for his conspiratorial views and apocalyptic predictions."

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That -- my little girl would -- would be forced to die if this [i.e., Healtcare legislation] passes -- (Breaks down crying)
--Little Glenn Beck, 2009 (?)

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What Digby Said:

Beck was the king of the Tea Party and the Powers That Be no longer find him useful. They need to tame their nutballs before 2012. Luckily for them, their nutballs are easily led, so it's probably not as much of a challenge as one might think.

Adieu,Beck: Your influence was great even if short lived. You brainwashed millions and made a fortune doing it. You are an All American success story.

What will he do now? Beck has carved out a niche for himself in the fringe landscape (only, as Little Rupert's fantasy machine keeps spewing misinformation into the world, that 'fringe' has slowly become the Right's 'mainstream'). He's followed the same business model as Lard Boy, O'Reilly, Mikey Weiner and Little Annie The Horse's Fanny. For a while, he will keep sucking up money on the Evangelical-Right Gravy Train.

He will continue his radio and teevee additions to the public vomitorium -- but like all has-beens, there's a point at which fewer and fewer people will tune in; while Glenny will always be respected by most Wingnuts, they'll want to see and hear the next big Right-Wing Commentator, and Glenny will have to make do as an "elder statesman" of the Right.

I predict an eventual faux run for political office a la Sarah Palin (except, there is that rumor which won't go away...), in a pathetic attempt to grab the limelight and show everyone: I am big -- it's the Media that got small!!

If he actually ran, it would end in defeat -- but he could keep people in suspense by founding a PAC, making coy remarks to the media; even a speech or two. That would keep the dollars rolling in -- because in the end, that's the point.

For the Little Sarahs, the Little Annies, and Lard Boys and Little Glennys of the world, it's all about being the center of attention; about being someone, and using their influence to settle personal scores -- and, about the money.

They don't believe much of what they say. Their lives and careers aren't any more nuanced or complex. They really are that pathetically narcissistic and simple.

Auf Nicht Wiedersehen, Glenny, you Nutter.

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The Revenge Of Reddy Kilowatt

Now You're Cookin'

Japan No. 2 Core Melted Through Reactor Vessel
by Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe - Reuters, April 6, 2011

The core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel, Democratic Congressman Edward Markey told a hearing on the nuclear disaster on Wednesday.

"I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the core of Unit Two has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel," said Markey, a prominent nuclear critic in the House of Representatives.

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U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
By JAMES GLANZ and WILLIAM J. BROAD - New York Times, April 6, 2011

United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely... according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The confidential assessment was submitted to the NRC on March 26, and its concerns centered around "mounting stresses placed on the containment structures as they fill with radioactive cooling water, making them more vulnerable to rupture" in aftershocks which continue to occur after the earthquake of March 11.

It also "cites the possibility of explosions inside the containment structures due to the release of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater pumped into the reactors", which would lead to, well; stuff we don't want to think about. I stand by my earlier statement: It appears likely central Japan might want to go for pizza for 25,000 years.

...If the fuel continues to heat and melt because of ineffective cooling, some nuclear experts say, that could also leave a radioactive mass that could stay molten for an extended period...

[After reviewing the confidential report, David A. Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said] “I thought they were, not out of the woods, but at least at the edge of the woods... This paints a very different picture, and suggests that things are a lot worse...”

My favorite part was where, as a result of hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi reactor site after March 12, pieces of amazingly radioactive spent fuel were found blown (in one case) up to a mile away from the plant; in another, lying on the ground between two of the reactor buildings.

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UPDATE: As usual, "We express regret":

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan stopped highly radioactive water leaking into the sea on Wednesday from a crippled nuclear plant and acknowledged it could have given more information to neighboring countries about contamination in the ocean.

..."The original amount of radioactivity is very low, and when you dilute this with a huge body of water, the final levels will be even lower than legal limits," said Pradip Deb, senior lecturer in Medical Radiations at the School of Medical Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University.

..."What they are going to have to release is likely to be highly radioactive. The situation could politically be very ugly in a week," said Murray Jennex at San Diego State University, who specializes in nuclear containment.

Nice.

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More Titanically Incredibly Bad Things

Le Systeme D

Radioactive Water At 5 Million Times Limit Found At Japan Plant

TOKYO (Reuters - Mayumi Negishi and Yoko Nishikawa) - The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear power plant said on Tuesday it had found water with 5 million times the legal limit of radioactivity as it struggles for a fourth week to contain the world's biggest nuclear disaster in quarter of a century...

...In desperation, engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have turned to what are little more than home remedies to stem the flow of contaminated water. On Tuesday, they used "liquid glass" in the hope of plugging cracks in a leaking concrete pit.

"We tried pouring sawdust, newspaper and concrete mixtures into the side of the pit (leading to tunnels outside reactor No.2), but the mixture does not seem to be entering the cracks," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).

"We also still do not know how the highly contaminated water is seeping out of reactor No.2," said Nishiyama.

Newspaper?

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UPDATE: See the New York Times current update on conditions at all four reactors right here.

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And Bring The Kids

Japan to Release Low-Level Radioactive Water Into Ocean

New York Times, April 4, 2011: TOKYO — Tokyo Electric Power Company said Monday that it would release almost 11,500 tons of water contaminated with low levels of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean as workers struggle to contain the increasing amounts of dangerous runoff resulting from efforts to cool the plant’s damaged reactors...

Over the weekend, workers resorted to desperate measures — including using sawdust and shredded newspaper — in an effort to stem a direct leak of an estimated seven tons an hour of radioactive water escaping from a pit near the reactor. [Note: Emphasis added]

Safely Contained Behind Bars, Leak Of Water Contaminated By
God Knows How Much Radioactivity Gushes Into, Well; Gosh;
Somewhere -- Free Samples At The Tourist Center! (TEPCO)

Workers have focused especially on trying to pump out highly radioactive water flooding the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor. But a facility at the plant designed to store and treat the radioactive water has already been filled with runoff in recent days, the company said.

To free up space, about 10,000 tons of less seriously contaminated water will soon be released into the sea from the facility, said Yukio Edano, the [Japanese government's] chief cabinet secretary. Tokyo Electric said it planned to begin dumping water in the ocean starting on Monday night in Japan, with a release of about 4,800 tons of water a day for two days.

[Note: 4,800 Tons of water equals approximately 1,150,000 U.S. Gallons; the total planned release will be three times that number.]

An additional 1,500 tons of radioactive water will also be released from the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors, after runoff was found flooding parts of their turbine buildings... Water from these reactors will be released 300 tons at a time over five days.

Le Show chien et le Petit cheval, Or, While A Dog-And-
Pony Show Is Entertaining, It Only Distracts From The True
State Of Affairs (Photo: Hund Und Pferd.org)

The Total release of 11,500 Tons of radioactive water is over seven million U.S. gallons. That's seven million gallon jugs of milk; 280,000 fillups of mid-sized cars at the pump (based on 25-gallon capacity tanks); or approximately 20,000,000 bottles (standard 750ml, of five-plus cups) of wine.

No wonder TEPCO releases its figures in tons -- it just looks smaller.

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Parasite And Host

Tea Partei and GOP: Government Shutdown Fun

(Based On The January, 1973 Cover Of National Lampoon)

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