Free Republic

It’s been one of the mysteries of Japan’s ongoing nuclear disaster: How much of the damage did the March 11 earthquake inflict on Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors in the 40 minutes before the devastating tsunami arrived? The stakes are high: If the quake alone structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan is at risk. Throughout the months of lies and misinformation, one story has stuck: “The earthquake knocked out the plant’s electric power, halting cooling to its reactors,” as the government spokesman Yukio Edano said at a March 15 press...

Attorney for Georgia voter questions president's ballot eligibility Judge Michael Malihi: Obama failed to outline legal authority for argument to quash subpoena. An attorney for a Georgia voter questioning President Barack Obama's eligibility for the March 6 primary said the president probably won't attend a hearing on the issue Thursday, even though a subpoena compelling his appearance stands. Van R. Irion, who represents plaintiff David Welden, acknowledged Monday that Obama likely will avoid the trial-like proceeding before Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings Deputy Chief Judge Michael M. Malihi. [...] "I fully expect Mr. Jablonski to refile on behalf of...

MISUSE OF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY, CONSPIRACY, MISPRISION OF FELONY? by Sharon Rondeau Can the U.S. Department of Justice fail to prosecute federal law-breakers? (Jan. 23, 2012) — Numerous graphics, typesetting, Adobe® and scanning professionals have claimed that the long-form birth certificate image bearing the alleged details of Barack Hussein Obama II’s birth presented to the public on April 27, 2012 is a forgery. If that is the case, which federal statutes have been violated, if any, by placing the image on federal government property?How many people might have participated in the crime, and what might the penalties be? If the Hawaii...

[...] Obama will embark on a three-day trip following his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, White House press secretary Jay Carney said during a press briefing Monday. The White House has said that Obama will be in Las Vegas, Denver and Detroit this Thursday. In a surprising ruling Friday, a Georgia state administrative judge declined to quash a subpoena directing Obama to attend a hearing Thursday at the Fulton County courthouse on a challenge to strike him from the Georgia ballot this fall on claims he is not a U.S. citizen. Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi issued the...

A Georgia judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta Thursday for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen and can’t be president. Orly Taitz, the California attorney who brought the legal challenge to Obama’s name on the March Georgia presidential primary ballot, says this is what she has been working for over the last three years. “This will be 100 times bigger than Watergate,” she said Saturday morning, referring to the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974.

A judge has ordered President Barack Obama to appear in court in Atlanta for a hearing on a complaint that says Obama isn't a natural-born citizen and can't be president. It's one of many such lawsuits that have been filed across the country, so far without success. A Georgia resident made the complaint, which is intended to keep Obama's name off the state's ballot in the March presidential primary. An Obama campaign aide says any attempt to involve the president personally will fail and such complaints around the country have no merit.

The Truth About Nuclear Power: Japanese Nuclear Engineer Calls for Abolition Koide Hiroaki Introduction and translation by Sakai Yasuyuki and Norimatsu Satoko Introduction Koide Hiroaki began his career as a nuclear engineer forty years ago drawn to the promise of nuclear power. Quickly, however, he recognized the flaws in Japan’s nuclear power program and emerged as among the best informed of Japan’s nuclear power critic. His cogent public critique of the nuclear village earned him an honourable form of purgatory as a permanent assistant professor at Kyoto University. Koide would pay a price in career terms, continuing his painstaking research...

“I’ve talked to my lawyers,” President Obama said in explaining his dismissal of the argument that Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment authorizes him to raise the debt ceiling if Congress fails to act. “They are not persuaded that that is a winning argument.” But who are President Obama’s cowering lawyers, and why would the former constitutional law professor defer to their overly cautious prediction that the Supreme Court would rule against Obama if asked to adjudicate a dispute between the president and Congress? In fact, it’s far more likely that the Court would refuse to hear the case. And...

I heard a report on CBS news today in which some economics pundit that said the money supply went into the stock market instead of the real market (eg real people, housing, jobs, etc.). However, I am also aware that at least some pensions are losing medium term viability (!) due to stock market fluctuations. First, should pensions be so dependent on stock markets that they risk becoming insolvable in a few years? Second, if the money is, as CBS news claims, going to the stock markets, why aren't the pension funds enriched? Who is making the money on the...

[...] Marman was in San Francisco to attend the funeral of his best friend. Before he boarded his flight on his way back to school, three US Airways employees reportedly asked Marman to pull up his pants. What happened from there isn't clear. Police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said Marman, 20, told airline officials he didn't have to. Marman said he told officials he would as soon as he had a free hand. All we know is one thing led to another and the next thing Marman knows he's calling his mother to tell her he's on his way to jail,...

Are GM sales in the tank?? Is GM in big trouble?? I walked by a GM dealership today. A few months ago I had been checking out a Chevy Volt, and the dealership seemed a bit odd, but basically OK in appearance. Now the dealership site is a mess. Evidently the lot went from being a new Chevy-GM dealership to a generic warranty pre-owned car lot. There still is one Chevy Volt there. There are many pre-owned GM cars there along with the usual sprinkling of non GM used cars that one would normally expect. What caught my eye is...

ETF Investors: The “Pesofication” Of The U.S. Dollar (GLD, SLV, EWG, EWY, EWS, IAU, GDX, AGQ, ZSL, UUP) I’ve dubbed this the “pesofication” of the U.S. dollar. But we’re really talking here about the dollar’s long-term demise. The pesofication of the dollar represents the end of the greenback as a major world currency and figures to be one of the major long-term challenges that we U.S. investors will face. The dollar’s demise was set in motion several years ago. But the greenback’s fate was sealed in late April, when U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers had a final chance to take a...

Two high-profile attacks on hotel maids are leading to a change in security at two Manhattan hotels: The Wall Street Journal reports that according to union officials, the Pierre Hotel and the Sofitel New York will equip their room attendants with panic buttons in case they are attacked. The Journal reports the change came after a meeting with union officials: "Let everybody in the world traveling to New York know that when they stay in a hotel room, the person cleaning that room is armed with a button that they can immediately press if you're stupid enough to get inappropriate,"...

The video below of Tristane Banon talking about what it was like when Dominique Strauss-Kahn came onto her is getting posted all around the internet now that DSK has been charged with sexual assault. [...] "It ended really badly. We ended up fighting. It finished really violently." "We fought on the floor. It wasn't a case of a couple of slaps. I kicked him, he unhooked my bra, he tried to open my jeans." [...] "For my first book I had to interview people about their biggest mistake...he didn't really answer but suggested we meet again. He asked me to...

TOKYO — Given the fierce insularity of Japan’s nuclear industry, it was perhaps fitting that an outsider exposed the most serious safety cover-up in the history of Japanese nuclear power. It took place at Fukushima Daiichi, the plant that Japan has been struggling to get under control since last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

SANTA CRUZ - A judge Thursday asked Santa Cruz city attorneys to research a new issue raised by a property owner challenging the city's rental inspection ordinance. The Santa Cruz City Council passed an ordinance in September requiring owners of rental properties to register their units and eventually submit to inspection, and to pay fees for that. The law was written in part due to an agreement with UC Santa Cruz to prevent unsafe housing conditions and control student growth. Watsonville anti-tax advocate Harold Griffith sued the city days later, claiming the ordinance violates equal protection of law standards by...

Posted: SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- Political activist Harold Griffith is challenging the city's new residential rental inspection program in court. Both sides will appear before a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge Wednesday morning for a case management conference. According to the law, rental property owners would be required to register with the city – either for city inspection or self-certification. In court documents, Griffith argues the program violates equal protection rights because it doesn't require inspection for all rentals. The ordinance, which passed last fall, states there are some exceptions, including "rooms rented to single individuals in an owner-occupied...

ATHENS, Ala. — The Tennessee Valley Authority opened the doors to its Browns Ferry nuclear plant on Friday to present perhaps the most detailed case so far that American reactors of the same design and vintage as the ones damaged in Japan do not face the same risks. The agency seemed to be seeking to project a balance of confidence and openness to improvements, a challenge now faced by the entire American nuclear industry as the nation watches the Japanese struggle to contain their crisis. The containment buildings surrounding the three reactors at the Browns Ferry plant here, all of...

FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR ACCIDENT THE KEESE SCHOOL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION MURRAY E. MILES MARCH 24, 2011 I PLANT PRIMER The three other talks I have given to Keese School each took about a year to prepare. You all get to judge the effect of my having only 48 hours to prepare for this talk. You have to be very careful in an emergency phase about what to believe. I have used many written sources and some by phone to get to the stage today where I can finally put together a reasonably credible analysis. This is day 13. Some of what...

When construction firm Hazama Corp. was approached to help deal with the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, it assembled a team of seasoned, experienced civil engineers for the job. Very experienced — all seven of them were in their 50s. “We decided we didn’t want to send in young engineers,” said the leader of the seven-member Hazama team in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo. “(Because walkie-talkies were the only mode of communication available at the accident site early on,) we knew front-line engineers and workers would get cut off from people in the on-site war...