(A 50-year anniversary gets more than a day on the Front Page, as a reminder of who’s been fighting the good fight, even when it becomes a delaying action.)

The Vermont Natural Resource Council is celebrating its 50th year of service to the twin causes of environmental protection and sustainable living.  It could be argued that the VNRC is one of the key reasons why Vermont has come to stand head and shoulders above the rest of the country, in terms of responsible living; and deserves some of the credit for the state successfully building a green “brand” to compliment that initiative.

Theirs has often been a thankless job.  I have first-hand knowledge of this bitter truth, as the VNRC came to bat for the Northwest Citizens for Responsible Growth (for whom I serve as spokesperson) when we undertook to protect the local St. Albans environment and economy from an “unstoppable” big box Walmart development on prime agricultural soils.  

That struggle lasted ten years, against all odds; and even though we failed to prevent permitting for the global giant, in the course of our effort much important groundwork was laid for revitalization of the traditional downtown of St. Albans, and many significant precedents were negotiated that will, in the long run, mean better land-use decisions going forward.

On Saturday, September 22,  Vermonters have a chance to say “thank you” to the VNRC, by purchasing tickets in support of the organization and attending the 50th anniversary celebration at Shelburne Farms, featuring Van Jones as the keynote speaker.  

Jones is president and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for bottom-up, people-powered innovations to help fix the U.S. economy. He has a 20-year track record as a successful, innovative and award-winning social entrepreneur.

The event will feature local food and drink, music, and a number of other distinguished speakers, including Bill McKibben, John Ewing of Smart Growth Vermont, and (a personal favorite of mine) Canadian activist Maude Barlow, author of an eye-opening volume on our imperiled water supply, “Blue Gold.”  

Here, again, is the ticket link.

This event succeeds in combining many of my “favorite things.”

I’ve already mentioned the significance of the VNRC to me; and my enthusiasm for the work of Maude Barlow.

Even if you are not familiar with “Rebuild the Dream,” anyone who is a fan of “Real Time with Bill Maher” has no doubt seen Van Jones articulate the position of science on environmental issues most eloquently and persuasively on a number of occasions.

Bill McKibben needs no introduction to GMD readers.  Apart from his international reputation for climate activism through 350.org, Bill has long been known to drop into these pages from time-to-time.

John Ewing, and Smart Growth Vermont, will also be known to most in the GMD community.  Their powerful visioning on behalf of economically strong and sustainable communities for all Vermonters recently increased its impact when Smart Growth Vermont formally joined forces with the VNRC.

Vermont entrepreneur Will Raap, formerly CEO of Gardeners Supply and current advocate for “Slow Living,” and World Resources Institute founder and Vermont law school professor Gus Speth round out the roster of great speakers.

Then there is the opportunity for a fall visit to one of Vermont most beautiful locations, Shelburne Farms.

Add local food and beverages and local music and you have a venue that is worth many times the price of admission!

I have to assume that every single candidate for statewide office will consider this a premier event and be sure to join the crowd of several hundred environmentally conscious Vermonters that will be on hand and skew “most likely to vote” in the upcoming election.

Like the DJ’s used to say: “Be there or be square.”( cue echo effect)

In case you were thinking that Republican rabidity was limited to the likes of H. Brooke Paige, allow me to turn your attention to the latest eruption from “Angry Jack” Lindley, chair of the hapless and hopeless Vermont Republican Party.

In an e-mail to VTGOP supporters, Jack went all Captain Queeg over a single damaged “Brock for Governor” yard sign. I repeat: One… Yard… Sign. As reported by Paul Heintz at Seven Days, he laid blame for the dastardly deed squarely at the feet of our Governor.

“In so many ways what you see is symbolic of what is wrong in Vermont. And wrong about Governor Shumlin,” he wrote. “The arrogance of power. His ‘my way or the highway’ mentality; his arrogant refusal to listen to the ideas of others; his refusal to debate Randy Brock.”

Err, Jack, he didn’t refuse to debate Randy Brock; in fact, as you might recall, he’s already done it once. But when you’re in the throes of Republican Conspiracy Fever, you have no time for subtleties. Indeed, when Angry Jack was reached for comment, he took the accusation even further:

“I don’t know if this is something being put on by the Democrat party or what it is,” he said. “Obviously the command and control is the guy running for governor. And his staff and his reelection campaign. I’m really disappointed in them.”

I can just see it now: Peter Shumlin ordering one of his lackeys to drive out to wherever this single lawn sign was posted, and rip it down the middle. (Probably a union employee working on the taxpayer’s dime.)

The wrecking of one single sign was a masterful touch on Shumlin’s part — just enough to send Lindley into a foaming rage, but too subtle for anyone else to discern the Democratic — er I mean “Democrat” — plot.  

But wait — Jack’s not finished yet. From his e-mail:

“This is how someone chose to show their respect for Randy Brock, an African-American Vietnam veteran who earned a Bronze Star, a self-made businessman who rose from blue color [sic] roots and a man who served as Vice-Chairman of the United States Military Academy at West Point.”

Yeah, pull out all the cards. Race, yep; self-made “blue color” (ahem) businessman, yep; military veteran, yep. Oh, the perfidy of Vermont Democrats! And Angry Jack is the only one who sees through the fog of Democratic — er, “Democrat” — lies. And Angry Jack will not rest until he finds out who stole his strawberr — that is, damaged a single yard sign.

Good grief.  

The recount is done! The numbers in the Progressive Party’s gubernatorial primary have all been retabulated by Vermont’s 14 county clerks. They’ve been sent to the Washington County Clerk’s office.

So now we find out who won, right?   ……well, no.

Not until next week. Maybe Monday, and Tuesday for sure. Almost.

As you may recall, the final official tally was Party Chair Martha Abbott 371, write-in Annette Smith 370. Smith then filed for a recount. Under state law, recounts are overseen by the court system, not the Secretary of State’s office. The fourteen county clerks do the recount and send the totals to the clerk in the county where the petition was filed — Washington County. She then adds up all the totals and submits the whole thing to a judge for approval.

And now you’re dealing with courtroom time. As it happens, the judge is working in another jurisdiction today. He’ll be in on Monday, but his docket is already pretty full. So a hearing on the Prog recount is set for Tuesday morning at 9. The judge will have all the information on his desk Monday morning, and may decide to expedite the matter; but he’s more likely to wait for the scheduled hearing.

Secretary of State Jim Condos says that, in his opinion, the unofficial results could be released right now. But the court system works in mysterious ways.  

Washington County Clerk Elizabeth Battey says she can release the figures for her county, but not the other 13. Apparently some reporters are calling around the state, trying to get all 14 county totals, so while we won’t get the Last Word until next week, we might get the Penultimate Word sometime sooner.

Seven Days’ Paul Heintz reports that “Annette Smith picked up 11 votes in Rutland County and somehow lost 51 votes in Orleans County. Seems the latter discrepancy stems from a transcription error coming out of Westfield.” If true, then Smith is at a distinct disadvantage.

We can only hope that this mess could generate some momentum for election reform. “We’ll go to the Legislature and say, ‘You’ve got to help us with this,” Condos told GMD. For him, there are two major areas in need of change:

— The timing of the primary. A late-August primary puts Vermont uncomfortably close to federal deadlines meant to ensure that overseas military personnel are given every opportunity to vote. Condos would really like to see an earlier date for future primaries.

— A system that’s “still old-fashioned and human-intensive,” according to Condos. Many communities are still counting votes by hand. There’s a multi-step process for reporting election results. Errors can be made at any step. A simpler process using widely-available technology could greatly reduce the chance of an error in counting or reporting. But hey, this is Vermont, and we don’t like to change stuff.

Stay tuned.

America’s Paper*, USA TODAY*, has just conducted an overhaul of itself and its website. “Big whoop,” you might say. “The only time I read that rag is when it’s slipped under my hotel-room door.” (Sad that you can slip a newspaper under a door these days, but let’s move on.) Well, you should care because USAT* is owned by Gannett, which also owns the Burlington Freeploid and 80 other local newspapers.  And because, according to Gannett Blog, an independent online journal produced by ex-USATer Jim Hopkins, the USAT* redesign is meant to be a template for every local Gannett newspaper.

*According to a Gannett news release, the newspaper in question should always be referred to as “USA TODAY,” never “USA Today” or “USAT.” They also want “USA” and “TODAY” to appear on the same line — don’t have “USA” at the end of a line and “TODAY” at the beginning of the next. Also, you can call it a “newspaper,” but don’t call it a “paper.” I’m proud of myself; I just violated three of their four rules of Brand Management in a single paragraph.

Hopkins writes that the redesign has been marshaled by Augusta Duffey, executive creative director for Gannett. She’s a creative designer by trade, but until her recent arrival at Gannett, she’d worked at advertising agencies most of her career. Which raises some ethical hackles among professional journalists concerned about a radical reshape of the paper and its content from a purely marketing point of view. As opposed to, say, a journalistic point of view.

And Duffey, according to her LinkedIn profile, is “driving redesign of all of Gannett’s digital and print platforms, including USA Today (sic) as well as 81 local newspapers and 23 broadcast channels.”

So the shiny new Freeploid is a little box on Gannett’s hillside, as identical as possible to all the other little boxes. And made of ticky-tacky by an advertising designer.

But that’s not all. Mr. Hopkins has more glad tidings for Vermont readers.  

The revamped USAT has been referred to as the paper’s first substantial reinvention in its 30-year history. But that’s not true; the paper’s inner workings were completely overhauled two years ago. It was supposed to reposition USAT as a viable player in the new-media environment. Part of the big redo was the “newsroom of tomorrow,” that would allow the paper to do more with less (there were about 130 layoffs at the time) and position it “for our next quarter century,” bragged then-Publisher Dave Hunke.

Since then, USAT revenues have continued to plummet, and most elements of the “newsroom of tomorrow” never came into being, or existed briefly and were then aborted. As for Hunke, he was kicked upstairs earlier this year, and just “retired” at the age of 60.

And this is the kind of genius that’s in charge of Vermont’s biggest newspaper. As Hopkins puts it:

Even if you don’t care about USAT, the paper’s new website and digital offerings are likely to serve as a template and proving ground for those 100 other community newspaper and TV sites that Gannett operates from coast to coast.

…Corporate has invested enormous resources in USAT’s technology in hopes that it can leverage that across the company. Its success or failure could push all those community sites ahead, or leave them further behind.

Those “enormous resources” are being poured into Gannett’s second attempt at reinventing USAT, and not into actual journalism, at a time when Gannett’s publishing arm is hurting for money. (Gannett’s TV properties, by contrast, are raking in record profits, as Paul Heintz reports. You tell me where corporate is going to spend most of its time and effort.)

And, just to shatter whatever faith you might have in the Freeploid’s corporate overlords, they are betting heavily on the Gannett-wide Sports Media Group, which is meant to aggregate all sports news from all Gannett properties into a wonderful new multi-platform sports news network that, Hopkins says, “would challenge heavyweights ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and Yahoo Sports.” You know, the established heavyweights with a multi-year head start on Gannett, well-established reader loyalty, and loads of attractive original content. Good luck with that.

This is a bad time to be running a newspaper anywhere under any circumstances. But when you add the relentless push for profits from a corporate owner, plus that owner’s track record of failure at meeting the challenges of today’s media environment, you have to conclude that there are many dark days in our Freeploid’s future.  

Just a few thoughts about the embassy violence this week.

It appears that the reason that some Islamic extremists are mad at the United States is this stupid anti-Islam movie that some guy made. You see, based on what they've been told of the way the world works, or at least the way the world they're familiar with works, it would be impossible for some anti-Islam extremists in the United States to make such a movie unless it was supported by the United States government. It's really just inconceivable to them that the intolerance of a few extremists is not typical of everyone in the United States and our government.

In response, conservatives in the United States are arguing, as they have argued before, that the actions of the people who attacked and burned our embassies and killed our ambassador represent the actions and beliefs of all Muslims. You see, based on what they've been told of the nature of Islam, it would be impossible for some anti-American extremists to take such actions unless those actions were supported by Islam around the world. It's really just inconceivable to them that the intolerance of a few extremists is not typical of all Muslims.

Wait, what?

Our hard-drinkin’ State Auditor, Tom Salmon, CPA, CFE, ABS*, SOB**, DMW***, has put out another breathless news release announcing an expedition into the rat-infested gutters of government spending. This time, he compared — er, his staff compared — the Department of Human Services’ list of people eligible for assistance with the Social Security Administration’s list of deceased recipients.

*Alphabet Soup

** Self-explanatory

*** Dead Man Walking

Well, that sounds juicy. Probably found a boatload of literal deadbeats (sorry) collecting taxpayer funds from beyond the grave.

As you read his news release, you don’t immediately find out how much zombie teatsucking he uncovered. First, he goes through a lengthy explanation of state and federal record-keeping processes, and how his office conducted its audit.

Finally, in paragraph four, you get the money shot.

$10,600.

That’s ten thousand, six hundred dollars, spent on a total of 31 individuals listed as dead by Social Security. (“Spent on,” not necessarily “given to” — in a least two cases, money was sent to a health-care provider on behalf of a deceased patient for case-management fees.)

But wait, there’s more! According to Salmon’s own report, much of the money has already been recovered. He doesn’t say exactly how much, because it would further reduce the size of his already pathetic discovery.  

To quote Salmon’s report, “Vermont spends well over a billion dollars annually on human services programs.” It’s unclear exactly how much time his audit covers, but it refers to one case of a person who died in 2008. So it’s safe to conclude that multiple years of disbursements are included.

In which case, all I can say is: Damn fine job, Agency of Human Services! You handled billions of dollars in payments, and you only gave $10,600 to dead people. AND you got some of that money back!

That’s brilliant! It’s a record that any government agency — or private-sector business, for that matter — would be proud of.

And it explains why (1) Salmon buried the dollar figure deep in his news release, (2) he didn’t hold a news conference to trumpet the findings, and (3) the Vermont media haven’t reported his findings. At all.

I don’t know how much money ol’ Tom spent on this audit, but I bet it was a hell of a lot more than $10,600.

Oh, one other thing. The report includes a response from Doug Racine, Secretary of the Agency of Human Services. In it, Racine notes that the Social Security Administration’s death list isn’t always (ahem) the last word:

Overall, we are hesitant to rely on the SSA Deaths Master File (DMF) as an authoritative data source of deceased persons. According to the OIG*, “…there are about 1,000 cases each month in which a living individual is mistakenly included in the DMF…”

So it’s possible that some of those “dead” Vermont beneficiaries may, in fact, be alive.

I just can’t wait until this schmo clears out his office and moves on to one of those high-paying jobs he claims to have been offered. The taxpayers of Vermont will be able to breathe a sigh of relief when Tom Salmon can no longer engage in attention-seeking snipe hunts on the public dime.  

Old story: Legacy media’s finances caught in vicious circle, “new media” trying to fill the gap, but revenues (so far) don’t support a robust newsgathering effort.

But this is just sad. From Paul Heintz’ Fair Game:

Barre-Montpelier Times Argus reporter Keith Vance quit his job last month, citing low wages and the rising cost of daycare. But barely a week later, he was back on the beat, reporting for a new media source: his own hyper-local, online news organization called Voice of Montpelier.

“Financially, it made more sense for me to not work for the Times Argus anymore, stay home, watch my daughter during the day, freelance write and work for myself,” he says.

If you follow the musical-chairs game that is Vermont journalism, you know that turnover is constant. Young reporters come in, work for a few months to a couple of years, and when they’ve just about learned their beats, they move on to PR jobs in government, nonprofits, or the private sector. That’s bad enough, but to see a good young reporter decide that he can’t make ends meet on a full-time newspaper job — and that he may be financially better off taking a flyer on a website — just shows you how bad things really are.

I don’t know Keith; I like his writing, and I certainly wish him well in his new venture. This may be a good step for him, but it’s a very bad sign for the health of the news business. There’s already a substantial vacuum in coverage, and it’s going to keep getting worse unless someone figures out a way to make journalism pay in this new media environment.

Postscript: For those who don’t normally read the Comments, I urge you to read wdh3’s comment under this diary. He notes a central element of Keith’s dilemma: the cost of child care. Excellent point, and I’m glad he took the time to make it.

(I’m really getting sick of this 12th Century shit.  What year is this?  HELLO???)

A Muslim fundamentalist walks into a bar, sits down next to a Christian fundamentalist, and orders a goatsmilk.

Ryan the bartender says:  “What?”

The Christian fundamentalist says:  “Hey, you must be new around here.  They don’t have any of that goatsmilk.”

“Figures,” says the Muslim fundamentalist.  “What are you drinking?”  he asks the Christian fundamentalist.

“A Bud and a shot of JC,” answers the Christian fundamentalist.

“What’s JC?”  asks the Muslim dude.

“Well, it’s really Jack Daniels,”  replies the Christian dude.  “But I call it JC for Jesus Christ.  My body and blood.  Heh-heh.  It’s a little joke Ryan and I and some of us other Christian fundamentalists have.”

“Oh,”  says the Muslim dude,  “so you’re one of those.  I’m a Muslim fundamentalist.  Pleased to meet you.”

“Same here,”  says the Christian dude.  “Say, I’ve always wanted to meet one of you guys.  Ryan and me and the boys are planning on bombing a Planned Parenthood office.  We could use some expert advise.”

“Well,”  says the Muslim,  “I can help you there.  First, according to the secret teachings of our prophet, Mohammad, you will need a broomhandle.”

“Hey, I’ve heard of that Mohammad dude,”  says the Christian.  Didn’t know about his broomhandle stuff.  Thought we invented that.  Been using them for decades now.  They’re a lot easier to shove up your ass than a cross, I’ll tell you that.”

“Yes,”  says the Muslim.  “Our beloved Mohammad discovered this, and put it in his secret teachings.  The ones that infidel Salmon Rushdie exposed.  The broomhandle is sacred to us.  It is used for many things.  And for worship too.  And, of course, you can hollow it out and fill it with explosives and carry it right into an office or even an embassy and, as long as you attach a mop head or a broom head to it, people will think you’re just the janitor.”

“Cool,”  says the Christian.  “Hey, my name’s Mitt.  Like that Mormon guy.”

“My name’s Al,”  says the Muslim.  “For alQueda A Nal.  I would be most pleased to help you with your bombing, Mitt.  And perhaps you can help me with mine?”

“Who are you going to bomb, Al?”

“Does it matter whom we bomb, Mitt?  Does your prophet or mine really specify targets?  Are we not just driven by the divine force of the sacred broomhandle?”

“Yeah, you’re right, Al.  Okay.  Just let me finish my JC.  Then we’ll get to work.  Hey, Al, you Muslim fundamentalists are okay.  You’re just like Ryan and me.”

“Well, not quite, Mitt.  Say, I must go to the men’s room.  There’s something I need to do.”

“Right over there.  You want to take that long coat off and leave it here?  I’ll watch it for you, Al.”

“Not necessary.  The long coat, you see, is also part of Mohammad’s secret teachings.  I shall return.”

Mitt turns to Ryan the bartender:  “What a swell dude.  And Ryan, he’s one of those Muslim fundamentalists.”

“WHAT?!?”  yells Ryan.  “I don’t want any of those crazy motherfuckers in here!  Jesus!  You go tell him to get the fuck outta here, Mitt!”

“Jeez, Ryan.  Take it easy.  Them Muslim fundamentalists is just like me and you, fer Chrissake!  Get the broomhandle out of your asshole.”

“Fuck you, Mitt.  Get the broomhandle outta your own asshole!”

But, of course, children, in the secret teachings of our beloved prophets, once the sacred broomhandle is removed, as Al is doing right now…well…KA-BOOM!!!  Somebody ought to tell WalMart that their broomhandles need timers.

Praise The Lord!  Ours and Theirs.  It’s all the same.  Fucking Assholes All Of Us.  Or, as another patriarchal Holy Shit once said:  “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds!”  Nice one, Vishnu.  You’re all alike too.

Yes, ASSHOLES and BROOMHANDLES.  This is what religion makes of us.  Shit, I need some Kool-Aid.

(Oh…I might add that it’s popped into my head that Innocence Of Muslims may very well be a Right Wing/Corporate ‘planned’ event.  Mitt Romney was really fast on the draw there to come out and blame Obama before the dust had even settled in Libya.  Did you notice that?  Almost as if he had been ‘prepared in advance’ for the October Surprise EARLY.  It’s been done.  Kissinger’s evil machinations held up peace with North Vietnam in 1968, and got Nixon elected.  And we all remember what happened to Jimmy Carter in 1980.  Yeah, I think certain ‘fundamentalist’ factions in this country would say:  “Hey, we can put Obama on the spot just like Carter in ’80 if we put out a movie insulting Mohammad.  Those people are sensitive about their prophet.  They’ll go ballistic, count on it.  A lot of violence and anti-Americanism.  It’ll be just like the Hostage Crisis in ’80.  Easy.  Let’s do it.  We can raise 5 million bucks.” (where did that money come from?)  Yeah.  Coincidentally a movie comes out in September to fire-up Muslim fundamentalists and cause bloodshed.  Coincidentally, Mitt Romney is raving before we even know all the particulars about the incident in Libya.  Hmmm…I smell a very large RAT.  His name is CONSPIRACY–the Rat that eats out the heart and mind of America.  I’m afraid there’ll be more to come from OUR fundamentalists.  Another film?  A book?  It’s a clever way to monkey-wrench this coming election.  And hey, while we’re at it, let’s label those striking teachers in Chicago and all other forms of political, social and ‘economic’ protest here as aiding and abetting our enemies abroad.  Why, I think you have a PLAN there, Republicans.)

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, VT.

Cross posted from Rational Resistance. 

Over my legal career one of the cases I am most proud of involved a federal drug forfeiture case I worked on. The victims of the forfeiture were a husband and wife and their four children. The federal prosecution, facilitated by a paid informant, landed both parents in federal prison for years and tore them away from their children. Then the federal government tried to take their home.

When [the parents] were faced with both prison sentences and the loss of their Vermont home, some had very little sympathy for their efforts to keep their four children together in the only home they had ever known. Their response when asked, “But what about the children?” was “Well, they should have thought about that before they got involved with drugs.” Fighting negative public opinion, the [parents] persisted in bringing their concerns to the press and their legislators. Their efforts were instrumental in raising awareness of the plight of child victims of forfeiture, and resulted in a debate on the rights of children in such cases, as well as front-page coverage in Vermont papers and on TV, and a piece in the New York Times law section, picture and all (“When a Forfeiture Means Uprooting the Innocent,” 5/15/92).

In this article, Jessica, the . . . oldest child, then 15 said, “I haven't done anything for the past two years. I can't go on vacation because I don't want to come back and find the house boarded up. My parents should serve time for what they did, but the government shouldn't take our house. I've lived here since I was three. It's punishing us kids a lot.” (In this case, the . . . two oldest children were actually part owners of their home under the terms of a divorce settlement between Patricia and their father — a fact the government wished to ignore).

I was able to represent two of the children, obtain representation for the other two, and work with the lawyers for the two parents to save the home for the children. At the time I had not heard of any similar case in which a family home was preserved for the children, so aside from the suffering and deprivation the family had to endure during the imprisonment it was a good result, and I'm happy to say that the family is still strong.

At the time I considered, and still consider, the paid informant to be lower than whale shit, abusing the trust of people who thought he was their friend for his own benefit. I wonder if he has ever felt remorse for what he did.

There are cases, though, in which the informant is as much a victim as anyone else. A recent New Yorker has an excellent article about confidential informants in drug cases, documenting a number of cases in which people arrested for minor drug charges were forced to become undercover informants. Sometimes, as happened to three young people profiled in the article, things go badly wrong (what could go wrong when you send an unsophisticated kid into a drug buy with cash, hard drugs, and guns, right?) and the undercover informant winds up getting murdered by the people the police sent them to gather evidence from.

You should read the whole article, but the gist of it is clear. The War on Drugs depends for its very existence on the coerced use of informants, some of whom are minors; informants are involved in up to eighty percent of all drug prosecutions. The informants are sent into dangerous situations with little or no training and inadequate supervision and backup. Their efforts not only enable drug prosecutions, they also provide support for the forfeiture industry, in which local, state, and federal agencies cash in on drug prosecutions by seizing the assets of the defendants in a system of “guilty until proven innocent” cases filed not against the person but against the property itself. (The case I was involved in was officially called The United States of America v. Eleven Acres of Land, More or Less.) These forfeiture cases enable them to buy guns, fancy cars (think Don Johnson's Ferrari on Miami Vice) and other equipment. Finally, the system of mandatory minimum sentences not only imposes harsh sentences on minor offenses, increases the terrible incentive to become an informant, and includes rewards for acceptance of responsibility and cooperation with other prosecutions.

We have seen over the years that the War on Drugs has shredded our constitutional rights. It has inflicted terrible devastation on individuals, families, and communities. Now, we now see that for people unfortunate enough to be trapped into working for the government, the War on Drugs can be fatal.

Certainly there are reforms that could be introduced in the system of confidential informants and asset forfeiture, but the real problem is the War on Drugs itself. As long as we continue this pointless and futile effort we can expect that the battleground will be covered by the bodies of its casualties.

Denial continues to be the biggest obstacle to effectively addressing the continuing risks at Fukushima Daiichi.

This is the inevitable outcome when corporate interests control what amount to national security risks. TEPCO is still trying to make money…or, more correctly, not to lose so much money.

In spite of everything, the  #1 priority of the company continues to be shielding its controllers from “unnecessary” financial exposure.

This priority flies in the face of its obligation to the wronged Japanese people.

Despite the fact that the Governor of Fukushima has said in no uncertain terms that neither Fukushima Daini nor Fukushima Daiichi will ever be allowed to operate again, TEPCO is actually pushing for the remaining reactors there to be reopened!

In the wake of revelations that over 3,000 workers at the crippled Daichi facility wore lead-shielding on their dosimeters to defeat the devices’ radiation recording function, TEPCO is now said to have turned to the Yakuza to supply workers for the dangerous jobs associated with clean-up and keeping the crippled reactors barely simmering rather than boiling dry.

A league of gangsters, well accustomed to doing  dirty work for Japanese business interests,  the Yakuza would hardly be most people’s first choice as recruiters for the kind of sensitive and highly skilled labor that is necessary to avoid escalating disaster at Fukushima.

TEPCO has sent out their messengers to gather as many workers as possible, officials in Fukushima reportedly told local businesses, “Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss.”

Those hapless and unskilled workers are facing a danger of unknown proportions.  

Fairewinds Associates’ Arnie Gundersen has just returned from a visit to Japan, where he discussed with members of the Diet, lawyers and citizen activists, the status of the devastated Fuskushima facilities.   Focussing especially on the spent fuel pool in Reactor 4, which many experts agree is continuously at risk of boiling dry, he told an audience in Kyoto that the reason the US extended its evacuation zone recommendation to an 80-km radius was because of this specific risk:

“In 1997, the laboratory did a study showing that if a nuclear-fuel pool were to boil dry, it would release enough radiation to cause the permanent evacuation of those living within an 80 km radius (of the complex)…The Fukushima plant’s reactor 4 (pool) has 1,500 fuel bundles. That’s more cesium than was released into the atmosphere from all of the nuclear bombs ever exploded, (which total) more than 700 over a period of 30 years.”

It’s like a bad plot from a drive-in double feature.  All that’s missing now is Godzilla.