Sure, just tell it to the jury

~ susie

Chuck Schumer

Chuck Schumer was on This Week, blathering on about how Edward Snowden should just come home and “tell his story to a jury.” But Chuck is either stupid, or lying. From the Freedom of the Press Foundation:

In reality, none of that information would be heard by a jury, if prior Espionage Act cases against leakers are any guide. Judges have ruled evidence of showing intent to inform the public, benefits of the leaks, and lack of damage to national security is inadmissible. We made this point just two weeks ago, but it seems worth repeating since it seems as though members of Congress opining on Snowden’s legal options do not know how the law works. Here are how four of the most recent Espionage Act leak cases have turned out:

  • John Kiriakou, the former CIA officer who was the first to go on-the-record with the media about waterboarding, pled guilty in his Espionage Act case last year partially because a judge ruled he couldn’t tell the jury about his lack of intent to harm the United States.
  • In the ongoing leak trial of former State Department official Stephen Kim, the judge recently ruled that the prosecution “need not show that the information he allegedly leaked could damage U.S. national security or benefit a foreign power, even potentially.” (emphasis added)
  • In the Espionage Act case against NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake (which later fell apart), the government filed two separate motions to make sure the words “whistleblowing” or “overclassification” would never be uttered at trial.
  • In Chelsea Manning’s trial this summer, Manning’s defense wanted to argue she intended to inform the public, that the military was afflicted with a deep and unnecessary addiction to overclassification, and that the government’s own internal assessments showed she caused no real damage to U.S. interests. All this information was ruled inadmissible until sentencing. Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years in jail—longer than most actual spies under the Espionage Act.

At this point, it’s time for the media to start pushing back on government officials suggesting Snowden should tell his story to a jury, when caselaw says he would be barred from doing so. The New York Times is aware of this fact, as they mentioned it in another article published Sunday about the chances of Snowden receiving clemency. But in their story about Schumer’s comments, they let his false statement go uncorrected.

It’s also time for Congress to start debating the merits of using the Espionage Act on the sources of journalists. If Sen. Schumer thinks that Snowden should be able to tell all of the above information to a jury, we look forward to his amicus brief in a potential Snowden trial aruging that a whistleblower defense should be admissible. In the mean time, he and other members of Congress concerned about whistleblowers getting a fair trial should push for reform or repeal of the Espionage Act.

H/t Attorney Karin Riley Porter.

It’s really nuts

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

08003051

That a drug that is so clearly beneficial can’t even be legally researched for its potential uses:

An increasing number of researchers, scientists and therapists who recognize MDMA’s beneficial use are pushing to medicalize it, seeing it as a viable option for those suffering from PTSD. Yet the military is slow to catch on due to MDMA’s decades-old stigma as an illicit substance. (The only place MDMA is mentioned on the US Department of Veterans Affair’s website is under substance abuse for veterans with HIV.) Macie, among others, is pressing for the military to overcome its institutional fear of MDMA and opt for a drug policy that helps heal its veterans.

Emotional Reaction

While MDMA is widely associated with the global electronic dance subculture that swept the ’80s and ’90s, and the image of blissed-out ravers waving glow sticks, the drug has a longer history. Before MDMA was classified as a Schedule I controlled substance in 1985, it gained traction in therapy circles for what psychiatrists and psychotherapists saw as its most salient effect—not euphoria, but empathy.

“MDMA induces powerful empathetic states and in a therapeutic context, this is a strong, positive predictor of a therapeutic outcome,” said Charles Grob, director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Grob, a longtime researcher of hallucinogenic drugs, received the first FDA approval to conduct MDMA research in 1992.

Grob’s research was sponsored by Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, the world’s only organization funding clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. MAPS is undertaking an ambitious eight-year, $18.5 million plan to make MDMA into an FDA-approved prescription medicine by 2021.

“What MDMA seems to do is decrease fear and defensiveness, which helps sufferers connect with their feelings without being overwhelmed,” said Michael Mithoefer, a psychiatrist practicing in Charleston who specializes in PTSD. MAPS also funded Mithoefer’s trial.

We’re still playing games with global warming

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Cold in New York

Wildfires during California’s “rainy” reason. Arctic cold through most of the country. Warm weather and no snow in Siberia. Why is everybody sitting around, waiting for someone else to do something?

A new study published in Nature suggests that climate change is even worse than scientists had previously anticipated, upgrading the forecast from “dangerous” to “catastrophic.” According to the study’s authors, temperatures are currently snared in an upward spiral: As earth gets hotter, the heat prevents sunlight-reflecting clouds from forming, trapping more heat and further exacerbating the problem. The result could be a temperature climb of 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

The alarming report follows yet another confirmation, this time by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that humans are almost indubitably the drivers of climate change. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed concern, stating that “if this isn’t an alarm bell, then I don’t know what one is. If ever there were an issue that demanded greater cooperation, partnership, and committed diplomacy, this is it.”

But the unnerving escalaton in climate change is unlikely to be abated without significant U.S. support—and for the time being, the Republican Party insists on stonewalling any efforts to offset the human-caused warming process. Given that the U.S. is the second biggest contributor to climate change, its participation in any international resolution is absolutely vital. Yet with one major political party blocking such support, the odds seem increasingly likely that 2100 will, indeed, bring with it a “catastrophic” increase of global heat.

H/t Edward Tayter.

Fukushima fixes: duct tape and wire net

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

IAEA Experts (02813603)

I’m surprised it wasn’t bubble gum and string!

As TEPCO began preparations for the cleaning of the drainage system with tons of leaked radioactive water at the Fukushima power plant,a former employee reveals the reason for so many leaks was cost cutting measures such as using duct tape,Asahi reported.

Yoshitatsu Uechi, auto mechanic and tour-bus driver, worked at the devastated nuclear power plant between July 2 and Dec. 6, 2012, according to Asahi Shimbun report. He was one of the 17 workers from Okinawa Prefecture sent to work at the crippled nuclear plant in 2012 to create new places to store contaminated water.

The earthquake in March 2011 triggered a tsunami that hit Japan’s coast, damaging the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The catastrophe caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the facility, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

The water used to cool the reactors has been leaking into the soil and contaminating the ground water on the premises of the nuclear facility, with some escaping into the Pacific Ocean.

The 48 year old Japanese man said that workers were sent to various places in Fukushima, including an area called H3 with high radiation levels.

In one of those cases in October 2012, Uechi was given a task to cover five or six storage tanks without lids in the “E” area close to H3 as it was raining, the Japanese paper reported. When he climbed to the top of the 10-meter-high tank Uechi found white adhesive tape covering an opening of about 30 centimeters. After using a blade to remove the tape he applied a sealing agent on the opening and fit a steel lid fastening it with bolts. According to instructions he was to use four bolts, though the lid had eight bolt holes.

According to the employee, his colleagues later told him that the use of adhesive tape was a usual practice to deal with the problem of sealing in radioactive water.

“I couldn’t believe that such slipshod work was being done, even if it was part of stopgap measures,” Uechi told The Asahi Shimbun.

Among other makeshift cost-cutting measures was the use of second-hand materials. Uechi also said that wire nets were used instead of reinforcing bars during the placement of concrete for storage tank foundations. In addition, waterproof sheets were applied along the joints inside flange-type cylindrical tanks to save on the sealing agent used to join metal sheets of the storage tanks. Rain and snow had washed away the anti-corrosive agent applied around clamping bolts, reducing the sealing effect, Uechi added. According to the Fukushima worker, many of the tanks were later found to be leaking contaminated water.

Tiny homes for the homeless

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Interior painting

Back in the 60s and 70s, it was all the rage to knock down or rehabilitate SROs (single-room occupancy hotels), but like most redevelopment projects, it merely displaced people who couldn’t afford a real place to live. This is something that makes more sense, but with the current economy, I don’t know how they could possibly build enough of them to deal with the number of now-homeless people:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Madison officials are working to get the city more housing for the homeless.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1gyZyQO ) Occupy Madison Inc. hopes to buy a parcel of land so it can build “tiny houses” for the homeless and then park eight to 10 of the houses there.

The 98-square-foot houses have a roof, insulated walls, a compost toilet and sink and are on wheels. Currently, a tiny house parked on a Madison street must be moved every day or two.

The city’s Community Development Authority, meanwhile, is assembling a site for a housing project with 50 to 60 efficiency units and case management services for homeless residents.

Local aldermen have expressed concern about both sites, but details of both proposals are still being worked out.

State of Conflict

~ susie

Since this Bill Moyers episode about the buying of North Carolina by wingnut Art Pope was not shown on regular TV, I figured I should run it here. I’d also like to point out that what happened here is likely to happen in any state where a wealthy person decides to pull it off, so even if you’re not from North Carolina, you should watch it anyway: