Off the reservation

~ susie

Reunión con el Diputado Bunmei Ibuki, Presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de Japón.

A man of conscience, it seems. I wonder how they’ll punish him:

In the midst of the solemn, scripted memorial marking the anniversary of Japan’s 2011 triple disaster, a discordant note seemed to creep in.

A leading lawmaker used the bully pulpit at the ceremony to call for an end to nuclear power, a rare instance of apparent public dissent by a top ruling party official against the policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“It seems as if we have reaped the benefits of electricity…while letting the people of Fukushima bear the cost,” said Bunmei Ibuki, the speaker of Japan’s lower house of parliament. Mr. Ibuki made his remarks at the National Theater during Tuesday’s memorial to mark the third year since a giant earthquake off the country’s northeast coast triggered a mammoth tsunami that killed nearly 16,000 people, left over 2,500 missing and caused one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

Mr. Ibuki, a three-decade veteran lawmaker, has held four cabinet posts and once served as secretary-general of Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. His current position in the lower house placed him among the eight official speakers at the event, just after Mr. Abe and the Emperor.

Facing a floral memorial for the disaster’s victims, his back to the audience, Mr. Ibuki lamented how Japan’s admiration of science and technology “gave rise to a sense of arrogance, that humans can control nature.” He ended his brief remarks advocating an energy policy “with a view toward a nuclear phaseout in the future.”

MSNBC: The Russians are coming!

~ odd man out ~ 11 Comments
It says, "Our women would be helpless beneath the boots of Asiatic Russia.'
‘Our women would be helpless beneath the boots of the Asiatic Russians.’

Robert Parry in Consortium News:

If you were living in Crimea, would you prefer to remain part of Ukraine with its coup-installed government – with neo-Nazis running four ministries including the Ministry of Defense – or would you want to become part of Russia, which has had ties to Crimea going back to Catherine the Great in the 1700s?

Good question, and one that is rarely if ever addressed at mainstream news outlets, including MSNBC, home of reputedly progressive talking heads who seem content to repeat the same anti-Russian propaganda you can hear on other channels, including Fox News.

Last night, in typically long-winded fashion, Rachel Maddow rehashed an old report on Abkhazia and South Ossetia, tiny territories in Georgia that Russia recognized as independent states after it intervened on their behalf in a brief war with Georgia in 2008. Maddow segued to an on-air interview with NBC foreign correspondent Richard Engel, who suspects the upcoming referendum in Crimea is part of a long-range Russian plan to reclaim more territories lost when the Soviet Union imploded.

At one point, referring to Russia’s possible annexation of Crimea, Engel portentously said, “The question is, does [Vladimir] Putin stop there — does Russia stop there.” In other words, maybe Crimea is a prelude to a Russian takeover of the rest of Ukraine (the part that’s actually Ukrainian). And who knows what’s next, Richard. Maybe the rest of the freaking free world!

“What in the hell we watchin’?” my friend Swamp Rabbit said. “I thought the Cold War was over and done. This Engel guy sounds like he wants to be John Foster Dulles.”

The segment, it turned out, was called “Crimea feared as first step in Russian land grab.” Amazingly, Maddow and her guest never once addressed the fact that Russia is reacting, at least in part, to non-stop anti-Russian activity by the United States and NATO in countries that border Russia. Not one word, not even about Kosovo, the territory that broke away, with lots of help from the American military, from Russian-allied Serbia.

Maddow does a great job with domestic stories about the rights of minorities. She has helped shine a light on the dirty governing style of Chris Christie, an elected official who arguably is even more piggish than Putin.

“But why is she harping on the Russian menace, given the fact that American foreign policy is even more pernicious?” I asked Swamp Rabbit. “Sounds like she’s playing into the hands of the neocons who have pressured Barack Obama into talking like a Cold Warrior. Not that he needed much pressure.”

“Well, there’s your answer,” the rabbit said.

Really?

~ susie

Martini

They’re surprised?

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) – The findings of a recent study suggest that middle-class mothers-to-be are more likely to imbibe alcohol while pregnant than women from any other economic tier.

The UK Telegraph is reporting that college-educated, mature white women from affluent areas were the most prone to ignoring medical advise on the matter.

“Our findings suggest that women should be advised to abstain from alcohol when planning to conceive and throughout pregnancy,” researchers were quoted as saying.

Those involved in the study also asserted that their findings “highlight the need for endorsing the abstinence-only message, and further illuminate how timing of exposure is important in the association of alcohol with birth outcomes, with the first trimester being the most vulnerable period.”

What a pip

~ susie

Supreme Court Immigration

So it turns out Jan Brewer’d advisers helped write the same anti-gay legislation she just vetoed:

Before it attracted any national attention, advisers to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) offered guidance on the anti-gay legislation that she eventually vetoed at the end of February — a veto that came down even though the bill’s drafters say they made every change that the governor’s office requested.

Capitol Media Services reported Monday on the meetings that Brewer’s advisers, Michael Hunter and Joe Sciarrota, had with the Center for Arizona Policy, which drafted and pushed the bill. They began in January before the legislative session commenced; the bill was introduced Jan. 14.

CAP president Cathi Herrod told the news agency that her organization made every change Brewer’s aides asked for. One of the biggest alterations was a three-pronged test to determine if somebody’s exercise of a religious belief was covered by the proposed law.

“The intent of the meetings… was to thoroughly vet the language, address their concerns, and make changes in the language pursuant to their concerns,” Herrod said. When Brewer vetoed the bill on Feb. 26, she said it was “broadly worded and could result in unintended and negative consequences.”

Hearing today

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Chris Christie: A BRIDGE TOO FAR

This should be interesting. I couldn’t think of any legal basis for the argument, but I’m not a lawyer:

Lawyers for a state legislative panel investigating a political payback scandal say a former aide to Republican Gov. Chris Christie has shown no valid legal reasons for refusing to comply with a subpoena.

In a court filing Monday, the lawyers said former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly is not entitled to the broad exemptions she has asserted as she seeks to quash the subpoena.

“The real problem here is that Ms. Kelly does not believe there is any proper subpoena that can be issued to her,” the lawyers wrote.

The legislators want Kelly to turn over emails, text messages and other documents that involve a plot to block traffic near the George Washington Bridge for political retribution against a Democratic mayor who didn’t endorse Christie for re-election and whose town experienced the gridlock.

Kelly and Bill Stepien, Christie’s two-time campaign manager, have refused. They’re asserting their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in attempting to quash the subpoenas. They say they fear the possibility of criminal prosecution amid an ongoing federal criminal investigation.

Oral arguments are set for Tuesday.