Legalectric

Gil Scott Heron died at 62, the end of a tortured and torturous life, he was one of the few speaking out, standing up…

On Gil Scott-Heron, prelude to a performance at the Dakota last year, and “Gil,” warns his road manager, Danielle Beckom, “is not good with schedules.”

From City Pages:

By Rick Mason Wednesday, Mar 24 2010

Often called the Godfather of Rap these days, Gil Scott-Heron in fact emerged as a fiercely eloquent voice from the urban wilderness in the early 1970s, mercilessly skewering political and social forces that had disenfranchised huge swaths of the population and were leading the world down a treacherous path. A writer first and an admirer of Langston Hughes, Scott-Heron eventually fused his own poetry with a potent dose of jazz laced with blues and R&B, railing against complacent media, an oblivious mainstream America, runaway consumerism, racism, venal politicians, and drug abuse. Pieces like “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” “Winter in America,” “Johannesburg,” and “Home Is Where the Hatred Is” hit like lightning bolts, both electrifying and enlightening. The rise of hip hop was clearly indebted to Scott-Heron, who has been sampled and referenced by the likes of Kanye West and Common. Silent for a decade and a half—during which he reportedly battled health, addiction, financial, and legal problems—Scott-Heron, 60, recently re-emerged with I’m New Here, a stark, riveting portrait of the artist as weathered scribe, more personally analytical than of the wayward world that once drew his searing scrutiny. In place of jazz is hard-edged post-industrial blues laced with ragged beats as he covers Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil,” Bobby Blue Bland’s “I’ll Take Care of You,” and Smog, in the title track’s tale of arid alienation. It’s like hearing a voice from the other side of the apocalypse, but unmistakably that of a survivor.

Let’s hear it for Minnesota, a state with a legislature putting a Constitutional Amendment to a vote, “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?” and also trying, but failing, to also put to a vote the stripping constitutional checks and balances from the judicial branch.  And doing it in the name of “God.”  Makes me want to puke.

Yes, folks, it’s the inflamed “gay marriage” bill that I am so disgusted with, well, more correctly, I’m so disgusted with the people promoting it, the vitriolic fear and hatred flying out of the capitol and all things political, and the promotion of this nonsense by people ignorant of what the bill even says, by people ignorant and uncaring of who it affects and how it affects them.

Let me be very clear.  I’m an attorney, licensed in the state of Minnesota, sworn to uphold the constitution, state and federal, which is no small task, and I’m struggling to do my small part.  I’m one who grew up being carted around to my mothers pretty tame churchy “social justice” meetings, soaking in the imperative of “good deeds.”  In 4th grade I quit saying the Pledge of Allegiance when I realized there wasn’t “liberty and justice for all” and vowed to work towards it; one who religiously attended and enjoyed both sessions of Mayflower’s Confirmation class and chose not to sign up when I saw the glorious theories weren’t being practiced; transferred into Central H.S. as part of the first magnet class and sounded off at the School Board meetings as they were trying to wiggle out of the NAACP suit about Minneapolis’ segregated schools (did you know the court defined “segregated” as a 30 some percent minority school, yet a 100% white school was NOT “segregated?”); was a programmer and board officer for years at KFAI Community Radio recognizing the importance, the necessity, of independent voices; and drove a million bleary-eyed miles over 12 years in a Kenworth/Peterbilt to get through school to be “where I am today,” in a career I love, fighting for human and landowner rights when faced with steamrollers of utility infrastructure and ill-conceived land-use projects, suffice it to say that I am hypersensitive about the importance of standing up.  Standing up is not optional, standing up is not a question… it’s an inherent part of our job as humans, our duty as citizens, our calling as living breathing beings on this planet to leave it better than we found it, and it’s for each of us to figure out how we do that.  The bottom line is standing up.  There is nothing worse than standing silent in the face of injustice.

Here’s a video, thanks to Carol Duff, about public perceptions, speaking out, and silence:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

There are no exceptions, here, folks. It’s ALL. Everybody, liberty and justice for all.

It’s not just “liberty and justice” for those you like, not just liberty and justice for those you agree with, not just to your select friends & relatives, not just liberty and justice for immigrants from your grandparents era, not just those who don’t make you queasy, not just liberty and justice who believe in your God, not just those who don’t challenge your belief system, but it’s liberty and justice for ALL.

ALL… liberty and justice for ALL…

Here’s the first engrossment text — where’s the “liberty and justice for all” in this?  As my mother would say… is this a Christian thing to do?

Here’s what they tried to amend it to, but failed, trying to take out the checks and balances of the judicial branch:

“Section 1. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROPOSED.
An amendment to the Minnesota Constitution is proposed to the people. If the amendment is
adopted, a section shall be added to article VI, to read:

Sec. 14. The judicial branch has no jurisdiction under this constitution to define marriage. The
legislature has the sole power to define marriage.

Sec. 2. SUBMISSION TO VOTERS.
The proposed amendment must be submitted to the people at the 2012 general election. The
question submitted must be:

“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that the judicial branch has no
jurisdiction under the Minnesota Constitution to define marriage and that only the legislature has
this power?
Yes ……………..
No ……………….

Here, linked, is where it passed in the Senate.

Here, linked, is where it passed in the House.

And on the federal side, they re-upped the “Patriot Act” also this week… sigh…

We have our work cut out for us… in Minnesota, it comes to a vote November, 2010.

The nuclear mess in Japan is just slowly getting worse, with radiation leaking out at higher levels, more radioactive water from the plant leaking out, nowhere to store what they are able to pump out, and efforts to pump water in aren’t sufficient to provide cooling.  The good news is that they are finally openly admitting that the plants will have to be “scrapped.”

Here are some updates from around the world:

Japan may have lost race to save nuclear reactor

Japan nuclear crisis: evacuees turned away from shelters

Link to photos from plant

Japan to scrap stricken nuclear reactors

Here’s a view of our own Monticello reactor, the same GE as some of the Fukushima plants:

For some technical info and photos of this type of GE reactor, check this “Virtual Nuclear Tourist” site, put together by Joseph Gunyeau (here’s some background on him) who I think is based in nearby Cannon Falls, he has been a contractor at many nuclear plants — and he says that a Fukushima page is in the works:

Monticello Page from Virtual Nuclear Tourist

The saga at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear site continues, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better, officials continue to report the situation as “grave.”

Radiation doses spread unequally - Daily Yomiuri Online

TEPCO workers not warned of radiation risk- Daily Yomiuri Online

Iodine 1,250times over limit - Daily Yomiuri Online

Radiation spikes in sea off Fukushima plant - Market Watch

Radioactivity rises in seawater near Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant - Washington Post

Japan PM calls situation at nuclear plant “grave” - Business Week

The nuclear disaster in Japan continues, new twists unfolding each day…

Japan agency says crippled nuclear plant operator missed inspections before disaster struck - STrib

In a report released March 2, nine days before the disasters, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency cited Tokyo Electric Power Co. for ignoring inspection schedules and failing to examine 33 pieces of equipment at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

And as for conditions at the Fukushima nuclear site, an update from Bloomberg News:

Cooling pools holding spent-fuel rods atop the plant’s six reactors were below 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit), the boiling point of water, Japan Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said last night in a news conference. The company said it needs to replace power components at reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4.

No. 1: The temperature outside the reactor’s pressure vessel fell to 385 degrees Celsius, as of 3 a.m. from 400 degrees as of 3 a.m. yesterday, Hikaru Kuroda, an official in Tokyo Electric’s nuclear management department, said today. The reactor was damaged on March 12 by a hydrogen explosion that destroyed the building’s walls. The reactor is rated level five in terms of threat on an international scale of 1-7.

No. 2: The temperature outside the reactor’s pressure vessel fell below 160 degrees Celsius, as of 3 a.m., Kuroda said. Workers reconnected a 1.5-kilometer (1 mile) power cable on March 19 to the unit. A March 15 explosion may have damaged the containment chamber. The reactor is rated a level-five threat.

No. 3: Smoke was seen rising from the building of the reactor at about 3:55 p.m. local time. Workers were evacuated from the building, spokesman Kaoru Yoshida said. Workers connected a power cable to the No. 3 and 4 reactors. The temperature inside the reactor dropped below 200 degrees Celsius, the Fukushima plant operator said earlier today. The Japanese Self Defense Force and firefighters have doused a total of 3,742 metric tons of water on the reactor since March 17, the government agency said in a statement. A March 14 explosion damaged the unit’s fuel cover. The reactor is rated a level-five threat.

No. 4: Japanese Self Defense Forces have sprayed a total of 255 tons of water toward the reactor building since yesterday. A fire broke out in the pond containing spent-fuel rods. The nuclear agency said March 17 there may be no water in the cooling pool. It’s rated four in terms of threat. This reactor was undergoing maintenance when the earthquake hit.

No. 5: The reactor achieved cold shutdown at 2:30 p.m. local time yesterday when the temperature fell below 100 degrees Celsius yesterday, Megumi Iwashita, Tepco spokeswoman, said. The unit was idle for maintenance before the earthquake.

No. 6: The reactor achieved cold shutdown at 7:27 p.m. when the temperature fell below 100 degrees Celsius yesterday, Iwashita said. A backup generator was fixed March 19, according to a company press release. The unit was idle for maintenance before the earthquake.

Isn’t it time for those who did the deal allowing new and increased dry cask storage at Monticello (same boiling water reactor as Fukushima’s) and Prairie Island to say NO!   From the New York Times, for those of us here in Minnesota by our own GE boiling water plant in Minnesota, info on the design of that type of plant:

Deconstructing a Controversial Design