OHIO – VOTE HEIST 2012?
[ Please visit https://www.indiegogo.com/SwingState?a=190715 to support our IndieGoGo joint funding effort with FreePress.org for a video report on both vote suppression and Romney’s links to the machines counting the votes in key swing state Ohio. ]
How to Steal an Election – Let Us Count the Ways Columbus, Ohio – Here we go again. Just like 2004, only worse.
Multiple, blatant voter suppression ploys by Republican election officials that could disenfranchise millions of voters. A Romney-campaign funders’-and-family owned electronic voting machine company tabulating the vote in a key county. A last-minute Republican Sec. of State directive that could invalidate legal provisional ballots. Suspicious last-minute Republican Sec. of State issued ‘experimental’ patches for the electronic voting machines’ software. It all adds up to make possible swinging the entire crucial state of Ohio to Romney and therefore to swing the entire election. And Ohio’s a representative microcosm of attempted election theft by the Grand Old Party in other swing states.
Thank the Election Gods that the fraud-busting investigative team at FreePress.org is on the job blowing the whistle – as they have been since 2004. Now Bob Fitrakis, his partner Suzanne Patzer and Harvey Wasserman are joined by cyber-sleuth Gerry Bello.
You may remember that we have been documenting FreePress.org’s election protection efforts in a series of docs and interviews since 2004. Now we’re back in Columbus documenting their investigation of attempted election rigging 2012 in this swing state and their attempts to stop it.
The Politics of Denial
Both the corporate parties are in (what’s new?) denial about the vulnerability to massive fraud in the U.S. election system, joining forces with some ‘mainstream’ and liberal media to poo-poo the Free Press investigative reports. This time, however – unlike previous elections – some domestic news sources like Forbes and the Business Insider and some foreign news organizations are beginning to pay serious attention.
It’s Not Easy Being Green!
As in previous elections, the Green Party is a stalwart partner in the election protection efforts. Green Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and her Vice Presidential running mate Cheri Honkala are literally putting their bodies on the line for deep democracy and speaking out on the election fraud issue.
Arrested after trying to exercise their legal right as third-party candidates on 85% of the country’s ballots to participate in the public corporate parties’ rigged debate theatrics, Stein and Honkala were handcuffed and shackled to chairs for eight hours. Outrageous? Ya think?
Mounting Legal Challenges
If – as massive evidence already suggests – there is serious electoral hankie-pankie in Ohio, the Stein Campaign intends to mount a legal challenge for a total paper ballot recount. Attorney Fitrakis is intentionally running as a Green candidate for the senate in order to have legal standing.
Washington Press Conference
As we post this, we’re off to cover a Monday press conference at the Washington, DC National Press Club on this issue. Then we’ll be back in Columbus to cover Ohio election day shenanigans with the FreePress.org team. Stay tuned…
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San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is build in an earthquate and tsunami zone right next to the main north/south freeway between Los Angles and San Diego
The Dangers of Restart
Both nuclear power reactors numbers 2 and 3 at San Onofre, California have been shut downsince January 2012 because of faulty, leaking new steam generators.
Operated by Southern California Edison, the San Onofre nuclear reactors are located near earthquake faults in a tsunami zone.
Despite growing opposition by national and local organizations, the operators are pushing to restart one of the reactors without a license amendment and full evidentiary hearing before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Dan Hirsch, President of The Committee to Bridge the Gap, recently issued a report detailing the dangers to public safety that restarting the damaged nuclear reactor would pose.
This is his presentation of the Report’s findings. Part 2, with additional speakers and Q&A will follow ASAP
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California Senator Barbara Boxer quizzes the NRC on nuclear safety issues.
Boxer Shorts (Video clips, that is)
Senator Barbara Boxer of California, that is.
She’s our Senator and we’re really glad she’s paying attention to this issue. That’s why we’re posting the hearing excerpt videos below in the public interest.
Senator Boxer is chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. On Sept. 12, 2012, she chaired a meeting of her Committee with newly-appointed Chairman Allison M. Macfarlane and the full roster of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) members. The topic: ‘NRC’s Implementation and Recommendations for Enhancing Nuclear Reactor Safety in the 21st Century.’
Now, if you think that the title suggests that the underlying assumption of the proceeding was that nuclear energy production will continue forever rather than be phased out, you’re probably right.
Newly-appointed NRC Chair Allison M. Macfarlane fields questions from California Senator Barbara Boxer's Committee.
Home Alone with the Fukushima Fallout
For the growing numbers of citizens around the world who recognize that the term ‘nuclear safety’ as a tragic oxymoron, discussions like this one can seem really discouraging.
These are the folks in charge of nuclear policy. They talk of ‘waste confidence’ (another oxymoron), funding a new generation of ‘small modular reactors’ and the importance of ‘keeping the trust of the people.’ But, no mention of ongoing Fukushima fallout, not only on the west coast, but throughout the hemisphere and around the planet.
No mention of detectible radioactive contamination in milk, fish, kelp, oranges, almonds and dried prunes from California, a main supplier of food to the world. See, for example “No Place to Hide – Fukushima Fallout Findings Widespread” by Michael Collins. Here’s a small sampling of what he reports:
* USEPA detect Los Angeles beta radiation spike in early July air
* Alpha and beta air radiation increases in Santa Monica air
* High radiation in rains across America and Canada
* Hot rains in southern Brazil indicate Fukushima fallout in Southern Hemisphere at high concentrations
* California navel oranges detected with extremely high levels of Cesium 134 and Cesium 137 bought at supermarket in Japan
* California almonds, dry prunes and pistachios test high for Cesium-134 and Cesium-137
* Grass-fed Missouri beef hot with Cs-137 in 2011 before disappearing in 2012 tests
* 2012 test of same beef shows presence of likely Fukushima-originated Cesium-134, Cerium-143, Neptunium-237, Antimony-124, Cobalt-60, Silver-110m, Actinium-228, Barium-140, Strontium-91 and other radionuclides
Nary a mention of this issue in the hearing. We’re home alone on this one folks. No adults in that room. Fortunately, citizens are stepping into the breach. One example is Kimberly Roberson’s book Silence Deafening – Fukushima Fallout … A Mother’s Response which lifted the lid on the issue, and her recently-formed Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network is widening the work not being done inside the beltway.
But, hey, by her lights the good Senator is doing what she can in the current ‘nuclear renaissance’/’all energy options are on the table’ state of delusion which apparently grips Washington. And she’s got her eye on the San Onofre imbroglio. She deserves our input and support.
For viewing efficiency, we’ve segmented the public video record of the meeting into topic areas so you can zero in on the issues that interest you – except, of course, Fukushima fallout. Scroll on down…
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Impact area for proposed Diablo sonic testing - Friends of the Earth
Videos of Diablo Sonic Testing Workship
Following, for your viewing convenience, are segments of the recent workshop on the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) proposed plans to conduct seismic testing off the Diablo Canyon Nuclear plant on the California coast. Recent news reports are also included.
PG&E claims the sonic testing is necessary to map the earthquake faults on which the plant is built.
Opponents of the project say the expensive tests – for which PG&E ratepayers would be charged – are not only unnecessary, since the faults are already adequately mapped, but would kill thousands of sea creatures like whales, dolphins, seals and fish in the testing area.
In the wake of the on-going Fukushima disaster at a nuclear plant built – like Diablo Canyon – on earthquake faults in a tsunami zone, the Nuclear Free California Movement is calling for the permanent shutdown of the state’s remaining nuclear reactors at both Diablo Canyon and San Onofre. The latter, which is also built on earthquake faults in a tsumami zone, is currently shut down after two new multi-million dollar steam generators both failed.
In the workshop, held Sept. 24, 2012 by the California Department of Fish and Game PG&E, state and federal agencies and a long line of citizens presented their views on the issue.
We have downloaded and re-posted the long public meeting in 6 segments for ease of viewing and to encourage wider public awareness of this important issue. The full meeting is viewable at: https://www.cal-span.org/cgi-bin/media.pl?folder=CFG
The issue is slated to go before the State Fish and Game Commission at its Sacramento
meeting, set for Oct. 3-4 and the Coastal Commission is slated to hear the matter at its October meetings, set for Oct. 10-12 in Oceanside.
Following the video clips are links to recent news coverage of the growing public awareness, outrage and opposition to PG&E’s latest wacko caper, and what you can do to get involved. Scroll on down…
The outrage over the State Lands Commission’s decision to allow seismic testing off the Central Coast, a project that will kill whales, dolphins, fish and marine life, is mushrooming throughout California.
The decision occurs at a time when humpback and blue whales have appeared in big numbers off the California coast to feed on krill. Tourists from around the planet have descended on Monterey Bay and the Central Coast to catch a glimpse of the iconic marine mammals from shore and on whale watching vessels.
Over 40 environmental activists, fishermen and tribal members from the Central Coast and North Coast converged on the Commission meeting in Sacramento on August 20 to oppose a plan that would effectively “erase” marine life in a state marine reserve created under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative.
… Action Alert: Take action now to stop seismic testing!
Meanwhile, Joey Racano of the Ocean Outfall Group and Stop The Diablo Canyon Seismic Testing has issued an urgent action alert to stop the killing of whales and other marine life in a state marine reserve.
“The biggest obstacle the whales face is from a huge news blackout. The news writes about the whales and they write about seismic testing, but they do not report on both in the same stories,” said Racano.
Here are actions you can take, according to Racano:
1.) Visit the story in the Santa Barbara Independent at https://independent.com/…
…and post in the comments section. You will see my comment already there.
2.) Go to ‘Michaels’ art store in San Luis Obispo and get a few foam core poster boards and some markers. Make some signs. Get them ready for when the protests begin in September. The location is already chosen but not yet announced. That’s gonna be fun!
3.) This and every Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM, go to the Board of Supervisors meeting and sign up to speak during the Public Comment period (3 minutes each). The Supervisors may be brain dead, but the meeting goes out to televisions all over San Luis Obispo County! The Board of Supervisors meetings start at 9:00 a.m. in the County Government Center Board Chambers located at 1055 Monterey Street, Room D-170, San Luis Obispo.
4.) Be polite and respectful, and contact: State Senator Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, Phone: (916) 651-4015, Fax: 916-445-8081, email: senator.blakeslee [at] senate.ca.gov
Tell him seismic testing puts us all in danger by allowing PG and E to delay removal of the Nuclear Plant that is sitting on earthquake faults, and the toll on marine life is unacceptable!
5.) As anyone can see, STDCST (StopTheDiabloCanyonSeismicTesting) is growing rapidly, so keep up the great work, activists! Continue posting on the comment section of all online media and videos, youtube, newspapers, and write letters to the San Luis Obispo Tribune! E mail the Trib at:letters [at] thetribunenews.com
Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant CC Records Project, www.californiacoastline.org
Plan Approved to Find Faults Near Diablo Canyon
Environmentalists Worry 3-D Seismic Tests Will Harm Marine Mammals
Thursday, August 23, 2012
By Nick Welsh
In a showdown that pit antinuclear activists against marine-mammal supporters, the California State Lands Commission approved PG&E’s plans to begin conducting high-energy 3-d offshore seismic tests to determine the extent to which the faults offshore from the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach connect. That information, in turn, will be used to determine more precisely the seismic threat posed by a new fault line — the Shoreline Fault — discovered in 2008 about 100 meters away from the nuclear plant and whether additional safeguards are need to prevent a Fukushima-type disaster in the event of an earthquake.
Opposing PG&E at the State Lands Commission 10-hour hearing was a coalition of environmentalists concerned that the high-pressure sound guns PG&E will be blasting into the waters off its nuclear plant — 24 hours a day for 33 days — could prove damaging, if not fatal, to blue whales, fin whales, humpback whales, California sea otters, and harbor porpoises in the area. The Natural Resources Defense Council warned that the loud blasts could deafen the porpoises, which rely heavily upon their sense of hearing for their survival.
Enviro Groups Oppose Seismic Testing at Diablo Canyon
By Sara.Rubin
The nuclear power watchdog group that’s advocated for comprehensive seismic analysis at the Diablo Canyon power plant is now joining a chorus of environmental groups pushing for a delay in permits for seismic imaging.
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, along with the Sierra Club and COAST Alliance (Citizens Opposing Acoustic Seismic Testing), are urging the California Coastal Commission to deny permits to Pacific Gas & Electric for seismic testing.
Possible effects on wildlife include masking of natural sounds, behavioral disturbance, temporary or permanent hearing impairment, according to a Sept. 19 notice released by the Department of Commerce in response to PG&E’s proposal.
The area for testing, which is home to 36 reported marine mammal species, falls outside the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Hundreds of people turned out Saturday at Port San Luis to celebrate the recent sightings of humpback whales in San Luis Bay and signal their opposition to seismic studies planned offshore of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
The studies would involve shooting high-decibel sounds into the ocean to map the undersea earthquake faults near the plant. Organizers of Saturday’s demonstration said the loud sounds could significantly harm the hearing of marine mammals such as whales and possibly even cause deaths.
Having the whales swim into Port San Luis two weeks ago to feed on fish — with the whales even poking their heads out of the ocean to the delight of onlookers — dramatically showed the presence of such mammals in local waters, said Joey Racano of Los Osos, who organized the demonstration. Having the whales show up “is a game changer,” he said.
Urge Commission to Reject Seismic Testing on the Central Coast.
SurfRider.org
In the fall/winter of 2012 (during the migration season of the gray whale), Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is planning to conduct seismic testing off the Central Coast in order to map fault lines near the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. Surfrider opposes PG&E’s efforts and questions the overall value of the project—especially considering the testing will not provide new, concrete evidence, nor conclusively prove the power plant will be safe during an earthquake. Seismic testing can have devastating impacts on ocean ecosystems. Imagine a bomb exploding every 15 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks on end! Sound blasts can either harm or kill marine life.
Surfrider is also concerned about impacts to ocean users.
Plans to use an array of powerful air canons in an undersea seismic study near a Central California nuclear power plant have federal and state officials juggling concerns over marine life with public safety.
By JASON DEAREN Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Plans to use an array of powerful air canons in an undersea seismic study near a Central California nuclear power plant have federal and state officials juggling concerns over marine life with public safety.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. wants to use big air guns to emit strong sound waves into a large, near-shore area that includes parts of marine reserves to make three-dimensional maps of fault zones, some of which were discovered in 2008, near its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
But a state study, mandated by AB1632, signed into law in 2006, found the project is likely to have “unavoidable adverse effects” on marine life and the environment. Biologists, environmental groups and fishermen have opposed using the high-energy air guns, saying the blasts have potential to harm endangered whales, California sea otters and other creatures frequenting these waters.
Folks on the whale watching boat Dos Osos out of Morro Bay get up close to a humpback. Seismic testing off Diablo Canyon is being opposed by a new group of citizen activists because it could harm whales. Photo by Neil Farrell
New Group Opposes Seismic Testing
By Neil Farrell – news slocity – Tolosa Press [PDF]
A new citizen activist group has formed to fight Pacific Gas
& Electric’s plans to conduct offshore seismic testing to survey
earthquake faults for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.
The Citizens Opposing Acoustic Seismic Testing (C.O.A.S.T.) Alliance announced its formation last week in a press release. According to the group’s mission statement, “The C.O.A.S.T Alliance, a diverse coalition of individuals, associations and government and
non-government organizations is unified in the goal of ending any efforts to permit and undergo high-intensity acoustic seismic testing by PG&E in the regions surrounding the Diablo Canyon Power Plant on the Central Coast of California.”
…The issue is slated to go before the State Fish and Game Commission at its Sacramento
meeting, set for Oct. 3-4 and the Coastal Commission is slated to hear the matter at its October meetings, set for Oct. 10-12 in Oceanside. The COAST Alliance said it plans to have people at both meetings.
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Out-going Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich has authored a Cell Phone Right-to-Know Bill.
Have a Right to Know What Your Cell Phone is Doing to You? A California Court Says ‘No.’
According to the San Francisco Chronicle for September 10,
A federal appeals court blocked San Francisco on Monday from requiring cell phone dealers to tell customers the products may expose them to dangerous levels of radiation, saying the city can’t force retailers to pass along messages they dispute.
The ordinance, the first of its kind in the nation, had been scheduled to take effect last October, but has remained on hold during an industry challenge.
Cell Phone Right to Know Act
Just days before, on Aug. 6, 2012, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a democrat from Ohio, had introduced a federal bill that would put warning labels on cell phones and create a national research program to study cell phone radiation levels.
H.R. 6358, named the Cell Phone Right to Know Act, would also require the Environmental Protection Agency to update the standards for specific absorption rate, or SAR, the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a cell phone.
Wireless & Public Safety – Dennis Kucinich
In this exclusive video, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich lays out his views on electro-magnetic health impacts at the Wireless Safety Summit, Oct. 5, 2011 in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Center for Safer Wireless.
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