Tag Archives: police

Opinion, U.S.

The U.S. IS a Police State: TSA VIPR Teams could be visiting your home, new war on immigrants

Think the Transportation Security Administration is on the look out for terrorists?  Going by their track record, the TSA is actually working for Immigration, and your home town could be next.

Recently, TSA Administrator John Pistole testified in front of a U.S. Senate committee.  His testimony revealed that the TSA is not conducting searches for terrorists, but instead is helping the Border Patrol, and Immigration & Customs agencies looks for illegal immigrants, under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Not only that, but the searches, carried out by VIPR teams (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response), are seemingly random and take place anywhere in the country.  As many as 8,000 VIPR searches were conducted last year, and included train stations and public transportation systems that are not involved in international travel.

In one case, at a Georgia train station, the VIPR team set up a false luggage claim area and told Hispanic passengers they had to go through the security screening area to get their luggage.  The VIPR team then had the people pull up their shirts, including the females, and frisked them, including the breasts of the females, right in front of other passengers getting off the train.  VIPR team officials said passengers were told they did not have to be screened, but witnesses said VIPR set up the baggage claim so you had no choice.  On top of that it turns out the baggage was actually in another location.

In San Diego, California, VIPR teams went on a rampage of supposedly random searches of public transportation vehicles, looking for Hispanic teenagers.  Local media reports as many as 20 teenagers, on their way to school, were deported.  Many of those teens’ family live in San Diego, not Mexico.  Several teens immediately came back to San Diego because they have visas.

Sounds like a lot of money is being spent on something with little return for the investment.  But that’s one more issue: TSA boss John Pistole (is that last name fitting for a Police State boss, or what?) was before the Senate because he’s asking for more of your taxpayer money, for more VIPR teams.

Currently there are 25 VIPR teams conducting random searches within the United States.  The TSA wants 12 more teams.  What happened to the TSA’s job of making sure transportation was safe, as in properly maintain vehicles and trained operators?

There are reports that semi-trucks are now being pulled over by VIPR teams, and that you, in your personal car could be pulled over in the future.

Fukushima, U.S.

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Radioactive Tritium leaking from U.S. nuclear reactors

A year long study of U.S. government documents, by the Associated Press, has revealed that radioactive tritium is leaking into groundwater.

Documents show that at least 48 nuclear plants in the U.S. have, or are, leaking tritium.  Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen.  The report comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

At least 37 of those leaks exceeded government safe levels for drinking water.

It’s not just tritium that’s leaking from U.S. nuclear reactors; cesium and strontium are also leaking.

Strontium 90 was found leaking at Indian Point nuke plant north of New york City.

Cesium 137 leaked from Fort Calhoun nuke plant in Nebraska.  By the way, that reactor was just shut down because the Missouri River is flooding it.

There’s much more about the leaks from U.S. nuke plants in the AP report.  Maybe this explains the increase in cancer rates over the past decades?

Like I said before: Everyone living near nuclear reactors in the United States should make plans to get away.

Fukushima, U.S.

Government & Corporate Incompetence: U.S. Nuclear Reactors disasters waiting to happen

The Associated Press spent a year going over government documents concerning the safety of U.S. nuke plants; the conclusion is that a disaster of epic proportions is very likely.

The reason is that U.S. officials, like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, have been relaxing safety standards just so the aging nuclear reactors could be re-licensed.  In other words, what the AP found was that if today’s U.S. nuclear reactors were required to meet 1970s safety standards, most would fail.  The most common problem at the nuclear plants are leaking valves.

Recently, one Senator from Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, tried to say the U.S. nuclear industry had a record of safe operations.  However, the NRC, even with it’s relaxed safety standards, has filed more than 200 safety alerts since 2005.  In 2008 the NRC admitted that 70% of potentially dangerous situations resulted from relaxing of standards in order to get the plants re-licensed.

Another surprising find, the Associated Press noted that not a single serious investigation into the safety of nuclear plants has been officially undertaken, not even by the NRC.  It appears what government, and the nuke industry corporations have been doing, is trying to find ways to re-license reactors without meeting safety standards!

Here’s the modus operandi of U.S. government, and the corporations running the nuke plants:  Old parts fail causing accidents, or jeopardizing re-licensing.  Instead of ‘coming up to compliance’, corporations work with government agencies to ‘dumb down’ existing safety regulations.

Another revelation: Most U.S. nuclear plants were supposed to be replaced with brand new plants, once their original 40 year licenses expired.  That never happened.

What’s the motivation behind the scandal?  Billions and billions of dollars being made by providing almost 20% of the United State’s electricity, using outdated and cheaply maintained nuke plants.

There is so much more in the AP report.  Everyone living near nuclear reactors in the United States should make plans to get away.

Fukushima, U.S.

Missouri River causes “unusual event” at U.S. Nuclear Plants

The Cooper Nuclear Station, in Nebraska, is flooded.  The Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, also in Nebraska, has been shut down.

By Sunday, 19 June 2011, several levees failed along the Missouri River, causing nuke plant operators to issue a “Notification of unusual event.” A ‘notification’ is the lowest of four emergency classifications developed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Reuters reported that officials will shut down the Cooper nuclear plant if flood levels hit 13.9 meters (45.5 feet).  Other reports say the Fort Calhoun plant was shut down.  Heavy rain in the Rocky Mountains could keep the Missouri River high until August.

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Parents decontaminate Japanese school contaminated with radiation

In an obvious sign of government incompetence, parents and teachers decontaminated a local elementary school, on their own.

In Date City, about 80 people worked together to wash down a school contaminated with radiation.  The national government said the radiation levels at the school were below the official safe limits, so they felt no reason to do anything.

Parents are concerned because the radiation levels remained constant, and were found in the soil as well as on the buildings.  Tired of a government that didn’t want to respond they took matters into their own hands.  I wonder how they feel about continuing to pay their taxes?

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: No standardized airborne radiation monitoring in Japan, radiation levels higher than officially reported

After many citizens complained of faulty radiation readings by local governments, Japan is now testing for airborne radiation at one meter (3.2 feet) high, and at more than one location per city/town.

What happened was that citizens groups were conducting radiation readings on their own (you see; never trust the government).  Their readings were much worse than many official readings by local governments.  The citizens were taking readings closer to the ground.  In Tokyo, air borne radiation readings were being taken at only one location, on top of a 19 meter (62 feet) tall building.  Many cities across Japan varied their testing height from 1.5 meters to as high as 80 meters off the ground.

Today, 15 June 2011, Japan’s science ministry started taking readings at one meter high, in 100 locations across Japan.  The results are important: Already they’ve found, in several prefectures, that radiation levels, taken at one meter in height, are twice the levels taken at higher sampling sites.

Citizen groups pointed out that air borne radiation testing should be done at a height where humans activity takes place.  Looks like the People are correct.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho

The U.S. IS a Police State: Gold dealers must go through police background check and be fingerprinted

The city of Nampa, Idaho, now requires people who sell precious metals to go through new “licensing” by getting a background check and be fingerprinted by police.  They must also pay a fee for the cost of the new “licensing” procedure.

Nampa officials say the new process will help police with finding stolen property.  Police will start checking dealers for compliance on July 1.

A Boise newspaper gave this police phone number for more info: 208-468-5615

 

 

Fukushima

Strontium 90 in ground water & Pacific Ocean

For the first time, Tokyo Electric Power Company says strontium 90 is contaminating ground water, and the Pacific Ocean.

Water samples that were taken on 16 and 18 May, 2011, are positive for strontium.  Sample testing takes three weeks for results.

Three ocean inlets were tested on 16 May.  The lowest reading was 53 times safe limits.  The highest, 240 times, was taken at reactor 3 inlet.

Ground water samples were taken on 18 May.  The highest reading was 6,300 becquerels per liter near reactor 2.

Strontium 90 is created during nuclear fission. It has a half life of 29 years and causes bone cancer.

U.S.

The U.S. IS a Police State: Schools becoming temporary prisons

What’s really scarey about the following list, is that there are a lot of parents who actually agree with increased “security” measures in schools.

1: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has announced that school officials can search the cell phones and laptops of public school students if there are “reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school.”

2: It came out in court that one school district in Pennsylvania secretly recorded more than 66,000 images of students using webcams that were embedded in school-issued laptops that the students were using at home.

3: If you can believe it, a “certified TSA official” was recently brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe High School prom.

4: A few years ago a class of 3rd grade students at one Kentucky elementary school were searched by a group of teachers after $5.00 went missing.  During the search the students were actually required to remove their shoes and their socks.

5: At one public school in the Chicago area, children have been banned from bringing their lunches from home.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Students at that particular school are absolutely prohibited from bringing lunches from home.  Instead, it is mandatory that they eat the food that the school cafeteria serves.

6: The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating.

7: A teenager in suburban Dallas was recently forced to take a part time job after being ticketed for using bad language in one high school classroom.  The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.

8: It is not just high school kids that are being ticketed by police.  In Texas the crackdown extends all the way down to elementary school students.  In fact, it has been reported that Texas police gave “1,000 tickets” to elementary school kids over a recent six year period.

9: A few months ago, a 17 year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father’s lunch with her to school.  It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples.  So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this?  The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.

10: A little over a year ago, a 6 year old girl in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.

11: In early 2010, a 12 year old girl in New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. “I love my friends Abby and Faith” was what she reportedly wrote on her desk.

12: There are actually some public schools in the United States that are so paranoid that they have actually installed cameras in student bathrooms.

13: Down in Florida, students have actually been arrested by police for bringing a plastic picnic knife to school, for throwing an eraser, and for drawing a picture of a gun.

14: The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using computer software to predict crime by students and will place “potential offenders” in specific prevention and education programs.

15: A group of high school students made national headlines a while back when they revealed that they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.

16: In some U.S. schools, armed cops accompanied by police dogs actually conduct surprise raids with their guns drawn. YouTube video shows police officers aiming their guns at school children on the floor.

17: Back in 2009, one 8 year old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and underwent psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.

18: This year, 13 parents in Duncan, South Carolina were actually ticketed for cheering during a high school graduation.

Source: The American Dream

Fukushima

Radiation spreading in Japan, Evacuation Zone could be expanded

Two Japanese cities outside the current evacuation zone, now have radiation levels above safe limits.

Date and Minamisoma cities show increasing radiation levels, prompting calls for evacuation by the residents.  Government officials say they are working quickly on the possible expansion of the evacuation zone.