Growing Food - Creating Food

Arugula in the greenhouse, almost ready for harvest in a tasty salad

Below - what is called a parmesan cheese dish:

Here's one way to use it - holding slivered, roasted beets and pecans, over a bed of fresh greens:

My Obama Civil Liberties Poll at The Mat-Su Democrats Caucus and Wasilla Tea Party Rally

Mat-Su Democrats Chair Gwen Heynen taking the vote for Obama

Saturday morning at 9:00 am, the Mat-Su Democrats caucused at the old Mat-Su Cinema.  I attended and participated in the general caucus on the presidential race, and in my District caucus on motions to be brought before the state convention in Fairbanks.

In the general caucus, which was hooked into a video feed from the Talkeetna caucus, I abstained on the motion of support for the president in his run for re-election.  In the District 13 caucus, I voted in favor of our resolutions and signed on as a delegate to the convention.

I polled 19 of the 78 people there, asking four questions a out the Obama administration's position or actions on four topics.

After the caucus concluded, at about 12:40, I drove over to Newcomb Park on Wasilla Lake, and polled 20 people out of the 275 attending the Tea Party tax day event there.

Tea Party Event at Wasilla Lake - April 14, 2012

Here are the results (some people did not answer every question):

1.  President Obama’s administration’s Solicitor General recently sided with plaintiffs in the Supreme Court Decision granting police authority to strip search any prisoner held, even for the smallest charge.  Do you agree?

Agree:  Democrats - 2 --- Tea Party- 0
Disagree:  Democrats - 15 --- Tea Party - 20

2.  President Obama asserts the right to be able to assassinate any American overseas for any reason his advisors see fit, without recourse to even attempt due process.  He also asserts that all information on how these decisions are made needs to be kept secret.  Do you agree?

Agree:  Democrats - 1 --- Tea Party - 0
Disagree:  Democrats - 17 --- Tea Party - 20
  
3.  President Obama has markedly expanded the use of of armed drone strikes in countries around the world.  Do you agree?

Agree:  Democrats - 4 --- Tea Party - 6
Disagree:  Democrats - 12 --- Tea Party - 12

4.  President Obama has used the Espionage Act for prosecution of more people than all previous administrations combined.  Do you approve?  

Approve:  Democrats - 0 --- Tea Party -5
Disapprove:  Democrats - 17 --- Tea Party - 13

Sid Hill - running against Rep. Don Young as an Independent

I'll post some videos I made at both events on Sunday.

Tea Party Limo

Julian Assange's "The World Tomorrow" Debuts Tuesday on RT America

Lots Of Political Action in Wasilla Saturday - I'll Be Polling

April 15th 2009, Wasilla Tea Party Tax Day Event

Saturday morning, the Mat-Su Democrats will be caucusing:

I'll be there, as a District 13 member, voting my preference.

Later in the day, in early afternoon, the Wasilla Tea Party Conservatives will have their annual Tax Day event at Newcomb Park:

I'll be there, photographing the event, and - for the third time - polling participants.

I'll be asking people at the caucus and the Tea Party event the same set of questions:

Questions for Mat-Su Democratic Party Caucus
and Wasilla CPG Tea Party Tax Rally

1.  President Obama’s administration’s Solicitor General recently sided with plaintiffs in the Supreme Court Decision granting police authority to strip search any prisoner held, even for the smallest charge.  Do you agree?
    agree
    disagree

2.  President Obama asserts the right to be able to assassinate any American overseas for any reason his advisors see fit, without recourse to even attempt due process.  He also asserts that all information on how these decisions are made needs to be kept secret.  Do you agree?
    agree
    disagree

3.  President Obama has markedly expanded the use of of armed drone strikes in countries around the world.  Do you agree?
    agree
    disagree
 
4.  President Obama has used the Espionage Act for prosecution of more people than all previous administrations combined.  Do you approve?
    approve
    disapprove

Nine Earthquakes Off Fukushima Coast Today in Four Hours. Temperature in No. 4 SFP Reaches 50 Degrees C

It is only a matter of time:

TOKYO —
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 jolted Fukushima and other parts of the Kanto region on Friday night, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The quake struck at 7:10 p.m. Its epicenter was 20 kilometers underground off Fukushima, the agency said. It registered 4 in Fukushima and northern Ibaraki, and 3 in Miyagi, Tochigi, Yamagata, Niigata, Saitama and Tokyo.

No tsunami warning was issued and there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, Fuji TV reported.

Yesterday, before the early morning quakes on the 13th, there was this report:

Though Tepco stopped the water leakage, coolant system is still not back on. At the moment, they can’t estimate when they can recover it. Also, they estimated the temperature increases at 0.5℃/h, it’s increasing at over 1℃/h. It went up by 22℃ within 18 hours. Currently the temperature of SFP is 55℃.(10:00 JST) The safety limit is 65℃. At this pace, it will reach 65℃ about in 10 hours.
About the information disclosure, it is tweeted like these below

４号機プールに関し経産省からの新たな情報。福一担当者たちがさぼっている のではなく、彼らはミサイル情報集約担当でもあって、今そちらの仕事をしているそうです。つまりミサイル騒ぎの間は、原発は放っておかれるらしい。こんな ことで大丈夫？ — 谷岡郁子 (@kunivoice) April 13, 2012

(Tweet of Ms. Tanioka, a member of the House of Councilors from The Democratic Party of Japan)
New information about SFP of reactor 4 from METI. The staff of METI is not being lazy, they are occupied to collect information about missile of North Korea.

フクイチ４号機の現状；４月１３日午前９時２５分に東京電力お客様相談室の 佐藤さんに電話で伺いました。１２日１５時５５分に冷却水の漏洩はとまり、１６時５１分にヒドラジンの漏洩も止まったが、現在、人も入って原因究明中で、 電源は回復していない。本日の記者会見は１８：００時からの予定。 — 木下泰之 (世田谷区議会議員) (@kinoshita_kugi) April 13, 2012

(Mr. Kinoshita  Setagaya ward councilor)
The current situation of reactor 4. Today I called the customer center of Tepco at 9:25 4/13. The water leakage was stopped at 15:55  4/12, hydrazine leakage was stopped at 16:51 as well.However, now they are still investigating what caused it, coolant system is not recovered yet. Today’s press conference will be from 18:00.

The Likelihood of Fukushima #3 Spent Fuel Pool Fire in Next Two Years - Almost 100%

Part One:


Part Two:

State Rep. Sharon Cissna to Run Against U.S. Rep. Don Young

Alaska Rep. Sharon Cissna - image by Steve Aufrecht

According to Anchorage blogger, Steve Aufrecht, who is in Juneau, covering the end of the 2012 Alaska Legislature for his blog, What Do I Know?:

After the House adjourned until tomorrow, I had lunch where I heard that Sharon Cissna had announced plans to run for Congress against Don Young.  So I went to her office to confirm that.   It was true and her concerns with TSA will be a big part of that.

 According to KTUU TV News:

JUNEAU, Alaska—

State Rep. Sharon Cissna, who made national headlines last year for refusing an airport security pat-down, plans to run for Alaska's lone U.S. House seat.

Sharon Cissna says she's not running against anyone but running to advance ideas. She says she wants to take her fight against the Transportation Security Administration to Washington and also advocate for more economic opportunities.

The 70-year-old Democrat has a tough road, not only in challenging Rep. Don Young, who is seeking his 21st term, but also in campaigning.

She has shunned air travel when she must go through TSA checkpoints. But she says she and her husband plan to travel the state using a car, motor home, the ferry system and even a canoe. Small planes are also an option.

Why Do Alaskans Remain Blasé About Increasing Evidence of Fukushima Contamination of the Oceans and Ocean Life?

I was writing about the dangers many kinds of pollution pose to our oceans long before the March 2011 earthquakes in Japan led to the destruction of the Fukushima reactor complex and resultant and ongoing radiation disbursal.  Ocean acidification, oil development pollution, runoff from fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals, fecal pollution and strange new bacterias and other growths caused by global warming were already facing us before the reactor collapses.

The Alaska press - print, electronic print, audio and video - has mostly rubber-stamped government disseminated information.  The skimpiness of government information, and spottiness of North Pacific resting seems to have eluded concern by our media.  The most recent example here of lock-step writing on the subject came last week from Alexandra Gutierrez, writing for KUCB in Unalaska:

When the Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered a blowout a year ago, radioactive contamination of the Pacific Ocean was a major concern. People wanted to be sure that the marine ecosystem remained healthy and that the seafood they ate was safe.

To confirm that was the case, an international team of researchers took water samples as far as 400 miles out from the meltdown and tested them for radioactive isotopes. They published their research this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and what they saw was mostly what they expected: Areas near Japan and in the line of strong currents experienced higher levels of radiation than usual, but the effect on marine life was minimal beyond Japan’s coast line.

"We’re not seeing the strange Godzillas or three-headed fish. The effects are going to be very subtle," says Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the lead author of the study.

He adds that the Fukushima meltdown didn’t affect the health of most commercial fisheries, including stocks in Alaska waters, because the radioactive materials get so diluted.

"Fortunately, in some ways, this material in the ocean mixes quickly away and gets to lower concentrations. Certainly what we saw was many times – thousands of times – lower than what we might expect with regard to direct threats to marine biota or humans," says Buesseler.

While the water that the team sampled was safe enough to sustain marine life and even drink, researchers say there might still be some “hotspots” where radioactive isotopes have accumulated that could harm nearby marine life.

The research cruise was conducted in June of last year, and it lasted more than two weeks.

Gutierrez' article is based on information almost a year old:

The research cruise was conducted in June of last year, and it lasted more than two weeks.

A two-week investigation of a very small patch of ocean in the middle of last year.  Unfortunately, Gutierrez' incuriosity is emblematic of the Alaska press.  No article I've read, written in Alaska recently, mentions that reactors are still melting down, that massive amounts of water are being continually poured upon the nuclear time bombs there, and that the water is leaking out - into the soil, the water table and the ocean.

If this is happening in California, it is pretty certain something similar is occurring somewhere in Alaska.  Right now:

Rep. Carl Gatto Passes

Rep. Carl Gatto - Memorial Day 2009 - Wasilla Tea Party event. image by Philip Munger

I first met Carl Gatto back in the late 1970s when he was a paramedic with the fairly new MOA Fire Department (after the consolidation of Anchorage Borough and City emergency services in 1975), and I was chief of the Whittier Volunteer Fire Department.  Along with my longtime friend and Anchorage firefighter, Gary Young (who was killed in a car crash on the Seward Highway in December 1984), Gatto helped police chief Jerry Lewis, assistant fire chief Fred Joiner and me set up training sessions and materials for our fledgeling Whittier volunteers and EMTs.  Carl was very helpful, as we tried to get our emergency services in Whittier obtain some sort of viability.

After I spoke with Gatto at Young's memorial service in Anchorage in late 1984, I lost track of him until both our sons played on the same recreational basketball team in 2001 (coached by now Alaska Senator Charlie Huggins).  Soon afterward, Carl was knocking on our door, campaigning for the Alaska House in what has been District 13.

I subscribed to Carl's newsletter, as he was my state representative.  I attended a couple of his "Coffee with Carl" sessions when he was home on break from the Juneau session.  The last major public service Carl provided that was beneficial to a lot of District 13 constituents was his series of notices on when we could go collect free firewood at the site of the ongoing Hatcher Pass Expressway (my term for the Trunk Road rebuild project).

The last time I spoke with Carl in person (as opposed to over the phone) was at the 2011 Memorial Day ceremony at the Mat-Su Valley Veterans Wall of Honor.  Carl came over to shake my hand.  I was in a foul mood, and lambasted him over the sheer stupidity and waste of time of his House Bill 88, the "anti-Sharia Law " bill he was trying to shepherd through the legislature.   I suppose I would have had more contact with him this session had the bill been going anywhere, but it seems to be as dead as Carl now is.  May they both rest in peace.

There will probably be some sort of memorial address regarding Carl Gatto at Saturday's annual Tea Party Patriots group Tax Day event, as Carl was very supportive of the goals of this conservative bunch.  It will be held this upcoming Saturday at Newcomb Park on Wasilla Lake, between 1:00 and 3:30 pm:

Jill Burke has posted a thoughtful remembrance of Rep. Carl Gatto at The Alaska Dispatch.

Seymour Hersh This Morning on Democracy Now: Training Terrorists in Nevada: U.S. Aid to Iranian Group Tied to Scientist Killings