New Blog

I have decided to move the turtle city blog over to wordpress.com
I will subsequently be abandoning this page and no longer updating it.
The new blog can be found at turtlecity.wordpress.com

High Tritium Levels Coming from Ontario Nuclear Plants

The Issue

In June, Greenpeace released a report criticizing Canada's regulations on tritium, a radioactive isotope and by-product of many nuclear power facilities. While the report admittedly offered limited evidence for increased health effects from exposure to higher levels of tritium, it presented ample documentation in support of its claim that "Canadian regulatory limits for tritium in drinking water are some of the most lax in the world."

(pdf of the report)

Conflicting Views:

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty:
"There is no evidence the release of radioactive tritium into the Great Lakes by Ontario nuclear power plants poses a public health threat."

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission:
"Tritium levels around the province's nuclear plants are not a health hazard."

Ontario Power Generation Spokesman:
"I would say that our plant would not operate if we believed there was any safety threat."

June 2007 Greenpeace Report:
"The levels of tritium around the facilities are so high, children under four and pregnant women shouldn't live within 10 kilometres of one of them. Furthermore, anything grown within five kilometres of a nuclear generating station shouldn't be eaten."(paraphrased)

The Facts

Current Legal Limits on Tritium in Drinking Water:
▪ Canada: 7,000 Bq/L.
▪ United States: 740 Bq/L
▪ European Union: 100 Bq/L
▪ World Health Organization Guideline: 1,000 Bq/L.
(A Bq is a Becquerel, the derived unit of radioactivity.)

Whats Being Done About It

In 1994, an Ontario government panel recommended reducing the Canadian limit to 100 Bq/L, then lowering it further to 20 Bq/L over five years. In the face of a Hydro One claim that this would cost them 1 Billion Dollars to do, the government refused to institute the reforms.

Last September, the Toronto Board of Health urged the federal government to lower the amount of tritium to that recommended by the 1994 provincial panel but no changes were implemented.

According to this June 12th CBC article however, Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten has ordered the provincial advisory council on drinking water standards to look into levels of tritium in drinking water and assess whether the current federal regulations are sufficient. According to their website, the council's annual report is due in two days. If there is going to be any reform on this issue, it appears that this is going to be the source.

Feinstein Highlights Changes in DOJ Measures

In this clip from Alberto Gonzales's testimony in front of the judiciary committee on Tuesday, Senator Dianne Feinstein questions him on recent changes in US Department of Justice regulation regarding the investigation of voting crimes.

Why is this important?

Back in late April and early May i did some research into the US attorney firing scandal only to discover that the central issue had been ignored by much of the mass media. Essentially, the Bush administration has been employing the US Justice Department to step up and institutionalize as many new voter suppression laws as they can. As more draconian voting laws are instituted, the less minority voters, who typically vote democrat, turn out to the polls, leading to an increased likelihood of the next US federal election tipping in favour of the Republicans.
The government-appointed republican attorneys who refused to pursue trumped-up voter fraud prosecutions or other partisan campaigns were fired or pressured into resigning. After the Justice Department announced that the firings were done due to performance-related issues, the scandal began.

Below I have highlighted key quotes from several articles on the subject which help illustrate the way this administration has employed the Justice Department for partisan goals.

"Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election- law violations.

Through legislation and litigation, Republicans have pressed for voter-identification requirements and other rules to clamp down on what they assert is widespread fraud by ineligible voters. Starting early in the Bush administration, the Justice Department has emphasized increasing prosecutions of fraudulent voting.

Democrats counter that such fraud is rare and that GOP efforts are designed to suppress legitimate votes by minorities, the elderly and recent immigrants, who are likely to support Democratic candidates.

Ever since the contested 2000 presidential election, which ended in a Florida recount and intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, both political parties have attempted to use election law to tip close contests to their advantage."

-may 14th washington post article

"Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews."

-april 11th new york times article

"With no notice and little comment, The American Centre for Voting Rights—the only prominent nongovernmental organization claiming that voter fraud is a major problem, a problem warranting strict rules such as voter-ID laws—simply stopped appearing at government panels and conferences. Its Web domain name has suddenly expired, its reports are all gone (except where they have been preserved by its opponents), and its general counsel, Mark "Thor" Hearne, has cleansed his résumé of affiliation with the group. The group was founded just days before its representatives testified before a congressional committee hearing on election-administration issues. The group identified Democratic cities as hot spots for voter fraud, then pushed the line that 'election integrity' required making it harder for people to vote."

-may 18th slate article

"Among Republicans it is an 'article of religious faith that voter fraud is causing us to lose elections,' Masset said. He doesn't agree with that, but does believe that requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a dropoff in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 percent to the Republican vote."

-may 17th houston chronicle article

American Embassy in Iraq Built by Slave Workers

The US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing yesterday on allegations of waste, fraud and abuse at the new US embassy in Iraq. Construction of the embassy, which so far sports a $600 million price tag and is around the size of a small American town, is being overseen by a Kuwaiti Firm since according to the US State Department, no US company would meet their terms.

Most of the testimony given at the hearing accused First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting Co., the company in charge of the construction, of essentially kidnapping workers and forcing them to build the embassy under poor conditions.

Rory Mayberry, a medical technician who worked at the embassy site under a First Kuwaiti subcontract, offers his testimony below.



First Kuwaiti declined the committee's invitation to testify and are now under investigation by Alberto Gonzales's Justice Department for the allegations brought forward in the hearing.
The Inspector General of the State Department however, did show up to the hearing and was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, "Nothing came to our attention that caused us to believe that trafficking-in-persons violations" or other serious abuses "occurred at the construction workers' camp at the new embassy compound."

Gonzales Update

So after this performance on Tuesday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats are calling for an investigation of Alberto Gonzales via special prosecutor to determine whether or not he perjured himself during the testimony.
In addition, subpoenas were announced today for several Presidential aides including Karl Rove to testify in front of the senate committee. These subpoenas will undoubtedly be ignored however, falling under the same umbrella of executive privilege that has been used thus far to deny the committee much of the documents and testimony it's requested.
In an attempt to break the wall of executive privilege, a House of Representatives Panel voted yesterday to bring criminal contempt charges against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton and former White House Council Harriet Miers after both of them refused to comply with the congressional subpoenas issued to them. However, as pointed out below by the Daily Show, it is ultimately the responsibility of Alberto Gonzales to enforce the charges.

City Has No Money Update

According to an article published in yesterday's Globe and Mail, at the same time that the much-reported TTC cuts were being announced,

"...city manager Shirley Hoy asked all divisions and agencies, including the police, to find a total of $100-million in savings this year."

I don't understand why this was not reported on until now since this will likely lead to many new announcements of budget cuts in almost every area funded by the city.
And apparently it's already started; the library budget was reduced by $1.2 million yesterday leading to these changes. The police, however, have decided to join the TTC in deferring their cuts until October.

George Bush's Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup in 1933

I stumbled onto a link today that brought me to the webpage of a BBC Radio series called Document. The link brought me to what I believe is the most recent program which investigates a planned coup of the US government by George Bush's grandfather among others in 1933.

from the webpage:
Document uncovers the details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen.
The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (the owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell House, as well as Prescott Bush) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.
Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.

You can listen to the program in full here.