AP Ticker has a more modest proposal:

Tokyo Electric Power Company began dumping more than 11,000 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Monday, mostly to make room in storage containers for increasing amounts of far more contaminated runoff. The water, most of it to be released over two days, contains about 100 times the legal limit of radiation, Tokyo Electric said. The more contaminated water has about 10,000 times the legal limit.
[...]
But the pumping effort is not expected to halt, or even alter, the gushing leak from a large crack in a six-foot-deep pit next to the seawater intake pipes near Reactor No. 2. The leak, discovered Saturday, has been spewing an estimated seven tons of highly radioactive water an hour directly into the ocean; attempts to plug it have so far failed.

Funny thing about those attempts to plug the leak: it’s been scrubbed from the Times page (where I read it this morning), but the Atlantic caught it: they’ve been trying to stop the leak with “sawdust, shredded newspaper and an absorbent powder”. That sounds an awful lot like BP’s “let’s plug our exploded oil well with garbage” strategery, which worked… but only to inspire comedy sketches like this one:

So now we’re on to stage two in humanity’s most recent assault on the oceans: we started by killing the Gulf, and now the executives at TEPCO are making sure the Pacific’s polluted too. Hey, who gives a fuck, right? Fish really isn’t all that good for you anyway, and swimming in the ocean is highly overrated (as is singing in the rain: remember where clouds start, friends, and consider getting a lead-lined slicker.)

Now, a group of House Republicans is launching a new stealth attack against union workers. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX) have introduced H.R. 1135, which states that it is designed to “provide information on total spending on means-tested welfare programs, to provide additional work requirements, and to provide an overall spending limit on means-tested welfare programs.”

Much of the bill is based upon verifying that those who receive food stamps benefits are meeting the federal requirements for doing so. However, one section buried deep within the bill adds a startling new requirement. The bill, if passed, would actually cut off all food stamp benefits to any family where one adult member is engaging in a strike against an employer

Sounds pretty bad.

Atrios wonders if, DUH, “It’s Almost As If This Was Part of A Grand Plan”, and links to Think Progress.

the Daily Kos takes note too:

So cut off federal food stamps for an entire family if one person in that family strikes a private corporation, company, business?

Forward – to the 19th Century. RepublicSCUMS are the most evil, wicked fuckers on the face of the earth.

Sponsors of this bill, H.R. 1135, include, GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Tim Scott (SC), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dan Burton (IN), and Louie Gohmert (TX).

Susie Madrak takes aim, and so does John walker at FDL. All of them describe this as an attack by the GOP on organized labor, by making it more difficult to strike. And how cruel the GOP is, cutting off whole families from food stamps if even one member strikes. That is just so terrible and awful of them.

The problem with all of this is that it’s not news. I know because I work at a hunger-relief organization, and part of what we do is help individuals and families sign up for food stamps (now known as SNAP). It has now been confirmed to me, by three people who work here, including our policy manager, that this has been the case dating back to about 1996. In fact, it’s in the training materials I was given when I first got hired: “Strikers: make a whole household ineligible.” That’s because of a 1988 court decision abstracted here: “THE wives and children of men who are on strike lost one of their rights on March 23rd, when the Supreme Court upheld, by five votes to three, Congress’s decision in 1981 that they could be denied food stamps.” here’s the policy as it pertains to Pennsylvania.

But furthermore, while the language is offensive, it’s largely unworkable if the idea is to kick people already receiving SNAP off the program. When you apply, there’s a requirement to report if you’re on strike. If you’re already receiving SNAP, it’s a lot harder to determine that, simply due to the fact that the welfare offices where the majority of SNAP cases are handled are overworked, understaffed, inefficient, and in general swamped. That’s the reason my employers screen applicants and do case management. County assistance has enough trouble handling their already huge workload: no one has the time (or for that matter the resources) to go through every applicant’s files to see which ones belong to unions and which unions are on strike at any given time. The only way this “policy” (and I’m using the term charitably) could work is if a striker went into the county assistance office and said “hey guys, those food stamps i’m getting? Cancel them, I’m on strike”. So if that’s the case and it’s not simply a repeat of legislation that was passed by House Democrats and Senate Republicans in 1981 and upheld in 1988, it’s ludicrous, empty posturing to make the GOP look tough to their foaming-at-the-mouth, mentally ill, right-wing retards (”cognitively challenged” is too kind a term for the thickwitted GOP base).

But this has not stopped my friends in left blogistan from acting like the hysterics on the right. Not one single poster, except for Think Progress, has amended their claims. Not one.

hey guys? I thought we were the honest, thoughtful, level-headed, reality-based community. Just because you’ve only just now heard about this policy, which I agree is an unfair thumb on the scale that makes it more difficult for people fighting for better working conditions to strike. But that’s policy for both the hated Republicans and our so-called “friends” the Democrats.

Via.

You’re going to be sick.

The fact is, Obama wanted to cut food stamps to pay for Race to the Top, aka “No Child Left Behind” with a different name:

My point is that I have been working for school reform long before I ever heard of the secretary of education, and long before I ever heard of Obama. And I’m happy to welcome them on the reform road, but I’ll be damned if I think the only road to reform lies in the head of the Secretary of Education.

We were told we have to offset every damn dime of [new teacher spending]. Well, it ain’t easy to find offsets, and with all due respect to the administration their first suggestion for offsets was to cut food stamps. Now they were careful not to make an official budget request, because they didn’t want to take the political heat for it, but that was the first trial balloon they sent down here. … Their line of argument was, well, the cost of food relative to what we thought it would be has come down, so people on food stamps are getting a pretty good deal in comparison to what we thought they were going to get. Well isn’t that nice. Some poor bastard is going to get a break for a change.

No wonder he’s signing bills at the Ronald Reagan Building: just like the man he admires, Obama also sees food for the poor as optional.

Don’t mind me of course, it’s the relentless negativity talking. I get that way when people start talking about taking food out of poor people’s mouths. Maybe I should clap harder, so the Republicans don’t win.

It’s spring in Philadelphia, and my walk to work gets more pleasant every day. On 49th Street, just a few blocks from my house, a cherry tree is in full fruit: the only sad thing is I can’t reach the damn cherries.

The same cannot be said of the mulberry trees: we have at least two within a block of the house. If you’ve never seen one, it looks like a tree covered with white or black raspberries, although the flavor is entirely different.

Instead of being tart, the mulberry is creamy and sweet, with the black mulberries having a richer flavor. I could eat them all day, and often grab a handful or two on my way home: they are at their peak when they fall off the tree when you just barely touch them.

Over at 49th and Kingsessing, on the east side of the railroad overpass, there’s a white mulberry. A block away where St. Bernard Street meets Chester avenue, there’s a smaller black mulberry. I try to get to them once a day.

The story of how the mulberry came to America is fascinating. Today the tree is considered something of a nuisance, because as the fruit drops it attracts birds and insects, who poop and swarm everywhere. But back in the 18th century, they were imported to Philadelphia (and many parts of New England) as a domestic source of silk, as the leaves are a primary source of food for the silkworm. However, for one reason or another, the attempt failed: some blame the climate, but I’ve also heard that the wrong variety of mulberry was planted. In any event, the colonists’ failure is our gain, and i’m munching mulberries til late June, when the trees are spent for the year.

I haven’t written extensively about our garden yet (kinda pre-occupied with the ongoing disasters), but so far it has been a banner year. After nearly killing off a number of tomato seedlings with a too-strong DIY insecticidal soap, everything has come back strongly. The back bed is home to a cucumber plant and pumpkins. Tomatoes that we planted in last year’s potato planters are coming in strong, as are our sunflowers. The peas are full of pods, and the tomato bed is thriving.

best of all, we got a number of “volunteers” from last year. That’s what I call those tomato and squash plants that sprung from seeds that remained in the beds from last year or ended up in the compost. Put it this way: I have so many tomato and squash seedlings that spontaneously sprouted, they might as well be weeds. I’ve saved or transplanted the strongest of each (I was worried the squash I moved into a large pot yesterday would die overnight, but this morning it was standing tall and growing). I’m anticipating that the volunteers will be some of the hardiest plants in the whole garden.

And then there are my hops, which are more than halfway up the line to the second floor, and are well on their way to becoming a green roof over the deck.

We’ve also initiated compost pile number two, which is growing rapidly, comprised mainly of lawn clippings, a little bit of horseshit, and food waster. And I planted oregano for the first time: like mint and marigolds, it’s an all-purpose bug repellent that makes a nice ground cover.
Up next, oil coated birds. You’re gonna want to puke, and you’ll wonder why no one has taken a shot at BP. You’d figure with all the angry Louisiana gun owners who make a living from the coast, that someone with a good knowledge of the swamps would be lying in wait.

That’s because the steaming pile isn’t a giant turd: it’s a heap of compost, and the steam indicates the lawn and leaf waste, along with vegetable scraps and coffee grounds I throw in every week, is beginning to cook down. In a few weeks it will be a rich, black, nutrient-filled soil amendment ready to be cultivated into my garden beds, and i couldn’t be happier (except, perhaps, with an even bigger steaming pile of filth).

Please Get A Soil Lead Reading First
I guess we can make this contrarian Saturday. One thing I really don’t understand – help me! – is the regular stream of people promoting urban agriculture. I don’t understand the point. I’ve got nothing against community gardens and the like, I understand that even urban hellhole residents might want to play in the soil a bit, but I really don’t get what the point of promoting urban agriculture more widely is.

Well, there are a number of reasons, both direct and indirect.

Gardening helps remediate and clean up all that lead in the soil, which by the way is plentiful in your standard country-agriculture too, thanks to decades of lead-based pesticide use. As the linked article makes clear however, remediating soil with lime or compost can raise the pH of your growing medium, and make lead less of a problem. One of my friends, who works at one of Philadelphia’s urban farms, tells me that if you remdiate your soil with compost ever year for three years or so, any lead is thoroughly dissipated. So that’s one reason: cleaning up and improving soil.

Another reason pertains to the whole “think globally, act locally” philosophy. Even though Philadelphia fits the description of a sustainable city due to our direct economic link to the farms of Lancaster county and beyond, it still costs money in terms of gasoline and road wear to truck meat and produce into the city. These costs are part of the price you pay at local farmers markets. Example: earlier this week, I paid $3.00 for a bag of baby greens and $2.50 for a head of red leaf lettuce. That same $5.50 pays for at least 2 packets of seeds which will grow ten times as many greens. In fact, the only reason I bought the baby greens this weekend was because mine aren’t fully grown and ready to eat. Urban farms encourage the local economy, and make our city more sustainable.

Planting crops like dill, cilantro, basil, and other herbs that bear very small flowers helps support our honeybee and beneficial insect population, all of which are under enormous pressures from chemical pesticides and pollution. Out in California, there’s worry that colony collapse disorder will literally destroy the bee-dependent almond industry: as we all should know by now, honeybee-based pollination is responsible for about two-thirds of all the food we eat, including beef (alfalfa is prime cattle feed, and wholly dependent on bees). Honeybees aren’t native to the US, and anything we can do to help them thrive and survive is a good thing. As it happens, there’s a hive somewhere on my block, and my cilantro and basil helps keep them alive, while playing a small role in ensuring biodiversity.

This brings us to the economics. A few years ago my buddy Larry let his daughters buy some baby chicks to keep as pets. Larry’s good with his hands and built a coop for the birds in the back yard. After about a year, the fluffy yellow birds had grown into full-size chickens, which lay eggs that Larry eats for breakfast. I don’t know the last time he had to buy a dozen eggs at the store. That’s a savings right there. Furthermore, the birds are pretty much self-perpetuating: chickens will eat just about anything, and don’t require a ton of care. It’s not like you pay out the nose for feed.

I’ll continue with the economics: it’s November and we just tore down our tomato plants yesterday. Even then, there was some discussion as to whether we could wring a few more fruits out of the vines. While it’s difficult to quantify exactly how many pounds of tomatoes we grew, I can tell you this much: our cabinets are stocked with quarts of tomatoes Christina canned herself. Last year, we didn’t buy a single can of whole peeled tomates ($1.79-$2.50 apiece, trucked in from someplace else, canned in a factory the doubtless genrates runoff and other pollution) all winter. All of our turnip greens are canned. So are the green beans. I don’t think we ran out until March and by that time, spring was upon us and it was almost time to start the cycle over. Currently, I’m growing broccolli and cauliflower in the backyard, two crops I eat a lot of. Thanks to my urban garden, I don’t have to buy them at the store, where the price will include a markup that covers all the trucking costs and provides for the grocery’s profit margin.

Did you know most grocery store garlic comes from China? Again, there are ramifications for global warming (all that fuel spent in shipping the stuff), as well as worries about what chemicals the Chinese are using to grow the crop. Garlic is incredibly easy to grow: plant cloves each October, harvest whole bulbs by July.

Urban agriculture also adds greenery to neighborhoods that might otherwise be blighted with vacant lots, which in Philadelphia is another word for “impromptu landfill”. Community gardens help create a sense of ownership and neighborhood cohesion among the residents. For example, my neighbors have taken over the lot next to their house, setting up about 10 raised beds as well as a work space. Earlier this month, they got their hands on a cider press, and were going through crate after crate of apples. All the little kids on the block were looking through the fence and asking to help. What better way to teach kids about the value of nature and respect for their world than through hands-on activities that end with something yummy?

Finally, there’s the whole notion of learning a skill. It wasn’t too long ago that everyone had some level of gardening and farming skills (as well as sewing and clothing repair, brewing, basic carpentry…). These days we’re almost entirely dependent on others to provide the necessities of life. If the apocalypse hit tomorrow, Christina and I would be set for a few weeks at least, and if we were able to avoid the rampaging mobs of zombies and flaming hailstone dropping from the sky, we’d have more crops going as soon as possible.

So: urban gardening helps individual households cut their dependence on corporate food and all the negative consequences that go along with that; helps build the local economy by encouraging small business and nurturing entrepreneurship; helps sustain populations of beneficial insects and encourages biodiversity; teaches adults and kids a meaningful skill; promotes responsibility and independence; and helps build community. those are just some of the reasons for promoting urban agriculture widely.

Just say no to HR 759. call Congress and tell your rep to vote NO.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: