A tale of the nuclear power programs of two countries

both from today...

the first is about that satanically-driven, axis-of-evil country, iran...

Iran injects fuel into first nuclear reactor

Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first atomic power plant on Tuesday, moving closer to the start up of a facility that leaders have touted as defying of international efforts to curtail the country's nuclear ambitions.

The Russian-built nuclear power plant in Bushehr has international approval and is supervised by the U.N.'s nuclear agency. However, the U.N. security council has slapped four rounds of sanctions against Iran over a separate track of its nuclear program — its efforts to refine uranium, which could eventually be used to create material for a weapon.

and the second is about that tango-obsessed country parked somewhere in the southern hemisphere, the one that when i tell people in the u.s. that i live here part-time, they usually try singing the first bars from the signature song in the evita movie, "don't cry for me, argentina"... ha. ha.

Argentina announces production of enriched uranium for 2011

“We are returning to Argentina a right that we should never have renounced such as managing strategic nuclear resources that had been abandoned during the 1990s,” Mrs Kirchner said in a televised speech at the Pilcaniyeu uranium enrichment plant in the Patagonian province of Rio Negro.

The enriched uranium produced at the 30,000 square metre Pilcaniyeu plant will be used as reactor fuel, the Planning Ministry said in a press release.

[...]

Argentina re-launched its civilian nuclear-power program in 2006 amid worsening shortages of natural gas used to heat homes, power industry and fuel conventional electricity generation plants. Those shortages persist, with winter time rationing of gas to industry a seasonal fixture in the country's economic calendar.

Argentina currently operates two nuclear power plants--Atucha I, built with Siemens AG (SI, SIE.XE), and Embalse, built with AECL, in the province of Cordoba. The 360MW Atucha I came online in 1974, followed by the 650MW Embalse a decade later.

Argentina has already started a $1 billion life-extension upgrade of Embalse, which supplies power to the country's northeast, including the Cuyo and Centro regions and greater Buenos Aires.

two questions... did you know argentina even HAD nuclear power plants and, two, which country do you think is going to earn u.s. condemnation for its nuclear program...?

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U.S. - they love me, they love me not

why is it that damn near every country the united states cozies up to, goes to war with, takes over, or demonizes either has vast energy and mineral resources, is a narco-state or both...?

love...

afghanistan (drugs)
brazil (energy)
canada (energy, minerals)
chile (minerals)
colombia (drugs)
iraq (energy, drugs)
kosovo (drugs)
kuwait (energy)
pakistan (energy, drugs)
peru (energy, minerals, drugs)
saudi arabia (energy)
tajikistan (energy)
united arab emirates (energy)
uzbekistan (energy)

hate...

bolivia (energy, minerals, drugs)
ecuador (energy, drugs)
iran (energy, minerals, drugs)
mexico (energy, drugs)
syria (energy, drugs)
venezuela (energy)

quite frankly, i don't know where to stick china, israel, north korea, and russia...

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The Krug-man: The more un-American the policy, the more the Republican base supports it

i have to confess, when i read about the audience erupting in loud applause and cheers when the trolls passing themselves off as republican presidential candidates came out in support of torture at the repub debate the other night, i was stunned... aren't there any REAL republicans out there...? well, i know of ONE, jim, who comments regularly on this blog, but, i mean, HELLO...!?!?! did they screen the audience at the debate to see who could demonstrate sufficient bloodlust...? was there a testosterone and steriod test at the door...? evidently paul krugman had some thoughts of his own (nyt select, subscription required)...

What we need to realize is that the infamous "Bush bubble," the administration's no-reality zone, extends a long way beyond the White House. Millions of Americans believe that patriotic torturers are keeping us safe, that there's a vast Islamic axis of evil, that victory in Iraq is just around the corner, that Bush appointees are doing a heckuva job -- and that news reports contradicting these beliefs reflect liberal media bias.

krugman may be right, but, if so, i'm going to opt for staying in denial... i choose to believe that those in the debate audience were truly NOT representative of the majority of americans who i believe are decent, compassionate, and caring individuals, individuals who hold firmly to our cherished notions of human rights, human dignity, justice, due process, and all of the rights and obligations set forth in the u.s. constitution... if bush can live in his bubble, i can live in mine...

(thanks to raw story...)

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Crankin' the propaganda handle on the axis of evil

you gotta wonder about the timing...

condi...

yeah, sure, we could talk, why not, as long as i'm going to be in the area anyway... and, oh, by the way, we still categorize your country as The Most Evil Country on the Face of the Planet...

great way to head off to a meeting, ain't it...?

The State Department has once again designated Iran as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, accusing the Islamic Republic of aiding extremists throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq.

Although the designation is not new, the release of the department's annual global survey of terrorism comes at a delicate moment — just days ahead of a possible meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iran's top diplomat.

Rice could meet Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki when they both attend a weekend conference of Iraq's neighbors aimed at boosting stability in a nation where the report says terrorist attacks, some backed by Iran, killed more than 13,000 civilians in 2006.

so, here's the ap, once again, aiding and abetting bush administration propaganda, taking information from the government as a factual given, and providing zero context about the fact that the position of iran vis a vis the united states is considerably less black and white than the bush administration would like us to believe...

also, what's truly ironic is the hypocrisy of the u.s. issuing a global survey of terrorism and judging other countries on their support or non-support of terrorism when the u.s. itself is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism by a large margin... and don't think for one second that a large chunk of the rest of the world doesn't just cluck their tongues and shake their heads when a report like this comes out...

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Today's context-free WaPo op-ed on Syria and Pelosi

it's a masterpiece of context-free journalism with a familiar theme - smear pelosi and blame the democrats...

headline...

No Results in Damascus

they go on to say...

Congressional leaders leaders who visited Damascus this month to meet Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad gave a practical test to the oft-stated theory that "engaging" his regime is more likely to produce results than the Bush administration's policy of isolating it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was particularly unstinting in her goodwill, declaring that she had come to see Mr. Assad "in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace."

[...]

Three weeks have passed, so it's fair to ask: Has there been any positive change in Syrian behavior -- any return gesture of goodwill, however slight?

after painstakingly listing all of the areas in which nothing has improved since the visit, they render their judgment...

To recount this dismal record is not to endorse President Bush's refusal to engage in high-level bilateral contacts with Mr. Assad's regime. In certain contexts it may be worth trying to talk to Syria -- for example, when negotiations are directed at particular ends, such as securing Iraq's borders, and coupled with forceful diplomatic and economic steps to raise the pressure on the dictatorship. The danger of offering "friendship" and "hope" to a ruler such as Mr. Assad is that it will be interpreted as acquiescence by the United States to the policies of dictatorship. Ms. Pelosi's courting of Mr. Assad didn't cause [imprisoned human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni] prison sentence this week -- but it certainly did not discourage it.

the bush administration's insistent labeling of syria as part of the "axis of evil," its refusal to engage in diplomatic dialog, and its attempts to isolate syria, are given only the slightest mention and "engaging" syria (the quotes are the wapo's, not mine) is smirkingly labeled as a "theory" (the quotes are mine, not the wapo's)... why in the world would bashar assad move one inch in any direction favorable to the requests presented to him by lowly members of the u.s. house of representatives when he knows the president's position has not (and probably will not) change...?

but, wait, there's more...

the only congressional name in the entire piece is, of course, nancy pelosi, who, as anyone with two brain cells knows, is a democrat, although the word "democrat" does not appear anywhere in the piece... neither does the word "republican" and neither does any mention of either the republican house member, david hobson, who traveled with pelosi or the republican house delegation, robert anderholt and frank wolf, that preceded her or the republican congressman, darrell issa, that followed her...

although only a short piece and written in the measured, articulate, oh-so-insightful manner of a major newspaper's editorial page, this is a perfect example of the kind of journalistic bullshit moyers demonstrated to such devastating effect in his documentary... it is also precisely the kind of journalistic bullshit that's destroying the american public's right to real news and informed opinion rather than government propaganda...

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What if Ethiopia wanted to buy arms from Iran rather than North Korea?

W.T.F...?

Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.

The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.

and so, what are we supposed to do when we read this...? say, oh, ok... makes perfectly good sense to me... never mind that "axis of evil" crap that's been shoved down our throats for years... i mean the bush administration has to have a little flexibility, now doesn't it...?

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