Sean Lennon and friends protest fracking in this highly entertaining collaboration.
(Source: youtube.com)
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I’m glad there is vigilance.
Following news reports of a possible “credible but unconfirmed” terror threat, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler has released this statement to the news media:
“As we know from the intelligence gathered from the [Osama bin Laden] raid, [al-Qaida] has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11. In this instance, it’s accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information.
“As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days. Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots underway.
“Regardless, we take all threat reporting seriously, and we have taken, and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise. We continue to ask the American people to remain vigilant as we head into the weekend.”
The Associated Press says it has been told by a “counterterrorism official” that the threat may involve New York or Washington.
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“Photographers make good images when they understand the social meaning of what they photograph.” Howard S. Becker, “Photography and Sociology,” reprinted in Doing Things Together: Selected Papers (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press) p. 247.
Celebrating NY’s Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage at Stonewall
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Start spreading the news! I’m in a New York state of mind! The State of my birth has joined the 21st century.
If the New York state Senate was going to pass same-sex marriage, it was going to do so in as aggravating and drawn-out a manner as possible. Days after the official end of the legislative session, on a Friday night, scheduled to be the last item on the agenda. But from the misery of political reporters has come a moment for New Yorkers and LGBT and Americans and their allies to celebrate, with the Senate’s 33-29 vote late in the night to legalize gay marriage in the Empire State. The way is now clear for the bill to reach the desk of Governor Cuomo, who will soon sign it into law.
Despite the feeling of inevitability that’s surrounded the issue in New York since Governor Andrew Cuomo took office and more or less promised to get it done, same-sex marriage could’ve easily failed — and frequently seemed likely to — up until the last possible moment. That last Republican vote often seemed like it’d never come. Archbishop Timothy Dolan tried to sabotage the vote with last-minute lobbying and an anti-gay marriage sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. But the good guys won, which is unusual in politics and unheard of in Albany.
It’s huge, though, isn’t it? Gay marriage in the third-most populous state in the nation, passed by the elected legislature and not through the courts. And voted for by Republicans. Plural! Just a few years ago, all of that would’ve seemed absurd or impossible. Wonderfully, it happened just in time for NYC Pride. (Maybe the state Senate Republicans planned it this way!) It ought to give Sunday’s march a celebratory air.
And Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s financial support for Republicans didn’t end up killing the chances of marriage equality (though it certainly made the process much more painful, while Cuomo gets a massive political victory. (How soon before Politico declares him a 2016 front-runner?) [emphasis added]
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Albany’s ongoing same-sex marriage deliberations have many New Yorkers on the edge of their seats. But the vote will not stop the city’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (L.B.G.T.) community from celebrating Pride on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Some 300,000 people are expected to march during the 42nd Pride parade on Sunday. Another 500,000 will be attending.
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Eric Getto, “Pride Draws Hundreds of Thousands to New York City” - WNYC Culture 6/23/11 I doubt that the significance of the possibility of the vote coinciding with Pride Week is lost on the NY GOP. One more reason for them to drag their, ahem, heels. Don’t mourn, accessorize! |
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Good news! What’s more is this shows that the problems with nukes aren’t necessarily technical: they’re organizational, and social-structural.
Sabo/NewsThe Indian Point nuclear power plant, 24 miles from Bronx, ‘should be closed,’ Gov. Cuomo says.
Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday called for shutting down the Indian Point nuclear power plant after a federal report branded it the most vulnerable to earthquakes in the nation.
“The suggestion is that of all the [104] power plants across the country, that the Indian Point power plant is most susceptible to an earthquake because Reactor No. 3 is on a fault [line],” Cuomo said as nuclear meltdown fears deepened in Japan.
“It should be closed. This plant in this proximity to the city was never a good risk.”
Cuomo, who has long opposed the plant, spoke after new data from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission show the Hudson River plant was the most vulnerable to a quake.
It also came about two weeks after a judge let the Indian Point nuke plant - just 24 miles north of the Bronx - cut back on meltdown prevention.
In its 40-year history, Indian Point has suffered radiation leaks, useless warning sirens, transformer explosions and oil spills.
Twenty million people live within 50 miles of the Westchester County plant, and many local politicians and environmentalists oppose extending its license.
On March 4, Manhattan Federal Judge Loretta Preska upheld an NRC decision to let Indian Point operator Entergy use insulation that withstands fire for only 27 minutes.
The NRC usually requires that insulation on cables that control reactor core shutdown must withstand fire for at least a full hour.
Entergy insisted that other safety and fire-supression systems can handle a plant fire. They include the five-member internal fire brigades on each shift and the nearby volunteer firefighters in the tiny hamlet of Verplanck.
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