Links of the Week

Obama's Speech on Libya
Today President Obama gave a speech on the US's involvement in the quest for freedom in Libya (transcript at link). I still have not wrapped my head around on what I think of our participation in trying to eliminate Gaddafi who is yet another of Ronald Reagan era puppets that have come to bite us on the rear along with Hussein, Osama, and pretty much every other conflict from the last 30 years. When was the last time Republicans made a major nationwide impacting decision that didn't turn out to be wrong in hindsight? Yeah I can't remember one either. The idea of the US truly fighting for freedom is a nice change of pace considering in most cases we have either been trying to force freedom on others or simply preserving the oil flow. On the other hand, we are still fighting two other Republican created wars that seem to have no real end in sight and even if Obama has an exit plan (another nice change of pace), a third front just seems to be two too many. We are committed, I hope it works but the line should stop at us providing soldiers on the ground or helping in the rebuilding effort. At this point if the "rebels" cannot take the country by convincing the military to join them, it becomes a moot point as the US simply cannot afford to take on a unified Libya. Sure we could beat them, very easily but as we already learned with Iraq and Afghanistan, defining when victory has actually occurred is a murky line that we can't seem to identify.

Most Corporations Don't Pay Taxes
Right now Republicans are continuing the argument that if we do everything we can to make rich people and corporations happy, they just might be kind enough to create jobs for the rest of us. This belief extends to profits where 2/3 of US corporations doesn’t pay taxes and in fact often get paid by tax papers for simply existing. An example, from the Daily Show, is GE which made $14.2 billion in profits and was paid $3.2 billion in tax benefits. Yet we should give up more. Sure we have been making them happy for more than 30 years with constant drops in taxes, eliminating regulations, and so much more. Rich Republicans are demanding we ignore that the average American's income has remained stagnant for 30 years while the rich has grown over 500%. Ignore that corporations are showing the largest jump in profits since 1950 and most are not only showing record profits but have a lot of cash banked. Instead they say everyone that isn't part of the top 2% should give up more. Education, labor rights, more taxes, anything and everything that can be given should be given to corporations. Heck we are even giving up our jobs so they can be done overseas but according to Republicans we are just not doing enough. Sure corporations are doing outstanding by cutting jobs and letting Republicans feed the meme but this year will be different! We just have to give up more! And come this time next year what will the Republicans be saying when the job market is about the same for the third year in a row? Yep, we have not given up enough. Just like they have been saying for the last 30 years. When will people get it, the Republican Party has only one agenda - make the rich richer, to hell with the rest.

9.0 Earthquake with Tsunami Hits Japan (Updated)

At 2:46PM Japan time (5:46AM UTC/GMC time or 12:46am EST) a 9.0 magnitude (upgraded from 8.9) earthquake struck 231 miles off the coast of north Japan. The resulting tsunami was reported to be as high as 33 feet high when they struck the coast of Japan causing extensive damage and unknown casualties. Aftershocks continue to be felt in the country as rescue efforts begin. The earthquake is the fifth largest recorded magnitude since 1900 and the largest recorded for Japan. (EDIS details on quake)

In additional at least 20 countries and Pacific islands have issued tsunami alerts. Effected countries include Russia, Indonesia, Guatemala and state of Hawaii. The time of land fall can be estimated but size of the tsunami when it hits will be unknown as no telling how much it may dissipate as it travels across the Pacific Ocean. There is even a giant whirlpool off the coast.

For Japan the crisis turns to rescue and recovery with shelter, food and water becoming an issue for people trapped by the water, mud and destruction. For the rest of the world, we hold are breath and wait to see what happens as countries in the tsunami's path are hit. Thoughts and prayers to the people of Japan.

Below are links to live coverage of this tragic disaster along with a video of the tsunami as it swept across farmland taking homes, cars and more with it a path of destruction.

Live Japan TV UStream | Live AlJazeera TV | Live BBC News

Update: The tsuanami wave has hit the various Pacific countries but the after effects continue. The wave reached as far as six miles inland near Sendai, destroying entire town in the Miyagi Prefecture. Japan's nuclear power plants are in a state of emergency as cooling systems have failed and its possible the venting of nuclear gas may be necessary to avoid a meltdown. If that wasn't enough, some of them are now reporting radiation leaks into the surrounding area. Now buildings are collapsing, on fire and people are stuck on roofs desperate for rescue. Land all along the Pacific Ocean were hit, with reports of 8 foot waves in Hawaii (causing minor damage) and retaining enough power to still be a few feet high wave rolled through San Francisco Bay. The long term problems Japan is facing are massive in proportion. We already know the Japanese people are resiliant and strong. The question isn't will they recover, just how long it will take.

If you wish to donate, the Red Cross is taking donations here or used text messaging by sending the word REDCROSS to 90999. Each text will donate $10 to the fund and will show on your next phone bill.

Here are more links to coverage, videos and more of this tragic disaster that has taken a current unknown number of lives.

Tsunami hits Sendai - 18 minutes of video as the tsnuami strikes area
Google Crisis Reponse Site - resources to get more information, including "People Finder" for those effected by disaster.
Power of the Japan Tsunami - Color code image of tsunami amplitude (in cm) for 1st 24 hours of wave propagation.
Earthquake Ripple video - Computer generation of shockwave as spreads across Pacific Ocean
Audio of Quake - "harmonic and rhythmic sounds are the sonification of seismic activity off coast of Honshu" during the quake.
Skyscapers swaying video - Bizarre to see even if part of building design to help absorb earthquake shock waves.
Eyewitness Video Collection - A bunch of videos that show the disaster as it occurred
Aerial Photos of Destruction - Large gallery that shows extent of the damage to Japan


UStream Live

Links of the Week - Union Busting

Wisconsin Senate Passes Anti-Union Law
For the last three weeks, the Wisconsin state Congress has more or less been grid locked. The reason was because of a requirement to have quorum (min. number of representatives) to pass bills involving the state budget. After a multitude of threats while constantly claiming the union busting was for fiscal reasons (despite common sense and evidence to the contrary), the Senate GOP decided to make an on the fly re-interpretation of the rules and removed all financial provisions of the bill leaving only the union busting portions and then passing it in the space of about 10 minutes. This bill has become the template of what GOP is attempting to do in almost two dozen states.

This sudden ability to pass the law despite what the law says proves what everyone already knows - the GOP is nothing but a group of liars that only care about the rich. They claims it was all about balancing the state budget (after giving $140 million to the rich in tax cuts) but out of nowhere they pass the bill as a non-budget bill. It can't be both. It either is about the budget or it is all about just busting unions while using the GOP caused state budget crisis as the excuse. The GOP has one goal and everything they do is in support of that goal, "Make the rich richer, to hell with the rest." That should have been obvious for years but Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker being tricked into revealing his desire to change history to someone pretending to be billionaire and huge GOP support David Koch.

What the GOP is doing is despicable but then again I have never heard or met a GOP supporter that didn't have wandering morals and are huge hypocrites. Need evidence? How about the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader appearing on Faux News to crow about his victory unintentionally let slipping a little truth, "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin." Basically the GOP is trying to bust the unions so that the Democrats have less money to run on elections with and possibly lead to defeat of Barack Obama. If you live in any of those states, is your state representative making decisions based on how it affects national politics really something you want them focused about? What happened to "jobs, jobs, jobs"? It’s been three months and so far it seems the GOP is focused on everything but that. Again, further proof of their real agenda. Jobs falls under "to hell with the rest" as do unions. Irony is I am not even a fan of unions as consider them currently no longer necessary but as corporations continue to have more and more say on our daily lives thanks to the GOP, it seems that belief needs to be re-evaluated.

iPad 2 Announced

Today Steve Jobs briefly returned from his medical leave to announce the next iteration of the iPad (video), simply dubbed iPad2 even though the official name remains the iPad. Overall the device once again moves the bar forward on design, continuing to make Apple's competitors look obsolete even before their attempt at a first wave of competing devices hit the market. This time last year I was not a fan of the iPad, expecting the Android and Windows based pads to not only be on the market in droves but be priced competitively and often a lot more options. That day has yet to arrive and the new thinner, fast iPad means that waiting on those devices is pointless. The iPad will hit stores starting March 11th.

The iPad 2 isn't really a technological leap forward but just a small movement much like the iPhone 4 was compared to the 3GS. But when your competition is asleep at the wheel a small move still looks gigantic by comparison. The overall internal stats are really nothing special from one version to the next. The screen is the same; the storage is the same, battery life, wi-fi and so forth. The major changes are a boost in processor speed with the A5 duel-core chip, a front and rear facing cameras, and a 33% thinner device. Considering size does matter, the thinner the better. Current rumors indicate that Apple only has 256MB RAM so that remains a bit of a bottleneck for speed. Hand-on tests (video below) show a beautiful device (that will be available in white) that is much faster in response, .2 ounces lighter, and more comfortable to hold.