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Senator Cantwell of Washington Pleads for Sanity---Please Listen
Published on June 2, 2004 By 6969jimbo6969 In Current Events
I've written briefly here already about the megatonnage madness that has been abrewing at the Savannah River Site H-bomb factory these last fifty years. The history and political economy of this matter is the subject of a primary series of posts that I have begun to create. In some sense, no other subject is of higher import than this one---climate change, war in general, genetically modifying ourselves out of existence, dozens of possible pathways to destruction are possible to imagine. None of them, however, are of a higher order of magnitude than this question of plutonium and plutocracy versus popular democracy.

An aspect of this unfolding now is the satanic poison we have visited on a crossroads of some of the most imporant watersheds on earth. Everything is leaking at SRS, and this slow-moving cataclysm will only worsen as we wait. We may thus have nuclear war or slow poison from a continued commitment to plutonium, either of which guarantee utterly disastrous conseqences. THE UPSHOT OF ALL THIS, OF COURSE, IF SOMEONE IS NOT BRAIN DEAD, IS TO TAKE A STAND TO END THE NUCLEAR AGE NOW AND FIGURE OUT A STRATEGY TO MANAGE TO SURVIVE IN SPITE OF THE VOMITOUS WE'VE CREATED.

Note, of course, that this last rant is a personal opinion, not the opinion of Senator Cantwell or many of the others who, for reasons almost as sinisters as the godfathers of megadeath want to STORE the shit on sacred Navajo grounds at Yucca Mountain. Clearly, if we, as citizens, don't involve ourselves in these difficult issues, then whatever happens will have the unpleasant sensory aspect of being shoved down our throats, or, more graphically, of anal rape without the courtesy of lubrication.

Thus, I'm involved, in all sorts of ways. I'm still walking between August 6-9, between Atlanta and Aiken. I write, I read, I pass along what comes to me. The note below has come to me. What Senator Graham asks is brutal madness in the most favorable light. Senator Cantwell is no ignoramus about radioactive waste. The good people of Washington had the sense ot organize themselves to shut down their H-bomb factory, at Hanford. We need to do the same at SRS, and what that means is stopping this bill AND THEN INSISTING ON A PROCESS OF DEMOCRACY AND SCIENCE TO DIG OURSELVES OUT OF THIS PIT OF SELF-DESTRUCTION THAT SOME OF US STILL CLING TO LIKE THE PIT ITSELF WAS MAMA'S SWEET TITTY.

"That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!"

----- Original Message -----
From: Maria_Cantwell@cantwell.senate.gov
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 9:52 AM
Subject: From the Office of Senator Cantwell


Dear Friend:

I'm writing to tell you about an urgent issue with dire consequences for the
environment.  The Department of Energy (DOE) is pushing a plan to leave
highly radioactive nuclear waste in leaking underground tanks, rather than
properly cleaning it up.

For years, the DOE has sought the authority to reclassify high-level
nuclear waste as "incidental" waste. This would relieve DOE of its
obligation to dispose of radioactive nuclear waste in sites such as Hanford.

...

But over the last few weeks, DOE officials have teamed up with a few members
of the Senate Armed Services committee to try to sneak language into the
Department of Defense reauthorization bill which would allow DOE to
accomplish its long-standing goal of short-cutting the cleanup process. This
attempted end-run around the legislative process has taken place behind
closed doors, without public hearings. Last week I fought their sneak attack
on the Senate floor, ... (You can read my statement on the Senate floor on
my web site at
http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/releases/2004_05_20_nuclearwast e.html .)

I'm going to keep up the fight, and now, you can help. I will soon send a
letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Senate leaders, urging them
to withdraw their support for the proposed reclassification of nuclear
waste. I invite you to join me in sending a strong message about the
importance of this issue by co-signing my letter through my web site's
online petition. Together, we can stop this end-run in its tracks.

To co-sign my letter, please visit my web site at
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/nuclearwaste_petition.html

Thank you for your support, and I will keep you updated on this issue.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

Comments
on Jun 02, 2004
>>THE UPSHOT OF ALL THIS, OF COURSE, IF SOMEONE IS NOT BRAIN DEAD, IS TO TAKE A STAND TO END
>>THE NUCLEAR AGE NOW AND FIGURE OUT A STRATEGY TO MANAGE TO SURVIVE IN SPITE OF THE VOMITOUS
>>WE'VE CREATED.

I'd love to see the concept wiped from humanity's collective mind, but how do you put the genie back in its bottle?

>>Yucca Mountain.

Why Bush will lose Nevada.

>>DOE officials have teamed up with a few members of the Senate Armed Services committee to try to sneak language
>>into the Department of Defense reauthorization bill

This is one of the problems with the way our government is currently run. Bills need to be restricted to a single or fairly narrowly defined topic. Currently anything and everything can be "slipped into" just about any bill, no matter how far afield. a) It makes things extremely hard to follow. It allows you to look like a fool for opposing a seemingly beneficial bill, while something nefarious and completely unrelated is lurking within like an Alien germinating inside a human.
on Jun 04, 2004
This article needs to be on front pages and on top of the forums. It is beyond appaling the way things keep getting snuck in behind closed doors! People like you are the usually the only way to even hear about them and I hope you keep on and keep on.
on Jun 04, 2004
Personally, I think the stuff should be stored right in the politicians back yards. They made it, let them live with it.

I think it's good stuff. Think how much easier it will be to get around at night once we all glow in the dark.

Seriously, I agree that something needs to be done. For years I have advocated the use of 'big dumb rockets' to move the stuff off the planet entirely. The sun is one big nuclear furnace and seems a perfect means of disposal. Of course the best means of dealing with it is to not create the crap in the first place.
on Jun 05, 2004
Yo, Smartaz!

Right on!! Your assessment of the stealth politics of legislative protocols is apt, as is your assessment of what is likely to be the main reason the GOP has written off Nevada---the other being that the party will milk the deep pockets of Vegas for cashola anyhow.

As to "putting the genie back in the bottle," that's really not the issue. Deconstructing the whole matter is fascinating and important, but it's time consuming and no one is paying me, so that will only come bit by bit. One of my BLOG strings is about the nuclear godfathers who own our fate.

For now, suffice it to say that NOWHERE ON EARTH DO NUCLEAR POWER AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS PAY THEIR OWN WAY. They are, in fact, only possible with gigantic subsidies that we pay for. We can cause the complete disappearance of the technology here by removing mama's cash cow nipple from Dupont, Monsanto, Lockheed, Bechtel, et.al.

What about all the other bad guys? The ones, unlike the U.S., that have never used atomic weapons? Well, we'll bow to the karma gods and keep a nuclear submarine, a few missiles, and some bomber squadrons at the ready. The point is that research and production of no part of the 'nuclear food chain' would continue without our tax dollars. I vote to stop my taxes going in that direction. How about you? Capisce?
on Jun 05, 2004
WiseFawn!!

You and I are always on the same page, at least for all intents and purposes, so to speak. I mean, even though we've never met, or even spoken. It's pretty amazing, isn't it. The heart of the issue is how to be, not only consistent, but constant in placing this sort of information before the hundreds of millions of people whose lives are at stake in the outcomes but who nearly never play a part in coming to terms with the issues.

Thanks again!!
on Jun 05, 2004
Mason M!!

LMAO! Dubya could use a little color in his cheeks right about now. He might even go for the idea. Make the White House and Capitol Hill the primary storage repositories. I can see syndication in your future: "West Wing---the glow in the dark years!

Rockets to the sun to carry the shit could work, with study of the cosmos along the way. NASA spends money on sillier sckticks at least on occasion. The point is, however, that there are plenty of options, once we pull the plug and let the creature we've created die the death of all technologies that don't pay for themselves.

Thanks for checking in. I'll hope to hear from you again soon.