Friday, the House voted to terminate the FHA Refinance Program by a vote of 256-171. This is one of a number of upcoming votes in the House to eliminate foreclosure mitigation programs. Only one Republican, Joe Heck of Nevada, whose district features one of the worst foreclosure crises in the nation, voted to retain the program. 18 Democrats went along with termination.

Desperate efforts continue to contain the damage at at least six nuclear reactor units at Fukushima Stations I (Daiichi) and II (Daini), following the explosion early this a.m. (US Eastern) at Daiichi Unit 1.

There are confusing/conflicting reports of a “meltdown,” at Unit 1. CNN reported a Japanese nuclear official seeming to confirm that a “meltdown” was probably underway, but there has been no other official confirmation.

As I noted earlier, State Department Spokesperson PJ Crowley described Bradley Manning’s abuse as counterproductive and stupid at an event at MIT yesterday.

I want to thank the Firedoglake community for all their support and positive feedback over the past two years. I never thought I could take part in directly shaping American policy, but thanks to this site and its dedicated readership, I’ve seen it happen. I hope you will please join the FDL Membership Program and provide the long-term support to FDL’s many writers and activists.

Patrick G. Eddington is a rarity in Washington these days: an intelligence officer with a conscience. His book, Long Strange Journey, is a riveting account of how he became a whistle-blower at the CIA and exposed how his own agency and the Department of Defense for years covered up the truth about “Gulf War Syndrome” – the exposure of U.S. troops in Iraq to chemical weapons used by Saddam Hussein during the First Gulf War. It also provided a detailed account of what it means to be an imagery analyst in the US intelligence community and how imagery is (and should be) used on battlefields to assist US soldiers and commanders.

As our broken political system slowly turns into a plutocracy where political power flows from the few extremely wealthy individuals and corporations, regular workers united for collective bargaining on wages is no longer good enough. Labor unions should strive to be a force for fully unifying regular people’s collective political and, more importantly, financial power.

As a follow up to yesterday afternoon’s decision in the WikiLeaks grand jury subpoena case, it is, shall we say, interesting that the New York Times today comes out with an editorial slamming democracies that use secret evidence and maneuvers to prosecute journalists.

While I strongly disagree with the law pushed through this week by the Wisconsin GOP to strip public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights, I think the political lesson that all politicians can take away from this event is that, whenever possible, you should act quickly and decisively.

Back in 2007, NYU professor Jay Rosen held up FDL’s coverage of the Scooter Libby trial as an example of great journalism, and he warned traditional media folks to “make room for FDL in your own ideas about what’s coming on, news-wise.”

Four years later, it sure looks like the good professor knew what he was talking about, doesn’t it?

In a time of accident like we are seeing at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Stations facts are a very good thing. So let me provide you with some facts, then we can talk about what is known at this point about the accident there.