Stories to Watch: 3/13/11

How long can the world hold it's breath? How long has it been since the nuclear crisis in Japan began? This whole thing has been characterized by the Japanese government telling everyone it's not as bad as you think, then coming out later and saying it's worse than they thought. A cooling system in a second reactor has failed and authorities are presuming partial meltdowns in both. With the cooling systems down in both, seawater is being pumped into the reactors. Asked what he thought of this tactic, Bill Nye responded this way:


...i.e., it's a Hail Mary pass.


In addition to the nuclear crisis, NPR reports that "millions of Japanese lack water and electricity." The evacuations have no doubt displaced tens -- if not hundreds -- of thousands. To make matters worse, Japan's Meteorological Agency predicts there's "a 70 percent chance of a magnitude 7-class earthquake in the next three days."


Wow. CNN reports that the earthquake moved Japan's coastline eight feet and shifted the Earth on it's axis.


In more hopeful news, Reuters reports that as many as 100,000 showed up at the Wisconsin State Capitol yesterday in support of unions and in protest of the establishment of FitzWalkerstan. ThinkProgress points out that this exceeds the estimates for the largest Tea Party rallies. Hey Wisconsin GOP -- it is on.


Freshman house 'baggers worry that GOP leadership will opt to live in reality.


Finally, here's the least surprising item of the day: founding neocon Bill Kristol thinks we ought to have a war. This time, with Libya. Is that before or after we go to war with Iran, Bill? There's always plenty of money for war, isn't there?