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?

Stories to Watch: 2/28/11

I added a better popup blogger last night and it works great -- a little too great. I was trying to write my post this morning and nothing was working. Turns out I had to whitelist blogger. Oops! Seems to screw with Tumblr too, which is a minor problem. I haven't decided whether I'm sticking with it or whether I'll uninstall it. I guess it depends; if it's more annoying than the popups, out it goes. Now here's the news...


Scott Walker's resorting to efforts of questionable legality to keep crowd size down in the Wisconsin State Capitol. Last night's humiliation must have stung. That's not the worst of it. Follow the link to see just what assholes Wisconsin Republicans can be.


In related news, if we had a do-over on the elections, Tom Barret would be governor in a 7-point win. Keep that in mind the next time you hear Walker talk about his silent majority.


Meanwhile, Walker reiterates his threat to shoot his hostages.


Wisconsin really is ground zero in a war against the middle class.


RIP Frank W. Buckles, who was the last living US veteran of WWI.


And RIP Jane Russell.


Finally, it's official: the GOP is literally anti-jobs. A new report says the GOP's budget plans would cost 700,000 jobs and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels can hardly contain his glee.

Stories to Watch: 2/16/11

Melting snow means fog. Fog, fog, fog, fog. I ain't going out there without a foghorn. New here's the news...


Yet another Republican governor flushes money and jobs down the drain by rejecting high-speed rail funding.


Rick Santorum has a google problem that's a frothy mixture of justice and payback.


The House kills John Boehner's pet pork project.


New White House press secretary Jay Carney has his first day on the job.


In polling, everyone wants to cut spending, but no one wants to cut spending. No, you read that right.


Finally, in the face of massive protests, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker starts to get a little weak-kneed.