Hello and good morning everyone, and welcome once again to your quickly typed rundown of some political show on the television and the feelings they give us. My name is Jason, and the staggeringly trivial nature of these political shows, where I'm supposed to believe America's political horse race is the most important thing in the world (SPOILER ALERT: NO ONE WINS, IT JUST KEEPS GOING FOREVER) is never in starker relief than it is on days like today. There's no point in belaboring it, or pretending to be able to translate what's happening in Japan. It's already perhaps the most exhaustively documented natural disaster ever, so that obliterates the need for me to try to use words to rub at your raw nerves. Here are ways in which you can help.
Meanwhile, there was this terrible economic collapse in America a few years ago and ever since then, the important campaign to get Americans to stop blaming the perpetrators of said collapse and the ensuing widespread economic devastation, and in turn start blaming one another, to the material benefit of those who wrecked the economy in the first place, continues to take important steps forward in Wisconsin. That's seen in pretty stark terms in Abe Sauer's interview with a Scott Walker supporter, I think.
For what-happens-nexts, here's Abe again, and here's Nick Kroll at Mother Jones. Generically speaking, I think that most people see this story heading into a resurgence of the Democratic party's political fortunes in Wisconsin -- it makes sense because the recall effort has already raised a ton of money and Walker's popularity has hit the skids. The cynic in me warns you, however, that if Wisconsin Dems came back to power as swiftly as they could, don't be surprised if they, too, find the collective-bargaining-less new world suddenly VASTLY appealing. Power doesn't come from nothing!
Anyhoo, let's get this already delayed, Daylight-savings version of this liveblog started. Send emails, leave comments, pray or meditate or speak kindnesses aloud in the direction of Japan.
FOX NEWS SUNDAY:
Today we'll have Mitch McConnell and Mark Warner and Saxby Chambliss, taking about the sexy budget battle in Congress that matters so terribly much to political reporters who live in the most safe economy and wealthiest community in America.
Meanwhile, in Japan, the terrifying new part of the aftermath involves their nuclear power plants and the damage that's been done to them. Joe Cirincione, the president of Ploughshares Fund and nuclear expert (who has lent his expertise to the Huffington Post on many occasions) is here to talk about this side of the story.
"This is an unprecedented crisis, this is extremely serious," Cirincione says. The flooding of seawater to prevent a meltdown, is, in his estimation, a move of "desperation." The worst case scenario as far as meltdowns go involves the leaching of radioactivity into the ground, the water, the air, with the potential that some could reach the West Coast of the U.S. The twelve-mile evacuation radius is "not enough under a meltdown scenario," he says.
On the 1-to-7 scale of nuclear event seriousness, the situation in Japan had been rated a 4. (Three Mile Island was a 5.) Yes, we have ratings scales for everything. Cirincione says that if the situation in Japan stopped right now, it's fair to call it a four, but it seems headed into higher territory. A meltdown is a 6. Benign sets of numbers thus help us understand things that are terrible.
Anyway, what happens in the next 24 hours is apparently very important, as cliched as that sounds.
[More liveblog is coming, but while you're waiting, here's "A Guide to American Majority's Plan to Dismantle Public Schools."]
Alecia Elliott Samantha Mathis Danica Patrick Julia Stiles Gwen Stefani
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