RWC Unfiltered 5-12-2011

• Kenya Investigating Obama’s African Birth
• Is Winston Churchill Spinning in His Grave?
• OBAMA Hires Hollywood Help With Taxpayer Dollars
• Trump Won’t Announce on TV; NBC
• Obama’s Border Moat and Alligator “Jokes” Absurd
• Russia Ships More Nuclear Fuel to Iran
• U. S. Senators To See Osama Death Photo’s at CIA
• Michelle Obama invite vile, profane rapper to White House
• Boehner Throws Down Debt Limit Marker
• Tripoli Blasted Flaccid NATO Blows Up Empty Buildings
• Iran Continues Nuclear Kabuki Dance
• Washington Post Mensa Word Invitational Winners
• Israel Tries Deal with PALISTINIANS and Hamas
• China Move on FIJI as Outpost 5,000 miles From Beijing
• Thoughts on MIDWEST Floods
• U.S. Nuclear power plants set to increase

The Associated Press has released a survey, taken on May 5-9, 2011 to measure public approval of Obama after the killing of Osama bin Laden.  The poll purports to show that the president’s job approval has soared to 60 percent.  Don’t you believe it.

The AP sample contains twice as many Democrats as Republicans (35% Democrat vs. 18% Republican).  While party identification is, itself, a variable to be determined by polling, the normal sample usually contains an approximately equal number of Democrats and Republicans.  Lately, Republicans have actually been slightly in the plurality in most statistically valid samples.

This AP poll — with its 2:1 Democratic edge — is utter hogwash.

Even by the standards of AP’s previous polls, this sample doesn’t stand up.  It is vastly more Democratic than any of the organization’s recent polls:

The Kenyan government is investigated the possibility that President Obama was born in the East African nation.

Two letters purportedly written by Kenya’s immigration secretary during the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign stated that officials in Nairobi could not find evidence Obama was born in Kenya. But the official said the government had “information” that relevant birth records may have been removed or were missing.

Emmanuel Kisombe, the permanent secretary in the Ministry for Immigration and Registration of Persons, wrote a letter in July 2008 in reply to a letter from the U.S. ambassador in Nairobi that raised the possibility with Kenyan officials that Obama was born in their the Kenyan government investigated the possibility that President Obama was born in the East African nation.

Billionaire and potential presidential candidate Donald Trump told a business gathering in New Hampshire that the 2012 presidential election will decide the economic fate of America and vows that if he runs and wins “this country will be great again.”

A Brit wrote this to the Wall Street Journal.

“My countrymen’s reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden have made me doubt my pride in being British.

The foul outpouring of sneering anti-Americanism, legalistic quibbling, and concern for the supposed human rights of our modern Hitler have left me squirming in embarrassment and apology before my American friends. Yet what I most despise my fellow Britons for is their absolute refusal, publicly or even privately, to celebrate the most longed-for news in a decade..”

As a Scot I can imagine Winston Churchhilol spinning in his grave. I can appreciate that the UIK socialist, nanny state is under intense fiscal stress withnthe consequence that reverse isolationism could result. I alsounderstand that the growing dominance of Muslims in the UK ius a complication hard to factor. But, factor we must.

For more than 1,500 years Islam has campaigned against all thing Christian and vis-aversa ad=nd for 63 years it has campaign for the eradication of the Jewish state - Israel.

Political genius Lady Gaga blasted Arizona’s immigration Law while in concert in Mexico.

 In addition to the $600,000-plus shelled out for Obama’s speechwriters to grease the teleprompter skids, the White House is laying out big bucks to retain Michael Sheehan, the most prominent media coach in the country.

 Hillary Clinton dubbed Sheehan “an extraordinary media coach who made Herculean efforts to teach me to use the teleprompter.” It was Sheehan who helped transform Hillary from shrill first lady to smooth-talking presidential candidate.

Sheehan has a unique background in the world of image consultants, which suits the Obama administration to a T. The man is a theater and drama expert, having earned an MFA from Yale School of Drama. Additionally, he serves as a Yale lecturer in theater management.

 Before taking office, Obama pledged that he was going to end no-bid contracts by requiring competitive bidding on contract orders that exceeded $25,000.

 That was then, this is now. Sheehan Associates, which has been providing occasional speech and consulting services to the White House since 2009, may receive more than $100,000 under a new contract.

 After all, Hollywood stagecraft doesn’t come cheap.

Over half of the 14 taxpayer paid unionized lifeguards in Newport Beach, CA are paid over $100,000 a year.

Donald Trump will not use his reality show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” to shed light on his presidential ambitions, an NBC publicist told the National Journal on Tuesday. A Trump spokesman countered that a statement of some kind timed to the May 22 season finale is still “not inconceivable.”

NBC spokeswoman Sharron Pannozzo threw cold water on that scenario, noting the show’s last two episodes, taped in November, are already in the can.

“There will be no announcement,” said Pannozzo. “It’s just misinformation on his part.” That comment is likely to spark a comment from Camp Trump.

Trump has not gained traction in national polling and has fallen.

A new report blasts The U. S. Veteran’s Administration of being grossly incompetent in treating post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and saying it must make major changes in its mental health treatment.

Obama was on his high horse touting his idea of reforming immigration claiming legalizing the 11 million would be a financial boost. He slapped at border state residents saying if the border fence was built “they’ll” only want to make it higher, and even demand a moat with alligators in it. It was an absurdity. As absurd as Janet “Big Sis” Napolitano’s claim that the border is safer now than ever before.

Border States are so desperate they have launched fund raising campaigns to complete the border fence and some are renewing calls for federal troops to patrol the border.

In the first three months of this year the Postal “Service” managed to lose $2 billion and now says it will separate 7,500 employees. The Postal Union plans to pay letter carriers over six figures each in 2012 plus fringe more than twice what the average private workers are paid.

 Iran has received another shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia for use at its Bushehr nuclear power plant, the Arabic-language al Alam channel quoted an official as saying Wednesday.

“The shipments were transferred to Iran from Russia by plane in three phases on May 4, 8 and 10,” spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Hamid Khadem Ghaemi told al Alam state channel. He said 30 metric tons of fuel had been received.

Russia delivered the first batch of about 80 metric tons of uranium fuel rods to Iran in 2008 on December 17 as part of international efforts to persuade Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment program.

 The $1 billion Bushehr plant, which was built by Russia, is the Islamic state’s first and only nuclear power plant. Russia says the Bushehr project is being built under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

 The United States and its allies say they believe Iran’s uranium enrichment and other nuclear activities are aimed at building nuclear weapons. Iran says it needs nuclear fuel purely to produce energy. That belief is of no consequence since the will is absent to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons which Obama has tacitly approved through inaction.

An Australian Rules football player was kicked out of a game because the spiked Mohawk haircut he was sporting posed a danger to other players. The Victorian Country Football League (VCFL) said the umpire was wrong, with the rule used to have the player sent off referring to items such as jewellery and protective equipment that could injure another player. The umpire was concerned the stiff hair spikes could puncture an eye. Just looking stupid doesn’t count.

U. S. Senators serving on the Senate Intelligence Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee will be able to see post-mortem photographs of Osama bin Laden, congressional aides confirmed to CBS News’ John Nolen.

 Members will need to call and make an appointment to see the photos, and then go to the CIA to view them. A viewing room has been set up for that purpose.

Three Republican senators, including vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Saxby Chambliss, initially claimed to have seen the photos before acknowledging they were likely duped by photo shopped fakes.

That begs the question will those same geniuses know what they are looking at the CIA.

Massachusetts has a three month wait to see a family doctor thanks to Romneycare rules.

Michelle Obama invited Common a rapper for a “poetry reading LAST EVENING AT THE White House she is apparently trying to continue what Laura Bush began. There are differences in-as-much-as Laura Bush had a reading of Emily Dickinson while “Common” preaches killing cops and racism. At the 2008 New Year celebration at the notorious Rev. Wright’s church. “I’m gonna let you know / No people want drama / We gonna vote for my man / What’s his name? Obama … Revolution is here,” he sang, and the Rev. Wright danced in the background.

Some of Common’s poetry also raises eyebrows among those who find cop-killing and racially-tinged or misogynist language beneath the Office of the President.

“Tell the law my Uzi weighs a ton … I hold up a peace sign but I carry a gun,” raps Common in one appearance that was posted onto YouTube. Despite him writing a song praising the murderers of a State Trooper white House Spokesman Carney called him “socially responsible.”

Obama said that watching the raid on Osama bin Laden was the longest 40 minutes of his life. Mind you, that’s coming from a guy that has to listen to Joe Biden.– Leno

In a big game of political hopscotch Ohio Republican and House Speaker John Boehner’s call for trillions in federal spending cuts as a condition for increasing America’s $14.3 trillion debt limit raising the bar for budget talks between congressional leaders and the White House, that resumed Tuesday - a move likely to keep the debt limit issue running through the 2012 election.* 

The Christian Science Monitor and many others in the media label this as “allowing the United States to default on its debt calling that “irresponsible,” But, the U. S. would not default. It would stop borrowing 43% of every dollar it spends.

Speaker Boehner told the Wall Street financiers’ Economic Club of New York on Monday. “But it would be more irresponsible,” he said “to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process.”

In laying down his marker, Boehner signals to Obama that Republicans will exact a high price to raise the debt ceiling, to be paid off in spending cuts, not tax increases. With Democrats rejecting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, there’s little left that could deliver the trillions in cuts. One alternative is to pass short-term debt-limit deals, each accompanied by spending cuts, until Americans weigh in on the issue in 2012 elections. Another is that Congress adopts dramatic structural moves to overhaul the budget process such as passing a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution - a long process that also would be certain to run through the 2012 election.

There is a balanced budget bill languishing in the U. S. Senate that will likely not pass as long as Democrats are in the majority there, and even if it did Obama would not sign it. If Republicans take control of the U. S. Senate in 2012 which handicappers think is likely such a measure would pass, and Obama would veto it if he is reelected.

After 25-years of convenience California’s first couple have separated - Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have separated, He back to Hollywood and she to Democrat and women’s issues.

 Tripoli was shaken early Tuesday, May 10, by five huge blasts which flattened another set of mostly empty government buildings in Muammar Qaddafi’s capital, but aroused little interest, even among Western journalists. It is common knowledge that the ruler, his family and top lieutenants abandoned the city after May 1 when NATO missiles struck a Qaddafi family residence, missing him but killing his son and grandchildren.

It is now suspected in Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels that advanced electronic counter-measures imported recently to one of the foreign embassies in Tripoli tipped him off to the incoming missile attack and gave him just enough time to get away.  debkafile‘s intelligence sources report that since those devices were activated two weeks ago, NATO finds itself increasingly targeting empty government buildings and abandoned military installations.

Hence the comment by NATO Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen Sunday, May 8: After repeating, “The game is over for Qaddafi” and denying the war had reached a stalemate, he added there was “no military solution for the civil war in Libya.”

Our military sources sum up the balance of the two-month NATO operation backing the Libyan rebellion:

 The combined coalition campaign has failed to loosen Qaddafi’s grip on power, dent his army’s fighting spirit and combat ability, divide Libya’s main tribes against him or shake the loyalty of his high commanders and government heads.

The fundamental fact that without substantial American military intervention, NATO powers lack the air, sea and missile resources for overcoming Qaddafi has remained unchanged ever since the US handed the campaign’s command role over the NATO on April 4.

 Theoretically, if the current military stalemate goes on, NATO bombardment would be able to destroy the pro-Qaddafi army in the course of time - but only if no other factors are taken into account. At the present intensity of its air and sea strikes, NATO would need five years - not months - to bring that army to breaking point. And in the meantime, Qaddafi and its external backers - Russia, China, most African and some Balkan countries - are not idle - witness the arrival of advanced electronic gear for helping to tipping the balance in his favor. According to intelligence updates, the Libyan ruler continues to take in a steady supply of ammunition, missiles and advanced weapons to replenish the stocks NATO airstrikes have destroyed.

 The situation in which NATO finds itself in Libya has wider military implications. If the Atlantic Alliance, and especially Britain and France which are spearheading the Libya campaign, are short of the resources they need for overcoming a Libyan army

consisting essentially of four to five brigade-strength military frameworks fighting without air cover, hard questions must be asked about the alliance and its 26 members’ real military worth.

Those questions apply in particular to Europe and bear on its political strength.

Syria’s Bashar Assad has gathered from NATO’s shortcomings in the Libyan arena that he has a free hand to set his army, tanks, artillery and live ammunition on protesters and suppress the uprising against him with an iron hand without fearing that the European UNIFIL contingents from France, Italy and Spain in Lebanon may turn their guns on him. Iran is also watching intently. And Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are showing diminishing interest in taking up NATO’s invitation to associate themselves with the alliance by military pacts.

 The coalition’s limitations have reduced the fighting in Libya to two battle arenas, with NATO involved directly in only one:

1. Misrata, 185 kilometers west of Tripoli, the only rebel stronghold in western Libya: Were it not for NATO’s air support, pro-government forces would have recaptured the town in the third week of the April.

Although Monday, May 9, the rebels repulsed a government assault on their positions, they have not managed even with NATO help to break the pro-Qaddafi forces’ siege of the town or halt the Grad missile and artillery bombardment.

Neither have the rebels been able to dislodge Qaddafi’s forces from Misrata airport, where light planes and helicopters flying beneath the no-fly zone are able to land bringing fresh reinforcements, supplies and ammo for Qaddafi’s forces and take off with the wounded.

2.  The Nafusa Mountains which cut through the center of western Libya. The Berber tribes which populate the mountain towns of Gharyan, Yifrin, Kabaw, Nalut and Ziztan are in revolt against the Qaddafi regime.

 Their cause is quite separate from the Benghazi-based rebels’ goal to overthrow the Qaddafi regime. The Berbers are fighting for an independent state. If they succeed, they hope to be joined by fellow tribesmen in Algeria and Morocco in a state spanning much of North Africa.

This battlefield is small in scope with little impact on the main thrust of the war. The Berbers are a small, scantily armed fighting force and government forces avoid taking them on, except for desultory rocket and artillery fire on their towns. Those towns can only be reached through rough, unpaved, mountain trails.

Qaddafi has split his ground forces into armored columns of 60 tanks and armored vehicles each to enhance their speed of movement and make them tougher targets for NATO jets to strike.

He is taking care to keep them away from the Berber mountain trails where they would be easy prey.

The price of oil is now under $100 a barrel. The oil companies say they should be passing on the savings to us in six or seven years. — Leno

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator replied on Tuesday to a letter by European Union foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton on fresh nuclear talks, saying they should be “just”, state television reported.

“The letter was handed over in Vienna by Iran’s ambassador. In the letter, Saeed Jalili welcomed P5+1’s return to talks, underlining the talks should be just and without pressuring the other party,” the Arabic-language al Alam channel reported.

 The “P-5+1″ is the diplomatic acronym for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain — as well as Germany.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had said in Istanbul on Monday that the next round of nuclear talks would be held in the Turkish city, without giving any date.

 A cyber attack reportedly setback Iran nuclear weapons program but did not cripple it. Iran is reported to be well on the way to testing a nuclear warhead. It appears that everything mechanical and electronic is in place pending sufficient fissile materials.

Eighty-five-year-old Hugh Hefner and his 25-year-old fiancée Crystal Harris have sent out the invitations for their June 18 wedding. That’s right, she told guests to wear white - but bring black, just in case. — Fallon

The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding,  subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. 

Here are the winners: 

 1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

 2. Ignoranus : A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.

 3. Intaxicaton : Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

 4. Reintarnation : Coming back to life as a  hillbilly.

 5. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 

 6. Foreploy : Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid. 

 7. Giraffiti : Vandalism spray-painted very, very high 

 8. Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

 9. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

 10. Osteopornosis : A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

 11. Karmageddon : It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer. 

 12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

 13. Glibido : All talk and no action. 

 14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. 

 15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

 16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

 17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

 A man narrowly avoided being flattened by a train in Madisonville, Ohio. The guy stood on the tracks forcing the trains to make an emergency stop only 5′ from hitting him. He then dropped his pants and “mooned” the engineer. When the conductor tried to move the guy ho has been arrested over 3-dozen times refused. The guy was arrested again. Apparently he is not the most atable among us.

The   Washington   Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

 1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs. 

 2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained. 

 3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

 4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

 5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent. 

 6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

 7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

 8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

 9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller..

 10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

 11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam. 

 12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. 

 13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist. 

 14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms. 

 15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

 16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Suspicion rose Monday that Pakistan’s intelligence service leaked the name of the CIA chief in Islamabad to local media in anger over the raid that killed Osama bin Laden - the second outing of an American covert operative here in six months. The U.S. said it has no plans to pull the spy chief

Israel, despite threats to torpedo any Palestinian reconciliation deal, is quietly preparing to accept a Hamas-Fatah government.

Officials said the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not take measures to threaten the proposed unity government of the Palestinian Authority. They said such an assurance has already been relayed to the United States.

“Israel set a precedent when it accepted a previous Palestinian government that consisted mostly of Hamas members,” an official said.

In 2006, the then-government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recognized PA elections that ushered in a Hamas-controlled Cabinet and legislature. The Cabinet did not last long before it was dismantled by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads the rival Fatah movement.

Officials said Israel plans to maintain cooperation with the any PA government, even one that included Hamas. They said this would include security and financial cooperation, particularly the relay of tax revenues from Palestinian laborers employed in Israel.

“Overall, we have to give the Palestinian Authority money,” Israel Security Agency director Yuval Diskin said. “If we, the Americans and the West do not give money, there will be no Palestinian Authority. This would be a strategic decision. At the moment, as long as the Palestinian Authority remains status quo, there is no reason to change our policies toward them or the security arrangements we have with them.”

The Israeli intelligence community has assessed that Abbas would not significantly change PA policy during any Fatah-Hamas government. Officials said intelligence agencies doubted whether Fatah and Hamas would agree to genuine power-sharing or even elections in 2012 - measures cited in preparation for the establishment of an independent state in the West Bank.

“This [deal] came into being mostly for the sake of appearances in an attempt to show unity,” Diskin said. “From here on, there are many things both sides don’t know how to apply in theory, let alone on the ground.”

In a briefing on May 4, Diskin played down the Fatah-Hamas agreement as well as the prospect of security cooperation between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The outgoing ISA chief said Hamas took a tactical decision in working with Fatah and was driven by a need to improve relations with neighboring Egypt.

“The chances for a true reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas over the next two to three years are slim,” Diskin said.  

Shell Oil’s former CEO points out that U, S. domestic oil production has fallen from a high of 10 million barrels a day to about 7 million due in part to prohibitive regulation and now a moratorium on new drilling. An 18% federal levy on each barrel of oil also mean the loss of tens of billions of dollars to the federal treasury. It just doesn’t make sense.

Fiji is a nation of 322 islands of which 110 are inhabited 1,700 miles from Australia and 1,200 miles from New Zealand and over 5,000 miles from Beijing has become the focus for Chinese ambition because of its strategic location on international shipping routes. Since a bloodless coup in 2006 China has provided money and training and is now seen as a dominate influence there giving it an unsinkable air and military base in the South Pacific. As such it represents the farthest point of Chinese expansionism to its south.

The first European to visit the area was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1643. The English navigator James Cook also sailed through the area in 1774 naming the islands the Cook Islands until the late 20^th century; the individual most commonly credited with the “discovery” of Fiji was Captain William Bligh, who sailed through Fiji in 1789 and 1792 following the mutiny on the H.M.S. Bounty.

It gained independence for the UK in 1974 that lead to decades of turmoil, racial conflicts and stagnation.

The 2009 cable quoted an official from Fiji’s military regime as saying the island nation, is viewed by the Chinese as “an important partner, noting that China valued Fiji as a useful transit point and for its proximity to important shipping lanes.”

Chinese aggression provokes widespread concerns in the Australia continent regarding the threat posed by China’s military.

Almost half of Australians reported they believe China will emerge as a military threat during the next 20 years. Additionally, the poll found that a majority believe the Canberra government is permitting too much investment in the country by China.

China does not now have blue water Navy but is completing the renovation of a Soviet era aircraft carrier bought from the Ukraine under a ruse it would become floating casino. Just recently China has flown is J-15 folding wing fighter jets capable of deploying on an aircraft carrier greatly enhancing its capabilities deep into the Pacific.

A fringe Christian group of 10 from Oakland, California have set out across the country in a convoy of caravans to bring the ‘awesome’ message of impending doom to as many people as possible. Their message is the world will end on May 21, 2011 when true Christians will be taken to heaven and the rest will suffer for 500 days. In 1970’s Jehovah’s Witnesses proposed the world would end in 1975. It didn’t.

I grew up in sight of the Ohio River and watched it ebbs and flow and flood so I emphasize with folks facing flooding now. When U. S. 40 crossed the Ohio River at Wheeling Island it dropped below flood level and it was sport most every spring as it disappeared under water to bet on which car would or would not make it. Tow trucks lined up at water’s edge and men in waders snaked out steel cable to pull out Irma and the kids in her Desoto. High water Road closed signs were routinely displayed. Then came a squadron of boats as water taxis ferry folks to and from the second floor windows of homes on the island.

Residents were stoic and always seemed surprised at the almost perennial flooding.

One family whom I knew for years lived on the third floor of one of the big old Victorian houses that cover the Island and took it all in stride while watching the water creep up. Many of the building and the bridge abutments all had high water marks painted by year and old timers spoke of the great 1936 flood that was then a benchmark and always discussed as Winter ended and the thaw and rains were about to set in.

New massive roller dams control the Ohio better but you just can’t mess with Mother Nature.

McDonalds the biggest restaurant chain will spend $1 billion on upgrading its stores. It has 14,000 US outlets and 32,000 worldwide.

Japan’s nuclear crisis won’t prevent construction of four to eight reactors in the U.S. by 2020, said Nuclear Energy Institute

The NEI, a trade group representing reactor operators, doesn’t expect the partial meltdown of a Japanese plant after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami to “have a major impact on new nuclear plant licensing,” Fertel said today at an industry conference in Washington.

The 104 U.S. commercial reactors are getting closer scrutiny by regulators and lawmakers after the disaster destroyed power lines and flooded emergency diesel generators at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, depriving its cooling systems of electricity. Fuel rods in four of the plant’s six reactor buildings overheated, causing fires, explosions and radiation leaks in the world’s worst nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The crisis prompted Japan to reassess a plan to get 50 percent of its electricity from nuclear plants by 2030, Ichiro Fujisaki, the nation’s ambassador to the U.S., said at the conference. Japan’s government “will look anew on this strategic plan,” Fujisaki said.

In a walled compound somewhere north of Islamabad at there is a very sad goat that has been sleeping alone tonight. One wonders if PETA will act.

More than half of Republicans - 52 percent - say there should be a third political party, a new Gallup Poll says. The poll, released Monday, also found that 33 percent of Democrats want a third party. Gallup said it’s the first time its polls have found a significantly larger number of Republicans than Democrats favoring a third party.

60 percent of Americans who identify themselves as tea party members want a new party.

If a third party candidate emerged ala Ross Perot that assures Obama’s second term.