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Gaddafi compound attacked again amid reports son killed
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Page 6: Politix
14 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain [7] 
9 00:00 gorb [8] 
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11 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
NRC doesn't have the GUTS to address on site spent fuel storage.
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/21/2011 19:25 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Centralizing the storage of spent fuel in a safe place like a certain site in Nevada is like cutting Social Security - no politician even wants to talk about it. This is another one of many cans our political system keeps kicking down the road, hoping we won't fall off a cliff or something. We have stored up a TON of trouble for outselves, and it's not all radioactive.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/21/2011 19:31 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't have a problem of storing the spent fuel in a central location. My vote is to store it where the electricity was most used. Stop telling me that Nevada, Utah, and Arizona is a safer place. For those of us that live here and DONT use the nuke power this answer is unacceptable and an unacceptable risk. We should keep it on the east coast where it was used and stop using the West as a dump.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/21/2011 19:44 Comments || Top||

#3  How about the spent fuel from the two California plants, the three Arizona units and the three Washington state ones?

Maybe Nevada and the Feds should give back the billions the utilities were mandated by the Feds into providing to build Yucca Mountain.
Posted by: Omiting the Younger || 03/21/2011 21:00 Comments || Top||

#4  I have no issue with having a nuclear waste site in Nevada, 49 Pan's NIMBYism aside, it's a fucking empty desert across most of the state. But now that I've looked at the seismic map of the state, I do have to ask why Yucca Mountain? There are much lower-population areas in the northeast of the state with much lower seismic potential. To be honest, the best place for this sort of thing would seem to be up in central Canada somewhere on the Canadian Shield. But then, we don't own that land, so fft on that.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 03/21/2011 21:08 Comments || Top||

#5  As of a few years ago paraphrasing Scientific American, Nuclear waste in the U.S. is stored at or near one of the approximate 121 facilities across the country where it is generated. So singling out one coast or another seems like a recipe for disgruntlement and disaster, 49 Pan.
Posted by: Fi || 03/21/2011 21:09 Comments || Top||

#6  If you lived out here in this "fucking empty desert" as you call it, you would realize what your saying is I am expendable to New York. Burry it in the mines on the east coast/ or at your house, mine is not a nuke dump for either coast.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/21/2011 21:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Barnswell, SC is a disposal site, one of many geographically disperse sites.
Posted by: Fi || 03/21/2011 21:36 Comments || Top||

#8  From Sci American,

Over the past few decades, however, a series of studies has called these stereotypes into question. Among the surprising conclusions: the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

As a general clarification, ounce for ounce, coal ash released from a power plant delivers more radiation than nuclear waste shielded via water or dry cask storage.


Living near a coal fired power plant exposes you to far more radiation than living near a nuclear waste disposal site.

And I'll note the media hysteria over the nuclear problems in Japan, which so far haven't killed anyone, while largely ignoring the fact the quake death toll climbs past 20,000.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/21/2011 22:27 Comments || Top||

#9  If you lived out here in this "fucking empty desert" as you call it, you would realize what your saying is I am expendable to New York. Burry it in the mines on the east coast/ or at your house, mine is not a nuke dump for either coast.

I thought you said in the past you lived in Arizona.

Are you going to insist that New York store the waste from Palo Verde? Or do you just want to wait until some Iranian idiot sets off a nice U-235-fueled "gun bomb" next to the waste site at Palo Verde and Phoenix is rendered uninhabitable for the forseeable future?

This ISN'T a threat with waste stored at a _secured_ facility out in the Basin and Range country out away from major population centers and located underground where even if something does get through it's not going to wind up being dispersed.

The waste is a lot less dangerous even to its neighbors at a secured facility like Yucca Mountain for much the same reasons Al Qaeda has never thrown major resources into blowing up the City Hall of Elko, Nevada.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/21/2011 23:09 Comments || Top||

#10  They're already doing consolidated storing of lower level crap at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, in New Mexico. NM gets a lot of NIMBY stuff, so when you look at the flow of federal dollars out of state and into state, it ends up on the plus side of the equation. Remember, they nuked NM first!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/21/2011 23:23 Comments || Top||

#11  Thing, your right I do live here in AZ. No I don't think we should dump the waste from AZ into a site in NYC. The waste from our plant, the largest in the US should stay right here. A single dump site would not be practical or safe and would become a target in its own right. A number of sites across the nation would be much safer and more reasonable. I'm just a bit tired of the first answer is send it to the desert. I think if NYC stored their own waste they would be a little more conservative on the usages, this also goes for their trash and other waste that is being shipped across the globe to be disposed of. I also don't like the idea of trucking waste across the flyover states. If some thought was put to it there are a number of places it could be placed closer to where it is produced and consumed with less transportation risks.

I'm no tree hugging no nuker, but this problem of waste is one that needs to be completely thought through and not just sent out west. Which in the current administration clear thought is nonexistent.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/21/2011 23:28 Comments || Top||

#12  Okay okay come on is this really necessary? There's plenty of room for all our nuclear waste in this country.
Posted by: Fi || 03/21/2011 23:34 Comments || Top||

#13  Yucca Mountain probably isn't the perfect site on the Earth, but it's a much better site than Palo Verde is, which wasn't meant to be a disposal site at all.

(But that's what it functions as these days).
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/21/2011 23:39 Comments || Top||

#14  And before anyone asks, I think Yucca Mountain is a short-term solution. For a long-term solution I think the waste needs to be burned in an appropriately constructed breeder reactor.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/21/2011 23:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Biden compares Republicans in Congress to rape excusers
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Friday, compared Republicans in Congress to people who excuse rapists by blaming their victims.



The vice president, known for speaking his mind and at times putting his foot in his mouth, said that Republicans who want to cut spending while at the same time cutting taxes for the wealthy are similar to rape apologists.

In setting up his comparison, the vice president explained to the audience that before the Violence Against Women Act that he championed was passed into law, "there was this attitude in our society of blaming the victim," according to a press pool account of the event.



"When a woman got raped, blame her because she was wearing a skirt too short, she looked the wrong way or she wasn't home in time to make the dinner," Biden said.

"We've gotten by that," he said. "But it's amazing how these Republicans, the right wing of this party -- whose philosophy threw us into this God-awful hole we're in, gave us the tremendous deficit we've inherited -- that they're now using, now attempting to use, the very economic condition they have created to blame the victim -- whether it's organized labor or ordinary middle-class working men and women. It's bizarre. It's bizarre."


Blame Bush, smear Republicans. That old line didn't work in 2010 and it ain't gonna work in 2012. So, please, keep up the blame and smear tactics. Keep reminding the voters why you children shouldn't have the keys to the house.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/21/2011 13:06 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nutty statement! Is this the best you got Joe?
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/21/2011 14:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Part of the new civility, right Joe?

Can we return the honor and link the old slaving habits of the Donks with your bonding the wealth producers in the country now too?
Posted by: Procopiuis2k || 03/21/2011 17:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh boy, Joe sure is a smooth operator with that there whole rape analogy.
Posted by: Fi || 03/21/2011 21:13 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Obama/DHS Wants to Start Charging Our Neighbors To Visit Us
Canadians looking to visit the United States, arriving via air or sea, may soon pay more for the privilege.

A $5.50 border fee proposed for the 2012 budget would net millions for the American coffers, funding security measures.

However, many of our neighbors from the north are not thrilled with the move, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper who said in February: "I think in terms of the economic recovery, we want to make sure that trade and travel between our two countries is easier, not more difficult."

Citizens from Mexico and the Caribbean would also pay the fee that America's nearest neighbors have long been exempt from, Canada included.
Posted by: Snunter Snomogum5305 || 03/21/2011 13:53 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remind me how the liberals have any other ideas other than "tax"?
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/21/2011 14:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Remind me how the liberals have any other ideas other than "tax"?

"spend"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/21/2011 14:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Another dumb idea brought to you by the clueless puppet. I do expect a union card holders exemption for those who belong...
Posted by: 49 Pan || 03/21/2011 15:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Remind me how the liberals have any other ideas other than "tax"?

Charge "fees".
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/21/2011 15:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Highway robbery.
Posted by: wr || 03/21/2011 15:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Failed to Pay $287,000 in Property Taxes
In a conference call with reporters, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill just disclosed that she failed to pay $287,000 in property taxes related to her co-ownership of a private aircraft. This scandal comes quickly on the heels of recent revelations that McCaskill improperly billed taxpayers for use of the same private aircraft, for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury $88,000.
Taxes, like laws, are for the little people.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/21/2011 16:10 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now wait: before we starting criticizing Senate-person McCaskill, let's have a show of hands. Is everyone at Rantburg up to date on the taxes on his or her private jet (or jets, as the case may be)?
Posted by: Matt || 03/21/2011 17:50 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm always up-to-date on the taxes owed on my fleet of private jets - that I don't have.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/21/2011 18:26 Comments || Top||

#3  I am curious are jets like cars? Do some states have property tax on them and some just registration fees?

Wouldn't it make sense to have your jet owned and registered by your Cayman Island firm? (I mean if you are a rich senator I assume you have a Cayman Island or like tax dodge.)
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/21/2011 18:37 Comments || Top||

#4  What states only have a reg fee tax on a boat or yacht?
Posted by: Water Modem || 03/21/2011 18:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Barbara Hello!; No NO not private fleet silly. Have them listed as a business for tax write off. Rent them out and your condos. I believe you have private jets also. That would work also. This should keep your private accountant busy.
Posted by: Dale || 03/21/2011 18:50 Comments || Top||

#6  I cannot believe a US Senator is stupid enough not to have a CPA handling his/her taxes. Unless s/he IS a CPA.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/21/2011 18:58 Comments || Top||

#7  a delicious comment at AOSHQ
"10 On top of this, McCaskill signed on in February as a co-sponsor of Senate legislation that would fire federal employees if they are “seriously delinquent” in paying their own federal taxes.
The irony, it burns.

Posted by: Cicero"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/21/2011 19:07 Comments || Top||

#8  What states only have a reg fee tax on a boat or yacht?

RI. Just ask Senator Kerry.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38378992/ns/politics/
Posted by: Knuckles Chack2746 || 03/21/2011 23:24 Comments || Top||

#9  I thought Dems were exempt.
Posted by: gorb || 03/21/2011 23:35 Comments || Top||


Wisconsin Unions Get (Temporary?) Reprieve
A Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked a controversial law from going into effect that would severely restrict collective-bargaining rights for most public employees in the state. The judge’s order came after Dane County’s Democratic District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed a suit alleging that a joint committee of the legislature violated the state’s open meeting law when it abruptly called a session to get the measure passed last week.

The judge’s ruling does not speak to the legal merits of the law but says that the suit over the session has to be completed before the law can move forward.

Since the law’s enactment, protesters have made fervent efforts to recall Republican state senators who supported it, while proponents have mounted recall efforts against the Democratic senators who left Wisconsin to block the vote.
Ahhh, democracy at work! Maybe it's better to go the Costa Mesa route and lay off half the union workers to balance the budget.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/21/2011 08:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is lefty judge activism at work. "Judge’s ruling does not speak to the legal merits of the law". According to Wisconsin law the process was legal just a stall tactic. Several requests were made for them to be there for the vote but they chose not to represent their constituents (unions).
Posted by: Dale || 03/21/2011 9:31 Comments || Top||

#2  It's a travesty. That judge needs to be purged from the Justice system ASAP.
Posted by: newc || 03/21/2011 10:32 Comments || Top||

#3  #1 This is lefty judge activism at work.

Nahhh. The Judge is just giving herslef time to beef up security and change her vacation calander before she rules.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/21/2011 11:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Standard liberal procedure. If you can't get your way at the ballot box, go to court. That way you can stall and stall and stall while costing your opposition millions of dollars in legal fees. If your lucky, like they have been numerous times in Kaliphornia, the governor will refuse to support the will of the people by representing them in court against the liberal lawsuit. That way the case never even gets to the Supreme Court. It'll get as far as the Ninth Circus and the liberal will win.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/21/2011 12:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Collective Bargaining/Striking = Collective Sacking.

Someone needs to make a point.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/21/2011 12:41 Comments || Top||

#6  apparently they shopped for the right Judge:


Judge Maryann Sumi should have recused herself entirely from the Wisconsin battle due to her inability to be neutral in this case. You see, Maryann Sumi has a clear conflict of interest. Her son is a political operative who also happens to be a former lead field manager with the AFL-CIO and data manager for the SEIU State Council. Both the SEIU and the AFL-CIO have members who are public-sector employees in Wisconsin. In fact, as a federation, the AFL-CIO can boast of several member-unions that represent public-sector employees. Maryann Sumi is hardly an unbiased judge in the matter.

Jacob “Jake” Sinderbrand, Sumi’s son [see page nine here], runs a company called Left Field Strategies, a firm that works on political campaigns.

Posted by: Frank G || 03/21/2011 13:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Thank you FrankG for digging up the political Nepotism at its most disgusting.

She should be disbarred and thrown out of the court for the blatant conflict of interests.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/21/2011 13:36 Comments || Top||

#8  “Judge Sumi confirmed today what we knew all along — that the bill stripping hundreds of thousands of hard-working Wisconsinites of their voice on the job was rammed through illegally in the dark of the night,” Neuenfeldt said.

So one Democrat county judge strips the State voters of their rights in one decree from the bench?

"The Legislature and the Governor, not a single Dane County Circuit Court Judge, are responsible for the enactment of laws, says the State Attorney General. Apparently, there is no consideration of the separation of powers by this judge.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/21/2011 14:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Thank you Frank G for finding that. Looks like it is up to Walker now to go after that Judge. He should go after her with an "affidavit of prejudice for a change of venue by conflict of interest". Leaving on vacation till the end of the month gives the unions time to sign contracts. I understand due also at the end of the month.
Posted by: Dale || 03/21/2011 15:16 Comments || Top||

#10  Today Walker moved to stay the TRO

Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette asked a state judge to stay the temporary restraining order that prohibits the state from publishing its law stripping public employees of their right to collective bargaining.

La Follette says a stay pending appeal is needed to prevent irreparable injury. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi issued the restraining order Friday with virtually no written comment.

Judge Sumi had scheduled two injunction hearings on March 29 and April 1, and a hearing over the constitutionality of the bill for April 12.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 03/21/2011 17:27 Comments || Top||

#11  So which recall campaigns are ahead? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 03/21/2011 18:55 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2011-03-21
  Gaddafi compound attacked again amid reports son killed
Sun 2011-03-20
  Crisis in Libya: U.S. bombs Qaddafi's airfields
Sat 2011-03-19
  Fighting reported near Benghazi - Tanks enter city
Fri 2011-03-18
  Libya declares ceasefire after UN resolution
Thu 2011-03-17
  Bahrain forces launch crackdown on protesters
Wed 2011-03-16
  UNSC Introduces No-Fly Zone Draft Resolution
Tue 2011-03-15
  Gaddafi army penetrates rebel areas
Mon 2011-03-14
  Libya: the rebels ready to defend Ajdabiya
Sun 2011-03-13
  Libyan troops 'force rebels out of Brega'
Sat 2011-03-12
  5 family members murdered by terrorist in Itamar settlement
Fri 2011-03-11
  Rebel forces retreat from Ras Lanuf
Thu 2011-03-10
  Libya no-fly zone a UN decision, "not US": Clinton
Wed 2011-03-09
  OIC rejects military action on Libya
Tue 2011-03-08
  Gaddafi sends negotiators to Benghazi
Mon 2011-03-07
  National Libyan Council to seek recognition
Sun 2011-03-06
  Gaddafi forces fight to seize Zawiyah, dozens killed


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