taosplaza.com

Video 7:56. Fukushima Nuclear Crisis. Japan is not out of the danger zone...in fact the nuclear crisis is getting worse and worse!

We've recently learned from Japan that the amount of radiation released was more than 20 times that from the Hiroshima bomb, and now it looks they may be experiencing the early stages of a total China Syndrome meltdown. Is the United States in danger too?

We're seeing doses that could cause fatalities. This is one millirem Per Hour, so these are lethal doses coming out of the ground.

Now it's coming up out of the ground through cracks around the facility so the accident is now clearly much more seriously out of control than they're willing to admit.

Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann.

Video 24:53. I think I'm more important in the long run than that country (USA) which has not been heard from recently except for blowing up villages in the desert.

American Foreign Policy: “Insanity. You don't go to war against most of the world unless you can win one of the wars. We don't count World War II. We had a little help from the Russians.”

“General Electric owns one of the great networks. Will that great network ever criticize General Electric for making the atomic bomb and encouraging its use against Japan? No they won't.”

“We overlap too many things, except intelligence, which we don't have that much of two overlap. It's off in a corner.”

“I was one of the few voices that went on television and yelled when Bush with that ghastly little attorney general (Alberto Gonzales) got rid of the Bill of Rights in our country. He and Bush together..., Bush wanted more power. More power you get by being a wartime president. You do that by declaring war on somebody without asking them. That's what he did. That's what Bush did. In a normal country, both Bush and he would have been imprisoned and tried for treason.”

“He was really stupid, but that's not unusual in American journalism. If everyone else is stupid they might as well just be dumb too. That's what were up against. Indomitable stupidity.”

“You act as if America was a fact. It's a notion. It's a flag. It's a lot a loud noise. I don't think much of anybody who takes it very seriously.”

“Look. I accept. They don't accept anybody. I am the one who decides, because I write the record. That's how it goes. And it never occurred to me that I was on probation. I said the whole god damned country is on probation when I am sitting here on the bench.”

“Despite provocation I have never killed anyone. I thought that was pretty neat. (As a legacy). Well why not? There are worse legacies around.”

From HuffPost by Sandy Goodman. As far as I'm concerned, the most sensible idea to come out of this whole debt-ceiling mess so far is from Vermont's independent senator, Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats. Sanders says President Obama is so weak in his dealings with Republicans that he should be forced to face opposition in next year's Democratic primaries.

Sen. Sanders didn't name another candidate or indicate he'd like a different Democratic nominee. But I'd like to suggest one: the candidate the president unfortunately defeated in the 2008 primaries, Hillary Clinton. She's the only other Democrat around who can win nomination and election.

I know Mrs. Clinton has said she has no more interest in the presidency. She's even denied that she's interested in heading the World Bank after she leaves the State Department. And her husband insists that what she really wants to be, above all, is a grandma.

But we Democrats have got to draft her to run against Obama, hoping that maybe if enough of us can persuade her that she's needed to save the country -- and put up enough money for her to win -- she'll change her mind. I know it's a very long shot -- and almost too much to ask of a politician who's gone through years of hell. But the alternatives, four more years of Obama, or one of the Republican lunatics or plutocrats currently in the picture, are simply unacceptable.

It goes without saying that four more years of GOP destruction of our government won't do. Neither will Obama, who has spent the last 2 ½ years in the White House permitting it to continue. He's caved in so often on so many issues that having him in office is little better than having a Republican there. And the continuing poor economy makes his re-election far from certain.

He came in with no leadership experience and promising national unity. A ridiculous idea, considering that Republicans had tried to destroy his last Democratic predecessor. Given her first hand memory of that, Mrs. Clinton would have entered the White House with no such illusions -- but with years of experience as First Lady and senator (and now with crucial foreign policy experience as Secretary of State). She'd have fought the GOP fanatics tooth and nail from the very beginning. Obama did exactly the opposite. He was determined to be reasonable. You can't be reasonable with fanatics.

What this country needed after eight disastrous years of Bush was jobs and a solution to the foreclosure crisis. What Obama gave us (besides a welcome, expanded health care plan that's still to be tested) was a stimulus that wasn't nearly big enough. He didn't fight for more stimulus; a big, much-needed infrastructure jobs program, or any way out of the housing disaster.

Instead, he gave in to Republican craziness, adopting their phony cry that the real economic problems were deficits and debts. Republicans spent eight years accumulating those deficits, and raising the national debt by 86 percent under Bush, without a worry in the world.

But suddenly, when Obama came in, Republicans made debt the nation's Number #1 problem. And Obama bought it. Instead of more government spending to replace the private sector's lack of same, he was almost as enthusiastic about debt reductions as the GOPers. Although, of course, they refused even to consider raising taxes, even on billionaires, as part of the solution. And the aim of their spending cuts, far from his, is "to starve the beast," i.e. destroy the government.

Continued here: Forget Obama, Draft Hillary

Check This: Video 2min 23sec. A Texas Judge Rejects Willie Nelson Plea Deal On Arrest For 3 Ounces Of Marijuana.

The judge in Willie Nelson's latest marijuana case. Here's what happened. Last year, you may remember, Willie Nelson was on the road again and got arrested for pot possession again, at a border stop in Texas.

There was apparently a very specific odor emminating from Mr. Nelson's tour bus. How much do you want to bet that the vending machine in the border patrol break room was subsequently relieved of all of its cool Ranch Doritos.

Anyway, Willie worked out a plea deal paying a $500 fine and court costs but the judge is apparently not at all stoked. She just rejected the plea deal. So now the case is back in limbo.

And there is the judge told the New York Times that she thinks the prosecutor is giving Willie special treatment because he's a fan.

Let's have a bit of perspective here, people. It was 3 ounces of pot on Willie Nelson's tour bus.

Am I the only one who assumes that on a Willie Nelson tour bus the bus pulls a flatbed trailer under a cover with an entire acre of marijuana tended by Cheech, Chong, and Snoop Dogg. 3 ounces? Willie Nelson's braids weigh more than that.