Halfway around the world, the Japanese government has upgraded the severity of the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant, and expanded the evacuation zone to 30 kilometers (18.6 miles).
The US government, meanwhile, is asking all Americans within an 80-km radius — almost 50 miles — to leave.
That should be a wake-up call to Westport.
As the website Gizmodo graphically shows, we’re well within that 80-km radius, should anything dire happen to the Indian Point Station, just south of Peekskill.
We’re also just a cloud or 2 out of range of a disaster at the Millstone Nuclear Plant near New London.
Indian Point has been designed to withstand an earthquake 100 times the magnitude of the strongest quake ever recorded in the area.
And, as Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has reassured us, “We believe that reactor is safe. There is constant scrutiny of the reactors in all of our plants around the United States.”
I’m just sayin’…
How about the tsunami produced by the earthquake?
There would be no tsunami in the Hudson River. But nuclear plants everywhere are vulnerable to many problems, including plane crashes (accidental as well as intentional), worker error, sabotage, cybercrime — scary stuff.
If there were a tsunami in the Atlantic it would certainly affect New London, not to mention shorefront communities, so why not worry about the tsunami as well?
Okay, I will.
And don’t forget the meteors.
Yeah but the Navy has used nuclear for decades with their subs and aircraft carriers. Maybe someone should ask them what they are doing right.
Just imagine if United Illuminating had succeeded with its plan to build a nuke plant on Cockenoe Island in the ’60s? That would have been hell on Westport property values, with or without earthquakes or tsunamis. I still have a “Save Cockenoe Now” poster hanging in my office.
Yeah but our electric bills would be a helleva lot lower. Heard that Sarah wants to invade Tsunamis for what they did to the Japanese. Our 4th War?
We are too busy in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan to invade any place else.
Amen to that. And our Prez wants to cut the deficit? Bring the troops home and stop making 35 million dollar F-22’s that the pilots don’t even like.
The production of F-22’s stopped some time ago. Fully costed the planes were more than $100 million per copy.
I have a friend whose son flys one.
I bet you Googled that?
I hear junk for the price. F-16 priceless.
Overbuilt is the impression I got. F-16 more cost, effective, but the 22 was supposed to replace the 15, I thought.
Indeed, the F-22 did replace the F-15. Next up, the F-35. As Bubba Barney recently said: “I can understand why the US Air Force has to have the largest air force in the world. What I don’t understand is why the US Navy has to have the second largest air force in the world.”
3 wars at a time. Ask ears.
Maybe ask the GOP House who started two of them and then lowered taxes and they are back . . .
After two years, you own them. BTW they did not lower taxes, but we have been over this ground before.
If ears is going to keep us flying and fighting in Libya, despite promises to the contrary, we are going to need new planes eventually.
Tax cuts to the rich under W (renewed under Ears) while he put the
cost of two Wars on a credit card. My understanding is that they are
not even flying sorties anymore over Libya. NATO/France which I guess
basically are our planes.
There were no tax cuts; tax receipts increased under W. According to the Pentagon spokesman, US aircraft have been placed at NATO’s disposal and are now flying sorties over Libya. Why would you believe ears when he says the bombing by US aircraft ended?
“US fighter jets are still carrying out bombing raids on Libya’s air defences, the Pentagon says, days after indicating American combat aircraft had withdrawn from NATO operations.
US warplanes have attacked air defence targets three times since April 4, when NATO assumed command of the air campaign, spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said today.”
Sign in a Military Recruiting Office:
THREE WARS… NO WAITING
More to come no doubt.
Are you saying that W did not instigate tax cuts to the top 1% of the wealthy during his administraton? Ears is becoming a bigger war monger than ’43. Never trust a man who didn’t serve with the button. And who was the last?
W lowered tax rates, not taxes, and not just for the top 1%. Tax receipts increased, just as they did when JFK cut tax rates and Reagan cut tax rates. The percent of all federal income taxes paid by the top 1% of income earners has increased from roughly 20% when JFK cut tax rates to roughly 40% today. Soldiers are dying, the wars have expanded, but I don’t see any protestors on the bridge. Why do suppose that is ? Obama gets a free pass.
Congress just renewed the “Bush tax cuts”??? The wars do not affect them/us. Not in the news. Just watched Burns’ doc on WWII and how everybody was affected. Bring back the draft and they will line Main Street. Again.
If they were smart, they would not be in Congress (Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville). The peace-time draft is a remnant of FDR’s push towards totalitarianism; really bad idea, but you are right if there were no student deferments.
Oh I think there are smart folks in the Congress but for the wrong reasons. I am surprised that the draft did not start until 1940. I wonder what they did in WWI? The higher echelon of the military frowns on the draft (and maybe it keeps them scaled down as to another war) but I maintain that, for many, a two year stint might be the best thing for everyone involved.
There was a draft “conscription” during WW I. Wilson needed cheap fodder to fight his war. FDR (another “progressive”) put in place a peace time draft. Wilson at least waited until he dragged us into WW I before he trampled on the rights of young men. Not so with FDR, when the unemployment rate is 15% or so a military draft helps lower that number. I am surprised ears hasn’t used that approach.
He doesn’t have to. Once you have been unemployed long enough for your benefits to run out, you are not unemployed anymore! Or at least you are removed from the official calculation of unemployment (BLS calls U-3, which is 9.2% as of 3/11). The unemployment number you want to focus on is U-6, which adds back those “marginally attached to the workforce” like part-timers who want to be full time as well as those who can work but have given up looking. That number is 16.2% as of 3/11. I think it is much higher in reality- how many “consultants” do you know who aren’t getting a paycheck, but carry a business card for their own sanity/self-estem?
Not many. Not sure why the Prez, despite his failings, should be held responsible for unemployment? Big Biz is holding back about 3 trillion in investment dollars waiting for the wind to turn while Joe Blow is tuning up his lawnmower for a change in careers. And BTW, unemployment pays more than an E-5 in Afganistan. Go figure?
Ears has attacked the business community creating a hostile environment. His healthcare bill will increase the costs of doing business in the US and his thousands of pages of new regulations don’t help. Business sat on its hands when FDR made his push for totalitarianism, and it is doing the same now. Why invest with this clown in the White House.
I read recently that the most productive Toyota factories in the world are in England after a complete reversal of workers mindset. Why should big biz care who is in the White House? They didn’t with Bubba in the good times and the Ears’ regulatory laws are a band aid. They know it too. The problem with Obamacare is that it does not deal with the costs but only the enrollment. American biz for Americans for a “change.”
Congress is not in touch with the military. Most of them have not served. The military budget has skyrocketed 81% since 911. Ike was right. Gates said the other day, 50,000 are not leaving Iraq until THEY give us permission? Jeez, what a cluster$%#*.
An 81% increase over 10 years is not much when we are fighting 3 wars. Other parts of the budget have increased at a much faster rate. It was not the private sector that sent troops into Iraq, Iran, and now Libya. A Strange silence has overtaken the anti-war crowd. Maybe principles were supplanted by partisanship, if there are any principles envolved.
Not Iran, Afghanistan. Iran may be next.
Not Iran, Afghanistan.
Indeed, when we first invaded Iraq, many protestors while I was at Rice but nothing now. The Saturday morning gathering on the bridge here is two people. Get more at an alleged gay soldier’s funeral then about the war. Strange is a good word. Perhaps afraid since Tuscon?
No; much more likely that the opposition to the war was a manifestation of partisianship. Obama gets a pass; Gitmo, three wars, not a peep.
Manifestation of parisianship? They looked the other way when W set it up. 4th estate was asleep. It is an unsuccessful sham with little results. Got to keep it quiet now.
Waiting for the change? Teddy turning in his grave.
We have change. Unemployment has increased, the deficit is larger, and we are fighting one more war. How much change can you stand?
Not to go back to 8 years of blundering under the Cheney regime. McCain said our economy was doing well one month before it collapsed. Ears has his faults but the GOP is not the answer. Nor is the Donald although he does want Iraq to pay for its “rescue.”