Blatant Reality

I don’t know if you have heard about the Utah nuclear waste company that wants to import waste from Italy but now they are becoming one of the largest contributors to several politicians, including one from SC. I’m guessing people aren’t really to hot about the idea of having to ship nuclear waste all the way across the country.

Since 2005, the company’s political action committee, executives and investors have poured nearly $400,000 into congressional campaigns through January, up from about $40,000 in the four previous years, Federal Election Commission reports show.

 

The company’s growing influence in Washington will be tested this year as it tries to kill a bill that would ban the importation of low-level radioactive foreign waste, which would be disposed at its dump in western Utah’s desert.

 

“I’m sure this means many millions of dollars to them, so I’m sure they’re going to be working hard to stop it,” said Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., the bill’s co-sponsor.

 

EnergySolutions increased lobbyist spending from $680,000 in 2006 to more than $1 million last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

Since Utah has this tiny problem of being a landlocked state, the nuclear waste would obviously have to first make its way through a port. What port is it? Well, as the saying goes, all you have to do is follow the money. Guess where the biggest chunk of money has gone too. None other than South Carolina’s very own Lindsay Graham.

The biggest recipient of EnergySolutions’ recent spending spree is Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an ardent supporter of nuclear energy.

 

Graham has received $24,000 in campaign contributions from EnergySolutions’ PAC and more than $19,000 from company investors and executives since December 2006.

 

He is encouraging the NRC to allow the construction of two nuclear power plants in South Carolina, where EnergySolutions manages the site through which the Italian waste could be imported.

 

The company wants to import the waste through the ports of Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans for processing in Tennessee.

Now I’m not bashing on Senator Graham because I, for one, am all for nuclear energy. Therefore, I know that this problem of shipping nuclear waste from one place to another is a major issue that will have to be dealt with. The fact that Charleston would be the main port for something like this is great because there have been recent reports that Charleston’s port has slowly been receiving less shipments. This will be great to pump some extra cash into the economy.

However, South Carolina’s main source of income is tourism and Charleston is a major tourist city. Therefore, if there were to be an accident dealing with nuclear waste in Charleston, a very vital of the state’s livelihood would be gone. What this means is that even though I am all for nuclear energy and even possibly this Utah deal, there better be some hell of regulations to ensure that everything goes smoothly and safely

Contrary to what all is being said about guns after Obama’s whole ‘Bittergate’ deal, they still want to take your guns. As Hillary has been trying to prove that she supports gun rights, all you have to do is just look at the numbers and you will be able to see the whole story. Looking at the grades they have received from pro gun-orientated interest groups, you can clearly see that Hillary has failed miserably since the beginning. Barack, on the other hand, did receive more favorable scores from the most recent assessment but judging by his comments in the last week, I’m sure the next assessment won’t be as favorable.

The scary thing about this is that McCain didn’t receive scores that were a lot better.

As always, Frank J. from IMAO has some interesting comments concerning what is being called ‘Bittergate’, Obama’s condescending comments about middle America. Here are two I find particularly interesting:

* Having nothing else left, Hillary sure is seizing on this controversy and portraying herself as Annie Oakley. Of course, she has a history of supporting repressive gun control, but that’s why conservatives trust her more. We know the only fundamental issue she holds dear is that she should have power; she’ll move on any other issue if necessary.

 

* Doesn’t the Tuzla comments seem endearing in comparison? While Obama’s speech was about looking down on us and our values, Hillary was lying to try and fit in with us, bless her little heart.

Frank hit the nail on the head. I used to be with the whole “Anyone but Hillary” crowd but a couple months ago I saw the light. Worst comes to worse and a Democrat gets elected to office, I at least want one who I know what to expect. Hillary has been on the scene so long that we all know exactly what she wants. Barack on the other hand is a wild card that could do anything from dismantling the military to establishing Wright as the leader of a new state sponsored religion.

Today, the head of Iran’s nuclear program canceled a meeting with the chief of the IAEA. This meeting was a test to see whether Iran was serious about their nuclear program being open for the world to see.

The head of Iran’s nuclear programme has cancelled a meeting scheduled for today with the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

 

Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, the Iranian vice-president, gave no reason for calling off talks with Mohamed ElBaradei, who was expected to use the meeting to investigate claims that Tehran had attempted to develop nuclear weapons.

 

Diplomats said the meeting was likely to have dealt with last week’s announcement by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of a major expansion of the country’s capacity for uranium enrichment, in defiance of UN security council demands.

 

The talks were seen as a test of Iran’s willingness to cooperate with the IAEA’s demands for greater openness surrounding what Tehran maintains is a civilian nuclear programme. Iran is under three sets of security council sanctions for its refusal to comply.

No meeting = not open.

Since Rudy’s campaign basically fell apart at the end of last year, the debt he accrued by staying in the race way past the “graceful exit” period is fairly large. In fact, $3.1 million is a very very large sum of money that is probably more than the Huckabee team had raised at the time they passed Rudy in the polls (don’t hold me to that). Since no one likes giving to a campaign that has already lost, John McCain has pleaded to the Republican community to donate some money to help America’s Favorite Mayor pay off his debt.

Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is not known for its fund raising prowess so it’s unusual that the Arizona senator is using his all-but-certain nominee status to raise money for former rival Rudy Giuliani.

 

In an April 3 memo obtained by Washington Wire, campaign manager Rick Davis asked donors — in the spirit of party unity — to help with “a special request”: paying off the campaign debt accrued by Giuliani in the Republican presidential primary.

 

“The Giuliani campaign is trying to retire the debt they incurred during the primary campaign. As the leadership of this campaign, the Senator and I are asking you to help in this effort,” wrote Davis, who praised the former New York City mayor as “a national hero” and thanked him for his “dedicated support” of McCain.

 

According to the most recent March 20 filing with the Federal Election Commission, the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee reported more than $4 million in cash, but more than $3.1 million in debt.

 

In the memo, written to the “McCain Finance Leadership” with the subject line “Help Unite the Party,” Davis acknowledges that some donors might raise eyebrows at the appeal.

 

“While this is an unusual request, it is extremely important for the McCain campaign and the party. We need to help Mayor Giuliani retire his debt as soon as possible so we can move forward with everyone spending 100% of their time helping to get John McCain in the White House,” wrote Davis, “The time Rudy Giuliani has to spend raising money to pay down his debt is time he could be spending raising money and reaching out to voters for us.”

Well it seems that there might have been some sectarian violence in Iran today. A Baha’i church in Iran was bombed, killing at least 9 people.

A bomb exploded in a mosque in the southern Iranian city Shiraz on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 100, Iranian media reported.

 

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast in a crowded district of the city, state television said.

 

“At least nine people were killed and 105 injured in the blast,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoting a local hospital official as saying.

 

The death toll was expected to rise because some of the wounded were in critical condition, the official said.

No one has come forward to claim the bombing yet the article does seem to think that the United States or Britain might of had a hand it in.

Once again we find ourselves standing on the brink of the start of another wonderful weekend. Here is a picture to hopefully put you in the perfect mindset.

Here is a picture that I took while I was in Ireland last year. They had these awesome trees whose branches looked almost like fractals (Picture here and Definition here). Anyways, here is what I think is a cool picture of one.

Tree – Killarney, Ireland

The Associated Press ran an article to day confirming what most Republicans and bloggers had predicted: a long, drawn-out battle between Hillary and Barack would help the Republican nominee.

Republican Sen. John McCain has erased Sen. Barack Obama’s 10-point advantage in a head-to-head matchup, leaving him essentially tied with both Democratic candidates in an Associated Press-Ipsos national poll released Thursday.

 

The survey showed the extended Democratic primary campaign creating divisions among supporters of Obama and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and suggests a tight race for the presidency in November no matter which Democrat becomes the nominee.

 

McCain is benefiting from a bounce since he clinched the GOP nomination a month ago. The four-term Arizona senator has moved up in matchups with each of the Democratic candidates, particularly Obama.

 

An AP-Ipsos poll taken in late February had Obama leading McCain 51-41 percent. The current survey, conducted April 7-9, had them at 45 percent each. McCain leads Obama among men, whites, Southerners, married women and independents.

 

Clinton led McCain, 48-43 percent, in February. The latest survey showed the New York senator with 48 percent support to McCain’s 45 percent. Factoring in the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, Clinton and McCain are statistically tied.

Seems like Rush’s plan is working.

LGF has an article that shows how Obama’s site had a community blog post that was blatantly anti-semitic. Remember everyone, as you can see from the picture, the post had been up since March 1, 2008 and it took LGF’s post for it to finally come down. You would have thought that someone would have caught it and made a complaint before now.

With Russia about to experience “leadership” from two sources (Putin and Medvedev), some are predicting that the power sharing won’t last too long.

Russia is heading for a crisis if President Vladimir Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, try to share the country’s leadership, the leader of the biggest opposition party said on Tuesday.

 

Putin, whose presidency ends next month, has said he will serve as prime minister under his protege Medvedev. This will create a power-sharing arrangement unusual for a country accustomed to having a single, strong leader.

 

“I find it hard to imagine a Russia in which there are two tsars,” Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov told a news conference.

 

Russian history showed that when there was no clear leader, “feuds and serious disorder always began, so we need to understand how they are going to divide up power between them,” he said. “If they rule together it will not work out.”

Well you know what they say about trying to serve two masters. There very well may come a day when the Russian people have to pick a side.