Randi Rhodes: Flag this message Japan's Tragedy & Michigan's Martial Law

Thursday, March 17, 2011 Well, it’s Saint Patrick’s Day, but the world’s attention is still riveted on the crisis in Japan. Does anybody have any green radiation suits we could wear? It’s very difficult for non-experts to understand what’s going on at the crippled reactor. The scary part is that it’s becoming clear that it’s just as difficult for the experts to understand. In Japan they’ve been trying to cool the nuclear fuel rods by dropping water from helicopters and spraying water cannons from trucks. I don’t know the Japanese alphabet, but I’m pretty sure that’s not “Plan A.” We’re looking at least at “Plan D” here. I have a bad feeling that dropping water from helicopters is only a couple of steps above “praying for a very heavy rain.” Hour One Guest: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) on the safety of US nuclear power plants Japanese officials have evacuated everyone within 12 miles of the stricken reactor. Meanwhile, US officials are telling Americans in Japan to stay at least 50 miles away. To give you an idea how big a 50-mile radius is, that’s closer than the San Onofre nuclear plant is to Los Angeles, or the Indian Point nuclear plant is to New York City. In other words, the US government is telling Americans to stay farther away from the Japanese nuclear plant than the distance they allow nuclear plants to be built from America’s largest cities. How bad is the situation in Japan? An American official said that we could be headed toward a situation that would be “deadly for decades.” Deadly for decades? Wow. You know it’s bad when the situation is being described in terms that sound like the title of an old Jean Claude Van Damme movie. The European Union’s energy commissioner said “Practically everything is out of control. I cannot exclude the worst in the hours and days to come.” Wow. It almost makes you want to turn on Fox News just to hear some comforting lies. In Michigan, thousands of people gathered to protest the Governor Rick Snyder’s new “financial martial law” bill. You know, this would have been a lot easier if liberals had gathered in large numbers before the elections. Hour Two Guest: Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO on Michigan’s new “financial martial law” law and the Michigan governor’s union-busting plans The new law in Michigan allows the governor to take over democratically elected local governments and replace them with “corporate managers” of his own choosing. These “corporate managers” can eliminate a city’s government entirely if they decide to. They’re more like some sort of administrators put in charge by an occupying force than the instruments of an elected official. I guess that’s the point. Today’s Homework | Discuss