it's. hello i'm telling her going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture we survived the great d.c. earthquake that only just barely is the epicenter of yesterday's quake was near a nuclear power plant i'll tell you how we just barely missed a fukushima like disaster right here in near the nation's capital and it looks like mission accomplished for president obama on the libya crisis but republicans are not ready to give the president any credit at all and according to a new wiki leaks cables master wonder just whose side the republicans were on from the beginning obama's record office.

you need to know this the concerns raised by yesterday's five point nine earthquake here in the virginia d.c. area are still reverberating long after the quake itself in a few small aftershocks are over today schools and government buildings are closed in washington d.c. the fear of aftershocks and damage has been discovered at the national cathedral and the washington monument was the largest earthquake to strike virginia and well over one hundred years and near the epicenter is the north anna nuclear power station rated the seventh most likely nuclear power plant in america to receive core damage in the event of an earthquake but due to budget cuts the quake sensors at the plant were removed back in one nine hundred ninety. luckily diesel backup

generators kicked in to prevent a meltdown after the plant lost power during the earthquake but only one and only one of the four of them failed failed the only one even luckier the plant was built to withstand a six point one earthquake yesterday's was a five point eight meaning we were not that close to suffering a focus shima like nuclear disaster in the nation's capital so will this quake serve as a wake up call here to offer his take on this is gunter director of reactor oversight reactor oversight project at the nuclear power welcome back to the program thanks again for having us great to have you what's the latest from the north anna plant well i think there right now the concern is what kind of damage happened at the plant we're. going to be monitoring this what we understand is that the plant is undergoing some surveillance now. but i think without a question there has been structural damage to the plant we're most concerned about

but buried pipe that carries radioactive water underneath the plant there's probably eight to ten miles of very pipe carrying radioactive tritium and other isotopes and that could very well have ruptured broken and is leaking into groundwater right now is there any evidence that it is or isn't is a speculation and can start over with you know we saw when the. earthquake happened back in two thousand and five that a nuclear power plant in illinois hundreds of miles away the drizzt a nuclear power station had a broken pipe as a result of better quake so you know this is this process it was four miles away from the epicenter so i would say without question there's going to be structural damage to things like pipes. concrete retaining walls things like that one of the things that i read the paper. and you confirm for me if this is as true about the.

moral as one hundred years ago we had an earthquake here in the within the d.c. area that was there in virginia that was between seven and eight they didn't have the richter scale back then but you know it was ringing church bells and they had you know ways that we can infer how severe it was it was worse than six point one if that's the case. why on earth would anybody design build and license a nuclear power plant in this area for a maximum six point one earthquake well even more concern is back when this plant was originally being cited in the one nine hundred sixty s. . electric power company actually falsified reports to the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission and eventually got twelve counts of making false statements to the federal government where they said there wasn't even an earthquake fault in the area so they were charged with twelve crimes. and you know

fortunately they only got a sixty thousand dollars fine for making false statements to the federal government but this is the kind of cost benefit analysis that benefits the corporation and potentially puts the public safety a great risk i mean right now the whole idea of earthquake assessment is is pretty much guesswork and if you look at what the in our sea was saying back in one nine hundred eighty nine and then reassessments in two thousand and eight there was a thirty five percent increase for this particular plant just in the risk of having a core melt from from a core accident so the risks are going up speaking of the risks going up my understanding and again correct me if i'm wrong is that this plant draws its power from a lake that is created by a dam that's on a river i don't know the name of the river and that that dam is one of the. you

know we talk about our crumbling infrastructure that they have down has been identified as one of the most at risk dams in the united states if that dam goes and that lake drains down the river level will that nuclear power plant have water to cool itself or will we see if we're pushing the type in soil here you know certainly given that we've got a we've got a tornado hurricane rather right that may well hit us in three or four days and is . that dam suffered structural damage from the earthquake and then you jump another couple hundred million gallons of water from you know and i we saw a report this morning in the washington post that the dam which is a dam on the north anna river which then backs up for the lake and a reservoir which provides the cooling water for these two very large reactors that dam was inspected and it was reported to have passed but what they don't address in this inspection is that the american association of since civil engineers had

given this particular dam and one hundred forty two others in virginia a d. minus for being for upkeep and maintenance on this particular and very important piece of infrastructure so the question is you know if in fact we get another challenge like a hurricane and heavy surge of water from rain if in fact this dam can hold on there because you know the question if this dam goes does that mean that the new well right now the new cars shut down and very likely the north anna plant will not be operational when hurricane irene comes in so i'm saying still need power to keep to keep the waste cool and to keep the cooling water is at a minimum with the plant shut you know it's a big difference between having a clay operational and the planet to shut down. is not such a concern so i think that we have more margin of safety now with the plant shut

down actually all nuclear power plants are safest when they're shut down so that i think that's what we're trying to get a great axiom what's the latest out of. well today's news is that. the authorities of confirmed that hot particles of cesium one thirty seven three times the. so-called permissable level have now been found one hundred twenty five miles away from the site so this is another indication of an ever expanding ever more contaminating nuclear event that will not only present a threat in terms of distance but also time that kind of cesium is if i remember my periodic table right about two and a half times heavier than i or you know how does how does a metal you know we're not talking about you know vaporized iodine here without

a metal particles how do they get that far away from the reactor explosions and what we have now been able to confirm through the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission is that the initial explosions at fukushima were very likely he jetsons of course material into the atmosphere and vaporization of some of those some portions of those cores and so you know we remain concerned that this is as it has always been a game of hide and go seek where these particles are now seeking out to bio concentrate and magnify in the biosphere. thing and cesium imitates potassium right if it's absorbed in the bones and goes into the muscle muscle yes thank you so much you know these are being with us there you go

a course the best way to prepare east because nuclear power plants for another quake is to close them all down it's nuclear power the most dangerous and the most expensive energy source on the face of the planet for good. sign for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here is that is question your part of the tax loopholes pushed by paul ryan benefits. top campaign contributors will we get campaign finance reform the choices are yes let's get working out or no meat congressman paul ryan the best lawmaker money can buy a lot of them are been dug out a lot of snow that you think all the open until tomorrow morning. crazy alert deadly donuts group police advised that a violent yet tasty crime ring near the city of salonika croaks and thugs had cornered the donut market in the greek beach resort city mostly by beating up the

competition to make sure that their donuts and their donuts alone were on sale in the area and don't again consisting of two bulgarian men and a former greek wrestling champion was discovered after an undercover police officer posing as a boner seller was attacked by the men krispy kreme gang is now facing charges of fraud and blackmail as well as several food safety violations if this is what's going on in the group don't mark i hate to see the dust ups in the bottle of world market. coming up on the big picture are lone law liberal rodwell with my conservative paddle and this is where the studio doesn't actually rumble. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions. made who can you trust no one who is in view with the global machinery see where we had a state controlled capitalism and school sackfuls when nobody dares to ask

we do our tea question more. for. this was a the night when i'm alone liberal and go up against two expert political commentators to debate the week's biggest stories so far are palin the whole panel tonight daniel helper the deputy on line editor of the weekly standard and jimmy weinstein

senior editor at the daily caller. jean thanks tommy let's get started ok first of all it looks like it off is gone obama's strategy was you know was a success for now the republicans don't give credit where credit's due john mccain lindsey graham released a strange joint see statement this week saying we commend our british french and other allies as well as our arab partners especially guitar in the u.a.e. for their leadership in this conflict we regret that the success was so. long in coming due to the failure of the united states to employ a full weight of our air power. according to wiki leaks it will matter cables back in two thousand and nine which again lindsey graham and joe lieberman met with gadhafi senator mccain assured libya that the united states wanted to provide libya with if it needed for the libyan security program including c one thirty s. he pledged to see what he could do to move things forward in congress so whose side of these republicans are those or could come to reason that could off he was not

able to use any of the weapons of mass destruction that he was building in his arsenal is because republicans launched a war in iraq if you want to count the success there is the fact that he got scared of what happened in iraq as he told the italian prime minister and was willing to negotiate his weapons away i think lindsey graham and and weapons the lindsey graham and john mccain going over to mill about those get through not those who were talking actually but we've got to imagine u m d's you know he had a there's no question about it he negotiated in the way this is this is well known and and what and where did they go and what if they gave about the international inspectors as a result of iraq war you told of you telling prime minister he was scared what happened to saddam i didn't want to have to hear that was. how to deal and become part of the league of nations and become legitimate is by the way start selling his oil to us and get a lot of money from i'll leave you know the reason but what he told the italian prime minister is that he was scared what he saw in iraq and you believe there was going to. do i do believe that he was there which i needed to look at all what it

was going at the time but i think i think you're sort of missing the larger point i think a lot of republicans have learned a lesson they don't want to start waving banners and say mission accomplished because mission has not yet been accomplished what obama's done has been good and he's get getting rid of gadhafi but i think it's still premature to even say that because you don't know where gadhafi is i think that's been good i don't think i think that's in a way that's the easiest part is getting rid of the dictator the harder part is is having a stable good government take its place i think just look at. long we've been in iraq and afghanistan but that's the hard part says but so there are a lot of people an interesting glee there are a lot of obama supporters are turning around saying why will republicans give why don't republicans give credit where it's due i think republicans are saying let's take let's wait because you know it was always a lack of the i like easy part was tato the heart you know here's here with saddam here is harder part was here is trying to bolster democracy in iraq saying the same will be true of libya and i think there's a huge difference because you know iraq we had boots on the ground and the iraqis

were gone those guys are occupying their a place that i think had been absolutely that was it was a situation very clear not only but but but way to say in fact in your response jane you've referenced the big picture here and i think the big picture is this president obama went to egypt and standing right next to hosni mubarak or he was off stage but they had been together president obama stood up and he said this. there are some who advocate for democracy only when they're out power. once in power they are ruthless in suppressing the rights of others so no matter where it takes hold government of the people and by the people. sets a single standard for all who would hold power. you must maintain your power through consent not coercion so he goes into the home of belly of a dictator and says to the people dictators no good and those people rise up i mean

you know the whole are appearing on the ground doesn't this for a q do you wish israel on the contrary going on and spending ten years on i'm afraid that narrative is just not true if you look at the democracy program under obama even in the easiest cases where wars and many much calculation of having to try to be friendly with unstable regimes like in cuba if you talk to people on the ground there are good knocks your programs were cut under obama it's not that he said anything about it about the state department's efforts to this i'm talking about what. we had one you know the question which was wonderful what you were going to say the soviet union fell because ronald reagan said tear down this wall this was the one who dealing with retard it was with their record about freedom bush's second inaugural address my didn't even utopian he was he was speaking to this it was like the one behind me in that speech that sounded like he was george w. bush good for him i applaud him for that and for for promoting democracy now he has

already said that this is been rhetoric we jetted has line like no boots on the ground that line that you played he has not brought down three dictators he helped bring down khadafy he did not get engaged with mubarak soon enough and assad is his side is in syria murdering his people he had nothing to do with tunisia look i give obama threaded knees you want to happen if the end you know i know i think it i think it would happen regardless of the speech and his speech had nothing to do with this i think this is missing i think obama's ratings in the muslim world are low much lower than even george w. bush's so i think if you want to give credit where if you're talking about the muslim world worldwide if you're talking about a bad part of the world no no you're seeing this through the same issues when i tell you i hope obama is more successful than it has been i don't think it's a great idea that without any democracy it's. that egypt is now where it is i'm very afraid that it's going to be coming in as long as government there i wish he spoke up when when the uranium bomb as well when you have get with the uranium were

protesting in the streets we're looking at is it time for this moved up to where the biggest offices in downtown in downtown no not even the baghdad are the bank of the middle east is changing there's obviously arab spring with great work we can debate what have we got here but the point is that it's changing if america one is absolute and frankly assert itself and i don't think i well certainly any help that we need to stop that that's what obama's we need to. be criticizing our own president is that in you know i hope we do successful i try both of you let's let's go i believe that the martin luther king memorial is going to be dedicated this week and according to washington post only thirty six percent of african-americans now believe that dr dream and dr king's dream has been realized down from sixty five when president obama was inaugurated african-americans have been the hardest hit by the recession bush recession fifty three percent decline in total wealth since last year the bush administration typical white households right now one hundred thirteen thousand dollars and well typical black households in the united

states five thousand dollars this is a staggering disparity between these two and and republicans claim the age of racial discrimination is dead that we should be rolling back affirmative action and so what is the alternative that the republicans are offering instead of affirmative action or other programs to address these wealth inequality. along rash racial lines or the republicans just not care a roaring economy. and and you're going to get that how why it is got dressing at any particular community by unleashing the entrepreneurial forces of america there's a lot of money and so they're all right well you know you've mentioned before there's a lot of money companies have on the sidelines we want to get was in play so so the billionaires are going to help african-americans or. the billionaires if you call in companies that create that. aged fifty seven percent of jobs overseas are going to help lex there is there is also being jobs created in the

south for a company car companies if we're talking about auto companies coming to the south from japan because they're going to sort of companies are going to help from africa to companies that companies have racial preferences that you seem to favor for the for more than the last few decades because for the last three hundred fifty years they have to use a racial preferences and it has everything we had affirmative action programs racial preference programs for the last you know what i want to reiterate of yours and they haven't been successful this is going to this isn't you know not notice that there's a huge black middle class that didn't exist when you present them are you breaking these these sad statistic is what i'm saying is this is this is that have these programs that are reasonably average white house hold as one hundred thirteen thousand dollars and in total role is part of that is skewed by the fact that most most of the billionaires are white and so you've got that effect but the larger part of it is that there is multi-generational both physical wealth and cultural

wealth you know life families that has not by and large existed in black families because you've only had a generation since we had last not just agreeing with the disparity in the fraction of the facts but i'm saying what i'm suggesting is that the policies that we've had in place have not been helping have only been agitating the problem and i think we could june war by not having the policies it's not the end goal of the policies i am inclined i'm sympathetic toward of course the problem is that they're not successful in these statistics that you showed prove that point do you have a policy you disagree with what we disagree and you disagree with the statistics and up i think we can both agree that the best way to help anyone in poverty black white or hispanic is to create a a warning economy we know this is a recurring economy's principly to the benefit of white people as you saw. this is it shows that the decline has been dramatic but i want to connally would presumably lift everybody so the old you know rising tide lifts all boats i mean there there

is some small amount of truth of that but you know what about the fact that some of those boats are row boats and some of those boats are you know three story for wonderful on yachts so what do you do instead you proposed during the or bolstering the programs that we've had in place up until now i don't pose a major bootstrapping you know giving people bootstraps program that would that would in any way that we're here today and it's just hasn't worked that's they'll be getting up our forty in half in the united states in six years and bill clinton cut away most of that program will from fifty seven percent of people who are eligible for welfare being able to get it to now it's less than what i was you know i think that right claims that because bill clinton cut away the social safety net which didn't seem like a problem in the ninety's because we had your an economy and now when we get the bush recession it's a disaster for the social safety net because there's an. solve the problem that you're suggesting it isn't so closing the gap and creating parity as it is that's how it is and i'm going to resolve this that i admit when we only have two minutes left the city of aurora california or colorado rather is cutting

a deal with gaillard entertainment familiar with the size of your smile this is this is this is classic the inside of agreement let me read this this with respect to any taxable or real personal property within the area proposed or whose owner is not a natural person wasn't natural person who is qualified to register to vote in the general elections in the state and is designated by such owner that is the corporation to vote for such an order that is the corporation rather such natural person resides in the area proposed or not only one such person shall be does doesn't need to buy each other no other words the corporation gets to designate a human to vote on their behalf and presumably even to run the city for city council or congress on their behalf so the question should this designated person if the corporation commits a crime. or kill somebody with one of their products in this designated person go to jail as careful optimist tom i think you're looking at the wrong way this is

this is what's great about america you can have somebody in aurora colorado proposing some on some city council proposing some silly policy and people may or may not accept it but that that's what democracy is about and that's i mean that's why you have these local governance is that's why you have these this is why you have one of these i like about what you guys is that you post to this is history you know this is exactly what was needed oh this is now and he says all in garlands and have free not even every congressional district on the margins of corporations designate is one you know where this is said they don't know why no deposits no corporate just like anyone to the council and tom look we get the point of this what they're trying to do is they're trying to entice a corporation a large corporation that will move into their district where they're not they're going to get it right in two thousand resident adam oates the reason they're doing it and i think we can all be sympathetic to this is that is because the economy is so bad because what people are going to go to you want to have you want to have a court in britain have

a hatter doesn't even know you don't think there is any i don't think either of those are either of us are suggesting we should have a corporation have a vote i think we're just saying sitting on the series of u.s. soldiers that i don't neither of us are suggesting that well you're not you're you're defending what you're suggesting is that this is one instance of a town council is indicative of most of the need taking over the kind of learn pricing on the town council including this one is the logical next step from supergroup it. i disagree and which part of the do you get that because you know that well actually i mostly in the dissent where they just lay it right out there and i if you haven't read it encourages strongly encourage you to read justice stevens as you sent me a last question quickfire last night funny man david letterman says he this discovered the cause of yesterday's freak earthquake on the east coast take a look. they have traced the epicenter of the earthquake to governor chris christie's aerobics class. cheap shot and comedian andy borowitz reports that billionaire televangelist pat robertson has said this on

his seven hundred club today that it was only a mild earthquake because yesterday's mild east coast earthquake was god's revenge on people who act to kind of get robertson said all across the eastern seaboard there are men who get manicures where designer i wear and know about thread counts god made this somewhat gave a lighter finds the somewhat light gay like behavior confusing and he responded by getting mildly. or so this is a borowitz report but let's assume neither irritated god nor governor christie is to blame for the earthquake and who is a couple choices president obama all the nature smite and while he's on vacation he did leave town you know or eric here in the epicenter is right in the middle of his district is he responsible for cutting funding and he's responsible for cutting funding the u.s. geological service and disaster when we just reported on the daily caller on a jihad his website they have given the explanation is actually punishment from

allah for our sins and if we do not repent it might be more serious he said that it would be a moderately good guys and could could be a hurricane of this it was if you could be a hurricane or tornado and hurricane irene is heading up a coast so i would suggest you could strongly consider converting what maybe does chris christie jumping into the republican race and road it all up i thought ryan's not going to do what we want a risky and my take on it fracking i'm very concerned that this may have said that you are right but i will see. the general pace of baseball. coming out is the republicans wishy washy approach to lowering tax cuts actually their keys strategy for crashing the economy and securing the presidential c twenty two well.

let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here. i think. even one well. whatever government says they're going to confuse safe get ready because if you give them freedom. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so sorely sleep is if you understand it and then you've lived something else if you're see some other part.