what's going on here shouldn't we be joining germany and switzerland reconsidering nuclear power greg palast as an independent investigative journalist and author of the book armed madhouse he joins me now from new york greg welcome. to be with you again tom great to have you back with us four billion dollars for two new nukes in texas yes and of course what makes it really thrilling is that the builder one of the builders will be tokyo electric power the guys whose buildings are glowing sky high right now why been invited. the high was there why very good japanese company to the united states and i thought we were you know we can do nation we build things here right not anymore and not at all in fact one of the reasons was that the main operator houston power has been cited for criminal coverups of their problems building the first two nuclear plants in south texas they were fined a billion dollars for incompetence and building and they went bankrupt so because they're bankrupt incompetent have a criminal record they said well if you give us the four billion dollars will bring in wonderful

greg palast thanks so much for the great investigative work you're doing a great writing you're doing for being on our program today. thankful the reactors currently in danger in japan are known as mark one reactors they were designed by general electric a.b.c. is reporting that thirty five years ago three g. engineers resigned because they feared that the mark one design was flawed and then warned that should a cooling system failure take place by the way exactly what is happening in japan right now the reactors would be unable to handle the immense pressure sadly those engineers warning is starting to ring true. and. it's time for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question will the u.s. remain committed to nuclear power after this partial meltdown in japan your options are a yes the nuclear lobbyists and the political lapdogs are already at work or be no nuclear power will never ever be safe in america we'll get this now so far a whopping seventy eight percent of you think the lobbyists lapdogs have the upper hand these thoughts on cast your vote if

let's take a closer look at this company choke electric we're joined by investigative journalist greg palast who is with us from new york city to explain the connection between that company and the obama administration greg thank you so much for being here now just a few months ago president obama had asked congress for four billion dollars that's four billion with a b in loan guarantees for true new nuclear reactors in the gulf coast and guess who set to operate b s tokyo electric power so what should our viewers know about this company that we're not going to hear on c.n.n. . well first of all c.n.n. didn't tell you that the u.s. government is offering four billion dollars to this company to come here tokyo electric these are the guys who you know are burning up their own citizens they are not a reliable company they are joined and partnered with u.s. companies who have such a bad reputation that they invited tokyo electric in because they would train the u.s. workers on how to build and operate a nuclear plant on the grounds that you know the japanese really know how to do their stuff so

according to him the situation will not get out of control well for more investigative journalists greg palast is talking to us from the long island new york greg good to see you celebrating the things that he sort of downplaying the current situation saying that these are just temporary increases the situation won't get out of control do you do you agree with that assessment well it's temporary in that we've now gotten used to seventy dollars a barrel oil as a low price it's like it's that old joke about you know someone keeps punching you in the face and they say well we're now going to just start slapping your face and say thank you very much you know. yes i don't there's no question hundred dollar bill oil is it suspicious actually because we really haven't had much of a drop in production worldwide very little oil is sold on the spot market i don't see just cation for these rising gasoline prices but it is temporary but what's not temporary is the high price of oil which is being controlled by at least the choke off of supplies by the opec cartel new oil companies which are kind of. you k

on the street saying hey you bailed out those banks but what about us investigative journalist greg palast thanks so much for your time today it was because of the current economic situation in the u.s. politicians are focusing on making cuts here at home and most people aren't too happy about it after two weeks of protests in wisconsin folks are still camping out in the state capital of course demonstrations well they're spreading throughout the entire nation now well for more i spoke with one of the students who has become a face one of the faces of the labor unrest an organizer of the union protest over in madison wisconsin her name is harry of blair rowan she joined me along with bill fletcher wagner of this book right here solidarity divided the crisis in organized labor and a new path towards social justice i asked them both what the result of all these protests might be listen. it's it's an awakening it's a resistance actually and speired by the arab revolt and the unique power of no question about it how. in the arab world people under incredibly adverse conditions challenged very