Visual source: Newseum
CNN:
The number of people confirmed dead in Japan rose past 10,000 on Friday -- two weeks after one of the strongest earthquakes on record sent a tsunami plowing over the nation's eastern shore.
At least 10,035 people were killed and 17,443 are missing, the Japan National Police Agency said in its latest tally.
The numbers are expected to go up as rescuers comb through miles of coastline piled high with rubble.
For those looking to help, try
Charity Navigator. More suggestions are available in the Daily Kos Japan
mothership. For a quick update, see
WSJ blog; the Journal's overall coverage has been stellar.
WSJ:
Japan's need for fossil fuels to power its economy is likely to be higher than many have forecast, and will remain so for years ahead, as rising fears about radiation and caution by the nation's utilities are derailing nuclear plant restarts and future construction plans.
With radioactivity above permissible levels in some areas outside the 20-kilometer evacuation zone around Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s earthquake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, and the nation gripped by fears of contamination including in tap water in Tokyo, several reactor restarts and new building projects have already been pushed back.
Even utilities not directly affected by the quake are delaying restarts of reactors halted for servicing.
NY Times:
Pete V. Domenici, then a Republican senator from New Mexico, was looking for an issue to claim as his own. One staff member, a former scientist at the Los Alamos nuclear lab, tossed out an idea that seemed dead on arrival: a renewed commitment to nuclear energy.
“Are you serious?” Mr. Domenici remembers asking the aide incredulously. After Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, nuclear energy had fallen into disfavor, development had stalled, and many politicians ran from the issue like it was a toxic cloud.
But with industry backing, Mr. Domenici overcame his skepticism and became one of the driving forces in a decade-long renaissance of nuclear energy — a resurgence that began in earnest under President George W. Bush and has led President Obama to seek a $36 billion expansion in loan guarantees to finance reactors at a time when other programs are being slashed.
Now, however, the future of nuclear energy in the United States is in doubt, with advocates on all sides bracing for a fierce debate over whether the disaster in Japan should slow or even derail the planned expansion of America’s 104 nuclear reactors.
See
Nuclear power debate not likely to change with Fukushima from yesterday.
Paul Krugman:
These days, you’re not considered serious in Washington unless you profess allegiance to the same doctrine that’s failing so dismally in Europe.
Michael Gerson:
Yet agricultural aid programs have been dramatically defunded in the past few decades — unfashionable in development circles and lost among other priorities. During the 1980s, a quarter of U.S. foreign assistance went to agriculture. Today the proportion is about 1 percent. Most of Malawi’s agricultural scientists were educated by the U.S. Agency for International Development. But that training has been largely abandoned, leaving few to replace a retiring generation.
The Obama administration has tried to address this imbalance, announcing Feed the Future in 2009. This program would eventually scale up agricultural efforts in about 10 target countries, supporting responsible governments such as Malawi’s that adopt effective policies on income generation and child nutrition.
Feed the Future is innovative — and besieged. The Senate budget proposal is likely to fund six or seven countries, leaving some possibility that Malawi will make the cut. The House budget would limit that number to two or three nations, leaving Malawi with no hope of participation. Part of the blame falls to the administration itself, which has given Feed the Future little public emphasis and developed few congressional advocates. Nearly two years after its announcement, the program still lacks a coordinator. It is a good idea in need of champions.
God forbid you should blame the Republicans trying to cut everything, Michael.
Scot Lehigh:
Obama takes a page from both Ronald Reagan, who perfected the role of national leader high-minded enough to rise above his detractors, and Bill Clinton, who projected the air of a reasonable man ruefully trying to reason with a horde of hyper-partisans who preferred combat to compromise. The president knows that he enhances his image by comporting himself that way. But mostly, that’s just Obama leaning into who he is.
And as for the men and women who would replace him? First, the good news for the GOP. The party has two serious figures all but certain to run: Mitt Romney, the polished, if protean, former Massachusetts governor, and Tim Pawlenty, the determined and effective former Minnesota CEO. If he jumps in, Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s smart and accomplished governor, would make it three.
And yet look at the recent antics of some other possible candidates.
Look even more at T-Paw's dismal polling, and the fact that no one likes Romney. Can you spell enthusiasm gap?
