The Japanese are close to a cold shutdown at Fukushima

They’re not totally in the clear yet, but there is good news that the crisis may be close to ending – at least as far as reactor meltdowns and such.

As to the long term damage due to radioactivity which has already escaped the plant, well, that will be the subject of Democracy Now anniversary updates and and anti-nuclear newsletters, with anecdotal information impossible to prove for the lack of formal studies – except the one which tells the Japanese Parliament that everything is hunky-dory.  Expect to be told that for the vast majority of people it is no worse than a few x-rays, and that increased cancer rates is due to increased life spans and women refusing to have babies, etc.

Notice that even the good news isn’t getting first page coverage.  It’s over.  I saw it on TV.  Or didn’t see it.

Huckabee, the Holocaust, and ungrateful Jews

Is Mike Huckabee burning bridges, or is the Anti-Defamation League?  After a speech in front of the National Rifle Association in which Huckabee likened the “silence” around national debt (seems like not only is there plenty of noise about it, but it has eclipsed the concern for jobs) to the silence of good Germans towards the Holocaust during WWII, he was criticized by ADL head Abraham Foxman who said, “It is highly inappropriate to use America’s mounting debt crisis as another occasion to invoke Nazis and the Holocaust, particularly on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, a time dedicated to memorializing, not trivializing, the 6 million Jews and millions of others who perished at the hands of the Nazis.”

Huckabee then responded with anger: “Israel and Jewish people need to make friends, not insult the ones they have.”  He has demanded a retraction and an apology from Foxman.  So far, no retraction and no apology.

Some of Huckabee’s best friends are Jewish after all.  Oh, you think he didn’t actually say that?

“Foxman’s remarks are not only factually wrong, but they are hurtful to me personally in light of my unequalled friendship with members of the Jewish community, and I ask Foxman to retract his statement as publicly as he issued it, and apologize for his lack of accuracy in issuing it and for the harm done by attacking the very strongest advocates for the Jewish people and Israel.”

You see, if you support Israel, it should exempt you from criticism from Jews about anything.

In her column linked above, Michelle Goldberg explains:

After all he’s done for Israel, Mike Huckabee does not appreciate being criticized for comparing American debt to the Holocaust. Thus on Tuesday, when the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman chastised him for doing just that, he responded with anger and a hint of menace, saying, “Israel and Jewish people need to make friends, not insult the ones they have.” Such words are unlikely to convince many Jews that Huckabee is their ally. The statement should serve as a reminder that the aggressive Zionism of the Christian right does not translate into sensitivity toward broader Jewish concerns.

Do you think?