This kind of aggressive program is vital if we're going to stop terrorists from detonating nuclear bombs. Good to know it's a high priority with this administration, because it will make the entire world safer:

SANTIAGO, Chile - Deep inside the containment building of a nuclear reactor that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet built for his army, an aging engineer in a white lab coat struggled with a common house key to unlock a closet door.

Opening a dusty wooden box he pulled from a shelf, he revealed an array of thin aluminum-coated plates, and lifted one out with his bare hands.

"This is it," said Hugo Torres, the reactor's operations manager.

"It" is highly enriched uranium 235, HEU for short. It's the material that most worries anti-terrorism experts. Just 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of it in a nuclear bomb could devastate an entire city, in the same way the United States destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

President Barack Obama's major shift in U.S. nuclear strategy puts a new emphasis on securing this kind of weapons-grade nuclear material, recognizing that terrorists and rogue states pose a much more immediate threat than the old fears of a communist nation provoking nuclear Armageddon by attacking the U.S. or its allies.

"For the first time, preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism is now at the top of America's nuclear agenda," Obama said before signing a new START treaty with Russia to sharply reduce the number of warheads each country has ready to fire.

Obama now hopes to enlist leaders of 47 other nations at a White House summit beginning Monday to help him keep an ambitious promise, made a year ago this week, to secure all the world's vulnerable nuclear material within four years.

[...] Chile was among the first to agree to surrender its last HEU, 18 kilograms (40 pounds) it got from Britain and France for its two research reactors. A team of Americans finally shipped it out last month just after the country's massive earthquake, weaving a convoy of trucks around shattered highways in the middle of the night to reach a functioning port.

Aravosis at AmericaBlog noticed this one...I guess that McCain should thank his lucky stars that most GOP are low info voters, so hopefully not many of them picked up on this:

This, two weeks after he said that Spain was in Latin America. Here's the video from McCain's economic forum that just took place today - Ben Smith has the transcript:

McCain, talking about energy policy, stresses the importance of "ensuring that America is secure, and not dependent on oil from people like Hugo Chavez or other parts of the Middle East which is, as we know, could be destabilized under certain sets of circumstances."

Can we just get this guy a map or a little mini-globe that some staffer can keep handy?

Crooked Timber: To hell with bipartisanship. We need robust competition

Princess Sparkle Pony's Photo Blog: Hugo Chavez interviewed by...Naomi Campbell?

IntoxiNation: Email destruction, a Republican tradition

Words of Power: Those in the developed world who think what is happening in Kenya is something distant and peculiar to the African Continent are living in a dream.

The Newshoggers: Our government wouldn't lie about an attack, would they?

The Intersection: Why wont the Democrats bring back the Office of Technology Assistance?

Political Animal: As soon as he dumps another scapegoat, the Decider will announce an escalation--this time with lavender cannon fodder

Halfway There: Correcting another MSM wingnut's lies and willful ignorance

Brainshrub: Why Mom hates Hugo Chavez

The Agonist: The euro officially passes the dollar

Opinions You Should Have: We almost missed this excellent "Year in Review"...

Mad Kane: Leave No Campaign Plans Behind … in a Hotel Room
 

BBC :

Chile's former military leader Augusto Pinochet has died at the age of 91.

The general entered a Santiago hospital a week ago after a heart attack. He was thought to be recovering when his condition suddenly worsened on Sunday.

Gen Pinochet seized power in a coup against an elected government in 1973. More than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" over the next 17 years.

He was accused of dozens of human rights violations and fraud but never faced trial due to poor health.

[..]Opponents have expressed anger that Gen Pinochet died without justice being done over the charges that had been brought.

Supporters gather outside Gen Pinochet's residence to mark his 91st birthday on 25 November. Despite his human rights record, the general had staunch supporters.

"What saddens me is that this criminal has died without having been sentenced and I believe the responsibility the state bears in this has to be considered", human rights lawyer Hugo Gutierrez told La Tercera Online. Read on...

Mike's Blog Round Up

Anti-War: Conservatives endorse the Fuhrer Principle

Talk To Action: $500 Million for federal 'bigotry based' initiative?

The Reality-Based Community: Entries from the Republican/English Dictionary

Sadly, No! That's so Hugo

The US government has a new website aimed at preparing its citizens for terrorist attacks.
The Reality-Based Community: Entries from the Republican/English Dictionary

Sadly, No! That's so Hugo

The US government has a new website aimed at preparing its citizens for terrorist attacks.

During a news update during H&C on 8/30, Steve Centanni repeated the lie that Robertson tried to first skate with over his " hit man" remarks about Hugo Chavez.

Centanni: " ...the U.S. should take him out. He later explained he meant a regime change and not an assassination."

Steve neglected to read Robertson's whole statement which is here.

Download | play -WMP

Anyone saying that Fox has kicked Pat Robertson to the curb is sadly mistaken. This report proves that. Robertson had already apologized for his calling for the murder of Chavez by the time this report aired.

Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson, who called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, said on Wednesday he was misinterpreted and there were a number of ways to "take him out" including kidnapping....read on

Here's what he said:

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability."

Isn't lying part of the Ten Commandments Pat? I guess since you advocated murder what's a little lying between sins? Media Matters has the video...

"Is it right to call for assassination?" Robertson said. "No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him." ...read on

He's frustrated that Hugo thinks the US wants him dead and his response is for the US to whack him?

Gee, earlier today he said he was "misinterpreted." I guess watching himself repeatedly call for the assassination of Chavez a couple hundred times must have made him realize that his idiotic defense might not cut it. I'm sure tomorrow on the 700 Club he'll pray for forgiveness.

Here's an article from the Guardian called Two fingers to America

(hat tip to MTA): "He's a friend of Fidel Castro, a fierce critic of the war in Iraq, and wants to spread revolutionary fervour throughout South America. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, has long been a thorn in the side of the US - a fact highlighted this week when televangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassination. Richard Gott on a man at war with the White House...read on"