To save on energy costs, many Americans have installed weatherstripping and new insulation in their homes. For the owner of a large office building or manufacturing plant, the task can be much more daunting. According to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, commercial buildings and manufacturing plants account for nearly half of all U.S. energy consumption, as well as nearly half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Altogether, energy usage at these buildings costs over $200 billion per year. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star certification system aims to inspire organizations to make building improvements to improve energy efficiency. California is leading the way in these certified buildings. Five Golden State cities are among the 25 U.S. metro areas with the most Energy Star buildings, including three California cities in the top 10.

[See a slideshow of the 10 cities with the most Energy Star certified buildings.]

Naturally, the most populous urban areas in the nation­—New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago—are among the 10 cities with the most certified buildings. But Sacramento, the 25th-most-populous metropolitan area (according to 2009 Census figures), came in at No. 8 for Energy Star buildings. In addition, Denver, the 21st-biggest city, comes in at No. 11 with 146 Energy Star buildings. Conversely, some of the largest cities in the nation are nowhere near the top of the Energy Star list. For example, Philadelphia, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the nation, is 14th in terms of Energy Star buildings.

Organizations that want to show that they are working to be energy efficient can apply for Energy Star certification from the Environmental Protection Agency. A wide variety of facilities can apply for the distinction, including supermarkets, hospitals, food production plants, and manufacturing facilities. To apply, an organization submits detailed information on key factors in its energy usage. For example, for an office building, the EPA would want statistics on the amount of office and parking space, the number of computers in use within the building, and how much of the building is air-conditioned or heated. Buildings that earn the Energy Star certification must perform better than at least 75 percent of similar buildings nationwide. According to the EPA, certified buildilngs cost 50 cents less per square foot to operate than average buildings.

These are the 10 metro areas that had the most Energy Star-certified buildings in 2010.

Metro Area Number of Energy Star Buildings Total Floorspace (million sq. ft.) Cost Savings (millions) Emissions Prevented (equal to ___ homes’ electricity use)

1. Los Angeles 510 106.1 117.9 39,800

2. Washington, D.C. 301 75.2 74.2 42,600

3. San Francisco 248 61.4 75.1 25,600

4. Chicago 232 92.9 62.7 54,500

5. New York City 211 76.4 86.6 36,500

6. Atlanta 201 51.6 38.7 38,700

7. Houston 175 70.8 62.9 47,300

8. Sacramento 168 16.9 19.1 6,900

9. Detroit 151 27.4 18.7 17,400

10. Dallas-Fort Worth 148 40.6 35.2 26,300

Los Angeles is notable for having been the No. 1 city for three years in a row. It also saved the most money and had the most floor space in its Energy Star buildings out of all of the top 25 metro areas in the United States. Chicago, however, prevented the most emissions, blocking the equivalent of 54,500 homes’ worth of electricity use.

One factor that likely pushed some cities toward the top of the list is the number of commitments from some corporations to achieve certification in their buildings. The EPA counts JCPenney, Staples, Target, and USAA as companies that have set certification goals.

The environmental and budgetary incentives to get certified have helped to drive up the number of participants considerably. Last year saw sharp growth in the number of buildings achieving certification. More than 6,200 commercial buildings were certified last year, up 60 percent from 2009.

• See the states with the highest and lowest energy usage per capita.
• Read about what makes a livable city.
• Read more about industries that the EPA regulates.

The campaign fundraising community is puzzled over a new e-mail from President Obama’s team that warns supporters and media to look at the number of donors, not the size of the war chest, when quarterly totals are announced as early as Friday.

• See editorial cartoons about President Obama.
• Check out our gallery of political caricatures.
• See who in the GOP is in and out in 2012.

A parade and an official Armed Forces farewell will be Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s sendoff on Thursday as the widely respected cabinet member retires after his four-and-a-half-year, two-administration tenure. He’ll leave to his successor, CIA Director Leon Panetta, a panoply of problems such as wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya and an increasingly precarious defense budget. But for more than anyone, Gates’s departure presents Secretary of State Hillary Clinton an opportunity to reassert her department’s primacy in foreign affairs.

For years, and especially after the military surge brought on by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the State Department has generally played second fiddle to the Pentagon on foreign policy. The budgets of each tell that story best­—in the continuing resolution for fiscal year 2011, for example, the base budget for Defense was about 10 times greater than the State Department’s. However, with Gates out the picture, Clinton will be the last high-profile international figure left standing in the cabinet, and now could be her window to assert more of her department’s influence over the nation’s security. “As Gates phases out this week and Panetta phases in, there’s going to be an opportunity for Secretary Clinton to really start making her voice even more heard in national security, and not just diplomacy and not just foreign assistance,” says Stephanie Sanok, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

How wide Clinton’s window is and how far any added influence will take her, however, depend on some unknowns. Panetta, himself, is one. Another, and perhaps more important, issue is whether the American public and members of Congress would even be willing to spend more—or at very least, not spend less—on the State Department. [Poll: Hillary Clinton Most Influential Woman]

To start, Clinton’s standing in the cabinet hinges partly on her relationship with Panetta, which goes back as far as her husband’s administration, when Panetta was pulled from Congress to work as Bill Clinton’s budget man and later chief of staff. Panetta, a veteran but low-key Washington hand, has remained mostly out of the public scene, even while making a name for himself as the CIA director in charge when America killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Contrast that with a current cabinet member who made a nationwide, headline run for the presidency just a few years ago.

Mark Helmke, spokesman for Sen. Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says it wouldn’t be surprising to see Panetta defer to Clinton as the cabinet’s international frontman. “Panetta’s really never been a very out-front kind of guy as much as Hillary has been, although he was a congressman,” Helmke says. “My guess, knowing Panetta, is that he would naturally let her take the lead on this stuff, as he manages other things.”

But, where Gates had been willing to rally along with Clinton for more foreign assistance under State as part of national security, Panetta hasn’t made his intentions clear, says Richard Weitz, director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at the Hudson Institute, a conservative-leaning think-tank in Washington. As a result, Clinton may have to become more outspoken in order to bring attention to her department’s priorities abroad, particularly amid the budget-cutting atmosphere in Washington. “It’s not clear that Panetta has the same commitment to boosting the nonmilitary tools…especially if he’s going to make an effort, which he might, to cut back a lot on military spending,” says Weitz. “He may not want to further antagonize his military constituency by pushing for more funding going to State.” [Read more about national security, terrorism, and the military.]

As secretary of state, Clinton has already been rather bold in expressing her views on national security. Most recently, she drew ire from members of Congress after questioning their commitment to the NATO mission in Libya. “Whose side are you on?” she asked at a recent press conference in Jamaica. “Are you on Qadhafi’s side or are you on the side of the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been created to support them?”

Correction 06/30/11: A previous version of this article misspelled the name Richard Weitz.

During his press conference on Wednesday, President Obama’s voice had a level of frustration that seemed unfamiliar to those who follow the normally cool communicator. He accused the Republicans of being childish and of putting corporate interests ahead of middle-class Americans. He blasted the Senate for its plans to vacation next week rather than work on passing a debt ceiling increase. “At a certain point, they just need to do their job,” Obama said.

In contrast to Republicans, the president issued few ultimatums. He cast himself as the responsible, bipartisan adult in a roomful of children. “If everybody else is willing to take on their sacred cows, and do tough things, then I think it would be hard for the Republicans to stand there and say that the tax break for corporate jets is sufficiently important that we’re not willing to come to the table and get a deal done,” he said. Still, he tried his best not to draw lines in the sand. “I think he managed to be firm and reasonably bipartisan at the same time,” says William Galston, a former White House official for Bill Clinton and current fellow with the Brookings Institution. “I think he emphasized the equal responsibility of Democrats and Republicans to come off some of their positions that appeal to their respective bases in order to have a meaningful agreement. On the other hand, he suggested that Democrats have moved farther in the direction of fiscal bipartisanship than Republicans had.” [See editorial cartoons about President Obama.]

That’s been Obama’s approach all along in the seemingly endless series of standoffs with Congress: keep the red meat rhetoric to a minimum, let the House and Senate Democrats do the real fighting, and cast himself as an honest broker looking to make the best deal for the nation. While Republicans have refused to budge from their stance that a debt ceiling deal must include trillions of dollars in savings, and must not include tax hikes of any kind, Obama has shied away from making veto threats. Even in Wednesday’s speech, he said that the deal should preserve the “fundamental security” of Medicare and Medicaid, not necessarily ruling out overhauls or cuts to the programs. House Democrats welcomed Obama’s feistier tone, although they maybe wished it had come earlier. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in a press release praising Obama’s performance on Wednesday, seemed to imply that Obama was following their lead. “Bravo! This is the fight House Democrats have been making for the last six months under the Republican Majority as they move to end Medicare and continue tax breaks for Big Oil,” Pelosi said.

Left-leaning observers also wonder whether the president has missed his chance to use the bully pulpit to force the debt-ceiling issue. Even if a compromise is struck, the Republicans’ hard-line stance may have pushed the deal closer to their position. “Any time you’re negotiating with Congress, you have to involve the American people in the conversation. I think where the public comes down is often the critical factor in moving the negotiations the direction you want it to go,” says Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress. “That has traditionally been one of the great powers of the presidency. … I don’t think that power has been used particularly effectively in this administration.” It’s not so much a choice that Obama made recently—it’s been his demeanor since he first became a major political figure on the national stage. “Obama was not elected to be a partisan warrior,” Galston says. “If he is seen as having become a partisan warrior, he stands to lose a lot.”

Obama’s press conference comes about one month before the Treasury’s deadline to raise the debt ceiling. The rhetoric on both sides has escalated, with little signs that the two sides are ready to make any concessions from their current stances. Though there’s time to strike a deal, congressional observers say, many have been left to question the prospects of a compromise on the full measure. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the best they can do right now is a smaller interim agreement, focused almost exclusively on discretionary spending,” Galston says. “In which case, the odds are the package would not be enough to see us through the presidential election.” A repeat of this fight during the 2012 elections would very likely be even more polarized and leave negotiators with even less wiggle room. It would require Obama to brandish more of his fighting spirit—whether or not he wants to.

• See editorial cartoons about President Obama.
• Check out our gallery of political caricatures.
• See who in the GOP is in and out in 2012.

The East Coast stink bug epidemic has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency today to issue an emergency ruling allowing farms of apples, cherries, pears, and peaches to use two lethal insecticides. But it may be too late, since the stink bug has been seen on fruit in Virginia.

The new insecticide use was heralded by Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf who has been leading the charge on the issue. “I commend the EPA for moving quickly to allow Virginia a temporary exemption to regulate the use of this insecticide while efforts continue on a permanent fix,” Wolf said.

Wolf recently told Whispers that the stink bug, imported accidentally from China, is rotting apples, pears, peaches, plums and berries. Also, he said, there are so many on grapes during fall harvests, that some get into the crushers and destroy local wine.

With peaches, apples, and even berries, the major issue is the visible damage a stink bug does. On apples, for example, the bug will insert its tongue into the fruit and suck, leaving a “corky dry area” that’s visible to shoppers, says Tracy Leskey, an Agriculture Department entomologist who’s co-leading a national working group researching the stink bug. “It looks bad,” she says, though it won’t affect the flavor.

Over time, it also rots the fruit.

Wolf adds that other crops are also now under stink bug attack, including corn, tomatoes, and soybeans. Leskey says the shield-shaped bug has also become a huge pest in homes, a double whammy few other insects pose, as it moves across the country.

It has no natural enemy in the United States. One possible foe under study is a tiny wasp, the size of a comma in this story, that is the stink bug’s natural predator in Asia where it helps to keep the offensive bug’s population in check. The non-stinging wasp lays its eggs in the eggs of the stink bugs, on which the baby wasps then chow down.

• See editorial cartoons about President Obama.
• Check out our gallery of political caricatures.
• See who in the GOP is in and out in 2012.

It used to be said that when the president sneezed, the stock market caught a cold. And yet, while Washington’s blood pressure is rising, spurred by a congressional stalemate, escalating rhetoric on both sides, and a looming Treasury Department deadline to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling or watch the U.S. government go into default, Wall Street remains serene, with little effect on the stock or bond markets. Many D.C. political observers are beginning to wonder whether investors’ confidence is prescient, or misplaced. [Read the U.S. News debate: Should Congress raise the debt limit?]

“I’m absolutely mystified in the level of confidence that Wall Street seems to have that this deal is going to get done,” says Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Even if Obama and the Republican leadership strike a deal by Treasury’s August 2 deadline, Lilly questions whether they will they be able to sell it to their respective caucuses, which very likely feel that they’ve already compromised enough. “I think that you have a very strong possibility that whatever they come up with will fail to get a substantial number of Republican votes, but will contain so many onerous policy choices that a lot of Democrats will vote against it as well.” Barry Bosworth, a former economic adviser to President Carter and a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, questioned whether either side could afford to back down. “I’m just beginning to become impressed with the flatness of the statements that politicians are making,” Bosworth says. So far, investors haven’t begun to unload their U.S. bonds, or make investments such as credit default swaps to hedge against a possible default. “So far, it seems pretty clear that investors just think this will never happen, because ‘they can’t be that stupid,’ ” Bosworth says. “But these things don’t tend to happen gradually. I think that sentiment could change pretty fast.”

One reason Wall Street may not be reacting is that, historically, Congress has always found a way to raise the debt ceiling no matter how hard it is politically. “We’ve been here before,” says Kent Smetters, a professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “This is not a new game that’s played, where both sides play chicken.” In 1995 and 1996, President Clinton and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich squared off over the debt ceiling, but ultimately resolved it without a default. Another reason, Smetters says, is backup plans the Treasury Department might use to ward off a possible default, including issuing I.O.U.’s instead of bonds to get around the debt limit. So far, the Obama administration hasn’t revealed any possible backup plans if a deal isn’t reached, insisting that the August 2 deadline can’t be broken, and also reportedly warning Congress that a deal needs to be in place by July 22 in order to be passed in time. “When you plan a game of chicken, you never want to reveal all of your cards,” Smetters says. “You basically want to have something that looks like mutually assured destruction.” [See a slide show of 6 ways to raise the debt ceiling.

But any sign that a deal might not be reached, or that Washington will have to use creative legal technicalities to get out of the situation, could be the tipping points for the markets. In fact, a common idea in Washington is some type of market reaction is necessary to jolt Congress into action, just as the stock market crash pushed the House of Representatives to pass the financial bailout in 2008. The country is waiting to see who will blink first—Democrats, Republicans, or Wall Street. 

• See a slide show of 6 ways to raise the debt ceiling.
• See a slide show of 6 consequences if the debt ceiling isn’t raised.
• Read the U.S. News debate: Should Congress raise the debt limit?

At his press conference Wednesday, the usually calm and cool President Obama broke character to criticize members of Congress. “They need to do their job,” he said, knocking Congress members for procrastinating on the debt ceiling negotiations, and for the number of breaks they take. “Malia and Sasha generally finish their homework a day early,” he said. “They’re 13 and 10! You know, Congress can do the same thing.” The president added:

[Check out a roundup of political cartoons about the budget and national deficit.]

The House has been in recess all this week, and, though the Senate is scheduled to take Independence Day recess next week, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Thursday that the Senate would skip the break and regroup after the holiday weekend. [Vote now: Will there be a debt ceiling deal?]

Almost immediately after Obama’s criticism, the punditsphere exploded with analysis: Was it fair? The halls of Congress do seem to be empty all too often and work needs to be done, but then, the members must balance their time on Capitol Hill with time spent in their home districts with constituents.

U.S. News Blogger Susan Milligan believes Obama has a point about the number of recesses Congress takes, especially in light of the debt crisis, “but of course, he doesn’t have to be personally, and constantly, raising money for his re-election campaign, which is a big part of what members of Congress do when they head home for weekends and recesses,” she writes. “Presidents have people who do that for them.” [See a slide show of 6 consequences if the debt ceiling isn't raised.]

What do you think? Was Obama right to criticize Congress for breaks? Take the poll and post your thoughts below.

Previously: Will Bachmann’s Gaffes End Her 2012 Chances?

Jim Riccio is a nuclear policy analyst for Greenpeace.

The ongoing nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant will be delivering up many lessons to those willing to listen. More than three months after the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent meltdown of three nuclear reactors, TEPCO, the nuclear corporation that owns the plant, is no closer to controlling the meltdowns or securing 20 years of radioactive material at risk in the waste pool. A few things, however, are becoming clear.

Nuclear power is never “safe.” Splitting atoms to produce heat, boil water, and generate electricity is an inherently dangerous activity. Splitting atoms can be made less dangerous, but it can never be “safe.” The 104 nuclear power plants in the United States and the 440 operating around the world all carry the threat of a catastrophic meltdown with devastating consequences. To claim this technology is safe is no more than atomic hubris. Nuclear power plants will fail, and when they do, the consequences are catastrophic for individuals and society. As the codiscoverer of the DNA molecule once put it, “the idea that the atom is safe is just a public relations trick.” [Read more about energy policy and climate change.]

Fukushima has reminded us, too, that probability will not protect the public from nuclear meltdowns. Long before the disaster at Fukushima, I recommended that U.S. nuclear regulators read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan. Taleb addresses the impact of low-probability, high-consequence events such as Fukushima and points out the psychological trap of relying on probability to protect us. Taleb has intentionally avoided doing interviews on the Fukushima fiasco, but wrote:

I spent the last two decades explaining … why we should not talk about small probabilities in any domain. Science cannot deal with them. It is irresponsible to talk about small probabilities and make people rely on them, except for natural systems that have been standing for 3 billion years (not manmade ones for which the probabilities are derived theoretically, such as the nuclear field for which the effective track record is only 60 years).

Probability provides cold comfort when reactors are overwhelmed by forces they were never designed to resist—such as the meltdown of the radioactive fuel rods that make up the core of the nuclear reactor. But the nuclear industry and its regulators have been doing precisely what Taleb warns against. [See a slide show of 10 cities with the most Energy Star-certified buildings.]

As has been well documented by the Associated Press, the New York Times, Huffington Post, ProPublica, and others, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, has been captured by the nuclear industry and has been in regulatory retreat for over a decade. At the behest of the industry, the NRC has been busy deregulating safety standards based on the probability that the Black Swan, i.e., a meltdown, will not occur. Sadly, these same regulators have ignored the flaws in their risk assessments. According to NRC documents, between 42 percent and 59 percent of the most risk-significant accident scenarios aren’t even modeled in nuclear risk assessments. The NRC and the nuclear industry have relied on risk models that leave them half blind to the very events they’re attempting to avoid.

Despite recognized flaws in their risk assessments, government regulators have allowed the nuclear industry to whittle away at regulations intended to protect the public in order to reduce the cost of producing electricity with nuclear reactors. As a result, safety has been compromised. The nuclear bureaucrats have lost sight of their safety mission and instead have weakened nuclear plant regulations to allow reactors to run longer and harder than ever before. Government officials have repeatedly placed corporate profit ahead of public safety. In order to increase the corporate bottom line, the public has been exposed to greater risk while the industry is exposed to less regulation. All the while, these corporations and captured regulators claim splitting atoms on a shoestring is “safe.” [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on energy policy.]

As we saw at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now Fukushima, nuclear power is never “safe.” The improbable happens, and regulations put in place by nuclear bureaucrats are insufficient to the catastrophe. Probability will not protect the public from the consequences of a nuclear meltdown. The nuclear industry’s practice of lulling regulators into complacency based on low probability of a meltdown is irresponsible at the least. Rather than promoting the expanded use of nuclear power, government regulators will be lucky if they can manage the end of the nuclear age and secure deadly radioactive wastes without more Black Swan events like the fiasco at Fukushima.

• Read more about energy policy and climate change.
• See a slide show of 10 cities with the most Energy Star-certified buildings.
• Check out a roundup of political cartoons on energy policy.

I’ve written a few posts in this space criticizing Republicans for their intransigence on the debt ceiling debate. It was fun at the time, but now I’ve been forced to take a hard look at myself, and I’m not sure I like what I see.

It’s Marc Thiessen, writing in the Washington Post, who sent me on this journey of self discovery. You see, according to Thiessen, many of us have entirely missed the real victims in the debt ceiling debate. It’s not you or me or the trillions of people across the globe who will suffer economic calamity if Republicans continue to stonewall, it’s the Republicans themselves. And it’s especially those newly elected Republicans who toddled onto the electoral stage full of innocence and light and made all sorts of campaign promises that now—gasp—they may not be able to fulfill.

[Vote now: Will there be a debt ceiling deal?]

“Republicans,” explains Marc Thiessen, “campaigned on a promise to reduce the national debt.” But then something entirely unforeseeable happened—real events conspired to make that promise difficult to deliver. Huh?! What!? There’s a baseball bat on the wall and an alien holding my baby! Swing away Merrill! Swing away! (Sorry. Sometimes when the world gets too topsy turvy I retreat to the safety of an M. Night Shyamalan movie. #signsreference!)

In any case, now Republicans “are being asked to turn around a half a year later and vote to raise the national debt.” Hold on. Republicans are being “asked” to do something for the good of the country even though it might hurt their popularity in some circles? Stop. I can’t take it. It’s too painful. [See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]

Now “the only way these Republican legislators can vote for a debt-ceiling increase without getting thrown out of office,” says Thiessen, “is to show their constituents that they secured unprecedented cuts in current spending—and ironclad constraints on future spending—in exchange.” Enough said. If there’s anything in the world that might hurt Republican poll numbers, it must be avoided at all costs.

Of course, there’s an alternative way of looking at this, I suppose. If to gain office, Republicans entered into an unsustainable and unrealistic electoral compact and are now confronting the discomfort that actual governing can occasionally impose … oh well…

And I suppose the fact that Republicans admit that not raising the debt ceiling would mean a global economic catastrophe, but, in full possession of this knowledge, still think refusing to raise it is a responsible negotiating strategy, could be legitimate grounds to question their fitness for office. [See a slide show of 6 consequences if the debt ceiling isn't raised.]

And maybe if their posture had less to do with the naked pursuit of a narrow range of highly partisan goals…

But wait. There I go again. Blaming Republicans.

Don’t look at me–I’m hideous.

• Check out a roundup of GOP political cartoons.
• Slide Show: 6 Consequences if the Debt Ceiling Isn’t Raised
• Slide Show: 6 Ways to Raise the Debt Ceiling

Charles D. Ferguson is the president of the Federation of American Scientists and the author of Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know.

As floodwaters recently rose at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska, many Americans wondered whether an incident on the scale of the Fukushima nuclear accident could happen in the United States. On March 11, a huge earthquake forced the shutdown of several nuclear reactors in Japan. The quake also triggered a tsunami that knocked out the emergency diesel generators at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. As backup batteries drained of their electrical charge about five hours later, electricity was not available to run coolant pumps, leading relatively quickly to meltdowns of reactors’ cores and release of radioactive materials to the environment. Almost four months later, the plant’s operators are still struggling to cope with the aftermath of this damage.

While the full consequences of this catastrophe are still playing out, it is early enough to draw important lessons for the United States and the dozens of other countries that use nuclear power to generate electricity. The first is to ensure that there are adequate means of backup electrical power to keep nuclear plants from melting down. U.S. reactors typically have only about four hours of electrical charge in their batteries. Installing longer-lived batteries and protecting diesel generators from natural disasters would increase the probability of having adequate means of backup electricity. [Read more about energy policy and climate change.]

Another important lesson is to debunk the mindset of infallibility. For decades, the Japanese authorities had portrayed nuclear power as extremely safe. They used, for example, characters from Alice in Wonderland to convey to children and their parents that nuclear energy was very benign. Independent voices had few outlets for expressing their concerns.

The authorities’ message to the public was understandable, given Japan’s lack of fossil fuels. Nuclear power thus appeared to be the natural choice for an industrial nation feeling threatened by fuel shortages. So, the Japanese government wanted to produce more and more electricity from nuclear energy with plans to ramp up its use to about half of electrical generation in the coming decades. This, however, points to the second lesson: Do not rely too much on nuclear power. [See a slide show of 10 cities with the most Energy Star-certified buildings.]

Nuclear power remains important for the globe because reactors do not emit greenhouse gases. Thus, this will be an essential power source until renewable energies can be dramatically ramped up.

The United States generates about 20 percent of its electricity with nuclear reactors. These Generation II reactors are relatively old—typically more than 30 years old—with about one fourth having similar designs to those of the Fukushima reactors. So, the United States needs to invest in safety retrofits where appropriate and protect its investment in these reactors.

So-called Generation III reactors have improved safety features, but no technology is inherently safe. Consequently, nuclear power will always need strong, independent regulatory agencies to order improvements or shutdowns when there are safety concerns. But the Fukushima accident has underscored the dangers of regulatory agencies that are too cozy with government entities dedicated to promoting the use of nuclear energy. The company that owns the Fukushima plant had allegedly covered up numerous safety problems. One positive consequence of the accident is that the Japanese government has ordered the creation of a truly independent regulatory agency. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on energy policy.]

While the United States took this necessary action in the mid-1970s, this is not sufficient. A standard of excellence in safety culture is required. In particular, this culture works best when workers are free to raise safety concerns without fear of retribution. Japan’s whistleblower protection laws broke down years before the accident. An engineer, for example, tried to draw attention to problems at the Fukushima plant, but his identity was revealed. As a result, his career and the plant’s safety suffered.

This incident presents an opportunity for the United States to take a more critical look at its nuclear plants. Positively, soon after the accident, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission began a 90-day safety review of all U.S. plants. This review has thankfully led to increased transparency. However, a relatively successful review should not result in complacency but instead should reinforce the need for constant vigilance.

• Read more about energy policy and climate change.
• See a slide show of 10 cities with the most Energy Star-certified buildings.
• Check out a roundup of political cartoons on energy policy.

MSNBC’s political analyst Mark Halperin got himself in hot water Thursday morning on the network’s Morning Joe. He called President Obama a—ahem—not very nice word referring to a certain part of the male anatomy. Halperin was apparently relying on producers to use a seven-second delay to bleep the profanity before his blunt assessment of the president’s press conference broadcast. Appropriate? Obviously not. Halperin apologized on the air a few minutes later.

While MSBNC reportedly got a rush of E-mails calling for Halperin to be fired, others have said the “indefinite” suspension was overreacting on the network’s part. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on Obama.]

But Halperin himself validated MSNBC’s suspension in a statement. “I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate,” he wrote. Time magazine, Halperin’s other employer, gave him a warning and issued a public statement denouncing his remarks, but stopped short of additional punishment.

And, according to the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, the White House has been privately communicating with MSNBC, saying “that they view Halperin’s move as stupid and distasteful, but ultimately a mistake that should not be a defining one,” Sargent writes. [See photos of the Obamas behind the scenes.]

What do you think? Was MSNBC right to suspend Mark Halperin for what he called Obama? Take the poll and post your thoughts below.

Previously: Was Obama right to criticize Congress for breaks?

Tom Fanning is chairman, president, and CEO of Southern Company, one of the largest electricity producers in the United States.

The nuclear energy industry is committed to the relentless pursuit of safer nuclear energy. As an operator of six reactors at three nuclear energy facilities in the Southeast—and the first to build the next generation of nuclear technology in the United States—we make it our mission to never settle for “safe enough.”

In the big energy picture for America, we need all of the arrows in the quiver—nuclear energy, 21st-century coal, natural gas, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Americans deserve an energy future that reduces our dependence on foreign sources, and nuclear energy is ready to be a major part of that future. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on energy policy.]

In today’s post-Fukushima era, the electric sector is triple checking the safety of U.S. reactors and ensuring that lessons learned in Japan will be applied as quickly as possible here.

A total commitment to safety demands that we make sure that every U.S. nuclear energy facility is fully prepared to successfully manage even extraordinary events. Our industry is powerfully motivated to not only meet government regulations, but exceed them. We are continually evolving and improving our safety standards and practices. We know that if we don’t, the many benefits of nuclear energy—its advantages for clean air and efficient and reliable electricity production 24 hours a day—may be in jeopardy.

With that in mind, our industry has established a committee of chief nuclear officers from a dozen companies, as well as representatives from the Electric Power Research Institute, the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations, and the Nuclear Energy Institute. The industry is ensuring that events in Japan are thoroughly researched for lessons learned and that every component of the U.S. nuclear industry understands and applies those lessons at facilities across the country.

The committee will coordinate industry work in seven areas:

—Ensuring safety performance remains exemplary.

—Developing lessons learned from Fukushima and ensuring those lessons are communicated industry-wide.

—Communicating to the public and policymakers what the industry is doing to ensure nuclear energy facility safety.

—Developing and implementing the industry’s response to federal regulatory actions taken as a result of the Fukushima accident.

—Working with international organizations to ensure that any lessons they learn are applied here as well.

—Providing the technical support and research and development expertise needed to implement any of these steps.

—Improving the capability of the U.S. industry to respond to nuclear facility events outside this country.

Independently, safety experts from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are inspecting each American reactor as part of its comprehensive assessment of safety and emergency preparedness. They are also evaluating regulatory changes that may be needed based on lessons learned from Japan.

Our industry will continue to respond to the events in Japan with the level of commitment and urgency that has been the hallmark of our actions. Within days of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, U.S. nuclear energy facilities launched an effort to re-examine and verify their preparedness to safely manage severe plant-related or natural events. Every plant re-examined safety plans and its ability to implement those plans with well-trained personnel and backup equipment on site. [See a slide show of 10 cities with the most Energy Star-certified buildings.]

The verification initiative identified some areas that needed improvement or correction. They have been corrected or are in the process of being improved.

The nuclear power industry remains an essential part of the nation’s balanced energy portfolio. Demand for electricity will continue to increase—28 percent by 2035 nationally—and all forms of energy production have strengths and shortcomings.

Nuclear energy facilities in 31 states produce carbon-free electricity for one of every five American homes and businesses. These facilities operate at industry-leading levels of efficiency and reliability and produce, on average, electricity at lower cost than other sources. Even with these attributes, safety is our top priority. Put another way, U.S. reactors are reliable and efficient because of our commitment to safety. [Read more about energy policy and climate change.]

As a leader in the nuclear industry and the first builder of new nuclear energy technology in a generation in Georgia, we set high standards for ourselves because we know that we have to prove ourselves worthy of public trust. We don’t take that trust for granted, and we know we can never relax in our effort to keep nuclear energy safe.

Now is not the time to impede the progress we’ve made toward a more energy independent future. We should apply every lesson possible from Japan here in America, while moving ahead with the next generation of nuclear energy facilities. We can do both.

• Read more about energy policy and climate change.
• See a slide show of 10 cities with the most Energy Star-certified buildings.
• Check out a roundup of political cartoons on energy policy.

Yesterday the greatest question was decided, which ever was debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never was or will be decided among Men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony ‘that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, and as such they have, and of right ought to have, full power to make war, conclude peace, establish commerce, and to do all the other acts and things which other states may rightfully do.’ You will see in a few days a declaration setting forth the causes which have impelled us to this mighty revolution and the reasons which will justify it in the sight of God and man. A plan of confederation will be taken up in a few days.

When I look back to the year of 1761 and recollect the argument concerning writs of assistance in the superior court, which I have hitherto considered as the commencement of the controversy between Great Britain and America, and run through the whole period from that time to this, and recollect the series of political events, the chain of causes and effects, I am surprised at the suddenness as well as greatness of this revolution. Britain has been fill’d with Folly and America with Wisdom, at least this is my Judgment.

Time must determine. It is the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever. It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distressing yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect, at least: it will inspire us will many virtues, which we have not, and correct many errors, follies, and vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals. And the new governments we are assuming, in every part, will require a purification from our vices and an augmentation of our virtues or they will be no blessings.

The people will have unbounded power. And the people are extremely addicted to corruption and venality, as well as the great. I am not without apprehensions from this quarter, but I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe.

When you celebrated the Fourth of July yesterday, you recognized the right of gays and lesbians to get married like any other American.

The Fourth celebrates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence, which contains these words. “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.” Those words did not free the slaves, but they started a movement toward equal rights for all Americans.

[See a slide show of the 10 cities with the most same-sex couples.]

The agony of the Civil War advanced the cause of political equality. In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln echoed Jefferson’s words when he said “Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Jefferson’s ideals and Lincoln’s hopes were embodied in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which became effective in 1868. The 14th Amendment says, “Nor shall any state … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The wave of freedom started with blacks in 1868 then moved on to women through the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920. The next wave of freedom will extend the American Dream to gay and lesbian Americans. [Check out a roundup of gay marriage political cartoons.]

The equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment means that states must treat all their citizens equally. States can’t favor men over women, whites over blacks, or heterosexuals over gays. In the near future, the Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionally of the California prohibition against marriage equality. If the Court does rule that the California law is a violation of the equal protection clause as a lower federal court already has, thousands of gay couples in the Golden State will join the ranks of same sex couples who now can legally marry in New York, Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. Equal protection should equal marriage equality.

However the Supreme Court rules, gays, like blacks and women, will eventually bask in the sunlight of equality. A majority of Americans now favor gay marriage and support will continue to grow. Demography is destiny, and young Americans overwhelmingly favor gay marriage.

Conservatives can slow down the march to freedom, but the big victory for gay marriage in New York State should show religious extremists they can’t stop the movement that Jefferson started with the Declaration of Independence.

• See a slide show of the 10 cities with the most same-sex couples.
• Check out a roundup of gay marriage political cartoons.
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“Innocent until proven guilty” is an essential and cherished element of the U.S. criminal justice system. Former IMF chief and French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arguably denied this proudly American right when he was indicted for sexual assault and attempted rape of a housekeeper at a fancy New York hotel. And now, his accuser is being subject to the same rush to judgment.

Strauss-Kahn was hauled away in handcuffs and put up in Rikers Island jail after being arraigned on the assault charges. The media—the New York media, in particular—loves a story like this, the idea of a privileged, highly-paid official being treated like a common criminal. It’s very tempting to revel in the comparisons of his pricey Sofitel suite with the less-comfortable accommodations at Rikers. In a way, it was a showcase of American equality under the law: the concept that everyone gets the same treatment, regardless of wealth or power. [Read Milligan: How the Media's Getting the Strauss-Kahn, Ensign Scandals Wrong]

Except that it’s not equal. Strauss-Kahn was humiliated in a Law and Order: SVU style “perp walk,” a theatrical production that is in complete defiance of the right to the presumption of innocence. Law enforcement might not have bothered making such a scene with a lesser-known accused person, and the media, to be sure, would not have bothered to cover it—never mind to stake out the accused’s home after he was released on bail. The French were appalled; their laws bar the use of such photos of the merely accused. And while banning such photos raises serious First Amendment issue, the French have a point. The “perp walk” is more than prejudicial; it is a barbaric tradition.

But Strauss-Kahn may have caught a break, and it’s not because the evidence of a sexual assault is missing. It’s because the accuser has been exposed as a liar and a person of questionable character. [Check out a roundup of this month's best political cartoons.]

The woman, according to prosecutors, lied on her asylum application and has had shady contact with a drug dealer in prison. These are bad behaviors, but they do not mean she cannot be a victim of sexual assault or any other crime. Aside from some changes in her account of exactly where she went after the alleged attack, there is no evidence that she lied about the attack itself. Indeed, the defense has stipulated that sexual contact took place, saying that it was consensual. The prosecution says it has evidence of forced sexual contact, including vaginal bruising that is consistent with (but not definitely proof of) an assault. Perhaps it is difficult to believe that a man of Strauss-Kahn’s position would risk so much by forcing a housekeeper into sexual acts. It is equally baffling to many that she would walk into a hotel room and become so overwhelmed with desire at the sight of an older stranger that she would immediately want to engage in sex with him. Only the two people—the accused and the accuser—know what happened in that hotel room, and a trial, hopefully, would have unearthed the truth. But rape, unlike other crimes, is still prosecuted (or more often, not prosecuted) according to an informal test of who is the person of greater personal character and standing in society.

For women, this used to mean that if she had ever had consensual sex, she was suspect as a rape victim. While that standard has eased, there is still a sexist and antiquated view that when it comes to sex, women fall into two categories: victim or whore, or more broadly, a pure person who has been defiled versus someone who is too flawed to be further defiled. Strauss-Kahn, who is now accused by a French novelist of attempting to rape her years ago, may have his character questioned somewhat. But the hotel housekeeper who accused him of assault has bigger hurdles to clear, and they may be insurmountable because prosecutors—while believing she was indeed a victim of attempted rape—see her as having a credibility problem. It would be a terrible transgression of justice if Strauss-Kahn (or anyone) was wrongly convicted based on media frenzy over a powerful person accused of a common crime. And it would send a terrible message to the world about the U.S. criminal justice system. But to refuse justice to an alleged assault victim because she has unrelated character flaws sends an equally damaging message: that good women can be raped, but bad women have no defense.

• Check out a roundup of this month’s best political cartoons.
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Madison, WIS.—”On Wisconsin” is the fight song everybody at this fine university on the lake knows. In summer, the sunsets over Lake Mendota are to die for, as are the ice cream flavors made by the University of Wisconsin’s dairy, best enjoyed with the exuberant vibe on the Memorial Union Terrace by the water. Life is sweetest here this time of year, and the Fourth of July is the sweetest day of summer.

Yet even an eternal optimist like Pangloss or me can taste the bittersweetness on the vine here, where the Republican Party was founded before the Civil War. Next came the Progressive Party, early in the 20th century. A century later, public-spirited Wisconsin is a deeply unhappy and divided state of mind.

[Check out a roundup of GOP political cartoons.]

Sketching in the shadows between the village parade, picnic, and fireworks, I might add that “Oh Wisconsin” is a downbeat counterpoint to the fight song these days.

The struggle for the state’s political soul started during a long frozen winter outside the state Capitol and goes on to this July day. State Democrats and state employees are reeling at how much political and bargaining power they lost, so fast, to the new Republican governor, Scott Walker, who won an open seat.

The State Legislature is predominantly Republican. While there’s a serious move afoot to recall some lawmakers in special elections this month, the concern is palpable that the political world in this Midwestern oasis changed suddenly to become flat. Some prominent Madisonians fear they can’t defend ground they’ve stood on for years—for example, protecting besieged Planned Parenthood services and small family planning clinics from cuts and closures. Anguish is not too strong a word to describe the blue side of this beautiful state—blue, too. [Read the U.S. News Debate: Are recall elections a good idea?]

Few in the literati and liberalati in this university community and capital city saw this state of affairs coming—Walker is not just a major bummer, but probably the most aggressive governor in the land. To see the champion of campaign finance reform, Sen. Russ Feingold, lose his 2010 re-election race was one thing on the federal level. But few Democrats dreamed that their troubles on the state level were just beginning. They haven’t wept by the waters of the lake yet, but that is always an option.

The conflict in Wisconsin mirrors the strife the nation is about to see played out in Washington during debt limit talks. Wisconsin is often a bit ahead of the times—and on this picture-perfect July Fourth, so it is again.

• Read the U.S. News debate: Are recall elections a good idea?
• Check out a roundup of GOP political cartoons.
• Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.

Andrew G. Rosen

Despite the increasing volume of electronic communications in the workplace, most offices are still overrun with paper. Request forms, applications, interoffice mail, and other documents are circulated daily, which means most desk dwellers have an inbox. That’s right, a physical inbox.

But anyone who has spent an hour at a desk knows that the Laws of the Inbox are often violated—and that the “green office” is mostly a myth. Documents are left on chairs, taped to monitors, or worse yet, tossed onto our already crowded desks.

If you’re new to office culture, in need of a refresher course, or an admitted inbox violator, let these rules serve as a guide to make work a better place:

[See How to Avoid 7 Common On-the-Job Office Mistakes.]

Keep Your Inbox Neat. Letting too much paper accumulate in your inbox will worry the sender that leaving something behind will lack priority, or worse yet, fall into a black hole. Many productivity pros advise limiting the number of times you check your email each day, and the same principle can be applied to your inbox. Checking too frequently wastes time. Also, refrain from constantly removing contents. Leaving a few papers behind can send a message that you’re busy tackling other work.

Give Instructions. If you know someone will be delivering paperwork, be sure to mention that if you’re not at your desk, they should leave any documents in your inbox. You should be descriptive, detailing where the inbox is and what it looks like, for example, “If I’m not at my desk, please leave the memo in the black inbox on the left-side of my desk.” It sounds ridiculous that you have to “sell” people on where to leave papers, but let’s be honest: the people you work with are probably not as smart as you.

Don’t Lose the Small Stuff. Small items such as business cards or photos should be placed in a folder (secured with a binder clip) or stapled to a standard size piece of paper. Few people reach to the bottom of their inbox, and convincing your office manager to order you a clear one is not a battle worth having.

[See 7 Ways to Make a Difference on the Job.]

Deliver Rush Mail in Person. Intelligent workers know to check their inbox regularly, and if you leave a document, they will receive it. You might be asking yourself, what if the item is a rush or a priority? If a follow-up is necessary, do so via phone or by paying another visit later. In fact, if it’s important, or if the documents are sensitive, they should be hand delivered at a later time.

Use the Inbox for Yourself. Upon leaving work, consider leaving yourself a brief note that will wait for pickup until the next day. It could be a work related reminder or a positive affirmation. The physical inbox is often the first thing we see in the morning, so consider using it to start your day off on the right foot.

People can talk all they want about saving trees. The reality is, we are far from the (mainstream) paperless office. So for the foreseeable future, do your duty and respect the inbox.

What other inbox laws would you like to establish?

Andrew G. Rosen is the founder and editor of Jobacle.com, a career advice blog. He is also the author of How to Quit Your Job and an established freelance blogger who is available for hire. Follow him on Twitter (@jobacle) or connect on LinkedIn.

6 Creative Ways to Showcase Your Resume

Be unique with your resume. But remember: Even if you go the creative route, content still counts.

• 9 Companies Hiring Now

• 10 Tips for Negotiating a Raise

Tim Tyrell-Smith

If you’re smart about how you use them, social media sites can be a purposeful place to learn during a job search, network, and identify job leads. Using tools like Twitter can help you highlight new ideas, engage people in conversation, and help others.

Twitter chats, or live conversations via Twitter that last about an hour, are one effective way to connect with others. Participants use and follow a specific hashtag, a unique word with a # in front. Including the hashtag in your tweet allows everyone following that hashtag to see your contribution, rather than just the people who follow you.

[See How to Use Twitter to Change Careers.]

To give you a proper introduction to Twitter chats, I reached out to three people who co-moderate some of the best Twitter chats for job search and career help. Here are their chats:

#jobhuntchat (Mondays, 10:00 PM, ET): Created by Rich DeMatteo (@cornonthejob), co-founded by Jessica Miller-Merrill (@blogging4jobs) and also moderated by Kate-Madonna Hindes (@girlmeetsgeek).

#HFChat (Fridays, 12:00 PM, ET): Created by Margo Rose (@HRMargo) and moderated with help from Tom Bolt (@tombolt), Cyndy Trivella (@CyndyTrivella) and Steve Levy (@levyrecruits).

#careerchat (Tuesdays, 1:00 PM, ET): Co-created and moderated by Amanda Guralski (@bizMebizgal) and Jill Perlberg (@MyPath_MP).

Below is the advice from my interviews with Jessica of #jobhuntchat, Tom of #HFChat and Amanda of #careerchat on how to get the most out of a Twitter chat:

Twitter chats have been described as “sucking on a fire hose” for new participants because so much information comes so quickly. Do you have any helpful tips for new participants?

Jessica: Do your best to follow, but the networking and relationships you build are just as important. Connect with the people who participate in the chat that can best help you.

Tom: Not all Twitter chats have the pace of #HFChat, but ours is like speed dating on steroids. I post a transcript of the chat session on the #HireFriday web site so users can review the conversation at a more leisurely pace.

Amanda: The biggest thing is to stay engaged in the conversation that you find the most beneficial to you. There will be multiple conversations going on at one time, you just need to pick and choose what makes the most sense.

All three of these moderators highly recommend the use of a Twitter tool like Tweetchat, TweetGrid, or Hootsuite to allow easier following of the hashtag. They also recommended using searchtwitter.com to follow the hashtag after the chat so you can review ideas, links, and conversation at a more leisurely pace.

[See 10 Smart Ways to Use Social Media in Your Job Search.]

What’s the main reason a job seeker would want to spend an hour in your chat?

Jessica: Networking is the number one reason. These are great times to learn tips and develop relationships with online social media connectors.

Tom: For job seekers, there’s a wealth of information provided by the experts who volunteer to show up to help out. Obviously recruiters can make useful contacts as well, but mostly it’s just caring people, lending a helping hand. In this economy, this is important.

Amanda: We talk about the things that are happening all around us that no one wants to talk about. We cover corporate politics, looking for a job when you have one, work place romance, bullying bosses, etc. Our participants get heart-felt advice to truly help them be successful.

How is your chat formatted? Do you always have a guest host?

Jessica: We rarely have a guest host but are looking to expand our format to offer different opportunities for experts, service providers to connect on various topics. We’re open to the opportunity.

Tom: Most weeks there’s a guest host from the ranks of key opinion leaders in the Recruiting, coaching or HR fields. These, too, are volunteers who receive no compensation for their time other than to publicize their company or a book they have written.

Amanda: We typically ask three questions (one every 15 minutes) to structure the chat a bit and then the leave the last 15 minutes for open QA. We have had guest hosts in the past, but typically it’s just Jill and me.

[See How to Mesh In-Person and Online Networking.]

Who benefits most from your chat? Can you describe your average participant (job seekers, career experts, recruiters)?

Jessica: This chat is driven for job seekers. Our chat has been going strong for a year and 5 months. It’s amazing how time flies and how many job seekers we have helped land a job opportunity with #jobhuntchat.

Tom: Participants are generally divided equally between job seekers and job helpers, but a recent survey of participants showed that 35% of those attending the chat session were currently unemployed.

Amanda: Anyone looking to get ahead in a career. We have a variety of participants from job seekers, recruiters, and career experts. That’s the biggest benefit: our job seekers learn from experts and our experts are able to showcase their expertise in a non-sales format.

If you’re a Twitter chat veteran, what are your tips for getting the most out of a live chat?

Tim Tyrell-Smith is founder of Tim’s Strategy, a site that helps professionals succeed in job search, career and life strategy. Follow Tim on Twitter, @TimsStrategy, and learn about his two popular job-search books.

We’ve all heard the standard personal finance fare about saving more and spending less, repeated ad nauseum, so we were pleasantly surprised when five original money strategies floated across our radar recently. They are extreme, and not for everybody, which is why they’re not on the lips of every finance guru out there. But for some people, they might just work.

[In Pictures: 10 Affordable Spots for Summer Vacation]

1. Buy a vacation home as soon as possible.

Casey Weade, a vice president of Howard Bailey Financial and a certified financial planner, says young people in their twenties and thirties should not only buy a first home, but should also consider buying a second home. As long as a young person is otherwise debt-free and on top of their finances, he argues that a second home can serve as a forced savings vehicle, a kid-friendly vacation spot, and a retirement home down the road.

“If you’re in a neat area, then you can rent it when you’re not there and let the place pay for itself,” he says. Weade, who is moving to North Carolina, plans to take his own advice and look for a vacation home near the beach.

The downside: If your expenses go up or you lose your job, a second home is the last thing you want on the books. Also, rental income isn’t guaranteed, and hidden costs from extra insurance to unexpected repairs abound.

2. Take out life insurance on your parents.

After maxing out his Roth IRA, Weade decided to take out a life insurance policy on his father. Then, when his father dies, he will collect the payout. Weade acknowledges this strategy will sound morbid to some, but he insists that it makes sense. “He’s in really good health at 61, and I’m 25. In 30 years, I’ll be 55 and he’ll be over 90, and there’s a low chance of living that long, so I’ll get that tax-free benefit by age 55,” he explains.

Weade calculates that his returns, after paying for the policy, will be at least 10 percent. “You have to be in a great relationship in order to do this. [Parents] have to understand the purpose and why it’s beneficial,” Weade adds.

The downside: If parents outlive a term policy, it may never pay out, and by that time, the insurer might not be willing to re-issue another one, explains Rita Cheng, a financial adviser with Ameriprise. (Some term insurance policies are convertible, she adds, which means they can be converted to cash value or a permanent policy prior to the end of the term.) Cheng says she doesn’t usually suggest that people take out life insurance policies on their parents, but in some cases, life insurance policies that are structured properly can be a tax-efficient way to pass on wealth from parents to children.

3. Open up an extra credit card account.

People who take the “credit cards are evil” message to heart can find themselves in trouble when they want to borrow money for a house or car, since lenders want to see some experience with credit. Opening up credit card accounts and paying them off on time each month can help build a solid credit history and avoid that predicament. That way, when you need to take out a big loan for a house or a car, lenders will be competing for your business. (Other ways to build credit include opening utility accounts in your own name. Becoming an authorized user on accounts owned by others, such as spouses or parents, can also help.) Multiple accounts also provide an extra buffer in case of accidental account freezes, lost cards, and other problems.

The downside: If an extra credit card serves as a temptation to spend more, it can lead to a debt snowball effect.

[In Pictures: 10 Smart Ways to Improve Your Budget.]

4. Overpay the IRS.

Most Americans make the mistake of overpaying the IRS throughout the year. Many financial experts point out that anyone who does this is floating Uncle Sam a loan free of charge. But is doing so really a mistake? Getting a tax refund every April can serve as a method of forced savings (or splurging, depending on one’s priorities).

Despite the bevy of disappointing economic reports recently, the U.S. economy might be better off than you think.

To be sure, there’s no shortage of reasons to fret. May’s dismal unemployment numbers took the teeth out of an improving job-market outlook, and debt problems in Europe continue to rattle investors worldwide. Add abnormally bad weather around the globe and supply-chain disruptions in Japan that slammed the American auto industry last month, and it all amounts to an economic “soft patch” that feels more like a hard landing.

[See 12 Ways To Stop America's Decline.]

While those “temporary forces” comprise a seemingly endless catalogue of challenges facing the U.S. economy, the data tell a different story: The economy has indeed hit a road bump, but there are still plenty of bright spots hiding amid all the “soft patch” angst:

Job creation has nearly doubled. After several months of encouraging gains, the economy added just 54,000 jobs in May, falling well short of the 170,000 economists had predicted. The short-term outlook leaves little in the way of a silver lining, but the pace of job creation so far in 2011 is nearly double what it was in 2010.

That may be little consolation for the nearly 14 million Americans who are still unemployed, but economists remain optimistic that job creation will pick up again as the impact of temporary economic disruptions diminish.

“More than two million people are now employed versus a year ago. It’s a step in the right direction,” says Jeffrey Cleveland, senior economist at Payden Rygel. “April probably was a little exaggerated with more than 250,000 [jobs added], so that was probably overestimating the actual trend, and May was the payback. If you look [at] the three-month average, you get a better sense. We’re somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 jobs being created every month.”

[See How the Greek Crisis Affects Your Portfolio.]

Small businesses have been the main driver of job growth, hiring more than a million people over the last 12 months. “Small businesses are pretty much the U.S. employment picture,” Cleveland says. “Most of the U.S. economy is made up of small businesses, and they’ve been a big contributor to net job gains over the last 20 years, so that’s a really good sign that they’re hiring back and moving along.”

Credit availability is improving. “An important missing component of the current recovery—borrowing and lending—has also recently emerged,” says Paulsen, a factor economists say is crucial to lift the economy out of the doldrums. While corporations remain hesitant and cautious on the whole, short-term borrowing has been rising steadily since November, a sign that confidence might be building among businesses.

“Credit recovery has taken awhile in the last three recoveries, including this one,” Paulsen says. “Last year there was no evidence of banks making loans, they were still going down, [but] this year now we now see some evidence of it picking up.”

[See Breaking Down the Debt-Ceiling Debate.]

Business lending has ticked up at a 9 percent annualized rate in 2011, according to the Federal Reserve. “That certainly shows a change in propensity among businesses to step up and start borrowing money,” he adds. “That’s a real difference from last year.”

Consumers are also feeling a bit more comfortable using credit. After declining continuously from its January 2009 peak, consumer credit has been on the upswing for seven straight months. While that doesn’t amount to anything close to a credit boom, economists say the turn is significant. “While people are worried about Greece and this soft patch, what we’ve done is double job creation and started some credit creation,” Paulsen says. “Those are huge events.”

Kelly Campbell

People experience inflation—or an increase in the price of goods and services—in a number of ways. First, it has helped investment portfolios in areas like big oil. As oil prices increase, so do the profits of companies like Exxon. If you’ve had a position in a commodity exchange-traded fund (ETF) or mutual fund than you have been pleasantly surprised by their increase over the last year.

However, inflation can cause significant issues for people trying to put food on their table.

[See 50 Best Funds for the Everyday Investor.]

[See Use Conservative Estimates When Planning for Retirement.]

Lower-income households experience even greater difficulties in times of high inflation. Think of it this way: As food costs rise, it takes up a greater percentage of your income. The less you make, the greater the percentage your food budget becomes. While you can change your habits and spend less money in some areas, you always have to eat.

The world’s poor are being pushed further and further into poverty. In the U.S., the average family spends 7 percent of their income on food. In Guatemala, it’s 36 percent, and in Kenya, it’s 45 percent. Quite simply, the less you make, the more an increase in food prices will hurt you financially.

[See Is Gold the Best Inflation Hedge?]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an American family making $15,000 to $20,000 of annual income spends 19.1 percent of their income on food, while those making $80,000 to $100,000 spends 9.4 percent.

But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for lower income families. According to the FAO Food Price Index, food prices may have hit their high and could be on their way down.

If commodity prices have hit their high, the tables may be turning. Consumers may be seeing some relief, but investors could end up giving up some of those great returns. So for investors, here are two tips that could help you to hold on to your returns:

[See 6 Investing Mistakes to Avoid.]

Use a long/short commodities fund. Managers can hold on to commodities he or she thinks could be increasing, and make money on those that could be decreasing in price.

Rebalance your portfolio. When any portfolio sector gets too high, take some of your gains off the table. Also, when you rebalance, you are selling something that did well (at a high) and buying something that did not do as well (at a low).

Good luck and happy investing.

Kelly Campbell , CFP® and Accredited Investment Fiduciary, is founder of Campbell Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor in Alexandria, Va. Campbell is also the author of Fire Your Broker , a controversial look at the broker industry written as an empathetic response to the trials and tribulations many investors have faced as the stock market cratered and their advisers abandoned their responsibilities to help them weather the storm.

The recession may have officially ended two years ago, but unemployment is still painfully high, and the squeeze on small businesses might be to blame.

Historically, small businesses have led the country out of recessions, generating nearly 65 percent of net new private-sector jobs over the past decade, according to the Small Business Administration.

[See How 15 U.S. Firms Depend on Foreign Sales.]

This year, the private sector has added about 200,000 jobs a month on average, but economists say businesses need to add somewhere between 350,000 to 400,000 jobs each month over the next three years to bring unemployment down to a more normalized level of around 6 percent.

Without a boost in hiring from small businesses, that goal may remain out of reach and prolong an economic recovery that’s already been painfully slow. “When you’re not feeding the economy with smaller-business growth, that’s really a danger,” says Doug Arms, senior vice president at Ajilon, a professional staffing firm. “When you have your small businesses contributing, en masse it really does spark the economy.”

Particularly troubling is the large drop-off in the number of start-ups since the beginning of the recession. The number of new establishments for the year ending in March 2010 was lower than any year since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began collecting the data in 1994, a worrying trend that has put a significant dent in job creation. Jobs created by start-ups sank to just under 2.5 million in 2010, down from a peak of 4.7 million in 1999.

[See 4 Bright Spots for the U.S. Economy.]

“The shortfall in this job market in this recovery is [because] small business formation has been very weak. I think that’s the key problem,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Stagnant consumer spending and tight credit have also put financial pressure on small businesses. While experts say credit markets aren’t as tight as they were a year ago, getting a loan is still tough. That’s especially true against the grim backdrop of the housing slump, given that many small business owners rely on home equity as collateral for loans.

“You need capital and credit to grow or start up [a small business],” says Steve Smits, associate administrator in the Small Business Administration’s Office of Capital Access. The agency has tried to bridge the gap in lending by offering loan guarantees to banks that lend to small businesses, facilitating more than $42 billion in financing since February 2009. “Lenders are eventually going to need to lend. They are looking for ways to say ‘yes,’ [and] the credit enhancements is a way to get you a ‘yes.’ It’s a crutch,” he adds.

[See Why Europe's Debt Crisis Will Keep Coming Back.]

But it’s not just a matter of encouraging banks to lend, it’s nudging small businesses to borrow and invest in their companies, too. That’s been a tough sell lately as confidence in the economy among small-business owners has sunk to its lowest level since September, primarily due to low consumer demand and poor sales. “Those challenges translate into a continued decline in confidence,” Smits adds. “There’s a pullback. You go into survival mode.”

Heather R. Huhman

Ever think about seeking out a mentor? It may sound like an outdated business strategy, but a mentor can be a great resource, especially if you find one who has navigated your industry before and has ample experience. This individual is a prime source of support, constructive criticism, and unbiased advice when it comes to your job opportunities, workplace conflicts, and much more.

Here are some ways to find the right mentor for you:

• Look for someone in your same (or a similar) field or industry. If you’re looking to break into another industry, find a mentor who already works in your desired field.

[See 10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Internship.]

• Look for someone with goals similar to your own.

• Take the initiative to contact the individual, as you’ll benefit the most from the relationship. (Although, don’t think that your potential mentor won’t benefit at all—they will.)

• Be prepared to dedicate time towards the relationship, as not much is gained from a relationship with little effort and time put into it.

Having a mentor is a great way to truly excel in your chosen career path. How? Here are several ways you can benefit from a mentor relationship:

• Learn from an experienced professional. A mentor has worked in your industry before and can show you the ropes. They can provide wisdom about workplaces issues and career challenges and help you look at things in a new light.

• Receive guidance, advice, and challenges. A mentor can help you navigate your career and job search by giving you advice and guidance based on their past experiences.

[See How to Successfully Change Careers.]

• Gain an unbiased opinion on issues and problems. Ever feel like you can’t solve a problem when you’re too close to the source? A mentor is a great third-party resource to turn to when you’re stuck on a project, having a conflict with a superior or co-worker, or facing a hurdle in your career.

• Clarify your ideas and goals. A mentor helps you solidify your ideas and goals by talking through them out loud. You’re also more prone to follow through with goals when you’ve shared them with someone who will hold you accountable.

• Develop your critical thinking skills. A mentor will help you look at projects and issues in a new way. They will challenge you to think about your current job, job search, and career.

Don’t know how you’ll find a mentor in your chosen field? Consider going virtual in your search. For example, StudentMentor.org is a non-profit organization matching college and graduate students seeking career or academic advice with professionals across the nation.

Do you have a mentor? What have you gained from a mentor relationship? If you don’t have one, do you hope to in the future?

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder president of Come Recommended, a content marketing consultancy for organizations with products that target job seekers and employers. She is also the author of Lies, Damned Lies Internships (2011) and #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010) and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.

Tim MicKey

In a headline-driven environment, it’s easy to get confused about which way the market is moving. Let’s put aside the calamities of the day and focus on the fundamentals of “the market,” as defined by the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index (SP 500). The SP 500, which includes the 500 largest companies in the U.S., represents more than 80 percent of the U.S. stock market and is widely regarded as the best single gauge of the U.S. stock market.

Two powerful measurements for determining stock valuations are price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) and earnings yield (E/P). In fact, earnings and earnings estimates have more to do with the movement of stock prices than any other measure. In 2010, the earnings for the SP 500 came in at $83.77. According to Standard Poor’s, the earnings estimates for 2011 are at $97.81 and $111.73 for 2012. Both are at historic highs and have been revised upwards in the past six months. Assuming that these estimates hold, we can use this data to compare our current findings against historical results.

[See 50 Best Funds for the Everyday Investor.]

The P/E ratios of the SP 500 from 1988 to today range from a high of 29.44 in the fourth quarter of 2001 to a low of 11.51 posted in the fourth quarter of 1988. Eliminate the extremes, and you come away with averages that fall between 13x and 16x earnings. As of July 1, 2011, the SP 500′s current P/E is 13.65 (using the SP 500 July 1 price of 1335 and a 2011 earnings estimate of $97.81). If you use the 2012 earnings estimate, you end up at 11.95x earnings. As you can see, we are much closer to the historical low end than the high end whether we use the 2011 or 2012 estimates—which indicates that the markets are on the undervalued side and have significant room for growth.

Now, let’s take a look at earnings yield, which is defined as earnings/price. If we use the same 2011 SP 500 earnings estimate of $97.81 and an SP price of 1335 (97.81/1335), you come away with a multiple of .073 or 7.3 percent. Simply put, this means that the expected earnings of the SP 500 are 7.3 percent of the price of the index. Why is this relevant? Because we are comparing the additional rate of return we expect to receive by investing in equities with the anticipated rate of return offered by other asset classes.

[See 5 Items for Your Mid-Year Financial Check-Up.]

We can also compare these returns to the rate of inflation. Over the past 50 years, the average earnings yield for the SP 500 has outpaced inflation by 2.4 percent. When the market is above that mark, equities are generally considered attractive. When below that mark, stocks may be considered expensive. If we subtract the current core inflation rate of 1.5 percent from the 2011 SP 500 earnings estimate of 7.3 percent, we end up with 5.8 percent—well above the 50-year 2.4 percent level. Even if we use the 3.4 percent consumer price index rate, we come out at 3.9 percent (7.3 percent minus 3.4 percent), which is still a very attractive number when compared to most interest-bearing investments. A look at history shows that the last time the SP 500 earnings yield approached 7 percent was at the end of 1994. The market enjoyed a nice five-year run from there. While it’s not the perfect indicator, when combined with the P/E ratio, earnings yield can provide a useful point of reference.

[In Pictures: 6 Numbers Every Investor Should Follow.]

Earnings and earnings estimates play an important role in market dynamics. We just finished the second quarter and will soon find out how just how solid those estimates are. If the companies hit their earnings targets that’s good news, but more important is the guidance they give for the future. The markets will put more emphasis on future earnings expectations than how well they did last quarter. That’s history.

Timothy S. MicKey , CFP®, is a managing director and cofounder of Monument Wealth Management in Alexandria, Va., a full-service investment and wealth management firm. Monument Wealth Management is backed by LPL Financial, an independent broker-dealer and Registered Investment Advisor, member FINRA/SIPC. Monument Wealth Management has been featured in several national media sources over the past several years. Follow Tim and Monument Wealth Management on their blog Off The Wall , on Twitter at @MonumentWealth and @TimothySMickey, and on their Facebook page. The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendation for individual. To determine which investment is appropriate please consult your financial advisor prior to investing. All performance references are historical and are not a guarantee of future results. Strategies involving asset allocation and diversification do not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.

During the worst of the downturn, the private sector was hammered with massive job losses, while the public sector held fairly steady. Now, the focus has shifted to public sector cuts that threaten the economic recovery.

[See Public Sector Job Cuts Threaten Recovery.]

The National Rifle Association has a rich history that goes back to shortly after the Civil War, when in 1871, Union veterans created it to train city-slicker troops who couldn’t hit the side of a barn with their musket shots. But as the 4 million-strong group readies its fight to oust President Obama in 2012, it has to go back only 11 years for a battle plan. That’s when the Second Amendment advocates mounted their biggest political effort ever to defeat then Vice President Al Gore by targeting key pro-gun Democratic states he needed to beat George W. Bush, like Arkansas. “We actually knocked out a presidential candidate,” says new NRA President David Keene.

He tells Whispers that 2012 might be an even more critical year for the NRA. That’s because the president, if re-elected, might have a chance to appoint more left-leaning Supreme Court justices who could undo Second Amendment protections and allow more gun control. “Our major goal is to defeat Obama because if he’s re-elected, he’s going to attempt to change the Supreme Court. All he needs is one vote and he will rewrite the Second Amendment,” says Keene. “The threat,” he says, “in many ways is more severe than in 2000.” One reason: Obama, who slapped gun owners in his campaign, has gone quiet on gun issues as president, making it harder to rally NRA members. That was until gun foe Sarah Brady revealed in April that Obama told her he was working on the issue “under the radar.”

[See political cartoons about Barack Obama.]

Keene reveals that the NRA plans to mobilize its troops with the hopes of taking away three to five states Obama won in 2008. Keene and Wayne LaPierre, the gun group’s executive vice president, plan a massive education campaign that he says will warn members about an Obama second term. He also says the NRA is seeking to register the up to 25 million gun owners not signed up to vote. He figures getting 5 million to 10 million to the polls would change the election’s outcome. “We know how they’ll vote,” he says.

Keene also wants to add more women and younger shooters to the roster and to corral traditionally conservative home-school families. “I’m trying to make sure that there will be just as many people involved in the shooting sports next generation as this,” he says.

Formerly head of the American Conservative Union, Keene says he timed his NRA presidency to coincide with Obama’s re-election. He credits LaPierre for getting him involved, especially now to help with election messaging. “This is a moment of extreme danger,” he says. But, the longtime hunter adds, it’s still a fun job. “I love it.”

Illustration by Ed Wexler for USNWR.

• Check out our gallery of political caricatures.
• See who in the GOP is in and out in 2012.
• Vote now: Who is your pick for the GOP presidential nomination?
  

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Facebook, TSA pat-downs, Presidents’ Day, plump women, forced TV cohosts, and all sorts of male habits are under fire from conservative talk radio’s emerging grouch Laura Ingraham.

• See our collection of political cartoons on the GOP
• See who in the GOP is in and out in the 2012 presidential election.
• Vote now: Who is your pick for the GOP presidential nomination?

Van Jones, fired as a top Obama environmental adviser for past political activism, is back to helping President Obama’s revived attacks on the rich and corporate tax scofflaws. Jones has joined MoveOn.org to help with the group’s “American Dream” project set up to assail wealthy Americans.

“I’m Van Jones, and last week, I joined with MoveOn to launch ‘Rebuild the Dream.’ This big new project is dedicated to creating an economy that works for ALL of us—and to stopping the attacks on the middle class and working Americans,” he writes in an e-mail. [See the month's best editorial cartoons.]

An effective activist and environmental advocate, Jones was pushed from office when the heat from critics of his past statements became too much for the White House to handle. For example, in 2004, he signed a petition questioning if Bush officials allowed 9/11 to happen as a pretext for war.

His newest project calls for neighborhood meetings on July 16-17 to discuss how Americans can resurrect the American Dream. According to the MoveOn.org page, “We know we have the resources to create good jobs for millions of Americans if all of us pay our fair share in taxes. The problem is that millionaires and big corporations aren’t—that’s why we’re creating a powerful agenda to rebuild the American Dream. We’ll use the agenda to push Congress to make the American Dream a reality for all of us, not just corporations and the rich.”

In his E-mail about the union-sponsored event, Jones said, “Since we launched last week, the question folks keep asking me is: ‘Why are you talking about the American Dream? Didn’t we all give up on that a long time ago?’ Sadly, they’re right. Too many of us have stopped talking about our dreams—stopped thinking in terms of what we’re really capable of achieving in this country. I believe that’s actually part of the problem.”

Jones also gave a short story about the American Dream:

“For me, the American Dream is something my dad instilled in me. He climbed out of poverty up the ladder of opportunity—then he put my sister and me through college.

“As I’ve traveled around the country talking to thousands of people over the past year, it’s become clear that we, as a country, are letting that ladder fall down. People have told me over and over that the American Dream is slipping further and further away for them and their families.

“We need to stop reckless greed at the top from killing our dreams. That’s the inspiration behind Rebuild the Dream.

“Because the American Dream used to mean something in this country. That if you put in a hard day’s work, you could expect good American wages, benefits, a dignified retirement, and a better life for your kids. Everyone wasn’t in the middle class, but everyone believed that—given a fair shot—they could make it there. That’s the American Dream I’m fighting for.

“Our shared path to the American Dream begins with a conversation among concerned friends and neighbors at hundreds of American Dream house meetings on July 16 and 17. These simple house meetings will launch a grassroots agenda-creation process that we’ll use to drive the American Dream movement forward.”

• See the month’s best editorial cartoons.
• Check out our gallery of Whispers political caricatures.
• See who’s been visiting the White House.

HUGO RAFAEL CHAVEZ, EL GENOCIDA QUE MATO MAS DE 10.000,00, QUE VA FREIRNOS LA CABEZA, PULVERIZARNOS Y BORRARNOS DEL MAPA,

LO SEGUIDO ME LLEGO A MI CORREO EMAIL, POR LO QUE LO PUBLICO ENTERAMENTE SIN QUITARLE UNA COMA, POR ELLO, NO ES DE MI AUTORIA, PERO SE QUE, MILLONES DE SERES HUMANOS QUE AMAMOS A DIOS TODOPODEROSO Y A LA SANTISIMA MADRE MARIA, PENSAMOS COMO EL O LA QUE ESCRIBIO LO QUE AQUI PUBLICO, INCLUIDO HUGO CHAVEZ (QUIEN DICE AMAR A DIOS, A LA VIRGEN, PERO NO SWABEMOS A QUE DIOS SE REFIERE, PORQUE LOS SERES DE LA OSCURIDAD DICEN AMAR A DIOS PARA EMBAUCAR A SUS VICTIMAS COMO LOS ESTAFADORES), TODA SU FAMILIA Y SEGUIDORES, PERO, ES TANTA SU AMBICION DE PODER, Y EN LA DE HACER EN A UN CENTENAR DE SUS CERCANO TESTAFERROS: COMO LOS HERMANOS FERNANDO BERRUECO, ARNE CHACON ,, EN BILLONARIOS DE DOLARES, CLARO ESTA (LES VOY A PUBLICAR EL FUTUTO LIBRO SER RICO NO ES MALO AL PIE DE LA NOTA, DEL CAUL ESTOY A LA ESPERA DE LA RESPUESTA??????) ROBANDO EL ERARO PUBLICO, ET,ETC, ELEMENTOS ESTOS QUE LO HACEN CREER A LOS CAHVEZ, QUE DEBE PERTUARSE EN EL PODER, PORQUE SABEN QUE VAN DIRECTO A LA CARCEL ETERNA (MI TYWITTER: CARCELACHAVEZ) TANTO ASI Y AL EXTREMO QUE, SU HERMANO ADAN, VA MAS ALLA DE ESAS AMBICIONES, PORQUE EL DICE QUE ELLOS (ALARDEANDO LA REVOLUCION) VAN A TOMAR LAS ARMAS, LO QUE RATIFICA Y RECONFIRMA LA ANIMADVERSION DE ASESINAR ESTOS A ESTE PUEBLO, Y CUENTAN CON EL ASESINO CUBANO RAMIRO VALDEZ (QUE ESPERA EL PRESIDENTE BARACK OBAMA DE HACERLE FRENTE A ESTA CALAMIDAD) QUE COMANDA A MAS DE 450.000,00 ESCLAVISADOS Y AMENAZADIOS CUBANOS, SI ESTOS NO CUMPLEN LAS ORDENE.

DEJO ESTO HASTA AQUI PORQUE COMENTAR DE ESTOS ASESINOS, ESCRIBIRIAMOS Y HARIAMOS UNA BIBLIOTECA.

ES ASI,, HUGO ASESINO,,,, MATON DEL 4F Y DE LOS DE VTV, 11A, 6D Y DEL CARACAZO (LO CONFESASTE Y AHORA SACASTE EL VIDEO) POR ELLO DIGO COMO EL AUTOR DE LA NOTA::::

PIASTE TARDE PAJARITO…..

LO LAMENTO SR. PRESIDENTE.

Luego de oir su breve discurso en Cadena Nacional, invocando el Manto de la Virgen para su protección, confieso que realmente me quedé perpleja. No sé a cual Virgen Ud. se refería, si a las imágenes de las Virgenes que

fueron decapitadas en los estados Lara y Yaracuy, o a la que le colocaron un rifle, o a la Virgen de la Coromoto, Patrona de Venezuela, cuya cabeza fue usada para actos lasivos. SIGUE:::