Rowlf The Dog — The Cat Came Back, from episode 523 of The Muppet Show.

The way the Republican Party keeps shuffling through front-runners for its 2012 presidential nomination, you almost start to wonder if these folks aren’t firm advocates of recycling after all.

Disposability is certainly something they have down pat.

Obama must be stopped while we still have some tyrants left!

As September drew to a close, residents of southwest Michigan found themselves taking in a little extra tritium, thanks to their daily habit of breathing. The tritium was courtesy of the 40-year-old Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Covert Township, which suffered its third “event” (as they are politely called) in less than two months, and was forced to vent an indeterminate amount of radioactive steam.

The reactor at Palisades was forced to scram after an accident caused an electrical arc in a transformer in the DC system that powers “indications and controls“–also known as monitoring devices, meters and safety valves.

While it is nice to see rectors shut themselves down when a vital system goes offline, remember that “turning off” a fission reactor is not like flicking a light switch. Shutting down a reactor is a process, and the faster it is done, the more strain it puts on the reactor and its safety and cooling systems. And even after fission is mitigated, a reactor core generates heat that requires a fully functional cooling system.

In a major development, California’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris, has broken off from the proposed 50-state settlement over foreclosure fraud. If the talks weren’t dead already, and if you’ve read this space you’d know that I think they were, this surely puts them to bed.

The occupation has rapidly picked up union support in the past few days. The latest indication that big unions are willing to encourage their members to participate in Occupy Wall Street comes from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who The Nation‘s John Nichols reports has said it is “a valid tactic to call attention to a problem. Wall Street is out of control.”

Because of threats from the President Obama’s Department of Justice, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee (I) has finally decided not to let the state license its three planned medical marijuana dispensaries.

The US military is the greatest military force the world has ever known. But that means that when commanded by civilian leaders with little regard for the rule of law, it can also become the most dangerous terrorist state the world has ever known.

Dick Durbin admitted that the Senate doesn’t have the votes to pass the American Jobs Act. Chuck Schumer cautioned that such a statement is premature. Durbin’s right, and it’s merely a statement of political reality. Republicans are not going to agree to anything that will have immediate economic impact to help the President in his re-election.

If you believe, as Ben Bernanke does, that the high unemployment rate represents a national crisis, you have to search for another method beyond Congress, then, to get help and ameliorate the crisis. That means that you have to consider firing up the printing press and solving the demand gap with wads of cash.

Last week, we saw the return of “stop complaining” — and now it looks like “we suck less” is back, too.