Under the Radar: Too Busy For Words

(10 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The news is just flying off the “wires” and through the “tubes”. So, in an Attempt to keep up with some really important developing events, a quick summery of the big stuff and some of the related details.

This is obviously not the optimum solution but Qaddafi is a lunatic. Both MSF and the ICRC have pulled out of Behghazi yesterday and most of the news media is gone.

• UN Security Council Approves No-Fly Zone Over Libya
  

  Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi have driven back rebels to the eastern city of Benghazi this week. And after weeks of ambiguity about an official position on Libya, the Obama administration yesterday said the U.S. would support military action beyond a no-fly zone to prevent a humanitarian disaster. “We need to be prepared to contemplate steps that include, but perhaps go beyond, a no-fly zone at this point, as the situation on the ground has evolved, and as a no-fly zone has inherent limitations in terms of protection of civilians at immediate risk,” U.S. ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said.

  With a UN Security Council resolution authorizing military action in Libya looming, Qaddafi today warned rebels in Benghazi, “We are coming tonight.” He promised amnesty for those who surrender, but added that his forces will show “no mercy or compassion” to those who resist.

  But just minutes ago, the UN Security Council voted 10-0 to authorize the no-fly zone and any measures necessary to protect civilians from attacks by Qaddafi’s forces. Five countries abstained from the vote, including Russia and China. A UN source tells ThinkProgress that the resolution also demands an immediate cease fire and rules out any foreign occupation of any part of Libyan territory.

• Britain, France and US prepare for air strikes against Gaddafi
  

  British, French and US military aircraft are preparing to defend the Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi after Washington said it was ready to support a no-fly zone and air strikes against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

  Jets could take off from French military bases if a no-fly zone is approved in a fresh United Nations security council resolution authorising “all necessary measures short of an occupation force” to protect civilians.

  France, which has led the calls for a no-fly zone along with Britain, has offered the use of military bases on its Mediterranean coast about 750 miles from the Libyan coast. Several Arab countries would join the operation.

I doubt that the UN or the US will do much about this, other than a “tsk, tsk” from Hillary:

• America rebukes Bahrain after violent crackdown on demonstrators
  

  Hillary Clinton condemns the rulers in Manama for not showing restraint as Shia-Sunni tensions mount around the Middle East

  The capital, Manama, was under curfew from 4pm to 4am, and the government was using emergency laws to ban public gatherings. The central square known as Pearl Roundabout, which had been a base for the protest movement, was violently cleared by riot police.

  Troops and riot police then moved on to locations across the city, including the Salmaniya medical clinic , which had become a second focal point of demonstrations. Doctors reported being attacked in wards and claimed power to part of the hospital had been turned off. The government said it was pursuing “thugs and outlaws”.

  “We have been chased, attacked and locked inside the grounds,” one doctor told the Guardian. “But the worst thing is … that we have been stopped from reaching patients.”

Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis is just getting worse by the hour. The weather has been cold and it has snowed to add insult to injury

• Japan holds the line in nuclear plant crisis
  

  # NEW: An emergency generator running at one unit is sending power to two others

  # Cooling efforts are “somewhat effective,” TEPCO says

  # Helicopters and trucks spray water onto No. 3 reactor housing

• Japan disaster: U.S. starts to evacuate Americans using charter flights
  

  The U.S. government is arranging charter flights to evacuate Americans from Japan, according to a message issued Thursday by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. The action came after the State Department upgraded its advisory on Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis from an alert to a warning that said Americans in Japan “should consider departing.”

Caution: Idiots At Work

• GOP Budget Chair Wants More Focus On Job Training, But GOP Plan Slashes Its Funding In Half
  

  As he often does, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) made the case for reducing the size of government at an event hosted by Politico this morning, which ThinkProgress attended. Ryan said the government needs to “prioritize” its spending, giving three examples of worthy “core mission” functions: scientific research, job training, and defense:

  RYAN: Personally, I think you’ve got to get government back to focus on its core mission, its core ideas. You know, basic scientific research. In education, we have less of a role money-wise, one K-12, but more of a role post-secondary. You know, get job training going so we can have that can kind of system that we should focus on for life-long learning. You know, focus on the basics, defense. Basic research, those things.

  It’s ironic that of all the functions of government, Paul would single out job training and scientific research, since the GOP’s spending proposal, H.R. 1, which Paul voted for, makes drastic cuts to both. H.R. 1 would cut funding for job training programs in half, slashing over $2 billion from an effort that Paul seems to think is essential. A broad coalition of labor, social justice, religious groups, and the United States Conference of Mayors wrote Congressional leaders in opposition to bill.

• Ending The Afghan War Would Save Taxpayers 40,000 Times More Money Than Defunding NPR
  

  Conservatives claim that defunding NPR would save taxpayers a great deal of money; former NPR employee Juan Williams even argued that NPR funding was taking away from “school breakfast programs {and} college scholarships.” Yet NPR receives only around 2 percent of its annual $161 million budget from federal grants, totaling approximately $3.2 million. Meanwhile, the FY2011 cost of the Afghan war has hit $113 billion.

  Assuming that the costs of both the NPR funding and Afghan war would be the same for next year, that means that ending the Afghan war would save approximately 40,000 times more taxpayer dollars than defunding NPR’s grants from agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

  snip

  The House just voted 228-192 to cut off funding to NPR and 93-321 against the resolution calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan this year. Numerous Republicans defected to vote against defunding NPR and to vote for ending the war in Afghanistan. No Democrats voted to defund NPR but more voted against ending the war in Afghanistan than voted for ending it.

• Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage Stole Candy From Children, Wants To Undo Child Labor Laws
  

  At an event in Lewiston, ME last night, the state’s tea party governor Paul LePage (R) told a crowd of French-Canadian-Americans that when he was 12 years old, he used to hide out in the French-Canadian part of town and steal Halloween candy from children. “Isn’t that awful? And now I’m governor of Maine,” LePage said with a laugh.

  But now that LePage is governor, he’s still targeting children. A bill sponsored by state Sen. Debra Plowman (R) and “backed by” LePage would roll back the state’s child labor laws, with the pretext of giving kids more liberty to work. “We have no other restrictions on any other things they do,” Plowman explained. “They can watch TV 32 hours-a-week.”

• Top Republican on Ways and Means Committee Proposes Even Lower Taxes for Millionaires and Corporations
  

  If you listen to Republicans (and some Democrats) these days, we’re facing two big problems in this country. One, working people just have it too easy. And two, the wealthy and the powerful are in desperate need of more government assistance.

     The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee wants to cut the top U.S. tax rate to 25% for individuals and corporations, and cut or eliminate many popular deductions. […]

     “America needs a tax code that promotes, not prevents, job creation,” he (Dave Camp, R-Mich.) said. “Today’s code is simply too complex, too costly and too burdensome for families and employers of all sizes to comply with….We need to set ambitious goals and work toward those, because if we don’t try that will be the biggest failure of all.”

  Under Reagan, the wealthiest paid 50%. Under Clinton, they paid 39.6%, which W. cut to 35%.  The result? Record wealth inequality.

  Mission accomplished!

Amazing that the Irish get it but not NYC

• Irish Minister Slams NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s Anti-Gay Policy: ‘Exclusion Is Not An Irish Thing’
  

  Today, New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day parade celebrates its 250th anniversary. But, the newly-minted Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore found the celebration at odds with “Irishness” because, for years, the parade has excluded the LGBT community. In a “first-of-its-kind meeting” yesterday with prominent New York Irish gay community leaders, Gilmore chided parade organizers for failing “to celebrate Ireland as it is, not as people imagine it.” “Exclusion is not an Irish thing,” he said:

     “What these parades are about is a celebration of Ireland and Irishness. I think they need to celebrate Ireland as it is, not as people imagine it. Equality is very much the center of who we are in our identity in Ireland.”

     “This issue of exclusion is not Irish, let’s be clear about it. Exclusion is not an Irish thing. … I think that’s the message that needs to be driven home.”