(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Essays Featured Thursday the 24^th of March~

KT Tunstall starts the day in Late Night Karaoke, mishima DJs

Six Brilliant Articles! from Six Different Places!! on Six Different Topics!!!

                Six Days a Week!!!    at Six in the Morning!!!!

Older women with longer hair is on mplo‘s mind in Thursday Open Thoughts

Cornucopia Thursday, a weekly feature from Ed Tracey brings a delightful collection of items and ….well, just plain whimsy…..

Gha!

Thought provoking Trunk Sniff’n Dust by Wendys Wink republished with permission by RiaD

I LOOKED INTO HER EYES an introspective look, from Xanthe

from Timbuk3: The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time!

Tonight #97

When last we listened to men in squeeky shoes it was a night of upsets with half the contests going against the seeded teams.  The severe underdog triumphs were Virginia Commonwealth, Marquette, and Florida State but Arizona also won against form.

Sunday’s Results

Ah, it seems like yesterday but it was actually the day before that and it was women.  As I said before it’s time to root for those you hate less, not many underdogs today except for Butler and Arizona.

As the top Google Blogger reports, the lyrics are “deeply stupid” and it’s hard to admit that as a member of the Marching Band I was required to memorize them and sing them a cappella at each home game.

Of course I was heavily medicated at the time.

Current Matchups

Follow the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on The Stars Hollow Gazette.

If you don’t like squeeky shoes you can look for alternate programming here-

• Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

For a more traditional bracket try CBS Sports.

I’ll be sitting in for ek hornbeck who is Live Blogging the NCAA Championship Games for the next few days.

• West strikes deep in Libya, Misrata, Ajdabiyah besieged
  
  By Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy

  TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Western warplanes hit military targets deep inside Libya on Thursday but failed to prevent tanks reentering the western town of Misrata and besieging its main hospital.

  Air strikes destroyed government tanks on the outskirts of rebel-held Misrata, but other tanks inside the city were not hit, a resident said, underlining the difficulty of the U.N. backed military mission to protect Libyans from Muammar Gaddafi.

• Turkey and France clash over Libya air campaign
  
  by Ian Traynor

  Tension mounts over military action as Ankara accuses Sarkozy of pursuing French interests over liberation of Libyan people

  Turkey has launched a bitter attack on French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s and France’s leadership of the military campaign against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, accusing the French of lacking a conscience in their conduct in the Libyan operations.

  The vitriolic criticism, from both the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the president, Abdullah Gül followed attacks from the Turkish government earlier this week and signalled an orchestrated attempt by Ankara to wreck Sarkozy’s plans to lead the air campaign against Gaddafi.

• French jets destroy Libyan plane, target arms flow
  
  By Ryan Lucas and Maggie Michaels

  BENGHAZI, Libya – French fighter jets struck an air base deep inside Libya and destroyed one of Moammar Gadhafi’s planes Thursday, and NATO ships patrolled the coast to block the flow of arms and mercenaries. Other coalition bombers struck artillery, arms depots and parked helicopters.

  Libyan state television on Thursday showed blackened and mangled bodies that it said were victims of airstrikes in Tripoli, the capital. Rebels have accused Gadhafi’s forces of taking bodies from the morgue and pretending they are civilian casualties.

• Libyan rebels wait outside Gaddafi-held Ajdabiyah
  
  By Mohammed Abbas

  NEAR AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels trying to advance on Ajdabiyah came under intermittent shelling on Thursday from forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi holding out in the strategic eastern town.

  Rebel fighters said they had dispatched envoys into Ajdabiyah to try to persuade Gaddafi’s forces, now facing air strikes from Western warplanes, to give up.

• Rebels close in on oil town as NATO set to take charge
  
  by Imed Lamloum Imed Lamloum

  TRIPOLI (AFP) – Rebels battled on to the eastern oil town of Ajdabiya Thursday as plans firmed for NATO to take over coalition operations after Tripoli came under attack for a sixth day and death tolls mounted.

  France promised to continue air raids “for as long as necessary,” and Italy offered to increase its participation in the coalition operation.

• Qatar’s decision to send planes to Libya is part of a high-stakes game
  
  By Jason Burke

  The tiny Gulf state is keen to gain influence out of proportion to its size through diplomacy and al-Jazeera

  In an air-conditioned room down an alley in the old market of Qatar’s capital Doha, enthusiasts of “damah” gather most evenings. The ancient board game, rarely played in recent years, is now being revived by local enthusiasts. It is, afficionados say, a contest of strategy and finesse – and thus an apt metaphor for the high-stakes manoeuvring by the tiny Gulf state and its hereditary leader, 59-year-old Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in recent weeks.

• Global food scare widens from Japan nuclear plant
  
  by Karyn Poupee

  TOKYO (AFP) – Countries across the world shunned Japanese food imports Thursday as radioactive steam leaked from a disaster-struck nuclear plant, straining nerves in Tokyo.

  The grim toll of dead and missing from Japan’s monster quake and tsunami on March 11 topped 26,000, as hundreds of thousands remained huddled in evacuation shelters and fears grew in Tokyo over water safety.

• Japan says must review nuclear power policy as crisis persists
  
  By Linda Sieg and Sumio Ito

  TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will have to review its nuclear power policy, its top government spokesman said on Thursday as radiation from a damaged nuclear complex briefly made Tokyo’s tap water unsafe for babies and led to people emptying supermarket shelves of bottled water.

  Engineers are trying to stabilize the six-reactor nuclear plant in Fukushima, 250 km (150 miles) north of the capital, nearly two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami battered the plant and devastated northeastern Japan, leaving nearly 26,000 people dead or missing.

• Japanese firemen battle invisible danger
  
  By Kiyoshi Takenaka

  TOKYO (Reuters) – The most difficult thing in a nuclear crisis, the Tokyo firefighter said, was the inability to sense where the danger was.

  The Tokyo Fire Department’s elite rescue team was among those called in to cool down a nuclear plant north of the capital that was badly damaged by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami and was leaking radiation.

• Assad offers freedoms after forces kill 37
  
  By Suleiman al-Khalidi

  DERAA, Syria (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad made an unprecedented pledge of greater freedom and more prosperity to Syrians Thursday as anger mounted following a crackdown on protesters that left at least 37 dead.

  As an aide to Assad in Damascus read out a list of decrees, which included a possible end to 48 years of emergency rule, a human rights group said a leading pro-democracy activist, Mazen Darwish, had been arrested.

• Yemeni opposition says No to Saleh’s new offer
  
  By Cynthia Johnston and Mohammed Ghobari

  SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen’s opposition stepped up efforts to remove President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday, dismissing his offer to stand down after a presidential election at the end of the year.

  Tensions ratcheted higher a day ahead of a planned rally that protesters have dubbed “Friday of Departure,” and presidential guards loyal to Saleh clashed with army units backing opposition groups demanding his ouster.

• Facing protests, Syria says may end emergency law
  

  DAMASCUS (AFP) – President Bashar al-Assad’s government said on Thursday it may scrap an emergency law in place since 1963 following a week of deadly protests in the southern city of Daraa.

  “I am happy to announce to you the decisions made today by the Arab Baath party under the auspices of President Bashar al-Assad… which include… studying the possibility of lifting the emergency law and licensing political parties,” the president’s media adviser Buthaina Shaaban told a news conference.

• Gates assures Egypt on sustained U.S. aid
  

  CAIRO (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates assured Egypt’s military ruler of sustained American aid Thursday, as Cairo warned that tourism revenue is nosediving in the wake of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

  Gates, on his first visit to Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, also discussed Libya with Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the ruling military council.

• EU summit split on Libya, upset by Portugal
  
  by Claire Rosemberg

  BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe’s leaders head into a crucial summit on Thursday, torn over the military campaign in Libya and calls for NATO to take its reins, as they strive to seal a long-anticipated deal to shore up the euro.

  Originally scheduled to agree a lasting game-plan after financial crises in Greece and Ireland undermined the common currency, European Union leaders gather from 1600 GMT facing a fresh financial storm over troubled Portugal.

• Debt-ridden Portugal vows to do all it can to avoid bailout
  
  by Anne Le Coz Anne Le Coz

  LISBON (AFP) – Portugal vowed Thursday to “do all it can” to avert a bailout after Prime Minister Jose Socrates stepped down following a showdown with parliament over his minority government’s latest austerity plan.

  Socrates, in power since 2005, tendered his resignation late Wednesday, saying he could not govern without support after all five opposition parties voted against his fourth programme in a year of spending cuts and tax hikes.

• Portugal crisis hijacks European summit
  
  By Julien Toyer

  BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A political crisis in Portugal that has forced the resignation of its prime minister dominated the start of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, with Lisbon rejecting intense pressure to seek a bailout package.

  Prime Minister Jose Socrates quit on Wednesday after parliament rejected new austerity measures that his government unveiled to avoid being forced to seek EU/IMF financial assistance, as euro members Greece and Ireland did last year.

• Special report: The revolution in central banking
  
  By Paul Carrel, Mark Felsenthal, Pedro da Costa, David Milliken and Alan Wheatley

  FRANKFURT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – On a warm, Lisbon day last May, Jean-Claude Trichet, the ice-cool president of the European Central Bank, was asked whether the bank would consider buying euro zone governments’ bonds in the open market. Paul Carrel, Mark Felsenthal, Pedro Da Costa, David Milliken And Alan Wheatley Frankfurt/washington (reuters) – On A Warm, Lisbon Day Last May, Jean-claude Trichet, The Ice-cool President Of The European Central Bank, Was Asked Whether The Bank Would Consider Buying Euro Zone Governments’ Bonds In The Open Market.

  “I would say we did not discuss this option,” Trichet told a news conference after a meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council. Four days later, the ECB announced that it would start buying bonds.

• ECB talks rate hikes, braces as Portugal crisis deepens
  
  By Sakari Suoninen and Terhi Kinnunen

  FRANKFURT/HELSINKI (Reuters) – European Central Bank policymakers underscored the case for an April rate hike on Thursday as Portugal’s political crisis raised the prospect of another spell of reluctant ECB bond market intervention.

  The ECB has kept rates at a record low of 1 percent for almost two years as the financial and debt crises have unfolded, but it took financial markets by surprise earlier this month by flagging a earlier-than-expected hike in April.

• Best Buy shoppers shun pricey TVs; analysts worry
  
  By Dhanya Skariachan

  NEW YORK (Reuters) – Best Buy Co Inc forecast profit that could fall below analysts’ estimates for the current year as consumers continue to be cautious about buying big-ticket items such as televisions.

  Analysts also questioned the sustainability of Best Buy’s strategy to focus on smartphones and other mobile broadband gadgets, and shares of the top U.S. electronics chain fell 5 percent.

• Gates, Buffett in India to persuade rich to give to charity
  
  By Alistair Scrutton and C.J. Kuncheria  

  NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Two of the world’s richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, will meet the cream of India’s rich on Thursday to tap the wealth of a new generation of billionaires for charity in the rapidly developing Asian giant after a similar visit to China.

  The visit of two of the world’s most generous philanthropists has sparked a renewed debate about the willingness of India’s rich to part with their money to support the nation’s hundreds of millions below the poverty line.

• Swedish court nixes BP, Rosneft Arctic tie-up: report
  

  MOSCOW (AFP) – A Stockholm court has ruled against British energy giant BP’s tie-up with Russia’s Rosneft to jointly explore for oil in the Arctic, BP officials said Thursday.

  The British firm immediately issued a statement stating that it “remains committed to partner with Russia” and would seek other ways of completing the historic deal.

• Ukraine ex-leader charged over reporter’s murder
  
  by Anya Tsukanova

  KIEV (AFP) – Ukraine on Thursday charged ex-president Leonid Kuchma over the 2000 murder of a journalist, its most notorious post-Soviet crime, amid doubts he could be jailed even if found guilty.

  Ukrainian prosecutors confirmed they had presented charges of “abuse of power” to Kuchma as he attended a second session of questioning after a criminal probe was formally opened earlier this week.

• Cherry blossom events begin with solemn DC tribute
  
  By Brett Zongker

  WASHINGTON – The flowering trees that symbolize friendship between the United States and Japan are blooming for the 99th time in Washington in the wake of one of the world’s worst natural disasters.

  Before the two-week National Cherry Blossom Festival opens Saturday, organizers will hold a fundraising walk and vigil Thursday evening among the trees for victims of Japan’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami. An estimated 18,000 people have been killed in the disaster.

• China renews push to ban smoking starting May 1
  
  By Gillian Wong

  BEIJING – Chinese health authorities are renewing a push to ban smoking in indoor public places, adding more venues like hotels and restaurants as of May 1, though still excluding many workplaces.

  The guidelines given on the Health Ministry’s website are the latest effort to curb tobacco use in the country with the world’s largest number of smokers and where experts say huge revenues from the state-owned tobacco monopoly hinders anti-smoking measures.

• FAA chief suspends dozing air traffic controller
  
  By Joan Lowy

  WASHINGTON – Authorities have suspended a control tower supervisor working alone overnight who couldn’t be roused to guide two airliners landing at Washington’s Reagan airport, the nation’s top aviation official said Thursday.

  “As a former airline pilot, I am personally outraged that this controller did not meet his responsibility to help land these two airplanes,” Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Randy Babbitt said.

• US ‘kill team’ soldier who murdered unarmed Afghans escapes life sentence
  

  Jeremy Morlock receives 24 years in prison following plea deal to give evidence against fellow soldiers
  
  A US soldier who pleaded guilty to the murders of three Afghan civilians has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after saying “the plan was to kill people” in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers.

  The military judge said he initially intended to sentence Jeremy Morlock to life in prison with possibility of parole but was bound by the plea deal.

• German officials order all stray cats to be neutered
  
  By Helen Pidd

  City of Bremen to take drastic action to tackle out-of-control feline population, which threatens local songbirds

  All stray cats in the north German city of Bremen are to be neutered under plans by the local council which campaigners hope could be extended to the whole country.

  The drastic measure has been proposed by Bremen’s interior minister, Ulrich Mäurer, in an attempt to control the city’s burgeoning feline population, which is threatening local songbirds.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Dean Baker: The Imaginary World in Which Washington Lives

It is a beautiful spring day in Washington. This is a nice respite from the horrors taking place in Japan and the ever-growing nuttiness of D.C. politics. Enjoying the weather provides a nice alternative to listening to the news or reading the newspaper.

The flood of nonsense in the traditional news outlets just continues to grow. At the top of the list is the steady stream of senators or members of Congress whose response to higher gas prices is to insist on drilling in every square inch of environmentally sensitive territory in the country. This is supposed to reduce our dependence on imported oil and lower the price of gas. Both sides of this assertion are absurd.

Glen Greenwald: The Manipulative Pro-War Argument in Libya

Advocating for the U.S.’s military action in Libya, The New Republic‘s John Judis lays out the argument which many of his fellow war advocates are making: that those who oppose the intervention are guilty of indifference to the plight of the rebels and to Gadaffi’s tyranny

snip

Note how, in Judis’ moral world, there are only two possibilities: one can either support the American military action in Libya or be guilty of a “who cares?” attitude toward Gadaffi’s butchery. At least as far as this specific line of pro-war argumentation goes, this is just 2003 all over again. Back then, those opposed to the war in Iraq were deemed pro-Saddam: indifferent to the repression and brutalities suffered by the Iraqi people at his hands and willing to protect his power. Now, those opposed to U.S. involvement in the civil war in Libya are deemed indifferent to the repression and brutalities suffered by the Libyan people from Gadaffi and willing to protect his power. This rationale is as flawed logically as it is morally.

Harold Meyerson: The mind-set that survived the Triangle Shirtwaist fire

The seamstresses were just getting off work that Saturday, some of them singing a new popular song, “Every Little Movement (Has a Meaning of Its Own),” when they heard shouts from the eighth floor just below. They saw smoke outside the windows, and then fire. As David Von Drehle recounts the ensuing catastrophe, in his award-winning book “Triangle,” just a couple minutes later the ninth floor was fully ablaze.

snip

Businesses reacted as if the revolution had arrived. The changes to the fire code, said a spokesman for the Associated Industries of New York, would lead to “the wiping out of industry in this state.” The regulations, wrote George Olvany, special counsel to the Real Estate Board of New York City, would force expenditures on precautions that were “absolutely needless and useless.”

“The best government is the least possible government,” said Laurence McGuire, president of the Real Estate Board. “To my mind, this [the post-Triangle regulations] is all wrong.”

Such complaints, of course, are with us still. We hear them from mine operators after fatal explosions, from bankers after they’ve crashed the economy, from energy moguls after their rig explodes or their plant starts leaking radiation. We hear them from politicians who take their money. We hear them from Republican members of Congress and from some Democrats, too. A century after Triangle, greed encased in libertarianism remains a fixture of – and danger to – American life.

Dana Milbank: Rep. Weiner sinks meat hooks into health-care law’s attackers

Democrats would be better off if more of them acted like Weiners.

As the first anniversary of the health-care law approached this week, many Democratic lawmakers went to ground, leaving unanswered Republican accusations that the legislation is socialist, unconstitutional, bankrupting the country, destroying the medical system and generally bringing about the apocalypse. But not Anthony Weiner.

The New York congressman, a Brooklyn-born streetfighter, held six events Wednesday to defend the law. His message was, predictably, a collection of snappy comebacks to Republican accusations. But he also delivered a call to arms to his Democratic colleagues, who have been passive to the point of wimpy as Republicans press for repeal.

“If Democrats believe it’s going to go away, they’re wrong,” the fast-talking Weiner said. “I don’t represent the hide-under-the-desk wing of the Democratic Party. I believe we’ve got to lean into this fight.”

E. J. Dionne, Jr.: The GOP’s ever-shifting stance on Obama’s leadership

Leaders do not operate in a vacuum. When they make strategic adjustments, their opponents do, too. President Obama has prompted just such a pivot by Republicans.

They’re criticizing him not for the decisions he’s made but for the ones he hasn’t, and the ones he delayed. They are attacking him not as a liberal ideologue but as a man in full flight from any ideological definition. If they once said his plans were too big, they are now asking if he has any plans at all.

The immediate focus for the new GOP approach is the president’s extended deliberations over Libya, with criticism raining down from various points on the GOP spectrum.

Jon Walker: Are Those in Washington Simply ‘Bored’ with Job Creation?

By Greater than Two-to-One, Americans Want Jobs, Not Spending Cuts

CBS News has released a new poll and, not surprisingly, with official unemployment around nine percent, it found that an overwhelming 51 percent of Americans said jobs/economy is the most important problem facing the country. By comparison, the national debt comes in second with a mere seven percent of Americans saying it is the most important problem, followed by health care with five percent.

When asked to choose what should be a higher priority between just cutting government spending or creating jobs, by a greater than two-to-one margin, Americans choose job creations. A full 63 percent think job creation should be the higher priority, while only 26 percent choose spending cuts, with 11 percent choosing both.

Yet our politicians seem to have either not have gotten the memo or simply don’t care. Washington has fallen deep into the grips of a full blown wave of deficit hysteria to justify domestic spending cuts. (Although the hysteria does always temporarily vanish when more money is needed for more wars)

Amy Goodman: Aristide’s Return to Haiti: A Long Night’s Journey Into Day

Late at night on March 17, former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide boarded a small plane with his family in Johannesburg. The following morning, he arrived in Haiti. It was just over seven years after he was kidnapped from his home in a U.S.-backed coup d’etat. Haiti has been ravaged by a massive earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people and left a million and a half homeless. A cholera epidemic carried in by United Nations occupation forces could sicken almost 800,000. A majority of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Now, Aristide, by far the most popular figure in Haiti today and the first democratically elected president of the first black republic in the world, has returned home.

“Bon Retou Titid” (good return, Titid, the affectionate term for Aristide) read the signs in Port-au-Prince as thousands flocked to accompany Aristide from the Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport to his home. L’Ouverture led the slave uprising that established Haiti in 1804. I was able to travel with Aristide, his wife, Mildred, and their two daughters from Johannesburg to Haiti on the small jet provided by the government of South Africa. It was my second flight with them. In March 2004, the Aristides attempted to return from forced exile in the Central African Republic, but never made it back to Haiti. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials warned Aristide to stay away from the Western Hemisphere. Defying such pressure, the Aristides stopped in Jamaica before traveling to South Africa, where they remained until last weekend.

Robert Sheer: Be Consistent-Invade Saudi Arabia

It’s the black gold that drives nations mad and inevitably raises the question of whether America and the former European colonial powers give a damn about human rights as the basis for military intervention. If Libya didn’t have more oil than any other nation in Africa would the West be unleashing high-tech military mayhem to contain what is essentially a tribal-based civil war? Once again an American president summons the passions of a human rights crusade against a reprehensible ruler whose crimes, while considerable, are not significantly different from those of dictators the U.S routinely protects.

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that Moammar Gadhafi must now go not because his human rights record is egregious but rather because his erratic hold on power seems spent. After all, from the London School of Economics to Harvard, influential foreign policy experts were all too happy until quite recently to accept Libyan payoffs in exchange for a more benign view of Gadhafi’s prospects for change under the gentle guidance of what Harvard’s Joseph Nye celebrated as “soft power.”

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

March 24 is the 83rd day of the year (84th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 282 days remaining until the end of the year.

March 24th is the 365th and last day of the year in many European implementations of the Julian calendar.

On this day in 1989, Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

The worst oil spill in U.S. territory begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the water. Attempts to contain the massive spill were unsuccessful, and wind and currents spread the oil more than 100 miles from its source, eventually polluting more than 700 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and animals were adversely affected by the environmental disaster.

It was later revealed that Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Valdez, was drinking at the time of the accident and allowed an uncertified officer to steer the massive vessel. In March 1990, Hazelwood was convicted of misdemeanor negligence, fined $50,000, and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. In July 1992, an Alaska court overturned Hazelwood’s conviction, citing a federal statute that grants freedom from prosecution to those who report an oil spill.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound‘s Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels (41,000 to 119,000 m3) of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters. As significant as the Valdez spill was-the largest ever in U.S. waters until the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill-it ranks well down on the list of the world’s largest oil spills in terms of volume released. However, Prince William Sound’s remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane and boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil, originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, eventually covered 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of coastline, and 11,000 square miles (28,000 km2) of ocean. Then Exxon CEO, Lawrence G. Rawl, shaped the company’s response.

Timeline of events

Exxon Valdez left the Valdez oil terminal in Alaska at 9:12 pm on March 23, 1989, bound for Long Beach, California. The ship was under the control of Shipmaster Joseph Jeffrey Hazelwood. The outbound shipping lane was obstructed with small icebergs (possibly from the nearby Columbia Glacier), so Hazelwood got permission from the Coast Guard to go out through the inbound lane. Following the maneuver and sometime after 11 p.m., Hazelwood left Third Mate Gregory Cousins in charge of the wheel house and Able Seaman Robert Kagan at the helm. Neither man had been given his mandatory six hours off duty before beginning his 12-hour watch. The ship was on autopilot, using the navigation system installed by the company that constructed the ship. The ship struck Bligh Reef at around 12:04 a.m. March 24, 1989.

Beginning three days after the vessel grounded, a storm pushed large quantities of fresh oil on to the rocky shores of many of the beaches in the Knight Island chain. In this photograph, pooled oil is shown stranded in the rocks.

According to official reports, the ship was carrying approximately 55 million US gallons (210,000 m3) of oil, of which about 11 to 32 million US gallons (42,000 to 120,000 m3) were spilled into the Prince William Sound. A figure of 11 million US gallons (42,000 m3) was a commonly accepted estimate of the spill’s volume and has been used by the State of Alaska’s Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. Some groups, such as Defenders of Wildlife, dispute the official estimates, maintaining that the volume of the spill has been underreported. Alternative calculations, based on an assumption that the sea water rather than oil was drained from the damaged tanks, estimate the total to have been 25 to 32 million US gallons (95,000 to 120,000 m3).

Identified causes

Multiple factors have been identified as contributing to the incident:

   * Exxon Shipping Company failed to supervise the master and provide a rested and sufficient crew for Exxon Valdez. The NTSB found this was wide spread throughout industry, prompting a safety recommendation to Exxon and to the industry.

   * The third mate failed to properly maneuver the vessel, possibly due to fatigue or excessive workload.

   * Exxon Shipping Company failed to properly maintain the Raytheon Collision Avoidance System (RAYCAS) radar, which, if functional, would have indicated to the third mate an impending collision with the Bligh reef by detecting the “radar reflector”, placed on the next rock inland from Bligh Reef for the purpose of keeping boats on course via radar.

In light of the above and other findings, investigative reporter Greg Palast stated in 2008 “Forget the drunken skipper fable. As to Captain Joe Hazelwood, he was below decks, sleeping off his bender. At the helm, the third mate never would have collided with Bligh Reef had he looked at his RAYCAS radar. But the radar was not turned on. In fact, the tanker’s radar was left broken and disabled for more than a year before the disaster, and Exxon management knew it. It was (in Exxon’s view) just too expensive to fix and operate.” Exxon blamed Captain Hazelwood for the grounding of the tanker.

Economic and personal impact

In 1991, following the collapse of the local marine population (particularly clams, herring, and seals) the Chugach Alaska Corporation, an Alaska Native Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It has since recovered.

According to several studies funded by the state of Alaska, the spill had both short-term and long-term economic effects. These included the loss of recreational sports, fisheries, reduced tourism, and an estimate of what economists call “existence value”, which is the value to the public of a pristine Prince William Sound.

The economy of the city of Cordova, Alaska was adversely affected after the spill damaged stocks of salmon and herring in the area. Several residents, including one former mayor, committed suicide after the spill.

 1401 – Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus.

1603 – James VI of Scotland also becomes James I of England.

1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shogun from Emperor Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa Shogunate in Edo, Japan.

1731 – Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary Act is passed.

1765 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the Thirteen Colonies to house British troops.

1832 – In Hiram, Ohio a group of men beat, tar and feather Mormon leader Joseph Smith, Jr..

1837 – Canada gives African Canadian men the right to vote.

1869 – The last of Titokowaru’s forces surrendered to the New Zealand government, ending his uprising.

1878 – The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300.

1882 – Robert Koch announces the discovery of mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis.

1896 – A. A. Popov makes the first radio signal transmission in history.

1900 – Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground “Rapid Transit Railroad” that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1907 – The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper Dro is published.

1927 – Nanjing Incident: Foreign warships bombard Nanjing, China, in defense of the foreign citizens within the city.

1923 – Greece becomes a republic.

1934 – U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act allowing the Philippines to become a self-governing commonwealth.

1936 – The longest game in NHL history is played between Detroit and Montreal. Detroit scored at 16:30 of the sixth overtime and won the game 1-0.

1944 – Ardeatine Massacre: German troops kill 335 Italian civilians in Rome.

1944 – World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.

1946 – The British Cabinet Mission, consisting of Lord Pethick-Lawrence, Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander, arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.

1958 – Entertainer Elvis Presley is conscripted into the U.S. Army.

1959 – The Party of the African Federation is launched by Leopold Sedar Senghor and Modibo Keita.

1965 – NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash landing.

1972 – The United Kingdom imposes direct rule over Northern Ireland.

1973 – Kenyan athlete Kip Keino defeats Jim Ryun at the first-ever professional track meet in Los Angeles, California.

1976 – In Argentina, the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government of President Isabel Peron and start a 7-year dictatorial period self-styled the National Reorganization Process. Since 2006, a public holiday known as Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice is held on this day.

1976 – A general strike takes place in the People’s Republic of Congo.

1980 – Archbishop Oscar Romero is killed while celebrating Mass in San Salvador.

1986 – The Loscoe gas explosion leads to new UK laws on landfill gas migration and gas protection on landfill sites.

1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Prince William Sound in Alaska, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (42,000 m³) of petroleum after running aground.

1993 – Discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

1998 – Jonesboro massacre: Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.

1998 – A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India killing 250 people and injuring 3000 others.

1999 – Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.

2000 – S&P 500 index reaches an intraday high of 1,552.87, a peak that, due to the collapse of the dot-com bubble, it will not reach again for another seven-and-a-half years.

2001 – Apple Inc. releases the first version of the Mac OS X operating system .

2003 – The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.

2008 – Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first ever general election.

and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Catherine of Vadstena

         o Mac Cairthinn of Clogher

         o Simon of Trent (cult suppressed)

         o March 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice (Argentina)

   * Student Day (Church of Scientology)

   * World Tuberculosis Day (International)

Good for them.  Go Vikings!  (We’re everywhere).

Portugal Yield Soars to 12-Year High as Socrates Quits; Irish Bonds Tumble

By Lukanyo Mnyanda and Keith Jenkins, Bloomberg News

Mar 24, 2011 5:26 AM ET

Socrates’s resignation is “another nail in the coffin in terms of a bailout package,” said David Schnautz, a fixed- income strategist at Commerzbank AG in London. “In terms of Ireland, Greece and Portugal, this may be another underlying burdening factor. It doesn’t seem to be the case that you can say that the possibility of default is off the table.”

Portugal’s government collapses

The Economist online

Mar 23rd 2011, 21:53

The death of Sócrates

IN IRELAND a bail-out by the euro zone’s rescue fund helped to force the government into calling (and losing) an early election. In Portugal an early election may force the government into accepting a bail-out. The question is: which government?

Tonight’s defeat of the minority Socialist government, led by José Sócrates (pictured), in a parliamentary vote on austerity measures-the fourth such package in 12 months-triggered his prompt resignation as prime minister. But it also created a political vacuum in which nobody may have enough authority to negotiate a bail-out

…

Portugal’s political turmoil and its urgent need for a rescue will create new problems at the EU summit, which is due to sign off on an effective expansion of the bail-out fund and a German-led “pact for the euro”. If EU leaders agree to bail out Portugal, they may find they have already used quite a big chunk of their fund. Judging by experience, the markets will then move on to attack the Spanish. The bail-out fund can easily finance Portugal. But it is not clear that it could deal with Spain.

Austerity Debate Fells Portugal’s Premier

By RAPHAEL MINDER and LANDON THOMAS Jr., The New York Times

Published: March 23, 2011

Ahead of the vote, Mr. Sócrates had warned that parliamentary rejection of his latest austerity measures would prompt him to quit. The main Social Democratic opposition party, however, had warned it would oppose an austerity package that would inflict further pain on Portuguese citizens, notably by raising taxes for pensioners.

Instead, the Social Democrats demanded a snap general election, possibly opening the door for the formation of a coalition government between Portugal’s main parties.

In the end, lawmakers from all five opposition parties rejected further austerity measures, leaving 97 Socialist lawmakers to vote in favor the plan, out of 230 members of Parliament.

And how is that Austerity thing working out for you?

In New Budget, Britain Sticks to a Path of Austerity, Despite Slowing Growth

By LANDON THOMAS Jr., The New York Times

Published: March 23, 2011

The government’s newly independent economic forecast body also lowered its estimate for growth in gross domestic product for 2011 to 1.7 percent from the 2.1 percent seen in November. For 2012, the forecast was trimmed to 2.5 percent, from 2.6 percent.

Mr. Osborne’s austerity budget comes at a time of growing political pressure for similarly minded governments in Europe. Irish voters recently voted out the long-ruling Fianna Fail party, which had agreed to terms on a tough bailout package with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. In Greece, Prime Minister George Papandreou’s Socialist Party is rapidly losing popularity, and in Portugal, the government is teetering on a knife’s edge as opposition to its own austerity program builds

Why?  Because Economics has ceased to be even a “Social” Science and instead become a cult of greed and naked Mammon worship.

Nobodies of Macroeconomics (Very Wonkish)

Paul Krugman, The New York Times

March 21, 2011, 2:21 pm

And so I was somewhat stunned when, as the fiscal debate unfolded, we had all these Chicago types sneeringly asserting that “nobody”, except possibly people at “third-tier” departments, has believed for decades that fiscal expansion can actually expand demand; Obstfeld and Rogoff are pretty prominent nobodies. I was equally stunned by assertions that Ricardian equivalence would wipe out any expansionary effect from fiscal policy, and that government spending necessarily crowds out an equal amount of private spending, when influential modern papers have shown quite clearly, and as rigorously as anyone could want, that it just ain’t so.

But in retrospect, it’s quite clear: Lucas and Sargent declared final victory over all things Keynesian in the 1970s, and the closed minds of their followers were such that they didn’t even notice the revival of Keynesianism that took place over the three decades that followed.

And Brad is right: if you’ve reached the point where you don’t pay attention to anything that might disturb your orthodoxy, you’re not doing science, you’re not even pursuing a discipline. All you’re doing is perpetuating a smug, closed-minded sect.

Asymmetrical Ignorance (Wonkish and Self-Indulgent)

Paul Krugman, The New York Times

March 21, 2011, 5:32 pm

I know that RBC exists; I know how it works; I just think it’s wrong. That’s very different from the reaction of the freshwater types to Keynesian arguments, which makes it clear that they just don’t know that modern Keynesianism exists, and have no idea what underlies the arguments people on the other side are making. This is, by the way, not a new asymmetry: it’s been clear for decades that a grad student from Princeton or MIT, asked how an equilibrium business cycle type would answer a question, can do that; but a student from Minnesota or (less reliably) Chicago hasn’t the least idea how alternative models work.

…

More broadly, I do pay attention to contrary arguments and points of view. I don’t make economists who I consider consistently wrong-headed part of my daily reading, since life is short, but I check in whenever I have reason to think that they’re making a case I need to take seriously. Regular readers may remember, for example, how I responded to fiscal policy critiques by Alesina and others – not by sneering at their academic qualifications, not by pulling rank, but by explaining why I didn’t trust their evidence; a lack of trust borne out a bit later by researchers at the IMF.

The point is that it’s OK to consider other economists, even a whole school of thought, wrong; what’s not OK is to be so closed-minded that you aren’t even aware that there are not obviously stupid people who disagree with you.

“Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don’t forget to pay the debt.”

(h/t Chris in Paris @ AmericaBlog)

You can take all the gold in the world and put it in two Olympic swimming pools.

There is not an economy on the planet that ties its economy to gold. Not one. You haven’t been able to turn a note in to gold in decades. It is a medieval view of the modern world. Steve, do you use a calculator or an abacus?

Olympic swimming pools are 8 lanes wide and 50 yards long.

(h/t John Amato @ Crooks and Liars)

Tokyo radiation fears spark run on bottled water

More countries impose curbs on imports of Japanese food

msnbc.com news services

TOKYO – Workers doled out bottled water to Tokyo families Thursday after residents cleared store shelves because of warnings that radiation from Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant had seeped into the city’s water supply, while more countries imposed curbs on imports of Japanese food.

Engineers are trying to stabilize the Fukushima nuclear facility nearly two weeks after an earthquake and tsunami battered the complex and devastated northeast Japan.

Japan’s nuclear safety agency said Thursday that three workers have been exposed to radioactive elements and injured while laying electric cables. Two of the workers were taken to a hospital for treatment, spokesman Fumio Matsuda said.

Tokyo’s 13 million people have been told not to give infants tap water because of contamination twice the safety level.

Students graduate after passing the toughest test



Michael Wines

March 24, 2011

SCHOOLS begin in April and hold graduation ceremonies in March; like spring, they represent renewal and rebirth.

On Tuesday morning, in a school meeting hall in the tsunami-ravaged seaport of Kesennuma, it became something else: an act of defiance.

Gathering in the shadow of the tsunami disaster zone, two solemn and often tearful crowds met to award diplomas to the year 6 and 9 classes of Hashikami Elementary and Junior High schools. Inside the junior high auditorium, hundreds of refugees from the March 11 tsunami rolled up their blankets and moved to the rear to make way for a ritual that any parent would instantly recognise: the strains of Pachelbel’s Canon; the students’ march to the podium; the singing of school songs; the snapping of mobile phone photos.

West African leaders under pressure over Côte d’Ivoire



SUSAN NJANJI ABUJA, NIGERIA – Mar 24 2011  

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the current chairperson of West African bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), said the two-day summit would consider whether to urge the United Nations to take further action on the crisis, but did not provide specifics.

“I believe we can pass a resolution to request the UN to take a little more serious steps on the Côte d’Ivoire situation,” Jonathan said of the 15-nation Ecowas, whose summit ends Thursday.

He also said at the summit opening: “I have no doubt we have the will, the commitment and the collective resolve to bring to an end the unfortunate crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, hopefully without resort to use of legitimate force.

Syrian regime launches crackdown by shooting 15 activists dead

Some were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters surrounding the Omari mosque; others were shot at a funeral

Katherine Marsh

The Guardian, Thursday 24 March 2011

Violence escalated in the southern Syrian city of Deraa as protests entered a sixth day. At least 15 protesters are known to have been shot dead on Wednesday and scores more injured.

In a sign that the Syrian regime is using a brutal crackdown rather than concessions to quell protests, security forces opened fire on people in three separate incidents, according to human rights activists.

At 1am on Wednesday morning, at least six people were killed when security forces opened fire on protesters surrounding the Omari mosque, after cutting electricity and communications to the site that has become the focus of demonstrations.

Row over role of Nato splits coalition forces  



By Oliver Wright, Whitehall Editor, Rupert Cornwell in Washington and John Lichfield in Paris Thursday, 24 March 2011

Attempts to reach an international consensus on a new command structure for military operations in Libya stalled last night after a row between Turkey and France over the role of Nato in the coalition.

Under a draft plan being discussed by ambassadors in Brussels, Nato commanders would have been guided by a political committee featuring representatives from not just the West but also, crucially, the Arab world.

But the talks broke up after a third day of wrangling after a row between Turkey and France over the precise role Nato would play.

Relatives sue banana firm over killings in Colombia

The Irish Times – Thursday, March 24, 2011

TOM HENNIGAN in São Paulo

FAMILIES OF victims in Colombia’s civil war are suing the biggest banana importer in the United States for its role in funding illegal armed groups in the country’s conflict.

Relatives of 931 people killed by left-wing guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries want compensation after Chiquita Brands admitted paying the groups at various times during the conflict to protect its banana plantations in the Caribbean Urabá region.

One of the filings made with a US federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday relates to 254 murders by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc.

Why Governor LePage Can’t Erase History, and Why We Need a Fighter in the White House

Robert Reich

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Maine Governor Paul LePage has ordered state workers to remove from the state labor department a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history. Among other things the mural illustrates the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston. It also features the iconic “Rosie the Riveter,” who in real life worked at the Bath Iron Works. One panel shows my predecessor at the U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins, who was buried in Newcastle, Maine.

…

Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member in American history. She was also one of the most accomplished cabinet members in history.

She and her boss, Franklin D. Roosevelt, came to office at a time when average working people needed help – and Perkins and Roosevelt were determined to give it to them. Together, they created Social Security, unemployment insurance, the right of workers to unionize, the minimum wage, and the forty-hour workweek.

…

The Governor’s spokesman explains that the mural and the conference-room names were “not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.”

…

Big business and Wall Street thought Perkins and Roosevelt were not in keeping with pro-business goals. So they and their Republican puppets in Congress and in the states retaliated with a political assault on the New Deal.

Roosevelt did not flinch. In a speech in October 1936 he condemned “business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt October 31, 1936–

On the eve of a national election, it is well for us to stop for a moment and analyze calmly and without prejudice the effect on our Nation of a victory by either of the major political parties.

The problem of the electorate is far deeper, far more vital than the continuance in the Presidency of any individual. For the greater issue goes beyond units of humanity–it goes to humanity itself.

In 1932 the issue was the restoration of American democracy; and the American people were in a mood to win. They did win. In 1936 the issue is the preservation of their victory. Again they are in a mood to win. Again they will win.

More than four years ago in accepting the Democratic nomination in Chicago, I said: “Give me your help not to win votes alone, but to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people.”

The banners of that crusade still fly in the van of a Nation that is on the march.

…

We have not come this far without a struggle and I assure you we cannot go further without a struggle.

For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.

…

They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master.

Unfortunately we can’t say that today.  In 2006, 2008, and 2010 the American people voted against a corrupt Washington establishment and continual War.

And in 2012 we’ll vote the same way again.

How many politicians do we have to fire before they get this simple message?

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Muse in the Morning by Robyn
• Gha! by RiaD

Featured Essays for March 23, 2011-

• Health and Fitness News by TheMomCat
• Taking Back America: FISA & the Lies of Barack Obama by TheMomCat
• Nobody Knows You, When You’re Down and Out by Jacob Freeze
• Problem? What Problem? by ek hornbeck
• Class War by Jacob Freeze
• Libya, Democracy and Hypocrisy, and American Exceptionalism by Edger
• Working with Your Hands 20110322: Welding by Translator

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