(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Essays Featured Tuesday the 22^nd of March~

Veruca Salt kicks off 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!!!!

puzzled shares the delightful Regretsy in Tuesday Open Thoughts

Gha!

Words for the Working Person by Wendys Wink republished with permission by  RiaD

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

Tonight #99  

NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament 2011

Not a good night for underdogs, only North Carolina and Gonzaga beat the seeds.  Advancing underdogs playing tonight are Purdue and West Virginia.

Connecticut gets their own channel, ESPN, for their 7:00 pm game, everyone else shares time on ESPN2.  I like the Lady Huskies, don’t get me wrong, but it does seem kind of unfair especially since if they play to form the game is going to be a snooze fest anyway.

Now tomorrow night will be my first one without basketball in 8 days, but instead of being sensible and taking a nap I have some out of town errands if the weather holds.  Men’s Round of 16 starts Thursday, Round of 8 (Regional Championships) Saturday.  The Women’s Round of 16 starts Saturday and their Regional Championships (Round of 8) on Monday.  Men’s Final 4 on Saturday the 2nd, Championship Monday.  Women’s Final 4 on Sunday, Championship Tuesday.

And then it’s done until next year.

Yesterday’s Results

Current Matchups

Follow the 2011 NCAA Women’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

If you like a more traditional bracket try this NCAA one, they also have a TV schedule.

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

• Gaddafi shells towns, rebels pinned down in east
  
  By Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy

  TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s forces attacked two west Libyan towns, killing dozens, while rebels were pinned down in the east and NATO tried to resolve a dispute over who should lead the Western air campaign.

  With anti-Gaddafi rebels struggling to create a command structure that could capitalize on the air strikes against Libyan tanks and air defenses, Western countries had still to decide who would take over command once Washington pulled back in a few days.

• Japan battles crippled nuclear plant, radiation fears grow
  
  By Risa Maeda and Kazunori Takada

  TOKYO (Reuters) – Rising temperatures around the core of one of the reactors at Japan’s quake-crippled nuclear plant sparked new concern on Tuesday and more water was needed to cool it down, the plant’s operator said.

  Despite hopes of progress in the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami that left at least 21,000 people dead or missing, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it needed more time before it could say the reactors were stabilized.

• U.S. presses plan to hand off Libya war command soon
  
  By Andrew Quinn and Missy Ryan

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States insisted on Tuesday it will hand control of Libyan military operations to its allies within days despite disagreements over NATO’s role in the air campaign against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

  Once the initial U.S.-led bombardment of the Libyan leader’s air defenses is complete, military planners still intend to pass on leadership of the U.N.-mandated mission, said Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

• U.S. fighter jet crashes in rebel-held Libya
  

  LONDON (Reuters) – A U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter jet crashed in Libya overnight after a mechanical failure but its crew was safe, a spokesman for the U.S. military Africa Command said on Tuesday.

  Libyan rebels rescued the pilot after he ejected from the warplane, which came down near the eastern city of Benghazi, Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on its website.

• Obama offers new U.S. partnership with Latin America
  
  By Matt Spetalnick and Simon Gardner

  SANTIAGO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama called on Monday for a “new era of partnership” with Latin America as he acknowledged a sometimes troubled past between Washington and its neighbors in the region.

  But his mission to reassert Washington’s influence south of the border was punctuated by questions over the U.S. role in fierce air assaults over Libya, and aides scrambled to keep him up to speed on the attacks in between talks with heads of state and policy speeches.

• Yemen president warns of civil war
  
  By Cynthia Johnston and Mohamed Sudam

  SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen’s president said on Tuesday his country would descend into civil war if he were forced to quit and Washington voiced concern about instability in the Arabian state that has become an al Qaeda stronghold.

  Seven weeks of unrelenting anti-government protests and defections among the ruling elite have piled pressure on Saleh, a U.S. ally against radical Islamist ambitions in the Arabian peninsula, to step down immediately after 32 years in power.

• Japan warns again on yen, extra budget seen by May
  
  By Kaori Kaneko and Tetsushi Kajimoto

  TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan warned markets on Tuesday it would act again to keep the yen in check and prevent its rapid gains from derailing Tokyo’s effort to rebuild areas ravaged by this month’s deadly earthquake and tsunami and revive the struggling economy.

  In their first joint intervention since 2000, Group of Seven rich nations sold the yen on Friday after it spiked to record highs, threatening to deal another blow to the export-reliant economy that was just picking up from a lull when the disaster struck.

• Former Israeli president Katsav jailed for rape
  
  By Rami Amichai

  TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Former President Moshe Katsav was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in jail for rape, a case that brought shame to Israel’s highest office and sent a firm message to a transfixed public that no one was above the law.

  Katsav had denied charges he twice raped an aide when he was a cabinet minister in the late 1990s, and molested or sexually harassed two other women who worked for him during his 2000-2007 term as president.

• Yemen’s Saleh to step down by Jan 2012 after polls
  

  SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh will leave office after organizing congress elections by January 2012, refusing to hand over power without knowing who would succeed him, an aide said on Tuesday.

  “President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he will hand over power through (parliamentary) elections and the formation of democratic institutions at the end of 2011 or January 2012,” Saleh’s media secretary Ahmed al-Sufi told Reuters.

• Apple sues Amazon.com over APP STORE trademark
  

  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc has sued Amazon.com Inc in a bid to stop the online retailer from improperly using Apple’s APP STORE trademark, according to a court filing.

  The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court late last week, said Amazon has improperly used Apple’s APP STORE mark to solicit software developers throughout the United States.

• AT&T seen selling assets to get nod for mega deal
  
  By Diane Bartz and Jasmin Melvin

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – AT&T Inc will likely be forced to sell major assets and pledge to expand service to poor areas to get approval from the U.S. government for its $39 billion deal to buy Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA.

  Antitrust experts say the merger, which will create the largest U.S. wireless service provider, faces a tough review by competition and communications regulators that could take as long as 18 months, but that it will ultimately be approved.

• West helping rebels’ cause: Libyan minister
  
  By Michael Georgy

  TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Western forces are more interested in helping rebels advance than protecting civilians and they have made it clear they intend to assassinate Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.

  “That’s the problem now we are seeing, the coalition forces they are part of the war against the legitimate government,” Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim told Reuters in an interview, adding that coalition forces were even striking soldiers in their barracks.

• Canadians abort Libya attack, fearing casualties
  

  OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian military aircraft joined in a mission against ground targets in Libya on Tuesday, but did not drop their bombs amid concern there might be civilian casualties, military officials said.

  Officials said two CF18 aircraft were assigned to attack a unspecified Libya airfield along with other aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition.

• France: NATO will support Libya action after U.S
  

  PARIS (Reuters) – France’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that NATO would provide support to military intervention by the Western-led coalition in Libya when the United States scaled back its participation.

  “When the Americans decide to take a bit of a step back, NATO could come in to support, that seems fairly clear,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Christine Fages.

• Japan tests sea for radiation near crippled plant
  
  By Raju Gopalakrishnan

  TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese authorities tested sea-water off a badly damaged nuclear plant for radiation on Tuesday, but stressed that elevated levels already detected were no cause for worry.

  Reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, have leaked radiation after they were struck on March 11 by a massive earthquake and tsunami that led to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century.

• Icy rain, fuel shortages hamper relief to quake-hit Japan
  
  By Jon Herskovitz

  KESENNUMA, Japan (Reuters) – Fuel shortages, icy rain and power outages are hampering Japan’s worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two, but relief workers are reporting some progress as mangled roads are reopened and new homes built.

  The sheer numbers in the world’s costliest natural disaster — estimated at $250 billion — remain staggering. There are about 21,000 dead or missing, 319,000 people evacuated, 2,131 makeshift shelters, 2.4 million people without access to water and 221,000 households without power.

• Wal-Mart to argue sex-bias case in Supreme Court
  
  By James Vicini

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc will urge the Supreme Court next week to reject the largest class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit in history, brought by female employees who seek billion of dollars.

  The top U.S. court hears arguments on March 29 in a lawsuit against the world’s largest retailer for allegedly giving women less pay and fewer promotions at 3,400 U.S. stores since late 1998.

• Judge orders Loughner mental evaluation in Missouri
  
  By David Schwartz

  PHOENIX (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday ordered Jared Lee Loughner, the college dropout charged in January’s Arizona shooting rampage, to undergo a mental evaluation in Missouri to see if he is competent to stand trial.

  Federal prosecutors earlier this month asked for Loughner to receive an evaluation.

• Obama visits violence-plagued El Salvador
  
  by Tangi Quemener

  SAN SALVADOR (AFP) – Security was tight Tuesday for a visit by US President Barack Obama, on the final leg of a Latin America tour he hopes will turn the page on past troubled ties and build a new era of partnership.

  The three-nation trip — which has been overshadowed by the Arab uprisings and the launch of air strikes against the forces of Libyan strongman Moamer Kadhafi — was to conclude in El Salvador, one of the world’s most dangerous countries.

• Major legal blow to European anti-GM crops lobby
  
  by Roddy Thomson

  BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe’s top court adviser dealt a huge blow to the anti-GM foods lobby Tuesday, saying states broke EU law by halting genetically-modified crop cultivation without first seeking action in Brussels.

  European Court of Justice advocate-general Paolo Mengozzi’s opinion provided a major fillip to a lawsuit-hungry genetically modified foods industry and stunned enraged environmental campaigners.

• Deutsche Bank client wins court case on investment loss
  
  by Etienne Balmer

  FRANKFURT (AFP) – Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, was ordered Tuesday for the first time to pay compensation to a client who was not fully informed of the risks of one of its complex financial products.

  In a ruling that could set an important legal precedent, Deutsche Bank “failed to fulfill its advisory obligation … concerning a highly complex product,” the German Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe said.

• Protesters march in south Syria for fifth day
  
  By Khaled al-Hariri

  DERAA, Syria (Reuters) – Hundreds of people marched in southern Syria for a fifth straight day on Tuesday, protesting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad and shouting “Freedom, freedom. Peaceful, peaceful.”

  Protesters gathered near the Old Omari mosque in Deraa and in the nearby town of Nawa in the strategic Hauran plateau, close to the border with Jordan, catching a wave of Arab unrest that has toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.

• Bahrain bans Lebanon travel, sectarian tension rises
  
  By Lin Noueihed

  MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahrain warned its nationals on Tuesday not to travel to Lebanon for their own safety, after Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah came out in support of weeks of protests by mainly Shi’ite demonstrators.

  The warning highlights growing tensions in the world’s largest oil-exporting region between Sunni-ruled Arab countries and non-Arab Shi’ite power Iran, just across Gulf waters.

• Spain clears American of terror finance suspicion
  
  By Daniel Wools

  MADRID – A Spanish judge has cleared a U.S. citizen of suspicion that he financed al-Qaida’s North African affiliate, and the American is demanding a public apology from the government, saying the publicity surrounding the case has ruined his life.

  Investigating Magistrate Santiago Pedraz cited a lack of evidence against Mohamed Omar Dehbi, 44, who used to live in Texas but currently resides near Barcelona and runs a company that exports heavy machinery to North Africa. Dehbi is Algerian-born.

• Cuba’s Castro: I quit as party chief 5 years ago
  
  By Paul Haven

  HAVANA – Fidel Castro’s surprise announcement that he stepped down as head of the Communist Party five years ago – despite widespread belief he remained in charge – marks the bizarre end of an era for a nation, and a man, whose fates have been intertwined for more than half a century.

  The 84-year-old revolutionary icon made the revelation Tuesday – with word of the resignation thrown in as an aside halfway through an opinion piece that otherwise focused on President Barack Obama.

• Canada government reaches out to opposition over budget
  
  By Randall Palmer

  OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada announces plans on Tuesday for a budget that will rein in the federal deficit, amid last minute meetings with the left-wing New Democratic Party, which is seen as the most likely candidate to keep the minority Conservative government in power.

  Top members of Parliament from both parties were meeting in the hours before the budget, an NDP source said.

• Japan says high seawater radiation levels are no cause for alarm
  
  By Winifred Bird

  Shingu, Japan – As engineers reported progress on stabilizing overheated reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Tuesday, elevated levels of radiation have been found in seawater nearby, fueling concern over long-term environmental and health impacts.

  Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced today that in samples taken 1,100 feet south of the plant on Monday, radioactive iodine exceeded legal limits for wastewater by 126.7 times, cesium-134 by 24.8 times, and cesium-137 by 16.5 times. Samples taken 16 kilometers (10 miles) south were up to 16 times above legal levels.

• France wants body outside NATO to head Libya fight
  

  PARIS – France proposed on Tuesday a new political steering committee outside NATO to be responsible for overseeing military operations over Libya.

  French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the new body will bring together foreign ministers of participating states – such as Britain, France and the United States – as well as the Arab League. It is expected to meet in the coming days, either in Brussels, London or Paris, Juppe said.

• Law enforcement deaths rising quickly: AG Eric Holder
  
  By Jeremy Pelofsky

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Law enforcement officers are being killed at an alarming rate, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday, adding that options are being explored to address the violence including seeking new gun control laws.

  Before meeting with state and local police chiefs and representatives of federal law enforcement agencies, Holder said 48 officers have died during the first three months of 2011, a 17 percent increase over 2010. Of those, 23 were killed by gunfire, a 53 percent jump.

• South Dakota law requires 3-day abortion wait
  

  PIERRE, South Dakota (Reuters) – South Dakota’s governor signed into law on Tuesday the longest abortion waiting period in the nation at 72 hours, and opponents immediately promised a legal challenge to stop it from going into effect.

  The law signed by Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard also requires a woman to submit to counseling to ensure her decision to have an abortion is “voluntary, uncoerced, and informed.”

• Judge orders Jobs to answer iTunes questions
  

  NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who is out on medical leave, has been ordered by a federal judge to answer questions from plaintiffs’ lawyers in an antitrust lawsuit related to his company’s iTunes business.

  Judge Howard Lloyd of District Court for Northern California ruled that lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the suit may question Jobs for a total of two hours. He issued the ruling on Monday.

“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”

Bob Herbert: Separate and Unequal

One of the most powerful tools for improving the educational achievement of poor black and Hispanic public school students is, regrettably, seldom even considered. It has become a political no-no.

Educators know that it is very difficult to get consistently good results in schools characterized by high concentrations of poverty. The best teachers tend to avoid such schools. Expectations regarding student achievement are frequently much lower, and there are lower levels of parental involvement. These, of course, are the very schools in which so many black and Hispanic children are enrolled.

Eugene Robinson: Those Useful Tyrants

Anyone looking for principle and logic in the attack on Moammar Gadhafi’s tyrannical regime will be disappointed. President Barack Obama and his advisers should acknowledge the obvious truth: They are reacting to the revolutionary fervor in the Arab world with the arbitrary “realism” that is a superpower’s prerogative.

Faced with an armed uprising by democracy-seeking rebels, Gadhafi threatened to turn all of Libya into a charnel house. The United States and its allies responded with overwhelming military force that is clearly intended to cripple the government and boost the revolt’s chances of success.

Thus begins our third concurrent Middle East war. No one has the slightest idea how, or when, this one will end.

Joe Conason: What’s So Scary About NPR?

While there is much stupid behavior to be found among politicians on both sides of the aisle during the embarrassing budget debate, few incidents have been more revealing than the latest Republican attempt to defund National Public Radio. The NPR budget line is minuscule and meaningless; the current “scandal” surrounding NPR is a fake and a diversion; and the repeated complaint that public radio is “liberally biased” is likewise false and fraudulent.

It has been decades since NPR-one of the least-slanted and best-reported news sources in the country-depended for a significant part of its revenue on federal funding. The amount that congressional Republicans suddenly decided to ax on an “emergency” basis, around $5 million, represents not only a tiny fragment of the network’s own financing but obviously an even more infinitesimal fraction of the federal deficit. So when Republican leaders claim that they are trying to be fiscally responsible by cutting NPR, while they insist on funding defense projects that the Pentagon doesn’t want, the lie detector jumps off the table.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: The Human Cost of Slashonomics

An important new initiative from Half in Ten, a national campaign to reduce poverty by 50 percent over the next ten years, and the Coalition on Human Needs, is putting a face on irresponsible “slash and burn” deficit reduction by showing how it would damage real lives. The organizations are collecting people’s stories so that the cruel consequences of draconian cuts to key federal programs are plain to see.

Consider the story of Carolyn, who was in her 40s when her husband of 25 years left her with two daughters. She had never received any kind of assistance and describes turning to her local community action agency as “the hardest thing I had ever done.” Her fears were quickly allayed as she “was treated with respect and was never made to feel like a drain on society.” She enrolled in a workforce development program that helped her with tuition and books while she attended community college.

“I went to college five days a week and spent the weekend working, so I never had a day off,” writes Carolyn. “When I graduated I became a Registered Nurse, able to support myself and my family. I couldn’t have done it without the Federal Workforce Development Program and the supportive services the local Community Action Agency provided.”

Robert Alvarez: Safeguarding Spent Fuel Pools in the United States

A drained spent fuel pool in the U.S. could lead to a catastrophic fire that would result in long-term land contamination substantially worse than what the Chernobyl accident unleashed.

As this photograph shows, the spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex are exposed to the open sky and might be draining. The radioactive dose rates coming off the pools appear to be life-threatening. Lead-shielded helicopters trying to dump water over the pools/reactors could not get close enough to make much difference because of the dangerous levels of radiation.

If the spent fuel is exposed, the zirconium cladding encasing the spent fuel can catch fire – releasing potentially catastrophic amounts of radiation, particularly cesium-137. Here’s an article I wrote in January 2002 in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists about spent fuel pool dangers.

In October 2002, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire – serving at that time as her state’s attorney general-organized a group letter to Congress signed by her and 26 of her counterparts across the nation. In it, they requested greater safeguards for reactor spent-fuel pools. The letter urged “enhanced protections for one of the most vulnerable components of a nuclear power plant – its spent fuel pools.” It was met with silence.

Selma James: With Aristide’s Return Comes Hope

We don’t know how Haiti will react to an election that excluded his party, but the former president will take his cue from the people

The return of former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family to Haiti ends seven long years of campaigning – the 92% of voters who elected him had never accepted his overthrow in 2004 by a US-backed military coup. They risked their lives against a UN occupation that killed and brutalised thousands to demand his return. And last Friday he flew back from South Africa, where he had been living in forced exile, to a rapturous welcome in Port-au-Prince.

I was one of those waiting to greet him at his modest house, from where he was kidnapped seven years ago. Some of the waiting crowd were former political prisoners, others were visiting from exile. Yet others, disheartened after so many defeats – dictators, coups, hurricanes, earthquake, then cholera – had returned from Haiti’s diaspora.

We listened on transistor radios for news of his arrival. Finally Aristide’s plane had landed, and he was addressing supporters in a number of languages. He was back on Haitian soil two days before the fraudulent election from which his party has been excluded.

Laura Flanders: Stopping Walker’s Steamroller In Wisconsin

The night that the Wisconsin Senate Republicans got together and forced through Scott Walker’s union-busting bill, many Wisconsinites cried foul. The state’s open-meetings law required more notice unless there was a true emergency.

Last week, a Republican-appointed judge ruled with the protesters that the session that passed the bill may have  violated the law, which requires 24 hours notice on a vote. Judge Maryann Sumi put a stay on the bill, blocking its implementation. Teachers and other state employees retain their union rights.

The people of Wisconsin, I told the Left Forum on Friday, stopped a steamroller. Their willingness to fight, to keep showing up in greater and greater numbers, not only held off the bill but put the GOP in a place where they were desperate enough that they violated the law. They inspired the fight back in other states-Indiana’s state Democrats are still out of state, holding up a vote on a similar bill.

Allison Kilkenny: Everyone Has a Stake in US Uncut’s Fight

This weekend, US Uncut chapters in Georgia, New York, Washington, Pennsylvania and California staged actions (a much larger nationwide protest is planned for March 26. Thus far, thirty cities have signed up). I spoke with Kevin Shields, the founder of US Uncut Philadelphia about the protest and also his wish to close the divides between three groups: members of the lower classes, US Uncut’s predominately white movement and minority communities and also domestic efforts and the anti-austerity resistances in other countries.

A senior in high school, Shields decided to start his own US Uncut chapter simply because the need to protest is in his DNA. “For me, protesting and getting involved in activism is just something you do. If you don’t do it, you’re really missing out, and you’re participating in your own exploitation. So when I saw this, I thought, okay, I’ll do that.”

He tells me what happened at Saturday’s protest. It’s a familiar story for the newer branches of US Uncut: a small, peaceful protest during which the activists staged a “teach-in.”

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 22 is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 284 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1784, the Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.

The Emerald Buddha is the palladium of the Kingdom of Thailand, a figurine of the sitting Buddha, made of green jadeite (rather than emerald), clothed in gold, and about 45 cm tall. It is kept in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

According to the legend, the Emerald Buddha was created in India in 43 BC by Nagasena in the city of Pataliputra (today’s Patna). The legends state that after remaining in Pataliputra for three hundred years, it was taken to Sri Lanka to save it from a civil war. In 457, King Anuruth of Burma sent a mission to Ceylon to ask for Buddhist scriptures and the Emerald Buddha, in order to support Buddhism in his country. These requests were granted, but the ship lost its way in a storm during the return voyage and landed in Cambodia. When the Thais captured Angkor Wat in 1432 (following the ravage of the bubonic plague), the Emerald Buddha was taken to Ayutthaya, Kamphaeng Phet, Laos and finally Chiang Rai, where the ruler of the city hid it. Cambodian historians recorded capture of the Buddha statue in their famous Preah Ko Preah Keo legend. However, some art historians describe the Emerald Buddha as belonging to the Chiang Saen Style of the 15th Century AD, which would mean it is actually of Lannathai origin.

Historical sources indicate that the statue surfaced in northern Thailand in the Lannathai kingdom in 1434. One account of its discovery tells that lightning struck a pagoda in a temple in Chiang Rai, after which, something became visible beneath the stucco. The Buddha was dug out, and the people believed the figurine to be made of emerald, hence its name. King Sam Fang Kaen of Lannathai wanted it in his capital, Chiang Mai, but the elephant carrying it insisted, on three separate occasions, on going instead to Lampang. This was taken as a divine sign and the Emerald Buddha stayed in Lampang until 1468, when it was finally moved to Chiang Mai, where it was kept at Wat Chedi Luang.

The Emerald Buddha remained in Chiang Mai until 1552, when it was taken to Luang Prabang, then the capital of the Lao kingdom of Lan Xang. Some years earlier, the crown prince of Lan Xang, Setthathirath, had been invited to occupy the vacant throne of Lannathai. However, Prince Setthathirath also became king of Lan Xang when his father, Photisarath, died. He returned home, taking the revered Buddha figure with him. In 1564, King Setthathirath moved it to his new capital at Vientiane.

In 1779, the Thai General Chao Phraya Chakri put down an insurrection, captured Vientiane and returned the Emerald Buddha to Siam, taking it with him to Thonburi. After he became King Rama I of Thailand, he moved the Emerald Buddha with great ceremony to its current home in Wat Phra Kaew on March 22, 1784. It is now kept in the main building of the temple, the Ubosoth.

 238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman Emperors.

1621 – The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.

1622 – Jamestown massacre: Algonquian Indians kill 347 English settlers around Jamestown, Virginia, a third of the colony’s population.

1630 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlaws the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables.

1638 – Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.

1739 – Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne.

1765 – The British Parliament passes the Stamp Act that introduces a tax to be levied directly on its American colonies.

1784 – The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.

1809 – Charles XIII succeeds Gustav IV Adolf to the Swedish throne.

1829 – The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.

1849 – The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.

1871 – In North Carolina, William Woods Holden becomes the first governor of a U.S. state to be removed from office by impeachment.

1873 – A law is approved by the Spanish National Assembly in Puerto Rico to abolish slavery.

1894 – The first playoff game for the Stanley Cup starts.

1906 – First Anglo-French rugby union match at Parc des Princes in Paris

1916 – The last Emperor of China, Yuan Shikai, abdicates the throne and the Republic of China is restored.

1923 – The first radio broadcast of ice hockey is made by Foster Hewitt.

1939 – World War II: Germany takes Memel from Lithuania.

1942 – World War II: In the Mediterranean Sea, the Royal Navy confronts Italy’s Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.

1943 – World War II: the entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by German occupation forces.

1945 – The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.

1954 – Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens.

1960 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser

1972 – The United States Congress sent the Equal Rights Amendment to the states for ratification.

1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes a dangerous reduction in cooling water levels.

1978 – Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1982 – NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.

1984 – Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.

1989 – Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a near-fatal injury when another player accidentally slits his throat.

1992 – USAir Flight 405 crashes shortly after liftoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, leading to a number of studies into the effect that ice has on aircraft.

1993 – The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.

1995 – Cosmonaut Valeriy Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.

1997 – Tara Lipinski, age 14 years and 10 months, becomes the youngest champion women’s World Figure Skating Champion.

1997 – The Comet Hale-Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.

2004 – Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, two bodyguards, and nine civilian bystanders are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.

2006 – ETA, the armed Basque separatist group, declares a permanent ceasefire.

2006 – Three Christian Peacemaker Team hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days of captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox.

2009 – Mount Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska begins erupting after a prolonged period of unrest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M… Holidays and observances]

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Basil of Ancyra (Roman Catholic Church)

         o March 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Earliest day on which Earth Hour can fall, while March 28 is the latest; celebrated on the last Saturday in March. (International)

   * Earliest day on which Easter Sunday can fall, while April 25 is the latest. (Christianity)

   * Emancipation Day or Dia de la Abolicion de la Esclavitud (Puerto Rico)

   * World Day for Water (International)

U.S.-Led Assault Nears Goal in Libya



By ELISABETH BUMILLER and KAREEM FAHIM

Published: March 22, 2011

WASHINGTON – An American-led military campaign to destroy Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s air defenses and establish a no-fly zone over Libya has nearly accomplished its initial objectives, and the United States is moving swiftly to hand command to allies in Europe, American officials said, despite some fighting reportedly continuing on Tuesday.

But the firepower of more than 130 Tomahawk cruise missiles and attacks by allied warplanes have not yet succeeded in accomplishing the more ambitious demands by the United States – repeated by President Obama in a letter to Congress on Monday – that Colonel Qaddafi withdraw his forces from embattled cities and cease all attacks against civilians.

Opposition to Libya assault grows as allies battle to protect united front



By David Usborne, US Editor, and John Lichfield in Paris Tuesday, 22 March 2011

Serious fractures emerged in the international community yesterday over the military intervention in Libya, with some nations asking such basic questions as what the end-game is and how long it will take.

Just days after forsaking its chance to veto the United Nations resolution that authorised the air strikes, Russia offered the most jarring commentary, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saying: “The resolution is flawed. It allows everything and is reminiscent of a medieval call for a crusade. In fact, it allows intervention in a sovereign state.”

Afghan troops to begin takeover from coalition forces from July

Hamid Karzai criticises international security effort while announcing transition to Afghan control in seven areas starting in July

Associated Press

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 March 2011 08.16 GMT

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has said his forces will soon take charge of security in seven areas around the country, the first step towards his goal of having Afghan police and soldiers protecting the entire nation by the end of 2014.

In a speech in Kabul, Karzai said control of the provincial capitals of Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan, Herat in the west, Mazer-e-Sharif in the north and Mehterlam in the east is to be transferred from Nato-led forces to Afghan soldiers and police from July.

In addition, all of Bamiyan and Panshir provinces, which have had little to no fighting, are on the transition list.

Trend towards rising global temperatures  



March 22, 2011 – 4:52PM

Global temperatures are on the increase, with a new study showing a rise of about half a degree Celsius over the past 160 years.

An Australian National University (ANU) report on global temperature found a trend towards a rise in worldwide temperatures since 1850, with a steeper increase since the mid 1970s.

Professor Trevor Breusch, of the Crawford School of Economics and Government at ANU, studied three series of recorded global temperature data to look for clear evidence of a trend in global temperatures.

Did Dawood men fix Australia-Zimbabwe match?



Prashant Dayal , TNN | Mar 22, 2011, 07.11am IST

AHMEDABAD: The Mumbai crime branch busted a match fixing racket from a hotel in Ahmedabad involving three Dawood men, who sneaked into the hotel where the Australian team was put up to play Zimbabwe in the World Cup game on February 21.

The tip-off from Mumbai police exposed Gujarat police’s tall claim that foolproof security has been provided for the quarterfinal match to be played here on March 24. Sources told TOI that the three D-company men stayed with the Aussie team in a five-star hotel in Satellite area and met them in the lobby where the deal was struck for spot fixing. Australia won the match.

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The Supreme Court let stand a ruling from the lower court that forces the Federal Reserve to disclose details about its emergency lending programs to banks during the financial crisis in 2008.

Fed’s Court-Ordered Disclosure Shows Americans’ ‘Right to Know’

A Supreme Court order that forces unprecedented disclosures from the Federal Reserve ended a two- year legal battle that helped shape the public’s perceptions of the U.S. central bank.

The high court yesterday let stand a lower-court ruling compelling the Fed to reveal the names of banks that borrowed money at the so-called discount window during the credit crisis. The records were requested by Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. In July, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank law, which mandated the release of other Fed bailout details.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke “now must finally understand that this money doesn’t belong to the Federal Reserve, it belongs to the American people and the American people have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being put at risk,” said Senator Bernard Sanders, a Vermont Independent who wrote Fed transparency provisions in Dodd-Frank.

The financial crisis, which began in August 2007 and peaked after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, focused the public’s attention on the Fed and its $3.5 trillion effort to rescue the banking system, said U.S. Representative Ron Paul, who heads the House subcommittee that oversees the central bank.

“People wanted to know more about what the Fed was doing,” said Paul, a Texas Republican. “It’s been a significant change and the American people won’t ever be complacent about this.”

Fed Will Release Bank Loan Data as Top Court Rejects Appeal

The Clearing House Association contended that Bloomberg is seeking an unprecedented disclosure that might dissuade banks from accepting emergency loans in the future.

Obama Administration

“We are disappointed that the court has declined our petitions, which deal with the protection of highly confidential bank information provided to the Federal Reserve,” the group said in a statement after the high court acted.

A federal trial judge ruled in 2009 that the Fed had to disclose the records in the Bloomberg case, and a New York-based appeals court upheld that ruling.

The Clearing House Association’s chances at getting a Supreme Court hearing suffered a setback when the Obama administration urged the justices not to hear the appeal. The government said the underlying issues had limited practical significance because Congress last year laid out new rules for disclosing Fed loans in the Dodd-Frank law.

“Congress has resolved the question of whether and when the type of information at issue in this case must be disclosed” in the future, the administration said in a brief filed by acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, President Barack Obama’s top Supreme Court lawyer.

While this is great news, unfortunately, it is a one time disclosure under the terms of the Dodd-Frank bill (pdf) and with the Republicans in control of the House it is unlikely that any amendment for future audits would pass. Obama should have worked harder for better oversight of our tax dollars.

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The 2nd Circuit Court ruled that a law suit (pdf) challenging the constitutionality of the FISA law which shields government eavesdropping from judicial review, or as Glen Greenwald says, “(places) secret executive surveillance above and beyond the rule of law”, can move forward in the courts. Finally, there will be a review of the law that Obama promised to vote against, then voted for promising to revise after he was elected and now wields with the same impunity as his predecessor to cover up war crimes and protect war criminals in the name of national security. The bill not only gives expanded eavesdropping powers without a warrant but also gave retroactive amnesty to the telecommunication companies which participated in Bush’s illegal spying program.

At Salon, Greenwald explains the law suit:

In the case brought by the ACLU, the plaintiffs were a variety of human rights activists, lawyers and journalists (including Naomi Klein and Chris Hedges), who argued that both they and their sources have a reasonable fear of being subjected to this expanded surveillance, and that fear– by rendering them unable to perform their jobs and exercise their Constitutional rights — constitutes sufficient harm to vest them with “standing” to challenge the new eavesdropping law.  In response, the Bush administration argued — as always — that the plaintiffs’ inability to prove that they were actually targeted by this expanded surveillance precluded their suing; their mere “fear” of being targeted, argued the Bush DOJ, was insufficient to confer standing to sue.

In late 2008, a lower court judge granted the Bush argument and dismissed the ACLU’s lawsuit on “standing” grounds.  On appeal, the Obama DOJ — needless to say — faithfully adopted exactly the Bush argument to demand dismissal of the ACLU’s lawsuit on procedural grounds of “standing,” i.e., without assessing the merits of whether this law violates the Fourth Amendment.

Yes, the Obama DOJ is now using the very same argument that was used by the Bush DOJ. But now a three judge panel ruled unanimously that the plaintiffs do have standing:

(click on image to enlarge)

It is now very clear that Obama realized, after he clinched the nomination in a back room deal that disenfranchised the delegates from Michigan and Florida, that he would most likely be the next president and began calculating. In June, 2008, Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin explains:

Barrack Obama plans to be the next President of the United States. Once he becomes President, he will be in the same position as George W. Bush: he wants all the power he needs to protect the country. Moreover, he will be the beneficiary of a Democratic-controlled Congress, and he wants to get some important legislation passed in his first two years in office.

Given these facts, why in the world would Obama oppose the current FISA compromise bill? If it’s done on Bush’s watch, he doesn’t have to worry about wasting political capital on it in the next year. Perhaps it gives a bit too much power to the executive. But he plans to be the executive, and he can institute internal checks within the Executive Branch that can keep it from violating civil liberties as he understands them. And not to put too fine a point on it, once he becomes president, he will likely see civil liberties issues from a different perspective anyway.

So, in short, from Obama’s perspective, what’s not to like?

Greenwald gives his insight on the significance of the ruling:

To allow Presidents to escape all legal challenges on “standing” grounds merely because they managed to conceal the identity of the victims of their lawbreaking would be, in essence, to have laws that apply to Presidents only in theory but not in reality.

Today’s ruling puts at least some brakes — for now — on that license of lawlessness.  It rejected the Bush/Obama claim that citizens must prove they have been targeted by an illegal presidential program before they have the right to ask a court to declare it illegal.  Instead, a plaintiff’s reasonable fear that their rights are being violated due to enactment of an allegedly unconstitutional law  — combined with actual harm suffered as a result of that fear — suffices to allow them to challenge the legality of those actions.  It is, of course, possible that the Supreme Court can review and reverse this ruling, but the Second Circuit is a well-regarded court — situated on the level immediately below the Supreme Court — and this well-reasoned decision will have significant sway.  At the very least, this is an important ruling in eroding what is easily one of the worst political problems plaguing America in the post-9/11 world: the ease with which Presidents and their underlings can insulate their secret actions from the rule of law.

Thank you to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals

Regular Features-

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

Featured Essays for March 21, 2011-

• Sherwood on the Lake by TP_Alexander
• On Monday Morning Philosophy, Or, Founders Tell America: "You Figure It Out" by fake consultant
• "Why do they hate us so?" You Asked! by jimstaro
• Rant Rip by ek hornbeck
• Arab League Condemns "Bombardment of Civilians", Amid Suggestions Obama Could Be Impeached by Edger

DocuDharma

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Essays Featured Monday the 21^st of March~

A beautiful Stairway to Heaven begins our 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!!!!

Monday Open Thoughts from RiaD are empty

fake consultant expounds On Monday Morning Philosophy, Or, Founders Tell America: “You Figure It Out”

Gha!

A Must See from edger Don’t Watch This Video

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

Tonight #100

The latest Pique the Geek from Translator

How Nuclear Reactors Work Part the First