(12 midnight – promoted by TheMomCat)

Regular Daily Features:

Take Me Home is front & center 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!!!!

Essays Featured Sunday, March 20^th:

Sunday Open Thoughts has Alma Celebrate Spring

The latest edition of Bill Egnor‘s Sunday Bread is the super easy, mouth-watering Parmesan Pepper Bread

A timely reminder from TheMomCat Stand Still a Moment: Look Up, Breathe

Don’t Watch This Video from edger is a Must See!

join the conversation! come firefly-dreaming with me….

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

• Arab League criticizes West’s strikes on Libya
  

  TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Western forces pounded Libya’s air defenses and patrolled its skies Sunday, but their day-old intervention hit a diplomatic setback as the Arab League chief condemned the “bombardment of civilians.”

  As European and U.S. forces unleashed warplanes and cruise missiles against Muammar Gaddafi’s air defenses and armor, the Libyan leader said the air strikes amounted to terrorism and vowed to fight to the death.

• Japan dead, missing tops 21,000 amid atomic crisis
  
  by Olivia Hampton

  KAMAISHI, Japan (AFP) – Workers were close to restoring power to a nuclear plant’s overheating reactors as the toll of dead or missing from Japan’s worst natural disaster in nearly a century passed 21,000.

  Amid the devastation on the northeast coast left by a massive quake and tsunami, there was an astonishing tale Sunday of survival with the discovery of an 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson alive under the rubble.

• After year of woe, Haiti chooses a new president
  
  by Clarens Renois and Guillaume Decamme

  PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Haiti went to the polls Sunday to decide if a popular singer or a former first lady will be the new president of a shattered country struggling to rebuild from a devastating 2010 earthquake.

  The run-off, delayed for months by bickering over a contested and violence-plagued first round in November, threatened to be overshadowed by the return from exile of charismatic ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

• AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA for about $39 billion
  

  NEW YORK (Reuters) – AT&T Inc said on Sunday it would buy Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA, in a $39 billion cash-and-stock transaction that would create a new industry behemoth by combining two of the four largest U.S. wireless carriers.

  The purchase price includes a cash payment of $25 billion with the balance to be paid using AT&T common stock. AT&T has the right to increase the cash portion of the purchase price by up to $4.2 billion.

• Second Iranian plane forced to land in Turkey: report
  

  ISTANBUL (Reuters) – An Iranian cargo plane was forced to land in southeast Turkey for the second time within a week on suspicion it was carrying weapons or bomb-making material to Syria, Turkish media reported Sunday.

  The plane which took off from Tehran landed overnight at Diyarbakir airport and searches took place Sunday, broadcaster CNN Turk said.

• Wave of unrest shakes Syria, crowds torch party HQ
  
  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

  DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Crowds set fire to a headquarters of the ruling Baath Party in the Syrian city of Deraa on Sunday, residents said, as the wave of unrest in the Arab world shook even one of its most authoritarian states.

  The demonstrators also set ablaze the main courts complex and two phone company branches. One of the firms, Syriatel, is owned by President Bashar al-Assad’s cousin Rami Makhlouf.

  “They burned the symbols of oppression and corruption,” an activist said. “The banks nearby were not touched.”

• Bahrain opposition urges government to take steps toward talks
  
  By Lin Noueihed and Rania El Gamal

  MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahrain’s main opposition groups said on Sunday they would not enter talks unless the government pulled troops off the streets and freed prisoners, and insisted they stood by earlier demands for political reform.

  Led by the largest Shi’ite party Wefaq, the groups said they stood by the ambitious conditions they had set for talks last month, including the creation of a government not dominated by members of the Sunni royal family and the establishment of an elected council to redraft the constitution.

• Egypt approves reforms in historic referendum
  
  By Yasmine Saleh

  CAIRO (Reuters) – A big majority of Egyptians approved amendments to the constitution in a referendum, results showed, opening the door to early elections seen as favoring Islamists and figures affiliated with the old ruling party.

  Decades of oppression under Hosni Mubarak crushed Egypt’s political life and secular activists who mobilized to oust him from the presidency say more time is needed before elections that may now come as early as September.

• Obama woos Brazil while Libya air assault unfolds
  
  By Matt Spetalnick and Stuart Grudgings

  RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama praised Brazil’s rise as an emerging power on Sunday, calling the South American country an equal partner of the United States as he pressed on with a trip overshadowed by a U.S. and European air assault on Muammar Gaddafi’s forces in Libya.

  Obama viewed Rio de Janeiro’s famed beaches and mountains from his helicopter and played soccer with slum kids in a show of cultural affinity on the second day of what aides call his signature first-term visit to Latin America.

• Yemen president sacks cabinet, protesters bury dead
  
  By Mohamed Sudam and Mohammed Ghobar

  SANAA (Reuters) – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired his government on Sunday after a string of allies broke ranks with him as he faces increasing pressure from street protests to step down.

  Mourners buried some of the 52 anti-government protesters shot dead by rooftop snipers after Muslim Friday prayers in the Arabian Peninsula state, where tens of thousands of people have protested for weeks against Saleh’s three decades-long rule.

• Sarkozy suffers poll setback as far-right closes in
  
  By Vicky Buffery

  PARIS (Reuters) – Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front gave French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives a fright on Sunday, snapping at the heels of the mainstream center-right in poorly attended local elections.

  With 86 percent of votes counted, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the president’s center-right supporters had won 32.5 percent of the vote, with left-wing parties totaling 48 percent and Le Pen’s anti-immigrant party polling 15 percent.

• Gates: US expects to hand off Libya lead in ‘days’
  

  ON BOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday that the U.S. expects to turn control of the Libya military mission over to a coalition – probably headed either by the French and British or by NATO – “in a matter of days.”

  In his first public remarks since the start of the bombings, Gates said President Barack Obama felt very strongly about limiting America’s role in the operation, adding that the president is “more aware than almost anybody of the stress on the military.”

• Admiral Mullen says Libya impasse possible
  
  By David Morgan

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top U.S. military officer said on Sunday that imposing a no-fly zone over Libya could lead to an impasse with Muammar Gaddafi’s forces even as Western warplanes halted the Libyan leader’s anti-rebel offensive at Benghazi.

  Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the CBS program “Face the Nation” that the air mission in the North African country has a clear, limited scope.

• Coast Guard probing reports of “sheen” in Gulf of Mexico
  

  ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating reports of a “sheen” in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana.

  The Coast Guard on Sunday were trying to determine whether the sheen or gleaming at the top of the water, was the result of oil or an algae growth, said Lieutenant Ryan Baxter, command duty officer in New Orleans.

• States push harder for online sales tax collection
  

  SAN FRANCISCO – Tax-free shopping is under threat for many online shoppers as states facing widening budget gaps increasingly pressure Amazon.com Inc. and other Internet retailers to start collecting sales taxes from their residents.

  Billions of dollars are at stake as a growing number of states look for ways to generate more revenue without violating a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits a state from forcing businesses to collect sales taxes unless the business has a physical presence, such as a store, in that state.

• Wyclef says bullet grazed hand in Haiti’s capital
  

  PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Musician Wyclef Jean said Sunday that a bullet grazed his hand as he stepped out of a car to make a telephone call, but he said he was only slightly injured.

  Jean, who has been in Haiti helping the presidential campaign of his friend and fellow musician Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, said the bullet grazed him late Saturday night as he stepped out of his car in the Delmas section of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to make a call on his cellphone.

• Boeing’s new 747 completes first test flight
  

  SEATTLE (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s 747-8 Intercontinental, the new passenger version of its legendary jumbo jet, completed its maiden flight without a hitch on Sunday, marking a key milestone for the aircraft model more closely associated with Boeing than any other plane.

  The behemoth began its first test flight from Boeing’s Paine Field north of Seattle into clear blue skies at 9:58 a.m. local time. The take-off, witnessed by thousands of Boeing employees and aviation enthusiasts, occurred almost 42 years after the first flight of the original 747, which later became one of the most recognized planes in the world.

• Top-seeded UConn routs Hartford in NCAA opener
  

  STORRS, Conn. – Stefanie Dolson scored all 12 of her points in the first half to lead a balanced Connecticut offense, and the top-seeded Huskies routed Hartford 75-39 on Sunday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

  Maya Moore, Bria Hartley and Tiffany Hayes added 12 points each for the Huskies (33-1), who started their journey toward a third consecutive national championship. The victory was UConn’s 21st straight and 82nd in a row at home, where the Huskies are hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament and giving their local fans one more weekend to see them.

• Why Spring Starts Today
  

  Today is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Though no guarantee of gorgeous weather that’s not too hot and not too cold, the Earth’s position relative to the sun says it’s officially time for the birds to start chirping.

  The first day of spring arrives on varying dates (from March 19-21) in different years for two reasons: Our year is not exactly an even number of days; and Earth’s slightly noncircular orbit, plus the gravitational tug of the other planets, constantly changes our planet’s orientation to the sun from year to year.

  This year, spring starts Sunday, March 20, at 7:21 p.m. EDT (23:21 UTC). That’s when the so-called vernal equinox occurs. Equinoxes (which mark the onset of spring and autumn) and solstices (which mark when summer and winter begin) are points in time and space that mark a transition in our planet’s annual trip around the sun.

• Progress at Japan Reactors; New Signs of Food Radiation
  

  TOKYO – Japan appeared to make moderate progress in stabilizing some of the nuclear reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant on Sunday, but at the same time it disclosed new signs of radioactive contamination in agricultural produce and livestock.

  The government said it was barring all shipments of milk from Fukushima Prefecture and shipments of spinach from Ibaraki Prefecture, after finding new cases of above-normal levels of radioactive elements in milk and several vegetables. Relatively high levels were also found in spinach from Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures to the west, canola from Gunma Prefecture and chrysanthemum greens from Chiba Prefecture, south of Ibaraki.

• Regulator Says Fuel Pools at U.S. Reactors Are Ready for Emergencies
  

  WASHINGTON – The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Sunday morning that the spent fuel pools at American nuclear reactors are less vulnerable than the ones in Japan because of steps ordered by his agency after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including having utilities prepare to use fire hoses to pump in extra water in the event ordinary cooling systems are knocked out.

  Nuclear utilities were ordered to “identify and pre-stage equipment” that would be useful in such an emergency, according to commission officials. They have been reluctant to disclose details, because some preparations against terrorist attack are classified, but indicate that the preparation includes locating emergency generators, diesel-driven pumps, hoses and diesel fuel, as well as setting up procedures.

Rachel explains how Republican efforts around the country to strip the middle class of union rights and other economic attacks are only serving to rally the Democratic voting base.

Transcript of the video is not yet available. When it is, it can be found here.

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 20 is the 79th day of the year (80th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 286 days remaining until the end of the year.

March 20th is also the usual date of the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere when both day and night are of equal length, therefore it is frequently the date of traditional Iranian holiday Norouz in many countries.

On this day in 1854, Republican Party is founded in Ripon Wisconsin.

The Republican Party emerged in 1854, growing out of a coalition of former Whigs and Free Soil Democrats who mobilized in opposition to the possibility of slavery extending into the new western territories. The new party put forward a vision of modernizing the United States-emphasizing free homesteads to farmers (“free soil”), banking, railroads, and industry. They vigorously argued that free-market labor was superior to slavery and the very foundation of civic virtue and true republicanism, this is the “Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men” ideology. The Republicans absorbed the previous traditions of its members, most of whom had been Whigs; others had been Democrats or members of third parties (especially the Free Soil Party and the American Party or Know Nothings). Many Democrats who joined up were rewarded with governorships. or seats in the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives. Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the Democratic Party, but the amount of flow back and forth of prominent politicians between the two parties was quite high from 1854 to 1896.

Two small cities of the Yankee diaspora, Ripon, Wisconsin and Jackson, Michigan, claim to be the birthplace of the Republican Party (in other words, meetings held there were some of the first 1854 anti-Nebraska assemblies to call themselves by the name “Republican”). Ripon held the first county convention on March 20, 1854. Jackson held the first statewide convention on July 6, 1854; it declared their new party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a state-wide slate of candidates. The Midwest took the lead in forming state party tickets, while the eastern states lagged a year or so. There were no efforts to organize the party in the South, apart from a few areas adjacent to free states. The party initially had its base in the Northeast and Midwest. The party launched its first national convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in February 1856, with its first national nominating convention held in the summer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

John C. Fremont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856, using the political slogan: “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont.” Although Fremont’s bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base. It dominated in New England, New York and the northern Midwest, and had a strong presence in the rest of the North. It had almost no support in the South, where it was roundly denounced in 1856-60 as a divisive force that threatened civil war.

Historians have explored the ethnocultural foundations of the party, along the line that ethnic and religious groups set the moral standards for their members, who then carried those standards into politics. The churches also provided social networks that politicians used to sign up voters. The pietistic churches emphasized the duty of the Christian to purge sin from society. Sin took many forms-alcoholism, polygamy and slavery became special targets for the Republicans. The Yankees, who dominated New England, much of upstate New York, and much of the upper Midwest were the strongest supporters of the new party. This was especially true for the pietistic Congregationalists and Presbyterians among them and (during the war), the Methodists, along with Scandinavian Lutherans. The Quakers were a small tight-knit group that was heavily Republican. The liturgical churches (Roman Catholic, Episcopal, German Lutheran), by contrast, largely rejected the moralism of the Republican Party; most of their adherents voted Democratic.

 235 – Maximinus Thrax is proclaimed emperor. He is the first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.

1208 – Michael IV Autoreianos is appointed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

1600 – The Linkoping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linkoping, Sweden.

1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established.

1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.

1760 – The “Great Fire” of Boston, Massachusetts destroys 349 buildings.

1815 – After escaping from Elba, Napoleon enters Paris with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.

1848 – Revolutions of 1848 in the German states: King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates.

1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published.

1861 – An earthquake completely destroys Mendoza, Argentina.

1883 – The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is signed.

1888 – The premiere of the very first Romani language operetta is staged in Moscow, Russia.

1913 – Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party, is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days later.

1914 – In New Haven, Connecticut, the first international figure skating championship takes place.

1916 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.

1922 – The USS Langley (CV-1) is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.

1923 – The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso’s first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States.

1933 – Giuseppe Zangara is executed in Florida’s electric chair for fatally shooting Anton Cermak in an assassination attempt against President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1942 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: “I came out of Bataan and I shall return”.

1948 – With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC.

1951 – Fujiyoshida, a city located in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in the center of the Japanese main island of Honshu is founded.

1952 – The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.

1956 – Tunisia gains independence from France.

1964 – The precursor of the European Space Agency, ESRO (European Space Research Organization) is established per an agreement signed on June 14, 1962.

1974 – Ian Ball attempts, but fails, to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.

1980 – The Radio Caroline ship, Mi Amigo founders in a gale off the English coast.

1985 – Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

1987 – The Food and Drug Administration approves the anti-AIDS drug, AZT.

1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: Having defeated the Nadew Command, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front enters the town of Afabet, victoriously concluding the Battle of Afabet.

1990 – Ferdinand Marcos’s widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.

1993 – An IRA bomb explodes, killing two children in Warrington, Northwest England.

1995 – A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 12 and wounds 1,300 persons.

1999 – Legoland California, the only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.

2000 – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after murdering Georgia sheriff’s deputy Ricky Kinchen and critically wounding Deputy Aldranon English.

2003 – 2003 invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries begin military operations in Iraq.

2005 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Fukuoka, Japan, its first major quake in over 100 years. One person is killed, hundreds are injured and evacuated.

2006 – Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country’s banana crop.

2006 – Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Abdon and Sennen, celebrated in Soissons, France

         o Alexandra

         o Cuthbert of Lindisfane, patron saint of Northumbria

         o Herbert

         o Wulfram

   * Earliest date for the vernal equinox:

         o Baha’i Naw-Ruz, started at sunset on March 20. The end of the 19-day sunrise-to-sunset fast. (Baha’i Faith)

         o Chunfen (China)

         o Earth Day, during its first celebration in 1971. Now celebrated on April 22.

         o Nowruz (Iranian diaspora, Kurdish diaspora, Zoroastrians)

         o Ostara in the northern hemisphere, Mabon in the southern hemisphere. (Neopagan Wheel of the Year)

         o International Astrology Day (astrologers and astrology enthusiasts)

         o Shunbun no Hi, a national holiday in Japan.

         o World Storytelling Day, a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling.

   * Earliest day on which Good Friday can fall, while April 23 is the latest; celebrated on Friday before Easter. (Christianity)

   * Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Tunisia from France in 1956.

   * International Day of the Francophonie (International Organization of the Francophonie)

It may seem like there were a lot of upsets yesterday, but really not so much.  Outside of Pittsburg every single seeded team won.

Keep that in mind as you listen to the gas bags bloviate.  The only group of “so called” journalists even more captured by cronyism, access, ignorance, and laziness than our DC Villager Idiots are sports reporters, a bunch of brain damaged ex-jocks trading on their faded fame and wannabees with even less talent than that.

Did I mention I’m rooting for Illinois?

Yesterday’s Results

Today’s 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.

NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament 2011

Well, I wasn’t entirely happy with yesterday’s Women’s Master Schedule Bracket table so I’m re doing it.  The problem is the column widths get automatically adjusted on you unless you dump all your data into one big list.

Oh, you want Yesterday’s Results not some boring HTML lecture.

Dad (who watched the whole thing, but wasn’t trying to live blog) tells me it was much more exciting than the men’s action and with 4 upsets it was a little more unpredictable than their first day though not I suspect than the first day of The Round of 32 which saw mighty Pittsburg, the pride of The Big East, fall along with some other sentmental favorites.

What will the future bring?  I’m glad you asked.

Current Matchups

As it turns out The Round of 32 on the lady’s side is being played Monday and Tuesday while the men are resting (isn’t that just like them) so there will be none of that for the wicked (meaning me).

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

Lady Huskies Tip Off at noon against the Hartford Hawks.  I’ve seen some Hawk games courtesy of a friend who’s tight with the program and has season tickets.  It’s too bad they didn’t get an easier draw because they’re actually a much better team than they will seem today.

“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”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour:Ms. Amanpour’s guests will be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, French ambassador to the United Nations Gérard Araud and former Libyan ambassador to the United States Ali Suleiman Aujali who recently resigned from his post and renounced the Gadhafi regime. Also, Energy Secretary Steven Chu will discuss the very latest from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima nuclear reactor complex.

At the roundtable with George Will, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, former ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Jane Harman and noted author Robin Wright of the U.S. Institute of Peace will debate the military intervention to stop Gadhafi.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer:The latest on the Libya crisis, and the disaster in Japan with guests Admiral Mike Mullen, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN).

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Katty Kay, BBC Washington Correspondent, Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Senior Editor, Michael Duffy, TIME Magazine Assistant Managing Editor and Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC Chief Washington Correspondent. They will discuss these questions:

Is President Obama failing to lead?

Could Republican “red hots” spoil the party?

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Again, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen along with Senate Armed Services Committee, Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) discussing Libya.

At the roundtable will be NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, The New York Times’ Helene Cooper, The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne, and The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel weighing in on Japan and Libya.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Making those rounds today, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, then, former CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon (Ret.) and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers (Ret.) and as a finally, Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman to discuss Libya.

Plus, an update on Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant and the future of nuclear energy in the United States with Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and two nuclear experts.

Fareed Zakaris: GPS: Fareed will also be discussing the Japan crisis and the “atomic age”. Instead of Libya, he will also be examining Pakistan with “Pakistan’s best and bravest reporter,” Ahmed Rashid, to find out just how unstable this nuclear nation is becoming.  

Bob Herbert: A Price Too High?

No one thought the Interstate 35W bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis would collapse. No one thought the Gulf of Mexico would be fouled to the horrible extent that it was by the BP oil spill. The awful convergence of disasters in Japan – a 9.0 earthquake followed by a tsunami and a devastating nuclear power emergency – seemed almost unimaginable.

Worst-case scenarios unfold more frequently than we’d like to believe, which leads to two major questions regarding nuclear power that Americans have an obligation to answer.

First, can a disaster comparable to the one in Japan happen here? The answer, of course, is yes – whether caused by an earthquake or some other event or series of events. Nature is unpredictable and human beings are fallible. It could happen.

Charles M. Blow: Escape From New York

New York City holds a special place in the collective conscience of Black America.  

Not only does it have the highest concentration of blacks – according to the 2000 Census, there were more blacks living in New York City than in all but four whole states – much of black intellectual power and cultural capital has been accrued within its borders.

It gave voice to Shirley Chisholm, refuge to Malcolm X, legs to Althea Gibson and opportunity to Jackie Robinson. It was the incubator of the Harlem Renaissance, the proving ground of jazz and the birthplace of hip-hop.

It was a black Mecca and magnet. Was

Washington Post Editorial: Pfc. Bradley Manning doesn’t deserve humiliating treatment

IF THE ALLEGATIONS are true, Pfc. Bradley Manning facilitated a damaging breach of national security by funneling thousands of classified documents to the rogue Web site WikiLeaks. But even if so, Mr. Manning does not appear to deserve the treatment he has been receiving at the military brig in Quantico, Va.

Mr. Manning, who could face life behind bars if convicted, has been held in maximum security at the Virginia facility since July. He spends 23 hours a day in his cell. He is allowed out for one hour of exercise each day, has periodic television and visitation privileges and access to reading material, but he is forced to take meals alone and is not permitted direct contact with the others on the cellblock, although he may speak with them through the bars.

David Kreiger: The Eighth Anniversary of the Iraq War

On this eighth anniversary of the Iraq War, I feel a deep sense of sadness mixed with anger, along with regret for what might have been. We’ve had eight years of futile war in Iraq and nearly ten years of the same in Afghanistan

Following September 11, 2001, the world stood with the US. We had a choice then: to respond legally, morally and with wisdom; or, like a helpless giant, to flail out with our vast arsenal of weapons. To our shame, our leaders, then and now, have taken the latter course.

Before this war began, many of us marched for peace. People all over the world marched for peace, but peace was not to be.

Bill Berry: Carlin knew the rich just want more

Ah, the week of St. Patty’s Day, and maybe the luck of the Irish will lead us to the pot o’ gold coins.

But don’t count on it. Not in Wisconsin, not in these times. Nonetheless, in honor of this hopeful holiday, when a saint evicted the snakes from the green island, we can go to that great American philosopher of Irish descent. Surely he can put the events of recent weeks in context.

We speak here of George Carlin, who left the earth too soon in 2008, but saw the future quite clearly, which may have hastened his departure. Thanks to the Internet, he will be forever with us, or at least until Big Brother yanks him away for being too subversive.

Western warplanes, missiles hit Libyan targets



REUTERS | Mar 20, 2011, 10.08am IST

TRIPOLI: Western forces hit targets along the Libyan coast on Saturday, using strikes from air and sea to force Muammar Gaddafi’s troops to cease fire and end attacks on civilians.

Libyan state television said 48 people had been killed and 150 wounded in the allied air strikes. It also said there had been a fresh wave of strikes on Tripoli early on Sunday.

There was no way to independently verify the claims. French planes fired the first shots in what is the biggest international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armoured vehicles in the region of the rebels’ eastern stronghold, Benghazi.

The plight of the elderly: Japan’s forgotten victims of the tsunami

Chiya Yamane, 84, survived the tsunami but is struggling in its aftermath. Andrew Buncombe reports on the plight of the nation’s frailest citizens

Sunday, 20 March 2011

When the tsunami tore towards the home of Chiya Yamane, the 84-year-old woman was saved by strong arms and sturdy legs. But they were not her own. A fireman picked her up, put her on his back and raced up a hillside to the safety of higher ground. Without his intervention she is not sure she would have survived. “Arigatai,” she says. “I feel blessed.”

The plight of Mrs Yamane, a slight but lively woman now passing the days in an evacuation centre set up among the classrooms and corridors of a primary school in the coastal town of Miyako, is far from unique. Japan’s elderly population has been confronted by extraordinary challenges by this disaster, not just from the earthquake and tsunami, but in the struggles that have followed.

Chechnya’s hardman Ramzan Kadyrov hires football big guns to take the offensive against Russian giant

Ramzan Kadyrov hopes former international players and Ruud Gullit as coach can help improve his country’s image

Miriam Elder in Moscow

The Observer, Sunday 20 March 2011

Russian football – and international sport – is about to be confronted with one of its most unlikely success stories. FC Terek Grozny, the newly energised team based in the troubled Caucasus republic of Chechnya, is hoping a slew of high-profile international acquisitions will help it make waves in the Russian premier league, which kicked off last weekend.

The ambitions of Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic’s leader, however, do not stop there. He is optimistic that the club’s footballing glory will help the world forget about his country’s bloody past. Chief among the names crucial to Terek’s success is Ruud Gullit, the Dutch football legend who signed on for an 18-month contract as coach earlier this year. “The team has started to play more offensively,” said club spokesman Kazbek Khadzhiyev. “Gullit likes discipline on the pitch, and for every player to know what he has to do.”

Bahrain and Yemen declare war on their protesters

With 42 killed in Sanaa, regimes show they will keep power at any cost

By Patrick Cockburn   Sunday, 20 March 2011

Abrutal counter-revolution is sweeping through the Arabian Peninsula as Bahrain and Yemen both declare war on reform movements and ferociously try to suppress them with armed force.

In Yemen police and snipers on rooftops opened fire on Friday on a mass demonstration outside the main university, killing at least 42 people. The government has since declared martial law and set up checkpoints throughout the capital, Sanaa.

In Bahrain repression began a few days earlier, when King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa called for military support from other Gulf monarchs and 1,000 troops from Saudi Arabia crossed into the island kingdom.

Moonlighting now a way of life for Zim workers

 

FANUEL JONGWE HARARE, ZIMBABWE – Mar 20 2011 07:52

He’s skilled at both, but neither is his real job.

“I work as a driver for a local company, but the salary is too little,” he says. “I come here on my off-days to earn a little extra.”

“Municipal workers simply mark out where the grave should be and leave the rest for the mourners, who then hire me to dig for them.”

Chimbira charges $5 for a grave sign, and $5 to $10 to dig a grave, money that he says affords one decent meal a day for his wife and four children.

It’s a common scenario in Zimbabwe, where unemployment is estimated at 85%, and the lucky few who have jobs often need to moonlight to survive.

Three Mile Island’s residents remain on alert three decades after nuclear crisis



By Carol Morello and Steven Mufson  

 MIDDLETOWN, PA. – Almost 32 years after America’s worst nuclear crisis at Three Mile Island, people who live in the shadow of the reactor’s cooling towers can instantly distinguish among sirens designating three different levels of alert.

Many residents stock potassium iodide pills, and the borough of Middletown maintains a “disaster room” lined with evacuation route maps that are updated to reflect every road repair. The local phone book publishes the routes. It also offers a primer on nuclear fission and a map with a 10-mile radius drawn around Three Mile Island, which still generates electricity for 800,000 households along with a certain amount of anxiety.

The crisis here on March 28, 1979, led to “changes throughout the world’s nuclear power industry,” as a state historical plaque on Route 441 notes.

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

It’s hard to know where to start with Libya and the ever progressing nuclear disaster in Japan that is complicating the human one. Events here in the US are getting overlooked. There is the ongoing corporate takeover of Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio that is threatening to spread to other Republican states with dire consequences for state workers and the under-classes, heh, even here in NY our “Democratic” governor is covering for the millionaires that put him in office. There are now 64 US Senators willing to sell out Social Security and the Federal Reserve covering for the banks, along with the state attorney generals willing to throw thousands of home owners under the bus on mortgage fraud to make the banks happy. Did I mention that there are peaceful protests in Washington, DC and outside the Marine base at Quantico, VA, objecting to the abusive treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning?

Yikes!

I’ll start with Saturday’s rally for Manning in front of the White House. Tks, Jane

Photos From White House Rally in Support of Bradley Manning

Daniel Ellsberg, Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, David Swanson, Medea Benjamin, Mike Malloy and over a hundred others were arrested in front of the White House today to protest President Obama’s torture of Bradley Manning.

All photos by twolf.

FDL will be livestreaming the demonstration at Quantico tomorrow now.

This is an “OK” response from our military. Translation of “OK” = “Over Kill”

Another sell out of Main St. by the Obama regime. Yeah, I said it, regime. Sue me

Who ever said the Republicans wanted less government in our lives didn’t know there was a uterus involved

I bet Obama has all them over for dinner.

Increase dividends or pay back the government for the bailout? Hmm. It’s a no brainer.

Ya gotta love these Republican state legislators for ingenuity in keeping the populace stupid. h/t Josh Harkinson at Mother Jones

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