memeorandum: Gaddafi's forces enter Benghazi as U.S., allies prepare military action against Libya (Washington Post)

11:45 AM ET, March 19, 2011

Top Items:

Obama Takes Hard Line With Libya After Shift by Clinton — WASHINGTON — In a Paris hotel room on Tuesday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton found herself juggling the inconsistencies of American foreign policy in a turbulent Middle East. She criticized the foreign minister …

Discussion: Power Line, Althouse, The Nation, Swampland, Outside the Beltway, National Review, Pundit & Pundette, JustOneMinute, The Cable and NewsBusters.org blogs

CNN:

French fighter jets deployed over Libya — Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — French fighters jets soared over Libya on Saturday to counter Moammar Gadhafi's military forces who were intent on destroying the opposition as they pushed into the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Next Big Future

Washington Post:

Gaddafi's forces enter Benghazi as U.S., allies prepare military action against Libya — Gallery: A mass exodus from Libya: Escaping fighting in Libya, tens of thousands of guest workers from Egypt and other countries are fleeing to bordering Tunisia, which faces a humanitarian emergency.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, BBC and National Review

Marc Lynch / Foreign Policy:
The U.N.'s High Stakes Gamble in Libya

Discussion: Yglesias, Eunomia, The Daily Dish, democracyarsenal.org and Outside the Beltway

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Reid predicts Gadhafi's days are numbered

Discussion: CNN and The Hill

Robert D. Hershey Jr / New York Times:

Warren Christopher, Ex-Secretary of State, Dies at 85 — Warren M. Christopher, secretary of state in President Clinton's first term and the chief negotiator for the 1981 release of American hostages in Iran, died Friday night in Los Angeles. He was 85 and had been ill with kidney and bladder cancer.

Discussion: Althouse, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Outside the Beltway and Guardian

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

Warren Christopher, 1925-2011 — Let me break into the sequence of guest voices here to express sadness at news that Warren Christopher has just died, at age 85. — He is best known as the first Secretary of State during the Clinton Administration, and his public image was of a very careful, even colorless person.

Discussion: Gawker

Sam Youngman / The Hill:

At campaign event Biden mentions rape in criticizing Republicans — Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Friday, compared Republicans in Congress to people who excuse rapists by blaming their victims. — The vice president, known for speaking his mind …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, CNN, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, JammieWearingFool and Ballot Box

Yahoo! News:

‘Supermoon’ Rises: Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years Occurs Saturday Night — Thanks to a fluke of orbital mechanics that brings the moon closer to Earth than that it has been in more than 18 years, the biggest full moon of 2011 will occur on Saturday, leading some observers to dub it a “supermoon.”

Discussion: The Raw Story and Outside the Beltway

NASA Science:

Super Full Moon — March 16, 2011: Mark your calendar. On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It's a super “perigee moon”—the biggest in almost 20 years. — “The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” …

Discussion: Making Light

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

The Imperial President — The president's speech was disturbingly empty. There are, it appears, only two reasons the US is going to war, without any Congressional vote, or any real public debate. The first is that the US cannot stand idly by while atrocities take place.

Discussion: democracyarsenal.org and Gawker

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
The Libya Question is Only About Libya — There's an argument …

Discussion: Salon, Yglesias, Washington Post, The Daily Dish, Eschaton and Opinionator

James O'Keefe / APP.com:

Hidden-camera activist James O'Keefe turns away APP videographer — have made headlines, apparently was not thrilled about the idea of being videotaped himself during a speech he gave Thursday evening. — O'Keefe, who spoke to about 100 members of the Bayshore Tea Party and their supporters …

Discussion: FreakOutNation

George Zornick / ThinkProgress:
Hidden Camera Activist James O'Keefe Refuses To Be Taped During Speech

Discussion: The Political Carnival

Kerry Picket / Washington Times:

DOJ to white male bullying victims: Tough luck — The viral video sensation showing a bullying incident at an Australian school has brought the issue of bullying back into the spotlight. Here in the United States, the Obama administration has made school bullying a federal issue.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Weasel Zippers and The Volokh Conspiracy

Karoli / Crooks and Liars:

Takedown: Ed Schultz Destroys Fox News' “No Looting in Japan” Theme — Boy, am I glad Ed Schultz dealt with this. It's been a Fox theme since yesterday, beginning on Megyn Kelly's show and continuing on all the way through tonight's O'Reilly Factor. It goes like this: Unlike here after Katrina …

Eve Zibel / Fox News:

President Obama Set to Take Questions but Brazilian President is Not — When does an event where the president is supposed to take questions become an event with no questions? In Brasilia, Brazil. — President Obama arrived in the capital city of Brazil on Saturday morning …

Discussion: The Hill, The Caucus, Weasel Zippers and Fox Nation

Associated Press:

Giuliani mocks Obama as foreign policy weakling … MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose drive-by approach to campaigning in New Hampshire drove his 2008 presidential campaign into the ground, is setting the stage for a do-over.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Politico, Cubachi and Weasel Zippers

CBO's Latest 10 Documents:

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET FOR 2012 — Letter to the Honorable Daniel K. Inouye — ABSTRACT — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), with contributions from the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, has analyzed the President's budget submission for fiscal year 2012.

Discussion: Questions and Observations, The Daily Caller, Power Line, The Lonely Conservative and AmSpecBlog

Associated Press:
CBO: Obama understates deficits by $2.3 trillion

Discussion: Doug Ross, Scared Monkeys, National Review, Patterico's Pontifications, Weasel Zippers, Michelle Malkin and American Thinker

Dan Riehl / Big Government:

Shankman Warns of ‘Serious’ WI Actions to Come, Denies Issuing Death Threat — The following quotes are taken from my email exchanges with Jim Shankman of Madison, Wisconsin, the individual who has admitted to writing a vicious screed directed at blogger Ann Althouse and her husband, Meade.

Discussion: The Other McCain, Riehl World View, theblogprof and Whiskey Fire

Daily Mail:

The moment nuclear plant chief WEPT as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people — The boss of the company behind the devastated Japanese nuclear reactor today broke down in tears - as his country finally acknowledged the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Daily Kos, Doug Ross and Dean's World

Kate Sheppard / MoJo Articles:

How Bad Could Japan's Nuclear Crisis Get? — As emergency workers begin “last-ditch efforts” to take control of the damaged power station, experts worry that a meltdown is still possible. — Post Comment — By all accounts, the situation at Japan's troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant appears to be getting worse.

Discussion: Philly.com, Frank Munger's Atomic …, Mother Jones, The BRAD BLOG, Next Big Future, Salon, Kyodo News and Booman Tribune

Susie Madrak / Crooks and Liars:

War On The Poor: Minnesota Republicans Want To Bust Poor People Who Carry Cash — They're not just crazy, they're evil — and un-Christian, should they have the audacity to claim otherwise. If only we could force them to live like this, they wouldn't last a week: … It may not be right, Angel.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pharyngula, FreakOutNation, Alas, a Blog, Wonkette, Balloon Juice and Left Coast Rebel

The Daily Caller:

Fairweather media: CNN sends 400 reporters to royal wedding, only 50 sent to Japan — CNN alone will have a team of roughly 400 reporters, cameramen and crew assigned to the wedding. The network has 50 people on the ground working on the breaking news in Japan, plus others scattered in Bahrain, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway