memeorandum: Japan Finds Tainted Food Up to 90 Miles From Nuclear Sites (New York Times)

7:50 PM ET, March 19, 2011

Top Items:

U.S. Launches Cruise Missiles Against Qaddafi's Air Defenses — The U.S. Navy fires the first U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles against Libyan leader's Muammar al-Qaddafi's air defenses Saturday. — The Pentagon says 112 missiles have been launched from U.S. and British ships in the Mediterranean, hitting 20 Libyan targets.

Discussion: Biased BBC, Scared Monkeys, Fox Nation, Daily Kos, Weasel Zippers and protein wisdom

New York Times:

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, Left Coast Rebel, Swampland, Althouse, Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Nation, Pundit & Pundette, National Review, The Atlantic Online, American Power and justoneminute.typepad.com

CNN:

French jets streak over Benghazi — Tripoli, Libya (CNN) — French fighter 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. — “Our air force will oppose …

Discussion: Associated Press, Tom Watson, This Just In, Eunomia, AOL News, Gothamist, The Moderate Voice, Next Big Future, ABCNEWS, Pundit Press and Foreign Policy

ABCNEWS:

U.S. Tomahawk Cruise Missiles Hit Targets in Libya — Pentagon: 112 Missiles Fired at More Than 20 Targets Inside Libya — More than 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles struck over 20 targets inside Libya today in the opening phase of an international military operation the Pentagon said was aimed …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Wall Street Journal, Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway, Political Punch and The Gateway Pundit

Laura Kasinof / New York Times:

U.S. Missiles Strike Libyan Air Defense Targets — PARIS — American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in the first round of the largest international military intervention …

Discussion: Guardian, Associated Press, The Lede, National Review, Balloon Juice, Mediaite, Sense of Events, NO QUARTER, New York Magazine, The Lonely Conservative, The Hill, Clusterstock, The Daily Dish, Booman Tribune, Telegraph and Politics

Ann Althouse / Althouse:

A feminist milestone: Our male President has been pulled into war by 3 women. — It's the opposite of the Code Pink idea that women bring the peace. How long have I heard this feminist plaint: If only women had the power, we would have peace, not phallocratic war. — But no:

Discussion: Reuters, New York Times, American Power, Dean's World, Taylor Marsh and Wall Street Journal

David Wood / The Huffington Post:

Anti-American Extremists Among Libyan Rebels U.S. Has Vowed To Protect … WASHINGTON — In 2007, when American combat casualties were spiking in the bloodbath of the Iraq War, an 18-year-old laborer traveled from his home in eastern Libya through Egypt and Syria to join an al Qaeda terrorist cell in Iraq.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

msnbc.com:

Allied forces fire missiles on Libya — Below: — BENGHAZI, Libya — A coalition of American and European forces launched a military campaign Saturday to drive Moammar Gadhafi from power, bombing Libyan targets by air and sea in the first phase of the largest international military effort since the Iraq war.

Discussion: BBC

Jim Garamone / American Forces Press Service:
Coalition Launches Operation Odyssey Dawn

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Fight Back! and SWJ Blog

Times of India:
‘To my Dear Obama, our son’, says Gaddafi, defending attack on rebels

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, Weasel Zippers, Guardian and Fausta's Blog

Rex Murphy / National Post:
When crisis strikes the world, Obama falls silent

Discussion: Sense of Events and Wall Street Journal

Eric Schmitt / New York Times:
American Official Warns That Qaddafi May Lash Out With New Terrorist Attacks

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Salon

BBC:
French military jets over Libya

Discussion: The Foundry, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post and Truthdig

Washington Post:
France sends warplanes against Libya after Gaddafi's forces enter Benghazi

Discussion: CBS News, Politics Daily, Questions and Observations, Hot Air and Runnin' Scared

McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Defying U.N., Gadhafi's forces attack Benghazi

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Guardian:
Allied forces launch missiles into Libya

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Global Voices in English, AmSpecBlog, Prairie Weather and Telegraph

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Palin: I could have brought change in '08 — Republicans would have been more successful in the 2008 presidential elections if she was at the top of the ticket, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin suggested Saturday. — Speaking at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi, Palin was asked …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Reaction, Weasel Zippers, Little Green Footballs and Mediaite

Jeff Poor / The Daily Caller:

Low-brow: Bill Maher says Sarah Palin is a ‘dumb twat’ — One might think paying for HBO as a premium cable channel would entitle subscribers to high-quality entertainment selections. But for an hour Friday night, viewers were treated to a little misogynistic locker room humor with the channel's “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs and Hot Air

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Palin rips Obama's energy policy, handling of Middle East — During her first foreign trip in 2011, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) slammed President Obama's green energy policy as a “social engineering” project that hurts the U.S. economy. — She also accused Obama of “dithering” …

Discussion: The Politico, CNN and sisu

indiatoday.intoday.in:
Not yet sure of running for US President in 2012: Sarah Palin

Discussion: The Note, iOwnTheWorld.com and The Gateway Pundit

New York Times:

Japan Finds Tainted Food Up to 90 Miles From Nuclear Sites — TOKYO — As Japan edged forward in its battle to contain the damage at its ravaged nuclear power plants on Saturday, the government said it had found higher than normal levels of radioactivity in spinach and milk at farms …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Kyodo News, World's Only Rational Man, Ecocentric, Firedoglake and Boing Boing

CNN:
Food from farms near nuclear plant radioactive

Discussion: New York Magazine and The Jawa Report

Guardian:
Japan bans some food sales

Discussion: Mercury Rising and Truthdig

Matthew Rothschild / The Progressive Magazine Feed:

Wisconsin Teacher in Apparent Suicide, “Distraught” Over Walker's Cuts — Jeri-Lynn Betts, an early childhood teacher in the Watertown, Wisconsin, school district, died on March 8 of an apparent suicide. — A colleague says she was “very distraught” over Gov. Scott Walker's attacks on public sector workers and public education.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, MAL Contends and Suburban Guerrilla

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

An Advocate Who Scares Republicans — The piñata sat alone at the witness table, facing the members of the House subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer credit. — The Wednesday morning hearing was titled “Oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

Discussion: Paul Krugman, No More Mister Nice Blog, Prairie Weather and DealBook

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

A Clarification — Many readers have said that the War Powers Act does indeed give the president the legal right to initiate a war without Congressional vote. Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I do not doubt that, even though it seems to me that that Act makes a mockery of the separation of powers.

Discussion: Eunomia

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: News Desk, The Talking Dog and Gawker