memeorandum: Nuclear plant's power restoration closer (CNN)

12:40 PM 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, The Atlantic Online, American Power, JustOneMinute, Pundit & Pundette, The Cable and NewsBusters.org blogs

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Imperial President — The president's speech was disturbingly empty.

Discussion: New York Times, Foreign Policy, Eunomia, democracyarsenal.org, Guardian and Gawker

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

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

Times of India:

‘To my Dear Obama, our son’, says Gaddafi, defending attack on rebels — CAIRO: Calling Barack Obama as “our son”, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sent a message to the US President defending his decision to attack the rebels fighting to overthrow him. — Gaddafi (68) also wrote a letter …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Guardian

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: BBC, The Moderate Voice and National Review

CNN:
French fighter jets deployed over Libya

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Next Big Future

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

Discussion: The Hill

CNN:

Nuclear plant's power restoration closer — Tokyo (CNN) — Efforts accelerated Saturday to restore power to nuclear reactors' cooling systems at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, with government and power company officials citing a need to increase the limit of permissible radiation exposure …

Discussion: New York Magazine and The Jawa Report

New York Times:

Japan Confirms High Radiation in Spinach and Milk Near Nuclear Plant — TOKYO — The government said on Saturday that they had found levels of radioactive materials above safe limits in spinach and milk in Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, the first confirmation by officials …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, Ecocentric, Boing Boing, Kyodo News and ProPublica

Kate Sheppard / MoJo Articles:
How Bad Could Japan's Nuclear Crisis Get?

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

Daily Mail:
The moment nuclear plant chief WEPT as Japanese finally admit that radiation leak is serious enough to kill people

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

CNN:

Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher dies — Washington (CNN) — Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died Friday from complications of kidney and bladder cancer, his family said. He was 85. — As America's chief diplomat for four years during President Bill Clinton's administration …

Discussion: New York Magazine

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

Robert D. Hershey Jr / New York Times:
Warren Christopher, Ex-Secretary of State, Dies at 85

Discussion: Althouse, Mediaite, Outside the Beltway and Guardian

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

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

Yahoo! News:
‘Supermoon’ Rises: Biggest Full Moon in 18 Years Occurs Saturday Night

Discussion: The Raw Story and Outside the Beltway

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

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

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

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 …

Discussion: The Mahablog

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