memeorandum: A Clarification — Many readers have said that the War Powers … (Andrew Sullivan/The Daily Dish)

8:35 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: Left Coast Rebel, Daily Kos, Biased BBC, Scared Monkeys, Fox Nation and Weasel Zippers

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

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

New York Times:

U.S. Missiles Strike Libyan Air-Defense Targets — The United States Navy destroyer Barry firing a Tomahawk missile from the Mediterranean Sea on Saturday. The Pentagon said more than 100 missiles were targeted at Libya's air-defense systems. — TRIPOLI, Libya — American and European forces began …

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

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

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Michael Moore rips Obama over Libya — Anti-war filmmaker Michael Moore tore into President Obama for taking military action in Libya on Saturday. — Moore, a frequent critic of President Bush for launching the Iraq War, unleashed a string on tweets comparing the U.S. military's mission …

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

Discussion: BBC, Hot Air and Washington Post

USA Today:
Obama: U.S. and ‘broad coalition’ are acting against Gadhafi

Discussion: CNN, TalkLeft and Doug Ross

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

BBC:
French military jets over Libya

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

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

Discussion: The Jawa Report

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

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: Weasel Zippers, NewsBusters.org blogs and Hot Air

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

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

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Palin rips Obama's energy policy, handling of Middle East

Discussion: The Politico, CNN and sisu

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

Eric Schmitt / New York Times:

American Official Warns That Qaddafi May Lash Out With New Terrorist Attacks — The United States is bracing for possible Libyan-backed terrorist attacks, President Obama's top counterterrorism official said on Friday. — The official, John O. Brennan, said that the military attacks …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Salon

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
Warren Christopher, 1925-2011 — Let me break into the sequence …

Discussion: News Desk, The Talking Dog and Gawker

NPR: Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher Dies

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: The Jawa Report and New York Magazine

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, The Jawa Report, MAL Contends and Suburban Guerrilla

Barry Brook / BraveNewClimate:

Fukushima nuclear accident: Saturday 19 March summary — Last Saturday the the crisis level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was rapidly on the rise. Hydrogen explosions, cracks in the wetwell torus and fires in a shutdown unit's building — it seemed the sequence of new problems would never end.

Discussion: Kyodo News, World Nuclear News, World's Only Rational Man, Next Big Future and protein wisdom

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

Tony Capaccio / Bloomberg:

U.S., Coalition Attack Libya Air-Defense Systems With ‘Operation Odyssey’ — U.S. and coalition vessels and aircrafts attacked Libya's air defense systems in the opening phase of “Odyssey Dawn” the international operation to establish a no-fly zone, military officials said today.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, iOwnTheWorld.com and The Raw Story