This and That for March 15, 2011

Barbour Cuts Press Aide After Japan Joke

Mississippi Governor and 2012 presidential hopeful Haley Barbour accepted the resignation of his press secretary, Dan Turner, Monday after reporters discovered he included a joke about Japan in his daily press clippings. The joke, which said Otis Reddings' "The Dock of the Bay" was not popular in Japan now, was one of several off-color remarks: Others made fun of Janet Reno and the Cambodian genocide. Turner can commiserate with Gilbert Gottfried, who was dropped as Aflac's spokesman after making several Japan jokes on Twitter.                                                                                                               Read it at Politico

Muammar Gaddafi Nears Benghazi

Just one city now stands between Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi's troops and the rebel capital Benghazi. On Monday, Libyan fighter jets began attacking Ajdabiya—what Al Jazeera calls their "last line of defense" before Bengazi. Should Gaddafi's forces advance and capture the city, they'll have access to roads to surround Benghazi and cut off the rebels' supply lines with Egypt. Germany and Russia, meanwhile, raised questions at the UN about a no-fly zone that make it seem increasingly unlikely. A spokesman for the Libyan rebels visiting Paris told European leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "We want a no-fly zone, we want tactical strikes against those tanks and rockets that are being used against us and we want a strike against Gaddafi's compound."                                                                             Read on Al Jazeera

NRA Passes On Meeting With Obama


Looks like the National Rifle Association is not ready to join hands with the anti-gun lobby just yet, despite what the White House might think. In an editorial in a Tucson newspaper Sunday, President Obama called gun-control lobbyists and the NRA to begin "a new discussion" to regulate guns, but the NRA said Monday they will be attending no such meeting. "Why should I or the NRA go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?" said the NRA's longtime Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre. Justice Department officials will meet with gun-control advocates starting on Tuesday and over the next few weeks to discuss changes in policy, and White House officials had indicated they had expected the NRA would be there as well.                     Read it at The New York Times

Japan Warns: Stay Inside to Avoid Radiation


Could the manmade disaster surpass the natural one? Experts are calling the Japanese nuclear crisis the worst since Chernobyl after a third explosion and a fire at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Monday. Radiation levels near one reactor were 400 times the normal amount a human should experience in a year. Japan's government has told people living within 20 miles of the plant to stay indoors, and the Tokyo metropolitan government has said it has detected radiation levels 20 times above normal over the city. So far, winds have blown most of the radiation out to sea. As the world watches the disaster unfold, Rory Kennedy, who directed Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable, and Keven McAlester remind us that America's plants are even more vulnerable than the ones in Japan.                                       Read it at The Daily Beast

U.S. Tensions Rise with Saudi Arabia

Could Saudi Arabia's decision to send 2,000 troops to Bahrain hurt its relations with the United States? Things are already tense between the historically close countries, as Saudi Arabia is annoyed at the way the United States dropped support for Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. "They're not in a mode for listening," a U.S. official says of communications with Saudi Arabia. Apparently, Saudi Arabia's King Abdulllah told President Obama he should support Mubarak, even if Mubarak began killing protesters. Obama ignored his advice. "They've taken it personally," a source tells The New York Times, "because they question what we'd do if they are next."                                                                                            Read it at The New York Times


Internet Explorer Adds Do-Not-Track Tool
Will be released Tuesday.

Gang-Rape Lawyer Seeks Gag Order
Would block media from Cleveland, Texas.

Hugo Chavez: Say No to Implants
Tells Venezuelan women to turn down breast implants.

Literature's New Darling from Belgrade
Téa Obreht is just 25.

Three-Year-Old Is UK's 'Youngest Alcoholic'
Was treated in hospital for addiction.