The Commentariat -- March 20

Paul Krugman really has had it with the self-proclaimed "oracle of wisdom," Alan Greenspan: "... he’s the man who presided over an economy careening to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression — and who saw no evil, heard no evil, refused to do anything about subprime, insisted that derivatives made the financial system more stable, denied not only that there was a national housing bubble but that such a bubble was even possible. If he wants to redeem himself through hard and serious reflection about how he got it so wrong, fine — and I’d be interested in listening. If he thinks he can still lecture us from his pedestal of wisdom, he’s wasting our time."

President Obama speaks about human rights in Rio de Janeiro:

     ... Thanks to the Uptake, the only outlet I found that had the video. You can donate to them here. I'll always love those kids for covering the Franken-Coleman recount.

Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, on the Libyan effort:

Tom Friedman: "In putting off big policy decisions, we are brazenly taunting two unforgiving forces: the market and Mother Nature.... President Obama has the right convictions on all these issues, but he has not shown the courage of his convictions. The Republicans have just gone nuts.... The world is caught in a dangerous feedback loop — higher oil prices and climate disruptions lead to higher food prices, higher food prices lead to more instability, more instability leads to higher oil prices."

In a Washington Post op-ed, David Rothkopf, an international policy expert who has worked for both Republicans & Democrats, assesses how President Obama exercises foreign policy. CW: you could argue with Rothkopf's thesis, & even some of his statements of fact seem to differ with published reports, but his observations are at least food for thought.

The Obamas & Brazilian President Dilma Vana Rousseff observe the Brazilian honor guard during an arrival ceremony in Brasilia. Reuters picture.Glenn Thrush of Politico: "President Barack Obama ... juggled the pageantry and substance attendant to his first South American visit with urgent phone calls and top-level national security consultations about a pending joint aerial assault against Libya."

Jordan Fabian of The Hill: Michael Moore rips President Obama in a series of tweets deriding the no-fly zone policy against Libya.

Nicholas Kristof on what we could learn about social responsibility from the Japanese.

Joe Nocera of the New York Times praises Elizabeth Warren, whom Repubicans on a House subcommittee treated as "a piñata" at a recent hearing. "Subprime mortgages? Too-big-to-fail banks? Unregulated derivatives? No problem! With the exception of their bête noire, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Republicans act as if nothing needs to be done to prevent another crisis. Indeed, they act as if the crisis never happened."

** Karen Garcia on the New York Times' paywall:

If you are a New York Times subscriber, registered user or commenter, the richest man on the planet owns a piece of you. And if you plan on forking over between $185 and $300 a year in order to scale the digital edition's upcoming paywall, you’ll be contributing even more to the vast fortune of one Carlos Slim.

     CW: by rights, stories & opinion pieces on the Times' paywall -- already in effect in Canada -- should fall under my Infotainment section, but turning the "paper of record" into an exclusive rag is a serious issue for those of us who care about access to news & opinion. So, at least for now, I'm keeping stories about the Times inaccessibility front & center.

Jim Fallows remembers Warren Christopher.

Michael Facone of ABC News: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to [the dedication of] ‘Joe Biden’ Station [in Wilmington, Delaware]: Federal Railroad Officials Abandon Stranded Train."

Local News

Live Free or Die Smoking. Think Progress: "In a flurry of legislative activity this week, the New Hampshire House approved a tax cut on cigarettes even while cutting funding for education, and health care. The ten cent tax cut bucks a national trend of raising taxes on tobacco... and, according to multiple studies, could lead to a 6.6 percent increase in respiratory cancer deaths."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, deplored the broad scope of the U.S.-European bombing campaign in Libya and said Sunday that he would call a league meeting to reconsider Arab approval of the Western military intervention." ...

... Al Jazeera: "Loud explosions have rocked the Libyan capital, Tripoli, a day after international forces launched an operation to enforce a no-fly zone over the North African country. Anti-aircraft tracer fire erupted in Tripoli late on Sunday, indicating a second wave of incoming jets aimed at targets belonging to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Britain's ministry of defence said one of its submarines had again fired guided Tomahawk missiles on Libyan air defence systems on Sunday." ...

... New York Times: "A day after American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader delivered a fresh and defiant tirade on Sunday, pledging retaliation and saying his forces would fight a long war to victory." Story has been updated: "American and European forces intensified their barrage of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces by air and sea on Sunday, a day after an initial American cruise missile barrage badly damaged Libyan air defenses, military officials said."  ...

... Washington Post: "After fierce street battles [in Benghazi, Libya], after barrages of artillery and rockets pounding this rebel stronghold and cradle of Libya’s populist uprising, Gaddafi’s troops withdrew in the afternoon."

New York Times: "Yemen’s president fired his cabinet on Sunday, while antigovernment demonstrations here in the capital grew in number and momentum two days after government-directed forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least 45 people and wounding more than 200."

New York Times: "Protesters set fire to the ruling Baath Party’s headquarters and other government buildings in the southern city of Dara’a on Sunday, as protesters rallied and clashed with the police for a third straight day, witnesses said. Police officers fired live ammunition into the crowds, killing at least one and wounding scores of others, witnesses said. But the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, also made some conciliatory gestures...."

New York Times: "Egyptian voters overwhelming approved a referendum on constitutional changes that will usher in rapid elections, with the results announced Sunday underscoring the strength of established political organizations and the weakness of the nascent liberal groups.... The Muslim Brotherhood and remnant elements of the National Democratic Party, which dominated Egyptian politics for decades, were the main supporters of the referendum. They said their position was to insure the swift return to civilian rule."

New York Times: "AT&T announced on Sunday that it agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom, in a $39 billion deal that will reshape the cellular telephone industry. The merger — one of the largest since the onset of the financial crisis — would combine the second and fourth largest cellular carriers in the nation...."

New York Times: "More than 20,000 people marched Saturday in the southern Syrian town of Dara’a in funerals for protesters killed in demonstrations the day before, and the police used truncheons and tear gas to disperse the mourners. Protests broke out in four [Syrian] cities on Friday, a rare event in a police state tha brutally represses dissent. At the largest one, a march of several thousand people in Dara’a, a police crackdown killed six people."

Reuters: "Japan restored power to a crippled nuclear reactor on Sunday in its race to avert disaster at a plant wrecked by an earthquake and tsunami that are estimated to have killed more than 15,000 people in one prefecture alone. Three hundred engineers have been struggling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima plant...." With video.

AP: "The U.S. ambassador to Mexico has resigned after the publication of U.S. diplomatic cables that criticized that government’s anti-drug fight, infuriating the Mexican president. Carlos Pascual appears to be the first senior U.S. diplomat to lose his job because of the WikiLeaks revelations. He had been stationed in Mexico for 19 months. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement Saturday evening that she had accepted Pascual’s resignation 'with great regret.'... Analysts say the opinions expressed by Pascual and other U.S. diplomats in the classified documents aren’t surprising.... But the Mexican government clearly felt exposed upon publication of the criticism by a close ally, which became a media sensation."

CNN: "Hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean was recovering Sunday after he was shot in the hand, his publicist said. Spokeswoman Cindy Tanenbaum said Jean, who was in Haiti, was shot in Port-au-Prince on Saturday -- on the eve of the country's presidential runoff vote." Jean had planned to run for president, but Haitian officials ruled that he did not meet the residency requirements.