Midday open thread

Dog is rescued after three weeks at sea. (Reuters)

• In Japan, an effort to plug the leaking of radioactive water into the ocean with concrete failed. Officials are considering using a quick-setting plastic polymer to try and seal the leak. For good news, a dog that was stranded by the tsunami was rescued at sea by the Japanese Coast Guard after three weeks of being lost:

  In a bit of good news, NHK reported that coast guard officers had found a dog on the roof of a house floating in waters off Miyagi prefecture. The dog, which apparently had been stranded for three weeks, was emaciated and gobbled down sausages and cookies after being saved.

  Sausages and cookies?! Hey...whatever he/she wants, and in as much quantity as possible.

• United States Africa Command continued to wind down Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya. U.S. Forces have turned operational control of the war over to NATO (Operation Unified Protector). The U.S. Navy has reduced tonnage deployed for the operation substantially, returning some components of the 6th Fleet to home port in Italy. In Libya, a stalemate of sorts has taken hold. Western leaders are unsure about the ultimate outcome, but insist the bombing campaign has been a success.
• Mitt Romney went to Las Vegas to give a major speech on foreign policy to a Republican group. He even took questions from the audience about it. Instead, all he got was questions about his ObamaCare Massachusetts healthcare plan.
• These aren't good times right now, right? I mean with the recessions, the wars, the uncertainty about the future. Well, 43 years ago tomorrow, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Were he alive, he would be 82 years old. I'm sure he would still have great truths to tell us about out times.
• The civil war in Ivory Coast has become particularly bloody. The New York Times reports a massacre of anywhere from 300 to 1,000 civilians yesterday. Fighters loyal to both the government and the rebels are being blamed. If confirmed, it may be particularly bad news for Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of the recent presidential election. He had held the moral high ground over dictator Laurent Gbagbo, who had done all of the civilian murdering prior to this incident. No word, so far, on the chances of President Sarkozy, who has 1,000 French soldiers on a base planted right in the middle of the capitol, calling on the international community for military intervention. The French have, however,introduced a new UN resolution calling for more sanctions. C'est la vie.
• The Onion on Newt Gingrich:

  "Hell, look at me: I'm a public relations nightmare," said Gingrich, adding that, for many years in the late '90s and early 2000s, his name was basically a punch line. "Remember that whole thing with me divorcing my wife while she was still in the hospital recovering from cancer? For my campaign's sake, I hope people have forgotten about that. But c'mon, it's a pretty bleak political landscape when the presidential campaign of a known philanderer is actually getting off the ground."

  Emphasis mine. For laughs.

• This week's classic movie recommendation is The Woman in the Window(1944) starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett, and directed by Fritz Lang. As you all know, I'm a huge fan of Bennett's early work (the blonde period), but her middle period is just as good. In this film noir thriller, she really shines in the femme fatale role, but EGR really steals the show. Plenty of good nail-biting drama and has all the good elements of a good film noir classic: dames, crime and suspense!

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/h0dM6uUngjg/-Midday-open-thread

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