Thursday, March 17, 2011
Obama reassures: Jap
UN authorizes `all n
Japan plans no more
Karen Dalton - The Lost Voice Of The 1960's
I was listening to some music on last.fm today and a song came on with a voice so haunting and unusual I had to stop what I was doing and see who it was. It was a 1960's song of Karen Dalton who was something of an icon in her heyday of the Greenwich Village scene of the 1960's.
A 2008 NPR story told of how she was one of Bob Dylan's favorite singers.
Dalton could sound like Billie Holiday, and she had the striking beauty of a Walker Evans dustbowl portrait. Bob Dylan called her his favorite singer from the Greenwich Village folk scene of the 1960s.
She never enjoyed much commercial success, but her emotional performances and tragic life story continue to attract new fans. Fifteen years after her death, her music has never been more popular.
Laura Dawlton, in a 2007 Guardian piece, told much about her tragic life. Although others from her genre Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Pete Singer went on to great commercial success she only recorded two albums with the last one being released many years after her death.
Although Dalton was in the right place at the right time, hanging with the right people and boasted a rare talent, she was also self-destructive. She drank heavily, used drugs and had a tendency to disappear on a whim. She played only cover versions, and her decision to not play her own material in an era that belonged to singer-songwriters perhaps also hindered her success. She was uncomfortable performing live, and she also loathed recording - It's So Hard to Tell You Who's Going to Love You the Best was only recorded because Fred Neil fooled her into believing the tape wasn't rolling.
The follow-up, In My Own Time, was recorded at Bearsville studio, near Woodstock in upstate New York, which was set up by Bob Dylans's manager, Albert Grossman. In order to make herself feel more at ease with recording, Dalton returned to Oklahoma to fetch her two teenage children, her dog and, reputedly, her horse, before going to the studio. Producer Harvey Brooks, who had played bass on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, recalls the sessions as fraught. "The fact that she wasn't a writer meant that we really had to create something for her," he says. "It was a lot of work, because her emotional personality had to be dealt with every step of the way. And respected.
In her last years the once beautiful hippie icon was a homeless addict with AIDS on the streets of New York City before her death in 1993.
A rare 1970 video recorded at her cabin in Colorado
A rare recording of "Ribbon Bow"
One of her most haunting tunes.
UN approves no-fly zone over Libya | Top AP Stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and authorize "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi's forces. The vote late Thursday was 10-0 with five abstentions, including Russia and China.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Thursday on a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and authorize "all necessary measures" to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi's forces.
France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said he expected more than one of the council's 15 members to abstain when the council meets at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) to vote, but council diplomats said they did not expect the resolution to be vetoed.
The resolution needs nine "yes" votes and no veto by a permanent member to be adopted.
Russia and China, which have veto power, have expressed doubts about the United Nations and other outside powers using force against Gadhafi, and diplomats said other council nations reacted cautiously including Germany, India, Brazil and South Africa.
Even if all six countries abstained, the resolution would still have the minimum nine "yes" votes.
In an interview broadcast Thursday on Portuguese public broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa, Gadhafi rejected any U.N. threats of action.
"The U.N. Security Council has no mandate," Gadhafi said. "We don't acknowledge their resolutions."
He warned that any military action would be construed as "colonization without any justification" and would have "grave repercussions."
The Arab League has supported the call for a no-fly zone, and Gadhafi said that as a result "it's finished."
The United States joined the resolution's initial supporters — Britain, France and Lebanon — not only in pushing for a speedy vote but also in pressing for action beyond creation of a no-fly zone to protect civilians from air, land and sea attacks by Gadhafi's fighters.
This marked a dramatic about-face by the Obama administration which for weeks hesitated about supporting a no-fly zone, fearing that the United States could get sucked into another war in a Muslim nation.
The text that will be put to a vote would "establish a ban on all flights in the airspace of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help protect civilians," diplomats said. It also would authorize U.N. member states to take "all necessary measures ... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory."
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on France-2 Television that "time is of the essence" and that France would support military action against Gadhafi within a matter of hours if the Security Council approves the resolution.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who flew to New York to press the case for council approval, echoed Fillon in telling reporters that the resolution "must be applied quickly" because of "the urgency on the ground."
Asked whether France would take part in air strikes, he replied: "France is ready, along with others, to put in action the resolution." Juppe added that France was in contact with Britain and Arab nations.
Juppe ruled out any ground action, however.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Tunisia on Thursday that a U.N. no-fly zone over Libya would require action to protect the planes and pilots, "including bombing targets like the Libyan defense systems." She said no ground intervention is being considered.
In Britain, a lawmaker with knowledge of defense matters confirmed that British forces were on stand by for air strikes and could be mobilized as soon as Thursday night. The lawmaker declined to be named because the Defense Ministry has not issued official confirmation.
With Gadhafi's forces intensifying attacks and heading toward opposition-held Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, supporters of the resolution have been pressing for speedy council action.
In a televised speech Thursday night, Gadhafi vowed to launch a final assault on Benghazi and crush the rebels.
Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, called the situation "very worrying" and said the EU was looking to the U.N. Security Council before making further decisions. "We have always said all along that we are planning for all options," he said.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose government had expressed misgivings about a no-fly zone, proposed that the council vote first on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Libya.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters a majority of council members did not support a separate cease-fire resolution, but the council added a new demand in the final draft for an immediate cease-fire "and a complete end to violence and all attacks against, and abuses of, civilians."
The proposed resolution also call for stronger enforcement of the arms embargo, adds names of individuals, companies and other entities to the list of those subject to travel bans and asset freezes, and require all countries to ban Libyan flights from landing, taking off or overflying their country.
It also demands that Libya ensure the "rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance" and asks U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish an eight-member panel of experts to assist the Security Council committee in monitoring sanctions.
France and Britain failed to win support for a no-fly zone during a two-day meeting of Group of Eight foreign ministers in Paris on Tuesday and the G-8's final communique did not mention a flight ban, leaving any action to the Security Council.
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Associated Press Writers Anita Snow at the United Nations and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.
FAA, Airlines Track
FAA, Airlines Track Japan Radiation Plume Over Pacific Ocean - Businessweek
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. aviation regulators and airline meteorologists are monitoring the radiation plume drifting northeast from Japan’s damaged nuclear reactors to ensure it doesn’t threaten commercial jet routes.
The Federal Aviation Administration hasn’t decided whether any action is needed beyond tracking the cloud, a spokeswoman, Laura Brown, said today in a telephone interview. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines Inc. said their flights aren’t going near any radioactive contamination.
“There’s no problem in avoiding anything that is currently there,” said Tim Smith, a spokesman for AMR Corp.’s American in Fort Worth, Texas. “We’re already flying in from west of this concern area anyway.”