Weekend Roundup (11-12 Mar)

• On Sunday, at least 36 people have been killed and 92 injured in three car bomb attacks in the Baghdad. The near simultaneous blasts reportedly targeted two markets in the capital's Shia district of Sadr City. As I'm typing this out, the numbers of the dead and wounded are increasing. [BBC]
  
  
• Gunmen killed the director of Iraq's state television channel and his driver Saturday, the second slaying this month of a figure who shapes broadcast news coverage of the country's sectarian strife. [LATimes]
  
  
• Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold (on ABC's This Week Sunday news show) will introduce a resolution to censure President Bush for approving domestic wiretaps on American citizens without first seeking a legally required court order. From the ABC news article:
  

  [I]n a copy of the censure resolution obtained by ABC News, Feingold asserts the president, "repeatedly misled the public prior to the public disclosure of the National Security Agency surveillance program by indicating his administration was relying on court orders to wiretap suspected terrorists inside the United States."
  
  "This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors," said Feingold, D-Wis., a three-term senator and potential presidential contender.

  Check out the video and full transcript of Feingold's conversation with George Stephanopoulos over at ThinkProgress.
  
  
• Let the sabre rattlin' continue: Iran said Sunday it has rejected a Russian proposal to enrich uranium on its behalf, closing the door on an option that offered a possible diplomatic solution to international concerns over Tehran's nuclear program. The decision "destroys the last and real possibility of a compromise," said Konstantin Kosachyov, who chairs the international affairs committee of the Russian Duma. [WaPo]
  
  
• Israel's right-wing Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out joining interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a future government. Elections will take place on March 28, and Olmert's Kadima Party (formerly headed by Ariel Sharon) is expected to win. [Reuters]
  
  
• This isn't too surprising: Many federal agencies fall far short of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, repeatedly failing to meet reporting deadlines while citizens wait ever longer for document. [AP/Star Tribune]
  
  
• In sustainable vehicle/energy news (courtesy of the weekly wrap-up by Green Car Congress' Mike Millikin over at the WorldChanging blog), hybrid sales in the US in February 2006 were up 43.8% from same period the year before and increased their market share to 1.26% from 1.19%. And markets for biofuels, photovoltaics, wind energy, and fuel cells will expand four-fold in the next decade, growing from $40 billion in global revenues in 2005 to $167 billion by 2015.
  
  
• Facade Friend Glenn Fleishman points us to articles in the Seattle Times and Seattle P-I newspapers about the Washington State Board of Pharmacy considering policy that would outline if and when pharmacists could refuse to fill prescriptions due to moral, religious or ethical objections. From the P-I:
  

  The discussion is clearly aimed at clarifying whether pharmacists can turn away prescriptions for Plan B, the emergency contraceptive that has caused controversy nationwide, although such a conscience clause could pertain to other areas as well.

  Pharmacists should have the right to decline work that conflicts with their beliefs as long as they respect the patient, said Rod Shafer, executive director of the Washington State Pharmacy Association, a professional organization for pharmacists.

  "We are not dispensing machines," Shafer said. "We are professionals who have as many rights as anybody else.

  Check out Glenn's thought-provoking post on the obligations of pharmacists (or anyone) protesting what they see as wrong in a civil society.
  
  
• No, this headline--Man Wins "Rock, Paper, Scissors" Contest--does not come from The Onion. It's from HappyNews.com (and reported by the Associated Press)
  
  
• Battlestar Galactica ended its current season with some very interesting plot turns, and Mrs. F is already cranky that it won't be back with new episodes until next October. If you've not seen it, get thee to Netflix and rent the first two seasons--it's sci-fi at its best, with a concentration on political/social/religious musings that mirror contemporary conversations (mixed in with the occasional spaceship exploding). Also in TV land, a little HBO show returns from a long vacation tonight "with a vengeance" (according to Tom Shales in the WaPo). Oh, if only Tony and the gang would make themselves available to iTunes... Ah well, I'll content myself with watching West Wing tonight on our sharecropper cable.
  
  
• Finally, for those of you who haven't seen this yet (such as Facade Friends Ad-Rov and J-Co), here's the Natalie Portman SNL rap video from last weekend (in Flash at NBC, or Quicktime/WinMedia from Crooks and Liars). Make sure all the youngins are out of the room...