Last Call

Tonight's lesson:  misdirection.

In his press briefing earlier this afternoon, U.S. Vice Adm. Bill Gortney emphasized that the international coalition's air campaign is not deisgned to target Gadhafi, but is limited to enforcing a no-fly zone and preventing Gadhafi's forces from further pressing rebel positions.


"We are not going after Gadhafi," Gortney said at the Pentagon. "Regime forces are more pressed and less free to maneuver."

One hour later:

AS fresh blasts rock Tripoli and smoke rises near Muammar Gaddafi's residence, Libya has announced an immediate new ceasefire - the second in a matter of days. 

Misdirection!



All the cool kids are doing it. After all, the Pentagon wasn't going after him. We didn't say anything about the other nations in the coalition, now did we.

Attention Useful Idiots

The Republican Party needs YOU to keep attacking President Obama on Libya to continue to demoralize the left.  Step 1, GOP warpig hypocrisy:

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Sunday called on President Barack Obama to explain the U.S. mission in Libya and how his administration intends to achieve its goals.

“The president is the commander-in-chief. But the administration has a responsibility to define for the American people, the Congress and our troops, what the mission in Libya is,” Boehner, a Republican, said in a statement.

“Before any further military commitments are made, the administration must do a better job of communicating to the American people and to Congress about our mission in Libya and how it will be achieved,” he said.

Right.  The same Orange Julius that asked no questions about Bush's years in Iraq and said this about our troops there:

"Long term, the investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop Al Qaeda here, if we’re able to stabilize the Middle East. It’s not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids," he said.

Yeah, the thousands of our troops who died in Iraq?  Small price to pay in a war that dragged on for years, redefined the term "mission creep" and is STILL GOING ON.  But even though our mission in Libya has been so far limited to a bunch of cruise missiles, OJ wants to know what our mission is.  Iraq needed no explanation because SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO OUR GENERALS.

Moonie Times today:  "Obama's Illegal War"

With Thursday’s passage of United Natons Security Council resolution 1973, the United States is set to go to war against Libya. Removing Moammar Gadhafi from power would probably advance the cause of freedom, but the United Nations has no legal authority to take a step of this magnitude. By bowing to the will of the U.N. Security Council, President Obama is diluting the sovereign power of the United States.

Same Moonie Times six months ago:

President Obama was granted an opportunity to give a victory speech about Iraq on Tuesday, courtesy of George W. Bush. He mentioned President Bush in passing, essentially damning him with faint praise. If Mr. Bush had followed Mr. Obama’s strategic recommendations in 2007, the war in Iraq would have been lost years ago.

The Obama haters are dragging up all the same arguments they laughed at eight years ago.  The Useful Idiots on the left are going right along with the script, too.  So go ahead and watch the TV and blame Obama, guys...and watch the Republicans finish the country off in 2012.  The right is already attacking Obama as "having no exit strategy" in Libya, which coming from any Bush supporter is laughable.  But hey, let's continue to give these assholes cover, eh?

Or you know, you guys could just go The Full Nader.

Globe's A-Poppin

With more Yemeni government officials resigning in protest over the bloody crackdown in Sanaa on Friday, things are getting very serious and complicated in the Gulf states.

Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Alsaidi has resigned, the latest high-ranking member of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government to quit in protest against the killing of dozens of demonstrators.

Snipers killed up to 42 protesters among crowds that flocked to a sit-in at Sanaa University after Friday prayers. The opposition says at least seven snipers were caught carrying government identity cards, a charge the government has denied.

"Mr. Alsaidi has sent his resignation to the president's office and the Foreign Ministry," a Yemeni Foreign Ministry official said on Sunday, and added that it was in protest at the Friday violence.

Defying a crackdown after the government called a state of emergency, the opposition has vowed to keep up its pressure to end Saleh's 32-year rule in the poor Arabian Peninsula state, a neighbor of Saudi Arabia and a U.S. ally against al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, a bit to the northeast of Yemen, protests and crackdowns in Syria are underway.

Crowds set fire to the headquarters of the ruling Baath Party in the Syrian city of Deraa Sunday, residents said, as the wave of unrest in the Arab world shook even one of its most authoritarian states.

The demonstrators also set ablaze the main courts complex and two phone company branches. One of the firms, Syriatel, is owned by President Bashar al-Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf.

"They burned the symbols of oppression and corruption," an activist said. "The banks nearby were not touched."

Thousands rallied to demand an end to 48 years of emergency law in the southern city, on the third consecutive day of protests emerging as the biggest ever challenge to Syria's ruling party since it seized power nearly half a century ago.

"No, no to emergency law. We are a people infatuated with freedom," marchers chanted, despite the arrival in Deraa of a government delegation to pay condolences to relatives of victims killed by security forces in demonstrations there this week.

Arab rulers are falling apart, and the people rising up are treating both US intervention (that gave them the status quo of repressive, authoritarian rule) and Islamist violence (which they have seen lead to death and destruction in both Sunni and Shi'a states) as the enemy.

It's a pretty dangerous situation from Tunisia all the way over to Pakistan and the war in Libya, crackdowns in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Iran aren't helping, and neither is the quasi-military coup in Egypt.  We're rapidly reaching a fully out-of-control situation here.

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 13

Finally, Japanese nuclear officials and TEPCO workers are starting to get some of the less damaged reactors under control, and some of the more critical ones stabilized at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Workers began to see some success in their battle to cool down reactors at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant Sunday, but Japanese officials said they may need to release additional radioactive gas into the air.

The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said electricity was being supplied to a switchboard in reactor No. 2.

But officials said they were monitoring reactor No. 3 to determine whether to release gas to reduce mounting pressure in the containment vessel -- the steel and concrete shell that insulates radioactive material inside.

Power company officials said pressure was higher than previous readings -- but stable -- Sunday afternoon. And Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the pressure increase did not require "an immediate release of the air at this moment."

Still, "even in the best scenario, there will be a lot of bumps ahead," Edano told reporters as he assessed the situation at the plant in a briefing Sunday.

There's a long way to go before the plant is under control, much less to the point where it can be buried under sand and concrete, much less to the point where the plant is salvageable in any fashion.  But finally people are making progress and the immediate danger is under control...for now.

But how much radiation has been released, and will continue to be released over the next several days and weeks, if not months?  It's a grim situation even without the earthquake and tsunami ravaged country being critically short on basics.  The missing/dead numbers have topped 20,000 total at this point in northern Japan, and the situation is getting worse by the hour as Japan is a country that relies heavily on imports for food and other staples.  Any damage to infrastructure, transport, power and production capabilities means there's no slack to absorb the disruption shock.

The country will continue to reel for quite some time.

All Oiled Up, Bend Over...Again

It's baaaaaack!

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating reports of a potentially massive oil sheen about 20 miles north of the site of last April's Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.

A helicopter crew and pollution investigators have been dispatched to Main Pass Block 41 in response to two calls to the National Response Center, the federal point of contact for reporting oil and chemical spills, said Paul Barnard, an operations controller for Coast Guard Sector New Orleans.

The first caller, around 11 a.m., described a sheen of about a half-mile long and a half-mile wide, he said.
About two hours later, another caller reported a much larger sheen -- about 100 miles long -- originating in the same area and spreading west to Cocodrie on Terrebonne Bay, Barnard said.

"We haven't been able to verify that, and it would be very unlikely for an individual to be able to observe a 100-mile long sheen," he said, adding inspection teams were en route around 3 p.m. to the site.

Eileen Angelico of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which oversees offshore oil and natural gas production, said late Saturday afternoon that her agency was awaiting Coast Guard confirmation of the nature of the sheen. The bureau had not received word from any operators in the gulf of a spill, she said.

What, you thought just because this was out of the news that this problem was solved too?  If this turns out to be more leakage from the Deepwater Horizon site or even an all new oil spill right now, all hell is going to break loose on Monday in the markets.  A 100-mile swath of oil isn't something you can just hide, folks.

This year just keeps getting better.  I'm really hoping this is nothing more than some sort of algae or silt or something not oil, otherwise all these crises are really getting exhausting.

Meanwhile In Port-au-Prince...

Haiti goes to the polls today to select a President as the country is still dealing with the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake.

Haitians will choose between a former first lady and a popular musician Sunday in a pivotal presidential runoff vote for a nation still recovering from a devastating earthquake and political turmoil.


Former law professor and first lady Mirlande Manigat will face singer Michel Martelly in the second round of presidential elections.

Final results of the runoff will be released on April 16, according to officials.

Martelly made a name for himself as a flamboyant carnival musician who sometimes ripped his clothes off onstage.

In early December, the electoral council announced that Manigat had won but lacked the majority of votes needed for an outright victory. Initial results put her in a runoff with government-backed candidate, Jude Celestin.

Haitians responded by charging fraud and burning cars, tires and Celestin's campaign headquarters in Port-au-Prince.

The third-place candidate, Martelly, claimed he had won more votes than Celestin and a review of results by an Organization of American States team supported that contention.

The review suggested that Martelly earned a spot in the runoff.

Oh yes, and former President Aristide is floating around the country too, showing up just days before the runoff, swearing he's not going to get back into politics, either...but I'm sure he'll offer his services as an advisor to Sunday's winner, too.

Meanwhile Haiti continues to languish in squalor as thousands face a massive cholera epidemic that could end up infecting some 750,000 plus people this year...almost ten percent of the population of the country infected by a preventable disease.  Nobody seems to care much, either...and if they do, they're certainly not doing very much about it.

Last Call

And so, exactly eight years after the assault on Iraq began, the US has begun its...you know I'm not exactly sure how many wars we're up to now, anyway. 

Explosions and anti-aircraft fire thundered in the skies above Tripoli early Sunday, but it was not clear whether they resulted from another round of cruise missile attacks by allies determined to stop Moammar Gadhafi's offensive against Libyan opposition forces.


CNN's Nic Robertson witnessed the development a few hours after nearly 1,000 people gathered at Gadhafi's palace in the capital. The crowd chanted, waved flags and shot off fireworks in support of the government.

A defiant Gadhafi said Libya will fight back against undeserved "naked aggression." His military claimed nearly 50 women, children and clerics were killed in Saturday evening's attacks.

American, French and British military forces, convinced that Gadhafi was not adhering to a United Nations-mandated cease-fire, hammered Libyan military positions with missiles and fighter jets in the first phase of an operation that will include enforcement of a no-fly zone.

God, it's exactly the same stuff as eight years ago, almost word for word.   Saddam Qaddafi is using human shields, Saddam Qaddafi is going to unleash terrorist attacks on us with mustard gas, Saddam Qaddafi claims coalition airstrikes killed dozens...

So eight years from now, when we still have peacekeeping troops in Libya, and STILL have troops in Iraq, who will we be hitting with cruise missiles on March 19, 2019?

Yeesh.

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 12

The real problem with Japan right now is again, lack of food, water, and power/heat to hundreds of thousands.  The radiation from Fukushima Daiichi is now making things much, much worse.

As workers scrambled to curb a nuclear crisis Sunday, the Japanese government considered halting the sale of food from farms near the Fukushima plant after abnormally high levels of radiation were found in milk and spinach.


Very small amounts -- far below the level of concern -- of radioactive iodine were also detected in tap water in Tokyo and most prefectures near the Fukushima Daiichi plant damaged by last week's monster earthquake and tsunami.

Six members of the emergency crew at the plant have been exposed to more than 100 millisieverts of radiation per hour, the equivalent of getting 10 chest X-rays per hour, plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company said.

The utility said the workers were exposed when trying to restore electricity to the stricken reactors in hopes of using the cooling systems again.

Tokyo Electric had raised the exposure level for emergency workers from its previous standard of 100 millisieverts per hour to 250 millisieverts.

Yeah see, irradiated food + limited food supply + no power to preserve food + wiped out transportation infrastructure to move in new food + winter temps = pretty much nightmare time.   From a large-scale logistics point of view, this is about as bad as it gets.  It would almost be darkly humorous if it wasn't so absolutely catastrophic.

To The Shores Of Tripoli, Part 5

Insert "French Military Victory" jokes here.

French fighter jets deployed over Libya fired at a military vehicle on Saturday, the country's first strike against Moammar Gadhafi's military forces who earlier attacked the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

The French Defense Ministry, which confirmed the strike, said its attack aircraft being used to take out tanks and artillery have deemed Benghazi and the surrounding area an "exclusion zone."

The French are using surveillance aircraft and two frigates in the operation to protect the civilian population. The aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle is soon going to be en route from Toulon.

"Our air force will oppose any aggression by Colonel Gadhafi against the population of Benghazi," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after an international, top-level meeting in Paris over the Libyan crisis.

"As of now, our aircraft are preventing planes from attacking the town," he said, calling the intervention a "grave decision."

"As of now, our aircraft are prepared to intervene against tanks, armored vehicles threatening unarmed civilians."

The international show of force is much-welcomed by besieged rebel forces who have called for backup to help them stave off a government offensive against their positions in Benghazi and other rebel-held enclaves. An opposition spokesman in Benghazi said Gadhafi forces that assaulted the city earlier Saturday are now positioned outside the town. However the forces are preparing for more attacks.

Sarkozy said Gadhafi still has time to stop its activities and as of Friday, France, Britain, the United States and Arab League nations passed along a warning for Gadhafi to stop his operations immediately.

But "Gadhafi has totally ignored the warning" and "in the last few hours his forces have stepped up their deadly offenses," Sarkozy said.

Well, it was the French who wanted this no-fly zone the most, and they're pretty much right across the Mediterranean from Libya.  Kinda of nice for the US not to be leading with our faces here, too.  We'll see how this turns out as the bombs start falling in Benghazi.

Needless to say, it's going to take a bit longer for Canada, Sweden, Britain, and other countries to bring their forces to bear, so the French are leading the way.

I fear however it will be a long and bloody road, just like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Midwest Has Gone Mad

Power-drunk Republicans at the state level have gone insane in the Midwest, from Ohio's "heartbeat" abortion bill that would effectively ban all abortions in the state to Wisconsin's union-busting, to the virtual dictatorship of Michigan's governor, we add Minnesota Republicans wanting to make it illegal for anyone on state assistance to have more than $20 in cash.

No, really.

Minnesota Republicans are pushing legislation that would make it a crime for people on public assistance to have more $20 in cash in their pockets any given month. This represents a change from their initial proposal, which banned them from having any money at all.


On March 15, Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee testified in front of the House Health and Human Services Reform Committee on House File 171. Buechner told committee members, “We would like to address the provision that makes it illegal for MFIP [one of Minnesota’s welfare programs] families to withdraw cash from the cash portion of the MFIP grant – and in fact, appears to make it illegal for MFIP families to have any type of money at all in their pockets. How do you expect people to take care of business like paying bills such as lights, gas, water, trash and phone?”

Well of course the answer to that is "They shouldn't be poor."  If you can afford to have more than $20 in cash on you, then you certainly don't need state assistance.  You're not really poor, you're a Welfare Queen driving the Caddy or a drug pusher or a pimp or a criminal.  Besides, if we make it a crime to have cash while poor, maybe you'll simply stop being poor and get a job and a bank account and a debit card like the rest of us, right?

Of course, the real reason is that Minnesota Republicans are so terrified of an America with a black President and their kids speaking Spanish, dating that Hmong kid down the street, or watching two boys kiss on Glee that they will do anything to permanently disenfranchise traditional Democratic voters:  minorities, union workers, state and local government employees, and the LGBT community.

They have to annihilate their political power, making anyone not like them so miserable that they beg for mercy, and that's when they turn the blade 90 degrees clockwise and push harder.  And while most of America fights over the scraps from the table of our corporate lords, they eat all they can and then some.  And when there's nothing left, they'll eat us.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Both pro-Qaddafi and rebel forces are facing off in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi as civilians flee in droves from the battlefield.
• A Wisconsin judge has issued a temporary stay of Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union law, agreeing that Republicans may have violated the state's open meetings law.
• President Obama vows that America's role in enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya will be strictly limited, but critics say US troops will soon be on the ground.
• Japanese manufacturers like Sony and Toyota are facing long-term supply disruptions for parts and products, which will have global consequences.
• After a decade of controversy and fears of censorship, the porn industry has finally gotten approval for the .XXX domain on the internet.

Last Call

At this point, Qaddafi has achieved some sort of self-mockery dictator zen.

The United States accused Muammar Gaddafi of defying international demands for an immediate ceasefire, and France's U.N. envoy predicted military action within hours of an international meeting on Libya on Saturday.

A unilateral ceasefire declared on Friday by the Libyan government appeared to have done little to convince outside powers to hold off on plans for air strikes to force an end to an increasingly bloody civil war.

Residents in the rebel-held western city of Misrata said they faced heavy bombardment on Friday -- a charge the government denied -- while a U.S. official said Gaddafi's forces were still advancing toward the rebels' eastern stronghold Benghazi.

Within hours of President Barack Obama saying the terms of a U.N. resolution meant to end fighting in Libya were non-negotiable, his U.N. envoy, Susan Rice, asked by CNN whether Gaddafi was in violation of these terms, said: "Yes, he is."

UN calls for ceasefire.  Qaddafi says "OK, we stopped firing."  Then his forces proceed to bomb rebel positions, then claims that he wants international observers to prove he's holding up to the cease fire, while continuing to bomb rebel positions anyway.

He has a bright future as either a three-year old with a bag of Skittles, or as a Republican lawmaker.

Hell, Yemen? Hell Yeah, Man

If that wasn't enough for you, the Middle Eastern state of Yemen just went critical today as protesters were gunned down by rooftop snipers in the capital of Sanaa.

Gunmen on rooftops shot dead up to 42 protesters at an anti-government rally in Sanaa after Muslim prayers on Friday, enraging the opposition and prompting President Ali Abdullah Saleh to declare a state of emergency.

Medical sources and witnesses told Reuters that Yemeni security forces and plainclothes snipers, who protesters said were government security men, had opened fire on the crowds. The Interior Ministry put the death toll at 25, but doctors said 42 people had died and at least 300 were injured.

Saleh, struggling to maintain his 32-year grip on power in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, said the deaths had occurred in clashes between demonstrators and other citizens at a protest encampment at Sanaa University.

"I express my extreme sorrow for what happened today after Friday prayers in the university district," Saleh told a news conference in Sanaa, blaming gunmen among the protesters for the violence.

"The police were not present and did not open fire," he said. "It is clear there are armed elements inside these tents and they are the ones who opened fire."

He declared a 30-day state of emergency that gives wider powers to security forces and bars citizens from bearing arms in public. A curfew was being discussed.

Bahrain, now Yemen.  Saudi Arabia is probably pretty damn nervous about right now, as is, oh, pretty much everyone else on the planet.  Something's got to give soon on the Arabian Peninsula, however.  When it does, it's not going to be pleasant.

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 11

A truly sorry sight today as Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) chief Akio Komiri broke down and cried after admitting at a press conference that yes, the Fukushima Daiichi plant has been releasing harmful levels of radiation for days now.

The boss of the company behind the devastated Japanese nuclear reactor today broke down in tears - as his country finally acknowledged the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens

Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency admitted that the disaster was a level 5, which is classified as a crisis causing 'several radiation deaths' by the UN International Atomic Energy.

Officials said the rating was raised after they realised the full extent of the radiation leaking from the plant. They also said that 3 per cent of the fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima plant had been severely damaged, suggesting those reactor cores have partially melted down.

After Tokyo Electric Power Company Managing Director Akio Komiri cried as he left a conference to brief journalists on the situation at Fukushima, a senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis.

He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were.

After leaving the presser, Komiri left in tears, ushered off stage by aides.  Could have told you this was happening, but it's still important to keep in mind that the 850,000 without power and water in Japan right now for a week as temperatures still get below freezing and snow blankets the area, with no food and no water, well they have a hell of a lot bigger problems to worry about than radiation.

The death toll is almost 7,000 now, with still 10,000 plus missing and hope at this point for them has all but run out after a week of hell.  No, the radiation hasn't helped any, but that's not what's going to ultimately create the body count here.

Birthers Get A Trump Card

It shows you how utterly ridiculous Republicans are that anyone even remotely considered to be making a run at Obama's job in 2012 has bow and scrape to the Republican birther majority, even somebody who's a long-shot like Donald Trump.

In an interview with ABC News' Ashleigh Banfield that aired Thursday, Trump said he had some doubts that President Barack Obama was a U.S. citizen.

"Everybody that even gives any hint of being a birther -- a word you didn't use -- even a little bit of a hint like 'gee, you know, maybe, just maybe this much of chance,' they label them as an idiot," he told Banfield.

"Let me tell you, I'm a really smart guy," Trump continued. "I was a really good student at the best school in the country. The reason I have a little doubt -- just a little -- is because he grew up and nobody knew him."

"When you interview people, if I ever got the nomination, if I ever decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten. They'll remember me. Nobody ever comes forward. Nobody knows who he is until later in his life."

"It's very strange. The whole thing is very strange," he added.

If the American business magnate wants the Republican nomination then he may need support from the birthers. A recent PPP poll found that a majority of Republican voters don't believe Obama was born in the U.S.

Words that could have come from any Republican circa 2008.  Or 2009.  Or 2010.  Or 2011 for that matter.  Trump is just the latest to drink the birther Kool-Aid.  Anyone who will be making a serious run in 2012 for the GOP nomination will have to deal with the fact that Republicans are birthers, although I still feel that most of the non-believers are mouthing the words to cover up good old-fashioned "He's not one of us" racism.

I'm not sure which is worse, frankly.