Libya - Change We Can Believe In, Maybe

That was easy!  In response to the UN resolution authorizing a no-fly, no-drive zone, Qadaffi declares a cease fire.  Gee whiz, French leadership that's working - what could go wrong? [UPDATE - Or, when is a cease-fire not a cease fire?]

As to Qadaffi's actual strategy and intentions, who knows?  Is there some reason to think he can't, or shouldn't, just wait this out?  Per CNN he has already retaken the major oil-related facilities; maybe the rebellion in Benghazi has symbolic but not strategic importance. Perhaps we can look to a day with UN sanctions, reports that those sanctions are killing 5,000 Libyan babies each month, and a new oil-for-food program

The irony of this passage may have eluded someone:

Characterizing Colonel Qaddafi as a menacing “creature” lacking a moral compass, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that the international community had little choice but to act. “There is no good choice here. If you don’t get him out and if you don’t support the opposition and he stays in power, there’s no telling what he will do,” Mrs. Clinton said from Tunisia on Thursday.

She went on to say Qaddafi would do “terrible things” to Libya and its neighbors. “It’s just in his nature. There are some creatures that are like that.” Her remarks, applauded by the studio audience where she appeared, amounted to the administration’s most stridently personal attacks on the Libyan leader, echoing President Ronald Reagan’s “mad dog of the Middle East.”

Yet somehow Saddam Hussein was not in that category?  Please.

On the bright side, Libya is essentially a coastal road alongside a NATO lake, so it is a much more favorable locale for military operations than Afghanistan, Iraq or Kosovo.

Comments

[hit and run]

Her remarks, applauded by the studio audience where she appeared

Applause? From a studio audience?

There's an app for that.

[anduril]

Gotta luv this one: AN OFFICIAL GUN? EVERY STATE SHOULD HAVE ONE!

A Democratic legislator objected to the state gun on the ground that it is "divisive." Why? "For obvious reasons." Not sure what that means--maybe there are a lot of Smith & Wesson fans in Utah, too. Utah apparently is big on symbols: they already had honored the honey bee, the Dutch oven, Spanish sweet onion, the sugar beet, the elk and the cutthroat trout. So Utah was due for an official state gun.

[bgates]

The irony of this passage may have euded someone:

The irony, no; the passage itself? Looks like the NYT removed the 2nd paragraph from their story.

[bgates]

"eude" - to escape justice by fleeing to Europe.

"The Unicorn Killer managed to eude authorities for 16 years by living in France, until the French discovered the man they were protecting was Jewish."

[Ignatz]

Doesn't seem to be an OT thread so I'll post this nice link to Peter Ferrera at Forbes here. Easy, simple, freedom enhancing solution to Social Security that's been tried and succeeded elsewhere, so of course it's a non-starter in DC, but a guy can dream.

[SWarren]

"Palin Doctrine Emerges" LUN

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Judge just blocked the Wisconsin law

[clarice]

Well, the Sec of State would not publish it until March 25 in any event so this doesn't mean much, Jane.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

It doesn't? Tell me more.

[Tom Bowler]

WSJ

Perhaps in some future Bob Woodward tome we'll learn why President Obama flipped late Wednesday—in a matter of hours—from skeptic of intervention in Libya to proponent of military strikes against Moammar Gadhafi's surging forces. The White House offered no explanation.

No explanation needed. True to form Obama was finally forced to accept that doing nothing would just ruin him politically.

[clarice]

It's a tro to prevent the Sec of State from publishing the law until the court can have a hearing on the legitimacy of the procedure used to pass it--something the State Atty gen and all the legislative offices already approved. As it's a TRO the hearing must be held quickly and it'll be a strictly legal argument so it can't take very long..Then it's on to the conservative state supreme court

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Thanks Clarice.

Tom, I think you've got it just right.

[Tom Bowler]

Jane, that Wisconsin ruling makes me a little nervous too, but it be quite a statement if the legislature would just pass it again and Walker sign it again.

[henry]

Clarice, Judge Sumi set the hearing for March 30. The WI supreme court election is April 5. That is the goal of this stalling by both the judge and the sec state.

[clarice]

Aha.Henry--Let's see if the good Fitzgerald and Walker can outsmart the forces of evil.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Yeah - they are really pushing that liberal judge Henry - I bet the voter fraud is rampant. Do you have a voter ID law?

[henry]

Jane, no voter id law yet. fraud is a constant in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha.

[clarice]

The former (d) governor on three occasions vetoes a voter ID law, Jane.

I must tell you this corruption is unbelievable to me. When I was growing up there, Wisconsin was he cleanest state you could ever imagine.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Voter ID is the main objective of the MA tea party this year - and we are under no fantasy that we will get it. But we keep trying.

[anduril]

In Middle East news:

UN warns of 'shocking' abuses in Bahrain

Obama speaks to Bahrain's king, urges restraint

So, lets see. When the UN speaks, Obama jumps and sends ships and warplanes. Will we now be attacking Bahrain as well as Libya? Or "Libya?" And if we put the muscle on the creepy Sunni oppressors in Bahrain, will we once again be doing the work of the Islamic Republic of Iran?

[clarice]

Another country heard from

CNN:
iots erupted Friday in the Middle Eastern nation of Syria, witnesses said. It is one of a string of Arabic-speaking nations beset with discontent. The unrest spread through Hims, Diraa, Banyaas, Der Elzour and the capital, Damascus, witnesses said, and there were claims of deaths and injuries, but the assertions could not be independently confirmed. Demonstrators took to the streets to demand freedom and urge the end of corruption, but police surrounded hundreds of demonstrators and made arrests.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Rick Leventhal, Fox, in Libya, reports that the cease fire is being ignored and 25 people have been killed since it was announced. Qaddafi's forces are still attacking strong with tanks and long range big guns.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

My doctor and his doctor brother, who have a joint practice, are Syrian Christians. With a full waiting room on Wednesday, they came out and asked that anyone who is a "believer in God" should pray for the brave men and women trying to fight for their freedom from repressive regimes. They said they were afraid for their friends and family still in Syria that Syria would be next to have an uprising. They were very worried for those who want no part of an Islamic dictatorship. One of the patients asked why they had come to America originally, was it family, education, or something else. The answer was freedom of thought and a chance at a better life.

[It don't mean a thing if I can't have my fling.]

Bracket is Barak;
The March of Gunfire Madness.
Flying to Rio.
=========

[centralcal]

John Bolton talks to NRO re: Obama's remarks today:

John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tells National Review Online that President Obama is dithering on Libya. “Every hour that goes by shows me how [Obama] is not ready for this,” he says. “I am feeling sick to my stomach that we are into something where the president does not know what he is doing.”

Obama Not Ready for This

And Bolton's final comment: "All I can say is, I’m nervous and I hope we take action quickly."

I really don't like him saying he's nervous. That makes ME nervous.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Me too, centracal.

[Freemarketer]

"It's in his nature. There are some creatures that are like that". She was really thinking about Bubba.

[hit and run]

John Bolton in May of 2008,on an interview with Hugh Hewitt in which Hugh asked if Obama had been "vetted" in terms of foreign policy experience:

I think the, we haven’t plumbed the depths of that ignorance yet

And when asked about Obama sitting across the table from North Korea and Iran (hell,Libya was the minor leagues in comparison at the time):

Well, I think they will make hash of him

Bolton was nervous back then regarding an Obama presidency.

He was right to be.

[PD]

"Palin Doctrine Emerges"

Quick, someone ask Charlie Gibson to talk intelligently about it.

[narciso]

No, he has to check the cables, PD, who even talks like that anymore.

[Cecil Turner]

I don't see how the UN is going to accomplish much here. AFAICT, the only military force capable of maintaining a no-fly zone over Libya is the US CVBG in the area . . . and there's no indication it's going to be used (and would be illegal anyway, IMO, without an AUMF which is not even being discussed).

[MayBee]

France has sent fighter planes over libya.