And you, President Obama?

"I want the American people to know that the use of force
is not our first choice, and it's not a choice that I make
lightly. But we can't stand idly by when a tyrant tells
his people that there will be no mercy." PRESIDENT OBAMA,
on the American decision to use military force against Col.
Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.

But Obama too is a tyrant. Does he think he was elected king? I think Bradley Manning is also one of our people and you show no mercy to him, despite his not being tried yet. Held in jail for months and tortured--that's the way a tyrant acts. That's YOU.

According to the Times (3/13)...

"The Environmental Protection Agency says that everyone in the United States is exposed to very small amounts of cesium-137 in soil and water because of atmospheric fallout from the nuclear detonations of the cold war."

Remember those? We've all been lulled into such ridiculous complacency that we actually build nuclear plants--on purpose--"for peaceful uses." Fool me once, shame on you; fool me countless numbers of time, over and over in the most outrageous ways, not only shame on me--also total vulnerability and insanity. I feel like Cunegonde, not to mention Candide. Voltaire knew it all. The government, the nuclear agencies, the scientists (presumably in the pay of certain industrialists)--all Dr. Pangloss. And all totally successful at pulling the wool over our eyes again and again.

First you kill and sicken millions in Japan, where the first nuclear bombs are dropped, and THEN THEY AGREE TO HAVE NUCLEAR PLANTS IN THEIR MIDST? It's just really hard to believe how idiotic human beings can be.

The treatment of Bradley Manning

This is a total disgrace. The Army is making Mr. Manning spend every night (and every morning inspection) stark naked... as a precaution against suicide, they say. Hollow laughter. As someone on Glenn Greenwald's blog said, "using suicide prevention to drive someone insane...". This young man, convicted of nothing,is being treated in this inhuman manner with the silent approval of Barack Obama! I voted for him. Never again. As far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with his dream of "not pissing off rich people." This is sheer cruelty in aid of making sure that no one ever attempts to tell government secrets again. That way the government can behave with impunity on every front, just as they do now, but with no fear at all of being shown up. I am so utterly horrified that Obama could allow such a thing to happen...

As blogger ioz says: A thing to remember about tyranny is that it is always absurd; as it becomes more cruel, it becomes more ridiculous.

Here are the products the Koch Brothers make money on

DO NOT BUY:
Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity fair napkins
Zee napkins
Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
All Georgia-Pacific lumber and building products, including:
Dense Armor Drywall and Decking
ToughArmor Gypsum board
Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood
Flexrock
Densglass sheathing
G/P Industrial plasters (some products used by a lot of crafters)
FibreStrong Rim board
G/P Lam board
Blue Ribbon OSB Rated Sheathing
Blue Ribbon Sub-floor
DryGuard Enhanced OSB
Nautilus Wall Sheathing
Thermostat OSB Radiant Barrier Sheathing
Broadspan Engineered Wood Products
XJ 85 I-Joists
FireDefender Banded Cores
FireDefender FS
FireDefender Mineral Core
Hardboard and Thin MDF including Auto Hardboard,
Perforated Hardboard and Thin MDF
Wood Fiberboard
Commercial Roof Fiberboard
Hushboard Sound Deadening Board
Regular Fiberboard Sheathing
Structural Fiberboard Sheathing

(INVISTA Products):
COMFOREL® fiberfill
COOLMAX® fabric
CORDURA® fabric
DACRON® fiber
POLYSHIELD® resin
SOLARMAX® fabric
SOMERELLE® bedding products
STAINMASTER® carpet
SUPPLEX® fabric
TACTEL® fiber
TACTESSE® carpet fiber
TERATE® polyols
TERATHANE® polyether glycol
THERMOLITE® fabric
PHENREZ® resin
POLARGUARD® fiber and
LYCRA® fiber

comment on today's Frank Rich column from Marie Burns of Ft. Meyers, Florida

President Obama will not tell the American people what's at stake in the budget. None of us knows what his true ideology is. None of us knows how he would govern if we had a parliamentary system in which the leader of the government can pretty much govern as he wishes.

But we do know this: Prime Minister Obama would not govern as a progressive. All that progressive talk during the campaign was a vote-currying deception. Mr. Obama campaigned the way Republicans always campaign: by pretending his goals were markedly different from what they really were.

Obama perfectly followed the Republican playbook in 2008: he pretended to be a progressive who would right the wrongs of eight years of Republican rule. But when he got in the White House, he suddenly turned into a conservative who engineered a "stimulus" package that was largely Republican-style tax cuts, a healthcare law that was nearly identical to one Republicans proposed in the 20th century (& which also included the individual mandate, BTW), & a financial reform package that lets the banksters do what they want.

If you think I'm exaggerating, let's look at something that's more simple and straightforward than a complex budget or those huge laws that Obama signed into law during his first two years in office: Here's President Obama in a campaign stump speech he made in the fall of 2007 in South Carolina:

"If American workers are being denied their right to organize & collectively bargain, when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a pair of comfortable shoes myself, I'll walk on that picket line with you...."

Today, Republican governors in several states are attacking collective bargaining rights. Obama made one statement -- and then only in response to a reporter's question -- in which he said of the Wisconsin bill, "it appears to be an assault on unions." President Obama's comfortable shoes are nowhere to be seen. Reporters have repeatedly questioned Obama's press secretary Jay Carney about Obama's campaign promise, and Carney has dutifully obfuscated with responses like (this is not an exact quote) "People know where the President stands." Yeah, we know this: he's not standing in Wisconsin or Ohio or Indiana.

Similarly, ever since budget season has been upon us, President Obama is playing a Republican president. He has repeatedly told the American people that the government must act the way families do during financial difficulties -- the government must live within its means. That's a line straight out of the Contract on America. Never mind that politicians since Alexander Hamilton -- you know, one of the fathers of the Constitution -- have said that federal deficits are a good thing. And where has President Obama been campaigning? At corporation after corporation where he has said we can "win the future" (you know the acronym for that) by giving tax breaks to small businesses so they can innovate. Not Word One about funding prenatal care or healthcare legislation or the EPA. Not Word One. Instead, he has given government workers an effective five-year pay cut by freezing their wages even as the rising price of essential commodities (like grain & cotton) have soared, guaranteeing that prices of food and clothing will rise. He has also presented a budget that will cut home-heating assistance to poor families & Pell grants to college students. Hope you're not too cold while you're staying home from college.

Scott Walker made a "fireside" address the other day in which he expressed his respect for unions. ("I really do," he emphasized.) Relying on President Obama to tell the American people the truth about what's in that noxious House budget is like relying on Scott Walker to tell you how much he loves unions:

Not. Going. to. Happen.

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com

Beaches! Ceviches! Coctels! Margaritas!

Here I am, departing from my usual slathering politicism, to praise beaches and ceviches and the like, which right now are all we know and all we need to know. The wonders of a week at the beach--pulpo, tuna, gorditas, steep steps down to the beautiful sand (no steep steps up because... there's Anado and Richard with the car! The market in Zihaut filled with beautiful fishes--the best is at Rosita's--tuna at $7 a kilo (mas o menos), shrimp shelled right there before your eyes, resulting in Richard's lovely fish stew with coconut milk, followed (in a day) by Hane's Korean pancakes and many other goodies. The food at Amuleto (where we ate twice) just like the food described by Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker--sweet and sour layered together in a most inventive way. Days on the beach in Troncones, drinks at Precious Moment, tacos at Doña Nica, secret topes, the lot.

My letter to The Times today

How Many Deaths Are Enough, Bob Herbert's column today, covers most aspects of the death-ridden US gun culture. But one aspect is left unsaid--your coverage of Mexico's drug wars. I think it's pretty clear, from the statistics Mr. Herbert cites, that the US death toll is much, much higher than Mexico's. And Mexico's death toll is more or less confined to a particular subculture, which does not usually include college students or innocent bystanders, and to particular areas of the country. Yet Mexico's body count is a frequent feature in your pages and in the rest of the press, while it takes a massacre (which can happen and has happened anywhere in the country) to secure coverage for gun deaths in the US. Maybe if the US passes a few laws, it can get its gun-death statistics down to where Mexico's are.