Hmmmmm.

Following an emergency EU meeting of foreign ministers on the situation in Libya, Mr Hague was asked if Britain, or other Western countries, knew if Col. Gaddafi had left Tripoli.

“About whether Col. Gaddafi, is in Venezuela, I have no information that says he is although I have seen some information that suggests he is on his way there,” he said.

British officials stressed that Mr Hague was referring “not to media reports but information from other channels”. “This is credible information,” said a diplomat.

Meanwhile, the world wonders whether Leon Panetta is watching CNN, MSNBC or Al Jazerra for his information.

Via Allah, Victor Davis Hanson has some thoughts based on having spent some time there.

4) The country has great natural beauty, a stunning coastline, a central location, untapped gas and oil reserves (Gaddafi’s incompetence often meant that oil was not so easy to extract and squander), incredible antiquities — and unlimited tourist and commercial potential should it ever embrace constitutional government.

5) Libyans seemed to me terrified of Egyptians, including the tens of thousands of illegal-alien Egyptians in their country. The oil fields in their lightly populated country are a little too near for their comfort to the border of the oil-needy, overpopulated Egyptian powerhouse. The oil-rich border regions between the two countries will be of interest in the days ahead.

Much more at the link.

Once again the US has been totally caught wrong footed. As civil war rages to topple a sadistic tyrant, the Obama administration is wondering if the guy's kid might be signaling he's really a reformer, while actually saying he's willing to see the bodies pile up to save the regime.

The White House is weighing an "appropriate" response to the violence directed at pro-democracy demonstrations in Libya, according to a senior administration official quoted by wire services.

"We are analyzing the speech of Saif al-Islam Kadhafi to see what possibilities it contains for meaningful reform," the official said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Here's the "appropriate" response...."the monster, who has the blood of Americans on his hands, has to go, either on a plane or up against a wall. The latter is preferable but the former is acceptable."

I know in Egypt we had to walk a fine line because Mubarak was our guy for so long, what comes next is likely to be worse for us and we risked scaring the hell out of our other less than democratic friends in the region. But Gaddafi? Despite our recently reestablished relationship, he is an enemy and the next guys can't be worse (or that much worse) for us. There's no need to equivocate.

The Mideast order crumbling would tax the skills of the most adroit administration. It's simply drowning this one.

Added: Commodity and stock markets react negatively to Libyan unrest. Oil is now $100/barrel in London and Euro oil companies might start pulling their workers out. So, there's that.

More: There are a lot of unconfirmed rumors flying around but it this one is true,, oh boy.

Eye witness report from ship that will remain nameless: "oil rigs near Benghazi are on burning and on fire"

So, what's the price of gas going to be by the end of the week?

Posted by: DrewM at 11:54 AM | Comments (185)
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Guys,

I have deleted all of the personal information that got posted in the Qaddafy thread. I know that some of you were desperate to connect with someone who had clearly posted a cry for help, but I don't think it is a good idea to leave that information floating around the internet.

In the meantime, I'll try to get ahold of ace.

-Warden

Posted by: Code Red at 10:31 AM | Comments (490)
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No tut-tutting from the media on actual death threats and death wishes.

Just yesterday Frank Rich decided to call out the right for incivility.

If the next step in this declension is less face time for Palin on Fox News, then we’ll have proof that pigs can fly. But a larger question remains. If the right puts its rabid Obama hatred on the down-low, what will — or can — conservatism stand for instead?

Actually most of his idiotic column is crowing that the right has been politically neutered by the leftist assault on free speech. But as usual he ignores the hate speech of the left.

I saw on FoxNews Watch yesterday that Kristen Powers attempted to explain away the media's bias when it comes to the Wisconsin protesters -- the media just like protesters, period, Powers averred. Jim Pinkerton noted they didn't seem to like Tea Party protesters, calling them ignorant, violent Nazis at every turn. Powers didn't bother to answer; I'm not sure what she could have said.

Meanwhile, the public is siding with Walker in Wisconsin, 48% to 38%. Even assuming there's a pro-Republican tilt in Rasmussen's polling, that's too big a gap to explain by tilt.

Contrasting the Coverage: The Times embargoes all mention of Nazi signs in Wisconsin, while focusing on almost nothing but those when reporting on Tea Partiers.

[T]he TimesÂ’ flattering portrait of the protesters ignores the extremist and violent rhetoric that has characterized the union demonstrators. As we noted Friday, unionists and the Democratic Party activists who have been bused in to help them have compared Governor Walker to Adolf Hitler and the Republicans to Nazis, as this video illustrates. Yet the Times has ignored that aspect of the story even though such rhetoric and demonstratorsÂ’ signs were the focus of much of their coverage of Tea Party protests. One can only conclude that in the liberal universe of the New York Times, left-wing union protesters are judged by a very different standard than the one they employ to report and editorialize about the conservatives of the Tea Party.

Posted by: Ace at 09:29 AM | Comments (266)
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Update: Effective defection.

...

Mubarak's wait-'em-out strategy didn't work. Qaddafy's got a different plan.

Al-Jazeera reported Monday that the Libyan air force has bombed protesters who were on their way to an army base, according to eyewitness testimony.

The protesters were reportedly heading to the army base to obtain ammunition, but witnesses said the air force bombed the demonstrators before they could get there.

Meanwhile, it's claimed Qaddafy fled Tripoli. But we heard that with Mubarak and Cairo, too. Some headlines:

Protesters appear to have taken control of second city Benghazi
Up to 400 feared dead after dozens killed in overnight clashes
Justice minister resigns over 'excessive use of violence'
Mystery as two Libyan fighter jets land in Malta
David Cameron declares regime response is 'appalling and unacceptable'
Gaddafi's son says: 'We will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet'
UN warns that British Government could be guilty of 'complicity' in killings

That last one seems to be about the UK's "cozy" trade relationship with Libya -- everyone remembers UK trading blood for oil by releasing the supposedly cancer-stricken Lockerbie bomber in a move thought made to secure oil rights for BP.

With autocratic governments already toppled by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, there was a sense that Gaddafi's iron grip was being severely tested.

'Libya is the most likely candidate for civil war because the government has lost control over part of its own territory,' said Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar.

In the eastern city of Benghazi, protesters appeared to be largely in control after forcing troops and police to retreat to a compound. Government buildings were set ablaze and ransacked.

'People here in Benghazi are laughing at what he is saying. It is the same old story (on promised reform) and nobody believes what he says,' a lawyer in Libya's second city told the BBC after watching Saif al-Islam's speech.

'Youths with weapons are in charge of the city. There are no security forces anywhere,' University of Benghazi professor Hanaa Elgallal told Al Jazeera International television.

Salahuddin Abdullah, a self-described protest organiser, said: 'In Benghazi there is celebration and euphoria ... The city is no longer under military control. It is completely under demonstrators' control.'

Qaddafy has killed hundreds of people in the clashes, and of course he remains unpunished for Lockerbie and a number of other terrorist massacres he was behind.

Posted by: Ace at 08:10 AM | Comments (362)
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IÂ’ll be back. You canÂ’t keep the Democrats out of the White House forever, and when they get in, IÂ’m back on the streets, with all my criminal buddies.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 04:54 AM | Comments (359)
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Welcome to virtual Saturday.

The Music Industry Is Dying

And here's a chart confirming that it really is - even with iTunes and other digital sales. People just aren't buying as much music as they used to.

How come?

Well for a couple of reasons -

1. People can buy just singles and not albums these days. And most of the money was in albums.
2. Thanks to the internet the music market is fragmented and the music industry can't drive album sales through radio playlists like they used to.
3. Fewer superstar bands/less quality music. Exhibit A - this week's #1 Song
4. Piracy. You can get higher quality digital versions minus any DRM for free off the net. Music industry FAIL.
5. People aren't rebuying songs in new media formats. They just rip their existing CDs.
6. Studio executives were/are arrogant assholes, hated by musicians and the public alike, and completely missed the chance to jump onto the digital revolution.

Note that it's the recorded music industry that is dying. Actual performing musicians who tour and sell their music directly seem to be doing just fine. more...

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:23 PM | Comments (852)
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My daughter and son-in-law live in Madison, WI, so they've had a keen interest in what's going on there. Heather (my daughter) pointed me to this video, which she said was done by a friend of a friend.

What's interesting are the notes that go with the video, which I've posted below the jump. more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:40 PM | Comments (440)
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I saw a video at Boingboing a while back, but YouTube took it down. I found the original upload. It's below the fold, because it's NSFW. (Language.) Funny stuff. It's like an R rated version of those Brian Fellow's Safari Planet skits Tracy Morgan used to do on Saturday Night Live. For those of you who don't want to see an NSFW video, here is Tracy Morgan.

The Nasty Honey Badger (NSFW) below the fold. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 12:32 PM | Comments (347)
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I was going to put this in the headlines, but I was so angry after reading this.

Columbia University recently had hearings to determine whether or not the ROTC should be allowed back on campus. At the hearing a Disabled War Vet, Anthony Mascheck decided to wheel up to the mic to voice his opinion on why the ROTC program should be instituted at Columbia University.

And by wounded I mean a wheelchair bound amputee that was shot eleven times during a firefight in Kirkuk.

He was treated with the dignity and respect you would expect from a college whose student body is made up of spoiled trust fund children whose parents pay over $50,000.00 a year in tuition alone.

Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.

At least he was supported by faculty....

"Universities should not be involved in military activities," Sociology Professor Emeritus Herbert Gans told The Post. "Columbia should come out against spending $300 billion a year on unnecessary wars."

Ahh sociology professors, where would the world be without you? Probably a lot better off I should say.

Also, for those of us who knew the DADT law was a bullship excuse to keep ROTC programs off elite(read rich) college campuses, we now have confirmation of it. The student left is trying a new excuse out. See how this fits you.

"Transpeople are part of the Columbia community," said senior Sean Udell at the meeting, referring to the military's current ban on transgender soldiers.

The military has a long and sordid history of keeping Transpeople down. The first documented case being Corporal Maxwell Klinger during the Korean War.

Cross posted at Clarion Advisory

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:19 AM | Comments (286)
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So much for his carefully cultivated smooth urbane elder statesman of North Africa image. Still, its good to see his dictatorial pimp hand is still strong. Those impudent serfs will get the message in no time.

...Libyan forces fired machine-guns at mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters...

...a day after commandos and foreign mercenaries loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi pummeled demonstrators with assault rifles and other heavy weaponry.

A doctor at one city hospital said his morgue had received at least 200 dead from six days of unrest...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:54 AM | Comments (323)
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