In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files. » The situation in Libya is just about stalemated between military units loyal to Muammar al-Gadafi and rebelling citizens and 'turned' government forces, with everyone else just trying to stay the hell out of the way. The al-Gadaffi affiliated troops have aerially bombed the city of Zawiyah throughout the last Libyan night but failed to re-take the city and "in Misrata, troops who support the al-Gadaffi government tried to advance Monday on rebels who control part of an air base on the city's outskirts but they were repulsed by opposition forces". Of the country's seven air bases, four are in the Eastern region now under rebel control...". The Russian military is watching from a space-based platform (as the US also surely is)and they're saying the airstikes have not happened. Caveat: Firsthand reports a few days ago from a Libyan expat in contact with relatives in-country stated 'helicopter gunships'. Much more likely, and probably undetectable from space. The U.S. is moving a naval assault group, including the USS Kearsarge, a "Marine Assault Aircraft Carrier" offshore.. It is transiting the Suez Canal currently, and the USS Enterprise, a fully outfitted aircraft carrier that will remain in the Red Sea. The Kearsarge will most likely be stationed in the Bay of Sidra. Also, air "assets" that may potentially be used for "No-Fly Zone" enforcement are stationed in Saudi Arabia. Altogether they constitute a useless, civilian threatening, and potentially region destabilizing addition to US/UN sanctions but the smart money says:

The US and its western allies are talking about stronger measures to stop Gadhafi, including a no-fly zone. On Morning Edition, NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, who says the allies are first trying to cut off Gadhafi's access to cash. He adds a no-fly zone could be set up and it might make practical sense. But Hill added this caution:

Inskeep: ...What are the risks of the U.S. getting involved in a shooting war, or anything resembling that in Libya? Hill: ...the risk of getting involved in a shoot-em-up is the risk that it will help Gadhafi supporters say this is all being engineered by foreigners, and look, they're in the air right now, shooting at our airplanes, so I think you gotta be very careful that it doesn't appear that you are somehow leading this thing.

Hill observes Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the U.S. is going to do its best to avoid entanglement in Mideast conflicts... [In Full, NPR]

And in a BIG heartbreak for everyone involved, the "Voluptuous Ukrainian Nurse" who "took care of" Muammar al-Gadaffi has returned to her Ukrainian home. Diplomatic efforts continue » In Tunisia the Prime Minister and two other ministers have resigned under continuing demands that EVERYONE involved in the previous government GTFO (get the fuck out). Presidential and parliamentary elections are expected in about five months... If everything goes as expected. » In the thirteenth day of protests in Yemen there are gun battles in the streets of Aden, and in Oman, where there's been no trouble for decades under the rule of an apparently benevolent King, citizens are in the streets demanding social change as well. Symbolically, considering most of the people in the region have roots as nomds, a supermarket has been burned. » In the U.S.... the House of Representatives will vote on a mini-continuing budget resolution with $4 billion dollars in cuts that would continue funding the US government's operations for two weeks but the Obama administration is seeking a one month resolution, potentially doubling the funding to be cut, while the longer term continuing resolution to fund the US government through the end of September is waiting in the wings... contentiously. » Embattled Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will deliver his "State of the State" address this afternoon and present his budget. Walker is threatening to fire 1,500 state workers to 'balance' a budget which his (Republican) Party was responsible for 'un-balancing' by giving tax breaks to corporate and business interests creating a projected shortfall in revenues which are being wielded like a club for these draconian cuts even as the governor reminds the state's workers of Ronald Reagan's firing of air traffic controllers while president. What was I saying the other day about Madison's Chief of Police being a little tight in the jaw about finding out the Governor had considered seeding the crowd with "troublemakers"... BLOWBACK!

On Monday afternoon, the Capitol Police in Madison, Wisconsin refused to enforce an order to clear the Capitol building of hundreds of peaceful protesters who have been occupying the site to protest Governor Scott Walker’s plan to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews State Rep. Kelda Helen Roys (D), who spent Sunday night in the Capitol building with other protesters. Roys describes what happened at four o’clock on Monday afternoon when the government gave the order to clear the protesters from the building: And after several hours of the same sorts of scenes that we’ve been seeing all week—singing, chanting, drumming, speechifying—the Capitol police captain, Chief Tubbs, made an announcement, and he said that the protesters that had remained in the building, they were being orderly and responsible and peaceful and there was no reason to eject them from the Capitol. o o o Police attempted to clear the building of protesters on Sunday night, but they relented when the protesters refused to leave and allowed them to stay another night. On Monday, the police decided not to eject protesters already inside, but no additional activists would be allowed in... [More]

» Stan Goff, Feral Scholar, FORMER JSOC Special Operator, FORMER Marxist, and all around nice-guy, has a critique for y' all. I just want to add my own thoughts to his screed and they are aimed directly at US Trade Unions... An open letter to US Trade Unions: Better start expanding your 'organizing' beyond "Unions" now, else the dispersion of the energy put into this, at a nationwide scale, despite the fact that 6 or 7 other states have anti-union bills pending, will NOT reinvent the "Cheeze Revolution"[tm]. "Union resources are a Piper Cub against the business class’s F-16." (src below) Awww don''t feel bad! Woodstock wasn't the same the second time around either so don't feel like something's wrong. You'd better get the MASSIVE NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE, UNION OR NOT involved, or your trade unions, as FUCKED UP AS THEY ARE, will be finished once and for all within a few years. That means organizing FOR ALL workers, for their rights and benefits DESPITE THE FACT THEY PAY DUES TO NO ONE, and not just to get them to join some union or another so you can 'organize' them... That can wait. Most union organizers think they ARE doing that... Hypothetically... Theoretically Better get real... or get gone. Can't do that? Fuck around with it and say you're doing it but your underlying motivations are just to build your 'worker base' before they have anything to thank you for, and YOU WILL LOSE IT ALL! You have to have a job to pay the dues... right? Sure as hell no one's gonna pay it from their welfare check! One BIG Union folks, or else. End of screed Stan Goff (on why Trade Unions are fuck-ed because they went mainstream for the political clout):

Wisconsin – buzzkill 25th February 2011 by Stan I’ll be the skunk at this party, what the hell. I don’t know how to cheer-lead. The lefty-liberal-progressives of the US of A are pumped up by the show of defiance by public sector workers in Wisconsin; and other states are following suit with demonstrations and Democratic state legislators on the lam. Even the Egyptians are wearing cheese-head hats. I am proud of the Wisconsin workers, and that’s why my prognosis is all the sadder. They were undercut years ago by the Democratic Party and their own leadership. The unions and the public workers are going to lose. I’d love to be proven wrong, and maybe my math is no good, but even if they don’t lose this one, the trade union movement in the United States has been a dead letter for quite some time now. This will be another triumph of ideology for the right, and a political triumph for the right, too – no matter how Pyrrhic the victory in the truly terrifying scheme of things for the next generation. When the trade union movement decided to join itself at the hip with the Democratic Party, they brought this on themselves. They consistently spend members’ money on Dem politicians, making them a direct target of the Republicans, who represent many anti-union interests already, but who had now been given a direct political stake in busting the unions. Business unionism, nationalism, and bureaucratism ensured that the hierarchy of the trade union movement would call to the hierarchy of the political party. Everyone became players in a game that the unions quite simply could not win. Union resources are a Piper Cub against the business class’s F-16. In no time at all, the unions came to depend on the Democrats, and on elections, instead of facing of against employers directly and without the legal sanctions that they accepted ever since Taft-Hartley. Democrats pushed through one neoliberal measure after another, undercutting the unions, and like an abused spouse that can’t leave, union leadership sent their members back again and again to vote, vote, vote Democratic. Enough grousing. Here are the numbers... [More @ Feral Scholar]

In OTHER News: "American Hypocrisy files addition of the day" (FWIW, one NEVER looks good in a mugshot)

Former President Of MADD Arrested On DUI Charge Debra Oberlin used to fight to keep drunk drivers off the road, but now she herself is facing a DUI charge. The Gainesville area Realtor was recently arrested after failing a field sobriety test and registering a breath alcohol level three times that of the legal limit... [In Full]

This is Razer Raygun saying 'Happy Motoring America...' Enjoy it while you can. (...and try not to let your government kill too many 'dusky natives' in the process ok?) -30-
Creative Commons Copyright Courtesy of Cabale News Service, KPIG Radio, and KVMR Radio. Listen to KVMR Recorded & transcribed by Razer Raygun @ Razed By Wolves Travus T. Hipp Fan Page @ Facebook (unaffiliated) In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, the news clippings, audio, and images used in this posting are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.

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