Finally Obama went on t.v. to present his case of attacking Libya. It would seem to me that he should have done this before the first bombs were dropped. As I said before, when he said that "Kadafi must go". he did not leave himself much wiggle room. I had mixed feeling about getting into another war but I think once we are in we've got to make sure that Kadafi is going out. Obama is afraid to state the goal because Kadafi can always play rope-a-dope and try to outlast NATO. But regardless what Obama does, he is going to be criticized anyway from right and left. Witness Newt Gingrich who complained for couple of weeks that Obama did not attack Libya. Now that the operation has started, Gingrich said that he should not have done so. Given that Obama has already committed, he has to act stronger and announced that IF the Arab league believes that Kadafi should go, then the U.S. will sure to HELP accomplish that. But of course in the backroom, he should make sure that Qatar, UAE, and others are on board, even if we need to twist some arms.

Actually it may not be too bleak of a situation. Now that NATO has controlled the sky, the rebels are pushing Kadafi's army back already. So this means that a rag-tag civilian force can win in combat without much arms, can you imagine what they can do with real fire power provided by the Europeans and the Arab League? It is a matter getting these countries to supply the rebels. I think once it is clear that the rebels are well-armed, the Kadafi army will give up without NATO or American forces on the ground.

There is at least one person who is thankful for the disaster in Japan: Kadafi. For more than one week now while the rest of the world is watching the tragedy in Japan, kadafi has managed to push the rebels away from Tripoli and over take many cities as his troops move east. What should the U.S. do? Obama painted himself into the corner when couple of weeks ago he declared that Kadafi must go. Obviously, Kadafi's exit would be welcomed and couple of weeks ago the prospect looked promising. But now that Kadafi is winning and having said that Kadafi must go, Obama must take action. If he has said very little and waited like he did with Egypt, he could have just say that he will support what the Arab League is willing to do at this point. The Arab League wants the U.S. and Europe to enforce the no fly zone last week. Obama could have said that the Arab League can do it themselves. We have supplied many of these countries with modern fighter jets and they have the capability to at least start it. This way if Kadafi backs down, great. If not and the Arabs run into trouble, we can offer help later if so desired. Now even with U.N. approval we will still have to start it and coordinate it. And the problem is this: what if even without air power, Kadafi continues to advance on the ground? What if the rebels are incapable of fighting back? I think Kadafi will declare a cease fire for awhile and wait it out. When something else occurs in the world, he will strike again!

Last week an article asked why there are no looting in Japan after the disaster. Many people wrote that the Japanese culture and people are better. Well, if that is the case, why do they start two world wars and tried to colonize all of Asia? The truth is that they have good people and bad people like everyone else. But what they have developed over centuries living in a crowded nation with very little natural resources is that the good of the whole is more important than the good of the individual. That is why they lined up for food and water for hours and when the food or water ran out before their turn, nobody starts a riot. It is the same reason why their subway cars are clean without any graffiti, unlike those of the U.S. As the old saying goes in the U.S., the squeaky wheel gets the oil. In Asia, the old saying is that the nail standing out gets hammered down. Which way is better? Neither right now but if the world gets more and more crowded, then the Japanese way would probably prevail.

Wisconsin governor Walker has used the nuclear option. The stalemate is broken as the Republicans passed the bill without the fiscal issues, thus making a 20 person quorum unnecessary. So all along it was not so much about balancing the budget today, but more about busting the union. They should be man enough to admit that all along. As I have said before, I am for busting the public unions. I don't think that it is fair to the taxpayers who are paying the public employees to have unions back politicians who give them what they want. No less of a Democratic authority than FDR felt this was wrong! To be fair, no less of a Republican authority than Eisenhower, warned us about the military-industrial complex! Well, I digress. As I have said before, I don't begrudge a cop or a teacher for making $50,000 a year. What I think gets regular taxpayers mad is the crazy benefits unions got from politicians. For example, a police chief in a nearby town retired this year in his 50's. He got a pension of $200,000 a year. He then got a job as an assistant chief at the county sheriffs, and is being paid over $200,000 for that job. So he is making $400,000 a year! It is this kind of absurdity that gets people mad. Ironically, a Republican district attorney of L.A. lost the state attorney general election when he said he deserves to be able to double dip if he is elected to be attorney general and get the D.A. pension at the same time.

So what happens now? There will be lawsuits, of course. There are going to be attempts to recall lawmakers from both sides. I don't know what the majority of people in Wisconsin think but I have a feeling that even if the majority believe that Walker was right in the first place, I don't think they like him to use the nuclear option without any negotiation. Somebody on a talk show think that this is a plan for Republicans to defeat Obama in Wisconsin next year. I think that is far-fetched. The Republicans won big last year there because of the frustration over the economy. I think people of Wisconsin will have regrets about voting out people like Russ Feingold who was one of the best biparisan politician in the country. Even though the unions are defeated now, I think they will be energized for the 2012 campaign because they know that another defeat will mean the end of the road for them. The Democrats can campaign that the Republicans made the middle class the scapegoat for the economy and that the people who caused the financial crisis, the rich Wall Street folks, not only that none of them are in jail but most are making more money than before. So it will be interesting to see how that shakes out.