OBAMA: Drill, Brazil, Drill!

SEN. JAMES WEBB ON LIBYA: “This isn’t the way that our system is supposed to work.”

He was an antiwar hero when Bush was President. Now? We’ll see.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Strategic Lessons From Hannibal’s War — and why the United States isn’t doomed to decline.

DOES WISCONSIN’S JUDGE SUMI have a conflict of interest? “Her son is a political operative who also happens to be a former lead field manager with the AFL-CIO and data manager for the SEIU State Council. Both the SEIU and the AFL-CIO have members who are public-sector employees in Wisconsin.”

Meanwhile lawprof Rick Esenberg isn’t impressed with her opinion: “Having taken a closer look at the text of Judge Sumi’s decision in Ozanne v. Fitzgerald, I am quite frankly astonished. The court seems to have managed to enjoin publication of the statutory changes in the budget repair bill without addressing any of the difficult issues that the case presents. . . . Sumi’s rationale – that the people “own” the government and nothing can happen in secret – can’t be right. That would require invalidation of an official action every time the open meetings law is violated – something that the open meetings law itself does not contemplate. It requires a further balancing of interests which require the consideration of things other than an open meetings violation. She purports to do that but her analysis ultimately reduces to the open meetings violation. Given the terms of the open meetings law itself, that can’t be enough.”

It’s as if the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

PRESSURING OBAMA: Chile calls for Panama, Colombia FTAs with U.S. “Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said Panama and Colombia should have free trade agreements with the United States during a Monday press conference with President Barack Obama.”

ROBERT SAMUELSON: Pray For Japan, But Worry About Europe. “It’s understandable that the human suffering, physical destruction and nuclear hazards in Japan compel our attention. But we ought to remember that a greater menace to global stability and prosperity lies halfway around the world.”

AARON WORTHING: Please stop with the Libyan schadenfreude. Oh, I’m not that reasonable. Watching the people who savaged Bush and called his supporters warmongers and so on now faced with watching the Lightbringer doing basically the same thing, only less competently, is too good a pleasure to forego. Sorry. I hope that things will go well, but I agree with Niall Ferguson that Obama’s dithering has cost us. If we had elected a more competent President, we’d have fewer worries. But people got excited about Obama, and, well, this is what you get when you elect an inexperienced guy with no great interest — or any experience — in international relations.

UPDATE: A musician-reader emails, asking anonymity:

I’ve really been enjoying your take on things since the bombing in Libya started this weekend, even more than I normally do. For eight long years, well-meaning people on the right have been accused of all manner of hate, dishonesty, stupidity, and wickedness, from a bunch of people who believe their own neighbors are the primary cause of suffering in the world. So I say, don’t hold back. Keep on rubbing it in. I might enjoy it even more than I already do If the whole situation weren’t so pathetic.

Since the bombing started, I’ve made a mental note to keep my eye out for my Facebook friends to chime in about Libya. I know they’re not bashful about political subjects; every five minutes they post another link to another story about the plight of those poor teachers’ unions in Wisconsin, or poor, poor NPR and the threat from those GOP meanies. So far, since the bombing started on Saturday, I’ve counted a grand total of one post about Libya, and even it was on the subject of missing journalists. I can barely contain my disgust.

Indeed.

JIM TREACHER: Remember when bombing Muslim countries was a BAD thing?

Yeah, but I also remember when protest was patriotic.

SYRIA: The Revolt Continues. “This is probably the most important ongoing revolt in the Middle East right now. If Assad were to fall, it would reverberate all over the region, and greatly weaken the Iranian regime. Typically, it is getting far less coverage than the other ‘crises,’ but we’ll follow it here.”

UPDATE: Reader Jody Green writes: “It seems very easy for me being an average citizen to figure out which of these revolts to support and which to not. If the regime is supported by Iran, use everything you have to help whomever the protesters happen to be. If the protesters are supported by Iran, support the Regime. Is that being too simple? If not, then we are all backwards in our policy.”

DESECRATION: Somebody has written “Workers of the World Unite” on the monument to Civil War hero Hans Christian Heg. And Meade is not happy with that.

THE EPISTEMICALLY CLOSED Paul Krugman.

AT AMAZON, a sale on men’s, women’s, and children’s shoes.

AUSTIN BAY: 1,2,3, Sarkozy merci!: Political Poetry In the Libya’s War of Liberation.

“SMART DIPLOMACY” (CONT’D): Fact: Bush Had 2 Times More Coalition Partners in Iraq Than Obama Has in Libya.

SOMEWHERE, WILE E. COYOTE IS SMILING: Combining a Jetpack With Skis.

A REPORT ON MOJAVE’S alternative rocketeers.

ASK DR. HELEN: Man Talk: Mainstream Media Giving Men a Bad Name.

I MENTIONED MARKDOWNS ON WATCHES THE OTHER DAY, and I now wonder if they’re desperate. Reader Duke DeLand emails: “April 20th 2009 I removed my wrist watch and it still rests on my bedside table. With my phone always there I found it less-than necessary. Many with whom i talk say the same. Have most of us abandoned watches?”

I still wear a watch. I have a couple of fancy ones I wear for dress occasions (one was my grandfather’s, the other was an anniversary present). But I usually wear a Timex Ironman and I still use it pretty regularly — though the thing I really like about it is the night light, which is bright enough to let me navigate in the dark.

BEAUTY QUEEN shoots home invader.

SECRET LIBYA PSYOPS, caught by online sleuths.

LEE STRANAHAN ON “LOCKSTEP LIBERALISM:” “Some people have asked why I’ve been writing about liberal bias so much lately. The short answer: self-defense. I’ve had the jarring experience of being attacked for what I consider honest intellectual curiosity.” Get used to it, buddy.

OBAMA GHRAIB: They told me if I voted for John McCain, the news would be filled with reports of war and atrocity year after year. And they were right!

I’VE HEARD LAW SCHOOL CALLED A PIE-EATING CONTEST WHERE THE PRIZE IS MORE PIE, but I thought that was just a metaphor.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE has fired Coach Bruce Pearl.

RIGHTHAVEN’S BACKFIRE: “Some 250 Righthaven lawsuits later, Righthaven’s startling achievement is that newspapers now have less — not more — protection from copyright infringers.”