Obama: nation build in America or Libya?

24 March 2011 |permalink | email article

David Kirkpatrick, the Cairo bureau chief for the New York Times raised this question on Monday: “Is the battle for Libya the clash of a brutal dictator against Democratic opposition, or is it fundamentally a tribal civil war? Thomas L. Friedman. The Times’ Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and author raised the stakes, suggesting that what made the Egyptian democratic movement so powerful was that they owned it.

Friedman opines that “we should be doubly cautious of intervening in places that could fall apart in our hands, a la` Iraq, especially when we do not know, a la` Libya, who the opposition groups really are.” His viewpoint sadly, is “we can’t afford it. … If the president is ready to take some big, hard, urgent, decisions, shouldn’t they first be about nation building in America, not Libya?”

Brown’s Budget Crisis

The governor offered a gaggle of reporters on the Capitol steps Wednesday afternoon a fairly daunting comment of the stalled budget talks. “Whichever way I look, I see bears in the forest.” But he faces a ticking clock to make it happen.

As noted by the Capitol Notes Brown would not confirm or deny that he’s thinking of going around legislative Republicans in his quest for a 2011 statewide election on $11 billion in additional revenue in additional tax revenues to balance the budget.

The new twist, if talks fail, means he will have several obstacles to overcome. The bear analogy is significant but June appears dead and the governor would have little time to qualify enough signatures for a November ballot, and waiting for a December or January vote would put off even longer the potential revenue that he needs to budget.

But, as the Sacramento Bee reported, the frugal Brown has an ace in the hole – more than $4 million in the bank according the most recent campaign statements. Its cash left over from his wining campaign against billionaire Meg Whitman last year.

Quotable

“What this country needs is a crazy third world dictator. And Donald Trump has what it takes to be that.” – Daily Show correspondent and comedian Lewis Black supporting Trump’s bid for the White House because people are ready to move on from presidents and give dictators a shot.

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