Well, originally Dr. Steven Chu was scheduled for the full Ginsberg but he got bumped off a couple shows by Adm. Mike Mullen. Needless to say, the big stories today are Libya and Japan, with a little Budget thrown in for luck. Many of the same-old same-olds are scheduled to enlighten you.

Locally, we have Marcy Wheeler appearing with Joe Wilson on Virtually Speaking. Have questions for them? California Sherry will pass them on for you.

Foreshocks! I marveled at this animation of the earthquake swarm around Japan, it goes from March 9th to March 14th, the 9.0 was March 11, 2011. We are all hoping for the best for Fukushima Fifty but it’s grim.

Super Snooper and Blabber Mouse — Slippery Glass Slipper. This Hanna-Barbara cartoon first aired as a segment on The Quick Draw McGraw Show on December 22, 1959.

“Audacity Dawn”…? Fantastic. Now our wars have porn names. Though, I suppose, fair enough; shows how we’re properly fucked. Ho ho ho. Anyway, over the past week I’ve been savoring the piquancy of our New American Reality, namely, that in every imaginable area save one, whenever it is proposed that the government commence or continue [...]

Sixty-four Senators, half from each party, expressed their desire to have the President take up tax and entitlement reform this year, as part of budget negotiations.

Are there no workhouses? Are there no poorhouses?

Clearly, the GOP neighbors of Wisconsin’s Scott Walker intend to outdo him for meanness and humiliation. Republican legislators in Minnesota have introduced a bill to criminalize carrying cash for anyone on public assistance.

After Tucson, Arizona Shootings” (Sam Stein). It’s like Obama wants to check the box on every issue without sacrificing any political capital. The record is clear – Great speech (check), solid policy statement (check), no political capital expended (check). Likewise with the Wisconsin protest, if we were to look at the record, Obama made statements supporting the Unions (check), no political capital expended (check).

Anyone who thinks that a strategic default campaign can get off the ground, that people will downshift into thinking about their homes as a pure business decision, are quite wrong in my view. It’s part of the American character. And the bank PR machine has very skillfully characterized anyone who doesn’t pay their mortgage as a “deadbeat.” None of this is true, but it animates everything around the issue.

David Sirota has written a wonderful new book with an expansive Theory of Our Zeitgeist: that the toxic 1980s — as well as our current culture’s funhouse-mirror view of that warped decade — are still poisoning our country. His powerful argument will be familiar to Firepups: the adulation of Ronald Reagan, along with our renewed taxcut fetish, admiration of greed, and mainstreaming of militarism have ruined any chance of restoring balance to our nation’s income inequity and spoiled our planet’s chance for peace, harmony and (possibly) survival.

Reports are pouring in that the US has begun operations against Gadaffi forces in Libya. The US is firing Tomahawk missiles and explosions have been heard in Tripoli but details cannot be confirmed. President Obama has issued a statement saying that “Today I authorized a limited military action in Libya… We cannot stand idly by…”

Despite predictions by some prominent Democrats that the popularity of health care reform would soar after passage, one year after it was signed by President Obama, support for the law has actually dropped slightly. According to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 42 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the law while 46 percent view it unfavorably.