Obama cannot be a leader on human rights by refusing to challenge a military that, for years, used forced nudity like they’re using with Manning as part of systemic abuse of alleged terrorists.

The team at MichaelMoore.com is streaming live video all day long from protests in Lansing, the latest site to see a backlash to Republican-led efforts to weaken the rights of workers. Moore says that over 6,000 protesters occupied the Rotunda in the Capitol as of an hour ago. About a thousand stayed overnight last night.

Barack Obama can’t possibly be this lucky.

This is great. Mary Meeker has a report out called USA Inc, telling us all why Social Security benefits should be cut for the good of America. “By 2037, cumulative deficits from Social Security could add another $11.6 trillion to the public debt,” warns the cautious and prudent-sounding Meeker.

I’ll leave it to the wonks to rip apart her latest bag o’ bullshit and her hallmark brand of fact-stuffing, but in case anyone has forgotten about the role Meeker played in the dot-com boom, let me remind you.

Randy Hopper, one of the eight Republican Wisconsin State Senators likely to face a recall by the summer, has no shortage of problems.

Frantic efforts continue to get cooling water into all six units at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Generation Station. At units 1-3, they are attempting to inject sea water into or around the reactor vessel. Authorities say the core in Units 1 and 2 were fully uncovered in the last 48 hours and may still be partially uncovered, suggesting that fuel and cladding melting may be continuing.

This was the first televised address by Emperor Akihito ever.

Early Wednesday morning (BH time) “security forces” launched a multi-pronged attack, destroying the encampment at the Pearl Roundabout where about 500 protesters were located — and attacking neighborhoods where protesters live.

With all of the attention on Japan in the past few days, I missed the scheduled hearing date of March 14 for Raymond Davis’ immunity question to be settled. It turns out the Lahore High Court punted on that issue on the 14th, and referred the immunity question back to the criminal trial which was underway but in recess. Today, however, Davis was released after payment of blood money to the surviving family members of his victims. This is likely not to go over well in Pakistan, where a group of ex-military members yesterday called for Davis to be waterboarded, in order to eliminate his “network”.

• In Japan, there’s no end in sight.
• Radiation suspends salvage efforts at Fukushima.
• An eerie flashback to WWII.
• GOP getting sick of Teabaggers.
• I blame the lamestream media.
• Are you a member?