It’s only cause we’re defending the Libyan people from a tyrant! That’s why we bombed the Saudis last wk! Hahaha. Pentagon=comedy

Later on, though, he didn’t seem to so much disagree with the action, so much as wished it had been done sooner?

Too little, too late. So NOW we try 2 help the Libyans after Khaddafy has retaken most of country? Really just a big show, isn’t it?

He also took a shot at supporters of military action who suddenly like French diplomacy again:

And we always follow the French’s lead! Next thing you know, we’ll have free health care & free college! Yay war!

But then, Moore channeled the entire staff of Big Journalism, winging Obama’s Nobel Prize win, and zinging the President over his trip to Brazil:

May I suggest a 50-mile evacuation zone around Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize? #returnspolicy

Who starts a war in Africa then heads off to South America? Is that weird, or is he just loaded with that much cool?

Moore also repeatedly compared the Libya policy with Iraq and Afghanistan:

& what better day 2 start a war than the same day we bombed Baghdad &began the IraqWar, 8yrs ago 2day. Don’t ever say we’re not sentimental!

Finally, Moore seems to think that every Middle Eastern revolution is exactly the same, and that US foreign policy is, by rule, be forever set in stone:

Our job is 2 prop up Arab dictators (Saudi, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, etc), not overthrow them & everyone in Arab world knows it

So knock off “it’s our moral obligation 2 defend ppl of Libya.” After Iraq & Afghan & support of dictators, we have no moral standing.

The situation in Libya, and the larger crises unfolding in the Middle East, are complex, and ought to be the subject of vigorous debate, but it’s usually liberals like Michael Moore who argue for a nuanced understanding of these issues, rather than simplistic, knee-jerk reactions like this. Moore’s tirade proves nothing more than that he is no more deserving of a seat at the grown-ups table than the bumper-sticker lunkheads against whom he normally rails.

Speaking at a Manchester Republican Committee fundraiser, Giuliani said he hasn’t decided yet whether he will again seek the GOP nomination. But he sounded a lot like a candidate, calling Obama’s handling of the uprising in Libya in the last week the worst foreign policy-decision making – or lack thereof – he’s ever seen.

When France proposed instituting a no-fly zone, “Our president, the leader of the free world, said, ‘A what? That’s hard! A no fly zone is r-r-r-really hard!’ ” Giuliani said to laughter.

He made the remarks at a fundraising event before a throng of tens of New Hampshire Republicans, each of whom received a “Never Forget” pin as a door prize, and perhaps as a mnemonic aid for Hizzoner.

The crisis in Libya is, of course, a subject of legitimate debate, with Republicans like Giuliani and Newt Gingrich (R- GA) favoring unilateral action by the US, while their GOP colleague Dick Lugar (R-IN) favors more “dithering” (he calls it “congressional debate”), and Defense Secretary Robert Gates (a Bush administration holdover) expressing strong reservations about US intervention. On the Democratic side, Sen. John Kerry (R-MA) has pushed hard for a no-fly zone, while many congressional Democrats agree with Lugar that Congress needs to authorize US military action in Libya.

So far, though, Giuliani is the only one to raise the all-important issue of alleged speech tics, perhaps as an homage to Best Picture Oscar winner The King’s Speech. Giuliani’s shot at the President drew fire from liberal television exile (for the moment) Keith Olbermann, who expressed his outrage in the most logical fashion imaginable:

I’d like to thank the Mayor for thus giving me implicit permission to resume doing my impression of how he stammers and spits and shlobbers whenever he talks, when I return to television in late spring.

Idiot.

That’s right, folks, the best way to highlight the pettiness and immaturity of Giuliani’s Obama impression is with a petty, immature impression of Rudy Giuliani. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait until Keith’s Current TV debut to see it: (From Aug. 7, 2008 edition of Countdown)

Olbermann goes on to recount his first-ever encounter with Giuliani, in which then-Mayor Giuliani was supposed to introduce then-Sportscenter co-host Keith Olbermann at an event at City Hall. I don’t want to ruin the story, but it ends with an unfavorable comparison of Giuliani with former Gov. Sarah Palin.

The Libya portion of Rudy Giuliani’s speech isn’t available just yet, but here’s a clip of the last five minutes or so, in which he praised the Tea Party, tried to mend some fences with rising GOP star Chris Christie (R-NJ), whom Giuliani criticized for his absence during a blizzard in January, and “confessed” to some faint praise of fellow 2008 also-ran Hillary Clinton. He also expressed regret that he didn’t spend more time in New Hampshire in 2008, which some may view as pandering, but is actually a sincere wish to be close to his beloved Red Sox:

Reporting for Bloomberg News, Nicole Gaulette writes:

“Let’s talk straight realpolitik,” Clinton said. “We are in a huge competition” for global influence and global markets. She described countries circling around huge new oil discoveries in the south Pacific. “China is there every day, figuring out how they’re going to come in behind us, come in under us,” she said.

She also said the U.S. had to do more to communicate its values and spread its influence to the rest of the world through government-backed media, such as Al-Hurrah Television, which broadcasts in the Arab world.

“We are engaged in an information war and we are losing that war,” she said. China and Russia have started multi- language television networks, she said, even as the U.S. cuts back in this area. “We are paying a big price” for dismantling international communications networks after the end of the Cold War, Clinton said.

During the recent upheaval in Egypt that led to the shocking resignation of Hosni Mubarak, American’s interested in following the most comprehensive coverage of the incredibly fluid story were left only to watch the online streaming broadcast of Al Jazeera English. This brought a chorus of concerned media critics reasonably clamoring for U.S. cable carriers to provide Al Jazeera English, instead of, say, a fifth Home Shopping Network.

But the stakes are considerably higher when the individual in charge of U.S. diplomatic affairs is saying that our private media entities are effectively getting their asses handed to them by our foreign competitors, though to be fair, its not the role of private media to take a stake in U.S. diplomatic efforts.

Watch the clip embedded below courtesy of C-Span:

(H/T Business Insider)

“Now, I think since the election, my understanding is that the meetings that President Obama has had have certainly had an element of reaching out. And I think that has been appreciated,” Lugar said.

Lugar also talked about struggles within the Republican Party: “Of course, because many would say — and have said — that why do anything President Obama wants? It simply gives him a victory. And therefore we’re the party of no. Now, I think some of us said no, we are not the party of no. We must never be the party of no.”

Watch the video from CNN’s State of the Union below:

Alexandra Kerry, daughter of alleged 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, was arrested last night in Hollywood over an alleged DUI. Alexandra Kerry also wore a see-through dress some years ago (left; censored). When this finishes bubbling up to become the ‘big story’ that it inevitably will, how will the pundits spin it?

First: the “alleged” is because, as Wonkette put it, Kerry “reportedly refused the copper’s field DUI test. So by the time she got to the station, she was only .06, and you need .08 for DUI.” So it’s unclear if there will be any further legal precussions, and according to TMZ’s “inside word,” it’s flat-out unlikely.

Second: drunk driving is of course an awful, potentially deadly offense. But the opportunism with which the media leaps on this sort of happening is in its own way offensive. A few possible “angles” for Alexandra Kerry’s arrest:

Angle: Bush Twins-related shouting match
Connection: Kerry ran against Bush in the 2004 election; Bush’s daughters were arrested for fake i.d.’s and underage alcohol possession.

Angle: Dick Lugar’s wife-related shouting match
Connection: Republican Indiana Senator Dick Lugar’s wife, Charlene, was also arrested for a DUI last night. Though in her case, it wasn’t “alleged;” she was picked up by police after crashing into a parked car.

Angle: She’s like the Kennedys!
Connection: Alexandra Kerry’s father, like departed Senators John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, is a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts. Many members of the Kennedy clan reportedly had drug and alcohol abuse problems.

Aren’t these manufactured debates and angles precious? Here’s a brief AP segment about the arrest: