Yesterday I watched French jets take out four Libyan tanks in the first maneuver  over the new no-fly zone, approved last week by the U.N.  About time the French stepped up.

But today it appears to have fallen upon the U.S. once again to do the hard, thankless, dangerous and forever equivocal work of “taking out” Ghadaffi’s resources.  I just saw a stat that we’ve dropped forty bombs.

As usual, polemicists around the world are trash-talking the U.S., saying it’s all about our lust for oil. And no one, especially those who have the balls to do this dirty work, wants civilian casualties.

I don’t think it’s about the oil, however convenient it is to cast the U.S. as so greedy we would use the Libyan crisis to force a hidden agenda.   I think it’s about coming to the assistance of people making a bid for freedom, many of whom the Libyan regime has already wiped out.  Time will tell.

In other news: Obama & company in Brazil.  Michelle Obama and her daughters looked fabulous.  Melea was tugging at the clingy hem of her dress deplaning Air Force One.  Cute.

I’ve been thinking about how Obama has withstood the bashings and now bears up under numerous crises, seemingly cool as a cucumber.  I’m proud of him; I continue to admire and respect him.

No one would question anything about his legitimacy if he weren’t black.  Is that not glaringly and pathetically obvious at this point.  Anyone who believes the Huckabees, Limbaughs and Becks of the world– the Palins, the Bachmans, needs to have a CAT scan.

My happy:  a number of people are reading Nightfall in Verona as I put up a new chapter each day.  What happens when three hippie chicks rendevous in Frankfurt and buy a VW bus?  Read my blogged memoir to find out, and many thanks!