…for dictators in distress:

To ensure that the president does not focus unduly on your war, schedule it while he is preoccupied with other matters: a Motown concert, a conference on bullying, his golf game, and finalizing his Final Four picks.

Consider restarting your nuclear program, since the conditions that caused you to suspend it are gone. At most, the president will form a committee of several nations to talk to you; he will consider more sanctions if the world speaks as one. You need not worry about his “deadlines.”

Teddy Roosevelt talked about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. This president thinks that you declare things “unacceptable,” and then go pick your brackets.

[Update a few minutes later]

The noose tightens. But not Barack Obama’s.

[Update a few minutes more later]

Some (uncomfortable) questions for Jay Carney:

1) What did the president mean when he said that Colonel Whathisname’s behavior was “unacceptable”? Has he changed it in any way for the better? If not, what does the president propose to do to not accept it?

2) What did the president means when he said that “the noose is tightening” around Colonel Whathisname? Was it around his neck, or his waist, or his wrist? Or his shirt that he’s since taken off? Is it still tightening, or is it loosening again?

…and while Colonel Whathisname continues to slaughter the people over whom he rules, the president is focused on the serious things:

Via Mike Allen’s newsletter, we see in the first line how the leader of the free world will spend his day during this awful crisis:

President Obama is taping his NCAA picks today, and they’ll be revealed tomorrow on ESPN.

Okay, that’s not all he’s doing. “Obama will tape interviews from the Map Room with KOAT Albuquerque, KDKA Pittsburgh and WVEC Hampton Roads on education reform and the need to fix No Child Left Behind.”

Japan faces an almost unparalleled crisis, Libya is in civil war, and we’re having another budget showdown after running up a $222.5 billion deficit in the 28 days of February. And after last week’s bullying summit, Obama is spending this week talking education reform.

I have to say, though, that I actually agree with this comment:

I’m not sure if it is more dangerous for America that he do nothing or do something. Generally, if you have a dysfunctional child who lights fires all over the neighborhood, it makes you happy when he is just sitting in the corner scribbling on paper. Maybe we should just leave little Barry in the corner with his pencil and bracket sheet and count ourselves blessed.

In case any of you are wondering about my bracket, I don’t have one. Basketball is evil. On this there can be no dispute.

It would be easy to think that Colonel Whathisname paid off Robert Mugabe, but I suspect that he just doesn’t like the potential precedent.

Drop dead:

Administration officials declined to explain why they have not reached out to groups of liberal-minded Muslims. “Federal Departments and Agencies engage with a wide variety of Muslim organizations and groups throughout the country, often through open forums and meetings and we have also consulted a wide variety of academics and researchers about the views of Muslims in America,” according to a March 8 statement from White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro.

Among the Muslim groups with the greatest access to the White House are MPAC, based in Los Angeles, and the Islamic Society of North America, based in Plainfield, Ind. MPAC is an advocacy group with few members, and ISNA is a umbrella group for many groups and mosques that practice orthodox Islam, which mandates the subordination of democratic governments to Islamic rules.

Leftists like to fly the false flag of “liberal,” but they’re really not.

[Update a while later]

How today’s “liberals” betray yesterday’s.