- Guten Morgen! New York Times "visual op-ed" columnist Charles Blow has a new Blow Chart about the awful state of our union -- and it's quite revelatory, but only if you didn't already know that the United States is an impoverished banana republic with millions of non-violent offenders locked up in overcrowded prisons forever. (We suck at Maths, too.) And now there will probably be deep cuts to education and basic social services, a final "screw you" to the 99% of Americans who are not Satan-worshiping war merchants. (But actually, this is the only way to reduce wasteful government spending!) [NYT]
And in Libya: Protesters have taken control of Benghazi. At least 223 demonstrators have been killed by security forces, according to Human Rights Watch. Meanwhile, Gadhafi's son warned of "civil war" during a not-very-popular televised address. [NYT]
More violence in Yemen (twelve killed since Thursday). Protesters are marching silently in Iran, in hopes of not being murdered. [Al Jazeera]
