LIBYA THIS MORNING – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  Libya is a ghastly scene, from all that we can gather.  It is very hard to get precise information out of that closed country.  Blood is flowing in the streets, but so is the hypocrisy of world" leaders":

CAIRO (AP) — The bodies of slain protesters were left on the streets of the Libyan capital Tuesday and frightened residents hunkered down in their homes as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi sought to crush anti-government demonstrations by shooting on sight anyone outside, residents and an opposition activist said.

Amid the crackdown, a defiant Gadhafi appeared on state TV in the early hours Tuesday to show he was still in charge, brandishing a large umbrella and wearing a cap with fur ear flaps, and denying reports he had left the country.

The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya's eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Gadhafi, and his regime has been hit by a string of defections by ambassadors abroad and even some officials at home. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.

The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, citing sources inside the country, said Tuesday that at least 250 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in the crackdown on protesters in Libya, though its officials said the true number was not known.

Sickening.  The high commissioner for what?  Libya sits on the UN's "Human Rights Council."  Even though a total dictatorship, there was no serious challenge to its membership.  Hey, oil talks.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has put the toll at at least 233 killed, based on contacts with Libyan hospitals — but their toll did not include casualties from crackdowns in Tripoli since Sunday night, a sign of the difficulty of getting information out of the highly closed North African Nation.

The head of the U.N. agency, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation, saying widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population "may amount to crimes against humanity."

We're so deeply impressed by her sudden concern.  This woman is one of the biggest collaborators with evil at the UN.  Is she shocked, shocked, by the brutal putdown of demonstrators? 

The first major protests to hit an OPEC country — and major supplier to Europe — sent oil prices soaring to more than $93 a barrel Tuesday, and the industry has begun eyeing reserves touched only after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 1991 Gulf War.

Let's be blunt:  That's all most people care about when the word "Libya" comes up.

World leaders also have expressed outrage. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Gadhafi to "stop this unacceptable bloodshed" and said the world was watching the events "with alarm."

Please notice that Barack Hussein Obama Jr. has not issued a single statement.  He was very quick to condemn Mubarak, an American ally, and quicker still to condemn Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin.  But when it comes to enemies, Obama is out to an extended lunch.  It is a revolting spectacle to watch.

And Secretary Clinton's statement did not even call for regime change.  What an absurd, embarrassing administration.

February 22, 2011