Obama plans futile gesture in response to Libyan crackdown

Via Politico:

The White House came down hard on Muammar Gaddafi on Friday as it announced sanctions on Libya intended to send the message that the regime needs to stop hurting its people and start listening to them.

The exact nature of the sanctions will not be announced until Monday, but there is little we sell of value to Muammar Gaddafi; except for some aircraft parts and non-lethal military equipment. Lethal hardware is already banned. We currently buy next to nothing in oil from Libya. White House press secretary Jay Carney claims sanctions are effective.

Sanctions on regimes like Libya's "have been shown to have an effect," he said.

Sanctions have been shown to be effective on dictatorial regimes? Well, they worked so well on former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. and they have worked well getting Iran's President Ahmadinejad to abandon his nuclear weapon ambitions.