Egyptians Take the Streets, Mubarak Fires Ministers, Obama Speaks (live blog)
Posted: January 28, 2011 Filed under: Barack Obama, Breaking News, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Diplomacy Nightmares, Egypt, Foreign Affairs | Tags: Egypt protests, Hosni Mubarak, oil prices, Stock Market, US presidential statement on Egypt, US response 61 CommentsUS President Barack Obama is preparing for a press conference and statement following Egyptian President’s Hosni 
Mubarak’s earlier TV appearance on Nile Television. No questions for Mubarak. How about Obama?
markknoller Mark Knoller
Pres. Obama willl be making his statement with the famous portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the wall behind him.
Other US reactions:
Equity Markets fall while Oil Prices rise.
Crude oil prices spiked Friday as anti-government protests in Egypt sparked concerns over regional stability.
Prices settled just shy of $90 a barrel, for an increase of more than 4%.
Clinton Urges Egypt to Seize Moment `Immediately’ for Reforms
The Obama administration is ramping up pressure on President Hosni Mubarak to address the grievances of the Egyptian people and said the government’s response to protests may affect U.S. aid.
“The people of Egypt are watching the government’s actions, they have for quite some time, and their grievances have reached a boiling point and they have to be addressed,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in Washington. The U.S. will be looking at its “assistance posture” toward Egypt, Gibbs said.
Starting with an early afternoon statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the U.S. today toughened its criticism of Mubarak’s methods in suppressing protests that pose the biggest challenge to his 30-year rule over the Arab world’s most populous country.
“For the U.S., any effort on our part to provide support for Mubarak is going to be read in Egypt as support for a crackdown and support for an undemocratic regime,” said Steven Cook, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “We need to be forward looking for this.”
More than 80 percent of U.S. aid to Egypt, or $1.3 billion, is in the form of military assistance, according to data supplied by the U.S. State Department. With President Barack Obama in power, military aid has stayed unchanged and economic assistance has been cut to $250 million from $411 million in 2008 with the phasing out of democracy-linked programs.
The amount of money Egypt receives from the U.S. is exceeded only by Afghanistan, Pakistan and Israel, based on the State Department’s budget request for the current fiscal year.
Senator John Kerry is talking on AJ right now. He’s encouraging Mubarak to make changes. He’s also saying it’s not constructive right now to focus on negatives but positives. He’s saying Mubarak has opportunities. Wonder if this will be what Obama says …
ON NOW … 6:31 EST. It’s on CNN, etc.
UPDATE: President Obama’s statement via MSNBC.
AJ has a front row seat to this via a bureau there. BTW, take a look at how many silly Americans are leaving best wishes comments to Egyptians on this media outlet that is headquartered in Doha, Qatar and run/owned by folks from there. Such a geography #FAIL. On top of that, Egypt can’t get access to the internet right now. (Palm meet forehead!)
CSM: “Inspired by Tunisia, Egypt’s protests appear unprecedented”
Posted: January 25, 2011 Filed under: Breaking News, Egypt, Foreign Affairs, Lebanon, Middle East, The Media SUCKS, Tunisia | Tags: 2011: days of revolt 43 Comments
Egyptians protest in central Cairo today. Photograph: Khaled El Fiqi/EPA (Click image for live updates from the Guardian)
Good afternoon everyone. I wanted to put up a quick thread of the headlines and developments coming out of Egypt so we have a place for us to discuss and keep adding more links as they become available. It’s a true shame that Obama’s upcoming SOTU is driving so much of the news coverage today, not to mention a convenient distraction since “power to the people of the Middle East” doesn’t exactly fit the Western media’s narrative. Take a look at what is going on–it is simply incredible.
Guardian: “Protests in Egypt and unrest in Middle East – live updates”
CSM: “Inspired by Tunisia, Egypt’s protests appear unprecedented”
NYT: “Broad Protests Across Egypt Focus Fury on Mubarak”
BBC: “Egypt protests: Clashes in Cairo on ‘day of revolt’”
BBC: “Anger of protesters in Cairo ‘surprised police‘”
BBC: “Egypt protests: Three reported dead in ‘day of revolt’”
Looks like censors are hard at work trying to stop the twitter revolution:
WaPo: “Twitter blocked in Egypt as protests turn violent (Video)”
Heredict.org is tracking the reports of twitter outage in Egypt today (H/T Minkoff Minx who found the heredict.org link via the AFP’s report on the twitter blockage)
Live Tweets
Nonetheless, the revolution continues to be tweeted. Check out Blogs of War for live tweets (H/T Taylor Marsh)
Another good place to check for updates: Ahram online
via the WaPo link above — “Live updates: Opposition groups protest on Police Day… Ahram Online will be posting updates about planned protests by opposition activists in Cairo and elsewhere”
Also, some links on Lebanon’s Day of Rage…
Guardian: “Lebanon protesters clash with army over new Hezbollah-backed PM… Supporters of previous prime minister, Saad Hariri, clash with troops and burn tyres as Najib Miqati assumes office”
Guardian: “Lebanon’s ‘day of rage’ – in pictures”
NYT: “Amid Protests, Ex-Lebanon Leader Assails New Premier”
And, on Tunisia…
LA Times: “Key diplomat says U.S. approves of Tunisia revolt… Jeffrey D. Feltman, assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, says Washington has offered Tunisia ‘whatever support is appropriate and requested’ in conducting a nationwide election.”
Update –Video on Cairo protests posted on youtube by Al Jazeera English a couple hours ago:
Update 2 — see the twitter/live tweet section above. I added some links.
Update 3 — Amazing Photo (Egypt, Jan 25) circulating on twitter:
Now, isn’t this special?
Posted: January 24, 2011 Filed under: Breaking News, U.S. Politics | Tags: Chicago mayor race, Rahm Emanuel eligibility 66 Comments
Breaking News:
Rahm Emanuel booted off ballot in 2-1 Appellate Court decision
Rahm Emanuel was thrown off the ballot for mayor of Chicago today by an appellate court panel, a stunning blow to the fund-raising leader in the race.
An appellate panel ruled 2-1 that Emanuel did not meet the residency standard to run for mayor.
Appellate judges Thomas Hoffman and Shelvin Louise Marie Hall ruled against Emanuel. Justice Bertina Lampkin voted in favor of keeping President Obama’s former chief of staff on the Feb. 22 ballot.
“It’s a surprise,” said Kevin Forde, the attorney who argued on Emanuel’s behalf.
Emanuel’s attorneys are expected to use Lampkin’s dissenting opinion to appeal the case to the Illinois Supreme Court.
In today’s ruling, Hoffman wrote: “We … order that the candidate’s name be excluded (or if, necessary, be removed) from the ballot from Chicago’s Feb. 22, 2011.”
Notable Tweets:
ThePlumLineGS Greg Sargent
RT @brianbeutler BREAKING: Chicago fish-markets experience unprecedented Monday sales. #rahm
daveweigel daveweigel
Money well spent, Rahm donors!
daveweigel daveweigel
Can’t Obama just take over the city and make Rahm the Chicago Czar?
@PachacutecVA Pachacutec
Somewhere, Nancy Pelosi is trying not to smile in public #rahm
Update:
Rahm at a just held presser. Some how I think we need a caption contest for this. He looks like the pissed off Staypuft marshmallow man to me
Jessica Yellin at CNN:
Emanuel is expected to appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court, and a federal appeal could follow.
According to a recent Chicago Tribune/WGN survey, 44 percent of the city’s voters backed Emanuel, 21 percent backed former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and 16 percent backed former Chicago Board of Education president Gery Chico. City Clerk Miguel del Valle received seven percent and nine percent remained undecided.
Emanuel is expected to speak at 2:30 p.m. ET. Moseley Braun is expected to make a statement at 3:30 p.m. ET Monday.
The source close to the Emanuel campaign told CNN his legal team anticipated there was a chance the court would rule against them and they have an emergency appeal already written.
Oops. She did it again.
Posted: January 12, 2011 Filed under: Breaking News, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Crime, Gun Control, Hillary Clinton: Her Campaign for All of Us, the blogosphere, the internet, U.S. Politics | Tags: Blood Libel, Glenn Beck, Nazi Tourettes, Tuscon massacre 98 Comments
Click on Max Headroom for a great Wired read on How Max Headroom Predicted the Demise of TV Journalism
While I was doing some grant writing, the Palin video detailing her supposed victimization during the events surrounding the Tucson Massacre was scrubbed. It’s amazing how many things disappear from there these days.
benpolitico Ben Smith
Weird – Palin video’s gone. http://is.gd/npdcKe
The phrase “blood libel” was introduced into the debate this week by Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds, and raised some eyebrows because it typically refers historically to the alleged murder of Christian babies by Jews, and has been used more recently by Israeli’s supporters to refer to accusations against the country. It’s a powerful metaphor, and one that carries the sense of an oppressed minority.
This morning, Palin launched an aggressive Facebook and web-video campaign to counter what she deemed a “blood libel” against her by the media to connect her infamous cross-hairs map and other right-wing incendiary rhetoric to violence.Of all the terms Palin could have used, from “defamation” to even “implicating me in murder,” why did Palin choose “blood libel”? As the conservative National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, who says he “agree[s] entirely with…Palin’s, larger point,” notes, “Historically, the term is almost invariably used to describe anti-Semitic myths about how Jews use blood — usually from children — in their ritual.” Indeed, many Jews consider the term extremely offensive, and the Anti-Defamation League and other prominent Jewish organizations have spoken out against its use dozens of occasions in the past.
Indeed, Jewish groups are taking offense to Palin’s choice of the term. Noting that accusations of blood libel have been “directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries,” the National Jewish Democratic Council condemned Palin’s use of the term:
Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a “blood libel” against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today. […]
All we had asked following this weekend’s tragedy was for prayers for the dead and wounded, and for all of us to take a step back and look inward to see how we can improve the tenor of our coarsening public debate. Sarah Palin’s invocation of a “blood libel” charge against her perceived enemies is hardly a step in the right direction.
Likewise, the president of the pro-Israel, pro-peace Jewish lobby J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said he was “saddened by Governor Palin’s use of the term ‘blood libel,’” adding that he hopes “she will choose to retract her comment [and] apologize“:
Could this be the reason the video’s been scrubbed? moved to a less prominent place? (updated, see note below)
White Terrorist Apologia
Posted: January 9, 2011 Filed under: Breaking News, John Birch Society in Charge, Surreality, The Media SUCKS, Violence against women | Tags: Jared Loughner, Juan Cole, libertarian and militia extremists, right wing apologia, White male terrorism 80 Comments
Professor Juan Cole has written a powerful piece on White Terrorism that explains why Tuscon shooter Jared Loughner’s shooting spree was a political act. Loughner was undoubtedly mentally ill. He was rejected by Army recruiting because of drug use. Disturbing accounts of his behavior while attending community college are now being reported by the press. He was clearly a ticking time bomb with access to high powered weapons. All of these, however, do not change the basic political nature of his closing diatribes on MySpace and on Youtube. The right wing is trying to use one cite of The Communist Manifesto as a favorite book to frame him as a leftie when evidence is becoming more clear that he was probably an extremist libertarian. The two most outspoken libertarians at the moment are Glenn Beck and Ron Paul. They are not leftist or Democratic. They are happily situated in the Right Wing of the Republican party.
Apologia for white terrorism is every where today and coming from the usual suspects. High among them is any media outlet with Rupert Murdoch financing and ownership. Remember all the right wing outrage over the Homeland Security report citing the possible increase in young, white male domestic terrorism?
(U//FOUO) The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.
I’ve included Glenn Beck’s reaction to the report. Listen to the characteristics he describes as harmless and considers patriotic, then think, hmmm, does this sound like the Tucson Shooter to you? Do you honestly believe that some young man starting to go over the edge to insanity can’t listen to this and feel empowered? Jerrod Loughner looks like the archetype for lone wolf extremist. The Feds are currently investigating his ties to Pro-White racist organizations. Specifically, the “American Renaissance”. Jerrod Loughner’s rants were parcel and part of the current Bircher Bunch’s diatribes against the Federal Government
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