Saturday photoblogging - back in the high desert

the second of my four flights was delayed arriving in frankfurt yesterday so i had to spend last night there... after my initial pique (united basically slammed the aircraft door in my face after i huffed and puffed up the concourse trying to make the san fran flight), i decided that a decent room, dinner, a good night's sleep, a nice, hot shower and a good b'fast outweighed the inconvenience and gave me a good start today for the remaining two flights... my son picked me up and i was treated to a high desert sunset that was nothing short of magnificent...

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The U.S. is trying to maintain the status quo in Egypt

calling for an "orderly transition" led by omar suleiman is hypocrisy of the most disgusting variety...

some background...

A Familiar Story

Resort to the language of order, stability, incrementalism, and moderation is hardly new and existed well before the events of last week. Not only is it consistent with the basic stance that the Obama administration has taken toward the Middle East from the very outset, but it reflects the long trajectory of American practices in the region, which have depended on shoring up Arab authoritarians who are willing to serve in an American "axis of moderation." The members of this axis -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan -- have displayed little in common other than a commitment to sustaining current U.S. foreign policy priorities - on Israel/Palestine, the containment of Iran, and access to oil. What they pointedly do not share is any tangible commitment to actual moderation - understood as an internal project of democratization or political openness. This latter fact has been powerfully exposed by the nonviolent demonstrations across the region, and, as in the case of Egypt, the increasingly brutal response such protest has elicited from "moderate" allies.

At the heart of American support for such autocrats is a false opposition between chaos and order, with many in Washington arguing that the only way to avoid pervasive regional violence is to maintain the status quo.

i posted earlier that i think the white house proposed "succession plan" is pure and utter bullshit... the egyptian people are giving us an unprecedented example of solidarity and empowerment that simply must be honored and keeping a foot against their collective throats is NOT the way to do it...

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This is what happens these days when you attempt to present "un-spun" news

Al Jazeera’s Cairo office burned down by pro-Mubarak ‘thugs’

Al Jazeera's office in Cairo was stormed by a "gang of thugs" and set on fire along with all the equipment inside it, the Arab news network said Friday.

"It appears to be the latest attempt by the Egyptian regime or its supporters to hinder Al Jazeera's coverage of events in the country," the news network said in a statement.

"In the last week its bureau was forcibly closed, all its journalists had press credentials revoked, and nine journalists were detained at various stages. Al Jazeera has also faced unprecedented levels of interference in its broadcast signal as well as persistent and repeated attempts to bring down its websites."

"We are grateful for the support we have received from across the world for our coverage in Egypt and can assure everyone that we will continue our work undeterred," the statement added.

Al Jazeera also said its website "has been under relentless attack since the onset of the uprisings in Egypt." A banner advertisment on the news network's Arabic-language website was hacked Friday and replaced with a slogan reading, "Together for the collapse of Egypt." The banner linked to a page critical of the network.

you can go to this link to register your desire to see al jazeera offered on u.s. cable and satellite tv services...

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Mubarak is "fed up"...?? Boo-freaking-hoo

pardon my crudity, but what fucking arrogance...

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said he would like to resign immediately but fears the country would descend into chaos if he did so.

In his first interview since anti-government protests began, he told ABC News he was "fed up" with power.

Journalist Christiane Amanpour told the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes that President Mubarak warned that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party would fill any power vacuum if he stepped down.

does the term "douche-bag" fit here...?

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Read the caption on this Al Jazeera screen shot from their coverage of Egypt today [UPDATE]

i'm tellin' ya, it's still giving me chills... i've been waiting to see stuff like this my whole life...



all walks of life, regardless of age, gender or religion... wow...!

[UPDATE]

i'm stuck overnight here in frankfurt after missing a connecting flight back to the u.s. so i'm cooling my heels in a hotel room... i'm watching cnn international on the tv side-by-side with al jazeera streaming on my laptop... the difference in the coverage of egypt couldn't be more dramatic... cnn keeps talking about "to see what's happening in egypt, stay with cnn" but keeps running endless ads and super bowl fluff stories while al jazeera never flinches... it's a stunning comparison...

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"Day of Departure" in Egypt's Tahrir Square

watch on al jazeera here...

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The White House "succession plan" for Egypt is pure bullshit

a transitional government headed by suleiman is no better and in fact may be even worse than letting mubarak stay on... it's just another way for the u.s. to keep propping up dictators, torturers, and generally bad men while keeping its lips glued to israel's ass...

The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.

bullshit, bullshit, bullshit... the anti-government demonstrators in tahrir square ain't gonna buy it and if they do, they're certifiable...

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Israel, Palestine and the Middle East - once again Professor Cole 'splains it all for you

insightful, informed, thoughtful and spot on...

a teaser... go read the whole thing...

The US-backed military dictatorship in Egypt has become, amusingly enough, a Bonapartist state. It exercises power on behalf of both a state elite and a new wealthy business class, some members of which gained their wealth from government connections and corruption. The Egypt of the Separate Peace, the Egypt of tourism and joint military exercises with the United States, is also an Egypt ruled by the few for the benefit of the few.

The whole system is rotten, deeply dependent on exploiting the little people, on taking bribes from the sole superpower to pursue self-defeating or greedy policies virtually no one wants or would vote for in the region.

[...]

As long as the president and the Congress are willing to lie down and serve as doormats for America’s supposed allies in the Middle East– out of a conviction of the usefulness of their clients and the inexpensiveness of putting them on retainer– there will be anti-Americanism and security threats that force us to subject ourselves to humiliating patdowns and scans at the airport and an erosion of our civil liberties every day. We are only one step away of being treated, with “protest zones” and “Patriot Acts” just as badly as the peaceful Egyptian protesters have been.

one step away... just one step away...

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Egyptian state media journalist resigns: "I'm not going to be part of the propaganda machine"

"i'm relieved," she says...

shahira amin resigned her job with egyptian state media - nile television - today because it's not presenting the reality of what's happening...

watch on al jazeera...

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20,000 people on the streets in Sanaa, Yemen

i'm getting those chills up and down my back again...

Over 20,000 take to streets in Yemen "Day of Rage"

More than 20,000 Yemenis filled the streets of Sanaa on Thursday for a "Day of Rage" rally, demanding a change in government and saying President Ali Abdullah Saleh's offer to step down in 2013 was not enough.

Further anti-government protests were expected across Yemen, which Saleh has ruled for over three decades, and supporters of the president were driving around the capital urging Yemenis over loudspeakers to join pro-government counterdemonstrations.

But by early morning, anti-government protesters had already gathered the largest crowd since a wave of protests hit the Arabian Peninsula state two weeks ago, inspired by protests that toppled Tunisia's ruler and threaten Egypt's president.

"The people want regime change," protesters shouted as they gathered outside Sanaa University. "No to corruption, no to dictatorship."

this is some truly awesome shit that's going down...

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McClatchy points out what has become disgustingly obvious

at least one major news outlet has decided to shine a spotlight on the vile, barbaric individual who has been the beneficiary of u.s. support for lo these many years...

Wednesday's crackdown was vintage Mubarak

Not long after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak pledged political reforms and promised not to run for a sixth five-year term, pro-government demonstrators with reported connections to the Egyptian security forces laid siege to a downtown square Wednesday and fought fierce battles with anti-government protesters.

The assault was so well planned that it suggested government orchestration, or at least complicity, according to political observers, who noted that Mubarak backers had been conspicuously silent during a week of massive demonstrations against him.

The strategy of sending in the thugs after making half-hearted promises was vintage Mubarak. The tactic is familiar to political observers, for he's employed the same approach in national elections — assuring Western allies of fair polls and instead rounding up opposition candidates and dispatching foot soldiers to rough up their supporters.

Samer Shehata, an Egypt expert at Georgetown University, said Mubarak has used such tactics for years to break up anti-government demonstrations and to prevent opposition supporters from casting ballots.

right on, mcclatchy...!

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Anti-Mubarak protesters have re-taken Tahrir Square

and more people are joining them, bringing food and medicine... is this amazing or what...?

watch here...

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Juan Cole spells out the big picture of the events in Egypt

professor cole...

On Wednesday, the Mubarak regime showed its fangs, mounting a massive and violent repressive attack on the peaceful crowds in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. People worrying about Egypt becoming like Iran (scroll down) should worry about Egypt already being way too much like Iran as it is. That is, Hillary Clinton and others expressed anxiety in public about increasing militarization of the Iranian regime and use of military and paramilitaries to repress popular protests. But Egypt is far more militarized and now is using exactly the same tactics.

The outlines of Hosni Mubarak’s efforts to maintain regime stability and continuity have now become clear. In response to the mass demonstrations of the past week, he has done the following:

1. Late last week, he first tried to use the uniformed police and secret police to repress the crowds, killing perhaps 200-300 and wounding hundreds.

2. This effort failed to quell the protests, and the police were then withdrawn altogether, leaving the country defenseless before gangs of burglars and other criminal elements (some of which may have been composed of secret police or paid informers). The public dealt with this threat of lawlessness by organizing self-defense neighborhood patrols, and continued to refuse to stop demonstrating.

3. Mubarak appointed military intelligence ogre Omar Suleiman vice president. Suleiman had orchestrated the destruction of the Muslim radical movement of the 1990s, but he clearly was being groomed now as a possible successor to Mubarak and his crowd-control expertise would now be used not against al-Qaeda affiliates but against Egyptian civil society.

4. Mubarak mobilized the army to keep a semblance of order, but failed to convince the regular army officers to intervene against the protesters, with army chief of staff Sami Anan announcing late Monday that he would not order the troops to use force against the demonstrators.

5. When the protests continued Tuesday, Mubarak came on television and announced that he would not run for yet another term and would step down in September. His refusal to step down immediately and his other maneuvers indicated his determination, and probably that of a significant section of the officer corps, to maintain the military dictatorship in Egypt, but to attempt to placate the public with an offer to switch out one dictator for a new one (Omar Suleiman, likely).

6. When this pledge of transition to a new military dictator did not, predictably enough, placate the public either, Mubarak on Wednesday sent several thousand secret police and paid enforcers in civilian clothing into Tahrir Square to attack the protesters with stones, knouts, and molotov cocktails, in hopes of transforming a sympathetic peaceful crowd into a menacing violent mob [emphasis added]. This strategy is similar to the one used in summer of 2009 by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to raise the cost of protesting in the streets of Tehran, when they sent in basij (volunteer pro-regime militias). Used consistently and brutally, this show of force can raise the cost of urban protesting and gradually thin out the crowds.

Note that this step number 6 required that the army agree to remain neutral and not to actively protect the crowds. The secret police goons were allowed through army checkpoints with their staves, and some even rode through on horses and camels. Aljazeera English’s correspondent suggests that the military was willing to allow the protests to the point where Mubarak would agree to stand down, but the army wants the crowd to accept that concession and go home now.

professor cole pretty much confirms my own impressions...

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Descent into chaos in Cairo [UPDATE] [UPDATE II]

not good... watch here...

[UPDATE]

you know, it occurs to me, when i was watching this morning - central european time - the army had just made a public appeal for the protesters to go home and get back to the routine of their daily lives and, at that time, it seemed as though they would take that advice... yes, there were quite a few who were determined to remain in tahrir square steadfast in their demand that mubarak step down NOW, not in 6 months, but overall, things had subsided significantly...

then...

pro-mubarak supporters started showing up and things started to get out of hand... watching al jazeera, several anti-mubarak protesters claim that the pro-mubarak supporters were arriving in government buses, a highly inflammatory move, if true...

in my humble opinion, the pro-mubarak demonstrators - or whoever sent them in - should have left well enough alone... the anti-mubarak faction claims, rightly so, that they had spent several peaceful, incident-free days when, suddenly, in come the thugs... what a shame...

[UPDATE II]

this, a tweet from the nyt's nicholas kristof...

Pro-Mubarak thugs everywhere have same talking points, same signs, same hostility to journalists. An organized crackdown.

this is backed up by sharif kouddous...

We had to disassemble our cameras and hide them in our bags to walk around these thugs. They are attacking journalists, cursing Al Jazeera.

oh, man... that's what i have been thinking ever since this latest development started...

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Internet back up in Egypt

that's according to a tweet from sharif kouddous who's in cairo and has been reporting for democracy now...

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US faithlessness and wilful blindness in the Middle East

marcy wheeler calls my attention to this piece by robert grenier, a retired, 27-year veteran of the cia's clandestine service...

Events in the Middle East have slipped away from us. Having long since opted in favour of political stability over the risks and uncertainties of democracy, having told ourselves that the people of the region are not ready to shoulder the burdens of freedom, having stressed that the necessary underpinnings of self-government go well beyond mere elections, suddenly the US has nothing it can credibly say as people take to the streets to try to seize control of their collective destiny.

All the US can do is "watch and respond", trying to make the best of what it transparently regards as a bad situation.

Our words betray us. US spokesmen stress the protesters' desire for jobs and for economic opportunity, as though that were the full extent of their aspirations. They entreat the wobbling, repressive governments in the region to "respect civil society", and the right of the people to protest peacefully, as though these thoroughly discredited autocrats were actually capable of reform.

They urge calm and restraint. One listens in vain, however, for a ringing endorsement of freedom, or for a statement of encouragement to those willing to risk everything to assert their rights and their human dignity - values which the US nominally regards as universal.

[...]

But there are two things which must be stressed in this regard.

The first is the extent to which successive US administrations have consistently betrayed a lack of faith in the efficacy of America's democratic creed, the extent to which the US government has denied the essentially moderating influence of democratic accountability to the people, whether in Algeria in 1992 or in Palestine in 2006.

The failure of the US to uphold its stated commitment to democratic values therefore goes beyond a simple surface hypocrisy, beyond the exigencies of great-power interests, to suggest a fundamental lack of belief in democracy as a means of promoting enlightened, long-term US interests in peace and stability.

The second is the extent to which the US has simply become irrelevant in the Middle East. It is not that US policy is intentionally evil: After all, regional peace and an end to violence against innocents are worthy goals.

[...]

[T]he US's entire frame of reference in the region is hopelessly outdated, and no longer has meaning: As if the street protesters in Tunis and Cairo could possibly care what the US thinks or says; as if the political and economic reform which president Obama stubbornly urges on Mubarak while Cairo burns could possibly satisfy those risking their lives to overcome nearly three decades of his repression; as if the two-state solution in Palestine for which the US has so thoroughly compromised itself, and for whose support the US administration still praises Mubarak, has even the slightest hope of realisation; as if the exercise in brutal and demeaning collective punishment inflicted upon Gaza, and for whose enforcement the US, again, still credits Mubarak could possibly produce a decent or just outcome; as if the US refusal to deal with Hezbollah as anything but a terrorist organisation bore any relation to current political realities in the Levant.

personally, i think it's a very good thing that "events in the middle east have slipped away from us"... it's about time we realized that the united states is not the be-all and the end-all of what goes on in the world...

watching the events unfolding in cairo have given me both chills at the sheer enormity of what i am witnessing and also a stirring of hope for the future... millions of people standing shoulder to shoulder, men and women, boys and girls, muslims and christians, egyptians and foreigners, standing and chanting in peaceful solidarity, cleaning up after themselves, and nary a leader in sight... to me, this is where we all must find the courage to go...

imagine if what's taking place in egypt transcended national borders, if people across the globe took to the streets demanding freedom from the tyranny of our corrupt, super-rich elites... that's my fondest hope...

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Al Jazeera - the tide is turning

my first real exposure to al jazeera came in afghanistan when it was offered as one of several global news networks - cnn international, bbc world, france 24 - that were carried on the satellite service that provided tv access in the guest house where i was staying... watching al jazeera opened my eyes... they seemed intent on providing truly global coverage and did so at a level of quality and depth that i had not experienced on other global networks and especially not on u.s. domestic services... now it seems as though al jazeera might be close to getting the kind of respect in the united states that has been a long time coming... maybe the respect will be backed up by having some u.s. television cable and satellite providers making it more widely available...

jeremy scahill writing in the nation...

If it weren't for Al Jazeera, much of the unfolding Egyptian revolution would never have been televised. Its Arabic and English language channels have provided the most comprehensive coverage of any network in any language hands-down. Despite the Mubarak regime's attempts to shut it down, Al Jazeera's brave reporters and camera crews have persevered. Six Al Jazeera journalists were detained briefly on Monday, their equipment seized. The US responded swiftly to their detention with the State Department calling for their release. "We are concerned by the shutdown of Al Jazeera in Egypt and arrest of its correspondents," State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley tweeted. "Egypt must be open and the reporters released."

The Obama White House has been intently monitoring al Jazeera's coverage of the Egyptian revolt. The network, already famous worldwide, is now a household name in the US. Thousands of Americans—many of whom likely had never watched the network before—are livestreaming Al Jazeera on the internet and over their phones. With a handful of exceptions, most US cities and states have no channel that broadcasts Al Jazeera. That's because cowardly US cable providers refuse to grant the channel a distribution platform, largely for fear of being perceived as supporting or enabling a network that for years has been portrayed negatively by US officials.

For people who have followed Al Jazeera's history with the US, the fact that it is now perceived by the White House and the American public as a force for democracy and freedom is an ironic, some would say hypocritical, development. The contrast between Washington's posture toward Al Jazeera from the Bush era to the Obama presidency could not be more stark.

as i mentioned in an earlier post, i've been watching al jazeera's livestreaming from egypt and it's been uniformly superb...

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Out of Egypt, a work-around for the internet "kill" switch and Twitter

this is the kind of creativity and technological innovation that gives me hope...

[A] group of hackers is close to delivering software that could turn laptops into low-cost Internet routers—and help protesters organize.

Hours after the government in Egypt shut down that country’s access to the Internet, hackers around the world started banding together to craft some kind of workaround. And one group claims to be only a day or two away from delivering a partial solution.

Their initiative is called the Open Mesh Project and it began when Shervin Pishevar, an Internet entrepreneur in Palo Alto, California, posted a message on Twitter calling for help shipping software into Egypt that could turn regular laptops into low-cost Internet routers, forming what’s known as a “mesh network,” where each computer can route messages along to the others.

and this to assist twitter messages...

Google launched an Internet-free workaround for Twitter users in Egypt, whose Internet and cell phone service has been disabled. ... Working with engineers from Twitter, Google developed a call-in system that allows users to dictate messages over a landline, which are then transcribed and posted.

what a day and it just keeps on coming...!

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It's spreading...!

i don't want to run the risk of overstating what's happening here but i'm not sure that's possible...

AlJazeera: Jordan's King Abdullah dismisses government, names new PM amidst protests

Jordan's King Abdullah has dismissed his government and appointed a new prime minister, AlJazeera reports.

The network says the Jordanian government resigned amid protests in the country.

this is big, no doubt about it...

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I have chills running up and down my spine

i'm watching the al jazeera english live stream from cairo... it's stunning... the world is changing under our feet...

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11% - 18.4M to be exact - of U.S. homes are vacant

damn...! that's a LOT of empty houses...!

Of the nearly 131 million housing units in this country, 112.5 million are occupied. 74.8 million are owned, and that's only dropped by about 30 thousand in the past year. 38 million are rented, but that's up by over a million year over year. That means more new households are choosing to rent.

Now to vacancies. There were 18.4 million vacant homes in the U.S. in Q4 '10 (11 percent of all housing units vacant all year round), which is actually an improvement of 427,000 from a year ago, but not for the reasons you'd think.

The number of vacant homes for rent fell by 493 thousand, as rental demand rose. 471,000 homes are listed as "Held off Market" about half for temporary use, but the other half are likely foreclosures. And no, the shadow inventory isn't just 200,000, it's far higher than that.

So think about it. Eleven percent of the houses in America are empty. This as builders start to get more bullish, and renting apartments becomes ever more popular. Vacancies in the apartment sector have been falling steadily and dramatically, why? Because we're still recovering emotionally from the toll of the housing crash.

Younger Americans have seen what home ownership has done to their friends and families, and many want no part of it. Credit has become very nearly elitist. Home prices, whatever your particular data provider preference might be, are still falling.

i've owned three houses in my life and i can say with absolute certainty that i would never do it again... for one thing, i have no desire to be burdened by a place that i have to maintain, i have no desire to be anchored to one place, particularly one that would sit vacant for half the year at least, and i have zero desire to take on debt of any sort, particularly the long-term mortgage variety... what's more, i've seen that, in most places in the world outside the u.s., owning a home is simply not de rigueur... plus, on top of all that, now that i'm reaping the wisdom of age, i'm seeing just how much mortgage debt is used as a tool of economic enslavement...

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Social networking

a few observations on social networking...

despite my advanced age - 63 - i've generally been and continue to be pretty much up on the latest electronic media and related gadgets... i guess it's a necessity in my line of work where i regularly find myself based for weeks at a time in a wide variety of countries spread across several continents and both northern and southern hemispheres... if i wasn't up on the communication opportunities provided by the internet, i would essentially be up shit creek...

i started this weblog almost six years ago in 2005, a bit behind the pioneers but ahead of many, including most of my peers who, at that time, didn't know a blog from their left cheek...

i put the blog on twitter almost a year ago, so all my blog posts are automatically tweeted but, other than that, i haven't paid much attention to twitter... i've avoided facebook like the plague, i guess because it seems just a little bit too sorority/fraternity-esque for my taste and, at this particular point, i will probably continue to stay away... in truth, the whole notion of "social" in the "social networking" concept leaves me cold...

so, imagine my surprise when i, for no other reason than simple curiosity, started following my twitter home page in mid-january, just prior to leaving for my current assignment here in kosovo... just remembering to bring up my twitter home page required, as you can imagine, a shift in my ingrained web surfing habits, and, once i got into the habit of regularly bringing it up, i initially wasn't overly impressed... yeah, i added some interesting people to follow - glenn greenwald, emptywheel, greg mitchell, and the like - and was interested to see that their tweets often reinforced and amplified their longer pieces i was accustomed to reading in salon and the nation, but nothing in their various tweets struck me as significantly more valuable than what i was accustomed to following on the more traditional sites...

that all changed with the events in tunisia and egypt... what i am experiencing now is the full-blown immediacy of being on the front lines of a major world event in a way that the traditional news media or even the alternative internet news media couldn't possibly deliver... reading the tweets from sharifkouddous, a native egyptian who is tweeting and broadcasting live for democracy now from cairo adds a three-dimensionality to the goings-on that is breathtaking... i now see "social networking," at least the twitter variety, from a completely new perspective and i'm in awe of its power...

ok... i'm a convert...

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Is ElBaradei THE ONE...?

i posted on elbaradei just the other day along with a number of other posts on elbaradei dating back to 2007...

so, the obama administration is wondering if elbaradei is somebody they can deal with...? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...! he's already demonstrated he can stand up to the incessant u.s. line of shit so, if that's a problem for our super-rich elites and their puppets in government, i would guess they're just going to have to suck it up and deal with it...

U.S. Scrambles to Size Up ElBaradei

[...]

[A]s Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the secular opposition on the streets of Cairo have increasingly coalesced around Mr. ElBaradei to negotiate on their behalf, the Obama administration is scrambling to figure out whether he is someone with whom the United States can deal.

so, what's there so "size up" fercryinoutloud...? as near as i can tell, the guy has more integrity in his pinkie finger than most of the louts in the obama administration have in their entire bodies...

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Egypt graffiti

super...

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Today or tomorrow, Mubarak will step down

yeah, well, what the hell do i know... it's just a gut feeling...

Egypt's most prominent democracy advocate took up a bullhorn Sunday and called for President Hosni Mubarak to resign, speaking to thousands of protesters who defied a curfew for a third night. Fighter jets streaked low overhead and police returned to the capital's streets — high-profile displays of authority over a situation spiraling out of control.

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei's appearance in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square underscored the jockeying for leadership of the mass protest movement that erupted seemingly out of nowhere in the past week to shake the Arab world's most populous nation.

"seemingly out of nowhere...?" you gotta be shittin' me...! this has been building for the thirty years of mubarak's reign and has been catalyzed by wikileaks, tunisia and dozens of other recent events and incidents... who does the associated press think they're bullshitting...?

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The screwing of the American people: understanding the banksters and the bailouts

understanding how badly we've been screwed isn't rocket surgery...

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Bill Keller and Wikileaks

as good an analysis as i've read anywhere...

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