For the past five days, Egyptians have been in the streets protesting, calling for President Mubarak, who has served for thirty years, to step down. It is a very big story. Print media, understandably have trouble keeping up with it because so much is happening so quickly in so many places. Putting up a written story takes time, time to write, time to edit, time to post. Even if you’re lightning fast, print media (and the part of them that is on the Internet) aren’t built for this kind of speed. But what about television?
January 2011 archive
Jan 29 2011
Six In The Morning
A people defies its dictator, and a nation’s future is in the balance
A brutal regime is fighting, bloodily, for its life. Robert Fisk reports from the streets of Cairo
It might be the end. It is certainly the beginning of the end. Across Egypt, tens of thousands of Arabs braved tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades and live fire yesterday to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak after more than 30 years of dictatorship.And as Cairo lay drenched under clouds of tear gas from thousands of canisters fired into dense crowds by riot police, it looked as if his rule was nearing its finish. None of us on the streets of Cairo yesterday even knew where Mubarak – who would later appear on television to dismiss his cabinet – was. And I didn’t find anyone who cared.
Jan 29 2011
Original v. Cover — #62 in a Series
Yet another St. Valentine’s Day will soon descend upon us. Those enchanted by fresh romance will agonize at length, wondering how best to make that day special. Some have spent many years with their beloved, appreciative of the predictability that has replaced the uncertain excitement of days long past. Properly remembering others on that day may derive from desire, a sense of obligation or a confusing combination of the two.
St. Valentine’s Day can also be a gloomy time of year. Thoughts may turn to long ago love affairs, of intoxicating hopes that eventually gave way to bitter disappointment. Yet other musings may drift toward the long hoped-for relationship of a lifetime, that almost happened but didn’t.
The sense of lost opportunity may be the cruelest vexation of all. That potential love interest may have entered our life two weeks or a month before both are to depart for opposite corners of the country. Maybe you met that someone at a particularly difficult time of your life, when you were preoccupied with one of the many crises that life casts upon us, and once the dust settled, that person was gone. Perhaps the most maddening frustrations occur when matters of romance are determined by misleading or incomplete information.
Jan 29 2011
What The People Need
Day by day
People
Gettin’ ready for the news
Some are happy,
Some are sad
Wo, we got to let the music play
Wo, oh yeah
What the people need
Is a way to make ’em smile
It ain’t so hard to do if you know how
Jan 29 2011
Popular Culture 20110128: Left and Right TeeVee Adverts
This piece was partially inspired by a conversation that I had with Kossack smileycreek in the comments after my most recent Pique the Geek installment. That commentor’s sig line included words to the effect that all that the Republicans have is fear.
To a point I agree with that, but I would also add greed to it. Greed has a component of fear in it, since greedy people always have the fear that they will not get enough of whatever their particular greed includes, but is enough of a distinct desire as to be included separately.
On Wednesday past, I logged all of the adverts on two TeeVee shows, Glenn Beck from the FOX “News” Channel, and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. I believe that most would agree that one is pretty right wing, and the other pretty left wing.
Jan 29 2011
Steps Forward, Steps Back
The Human Rights Campaign, which has not always been our friend, has announced that it is sponsoring a Back to Work project seeking to empower unemployed and underemployed transgender people by providing them with the tools and skills they need to have a chance in the current job market.
The inaugural event will be in Boston on February 26-27. Cosponsoring the event are the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth (BAGLY), AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts (AAC) and MassEquality. The event will be hosted by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.
Jan 28 2011
Political Capital For Sale to the World’s “Scuzziest Dictators”
Cross Posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
Rachel Maddow describes several political operatives who have squandered their political clout by representing nefarious overseas actors like Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Jean-Paul “Baby Doc” Duvalier, dictators in places like the Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea and the governments of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia that fund organizations that plot terrorist attacks against the United States and its citizens.
Both Bob Barr and Rudy Guiliani have indicated that they are interested in running for president in 2012.
In a lame defense of Mark Penn, the PR firm, Burson Marsteller, said it was unfair “to tie the company’s current leader to former clients that predated him. Penn joined Burson Marsteller in 2005, years after the junta, Indonesia and Saudia Arabian clients contacted the firm.”
Shortly after the Tuscon shootings, Mr. Penn let loose with this little “bomb” on November 4, 2010 when he told Chris Matthews that what Obama really needs to reconnect to the American electorate is an “Oklahoma City moment”. Both sides are guilty of this kind of political rhetoric but at least the left acknowledges that it has to stop and there is a need for a change in tone.
Jan 28 2011
Obama’s 13526 Mistake: ROTC Censorship
Some might recall the story, reported in early December, on the Columbia University memo to foreign policy students interested in working for the State Department. The memo instructed students to avoid writing or talking about information derived from the WikiLeaks releases. At the time, the government shrugged off the memo and articles as merely a leak by an unnamed source. However, yesterday, Dr. Stephan Zunes, a professor of politics and coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, in an article in the Mercury News, reignited the controversy of the government attempt to censor WikiLeaks material, and more broadly academic freedom, within the ranks of the U.S. Army ROTC program.
Jan 28 2011
Reporting the Revolution: Protests in Egypt with Up Dates x 7
Cross Posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
Mishima is providing the live updates- TMC
Mishima’s live blog
I’ve been awake for 22 hours I’m going to bed- mishima
This Is A Live Blog
- AP reports that the Foreign Ministry has been stormed by protesters
- Port Said has 40,000 protesters in the streets
- Gun Fire can Clearly Be Heard Near The Hilton Hotel
- Protesters have stopped to pray for the last time today
- Military is out in force in Suez
- People in Alexandria are trying to get home to avoid the curfew
- Heavy gun Fire Is Being Reported
- Fires are burning on the 6th of October bridge
- Gun Fire is being reported by Al Jazeera in Cairo
- It Looks as though the NDP building is on FiRE
- Five tanks have entered Suez in an attempt to regain control of Suez
- The power of the People have Over whelmed the Police
- Police riot van has been set alight with protesters trying to dump it into the Nile river
- Mubarak will address the country shortly
News is breaking extremely fast. Both Al Jazeera and CNN are transmitting live images. You can watch the Al Jazeera broadcast live on line. Protests broken out all over Egypt and there are tanks on the streets of Cairo. Reports are that the police have withdrawn from the Alexandria.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Egypt yesterday and it is being reported by numerous news agencies that he has been placed under house arrest
As I am writing this, the commentator is reporting that state security has entered Al Jeezera’s Cairo building in an attempt to shut down their feed. Communications have been hampered in the building. The cutting of cell phone connections and the Internet blackout the past three days is unprecedented and reporters and crews are missing, as per live reports.
It is prayer time and the protesters are organizing for evening prayer and the riot police has back off to give them time to pray.
There are reports of at least one person killed in Cairo and a curfew has been imposed for 6 PM Egyptian time (11 AM EST).
This is a video of clashes on a bridge that took place earlier today.
UP dates will continue as they happen.
Up Date #1: CNN reports that the Egyptian Army has been ordered to take over the security from the police.
Up Date #2: The New York Times has continuous up dates on the protests as they receive them.
Egyptian President is expected to give a live address.
Up Date #3: A curfew went into effect at 6 PM (11 AM) and is being ignored.
Al Jazeera reports that 5 Army tanks have entered Cairo as protesters take over security police armored personnel carriers and police stations, setting them on fire.
Further up dates and videos will be below the fold.
Jan 28 2011
Sen. Murray: To Watch Repubs (T) “like a hawk”
So will I and many many Veterans Senator Murray, so will we!
The recent past is still fresh in the minds, the 108th and 109th Congresses and still ongoing two Wars of Choice, the ‘purple heart bandages’, the ‘magnetic ribbons’ {till they blew off} and lapel flag pins as well as the hate rhetoric which continues. The total lack of Demanding ‘Sacrifice’ from the Country especially in the just completed political campaign season as well as since the start of the 112th Congress. We will be watching, especially, the House, and your Senate colleagues “like a hawk” as well, we already started.