February 4, 2011 archive

from firefly-dreaming 4.2.11

Regular Daily Features:

Essays Featured Friday, February 4th:

Today on The Stars Hollow Gazette

Our regular featured content-

And these articles-

Along with Translator’s weekly feature Popular Culture.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

Reporting the Revolution: The Day of Departure Update:1800 hrs EST

This is a Live Blog and will be updated as the news is available. You can follow the latest reports from AL Jazeera English and though Mishima’s live blog, our news editor.

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

class=”BrightcoveExperience”>The Guardian has a Live Blog that refreshes automatically every minute.

Al Jazeera has a Live Blog for Feb 4

As you can see we now have the live feed from Al Jazeera English.

Today was the largest protest against the Mubarak regime that has been stages yet. Vowing not to leave Tahrir Square in Cairo until Mubarak is gone. The day has been relatively peaceful and there have been only small clashed with the military establishing order keeping the pro-Mubarak supporters out of the square and re-instituting searches for weapons as people entered the square. Night is falling and thousands still remain.

The attacks on the independent news media continues with the burning of the Al Jazeera offices with all their equipment destroyed and Al Jazeera reporters beaten and arrested. The major American news media has taken refuge in hotels as it is completely unsafe for them on the streets. Also reporters from the New York Times, the BBC and others have also been detained and threatened.

Up Date: 1800 hrs EST:

Tahrir Square has turned into a small encampment as Evan Hill, a producer for al-Jazeera English who lives in Cairo, tweets:

Tahrir is a fully functioning encampment, with medical camps and pharmacies, amazing they’ve managed to keep it functioning

I found this video from Euro News showing on of the field hospitals that has been set up in Tahrir Square to treat the injured. Warning, if you’re at all squeamish, Don’t Watch.

h/t to chesapeake in comments.

In a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, President Barack Obama reiterated that Egyptians will determine Egypt’s future. President Obama denounced the violence, especially against journalists and aid workers, and suppression of the news media but fell short of calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down immediately.

“He is proud, but he is also a patriot,” Obama said. “He needs to consult with those around him in his government,” listen to the Egyptian people “and make a judgment about a pathway forward that is orderly but that is meaningful and serious.”

“His term is up relatively shortly,” the president noted. “The key question he should ask himself is how does he leave a meaningful legacy behind.”

Obama called Egypt “a great and ancient civilization” that is “going through a time of tumult.” But he reassured the Egyptian people that “they will continue to have a strong friend in the United States of America.”

From the news:

Al-Ahram reporter dies of wounds sustained in demonstrations

An Egyptian journalist for flagship state daily Al-Ahram died on Friday from injuries sustained during anti-government demonstrations on 29 January, medical sources said.

Health Minister: ‘Departure’ demonstrations leave 28 injured

‘Wise Men’ committee: Protesters demand that Mubarak step down

Cairo’s Tahrir Square: From traffic headache to revolutionary icon

New PM rules out presidential handover to Suleiman

The Guardian is reporting that the curfew has been eased, and now runs from 7pm to 6am local time.

Cairo’s biggest protest yet demands Mubarak’s immediate departure

Peace – alongside solid, stable community organisation – was the hallmark of Egypt’s “day of departure”, an event which produced the biggest turnout yet in Egypt’s 11-day-old national uprising. The target of that uprising was yet to be toppled as night drew in, but at times, amid the impromptu tea stalls, the neat rows of first aid tents and the well-manned security cordons, that almost didn’t seem to matter. At the centre of a city that is rife with chaos, Tahrir square had become an oasis of calm.

As a mark of how secure this anti-Mubarak stronghold has become after days of fierce fighting with armed supporters of the current regime, Egypt’s defence minister walked among the hundreds of thousands who packed the square. Hussein Tantawi was welcomed by the crowds, who chanted ‘Marshal, we are your sons of liberation’.

Diary of an Egyptian rebel: we will not turn back

Ahdaf Soueif looks back on a week of deceit and violence in Egypt – and finds it has also been a week of hope and democracy in action

British oil companies and banks in limbo over Egypt protests

Firms such as BP criticised for being too close to government of president Hosni Mubarak

The Right Word: Talk radio’s pharaoh fury

Ingraham regrets Obama is US president, Limbaugh wishes he were Egyptian president and Michael Savage thinks he’s Lenin

Wild Wild Left Radio #97 Revolution Sounds!


Friday, February 4th at 6pm EST!

Listen live by clicking the link icon below:

Listen to The Wild Wild Left on internet talk radio

The call in number is 646-929-1264 to join the conversation!

The live chat link will go live around 5:45.. found at the bottom of the show page when you listen, or by clicking the link below. Chat will be monitored for comments and questions by the host.

CHAT LINK

Tip: In order to comment in chat, you must create a BTR account, its free and only takes seconds.

Miss the show? The podcasts are available at the link above, or at Wildwildleft.com.


How does a Revolution Sound?

Tracey Chapman may say it sounds like a whisper, but girlfriend that whisper has become a roar!

It is not just about the bread lines, nor about a simple regime change, the World is crying out for Democracy of the REAL kind – for People to determine the conditions of their own life.

I’ll be reporting on Egypt, and Tunisia and all the other places people are refusing to take the uneven hand they are dealt by the Ruling Elite Class.

When will WE quit whispering and ROAR?

We witnessed first hand as our Earth was torn asunder and bled oil, which we treated with poison. The Gulf Crisis is far from over. We need to keep looking critically at what has been done, and what is still occurring.  

No guesty goodness tonight, so I will be welcoming YOUR calls!

Join Wild Wild Left Radio every Friday at 6pm EST, via Blog Talk Radio, with Hostess and Producer Diane Gee to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective….  her Joplinesque voice speaking straight from the heart about the real-life implications of the Political and the Class War on everyday American Citizens like you.

Controversy? We face it. Cutting Edge? We step over it. Revolutions start with information, and The Wild Wild Left Radio brings you the best in information and op/eds from a position that others on the Left fear to tread…. all with a grain shaker of irreverent humor.

WWL Radio: Bringing you “out there where the buses don’t run” LEFT perspective with interviews, op/eds and straight talk since January of 2009!

Six In The Morning

I Wont Go! I’m Holding My Breath Now I’m Stomping My Feet  

As protests build, the U.S. faces the difficult task of supporting reform while maintaining ties with an ally who has long blamed the U.S. for the theocracy in Iran and the chaos in Iraq.

Mubarak digs in against reform, as he always has

Reporting from Washington – Embattled yet unbending, President Hosni Mubarak is sending a message that he remains deeply suspicious of reform efforts in Egypt and resistant to the calls from Washington and his own populace for him to step aside.

But this is not just the face of a leader in crisis. This is the way Washington’s relationship has always been with Mubarak. Two years ago, a secret cable from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo described Mubarak as stubborn and stone-faced when pressed to make reform, and maintaining that he is the only barrier standing in the way of disaster.

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.

I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they don’t want to buy things they don’t need to impress people they dislike.

–Emile Henry Gauvreau



Openings 2

Late Night Karaoke

Original v. Cover — #64 in a Series

Poker Guide - What’s a kill game in poker? Pictures, Images and Photos

This week’s selection was written by Robert Allen, with lyrics by Al Stillman and became a major hit in 1957.  In fact, the song was listed on Billboard’s “Most Played By Jockeys” survey for the performer who has sold more than 350 million records during his lengthy and highly successful career.  The song was also received the Grammy Hall of Fame award in 1998.  The song first appeared on the Billboard Top 40 charts on September 16, 1957, remained on the charts for 22 weeks and peaked at #1.  The “B”-side was one of three Top Ten hits in 1957, peaking at #9.  

After last week’s somewhat gloomy leadup to St. Valentine’s Day, this song conveys a sense of cautious hope, suggesting to the recipient of the song that love is entirely possible, along with a reminder that  matters of the heart, like life itself, always include an element of risk.

World Wide Tahrir coming to a street near you.

A new action was just announced a few hours ago on Twitter, “The World Wide Tahrir;” and it’s coming to a street near you.

         WORLD WIDE TAHRIR

          Every city in the world will have its Tahrir Square!

            We won’t free the embassies till Mubarak leaves!

            Join us in a world wide sit-in on your nearest

                  egyptian embassy and show Egyptians

                that the whole world is supporting them.

          From Friday 4th Feb at 20:00 local time in your city(!!!),

                  till Mubarak leaves

You can find information and Egyptian embassy locations here  

“The True Face of Hosni Mubarak” is Now Being Televised Across the World

Democracy Now! Reports Live from Downtown Cairo:

Reporting that “Violent clashes continue in Egypt. The most recent reports out of Cairo show that seven demonstrators have been killed and more than a thousand injured. Many of the pro-Mubarak agitators have been shown to be undercover security forces. In Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising, thousands of Egyptians remain peaceful and defiant. We get a live report from Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who is on a rooftop near the 6th October Bridge, and from Mona El Seif, an activist who has remained in Tahrir Square since yesterday.“, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez of DemocracyNow.org talk today by telephone with Democracy Now! Senior Producer reporting from Cairo Sharif Abdel Kouddous, and with Egyptian pro-democracy activist Mona El Seif, live from Cairo, Egypt, who describe violent attacks on “a couple of hundred thousand” peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square by Mubarak faction thugs on camels and on horses, using knives and guns.

Amy also talks with “Sandmonkey” – Egypt’s most well known English-language blogger – who calls downtown Cairo a “war zone”, and who said in his last blog post:

The End is near. I have no illusions about this regime or its leader, and how he will pluck us and hunt us down one by one till we are over and done with and 8 months from now will pay people to stage fake protests urging him not to leave power, and he will stay “because he has to acquiesce to the voice of the people”. This is a losing battle and they have all the weapons, but we will continue fighting until we can’t.



DemocracyNow.org – February 03, 2011

transcript below

I Want You – Open Thread

The drunken politician leaps

Upon the street where mothers weep

And the saviors who are fast asleep, they wait for you

And I wait for them to interrupt

Me drinkin’ from my broken cup

And ask me to

Open up the gate for you