February 3, 2011 archive

AP:

In a bid to pre-empt popular uprisings from far-flung regions of the imploding empire over which he presides, President Barack Obama has fired his entire cabinet and promised not to run again for President in 2012.  

Srsly!

In reality, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning President Care Bear has decided to test the Ghandi-an peace dividends of Egyptian blood-letting, in order to, as usual, preserve the status quo.  Gomer Pyle was reported as saying, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”  I suppose Cairo is the New Gaza Annex.

Fuck the U.S., Israeli, and Egyptian governments.  May they get in their asses what they give.  God bless the inevitability of history, and amen.

In related news, today’s quote of the day comes from monsieur IOZ:

Growing up Is Hard to Do

Obviously, Islam needs to make its peace with modernity and democracy.

-Robert Kagan, quoted by Maureen Dowd

This is a standard variant on a common observation in the West, that Islam is effectively unmodern, that it is mired in a sort of pre-Reformation dark age, as opposed to what used to be called Christendom, which through religious reformation paved the way for modern nations and Enlightenment and democracy and all that. Leaving aside the weirdness of this characterization of Islam, as a normative history of the Christian West, it is totally crackpot, an attention-deficient skipping stone leaping from the Henry’s first divorce to the Peace of Westphalia to Jean Monet and leaving out everything else in between. In this history, the wars of religion never occurred, there was no Terror, no Napoleon, no Somme, and no Holocaust. The modern western mind is mostly notable in civilizational history for its colossal contribution of violence and destruction. I mean, I guess it’s true that the occasional stoning-to-death of an adulterer is indicative of a somewhat atavistic mind, but by that light, the principal characteristic of modernity is its commitment to the slaughter of millions through the advent of mechanized warfare. Wait, oh, uh, whut? Hang on guys, there’s a transmission coming through. It’s a little fuzzy. You say . . . you say that is the principal characteristic of modernity. Oh, shit. Europe “made peace with democracy” by slaughtering two generations its youth.

“People here are not afraid anymore – and it just may be that a woman helped break that barrier of fear”, writes Mona El-Naggar in her February 01 NYT article Equal Rights Takes to the Barricades: “Asmaa Mahfouz was celebrating her 26th birthday on Tuesday among tens of thousands of Egyptians as they took to the streets, parting with old fears in a bid to end President Hosni Mubarak’s three decades of authoritarian, single-party rule.”

“As long as you say there is no hope, then there will be no hope, but if you go down and take a stance, then there will be hope”, Ms. Mahfouz said bluntly in an impassioned video posted on YouTube January 18. She spoke straight to the camera and held a sign saying she would go out and protest to try to bring down Mr. Mubarak’s regime, noted El-Naggar.

Asmaa “is a member of the April 6 Youth Movement, which has been using the Internet to organize protests against Egypt’s authoritarian government since 2008. As protests against President Mubarak continued to grow, the group called Monday for a ‘march of millions’ and an indefinite general strike. The next day, Mubarak announced he would not seek reelection at the end of his term in September.”, writes Eric Dolan at RawStory Feb 02, who also notes that “Mahfouz made the video after four Egyptian men set themselves on fire. The men were apparently inspired by the example of Tunisia, where a self-immolation triggered protests that eventually led to the ouster of the nation’s president.”

Although Asmaa spoke in her native Egyptian language in her video, an English subtitled version was later posted to YouTube Feb. 02, 2011 by Iyad El-Baghdadi, subbed by Ammara Alavi:

In Cairo, Egypt today hundreds if not thousands of thugs suspected to be on the payroll of either the police or Egypt’s internal security, on behalf of the embattled Hosni Mubarek, in some form or another attacked peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square and other parts of Cairo.

Paul Jay of The Real News Networks talks here with Khaled Fahmy, professor and chair of American University in Cairo’s Department of History about the unfolding events in Cairo and plans for more massive anti-Mubarek demonstrations  this Friday. Fahmy describes in graphic detail the current events on the street in Cairo, as he marched with the protesters.

I’m really happy to be part of this writers’ alliance and the opportunity it affords to reconnect with some of my favorite bloggers. It feels good.

Here are some of the essays on our reading list, including birthday girl Diane G’s Groundhog’s Day post…

cometman describes Mohamed Bouazizi as a World Shaker, a man who had nothing and yet managed to change the course of history…

Mexican Culture Tour Ends In Super Bowl Tailgate for a couple of accidental tourists. Penned by Pinche Tejano

The GrandWazoo writes that this might be a good Time for Strange Bedfellows, politically speaking.

Most nights, Night Owl publishes his Overnight Caption Contest party… and it’s always a hoot!