Vodafone - Official Tool Of Repressive Dictators

Feb 3rd, 2011

Things are just this ugly. So you want to operate a telecom network in some countries? Be prepared to actively assist in fomenting violence on behalf of those country's strong-men. An official statement from the international communications company Vodafone:

"Thursday 3 February 2011

Under the emergency powers provisions of the Telecoms Act, the Egyptian authorities can instruct the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt. They have used this since the start of the protests. These messages are not scripted by any of the mobile network operators and we do not have the ability to respond to the authorities on their content.

Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable. We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Vodafone is pleased to confirm that it has been able to reinstate data services in Egypt this morning, enabling our customers to access all internet sites.  We are actively lobbying to reactivate SMS services as quickly as possible for our customers."

The cost of doing business with the iron-fisted continues to mount... 

Mubarak's Heavies

Feb 3rd, 2011

A short time ago, Egypt's new Mubarak-appointed VP, Omar Suleiman, made a statement in which he apologized for the violence in Tahrir Sqaure while simultaneously blaming it on "outsiders" and "foreign" agitators. Suleiman's history as one of Mubarak's torturers is widely documented. 

The following is an account of yesterday's clashes.

David D. Kirkpatrick and Kareem Fahim report: 

"President Hosni Mubarak struck back at his opponents on Wednesday, unleashing waves of his supporters armed with clubs, rocks, knives and firebombs in a concerted assault on thousands of antigovernment protesters in Tahrir Square calling for an end to his authoritarian rule."

"The deployment of plainclothes forces paid by Mr. Mubarak’s ruling party — men known here as baltageya — has been a hallmark of the Mubarak government, and there were many signs that the violence was carefully choreographed.

The Mubarak supporters emerged from buses. They carried the same flags and the same printed signs, and they all escalated their actions, from shouting to violence, at exactly the same moment: 2:15 p.m. The protesters showed journalists police and ruling party identification cards that they said had been taken from Mubarak supporters who had been caught infiltrating Tahrir Square, also known as Liberation Square, and detained in a holding pen.

The preparations for a confrontation began Wednesday morning, a day after Mr. Mubarak pledged to step down in September while insisting that he would die on Egyptian soil. The president’s supporters waved flags as though they were headed to a protest, but armed themselves as though they were itching for a fight."

Quote Of The Day

Feb 3rd, 2010

"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

"A Massacre"

Feb 2nd, 2011

Selma Al-Tarzi reports from Cairo for Democracy Now.

The Great Storm Of 2011

Feb 2nd, 2011

This shot of vehicles abandoned in the Northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, IL. looks more like a shot from a Romero movie than a weather update.

© Copyright 2011 Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune

The End Of A Paradigm

Feb 2nd, 2011

Thomas Friedman is in Israel. From the NY Times:

"I'm meeting with a retired general at a Tel Aviv hotel. As I take my seat, he begins the conversation with: “Well, everything we thought for the last 30 years is no longer relevant."

That pretty much sums up the disorienting sense of shock and awe that the popular uprising in Egypt has inflicted on the psyche of Israel’s establishment. The peace treaty with a stable Egypt was the unspoken foundation for every geopolitical and economic policy in Israel for the last 35 years, and now it’s gone. It’s as if Americans suddenly woke up and found both Mexico and Canada plunged into turmoil on the same day.

"Everything that once anchored our world is now unmoored," remarked Mark Heller, a Tel Aviv University strategist. "And it is happening right at a moment when nuclearization of the region hangs in the air."

Quote Of The Day 2

Feb 2nd, 2011

"Common tyrants, and public oppressors, are not entitled to obedience from their subjects." -- Jonathan Mayhew

Clashes In Cairo

Feb 2nd, 2011 7:25am CST

Clashes have begun between pro-Mubarak and anti-government forces in Cairo's Tahrir Square. A short time ago, pro-government partisans charged into the square on horseback. So far, the army and police have continued to exercise restraint. It is possible that Mubarak is attempting to engineer violence to reassert authority. There is strong on the scene coverage here at The Times of India as well as Al-Jazeera.

Disgusting Fox Comment Of The Week Award

Feb 2nd, 2011

Once again, it's time to thank the good people over at Fox News Comments for keeping a watchful eye on the very questionable lack of moderation at Murdoch's website. This DFCOTW was for a story under the banner headline:

"Not Known to Be Diet Food, Michelle Obama Hails ‘Great Barbecue’ in N.C."

Quote Of The Day

Feb 2nd, 2011

"In America today you can murder land for private profit.  You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops." -- Paul Brooks

Beckwatch - All In One Show Edition

Feb 1st, 2011

Jumpin' cats, kids! Grab the popcorn and the soda! All in one show today, The Beckinator taught us that the Egyptian people DON'T want freedom...

And We Can't Say ANYTHING

Feb 31st, 2011

Abuse by U.S. Forces Abu Ghraib 2003

There was a time when reportage like this from Raw Story about a puppet-state could legitimately be met very differently by the U.S. Government. Not anymore. Now that we have become what we beheld, what can we say? 

"BAGHDAD — Security forces linked to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are operating a "secret detention site" and elite teams are torturing detainees at a separate facility, Human Rights Watch charged on Tuesday.

The New York-based watchdog's claims come a week after the Los Angeles Times reported some detainees at a prison in the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone had been abused and held without charge for up to two years, charges Baghdad denies."

Worth 1,000 Words

Feb 1st, 2011

Not new. Still delightful.

© Copyright Luckovich 2010

The Father Of The HCR "Mandate"

Feb 1st, 2011

Ezra Klein interviews Mark Pauly, life long Republican, who first conceived the HCR "mandate" in conjunction with the hyper-conservative Heritage Foundation at the request of the  G.H.W. Bush administration. 

It is largely this proposal that is written into the law today. How the heck anyone can describe backers of the provision as "socialist" continues to astound me. The money quotes:

"Was the constitutionality of the provision a question, either in your deliberations or after it was released?

I don’t remember that being raised at all. The way it was viewed by the Congressional Budget Office in 1994 was, effectively, as a tax. You either paid the tax and got insurance that way or went and got it another way. So I've been surprised at that argument. But I’m not an expert on the Constitution. My fix would be to simply say raise everyone’s taxes by what a health insurance policy would cost -- Congress definitely has the power to do that -- and then tell people that if they obtain insurance, they'll get a tax break of the same amount. So instead of a penalty, it’s a perfectly legal tax break. But this seems to me to angelic pinhead density arguments about whether it’s a payment to do something or not to do something."

Mubarak Statement - Live Blog

Jan 1st, 2011

3:15 Dylan Ratigan: "wildly disappointing." Jonah Goldberg via Twitter: "Mubarak losing the future."

On FOX, arguments that violence against protesters was probably perpetrated BY protesters. 

We're out.

3:10 WELL. Statement is over. I doubt very much that the crowds of thousands are even remotely pleased by this. No specifics other than paying lip service to a supposed democratic process which has never in 30 years been anything than a farce. It was a defiant and thuggish statement. It was also painfully short and without contrition.

3:09 "On this land I will die." I dunno, Hosni. I think you better split. And soon.

3:07 He  looks forward to "serving and protecting" his people. WTF? Is he a cop? "this is my vow to my people in the remaining months." Here we go... "So I can end my serving time (trans)." "The people will achieve what they are asking for." WHEN?

3:04 "I did not intend to run for another term." Riiiiight. What does that mean? He says he has to "finish my work." None of this is looking good. He "call the Parliament to discuss" blah, blah, blah... he is trying to hold on. Draping the lawlessness of his phony Presidency in legalese. He picked his parliament.

3:02 Mubarak seems to have engaged in some self praise (cabinet shuffle, etc...). BAD sign. Complaining of those who have "rejected dialog." Is he kidding?

3:00pm CST Or maybe not... talking about "looting" and "frightening diplomats." "has imposed upon us" the need "to choose between stability and chaos." Uh oh.

2:55pm CST There is a lot of chatter in the background. Seems pretty chaotic. Praising the peaceful nature of protests.

Birthers On FOX

Feb 1st, 2011

Classy. Really classy.

The Right on Egypt - From Sane to Crazy

Feb 1st, 2011

The events unfolding throughout Egypt are provoking an interesting variety of responses from the right. First, there is this very sober and thoughtful essay in The National Review by Duncan Currie:

"The history of democratic Christendom," (Reuel Marc) Gerecht wrote in The Weekly Standard, suggests that "you don't get to arrive at Thomas Jefferson unless you first pass through Martin Luther."

How Many Sharks Can One Guy Jump

Feb. 1st, 2011

Glenn Beck has managed to attempt to link Nazis, Communists, Liberals, Progressives, Acorn and The Muslim Brotherhood In Egypt. Seriously. Here are the facts. More people have been in the streets in more cities and more have been killed by Egyptian security forces than their counterparts in the recent Iranian uprising. Their cry for freedom from tyranny is legitimate. Alas and again, facts don't matter to the tribal right.

The American Right's Tribalism

Feb 1st, 2011

In an interesting piece on the disconnected devotionalism of the American conservative fringe, Charles Johnson writes: 

"Within the tribe there's no need to be concerned with facts or accuracy; if the goal is to demonize a hated opponent, for example, anything and everything goes, including smears known to be false. That's because the objective is not to convince an impartial observer -- it's to reinforce the tribal bonds, the sense of belonging to something, with its own shared reality. That shared reality doesn't have to reflect actual reality; anybody who doesn't share it is by definition not part of the tribe, and therefore an enemy."

To the Becks, the Gellers, the Gaffneys, etc..., I'd say Mr. Johnson has you pegged.

Quote Of The Day

Feb 1st, 2011

"I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so." -- Romain Rolland