DOWNLOADS: (717)

PLAYS: (15341)

Embed

Number 43 in C&L's top videos of the year brings us Fox Nation's wide-eyed wonder at the thought that the green shadowy figure in the video might be the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse during the riots in February in Egypt's Tahrir Square.

The fourth horseman is Death, of course. Unfortunately, Fox Nation is still very much with us.

enlarge

Via Gawker, this story about how authorities are using the U.S. as a role model for handling protesters. Yes, the whole world is watching (see the front page of the Iran Daily):

Two people were killed in Cairo and Alexandria this weekend as Egyptian activists took the streets to protest the military's attempts to maintain its grip on power. And guess how the state is justifying its deadly crackdown."We saw the firm stance the US took against OWS people & the German govt against green protesters to secure the state," an Egyptian state television anchor said yesterday (as translated by the indispensable Sultan Sooud al Qassemi; bold ours).

Yeah—it gets harder and harder to maintain a moral high ground when videos like this andpictures like this are unavoidable. But American police haven't killed anyone!

Indeed! That's definitely something worth bragging about: so far, cops here have only sent a single person to the hospital with brain damage. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Meanwhile, in Egypt, the protesters—mostly young liberal activists and Islamists—are engaging in "running street battles" with police after shutting down Cairo's busiest square. In particular, they're protesting the proposed principles for a new constitution—under which "the military [and its budget] would be exempted from civilian oversight."

DOWNLOADS: (627)

PLAYS: (2143)

Embed

Glenn Beck, we can all see, is really plunging wildly over an emotional cliff in his increasingly bizarre attempts to defend his wild conspiracy theories about the unrest in Egypt. And it's been such an epic meltdown that it's been hard to keep track of all its many variations.

But the researchers at Media Matters happened to catch one of the more hilarious of these: Beck bringing on a onetime commanding general in Iraq -- Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin -- to defend his theory as being on the money. That's right: the guy who brought you Abu Ghraib, on to warn of yet another dire threat.

Of course, the last we happened to notice Boykin poking his head out of his lead-lined nuclear bunker was when he was explaining how Marxism is being insidiously implemented in America under President Obama -- rather like another general we once knew:

DOWNLOADS: (1031)

PLAYS: (6093)

Embed

Continue reading »

Lara Logan in Cairo, reporting for CBS News

The details are slight, but it makes the story no less disturbing:

"60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan suffered a "brutal and sustained" sexual assault at the hands of a large group of men while covering the Egyptian uprising, CBS News said.

It happened during Friday's jubilation in Cairo's Tahrir Square after President Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down.

"A dangerous element" in the crowd surrounded Logan and her crew, said CBS spokesman Kevin Tedesco. "It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into a frenzy. In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew," he said in a statement Tuesday.

"She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers."

Logan went home to the United States on the first flight Saturday and is recovering in a hospital, Tedesco said. [..]

At least 140 reporters have been injured or killed covering Egypt since Jan. 30, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Logan's personal life has been fodder for tabloids--and I'm not entirely sure some of it wasn't furthered by DC types threatened by her no-nonsense reporting of the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan and her lack of fear of calling out pundits (aka Fox's Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham) for their studio armchair war coverage heavy on spin and light on facts--but for the sake of her husband and child, I hope that the media respects her desire for privacy on this. It would be truly horrible to learn that she had been victimized quite so brutally again by pro-government forces because of her desire to report the truth on the ground.

enlarge

Credit: icanhazacheezeburger.com

Conservatives love to write off progressive populism as “the politics of envy,” saying we envy the rich instead of recognizing them for being the hardworking entrepreneurs they are. Given that, the current conservative exercise of attacking public employees for getting pensions, decent health care coverage, and occasional salary increases is irony on a scale rarely seen. Republicans and conservatives’ basic argument is that since private-sector workers have been so thoroughly screwed on wages, health care, and retirement plans in recent decades, those same workers should be mad that teachers and cops and social workers have gotten a little more economic security than they have. If that ain’t the politics of envy, I don’t know what is.

Pitting workers against workers for the scraps of the economic system as a few people and corporations at the top rake in, and then hoard, most of the money is a tried and true tactic, and it sometimes works. But the movement revolt that started in Wisconsin and is spreading rapidly to other states is so far successful in turning the argument around. When 70,000 pro-union progressive protesters show up at the Capitol in Madison, and the numbers keep building day after day, and the kind of folks coming are just soft-spoken teachers and hearts-on-their-sleeve firefighters, it gets impossible to write these people off as a narrow special interest.

The other thing that is so exciting about what is going on is that this is not like the usual stock demonstrations of the recent past, when organizations or coalitions would plan months in advance and raise millions of dollars to try to turn out a modest crowd for a one day, six-hour rally in D.C. The events in Wisconsin are inspired far more by Egypt than by the traditional methods of American organizations, as people from the labor movement, but also supporters from all walks of life are turning out day after day after day. It is one of the most remarkable moments this old activist has ever seen, and it is changing our political expectations as we speak. There is no envy on our side of these demonstrations: people just want a fair shake. There are no tantrums about being unwilling to talk or compromise or sacrifice in hard times, they just want to have a voice through collective bargaining. And a majority of people in Wisconsin get it — 65 percent support the right of public employees to bargain.

The tantrums and the envy are all on the side of the conservatives. They don’t want to compromise with public employee unions, or bargain with them, they want to shut them down. If they don’t get their way at the federal level, they’ll just shut the government down. And speaking of envy: the Tea Party folks in all their ballyhooed hype have never been able to turn out these kinds of crowds, even with the enormous corporate money behind them. They still get coverage from the establishment media (Did you see the ridiculous headline in the Washington Post yesterday? “Supporters Rally for Governor’s Bill." In the third paragraph the intrepid Post reporter did note that “The overwhelming majority of protesters were teachers, students and other public-service workers…”), but the numbers all are on our side.

The Democratic senators in Wisconsin are doing the right thing in staying away and showing solidarity with the attacked unions. Now the national Democratic Party is going to have to step up to the plate and show whose side it is on. They need to embrace the protesters and embrace this moment. There has been a widening gulf between establishment D.C. Democrats and grassroots progressives, as the latter have gotten more and more alienated from too many Democrats taking on the pro-big business and bankers ideology. In this movement moment, Democrats need to stand unapologetically with progressives, which so far too many seem to have been wobbly about doing. It is great that President Obama signaled his support, and that OFA has helped out in Wisconsin. They need to not back down. In fact, if I were at the White House, the first thing I would do whenever the Wisconsin standoff gets resolved is to invite the leaders of the protest to the White House to celebrate their taking a stand for democracy. (Side note for current White House staffers planning this event: If there ends up being mass civil disobedience, and the leaders get invited to the White House, the Secret Service will have to be talked into going along with the plans. When I was at the Clinton White House and invited people with histories of civil disobedience in to meet President Clinton, the Secret Service was never very happy with me.)

But it is not just Democratic officials who should be standing with Wisconsin movement leaders: all progressives should. Conservatives want to roll back the clock on more than a century of social progress, and they are only going after the unions first because they are the strongest progressive institutions in America. They figure if they can take out the unions first, everything after that — outlawing abortion, ending progress on LGBT and other civil rights, privatizing Social Security and Medicare, etc. — will be relatively easy.

This fight is for all of us; it is about preserving the American middle class and our ability to organize collectively. It is about human rights. It is about focusing the blame for the economic crisis where it belongs, on bankers and policy makers, not teachers and cops. And the fight isn’t just in Wisconsin: All over this country, the conservative movement is trying to take away our rights, and everywhere in America, we should be showing solidarity with our embattled brothers and sisters in Wisconsin.

Here is a list of rallies happening this week to show support for the protesters in Wisconsin. Go to the one closest to you, take your family, take your friends. This is a big deal.

Let me repeat that: This Is A Big Deal. Given the money and entrenched power of corporate conservatives, progressives are not going to win anything that matters in the coming years unless we do what the protesters in Wisconsin are doing and go far beyond the usual call-and-petition-your-member-of-Congress tactic. We are going to have to be creative, we are going to be bold, we are going to have to incredibly dogged and determined. Just like Wisconsin. Just like Egypt. And the powers that be in both political parties will have to listen if we are.

I loved how close ally of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Rep. Paul Ryan, blurted out that Madison in recent days looked like Egypt. Realizing that made the protesters sound like the good guys, he tried to backtrack with something incoherent about meaning the violent protests there, but given that the only violence in Egypt was done by the government and Mubarak’s allies, he just dug himself a deeper hole.

The fact is that the pictures we are seeing and the story playing out in Wisconsin is like Egypt in some really important ways. The new mass militancy of union members, students, and other allies of the maligned teachers, social workers, cops, firefighters, and other public employees being attacked and threatened by the Governor is not a manufactured thing, it is a mass movement spreading like wildfire, building in momentum day by day. Blaming public employees for the state’s economic problems is like blaming foreign aid (less than 1 percent of the budget) for our federal budget deficit: the numbers don’t add up. And building an economic strategy around breaking unions, laying off more workers, driving down wages, depriving retirees of pensions, and forcing already hard-pressed workers to pay more out of pocket for health care is pure, unadulterated economic insanity. Taking money out of the economy and decimating a huge part of the middle class’ disposable income is not exactly a formula for stimulating a recovery.

The response to Gov. Walker’s insanity has been as inspiring as the protesters in Egypt, and it is a joy to see workers, students, and progressives of all stripes spontaneously say “NO!” in a very loud voice. In fact, it is clear that protesters in Wisconsin and Ohio were inspired by the Egyptian democracy movement; some folks were even carrying Egyptian flags. The fact that the protests are spreading like wildfire to Ohio and other states is heartening, too. I can tell you this, as an old hand at the electoral and legislative battles progressives have fought over the last couple of decades: it is only this kind of mass militancy that will give us a chance to survive the power of the Wall Street, big business, and right-wing media machine. They have too much entrenched power, too much money, and too much concentrated media sway for progressives to beat them using conventional tactics and strategies.

Here’s the other thing: the current crop of extreme-right Republicans have no interest in compromise, on anything. They don’t want to force the public employee unions to the table to bargain over wages and health care, they want to utterly destroy the unions for all time. They don’t want to negotiate over changing the formula on pension contributions, they want to make workers pay for half their pensions, or slash their benefits to shreds — and then never have to negotiate with workers again over them. At the federal level, they don’t just want to make substantial cutbacks in domestic programs, they want to defund many of them entirely — and if they don’t get their way, all of it, they’ll just shut down the government. It’s not just economics issues either: pro-lifers don’t just want to make it harder to get abortions, they want redefine rape and make shooting an abortion doctor a justifiable homicide. These Republican extremists are completely beyond the pale.

As Dean Baker and so many other rational economics writers have documented thoroughly, the cause of our federal and state budget problems are not teachers and firefighters and social workers and food safety inspectors, who make about as much on average as comparable workers in the private sector. The problem is out-of-control Wall Street bankers whose reckless speculation crashed our economy, and an ever tightening squeeze on middle-class workers whose wages are flat and whose daily living expenses are rapidly increasing.

So fight back, you teachers in Wisconsin. Fight back, bus drivers in Ohio. Join them, students and progressive activists of every size, shape, and color. We are fighting for our lives against extremists who quite literally are moving openly to roll us back to the mid-1800s, when the robber barons got the governors in their pockets to call out the National Guard to shut down strikes, and when the richest 1 percent controlled most of the wealth in the country. Big business and the Far Right have joined forces to try and destroy unions and the safety net for all of us. We have to beat them.

DOWNLOADS: (364)

PLAYS: (1046)

Embed

[Scarce has much more.]

It's quite the scene in Cairo:

"We have brought down the regime, we have brought down the regime," chanted the hundreds of thousands of people who packed into Tahrir Square for "Farewell Friday."

Egyptians waved flags, cried, cheered and embraced when the news reached them through a public address system. "Finally we are free," said Safwan Abou Stat, a 60-year-old protester.

... The military made clear it also wanted the demonstrators off the streets and for life to return to normal. It was clearly ignored.

Hundreds of thousands of people crammed into the area around Tahrir Square.

Live television pictures from Alexandria also showed massed ranks of people filling a main boulevard in the city and Al-Jazeera reported there were other demonstrations in Suez, Mahala, Tanta and Ismailia.

A group of army officers, including a lieutenant colonel, had also defected to the protesters. "The armed forces' solidarity movement with the people has begun," Major Ahmed Ali Shouman told Reuters by telephone just after dawn prayers, saying he had handed in his weapon. "Some 15 officers ... have joined the people's revolution."

From the Guardian:

he march from the presidential palace back to Tahrir square was a wall of sound. Car horns blared, amateur fireworks exploded centimetres above our heads,onlookers cheered raucously from the balcony above. Some people fainted, others unfurled their Egyptian flags in the middle of the street to pray, and many, many people had tears in their eyes.

Amid the jubilation though, there was a moment of reflection for those who died to make this day possible. 'Be happy martyrs, for today we feast at your victory,' sung the crowds.

On the ground were military police in red berets, all smiles and thumbs-up to demonstrators. Apprehension about what might happen next in an Egypt now under army control was being pushed aside to allow for celebrations, but as the procession reached the high-walled Ministry of Defence, Egyptians could not resist reminding their new overlords of who now held the balance of power in the Arab World's most populous nation. 'Here, here, the Egyptians are here,' they shouted up at darkened windows, pointing down to the street.

"For 18 days we have withstood tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, molotov cocktails, thugs on horseback, the scepticism and fear of our loved ones, and the worst sort of ambivalence from an international community that claims to care about democracy," said Karim Medhat Ennarah, a protester who has provided the Guardian with updates throughout the uprising. "But we held our ground. We did it."

Isn't it funny how those tireless and bellicose defenders of "freedom" on our shores -- the American Right -- are the ones worrying and fearmongering about this outcome?

DOWNLOADS: (519)

PLAYS: (4428)

Embed

If CNN did more of this (and fired Erick Erickson) I would have a lot more respect for them. Anderson Cooper is on fire in this segment, calling out the Egyptian government on their lies, their violence, and their patronizing attitude toward the thousands of people in Tahrir Square.

In this segment, Cooper is full of facts and righteous indignation. He's the guy I remember from tsunami coverage, and the Haiti earthquake coverage, but with more of an edge. You can almost feel the anger in his voice as he names the lies, one by one, and then names the liars.

As he moves through the lies and threats of Omar Suleiman, Cooper mentions journalists who have been detained and harassed, protesters who have died at the hands of government thugs, and others who risk their freedom and lives just coming and going through Tahrir Square. ABC is keeping a list of all journalists harassed, detained, intimidated or threatened by the government. Human Rights Watch has published reports of journalists harassed, and also says the death toll is now over 300.

As an aside, this Pew Research poll is really not a positive sign for the health of this nation. According to the poll, 52% -- FIFTY-TWO PERCENT -- of Americans polled have heard little or nothing about the protests. How is that even possible?

Cooper begins with Egyptian Vice President Suleiman's veiled, but crystal-clear threat to the protesters of 'police action', and takes down the rest of the lies from there.

Transcript follows:

Continue reading »

Google executive Wael Ghonim was released after being taken hostage by the Egyptian government on January 28th. He gave an interview to DREAM TV shortly after his release. It was in Arabic, but Twitter user SultanAlQassemi live-tweeted it as it was going on. To say it was emotional would be understating it. Part One is above. Part 2 is below, and a rough transcript below that, courtesy of Al-Jazeera TV.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (304)

PLAYS: (1840)

Embed

Howard Dean made the sharpest comparison yet between what the protesters in Egypt are standing for, why they're standing for it, and why we should pay attention to similar circumstances in this country. His key point is toward the middle of the video, where he says this:

The fact of the matter is when social inequality and wage inequality gets too large, you have social instability. we are in a position now where we are in trouble in this country. I wouldn't say we could be Egypt next week, but people really are disillusioned by the government and corporations. They don't trust any institution very much, and that's why. I think the President missed a chance to say that in front of the Chamber. he would have gotten i think a lot of credit from the American people if he had.

I don't agree that saying it to the Chamber would have gotten a lot of credit from the American people. I doubt most people would even know he'd said it, and if they did, it would have been so twisted up that it would have played as a negative, given today's environment. But what Governor Dean says about inequality is right on the money.

Granted, in this country we have elections. Egypt doesn't. And in this country we have free speech and ostensibly, freedom of the press. Egypt doesn't. Finally, in this country there is still a social safety net, which Egypt does not have. In those respects, we are much different from Egypt. But when it comes to income and wealth inequality, the US surpasses Egypt, and it has indeed fostered mistrust in government and business.

Further, the Citizens United decision lends itself to further distrust, because the corporate "person's" voice will carry farther and louder than any one citizen will. Look no further than the Koch Brothers' bought-and-paid-for Energy and Commerce Committee in the House. Never in my lifetime has there been a more obvious subversion of democracy than the 2010 midterm elections. I know this isn't news to many of you reading this, but it really is important for our "side" to begin to shift the conversation away from the right-wing tropes and come around to a real discussion of what "redistribution of wealth" means, what it is, what it isn't, and why the last 30 years represent a consistent governmental redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the upper tier.

While I don't necessarily think a speech at the United States Chamber of Commerce would be the place for that, I do see that message lacking overall from what we're hearing from the White House. 99ers should be interviewed on The Last Word, to tell their side of what it's like to be "downsized" and have wealth redistributed to the corporations who "downsized" them to begin with. Prosperity and recovery shouldn't be measured by what the Dow closes at, but by whether more people can afford to put food on the table without government or charitable assistance.

Bob Herbert's editorial in today's New York Times says it far better than I:

Corporate profits and the stock markets are way up. Businesses are sitting atop mountains of cash. Put people back to work? Forget about it. Has anyone bothered to notice that much of those profits are the result of aggressive payroll-cutting — companies making do with fewer, less well-paid and harder-working employees?

For American corporations, the action is increasingly elsewhere. Their interests are not the same as those of workers, or the country as a whole. As Harold Meyerson put it in The American Prospect: “Our corporations don’t need us anymore. Half their revenues come from abroad. Their products, increasingly, come from abroad as well.”

American workers are in a world of hurt. Anyone who thinks that politicians can improve this sorry state of affairs by hacking away at Social Security, Medicare and the public schools are great candidates for involuntary commitment.

Lawrence and Governor Dean alluded to a very important part of the President's speech yesterday, which Mike Lux wrote about in detail. The president's framing of the importance of government regulations in commerce was excellent and important. Wrapping it all up with a call to patriotism was also excellent and important. But now it's time to move past catering to these Birchers and start calling the entire country to patriotism, which means ending the meme of "me" and beginning a realistic discussion of poverty, inequality, and how best to change that.

Transcript follows (It's the MSNBC transcript that accompanies their video, so all typos, errors and other problems are entirely theirs):

Continue reading »