BREAKING: The People Win, Mubarak Out

heh
sorry for the thread jack

@Capt Howdy: Totally understandable. This is the big story, after all. Deserves its own comment area.

What a grand achievement.

@Benedick:
indeed. I am in awe. I tip my hat to them. if I had a hat.

even after yesterdays clear provocation to violence they stayed true and firm. truly amazing.

and IMO the most important detail, in the land that invented the suicide bomb people have been shown, by the people in the largest arab country-the heart of the arab world, that there is a different way.

the mullahs and the sauds are changing their panties right now.

I assume we know that Iran is already cracking down on a protest planned for monday. next week we may have a whole new thing.

And it was all sparked by a man in Tunisia setting himself on fire.

They showed us the gulf separating our home-grown ‘revolution’ and the real thing. Though how long before the tea-baggers start to compare themselves to the Heroes of Liberation Square? It’s also quite a triumph for Obama, it seems to me.

al jazzera just refferred to Suleiman as the “former vice president”

@Benedick:
I agree. I just made heads explode on another blog by saying the Cairo speech may in retrospect be seen as where the seeds for this were sewn.

Kinda funny watching the Neocon’s trying to digest this. On the one hand they want to claim it as validation for their promises of a Democratic Middle-east flowing from the Iraq invasion (even though the real genesis of this movement can be traced back to Wikileaks). On the other hand, how happy can they be that it’s a U.S. Client state whose dicator is being overthrown?

I will say, that given the events of the past few weeks, Time’s decision to not name Julian Assange “Man of the Year” looks dumber and dumber. Maybe he will get the award next year?

@Serolf Divad:
for the Neocons it may be a classic case of be careful what you wish for.

@Serolf Divad: Thanks for getting this up. Stinque’s West Coast Bureau was stuck on a delayed subway (me) and asleep (I assume for Nojo).

@Serolf Divad: Fox has been hammering at the Muslim Brotherhood angle and Wolfowitz (pause while we all throw up in our mouths a little) referred to ‘extremists’ (not including himself apparently) being in charge.

Swittzerland freezes what they have of Mubarak’s 40 to 70 billion!

@Benedick:
fortunately I believe whatever credibility they ever had leaks away with each hysterical comment and report.

I may have to watch Beck today.

@SanFranLefty: Zzzzz…

Speaking of neocons, James Woolsey can bite it.

@Capt Howdy: Holeee shit. Is Hosni still at his beach house or has he fled the country.

@SanFranLefty:
fled according to reports

@Capt Howdy: Where do we think? Dubai?

@nojo: Hey, I tried to send you a text message to wake you up with the Stinque bat phone and realized I didn’t have your number in my phone.

@Mistress Cynica:
dont think I heard. just heard that a paper from India was reporting that he and his family had left the country.

@Mistress Cynica: Saudi Arabia?

What country’s next after Tunisia and Egypt? I’ve got my money on Yemen and Jordan.

@Capt Howdy:

Rueters has up that Switzerland is looking at it, Israel news has up that it is a done deal :) Not set in stone at this time it looks like. But some investor sites get really good leaks, so I’m going to bet that the freeze is on.

@SanFranLefty:
Iran is already cracking down in advance of protests scheduled for monday.

yeah baby!

Switzerland has frozen the funds of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and 20 other officials, the Muslim Brotherhood said on its website on Friday.

Weigel tweets: “Really kind of amazing how absent Egypt talk is here at #CPAC11.”

@nojo:
HA

@Serolf Divad:
Strange that it didn’t take trillions of US Quatloos, bombs, bullets and hundreds of thousands of lives to do it.

I haven’t had this much fun since Berlin.

@ManchuCandidate:
that is why the Sauds and their ilk are shitting their pants right now.

@nojo:
younmeboth

I am BUZZED

@Capt Howdy:
True. Also OBL is probably sad too (assuming he’s able to get news faster than the speed of a donkey.) Despite his best efforts and exhortations, the Egyptians didn’t buy into his brand of pan Arab bullshit either.

@ManchuCandidate:
exactly
and why CPAC is dismayed.

@Capt Howdy: I remember coming home to the news that night, and it was just — gone. People sitting on it. People partying. And given the timing, that had been almost a 30-year fact of my life. (Well, symbolically, since I didn’t live there.)

Now, if the U.S. can manage not to fuck up this round of revolutions, we’ll be set.

@Capt Howdy:

Nice! I just hope this doesn’t throw too big a monkeywrench in the gears of reform.

Military salutes the martyrs. Literally. That was awesome.

@nojo: My sister was in Berlin when it happened. We came across a chuck of the Wall a couple of weeks ago when sorting through stuff for her move. I’ve been thinking of Berlin all A.M.–that’s just what it looks like in Cairo.

Obama on deck at 3pm ET. He had been planning a chat twenty minutes ago, but I’m guessing it was delayed for that military message.

I’m cautiously optimistic that the military generals will model the Army’s role in a vein like Turkey’s army, where if anything they defer to civilian control but stand up for secularism. Burma’s generals are most definitely NOT the model…

@nojo: Re CPAC: Sometimes you gotta like the Paultards.

Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld can’t even go out in their own backyard: Ron Paul supporters heckled them at CPAC Thursday. Rumsfeld was greeted by boos and then a walkout of many young attendees. Cheney was peppered with taunts of “Where’s Bin Laden?” and “draft dodger.”

@SanFranLefty:
I think the army has been pretty amazing. and a lot of the credit for how this came down is theirs. I am not to worried about them.

@SanFranLefty: Spent the past half-hour chatting with the neighbor who has Kurdish family — so Turkey, Iran, Iraq. When Iran and Iraq fell, they created power vacuums, which opportunists — like Khomeini — were more than happy to fill.

Here, yes, the closest comparison (so far) is Turkey. The eye-opening moment was when the protesters cheered the tanks moving in a couple weeks ago. That’s not in the standard script.

But there are umpteen ways this can go bad. Everything depends on the next two or three days.

Oh, and actual fireworks at Tahrir? Fucking awesome. Almost as awesome as the carny fire-breather CNN was fixated on a half-hour ago.

@nojo:
you know
there has always been umpteen+ ways this can go bad.

I just cant help being optimistic.

@Capt Howdy: I’m cautiously optimistic. I have no concern whatsoever about the Brotherhood, or anything remotely similar. And from everything I’ve heard about the Army, I’m not concerned about a real military coup.

But we’re still in a Tenuous Moment, with a lot at stake. I haven’t heard yet about political prisoners being released — or even detained protesters. The Interior Ministry commands three times the warm bodies as the Army.

And I can’t help but think how the U.S. — Hi, Neocons! — really fucked up the fall of the Soviet Union. Thank Allah that Psychogeezer isn’t running the show, and generally I trust Obama’s judgment in moments like this, but sustaining this moment will take work, and not everybody’s on the side of the angels.

Breaking: Mubarak arrives in Dallas. “He’s just a darling man,” opines former first lady Barbara Bush.

In a related note, who seriously expects a university professor, at a state university, on a Friday, to write a 700-1000 word op-ed about Egypt by 6 p.m.? /news from people dealing with websites desperately trying to localize shit

@nojo:
agreed especially about the Psychogeezer/Obama part.

Today in History:

• Fall of Iran

• Mandela released from prison

• Sarah Palin’s birthday

@nojo:

wow

serendipity cornholed.

@nojo:
Today’s also my dad’s B-day.

He was always happy that he shared the same B-day as Thomas Edison, but I suspect he won’t be happy to discover that he shares the same b-day as Talibunny.

Obama is pitch-perfect, as usual in moments like this.

Reminds me of Reagan, the night of the Challenger disaster. It’s the only thing he ever said that I respected.

@nojo: McCain would be trying to airdrop tanks right about now.

@nojo: I unabashedly loved that speech Reagan gave. I cried the whole time. (Bias alert: At the time, I was a space crazy kid in Houston.)

Back to the land of the Crazy: Pardoned felon and former Gov. Fife Symington is thinking about running for Kyl’s seat; also suggests … Kurt Warner? Best comment on the article: “Shut up and bake me a pie, Fife.”

WH press conference opens with Barry: “Obviously, Gibb’s departure is not the biggest one today.”

ha
Gibbs question

“were you more surprised today or yesterday?”

ouch

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: I’m telling you, woman, The Rent is Too Damn High party should draft you to run for that seat.

Wolf interviews Ron Paul on Egypt, “a subject you know quite a bit about.” Did I miss something?

@nojo:
Maybe he likes to wear Pyramid hats.

Ron Paul is against all foreign aid, of course. But he also makes a valid point that the U.S. has a nasty habit of backing the wrong horses.

@nojo:
he just meant he knows more than wolf. so does my dog.

@nojo: He saw the King Tut exhibit in the ’70s when it toured the U.S.?

@SanFranLefty: I did! In Seattle!

@Capt Howdy: When will the American people rise up against Wolf Blitzer?

@nojo:
yeah
I wonder how much of that Schick is real and how much is political opportunism. e.g. who are the right people in his opinion. has he ever said.

@ManchuCandidate:
I know.
he can walk like and egyptian

@nojo:
you should call in to CNN as an expert.

@nojo:
I have but I’m a furriner so I don’t count. Wolfie’s so bad that I almost long for the days of Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala.

@Capt Howdy: I’ve never seen Ron Paul as an opportunist. Unlike his son.

But his is a very simplistic view of things, and from his perspective, he’s going to hit the right mark on occasion, if only by accident. I’ll give him credit for being right, but not always for the right reasons. (Cue Plato!)

@ManchuCandidate:
Wolfie is a man of his time. personally I think the western media should be more frightened of Al Jazzera than Mubarak was.

@nojo:
my bad I thought you were talking about the son. yeah. if there is any integrity at all in DC he might have some of it I guess in his own odd way.

Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, our country is moving the OPPOSITE DIRECTION from Egypt:

WI governor threatens to call in National Guard unless public employees give up bargaining rights

And here I figured the outright fascism wouldn’t start until at least 2012. Guess I was wrong…

Unrelated, but this headline from Megan McArdle pretty well encapsulates why I can’t take her seriously: “Own a Second Home in New York? Prepare for a Higher Tax Bill.”

Wow, go to a couple of meetings and miss everything.

I got to witness first hand the Navajo Revolution of the late 1980s in which a corrupt long-term leader was overthrown, leading to demonstrations, a riot and deaths. Very small scale, but still very exciting to see.

“When the Navajo Nation Council suspended the chairman in February, 1989, turmoil ensued, culminating in a riot in Window Rock five months later that led to the shooting deaths of two MacDonald supporters and the injury of two tribal police officers.

“MacDonald was eventually convicted of defrauding the Navajo Nation in tribal court, but served only a few months of that sentence before being convicted in federal court of conspiracy to commit burglary and kidnapping charges connected to the Window Rock riot.

“He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison in 1993. ”

– Gallup Independent, August 6, 2005

@redmanlaw: It pisses me off how many people still love that corrupt son-of-a-bitch. Y’know, his daughter was one of the ones indicted for corruption in the discretionary fund scandal. I guess the family that steals together, stays together.

@SanFranLefty: Having looked at the long list of people who are already thinking about running, I think I’d have to throw my chapeau if the finalists include the Asshole and Tater Tot. Then I could drive all over the state regaling people with my Thanksgiving with the Quayles story and any one of several Drunken Hookup Failures with the Asshole.

was just watching Al Jazzera and it occurred to me how absolutely gut wrenchingly terrifying it must be for the average FOX viewer to see ALLLLL those happy dancing partying arabs.

as opposed to the way they would prefer to see them which is cowed bowed and beaten.

OMG Obama is freeing “his people”. stock up on guns, bibles and canned food.

it brought a smile.

Let’s tune into Glenn Beck!

“COMMUNITY ORGANIZING”

Oh shit, this is gonna be fun…

Tom Tomorrow: “Beck: President Obama looked happy b/c communist/muslim revolution successful in Egypt.”

I missed the first twenty minutes, but let’s join him in progress…

@nojo:
I am jealous. been looking forward to this all day. is it webcast I wonder?

@Capt Howdy: The entire show can usually be found online afterwards. Not sure where, but I’ve seen entire high-quality segments.

Label on crowd shot: “The Coming Insurrection: Egypt”.

Beck’s been using TCI for awhile. Nothing new there.

@nojo: You and Media Matters can watch Glen Beck so I don’t have to.

Beck: “We have an Islamic school in Virginia.”

And we probably have a Catholic school down the street.

If I had time, I’d work up a post: “U.S. Stability Threatened by Religious Extremists”.

@SanFranLefty: I’ve only gone to the trouble on rare occasion, but today sounds like a Very Special Episode. Although I may have already missed the best part.

Bear in mind that Beck is hemorraging viewers. He can still sell a shitload of books, but his Fox influence ain’t what it was a year ago.

The quickie Fox News Update is very straightforward, by contrast.

Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece: You’re next. Look out!

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: “The Red-Green Alliance”.

@nojo:
and the smaller his base gets the crazier it gets. it is really getting interesting seeing exactly how far FOX will allow this to go.

Beck: “Leftists worldwide are encouraged by what they are seeing in Egypt.”

Beck sounds like old-school hawk: Democratic popular movements are “instability”.

@SanFranLefty: Scahill tweets: “seriously think some analysts interviewed on US networks today on #Egypt have the following credentials: eaten falafel.”

Beck’s repeated liberal targets: Rosie O’Donnell, Susan Sarandon, Johnny Depp.

Well, definitely missed the best part. The rest was fear-fear-fear the consequences.

@nojo: I read that recently and can’t quite figure it out. Same host, same network, same (or worsened) political climate — so why the drop in viewership?

@mellbell:
have you seen the show?

but seriously. the man is certifiable. he is having a breakdown under the klieg lights. he is embarrassing freaking Bill Kristol. who thought THAT was possible. eventually even his fans say “wait, what???”

@mellbell: @Capt Howdy: Yeah, I haven’t been following Beck closely, but from what I read, he’s gone off a cliff. So “same host” is debatable.

@Capt Howdy: @nojo: Hmm. Well, he does have a history of self-implosion.

ACK! Don’t lose your iPhone!

Oh, and hi! That bastid finally left? Ana mish kowagaya. Ana masraya!

@nojo: My new boss is crazier than Beck.

Today in Mike Lee wankerness

Oh, so what ever happened with Boehner?

@SanFranLefty: That man has no neck.

@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: That’s the least of his problems.

@SanFranLefty: Mike Lee. Fucktard.

I thought Hardball did a very good job reporting this story as did, to my great surprise, Piers Morgan. And Wolf Blitzer was extremely good with the Egyptian ambassador.

@Tommmcatt is with Karin Marie on This One: You know what they say: short neck, short dick.

@Benedick: The ambassador must have had a fun day. Yesterday he was pitching that Hosni had really given up power.

@nojo: He bought a condo in Boca Raton.

Can the new post fairies make a new post, please? That picture of Mubarak is creeping me out.

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: Oh, all right. I’ll do something.

ADD: I thought about doing something about the crazy Wisconsin governor, the latest assault on lady bits and birth control, or the gheyz, but decided instead to talk about Whole Paycheck coming to the Haight.

@JNOV: Seriously–what happened with him? The last time I was slightly coherent and didn’t have to get up at THREE FUCKING THIRTY AM and get home at TEN FUCKING THIRTY PM REPEAT, the National Enquirer had some dirt or some such. I figure they were on the Johnny Mill banged a space alien, so this is probably true. This and Bat Boy.

@nojo: Really? Red Green?

@SanFranLefty: Thanks!

I am thrilled the Egyptians have a chance for a democracy. If they are lucky they will have overthrown a corrupt despot for a western style republic of elected politician whores on the pay of mega-banks and large multi-nationals.

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: First you run, then you crawl.

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: Is that Canadian Comedy?

@Benedick:
Yes.

@iPrick: +1