Developing Story….

Pro-Mubarak groups are fighting with protesters calling for his ouster. Mubarak forces riding horses and camels are attacking people in Tahrir Square.  Shit is getting ugly.

Nicholas Kristof of the NYT: “It’s not quite right to describe what’s happening in #Tahrir as “clashes.” These are attacks by #Mubarak thugs.” and “It’s odd that Mubarak despises Iran. In fact, he’s precisely copied the Iranian model to crush pro-democracy protests.”

Updates in the comments, I’ll try to add video and images as they come in.

Al-Jazeera

Nick Kristof on Twitter

Beeb

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Egyptian President Mubarak has ordered a curfew across Egypt tonight, after protesters battled police across the country.  Protesters show no sign of letting up, despite police attacking them with tear gas and rubber bullets. Opposition leader and former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei is under house arrest.

The country took the unprecedented step of shutting down Internet Service Providers and cell phone service, but news is still getting out.  Egypt’s Al-Masry Al-Youm is getting live coverage out.  Al-Jazeera also has coverage, and is reporting that there are protests in Jordan against the ruling government. The Beeb is saying that one of its reporters was arrested, had his camera taken from him, and was beaten by police forces, that thousands of protesters have been arrested and at least eight people are dead.

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Our dear FlyingChainSaw tipped me off to this story a day or so ago, but it’s taken me a while to post something on it because every time I think about it I start wanting to smash objects and curse like Chainsaw.

Tonight’s outrage involves Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single mom of two kids in Akron, Ohio. Kelley, like most parents, wanted her kids to go to the best possible school and do well and succeed in the 21st Century world where the buzzwords involve competing with the Chinese kiddos and information and knowledge.

Kelley lives in a housing project in Akron, which feeds into a shitty school. Her father lives in a nearby school district, where he pays taxes. Kelley, like many other parents who live in shitty school districts (believe me, I know enough teachers in the Bay Area to know this happens like crazy), registered her kids in her dad’s school district, stating that the kids lived with their grandfather.

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On this day 38 years ago, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Roe v. Wade, holding that women have a privacy interest in the decision whether to bring a pregnancy to term, and thus ending an era of back-alley unsafe and illegal abortions.  (LBJ also died on January 22, 1973, but that news was overshadowed by the Roe decision).

In the intervening four decades, the Court has limited its decision. Access to a full spectrum of reproductive health services, including abortion, is limited by geography and state laws.  Despite ongoing efforts by politicians, primarily Republicans, to further limit women’s access to abortion, 62% of Americans oppose overturning Roe. In fact, one out of three women in the United States will have an abortion at some point in her life. Read more »

Tonight was supposed to be the night that a second movie was shown in a series of documentary movies at the Enfield, Connecticut Public Library, with a viewing of Sicko, Michael Moore’s 2007 movie critiquing the U.S. health care system.  Instead, the screens at the library will be dark as the Town Council and the Mayor threatened to pull funding for the library if the film was shown.

Mayor Scott R. Kaupin, a Republican, had the Town Manager order the library’s director, Henry Dutcher, to cancel the film.  “The sentiment by the majority [of the Town Council] is that it’s a poor choice and that they should definitely reconsider,” Mayor Kaupin told the local paper. “And if they don’t reconsider, then they’re going to have the repercussions of the council. I mean, in the end, when budget time comes and Mr. Dutcher is asking for funding, he’s going to have to answer for it.”

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The Supreme Court heard arguments this morning on a case that will either take last year’s Citizens United corporate personhood decision to a whole new level, or limit the impact of the decision.  This case could also affect the ability of the media and advocacy groups to get information from the government regarding corporate malfeasance.

Today’s case, Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T, revolves around whether corporations can argue that they have “personal privacy” in not having government investigation documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

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Former Vice President Dick Cheney announced yesterday that he’s considering “going for” a heart transplant, making it sound like getting a new ticker is as quick and easy as popping in to $tarbuck$ and getting a cup of shitty coffee. The reality of heart transplants, however, is that there are usually thousands more people waiting for a heart than are available, and waits can take years.

Cheney, as a 69-year-old former government employee, will have his transplant paid for by the evil socialist health care program known as Medicare, with any unpaid amounts covered through his federal government pension and his Halliburton millions.

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