Images of the thousands of Egyptian protesters that defied a curfew in the capital Cairo and other cities taken throughout the day.
Continue reading …ABC News Publishes, Then Quickly Removes Lefty Mother Jones Article on GOP ‘Redefining Rape’
January 31, 2011 No Comment
ABCNews.com on Monday republished, then removed an article from Mother Jones magazine on Republicans “redefining rape.” The piece briefly appeared on the network's website with no explanation that it was by the editor of the liberal magazine. The article, by Nick Baumann, featured both the incendiary headline from Mother Jones, ” The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape ” and the nasty sub-headline: “Drugged, raped, and pregnant? Too bad. Republicans are pushing to limit rape and incest cases eligible for government abortion funding.” Unlike CBSNews.com, which has an opinion and analysis section, this article received no label. One could easily assume Baumann was simply an ABC News journalist. In the piece, Baumann, attacked the “anti-choice” Republicans: Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law. For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. (Another exemption covers pregnancies that could endanger the life of the woman.) But the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dubbed a top priority in the new Congress, contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to limit drastically the definition of rape and incest in these cases. The only experts cited in the article are those attacking congressional Republicans, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America. That would be fine, of course, had the article not been featured on ABCNews.com (or had it been identified as commentary). National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez created a screenshot of the (now gone) ABC News article and the Mother Jones original: — Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter .
Continue reading …112th Congress: 28 Bills to Repeal Patient Protection Act in 11 Days, But Nothing to Create Jobs
January 31, 2011 No CommentI see our elected representatives are hard at work, representing their constituencies. Not that those constituencies even vaguely represent voters, you understand. No, they would like to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 28 times. In 11 days, no less. What busy little beavers they are! Here’s a list as of today, divided by House and Senate. House H.R. 105 Dan Burton, GOP – Indiana : To repeal the Patient Protection Act & enact in its place incentives for people to buy health insurance. H.R. 118 John Fleming, GOP – Louisiana : To permit a state to elect not to have an American Health Care Exchange. H.R. 119 John Fleming, GOP – Louisiana : To prohibit hiring of irs agent to implement or enforce health insurance reform. H.R. 127 John Graves, GOP – Georgia : To de-authorize funding of Patient Protection Act. H.R. 141 Steve King, GOP – Iowa : To repeal the Patient Protection Act. H.R. 145 Connie Mack, GOP – Florida : To repeal the Patient Protection Act. H.R. 154 Ted Poe, GOP Texas : To prohibit any federal funds to be used to enforce Patient Protection Act. H.R. 171 Cliff Stearns, GOP – Florida : H.R. 2 Eric Cantor, GOP – Virginia : Repeal of Patient Protection Act. H.R. 38 John Fleming, GOP – Louisiana : Rescind funds authorized for Patient Protection Act. H.R. 9 David Drier, GOP – California : Requires Committees to look into Patient Protection Act. H.R. 26 David Drier, GOP – California : Repeal Patient Protection Act. H.R. 215 Don Young, GOP – Alaksa : Repeal Patient Protection Act. H.R. 19 John Carter, GOP – Texas : Disapprove rules on MLR in Patient Protection Act. H.R. 299 John Carter, GOP – Texas : Repeal Patient Protection Act. H.R. 358 Joe Pitts, GOP – Penn : Remove abortion funding from Patient Protection Act (there is none) H.R. 360 Michael Burgess – Texas : Amend Patient Protection Act to include President in Health Care Exchanges. H.R. 364 Tom Latham, GOP – Iowa : To Repeal Patient Protection Act H.R. 371 Marsha Blackburn, GOP – Tennessee : Repeal Title I of Patient Protection Act. H.R. 5 Phil Gingrey, GOP – Georgia : Repeal Patient Protection Act. H.R. 397 Wally Herger, GOP – California :Repeal Patient Protection Act. H.R. 429 Darrell Issa, GOP, California – Repeal Patient Protection Act. H.R. 452 Phil Roe, GOP, Tennessee – A bill to repeal Patient Protection Act. H.R. 450 Dave Reichert, GOP, Washington – A bill to repeal Patient Protection Act. Senate S. 19 Orrin Hatch, GOP – Repeal Health Mandate & therefore repeal patient protections. S. 17 Orrin Hatch, GOP – Repeal Tax on Medical Devices S. 16 David Vitter, GOP – Repeal Patient Protection Act S. 196 Chuck Grassley, GOP, Iowa – A bill to to provide congressional staff gets to participate in Exchange. S. 192 Jim DeMint, GOP, South Carolina – A bill to repeal health care. I thought it might be interesting to see what Democrats did in their first 11 days after assuming control of the House in 2006. Well, lookee there. All sorts of interesting bills in those first days. Everything from gun show loophole closures (David Dreier’s baby) to First Amendment protections, to small business assistance to alternative energy. But for Republicans and their keepers, this Congress is all about sticking it to Obama. Nothing more, nothing less.
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Al Jazeera web producer reports that the army presence has decreased since Sunday. Thousands of protesters continue to demand the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, after 30 years of ruling the country.
Continue reading …California wingnut arrested outside Michigan mosque with explosives: Just another ‘isolated incident’
January 31, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Now, I don’t know about you, but when an agitated man drives all the way from California to Dearborn, Michigan, with a trunk full of Class C explosives (high-end fireworks, mostly) and is arrested outside an Islamic center for making terrorist threats — well hey, I just naturally assume that this has nothing, nothing whatsoever to do with the right-wing Islamophobic hatred that’s regularly ginned up by radio and TV talkers. From the Detroit Free Press : About 700 people were attending a funeral inside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, the largest mosque in metro Detroit, when Dearborn police arrived to arrest a man in a car in the parking lot. He had driven to Michigan from California and reportedly was overheard in a bar making threatening comments about Muslims or Arabs. His car was loaded with large, illegal fireworks, police said. Now, Roger Stockham, 63, is jailed on charges that include making a false report or threat of terrorism. “He’s very dangerous,” said Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad. Now, how do we know that this couldn’t possibly have been a right-wing ideologue? Why, because he had been arrested back in 2002 for threatening President Bush — which is always a certain sign of left-wing politics, according to every right-wing talker on the planet. From the Detroit News : A decorated Army veteran accused of plotting to blow up a Metro Detroit mosque served time in federal prison for threatening to kill President George W. Bush and bomb a Vermont veterans’ clinic in 2002. Ah, but then we read the details of that particular arrest: In the Vermont incident, he told authorities at the time of his arrest at a Veterans Affairs Department complex in Colchester that his minivan was full of explosives. A search found no explosives. Before the arrest, Stockham called a local paper twice to say he was going to explode bombs in the neighborhood. In one call, he identified himself as “Hem Ahadin,” saying he was “a local Muslim terrorist on a roll.” He ranted against the VA, the FBI and Bush, largely because of the things the president had said about Iraq in a speech earlier in the week. According to affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, Stockham threatened to carry out “jihad,” or holy war, against the VA office in White River, Vt. In other words, the threat against Bush was made in the context of Stockham pretending to be an Islamic terrorist — that is, he threatened Bush because he wanted his listeners to believe he was a Muslim, since he wanted authorities to assume whatever act he committed was an act of Islamist terrorism. Most of all, the man had been diagnosed with (and treated for) mental illness on several occasions, which we all know means you can’t possibly blame right-wing rhetoric for having helped inspire the act, right? Yep, just another isolated incident. . We’re up to 21 and counting, by the way.
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• Egypt’s troubles have already hit economic growth, say experts • BG Group halts drilling and pulls out non-Egyptian staff Several major European companies began to suspend operations in Egypt today as City experts warned that the country’s economic growth has already been damaged by the protests against President Hosni Mubarak . Gas producer BG Group suspended drilling in the country, nearly a week after crowds hit the streets of Cairo. The decision was taken over the weekend, and the company is now withdrawing “non-essential, non-Egyptian” staff from the country. The FTSE 100-listed company is continuing to run its production facilities in Egypt, and monitoring the situation. “We have taken a safety and security decision,” said BG spokesman Neil Burrows, adding that senior management are remaining in the country. French building materials company Lafarge has also halted production at its six cement productions sites in Egypt. The company operates six quarries and three gypsum production sites, as well as more than 60 other plants. Lafarge has also recalled 30 of its Cairo-based expatriate workers, out of a total of 70 expats. Activity at Egypt’s ports also declined today. AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container ship and supply vessel operator, confirmed today that it has suspended its port terminal operations in Egypt, and closed its shipping offices. DP World, the Dubai-based ports operator, also halted operations in Egypt as a “precautionary measures”. “The security of our people remains paramount and we are doing whatever necessary to ensure the safety of all our people,” DP World said in a statement. In banking, Barclays said that it has closed its Egyptian branch network “following advice from the central bank in Egypt”. GDP to suffer Earlier today, rating agency Moody’s cut its rating on Egypt by one notch to Ba2, the second-highest ‘speculative’ or ‘junk’ rating. It warned that Egypt’s public finances could suffer if authorities respond to the crisis by raising wages or increasing subsidies on food and fuel. Credit Suisse believes that the Egyptian economy has already been hurt by the crisis. Analyst Jacqueline Madu said that the biggest immediate danger was a run on Egypt’s banks, once the authorities allow them to open again. “The central bank is unlikely to allow the banks to open, in our view, until some measure of calm is restored by the security forces. Once the situation calms down and the banks reopen, however, we would expect the central bank to provide enough [Egyptian] pound-liquidity to prevent a crisis. However, in so doing, we think the central bank will have to tread a fine line in order not to exacerbate the depreciation pressure on the pound,” Madu said. With tourism unlikely to recover soon, Credit Suisse believes Egypt’s deficit will rise to 8.7% of GDP this year, up from 8.1% last year. This would push Egypt’s national debt up to 76% of GDP. “We expect that fiscal deficit and debt ratios will all deteriorate as growth slows and spending picks up due to the costs of re-building and maintaining security,” said Madu. The country is the world’s biggest importer of wheat and runs a large trade deficit. It is reliant on foreign exchange earnings from tourism, and taxes on ships travelling though the Suez Canal. Egypt BG Financial crisis Global recession Barclays Protest Middle East Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Clinton: U.S. Wants Egyptians To Have Their Universal Human Rights Recognized
January 31, 2011 No Comment
On a special edition of “This Week”, Christiane Amanpour reports live from Cairo , Egypt on the widespread protests that have erupted throughout the city. She also talks to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the tense situation. It’s clear that the U.S. is no longer actively supporting Mubarak, but won’t publicly take sides: AMANPOUR: Perhaps no one is watching this situation more closely than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and she joins us this morning from the State Department. Has the United States administration, whether yourself, whether the president, or Secretary Gates, told the Egyptian government specifically that any military crackdown will result in a cutoff of U.S. military assistance? CLINTON: No. Right now, we’re monitoring the actions of the Egyptian military, and they are, as I’m sure your contacts are telling you, demonstrating restraint, working to try to differentiate between peaceful protesters, whom we all support, and potential looters and other criminal elements who are obviously a danger to the Egyptian people. We have sent a very clear message that we want to see restraint, we do not want to see violence by any security forces, and we continue to convey that message. There is no discussion as of this time about cutting off any aid. We always are looking and reviewing our aid. But, you know, right now, we are trying to convey a message that is very clear, that we want to ensure there is no violence and no provocation that results in violence and that we want to see these reforms and a process of national dialogue begun so that the people of Egypt can see their legitimate grievances addressed. AMANPOUR: Madam Secretary, do you believe that what President Mubarak has done already, which is to appoint a first-ever vice president and to shuffle the government, does that amount to enough reform? Is that all you’ve asked him to do? CLINTON: Oh, of course not. But there has been for 30 years a both public and private dialogue with the Egyptian government, sometimes more public, sometimes more private, but all with the same message, from Republican and Democratic administrations, that there needs to be reform. One of the items on that long list was appointing a vice president. That has happened. But that is — that is the beginning, the bare beginning of what needs to happen, which is a process that leads to the kind of concrete steps to achieve democratic and economic reform that we’ve been urging and that President Mubarak himself discussed in his speech the other day. AMANPOUR: There are people still on the streets in great numbers. On Tuesday, you said that the U.S. government’s assessment is that the government of Egypt is stable. Do you believe that was a mistake? Or do you think today that the government of Egypt is stable? CLINTON: Well, Christiane, you know, I know that everybody wants a yes-or-no answer to what are very complicated issues. Obviously, this is a volatile situation. Egypt has been a partner of the United States for over three decades, has been a partner in achieving historic peace with Israel, a partner in, you know, trying to stabilize a region that is subject to a lot of challenges. And we have been consistent across those three decades in arguing that real stability only comes from the kind of democratic participation that gives people a chance to feel that they are being heard. And by that I mean real democracy, not a democracy for six months or a year and then evolving into essentially a military dictatorship or a so-called democracy that then leads to what we saw in Iran. So we’ve been very clear about what is in Egypt’s long-term interests. And we continue to be clear. And that is what we want to see come from this very — this great outpouring of — of desire for the people of Egypt to have their universal human rights recognized. And that is what we hope will come. AMANPOUR: A lot of the people here on the streets are telling us that they’re angry, they think the U.S. is hedging its bets. CLINTON: I just want to reiterate what both President Obama and I have been saying. I said it in Doha. I’ve said it before. President Obama said it himself when he was in Cairo at the beginning of his administration. We believe that democracy, human rights, economic reform are in the best interests of the Egyptian people. Any government that does not try to move in that direction cannot meet the legitimate needs of the people. And in the 21st century, it is highly vulnerable to what we have seen in the region and beyond. People are not going to stand by any longer and not be given the opportunity to fulfill their own God-given potential. Is it really that simple, that we support democracy? We’ve been supporting a torture regime in Egypt for 30 years. Yes, you can argue that we can’t expect every country to accept our standards overnight, but this situation is even worse: Omar Suleiman, the newly-appointed vice president, was the CIA’s point man on extraordinary rendition in Egypt. Our rhetoric on “human rights” rings a little hollow, considering.
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Searches for Chinese characters for Egypt on popular websites return messages saying results are not being shown due to local regulations The Chinese authorities are censoring references to the protests in Egypt as some internet users draw comparisons with China, it emerged today. Searches for the Chinese characters for Egypt on the popular Sina microblog service returned a message saying results were not being shown due to local regulations. But tactics such as employing the English word or characters sounding the same as the Chinese name – also “ai ji”, but this time meaning “sad and worried” – allowed internet users to discuss the situation. Some people said they had also been able to post messages containing the characters for Egypt, although it was not clear how long they stayed up. Although Beijing’s grip on power remains strong, the authorities are deeply aware of social tensions and are anxious to avoid mass unrest. There has been carefully controlled coverage of Egypt in the mainstream media, with newspapers and major news portals running short pieces from the Xinhua state news agency. They are often told to use only Xinhua articles on sensitive subjects. Reports have focused on the economic impact of the protests and the risks of instability, rather than their causes. But the official Global Times newspaper ran a commentary on its English site arguing that the so-called colour revolutions “will not bring about real democracy”. It concluded: “When it comes to political systems, the western model is only one of a few options. It takes time and effort to apply democracy to different countries, and to do so without the turmoil of revolution.” The Chinese edition today pointed to US interests in Egypt, declaring that the west was trying to decide which direction the country will take . Officially, Beijing has urged a return to order in Egypt, with the foreign ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, saying in a statement: “China is paying very close attention to developments in Egypt. “Egypt is a friend of China, and we hope Egypt will return to social stability and normal order as soon as possible.” But some internet users embraced the protests. One message on the popular Baidu.com message board read: “We must clearly support this revolution.” Another asked: “Will Mubarak become [late Chinese leader] Deng Xiaoping?” That was apparently a reference to the brutal military crackdown on the pro-reform protests that began in Tiananmen Square in 1989, which resulted in hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths. On the Sina microblog, several users drew parallels with their own situation. “So much tax every year, visiting the hospital once would cost a fortune – this reminds me of Egypt,” one wrote. “[Am] watching TV. One woman said: ‘The Egyptians don’t have the most basic rights. They can’t vote, they don’t have freedom of expression, some of them can’t even work. The poor are extremely poor and the rich are extremely rich, and the government has been ignoring the gap for 30 years.’ OK … very thought-provoking …” noted another. A third wrote: “No matter how wealthy the society seems, there is one thing that’s missing, just like the Egyptians – they are missing the exact same thing, too. The evil will eventually perish and we will have the thing which has been missing in our hearts.” Others questioned why news programmes were not devoting more time to the subject. Egypt Middle East China Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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Report suggests Tel Aviv want US and EU to curb criticism of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak Israel’s concern at the popular unrest in Egypt is not just about the internal affairs of a near neighbour, but the strategic issue of its 30-year peace treaty with the largest Arab country, once its bitter enemy. The prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, reportedly ordered his cabinet to refrain from commenting publicly on the unfolding drama, saying only that the treaty must be maintained. But as Haaretz reported today, the government is seeking to convince the US and EU to curb their criticism of Hosni Mubarak to preserve stability in the region, even as Washington and its allies signal their wish for an “orderly transition” which the incumbent almost certainly cannot ignore. If democracy is the issue on the streets of Cairo, stability is Israel’s paramount interest. Upholding the treaty and its military provisions is the key question, but that is closely linked to Egypt’s internal politics and a likely future role for the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups if the system opens up. Mubarak, who commanded the Egyptian air force during the 1967 defeat by Israel, inherited the treaty when its architect, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by jihadis in 1981. Always viewed from Israel as a “cold peace”, it nevertheless neutralised the country’s largest Arab enemy after four wars between 1948 and 1973 and providing security on its long southern border, in exchange for returning the Sinai peninsula and destroying settlements. It has survived since, despite the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the Palestinian intifadas of 1987 and 2000 and the war in Gaza in 2008-09. Egypt played a key role in support of the PLO’s Yasser Arafat and has continued to back Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and Fatah movement in its struggle against the Islamists of Hamas, trying but failing to bring about reconciliation between the two. Egypt’s peace dividend has been generous financial and military support from the US, which still sees it as the lynchpin of its regional strategy. Israel has close but discreet links with Egyptian intelligence, overseen by Mubarak’s newly-appointed vice-president, General Omar Suleiman. Israeli analysts, strategists and former intelligence chiefs are all deeply concerned about the implications of the turmoil. The nightmare scenario would be abrogation of the peace treaty under pressure from an Egyptian public that has always been hostile to it, though the US would likely work hard to prevent that. “The collapse of the old regime in Cairo, if it takes place, will have a massive effect, mainly negative, on Israel’s position in the region,” commented the Haaretz military expert Amos Harel. “In the long run, it could put the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan in danger, the largest strategic assets after the support of the US.” In the Israeli media there are signs of a blame game beginning over the question of “who lost Egypt”, with fingers pointing at the country’s much-vaunted intelligence community. Meir Dagan, until recently head of the Mossad secret service, was quoted in a US document released by WikiLeaks as saying that the Cairo regime was stable. Aviv Kochavi, the new head of military intelligence, made a similar prognosis only last week. The precedent the Israelis fear is the overthrow of the shah by the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, an earlier political earthquake that changed the Middle East forever. Israel Middle East Egypt US foreign policy United States European Union Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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Arabic-language news channel appeals to Egyptian citizens to send in accounts of uprising, as state cracks down on media Egyptian authorities today arrested six al-Jazeera journalists as the government continues its media crackdown after a week of political protest in the country. The journalists were arrested and had their cameras and other broadcasting equipment seized by the military in Cairo earlier today, according to the satellite TV channel’s United Arab Emirates correspondent in Egypt, Dan Nolan . “Four soldiers entered our room took our camera. [We are] under military arrest,” Nolan posted on Twitter just after midday UK time. “Unsure if arrested or about to be deported. Six of us held at army checkpoint outside Hilton hotel. Equipment seized too,” he added . Al-Jazeera later reported that Nolan and five other reporters were being detained by police. The six reporters were released around one hour after they were arrested, al-Jazeera later confirmed. However, their equipment remains in the possession of the police. A spokesman for the channel said: “If anything, our resolve to get the story has increased.” Egyptian authorities yesterday took al-Jazeera off the air in the country , blaming the broadcaster for instigating the unprecedented country-wide protests against the president, Hosni Mubarak. The Arabic-language news channel today issued a plea for help from Egyptian bloggers and others to send in their eyewitness reports of the uprising, saying contributions had risen dramatically in the 24 hours it was forced off the air in Egypt. “This call goes out to bloggers, citizen journalists, and anyone with a camera who has content to send,” Al-Jazeera said in a statement. “We’ve already made great use of social networking, and today we’ve found public contributions intensifying.” Al-Jazeera’s Cairo operations were shut down after it broadcast an interview with the popular cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who called on President Mubarak to leave the country. The Qatar-based channel has faced interference with its transmission from Egypt since Friday, when authorities also shut down much of the country’s internet access. Al-Jazeera described the shutdown as an “act designed to stifle and repress the freedom of reporting by the network and its journalists” and aimed at “censoring and silencing the voices of the Egyptian people”. Al-Jazeera, which is owned by the emir of Qatar, has been reporting the Egyptian unrest since it erupted early last week. Government supporters and other Arab leaders have accused the channel of fermenting Egyptian unrest with its round-the-clock coverage. Over the weekend, when protests rumbled on in Egypt’s largest cities while the blackout of the majority of internet communication in the country continued, al-Jazeera said its English-language online livestream had been viewed for more than 26m minutes in 12 hours on Saturday. Al-Jazeera is the largest news broadcaster transmitting 24-hour coverage of the Egyptian uprising that is not wholly or in part owned by the country’s government. Journalists from a number of other organisations, including the Guardian , have been at the receiving end of rough treatment from the Egyptian police and army while covering the protests. The Guardian’s Jack Shenker was assaulted and arrested in Cairo last week, while the Times’s James Hilder was beaten and held at gunpoint over the weekend. More than a dozen journalists have been arrested in Egypt since the protests began, according to the latest figures compiled by the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders. “The shutting down of al-Jazeera is a brazen violation of the fundamental right of Egyptians to receive information as their country is in turmoil,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists. “The international community should prevail upon President Mubarak to lift this censorship immediately.” •
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