Sunday Comics - The Week in Review

Finish line. Another week in the history books. The roller-coaster of the drama in Egypt has come to a conclusion - and the three hundred souls that helped make it happen. Social media was a tool, an interment in organizing - not necessarily creating - a revolution. And in Egypt's case it was as effective as a blade or a bullet. In Iran - not so much.
It's also telling that in Iran, as they're celebrating their revolution, and cheering on Egypt - they're suppressing the Green movement and hanging the opposition.
And go he did. The military performed a soft coup d'e'tat. The oil sucking world is concerned what's going to happen next. The West, and America love democracy -- but only if it's to their own benefit. If you're a democracy and elect theocracy into office - that's not good for business. That's why the West is excited for the people of Egypt, but also quaking in their boots that Egypt won't want to play ball.
Which explains, perfectly, the White House's trepidations and confusing messages about Egypt these last couple weeks. A PEW poll discovered that 82% of Egyptians have an unfavorable opinion of the United States. They also want more religion in their government. Factbox: Egyptians want more Islam in politics: poll.

Switching gears, Mr. Obama crossed the street to try to mend fences with the Chamber of Commerce. It went over like a lead balloon.
But the US is on the road to recovery, right? There's nothing to fear... oh, Inflation.
Meantime, make sure you get out to the store this weekend to buy your sweetie overpriced roses and chocolate that was picked by children... oh, you haven't heard? Now chocolate is the new blood diamond. Eh, just email your SO a picture. That ought to go over well.

And there's a new high watermark for failure out there...
Let's try to meet back here next week, gang. In the meantime, hang in there.

Thought of the week: Why is cargo on a ship, but stuff on a truck is a shipment?

Saturday Morning Video

Bye Bye Mubarak from Ramy Rizkallah on Vimeo.

Bye, Bye Mubarak: 20 minutes after Egyptian VP Omar Suleiman officially announced President Hosni Mubarak’s abdication, filmmaker Ramy Rizkallah grabbed his camera and hit the streets to document the celebration.

Mubarak Leaves

Mubarak Leaves Cairo as Military Asserts Control

The Egyptian military appeared to assert its leadership Friday amid growing indications that President Hosni Mubarak was yielding all power. A Western diplomat said that Mr. Mubarak had left the capital for the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, about 250 miles from Cairo.

As protesters were swarming into the streets Friday morning for what was expected to be the biggest and most volatile demonstrations in the three-week revolt here, the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces issued a statement over state television and radio indicating that the military, not Mr. Mubarak, was in effective control of the country. It was unclear whether the military would take meaningful steps toward democracy or begin a military dictatorship.

Western diplomats said that officials of the Egyptian government were scrambling to assure that a muddled speech Mr. Mubarak made on Thursday night that enraged protesters had in fact signaled his irrevocable handover of presidential
authority.

Read More:

UPDATE: BREAKING: President Mubarak Resigns

Sunday Comics - The Week in Review

End of the week. Apparently it snowed, and there's some kind of 'game' on television this afternoon? Hell if I know.

Egypt continues to be a growing concern. The old man is hanging on, and claims doing so will prevent chaos. Never mind the blood being spilled.
I found this one quite telling - even though Egypt has it's porn back, I thought the image captured the tone. Remember, social media didn't start the protests (high food prices did) - but social media helped organize those protests.
Mrs. Clinton and Obama's second chance...
And a judge in Florida threw another strike against ObamaCare.
And finally, here's the biggest problem we're all going to be facing.

Geography Failure

Dear Jimmy's geography teacher -
Yes, Jimmy seemed to have mad skillz with the Photoshop.
He probably took the red eye out of your kid's birthday photos - and you let him pass because he did a nice job. But, look at what Jimmy's done... yeah, first off Jimmy's working for Fox News. I guess your passing him got that high school diploma needed to get into the graphics department at the network.
He's moved Egypt to where Iraq should be - and the fact that no one caught that is odd -- but come on? You make new maps every day over there, or can you re-use one every so often? America's only been engaged in the region since -- well, that Marine's song -- how's that go? "Shores of Tripoli?"
Okay, so a hard drive crashed. I get that - but you can’t use the Internet to get a map like we do at Blasphemes?
How does this sort of thing happen on a network in the first place? Kind of makes me wonder what else those guys are just 'whipping up' over there.

Meantime, Jimmy, yeah, go find your geography teacher and get a refund from him.

Blood in Egypt

Bloodbath In Egypt: 300 Feared Dead And 500 Injured As Mubarak Mob Attack Peaceful Protesters

* Army turns water cannon on protesters in desperate bid to end violence
* Mubarak supports charge Liberation Square on horses and camels
* Rocks and concrete blocks hurled at pro-democracy demonstration
* World leaders call for calm as situation spirals out of control

Thousands of supporters of President Hosni Mubarak today attacked anti-government protesters as fresh turmoil gripped Egypt.

Backers of the president, who last night agreed to relinquish his grip on power, fought with the crowds in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square, at least 500 injured.

Some rode into the ranks on horses and camels and wielding whips. In chaotic scenes, they pelted each other with stones, large sticks and machetes.

The death toll since protests began is now believed to have hit 300.

Read more ....

Egypt Fears

What, no 'Idi'? And why are all these guys white?

On a serious note - here's the REAL STORY of what's going on, on the ground. Minus the spin.
The tl;dr is this:

• Saturday was indescribable. Nothing that I write can describe the utter state of lawlessness that prevailed.

• Today the Egyptians are scared. They have been given a glimpse of hell and they don't like what they see. Contrary to Al Jazeera's propaganda, the Egyptian masses are not demonstrating anymore. They are protecting their homes and families. The demonstration last night had 5,000 political activists participating and not 150,000 as Al Jazeera insists. At this moment, no one outside of those political activists cares less now if the President will resign or not. They have more important concerns now; security and food.

• So where are we today? Well the answer is still not clear, yet a couple of conclusions are evident.

  1. The Gamal inheritance scenario is finished.

  2. Mubarak will not run for another Presidential term. His term ends in October and either he will serve the rest of his term or will resign once things cool down for health reasons, which are real. He is dying.

  3. The army is in control now. We are heading back to the "golden age" of army rule. The "kids" are no longer in charge. The "men' are.

  4. Until the economy fails again, the neo-liberal economic policies are over. Forget about an open economy for some time.

• Immediately the task of the army is to stabilize the situation and enforce order.

• Security wise the situation is a disaster. It might take months to arrest all those criminals again.

• Outside of Western media hype, El Baradei is nothing. A man that has spent less than 30 days in the past year in Egypt and hardly any time in the past 20 years is a nobody. It is entirely insulting to Egyptians to suggest otherwise.

• On the long run the Egyptian question remains the same. Nothing has changed in that regard.

Sunday Comics - The Week in Review

We're at the end of our week, and Egypt is starting their workweek right now - and they're not going to the office- they're going to the streets.

But to review - The State of Union was, until the Middle East got all Democrat-y, the biggest political stage of the week.
The 14 Trillion dollar man in the room...
And in the lamest attempt of 'candor' the members of the business party put down their partisan blinders to sit next to each other listen to Mr. Obama give the State of the Union. Take that crazy gunmen everywhere!

Meanwhile, ClimateFaith continues on and on. I, for one, look to the sun to decide what's going on - and since earlier in the week, not even NASA knows what's going on with the sun - It sure is funny to hear climate change deniers and ClimateFaithers debate as they shovel 19 inches of snow.

And, in case you've missed it, there is a revolution happening right here, right now in the Middle East. The US and the West have a tightrope to walk - a tightrope that is as thin as dental floss. While they've supported the regimes in the region to support status quo - good for business and the flow of oil, there will be questions of why we supported Mubarak, and where we were when the Egyptian Army trained their guns on the people.

It's an uncertain, scary time - wondering about the future, and the present. As a person who wishes for justice, free expression, free press, and human rights - I fully support the people of Egypt. I only warn them that with freedom requires great responsibility. It's too easy to lose that freedom to people who would use them for their own goals. I'm thinking immediately of Napoleon, but also how quickly America has lost it's ideals. Best of luck to you all.

And finally this week, this cartoon comes from Iran (note the green shirt). One can only hope that the final domino is strong enough to knock that old fart out of his chair.

Hopefully we'll all make it to see next week. Until then.

Good Advice

Irony is, it's a Pharaoh - but, good advice none-the-less.

A commenters on Al Jazeera made an observation: "Disabling the Internet in Egypt has backfired big time. Instead of sitting at home, on Facebook or Twitter, people are now out on the streets."

Please note, that what's going on in three (maybe four now) countries in the Middle East isn't about the Internet. It's about suppression of freedom and individual rights, to assemble and of expression. It's about a 'democracy' that has been a dictatorship since 1967. It's about zero opportunity for a large population of young people. It's a revolution about survival. Please don't think that the Egyptian government turned off the Internet and suddenly people started rioting in the streets - it was a reaction to people rioting in the streets...

The Internet is a part of that, but it is not the only part nor is it the most important part.