Politics Plus

I hear fear mongering on the right that the populist revolution taking place in Egypt today could result in a radical Islamic Regime under the Muslim Brotherhood.  I admit that the Russia’s progressive-socialist Kerensky government was shortly overthrown by the totalitarian Bolsheviks and the populist Iranian revolution gave way to the current theocratic regime there, and know one can say where a revolution will lead.  Perhaps the Kerensky government might have held if European nations and the US has not invaded Russia in support of the Tsar.  Perhaps the extremism in Iran could have been avoided had not the US overthrown Iran’s democratic government and installed the Shah.  Obama is right to leave the outcome to Egyptians.  Republican lies from the likes of Neocon Jon Bolton should be ignored.

Thousands of Egyptians continue to take to the streets in protest of President Hosani Mubarak’s 30-year-long authoritarian regime. But while the Obama Administration inches towards public support for the Egyptian people, many Republican hardliners are throwing up roadblocks to U.S. endorsement of democratic reform. Their delusion-du-jour? The threat of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Those who subscribe to Rep. Thaddeus McCotter’s (R-MI) [GOP lies delinked] and Amb. John Bolten’s [GOP lies delinked] fear-mongering warn that the inevitable result of this pro-democracy movement will be the enfranchisement of the Muslim Brotherhood and other anti-American “jihadist nutjobs.”

Today on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, former International Atomic Energy Agency director, Egyptian activist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei blasted the delusion as a “myth” lacking “one iota of reality.” Intimately familiar with both Iranian and Egyptian politics, ElBaradei pointed out that the Muslim Brotherhood is not actually an extremist group and the idea that extremists would takeover the government is just a myth “perpetuated and sold” by the Mubarak regime…

…Watch it:

 

While the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood had supported violence at one time, the conservative group is “Egypt’s largest opposition group” and “has disavowed violence and sought to participate in Egyptian politics” legitimately since the 1970s… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

The Crotch Koch brothers held their semiannual retreat with company from several hundred protestors, irate over the the way they have used their wealth to suborn the election process.  Thank you to all who protested!

An invitation-only political retreat for rich conservatives, run out of the spotlight for years by a pair of Kansas billionaires, became a public rallying point for liberal outrage on Sunday, as 11 busloads of protesters converged on a resort in the Southern California desert.

An estimated 800 to 1,000 protesters from a spectrum of liberal groups vented their anger chiefly at Charles and David Koch, brothers who have used many millions of dollars from the energy conglomerate they run in Wichita to finance conservative causes. More than two dozen protesters, camera crews swarming around them, were arrested on trespassing charges when they went onto the resort grounds.

Organizers depicted the Koch brothers as symbols of the “unbridled corporate power” that they maintain was loosed by last year’s Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United campaign finance case, which lifted a ban on corporate spending in elections.

“You don’t very often get a chance to be across the street from a bunch of billionaires who are scheming to do things against our democracy,” said Kathy Clearly, 63, a retired schoolteacher who arrived by bus from Los Angeles and brandished a protest sign at the rally.

The political retreat, held at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa about 130 miles east of Los Angeles, amounted to a victory lap for the Koch brothers, who helped finance conservative candidates in the fall campaigns through their company’s political action committee, which spent $2.5 million, as well as through advocacy groups like Americans for Prosperity.

Many candidates they supported, including a number backed by the Tea Party, gained election as part of the Republican takeover of the House.

The Koch brothers themselves and their guests — Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, was expected to attend — were nowhere to be seen near the protest Sunday and made no public statements. Sport utility vehicles with tinted windows shepherded attendees in and out of the complex, and two dozen Riverside County sheriff’s deputies in riot gear, their batons out, guarded the entrance to keep out anyone not registered as a guest.

Liberal groups have begun a calculated political and legal strategy in recent weeks to make the Koch brothers a target of their efforts to stop the Republican momentum.

Common Cause, a liberal advocacy group that helped organize the rally and a panel discussion nearby on the brothers’ influence, filed a petition with the Justice Department this month challenging the Citizens United ruling and arguing that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas should not have taken part in the case because they had attended the Koch brothers’ retreat as speakers and were biased. It was not known if the justices attended Sunday’s gathering.

“This is a critical moment for us,” Mary Boyle, vice president for communications at Common Cause, said in an interview. “The Koch brothers embody this ability to tap vast corporate profits and influence policies that undermine the public welfare.”

She said the Citizens United case had given the Koch brothers and others license to create “shadowy networks” of well-off but largely anonymous donors to further their agenda… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

We do know that Scalia and Thomas attended and spoke at the Koch brothers event that planned the strategy for the 2010 elections, before the Citizens United decision was handed down.  If not collusion, it was indeed a conflict of interest at the minimum.

Isn’t it nice to see normal people demonstrating for a change?

Because the this one story has dominated the news cycle for days, it is difficult to find material that has not been overworked, but today I have three articles that focus on the attempts by the Mubarak Regime to stifle the free flow of information and the need to oppose such measures.

For starters, he has banned Al Jazeera.

Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel, which has given nearly round-the-clock coverage to the uprising against the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, was shut down in Egypt today.

Egyptian authorities have shut down the offices of AlJazeera following the network’s coverage of riots in Cairo, the channel announced today.

The Egyptian authorities announced through the state television that they are revoking the Al Jazeera Network’s licence to broadcast from the country, and will be shutting down its bureau office in Cairo, according to the Qatar-based channel.

Egyptian state news agency MENA said Al Jazeera’s journalists had been stripped of their accreditation and the network’s licence had been withdrawn.

"The Information Minister ordered….suspension of operations of Al Jazeera, cancelling of its licences and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff as of today," a statement on the MENA website said.

Al Jazeera has been at the forefront of reporting on the popular protests and riots that overthrew Tunisian president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali and threaten to do the same to Mubarak.

Before many others, the news channel flooded bulletins with footage, streamed online and updated its Twitter, Facebook and blog sites.

A statement by Al-Jazeera today described Egypt’s decision an act "designed to stifle and repress" open reporting… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <One India>

While Al Jazeera has a decidedly pro Islam outlook, over the years, I have found them to be professional and accurate in there presentation, far more so than some US news sources.  This action is ill advised on Mubarak’s part and will only make the situation worse.

Mubarak has also shut down Internet communication.

For the rocks and other projectiles that protestors are hurling in the streets of Cairo, Egypt’s riot police have shields.

To combat social media, another important weapon for the demonstrators, outside experts and people living in the country say the government has coordinated a blockage of certain communications websites and unplugged internet access entirely to parts of the country.

On Thursday, protesters active on Twitter and Facebook, publicly documenting demonstrations on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities, went quiet. Around the same time, many websites centralized on servers in Egypt disappeared.

On Friday, that Web shutdown seemed to be holding… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <CNN>

Once again, Mubarak is making a bad situation worse by using repressive methods.  Obama was right to call for the restoration of data access, but he lacks credibility, because his own administration is working on an Internet kill switch here.  While I understand the possible need for such an ability, the law must be made crystal clear that it may only be used in a cyber attack a hostile foreign government.

Despite Republican calls to support the dictator, saner heads are calling for reform.

As ThinkProgress reported earlier today, a number of high-profile right-wing figures have risen to the defense of the embattled Hosni Mubarak government in Egypt. Yet as thousands of Egyptians continue to fight for their freedom, the eyes of the international community are falling squarely on the Obama administration.

Today, the Egypt Working Group — “A bipartisan group of former U.S. officials and foreign policy scholars” that includes CAP’s Brian Katulis — released a statement calling on President Obama to suspend military and economic aid to Egypt until the government endorses free and fair elections and ends its crackdown on civil liberties and civil rights:

Only free and fair elections provide the prospect for a peaceful transfer of power to a government recognized as legitimate by the Egyptian people. We urge the Obama administration to pursue these fundamental objectives in the coming days and press the Egyptian government to:

– call for free and fair elections for president and for parliament to be held as soon as possible;

– amend the Egyptian Constitution to allow opposition candidates to register to run for the presidency;

– immediately lift the state of emergency, release political prisoners, and allow for freedom of media and assembly;

– allow domestic election monitors to operate throughout the country, without fear of arrest or violence;

– immediately invite international monitors to enter the country and monitor the process leading to elections, reporting on the government’s compliance with these measures to the international community; and

– publicly declare that Hosni Mubarak will agree not to run for re-election.

We further recommend that the Obama administration suspend all economic and military assistance to Egypt until the government accepts and implements these measures.

The position of the Obama administration has been unclear. While administration officials have condemned abuses of civil liberties, they’ve also fallen short of endorsing Mubarak’s ouster or ending support for the regime, with Vice President Joe Biden even going as far as to say that Mubarak isn’t a dictator… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

I support most of the ideas put forward by this group.  While many in the US are calling on Mubarak to resign, that matter is up to Egyptians, not the US.  But, if Mubarak wants to save himself, he has two choices he can make.  He can either increase his oppression of the Egyptian people or he can meet the people’s demands.  If he chooses the former, he should get no support from the US.