American Diplomacy–Bought and Sold

by on February 7, 2011

So, the level of corruption within the American Imperium has now officially reached the level of grotesque venality typical of, oh, say, the Late Roman Republic.  Seems America’s special envoy to Egypt, the man pulling the strings for Hillary Clinton to preserve America’s corrupt client regime, is, himself, a hireling of that self-same corrupt client regime.  Not since Jugurtha has a North African prince played his alleged Imperial overlords …
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Questions, Questions. . .

by on February 6, 2011

So, I’m listening to Christiane Amanpour’s incredibly deferential interview with the bloody-handed Egyptian secret police chief, Omar Suleiman.  I’m very surprised to find out that he is completely pro-democracy (“For sure, everybody believes in democracy”).  Everybody agrees!  Though this leads me to questions.  Like why Mr. Suleiman would be imprisoning 30,000 people as political prisioners over the last decade if he was so busy pumping for democracy.  (I guess great democracies simply …
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Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Carnage

by on February 3, 2011

A good catch by Newsbloggers by promoting the Afghanistan Rights Monitor report on the Afghan occupation’s casaulties in 2010.  As troubling as the numbers are (2,400 civilians killed) the trend lines are even more unnerving.  This has been the worst year for casualties in a decade of fighting and the rights group’s reporting may dramatically undercount civilian casaulty counts.  First off, the use of cluster bombs by NATO forces (despite Afghanistan …
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Provocation–Egyptian Style

by on February 2, 2011

Via Huffington Post < < Egypt Pro-Government Supporters Clash With Anti-Government Protesters

This is hardly a good development, but not necessarily a surpising one.  The groups of armed toughs who waded into Tahrir Square today with no attempt by the authorities to stop them are clearly a provocation.  This is an all too common move in the playbook of counter-revolution.  Violent regime supporters, usually from conservative rural elite youth and lower middle class urban …
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Mubarak’s Choice (and Ours?)–The Torturer-in-Chief

by on January 31, 2011

UPDATE: Good description of Suleiman’s “career” from  Lisa Hajjar at Jadaliyya.  I hadn’t realized that he probably had al-Libi offed and personally tortured innocent Australians. 

In all the chatter about Mubarak’s official choice as likely successor, there has been too little discussion of the person he chose, Omar Suleiman, as opposed to the fact of the choice.  I certainly did not hear any of the talkers on the …
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Egypt–Israel Even More Clueless than US

by on January 29, 2011

As an update on my previous post, there’s an even more clueless bunch of “experts” considering the Egyptian Revolution than even the guys in DC.  The guys in Jerusalem.  This article makes for extremely depressing reading.  The nameless “official” (it would be somewhat awkward, after all, to own these sentiments) admits that democracies are better neighbors but states “Having said that, I’m not sure the time is right for the …
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The Egyptian Revolution and DC Panic

by on January 29, 2011

Egypt has had its Day of Wrath (h/t Andrew) and the situation is fast developing.  It appears that the people have the sympathy of isolated units police and army–yes the army.  And let there be no confusion here–this is a Revolution, even a classic revolution, with the people standing up to the forces of repression.  At this point it is completely unclear whether the Revolution will be successful, …
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The Revolution will Not be Tweeted

by on January 27, 2011

Things are getting serious with news the Egyptian dictatorship has shut down the internet.  I think this is probably a mistake from the regime’s perspective since the blogging classes are not exactly the ones on the street.  I tend to be with Juan Cole in cautioning folks against optimism for a quick people’s victory here–Egypt, unlike Tunisia, is a military dictatorship and has been for quite some time.  Mubarak …
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Austerity or Neo-Hooverism

by on January 27, 2011

So, good observation from Marshall Auerback at New Deal 2.0 (h/t Dailykos) on a major event that has been completely lost in all the hoopla around the State of the Union Address–the results of Britain’s control by the “austerians.”  Seems the magic pixie dust of radical government cuts hasn’t induced the confidence fairies to wave their wands and produce economic growth.  In fact, the opposite has happened with Britain double-dipping into a new …
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Putin’s Pad?

by on January 26, 2011

These pictures from RuLeaks show a pretty swanky Russian-government palace which is alleged to have cost $1bn for the enjoyment of one V. Putin.  Don’t actually know if that’s true (seems more Medvedev’s speed to me–just saying), but the obvious and quite jarring echoes of the Tsar’s palace at Yalta (Livadia).  Leaving aside the basic observation that money can’t buy taste (naked cherubs on the ceiling–bozhe moi!), seems to …
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State of the Union

by on January 25, 2011

Listening to the State of the Union.  Meh.  Been hearing the same damn speech since Bush Sr’s “million points of light.”  Republican, democrat–same happy talk.  Same stony faces in the audience.

UPDATE:  Guess I must have been channeling the spirit of Krugthullu.…
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Bradley Manning and the Jasmine Revolution

by on January 24, 2011

Here’s a nice essay by Juan Cole on the fundamental hypocrisy of the US abuse of Bradley Manning and lionization of Mohammad Bouazizi  (an extremely hypocritical lionization given the close alliance of America with the corrupt Tunisian dictator).  Again, whatever one thinks about Manning’s alleged act, if true, it was a very courageous act and down for idealistic purposes.  Cole has a good discussion of the usual US mendacity–praise human rights, …
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