Killer 17 December 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, AFRICOM, Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011, WAR!.52 comments
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Egyptian army soldiers beat a protester wearing a Niqab, an Islamic veil, during clashes near Cairo’s downtown Tahrir Square, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011. Activists say the clashes began after soldiers severely beat a young man who was part of a sit-in outside the Cabinet building. At background graffiti depicts members of the military ruling council and Arabic reads: “Killer”. (AP Photo/Ahmed Ali)
A small gallery of just 9 photos from Tahrir Square on December 16th.
The streets 23 November 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Egypt, Occupy Wall Street, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011, Viva La Revolucion!, WAR!.64 comments
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Egypt protests: Tahrir Square violence enters fifth day –
Egyptian police have fired teargas at protesters during a fifth consecutive day of unrest in Cairo. At least 35 people have been killed since 21 November in the crackdown by security forces on demonstrators, who are demanding that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces transfers power to a civilian government.
Protesters attempt to get rid of a teargas canister – Tara Todras-Whitehill/AP
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Uncrushable 22 November 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Occupy Wall Street, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011, Viva La Revolucion!, WAR!.47 comments
From a so wonderful gallery of Occupy poster art at the Guardian. Occupy Penang, Occupy Arkansas, Occupy Las Vegas (that place is REALLY in trouble), Toronto, Canberra, of course London…. one mocking the dreadful, commercial poster of Obama in 2008… on and on it goes.
So hard to pick, but finally of course, OWS had to lead the day:
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Occupy Wall Street – Photograph: Buzzfeed.com
I don’t think they can crush it. Tho obviously they have only just begun to try.
In that vein as I was reading this very good piece, I wondered if one could ever retrieve the other Martin, not Martin of the dream speech (much less that travesty, as I call it, Three Gorges Dam Martin)… but a more complex version.
November 22, 2011
Are We Going to Hell?Violence Goes to College
by VIJAY PRASHAD
Before the assassin’s bullet cut him down, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been preparing his sermon for Atlanta’s Ebeneezer Baptist Church. The sermon was called “Why America May Go to Hell.” The theme of the sermon was simple, that the failure to address the acute social crisis in the country had already begun to lead to dangerous violence. A protest in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, on behalf of striking sanitation workers led to mayhem. King escaped from what he had thought would be a non-violent march and remarked, “We live in a sick nation. Maybe we just have to admit that the day of violence is here, and maybe we have to just give up and let violence take its course.”
Such a statement is unusual in King’s repertoire, which is mainly positive and hopeful. By 1968, the carefully wrought counter-revolution to the liberation movements would soon make its appearance. The most dramatic instances were the assassinations of the standard-bearers of liberalism (King in April, Robert F. Kennedy in June). Less dramatic would be the shooting of college students, busy fighting the remnants of segregation and refusing to go shoot at the Vietnamese. Little remembered now is the killing of students on February 8, 1968, when South Carolina’s highway patrol officers shot and killed Delano Middleton, Henry Smith and Samuel Hammond as they tried to protest a segregated bowling alley in Orangeburg. No longer was the violence to come from below. It was more likely to come from above, to be the violence of the counter-revolution.
Campus militancy reached its highest point perhaps by the spring of 1969, when about a third of most students participated in one way or another in the demonstrations. It was in this context that California’s Governor Ronald Reagan said of the students, “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with. No more appeasement.” On May 4, 1970, four lay dead in Ohio (Jeffery Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer – average age 19 years and 6 months). Reagan got his bloodbath.
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There is a gallery of photos of the Occupy Librairies too…. In the closer shots, clearly showing uncracked spines and crisp covers, I see lots of new books. IMO people were, in an appreciable measure, donating newly purchased books to the libraries.
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London
‘Will Hutton’s The State We’re In is shelved alongside Subcomandante Marcos’s Zapatista Stories, Dean Koontz’s The Husband piled on top of Brian Friel’s Translations’ … the Occupy London library at St Paul’s Cathedral – Photograph: Richard Lea
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In highly peevish news, some people are still stuck on what women do. And does it have, you know, VALUE. Because of course what women do for the cause must be vetted. Must be found to have value.
Lordy.
Wintering 20 November 2011
Posted by marisacat in Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, la vie en rose, Occupy Wall Street, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011.73 comments
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Flamingos gather on the coast of Nea Kios, in Nafplio, southern Greece. Flamingos use this particular wetland as a resting place during their migration south in the winter [Evangelos Bougiotis/EPA]
Angry Arab pops up with this today:
Israeli solidarity with the Egyptian (nude) Blogger
I don’t want to send that message directly to them so I will send it here. I read that a few Israeli women stripped nude in solidarity with the Egyptian blogger who stripped nude. Why do Israelis intrude into our lives? Why do you get into areas in which you are clearly uninvited and in which you are clearly unwelcome? You are such a bothersome presence. Arabs have made it very clear that they (unlike the tyrants that you like) don’t like you and don’t want you in their midst. It is none of your business what Arabs do and don’t do. Spare us your act of solidarity when you are racists who everyday in your live you take advantage of the racist system that Zionist set up for you. We don’t need your silly and fake solidarity. You are not invited to our lives and our activities. You are such an unwanted presence. Take your solidarity and go away. And stop intruding on every aspect of our lives. After we liberate Palestine, and when you are forced to live in a system based on equality (after we subject you to the same military rule that you imposed on the Arabs inside Israel), you may engage in solidarity but even then it won’t be wanted. You really are without dignity when you know full well that Arabs don’t want to do anything with you, and you keep acting like you are invited to our parties, uprisings, lives and events.Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 7:26 AM
Oh No. Whooops. NO. As far as I am concerned, and not knowing preciselyWHO the women are on the Israeli side, but they may most certainly stripe nude if they wish, in sympathy, support, solidarity, identification, whatever is the motivation, with the Eqyptian blogger. Who is herself responding to repression of women under the conservative Salafi rules… and in fact in other posts Angry Arab writes of the increasing conservative Orthodox religious, on the Jewish side!, imposing separation of the sexes on public buses (women to the rear of the bus) and elsewhere.
Perhaps the Israeli women are thinking, oh I don’t know, BROADLY.
I think it is bad business to tell women what to do, what they may or may not do, to lecture them.
Everybody is allowed personal autonomy, I don’t care how politicised a situation or a country is…. if it practicises apartheid or not.
He seems a tad obsessed:
I disagree with Sara and other other feminist comrades at Nasawiyya who I so admire and support. It seems to me that there are so many other issues that women have to worry about in our region (and beyond) to be distracted by this sensational act by one person. If the issue is about sexual liberation and challenging the taboos of religion and state, I am all for it. But this is too shallow an act (and may even echo too many other Western shallow acts) to be taken seriously as a feminist act. Yes, of course, we need to denounce the various reactionary and right-wing voices of condemnation. But the pictures were also circulated for cheap titillation, which I guess is fine if people want to do that. But the feminist movement has other more important priorities to be reduced (or caricatured) by the exhibitionism of one woman (or man). Comrade Khodor (a progressive Lebanese) wrote a letter to `Alya’. I keep wanting to avoid this issue which is filling the pages in Arabic and English but I feel it keeps following me. There are so many other important issues. I am more worried about the status of Tunisian women after the victory of An-Nahdar: and about Western endorsement of misogynistic regime in the GCC countries. These are more serious threats to women and their freedoms, it seems to me.Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 8:26 AM
Future 10 September 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, DC Politics, Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, Total fucking lunatics, WAR!.61 comments
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Israeli embassy under attack in Cairo – in pictures – Egyptian protesters storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo – Riot police take position [Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters]
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Catch this from Meacham…. if you can read the running slop wthout vomiting, that is:
JON MEACHAM homily for an Evensong in Commemoration of 9/11, to be delivered tomorrow afternoon at Saint Thomas Church, on Fifth Avenue:
“A day like September 11 reminds us of the essential fragility of all things. … We reacted as a great people, a people imbued with a moral sensibility and a passion for liberty and for order. … You and I can argue about the details of the American response, … about the tactics and the wars. But the power and the glory of this republic lie precisely there, in the freedom to argue and to grumble-and, ultimately, in the freedom to hope that our arguments, conducted within history, can shape history. …
“The terrorists who brought war to this island a decade ago believed they were agents of God. They were not. They were-they are-agents of evil, driven by a will to power. It was the most extreme expression imaginable of the most ancient sin of all: the sin of pride, of believing you are not a subject of God’s but a god yourself. This is the perversion that cost us Eden … So it was that the terrorists of 9/11 were 21st-century serpents-lineal descendants of that first spineless snake who slithered through the garden. … Love and remembrance: such is the legacy of September 11 and its aftermath. It is the same legacy, in fact, as Good Friday — a day of death that ultimately affirmed life.”
More than a little transference? I’d say…
Yes I so wanted to grow up to be an unwilling volunteer for the recycling side of the garbage collection (about what most “green” hype is these days… ) and I SO WANTED TO grow up and be alive in the United States of the Full Partner of Israel.
Yes indeedy.
Revelry 5 September 2011
Posted by marisacat in AFRICOM, Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011.88 comments
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Tahrir square, Cairo: Revellers enjoy celebrations for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan [Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]
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Kill the illusions… 9 March 2011
Posted by marisacat in AFRICOM, Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011.80 comments
Smoke rises from heavy shelling as rebels retreat during a battle with Gaddafi’s troops outside the town of Bin Jawad [Kevin Frayer/AP]
From a post at Counterpunch on several of the revolts – and “imperial anxiety”:
[T]he slow U.S. support for the uprising in Egypt, the cautious tone with Bahrain and Yemen, and the strident language against Libya are of a piece: the U.S. is not driven by the popular upsurge but by its desire to control the events in north Africa and the Gulf to accord with its three pillars. Cracks in the consensus come here and there.
Representative Adam Smith (Democrat from Washington) admitted to reporters:
“The old days of ‘as long as we can make a positive relationship with the autocrat who is running the place, then we are friends with the country’ are dead and gone.”
This is a remarkable disclosure, and one that is rarely heard openly in Washington. It was commonplace in the 1980s, when the then U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Jeanne Kirkpatrick, distinguished between “traditional autocrats” (the emirs, for instance) and the “revolutionary autocrats” (she had in mind the Communist states).
Even Smith’s cautionary note is quickly suborned to the logic of the three pillars. It is not enough to listen to the people of north Africa and the Gulf, to learn from them about their grievances and their desires. Far more important is to yoke them directly to the pillars of U.S. imperial interests, without the indirect filter of the autocrats.
“We have to be much more interested in trying to get the actual populations in those countries to be supportive of us,” Smith said. “What we have to start thinking about in the foreign policy establishment is what shifts in our foreign policy do we need to make to target the populations.”
Over the past decade, the countries of South America walked through the exit from the theatre of U.S. hegemony. Galvanised by events in Venezuela and Bolivia as well as Argentina and Brazil, these countries are no longer in the reliable orbit of U.S. policy. The Arab people seem now in search of just this exit. The struggle is on to see if they will be able to find it. The U.S. and the remainder of its allies (in the emirates mainly) want to define these revolts in their image, with Donald Rumsfeld giving George W. Bush the credit (this is his freedom agenda, apparently) and Obama’s cronies saying that all this is a result of his speech in Cairo. But these are feints. In Cairo, Obama said, “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”
During the Tahrir Square standoff, protesters chanted, “We have extended our hand, why have you clenched your fist?”
From Cpunch…. this author has posted good pieces throughout the Egypt revolt, and this is from the latest, an overview of the recent weeks in Tahrir Square:
As one of the great Arab poets of his time, Nizar Qabbani described this generation of the youth that would lead the future Arab revolutions. Before his death in 1998, he foresaw their resolve for action and change when he prophesized:
We do not want an angry generation
To plough the sky
To blow up history
To blow up our thoughts.We want a new generation
That does not forgive mistakes
That does not bend
We want a generation of giants.Arab children,
Corn ears of the future,
You will break our chains,
Kill the opium in our heads,
Kill the illusions.Arab children,
Don’t read about our suffocated generation,
We are a hopeless case.
We are as worthless as a watermelon rind.
Don’t read about us,
Don’t ape us,
Don’t accept us,
Don’t accept our ideas,
We are a nation of crooks and jugglers.Arab children,
Spring rain,
Corn ears of the future,
You are the generation
That will overcome defeat.
Oh I hope it is a virulent virus that spreads and spreads. And spreads.
Neo Liberals 1 March 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, AFRICOM, DC Politics, Egypt, Israel/AIPAC, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011, Turkey.81 comments
I snitched the photo from this post of Angry Arab, couple of snips below:
[R]ead the sign above from Binghanzi: (AP). I assume that you can read English and they wrote it in English for you to see and understand. Zionists are about to hijack and adopt the Libyan uprising but that won’t be easy. The society will prove to be very anti-Israeli, like other societies in the region. Obama who never once uttered the words that Mubarak should step down–even after he stepped down–suddenly decided to call on Qadhdhafi to step down, after resisting for weeks that demands (those who defended Obama said that he was worried about the use of US embassy staff as hostages, so he is no more worried about them?). Libya, unlike Egypt and Tunisia, has oil and that is significant for the US. The US is desperate to take advantage of the situation and steer it in the direction of Tel Aviv. I was a critic of the “Zionist Lobby” thesis of Mershheimer and Walt until the Egyptian uprising when I saw the extent to which Netanyahu was directing Obama (I still caution against the exaggeration of the role of the Zionist lobby because the US lobby has imperial interests of its own) …..
Think we will sell it as Berlin Airlift Deux? Chocolates for the kiddies and ”wow we even fed the animali in the Berlin Zoo” (and I am glad both got food).
Yeah probably. I notice too that Voice of America has a headline that calls for “restraint” in Oman, from the US State Dept voicebox (PJ Crowley) and refers to their protests as “rare”.
And we are all mad mad mad at Tayyip Erdogan for daring to tell us to butt the hell out.
The New York Times had this editorial today:
“We were disappointed to hear Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey — the Muslim world’s leading democracy — denounce “any sanctions or interference that would mean the punishment of the Libyan people.””
So they were disappointed that Erdogan (and I am no fan of his) merely called against interference in Libyan affairs? They were offended that he called for the Libyan people to chart their own destiny? As for your lovely humanitarian sanctions, we saw your sanctions “work” in Iraq (and saw even your “smart sanctions” version under Bush and Rice) and we did not enjoy that show one but, as those more than 500,000 children who died from your sanctions. The policies, actions, and rhetoric of the US is getting uglier and more offensive, and the liberals in the West as usual play the most sinister role (as they did back in 2003 in support of the war on Iraq). Western liberals have always played that role and we in Syria/Lebanon lived under French colonial rule and French socialists were no less colonial when they were in power during that era. I know, that Israel/US want to take advantage of a rapidly changing situation and they want to establish footholds in the region. We know how they think when you read that Obama administration is inviting one Zionist writer after another into the White House (including Bush’s era Zionists, like Elliot Abrams and Fouad Ajami) for potato’s sake.
But they don’t realize one important element of change in the region. Those countries will never be as closed as they were: and so many arms depots and police stations have been raided by protesters. Secret cells will now form freely in all armed forces of overthrown regime. Potential for sabotage and subversion is now huge. In many cases, the peaceful part of the uprisings is now over in Tunisia and Egypt. The violent phase is about to begin. Stay tuned. Those Zionists who play with fire will get their hands burnt, badly.
There you go. Simply put.
Protest 27 February 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, AFRICOM, DC Politics, Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011, Total fucking lunatics.75 comments
Zagreb, Croatia: Policemen clash with protesters during an anti-government protest [Hrvoje Polan/AFP/Getty Images]
Just for contrast, who is gamboling around Tahrir Square Cairo?
McCain and Lieberman.
Really!, they are.
The Tweedledee and Tweedledum of cartoon politics. If only cartoons did not kill.
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Some Angry Arab….
The name Qadhdhafi or Qadhdhaf Ad-Dam
What are the origins of the name of Qadhdhafi or Qadhdhaf Ad-Dam (his special envoy, Ahmad Qadhdhaf Ad-Dam who resigned from his post two days ago and defected). Apparently, the legend of the family is that they were pious Sufis who kept invoking God and qur’anic citations until blood came out of their mouths, hence the name: Qadhdhafi (spitter or emitter) or Qadhdhaf Ad-Dam (spitter of blood).
Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 10:15 AM
And:
A source who does not want to be identified sent me this:
“Oman is on fire and al-Jazeera is quiet, and so is al-Arabiyya who only reported on points lost in Oman stock market. And of course Omani channels are not saying a word. Reuters reported this yesterday: but the number of protesters was higher, around 3000; the police used tear gas and the protesters reacted by attacking the police injuring a high ranking one and sending him to hospital. The road to al-`Ayn in the Emirates was temporarily closed.
And this is what is not being reported:
Yesterday there was a demonstration in Sour and a police center was burned. Today: more protests in Sohar and the police used live ammunition killing a 15 year old boy. Banks are closed in Sohar now. The Wali of Sohar came out with other tribal leaders to calm people down but they were attacked and ran away. A police station was put on fire. It seems tanks are deployed there now. There are protests in Salala too. I don’t know if you know this, but Omani police and mukhabarat get much of their training in Jordan.
How did I get this info?… is sending me updates. info is reliable (my … People are spreading the news there be telephoning each other). If you report this, please don’t mention my name and try not to provide all the details:”
Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 10:11 AM
Not just an “uprising”. 11 February 2011
Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, DC Politics, Egypt, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, Pan Arab Revolt - 2011, Riyadh.71 comments
29 January: The end
Protesters make a statement with the destruction of a central security forces truck in downtown Cairo Photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy
And: May it spread.
From one of several galleries, new today, at the Guardian. Several shots from January 29, which, iirc, is a day many died. One photo even shows that birdshot used against the protesters was Made in the USA.
Arms dealers to the world. Among other job descriptions we fulfill.
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Marisacat 