the einsteins at PNAC are at it again

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This has heavily to do with why I'm trying mightily not to obsess on the pushbutton revolutions in full swing right now.

In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage US intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to "immediately" prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.

The appeal, which came in the form of a letter signed by 40 policy analysts, including more than a dozen former senior officials who served under President George W. Bush, was organised and released by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a two-year-old neo-conservative group that is widely seen as the successor to the more-famous – or infamous – Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

Warning that Libya stood "on the threshold of a moral and humanitarian catastrophe", the letter, which was addressed to President Barack Obama, called for specific immediate steps involving military action, in addition to the imposition of a number of diplomatic and economic sanctions to bring "an end to the murderous Libyan regime".

In particular, it called for Washington to press NATO to "develop operational plans to urgently deploy warplanes to prevent the regime from using fighter jets and helicopter gunships against civilians and carry out other missions as required; (and) move naval assets into Libyan waters" to "aid evacuation efforts and prepare for possible contingencies;" as well as "(e)stablish the capability to disable Libyan naval vessels used to attack civilians."

I know the place of their birth and it ain't in the GORGEOUS courage and transcendent love of the people rising and being slaughtered for it. No, no, no it ain't. I'm trying not to talk about it too much because I think I might go postal from more people reporting as though this were a sporting event and more citizens waxing so smugly confused about it all.

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love, 99
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it's all over the place

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And it upsets me too much. So I'm avoiding all but the most cursory looks, but, within this piece about the Friday protests all over the Middle East is this bit about Egypt, and that could use an update here.

Egypt's new military rulers, promising to guard against "counter-revolution", faced political pressure on Friday to purge the cabinet of ministers appointed by Hosni Mubarak, the deposed president, as thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo.

On the eve of the rally that will also celebrate two weeks since Mubarak's removal, the military, which has promised
elections within six months, assured Egyptians there would be "no return to the past" of the Mubarak era.

At a gathering at Tahrir Square, which was also to remind the military of the people power that ended Mubarak's 30-year rule, activists urged the military to overhaul the newly appointed cabinet and install a fresh team of technocrats.

Protesters want Mubarak to be put on trial and for Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik to be fired.

"Friday is another day of protest to bring together Egyptians who bravely ousted Mubarak but still struggle as
remnants of the old regime try to hang on and ruin the revolution," Sameha Metwali, an activist, said.

And shine on you crazy diamond.

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love, 99
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i've been worrying about this for at least a week

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Notwithstanding the outrage over F. William Engdahl daring to suggest such a thing, this is a real possibility. I'm not getting over having been duped by the so-called Orange Revolution in Ukraine. It reminds me of when my horse kicked me in the head. She was trying to kick another horse, but got me instead, and for many years after my stomach would start trying to trade places with my liver every time I was in a corral with a loose horse. No, just because you've been kicked in the head five or six times by color and flower revolutions doesn't mean every one of them has been incited by our covert ops, but we do have to keep asking that goddam question we learned was key when we got kicked in the head in 2001. I might not have even mentioned this, because I truly am in visceral solidarity with the Egyptians and Tunisians and Yemenis and all those rising up around the world, except for my reaction to seeing ElBaradei's name keep popping up in news accounts of the Egyptian uprising.

We have been hearing about him for Mubarak's post ever since he left the IAEA. Just like we kept hearing Hillary's name for president since the day after Clinton left office. She was going to be president until they realized a black president would be even harder to dis whilst bringing hardcore fascism down around us. You know that's so. THE MEDIA ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS. Their function is to keep us in a specially-crafted consensus trance, they didn't change their tune about Hillary until their bosses decided on Obama, and then we got a veritable cosmic symphony of celebration of Martin's Dream while the McCain/Palin circus kept the bubbas busy... so we DO need to be suspicious as hell right now.

The United States DOES have armies of black ops in every country of strategic interest. That's been shown over and over and over. JSOC has been busily hiring since the advent of Genghis Ponzi Yoo's administration, so think. Find links. Pray The Guardian starts hitting the Cairo cables hard... or at least one of the sites trying to help wade through them.

... and ... just as I was about to mention my worry about whether we should not now suspect Anonymous too, I see THIS... which has made me more suspicious. Mindfuckers Rule the World. We need our own global news operation. We couldn't get it, no matter what, because they would infiltrate it and coöpt it. This. Is. NO. Fun.

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love, 99
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predators and prey

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It is not enough to riot and revolt, people need to keep at it until the danger of the wrong changes moving in has passed. This would be why movement leaders need to be clear on the goal before they urge people to the streets. Yes, sometimes the people don't wait for enlightened leadership to emerge, and sometimes I wonder if enlightened leadership is even possible anymore, those tending toward it being either completely disinclined to leadership or not enlightened in fact, but more corruptible power freaks is the norm. It's the norm that needs overturning. This means the people have to lose their default settings along with their patience for tyrants.

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Three people were shot dead as protesters fought police outside Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha's office on Friday during a rally to demand the government resign over corruption allegations. ...

This would be the prime reason no one in the United States wants to get out there to demand the resignation of our corrupt government. Fat people find it safer to use sophistry to avoid risk than to eliminate it. The harder it is to reconcile such an attitude with facts, the more superior the tone of the sophistry becomes. When the facts keep heaping up—despite the most elaborate and finely-wrought sophistry, complete with experts—the tone turns shrill, lots of sanctimony gets thrown in for good measure, and polemics turn to hard and heavy shit-slinging. If none of that works, it gets still louder, loftier on one side and lower on the other, by turns, and yet less amenable to even short lulls. We couldn't be lucky enough to have another civil war... let alone another revolution.

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love, 99
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dictators rotating in and out

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Baby Doc mystically makes his way back to Haiti as Ben Ali rotates out of Tunisa with lotsa scratch.

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love, 99
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poetry

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I hope yer out there banging pots and pans right this very now.

Reading the cables, it is clear that their release did not cause the fall of the President—he was laying the groundwork for that himself—though it may have affected the timing. It also, perhaps, clarified the moment for the Tunisians; will it also do so for us?

It would be useful, for example, to know more about the grand jury in Virginia that is apparently pursuing criminal charges against WikiLeaks. Good for Twitter for telling a number of people that the government wanted to know their account information, prompting what is now one of my favorite Tweets of all time, from Birgitta Jónsdóttir: “do they realize i am a member of parliament in iceland?” It’s good to realize, and remember, that people, in Iceland and Tunisia and elsewhere, might actually care quite a bit how we conduct ourselves, what we ignore or try to wriggle around or condone.

Everything might actually depend on it.
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love, 99
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breaking news

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The people of Tunisia stood up.

Tunisia's long-standing president has left the country amid violent protests and the prime minister has taken over control of the government from him.

"Since the president is temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime minister will exercise temporarily the [presidential] duties," Mohamed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian prime minister, said on state television.

Ghannouchi is now the interim president.

He has vowed to respect the constitution and restore stability.

Friday's developments come following violent clashes in the capital, Tunis, over unemployment and rising food prices.

State media earlier reported that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the president, had imposed a state of emergency in the country and promised fresh legislative elections within six months in an attempt to quell the wave of dissent sweeping across the country.

There were also reports that the airport in Tunis had been surrounded by troops and the country's airspace has been closed. Air France, the main international airline into and out of Tunisia announced that it had ceased flights to Tunisia following that announcement.

State TV also reported that gatherings of more than three people had been banned.

Tunisian state television said on Friday it was expecting the announcement of an "historic decision" which will satisfy the desires of the north African country's people.

Ben Ali had been in power for the last 27 years. On Thursday, he vowed not to seek re-election and reduced food prices in a bid to placate protesters.

But the pledges seemed to have little effect as fresh street protests erupted on Friday.

Yes, we've all heard pledges before, now haven't we?

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Our first WikiLeaks revolution....

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Reuters gets the prize for best headline: Veteran Tunisian leader quits after protests.... Let's see if "veteran leader" replaces "dictator" in Webster's.

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love, 99
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