dignity

[click image]

.

Poor man.

To our son, his excellency, Mr Barack Hussein Obama.

I have said to you before, that even if Libya and the United States of America enter into a war, god forbid, you will always remain a son. Your picture will not be changed.

Al-Qa'eda is an armed organisation, passing through Algeria, Mauritania and Mali. What would you do if you found them controlling American cities with the power of weapons? What would you do, so I can follow your example.

He thinks Obama has the first part of a clue.

.

Guess who wants Syria to be next....

.
love, 99
.

let us be perfectly clear about libya

[click image]

.

I have been putting hints in all over the place about how utterly bogus this is, but people keep dying and getting their corpses displayed in trophy shots, and radiation keeps spewing from Daiichi, and I want to stay OFF the pushbutton revolutions, having exhausted myself on the whole dynamic through the entire second half of 2009, with a brief resurgence for the Egypt travesty.... The fact remains: this Libya bit is bogus... BOGUS... and the media are completely complicit. They have pulled out ALL the stops.

.
love, 99
.

a mom against the einsteins enabling slaughter

[click image]

.

SHE ROCKS.

.

I don't even want to think about this.

There was ample coverage of the loss of a US F-15 fighter jet over Libya Tuesday, and it always came with reassurances that the crew was safe. Less safe, however, were a group of Libyan civilians who came to the aid of one of the crew.

That’s because the civilians who met the plane’s weapons officer and offered him fruit juice while he waited to be rescued were attacked by US Marines during the brief ground incursion meant to rescue the crew. Some of the reports suggest the Marines arrived in a V-22 Osprey attack helicopter and opened fire on the crowd with it.

Six Libyan civilians were shot in the attack, including a young boy who local hospital officials say may lose his leg because of the attack. The weapons officer had been found in a sheep field and was met by the civilians, who were backers of the anti-Gadhafi rebellion.

The incident is news not just for the tragic outcome, but because despite the explicit UN prohibition on “occupation troops” being spun as a broad prohibition on ground troops, US Marines were indeed on the ground, in Libya, in a field full of sheep.

The pilot was initially picked up by rebel soldiers, who the Marines reported treated him “with dignity and respect” before handing him over to the troops. It does not appear there was any incident with regards to him. The Marines have yet to comment on the shootings in the recovery of the weapons officer.

The F-15 was flying out of Italy at the time of the crash, and officials are blaming a system malfunction. It is the first aircraft reported lost since the US and France started the Libyan War on Saturday. An F-15E Strike Eagle costs approximately $31 million.

I want a BATH in a REAL tub and I want it NOW.

.
love, 99
.

what is wrong with this picture? — UPDATING

[click image]

.

Hmmm?

U.S. President is warning Libyan leader that his forces must stop attacking innocent civilians or face military action.

If you can't answer this question instantly, I'm torn between ordering you away from my blog forever and begging you to live here.... [from 11am today]

.

NOON-THIRTY UPDATE:

The French air force destroyed Libyan tanks and armored vehicles on Saturday, the first shots fired in a U.N.-mandated military intervention to protect civilians from attacks by Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

A French defense ministry official said "a number of tanks and armored vehicles" were destroyed in the region of Benghazi, with initial action focusing on stopping Gaddafi's forces from advancing on the rebels' eastern stronghold.

"Rebels"... pfeh....

.

1:15 PM PDT UPDATE:

American warplanes, ships and submarines prepared to launch a furious assault on Libya's limited air defenses Saturday, clearing the way for European and other planes to enforce a no-fly zone designed to ground Moammar Gadahfi's air force and cripple his ability to inflict further violence on rebels, U.S. officials said.

"Rebels"... pfeh... talismanic words....

.

Just a word about the multifarious other pushbutton revolutions in progress: People are being slaughtered and no UN mandates, no French and American airstrikes... pig shit smeared across the globe. Right now.

.

7:05 PM PDT UPDATE:

The U.S. and European nations pounded Moammar Gadhafi's forces and air defenses with cruise missiles and airstrikes Saturday, launching the broadest international military effort since the Iraq war in support of an uprising that had seemed on the verge of defeat. Libyan state TV claimed 48 people had been killed in the attacks....

Fuck.

.

MIDNIGHT PDT OH SHIT UPDATE:

Moscow regrets the attack from a range of European countries on Libya which is being conducted "with reference to the hastily adopted UN Security Council resolution," official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich said on Saturday....

China regrets the multinational military strike launched against Libya, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

"China has noticed the latest development in Libya and regrets the military strike against Libya," Jiang Yu said, adding that China did not agree with resorting to force in international relations.

Part of me hopes this turns into a serious disagreement, but, of course, that's suicidal....

For the record, this might be the source of the downed plane in the "rebel" city that we were assuming was Gaddafi's and setting this whole attack in motion. MIGHT be. Sarkozy's trying to get France behind him again... baaaad poll numbers... but then... the French are NOT as gung ho behind their president's military adventurism as Americans are... hey... can I say "used to be" yet?

.
love, 99
.

potpourri pile-up

[click image]

.

I just had too many windows open with stuff I was thinking about saying about each. I long to just reboot and get a pristine clean slate. Of computer. Of mind. If those are separate entities anymore.

An American CIA contractor who shot and killed two Pakistani men was released from prison Wednesday and left Pakistan after more than $2 million in "blood money" was paid to his victims' families....

It always comes down to this kind of math when the people are in abjection to crushing poverty.

"He is a perfect specimen," said Mr Lu, who runs the Tibetan Mastiff Garden in Laoshan, near the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. "He has excellent genes and will be a good breeding dog.

I dare you not to do the math....

Candidates will only be referred for a compulsory work placement if a Jobcentre Plus adviser believes they are deliberately avoiding trying to get a job or would benefit from getting into the ‘habits and routines’ of getting up every morning.

Field day for bureaucrats....

Good map....

Look at this as wiring for the pushbuttons....

Preparedness....

Pernicious reportage under a deceptive banner equals mass hypnosis....

Guess who's drilling near a great spot for the next catastrophe....

Earthquakes and Extreme Weather....

All Reactors Are Nuclear Bombs....

I may be adding to this... or I may go off on a completely different set of tangents. Who can ever tell anymore?

.
love, 99
.

you KNOW the russians are telling you the truth

[click image]

.

You KNOW it. But you don't do anything about it. No matter how goofy/awful Gaddafi is, and he is, you KNOW we are being pumped with outright lies by our own government and media about this.

The world is a transitory abode,
not a permanent abode.
And the people in it
are of two sorts:
one who sells his soul
and ruins it,
and one who ransoms his soul
and frees it.
— ḤAḌRAT 'ALĪ

I implore you, look in. Letting this pass is selling out.

.
love, 99
.

a link to pure propaganda that bears good news for iran

[click image]

.

I only link this piece of crap news item to show that Rafsanjani has been brought down. If you go scrub around in all my agonizing over the uprising in Iran a couple years ago, you will find me coming to the realization that Mousavi, Karoubi, and Rafsanjani were all darn clearly in the pockets of Western interests and so were the biggest threats to the Iranian people. I didn't know this could be done, it is well that it's been done.

If you read the Reuters piece without knowing a great deal about Iran or its recent history, you're fucked. You might think toppling its regime would be righteous. You would be wrong.

I do not like theocracy. I couldn't live under it for a day. The people if Iran CHOSE it... OVERWHELMINGLY in 1979, and thirty years later confirmed the choice, again overwhelmingly... except for a small, but very loud contingent in North Tehran. It was turned into an international incident by those wishing to produce another complete overthrow of the will of the people—this time in green—as was done in Ukraine with the Orange Revolution, and in Georgia with the Rose Revolution.

I'm not going to fight about this anymore. All three of the worst threats to the vast majority of Iranians are now removed from the ability to keep subverting the people from the inside.

.
love, 99
.

yes, well, uhm

[click image]

.

I think we better first consult Russia before believing anything our media puts out about the Paradorian dictator carrying out airstrikes against his people. Too, we need to consult our better sense to wonder anymore if that is even an over-reaction to righteous protest, now don't we? Just as we need to wonder if the Western frame for the "revolutions" in the Middle East might not be just a little on the outright preposterous side, as usual. In short, we need to think for ourselves on this one, get in touch with our own inner, and far greater than we usually settle for, SENSE.

REFLECTIONS OF FIDEL
NATO’s inevitable war (Part II) — (Part I)

WHEN Gaddafi, aged just 28 and a colonel in the Libyan army, inspired by his Egyptian colleague Abdel Nasser, overthrew King Idris I in 1969, he implemented important revolutionary measures such as agrarian reform and the nationalization of oil. The growing income was dedicated to economic and social development, particularly educational and health services for the small Libyan population located in a vast desert territory with very little arable land.

An extensive and deep sea of "fossil water" existed beneath that desert. When I heard about an experimental cultivation area I had the impression that, in the future, those aquifers would be more valuable than oil.

Religious faith, preached with the fervor that characterizes Muslim nations, in part helped to compensate for the strong tribal tendency which still survives in that Arab country.

Libyan revolutionaries devised and implemented their own ideas in relation to legal and political institutions, which Cuba, as a principle, respected.

We totally abstained from expressing any opinions concerning the concepts of the Libyan leadership.

We can clearly see that the fundamental concern of the United States and NATO is not Libya, but the revolutionary wave unleashed in the Arab world, which they wish to prevent at all costs.

It is an irrefutable fact that relations between the United States and its NATO allies in recent years were excellent until the rebellion in Egypt and in Tunisia arose.

In high-level meetings between Libya and NATO leaders, none of the latter had any problems with Gaddafi. The country was a secure source of high-quality oil, gas and even potassium supplies. The problems which arose between them in the early decades had been overcome.

Strategic sectors such as oil pumping and transportation were opened up to foreign investment.

Privatizations were extended to many public enterprises. The International Monetary Fund exercised its beatific role in the implementation of those operations.

Logically, Aznar was fulsome in his praise of Gaddafi and after him, Blair, Berlusconi, Sarkozy, Zapatero and even my friend the King of Spain, paraded past the sardonic regard of the Libyan leader. They were happy.

Although it might seem that I am mocking that is not the case; I am simply asking myself why they now want to take Gaddafi before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

They are accusing him 24 hours a day of firing on unarmed citizens who were protesting. Why did they not explain to the world that the weapons and, above all, the sophisticated machinery of repression possessed by Libya, was supplied by the United States, Britain and other illustrious hosts of Gaddafi?

I strongly oppose the cynicism and lies currently being used to justify the invasion and occupation of Libya.

The last time that I visited Gaddafi was in May 2001, 15 years after Reagan attacked his very modest residence, where he took me to see what was left of it. It received a direct hit from the aircraft and was considerably destroyed; his little daughter three years of age died in the attack: she was murdered by Ronald Reagan. There was no prior agreement on the part of NATO, the Human Rights Committee, or the Security Council.

My previous visit had taken place in 1977, eight years after the beginning of the revolutionary process in Libya. I visited Tripoli; I took part in the General People’s Congress in Sebha; I toured the first agricultural experiments with water pumped from the vast sea of fossil waters; I visited Benghazi, I was the object of a warm reception. It was a legendary country which had been the scenario of historic battles in World War II. It did not as yet have six million inhabitants, nor were its enormous volumes of oil and fossil waters known. The former Portuguese colonies in Africa had already been liberated.

We had fought for 15 years in Angola against mercenary armies organized along tribal lines by the United States, the Mobutu government, and the well-equipped and trained racist apartheid army. This army, following U.S. instructions, as is now known, invaded Angola in 1975 in order to prevent its independence, reaching the outskirts of Luanda with its motorized forces. A number of Cuban instructors died in that brutal invasion. Resources were sent with all urgency.

Expelled from that country by Cuban internationalists and Angolan troops to the border of South African occupied Namibia, the racists were given the mission of eliminating the revolutionary process in Angola.

With the support of the United States and Israel they developed nuclear weapons. They already possessed them when the Cuban and Angolan troops defeated their land and air forces in Cuito Cuanavale and, defying the risk – using conventional tactics and means – advanced toward the border with Namibia, where the apartheid troops were attempting to resist. Twice in their history our forces have been at risk of attack by those kinds of weapons: in October of 1962 and in southern Angola, but on that second occasion, not even deploying those nuclear weapons that South Africa possessed could they have prevented the defeat which marked the end of the odious system. Those events took place under the government of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Piet Botha in South Africa.

There is no talk of that and the hundreds of thousands of lives which the imperialist adventure cost.

I regret having to recall those events when another great risk is hovering over the Arab peoples, because they are not resigned to continue being the victims of plunder and oppression.

The Revolution in the Arab world so much feared by the United States and NATO is that of those who lack all rights in the face of those who flaunt all privileges, and thus is destined to be more profound than the one unleashed in Europe in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille.

Not even Louis XIV, when he proclaimed that he was the state, possessed the privileges of King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia and far less the vast wealth that lies below the surface of that almost desert country, where yankee transnationals determine the pumping and thus the price of oil in the world.

When the Libyan crisis began, extraction in Saudi Arabia rose to one million barrels a day at minimum cost and, in consequence, by that concept alone, the income of that country and those who control it has risen to one billon dollars a day.

No one should imagine that the Saudi people are swimming in money. There are moving accounts of the living conditions of many construction workers and those in other sectors obliged to work 13 to 14 hours a day for paltry wages.

Shocked by the revolutionary wave which is shaking the prevalent system of plunder, in the wake of what took place with workers in Egypt and Tunisia, but also unemployed youth in Jordan, the occupied territories of Palestine, Yemen and even Bahrain and the Arab Emirates with higher per capita income, the upper echelons of the Saudi hierarchy has been impacted by the events.

As opposed to other times, today the Arab peoples receive almost instantaneous information on events, albeit exceptionally manipulated.

The worst thing for the status quo of the privileged sectors is that those persistent events are coinciding with a considerable increase in food prices and the devastating impact of climate change, while the United States, the largest producer of corn in the world, is wasting 40% of that product and a significant part of soy production on biofuels to feed automobiles. Lester Brown, the best informed American ecologist in the world on agricultural products, can surely give us an idea of the current food situation.

The Bolivarian president, Hugo Chávez, is making a valiant effort to find a solution without NATO intervention in Libya. The chances of his attaining that objective would improve if he can achieve the feat of creating a broad movement of opinion before and not after the intervention takes place, and the peoples do not have to see the atrocious experience of Iraq repeated in other countries.

End of Reflection.

The need to open one's mind, to cut from the consensus trance being dictated by our execrable media is so blaring that it makes one squint, hurts one's ears. There is relief to be had by just doing it, at last—quit clinging to the fringes of this obviously sociopathic course at all, quit thrashing around in these oceans of cognitive dissonance, and just get the hell to it. No?

Yes.

.
love, 99
.

sing it!

[click images]

.

In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems are of a different sort. The population wasn’t lacking food and essential social services. The country needed an abundant foreign labour force to carry out ambitious plans for production and social development.

For that reason, it provided jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers from Egypt, Tunisia, China and other countries. It had enormous incomes and reserves in convertible currencies deposited in the banks of the wealthy countries from which they acquired consumer goods and even sophisticated weapons that were supplied exactly by the same countries that today want to invade it in the name of human rights.

The colossal campaign of lies, unleashed by the mass media, resulted in great confusion in world public opinion. Some time will go by before we can reconstruct what has really happened in Libya, and we can separate the true facts from the false ones that have been spread.

.
love, 99
.

just asking

[click image]

.

I don't care how many times I look at him, I cannot get "Moon Over Parador" out of my mind.

How was Libya doing under the rule of Gaddafi? How bad did the people have it? Were they oppressed as we now commonly accept as fact? Let us look at the facts for a moment.

Before the chaos erupted, Libya had a lower incarceration rate than the Czech republic. It ranked 61st. Libya had the lowest infant mortality rate of all of Africa. Libya had the highest life expectancy of all of Africa. Less than 5% of the population was undernourished. In response to the rising food prices around the world, the government of Libya abolished ALL taxes on food.

People in Libya were rich. Libya had the highest gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita of all of Africa. The government took care to ensure that everyone in the country shared in the wealth. Libya had the highest Human Development Index of any country on the continent. The wealth was distributed equally. In Libya, a lower percentage of people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.

How does Libya get so rich? The answer is oil. The country has a lot of oil, and does not allow foreign corporations to steal the resources while the population starves, unlike countries like Nigeria, a country that is basically run by Shell.

Is that so?

.

Extra credit....

.

Keiser Report from Beirut... Max talks to two-time Pulitzer prize winner Anthony Shadid of the New York Times, who very obviously won both for having memorized US foreign policy shtick, executing it flawlessly, while having an Arab name.

.

AP reports and I stripped of mindfucks:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 34-year-old car has been sold for nearly $2.5 million at an auction to raise money for a low-income housing project.

ISNA's report Tuesday doesn't identify the buyer, but quotes the individual's lawyer, Mamoud Isari, as saying the buyer plans to build a museum and exhibit the car.

The 1977 white Peugeot sedan was put up for auction in January in a move by the president to [help] fulfill a campaign promise to put a roof over the head of every Iranian.

It shouldn't even irk me anymore that they can't even report something as innocuous as this without wording such that it besmirches him. Do you ever wonder how bad faith actors can just keep it up? I mean, I'm told that bloodlines are very important to the controllers. They've bred out morals. Not just some morals. All. All gone.

.
love, 99
.

i need to bring something to your attention

[click image]

.

I am not so sure that anyone in Libya was really that unhappy.... I'm trying mightily to stay off the pushbutton revolution circuit, not fall for it and not knock myself out to sniff down every last whiff of evidence to present to you that things are NOT as they seem to those in consensus trance, those listening to the bleatings from headlines anywhere and any way they seep into any aspect of consciousness... usually functionally subliminally. I want to remind you that we are no longer a nation of people who will leap to discern this sort of thing. I want to confess to you that one of my favorite sites has so bitten into this Spreading Democracy 2.0 crap that I cannot even bear to click-in to look at the blather... from a really intelligent bunch....

Don't mistake my avoidance of losing my cookies for apathy, that's all.

.

Give the money to WikiLeaks for blowing the whistle and for causing the controllers to start pushing buttons to distract us utterly from WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, before our heads stop spinning.

The celeb-studded shows were part of the extravagant lifestyle of the dictator's sons, whose splashy parties and out-of-control spending have angered their countrymen, many of whom wallow in poverty as the Gadhafi clan benefits from the country's oil riches.

Yeah, well, if they think ousting their goofball dictator and his over-the-top sons is going to improve things, they're in for a shock.

.
love, 99
.

the einsteins at PNAC are at it again

[click image]

.

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.

.
love, 99
.

it's all over the place

[click image]

.

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.

.
love, 99
.

i'm a bit squeaky right now

[click image]

.

Maybe a long walk off a short pier will help? Maybe just a long walk.

.
love, 99
.

wow

[click image]

.

I just went to see if maybe there was a new interview to hear, and there are FOUR new ones that must have just shown up. I thought for a moment to pick one of these mp3s to link, but decided it's better you pick for yourself. I've heard them all, some twice, except these four latest ones. I have to say, I am very grateful for GeorgeAnn Hughes. She has literally afforded me many hours of good listening, and I'd send her some of my no money if I could. If you have any, I hope you will send her some for me. No kidding. I can tell she's a great lady and I've listened to her come up with some amazingly cool things to say and ask about. She and her guests are usually well worth your earprints.

.

Okay, if you are persisting in being a judgmental twat, THIS ONE is about the JFK assassination. So if yer too lazy or too busy or too hypnotized to listen to the stuff about physics and tighter explanations for historical and current events, I know most of you will make time for JFK... because, if you wouldn't, neither would you ever read this blog....

.

And... in the last fifteen minutes or so they discuss the Egypt stuff: the elevation of Zahi Hawass to cabinet level; agents provocateurs; looters; hidden hands.... We're talking about someone HIGHLY intelligent and WELL educated—a doctorate from Oxford—talking about things with which he is NOT merely casually acquainted.

.
love, 99
.

count olaf keeps popping into my head whenever i think of this

[click image]

.

Don't ask me to explain myself. Either you see it or you don't.

Old Uncle Dave left the Lendman linky about the scene in Egypt, which I think you should read from start to finish, but I lifted the bits I found most salient for us to consider:

— universal rights weren't specified nor were free and fair elections defined; Washington won't tolerate either anywhere, including at home ...

As part of Washington's Greater Middle East Project, [Obama's real agenda] includes neutralizing opponents, securing unchallengeable imperial control, preventing democracy, rigging elections to assure it, militarizing the region strategically, exploiting its resources and populations, orchestrating events covertly, and deciding how and when they play out.

In Egypt and throughout the region, they look similar to US-orchestrated color revolutions in Serbia (the 1990s prototype), Georgia (Rose), Ukraine (Orange), Myanmar (Saffron), Tibet (Crimson), Iran (Green), and currently perhaps Tunisia (Jasmine), and elsewhere in the Middle East, color-coded or not.

They all have a common thread: what the Pentagon calls "full spectrum dominance" for total global, space, sub-surface and information control. Whether it succeeds, however, remains uncertain given America's declining world influence and stature, including on Cairo streets. ...

— for sure no democracy according to Reuters quoting a National Security Council participant saying:

"What the US isn't saying publicly is that it's putting its power behind (Egypt's) generals. The goal is to stack the deck in favor of the status quo — a scenario that removes Mubarak, yet is otherwise more about continuity than change."

In other words, Obama's "orderly transition democracy," substitutes rhetoric for constructive change neither he nor others in Washington will tolerate. As a result, people power faces imperial Washington and Egypt's military, united against populist change. ...

Allied with Washington, the Pentagon and US intelligence, [Egypt's military] supports power, not populist change, a dark reality street protesters better grasp to know what's coming from a post-Mubarak regime. Unless challenged, promised reforms will leave entrenched policies in place, enforcing predatory capitalism with police state harshness, what Americans also endure under friendly-face leaders.

Lendman advises the people of Egypt not to just pack up and go home, but to see this through to avoid being nailed. Yes. They'll have to lose many thousands more or rally many millions more before Washington backs off.

There is NO doubt about that.

.

It seems at least some protestors are not done, but the army is sure trying to make them be done... and people have been cleaning up as though it's done... and partying as though it's done....

.
love, 99
.

let me know when i get to stop being wuwu for suggesting better

[click image]

.

Or keep hypnotized.

Media reports say that the Israeli Embassy in Cairo has been shut down following the transfer of power from Hosni Mubarak to the Egyptian military.

The report comes while a senior Israeli official said earlier on Friday that it was too soon to speculate about the consequences of Mubarak’s resignation.

“It’s too early to foresee how (the resignation) will affect things,” the official was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The report followed the transfer of power from Mubarak to the Supreme Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces, which is headed by Defence Minister Gen. Mohammed Tantawi.

Egypt’s main opposition party, the Muslim Brotherhood, called for the establishment of a civilian government and constitution that “guarantees freedom and human rights.”

The transition of power to the military comes while Mubarak, Vice President Omar Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq are all former military men. Analysts believe despite the transition Mubarak would still remain in power.

This is while millions of Egyptians have for the past 18 days called for the departure of Mubarak and the establishment of a democratic government.

Earlier in the day vigilantes opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in Egypt in a move unprecedented over the past couple of days.

The shooting in El-Kharga came as protestors took over several government buildings in major cities across Egypt on Friday. The last time that live bullets were used against protesters was on Wednesday, when six protesters were killed and hundreds of others were injured — some of them critically.

Reports say protesters have also clashed with security forces and attacked police stations in El-Arish.

Up to you, of course....

.
love, 99
.

more on the antiquities looting and hidden hands

[click image]

.

This will only be interesting to people working on the torsion physics angle of our struggle to emerge from the burden of being purposely deluded our whole lives.

.
love, 99
.

looting antiquities

[click image]

.

I know Toucans are not from Egypt, but there is a connection between ancient Egypt and ancient America and I want to contemplate that instead of all this creepy stuff I'm also attending.

Former Egyptian museum director Wafaa el-Saddik said the National Museum in Cairo was looted by its own security guards and that the Memphis Museum, south of Cairo, was "completely emptied" by looters.

"I alerted an army general but it was too late," he said.

Looters also emptied an entire warehouse at the Qantara Museum, near the city of Ismailia, that contained 3000 objects from the Roman and Byzantine periods, a tourism police source said.

Egyptian museum official Mohamed Megahed said there had been "immense damage" to the ancient burial grounds of Abusir and Saqqara.

"Only the Imhotep Museum and adjacent central areas were protected by the military. In Abusir, all tombs were opened with gangs digging day and night," he said.

It seems the looting has been quite more extensive than I've seen so far, and I'm bummed about this, and:

This lies in the background of President Mubarak’s appointment of Egypt’s antiquities Tsar, Zahi Hawass, to a cabinet level post. Given Hawass’ own background and connections to the western elites, this is not a surprising move, but it is one that subtly implies that elite’s interest in Egyptian antiquities.

So I, along with the irascible Phil, am not feeling comforted by this elevation of the prime headache for Egyptologists... often seemingly completely at whim.

Anyway, It's 11am in Cairo, and hour before Friday prayers, and Tahrir Square is already full. In addition, there are people blocking ingress to State TV and various government offices and no word of the contingent that lit out for Mubarak's palace last night, but more on the way.

The army brass have been meeting this morning—without Mubarak or Suleiman—and have promised a statement before prayers. So I will try to stay awake for it... but I'm fading fast....

The people seem to hotly desire that the military take over the interim government. They want them to take out the regime. This is a very, very popular opinion, with also quite a few who feel Mubarak has been tamed and they can wait a few more months. Some of those will be wishing that out of gratitude for what they think Mubarak did for them in the past, some out of weariness and fear, and some because their businesses are tanking beyond help if this goes on much longer.

They are expecting 20 million demonstrators across the nation today.

I'm hoping the military will just announce to everyone before any violence kicks up that they have escorted Mubarak out of the palace and will be running things and facilitating the writing of the new "connestetution" is being written... but you know me. Fairy dust hippie and all....

This post, as with yesterday's, will likely be updating all day, so the people on the feed might want to know that.

.
love, 99
.

suleiman stepping up — updating — suleiman stepping in place

[click image]

.

Mubarak is meeting with Suleiman right now and will be making a live, not pre-recorded statement tonight... which means today here... they're being very noncommittal about it on AJ, but the expectation is that Mubarak will stand down. I want to remind you that this is NOT what the uprising is about. It is only what Israel and the United States want. I called it for Suleiman almost as soon as he was appointed VP. I wonder who won in the WH/State spat....

We can only hope the protests don't ebb and Suleiman goes the way of Mubarak soon... but then they will have to make it through ElBaradei to get what DC wanted in the first place.

.

Letting Indyk open his yap was a sign.

... The U.S. does not want a people's government in Cairo.

Martin Indyk, a former Clinton Administration official at the U.S. National Security Council with an area of responsible for the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and an individual closely tied to the Obama Administration, told The New York Times that the U.S. must work towards bringing the Egyptian military into control of Egypt until a "moderate and legitimate political leadership [can] emerge." Not only did Indyk call for a military takeover in Egypt, he also used U.S. State Department double-speak. What U.S. officials mean by "moderate" are dictatorships and regimes like Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Jordan, Morocco, and Ben Ali's Tunisia. As for legitimacy, in the eyes of U.S. officials, it means individuals who will serve U.S. interests.

As though we really needed one.

.

NOON... 10pm in Cairo, Mubarak still has not spoken. News wires say he's resigned and then there was a military coup. So... if true... and that speech is late... Suleiman may have been president for five minutes....

.

12:15pm... Truly, the reportage on this has become outright psychedelic over the last twenty minutes. Everything but the kitchen sink has been thrown into it... including "no way is Mubarak stepping down" and all the blather about him staying president but handing powers to Suleiman, and that the military supports Suleiman... so it could damn well be Suleiman and the military are forcing Mubarak out. Speech now fifteen minutes late.

.

12:20pm... One significant development is that Egyptian State TV has suddenly been broadcasting the images of the mob celebrating in the square. They have been making it look really small when they haven't been ignoring it altogether throughout the seventeen days of the uprising.

.

12:30pm... Speech now half an hour late.

6:00pm: The CIA chief reportedly says there is a "strong likelihood" Mubarak will step down tonight.

5:39pm: Huge chant, Tahrir Square seemingly in unison, shouting: "The army and the people in one hand - the army and the people are united."

5:35pm: Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent, reports: "Now, for the first time, we are getting the sense that senior military officers are discussing 'national issues', which is a very significant development indeed."

5:30pm: "Ambiguous" statement from military confirms its “commitment and responsibility to safeguard the people and to protect the interests of the nation, and its duty to protect the riches and assets of the people and of Egypt”. Mentioned the demands of the people are “lawful and legitimate”. Understood the military council met separately from Mubarak.

5:23pm: NDP Secretary General Hossam Badrawi says he expects Mubarak to respond to the demands of the people tonight. An official statement from the military is imminent.

5:20pm: A senior military commander is reported to have told protesters that all their demands will be met, but no official confirmation is yet available.

Still waiting. Muslim Brotherhood says it fears a military coup if Mubarak steps down.

So... you can see, AJ has no clue, and probably neither do any of the other news outlets.

.

12:35pm... Crowd now chanting SULEIMAN OUT. They had started to disperse for the day when the military made it's "announcement" and everyone and more came rushing back in. The square is carpeted with people.

.

12:45pm... Mubarak speaking, father to children, all the blood of those who fell for a better Egypt will not go to waste. Perpetrators will be punished. Adamant to fulfill all promises. Important to admit mistakes and rectify them. [Doesn't sound like a resignation speech so far.] Will not be dictated to from outside. I announced plainly that I will not run for reëlection. This is the oath I have taken before God and the nation. Will continue to implement the peaceful transition of power. ... [Definitely NOT a resignation speech....]

AJ turning up sounds of crowd griping in background.

Still speaking, but not looking good....

.

12:55pm... Crowd is SCREAMING, SCREAMING, SCREAMING, SCREAMING... and Mubarak is still speaking, not even saying, yet, that he is transferring power. People are pissed.

.

1:00pm... I think he MIGHT have just said he was transferring power, but it was followed so closely by another jab against being dictated to from outside, I'm not sure. Crowd is PISSED.

.

1:05pm... He did not step down OR aside.

THE CROWD HAS GONE BATSHIT CRAZY. OMG!

.

1:15pm... Crowd waving shoes in the air. Major expression of contempt.

.

1:20pm... Mubarak seems clear this is coming from outside of Egypt, but he seems unclear that it's also being borne up INSIDE the country. There isn't any question in my mind that this was started by covert ops in place to unseat him, but the Egyptian people leapt on it and have died at least in their hundreds for it. So Mubarak's appeal tonight sounds outright psychotic. Can the man really think he can woo the uprising back to his side by expressions of patriotism and reminding them of the outside influence? Now? What planet is he on?

.

1:25pm... AJ is saying that Mubarak did say he would delegate more power to Suleiman, but not that he was transferring the powers of the presidency to him. So that would be why I was confused by his words. The crowd wasn't listening at all by then. They were SCREAMING invective and grabbing their shoes to wave.

.

1:35pm... Suleiman is speaking now. Mubarak has delegated to him the responsibility of safeguarding the interests of Egypt. Road map for implementation of changes in place. Peaceful transfer. Safeguard the youth revolution. Civilized realization of the demands of the people. We can make this future bright, rife with freedom and democracy. We can't allow perpetrating and plotting against Egypt. Go home and go back to work. Don't listen to the seditious news. We have started work, relying on God and the armed forces. Team spirit. Vows to work for the homeland.

"Boring Vice Torturer"....

.

1:45pm...Reporter on AJ says the street reaction is outrage. The military has split into factions over this. Liable to be bloodshed. No longer an organized protest, but a revolution with its own momentum.

.

1:55pm... Israel is whining via AJ correspondent. Big surprise, I know.

.

2:10pm... Retired military officer telling AJ he can't figure out if Mubarak has transferred any power at all. Hopes to get a better perspective in an hour or two. Says there are about four million people in the streets right now. [After midnight in Cairo.]

.

2:25pm... Hundreds of protestors have started marching to the presidential palace in Heliopolis... may grant Mubarak's wish to die on Egyptian soil.

.

4:00pm... I just snapped off AJ. I'm left hoping Mrs. Mubarak puts some cyanide in Hosni's bedtime regimen or that the faction that lit out for the palace takes him out, but I can't take listening to this anymore. It just makes me fearful and angry.

.
love, 99
.