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Archives: July 2013
Bahrain Cracks Down in Bid to Stop its Tamarod Movement (a la Egypt)
The Bahrain struggle is still going on two and a half years later. A coalition of Shiite groups and some Sunnis (the Waad or Promise Party) continues to agitate against the authoritarian…
Where has all the Water Gone? How Climate Change and Soaring Water Demand are Drying out the Southwest (deBuys)
William deBuys writes at Tomdispatch.com: Several miles from Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon, Arizona, April 2013 -- Down here, at the bottom of the continent’s most spectacular canyon, the Colorado River growls past…
Lest we Forget that Manning was Tortured before being Found not Guilty of Aiding the Enemy (America’s Bouazizi)
Breaking news: Firedog Lake reports that Bradley Manning has been found not guilty of aiding the enemy, a blow against the Obama administration's repeated attempts to smear whistleblowers as traitors. The other…
The 400: What they don’t want us to know about growing wealth inequality in America
Presdident Obama's speech last week on the threat of growing income inequality in the US was generally blown off by the corporate media. The problem is not generally recognized or understood because…
Why US Media will focus on Pope’s ‘Gay’ Remarks but Ignore those on the Poor, Amazon Environment
Pope Francis comes across in the media as a person who cares for others, and his genial personality, it seems to me, allows him to restate conservative principles in ways that inspire…
Kenya turns to Geothermal Green Energy (Video)
Kenya is blessed with a great deal of hydroelectric power, but its electricity needs outstrip that source's ability to supply them, a problem that will only grow worse in coming years. One…
Tunisia: Extremists Kill 9 Troops, Defiant Gov’t Sets Dec. 17 Elections
After days of demonstrations and turmoil, Prime Minister Ali Larayedh addressed the public in Tunisia on Monday. Despite calls that he resign in favor of a national unity government, he insisted that…Egyptian Backlash against Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi’s Call for foreign Intervention in Egypt
Maverick Muslim 'televangelist' Yusuf Qaradawi has provoked fury in many quarters of Egypt with his recent fatwas and statements on that country. Qaradawi is an Egyptian member of the Muslim Brotherhood who…
All Hell Breaks Loose in Libya
Over the weekend, all hell broke loose in Libya, in worrying ways that suggest that the government is entering new depths of paralysis and incompetence, and the terrorist cells based in Benghazi…
Twitter Sexist Bullying: The Criado-Perez Case (Channel 4 Video)
"She led the successful campaign to put a woman's image on the [British] £10 note - but feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez has found herself the victim of an abusive backlash." Channel 4…
The Kidnapper & Torturer vs. the Whistleblower: The Gov’t’s different Treatment of Lady and Snowden (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com: He came and he went: that was the joke that circulated in 1979 when 70-year-old former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack and died in…
Egypt: Elbaradei, al-Azhar, Leftist Youth Condemn Excessive Force
Egypt reacted with shock and grief to the massacre of Muslim Brothers early Sunday morning. Even figures who supported the July 3 coup such as Vice President for Foreign Affairs Muhammad Elbaradei…
Tunisia: Government Teeters on Brink after Slain Leftist’s Funeral.
An estimated 50,000 came out in Tunis for the funeral of the assassinated leftist opposition member of parliament Mohamed Brahmi, leader of the pro-worker Popular Front. [Estimate here). Brahmi was shot 14…
Thousands of Germans Protest Obama/ Merkel STASI-like Spying on Them
A few thousand people came out to demonstrate in 40 cities Germany on Saturday against US National Security Agency spying and German government complicity with it. They hailed from the Green Party,…Fox to Reza Aslan: Why would a Muslim write a book about Jesus?
Academic publishes scholarly study of the historical Jesus. Fox Cable News wants only to talk about his own religious background as a Muslim. Apparently they don't know over there that Muslims believe…
Egyptian authorities release CCTV Footage of Muslim Brotherhood Attack on 6 October Bridge
The Egyptian authorities have released CCTV video of the Muslim Brotherhood attempt to take over 6 October bridge, showing vanguards engaged in stone-throwing and appearing to cause fires (molotov cocktails?). h/t EAworldview…Egypt: Midnight Massacre of Muslim Brothers at 6 October Bridge (NBC Video)
NBC news reports on the massacre at October 6 Bridge last night in Cairo. The Egyptian health ministry is now saying 66 are dead, the Muslim Brotherhood estimates twice that. NBC to…
Propaganda Terms in the Media and What They Mean – Noam Chomsky
This talk is from 1990 but it is astonishing how well it holds up. The terms of discourse haven't changed. Propaganda Terms in the Media and What They Mean - Noam ChomskyEgypt’s Revocouption Part Deux: Dueling Crowds leave 30 Dead
Egypt's combination of popular street power and military power continued to dominate the unfolding events in that country on Friday. On Wednesday, Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on the Egyptian masses…
Tunisia: Demos, Parliament Resignations and the Republic of Sidi Bouzid Secedes
The assassination on Thursday of the leftist leader of the Popular Front, Mohamed Brahmi, provoked no end of trouble in Tunisia on Friday. The left and the middle and upper class secularists…Pentagon: Americans must give up Liberties to fight “enemies” but we won’t say who they are (Currier)
Cora Currier writes at ProPublica In a major national security speech this spring, President Obama said again and again that the U.S. is at war with "Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and their…
Egypt: Military announces ‘War on Terror,’ Calls for Massive Demos Against Muslim Brotherhood
Here are two videos from AFP that help explain all those people milling in the street today in Egypt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Minister of Defense, called for big demonstrations on…
Tunisia Plunged into Crisis by Second Political Assassination
The assassination Thursday of opposition member of parliament Mohamed Brahmi (from the small far left Popular Front coalition) shook the country for the second time this year, following on a similar killing…Pakistan: Civilian Drone Casualties from Poor US Intelligence: Gen. Shah (Woods)
Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: US officials are claiming that an internal Pakistani assessment of civilian deaths from US drone strikes – obtained and published in full by…What Congress Could do about NSA Spying if It were Serving the People (Brandeisky)
Kara Brandeisky writes at ProPublica: Although the House defeated a measure that would have defunded the bulk phone metadata collection program, the narrow 205-217 vote showed that there is significant support in…
Congress betrays vow to Uphold Constitution, abrogates 4th Amendment; Snowden is Better
The US House of Representatives narrowly declined on Wednesday to deny funding for National Security Agency collection and storage of millions of Americans' phone records. The requisition of the records of domestic…
Top Ten Things Anthony “Carlos Danger” Weiner has said that are worse than Sexting
Reprint Edition: The real scandal surrounding Anthony Weiner is that he is bigoted against Palestinians and used to misuse his position in Congress to support punitive policies against them. Americans appear to…Israel’s Newly Multi-Cultural Army Stirs Controversy: Ultra-Orthodox Jews & Palestinian-Israeli Christians (Goldman)
Shalom Goldman writes at IslamiCommentary: Shalom Goldman A report by the Times of Israel yesterday said religious opponents were reciting psalms, blowing the ram’s horn, and tearing garments over a new bill…A Tale of Two Bombings: Libya too Weak, Egypt too Strong
On Tuesday, someone set up a Soviet-vintage 107 mortar launcher in a car outside the five-star Corinthia hotel in Libya's capital, Tripoli, and lobbed a mortar from it, apparently by remote control.…
Pakistan: 20% of US Drone Victims are Civilians, 12% are Children (Woods)
Exclusive: Leaked Pakistani report confirms high civilian death toll in CIA drone strikes Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: A secret document obtained by the Bureau reveals for the…
Are Extremist Buddhists in Burma attacking Helpless Muslims? (Walton)
(Author title: "Matthew Walton: A Primer on the Roots of Buddhist/Muslim Conflict in Myanmar, and A Way Forward" ) Matthew J. Walton writes at ISLAMiCommentary Recently Myanmar has been in the news…Dear Royal Baby: We Americans apologize for our Revolution; please be our Absolute Monarch
Dear Royal Baby: You had an ancestor named King George III that we Americans said a lot of nasty things about, and we'd like to apologize to you, since you seem like…
Can Christianity Survive in the New Iraq? (Teule)
Larry McGill writes at ISLAMiCommentary Herman Teule There are sizeable Christian minorities in several Middle Eastern countries with Muslim majorities, but the numbers of Christians may be diminishing. This Spring, Duke’s Department…
Chris Hedges: “We have shifted, I think, from a democratic state to… corporate totalitarianism.”
Chris Hedges interviewed on The Real News : Excerpt of the transcript: "JAY: But, see, that's what I'm concerned about as a citizen, I mean, whatever the journalist hat is supposed to…
Bye, Bye Florida: Scientists find the last time it was this hot, Seas rose 65 feet
A study published in Nature Geoscience by researchers, from Imperial College London and their academic partners shows that 5-3 million years ago in the Pliocene, the last time it was as hot…Indiana: “How do we get rid of” Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the United States?’
In a disturbing development, the Associated Press has revealed emails in which former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels advocated banning the use of Howard Zinn's text, "A People's History of the United States"…
Syria: Attack on Sayyida Zainab Provokes Sunni-Shiite Tensions in Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan
The rocket attack on the Shrine of Sayyida Zaynab in the suburbs of Damascus on Friday has intensified the sectarian overtones of the Syrian civil war and exacerbated Sunni-Shiite tension in Iraq…
First, Close all the Coal Plants: MIT Study Shows they Shorten Lives
"Data from China show that large amounts of coal emissions shorten lives": The MIT Energy Intiative reports: " A high level of air pollution, in the form of particulates produced by burning…
Annals of White Terrorism: Police Arrest Suspect in bombing of Mosque, Murder of Muslim
A British-Ukrainian suspect is being looked at for both the murder of an elderly Muslim man and several bombings outside mosques in London. Terrorism against Muslims by people of European Christian heritage…
“Whoever Speaks of 1967 borders speaks of Auschwitz”: Israel Cabinet not Serious about talks on a Palestinian State
US Secretary of State John Kerry very tentatively announced Friday that he has hopes that Israeli and Palestinian negotiations will start back up with a visit of both sides to Washington in…
How Fast can a Camel Run?
Camel Race - Wadi Rum, Jordan
On Anniversary of the First Moon Walk, it is the Chinese who Plan another
Today is the anniversary of the first moon walk, in 1969. Walter Cronkite anchors the first moon walk Meanwhile, nowadays it is China that is aiming for a moon base. They have…
Protests and the Trayvon Martin Foundation: “Trayvon is Down but we’re Rising Up”
Small protests were held in about 100 cities throughout the US on behalf of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old unarmed victim in a shooting incident in Florida whose armed killer was found not…
Egypt’s pro, anti-Morsi Demonstrators Settle in for the Long Game
Friday saw large demonstrations in Cairo and several other cities by Muslim Brotherhood members demanding the reinstatement of deposed Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi. Those who are happy to see him gone, including…
European Union Boycotts Israeli Colonies on the Palestinian West Bank
The Israeli government's de facto annexation and colonization of the Palestinian West Bank is illegal in international law. United Nations members cannot acquire territory by warfare according to the UN Charter (it…
Iraq: 92-Year-Old Iraqi Man marries 22-Year-Old Woman
"A 92-year-old man in Iraq marries a woman 70 years his junior. Muslai Mohammed, one of the most prominent figures in his village, decided to get married three years after the death…Obama: “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago”
President Obama has spoken out on the Trayvon Martin case, saying that "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago." He spoke of how African-Americans are marked in US society as…
Detroit’s Bankruptcy and America’s Future: Robots, Race, Globalization and the 1%
The big question is whether Detroit's bankruptcy and likely further decline is a fluke or whether it tells us something about the dystopia that the United States is becoming. It seems to…
GOP to Poor American Kids: Silly wabbits, Food Stamps are for Corporations! (Jamiol Cartoon)
The GOP-dominated House of Representatives has stripped food stamps from the farm bill, while supporting subsidies to agricultural corporations and lower taxes on the rich. I mean, you expect representatives elected by…Glenn Greenwald: Growing Backlash Against NSA Spying Shows Why U.S. Wants to Silence Edward Snowden
In an epic boxing match, we have in one corner 600 pound gorillas like Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), head of the House Intelligence Committee that is determined to abet spying on you…
Top Ten Ways Egypt Actually Does deeply Matter to the United States
A Pew poll shows that far fewer Americans are following events in Egypt closely now than in January-February 2011. Actually, about the same percentage are following it "fairly closely" as then (a…
Obama Administration Facing Congressional Rebellion, Civil Suits over NSA Surveillance
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU, among other important civil society organizations, are suing the Federal government over the National Security Agency's unconstitutional domestic surveillance. The administration is also facing House…
Guna People of Panama’s islands Flee rising Seas
The indigenous community of the Guna (Kuna) live on islands off Panama and along a narrow strip of its coast, in the province of Guna Yala (Kuna Yala). But global warming and…
New Egyptian gov’t on being sworn in, Complains of Turkish Interference in Egyptian Affairs
Egypt's appointed interim President Adly Mansour swore in a cabinet of 33 ministers on Tuesday, including 3 women, 7 members of the National Salvation Front, and 5 members of the previous, Hisham…
How America has Failed African-American Youth, by the Numbers
At age 25, 7.5 percent of whites are high school dropouts. At age 25, 14.4 percent of African-Americans are high school dropouts By age 25, 30% of whites have earned a college…
Pussy Riot Protests Russian Oil Oligarchs and Putin
The Russian Punk Rock band "Pussy Riot" has released a new video, Rolling Stone reports, entitled "Like a Red Prison," in which they attack Russia's oil magnates and their ties to President…
The End of Dissidents: The National Security State wants a World without Thoreaus (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com It’s hard even to know how to take it in. I mean, what’s really happening? An employee of a private contractor working for the National Security Agency…Top 10 Reasons Americans should Dismiss Israel’s Netanyahu on Attacking Iran
The Iranian electorate did about the most cruel thing possible to uber-hawk Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It replaced former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with an eminently reasonable and personable successor, Hasan…“Mull”: Twitter word of the Day (Short Words for 140-Character Messages)
Twitter imposes a 140-character limit on messages, requiring that authors make every word count. To "consider" or to "contemplate" are long words, and character-hogs. The Middle English word "mull" gets the same…
Kenya: Solar Power on a Pay as you Go Plan gives Light, rechargers to Villagers
"Small solar home systems bring good quality light and phone-charging to off-grid households and save them money. Yet their upfront costs render them out of reach for the people who would benefit…
Obama Explains his NSA Domestic Spying & Why it differs from Bush’s (Cartoon satire)
Cartoon satire: "President Obama explains why Americans should not be concerned about the NSA's secret data collection program and that he is very different from George W. Bush." The video is here:
Israel’s District 9: Its Biggest Ethnic Cleansing since 1948
30,000 Palestinian-Israelis of Bedouin heritage are are being forcibly transferred by the Israeli government, and thousands of acres of their land is being stolen from them. The 972 article compares it to…The Backlash against Political Islam is not a Backlash against Islam: Egypt and Bangladesh
There is a big difference between being a believing Muslim and being a devotee of political Islam. Political Islam attempts to make the religion a platform for gaining governmental power. This movement…
Guns and Sissified Punks (Friday Scene)
From the 1995 stoner movie "Friday": The father [John Witherspoon] of Craig Jones [Ice Cube] warns him against carrying a gun in the local neighborhood if he wants to be a real…
Tiny Cape Verde’s Push to be a World Leader in Wind Energy
Finnfund explains: "The windswept islands of Cape Verde lie off West Africa, some 500 km from Senegal. They are the site of Africa’s largest wind power project, which started up in autumn…
A Century of America’s Imperial Deep State (McCoy)
Alfred W. McCoy writes at Tomdispatch.com The American surveillance state is now an omnipresent reality, but its deep history is little known and its future little grasped. Edward Snowden’s leaked documents reveal…
Whites and African-Americans in America by the numbers
88% of African-Americans in a recent Pew poll said that there was "a lot" (46%) or "some" (42% ) discrimination against them. Only 57% of whites agreed, and only 16% of whites…
Egypt: Prosecutor Comes after Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, as Divided Mass Protests Continue
Egypt's June 30 Movement is calling for big demonstrations on Sunday, saying "no" to "terrorism" and "yes" to the "gains of the Revolution." The movements appears to be identifying elements of the…
Why the Media Ignores Climate Change (Moyers Video)
Bill Moyers interviews media critic Marty Kaplan: "Marty Kaplan on Why the Media Ignores Climate Change Media scholar Marty Kaplan sits with Bill Moyers to discuss how and why major news media,…Egyptian PM Biblawi: Egypt had Left the “Arab Group” to Join the “Islamic Group”
The USG Open Source Center translates an interview with new interim appointed prime minister of Egypt, Hazem Biblawi, in the Pan-Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat. I have excerpted some of it below: "Interview…
UK’s Channel 4 Schools US Media on How to cover NSA, Snowden
This report by Channel 4 News in the UK, covering Edward Snowden's application for asylum in the Russian Federation and his revelations of collaboration between Microsoft and the National Security Agency struck…
A time-lapse video map of 2,053 nuclear explosions from 1945 through 1998 (Hashimoto)
Created by Japanese Artist Isao Hashimoto: A time-lapse video map of 2,053 nuclear explosions from 1945 through 1998. Starts off a little slow, but keep watching and you'll be mesmerized. From the…
Malala Yousafzai Pleads at UN for Universal Free Schooling for Girls and Boys
"In her first speech since the Taliban in Pakistan tried to kill her for advocating education for girls, Malala Yousafzai celebrated her 16th birthday on Friday at the United Nations, appealing for…
Murderers where the Victim was White are Far more Likely to be Punished in US (Graph)
In the US, as Amnesty International points out: Percentage of murder victims annually that are African-American: 50% Percentage of executions for murder annually where the victim was white: 77%Egypt: Rebellion Movement Pressures President, PM to Pare Claimed Powers
As Egypt braced for dueling huge demonstrations on Friday, a spokesman for the Rebellion or Tamarrud Movement, Hasan Shahin, said Thursday that the campaign expects the appointed interim president, Adly Mansour, to…
Remembering Syria: Homs ‘Ghost Town’ Under heavy Regime Bombardment
In winter of 2012, the world was mesmerized and horrified as the Syrian Baath regime drew up artillery pieces and its tanks and fired on non-combatant civilian districts. Now, non-combatantants are under…In Chilling Ruling, Chevron is Granted Access to Amazon Activists’ Private Emails
"Sweeping" subpoena violates rights of those who spoke out against oil giant's devastating actions in Ecuador - Lauren McCauley writes at Commondreams "Following their guilty sentence for the dumping of 18.5bn gallons…Aljazeera’s Conspiracy Theory about Obama and Egypt is Brainless Mush
Aljazeera Arabic has long since lost a lot of its previous journalisic standards, once its head, Waddah Khanfar, was fired in favor a member of the royal family. Some 22 Egyptian journalists…
Middle East Regional Contention over Egypt’s New Government
The change of government in Egypt produced starkly different reactions in various Middle Eastern countries, which tells us something about the situation there. With the exception of maverick member Qatar, the Gulf…
The Gezi Park Protests: Is Turkey becoming Egypt? (Schubel)
Vernon Schubel writes at ISLAMiCommentary: Vernon James Schubel On May 31st of this year a protest over the fate of Gezi Park, located near Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square, evolved into a series…
Step on it! Impala leaps into truck to escape cheetahs (Video)
Here is the video from South Africa:The Rebellion Movement Denounces Mansour’s Constitutional Principles as Dictatorial
If the Egyptian military and judicial elite thought that they could use the youthful Rebellion Movement, which put three or four million demonstrators in the streets a week and a half ago,…
Argentina’s President Kirchner: US Industrial Espionage gave me Chills down my Spine
The relationship between the United States and Latin America may have just plunged to its lowest level since the 1910s and 1920s, the height of US imperialism in the area, when United…Egypt: A People’s Revolution, Not a Crisis or Coup (Nawal El Saadawi)
Nawal El Saadawi Nawal El Saadawi writes at IslamiCommentary (translated by miriam cooke) Every revolution in history has had its counter-revolution. Most recently, internal and external forces allied, as they did in…
FBI Discriminates Against American Muslims & lets White Terrorists Off the Hook (Harwood)
Matthew Harwood writes at Tomdispatch: The evangelical Christians of Greenville County, South Carolina, are afraid. There has been talk of informants and undercover agents luring young, conservative evangelicals across the South into…Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Calls for ‘Uprising’ as Plan for Elections is Announced
The killing of over 50 Egyptians outside the Republican Guards Barracks on Monday morning continued to roil the country on Monday, as the Freedom and Justice Party, the civil wing of the…
Snowden: I acted because Domestic Spying actually worsened under Obama
The Guardian has released part two of the Hong Kong interview with Edward Snowden, in which he clarifies his reasons for going public. He talks about how the warrantless demand for Verizon…
Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) force fed under standard Guantánamo Bay Concentration Camp procedure
There are 120 prisoners at the extra-legal concentration camp at Guantanamo Bey. 44 are on hunger strike and being force-fed against their will, in contravention of international law. Rapper Yasin Bey (formerly…Egypt: Over 50 dead in Brotherhood-Army Clash; Baha-al-Din proposed PM; Thousands support Gov’t
Update: The death toll in the deadly incident outside the Republican Guards barracks in Cairo has risen to over 50, with 300 wounded. Firm details of how the clash began are still…Has NSA Spying Killed US “Cloud” services, Email in Europe, Brazil?
Andrew Miller points out that European companies afraid of US industrial espionage just got far less likely to use American internet companies for communications and cloud data storage. American companies can be…
And you Want to transport More Oil across America by rail, pipelines? Canadian Town destroyed by Railroad Oil Cars
Train cars carrying petroleum became unmoored and rolled seven miles before jacknifing and exploding, inflicting heavy damage on the town of Lac Megantic in Quebec. At least 5 are dead, 40 are…Breadcrumbs and Circus Reruns: How and why US News gave Egypt Short Shrift (Cunningham)
Philip J. Cunningham writes in a guest column for IC When the Roman empire fell into decline, the people were treated to bread and circuses. With America’s might on the wane, it’s…Egypt: 8 Wounded in Clashes as Salafi Fundamentalists Object to Elbaradei as PM
Amid a general calming on Saturday in Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula remained a hot spot, when a gas pipeline was bombed, probably by Muslim radicals who have announced an insurrection against the…Evo Morales of Bolivia joins in Offering Leaker Snowden Asylum
Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, on Saturday said that he would offer Edward Snowden asylum if asked. He joins the presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua in that offer. Morales said that…
Egypt: Fundamentalists hurl Kids from Building, Beat Them (Caution: Explicit)
This video is circulating via YouTube showing two kids being hurled from what looks like a 20-feet-high parapet to the roof of an apartment building and then being beaten. The people attacking…Brotherhood, Army risk Civil War: 30 Dead, Hundreds Wounded
Egypt veered sharply toward the looming specter of civil war on Friday, as the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood continued to call for resistance to the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi, who had…Venezuela’s Maduro: Unlike US Asylees, Snowden didn’t Blow anything Up, just said ‘This is not Right’
Globovision reports that President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Friday offered asylum to US leaker Edward Snowden, in order, he said, to protect him from "imperial North American persecution," describing the US…
Gil Scott-Heron Explains ‘The Revolution will not be Televised’
Gil Scott-Heron explains what he meant by the phrase "The Revolution will not be Televised"Egypt: One Soldier Dead, 3 Wounded, as Muslim Brotherhood Clashes with Army, Secularists in Provinces
The markets in Egypt reacted with sheer joy to the Egyptian Revolution 3.0, with the Egyptian stock market rising 7% and adding billions to the economy. Deposed president Muhammad Morsi was considered…Egypt’s “Revocouption” and the future of Democracy on the Nile
The argument over whether what happened in Egypt on Wednesday, July 3, was a coup or a revolution is really an argument over the legitimacy of the actions taken. If it was…How Unreasonable Searches of Private Documents Caused the American Revolution
Just FYI, the Restore the Fourth movement in defense of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution is holding protests all over the US today. On the Fourth of July, Americans should be…
No Atheists in Foxholes, no Climate Change Deniers at front Lines of Wildfires
The western US is facing the prospect of worse and worse severe wildfires over the next century, according to a study summarized by The Scientific American: " Their findings suggest that, in…
Egypt’s Countdown to Meltdown: Morsi Refuses to Deal
The Egyptian military's ultimatum to the Muslim Brotherhood President Muhammad Morsi and his left, liberal & centrist political opposition to find a compromise by 4 pm Wednesday Egyptian time was disregarded by…
Snowden Fall-out: European Denial of Overflight to Bolivian President Angers South America
As Bolivian President Evo Morales was returning from Moscow in a private jet after consultations on energy, his pilot was suddenly informed that France and Portugal had revoked overflight permissions, along with…
Uncle Peeping Tom: US Surveils EU (Jamiol Cartoon)
courtesy Paul JamiolFeminist Revolutionary Narratives from Egypt and Syria: Hopes and Disappointments (cook)
miriam cooke writes for ISLAMiCommentary * *REVOLUTIONARY NARRATIVES: NAWAL EL SAADAWI AND SAMAER YAZBEK ISLAMiCommentary Editor’s Note: This paper was written by miriam cooke and presented at the international forum—“Mediterranean Women’s Rights…Egypt: Fundamentalist Morsi Defies both Protesters & Military Ultimatum, says Obama Backs Him
Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi's support in his own government began crumbling on Monday. Ten independent members of the Egyptian upper house or senate (Majlis al-Shura) resigned, ahead of 6 cabinet members in…
Snowden: US now using deprivation of Citizenship as a Weapon
Edward Snowden released a statement from Moscow on Monday, slamming Barack Obama for revoking his passport and rendering him stateless and unable to seek asylum even though Snowden has not been found…
Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Unmanned Russian rocket crashes (spectacular video)
At the Baikonur Space Station in Kazakhstan, an unmanned Russian Proton M rocket booster went sideways and crashed this morning. Here's the video from Russian t.v.:
How Internet Censorship Really Works
The Berkman Center points out that the internet is not a public space. It is a private space that tolerates some public speech; but not all public speech. Often there is no…
“Egypt my Beautiful Country – Helwa Ya Baladi”: a slide show of simpler times set to Dalida’s Hit Song
Egypt is in for a hard week. To take the edge off let's enjoy Mina Nabil Ramzy's slide show of nostalgia for Egypt in simpler times, set to the French/Egyptian singer Dalida's…How Egypt’s Michelle Bachmann became President and Plunged the Country into Chaos (Cole at Truthdig)
My column is out at Truthdig, "How Egypt's Michelle Bachmann became President and Plunged the country into Chaos". Excerpt: "Despite Egypt’s sagging economy, Morsi did not make stimulating it his first priority,…
Biggest Demonstrations in Egyptian History: Millions Demand President Morsi Step Down
The Egyptian military estimated that "millions" of Egyptian demonstrated on Sunday to demand early presidential elections, only one year into the four-year term of President Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The…
Furious European Parliament Members Warn US Spying could Derail Free Trade Agreement
European Union officials are furious about revelations that the US is spying on them and on Continental Europeans as vigorously as it spies on China. Their anger derives in part from their…
Dubai’s Underwater Hotel
Construction of the Water Discus underwater hotel of Dubai may be begun soon, and it will be finished in five years, according to Colin Simpson of the UAE's The National. This video…