a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary)

Imagine if Cooper had done his reporting in really dangerous countries like Switzerland.

AJ was talking earlier about foreign correspondents being beaten by mubarak guys. don't know where they were from. maybe they just meant anderson cooper.

but yeah thugs beating up journalists is actually exactly the kind of thing people should care about. plus he is so beautiful.

think ilx would condone beatings of daily mail journalists

LOL social media:

Kenneth Cole Hijacks "Cairo" Hashtag

I do not care what happens to Anderson Cooper one bit

― bien-pensant vibe (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, February 3, 2011 1:05 PM (36 minutes ago)

jokingly talking about the deaths of famous people is your MO, i know, but what do you have against anderson cooper exactly?

A sensible letter from an Average Person on Sully's blog:

I admit I don't know very much about Egypt. But it really seems as if events there are fairly chaotic and have a momentum of their own. I'm not sure anyone could control them very easily now. And everyone is probably trying to hang on. The idea that such a statement from the US would have an effect seems pretty hard to swallow.

And such a threat - to withhold a relationship with Egypt after things settle down - seems totally hollow. Let's say there's a lot of violence, and six months later, a new regime is in power. Maybe they're democratic, maybe not. Are we really going to say, "Look, we told you during the revolution that you had to do this stuff, and you didn't, so we're not going to talk to you." Everyone knows that we'll do whatever is in our interests. That's what everyone always does.

Now that Mubarak hasn't accepted Obama's suggestion that he step down, everyone says, "Well, of course we knew he wouldn't do it, but it had to be said." But now people are insisting that we make demands on the Egyptian military - no one specific, just the military - and of course those demands will be taken seriously.

This isn't really the strangest stuff, though. We've backed Mubarak for more than three decades. We're the main reason he has been able to stay in power. We kept him there, and we've always looked the other way when confronted with his crimes against his own people. We've encouraged him to make decisions that are deeply unpopular among the Egyptian people on a whole variety of issues, including, most prominently, Egypt's relationship with Israel.

Pundits in this country always talk as if the Egyptian people will forget all of this if only Obama will say the right thing on day 6 of the revolution. People act as if our backing of Mubarak for more than 30 years won't really have any lasting consequences, but the things we say today, in the middle of the crisis, will.

Running through all of this is a fairly bizarre conception of the US's power, its ability to project that power, and its image in the world, combined with a staggering inability to consider, even superficially, how things must look to people in other countries . To people in Egypt, for example.

I think we sometimes lose track of how insulating our bubble really is, and how strange the echo chamber can become.

michael white otm xp

great quote Alfred, thanks

um isn't there quite a large degree of difference between not caring about Anderson Cooper and condoning violence against him? obviously violence against journalists is bad. In Anderson Cooper's particular case, I don't really care what happens to him because a) he's worthless as a journalist and b) CNN acting like the most important thing in this crisis is OMG ANDERSON COOPER is disgusting

is Cooper a worthless journalist?

seriously CNN's coverage of this has made me want to put my foot through the TV. it's been beyond terrible. Last night Piers Morgan was giving a tongue bath to Barbara Walters ("the greatest interviewer ever") while people were being shot at. fuck those douchebags.

by the way, Christiane Amanpour has been excellent on ABC – proof that network journalism still exists.

I don't think that's exactly fair, Shakey. He got pummeled yesterday and I couldn't find anything about anywhere but other news sources than CNN. Fox, of course, loved that story but Cooper's own show's webpage didn't even mention it, or if they did, it was many hours after it had happened.

Dude, Anderson Cooper, having got beat up in Tahrir Square yesterday spent the night reporting, somehow live, bunkered on the floor of a lowlit appartment in Cairo -In other words giving the gonzo.

i just want to point out how awesome it is that your dad opened a sentence with "Dude,"

it was the !!!BANNER HEADLINE!!! on CNN all yesterday afternoon and was ref'd several times on the air last night

xp

i just want to point out how awesome it is that your dad opened a sentence with "Dude,"

― HOOS the master?? STEEN NUFF (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, February 3, 2011 2:06 PM (2 minutes ago)

YES

um isn't there quite a large degree of difference between not caring about Anderson Cooper and condoning violence against him? obviously violence against journalists is bad. In Anderson Cooper's particular case, I don't really care what happens to him because a) he's worthless as a journalist and b) CNN acting like the most important thing in this crisis is OMG ANDERSON COOPER is disgusting

― bien-pensant vibe (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:54 (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

hey douchey here's the thing man: "anderson cooper, an american journalist, just got his ass kicked by indiscriminate antidemocratic thugs hired by the regime" "i don't really care what happens to anderson cooper"

A) can you see here how the context is larger than "oh no pretty andy got hit by some mean guys"
B) can you see here how that larger context, namely that the thugs have now turned indiscriminately on journalists, is an important part of the story
C) can you see here how your reaction to this event, namely "i don't care what happens to anderson cooper" seems to completely ignore that context
D) can you see here how your reaction to this event seems a completely calloused to the beating of a person, and to that particular beating's place in a larger story about the abuse of journalists, and that particular beating's place in the concurrent story about egypt

nah

glad we settled that then.

also I think yr timeline is wrong - Anderson's beating occurred quite a bit BEFORE all these other reports of pro-Mubarak thugs targeting foreign journalists (including the BBC, etc.) came out. Anderson's beating was reported yesterday morning, I didn't see any reports of others being targeted until this morning

So wouldn't you say then that the Cooper beating precipated the beatings?

The End is near. I have no illusions about this regime or its leader, and how he will pluck us and hunt us down one by one till we are over and done with and 8 months from now will pay people to stage fake protests urging him not to leave power, and he will stay “because he has to acquiesce to the voice of the people”. This is a losing battle and they have all the weapons, but we will continue fighting until we can’t. I am heading to Tahrir right now with supplies for the hundreds injured, knowing that today the attacks will intensify, because they can’t allow us to stay there come Friday, which is supposed to be the game changer. We are bringing everybody out, and we will refuse to be anything else than peaceful. If you are in Egypt, I am calling on all of you to head down to Tahrir today and Friday. It is imperative to show them that the battle for the soul of Egypt isn’t over and done with. I am calling you to bring your friends, to bring medical supplies, to go and see what Mubarak’s gurantees look like in real life. Egypt needs you. Be Heroes.

http://pajamasmedia.com/michaeltotten/2011/02/03/sandmonkeys-last-post/

xp "Yes I would, Kent."

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sionyboy/randomshop/yesidokent.jpg

that letter's great, Alfred. It's the line I end up taking ad nauseum on most issues, which probably comes across as unbearably sanctimonious sometimes when I can't conceal disgust at how all that narrative basically refuses to accept other people(s) as independent, autonomous actors. Ho hum.

That said, the $1.3bn must be a string to pull on here?

words fail me, that's very moving Hoos (xxp)

Good ol' McCain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcnrxiAf3E8&feature=player_embedded

So wouldn't you say then that the Cooper beating precipated the beatings?

I think drawing a causal link between the first instance and the latter instances is kinda suspect, especially given such a chaotic situation. but whatever

I didn't see any reports of others being targeted until this morning

It was definitely out there. A lot of journalists got threatened and attacked yesterday.

xp Knowing that McCain has also personally been to Waziristan, this is major!

http://abcworldnews.tumblr.com/post/3089328425/weve-compiled-a-list-of-all-the-journalist-who

ugh god that sandmonkey/totten thing is hard to read

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/03/AR2011020301503.html

Last year, a bipartisan group of senators led a months-long drive to pass a resolution calling for greater freedom and democracy in Egypt. The resolution died in December because of a fatal mix of divided loyalties, lobbying influence and secret Senate holds.

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) were the leaders of the effort to press Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to move toward more free and fair elections via the resolution, which called for "supporting democracy, human rights, and civil liberties in Egypt."

But according to three senior Senate aides who worked on the issue, the two senators who worked most actively behind the scenes to prevent the resolution from moving forward were Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).

I have two of the most unforgiveable douches for senators. ;_;

so it's looking like Mubarak's strategy is a) clamp down on journos/human rights activists so that no one's watching, then b) move in and shoot everybody (either with the security forces/thugs or the army) and then c) announce problem solved/restoration of order

any thoughts on the odds of this working? and at any point will it get bad enough for Obama to withdraw US support and demand his resignation?

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told ABC's Christiane Amanpour that he is fed up and wants to resign but fears the country will descend into chaos, the reporter said Thursday after an exclusive interview with Mubarak.

fucking hell. off with his head already.

sir may i direct you toward this wall

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/shorter-egyptian-government-jan25-is-over/

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/03/world/middleeast/03lede_sonia/03lede_sonia-blog480.jpg

a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary) [Started by max in January 2011, last updated 1 minute ago by bien-pensant vibe (Shakey Mo Collier) on I Love Everything] 550 new answers
Kenneth Cole is having a Sale [Started by teeny (teeny) in December 2002, last updated 1 minute ago by i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta) on I Love Everything] 3 new answers

i hear rap more than i read twitter so now i can't read any tweet about anything no matter how grave without hearing a hashtag-rap cadence in my head.

u listening to the wrong rap, son

u listening to the wrong rap #drake

lol

imho hashtag rap is like some horrible descendant of Kevin Nealon's "subliminal man"

corned beef and #

feel like i may have hit upon the one subject capable of derailing the egypt thread

feel like were all p focused on the topic at hand #egypt

#gameover

so Muslim Brotherhood refusing to hold talks with the regime #go ham

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/02/live-blog-feb-3-egypt-protests