The Hollywood Liberal

Anderson Cooper Attacked in Cairo
Numerous Western journalists were attacked by pro-Mubarak demonstrators in Cairo Wednesday, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “It was pandemonium. There was no control. Suddenly a man would come up to you and punch you in the face,” he said.

Late Late Night FDL: Getting Along Alright
Shakura S’aida — Getting Along Alright, with the Maple Blues Band (the Maple Blues Awards house band) during the 2009 Maple Blues Awards.

Shakura S’aida — Getting Along Alright, with the Maple Blues Band (the Maple Blues Awards house band) during the 2009 Maple Blues Awards.

What’s on your mind?

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The Banality of Evil
Another proud moment for Western Foreign Policy and its legacy.

(photo: @evanchill, courtesy of Al Jazeera)

I know that many will still hold out Neville Chamberlain as an example, but surely Tony Blair’s statements yesterday before Mubarak’s thugs took to the streets will merit some eternal mark in the Hall of Shame and Ignorance:

Tony Blair has described Hosni Mubarak, the beleaguered Egyptian leader, as “immensely courageous and a force for good” and warned against a rush to elections that could bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power.

Say what you will about the Obama Administration’s customary fecklessness, it beats a pair of false claims straight out of a Glenn Beck rant. Or maybe just John McCain’s playbook.

Meanwhile, somewhere the Ghost of Hannah Arendt surely noticed this happening seemingly right after Blair’s statements about this “immensely courageous” “force for good”:

In one almost medieval scene, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into the anti-government crowds, trampling several people and swinging whips and sticks. Protesters dragged some riders from their mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces. The horses and camels appeared to be ones used to give tourists rides around Cairo.

Straight out of central-stereotypical-casting.

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Groundhog Day

By Mike Luckovich

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Egypt’s Effects Go Beyond Its Borders
What’s happening in the streets of Cairo and elsewhere around Egypt is likely to lead to substantial changes in that country that could well be contagious across the region.  —KA The New York Times: The Arab world watched a moment that suggested it would never be the same again—and waited to see whether protest or crackdown would win the day. Words like uprising and revolution only hint at the scale of events in Egypt, which have already reverberated across Yemen, Jordan, Syria and even Saudi Arabia, offering a new template for change in a region that long reeled from its own sense of stagnation. “Every Egyptian understands now,” said Magdi al-Sayyid, one of the protesters. Read more  

What’s happening in the streets of Cairo and elsewhere around Egypt is likely to lead to substantial changes in that country that could well be contagious across the region.? —KA

The New York Times:

The Arab world watched a moment that suggested it would never be the same again—and waited to see whether protest or crackdown would win the day. Words like uprising and revolution only hint at the scale of events in Egypt, which have already reverberated across Yemen, Jordan, Syria and even Saudi Arabia, offering a new template for change in a region that long reeled from its own sense of stagnation.

“Every Egyptian understands now,” said Magdi al-Sayyid, one of the protesters.

Read more

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There is at least an even chance that we are now entering a rare cycle of history that may take 20 to 30 years to resolve itself, with autocracies giving way to fragile democracies that in turn will evolve into radical fundamentalist regimes.

Lincoln Mitchell: Supporting Democracy and Supporting Dictatorship in Egypt
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Conservative Media Look At Hosni Mubarak And See Barack Obama

In the wake of protests in Egypt, right-wing media have compared President Obama to corrupt Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled that country as a police state for 30 years. Conservative media have long accused Obama of being “anti-Democratic” and a “dictator.”

Right-Wing: Obama Just As Corrupt, Oppressive, And Intolerant As Mubarak

Beck Suggests Obama Is Exhibiting “A Sign Of A Dictator.” On Fox News’ Fox & Friends, Glenn Beck stated:

BECK: Did anybody notice the remarkable statements from the president last week where the president was saying, look, as long as people are peacefully assembling, they have a right to speak and the government should listen to them. All of — when he’s saying that, all I can think of was the speech where he’s walking around going, “And they’re carrying tea bags,” and mocking the American people.

And then, while they’re pushing for an Internet kill switch for the president, that does not have judicial review — in fact, it specifically says courts cannot review the decision. While they’re pushing for that in our own Congress on Friday, he’s telling Mubarak, anybody who tries to control the Internet and television and radio, that’s a sign of a dictator. Come on. [Fox News, Fox & Friends,

[Twitter, Michelle Malkin,

[Twitter, HeyTammyBruce, 1/28/11]

Conservatives Routinely Accuse Obama Of Being “Anti-Democratic”

Limbaugh: China’s Political System Is “Very Different” From Ours: “Yeah, Maybe — But Not For Long.” On his radio show, discussing Obama’s press conference with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Limbaugh seized on Obama’s remark that China’s political system is “very different” from the United States’, saying, “Obama’s up there telling the press corps that China has a very different political system than we do. Yeah, maybe — but not for long. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 1/19/10]

Wash. Times‘ Kuhner: “Obama’s Regime Has Abused Its Power And Fostered Anti-Democratic Behavior.” In his Washington Times column, Jeffrey Kuhner referred to Obama as an “anti-American political thug,” writing that Obama “despises the Constitution and capitalism” and “bristles under the restraints of democratic governance and the system of checks and balances.” Kuhner went on to compare Obama with Vladimir Lenin, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chavez, saying that “they have one goal: revolution.” Kuhner later stated:

Mr. Obama’s regime has abused its power and fostered anti-democratic behavior. He is slowly erecting a soft police state. It is not one with a fascist jackboot on your face but with a unionized TSA bureaucrat in your crotch — all in the name of public safety. Say hello to Big Brother Barack. [The Washington Times, 11/26/10]   

Beck Says “The Trends That We’re Headed Towards” Is To “Install A Dictator.” On his Fox News show, Glenn Beck purported to explain the “trends that we’re headed towards,” saying “the whole dictator thing” is not just a “crazy theory.” Beck added: “What more is there to be done? Have we not given everything he has asked for? … After financial reform, the government controls 70 percent of the economy. How much more control do they want?” Beck continued: “Plus, phase two of the Weather Underground is to install a dictator. Now, I know that’s heavy, man — to use the 1960s lingo — but is it possible? Step one is grab control, grab control of the economy, grab control of the imperialistic system and then, step two is to install a dictator.” [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 7/27/10]

Levin On Obama Administration: “We Have Been Tormented And Abused Far More Than The Colonists Were By The King Of England.” Discussing the tea party on his radio show, Mark Levin said: “The tea party activists are acting out of history and patriotism. I said many months ago that we have been tormented and abused far more than the colonists were by the King of England. Far more, far oftener, and far more aggressively.” [ABC Radio Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 7/20/10]

Levin: What Obama Is Doing Is No Different Than “What’s Going On In Venezuela.” On his radio show, Levin stated:

LEVIN: No, there isn’t going to be a robust recovery, ladies and gentlemen. No, foreign individuals are not going to continue invest in this country, when they can get a better deal somewhere else. This is a disaster. And so what is Obama going to do about it? Keep building and building and building his empire. Keep seizing more assets. This is what’s going on. This is what the quote-unquote bailout is all about. They’re seizing private-sector assets, transferring them from private parties and turning them over to politicians and government. Now, they put smiles on their faces. They do it with legislation. Sometimes they don’t.

But how is this any different in the end, and in theory, to what’s going on in Venezuela? I ask you. No aspect of the private sector feels safe from this president and his administration and this Congress. No aspect. That’s why people aren’t spending and investing in R&D. We’re not even standing still. We’re regressing. Because we have a man in office who is a destroyer. He’s destroying all the magnificence that was created before him. Because he’s petulant, because he is inexperienced, because he’s immature, and most of all because he’s a Marxist. [ABC Radio Networks, The Mark Levin Show, 6/30/10]

Rove Accuses Obama Of Engaging “Intimidation” Tactics “Worthy Of A Third World Dictator.” In his Wall Street Journal column, Karl Rove wrote:

Before his health-care bill passed, Mr. Obama sent a tough letter to health-insurance CEOs and then castigated them 22 times in a follow-up prime-time televised speech. This is behavior worthy of a Third World dictator — not the head of a vibrant democracy.

[…]

But it is the president’s intimidation that is most troubling. Mr. Obama has the disturbing tendency to question the motives of those who disagree with him, often making them the objects of ad hominem attacks. His motives, on the other hand, are pure.

Mr. Obama often makes it seem illegitimate to challenge his views, and he isn’t content to argue issues on the merits. Instead, he wants to make opponents into pariahs. And it’s not just business executives who are on the receiving end. We’ve also seen this pattern with the administration’s attacks on the tea party movement and those who attended town-hall meetings last summer on health care.

This is a bad habit — and a dangerous one. The presidency is a very powerful office, and presidents need to be careful not to use it to silence dissenting voices. [The Wall Street Journal, 4/29/10]   

Limbaugh: “If I Didn’t Know Better, I Would Say That Hugo Chavez Is Actually Running This Country.” On his radio show, Limbaugh claimed that “this regime and its willing accomplices are engaged in the effort to vilify the backbone of this country — the people who work and thus make it work. They are the objects of derision. They are the targets for destruction.” Limbaugh went on to accuse the administration of treating critics and business owners like the “enemy,” concluding: “If I didn’t know better, I would say that Hugo Chavez is actually running this country. And I’m probably downplaying this a bit.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 4/15/10]

Savage: Obama “Is A Neo-Marxist Fascist Dictator In The Making.” On his radio show, Savage accused Obama of being a “neo-Marxist fascist dictator in the making,” saying:

SAVAGE: “Super aides for health, the economy, energy, and urban issues, with more to come, prompt lawmakers and groups to worry he may be concentrating power and bypassing Congress.” Of course he is. He’s a fascist. I know that you don’t want to hear this, but the man is a neo-Marxist fascist dictator in the making. He is not using his fascism yet, because he doesn’t have enough power to wield the fascist instruments of power, but he is aggrandizing enough power to become a very dangerous president, and you must understand this is an important story. [Talk Radio Network, The Savage Nation, 3/5/09]

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Non-violent protests in Egypt: BRING IN THE WOMEN!
Hosni Mubarak is once again acting like the slimeball that he truly is — shamelessly employing his mafia thugs against peaceful protesters. Even as we speak, that creep is using paid thugs on camels and horses to cut a bloody swath through the non-violent demonstrators in Tahrir Square. Mubarak is still a monster. Nothing has […]

GOP Insiders Think Thune Will Stay in Senate
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) “just landed two plum posts in the Senate — seats on the influential Finance and Budget committees — that crystallize the decision he now faces: Stay in the Senate to climb the leadership ladder, or jump into the 2012 presidential contest,” Politico reports.

“The betting among Republicans is that Thune remains in the Senate, and the senator himself acknowledges he might stay put.”

Ben Smith: “It’s worth considering that for all the fun names floating, the actual field will be smaller — and could be a lot smaller.”

Is Santorum the New Nixon?
George Will argues that former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-SD) could be an unexpected force in the 2012 presidential race, should he decide to run, due to his strong appeal to the socially conservative party base, who are “feeling neglected.”

“How can he, having lost his last election, run for president? Isn’t he a spent political force? Well, was Richard Nixon defunct after losing the California gubernatorial race in 1962? ”

The FBI Has Been Violating Your Liberties in Ways That May Shock You
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12 Examples of Stunning Hypocrisy from Tea Party Republicans In One Short Month
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Chomsky: Why the Mideast Turmoil Is a Direct Threat to the American Empire
An interview with Noam Chomsky about what this means for the future of the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in the region.

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Thank AIPAC For Placing USA On Wrong Side In Egypt
If one needs additional proof that the “pro-Israel” lobby and the policies it dictates to US policymakers are bad for both the U.S. and Israel, look no further than what is happening in Egypt. The regime that the Israeli government…

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