With Libya now moving to a Sharia-based system that will impose religious values on the population, Egypt is also rapidly moving toward an extreme Sharia based system. Indeed, Hesham al Ashry (the leader of the Salafists) announced this week that “I am the enemy of democracy.”
Businessman Naguib Sawiris now calls Egypt’s future “dim … bad.”
Al Ashry put the reality into perspective: “This is a big opportunity and it’s not going to go back. This was mentioned by the Prophet Mohammed. Peace be upon him. He said this was going to happen.” Thus, the freedom that led to the overthrow of Mubarak regime will now be extinguished to embrace a new form of oppression — just faith-based rather than tyrant-based repression.
One of the objections made to the intervention of the United States in Libya was that, in addition to the absence of any declaration from Congress, President Obama could bring bring about a more radical regime. Even at the time, Libyan rebels were known to have extremist elements, including some linked to Al Qaeda. Some of the same concerns were heard in our Egyptian policies. I am less critical of the Obama policy on Libya. Indeed, I thought the Administration struck the right tone — without military intervention. However, there is a general misconception that the “Arab Spring” necessarily means a triumph of democracy and human rights. Movements in both Libya and Egypt show the powerful pull of theocratic oppression. The denial of the separation of mosque and state (as well as religious freedom) undermines a host of other rights from free speech to free association. The Obama Administration undermined those rights further with its shocking support of a United Nation’s resolution that embraced the concept of blasphemy prosecutions.
With the move to Sharia law, Egypt is showing other signs of extremism. Sectarian violence, particularly against Christians, has increased with little intervention from the military.
The loss of Egypt to religious extremism would be extremely destabilizing for the regime. It will also raise a question of our continued massive support for the country. Even though we have cities and states breaking under economic pressures, we are still pouring billions in aid to both Israel and Egypt.
Sorry! But he is indeed one of yours.
“President Bush has repeatedly touted his adherence to free markets throughout his term. ‘Free markets remain the best way to promote growth, create good jobs, and ensure rising living standards. That is why the President has actively sought to open markets,’ Gregory Mankiw of the Council of Economic Advisers explained in 2004.
But amidst a deep recession characterized by $8.5 trillion in various bailouts, Bush’s laissez-faire ideals are a distant memory. Today on CNN, Bush claimed he has ‘abandoned’ the free market in order to ‘save’ it:
BUSH; Well, I have obviously made a decision to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse. I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system. I think when people review what’s taken place in the last six months, uh, and put it all in one, in one, (sigh), you know, in one package, they’re realize how significantly we have moved.
Bush’s logic of abandoning the free market to ‘save’ the free market is deeply flawed. Much of the crisis was caused by the ‘belief that markets are self-adjusting and that the role of government should be minimal,’ Nobel Prize-winning economist Joe Stiglitz explained. Stiglitz recalled this telling exchange from Alan Greenspan:
Looking back at that belief during hearings this fall on Capitol Hill, Alan Greenspan said out loud, ‘I have found a flaw.’ Congressman Henry Waxman pushed him, responding, ‘In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right; it was not working.’ ‘Absolutely, precisely,’ Greenspan said.
Indeed, one of the chief problems was the administration’s failure to regulate mortgage markets. As the Wonk Room explained, the administration ignored several ‘prescient warnings’ about the crisis. In 2005, regulators proposed stringent checks on bankers and mortgages. Bowing to pressure from big banks, however, the administration ignored these warnings and also gutted several important regulations.
Bush’s market fundamentalism has not been ‘abandoned.’ Rather, it has failed.”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/12/16/33798/bush-free-market/
Bush was and is one of yours and just as in denial that his irrational beliefs caused our current mess as you are. Or perhaps he realizes that if people put the pieces together they’d realize that laissez faire ideals lead to fascism and that his decision to attack a country that had not attacked us and to torture prisoners was the actions of a fascist dictator. He may be stupid, but I’m pretty sure Bush has seen Mussolini’s last photo op. He may have even understood the relative consequences of his actions once it was explained to him in single syllable words.
gene h:
“One of your alleged laissez faire capitalist brethren.”
he aint one of ours, no way.
Bda,
I enjoy the sock puppetry play yard as much as the next guy but when I called Bron/Roco etc. a teabagger, I didn’t think I was addressing the insult (and I fully intend it as an insult) to you.
I don’t know if you use sock puppets but, in my opinion, I don’t honestly think Bron is one of them. My twisted logic is that there is no way in hell you could dumb yourself down enough to be that dude.
I wish I were in Boston right now, 10 years younger and had my skiis in tow!
a round of hot chocolates for the hearty!
Elaine M.
1, October 28, 2011 at 11:30 am
Bdaman,
Thanks for the weather forecast. I’ve been so busy reading Marx that I haven’t had time to do anything else.
🙂
——————————————————————–
I love a good smart ass comment and that was a great one! 🙂
🙂
pete
1, October 27, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Blouise
1, October 27, 2011 at 10:47 pm
I’m going to go read a book
====================================================
when johnney depp is going to be on letterman
right
===============================================
That was a serendipitous surprise … just goes to show you … getting fed up with teabaggers can lead to unexpected happiness! 🙂
Never got around to the book …
Bdaman,
Thanks for the weather forecast. I’ve been so busy reading Marx that I haven’t had time to do anything else.
🙂
Bron,
“the 99% are demonstrating against socializing bank debt and privatizing profits.
I am all for privatizing profits and loses. You screw up, no matter how big you are, you take your lumps and leave the little guys like me alone. Pick up the tab from your wallet not mine.”
Good. Then you aren’t completely clueless. Only partially clueless. You fail to recognize the causation of that debacle. It was corporations being allowed to influence the political and legal mechanisms and removing regulation that would have prevented the whole mess in the first place if they had been left in place and enforced, like Glass-Steagall. No rules is an open invitation for the abuse of the weak by the strong.
“But guess what? Government took that money from our pockets and put it into Wall Street’s pocket. Had people who thought like me been in congress in 2008 Wall St. would be a good deal healthier now because the shit would have been purged and capital would have gone to efficient managers/producers. I.e AIG and the others would have been allowed to fail and the market would have taken care of it. Also executives would have had to forgo bonuses and would have lost their jobs.”
All good things, but empty without laws that address such bad corporate actors. You can’t jail someone or take their property without laws defining actions that merit those sanctions.
“when it comes down to where the rubber meets the road, it isnt a corporate executive’s signature on TARP.”
No. It was George Bush’s signature. One of your alleged laissez faire capitalist brethren. A man put into office with the money, approval and control of the oil industry. The truth is he’s a fascist. The man declared war on a country that didn’t attack us for the mutual benefit of his family’s business interests and the business interests of their partners. That’s the act of a fascist dictator. He didn’t get to be one without corporate sponsorship though.
“And why were there back to back secretary of treasury from Goldman Sachs? Isnt that some sort of conflict of interest?”
Yes, it is and the “why” is answered by corruption – corruption which once again is an ultra-partisan problem.
“You want business controlled by the state, screw that.”
No. I want criminal and tortious behavior regulated and punished by the state for corporations and corporate officers just like it is for civilians. It’s a little thing called “the rule of law” and “justice”. Again, “free market” doesn’t mean free to do whatever the Hell you want as long as it makes a profit. Market mechanics, other than in areas critical to national security (which should be nationalized and socialized market segments), should be largely left alone. The goal of law should be equalizing the playing field and preventing abusive practices by regulating and punishing those who break the regulations. Just because you steal or kill with a pen instead of a gun doesn’t make you any less a thief or a killer.
“It is as bad as the state being controlled by business (which it really cant in the final analysis because the power belongs to the state).”
Bullshit apologetic caused by your very real lack of understanding of the social contract, the various forms of governance and/or economic models in your slavish (and, yes, religious) devotion to laissez faire capitalism. In the final analysis, the state aligned with business interests over the democratic will of the people is controlled by business interests and has failed to be a democracy. What it is is simply fascism. Not socialism. Not communism. Fascism. The state should be a disinterested formulator and enforcer of the rule of law as decided by democratic process, not who the biggest campaign contributor was. If you want no regulation of business, then you by default are for not defining criminal corporate and business activities no matter what you say. Otherwise punishing corporate wrongdoing would be left not to the rule of law, but rather to the whim of imperial fiat – which is precisely the situation the Republicans created and the Democrats exacerbated.
You keep trying to make corruption a partisan issue which simply shows you’re ignorant and in denial that it is precisely people like you that led to the current state of affairs. No laws equals an open invitation to abusive practices.
However, if you want to bad mouth Obama and the DNC?
Be my guest.
The blame for corruption is ultra-partisan, however, the solution isn’t “let’s just let business do what they want!”
That’s how we got in this mess – including the Iraq “war” – in the first place. Deregulation of business and expansion of corporate personality are both rooted in the graft system they call campaign finance. Before you start your inevitable “businessmen good/politicians bad” nonsense, remember that graft and malfeasance are crimes that require a minimum of two parties – the grafter and the graftee.
In the end analysis though, it’s ideas like those encouraged by Rand and von Mises that created this situation whether you like it or not. Your premises are faulty, unrealistic and unscientific with more in kind with a religion than a rational worldview. Delusional premises usually lead to bad results. Imagine that.
Here you go OS more right to free assembly.
“We’re forced to comply with the laws, but yet they don’t have to,” she said. “That’s such a blatantly unequal application of the laws.”
RICHMOND, Va. (CBS Washington) – The Richmond Tea Party is accusing Mayor Dwight Jones of taking a soft stance against the “Occupy Richmond” protesters and is demanding that the group pay up.
After nearly three weeks of protests and overnight stays in Kanawha Plaza, the Richmond Tea Party is about to send Jones a bill for about $8,000 on the basis that “Occupy Richmond” has been using the area illegally and for free.
Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens told CBS Washington that the protesters have been given special treatment and free reign of the park and have not had to comply with the strict liability and security provisions that the city required of a Tea Party Tax Day in 2009.
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2011/10/27/tea-party-to-mayor-make-occupy-richmond-pay-up/
Bdaman,
Weather doesn’t stop revolutions, it only slows them down.
Hey Ms. Elaine yall try and stay warm now, ya here. We’ll keep the lights on for ya 🙂
Major Nor’Easter To Dump More Snow On Southern New England
In more than 100 years of record keeping in Boston the most snow the city has ever seen in the month of October is 1.1 inches, six years ago on October 29, 2005.
This storm is almost certain to be one for the record books in all of southern New England.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/10/28/winter-like-weekend/
Amen Elaine.
The amount of rain versus snow that falls on communities in the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York and Boston Saturday will be a matter of a few degrees.
The Saturday storm will bring a change to wet snow in many more places, compared to the Thursday storm.
According to Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams, “The amount of rain versus snow that falls on various communities in the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York and Boston Saturday will be a matter of a few degrees.”
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/56969/nyc-philly-boston-snow-versus.asp
Bron,
If people who thought differently from you had seen to it that the Glass-Steagall Act was not repealed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, our country might not have had such a terrible financial meltdown
I here ya Woosty, I mean over them being in the streets. In the UK they have determined that the protesters go home at night and vacate their tents because it’s too cold. They won’t last long either as a repeat performance of last years winter is on tap as well.
Bron,
I’m not an ideologue like you. I think for myself. I don’t let an ardent belief in any philosophy put braces on my brain.
Gene H:
the 99% are demonstrating against socializing bank debt and privatizing profits.
I am all for privatizing profits and loses. You screw up, no matter how big you are, you take your lumps and leave the little guys like me alone. Pick up the tab from your wallet not mine.
But guess what? Government took that money from our pockets and put it into Wall Street’s pocket. Had people who thought like me been in congress in 2008 Wall St. would be a good deal healthier now because the shit would have been purged and capital would have gone to efficient managers/producers. I.e AIG and the others would have been allowed to fail and the market would have taken care of it. Also executives would have had to forgo bonuses and would have lost their jobs.
As a side note isnt government, under Clinton, responsible for the stock compensation executives now receive instead of salary? And wasnt the reason because the government thought the executives made too much money?
You can moan and cry all you want about corruption and corporations buying votes but when it comes down to where the rubber meets the road, it isnt a corporate executive’s signature on TARP.
And why were there back to back secretary of treasury from Goldman Sachs? Isnt that some sort of conflict of interest?
Separation of business and state is what it ought to be. You want business controlled by the state, screw that. It is as bad as the state being controlled by business (which it really cant in the final analysis because the power belongs to the state).
Bdaman1, October 28, 2011 at 10:33 am
—————————————-
if every peaceful demonstrator went home today, it would still not be over. And btw, it wasn’t a competition so if ANYONE loses, we ALL lose. The point was made. Besides, the nasty little corrupt agitator creeps will be the last to leave…..because the smell in the air that is enlightenment…they mistake it for something else.
so Bdaman, why don’t you Bdaman or come back when you Rdaman… 😉
(tho my idea of ‘daman’ and yours are probably very very very different….)
.LONG TERM /SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/…
THE CYCLONE WILL TRACK NE TO SOUTH OF NOVA SCOTIA BY SUNDAY AM AS HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS OVER THE NE.
In winter Cyclone is another way of saying hurricane.