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.
Simply want to say your article is as surprising. The clarity in your publish is simply excellent and that i can assume you’re a professional in this subject. Fine together with your permission let me to snatch your feed to stay up to date with imminent post. Thank you a million and please continue the rewarding work.
Gene H;
the crooks that lowered interest rates below the rate of inflation and provided hundreds of billions of dollars to failed companies were not engaged in capitalism.
If they broke laws, send them to jail and make them pay back the money they took from us. But I think most of the banks have paid back the money with interest. AIG is still flapping and BOA is on the ropes or that is the common thinking.
“At ProPublica, we’ve provided a comprehensive bailout database since TARP’s launch. It shows not only how much money has gone to each recipient, but how much each has paid in interest and dividend payments. With all this data, we’re able to clearly show how deep in the hole the program remains. And the answer as of today is $123 billion.
Add that to the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — which our site also tracks and is separate from the TARP — and taxpayers are $257 billion in the hole.
Although the bailout has extended to nearly a thousand institutions, just a few are primarily responsible for the continued deficit: Fannie and Freddie, of course, AIG, and the auto companies (GM, Chrysler, GMAC).”
by the way I know nothing about Pro-Publica so I dont know if it is left or right, it is the 2nd or 3rd choice in a google search about tarp funds.
Bron,
You mistake me for not wanting both of those goals. I have never bought into the myth of “too big to fail” any more than I buy into the myth of “too big to jail”. However, neither is going to happen without the criminal culpability issue of the present circumstances being addressed. If you think the allowance of future failures sends a strong message, it’s ten times more effective when coupled with the message that fraud and malfeasance comes with prison time and asset forfeiture in addition to allowing the business to fail.
As an aside, where we differ is that if loss is to be socialized, then gain should either be socialized or removed from the equation by making the operation in question be run as a not-for-profit government enterprise. Like health care insurance should be. No one should ever be denied coverage in the name of profits and the best way to minimize costs of coverage is to maximize the size of the risk pool. You see, I don’t object to insurance company profits and ridiculous executive compensation simply because they are profits, but rather because they are profits paid in the blood of the lives lost simply for profitability and the misery of the loved ones left behind due to some profit oriented insurance company prick’s devotion to the bottom line over lives.
Just so, I don’t think criminals in the banking industry should be allowed to skate on criminal charges simply because they were engaging in capitalism. It’s not making money that presents a problem for me. It’s how the money is made that presents a problem for me. The banking industry has harmed millions of lives.
Justice demands that they be held accountable for their actions.
Gene H:
I want justice I just want it a different way. I want the companies who did this and who were bailed out to not be bailed out in the future, let them fail. All the bail out did was reward bad behaviour and encourage people to do this same kind of thing in the future.
All you want to do is send a few people to jail, I want to send a large message which says – “if you screw up, there will be no tax payer money available to you.”
let these people put some of their own money at risk, leave the public’s alone. You cannot privatize gain and socialise loss.
shano:
yep, fascism is definitely bad for the nation.
Bdaman,
Again with the composition fallacy and cherry picking . . . all in your efforts to smear what is a legitimate cause: the crimes committed by Wall Street and aided and abetted by Washington.
Why do you love some criminals but not others, Bdaman? Because one group made money and the other didn’t?
You’re never going to win this argument using your current methods.
You are simply on the wrong side from the beginning.
Gene H. 1, November 5, 2011 at 10:26 am
Some group of friends you got Gene
I suppose saving a hot dog vendors business is more important Gene
SoCal Street Cart Vendors Hurting After ‘Occupy’ Group Splatters Blood, Urine
KNX 1070′s Tom Reopelle reports a fundraiser in the Gas Lamp district in San Diego on Monday night is aimed at helping two vendors get back on their feet.
The coffee and hot dog carts were located in Civic Center Plaza, the same location as the Occupy San Diego protesters.
That group first settled in to the plaza Oct. 7 and set up a tent city which has since twice been taken down by police.
Coffee cart owner Linda Jenson and hot dog cart operators Letty and Pete Soto said they initially provided free food and drink to demonstrators, but when they stopped, the protesters became violent.
And according to one city councilman, bodily fluids were used in the attacks.
“Both carts have had items stolen, have had their covers vandalized with markings and graffiti, as well as one of the carts had urine and blood splattered on it,” said Councilman Carl DeMaio.
The damages will likely require at least a complete cleaning if not a replacement of the cart covers, DeMaio said.
In addition to the attacks, the vendors also said they recently received death threats.
The Sotos received a police escort to their own fundraiser on Monday out of concerns for their safety.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/11/07/socal-street-cart-vendors-hurting-after-occupy-group-splatters-blood-urine/
Gene H. Yes, this has been the problem for a while. When people elected Obama we thought we might see some real push back on corporate power, only to be completely disappointed. Even if the right wing manages to win the Executive office, if nothing changes in this regard, they will be disappointed too.
It is the systemic corruption that has to come under attack by all Americans or we will lose our nation. Face it, how can we stop a war or have a decent foreign policy if corporate insiders are determining the policy?
Sure, when corporations own the media, they can push the propaganda in order to get the citizenry to go along…but we saw how well that worked out during the last Administration. It is not good for the nation.
The baseball edition of reductio ad absurdum didn’t work either, Bron. That’s what you get for using a tool you don’t understand.
As to the little old lady? I’ve already said she deserves justice and those she deserves justice against are her attackers proper, however, her attackers have nothing to do with the situation that created the need for protests in the first place: the unpunished crimes of bankers. The people who attacked her were criminals in their own right just as those who created the need for protests are criminals in their own right but to try to attribute her attack to all of OWS or otherwise impugn their motives because of the actions of a few is an example of fallacious reasoning, namely cum hoc ergo propter hoc (correlation is not causation), an appeal to fear, and the fallacy of composition.
You keep trying to spin though.
All you are doing is tying yourselves in knots.
Bron, no one deliberately pushed these people down the stairs if you know anything about crowd control. The real obscenity is the DC police standing by when people were calling for help because of the crowding.
In fact, the whole police tactic of ‘kettling’ is to push people into a crowded condition that will cause a panic. And that in itself creates violence.
Actually the USDA is understaffed and under constant attack from industry to avoid inspection all together. Just so, the SEC has been co-opted by both politicians and the industry they are allegedly policing by a revolving door policy between industry, government and lobby. A malfunctioning government does not obviate the need for government. It’s merely an indication that critical systemic problems exist that need to be fixed; a symptom of the illness but not the illness itself. Your argument is to kill the animal instead of cure it when the animal is required for survival. There is a need for functional government. The solution rests in making government work for the interests of all and the common good instead of as a protection racket for industrial criminals. Again, your religion is showing its irrationality. Size of government is an empty argument. The only real metric of government health is functionality in serving the citizens (as in all of them).
Yes, the SEC was one big FAIL. This is the problem now, it is NOT a left-right paradigm. All of our regulatory agencies, from the FDA to the SEC, have been captured by corporate power.
As I say, I do not see how we can fix this at the ballot box when corporate money and power has captured all of our institutions and the vast majority of our politicians. We no longer have anything resembling a democracy.
Bdaman:
I guess if I go to a baseball game because I want to see Albert Pujols play and drink too much beer and have an accident on the way home it is Pujols fault.
That makes about as much sense as blaming bankers for a little old lady getting pushed down a flight of stairs by a bunch of little pud knockers who are probably only tough enough to beat up on a little old lady.
I wouldnt want to think I was supporting a group who beat up little old ladies, I guess some people go to great lengths to delude themselves.
Gene H:
chickens usually arrive at the meat packing plant alive and are inspected by government inspectors from the USDA.
I guess if the farmer made me sick the USDA inspectors did about as good a job as the SEC and the myriad other regulatory agencies which watch over our financial affairs.
I feel so much better now knowing they are on the job.