UnrepentantLiberal
UnrepentantLiberal's JournalEgypt's president has powers that rival Mubarak's
Thousands of supporters raise a poster of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi as they celebrate in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Sunday.
By Hamza Hendawi
Associated Press
August 14, 2012
CAIRO –Egypt's Islamist president has given himself the right to legislate and control over the drafting of a new constitution. He has installed at the top of the powerful military a defense minister likely to be beholden to him.
Under Mohammed Morsi's authority, officials have moved to silence influential critics in the media. And though a civilian, he declared himself in charge of military operations against militants in the Sinai peninsula.
Over the weekend, Morsi ordered the retirement of the defense minister and chief of staff and reclaimed key powers the military seized from him days before he took office on June 30. With that, Egypt's first freely elected president amassed in his own hands powers that rival those of his ousted authoritarian predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.
If left unchecked, there are fears Morsi and his fundamentalist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, could turn the clock back on the country's tumultuous shift to democratic rule and pursue their goal of someday turning the most populous Arab nation into an Islamic state.
The Brotherhood already won both parliamentary and presidential elections after the uprising last year that forced Mubarak out. The question now is whether there is any institution in the country that can check the power of Morsi and the Brotherhood and stop them from taking over the nation's institutions and consolidating their grip.
More: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-08-14/morsi-egypt-president-powers/57058760/1
EarlG is driving me insane!
Every time I see a picture of Paul Ryan the Munster's theme starts playing in my head and won't stop!
Syria's ex-PM Riad Hijab says regime is collapsing
Source: BBC News
14 August 2012
Speaking in the Jordanian capital, Amman, he said the regime controlled no more than 30% of Syrian territory.
He called on the opposition abroad to unite and on the Syrian army to stand alongside its people.
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has held talks in Damascus in an attempt to increase the flow of emergency aid.
Mr Hijab told a news conference he was joining the rebel side and urged other political and military leaders to break away from President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19254059
Gazans hope Egypt will ease clampdown on smuggling tunnels
By Avi Issacharoff
Haaretz
Aug.14, 2012
Last week's terror attack in Sinai, which claimed the lives of 16 Egyptian soldiers, prompted the authorities in Cairo to clamp down on the smuggling tunnels connecting Egyptian Rafah and the Gaza Strip. Dozens of bulldozers arrived at the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi Route and began demolishing tunnels. On the other side, Hamas closed the tunnel entrances, at least for the time being.
For around 70,000 Palestinians whose livelihoods depend on the tunnels, it is a severe blow.
Ibrahim, a Rafah resident, is worried. For the past four years he has owned a tunnel used for transferring merchandise. Hamas' decision to shut the tunnels on the Palestinian side has seen his source of income collapse. "They closed everything after the attack. Three days ago they let open them again for 24 hours, in order to let our goods pass through, but then they told us they will be closed again," he said in a phone call from Rafah.
The precise number of tunnels is unknown. Palestinian and Arab media estimate there are 400 tunnels, while Ibrahim believes the actual number is closer to 500. A senior Egyptian official told Haaretz he estimates that some 1,200 entrances exist on the Palestinian side, but they serve no more than 350 tunnels. This means brisk business.
"There are 30 workers or more in each tunnel," Ibrahim says. "Every worker earns around NIS 100 a day. How will their families survive?"
More: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/gazans-hope-egypt-will-ease-clampdown-on-smuggling-tunnels.premium-1.458034
Egypt president's firing of generals seen as 'soft coup'
President Mohamed Morsi, right, meets with his new defense minister, Abdel Fattah Sisi, at the presidential palace in Cairo. (Egyptian presidency /August 13, 2012)
By Reem Abdellatif
Los Angeles Times
August 14, 2012
CAIRO — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's firing of the nation's top generals was interpreted by analysts Monday as a politically engineered strategy to significantly broaden his powers as economic and political pressures mount in a country that still lacks a new constitution.
The purge of the nation's military commanders on Sunday sharpened Morsi's authority as leader of the Arab world's most populous nation while proving him a better political tactician than many had believed. The generals, including Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, in effect acquiesced to their forced retirements.
The president's decision to appoint Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah Sisi to replace Tantawi as defense minister and chief of the military was regarded as a "soft coup" against Egypt's old-guard establishment. It was also the latest move by Morsi, a conservative Islamist, to put his stamp on the fledgling government.
"It's not a shock that a young officer such as Sisi rose to new ranks. Any president in an authoritarian, patriarchal nation such as Egypt would want a younger administration that he can condition with people that could look up to him," said Nabil Abdel Fattah, advisor at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-military-20120814,0,6835449.story
Soledad O'Brien Caught Reading Liberal Blog During Heated Debate With Romney Adviser
Way to go Soledad! Soledad trounced her with what was obviously the truth. I've gained new respect for her after watching this.
News Busters is not happy:
News Busters
August 13, 2012
Can CNN's Soledad O'Brien make her sources any more apparent than she did Monday night?
While filling in for Anderson Cooper, O'Brien was actually caught on screen looking at an article from the far-left website Talking Points Memo to assist her in a heated debate with Romney campaign senior adviser Barbara Comstock.
Ali Akbar at Viral Read reported Monday:
During her interview with Virginia House of Delegates Republican member Barbara Comstock, O’Brien became visibly flustered and was actually caught doing finger stress exercises as she attempt [sic] to insert editorial commentary while her guest, a former skilled Republican operative, defended the House GOP budget, designed by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan.
Accidentally, a cameraman captured O’Brien furiously flipping through notes, only to cut out seconds later.
Video and more pics at link. (They cut the video off at the point where Soledad O'Brien really trashed her... of course.)
More: http://m.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/08/13/soledad-obrien-caught-reading-liberal-blog-during-heated-debate-romne
Thousands rally in Tunisia for women's rights
Source: Reuters
By Tarek Amara
August 14 2012
TUNIS (Reuters) - Thousands of Tunisians rallied on Monday to protest against what they see as a push by the Islamist-led government for constitutional changes that would degrade women's status in one of the Arab world's most liberal nations.
The protest, by some 6,000 mostly Tunisian women, is the latest twist in a row over the role of Islam in a constitution being drawn up by a new assembly.
Tunisia's ruling Ennahda Movement is under pressure from both hardline Salafi Muslims, calling for the introduction of Islamic law, and secular opposition parties.
Activists are not happy with a stipulation in a draft of the constitution that considers women to be "complementary to men" and want a pioneering 1956 law that grant women full equality with men to remain in place.
Read more: More: http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBRE87C16320120813?irpc=932
Syria rebels claim shootdown of fighter jet; government disputes report
Source: Reuters
By Babak Dehghanpisheh
Aug 13, 2012
BEIRUT —Rebel fighters said Monday that they shot down a MiG-23 jet in eastern Syria and captured the pilot, a claim disputed by the Syrian government, which blamed a “technical failure” for the crash.
If the rebel assertion is verified, the action would represent a significant improvement in the military skills demonstrated by the ragtag fighters and could be a sign that they are receiving more sophisticated weapons from their international sponsors, which now include Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The jet apparently went down in Mohassan, a small town southeast of Deir al-Zour, a flash point in the battle between opposition forces and President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency posted an article that said the jet crashed because of technical reasons and that a search for the pilot was underway. “A technical failure that happened to a military aircraft while it was on an ordinary training flight over the eastern area caused the command devices to break down, and the pilot to leave the plane by the ejection seat,” said a military source quoted in the article.
Read more: http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/rss.jsp?rssid=613&item=http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/syria-rebels-claim-shootdown-of-fighter-jet-government-disputes-report/2012/08/13/49986654-e572-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_mobile.mobile&cid=-1&fullSiteUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fworld%2Fmiddle_east%2Fsyria-rebels-claim-shootdown-of-fighter-jet-government-disputes-report%2F2012%2F08%2F13%2F49986654-e572-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html
Thousands rally in Tunisia for women's rights
By Tarek Amara
Reuters
August 14 2012
TUNIS (Reuters) - Thousands of Tunisians rallied on Monday to protest against what they see as a push by the Islamist-led government for constitutional changes that would degrade women's status in one of the Arab world's most liberal nations.
The protest, by some 6,000 mostly Tunisian women, is the latest twist in a row over the role of Islam in a constitution being drawn up by a new assembly.
Tunisia's ruling Ennahda Movement is under pressure from both hardline Salafi Muslims, calling for the introduction of Islamic law, and secular opposition parties.
Activists are not happy with a stipulation in a draft of the constitution that considers women to be "complementary to men" and want a pioneering 1956 law that grant women full equality with men to remain in place.
More: http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBRE87C16320120813?irpc=932
Protesting Boy Scouts renounce Eagle awards over ban on gay and lesbian members
By Thom Patterson
CNN
August 12, 2012
Earning the right to be called an Eagle Scout ranks among life’s most cherished achievements for countless men. But now, more than 100 Eagles have “renounced” their precious red, white and blue medals to protest the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay and lesbian members.
“With sadness for the loss of the good things –I respectfully return my badge and ask that the BSA consider the opinions of the more than 10,000 other Eagle Scouts who have now done the same,” wrote Ray Myers on a Tumblr site called Eagle Scouts Returning Our Badges.
Protesters have posted letters and photos of their Eagle badges and medals that they’ve sent to Robert Mazzuca, chief scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America.
The Boy Scout national headquarters said it doesn’t have an exact count of medals returned recently. “But we have received a few,” wrote BSA spokesman Deron Smith in an e-mail to CNN. “Although we are disappointed to learn of anyone who feels compelled to return his Eagle rank, we respect their right to express an opinion. While a majority of our membership agrees with our policy, we fully understand and appreciate that not everyone will agree with any one position or policy.”
More: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/13/protesting-scouts-renounce-eagle-awards/
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