Posts by Alex Coleman
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In the 'acknowledgments' to American Gods Gaimon says this:
"Terry Pratchett helped unlock a knotty plot point for me on the train to Gothenburg."
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Speaking of the NYT, I see Judith Miller has got a new gig at Newsmax.
I feel a bit mean in being joyed about that, but then I remember how she went to jail to protect a source, where the source wasn't so much 'leaking' classified information as they were 'planting' it.
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On the various hypocricy angles,
Is objecting to defamation really the same thing as objecting to leaks? Wasn't he saying that the claims were false, rather than that they were in confidence? If so then I'm not sure I see the irony.
On the 'informants' stuff, (and without saying I agree with his quoted position in any way) are people who privately tell the state some secrets really doing the same thing as someone who leaks state secrets to the media? They seem like different things to me.
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This is a pretty weird tweet;
http://twitter.com/JNSmall/status/32911161141764096
from a Washington based journo for Time.
Can only assume it's a joke, but still, what might work as private humour between people that know each other doesn't always translate:
Anderson Cooper: if your crew is getting beat up in riots in every country you go to-might that suggest UR the 1 doing something wrong?
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Some news coverage here
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41383377/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/
conatining this:
Bloodied anti-government protesters were taken to makeshift clinics in mosques and alleyways. Some pleaded for protection from soldiers stationed at the square, but the soldiers did nothing to stop the violence, beyond firing an occasional shot in the air.
and this:
Earlier Wednesday, a military spokesman appeared on state TV and asked the protesters to disperse so life in Egypt could get back to normal. That was a major turn in the attitude of the army, which for the past few days allowed protests to swell to their largest yet on Tuesday when a quarter-million peacefully packed into Tahrir Square.
which doesn't sound good.
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"would weigh more or less heavily"
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How do you suggest they would be able to pressure a lame duck president?
I dunno. I'm just wondering if they might have mentioned that another regime rolling over so soon after Tunisia could create more pressure on their regimes, and whether such a mentioning would more or less heavily on the mind of the lame duck.
It would account for why he said what he said, when it looks like the US wanted something more, quick.
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So, do we reckon Mubarak's "Allright, you win, I'll stay the boss till September" plan will fly?
The yanks are suggesting that's not really good, enough:
Obama said “it is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt's leaders. Only the Egyptian people can do that.” But he said he told Mubarak that an orderly political transition in Egypt “must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now.”
so why'd Mubarak say wot he said?
I'm speculating that while the pressure from the yanks to go know is great, pressure from Jordan and Yemen to stage manage a less revolutionary handover looking is more urgent.
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Interesting discussion here:
http://www.al-bab.com/blog/2011/blog1102c.htm
introduced thusly....
“Please use my real name Omar from now on—we have nothing left to hide anymore”
That is how the man I was calling Yousry started his remarkable interview ith me a few hours ago. At a point in our conversation he also said “ Please tell Mubarak we do not need his damn internet for the peoples revolution.”
Yousry is Omar. A dear friend. An extremely articulate Egyptian and in my haze filled 140 character days, a steady voice of reason and immense perspective. Every conversation I have had with him expresses the nuance, the complexity and the immensity of the day’s events like no news broadcast can. At 30 he is as old as the Mubarak regime. He is married. His wife will join him tomorrow for what should really be called the Million man and woman march. He was born in Cairo and studied in the US briefly before moving back and working for an oil company. He comes from a rich family as does his wife.
Omar (formerly Yousry) is the most articulate ordinary Egyptian I know because he does not know how to talk in soundbites and because he like millions of others is in danger of losing the country he loves so much and the only home he has ever really known.
I spoke to Omar at 9:30 pm Cairo time. A few hours later a nation of 80 million people has been successfully wiped off the worldwide web...
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Interesting piece at bagnews discussing photojournalism, and how images were 'managed' in Egypt until very recently.
“What I’ve never liked about photos of protests here in Egypt is that they give a false image. The government actually plays it up. It lets the protesters give a little show — they let a group of maybe fifty people protest freely in a particular spot and the police form a ring around them and won’t let anybody else come in — except the photographers get to move in and out easily. So it creates a false sense of the freedom to demonstrate.
“So, what is so significant about the photo from Wednesday is that it possibly represents the last vestige of the old paradigm, of the exploitative tactics with policemen in a circle letting a show of protest go on. As of now, that system is gone. You do have to walk around the tanks to get into Tahrir Square right now, but once you’re in, it’s a free game. You can say anything you want. You can lead chants. It’s completely different.”