Dictators Only Leave Through Force They Don’t Understand Peaceful Transition    

Opposition Rallies to ElBaradei as Military Reinforces in Cairo

Egypt’s powerful Muslim Brotherhood and the secular opposition banded together Sunday around a prominent government critic to negotiate for forces seeking the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, as the army struggled to hold a capital seized by fears of chaos and buoyed by euphoria that three decades of Mr. Mubarak’s rule may be coming to an end.

The announcement that the critic, Mohamed ElBaradei, would represent a loosely unified opposition reconfigured the struggle between Mr. Mubarak’s government and a six-day-old uprising bent on driving him and his party from power.

The Rigged Government Opens

MPs elected in November take their seats, with military remaining firmly in charge

Burma opens first parliament in two decades

Burma has openedits first parliament in more then two decades amid cautious optimism from opposition MPs despite the military’s tight management of the event.

The military and its allies hold more than 80% of the seats in both houses of parliament, ensuring that the army can exercise the control it has held since a 1962 coup deposed the last legitimately elected government. A single-party parliament under the late dictator General Ne Win was abolished in 1988 after the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising.

The Puritans Are Screaming

US pressure groups are up in arms over the racy British TV import, Skins. But why the moral panic? Teenagers are no more likely to be brainwashed by it than they are by shows about teenage mothers, or films about romantic vampires, argues Harriet Walker

The hypocrisy of America’s moral outrage

Sound the alarum! Lock up your daughters! Return the remote control to behind the bullet-proof plexiglass and tell the kids to get back to their prayers; there’s nothing to see down here.

The outrage and kerfuffle sparked in America last week upon the airing of teen drama Skins, a series originally shown on British television in 2007 and subsequently remade for US audiences, was nothing short of Victorian hysteria.

I’m Sure This Was Worth Wasting Their Time On

 

Special Davos meeting considers cost of Berlusconi’s ‘bunga, bunga’ business  

WITH THE domestic political tensions generated by the “Rubygate” sex scandal involving Silvio Berlusconi showing no signs of abating, the echoes of “Bunga, Bunga” managed to make themselves heard at the World Economic Forum in Davos last weekend.

According to Italian media reports, a Davos meeting entitled, “Italy, A Special Case”, saw commentators argue that “Rubygate” was symptomatic of a “serious problem of leadership” in Italy.

Milan prosecutors suspect that Berlusconi paid for sex with a “significant” number of prostitutes, including a then 17-year-old nightclub dancer who goes by the name of “Ruby the Heart Stealer”, at parties in his luxurious villa.

Maybe Peoples Human Rights Will Be Respected

 

ICC sets Rwandan leader’s genocide trial for July 4  

THE International Criminal Court (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I has set the date of the beginning of the confirmation of charges hearing in the case of The Prosecutor v. Callixte Mbarushimana for July 4 this year.

Associate Legal Outreach Officer at the international court, Fadi El Abdallah, over the weekend informed The Guardian that the decision was announced at the initial appearance of Mbarushimana before the ICC.

The Office of the Prosecutor is also conducting investigations in four other situations: Uganda; the Central African Republic; Darfur, Sudan; and Kenya.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the African Union Commission Jean Ping has said African countries support the ICC but its chief prosecutor, Luis Morano-Ocampo, is guilty of double standards.

Talk About a Resounding Yes

South Sudan’s long-awaited independence referendum produced an overwhelming turnout of 99 percent among voters in the south, one of the poorest and least developed regions on earth.

It’s official: South Sudan set to secede with a 99.57 percent vote

Juba, South Sudan

Cheers and spontaneous dancing broke out as the first official announcement of results from South Sudan’s independence vote was made in the oil-rich region’s capital by members of commission that organized the referendum held earlier this month.

“The vote for separation was 99.57 percent,” said Justice Chan Reec Madut, head of the southern bureau of the Referendum Commission, after reading the vote tallies for “unity” and “secession” for each of the south’s 10 states. Mr. Madut was referring to the results for the south, while Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, the head of the Commission, announced the results from polling in northern Sudan and in eight countries that held voting for South Sudan’s far-flung diaspora population.

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Although you’d never know it if you looked out your window here in the Northeast and throughout a good part of the northern hemisphere, we are nearing the midpoint between winter solstice and the vernal equinox. The Sun is noticeably rising earlier and setting later. It is a pleasure to take my early morning shower in daylight and start dinner preparation with daylight still illuminating the kitchen. There are seed catalogs arriving in the mail which has me contemplating the flower beds, the herb garden and maybe this year some vegetables.

In the traditions of Pagan and Wiccan religions, we celebrate this changing season as Imbolc, or Candlemas, which begins on January 31st, February Eve, and ends on February 2nd, a time of rebirth and healing. Imbolc is one of the eight Wiccan Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year, one of the four cross-quarter fire festivals. Brighid, the patroness of poetry and healing, is the Pagan Goddess associated with Imbolc.

Some of the traditions are the lighting of fires, decorating with red and white symbolizing the snow and the rising sun and green for new growth. Candles are lit in all the rooms of the house. Fires places and hearths are cleaned out of ashes and fires are lit. Since there is still snow drifts in my backyard, the fireplace will be just fine.

The symbols are ewes and lambs since Imbolc is derived from a Celtic word, “oimelc”, meaning ewe’s milk. Many of the foods that are serves are lamb, cheese, poppyseed muffins, cakes and breads. Dishes are seasoned with bay leaves and dried basil.

In rural places where farming is still a way of life, ploughs are decorated with flowers and then doused with whiskey. I know most of us have better things to do with whiskey. Sometimes the plough is dragged from door to door by costumed children asking for food and money, a kind of wintry “trick or treat”. Some traditional gifts, if your going to a friends house to celebrate, are garden tools, seeds and bulbs.

The Maiden is also honored as the “Bride” on this Sabbat. Straw corn dollies are created from oat or wheat straw and placed in baskets with white flower bedding. The older women make special acorn wands for the dollies to hold. The wands are sometimes burned in the fireplace and in the morning, the ashes in the hearth are examined to see if the magic wands left marks as a good omen. A new corn broom is place by the front door to symbolize sweeping out the old and welcoming the new.

Non-Pagans celebrate February 2nd as Ground Hog’s Day, a day to predict the coming weather, telling us that if the Groundhog sees his shadow, there will be ‘six more weeks’ of bad weather. It actually has ancient roots, weather divination was common to Imbolc, and the weather of early February was long held to be a harbinger of spring. On Imbolc, the crone Cailleach‘s grip of winter begins to loosen. She goes forth in search of kindling so that she may keep her fires burning and extend the winter a little longer. If Imbolc is rainy and cloudy, she will find nothing but twigs unsuitable for burning and will be unable to prolong the winter. If the day is dry and kindling is abundant, she will have plenty of fuel to feed her fire and prolong the cold of winter. Spring will be very far away. As an old British rhyme tells us that, “If Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.”

Whatever you celebrate or believe, let us all hope that that the local groundhog doesn’t see his shadow and there is only one winter this year. I have nowhere else to pile the snow.

Blessed Be.

Oysters are an interesting part of the Mollusc tribe.  They are bivalves, meaning that they have two half shells, which are jointed together on one edge and can open and close as the animal desires, or more properly, is instinctively demanded to do.

Unlike their cousins, clams, oysters are from infancy pretty much fastened onto some sort of support, so they do not move.  Clams are sort of solitary, and like to dig into sandy beaches.  Another relative, the scallop, is so free to move that jet propulsion is the norm for them!

Let us examine some of the natural history of these interesting (and often delicious) animals.  We will point out that edible oysters are quite different from the pearl oysters.

Oysters are of worldwide distribution for the most part.  They are filter feeders, meaning that they continuously take in water (and algae and other food materials), filter out the nutrients (and in many cases reject things that are not nutrients), then return the filtered water to the sea.  This feeding habit has some drawbacks, especially to we humans eating them, because sometimes they filter pathogens and become contaminated.  However, they are important from an ecological standpoint because they filter out lots of sediment.

We shall confine our discussion to oysters native to and farmed in the United States except for a brief mention of pearl oysters.  In the US, three species are used:  the “Atlantic“, also called the “bluepoint” or the Eastern one, Crassostrea virginica (formerly Ostria virginica) found on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts (2 to 4 inches diameter), the Olympic oyster, Ostrea lurida of the northern Pacific coast (1 to 1.5 inches diameter), and the Japanese or Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas (formerly Ostrea gigas), around 6 inches diameter.  The first two are native species, and the last one is from Japan, farmed in the Pacific northwest region.

Oysters are interesting critters.  Like most bivalve molluscs, in the larval stage they have two adductor muscles (the muscles that keep the shell closed), but as adults only the posterior one remains.  That is why you see two in muscles, but only one in oysters.  Those muscles are strong!  If you have ever shucked raw oysters, you know how much effort is required to open them.  Some old studies show that it takes 17 days for the adductor muscle to fatigue and the shell to open with a 1 kg force on it, about 2.2 pounds!  It takes a little less than an hour with 10 kg, 22 pounds, so when you are shucking oysters you have to use a LOT of force.  When you shuck oysters, you really are tearing the muscle, and that requires betwixt 12 to 15 kg (26 to 33 pounds of force.

Most folks think that oysters go off very rapidly, but that is not the case, if they are kept alive.  Atlantic oysters have been known to stay alive, and hence good, for four MONTHS, out of water, at 34 degrees F.  However, the fresher the better as far as flavor goes.  The bottom line is that they are good if they are alive, but better fresh.  The way that they stay alive is interesting.

Since they have no active defensive mechanism, the way that they survive attack is to seal their two shell halves together.  They do such a good job of it that the seal is air and water tight.  Little energy is required to keep the shell closed if there is no force trying to open it, so they need no oxygen for a long time.  A big Atlantic oyster uses around 2 to 6 mL of oxygen per hour in warm water, but almost none at all just above freezing.  They stop syphoning at about 43 degrees F, but in the water may stay open at those temperatures.  You have to handle oysters gently to keep them good for very long, because bumping them around may cause them to open, even if quite cold.  Then the essential liquid (that contains oxygen) leaks out, and, having no way to replace the liquid, the oyster dies quickly.  So, keep them cold and do not handle them until you are ready to open and eat them, either raw or cooked.

Fresh, shucked oysters are good for only a very few days, and have to be kept extremely cold, just above freezing, of they will go off rapidly.  The problem with preshucked ones is that the entire container goes off at the same time, where with live ones in the shell, only the occasional one that opens is bad.  Oysters are still best near the seacoast, but with rapid transportation at low temperatures they are still good far inland, but rather expensive because of transportation costs.

In the United States, oysters are both wild caught and farmed.  Wild caught ones are harvested by dragging the bottom of the oyster bed with a rake, sometimes by hand if shallow, but more often dredged with stout steel teeth and then brought up to the ship.  Farmed ones may be harvested by dredging, but sometimes are also put in porous bags which hang above the seafloor.  Since they are filter feeders, their food comes to them, so they do not have to be attached to the bottom.  After a few years, when they are big enough to harvest, the bag is simply hoisted and the oysters removed.  This is more expensive, but losses from predators are less.  Starfish love oysters!  They open them by attaching their sucker like “feet” onto the shell and exerting a force until the adductor fatigues and the oyster opens.  Then the starfish pushes its stomach around the oyster, having them on the half shell!

Oysters are sexual perverts.  Well, not really, but their reproduction is sort of interesting.  For the first year or so they are males, spawning by releasing sperm into the water.  As they get larger, they cross the gender line and release eggs as females.  Talk about versatility!  This brings up an interesting aspect to oyster farming, using polyploid strains, artificially created, that can not reproduce.  They release sperm and eggs, but they are sterile and thus invasive growth can not occur where alien species are farmed.

There are lots of diseases in oysters, and they have to be controlled to keep the beds viable.  Unfortunately, it is hard to treat the oceans with antibiotics, so other control measures are used.  The oldest is to dig up infected beds and destroy the oysters, but prevention is better.  Modern methods that work well is to breed strains of oysters that are naturally resistant to whatever diseases are the most troublesome in a given area.

Pollution is another problem with oyster beds.  Before the environmental laws got teeth in the 1970s and later, pollution was a real problem here.  It still is a factor today, but not nearly as bad as it was before.  This is in the United States.  China, which produces around 80% of the world supply of oysters, is not nearly so careful.  Fortunately, most Chinese oysters eaten in the United States are cooked, which eliminates any danger from microbial contamination.  However, filter feeders also can concentrate dangerous chemical pollutants that are not eliminated by cooking.  Since oysters are not very high in fat, chlorinated organics like PCBs and TCDD are not highly retained, but that is small solace because of the extreme toxicity of these materials.  Water soluble pollutants are not highly concentrated because of the large amount of water passing through the animal, so the concentration of water soluble pollutants is not much higher in the oyster than in the seawater.

Raw oysters can carry bacteria that are dangerous to humans, particularly a couple of species of the Vibrio, only discovered in 1976.  This is a very serious infection, particularly in persons with less than perfect immune systems.  The very young, the very old, and people otherwise immunocomprimised should not eat raw oysters, in my opinion, but I love them!  Oysters also can concentrate toxins from algae, but his is not very common.  Oysters from US waters are generally safe unless the immune system is compromised for the most part.  The states that have oyster beds do a good job of monitoring the waters and the oysters.

The old saying that oysters are only safe to eat in months with the letter “r” in the name is just an old saying.  Wikipedia says that this saying comes from the fact that oysters spoil quickly in warm months, but that is nonsense.  If kept on ice, it does not matter what the temperature is.  The real reason is that in the warmer months the oysters are busy spawning, and their energy and body mass is dedicated to that.  Summer oysters tend to be more watery and less flavorful than ones harvested during colder months.

Speaking of flavor, why do oysters (and other molluscs) have that unique flavor?  The answer is glycogen, the so-called animal starch.  This is also the way that people store sugar reserves short of converting it to fat.  Glycogen has a slightly sweet flavor.  By the way, summer oysters have very little glycogen.  Oysters also use glutamic acid to balance their salt content.   Hmmm, glutamic acid and sodium ions, what does that produce?  MSG!  They also have unusually high concentrations of a couple of other amino acids that contribute to their flavor.  The saltier the water, the more flavor that oysters have.  Because of the huge inflow from the Mississippi River, the best oysters are caught at some distance from the mouth.  In New Orleans the best oysters are called salty oysters.

Of all the molluscs, oysters are by far the most delicate and most tender.  If cooked, they need to be cooked extremely carefully.  Lots of people do not like oysters because they have only had them overcooked.  Except for oyster stew, the less cooking the better.  I love fried oysters, but unless I cook them myself of go to a place that really knows what it is doing, they are tough, have a bad smell and flavor, and are essentially not fit to eat.  The secret of perfect fried oysters is very hot fat, a good breading, and cooking only long enough to brown the breading.  In addition, they should be cooked only a few at a time if the cook is going to eat any, because on standing they get overdone and then cold.  The breading actually insulates the delicate oyster from some of the heat from the oil, sparing the inside from overcooking.

By far my favorite way of eating oysters is freshly shucked, on the half shell.  Lemon wedges should be handy, and some New Orleans style hot sauce.  By the way, folks in New Orleans do not use much Tobasco, preferring the Crystal brand.  If you can find Crystal Extra Hot, you have it made!  Take the oyster, place it on a plain saltine cracker, and add some hot sauce and lemon juice.   MMMMMMMM!  I prefer mine so minimally processed, but you can actually mix the lemon juice and hot sauce, and soak the oysters in the mixture in it for some time, keeping it cold.

The acids in the sauce and juice acutally begin to coagulate proteins in the delicate oysters, “cooking” them without heat.  The delicate flavor is not damaged, but the texture gets increasingly firm as they soak in the mixture.  Studies done at LSU indicate that this treatment actually kills any pathogens in the oysters if they are left in the mixture long enough.  I just prefer mine extremely fresh.

Let’s hear it for oysters, one of the world’s greatest foods!

Pearl oysters are not really edible, belonging to a different genus, Pinctada, form true pearls.  Edible oysters sometimes form a concretion that is hard, but never of gem quality.  Perhaps next week we can talk about them more.

Well, you have done it again!  You have wasted many more einsteins of perfectly good photons reading this fishy piece.  And even though Liz Trotta tries not to act like the harpie that she actually is when she reads me say it, I always learn much more from writing this series than I could possibly hope to teach, so keep those comments, questions, corrections, and other feedback coming.  I shall remain here for comments as long as they are coming, and shall return tomorrow at around 9:00 PM Eastern for Review Time.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Featured at TheStarshollowgazette.com.  Crossposted at Dailykos.com and at Anetmedius.com

This is a Live Blog and will be updated as the news is available. You can follow the latest reports from AL Jazeera English and though Mishima’s live blog, our news editor.

The Guardian has a Live Blog that refreshes automatically every minute.

FireDogLake now has a direct link to all their coverage

This is the seventh day of protests in Egypt against the repressive Mubarak government. The police have returned to the streets after having been absent for three days leaving only a military presence that did little to stop the protesters.

Excellent interview from Fareed Zakaria GPS. Fareed’s entire program on CNN was devoted to the situation in Egypt.

(I will post the transcript as soon as it is available)

Up Date #1: It’s now early morning in Egypt. Al Jazeera’s live blog reports that many protesters slept in the streets and in Tahrir Square, some shared their food with the soldiers.

This first hand account by Sharif Kouddous, a journalist and senior producer with Democracy Now! who lives in Egypt, was posted at The Nation and Democracy Now!:

Live From Egypt: The Rebellion Grows Stronger

January 30, Cairo, Egypt-In the second day of defiance of a military curfew, more than 150,000 protesters packed into Tahrir Square Sunday to call on President Hosni Mubarak to step down. The mood was celebratory and victorious. For most, it was not a question of if, but when, Mubarak would leave.

Military tanks have been stationed at entrance points around the square with soldiers forming barricades across streets and alleyways. In another departure from ordinary Cairo life, people quickly formed orderly queues to get through the army checkpoints. Soldiers frisked people and checked their identification cards. One soldier said they were making sure no one with police or state security credentials could enter.

Reports are widespread that many of the looters in Cairo are, in fact, remnants of the police and state security forces that were forced into a full retreat during Friday’s mass street revolt. In addition, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners were released from prisons in Fayyoum and Tora. Many believe it’s all part of an organized campaign by the regime to create lawlessness in the city in a last gasp attempt to maintain its grip on power. The headline of Al-Masry Al-Youm today blared: “Conspiracy by Interior Ministry to Foment Chaos.”

Just when you need a laugh category: Somebody at Fox News failed Geography.

Today’s events:

The reason I don’t generally live blog All-Star games (the NHL had theirs today, did you notice?  I thought as much) is that I’m not so into most sports that I pay attention to the individual players.

The closest would be Baseball and even there, if you don’t play for the Mets who are you and why should I care?

The Pro Bowl Throwball show on Faux @ 7 is a prime example (they don’t even make much pretense about playing for anything except to avoid injury) and while I’m pushing my publication deadline up so those who do can use this as an Open Thread (and when isn’t it?) to discuss developments I’ll probably be watching something else, or better yet using the time to prepare next week’s Puppy Bowl VII (3 pm ET) post as well as a special Prime Time for people who can’t stand the hype and hate puppies (and kitties too).

Or I might just nap.

ABC is contesting the NFL Juggernaut with “reality” TV and if you’re a fan of PBS’s Downton Abbey I know what you’ll be watching.  CBS has a World Premier, The Lost Valentine which features Betty White and NBC recycles National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

There is also the Screen Actors Guild Awards on TBS and TNT for you Red Carpet freaks.

• ABC Family– Sure wouldn’t want to miss my chance to become a 700 Club Founder
• AMC– Seraphim Falls x 2
• Bravo– Real Housewives (with premier)
• Disney– Good Luck Charlie (premier)
• Discovery– How Beer Saved The World (premier), When Pigs Attack! (last week’s and new)
• ESPN– Winter X Games; Hoopies, Jazz @ Warriors
• ESPN2– Australian Open repeat
• Food– Worst, Iron Chef America (premiers)
• FX– Hancock, The Incredible Hulk
• History– Ax Men (last week’s and new)
• Lifetime– Picture Perfect, The Nanny Diaries
• Nick– Pretty in Pink
• Sci Fi– Dawn of the Dead (not the good 1978 version), Jurassic Park III
• Spike– A Bronx Tale x 2, The Fugitive
• TBS– Get Smart (have I mentioned Steve Carell is just horrible?)
• Turner Classic– With Six You Get Eggroll (George Carlin!), Who’s Minding the Mint?
• Toon– Young Justice League, Clone Wars (this week’s), Baby Blues, The Oblongs
• USA– NCIS marathon
• Vs.– NHL All-Star SuperSkills (last night’s)

Later-

• AMC– Open Range
• FX– Lights Out (this week’s), Elektra
• Sci Fi– Triassic Attack, Pterodactyl
• Turner Classic– Pandora’s Box (shhhhh)
• TNT– Patriot Games
• Toon– Robot Chicken, Mongo Wrestling (premiers)
• USA– Royal Pains, White Collar (this week’s), FeardotCom
• Vs.– Bullriding (last night’s)

Well, he sure as hell wasn’t one to complain. Woke with a smile, seemed like he could keep it there all day. Kind of a man that’d say ‘good morning’ and mean it, whether it was or not. Tell you the truth, Lord, if there was two gentler souls in this world, I never seen ’em. Seems like old Tig wouldn’t even kill birds in the end. Well, you got yourself a good man and a good dog, and I’m inclined to agree with Boss here about holding a grudge against you for it. I guess that means Amen.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 40 Top Stories.

1 Saving whales a cold comfort job

by Madeleine Coorey, AFP

Sun Jan 30, 7:25 am ET

2 South Sudan chooses to secede: official results

by Peter Martell, AFP

2 hrs 12 mins ago

3 ‘Milestone’ WTO ruling due in EU-US Boeing battle

by Agnes Pedrero, AFP

Sun Jan 30, 12:30 am ET

4 Leader eyes political role for Tunisian Islamists

by Kaouther Larbi and Dario Thuburn, AFP

2 hrs 10 mins ago

5 Thousands greet Tunisian Islamist leader’s return

by Kaouther Larbi and Sofia Bouderbala, AFP

Sun Jan 30, 9:22 am ET

6 ElBaradei hails new era on Day Six of Egypt fury

by Samer al-Atrush, AFP

1 hr 5 mins ago

7 US, Europe wary of Egypt protest contagion: analysts

by Philippe Rater, AFP

Sun Jan 30, 1:16 pm ET

8 Mubarak names deputy as protest deaths top 100

by Jailan Zayan, AFP

Sat Jan 29, 6:51 pm ET

9 Cairo braces for sixth day of anti-Mubarak anger

by Charles Onians, AFP

Sun Jan 30, 5:34 am ET

10 Davos political leaders struggle to advance agenda

by Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere, AFP

Sun Jan 30, 5:35 am ET

11 Ivory Coast ballot recount ‘grave injustice’: Ban

AFP

Sun Jan 30, 2:01 am ET

12 Fight to finish on US-S.Korea trade pact

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Sun Jan 30, 12:46 am ET

13 Tunisian Islamists show strength at chief’s return

By Lin Noueihed and Tom Perry, Reuters

Sun Jan 30, 11:36 am ET

14 Egyptians face lawlessness, Mubarak hangs on

By Samia Nakhoul and Sherine El Madany, Reuters

Sun Jan 30, 6:15 am ET

15 U.S. presses Mubarak for transition to democracy

By Matt Spetalnick and Phil Stewart, Reuters

Sun Jan 30, 1:30 pm ET

16 Europe’s Arabs view Middle East chaos in awe, fear

By Mohammed Abbas, Reuters

1 hr 28 mins ago

17 U.S., Turkey offer to fly citizens out of Egypt

Reuters

Sun Jan 30, 6:09 am ET

18 Alpha agrees to buy Massey Energy for about $7.1 billion

By Michael Erman and Ann Saphir, Reuters

Sat Jan 29, 9:15 pm ET

19 House Speaker Boehner warns against debt default

By Richard Cowan, Reuters

Sun Jan 30, 1:26 pm ET

20 Clinton: US has no plans to suspend aid to Haiti

By BRADLEY KLAPPER and JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

1 hr 43 mins ago

21 AP Interview: Islamist leader returns to Tunisia

By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA and JEFFREY SCHAEFFER, Associated Press

1 hr 4 mins ago

22 Egyptian reform leader calls for Mubarak to resign

By HAMZA HENDAWI and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press

35 mins ago

23 As chaos reigns, foreigners advised to leave Egypt

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer

1 hr 3 mins ago

24 Civilians watch over neighborhoods in Egypt chaos

By MARJORIE OLSTER, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 12:09 pm ET

25 Egypt turmoil rattles Middle East stock markets

By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer

1 hr 12 mins ago

26 Clinton: Egypt must transition to democracy

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

1 hr 1 min ago

27 Analysis: For US, Egypt crisis recalls 1979 Iran

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press

2 hrs 1 min ago

28 Face of Mideast unrest: young and hungry for jobs

By BRIAN MURPHY, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 3:04 pm ET

29 Over 99 pct in Southern Sudan vote for secession

By MAGGIE FICK, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 10:09 am ET

30 Iraqis watch Egypt unrest with sense of irony

By BUSHRA JUHI and KIM GAMEL, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 11:38 am ET

31 Ivy League case tests Rockefeller drug law change

By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 1:44 pm ET

32 Alpha Natural reaches $7.1B deal for Massey Energy

By ANDREW VANACORE and TIM HUBER, AP Business Writers

Sun Jan 30, 3:33 am ET

33 Myanmar parliament to open, but army in control

By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 6:01 am ET

34 In turnabout, Dems say GOP has dropped job focus

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 3:32 am ET

35 Leaders’ power struggle roils ‘most livable’ Tulsa

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS, Associated Press

2 hrs 31 mins ago

36 Elephant refuge starts anew after founder’s firing

By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 1:17 pm ET

37 Obama to honor 28 victims of 1961 tower collapse

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 1:17 pm ET

38 Father, son help each other after brain injuries

By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 1:00 pm ET

39 Chaplains try a new path to deal with PTSD

By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press

Sun Jan 30, 12:59 am ET

40 A final judgment in notorious police abuse scandal

By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer

Sun Jan 30, 12:02 am ET

The Rant of the Week is also an Open Thread.

Not so much a rant but an excellent summary of what has led up to the events in Egypt.

Rachel reviews the remarkable civil unrest in Egypt and examines the the broader context of popular uprisings in the region.

(Transcript will be posted when available)

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 335 days remaining until the end of the year (336 in leap years).

On this day in 1969, The Beatles’ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

A din erupted in the sky above London’s staid garment district. Gray-suited businessmen, their expressions ranging from amused curiosity to disgust, gathered alongside miniskirted teenagers to stare up at the roof of the Georgian building at 3 Savile Row. As camera crews swirled around, whispered conjecture solidified into confirmed fact: The Beatles, who hadn’t performed live since August 1966, were playing an unannounced concert on their office roof. Crowds gathered on scaffolding, behind windows, and on neighboring rooftops to watch the four men who had revolutionized pop culture play again. But what only the pessimistic among them could have guessed-what the Beatles themselves could not yet even decide for sure-was that this was to be their last public performance ever. . . . . .

When the world beyond London’s garment district finally got to see the Beatles’ last concert, it was with the knowledge, unshared by the original, live audience, that it was the band’s swan song. On Abbey Road Paul had sung grandly about “the end,” but it was John’s closing words on the roof that made the more fitting epitaph for the group that had struggled out of working-class Liverpool to rewrite pop history: “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition.”

 1048 – Protestantism: The villagers around today’s Baden-Baden elect their own priest in defiance of the local bishop. Later, in a move that would not be seen before the Protestant Reformation, he is also elected Pope by acclamatio, just to die that same day. It is rumored that Ildebrando di Soana heard of the acclamatio and used it later to get elected himself as Pope Gregory VII.

1648 – Eighty Years’ War: The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.

1649 – King Charles I of England is beheaded.

1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed two years after his death, on the anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.

1667 – The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to the Tsardom of Russia in the Treaty of Andrusovo.

1703 – The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Oishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master.

1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.

1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.

1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.

1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world’s first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.

1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen.

1841 – A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.

1858 – The first Halle concert is given in Manchester, England, marking the official founding of the Halle Orchestra as a full-time, professional orchestra.

1862 – The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.

1889 – Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling.

1902 – The first Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed in London.

1911 – The destroyer USS Terry (DD-25) makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.

1911 – The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.

1913 – The United Kingdom’s House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill.

1925 – The Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul.

1930 – The world’s second radiosonde is launched in Pavlovsk, USSR.

1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies.

1943 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. The USS Chicago (CA-29) is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.

1944 – World War II: United States troops land on Majuro.

1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,000 people.

1945 – World War II: Raid at Cabanatuan: 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance liberate 500 prisoners from the Cabanatuan POW camp.

1948 – Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is assassinated by Pandit Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.

1956 – American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and “unsinkable” like the RMS Titanic, struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank, killing all 95 aboard.

1960 – The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.

1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 6 is launched.

1964 – In a bloodless coup, General Nguyen Khanh overthrows General Duong Van Minh’s military junta in South Vietnam.

1969 – The Beatles’ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

1971 – Carole King’s Tapestry album is released, it would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide.

1972 – Bloody Sunday: British Paratroopers kill fourteen unarmed civil rights/anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland.

1972 – Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.

1975 – The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary.

1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called “Elk Cloner”.

1989 – The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.

1994 – Peter Leko becomes the youngest chess grand master.

1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.

1996 – Gino Gallagher, the suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, is killed while waiting in line for his unemployment benefit.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_30#Holidays_and_observances Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Aldegonde

         o Anthony the Great (Coptic Church)

         o Balthild

         o Hippolytus of Rome

         o Hyacintha Mariscotti

         o King Charles the Martyr (Society of King Charles the Martyr, Anglicanism)

         o Martina

         o Mutien-Marie Wiaux

         o Savina

         o Three Holy Hierarchs (Eastern Orthodox)

         o January 30 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi-related observances:

         o Martyrs’ Day (India)

         o School Day of Non-violence and Peace (Spain)

   

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: Ms. Amanpour will be live from Cairo, Egypt. Her guest s will include, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. Sameh Shoukry, and National Security Adviser to former President Carter Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Al Jazeera Washington Bureau Chief Abderrahim Foukara, ABC News’ George Will, ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent Martha Raddatz, and ABC News contributor Sam Donaldson join ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper for the roundtable discussion.

I think we can all guess the topic.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr Schieffer will have an exclusive interview with New White House Chief of Staff William Daley in his first television interview since joining the administration.

Plus the latest on the crisis in Egypt, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Rick Stengel, TIME Managing Editor, John Harris, Politico Editor-in-Chief and Helene Cooper, The New York Times White House Correspondent.

This weeks questions are:

In his quest for the center, is Barack Obama watching Ronald Reagan?

The politics of an Obama gun control Push

I bet those topics have changed

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be Mr. Gregory’s guest to discuss the protests in Egypt. Also joining him for insights and an analysis are former Mideast negotiator and Ambassador to Israel for President Clinton, Martin Indyk, and New York Times Columnist, Tom Friedman.

Also an exclusive guest: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). (heh, the Human Hybrid Turtle)

The roundtable: Longtime Republican strategist, Mike Murphy, former Tennessee congressman and Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, Harold Ford, NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director, Chuck Todd and Washington Correspondent for the BBC, Katty Kay.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: As unrest in Egypt builds: Will anything besides President Mubarak’s resignation assuage the protesters? Is this a tipping point for unrest throughout the Middle East? And what’s the next move for the Obama Administration?

We’ll begin with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Hillary is going to need a throat lozenge or two)

Then, joining us with their insights will be the former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Edward S. Walker and former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte. (more war criminals)

And Arizona Sen. John McCain, who believes the protests are “a wake-up call” for the Mubarak-led government. (the real question: Will John be awake?)

On the domestic front, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer will argue that the GOP is playing a high stakes game of chicken over government spending. Who will blink first?

(I think we have the answer to that)

And finally a conversation with Alan Simpson, the Co-chair of the W.H. Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. His report laid out a path to fiscal discipline, but no one seems ready to follow it.

(Let’s hope they don’t change their minds)

Fareed Zakaris: GPS: Site not up dated at the time of our publishing but I fairly certain the Middle East will be a big topic for discussion.

Frank Rich: The Tea Party Wags the Dog

ANY lingering doubts about Barack Obama’s determination to appropriate Ronald Reagan’s political spirit evaporated just before the State of the Union. No American brand is more associated with Reagan than General Electric, and it was that corporation’s chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, who popped up as the president’s new wingman when the White House rolled out its latest jobs initiative on Jan. 21. Obama’s speech on Tuesday, with its celebration of the nation’s can-do capitalist ingenuity, moved him still closer to Reagan’s sweet spot as a national cheerleader. The president even offered a remix of the old Reagan-era G.E. jingle “We bring good things to life” – now traded up to the grander “We do big things.”

Obama’s rhetorical Morning in America is exquisitely timed to coincide with the Gipper’s centennial – and, of course, the unacknowledged start of his own 2012 re-election campaign. It’s remarkable how completely the G.O.P. has ceded the optimism of its patron saint to the president just as the country prepares for a deluge of Reaganiana. Obama’s post-New Year’s surge past a 50 percent approval rating – well ahead of both Reagan’s and Bill Clinton’s comeback trajectories after their respective midterm shellackings – may have only just begun.

David Bromwich: Obama, Incorporated

Barack Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address was an organized sprawl of good intentions-a mostly fact-free summons to a new era of striving and achievement, and a solemn cheer to raise our spirits as we try to get there. And it did not fail to celebrate the American Dream.

In short, it resembled most State of the Union addresses since Ronald Reagan’s first in 1982. Perhaps its most notable feature was an omission. With applause lines given to shunning the very idea of government spending, and a gratuitous promise to extend a freeze on domestic spending from three years to five, there was only the briefest mention of the American war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The situation in each country was summarized and dismissed in three sentences, and the sentences took misleading care to name only enemies with familiar names: the Taliban, al-Qaeda. But these wars, too, cost money, and as surely as the lost jobs in de-industrialized cities they carry a cost in human suffering.

David Swanson: The imperial war presidency

Remember Obama ran as an Iraq war opponent? As president, he has ruinously escalated foreign military commitments

“So tonight, I am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years.” Thus spoke President Barack Obama in his state of the union speech on Tuesday. “Domestic” spending means non-war and non-military spending. Over half of our public spending in the United States goes to wars and the military. Even the president’s own deficit commission recommended cutting $100bn from military spending.

Why leave it out of the freeze? This may be why:

   “And we’ve sent a message … to all parts of the globe: we will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.”

That’s going to be expensive, and President Obama promised lower taxes on corporations in the same speech. He’s already signed off on tax cuts for billionaires, even while promising for the second year in a row to oppose them. Spending cuts will have to come somewhere else.

   “Already, we’ve frozen the salaries of hardworking federal employees for the next two years. I’ve proposed cuts to things I care deeply about, like community action programmes. The secretary of defence has also agreed to cut tens of billions of dollars in spending that he and his generals believe our military can do without.”

But those little cuts out of the $1tn we spend on the military each year are planned for future years, not this one. The president is expected to propose a larger military budget for the third year in a row next month. And he has thus far consistently used off-the-books supplemental bills to add more funding to his wars.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous: Live From the Egyptian Revolution

CAIRO, Egypt — I grew up in Egypt. I spent half my life here. But Saturday, when my plane from JFK airport touched down in Cairo, I arrived in a different country than the one I had known all my life. This is not Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt anymore and, regardless of what happens, it will never be again.

In Tahrir Square, thousands of Egyptians-men and women, young and old, rich and poor-gathered today to celebrate their victory over the regime’s hated police and state security forces and to call on Mubarak to step down and leave once and for all. They talked about the massive protest on Friday, the culmination of three days of demonstrations that began on January 25th to mark National Police Day. It was an act of popular revolt the likes of which many Egyptians never thought they would see during Mubarak’s reign. “The regime has been convincing us very well that we cannot do it, but Tunisians gave us an idea and it took us only three days and we did it,” said Ahmad El Esseily, a 35 year-old author and TV/radio talk show host who took park in the demonstrations. “We are a lot of people and we are strong.”

The U.S. Loves Those Middle East Dictators  

More Egyptian protesters demand that White House condemn Mubarak

 In a dusty alleyway in downtown Cairo, Gamal Mohammed Manshawi held out a dirty plastic bag Saturday afternoon. Inside were smashed gas canisters and the casings of rubber bullets that he said Egyptian police had fired at anti-government demonstrators.

“You see,” the 50-year-old lawyer said, displaying the items. On the bottom of each were the words “Made in the USA.”

“They are attacking us with American weapons,” he yelled as men gathered around him.

In the streets of Cairo, many protesters are now openly denouncing the United States for supporting President Hosni Mubarak, saying the price has been their freedom.

The Hate That Is Glenn Beck

Leftwing academic speaks out amid hate campaign led by Fox News host Glenn Beck

Frances Fox Piven defies death threats after taunts by anchorman Glenn Beck

Frances Fox Piven is not going into hiding. Not yet.

The 78-year-old leftwing academic is the latest hate figure for Fox News host Glenn Beck and his legion of fans. While she has decided to shrug off the inevitable death threats that have followed, she is well aware of the problem. “I don’t know if I am scared, but I am worried,” she told the Observer as she sat in a bar on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

“At the start I thought it was funny, but now I know that is dangerous… their paranoia works better when they can imagine a devil. Now that devil is me.”

I’ll Name The Top Spy Vice President Oh Yea

Our writer joins protesters atop a Cairo tank as the army shows signs of backing the people against Mubarak’s regime  

Robert Fisk: Egypt: Death throes of a dictatorship  

The Egyptian tanks, the delirious protesters sitting atop them, the flags, the 40,000 protesters weeping and crying and cheering in Freedom Square and praying around them, the Muslim Brotherhood official sitting amid the tank passengers. Should this be compared to the liberation of Bucharest? Climbing on to an American-made battle tank myself, I could only remember those wonderful films of the liberation of Paris. A few hundred metres away, Hosni Mubarak’s black-uniformed security police were still firing at demonstrators near the interior ministry. It was a wild, historical victory celebration, Mubarak’s own tanks freeing his capital from his own dictatorship.

This Is How I Roll  

Hou Yifan, the 16-year-old chess prodigy, tells Peter Foster about training, travelling – and Oliver Twist.

World’s youngest ever women’s chess champion: ‘I’m just a normal teenager’  

There is nothing in the slightest bit ordinary about the achievements of Hou Yifan, the Chinese chess prodigy who stunned the world just before Christmas by becoming the youngest ever women’s world chess champion at the age of just 16.

And yet, in appearance at least, it is a quintessentially ordinary Chinese teenager that shuffles in through the door at the Chinese Chess Association in Beijing, feet clad in Nike trainers, colourful scarf draped around her neck and a trendy purple beret holding back neatly bobbed hair.

Diamonds Are Very Good for Him

 

Mugabe being helped by diamond industry  

The Kimberley Process s (KP) industry watchdog moved earlier this month to legalise sales from the Chiadzwa fields in eastern Zimbabwe, which are controlled by the military and have been described by Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Biti as “the biggest find of alluvial diamonds in the history of mankind”.

Diamond sales from Chiadzwa could dwarf the impact of European and American sanctions and set the stage for Mugabe (86) to strengthen his military, rebuild his power base and even stage elections this year.

Diamond sales from Chiadzwa could dwarf the impact of European and American sanctions and set the stage for Mugabe (86) to strengthen his military, rebuild his power base and even stage elections this year.

No Outrage Here So Don’t Ask

But the Palestine papers published by Al Jazeera have further dented Abbas’s already low credibility, calling into question his ability to negotiate a lasting peace deal.

Why Palestine papers didn’t spark outrage against Abbas’s government

Ramallah, West Bank

With the winds of anti-government sentiment spreading across the Middle East, Al Jazeera’s leak of the Palestine papers this week threatened to undermine the increasingly weak Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas.

The news channel’s exposé of far-reaching Palestinian peace concessions to Israel on Jerusalem, refugees, and borders failed to spark outward public outrage, spurring relief among President Abbas’ aides. But the muted response of everyone from shopkeepers and businessmen in the West Bank belies a deeper erosion of support for Mr. Abbas, who has staked his career on negotiating peace with Israel.