"Regardless of whether you are a Christian, a Muslim, or an Atheist, you will demand your goddamn rights, and you will have them one way or the other."

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Egyptian, Tunisian and Yemeni protesters all say that inequality is one of the main reasons they're protesting. However, the U.S. actually has much greater inequality than in any of those countries. Specifically, the "Gini Coefficient" - the figure economists use to measure inequality - is higher in the U.S. Gini Coefficients are like golf - the lower the score, the better (i.e. the more equality). According to the CIA World Fact Book, the U.S. is ranked as the 42nd most unequal country in the world, with a Gini Coefficient of 45. In contrast: Tunisia is ranked the 62nd most unequal country, with a Gini Coefficient of 40.
Yemen is ranked 76th most unequal, with a Gini Coefficient of 37.7. And Egypt is ranked as the 90th most unequal country, with a Gini Coefficient of around 34.4. And inequality in the U.S. has soared in the last couple of years, since the Gini Coefficient was last calculated, so it is undoubtedly currently much higher. So why are Egyptians rioting, while the Americans are complacent?

China has blocked the word "Egypt'' from the country's wildly popular Twitter-like service, while coverage of the political turmoil has been tightly restricted in state media. China's ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any potential source of social unrest. A search for "Egypt'' on the Sina microblogging service brings up a message saying, "According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search results are not shown". The service has more than 50 million users. News on the Egypt protests has been limited to a few paragraphs and photos buried inside major news websites, but China Central Television had a report on its midday broadcast.

Via TPM's intriguing new "Egypt wire", this:

President Obama was reportedly briefed for 40 minutes on the situation in Egypt today. Here, a photo of his meeting with National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication Ben Rhodes; Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and Robert Cardillo, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Intelligence Integration.

What is notable is the absence of anyone in the group who has any serious knowledge about either Egypt or the broader region. So thorough-going has been the witch-hunt that AIPAC and its attack dogs have conducted over the past 25 years against anyone with real Middle East expertise that the U.S. government now contains no-one at the higher (or even mid-career) levels of policymaking who has any in-depth understanding of the region or of the aspirations of its people.

The campaign against anyone with regional expertise-- the so-called "State Department Arabists"-- was launched in the public sphere by the dreadful know-nothing Robert Kaplan, in the 1980s. It got a strong foothold throughout the federal bureaucracy-- and far more broadly than in just the State department-- with the arrival of Pres. Clinton in 1993. Clinton, that is, who brought along as his key advisers on the affairs of the whole region the two long-time pro-Israel activists Dennis Ross and Martin Indyk! Then, of course, under GWB, we had Elliott Abrams and rest of the neocons running regional affairs for the government.

And what was happening inside the State Department during all those years? Only hacks like Jeffrey Feltman or Donald Blome-- the list is endless... -- who could prove their unswerving loyalty to the pro-Israel agenda got promoted or retained. Throughout those 16 years of the Clinton and GWB presidencies, a generation of career diplomats grew up whose main mantra was to do nothing that might question or even upset Israel. (There were, of course, those heroic few who questioned the prevailing, AIPAC-fueled "wisdom" on the advisability of invading Iraq in 2003, who resigned their posts at the time.)

So now, in the Oval Office, we have the blind leading the blind and the blind advising the blind. [H/T Xymphora]

In Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez hundreds of thousands of Egyptians defied a government-imposed curfew to continue their protests, which have grown to involve every section of the country. Many of the police have come over to the side of the people, and the military had to be sent in. The army was welcomed by the protesters. The headquarters of the ruling NDP party was burnt down in Cairo. The government headquarters was burnt down. Around Egypt more than twenty police stations were set afire. In some places police stations were seized by the people and armories were looted. Five people have been killed in Cairo; eleven were killed in Suez; 170 have been wounded in Suez and 1,030 in Cairo.

At least 100 Egyptian protesters have been killed during clashes with police as the explosion of anger at President Hosni Mubarak continues to rock the North African country. Medical sources stated on Saturday that over 100 people, including 23 protesters in the port city of Alexandria have lost their lives in streets fighting with police forces across Egypt since the outbreak of anti-government protests, while 13 people were killed and 75 others injured in the flash point city of Suez, along the strategic Suez Canal. According to medical sources, at least 1,030 protesters have been injured as mass protests remain unabated across the country for a fifth consecutive day.

TENS of thousands of demonstrators have started a silent protest in the Albanian capital Tirana, a week to the day after clashes during an opposition rally killed three. The demonstrators, headed by the leadership of the opposition Socialists and the families of the victims, started a march on the government buildings. People continued to pour into the downtown area near the government, bringing traffic in central Tirana to a standstill. Many protesters carried flowers. In the square in front of the government, a stage was set up, and opposition leader Edi Rama, the mayor of the capital, was expected to address the crowds later. Pictures of the three fatalities of the last rally were placed on stage, with the word "justice" written on them in Albanian and English. There was a huge police presence in the capital, with two cordons surrounding the government buildings and 30 elite officers guarding the entrance.

You can lease a river in Chhattisgarh for 22 years. At just Rupees. 1 per annum. While thousands go thirsty. THE SALE of Chhattisgarh’s rivers began in 1998 when the then MP government handed a 23.6 km stretch of Sheonath river in Durg to RWL, pleading shortage of funds for supplying water to industries. In a shocking story of “corruption and favouritism”, as an Assembly nominated committee discovered later, the Rs. 9 crore project was signed on 5 October 1998 between MPAKVN and RWL on a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis. The plan was to build a barrage on the Sheonath to supply up to 30 million litres per day (mld) to the Borai Industrial Centre. Construction was completed in two years and operations began in January 2001.

An Israeli agent arrested in Iran over the assassination of Iranian nuclear physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi says Tel Aviv places high importance on the elimination of Iranian nuclear scientists. Majid Jamali Fashi, the self-confessed Israeli agent who carried out the assassination of Dr. Ali-Mohammadi, says he underwent extensive training in Israel before the operation. 26-year-old Jamali Fashi said in his confessions that an Israeli commander described to him how vital his undertaking was for Tel Aviv. The Israeli commander “spoke with me in private, praised me and said that this was a very important operation with heavy costs. He said that many people are involved in the operation and that they rely on me. He said that if I am not successful all of these people will lose their lives,” Jamali Fashi said in his confessions aired primarily on Press TV on Friday. He further recounted various trainings he received in Israel and how he carried out the assassination of Dr. Ali-Mohammadi in January 2010.

Jewish radical extremist group in France. They physically attack people who dare to oppose Israel, Zionism or the genocide of Palestinians performed by Jews -like the Nazi Stormtruppen did in Hitler Germany.