Turn on the tv.
Congrats to the people of Egypt.
CNN article:
He’s not stepping down, he just left Cairo. Hopefully that’s the first step, but don’t count your chickens yet.
No, breaking new on tv now: Egypt is Free!
Above link was an old one.
Mentioned specifically: Mubarak resigns.
Right, he’s taking a vacation in Sharm el Sheik. Suuuuuure.
(buck buck buck… three hens so far.)
Indeed, he’s actually stepped down:
ETA: admittedly, he might show up on TV saying “oh no I’m not” but that seems vanishingly unlikely at this point.
Now comes the hard part.
Turn on CNN. Mubarak has indeed resigned as president.
CNN,com is trying to catch up. I’m shocked; they used to be more on the ball than the Israelis.
I hear they are considering a new National Anthem.
I have no connections to Egypt whatsoever, and I’m cynical about the Army’s likelihood of handing over power. And yet I’m surprised at how much this story has affected me, especially this apparent resolution.
The resignation may not actually “free” Egypt, but the words EGYPT IS FREE flashing around the world seem vastly powerful. I for one felt the need to e-mail everyone I know, mostly just to repeat the magic words.
Maybe it’ll come true after all.
They think it’s all over…it is now.
Gotta hand it to the Egyptian protesters. A month ago, the idea that (relatively) peaceful protest could take down Mubarak would be unthinkable, completely unthinkable.
Drudge is trumpeting the news with a big red headline:
MILITARY COUP IN EGYPT ROCKS MIDDLE EAST
That’s the Right Wing Media for you. No matter what happens, spin it as if it’s chaotic and Obama is ineffectual.
Hallelujah
He just needed enough time to do the wire transfers.
What show will Mubarak do first now - Celebrity Apprentice or Dancing with the Stars?
I just hope the Tahir Square protestors realize their work isn’t done. This could very well be just a military coup (makes me wonder about their motivations for “siding” with the demonstrators). The root causes, food prices and unemployment, corruption*, etc., are yet to be dealt with.
Congratulations to the Egyptian people, but don’t stop now.
The Swiss have frozen potential Mubarak assets, apparently. (via BBC Radio)
The scenes from the square when news of the “resignation” filtered through were astonishing - a rolling wave of joy.
There was a really good segment about this on NPR. Basically, after Egypt made nice with Israel, their gigantic bloated army had nothing to do, and they didn’t like the idea of sending vast numbers of unemployed young men into the streets. So they basically got into the manufacturing business. Now, a surprisingly large percentage of goods made in Egypt are actually made by the army. So the armed forces have a huge vested interest in stability. If the country in is chaos, people won’t buy new refrigerators. So, when it began to look like backing Mubarak would mean less stability than booting him, it was so long Hosni.