As soon as we come up with a chant that includes “head” and “Boehner” and does not sound embarrassing.
Actually, the always delightful Rush Limbaugh is suggesting if “Obamacare” isn’t repealed his listeners may “go Egypt on Obama.”:rolleyes: Here’s the link.
With a distinctly ironic timing, now is when the news comes out that when the underage girl in the scandal was arrested for theft, Berlusconi attempted to get the authorities to release her, claiming she was Hosni Mubarak’s granddaughter. For one thing, to imply that powerful men and their families should be above the law is a pretty sickening attitude, but that’s just welcome to the real world. However, she actually is not Egyptian but Moroccan. Then why did he invoke Mubarak instead of the Moroccan king? So my gosh, maybe he really was playing out a fantasy of her being Cleopatra to his Caesar.
So… we get pyramids?
We already had the Tea Party rallies. I think Mr. Limbaugh will find that’s as Egyptian as it gets around here.
Which assumes equality. Cleopatra was a queen. This lady could maybe be one of Caesar’s slaves, or favorite whores, or fellow senators’ wives.
Bahrain is, by all accounts from news people on Twitter, kicking off tonight. US Fleet is at least partly based there. Awkward.
Talk is cheap. Let me know when Limbaugh uses self-immolation to express his antipathy for Obamacare.
Yeah, me too! I wouldn’t miss that for the world.
He would certainly burn for a long time.
And the Bahraini authorities are whooping ass on the protesters like Mubarak could only have dreamed of. Story here.
The strain of the reign is painful for Bahrain!
I am so going to Hell . . .
BBC is speculating the Bahrainis may feel that if the protesters are successful there, it could have implications for Saudi Arabia. I wonder if the Saudis have been putting pressure on the Bahrainis. Wasn’t it just the other day that the Bahraini king promised an inquiry into protester deaths?
Yes - the mystery of how his thugs under his command came to kill people demands an inquiry.
Important Article In Foreign Policy Review!
Point of fact: Hugo Chavez was popularly elected three times, in genuine elections certified by international observers. Venezuela has the 19th-oldest continuous democracy in the world (despite some attempted coups, including the 1992 one which involved but did not install Chavez).
All true . . . but has anyone in this thread even suggested a Tunisia/Egypt style revolution against Chavez is on the horizon?
No. Chavez was mentioned in Bosda’s cite, though, in contrast to “democracy advocates.” And I’ve seen Chavez mentioned elsewhere on SDMB in ways that suggested similar misunderstandings.
Chavez is a sort of elected strongman with an iffy but not obscene human-rights record, who despite or perhaps because of that remains popular enough with his people to keep getting re-elected – all of which puts him neither for nor against the side of democracy-as-such.
FWIW, the Democracy Index classifies Venezuela as a “hybrid regime” with democratic and authoritarian elements.
Still and all, if I had to be a South American, I’d rather be Venezuelan than Colombian.
See, I think that points to the misunderstanding that I’m talking about. Democracy and authoritarianism are not opposite ends of the same scale. A government may be highly undemocratic without being particularly authoritarian, or the other way round. A substantially democratic system can still produce authoritarian oppression with majority consent (as some people say they fear in these Muslim countries).
I’m pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian. These are two different things. If you look closely, you’ll find that a not-insignificant number of Americans are pro-democracy and pro-authoritarian (some will smugly say “majority rules!” or “democracy in action!” when they go roughshod over minority interests; the latest smoking thread has some examples).