Rolling in the Deep State

“We could’ve had it all if it weren’t for those pesky kids”

                                                                                              –Omar Suleiman

المشير في متاهته

Left Behind

Who knew the US government had a sewing book?

“This was a campaign for social behavioral change,” he said. “I would ask people, ‘What do you do when you’re frustrated?’ And they would say, ‘I march.’ ”

His reply became almost standard, he said: “If the people who marched actually voted, we wouldn’t have to march in the first place.”

That’s an NYT article from a couple days ago, about Obama’s hopes to win Arizona by galvanizing the Latino vote next year. The situation for Latinos in Arizona and liberals and leftists in Egypt is quite different. But…

The Second Coming: Slouching Towards Qasr al-Qobba

TBE still carries a torch, however flickering, for Mohamed ElBaradei, but we feel the need to offer some advice on his* “campaign,” and where we see things moving from here. We originally intended to make this one long post, but decided that might be too boring for readers, so we’ve split it into two parts. Part 1 deals with the necessity of creating campaign infrastructure now, instead of waiting until the immediate pre-election period. Part 2 will deal with policy and messaging, and what we see as ElBaradei’s strengths and weaknesses in these areas, especially vis-a-vis Amr Moussa.

NEWSWEAK

TBE WEB EXCLUSIVE

If there’s one thing that’ll awaken TBE from the non-alcoholic champagne and caviar haze in which we currently live, it’s poorly argued journalism about Mohamed ElBaradei. Reading the recent commentary on ElBaradei in Newsweek, we kept having to check the URL, to make sure we weren’t reading the aggressively illogical and agrammatical musings of a certain “journalist” whose comments, despite being free, often leave one demanding a refund.

Since we’re shorter on time than we used to be, we’ve simply reprinted the article with some parenthetical annotation. Following the article are a few more thoughts, and an invitation to the article’s author to clarify a few points.

The Long and Winding Road

Higher Committees and such are nice, but grassroots organizing is better.

Like everyone else, we’ve been focusing on ElBaradei, and the steadily climbing number of supporters he’s attracted on the “ElBaradei for President” Facebook page (up almost 40,000 since his interview with Mona al-Shazly on Sunday). This has led us to thinking about the logical next steps for the campaign mobilizing around ElBaradei.

Snap of the Week: Cet Obscur Objet du Désir

Baradei’s Now

Alaa al-Aswani catches a lot of flack for being the official go-to person for lazy Western reporters seeking comment on whatever has seized their inane fancy that week. As we’re in no position to judge whether this is due to grievous acts of self-promotion or the aforementioned lassitude in dogged pursuit of stories, we tend to give the good dentist the benefit of the doubt.

Also, we like his writing in this piece, urging his fellow citizens to welcome Muhammad ElBaradei upon his arrival at Cairo Airport, which gains its power not from stylistic flourishes but rather from its very direct appeal and the heartstrings tugging towards the end that is his specialty.

We promise, our “Al-Baradei, All the Time” phase will end soon, if only because we’re running out of suitable puns…

From al-Shorouk’s Tuesday, February 16 edition:

Why Are We Going to Welcome ElBaradei?

Homecoming Dance

We haven’t translated anything in a while, and we’ve got a mild case of bloggers’ block, so we decided to translate an op-ed by Professor of Political Science at Cairo University (and possibly department chair) and prominent anti-inheritance activist Hassan Nafaa wrote in today’s al-Masry al-Youm, about the impending return of Dr. ElBaradei, and the excitement he has engendered amongst the politically active segments of Egypt’s young population.

In the piece, Dr. Nafaa announces his intention to attend a mass welcome for Dr. ElBaradei upon his arrival at Cairo International Airport this Friday at 3 PM, while also calling on all opposition forces to attend, regardless of whether they would support a hypothetical (at this point) ElBaradei candidacy.

From al-Masry al-Youm’s Sunday, February 14 edition:

Will Egypt’s Youth Succeed in Organizing a Mass Welcome for ElBaradei?

No Real Estate Taxation Without Representation?

Some Background

Something potentially important just happened in Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak personally announced that a planned new real estate tax, expected to come into effect this year, would be postponed until after upcoming elections. This came after the bill had provoked a furious outcry in both parliament and the press. While the decision has garnered plenty of hot air and a fair amount of righteous indignation, we haven’t seen much analysis of the decision’s longer term implications, which is what we aim to provide.