Month: February 2011

Winning Wisconsin, Pigs & Hippies Together: This is OUR HOUSE!

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by Gary Farber

Don't tell me we can't win this.  Wisconsin Police Have Joined Protest Inside State Capitol.

From inside the Wisconsin State Capitol, Ryan Harvey reports:

“Hundreds of cops have just marched into the Wisconsin state capitol building to protest the anti-Union bill, to massive applause. They now join up to 600 people who are inside.”

Ryan reported on his Facebook page earlier today [Friday, Feb. 25 -gf]],:

“Police have just announced to the crowds inside the occupied State Capitol of Wisconsin: ‘We have been ordered by the legislature to kick you all out at 4:00 today. But we know what’s right from wrong. We will not be kicking anyone out, in fact, we will be sleeping here with you!’

Ryan Harvey's video from Friday:


 

 My quotes:

[…] This is not a budget issue! This is a CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE!  […] Mr. Walker!  […] We know pretty well now who you work for!  [applause] Let me tell you who WE work for! [points to self and police emblem]  We work for all of these people!  [applause] We are not here, Mr. Walker, to do your bidding!  We are here to do their bidding!  […]  Mr. Walker, this not your House!  This is all of our House!  [camera pans 360°]

I want to give this officer a big fat kiss on the mouth.

Pictures from Ryan Harvey, February 25, Occupied Capitol Building, Madison, WI:

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Going to the dogs open thread

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by liberal japonicus Hoisted from the comments (from bedtimeforbonzo longtime friend of the kitty) …after almost three years following the untimely deaths of my beloved CoCo and Bowser — we are again (since August) a two-dog household. Joining the indestructibe Hamilton, our loud and proud 16-year-old Beagle, is Cody, who was supposed to be my … Read more

The New Republican Congressional Revolutionary Volunteers Of America

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by Gary Farber

Congressman stops short of calling for Obama assassination. Georgia Congressman Paul Broun's Tuesday night’s town hall meeting:

The first question of the night (confirmed by Broun’s office) was “when is someone going to shoot Obama?”

Broun’s response, Athens Banner-Herald (Georgia):

The thing is, I know there’s a lot of frustration with this president. We’re going to have an election next year. Hopefully, we’ll elect somebody that’s going to be a conservative, limited-government president that will take a smaller, who will sign a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. He then segued into Republicans’ budget proposal.

Today: Loughner indictment expected by March 9, trial in Sept.:

Dylan Smith, TucsonSentinel.com

Prosecutors said they will indict Jared Lee Loughner on more federal charges by March 9, a court order said Thursday. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said in the order that he expects a trial to begin before Sept. 20. Loughner, 22, is the alleged gunman in the Jan. 8 shooting that authorities call an assassination attempt on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

[…] Six were killed and 13 wounded in the attack on a constituent meet-and-greet at a Northwest Side grocery store. Giffords remains in a Houston rehab facility, recovering from her wounds.

Georgia Congressman Paul Broun had best not hold town meetings on Obsidian Wings. Posting Rules:

[…] Calls for the assassination of any person will be subject to immediate banning. Exceptions are made for legitimate military targets in time of war, being put to death after being convicted of a capital crime, etc. — basically, the things that make a killing not 'assassination' to begin with. As before, this is not a prohibition on criticism, vituperation, and all those other good things; just a recognition that there's all the difference in the world between passionately disagreeing with someone and calling for that person's death.

We would ban someone from here for such a statement. But Republican Georgia Congressman Paul Broun lets it pass without a word and:

[…] Broun’s press secretary, Jessica Morris, confirmed that the question was indeed, who is going to shoot Obama? “Obviously, the question was inappropriate, so Congressman Broun moved on,” she said.

We wouldn't just move on, if we noticed that here.

But it's okay if you're merely a Republican Congressional Representative.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

In June, Greg Sargent wrote: Sharron Angle floated possibility of armed insurrection:

Here's another one that could be tough for Sharron Angle to explain away: In an interview in January, Angle appeared to float the possibility of armed insurrection if "this Congress keeps going the way it is."

I'm not kidding. In an interview she gave to a right-wing talk show host, Angle approvingly quoted Thomas Jefferson saying it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years — and said that if Congress keeps it up, people may find themselves resorting to "Second Amendment remedies."

What's more, the talk show host she spoke to tells me he doesn't have any doubt that she was floating the possibility of armed insurrection as a valid response if Congress continues along its current course.

Asked by the host, Lars Larson of Portland, Oregon, where she stands on Second Amendment issues, Angle replied:

You know, our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years.

I hope that's not where we're going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.

Larson says Angle was floating the possibility of armed insurrection if Congress keeps it up under Reid et al.

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Indefensible

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by Doctor Science

Yesterday President Obama ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. In honor of the occasion, I decided to read the copy of What Is Marriage? by Robert George (and two male grad students) I’d downloaded when I saw various people talking about it as a serious, intellectual defense of the DOMA position. Robert George is a Princeton politics full professor who is supposed to bring the big guns in conservative thought, a guy who can argue for natural law like a latter-day Aquinas. Or so they tell me.

Now I’ve read it, and if this is the best they’ve got, no wonder the Traditional Marriage people are in trouble. No wonder the defense in the trial against California’s Proposition 8 was unable to field a single witness the Judge found “expert”. This paper is, technically speaking, bunk.

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Newton’s Third Law #4, the continuing story, with update

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by fiddler

(Previous Newton’s Third Law posts are here, here and here.)

Benjamin Spock de Vries says he is not Commander X, one of the ‘leaders’ of Anonymous whom Aaron Barr of HBGary supposedly found online. Apparently, Barr wrote several memos in which he connected Commander X’s identity to de Vries, all of which are included among the memos leaked by Anonymous. This mistaken identification led to an oddly amusing exchange, when Barr contacted him during the attack on HBGary by Anonymous:

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Scott Walker Reports To The Boss, David Koch

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by Gary Farber

Don't believe how it works?  Then listen for yourself.

Let's go with Adam Weinstein's take:

Is that really Scott Walker? [Update: Yep.] A New York-based alt-news editor says he got through to the embattled Wisconsin governor on the phone Tuesday by posing as right-wing financier David Koch…then had a far-ranging 20-minute conversation about the collective bargaining protests. According to the audio, Walker told him:

  • That statehouse GOPers were plotting to hold Democratic senators' pay until they returned to vote on the controversial union-busting bill.
  • That Walker was looking to nail Dems on ethics violations if they took meals or lodging from union supporters.
  • That he'd take "Koch" up on this offer: "[O]nce you crush these bastards I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."

Now check it out yourself:


 

The rest:

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The Wisconsin Waltz

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by Gary Farber

As flames of revolution spread across the Mideast, the fight against anti-union bills is spreading across the American Midwest.

David Dayen, aka dday, points out that Ohio, Indiana See Protests Against Anti-Union Bills:

Wisconsin remains the main battleground for the broader assault on worker’s rights. But elsewhere in the Big Ten states and across the country, these battles have moved forward. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich is pushing pretty much the exact same bill as Scott Walker in Wisconsin. Known as SB 5, the bill would strip collective bargaining rights from Ohio public employees. SB 5 is a piece of legislation, so Kasich isn’t trying to implement this under the cover of a budget bill. However, he has said that if he doesn’t get what he wants out of SB 5, he will put those items into the next budget bill. Alternatively, this could go to the ballot. So SB 5 won’t be the last showdown. The Governor, aping Scott Walker, claims this is a fiscal issue, but nobody can explain how much money SB 5 would save.

Many Ohio Republican legislators are already looking askance at SB 5. With pressure rising from state editorial boards and organized labor, the State Senate may not have the votes to get this thing out of committee.

OB-MQ832_unions_G_20110220193255

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You Say al-Gaddafi, They Say al-Qaḏḏāfī, Let’s Colonel The Whole Thing Off

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By Gary Farber

Libya appears to be in full revolt.  Residents say troops defect in Libya's Benghazi:

Members of a Libyan army unit told Benghazi residents on Sunday they had defected and "liberated" Libya's second city from troops supporting veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi, two residents said.

Habib al-Obaidi, who heads the intensive care unit at the main Al-Jalae hospital, and lawyer Mohamed al-Mana, told Reuters members of the "Thunderbolt" squad had arrived at the hospital with soldiers wounded in clashes with Gaddafi's personal guard.

"They are now saying that they have overpowered the Praetorian Guard and that they have joined the people's revolt," al-Mana said by telephone. It was not possible to independently verify the report.

Obaidi said the bodies of 50 people killed on Sunday had arrived at the hospital in the late afternoon. Most had died from bullet wounds.

Tripoli flagpole

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When rape is Your Tax Dollars at Work

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by Doctor Science

This post is about the attack on Lara Logan, and rape as a weapon of war and policy.

Summary: Sexualized violence, rape, and even gang rape are not just signs of bestiality, barbarism, or boys inevitably being boys: they can be military and police tactics, and they are part of the toolbox of U.S. as well as Egyptian military/intelligence forces.

SERIOUS TRIGGER AND RAGE WARNING.

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Your sports open thread

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by liberal japonicus One area that has never really gotten much love here is sports. According to my rather spotty memory, back in the distant past, Sebastian talked about his volleyball playing, and Slarti talked a bit about competitive swimming, which isn't really a sport so much as a freakish ability of some people (I … Read more

what do you do when the grand jury wants your tweets? (Updated)

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by fiddler

What do an Icelandic parliamentarian, a US computer researcher and a Dutch businessman have in common? They’re challenging the US government’s right to get Twitter to disclose their private information under sealed court order.

A hearing on this took place Tuesday in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, but no decision was reached; the judge is to issue a written opinion later.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation and the ACLU are representing Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of the Parliament of Iceland. Dutch entrepreneur and hacker Rop Gonggrijp, and U.S. computer programmer Jacob Appelbaum are represented by private law firms as well as local counsel in Virginia.

From the Washington Post article written before the hearing, which did not name the defendants:

The dispute cuts to the core of the question of whether WikiLeaks allies are part of a criminal conspiracy or a political discussion. It also challenges the Obama administration’s argument that it can demand to see computer data and read months’ worth of private messages, even if they have nothing to do with WikiLeaks.

The international implications haven’t been ignored:

Iceland’s foreign ministry last month summoned the US ambassador in Reykjavik to express “serious concern” about the bid to obtain personal information about Jonsdottir, the Icelandic MP.

Jonsdottir, an early WikiLeaks supporter who distanced herself from the site a few months ago, is an active promoter of freedom of information and a member of the Icelandic parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Televised; It Will And Has Been Tweeted

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by Gary Farber

Revolutions have happened in the Mideast?  How?  Why?  Because this is the 21st century, and the revolution is online.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and I will give you 5000 in five pictures:

Egypt

Experiation%20date_%20from%20twitter%20user%20@nadiae 
 
 
Political%20Pictures%20-%20Best%20Egyptian%20Protest%20Signs 

Political%20Pictures%20-%20Egyptian%20Protest%20Signs 

Political%20Pictures%20-%20Egyptian%20Protest%20Signs-1 

What happened?  This.   

[…] 

The exchange on Facebook was part of a remarkable two-year collaboration that has given birth to a new force in the Arab world — a pan-Arab youth movement dedicated to spreading democracy in a region without it. Young Egyptian and Tunisian activists brainstormed on the use of technology to evade surveillance, commiserated about torture and traded practical tips on how to stand up to rubber bullets and organize barricades.

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The Curious Urgency of Now

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by Eric Martin Like Erik (sic) Kain, I find myself puzzling at the sudden, arbitrary hyperfocus on deficits, debt and fiscal austerity: The notion that we need to balance the budget and pay down the debt right now is just taken for granted with no real attempt to explain why. Is inflation out of control? … Read more

A Kind Of Moderation

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Guest post by Thomas Nephew, longtime blogger, posted by Gary Farber.

Gary has been kind enough to invite me to post here, and I'm overcoming some real jitters to give it a try.  

Obsidian Wings!  One of the top blog sites and one of the top online communities of the past decade, hence pretty much of all time.  Writing that could make you simultaneously rend your garments and thank the gods somebody, somewhere had the guts and the gift to say it – whether as writers like Katherine, Publius, Lindsay, Hilzoy, Eric, or G'Kar/Andrew, or commenters like Nell, KCinDC, or Gary.  (Just to name a few, and not to overlook the rest.)  Still not sure I'll belong.

Aside from jitters, though, I was also not sure how I'd fit with ObWi's recognizable "voice" — probably basically hilzoy's, but somehow the whole site's as well. 

I have my own little blog, which I named "newsrack" once upon a time, and "newsrackblog.com" now.  I imagined I'd cover the ebb and flow of news from all over, but I couldn't do it: the Twitter-like pace of a Willis, a Reynolds, a Sullivan, a Marshall awes me and completely eludes me.  

I nevertheless think I've sometimes written some fairly good stuff there, usually when I stick to a topic for a while, learn more about it, research it, and finally start to get across to *myself* what the heck interests me about it.  

I call those "jags", and I've been on a few:   Iraq.  Iraq. (More on that in a moment.) Torture.  Bankruptcy bill.  Texasgate. Impeachment.  Executive power.  Civil War/Reconstruction.  Wal-Mart.  Fair Share Health Care.  Feingold 2010.  FISA Amendment Act.  License plate scanners.  A general sense of disgust with the media. Disappointed In Obama.  D'oh!

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all politics is local

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by russell So said Tip O'Neill lo these many years ago, and it still is so.  Politics is about public life, which is lived by specific, concrete people, in specific, concrete places, at specific, concrete times. So, a quick note from the town where I live, a few miles up the coast from Boston.  The topic … Read more

The Media in Sixteen Snappy Paragraphs

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Guest Post by John Emerson, posted by Gary Farber, to cover Gary while traveling, but who was delayed by hotel internet service going out.

(Everything below is expressed in its maximal form, as per my normal modus operandi. Readers may want to trim certain passages in accordance with their own tastes.)

Everyone talks about the media, but no one has been able to do anything about it. I share the common opinion that the disaster of contemporary American politics is in large part the result of the corruption and dishonesty of the media, and I also believe that this corruption is deep-rooted and unlikely to change, and that as a result we are between a rock and a hard place somewhere up shit creek. Eight years ago I thought that the internet would change things, but that hasn’t seemed to have happened. A lot of us are now better-informed than the media want us to be. But there are not enough of us and we remain a powerless minority, even (it has turned out) within the Democratic Party.

I am not trying to replace the libraries of media criticism that already exist, but merely to sum up my understanding of the situation in a few snappy phrases.

AMBIENT OPINION

 

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Newton’s Third Law #3, 4th UPDATE, Saturday 2/12, 5:50 p.m. EST

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by fiddler

 

Previous Newton’s Third Law posts are Newton’s Third Law, with two updates, written Wednesday and Thursday, posted Friday midday; and Newton’s Third Law 3rd update, written and posted Friday. Now that it’s Saturday, most of the new articles are roundups of older ones, but I’ve found (and been sent) some things that didn’t surface before — articles about methods, connections, ethical and legal questions and more. As in previous posts, all typos and bad grammar in original source material have been left unedited. I have also not corrected for variant spellings of HBGary.

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Remeet Liberal Japonicus, New ObWi Front Pager, Longtime Presence

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Posted by Gary Farber, introductory guest post written by Liberal Japonicus.

Hello. (image of Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes)

  Ricky-gervais-host-golden-globes

I'm liberal japonicus and my name has suddenly appeared on the sidebar. I'm still trying to figure out what this may mean, but one thing that it seems to suggest is that it is necessary to post something in the way of an introduction.

I'd note that in Japan, where I reside and where half of my genes are from, it is called a jiko shoukai ('self-introduction') and if you go to almost any small group meeting in Japan, you'll find a portion of it devoted to going around the table and doing said jiko shoukai.

Even if you are practically positive that you know everyone in the room, on the off chance that there is one newbie present, or someone has been struck with retrograde amnesia in the past 24 hours, everyone has to stand up, introduce themselves, not forgetting to add a little tidbit of new information that really isn't important, but allows those assembled to feel like they know you a bit better.

So a few quick facts.

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Newton’s Third Law #1, 2nd UPDATE , 5:30 p.m. EST

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by fiddler

Last Saturday, an article in the Financial Times featured Aaron Barr of cybersecurity firm HB Gary Federal, boasting that he had discovered the identities of key members of the hacking collective that calls itself Anonymous.

Any cybersecurity firm worth its salt should realize that this action would result in a reaction, and should create protocols and take precautions to avoid them.

Hmm. Apparently not.

In short order, Anonymous hacked them, printed “Fail” across Barr’s photo, wrote him a scathing letter to accompany it, and released a compilation of 40,000+ of the company’s files and memos to the public. Some of these concerned a presentation prepared for Bank of America last December on how the bank could protect itself against Wikileaks.

One of HB Gary Federal’s bright ideas? Target Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald, who is also a New York Times best-selling author and attorney. Why? On the grounds that because Greenwald wants to make sure Bradley Manning isn’t being mistreated and Manning is accused of leaking files to Anonymous, Greenwald therefore must be part of Anonymous.

Wrong.

 

 

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The Revolution was indeed televised; UPDATED

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by Doctor Science Mubarak is actually out. I’m watching Al-Jazeera’s livestream. I’m putting this up to have something on the spot, I’ll add stuff to it later. UPDATE: Last week, Paul Amar (UC Santa Barbara) posted an exceedingly clear explanation of Egyptian military & police institutions. I’ll summarize, but if you have any interest in … Read more

Mom against “abstinence”

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by Doctor Science

There’s been an interesting conversation about sex education going on in the comments to the previous post, which I invite you-all to roll over into this one, to leave the abortion discussion over there.

I’m starting off with something I wrote a few years ago. I’ve tacked in one cite where I could find it; if there’s anything else in here that strikes you-all as needing supporting evidence, please point it out — most of it seems incredibly self-evident to me.

I think “abstinence until marriage, faithfulness afterward”, far from being “the only 100% safe approach”, is a proven formula for disaster.

As far as I can tell, “abstinence” in this sense includes never having any orgasm-related contact with another human being before marriage. That is, it encourages ignorance, clumsiness, and lack of knowledge of self and others. For women in particular, this means that they are much more likely to find marital sex unsatisfying, as neither half of the sketch has enough hands-on knowledge of female sexual response to get her where she wants to go. Unsatisfying marital sex is a Bad Thing, not least because it leads to more divorces, a Really Bad Thing.

Abstinence-until-marriage also naturally leads to earlier marriages, as young people get married so they can legitimately have sex. Early marriages lead to more divorces, which, again, a Really Bad Thing.

Abstinence-until-marriage also encourages the mindset in which certain behaviors are labeled “sex” by adults, and so teenagers indulge in other behaviors because they “don’t count”, but without taking appropriate precautions either medically or emotionally.

For instance, oral sex is a *really* effective contraceptive, but there are still disease risks — which is why teenagers could stand to learn about flavored condoms — and it has emotional/relationship risks if it doesn’t go both ways, if it just becomes a power trip. Exploitative sex is also a Really Bad Thing.

One of the worst things about “abstinence until marriage, faithfulness afterward” as an educational program is that it is so patently hypocritical. Kids aren’t stupid — they look around at the behavior of the adults they know and the ones depicted in movies, TV, and ads, and they will infallibly conclude that AUMFA is not standard, normal adult behavior. “Do as I say, not as I do” is a Bad Thing, because it leads kids to assume adults are always lying, even when we say “don’t mix downers and alcohol” or “don’t drive 70 on that twisting road”. And those are Really, Really Bad Things.

AUMFA makes adults feel good, but it is a disservice to young people on multiple levels, and I’m against it.

Some comments re sex ed from the earlier post that I think are particularly good jumping-off points:

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This is not the post I wanted to write

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by Doctor Science

I wanted to do a round-up of the recent surge in Republican/conservative attacks on abortion.

There’s lots more, but I’ll stop for the moment.

Now, the post I wanted to write was about abortion, sexuality, and women’s rights in America — but I realized that that post and the ensuing discussion would fall apart into derailing flames without *another* post, first. This is my post about some premises.

I can only call a person or organization “anti-abortion” if they are also pro-contraception.

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Walk Like An Egyptian

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by Gary Farber

Blender:

Robert Fisk:

Exhausted, scared and trapped, protesters put forward plan for future.   […] Sitting on filthy pavements, amid the garbage and broken stones of a week of street fighting, they have drawn up a list of 25 political personalities to negotiate for a new political leadership and a new constitution to replace Mubarak's crumbling regime.

They include Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League – himself a trusted Egyptian; the Nobel prize-winner Ahmed Zuwail, an Egyptian-American who has advised President Barack Obama; Mohamed Selim Al-Awa, a professor and author of Islamic studies who is close to the Muslim Brotherhood; and the president of the Wafd party, Said al-Badawi.

Sights:


 

Fisk again:

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12 Days and Counting

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by Fiddler

I’ve been watching the coverage of the protests in Egypt on Al Jazeera and CNN the last few days. Throughout this, it’s impossible to avoid seeing varying levels of relationship between Egypt and the United States.

I’m glad that the Egyptian Army has refused to fire on protesters. Instead of shooting, army officers are trying to persuade the protesters to go home and resume normal life, on the 12th day of protests. It’s not working too well; people keep coming back to the crowd despite the last few days’ violence.

For the past two days, while Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron (whom I saw on Al Jazeera) and others have pushed for an orderly transition of power, the pro-Mubarak forces have done their best to crush protest with clubs, machetes, and any force possible, even while military personnel in the streets have stood aside to let these armed enforcers past. I’m not sure how the army justifies this as non-interference with the protesters.

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We Control The Horizontal

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by Gary Farber

Appearances matter.  To control information is to control.  "Don't judge a book by its cover" is a popular saying that will cause anyone who sells books or works in publishing to ROFl ("roll on the floor laughing"), because it's exactly what people do, though no one wants to admit to doing it.  It's always someone else.

In Egypt, we're seeing this play out. Mubarak intensifies press attacks with assaults, detentions:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak unleashed an unprecedented and systematic attack on international media today as his supporters assaulted reporters in the streets while security forces began obstructing and detaining journalists covering the unrest that threatens to topple his government.

Democracy Now!


 

[…]

In the past 24 hours alone, CPJ has recorded 30 detentions, 26 assaults, and eight instances of equipment having been seized. In addition, plainclothes and uniformed agents reportedly entered at least two hotels used by international journalists to confiscate press equipment. On Wednesday, CPJ documented numerous earlier assaults, detentions, and confiscations. Mubarak forces have attacked the very breadth of global journalism: Their targets have included Egyptians and other Arab journalists, Russian and U.S. reporters, Europeans and South Americans.

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The Mubarak Moment: An Opportunity for Israelis

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Guest Post by Benjamin Orbach & Samir I Toubassy It is hard to believe that Israelis are watching the scenes from Cairo with anything but dread. Yet, the Arab Awakening has presented Israelis with an opportunity to secure their place in the Middle East. The Arab-Israeli conflict has led many Israelis to believe that armed … Read more

De Nile Truly Is A River

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by Gary Farber

There are many expert reporters on Egypt, obviously, and tons of scholars.  But let's start with the excellent generalist on international policy that everyone has, I hope,  been reading for many years — and if you haven't you should start last year or whenever — Laura Rozen. Some good news and bad news:

Earlier today, I was on a panel discussing coverage of the Egypt unrest, and someone mentioned that no one had seen it coming.

But that is not the case. Several foreign policy scholars and former officials have been urging the U.S. administration for months to prepare for the end of the Hosni Mubarak era and the instability that would accompany it.

Now that the administration has found itself scrambling the past few days to, first, try to avert a bloodbath in Egypt and more broadly, figure out what to do amid a hugely complicated power transition there with much at stake for the U.S., it's worth noting the people who have been pleading for policy attention on this issue long in advance. Chief among them, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Michele Dunne, a former NSC and State Department Policy Planning official, and the Brookings Institution's Robert Kagan, who co-chair a bipartisan working group on Egypt.

I (and others) wrote about their efforts to get the U.S. policy community to pay attention. See "W.H. pressed on Egypt democracy," from September:

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