Libyupdate: Yup, Still Insane.

The last few weeks have confirmed a couple things about Libya.

look at that sign. That's an awesome sign.

1) It's become a bad, bad place to be. Rarely was Tripoli a cushy vacation destination before, but this is just ridiculous:

-the air bombing continues, this time in Brega, an oil outpost. Just to clarify and reiterate: Gaddafi is using the air force to bomb his own country.

-Reports are coming in that Gaddafi's forces have been tying up and burning soldiers that refuse to fight, and burying them in the streets and barracks where they fall. They've also been shooting from ambulances, and killing wounded protesters in hospitals.

-it's becoming increasingly dangerous for Sub-Saharan Africans working in Libya--they're being targeted for violence because they're assumed to be mercenaries hired by the regime. Whether or not they actually are is up for debate, but pre-revolt, sub-Saharan Africans were the majority of over a million foreign nationals in Libya: they certainly can't all be working for the nutbar in the mumu.

-being reasonable people, thousands of Libyans and expats alike are looking around at their situation and deciding to get the hell out of Libya. As a result, the Tunisian and Egyptian borders are overrun with desperate refugees, threatening to rival Tripoli as a humanitarian hypercrisis. Aid staff is trying, and airlifts are happening, but it's understandably quite difficult and really tense.


2) Gaddafi is effin' certifiable. He's orders of magnitude more disconnected from reality than Hosni Mubarak was. The man isn't even in the solar system anymore; he's like an interstellar machine that pumps out human rights atrocities and really ridiculous outfits. I recently learned he wants to abolish Switzerland. What. And it doesn't appear that he's going anywhere.

Yesterday, the world spent a lot of diplomatic face time asking "WTF do we do about Libya?".
It sort of went down like this:

UN Security Council: So Gaddafi's nuts enough to bomb his own capital and endanger the security of a whole hell of a lot of oil interests.... I dunno, let's sanction him and his goons, freeze his assets? Any arguments? Didn't think so. (gavel!)
UN Human Rights Council: Yeah, sack that crazy man. Suspend him from the council. Wtf is he doing on here anyway? Ugh. I need to go wash my hands.
International Criminal Court: Send him to us. I don't care if he hasn't stepped down yet, you heard me.
President Sarkozy of France: Oui, he needs to GTFO.
Basically Every Other EU Leader: What he said.
Prime Minister David Cameron, UK: Yeah, get out--or we'll send in the army! Or we won't. Maybe.
The Arab League: Waitasecond there...
NATO: Guys, this is pretty intense...should I launch a no-fly zone?
Everyone: (foot shuffling) Ummmm.....
(scene.)


In addition, everyone outside of Libya is scrambling to send frigates, planes and warships to rescue their expats from the crazy so they can drill another day.

To lighten the mood, boingboing posted a fantastic video of the UK's Charlie Brooker sending a verbal lashing to Gaddafi. Extra points to the included fashion montage.

And as a last note on Nelly Furtado: big up on you for donating the million dollars Gaddafi paid you for a 45 minute concert in 2007. In honour of your press-worthy save-face, I'll still do my wondering about why 41 years of brutal absurdist military dictatorship and human rights abuses were okay for a pop star to profiteer off before it was really in the news--but I'll do it quietly.

Egypt to Mubarak: GTFO Already!!

Mubarak to Egypt: Die in a Fire.

After seventeen days, billions lost in the financial markets, general labour strikes, over 300 lost lives, and countless demonstrations of astounding, inspirational bravery, we were all expecting today's announcement from Hosni Mubarak to finally be a declaration of his resignation.

And instead of that, he announced that he was giving all his power to Vice President Sulemain, and staying put, addressing them as naughty children who should be ashamed of themselves. He told them to stop watching satellite tv, and to go home.

Tahrir Square is pissed, and what happened next is unsurprising. From the Guardian liveblog on the ground:

...In an instant, Tahrir shook with fury. Many took off their shoes and waved them in the air. Pockets of protesters launched different chants: "Down, Down, Hosni Mubarak" and "We're not going until he goes". Soon they coalesced, and the square spoke as one with a single word. "Irhal" (Leave), it cried.

Foreign Policy put it really well: "It's hard to exaggerate how bad Hosni Mubarak's speech today was for Egypt... It is virtually impossible to conceive of a more poorly conceived  or executed speech. "


AJE's live coverage is calling shenanigans on the blatant lies being transmitted from regime media officials to American media conglomerates. They're also documenting pro-democracy protesters' increasing disaffection with the military. Soon, the military will have to choose which side they're on--analysts are saying within the next 48 hours. Analysts, incredulous at the ridiculousness of this government at literally the most popular revolution in the last three decades at least, suggested the government was attempting to frustrate the populace into violence to justify a crackdown. 

Tomorrow's march, originally intended to be a Day of Martyrs in honour of the 302 people dead, is being galvanized as we speak. There are calls for 20 million people to protest in Cairo. 


After the government's utter and complete loss of dignity, 20 million marching to the Presidential Palace tomorrow would not surprise me.

Egypt: In Tahrir Square, People Are Dying.

Right now, in the chaos, of Tahrir Square and the Oct 6 Bridge, pro-democracy protesters are being shot in the head.

The pro-Mubarak goons that disrupted the week's inspirational peaceful protests are widely suspected--and reported--to be plainclothes cops and hired thugs, paid by the regime to terrify the masses and damage the resolve of the protesters. They've been targeting Al Jazeera staff (and any journalists, really) for violence.
They have been using homemade pipe bombs and molotov cocktails. The army appears to be doing very little to stop them, and reports are flying that they may be guilty of exacerbating the situation purposely.

And in the face of this ridiculous and shameful, shameful display of force, I can't think of anything that I can do to help these people that are risking and losing their lives in pursuit of something I was born into and take for granted every day of my life.
Except for tell you about it.


It is 5am in Cairo. Al Jazeera is liveblogging still. If you are like me, and find it difficult by geography and means to do anything more substantial, at least bear witness to the history happening tonight.

Hey Canada: How much do you want your media to suck?

Cuz a few of our elected reps are really really into it.

Two big-ticket news items I've been foolishly sitting on while the east absolutely exploded are from right here at home, and they both have two things in common:

1) The CRTC (Canadian Radio and Television Commission) is behind them

2) They're both fucking terrifying.

so this is what the enemy looks like.

CRTC Nightmare the First: Internet Metering
The situation is this: while you were sleeping, going to work, and watching the game, major telecoms now have the right to charge you for -over-using the internet-. This makes per-byte billing for your home internet usage possible the same way we get gouged on smartphone data plans. It also makes any attempt at net neutrality (something that I think is as fundamental in this day and age as non-digital liberty, dag nabbit) basically unreachable.

Practically, this is what it looks like: loading data-intensive pages, streaming ANYTHING, listening to music, videos, or downloads of any kind, will get exorbitantly expensive. Because it's expensive, the internet will become more of the same sort of playing field as meatworld is now--where people with money get access to things that poor people can't.

You can't hear me, but I'm spitting in disgust by my shoes right now.

CRTC Nightmare the Second: Always At War with EastAsia.

While we were sleeping, watching the game and working like good polite little Canadians, the CRTC recently amended their broadcasting regulations to make it okay edit: EASIER to claim ignorance while broadcasting false or misleading news. (Thanks for keepin' me honest, Darryl)

What. 

The Harper government for the great and glorious 52nd state is already prepping for Fox News North; this is really just the first logical step.

I need to throw up now, but if this makes you angry/frightened/both, there's plenty you can do.



While I'm puking, feel free to make noise about this. Might be the last time we feel free in the media for a while.

Roundup: Let's All Catch Up on Wikileaks!

Some of you may have noticed a peculiar kind of silence coming from this blog.
No, I'm not in the gulag. Not yet.
I have at least partially joined the fold of people too busy to notice when things are happening.
I'm trying to fix it, but I work in the special kind of hell generally referred to as retail.

University-earned cramming skills, GO!

In what's probably the biggest win for sass-powered bloggers like me, the CIA has put together a task force to study the impacts of the Wikileaks cables. It's called the Wikileaks Task Force. Take one look at that acronym as proof that someone at the CIA is the best kind of moron.

The UN finally weighs in on Wikileaks, remembering that it's an international organization and the only place where everyone mentioned in the cables actually has to look at each other. It's strongly worded, and contains gems like "State security of information is the responsibility of the state" and "information pertaining to human rights abuses should not be considered classified". It read to my sleepy brain like the sound of the UN once again asking America to pull up its socks. Especially this:

"Direct or indirect government interference in or pressure exerted upon any expression or information transmitted through any means of oral, written, artistic, visual or electronic communication must be prohibited by law when it is aimed at influencing content. Such illegitimate interference includes politically motivated legal cases brought against journalists and independent media, and blocking of websites and web domains on political grounds. Calls by public officials for illegitimate retributive action are not acceptable."

You tell 'em, United Nations. If only anyone listened to you.

In more "Much-Needed Points to the UN" news, they're looking into the conditions Bradley Manning has been left in, on a mandate of human rights. About goddamn time. Assange also calls him a "political prisoner", and calls it ludicrous to attempt to get him to testify against him. Manning's lawyer talks a bit about what laws he's planning on invoking to help out his situation.

Xeni Jardin of boingboing fame is sceptical of Assange, who appears to be making a) the media rounds, and b) quite the douche of himself. Stay classy, sir. He's also decided he's not going to Sweden. Not that I blame him, after the mess he just got out of.

Bank of America widely, widely, rumoured-as-basically-guaranteed to be the next subject of a "megaleak", and is prepping for it with security crackdowns. But we already know Bank of America sucks huge anyway, leaks or no leaks, denial-of-service-on-political-grounds or no. In other news, those bastards' shares are up. There's no accounting for the free market.

Salon.com writers duke it out over wikipolitik: Michael Lind vs Glenn Greenwald--FIGHT!

Writers that worked for Wikileaks have been killed in 2009. Assange has mentioned this in a couple press conferences, which he appears to enjoy way, way too much.

Apple only took 3 days to throw wikileaks under the bus. Same shit, new record.

Goodies from the Cables:

All my offensive NaziPope jokes aren't totally wrong.

UK gov: Yeah, we'll totally train that Bangladeshi Death Squad. We don't care, we never liked human rights anyway. Even the US didn't want to dirty their hands with this group, and they ran the School of the Americas.

The Taliban has stocks of heroin that essentially function as bank accounts.

People have been noticing that the Cables have been low on Israel. That's apparently stopping.

Bahamas <3's Anna Nicole Smith. 

What I don't even...

The Guardian does this awesome "You Ask, We Search" service on the cables via twitter--get into that, it's moderately rad.

I'll keep this up once the orgiastic capitalist frenzy known as "Christmas" subsides. Happy Solstice-oriented holiday to everyjuan.