Posted on Categories PBC Comments, Podcast Info

Egypt Update Plus Backgrounder with Prof. Juan Cole; Libs and Libertarians Oppose Patriot Act Renewal

PBC comments on Mubarak’s refusal to step down; Prof. Juan Cole of Univ of Michigan offers history and context to the uprising in Egypt; Darryl Perry of the Boston Tea Party opposes Patriot Act renewal. Despite informed speculation that Mubarak would announce his departure today (Feb 18), he patronized the protesters, defied them and world observers, and said he would stay until the end of his term in September, while handing over some responsibilities to his new VP, the torturer and spook Omar Suleiman. Professor Cole runs a great blog called Informed Comment where you can get his comparisons to Egypt in 1918; his sense of the causes of the uprising are different from most mainstream US commentators, and he has words of comfort for Sean Hannity about the overblown threat of the Muslim Brotherhood. We also talk about Iraq and Afghanistan. Perry helped start the original Tea Party, and is not aligned with Palin, Bachman or the other GOP posers. He articulates his opposition to the Patriot Act, and applauds the 148 House members–including 26 GOP (but not Michelle Bachman) who bucked their leadership to vote against it. We talk about the use of secret charges and secret evidence in the case of Susan Lindauer (our guest in the next podcast, #219) and the wiretapping case in San Francisco. We refer to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and their website as well as their support for Rep. Rush Holt’s “Justice Act”, detailed here. Find out more about Perry and the Boston Tea Party here and here.