Political Rants

Seems an Egyptian blogger is facing a four-year sentence for insulting Islam and the Egyptian president.

Judge Ayman al-Akazi sentenced Nabil, 22, to three years in prison for insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad and inciting sectarian strife and another year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak.

Nabil, who has called himself a secular Muslim, did not react as the verdict was read. His religious family didn't attend any of the trial sessions.

Egypt, a top U.S. ally in the Mideast, arrested a number of bloggers last year, most of them for connections to the pro-democracy reform movement. Nabil was put on trial while other bloggers were freed — a sign of the sensitivity of his writings on religion.

Nabil, who used the blogger name Kareem Amer, was an unusually scathing critic of conservative Muslims. His frequent attacks on Al-Azhar, where he was a law student, led the university to expel him in March, then push prosecutors to bring him to trial.

It's odd, I guess I've always thought of Egypt as fairly progressive, but I suspect my impressions are both dated and based in comparisons to more hard line regimes.

In the back of my mind I find myself imagining our country as a Christian fundamentalist regime, and me being arrested for insulting Shrub (who is, as far as I'm concerned, an insult to me). Can't happen here? Well, it would certainly be harder, but not impossible. Ask anyone who lived through McCarthy. We may be one nutjob (and, one hopes, an intelligent electorate) away from just such a scenario.

Thanks to my new buddy Joel for the heads up!

Al's running, and bless him for doing so. He's smart, articulate, he has a POV, so why not?

In Al's own words (YouTube).

I got an email from the DCCC asking for input on the Iraq War 'surge' proposal. This one is tougher for me than one might assume. Here is what I sent them. It will probably be ignored, as they're hellbent on being anti-Republican/anti-Bush rather than actually thinking about what we need to do as a country:

I find myself torn on this issue more than any other. I thought the invasion of Iraq misguided and disgusting from the start. You would think that my response to a possible 'surge' would be outright dismissal, but I find myself torn. Not because I want any more men and women in harm's way, but because I feel strongly about cleaning up one's own messes. We created instability and horror for the people of Iraq. We must do whatever we can to make amends. Among other things, I want to see Halliburton and their ilk forced to give back every ill-gotten billion squandered in the area and that money spent for real infrastructure work. A pipe dream, I suspect, but that is my hope. I still believe the US can be a force for good, but I haven't seen evidence of it from the government in far too long. And I cannot blame that entirely on Republicans. We need to decide who we want to be in the world, and we can start by cleaning up our horrific playground.

::Shrug:: We'll see what happens. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach.

Science Panel Calls Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’ (NY Times)

PARIS, Feb. 2 — In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal� and that human activity is the main driver, “very likely� causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950.