Today on the Dish, Chris traced Egypt updates throughout the night, including poetry as protest, and the army officer who joined the protests. Al Jazeera reporters were arrested (and released), protests were planned for Tuesday, and Friday flagged as the "Friday of Departure" for the army. Protesters cleaned the streets and cheered Al Jazeera, and we dissected rumors of army orders to fire on protesters. Women manned the front lines, graffiti painted tanks, libraries were guarded, and late today a total Internet blackout fell over Egypt. Israel defended Mubarak, Syria's President vowed to reform, and we tracked how Egypt was playing in Iran. China censored the Egyptian upheaval, Osama bin Laden seemed irrelevant, and Egypt's economy teetered. Brian Ulrich gauged the military leaders' motives, Philip Giraldi examined our spending abroad, and the web assessed the Muslim Brotherhood. The US dispatched a former Ambassador to Egypt, but we remembered that it's the US that outsourced its torture to Egypt. Breitbart's Big Peace published all kinds of crazy, Palin was happy to not get blamed for Cairo, and Douthat took the long view: history makes fools of us all.
A new 2012 GOP contender baffled the blogosphere, Frum parsed the report on what caused the Financial Crisis, and Conor noted that the GOP isn't necessarily the party for liberty-minded individuals. Conor questioned the protesters outside the Koch brothers' retreat, a man tried to blow up a Detroit mosque with fireworks, readers ripped apart Rand Paul's budget cuts, and church abuse takes advantage of adults too. Harper's Magazine struggled, Afghanistan suffered a major blow to its image and stability, and marriage equality mattered. The clothing industry needed its own Michael Pollan, Herman Melville loved beard euphemisms, and Americans were obsessed with white meat. Life imitated Four Lions, cooking was for eating, and Andrew's still on the mend.
Quote for the day here, MHB here, FOTD here, VFYW here, chart of the day here, (with correction here).
--Z.P.