Egyptian protests

At Rantings of a Sandmonkey, there's an interesting post (with photos) about the recent "Black Wednesday" protest in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak has committed publicly to holding free elections. These elections, were they truly free, would likely throw Mubarak out of office. So what's really happening, according to nearly all information I've been reading on the subject, is that Mubarak is mouthing "free elections" but using every tool at his disposal to suppress anything even remotely resembling an opposition. And because Mubarak is actually a dictator, those tools are numerous and high-powered. An excerpt from Sandmonkey:

The great country can set the example, no problem. It's Mubarak that has to set it really by punishing the kind of behaviour that took place the day of the referendum, and maybe, just maybe, follow some standards for a far election.

Oh look, Bush has some for you in case you can't come up with some on your own:

"People ought to be allowed to vote without being intimidated, people ought to be allowed to be on TV, and if the government owns the TV, they need to allow the opposition on TV, people ought to be allowed to carry signs and express their pleasure or displeasure. People ought to have very vote count," he said.

See Hosny? It's not that hard is it? No? Ok, then why don't you stop being a douche bag and let us have our free fu**in elections? God knows you will probably win any way with the current state of the opposition, so why don't you just give the people a real right to chose for once? It may forgive some of the shit you've put us through those past 24 years.

Blogs are one of the few things that Mubarak and his ilk have very little means to control. I do not know how widely read the Egyptian blogs are, but I know they are quite numerous. Relatively few are in English, of course, and Sandmonkey is one of them — albeit an unusually pro-American, pro-Western example.

As readers of this blog know, I subscribe to the blogospheric theory that once the protest babes show up, the opposing side is in big trouble. So the best news of all (from Sandmonkey's post) is that the protest babes have showed up supporting the Egyptian opposition. Telegram to Mubarak: it's all over but the shouting. You might as well start planning your retirement...elsewhere.