Saturday opinion. For ongoing coverage of the uprising in Egypt, see the mothership diary.
Edward Shumaker-Matos:
Until Tuesday, when President Obama reportedly asked him to step down, the words stuck like flypaper to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; he was the "American-backed" ally. Or we read about the American-backed governments in Jordan or Tunisia. Last year, it was the ones in Honduras and Colombia.
The idea isn't technically wrong - and I, too, have pointed out U.S.-supported programs or politicians - but the sense behind them as a shorthand definition is an anachronistic holdover from the Cold War that both exaggerates our influence and often wrongly conflates our relationship with our endorsement. It subtly imposes a U.S. frame on Third World events that is dangerous - for American policy and for the affected countries.
Charles Blow:
So I’ve decided to give over much of my space this week to providing more data for that discussion.
As The New York Times headline declared earlier this week, "Jobs and Age Reign As Factors in Mideast Uprisings." And the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Index of Democracy has used levels of democracy to identify countries at risk around the world.
These are solid measures, but I would add spending on essentials like food (there is nothing like food insecurity to spur agita), income inequality and burgeoning Internet usage (because the Internet has been crucial to the organization of recent uprisings).
Seen through that prism, Tunisia and Egypt look a lot alike, and Algeria, Iran, Jordan, Morocco and Yemen look ominously similar.
Please, explore for yourself.
Great graphic. Please do explore.
Victoria Clark:
On and off for the past few weeks, thousands of youths draped in pink scarves and ribbons have been out protesting in Yemen’s capital, Sana, making it look as if that country is next in line after Tunisia and perhaps Egypt for regime change. But conditions in Yemen for ousting another elderly strongman and his big, greedy family after decades of misrule are not proving as favorable as one might expect.
Indeed, Ali Abdullah Saleh — a former army officer who has been president since 1978, when his predecessor was assassinated by means of an exploding suitcase — is proving less of a klutz than his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak.
Bob Herbert:
The data zealots have utterly discombobulated themselves.
They were expecting something on the order of 150,000 new jobs to have been created in January. That would have been a lousy number, but they were fully prepared to spin it as being pretty good. They thought the official jobless rate might hop up a tick to 9.5 percent.
Instead, the economy created just 36,000 jobs in January, an absolutely dreadful number. But the unemployment rate fell like a stone from 9.4 percent to 9.0 percent...
They say those things because they have to. But they are far more obsessed with the numbers than they are with the struggles and suffering of real people.
Gail Collins:
As if we didn’t have enough wars, the House of Representatives has declared one against Planned Parenthood.
Maybe it’s all part of a grand theme. Last month, they voted to repeal the health care law. This month, they’re going after an organization that provides millions of women with both family-planning services and basic health medical care, like pap smears and screening for diabetes, breast cancer, cervical cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.
Our legislative slogan for 2011: Let Them Use Leeches.
There's something very wrong with Republicans in Congress. They are lying when they say they care about jobs and the deficit. They are obsessed first and foremost with social issues. One gets the impression that if they could legislate everyone to be old, white, male and Republican, they would.
Will Bunch:
Five myths about Ronald Reagan's legacy
To hear Republicans talk about Reagan is to hear mythmaking. Their concept of him has little to do with reality.
WaPo:
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul was the sole "no" vote Thursday night on a measure that would make it a federal crime to aim a handheld laser pointer at an aircraft.
Paul felt it would better be left to the states (but what if they stand at the CT border and target a plane in NY?) He likely feels that way about the Army, too - let's organize by states. After all, it worked okay during the civil war. Who can forget the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia? Hey, and speaking of civil, why not leave civil right enforcement to the states. That worked out okay, too, didn't it? And while we're at it, why doesn't every state use their own stamps, phone systems and time zones? I'm tired of it being dark at the end of the day in winter. And let's put real wooden turnpikes at state borders and raise some real revenue, especially at the NY border. You know, maybe Paul's got something.