Thursday, August 22, 2013

Music Industry pros in Los Angeles still pondering true meaning of the LA Times' royal treatment Monday of a 16-year old Latina rapper, Becky G.; Becky Gomez gets the full works -a front page, lots of carefully-staged photos and a completely sympathetic writer! It reads like it was a record company advertisement, not journalism; @ZaraLarsson_, @CissiNilssonn, @FullOfKeys



Los Angeles Times
Becky G dreams of being the next Jennifer Lopez
The ambitious Latina teen has plans for superstardom, a goal she sings about in her debut, 'Becky From the Block.'
By Reed Johnson
August 19, 2013
At the time, her family had been forced to move into her grandparents' Inglewood garage after losing its Riverside County home. Money was tight. Her dad was stressing out. And her mom was "really scared."
Becky G vividly remembers what she calls "my little mini midlife crisis." It happened seven years ago, when she was 9.
That's when Becky had an epiphany.
"I did have this moment of realization of, 'Oh, my God, what am I going to do with my life?'" she says. "Just feeling like I had to get my act together, even though there was really nothing to put together yet."

This is a slightly-edited version of an email I sent out Monday night to a friend in Europe who is a very smart and savvy music producer and talent manager, whose reaction to this Los Angeles Times article I could well imagine even before I hit "Send."

----------
August 19, 2013
7:55 p.m.

After reading this article above, I think we both know that most discerning people of a certain age, educational background and open-eyed observer of Western pop culture history will be of one mind with you and me on it, and I think we both know, implicitly, something that we can't actually prove empirically.
Why? Well, in my case, I'm smart, pop savvy and have an excellent memory and an even better intuition!
As for you, well, you know those reasons better than me. 

Here's what that intuition tells me today.
That there are tens of thousands of people all over Los Angeles in the entertainment industry who woke-up this morning, opened their front door and grabbed today's LA Times off their porch or lawn and started scanning the headlines as they walked back to their house, condo or apartment, still half-asleep.

Somewhere by the time they got into their kitchen, they'd pulled the plastic bag off and had popped the whole paper open on their table and were scanning and scanning and scanning and then...they stopped when they saw the headline below the fold:"Becky G. dreams of being the next Jennifer Lopez."

At that point, more than a few of them said to themselves, "WTF? Who is this girl and why is SHE getting front page coverage by the Times when there are so many more-talented 
singers out there I know who deserve attention and who've already paid their dues?"

So, this morning, all over LA, people who don't know each other already have something in common: their day started off bad and was only going to get worse once they got behind their steering wheel and within minutes, found themselves in traffic.
And as they wait at the long red light, they think back to the carefully-orchestrated photos which seemed more like they belong on Becky G.'s official website, not a reputable first-class newspaper, and they mutter,"All this for a 16-year old Latina rapper? Really?"

And you know what?
The LA Times could care less about how much this story upsets and antagonizes the real 
professionals within the LA-area recording industry, even if they are subscribers.
The people who are below-the-radar but who are the backbone of the industry: sound engineers, techs, the receptionists at the studios, the A&R types in their shiny glass office buildings with nice views of the mountains, as well as the mountains of newspapers and magazines they get to let them have a Sixth Sense know about the Next Big Thing.

The reason the Times doesn't care what those industry people think about this article is because in their own minds, they're taking the larger, long-term view.

 The Times knows that because they orchestrated this with the complete help and cooperation of the record company, complete with two record company "minders" in tow, to prevent her from saying something the record company wouldn't like -a condition which many reputable journalists would NOT accept.

In large part they did so because they consciously want to be known in history as the first major Anglo news media outlet in the U.S. to "discover" Gomez for a national audience.

 The fact that she's Hispanic helps them ward off the ever-present criticism in LA that the Times 
ignores Hispanics in their pages except when they get arrested or are crooked politicians.

But it's hard to say that you "discovered" someone when they already have roughly 48 separate citations on Univision, the leading Spanish-language TV network in the U.S. -and already have a contract with Cover Girl cosmetics as one of their "faces."

To me, she seems more like a carefully-constructed "Disney" media star than a real singer with something to say, and you know I don't mean that positively:

Then I look at what someone I'm more familiar with, 15-year old Cecilia Nilsson tweets and writes about on her Facebook page in Gavle, and to me, she seems so much more grounded.
A real teenager with her ups and downs, and while ambitious, of course, in her particular case, someone whom you know I personally believe has an amazing talent, and someone that's preternaturally mature musically.
An ability that she's honed and made better thru lots of very hard work and learning from experience.


Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: See See (Presentation). Uploaded September 5, 2012. http://youtu.be/0syxcoAblN8

As it happens, this presentation video is in Swedish, but I still think you'll enjoy it as she speaks about herself and her music interests and desire to write songs that are honest and that will connect with people.

It was recorded mostly at her home in Gävle, a very middle-class Swedish city in the best possible sense of the word, and a city that I've written about here on the blog a few times in the past, which has not always had the easiest go of things.

To me, at least, that means that any songs Cecilia writes and sings about will be much more in-tune with the average listener's personal experiences than if she'd been born or raised in
a beautiful place Södermalm, one of my favorite places in all the world, and had affluent parents.

 The sort who'd push her around in one of those amazing $800-plus German prams they sell at Nordiska Kompaniet, which I spent some time eye-balling on my last day in Stockholm, surprised that that there was even a little department for them at a store, even one that large, since I'd never seen anything like that in the U.S., not even in Macy's or Nordstrom's.

Cecilia Nilsson - In My Room (Complete Song)



Cecilia Nilsson YouTube Channel: Cecilia Nilsson -In My Room. This is Cecilia's debut single. Uploaded May 13, 2013. http://youtu.be/r3MUHpMTAao Written by Cecilia Nilsson & Andreas Mattsson. Cissi's new single is available on both iTunes and Spotify.




Andreas Jismark YouTube Channel video: Cecilia Nilsson "Never Let You Go" -LIVE at Babar in Tranås, Sweden. April 5, 2013. Uploaded April 6, 2013.
http://youtu.be/xVmsUZCpJqI

These videos first appeared here on the blog in my May 14, 2013 blog post titled, "On Wednesday you'll be thanking me for introducing you to ANOTHER amazing singer from Sweden: Cecilia Nilsson, a.k.a Cissi or "See See"; Cecilia will sing two songs LIVE on Radio P4 Gavleborg on Friday at 15:30; @CissiNilsson, @andreasjismark, #inmyroom"

Now getting back to Becky G., to me, the LA Times clearly wanted to be the first Anglo media organization to write about this singer -that 99.99% of the U.S. has never heard of- in such an over-the-top way that all future reporters who ever write about anything about her, will reflexively have to read this Times article first, to see what her answers and attitude were like, way back in 2013.
Becky Gomez seems like a nice kid and maybe she's talented.
Or maybe she's not.

Her music isn't my thing and never will be, that's certainly not going to change, but if some people like it, it doesn't bother me, per se, though as you know, I hate rap music, since I like harmony and melody.

But to me, after reading this, what bothers me the most, and what no doubt bothered the vast majority of the people in the music industry I described at the top of this email who also read it, is that it all seems so very contrived.

That Gomez is merely the shiny new face of corporate music trying to find an audience niche amongst the influential and affluent teen market In North America, especially of teenage girls who are perhaps overly-indulged by their well-meaning parents that finds her palatable if not very original.

Not the good part of corporate music, like a certain consistency in the quality of the recording studios or the knowledge and experience of the sound engineers you might work with, or even the quality of the hotels you stay at, but the negative things that we are all in agreement on.

Inline image 1

After reading this article, I thought back to the interview with Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard) 
on Channel 4 early last year -as seen above in a screenshot of my first blog post on her from February 4th, 2012.

I was so impressed by what she said and how sincere she was in saying it.
That is, to the extent that I could fully understand what she was saying and hinting at to the hosts! :)

Still, the reason I sent this article to you today is because this is a great snapshot of a major American media company, which, because it's located in the world's entertainment capital, and has been losing lots of longtime readers, advertisers and money (and fired lots of reporters), is trying quite desperately to be seen as still relevant.

 Which is why they were fully-prepared to swallow whole a pre-digested corporate music advertisement and pretend that it was really journalism.

In the late 1970's and most of the '80's, the Times' ad-filled Sunday paper were famous for
their weight, often coming in at well over eight pounds during the pre-holidays, the largest in America in those pre-Internet days.

 Back when they had among the best group of foreign correspondents that had ever been assembled, plus really great political and sports columnists who could tell a story in original and compelling ways, which is why so many of them were syndicated nationally in other U.S. papers, like the ones in Miami that I grew-up reading.

 Like Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist Jim Murray, whom I read in the Miami News, the afternoon paper that I preferred to the Miami Herald in part because I knew so many of the reporters, columnists and editors who worked there when I was in high school, but spent lots of time there in the Herald building on Biscayne Bay.

I think within a few days, the reader comments at the LAT website will not be quite so friendly and positive about Becky G., with lots of people asking why the editors are putting something so lightweight on their front page that seems to almost be more like an advertisement than a genuine news article.

So with all this in mind, perhaps next week, rather than do some things I already have planned, I should fly off to Stockholm again, except this time, stay at some crazy expensive hotel in Stureplan, rather than the much more reasonably-priced Omena Stockholm on Torsgatan that I stayed at the last five days of my nine-day trip in January.
Then, sometime after lunch, perhaps before going over to Fotografiska, I will suddenly "discover" Zara Larsson, 
Ha! Ha! Ha!



Yes, the amazing 15-year old dynamo with that powerful voice whom I've only been following for nearly four years or so, and wanted to write about on my blog for years.
I've followed the ups-and-downs of Zara since she was one of the handful of very talented kids profiled on TV4's very compelling Tuesday night documentary series from 2009-2010 that I wrote about here on the blog at the time, "Jag ska bli stjärna (I'll be a star).
Except, of course, Zara's already signed a contract with Sony.

poriel2 YouTube Channel video: Zara Larsson - Uncover - Live on SVT's 'Allsång på Skansen' in Stockholm. June 25, 2013, the first show of the summer. Uploaded on August 2, 2013. http://youtu.be/undi-9G68Hc

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=632634726760695&set=a.502708629753306.115426.502667543090748&type=1
Zara Larsson - Uncover (Introducing EP / 2013)
http://youtu.be/gdzJ9wyV3QU

Aftonbladet
Zara Larsson får treårskontrakt i USA,
Svenska popundret ska bli vår nästa superstjärna
(Zara Larsson gets three-year contract in the U.S. 
Swedish pop wonder will be our next superstar)
By Jonna Blessed
May 10, 2013
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article16748824.ab  

 http://zarish.blogg.se/
https://www.facebook.com/ZaraLarssonOfficial
http://www.youtube.com/user/ZaraLarssonOfficial

 ------
Anni in New York this summer, new album comes out next month.
Full Of Keys - Snow Glass Apples
http://www.youtube.com/user/FullofkeysOFFICIAL
https://twitter.com/FullOfKeys

 https://www.facebook.com/cecilianilssonofficial
http://instagram.com/cecilianilssonofficial
@CissiNilssonn - https://twitter.com/CissiNilssonn

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Non-Muslim women in Sweden wearing hijabs this week to show moral support for Muslim women in Sweden in wake of shocking attack on pregnant Muslim woman in southern Stockholm suburb of Farsta; @hijabuppropet, @Nabila_AFR, #hijabuppropet, @lindblomkarin, @pontusahlkvist


SVT video: De bär slöja som solidaritetshandling (They wear the veil as act of solidarity). Aired August 19, 2013. 
Article at http://www.svt.se/kultur/sjal-som-solidaritetshandling
The best line in the article, in my opinion is from Humanist that ends, "trakasserier är aldrig en form av kritik.” (Harassment is never a form of criticism.)
Non-Muslim women in Sweden wearing hijabs this week to show moral support for Muslim women in Sweden in wake of shocking attack on pregnant Muslim woman in southern Stockholm suburb of Farsta; @hijabuppropet, @Nabila_AFR, #hijabuppropet, @lindblomkarin,
@pontusahlkvist, 





 http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201308192111-0022988

 Aftonbladet's article, I morgon beslöjar vi oss av solidaritet (Tomorrow we veil ourselves of solidarity) has by far the most facts about what really happened last week, and its their coverage that's largely responsible for this campaign gaining traction and being taken seriously. Imagine that, South Florida, a newspaper actually doing somethng besides living off its history!:
A heavily pregnant mother of three was beaten in a parking lot in the Stockholm suburb of Farsta Friday when a strange man started to pull her veil and clothing as he shouted that "people like you should not be here." He pounded her head against a car so hard that she lost consciousness. Police were alerted three times before they finally showed up, and once in place, they argued that there were sufficient grounds to investigate the incident.
http://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/article17314519.ab

 All tweets with hashtag #hijabuppropet
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23hijabuppropet&src=hash&mode=realtime


Even after all the negative attention and even brutal criticism she has garnered the past few months, even Social Democrat pol Veronica Palm got into the swing of things and tweeted this:


On the other hand, Palm has spouted so many empty-headed platitudes about important issues in the past, it's hard to know if she's serious or instead, playing the role of the sort of person who always exists in Western society who ends up making something that's serious actually look more like a fad, diminishing the efforts of others who are well-intentioned and find their message hijacked by someone who likes attention.

 So, judging all this from many thousands of miles away, problematic in even the best of circumstances, like here where I've read and watched lots of news stories about this, as well as opinionated tweets, I can't quite figure out if in this instance, Palm is actually being sincere, or, is playing the media-savvy role she so often has in the very competitive Swedish media -sometimes willingly it has seemed to me- of the good-looking and pampered female Socialist politician living-off the fruits of the bourgeoisie that so many of her supporters openly malign and deride, esp. online, but who keep Palm and her friends and supporters living the good life without too much drama or pain in their lives, no thanks to them.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Complete lack of concern shown by Eleanor Sobel, Joe Gibbons and Shevrin Jones for their Hallandale Beach constituents re wasted HB CRA $$$ is galling -and is noticed by LOTS of voters and reporters; Have HB's state legislators said or done a single thing re the Hallandale Beach CRA scandal, or done anything to help get a thorough audit of it by the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Comm., so that HB residents can finally get the long-overdue financial accountability that HB Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew of Lewy & Sanders have fought? So far, the answer is a big fat NO

My short and to-the-point email of Monday to the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee in Tallahassee, jlac@leg.state.fl.us
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/View_Page.pl?Directory=committees/joint/Jcla/&File=index_css.html&Tab=committees
regarding a matter of great public concern in the city I live in.


Monday August 19th, 2013
12:30 p.m.

To Whom It May Concern:

As of this morning, has the Florida Joint Legislative Auditing Committee received 
any correspondence from the following state legislators formally requesting that JLAC 
perform an audit of the Hallandale Beach CRA: Sen. Eleanor Sobel, Rep.  Joe Gibbons
and Rep. Shevrin Jones?

Living here, and being very involved in the effort to get your Committee to do one so that
citizens of this community can finally get the financial answers that we have long been
denied, I can tell you that there are no media reports of any of the three of them doing so,
thus far, so I just want to get confirmation of that fact.

Thank you for your assistance!
-----

 For those of you who don't know, state Rep. Shervin Jones represents the part of Hallandale Beach west of the FEC Railroad tracks and Dixie Highway.
In my opinion, he is also a career-politician-in-training just like like Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Alexander Lewy, and obviously I mean that as a big warning sign for anyone who cares about common sense and actually solving problems, instead of relying on tried, tired and unproven ideas that come from liberal orthodoxy.

 Jones has recently been brought up short by his caviar dreams and his West Park reality, the reality that gave him a gerrymandered seat for all practical purposes. But in a state like Florida with term limits, even a gerrymandered seat promising no competitive races doesn't seem as fun a sinecure as it once did, even for an African-American pol who had no real experience of any kind, yet drew no opposition when he first ran, in part because his father is the mayor of the city he's from.
That gives you an idea of what the district is like -not a lot of civic discourse.
More like a herd mentality.



 Anyway, Jones, of FL House 101, who is supporting Lewy in his effort to replace term-limited Gibbons in the FL House District 100 seat in 2014, and Gibbons in his efforts to defeat former Hollywood City Commissioner Beam Furr in the 2014 race to replace term-limited Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger -who endorsed Furr many months ago- is under investigation by the Broward State's Attorney office for his curious spending habits.
Or is it his expensive eating habits so very far from home?  



Broward Beat
State Rep. Likes To Eat On Lobbyist’s Dime
By Buddy Nevins
August 2, 2013
State Rep. Shevrin Jones likes to eat….well…on his campaign’s dime.
He’s basically found a way for lobbyists like Ron Book, who donated $1,000, to pay for his meals.
Jones has spent roughly $2,000 of the $9,350 he raised from lobbyists on “meetings” and “campaign meetings” in various restaurants. Lobbyists were the only ones giving to his campaign.
Jones has no opponent.

Read the rest of the post and reader comments at
http://www.browardbeat.com/state-rep-likes-to-eat-on-lobbyists-dime/



Broward Beat
State Atty Investigates State Rep’s Campaign
By Buddy Nevins
August 12, 2013
The Broward State Attorney’s Office is investigating state Rep. Shevrin Jones’ campaign expenses, a well-placed courthouse source said.
The source said a Browardbeat.com post triggered the investigation into Jones’ spending at restaurants in addition to a campaign loan repayment.

Read the rest of the post and reader comments at
http://www.browardbeat.com/state-atty-investigates-state-reps-campaign/

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Run-amok govt. gravy train in Los Angeles and corresponding lack of common sense in public policy; Steve Lopez of LA Times positively owns story re LA taxpayers angry about $$$ spigot at city's Dept. of Water and Power. City officials upset re proposed new contract under which employees still WON'T have to contribute a cent towards their own healthcare costs.; DWP's unlimited sick pay policy has cost LA taxpayers $35.5 Million since 2010 for extra days off that AREN'T covered by the agency's 10-day cap; New LA mayor Eric Garcetti has a "back to basics" plan but will city council and unions just ignore it?






"I don't have more pockets for you guys to dip into to get more money for rate increases..."
Los Angeles Times
Angry about the money spigot at L.A.'s Department of Water and Power
City officials get an earful from residents upset about proposed new contract under which employees still won't have to contribute toward healthcare costs.
By Steve Lopez
August 17, 2013, 12:00 p.m.
Ordinarily, I don't spend more than an hour or so at a time in Los Angeles City Hall. I get in and out of there, quick as a burglar, to avoid having my judgment impaired.
I thought longingly about that approach on Friday, when I attended a windy public hearing on a proposed new contract for employees of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. For the first two hours, public officials explained the contract, in mostly rosy terms.
It wasn't perfect, they said, but pretty good. 
Well, I guess I don't have to tell you that lots of concerned LA taxpayers had a different idea, right?
Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0818-lopez-dwp-20130818,0,3154788.column



Los Angeles Times
Costly perk forces DWP to shell out extra if it gives work to outside contractors
Overtime clause hikes the department's costs for hiring contractors.
By Jack Dolan
August 15, 2013, 6:44 p.m.
It's no secret Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees are paid well. But a little-known clause in their union contract ensures they can work extra hours and collect even higher wages when private contractors are hired to help them get the job done.
The so-called "outsourcing bonus" traces back to a single sentence inserted into the city-owned utility's labor contract nearly two decades ago. Intended partly to discourage use of private companies with lower labor costs, the contract provision requires DWP managers to offer overtime to any employee who could have performed tasks assigned to a contractor — such as engineering, construction or clerical work. 

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-bonus-20130815,0,1495706.story











Los Angeles Times 
DWP's unlimited sick pay policy costs millions
The L.A. utility has paid $35.5 million since 2010 for extra days off that aren't covered by the agency's 10-day cap.
By Jack Dolan
July 26, 2013, 5:00 a.m.
Los Angeles' Department of Water and Power has paid thousands of employees a total of $35.5 million since 2010 in extra sick days under an unusual program that the utility's top executive acknowledges has been vulnerable to abuse.
DWP employees benefit from a 32-year-old policy that allows them to take paid days off well beyond the agency's 10-day-a-year cap on sick days. Last year, 10% of the department's roughly 10,000 employees took at least 10 extra days off, the data show. More than 220 took an extra 20 working days off, or about a month, according to a Times examination of data obtained under the California Public Records Act. 

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-sick-20130726,0,889920,full.story

-----
Steve Lopez LA Times  @LATstevelopez  https://twitter.com/LATstevelopez

 Jack Dolan  @jackdolanLAT  https://twitter.com/jackdolanLAT

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Obama's passivity in U.S. foreign policy, esp. in Egypt, is setting-off alarms in D.C. Old Conventional Wisdom: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. CW for 2013: Obama golfs while Egypt burns. Even while majority within pro-Obama U.S. Mainstream Media continue giving him a free pass, many at The Washington Post and other D.C. foreign policy centers are VERY ANXIOUS about Obama's lack of concern or influence, witness WaPo's Jackson Diehl's devastating column, "Obama’s Dangerous Passivity on Egypt and Syria on Display." Consider this but a taste: "Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office." Diehl is 100% correct!





Obama's passivity in U.S. foreign policy, esp. in Egypt, is setting-off alarms in D.C. Old Conventional Wisdom: Nero fiddled while Rome burned. CW for 2013: Obama golfs while Egypt burns. Even while majority within pro-Obama U.S. Mainstream Media continue giving him a free pass, many at The Washington Post and other D.C. foreign policy centers are VERY ANXIOUS about Obama's lack of concern or influence, witness WaPo's Jackson Diehl's devastating column, "Obama’s Dangerous Passivity on Egypt and Syria on Display."
Consider this but a taste: "Obama looks like a president in full flight from a world that looks nothing like what he imagined when he took office." Diehl is 100% correct!


The Washington Post
Obama’s dangerous passivity on Egypt and Syria on display 
By Jackson Diehl
August 15, 2013 
There was hope a few months ago that mounting chaos in the Middle East, and a revamping of President Obama’s national security team, would prompt the president to snap out of what looked like a deepening torpor in foreign policy.  
Instead, this president’s extraordinary passivity in the face of crisis may have achieved its apotheosis this week. On Wednesday, as Egyptian security forces gunned down hundreds of civilians in the streets of Cairo, an unperturbed Obama shot another round of golf at Martha’s Vineyard. His deputy press secretary was left to explain to reporters that the administration remained firmly committed to not deciding whether what had happened in Egypt was a coup.
Read the rest of the column here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-obamas-dangerous-passivity-on-egypt-on-display/2013/08/15/69d085fc-0522-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html

 @JacksonDiehl https://twitter.com/JacksonDiehl

 Jackson Diehl archives at Washington Post: 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/jackson-diehl/2011/02/24/ABccMXN_page.html







The Washington Post
By Editorial Board
Egypt erupts as security forces attack Morsi supporters
August 14, 2013

 The Post's powerful mince-no-words editorial includes this passage;
This refusal to take a firm stand against massive violations of human rights is as self-defeating for the United States as it is unconscionable. Continued U.S. support for the Egyptian military is helping to push the country toward a new dictatorship rather than a restored democracy. Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, the coup leader, increasingly is styling himself as a national savior in the mode of such former dictators asGamal Abdel Nasser;
Read the rest of the editorial at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/egypt-erupts-as-security-forces-attack-morsi-supporters/2013/08/14/f230a080-04fa-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html



















When one of the most-dependable and prominent Obama supporters in the Washington new media, Eugene Robinson, an actual Pulitzer Prize winner, takes him to task and personally attacks his morality and lack of backbone, that's more than just news within the Beltway. 

 The Washington Post
A lack of spine on Egypt
By Eugene Robinson
August 15, 2013
There may be little the United States can do to end the savage bloodletting in Egypt, but at least our nation can be loyal to its ideals by bearing witness and telling the truth. In this, President Obama has failed.
Read the rest of the column at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-a-lack-of-spine-on-egypt/2013/08/15/33a7bc80-05df-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html













Christian Science Monitor
Why Mahmoud Badr is pro-Army, anti-Muslim Brotherhood
Interview: Mahmoud Badr, the activist whose online campaign helped to bring down Egypt's president, now supports the army attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood. Why?
By Yasmine Saleh, Reuters
August 17, 2013
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0817/Why-Mahmoud-Badr-is-pro-Army-anti-Muslim-Brotherhood

More at: http://www.csmonitor.com/content/search?SearchText=Egypt



------
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)