*Bumped because there are great links and comments in thread.  So we’ll just keep bumping up with updates as things change. Thanks to everyone for info.
(Ynet)- The earthquake in Egypt caught us off guard. As was the case before, this time too our intelligence officials did not predict it, yet we are in good company: No Western country, including America, predicted this, just like they did not predict Hamas’ rise in Gaza.
Yet there is one more thing we can learn from the events in Egypt, aside from the fragility of the region we inhabit, and it is something that’s not easy to digest: The Western world’s and mostly America’s treachery. We learned that the way they abandoned President Mubarak and gave him the cold shoulder can happen to us too. Or in other words, we cannot count on the Americans at a time of crisis. 
Everyone understands that Mubarak has to go, yet we would expect the American Administration to back him rather than disown him. It’s the decent thing to do at least. For dozens of years, he was the only leader the West could rely on, the dam in the face of Islamization. He should have been treated differently if only in gratitude. And when America does this to the Egyptian president, what should any other ally think? Perhaps that it’s better to conduct oneself like Iran or Syria, rather than like a moderate Arab state.
There is no doubt that something fundamental about the American Administration has changed. The US conduct in the Middle East attests to inexperience and lack of familiarity with the region. It appears as though the world is being led by a rookie. ~ Damn, that’s well said ~ (Full Article)
Also:……
(NewsBusters) – MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews appeared on Morning Joe, Friday, to slam President Obama’s handling of the escalating crisis in Egypt, saying it made him “ashamed as an American.”
Matthews, who famously declared Obama gave him a “thrill” up his leg, excoriated what he perceived to be the President’s disloyalty to Egypt’s leader, Hosni Mubarak.
The Hardball host berated, “And Barack Obama, as much I support him in many ways, there is a transitional quality to the guy that is chilling.” He added, “I believe in relationships…You treat your friends a certain way. You’re loyal to them.”
Matthews has previously lauded the authoritarian Mubarak. Pointing out Mubarak’s stand against Hezbollah and other extremist elements in the region, the anchor on January 31 wondered, “How can you say he’ll easily be replaced? This guy’s the George Washington of peace over there.
https://www.eyeblast.tv/public/eyeblast.swf?v=hdqG8zqGkU
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CAIRO – Protesters and regime supporters fought in a second day of rock-throwing battles at a central Cairo square while new lawlessness spread around the city. New looting and arson erupted, and gangs of thugs supporting President Hosni Mubarak attacked reporters, foreigners and rights workers while the army rounded up foreign journalists. 
The government increasingly spread an image that foreigners were fueling the turmoil and supporting the tens of thousands in the street who for more than 10 days have demanded the immediate ouster of Mubarak, this country’s unquestioned ruler for nearly three decades.
“When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” Vice President Omar Suleiman said in an interview on state TV.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley condemned what he called “a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo.”
Pro-government mobs beat foreign journalists with sticks on the streets outside downtown Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests. Dozens of journalists, including ones from The Washington Post and The New York Times, were reported detained by security forces. One Greek print journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver, and a photographer was punched in the face by attackers who smashed some of his equipment. The Arabic news network Al-Arabiya pleaded on an urgent news scroll for the army to protect its offices and journalists, and Al-Jazeera said two of its correspondents were attacked.  (Read More…)
ALSO
Israel gives feedback JERUSALEM (AP) – President Barack Obama’s response to the crisis in Egypt is drawing fierce criticism in Israel, where many view the U.S. leader as a political naif whose pressure on a stalwart ally to hand over power is liable to backfire.
Critics – including senior Israeli officials who have shied from saying so publicly – say Obama is repeating the same mistakes of predecessors whose calls for human rights and democracy in the Middle East have often backfired by bringing anti-West regimes to power.
Israeli officials, while refraining from open criticism of Obama, have made no secret of their view that shunning Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and pushing for swift elections in Egypt could bring unintended results.  (Read More)
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This won’t end well……. (MSNBC) – White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama’s delivered a “frank” directive to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday that he must begin the transition to a new government now. “The message that the president delivered clearly to President Mubarak was that the time for change had come,” Gibbs said in the daily White House briefing. NBC News’ diplomatic correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, says that’s diplo-speak for “blunt and unmistakable” and means the United States is telling Mubarak he has to go, no questions asked. 

  Nuf said on this tweet……
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Does this sound like a “Moderate to you ?…… (INN)- Egyptian uprising idol Mohammed ElBaradei has ordered Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave the country by Friday – or he will be a “dead man walking” and not just a lame-duck president.   The aging Egyptian leader, reportedly suffering from cancer, insists he will remain in power. He said Tuesday night, “This dear country is my country … and I will die on its land.”  Mubarak dramatically announced he will not run in September’s presidential elections, but shortly afterwards, U.S. President Barack Obama dealt him a stinging slap, stating that a transition to a new government should begin “now.” In addition, he sent a senior diplomat to meet with ElBaradei. (Full Article)
This is the Muslim Brotherhood supported replacement to lead Egypt?  And yet the lefty media is asserting he is a moderate?…. ok, what do you think they’ll say tonight… (((crickets)))
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**Update: Anderson Cooper Attacked (see below)** Getting Worse…… (Fox News)- Hundreds of pro-government supporters attacked protesters Wednesday in Cairo’s central square, where thousands were pushing ahead with demonstrations demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak supporters were out in the streets for the first time Wednesday in large numbers, with thousands demanding an end to the anti-government movement a day after the president went on national television and rejected demands for him to step down.
Those calling for Mubarak to go have been out in Cairo and many other cities for more than a week, and they drew by far their largest crowd on Tuesday when at least a quarter million packed the central Tahrir Square and the downtown area around it. Hundreds of thousands more have turned out in other cities across this nation of 80 million.
By early afternoon, an Associated Press reporter saw Mubarak supporters break through a human chain of anti-government protesters trying to defend thousands gathered in Tahrir. They tore down banners denouncing the president and fistfights broke out as they advanced across the massive square in the heart of the capital. A number of those involved were injured and some were bleeding from their heads.
The anti-government protesters grabbed Mubarak posters from the hands of the supporters and ripped them.
The confrontations began just hours after a military spokesman went on national television and asked the protesters to disperse so life in Egypt could go back to normal. During the clashes, soldiers and tanks who have been guarding the square did not appear to intervene.  (Read More)
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Egyptian Protesters Unmoved by Mubarak’s Announcement He Won’t Seek Reelection…
CAIRO (AP) — President Hosni Mubarak defied a quarter-million protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing Tuesday he would serve out the last months of his term and “die on Egyptian soil.” He promised not to seek re-election, but that did not calm public fury as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters.
The protesters, whose numbers multiplied more than tenfold in a single day Tuesday for their biggest rally yet, have insisted they will not end their unprecedented week-old wave of unrest until their ruler for nearly three decades goes. Mubarak’s halfway concession — an end to his rule seven months down the road — threatened to inflame frustration and anger among protesters, who have been peaceful in recent days.
In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, clashes erupted between several hundred protesters and government supporters soon afterward, according to footage by Al-Jazeera television. The protesters threw stones at their rivals, who wielded knives and sticks, until soldiers fired in the air and stepped in between them, said a local journalist, Hossam el-Wakil.
The speech was immediately derided by protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Watching on a giant TV, protesters booed and waved their shoes over their heads at his image in a sign of contempt. “Go, go, go! We are not leaving until he leaves,” they chanted. One man screamed, “He doesn’t want to say it, he doesn’t want to say it.” (Read More…)
Doesn’t look like these folks are gonna quit until Hosni Mubarak is either dead, jailed, or out of the country gone…..
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Anderson Cooper & CNN crew attacked….. 
(Kansas City Star) — Anderson Cooper and his crew were attacked by supporters of Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday.  CNN’s Steve Brusk tweeted that Cooper was punched in the head 10 times.
The incident came as pro-Mubarak supporters attacked protesters calling for the Egyptian president to step down.  Speaking on “American Morning” after the attack, Cooper said that he and his crew had been trying to go to a neutral zone between the two groups.  “We never got that far,” he said. “We were set upon by pro-Mubarak supporters punching us in the head.”  Cooper said that he and the crew tried to escape, but that the crowd only grew: “the crowd kept growing, kept throwing punches, kicks … suddenly a young man would look at you and punch you in the face.”….. (Read More)
I’m no fan of AC or CNN, but these guys gotta be careful.. That is no place to be putting yourself right now for a news story.  I hope they stay safe….. Sheeesh
————-  Last but not least – Frilliance —————-