The Commentariat -- February 4

President Obama made a statement about Egypt this afternoon:

     ... At 2:35 min. into the video below, President Obama takes only one question, that one coming from Reuters's Alister Bull:

     ... Here's Politico's liveblog of the presser. The full press conference is here, but you'll get the meat of it from the excerpts above:

Noam Chomsky in the Guardian: it isn't radical Islam that worries U.S. leaders -- it's independence; the U.S. supports the regimes that support us.

Maram Mazen, a Bloomberg reporter who was on vacation in her native Cairo, is set upon by plainclothesmen & police. A policeman tells her, "You will be lynched." Video.

Christiane Amanpour interviews Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman:

     ... Here's Amanpour's print report on the interview.

Nicholas Kristof reports again from Tahrir Square in Cairo with vivid descriptions like this: "As I arrived near the square in the morning, I encountered a line of Mr. Mubarak’s goons carrying wooden clubs with nails embedded in them." Here's a video report from Kristof:

New York Times Editors: Egyptian President Hosni "Mubarak’s attempt to blame the opposition and foreigners for the mayhem ... is patently absurd.... Mr. Mubarak has lost the legitimacy to continue governing Egypt, but he has chosen survival over his people.... An important question is what role the army — which gets nearly $1.5 billion in annual American aid — is prepared to play.... Egypt and its people need a quick transition to an era of greater political and economic freedoms. The violence is making that transition harder." Here's Christiane Amanpour's report of her interview of Mubarak, which the Editors mention:

... Here's a related story by Amanpour. ...

... Rachel Maddow explains the Mubarak strategy of violence & why his paid "demonstrators" are attacking journalists:

... Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "... as the crisis in Egypt has intensified this week, elevating foreign affairs above domestic political skirmishes, the potential Republican candidates and the party’s leaders in Congress have, with only a few exceptions, had little to say.... The lack of debate underscores the relative absence of muscular Republican voices on foreign affairs in general." CW: biggest loudmouth: the Newt.

Zachary Goldfarb & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration is likely to recommend reducing the size of mortgages eligible for government backing..., a move that could make getting a home loan in high-priced areas ... more expensive.... The proposal to let the higher limits lapse is among the most concrete elements in [a] long-awaited review, which examines various options for reshaping the role government plays in the mortgage finance market."

Robert Reich in Salon on House Republican budget cuts: "They discovered the job of tackling the budget will be far bigger and tougher than it looked from the far end of the campaign trail. Americans don't want big spending cuts. They want to cut what doesn't work. And now congressional Republicans have got to explain this to the Tea Partiers, who are still howling and yelling."

Betty Friedan & unidentified 1960s-era "housewife." New Yorker art.CW: Today is the fifth anniversary of feminist Betty Friedan's death & the 90th anniversary of her birthday. Last week I linked to this New Yorker article by Louis Menand on the impact of Friedan's 1963 book The Feminine Mystique. To celebrate the advances in women's rights that Friedan espoused & helped inspire, Sunday night at 10 pm ET (right after the Super Bowl!) PBS is airing a documentary about Nancy Reagan, who just said no to feminism, too. Emily Bazelon has a review of the PBS special here. So, Republicans, you wanna wait till after the Nancy Reagan Show to eliminate that PBS funding?

Local News

You are voting for the first time in the history of our state to codify discrimination into our constitution. -- Zach Wahls ...

... Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old student, speaks before the Iowa legislature against a resolution to end civil unions in the state. It's an amazing speech in every way:

Stephen Colbert comments on Ohio Gov. John Kasich's all-white cabinet:

... CW: in case you were wondering, Kasich is a Republican. It isn't his fault. He only knows white people.

News Ledes

President Obama met with Canadian PM Stephen Harper, this afternoon. They held a joint press conference. AP: "President Barack Obama on Friday appealed to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to begin an orderly process to relinquish the power he has held for 30 years. But Obama stopped short of calling for Mubarak's immediate resignation. 'My hope is he will end up making the right decision,' Obama said...." Washington Post story here. See videos of statement above. ...

... AP: "President Barack Obama will take questions from reporters Friday on the continuing violence in Egypt during what may be a pivotal day in the crisis, as anti-government demonstrators aim to escalate their street protests. Obama and members of his administration are edging closer to blaming the government of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak ... for the violent clashes in Cairo." ...

... AP: "U.S. intelligence agencies are drawing criticism from the Oval Office and Capitol Hill that they failed to warn of revolts in Egypt and the downfall of an American ally in Tunisia. President Barack Obama has told National Intelligence Director James Clapper that he was 'disappointed with the intelligence community' over its failure to predict the outbreak of demonstrations would lead to the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunis...." ...

... New York Times: "Defying a wider government crackdown, tens of thousands of Egyptians packed Cairo’s central Tahrir Square on Friday, chanting slogans, bowing in prayer and waving Egyptian flags to press a campaign for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak that has transfixed the Arab world and tested American diplomacy." Story has been updated; the new lede: "Cracks in the Egyptian establishments’s support for President Hosni Mubarak began to appear Friday as jubilant crowds of hundreds of thousands packed the capitol’s central Tahrir Square to call for his ouster, this time unmolested by either security police or uniformed Mubarak loyalists."

New York Times: "A lawsuit brought by the trustee for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme accuses the owners of the Mets of being so enamored of the enormous profits they earned while investing over decades with Mr. Madoff that they ignored repeated and specific warnings that he might have been operating a fraud. The lawsuit, unsealed in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan on Friday morning, contends that the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, used the profits from their investments in Madoff to establish personal fortunes, create dozens of family trusts and financially fuel their array of businesses, from the Mets to real estate to the creation of a cable sports network."

New York Times: "The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, warned Congressional Republicans on Thursday not to 'play around with' a coming vote to raise the government’s legal borrowing limit or use it as a bargaining chip for spending cuts.... It was the first time that Mr. Bernanke, who in contrast to his predecessors has avoided taking sides in partisan debates on fiscal matters, had spoken out on the debt ceiling issue."

Politico: "Mark Kelly, husband of wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, will fly the space shuttle Endeavour's final mission in April, according to a source familiar with the decision. Kelly and NASA are expected to make an announcement at a press conference Friday." AP update here.

Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American: "A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit filed by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and 10 other Mississippians challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform law. U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett, in a 23-page decision handed down Thursday, said Bryant and the other plaintiffs did not have standing to file the lawsuit."