June, 28 2013, 11:11am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
June 30 Cairo Protests -- Against Authoritarianism No Matter the Ideology
Ahram Onlinereports: "[Egypt] is bracing for a wave of protests running up to and including 30 June -- the day that will mark a year since Morsi was sworn into office following a narrow victory over Ahmed Shafiq in the runoff round of the presidential elections.
WASHINGTON
Ahram Onlinereports: "[Egypt] is bracing for a wave of protests running up to and including 30 June -- the day that will mark a year since Morsi was sworn into office following a narrow victory over Ahmed Shafiq in the runoff round of the presidential elections. The rallying call for the demonstrations is the demand for early presidential elections to end economic, security and other failures that came with Morsi's rule, according to leading opposition figures who have been drumming up support for the demonstrations."
Dr. AIDA SEIF AL-DAWLA, aidaseif at yahoo.com, https://www.alnadeem.org/en
Al-Dawla is with Nadeem Center for Victims of Torture. She was profiled by Time magazine as a global hero in 2004. The Nadeem Center is among a group of non-profits, bloggers and activists highlighting the continuation of torture in post-Mubarak Egypt on the website https://against-torture.net.
She said: "Systematic torture is continuing and Morsi's regime governs with the same policies as SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] and as Mubarak's regime before him. Torture is always a tool of governing where the ruler has nothing to offer the people, when basic rights in freedom, work, decent wages, health care and education are violated; when the interests of the few are protected at the expense of those of poor, marginalized majority of the country and when the ruling regime needs a cover-up for its failures and when sectarian strife spreads nationwide. Under those conditions the regime resorts to random detentions, torture, maltreatment, killing, assaults and harassment on the streets in the hope of spreading fear and terror and ensuring a silent street, empty of protests, opposition and revolution.
"Torture is protected by laws which are not drafted by a few individuals but by a legislative authority, to be implemented by an executive authority and monitored by a judicial authority. The legislative authority in Egypt reduced the definition of torture to torture of defendants. Anybody who is subjected to torture without accusations is not considered a victim of torture irrespective of the brutality and the outcome of the crime whether it took place in the home, on the street, in the police station, or in prison. The legislature also decided that torture is not defined as such if it does not target confessions. So torture aiming to terrorize, to break a person's dignity, to teach a lesson, to humiliate, is not considered torture in Egyptian law. Furthermore the law also provides protection to torturers, since they cannot be brought to justice except after the approval of the public prosecutor who is authorized to close any file and ignore any complaint of torture under the pretext of lack of evidence -- a decision that cannot be appealed or contested except after presenting new evidence, which again can be discarded, the file closed again."
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS, sharif at democracynow.org, @sharifkouddous
Kouddous is a correspondent for "Democracy Now!" and a fellow at the Nation Institute. He recently wrote a piece for the Nation titled, "Egyptians to Morsi: 'We Don't Want You.'" Said Kouddous: "One year ago, many Egyptians had hoped the inauguration of the country's first-ever democratically elected president would mark a turning point following decades of autocratic rule and a turbulent transition. Yet since Morsi took office, the political quagmire has only deepened, the economy has been in decline and daily life has become harder for most Egyptians.
"The country is plagued by frequent fuel and diesel shortages that create long lines outside gas stations and cause incapacitating traffic jams. Electricity blackouts have become a daily routine during the hot summer months. Prices for food, medicine and other staple goods have sharply risen as the Egyptian pound has lost 10 percent of its value leaving already impoverished families less to live on. Unemployment is growing, tourism and investment are down sharply, the stock market hit an eleven-month low last week, while insecurity, crime and vigilante violence are on the rise."
GHADA TALHAMI, talhami at mx.lakeforest.edu
Talhami is emeritus professor in the department of politics at Lake Forest College. Her books include The Mobilization of Muslim Women in Egypt and Palestine in the Egyptian Press.
She said: "Those who expected Egypt's revolution to turn into a Western-style 'Arab Spring' should now revise their calculations. To assume that Egypt's anger at the blatant abuse of power, the corrupt practices, and the colossal foreign policy failures (especially on the Palestinian front) of Mubarak's authoritarian regime would be content with the substitution of another authoritarian government for the previous one no matter their ideological differences flies in the face of Egypt's rich political history.
"The most naive interpreter of Egypt's anti-Mubarak rage was the Muslim Brotherhood itself. Encouraged by his populist base, Morsi proceeded to ignore all constitutional norms and cobble together a ramshackle alliance of pro-Qatari Salafists, bureaucrats and army officers. As in all revolutions, the extent of the neglect and abuse by Egypt's first ideological/social class to rise to the top in the post-Mubarak months will inevitably drive the masses away from the ballot box and into the revolutionary arena. This is because, as Morsi seems not to want to learn, Egypt is undergoing a revolution of great expectations.
"The best that one can hope for at this moment is to allow Egypt's secular masses of workers, women, Christians, liberals and students to take charge themselves. The greatest lesson to the West should be that the Arab masses will not tolerate the subversion of their 'Arab Springs' by the pouring of more Salafis and ill-begotten weapons into the country as had happened in Syria. And perhaps the retirement or forced removal of Sheikh Hamad al-Thani from Qatar's leadership helm will be a lesson to all those who established themselves at the heads of 'revolutionary' governments in Libya and Tunisia by seizing power with the help of outside forces, ignoring their own native people."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access
One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.
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The group behind a popular get-out-the-vote technology platform said Friday that it's registered more than 100,000 new U.S. voters since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race, a surge that came amid mounting Republican efforts to make it harder to register and vote.
Vote.org said that 84% of voters registered in the new wave are under age 35. Nearly 1 in 5 new registrees is 18 years old. Andrea Hailey, the group's CEO, said that "since 2020, we have led the largest voter registration drive in U.S. history," with more than 7.8 million people registered.
After dropping out, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to face former Republican President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) in the November election. The new presumptive Democratic candidate has already earned endorsements from many Democrats in Congress and groups advocating on issues including climate, labor, and reproductive rights.
Vote.org's success comes as Republicans at the federal level are proposing and passing legislation creating obstacles to the ballot box.
Earlier this month, U.S. House Republicans passed Rep. Chip Roy's (R-Texas)
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However, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
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Lee said the SAVE Act underscores the need to pass her recently introduced Right to Vote Act, "which would establish the first-ever affirmative federal voting rights guarantee, ensuring every citizen may exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot."
Earlier this year, U.S. Senate Democrats also reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, legislation its sponsors say will "update and restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act."
Meanwhile, Republican-controlled state legislatures and red-state governors are enacting laws imposing tough restrictions on voter registration, with violations punishable by stiff fines that critics say are meant to dissuade people from registration drives and similar efforts.
Again under the guise of preventing fraud, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed legislation limiting voter registration drives, with fines of up to $250,000 for violators.
"These draconian laws and rules are like taking a sledgehammer to hit a flea," Cecile Scoon, an attorney and president of the Florida chapter of the League of Women Voters,
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Three years after Kansas passed a law making "false representation" of an election official a crime, campaigners say it's become extremely difficult to sign up new voters.
"In 2020, even with the pandemic, we had registered nearly 10,000 Kansans to vote. Now, we haven't been able to register anyone," Davis Hammet, president of the youth voter mobilization group Loud Light, told the Times.
In Louisiana, Republican state lawmakers quietly passed legislation making it easier for election officials to toss out absentee ballots with missing details, limiting how people can mail in other voters' ballots, and restricting the ability to assist people with disabilities with their ballots.
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In Nebraska, Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen last week
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Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that campaigners linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
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"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
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Hartl said the bill "deprives communities of the power to defend themselves and gives that power to Big Oil by making it harder for communities to challenge polluting projects in court," and "prioritizes the profits of coal barons over public health."
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Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
Manchin—who has said this will be his last term in office—has been a steadfast supporter of the fossil fuel industry, partly because his family owns a coal company. The senator says his permitting reform bill "will advance American energy once again to bring down prices, create domestic jobs, and allow us to continue in our role as a global energy leader."
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Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
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