To my few faithful readers you may have noticed that the review has been absent for some time. I apologize for the absences, and I am here to say that the Porkins Policy Review is now back, and will resume posting.
These were scenes from Cairo of thousands of women protesting after graphic images emerged of security forces beating a woman. After a fifth day of clashes between the ruling SCAF and the Egyptian people at least 14 people have died and more than 900 injured. There is a growing sense that the SCAF is as corrupt and brutal as Mubarak. It is also becoming increasingly obvious that the military does not want to cede power back to the Egyptian people. A disconnect has also been growing between the military and what is going on in the streets. At a recent press conference military officials denied that anyone was injured or killed during the fights going on in Cairo. He even went so far as to say no live ammunition was used. While this press conference was going on soldiers were in fact shooting and killing civilians.
Here is the video of the woman being stripped and beaten for anyone who hasn’t already seen it.
Yeditoh Acharonoth has reported that a malfunction in the Isfahan refinery in Iran has caused a fire. In November an explosion took place at the same facility. This continues with the ongoing narrative of a clandestine war against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program on behalf of either Israel or the U.S. While accidents do happen, it seems unlikely that all of these are merely a coincidence. The most terrifying aspect to all of this is the thought that this could lead to some sort of nuclear melt down, leaving sections of Iran uninhabitable for decades. At the moment though the U.S. and Israel seem to be open to anything that would stop the Iranian nuclear program.
Is all of this mourning in North Korea real? Watching state television out of the secretive nation and it seems as if the population is overwhelmed with grief. This should be taken with a MASSIVE grain of salt. The mourners are all residents of Pyongyang, which is filled mostly with Kim loyalists. If state TV cameras were to go outside the capital the images would be much different. Also keep in mind that many of the people crying for Kim Jong-il have known nothing but the Kim family as rulers. Bradley K. Martin has a great piece in Global Post describing many of the scenes we are seeing out of the hermit kingdom.
It seems that yet again Speaker Boehner and the House Republicans have dashed the hopes of ending this year with a payroll tax cut extension. Major Garrett has laid out his predictions for what could happen if the next few weeks in a recent National Journal article. My prediction is that this will be another black mark for the Speaker. His idea that this will look bad for the Democrats is not going to work. House GOP members will look ridiculous by not being in favor of a tax cut for the middle class during the holiday season.
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