Obama's Bestest Pal In Cairo Flees His Pharaoic Palace As Demonstrators Battle Police

Oh, Obama.

housands of Egyptians massed in Cairo Tuesday for a march to the presidential palace to protest the assumption by the nation's Islamist president of nearly unrestricted powers and a draft constitution hurriedly adopted by his allies.

The march comes amid rising anger over the draft charter and decrees issued by Mohammed Morsi giving himself sweeping powers. Morsi called for a nationwide referendum on the draft constitution on Dec. 15.

It is Egypt's worst political crisis since the ouster nearly two years ago of authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak. The country has been divided into two camps: Morsi and his fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, as well as ultraconservative Salafi Islamists versus youth groups, liberal parties and large sectors of the public.

Hundreds of black-clad riot police deployed around the Itihadiya palace in Cairo's district of Heliopolis. Barbed wire was also placed outside the complex, and side roads leading to it were blocked to traffic. Protesters gathered at Cairo's Tahrir square and several other points not far from the palace to march to the presidential complex.

Remember when Obama offered some shoot-from-the-lip demands that "Mubarak must go," and quickly too?

I don't see him calling for the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood tyrant. He seems to like Morsi. I wonder what accounts for the difference in treatment between Mubarak and Morsi. Besides the fact that one was pro-American and secular and the other anti-American and Islamist.

Update: Some cops are apparently siding with the anti-Morsi protesters.

posted by Ace at 04:13 PM

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