Shlonkom Bakazay?

Refreshing update: Judges have decided to not go gentle into that good night by refusing to play a role over-seeing elections, rendering the results unconstitutional, unless legislation is passed that guarantees their independence.

Judges in Egypt have refused to oversee September's presidential election unless new legislation is passed guaranteeing their independence.

They also want assurances they will be allowed to oversee all stages of the electoral process.

More than 2,000 judges backed the demands at a Cairo meeting of the judge's club, an elected body of Egypt's judiciary.

This is an unprecedented show of defiance to the Egyptian government.

The Egyptian government is used to getting its own way, but now it is facing a revolt from a key branch in the state.

True democracy in Egypt? I doubt it, but let's wait and see if Saddam Mubarak will go all Uzbeki on the people or not.

Original Post:

Eight members of Al Jazeera's staff was arrested, further stifling any real change or transparency in the Egyptian dictatorship. The dream of holding truly democratic elections in Egypt is fading fast. Saddam Mubarak says, "Don't touch my judges!"

Aljazeera has reported that Egyptian security authorities arrested eight members of its crew preparing to cover a meeting of the General Assembly of Cairo's Judges Club.

Aljazeera's correspondent Samir Omar and producer Ahmad Nour are among those arrested on Friday.

The afternoon meeting is aimed at pressing the judges' demand that they be allowed to fully monitor the presidential elections, and is expected to announce the judges' final position on the issue of supervision of the forthcoming elections.

The judges have threatened not to supervise the elections at all if they are not given full control over each step of the election process.

They have also demanded the approval of a law on the independence of judicial authorities.

Why doesn't the US fund the opposition in Egypt? Is it only because of the peace treaty with Israel? How long will fake democracy last in Saddam Mubarak's Egypt?

And concerning the possible pardoning of Puppet Crook Chalabi by Jordan...well, King Saddam Abdullah's dictatorship needs some further fine-tuning in order for this to seem plausible. Or perhaps all he needs is a simple bribe of 300 million dollars, which I'm sure Chalabi can supply since he's probably stolen that and more from Iraq and Iraqis in the past couple of years. A peace treaty with Israel is probably going to take a while considering Iraq doesn't even have stable essential services. So, that isn't an option at the moment.

Good luck to all you crooks and puppets. You're gonna need it. Make sure those Swiss bank accounts are sealed air-tight. I've been hearing some rather sickening 1st-hand accounts of the bribery going on in Iraq at the moment. If you try to come and tell me it's not happening from both Americans, Iraqis, and other contractors...well, I'd know you'd be completely full of shit. Corruption is as bad as it has ever been. And there are people making boat-loads of money off of Iraqi suffering. It makes me sick. If there is a hell, there will be a special sub-circle for you bastards making money and gaining power in such a manner.

Ah...it feels better to get that off my chest. I've been feeling incapable of blogging as of late because I don't know what else to say about what's going on in Iraq anymore. Things are clearly spinning out of control and there is no improvement in essential services and security.

And we apparently have most of our government in place. If you ask me, this government will not last the, what, 5 months they have left. Anyway, if they do...it will suprise me.

Another thing...

I was inspired to sit down and try to think about solving all the world's problems again when I saw Hotel Rwanda the other day. If I come up with anything, I will let you know. It was a great film...and as I've been very interested in what happened in this low-point of civilization since 1996, it was amazing to see it brought to life. I also saw Kingdom of Heaven. I thought it was actually very good. There are some historical inaccuracies, but it still resonates the general feeling and situation quite well from what we know. I certainly believe it was fair, though. The era of the Crusades were the lowest point in the history of Christianity.

That's all for now. I am surprised I squeezed out so many words. Hehe...

Lim.