SF Rally in Support of the Egyptian People -- II

Thanks for turning out.

The national ABC evening news coverage yesterday evening was pretty bad. They started by spending 4 minutes on foreigners stranded in airports. This is a topic which should be mentioned, but I thought that some tourists and businessmen were overestimating their risk, and their discomfort at having to wait a few days was overblown.

The next topic was the question of whether terrorism towards the U.S. will increase when Mubarak is out. They had Richard Clarke from the Pentagon saying that al Qaeda will like any opportunity to try to direct the government. They didn't explain at all that the Muslim Brotherhood is at sharp odds against al Qaeda, and have committed to nonviolence since the 70s so that they could exist as a semi-charitable organization. Then they briefly covered whether Egyptians have some legitimate grievances.
Even the emphasis on looting at the national museum is being distorted, because I've heard people on the radio speaking as though the working class are a bunch of hoodlum 'thugs' who are looting on a widespread level... as though they need a strong government to keep them in order. For some reason, many americans have been convinced that working class Egyptians want to adopt islamism, when north Africa seems pretty secular in its political parties. Democracy Now and other shows are able to convey the situation and attitude among the urban and rural people of Egypt.

anyone know when the next solidarity demo in the bay is planned? i heard something about saturday but not seeing anything on indybay yet.