MB Civic

latest news is police have disappeared from the streets and there’s widespread looting that people blame on close to a thousand criminals who have been released by Mubarek from prisons and police who have shed their uniforms .. citizens have formed organized neighborhood militias to protect the city .. Huff Post reports that, “The Arab world’s most populous nation appeared to be swiftly moving closer to a point at which it either dissolves into widespread chaos or the military expands its presence and control of the streets” .. the Al Jazeera office in Cairo is being shut down though the live video stream is still going strong .. Reuters tweeted that, “ElBaradei aims to join protesters later on Sunday in Cairo’s Tahrir Sqaure, hub of anti-Mubarak protest – opposition” – military jets have began flying lower and lower over the square, whatever that means .. Democracy Now’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous, whose uncle lives in Cairo and has been a lone protester against the Mubarek regime for years, just arrived on the scene and filed a report that said, “Mubarak’s two sons and his wife, Suzanne, have fled Egypt, as have some of his closest business cronies. Many people believe that is a sign that Hosni will not be far behind” and that protesters tried to advance on the Interior Ministry building where police were holed up and “the police began firing live ammunition at the crowd, forcing them to flee back to the square” – Sharif also has a Twitter feed .. Firedoglake reports that the Muslim Brotherhood “will not put forward a candidate for president but instead support a broad coalition of all parties except Mubarak’s NDP” and that the Brotherhood sez “there is a struggle going on amongst the military leadership about whether to withdraw support for the government” .. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley tweeted, “U.S. supports a peaceful, orderly transition to free, fair and credible elections that lead to real democracy in #Egypt” and Clinton is on all the Sunday newz shows going blah blah Democracy blah Egypt blah blah peaceful this peaceful that blah blah blah.. – the death toll has passed 100 .. again the best way I’ve found to stay on top of events is the Huff Post live blog and the Al Jazeera live video feed .. other good links are Jeremy Scahill‘s twitter feed, Firedoglake‘s Egypt coverage page, updates from The Guardian, CNN reporter Ben Wedeman‘s twitter feed and another twitter feed by Zero Hedge that can be pretty hilarious – mab