Success! Uninstalling Dictator

The best tweet I've come across so far about the exit of Mubarak:

Mubarak Finally Resigns, Even Al Jazeera Struggles to Keep Up

Some amazingly good news this morning as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has finally resigned his post. I share some of the uncertainty about what might come next, but I think it's far from certain that the country will go down a radical path. There are many reasons to be hopeful for that country, its people, and its regional role. It's perfectly appropriate to bask in the hope that people-power success creates.

The next steps will be dissected endlessly by individuals and media around the world. For now, I'll just note that Al Jazeera, which has provided probably the best coverage of the Egyptian protests (in second place: the much-maligned CNN), had a live video feed of its English coverage of Egypt on its web site (very helpful, because Al Jazeera continues to be hard to get on cable in America). The screen capture above shows that live stream, with the big headline, "Mubarak Steps Down," while right below it is the crawl of headlines, showing the headline that people were still protesting across Egypt as "President Mubarak Refuses to Step Down."

Yep, things moved so fast that even the instant news crawls couldn't keep up with the actual headlines. Al Jazeera did correct the crawl in a few minutes, but it's always exciting to watch news being made at such a pace that even the big news organizations can't keep pace.

Barney Is Frank with the Right

This video has gone very viral, which is probably a sign that liberals and others who support health-care reform are extremely eager to find a champion amidst the weak Democractic response to the planned wingnut protests at the town halls.

Athletes with Guts: Iranian Soccer Team Shows Their Colors

The captain and five other memebers of Iran's national football (er, soccer) team wore green armbands during the first half of a game against South Korea in Seoul. Watch the BBC News report:


As they mention in the video, these players are due to return home after the game, coming back to a country that has banned foreign reporters, is killing and beating up protestors and other opponents of the religious regime, and frantically trying to put a stop to the biggest threat to the government since the 1979 revolution. Godspeed to the protestors, I think, and good for the national team players who demonstrated some real bravery.

I'd love to see some MLB players sport a green armband or ribbon. It might not be their country, but it's a universal cause.