memeorandum: Egyptian troops let protests proceed as Mubarak names vice president (Griff Witte/Washington Post)

2:30 PM ET, January 29, 2011

Top Items:

Obama's handling Egypt pretty well — After President Obama spoke last night about the situation in Egypt, my Twitter feed and inbox filled up with angry denunciations, with lots of people complaining bitterly that he had endorsed Mubarak's grim struggle to hold on to power …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and The Daily Dish

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Egyptians Defiant as Mubarak Appoints a No. 2 — CAIRO — Tens of thousands of protesters once again defied President Hosni Mubarak's curfews and threats of a harsh crackdown, taking to the streets for a fifth day as the Egyptian leader struggled to hold on to the power that he has maintained in nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule.

Discussion: Babylon & Beyond, The Atlantic Online, The Daily Dish, Associated Press, Outside the Beltway, Examiner, CNN, Fausta's Blog, Weasel Zippers, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, The Page, Weekly Standard, Online NewsHour, Prairie Weather, Washington Post, The Lede and The Jawa Report

Griff Witte / Washington Post:

Egyptian troops let protests proceed as Mubarak names vice president — CAIRO - Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators swarmed central Cairo on Saturday in the largest demonstration yet against the rule of the country's longtime autocratic leader, President Hosni Mubarak.

Discussion: Aljazeera, Little Green Footballs, CNN, Hot Air, msnbc.com and Mish's Global Economic …

Al Jazeera Blogs:

Live blog 29/1 - Egypt protests — on January 29th, 2011. — Visit our special Anger in Egypt coverage page. — Watch Al Jazeera English broadcasting live from Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. — Read up on a timeline of the past four days of unprecedented protests.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Daily Dish, The Gateway Pundit, Hullabaloo and Daily Kos

BBC:

LIVE: Egypt unrest day five — Live coverage of the fifth day of anti-government protests in Egypt, as tens of thousands of demonstrators return to the streets in several cities, after the Egyptian president fired his cabinet and promised reforms but refused to step down.

Discussion: Telegraph, Blogcritics, Mediaite, POMED, Online NewsHour and The Huffington Post

CNN:

JOHN KING, USA — Unrest in Egypt — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — JOHN KING, HOST: Thanks Wolf and good evening everyone. Tonight Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tries to quiet a political crisis, but his defiant tone leaves …

Discussion: POMED

Washington Post:

The U.S. needs to break with Mubarak now — ON FRIDAY, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians did something that the Obama administration, and many others in Washington, believed they would never do: They rose up against their government, demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's autocracy.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, Guardian, New York Times, Booman Tribune, The Plum Line, Ben Smith's Blog and American Power

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Kerry: Premature to threaten cutting Egypt's $1.3B aid — Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) refused to commit Friday evening to cutting U.S. aid to Egypt as a result of the political turmoil in that country. — Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it was premature …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Hill

hrw.org:

Live Updates From Egypt — I went to the Morgue at the Alexandria General Hospital, where I saw 13 bodies of dead people - all men, young and old, but mostly young. Also visited the hospital's emergency room and saw many people who had been shot and were still waiting to get treatment.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, New York Times and Prairie Weather

CNN:
Egypt protests draw mixed reaction in region

Discussion: BBC and Associated Press

Robert F. Worth / New York Times:
Al Jazeera Covers Protests Despite Hurdles

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Sky Dancing, Suburban Guerrilla and The Daily Beast, more at Mediagazer »

Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter / Human Events:
America Must Stand With Her Ally Egypt

Discussion: American Power, The Other McCain, Hot Air and Fox News

Heather Hurlburt / The New Republic:
Five Things to Understand About the Egyptian Riots

Discussion: Neptunus Lex, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, The Mahablog, Wall Street Journal, The Moderate Voice, Crooks and Liars, Rortybomb, National Review and Opinionator

Amb / Fox News:
AMB. JOHN BOLTON: Is Democracy Coming to Egypt at Last?

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, FrumForum, Atlas Shrugs, The Washington Note and The Daily Caller

Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times:
Egypt's Military Is Seen as Pivotal in Next Step

Discussion: This Just In, rubber hose, The Atlantic Online, Outside the Beltway, Pajamas Media, The Nation and The Reality-Based Community

Jesse Lee / White House.gov Blog:
President Obama on the Situation in Egypt: “All Governments Must …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, New York Times, Blue Virginia, The Agonist and The Daily Dish

President Barack Obama / Time:
Transcript: President Obama's Remarks on Egypt

Discussion: Babylon & Beyond, LewRockwell.com Blog, Political Language and Reuters

Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:
‘Whose Bright Idea Was It to Send Joe Biden Out to Talk About Egypt?’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Weekly Standard, Don Surber and Firedoglake

Telegraph:
Egypt protests: America's secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising

Caroline Glick:
The pragmatic fantasy — Today the Egyptian regime faces …

Discussion: Power Line, Wall Street Journal, NY Daily News, Pajamas Media and Commentary

Gil Yaron / Spiegel Online:
Israel Fears Regime Change in Egypt

Discussion: Salon, Hot Air and Newshoggers.com

Mark Landler / New York Times:
Obama Cautions Embattled Ally Against Violence

Discussion: JustOneMinute, News Desk, Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Guardian, Big Peace and Patterico's Pontifications

Brian Katulis / Center for American Progress:
Time to Rethink U.S.-Egyptian Relations

Discussion: Yglesias

The Politico:

Right takes refuge in Constitution — The federal lawsuits against last year's health care overhaul were greeted with eye-rolling and snickers from many conventional legal scholars. — Nobody's laughing now. — A federal judge in Virginia ruled late last year that a key underpinning …

Discussion: Althouse and Right Wing News

Myglesias / Yglesias:

Karl Marx, Real Business Cycle Theorist — Kudos to Benjamin Kunkel for trying to present an accessible Marxist account of the current financial crisis. I was struck reading the piece, though, by how similar the Kunkel/Harvery/Marx account of the crisis is to linguistically and ideologically quite different accounts from the right.

Discussion: Grasping Reality …

Benjamin Kunkel / London Review of Books: Benjamin Kunkel: Marx's Return

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Obama ‘willing’ to golf with Boehner — President Obama is willing to play golf with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to help improve their relationship, a top White House adviser said Saturday. — Outgoing White House senior adviser David Axelrod said that the chances are “good” …

Bloomberg:
Axelrod Says U.S. Will Push Egypt for Reforms (Transcript)

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Weasel Zippers and Sky Dancing

Political Punch:
Axelrod: President Obama Has “On Several Occasions Directly …

Discussion: The Politico, Big Government, ABCNEWS, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media, Verum Serum, Firedoglake and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Mark Perry / Foreign Policy:

Not worth the paper they're printed on — This week's release of the Palestine Papers by Al Jazeera television might well be a classic example of “burying the lede.” While the revelations sparked revulsion among Palestinians about how much their leadership conceded in talks with Israel …

Discussion: Salon, Babylon & Beyond, The Huffington Post, Mondoweiss and Suburban Guerrilla

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

Inquiry Is Missing Bottom Line — There was something almost comical about the way the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released its report on Thursday morning. — About a week ago, reporters were told they would get a sneak preview of the report the morning of its release. The location was undisclosed.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, naked capitalism, The Big Picture and Prairie Weather

Paul Krugman:

The Wal-Mart Decade — I've been putting some material together for textbook revision, and found myself looking at European versus US productivity performance over the past couple of decades. I sort of knew the facts here, but this recent paper by Bart van Ark (pdf) seemed …