"Judging by the relative success of Moscow and Beijing in taming the democratic potential of the Web, it seems dictators learn fast and are perfectly capable of mastering the Internet. It's only by anticipating their response that those of us who care about democracy in the West can make their tough methods less effective. After all, these regimes have turned mostly to Western companies and consultants for advice about the technology of repression.

Triumphalism about recent events in the Middle East is premature. The contest is still in its early stages, and the new age of Internet-driven democratization will endure only if we learn to counter the sophisticated measures now being developed to quash it."

By Robert Booth in Abu Dhabi, Guardian.co.uk, February 21, 2011

British firms are still selling crowd control weapons despite the government having revoked 44 licences.

....."The Middle East was a growing market until a few weeks ago," said one arms trader who, like most, asked not to be named.  "It's a question now of who do we want to sell to. Do we want to sell hi-tech equipment to [Egypt's] Muslim Brotherhood? I don't think so."  Louise Robson, representing BAE, agreed the turmoil had thrown the market up in the air.  "It is too early to say where it will end up," she said. "Given what is going on at the moment, nobody is likely to be talking about how to spend their defence procurement budget."....

Also see:

Biggest Mideast defence fair opens amid tensions
Agence France Presse, February 20, 2011‎

ABU DHABI — The largest defence equipment exhibition in the Middle East opened in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi on Sunday, as military spending continues to grow in the region amid rising tensions.  The International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) 2011 opened with a parade of helicopters, fighter jets and armoured vehicles, in the presence of UAE Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum....

And:

PREVIEW-Defence firms eye billion dollar Mid-east deals
By Stanley Carvalho & Mahmoud Habboush, Reuters, February 18, 2011

ABU DHABI...- Global arms manufacturers will vie for deals worth billions of dollars at the Middle East's largest military expo as unrest sweeping across the region pushes countries to beef up security. The International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) opens on Sunday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates with some 1,060 companies participating including Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co, Dassault Aviation, and Italy's Finmeccanica....

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, February 22, 2011

...Beijing —....Chinese leaders are calling for new ways to defuse social unrest in what appears to be an ominous harbinger of tighter controls on the Internet and elsewhere.

Splashed across the front page of Monday's People's Daily newspaper were highlights of a speech given by President Hu Jintao at a Saturday meeting that included all nine members of the Politburo's standing committee and senior cadres from around the country.

Hu, in the speech at the Central Party School in Beijing, called on the nation to "enhance and complete management of information on the Internet" and to "establish a system of public opinion guidance on the Internet," according to excerpts. The speech also called for danwei, the work units to which Chinese traditionally belong, to enhance their roles in "social management"; for a database that would keep track of the movements of migrant populations; and to make clear the "social responsibilities" of private companies....

Also see:

China Co-Opts Social Media to Head Off Unrest
By Jeremy Page, Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2011

BEIJING—China's domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang, added his voice to calls for tighter Internet controls as censors ratcheted up temporary online restrictions, a day after a failed attempt to use social-networking sites to start a "Jasmine Revolution" in China.

Mr. Zhou, one of the nine members of the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top decision-making body, was quoted in official media Monday as saying Chinese officials needed to find new ways to defuse social unrest....

9:53 pm: There are no details yet on what Gaddafi might say. That it's Muammar Gaddafi to speak, rather than his son Saif al-Islam who did so last night, suggests this could be an important announcement.
9.41pm: OK. This is potentially big news. Al Arabiya is reporting that a speech by Gaddafi is imminent. We'll keep you updated on that.

The airforce has been bombing/strafing (according to different reports) Tripoli, and firing salvos by sea.  Some military have joined in the insurrection, and the largest tribe in the south has joined them.  Nothing from the White House as of an hour ago.  Info by phone has been alarmingly frightening.

Follow live events at the link above; Juan Cole has lots more on the past 24 hours.  www.juancole.com

And according to a Wisconsin police union president, whether the police agree or disagree with their governor's politics, they would "absolutely" carry out any order given to them ... even if that order included using force against their fellow Americans gathered in peaceful protest.

That's the message from Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association (WLEA) executive board president Tracy Fuller, who's organization recently issued a statement condemning the governor's attempt to strip public unions of their collective bargaining rights. Fuller is also a Wisconsin State Patrol inspector.

The recent crisis in Egypt makes clear what many have known for a few years now. Al Jazeera is the best major media source. The reporting is a little more fearless, the exposés are a little more in-depth, the feature stories and interviews are a little more thoughtful than all the other guys. If you’ve got to pick just one media outlet, you’d be a stubborn mule indeed not to pick Al Jazeera. It is more serious than CNN, more genuinely global than the New York Times, and more complicated than the BBC. This is not a matter for serious debate anymore. It is a basic fact. While watching Al Jazeera’s coverage of the revolution in Egypt on live web stream, I managed also to catch an extremely good interview with the important and eloquent President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, in which he was asked tough questions about freedom of the press that American media outlets usually tiptoe around or ignore.

"Governments worldwide will increase their role in global food markets and may boost stockpiles and subsidies or impose trade curbs to head off the protests that have rippled through the Middle East, commodity traders said."

By Peter Beaumont and Martin Chulov, guardian.co.uk, February 19, 2011

....The pro-government Al-Zahf al-Akhdar newspaper warned that the government would "violently and thunderously respond" to the protests, and said those opposing the regime risked "suicide".

William Hague, the UK's foreign secretary, condemned the violence as "unacceptable and horrifying", even as the Libyan regime's special forces, backed by African mercenaries, launched a dawn attack on a protest camp in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

Britain is scrambling to extricate itself from its recently cosy relationship with Gaddafi...

Also see

#Libya

since there ain't much to do with journalism being allowed there right now; it's currently running at about 50 tweets per minute.

History repeats itself: food riots are breaking out across the poorer nations, the Middle East is in turmoil and Brent crude has passed the $100 mark – 2011 is opening just like 2008 did.

It was a significant year in terms of the global economy: social unrest around the world over a spike in the cost of staple foods, and the runaway price of oil that eventually triggered the worst global economic crash since the Great Depression. While there were undoubtedly other factors behind the downturn, 2008 stands as a benchmark in terms of oil and economics – a shorthand for high oil prices and economic turmoil. We don’t want another 2008, especially with the faltering recovery that has yet to turn substantive cash injections into jobs.

by Jason Reed, Reuters, February 18, 2010

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted on Friday to choke off cash to fund President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, intensifying a fight with Democrats over budget cuts and deficits.

The House move against the 2010 healthcare law -- one of Obama's main legislative victories -- is certain to be rejected by the Democratic-led Senate, but it has raised tensions over federal spending that could lead to a government shutdown....

MORE:

House Set to Approve Cuts; Time Short to Stop Shutdown
By David D. Herzenhorn, New York Times, February 18, 2011 9:26 PM ET

The House vote will set the stage for a standoff with Senate Democrats and the White House that each side has warned could lead to a government shutdown.

House descends into federal budget-cutting chaos, just as planned
By Gayle Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, February 18, 2011

House amendments to cut the federal budget kept coming Friday, with Senate Democrats and the White House steeling for a fight. But Republicans say it's 'the House working its will.'

House of Mirrors: A Week of Odd Allies, Sharp Shifts
By Janet Hook and Naftali Bendavid, Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2011

The House's weeklong debate over spending cuts exposed just how much the 2010 election has blurred the lines of authority in Washington.

Critical votes in the debate over a proposal to cut more than $61 billion this year have been decided by alliances that shift, break and re-form across party lines.

On Friday, old-guard Republicans teamed up with Democrats to defeat a push by tea-party conservatives to cut even more than the House Republican leadership proposal. Earlier in the week, Republican deficit hawks and liberal Democrats allied to kill a defense contract in the home state of House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio),,,,

Fervent G.O.P. Freshman Ignite Clash on Funds
By Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times, February 17/18, 2011

Pushing Cuts that Party Leaders See as Too Deep

By "Anonymous," Al Jazeera Opinion, February 16, 2011

A loosely organised group of hackers has been targeting oppressive regimes and has said this is just the beginning.

Al Jazeera's editorial note: The author identifies as part of Anonymous, a loose collective of internet hacktivists which uses the technological infrastructure on which the globalised world depends to maintain a vigilante presence online.

Modern man, the kind with the 1400 cc brain, is said to have been around for about 200,000 years. For the first 190,000 years however, not much of note happened, or at least that we know about. Tools got better - sharper spears and axes - but in general our remote ancestors went through life hunting and gathering. Little seems to have happened, for early man was completely occupied in feeding himself and, of course, procreation. Researchers think that in all these years the world's population never got to more than 15 million.