Collectively as a country we can claim no credit for this positive popular revolution against a dictator we spent so much money trying to keep in power.

Count me among those who constantly point out the dissonance between Democratic Primary Candidate Barack Obama’s progressive promises and the actions of President Barack Obama which tend to continue and even extend (as we see today on FISA) the Constitutional and international law abuses of George W. Bush. However, I am becoming more and more convinced that despite the accusations of fumbling and presenting multiple, conflicting public positions on the Egyptian uprising, a key strategic move by the Obama administration appears to have been communication to the Egyptian military that the US would move quickly to cut off financial aid to the military if it attacked peacefully demonstrating civilians. Would a President John McCain have taken this approach? I don’t think so, and we have his comments from last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference to support that idea.

What we saw happen in Egypt over the past few weeks and the final joyous hours was a citizen-led movement. It was a worker-led movement as well, with female beneficiaries of micro-finance and youth entrepreneurs and the working class taking to the streets to air their grievances about their personal conditions. It was not a Western-led coup, or something the West even had a whole lot of leverage to effect. In his final days, the Mubarak regime tried to claim a grand conspiracy of foreign operatives and satellite news channels angling to push them out, a play to nationalist fervor. But that’s not what happened. The people in the street toppled them.

President Obama spoke to that today in his remarks.

I approach this week’s edition of The Party Line with a bit of trepidation–talking about Egypt in a segment I have to tape some hours before I post is risky business. No doubt “facts on the ground,” as they say, have changed since I recorded this. What I really want to address, though, is not so much what is happening in Tahrir Square, but what the hell is going on with the message uttered by US administration officials. That also might have changed since I made this video, but that is exactly what I want to talk about.

In a brief announcement on Egyptian state television, Vice President Omar Suleiman said that President Hosni Mubarak has relinquished power and asked the Egyptian Armed Forces Council to assume responsibility for leadership of the country.

During President Hosni Mubarak’s speech last evening to the Egyptian public, the crowd of pro-democracy protesters began to shout angrily as it became clear that Mubarak would not recognize their demands. The angry shouts have been followed today by enormous crowds in Cairo’s Tahrir Square continuing their demand for an end to the current regime.

I hope Heartless Dick and RumaDon stay gone after today, and I hope Hoser Mubarak and his vice-torturer go away tomorrow. All of these bad men worked together to hurt a lot of people and it’s time for them to just go away and let nice people take over.

The rumors of just what Hosni Mubarak will do are rampant. I’ve heard several reports that Mubarak will resign, and just as many that Mubarak will not. There are reports that he’ll give up power to Omar Suleiman, and reports that he will cede to a transition led by the military. So it’s not clear [...]

The latest reports (or should we call them all rumors?) point to the Egyptian military planning to assume at least transitional power in Egypt. What this means for the people and their demands is hard to predict.

The immense crowd in Tahrir is cheering louder and louder – and clearly feels that something is about to change. Of course, Mubarak’s removal is not the protesters sole demand and we’ll have to wait and see if he does leave – and if the other demands are met for full regime change.