We’ve been covering the ongoing Egypt protests at work since they began, and a few things have become abundantly clear:

• The US is ending up on the wrong side of history here. Hosni Mubarak, as a president, is done; he just doesn’t know it yet.
• Following that, a president who needs the army just to keep his own citizens from tearing him apart has ceased to be a “valuable regional ally” to anyone, for any purpose.
• Addressing your population on state TV while cutting off their internet and phones is a shitty way to convince them that you’re serious about “dialogue”. Not one MSM outlet has commented on this, which is shameful (if they chose not to address it) or stupid (if they didn’t notice).

Flickr user Nora Shalaby shared this image with us at work, and I’d like to include it here. This sums up why Mubarak’s TV address was such a dismal failure: Egyptians aren’t angry at the Transport Minister. They’re not angry at the Agricultural Minister. They’re angry at the President, i.e. the one person who is not losing his job in the promised reshuffle.

Protestors are torching and looting the NDP offices. That’s Esperanto for “done talking now”.

Let’s also throw in a quick Twitter widget, so we can keep our ear to the ground…