Bloodless Coup

The Bad Gets Worse for Reformists in Egypt

Of course the attacks on what judicial independence exists were ugly. But this really puts the nail in the coffin of reform.

Egypt's parliament complied with a request from President Hosni Mubarak to extend the country's 25-year old emergency laws another two years, effectively ending a recent cycle of reform in which much more was promised than delivered.

Happy talk from Condi Rice or the Bush White House notwithstanding, the second largest recipient of US foreign aid dollars remains a closed, elitist, repressive regime.