Then, yesterday, three Republican senators ignored Inhofe and Boxer’s calls to keep the bill free from controversy and attempted to attach an amendment mandating the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which Democrats warned could “kill the bill.” Now, Sen. Rand Paul (R) has put a hold on the bill until leadership promises him a vote on an amendment that would suspend foreign aid to Egypt, Politico reports:

Paul wants to offer an amendment to the Senate transportation bill that would cut off aid to Egypt if nongovernmental employees working with the U.S. government are detained or held in the country, as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s son, Sam, currently is. And unless the senator decides to offer consent to move forward to the transportation bill, the Senate would be stuck in a 30-hour holding pattern.

“We’re not going to grant back our 30 hours unless we get a discussion on Egypt. We’re not asking for a lot of time; we just want a discussion and a vote on whether or not we should continue sending money to Egypt,” Paul told POLITICO.

Paul said he is taking action now because he fears his amendment won’t be allowed if he waits until debate on the transportation bill begins.

Noting the urgency of the transportation bill, Boxer and Inhofe agreed not to attach amendments or provisions that could be controversial. It contains no taxes and none of the other traditionally controversial measures included in such bills.

“2.8 million jobs hang in the balance” of the bill’s passage before the current transportation package expires, Boxer told Politico. “And we have obstruction from our friends on the Republican side.”

-Fans of Lizzy Caplan should be happy to hear this.

-Bad news for Egyptian comedians under the new regime.

-It’s so weird to me that Dave Grohl will be more identified with the Foo Fighters in history than he is with Nirvana.

-Taxing violent video games to pay for programs to combat childhood obesity and bullying.

-Kanye West will dispel your stereotypes about the Middle East.

-M.I.A. has a new video out:

Egyptian women at a demonstration in Tahrir Square

Women agitating for political change in these countries face the ever-present threat of sexual abuse and the societal stigma that results from sexual violence in highly patriarchal societies. Unlike physical violence, rape and other forms of sexual violence can permanently damage a woman’s reputation and status within her community. Not only is she considered unfit for marriage but rape causes profound humiliation to the male members of her family and, potentially, her community.

Rape was used excessively during Moammar Qaddafi’s attempt to remain in power in Libya. Towards the end of his struggle, his regime ordered soldiers to go into villages and rape the female adults and children, some as young as 8 years old, in front of family members. Condoms and Viagra were found in pockets of dead Qaddafi soldiers. Benghazi journalists reported seeing the ground littered with Viagra after troops had been through.

Rhetoric related to women and sexual violence always comes back to ideas of honor, which is held in the highest regard within Islamic societies. Raping a woman strips the woman, her family, and her community of “honor.” Qaddafi understood this dynamic and used it as a tool to prevent women from organizing opposition to his regime.

Despite Egypt’s notorious reputation for sexual harassment and violence against women, female activists have been at the forefront of efforts to change Egypt’s political system from the very beginning. Perhaps predictably, Egyptian women have also faced sexual violence as they seek to effect political change.

On March 9, 2011, just under a month after President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, protesters returned to Tahrir Square to express frustration with the slow pace of reforms. The Egyptian military broke up the demonstration and arrested demonstrators, including at least 18 women. These women were beaten, charged with prostitution, and forced to submit to “virginity checks.” When confronted, a senior general said, “The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine… these were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square.” In a patriarchal religious society in which female sexuality is heavily policed, accusations of promiscuity serve to damage the reputations of female protesters.

By casting protesting women as “not like your daughter or mine” and subjecting them to sexual violence, Egyptian authorities delegitimize their political voices in a social context that does not consider women attempting to access the public-justice system to be “respectable.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in October announced it would award a Nobel Peace Prize to Tawakkul Karman, a female Yemeni activist involved in ongoing protests against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In Yemen, women celebrated Karman’s peace prize — but were caught off guard when they were systematically sought out and brutally attacked by regime supporters. Forty women were attacked in Taez as they marched and celebrated in support of Karman. “We were attacked by regime thugs with empty bottles and stones,” an organizer said on condition of anonymity. Karman’s Nobel prize has made her the face of the revolt against President Saleh. Yemeni women have, in her words, transformed “from their traditional role as victims, into leaders playing a major role in the revolution.”

As these transformations continue to unfold, it is unclear what the role of women will be in the newly formed societies. However, early stages of the revolutions have not fared well in women’s rights, and international actors can do little but stand by and hope that during and after these social and political uprisings, vulnerable demographics are protected.

Download the issue brief “Rape and the Arab Spring: The Dark Side of the Popular Uprisings in the Middle East” [PDF]

Now, questions are being raised outside Egypt, too. Both the U.S. and the United Nations weighed in on the clashes in statements. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released as statement yesterday expressing “concern,” urging protesters to remain peaceful and accountability for government violence:

I am deeply concerned about the continuing reports of violence in Egypt. I urge Egyptian security forces to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians, including the rights to peaceful free expression and assembly. We call upon the Egyptian authorities to hold accountable those, including security forces, who violate these standards. Those who are protesting should do so peacefully and refrain from acts of violence.

Also on Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement of “alarm” at the “excessive use of force” deployed by the authorities:

The Secretary-General is highly alarmed by the excessive use of force employed by the security forces against protesters and calls for the transitional authorities to act with restraint and uphold human rights, including the right to peaceful protest.

The Secretary-General underlines the importance of an atmosphere of calm to support Egypt”s electoral process as part of its transition to democracy and the early establishment of civilian rule.

Over the weekend, the government denied that security forces were using violence, even as a first-hand report from the New York Times spoke of people both with and without uniforms chucking pieces of concrete down on protesters outside the Interior Ministry. Now, an officer from Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces says the protests are a “systematic” attempt to, as the BBC put it, “sabotage the country’s security and provoke the army.”

January 14: Tunisia’s president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after weeks of mass protests. On June 20, Ben Ali and his wife were tried and convicted in absentia on theft charges and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Saudi Arabia has refused to extradite. Tunisians went to the polls in October to elect a new government in voting that international observers are calling remarkably free and fair.

February 11: Egyptian pro-democracy demonstrations ousted President Hosni Mubarak after weeks of protests inspired by the events in Tunisia. While Egypt faces new rounds of violent turmoil after recent parliamentary elections, the next session of Mubarak’s trial is set for this month.

April 11: Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo was forced from power after refusing to relinquish the presidency after losing an election in November 2010. Gbagbo has been transferred to the International Criminal court where he faces four charges of crimes against humanity.

October 20: Libyans joined the Arab Spring fervor in mid-February. NATO-assisted rebels took the capital Tripoli in August, and the forces of Libya’s new government captured and killed former leader Muammar Qaddafi in what the ICC recently said could be considered a war crime. Elections are expected to be conducted next year.

November 23: After months of Arab Spring inspired protests, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a deal in which he would step down and “transfer his powers to his deputy ahead of an early election and in return will get immunity from prosecution.”

December 17: Exactly one year after a Tunisian vendor set himself on fire, sparking a wave of fallen autocracies throughout the region, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il dies. However, there are currently no hopes for transfer to a democratic system in the communist country as Kim Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jong Un is expected to take over leadership.

Of course, while not technically considered a “dictator” or the leader of any particular country, it wasn’t a great year for al Qaeda No. 1 Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a Navy SEAL raid on May 1.

So if 2011 wasn’t exactly the year of the despot, will the trend continue in 2012? A near civil war in Syria threatens President Bashar al-Assad’s rule there; mass backlash against rigged elections in Russia is getting larger; and in Iran, the Green Movement hasn’t entirely disappeared.

So what are the candidates likely to say? When they do talk national security, it’s usually trite and unfounded attacks on President Obama like he has made America weak, thrown Israel “under the bus” or goes around the world apologizing for America. Mitt Romney will probably tell voters that Obama thinks “there is nothing unique about the United States.” Rick Perry will most likely sound off about how “the world has never been as dangerous” because of Obama. Look for Newt Gingrich to oppose whatever the president supports, even if that means the former speaker betrays a position he held as little as 13 seconds prior. And as for Herman Cain, he’s still trying to figure out whether China has nuclear weapons, let alone tackle the president’s foreign policy positions.

Seeing that these GOP candidates aren’t likely to accurately represent the president’s foreign policy during these debates, ThinkProgress has released a new report — “Obama’s Foreign Policy Successes” — detailing key foreign policy victories during the Obama administration, from killing Osama bin Laden and ushering Middle East democracy to ending the war in Iraq and reducing nuclear weapons stockpiles. Read the full report here.

(HT: @monaeltahawy)

THINKPROGRESS: What do you think about the movement here in the United States and what advice would you give them to succeed and do you want them to succeed? Do your support their causes?

MAHER: We support freedom of speech in any place. And also, we want to decrease the gap between people. Between wages and salaries. And also, we want to make a change from the U.S. policy to supporting the people, not support businessmen.

THINKPROGRESS: What advice do you have for people who are protesting here in the United States for the changes they want? Related to the economy, to having better salaries, to being less foreclosed on, kicked out of their homes, less economic inequality?

MAHER: I think they must keep demonstrating, and keep finding new ways to reach more people, to make great change and great pressure on the government.

THINKPROGRESS: Do you think they can win?

MAHER: Yes, I do.

Watch it:

Protests over economic inequality have been raging in the United States since Sept. 17, meaning they are now one month and one day old.

Muslim and Coptic Christian in Tahrir Square

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at the report’s launch yesterday, said:

In the Middle East and North Africa, the transitions to democracy have inspired the world, but they have also exposed ethnic and religious minorities to new dangers. People have been killed by their own neighbors because of their ethnicity or their faith. In other places, we’ve seen governments stand by while sectarian violence, inflamed by religious animosities, tears communities apart. Now, the people of the region have taken exciting first steps toward democracy—but if they hope to consolidate their gains, they cannot trade one form of repression for another.

In February, Coptic Christians and Muslims offered a united front in Tahrir square, demanding that Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak step down. But the show of unity has been short-lived, according to the report, which highlighted attacks against Copts, Egypt’s Christian minority, and condemned the Egyptian government’s failure to prosecute crimes against Copts or redress laws that discriminate against Christians.

Clinton also noted mistreatment in Iraq, where she said the “hateful, senseless” Monday attack on Shiite pilgrims had “no aim other than to undermine the fabric of a peaceful society,” and Libya, where there have been attacks on sub-Saharan African and Egyptian migrants.

While Middle East and North African countries received special attention due to the recent pro-democracy movements and the steps towards more inclusive governance in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, the “countries of particular concern” in the State Department’s report are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.

All of the countries “of particular concern” have been sanctioned by the U.S. except Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.