The Economist checks in on Saudi Arabia:
[S]ubtle changes are afoot. An increasingly irreverent, subversive tone infuses chat in the thriving Saudi ether via text messages, Twitter and Facebook. This reveals a growing gap between the elderly princes and an increasingly cosmopolitan populace. On June 17th only a few score women actually got behind the wheel to protest against the unique Saudi ban on female drivers. By and large, police shied away from intervening, emboldening more women to join the movement. The Saudi way of life may be about to shift.
Abraham Wagner goes further, seeing vulnerability at the top:
Clearly change is coming, whether by death or revolution. King Fahd, never an enlightened or benevolent monarch, suffered a stroke in 1995 and has not been "dealing with a full deck" in years. His relatives and potential heirs aren't much better. … As the U.S. must now look to a broader and more realistic strategy in the Middle East, a serious approach to Saudi Arabia must be an essential element of the process. Critical here is an intelligence estimate of the near and longer-term viability of the Saudi regime, not unlike that undertaken with respect to Yugoslavia before the death of Tito. A public version of this estimate should also be made available to inform public debate.
A group of Saudi women has stoked international demand for a boycott of Subaru due to the car company's support of the regime. Indonesia, whose migrant workers are integral to the Saudi economy, has halted emigration in protest of the beheading of an Indonesian maid.
Update: A reader points out a pretty big error we should have caught:
You were just quoting so you get a pass, but it is completely true that King Fahd has "not been dealing with a full deck in years" – because he died 6 years ago. Thanks for playing, Abraham Wagner!
The Dish 