Blogging the democratic revolution
Venezuelan blogger Miguel Octavio is in fine form, outlining the string of stupid arguments a certain general in charge makes for losing one billion dollars in aid money for 1999 mudslides that have resurged in force in the past two weeks. It’s called accountability.
I’m upgrading WordPress, so temporarily there should be some problems, like the website not working. Should be working soon though. UPDATE: IT WORKED! Maybe soon now I can do a redesign of the website. Very cool. DONE: Alright, this is what I’ve come up with so far. Feel free to make suggestions! As for me, I’m going to go black out now.
Thomas L. Friedman makes an eye-opening personal account in the Houston Chronicle regarding the rules Syria plays by, namely, none: When Syria’s Baath regime feels its back up against the wall, it always resorts to “Hama Rules.” Hama Rules is a term I coined after the Syrian army leveled ???????? and I mean leveled ???????? a portion of its own city, Hama, to put down a rebellion by Sunni Muslim fundamentalists there in 1982. Some 10,000 to 20,000 Syrians were buried in the rubble. Monday’s murder of Hariri, a self-made billionaire who devoted his money and energy to rebuilding Lebanon…
Nathan’s weekend edition is up, and PORA is tranforming itself into a permanent think-tank. Vladyslav Kaskiv is one of the leaders of the Pora movement, whose demonstrations ???????? often laced with biting humor ???????? became a memorable feature of those exuberant winter days. Pora drew its inspiration from pro-democracy youth movements in Serbia and Georgia that also helped topple authoritarian regimes. Kaskiv told RFE/RL he and his colleagues planned to institutionalize their experience by setting up an international center in Kyiv to offer assistance and practical advice to democracy advocates throughout the region. ???????We are now in a very active…
Nobody’s blogging this, so I will. Today, Colombia’s army reported a powerful victory against the vicious, drug-trafficking Marxist FARC rebels. Eighty of their thugs were destroyed with minimal casualties taken by the Colombian army. Not only that, a huge drug-trafficking operation was shut down. It’s a significant gain in this war on terror, and less than a week after the New York Times reported that all was lost. While we are at it, let’s mention today’s other news that Colombia, in the middle of a war, is paying off its sovereign debt early, making its international word as good as…
I have been telling you all about Radio Free Nepal the past few days, and they have been an invaluable source of information. And like any good source of information, they have pictures: Arrests made during the democracy protest earlier. It is so hard to get a good idea of what is going on in other parts of the world until you can actually see it. A picture is not only worth a thousand words, but amplifies the impact of a given situation by that much. The Advocacy Project is also telling the story out of Nepal, and are posting…
The Venezuelan Information Office, which is the aggressive propaganda arm of the Chavez regime, does more than just propagandize – it also seeks to discredit critics – in the U.S. It has now has targetted Wall Street Journal editorial page writer Mary Anastasia O’Grady in a concerted campaign. Venezuelan blogger Alexandra Beech at The Sixth Republic has the story here.
There are two noteable articles on Lebanonwire that I noticed. The first is that Chirac is being accused of aiding the opposition. BEIRUT, Feb 19 (AFP) – Lebanese Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad accused French President Jacques Chirac Saturday of encouraging the opposition during a visit to pay condolences after the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri. “When President Jacques Chirac came to Lebanon, he ignored completely the government, the president of the republic and everybody,” Mrad told state Tele-Liban television. “Then he came to accuse, help the opposition to escalate and encourage the opposition to escalate,” he said. Chirac…
I was just passing by C-Span2, and they had George Soros on talking about his book, The Bubble of American Supremacy, something I will probably not be buying. However, we was talking extensively about the Open Society Institute, something I find more valuable than his political leanings in the United States. When asked why he created it, he responded that it was “the result of a mid-life crisis.” Well, I’m glad he didn’t simply settle for a motorcycle.
Venezuelan blogger Miguel Octavio has translated a shocking essay by a poverty expert in Venezuela, who wrote about trying to reason with Chavez regime planning authorities whose solution to poverty was Pol-Pot style forced relocations to the countryside. That’s right, Pol-Pot relocations. He tried to explain to them why a Pol-Pot-style “relocation” of the nation’s poor to the hinterlands would accomplish the same results Pol Pot’s did. The ignorance he encountered (or worse) will make you blanch. Pol-Pot mass relocation really is their plan. Read the whole thing here.
This week’s murder of a kidnapped president’s daughter in Paraguay was disturbing enough in itself. What’s more disturbing is who’s behind it – none other than the FARC terrorists of Colombia, carrying out the operation by email from Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. Read more here.
Regime Change Iran’s daily briefing is up. New satellite intel shows that Iran is building an underground tunnel just north of the Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) at Esfahan. It appears too big to be only for storage. It might be intended to house production facilities for some uranium conversion processes.. Iran already has about 500 tons of uranium concentrate. Update and observation from jriemer: Follow the road that goes along side the explosive storage site to a black topped building (on right of road) and appears to go into the mountainside. Definitely worth the daily visit.
While the mainstream media sleeps, the blogosphere doesn’t, and Spain’s Barcepundit Franco Aleman is particularly swift. Franco reports a new video showing evidence that Spain’s great skyscraper fire last Sunday (which he did excellent blogging on this week) may have been deliberately set. If that’s the case, the mainstream media’s blithe dismissal of the fire as a result of a faulty electrical short falls short. Any number of things could now come into play, from terrorism to insurance fraud. Franco’s got a fascinating exclusive on the emerging new details still not seen in the mainstream press.
Val at Babalublog has some fine examples of letters to editors in Minnesota, giving the facts of life in Cuba in response to the naive Sandalistas who write editorials about the pleasures of being a cossetted political tourist in Castro’s island hellhole.
Alek Boyd at Vcrisis reports that anecdotal evidence suggests more deaths from flooding in the provinces than the dictatorial government has let on.
I had a look at the marvels of Cuba’s health care system for Daniel’s blog. I learned Cubans are disgusted their doctors have been shipped out to Venezuela, leaving them with almost no medical care. Venezuelans, meanwhile, are disgusted their own doctors have been put out of work because of the cheap new Cuban labor. Adding insult to injury, the Cuban doctors double as spies on them after putting in three-hour days in three-hour workweeks. This sounds like communist planning all right. All told, a miserable failure. Interestingly, Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the WSJ had the same thing on her…
Discoshaman has posted his news roundup and promises a more full one tomorrow. Out of the links was an editorial in the Kyiv Post regarding the reprivatization reviews: The process of reviewing shady privatization deals, recently announced by President Viktor Yushchenko????????s administration, makes us a bit nervous. It????????s true that some recent ???????privatizations??????? of valuable state properties have been pure thievery, scams devised to steal plum industrial enterprises from the Ukrainian polity and put them in the pockets of a rapacious elite. But it????????s also true that, if investigators start looking under rocks, they????????ll find something fishy with almost every…
John Burgess at Crossroads Arabia posts an article from Arab News written by a woman that counters arguments against women’s suffrage. Last week, Raid Qusti wrote yet another article about women and elections. This was not the first time he tackled the issue, making it clear to all of us, again, that he agrees with the government????????s decision to exclude women from participating in the first municipal elections ever to be held in Saudi Arabia. Despite the many letters I had received from female (and even some male) readers countering his arguments in several articles, I have thus far declined…
Courtesy: RFN Radio Free Nepal has a roundup of news out of the country for today. The King has, again, cut the lines of communication, though it seems that service is coming back sporadically. The protests for Democracy Day have also been thwarted. The situation doesn’t look to be getting better soon.
I was just made aware of this website created by Marcin Skubiszewski, a man from Poland who participated as an election observer in Ukraine during the December 26 rerun. This website deals with his experience, including his impessions of the voting process and any irregularities that occurred. It is very detailed in all regards, and includes many photos. It is a very, very interesting website. UPDATE: As testimony to the differences in elections compared to the west, Marcin offers me this photo.
In a sweeping post, The Faces of G comments on the new alignments: Several key anti-U.S. states have been more public in their movements and alignments. A week ago, North Korea boasted of its nuclear weapons. Syria and Iran get together to build a ‘common front’ Änothing new, just a PR stunt reallyÅ. Today, Russia stated it would continue to help Iran’s “peaceful” nuclear program. On Wednesday, CIA director Porter Goss warned that a Chinese military build-up could tip the cross-strait military balance with Taiwan. China didn’t like those remarks, but must at the same time walk a diplomatic tightrope,…
Sweet: BEIRUT, 19 February 2005 ???????? The opposition parties in Lebanon declared an ???????uprising for independence??????? yesterday and called for the pro-Syrian government to step down so that a new government can be formed to oversee a Syrian military pullout. This escalated a war of words following former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri????????s assassination on Monday. In another significant development, Syrian President Bashar Assad named his brother-in-law, Maj. Gen. Asef Shawkat, as head of military intelligence to replace retiring Maj. Gen. Hassan Khalil. Syrian sources said the change took effect on Monday, Khalil????????s 60th birthday. Meanwhile, Leabanese opposition leader Samir Frangieh…
In another installment of my series “Crazy People,” some of the people who comment on Maidan topics are rather creepy and unintelligible. While I like Maidan itself, one guy got rubbed the wrong way — a little too easily — when I wouldn’t compare Iraq and Ukraine. Start at the top and read downward. Let me know what you think in the comments, but here is a sampling: Your brief comments in the reply you didn’t have time for are shallow and condescending. Your web site indicates you’re all over the place, an ideologue. Do you have detailed, specific knowledge…
Ukrayinska Pravda comments: The biography of Yulia Tymoshenko can be learnt not only by the official chronicle, but by her photos as well. At the same time, every stage of her life can be distinguished exactly. The reason for this is that every stage of Yulia Volodymyrivna????????s life is indicated with the change of the style. Acute observation.
Bill Rice has posted his impression that America’s move toward idealism in foreign policy is indeed a realistic approach. I’m apt to agree. In the long term, trying for big dreams like freedom, democracy, and conquering tyranny are much more pragmatic, even incomplete, than simply settling for good short-term relations with “friendly regimes.”