Blogging the democratic revolution
Sure enough, right outside the office of a foreign oil company, Brazil’s Petrobras, in the pro-trade city of Santa Cruz. A car full of dynamite. The news item is here. And an updated item with the broader picture is here. Here is what the Bolivian blogs say: BARRIO FLORES’ Eduardo says the bomb raises the specter of the gas development struggle taking a violent turn. He notes that the people claiming responsibility for the attack have said their assault against the Brazilian company was actually an anti-George Bush statement. Some believe they spoke with Central American accents. The terrorists also…
Luis Tascon, the Venezuelan congressman who put signers of a recall referendum against dictator Hugo Chavez on a special Internet-accessible blacklist, has met a miserable demise. In this way, he would seem to parallel Joseph McCarthy, who died an isolated drunk. That said, the signers of the petition cannot be compared to McCarthy’s targets – they were not interested in operating in secrecy, for one, they were not interested in subverting the U.S. system in the name of Joseph Stalin, and they were not doing anything illegal. No, Venezuelans just woke up one morning and realized that signing a legal…
It’s all over for the Islamofascists. They are now lying to their Syrian recruits to get them to drop suicide bombs. Nobody wants to join them. They stand for nothing. Young Sunni Iraqis are rushing to join the building of their new young nation. The heroes are obvious to them. The police, firefighters, army, businesses and teachers are the ranks they would like to join. No more Islamofacism. TechCentralStation has it here.
Before anything, make sure to read Nathan’s evening updates. Jim over at Gateway Pundit also has a great roundup with links to BBC video footage available. Earlier Saturday, people gathered in the same square that yesterday saw the bloody crackdown of Karimov’s regime. While the violence in Andijan appeared to have calmed Saturday, disturbances flared in the village of Korasuv, 30 miles to the east, when 6,000 Uzbeks trying to flee into Kyrgyzstan were blocked at the border. Some in the group set fire to a police station, vandalized police cars and attacked border personnel, a Kyrgyz official said. Uzbek…
On Val’s Babalu blog, I wrote a long essay on the Posada Carriles case. It is a foreign policy issue, but now that Fidel Castro has made the claim that it’s a U.S. ‘credibility’ issue, there is a people-power dimension to it. People with access to mass communication would think so, and that is who Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez seek to appeal to with this extradition demand directed at the U.S. Those elites among them hate us as intensely as they hate the purple fingers of our friends the Iraqi voters. They know we support revolution. Hence, their hollow…
I’ve been reading through this piece on RIA Novosti, the Russian news and information agency. To the effect of KGB intelligence gathering, they’ve made a large collection of articles written in the former Soviet republics before and after the V-E Day celebrations. In particular, what they’ve written against Russia. Until you get to the Central Asia dictatorships, it looks pretty harsh.
This is what happens when you let the state-owned media out into the world! They take pictures of all the lovely western women and post it all over their website. Hat tip: Danwei.
Egypt’s parliament has just passed a resolution which will set May 25 as the day the Egyptian population will vote to amend the constitution so as to provide for multi-candidate presidential elections. The resolution was endorsed by a huge majority of parliament, though this is because it was proposed by Mubarak and his party dominates. The government is on a diplomatic trip to Washington right now, and they are big time trying to convince American politicians that Egypt is on the way to democracy, even broadcasting the parliamentary debate over the measure on television. At this point, Egypt is very…
This is extremely rare for Uzbekistan, where Islam Karimov really puts the boot down. It seems that 4000 people have taken to the streets to protest the trials of several loca businessmen accused of “extremist activities.” More than 4,000 residents of Andijon demonstrated for a second consecutive day in a row on 11 May (see “RFE/RL Newsline,” 11 May 2005) to protest the trial of 23 local businessmen for alleged extremist activity in the so-called Akramiy organization, uznews.net reported. Prosecutors have asked for prison terms ranging from three to seven years for 20 of the defendants, saying that the remaining…
Al-Jazeera has run an interview with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir from Khartoum on its popular “Without Limits” program. I thought it was enlightening, and the main impression I took a way from it was that of a man in a very weak position. The issue wasn’t addressed directly (although the feed cut off a couple of times, so I missed part of the interview), but from answers to various questions it was pretty clear that this was not a man who felt himself in control of his country. Some main points: The first big issue brought up was Darfur,…
Val has important updates on Cubans’ efforts to forge a civil society from the depths of Castrodom. Note that they are doing it from Havana, showing a courage we can only marvel at. And in what will surely go down as a vote of shame, there were actual U.S. Congressinsects who voted against supporting them in their effort to end tyranny. Why oh why are these lowlife citizens of our free country? There is no order in the universe! Read it here and here. UPDATE: The Weekly Standard’s item is here.
Tomas Sancio has a superb piece noting the strong and growing presence of Latin American popular culture into mainstream American culture. He takes a screenshot from a Web site to show his point. I am always fond of telling my Latin American friends that when they come to big cities here in the states, they can happily get away with not a word of English and listen to all the same music here that they might listen to there. It’s new. It’s the reality. It’s beautiful. It’s perfectly dynamic. And it’s a revolution. Which is why Hugo Chavez’s weird, insular…
“Fidel Castro asserted terrorist should be judged in Venezuela” goes one headline from one of those impartial and objective Cuban propaganda sources; another one reads “New York Times Urges US Government to Deny Asylum to Terrorist Posada Carriles”… The majority of the 176 Posada Carriles-related articles, indexed by Google News, originate from Cuban or Venezuelan funded sources. Fidel Castro’s and his toyboy’s ‘assertions and demands’ aside -as if words uttered by them had any relevance or weight- the US administration is faced with a dilemma; that of returning a long time collaborator to Venezuela in the know that revolutionary justice…
Everyone — I’ll be appearing on CNBC’s Kudlow and Company on Thursday between 5-6pm eastern time. I’ll be talking politics in South America. I’ve asked some people to record it and host the video for download, so hopefully that can be made available if some of you can’t catch it. For now, I am going to get some rest and brush up a tad on some specifics. Here’s the guest list. I just noticed that Natan Sharansky is going to be on as well, which is, seriously, a huge honor to share air time with someone like him. UPDATE: Alright…
Last week, Congress approved steep taxes on oil and gas as a compromise between the industrious free marketers of Santa Cruz province, and the Marxist nationalizers of cocalero kingpin Evo Morales, who gets his funding from the drug trade and from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Obviously, that was no solution. Santa Cruz province is threatening to secede over this move that is sure to keep Bolivia’s gas in the ground. The province is also angry at the breaking of already signed contracts with investors. The Marxist coca growers, meanwhile, threaten more roadblocks to starve the cities into coming to their point…
U.S. Congress has just passed a resolution offering support and encouragement to Cuba’s brave civil society advocates, who, like the creators of the Declaration of Independence, are meeting in perilous conditions in Castro’s island hellhole to forge the beginnings of a new civil society, a new social contract, a new means of governance in what they hope will be a free post-Castro Cuba. It is a thing of beauty to know there are such brave souls out there willing to fight for what is right at their own potential peril. It’s also gratifying to know that the better members of…
An envoy from the United States met with King Gyanendra yesterday evening to press for the restoration of civil liberties. As you may recall, the king imposed a state of emergency on February 1 and dissolved the parliament, leading to the arrest and detainment of hundreds of journalists, students, and political opponents. Constitutionally, the state of emergency can only last for three months, so it was lifted on April 30. Despite this, however, the media remains curbed and only a few dozen, at most, have been released from jail. The official sent for this visit was U.S. Assistant Secretary of…
Miguel has an item out from a Mexican newspaper reporting that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez may have shipped weapons to Mexican Marxist guerrillas, bought with funds from Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s office, who is now running for president of Mexico. Via Havana. AMLO denies he knew anything about it, but that’s not impressive because he is not famous for accountability. If the news is true, it’s an extremely dangerous development. Read it here. UPDATE: Here is my own analysis on American Thinker here.
ABC is reporting that a grenade was tossed at President Bush as he addressed thousands gathered in Tbilisi, Georgia. Guram Donadze, spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said no hand grenade was thrown close to Bush. “This is an absolute lie. This did not occur,” Donadze told The Associated Press. Officials from President Maikhail Saakashvili’s office were not immediately available for comment. Georgia’s security service has been merged with the Interior Ministry. The White House referred the AP to the Secret Service for comment. ABC is best known for its hard-hitting expose of American Idol. UPDATE: Confirmed, but it was…
Leftist ecology outfits are basically money-making operations. The more of a stink they can raise on an issue, the more the cash rolls into their coffers. It has nothing to do with merit, only buzz. And the causes they champion are not based on principle but on how leftwing. Ask anyone who’s ever been involved with an NGO racket. Not one of them is normal. They are all sharks. That’s why their biggest causes aren’t necessarily the most objectively serious ones. Greenpeace or an eco-outfit like them will happily harass a Midwestern farmer over a ‘wetland’ (read: swamp) or sandalista…
“You gathered here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your convictions and you claimed your liberty and because you acted, Georgia is today both sovereignty and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world.” And the crowd went wild. “In recent months, the world has marveled at the hopeful changes taking place from Baghdad to Beirut to Bishket. But before there was a Purple Revolution in Iraq or an Orange Revolution in Ukraine or a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, there was the Rose Revolution in Georgia.” Arms are raised in the air, everyone…
I’m watching Bush’s speech to Georgia now. I’ll write more as soon as it’s over. Huge applauses. There must be a hundred thousand people there!
The ritz and glamour of the V-E Day celebrations in Moscow are coming to a close, and nearly everyone, except my German grandmother, has been watching and opining on what it all means for U.S.-Russia relations. At one moment, you have Bush praising the Baltics and preaching freedom and democracy in Belarus. On the other, you have Putin criticizing American democracy, hailing the Soviet Union and even erecting statues of Stalin. You’d think the Cold War is about to get hot again! Then you see the two watching an impressive military display, smiling and laughing together, and driving around in…
We’ve been busy organizing between several of us to get the Carnival of Revolutions back up in a new, self-perpetuating, rotating model. Sounds exciting. Jim Hoft put together an impossibly comprehensive post to mark its reappearance, and you can see it here.
I’ve just returned from the evening’s activities. A very good reason not to blog. Happy Mothers’ Day everyone!