Blogging the democratic revolution
Rumors are flying around Rangoon like mad, as word is going around that Than Shwe, the senior general of the military junta that rules Burma, has been possibly deposed by his number two. Everything is unconfirmed, but Burmese state media has not yet discounted any of the rumors, and Than Shwe isn’t to be seen. Nobody really knows what’s going on at this point, but intelligence officials are working overtime to figure it all out. BANGKOK (Reuters) – Rumours swirled in army-ruled Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Wednesday that junta strongman Senior General Than Shwe has been removed by the…
In my post yesterday, “Perspective on Islam in Iraq’s constitution,” I argued that Afghanistan has near similar wording in its own constitution and that the mainstream media didn’t harp on it in January 2004. Afghanistan has also not turned into a religious police state like Iran since then. So why is the media barking lunacy over the Iraqi constitution? Alenda Lux was kind enough to prove me wrong. No, not that the media didn’t talk bad about the Afghani constitution, but they actually praised it lavishly. Here is what the New York Times said in an editorial back then: Afghanistan’s…
“Twenty-five years ago next Wednesday — 31 August 1980 — unemployed Polish electrician Lech Walesa struck a major blow to Soviet communism when, after leading a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, he announced the official birth of the Solidarity independent trade union. Solidarity went on to play a central role in the demise of communism across the Soviet bloc, changing forever the course of history in Europe…” Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is running a couple of articles about the Solidarity movement in Poland, which has since become a symbol for non-violent struggle against tyranny in the…
A young Mexican politician, Gabriela Cuevas Barron, 26, is fighting the onslaught of Hugo Chavez-style communism in Mexico by opposing the candidacy of leftwing PRD presidential contender Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. She continually exposes his sorry record – the bribes, the payoffs, the padded invoices, the neglected police services, the welfare handouts, and the corruption. She dogs him with lawsuits, press briefings, photographs, inconvenient questions in congress – and anything else that will expose his way of business. What is she doing? Something called democracy. Mexico’s angry voters need to understand the extent of the existing corruption with AMLO so…
‘Christian’ televangelist Pat Robertson generated unprecedented headlines about Hugo Chavez in the blogosphere and in the U.S. media Tuesday when he publicly called for the assassination of the Venezuelan dictator. Technorati listed it as its top search on the blogosphere. Google listed it as its top story worldwide in all categories and ran it as its first banner story above a fatal Peruvian jetliner crash. Bloomberg did five updates on this ‘stop the presses’ news item before beginning more coverage here. CNN did a special report. Wikipedia was flooded with inquiries about who Hugo Chavez is. It was the biggest…
I’m going to make this short and sweet. Bill Roggio posts the latest excerpt from the Iraq constitution and believes that the threat of Islam being a main source of legislation, thus creating an Islamic state like Iran, is overstated by the media. Here is the excerpt: The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal. 1. Islam is a main source for legislation. * a. No law may contradict Islamic standards. * b. No law may contradict democratic standards. * c. No law may contradict the essential rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution. Bill Roggio is absolutely correct…
Samarkand may be showing itself to be the new hotbed of civil unrest after the Andijon massacre back in May. Protestors took the to streets after the government gave them only one week to clear out of their homes in preparation for a highway project. And more, the government offered them next to nothing in compensation. Another protest followed, as women demonstrated against the government’s intent to close a bazaar. There were unconfirmed protests in Samarkand back in June as well. Two public protests broke out this weekend in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. On 20 August, demonstrators from the…
If you’re sick and deranged like me, you’ve been refreshing Iraq the Model every five minutes to see the latest updates on the National Assembly meeting. It looks as if they have delayed the vote on the draft itself for three more days so that the parliamentarians will have time to read it over, discuss amongst themselves, and make grandstanding statements to the press. That said, the Shiites and the Kurds have gone ahead and worked out their differences in the constitution, including oil distribution, federalism, and the role of Islam in making laws. The latter being the most disheartening…
I almost missed it. Coming Anarchy is hosting this week’s carnival of revolutions, chock full democracy goodness.
The tyrannical government of Maldives is charging opposition MDP Chairman Mohamed Nasheed on counts of terrorism after he was detained last Friday. TVM and Voice of Maldives, the state-run media in Maldives, has announced that the Chairperson of Maldivian Democratic Party, Mohamed Nasheed (Anni), is to be charged for terrorism. State run media said Nasheed is to be charged under the terrorism act????????s article 6 (b) with reference to 2 (g) Article 2(g) states, ???????any act or the attempt to commit an act that may instill fear among the people or threaten life, person or property of any person verbally…
Protestors in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, seek a bigger piece of the oil pie. Trouble in Lago Agrio as the troops move in to protect the oil wells. Ecuadorean oil workers try to fix a vandalized pipeline in the Amazon jungle. SOURCE: Reuters Strife has engulfed Ecuador again, with thousands of protestors in two northeastern provinces shutting down oil wells that supply 15% of Ecuador’s GDP, 33% of Ecuador’s tax base, and 2.3% of the U.S.’s energy. The protestors didn’t just block the pipelines – someone (and I am not sure it was them) blew them up with dynamite and committed…
It looks like hackers are taking shot at Burmese military junta websites. An interesting story, I think, of how pro-democracy forces can protest without being there. Aug 19, 2005 (DVB) – Burmese computer experts and hackers are increasingly targeting their attacks on websites owned by and related to Burma??????s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), according to sources close to Burmese hackers. A Burmese computer student told DVB that recent breakdowns of the New Light of Myanmar and Myanmar Times websites could be the handiworks of either independent hackers or computer experts of ousted military intelligence service (MIS).…
The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), known for its civil unrest and terrorist tactics from countries ranging from Syria to Turkey to Iran, has declare a truce with the Turkish government after the prime minister promised to resolve the problem through more democracy — meaning, trying to help the Kurds out in their demands. I think it’s a good development. ANKARA, Turkey – Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in this nation’s impoverished southeast region on Friday announced a one-month cease-fire. A top commander of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, known as the PKK, confirmed what he termed a “suspension of hostilities”…
Voting opened in the ethnic Somali region of Ethiopia, while a partial re-run vote was held in other districts where irregularities were too high back in May. Not that it matters, at this point. JIJIGA, Ethiopia — Voting in eastern Ethiopia ended peacefully Sunday, as elite forces, pro-government militia and police patrolled streets to secure the region’s delayed elections. Voters in the mostly ethnic Somali region, some armed with assault rifles, gathered at sunrise at polling stations to elect 23 federal lawmakers and 168 regional legislators. Some voters said they hoped the election would bring a way out of poverty…
Our friend Jim GatewayPundit has a good Zimbabwe news and blogger roundup, including a link to a new film about dictator Robert Mugabe’s ‘clear out the trash’ campaign that has left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans in the informal sector homeless and suffering. See it here.
The Cuban dictator was lying in wait for about three months, silently, stealthily, like a shark in stilling water … and then the brutal tyrant moved. Friday the Monster At Our Gate confiscated the land and house of the homeowner who lent it to Cuba’s fearless civil society democrats who riveted the world with their unprecdented meeting last May. What this underlines is that there are no, absolutely no, property rights in Fidel Castro’s Cuba. The civil society democrats launched an unprecedented meeting at the end of last May. They pleaded for civil society, a large component of which includes…
Oh, yes. Mubarak has his official election campaign website up, in English, complete with an “email the president” feature. Click here to let him know what you think about him. As for me, I’ve written him a poem: Roses are red Violets are blue Babes in bikinis Look better than you But that’s probably a given. I was never particularly good at poetry. Jim Hoft writes: Roses are red. Violets are blue. Mubarak will win hands down. Do you think it will rain?
Perhaps another confirmation of what we may see in the future of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah promised Condoleezza Rice that the kingdom would be sufficiently liberalized to hold national elections within 15 years. Saudi King Abdullah promised Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a series of reforms that could give the desert kingdom an elected government within 10 to 15 years, says a senior U.S. official who was present when the two met in June. “He professed to transform his country and talked about having a representative government within a decade or a decade and a half,” said the official, who…
I kid you not. Here they are, in Cologne, Germany, for the World Festival of Youth: Oh Benedict! You’re so dreamy!
In an extreme sign of victory, Colombia’s vile communist narcoterrorists are suddenly apologizing for their latest murders, the killings of two priests and two others. Over 40 years, they’ve killed countless priests, journalists, businessmen, housewives, children and others. But this is the first time they are “sorry.” A strong hand against terror is withering the brazeness of these cold-blooded murderers. Suddenly, killing away isn’t so popular. That strong hand is in the leadership of the great President Alvaro Uribe, a man of death-defying courage who has met terror threats and terror bombs by hitting back harder. And he’s winning. Now,…
In the new era of revolutions, tyrants often are reluctant to send troops in to shoot when the millions of people roll into the streets demanding justice. They don’t want CNN’s cameras on them and 20-year war crime trials in the Hague to follow. That’s one reason why the whole world has seen a democratic awakening – in Ukraine – in Kyrgyzstan – in Lebanon – in Bahrain – in Kuwait – in Maldives – in Philippines – in Russia – in Georgia. But in countries with certain authentic tyrants determined to cling to power past their mandates, like Venezuela…
Ecuador is a basket case about to blow. It’s likely to get yet another a new president before U.S. Labor Day. And with its sudden oil production shutdown and troop dispatch, it’s also the leading news story moving world financial markets, hitting stocks and oil prices Friday. Just see the Top Ten leader here. No country is more important. And what is the turmoil about this time? A splitting apart government, with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro in the middle of it. Alek Boyd has an excellent – and rare – political x-ray of the shenanigans going on there. It’s…
Looking for beautiful women in bikinis? Try Monterrey. Definitely don’t look in Saudi Arabia. Check out the latest summertime fashion in Riyadh. Hat tip to Light Seeking Light. Click here for the rest of this tantalizing assortment of swimsuits. UPDATE: Now here we go. The Religious Policeman does a mock interview with the Saudi Minister of tourism: RP: So men and women will be able to go swimming up there? M: Certainly RP: Together? M: I didn’t say that. Swimming together, as you know, is un-Islamic. Most hotels only allow the men to go swimming. However there are one or…
In our latest showing of theatre performances from around the world, Robert Mugabe will be performing “I didn’t get what I wanted, so I held a fraudulent election and changed the constitution,” followed by his exquisite and complex personal rendition of “How to be a leftist dictator.” The latter will be reproduced cinematically as a late night feature on CNN. Just kidding, but it just keeps getting worse and worse over in Zimbabwe. If imposing a famine through land seizures weren’t enough, the government is throwing a hissy fit because white farmers have held up the process in court. But…
After local and provincial officials chose new members for half of the country’s Senate, the constitutional court set in stone the date of the country’s next presidential elections. President Nazarbaev’s term runs dry in the beginning of 2006, but elections weren’t expected until December of that year — over a year from now. But the court, which is hardly independent, has set it for this December instead. Kazakhstan’s Constitutional Court has set the first Sunday of December as the date for presidential elections, ending a lengthy debate between the government and the opposition over the timing of the vote. President…