Blogging the democratic revolution
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez this week threatened to blow up all of Venezuela’s oil wells, should the perfidious yanquis be so insolent as to attack. He does this partly to whip up paranoia in the shantytowns, but generally, even his own supporters are not fooled. The other reason he does it is to whip up fear in the international oil markets and thus drive up the price for his ever-diminishing oil production. He’s on record as saying he wants oil at $100 a barrel. The oil markets are a bit slower to catch on to Chavez’s B-S than the shantytown…
Here are the photos showing the Cuban patriot Martha Beatriz Roque after being beaten up by plainclothes paramilitary mobs inside her own house in Havana, Cuba. More below,the thugs put propaganda banners behind her house’s door comparing President Bush and the patriot Luis Posada Carriles to Hitler: Below, Bush appears as saying “Long Live Martha”. Per se this phrase is not at all a scandal, but the Castroite thugs use it as a way to accuse Marha of being a “US agent”. See all the photos here, including the flowers sent to her by the embassies of some European countries.
Well, as we approach nearly 2 months since Ukraine’s first democratic elections of the century, the political wrangling continues. Any Kiev watchers will be familiar with the daily news stories coming out from Our Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc, The Party of Regions and the Socialists in regard to coalition building talks. Every evening a brief Google news search highlights constant backstabbing, foot-stamping and occasionally outright lies passed on to the international media. Today, one such story emerged from the oh so reliable ITAR-TASS. For the busy, a brief summary: Our Ukraine (Viktor Yushchenko’s pro-European, Liberal Bloc) and the Party of…
But not exactly in the way you might think. The Venezuelan dictator vowed to recall Venezuela’s ambassador to Peru if Peru’s voters DARED cast their ballot for Alan Garcia instead of his favored Ollanta Humala in next month’s second-round presidential debate. It’s so insane, so guaranteed to backfire, so likely to rally the Garcia vote, so likely to hurt Humala that it makes me think Chavez is on cocaine. Peruvians don’t particularly care one way or another about diplomatic relations with Venezuela. What they do care about is some foreign dictator trying to dictate how they will vote through various…
Chavista mismanagement (and thieving) has left Venezuela with a $2 billion oil shortfall on its contracts. The country literally DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH OIL to supply all the nations it’s signed contracts with to supply. Therefore, it’s buying $2 billion in oil from Russia to avoid penalties, not the least of which is its claim to be an important oil superpower. It’s nothing to be surprised about, given that socialism ALWAYS produces shortages. That’s been a lesson to the world for about 80 years. The example this travesty parallels most closely is from 30 years ago, when the Soviet Union,…
Even though the Maoists had vowed to continue a blockade of the capital following an announcement by King Gyanendra that he would reinstate parliament, but it was obvious that they had jumped the gun and gone a step too far. They have since retracted that statement (I believe because they simply didn’t have the military means or support in the capital to carry it out), and announced that they will commit to a three month ceasefire. The Seven Party Alliance has announced that the parliament will do the same. The Maoists main demand is the election of a constituent assembly…
Imagine a country where you have to get permission to protest, and when the authorities give it to you, they snatch it right back. Then they arrest you and sentence you to 15 days in prison for an “unsanctioned rally.” The same thing happens to your colleagues; some of them are even beaten! What country is this? I’ll give you one guess: it starts with “B” and ends with “elarus”. The democratic opposition in Belarus held its first rally since tens of thousands of people protested in March following a fraudulent presidential election handed to current Dictator Alexander Lukashenko. It…
After suffering an ‘act of repudiation’ by the plainclothes paramilitaries on the Castro’s payroll, Dr. Darsi Ferrer – director of the Center for Health and Human Rights “Juan Bruno Zayas” – was detained immediately after leaving the U.S. Interests Section in Havana,from where he sends us via email his reports. Ferrer called the independent journalist Jayme Leigonier via phone and said that the police are gonna take him to another place, but so far nobody knows where he has been taken. Darsi is currently desaparecido. UPDATE: I’ve just got an email from Darsi , who sent in the report written…
I’ve stumbled across quite a few articles lately about growing support for far-right parties in France and Britain. Of course, while the numbers remain small (though larger in France), it is perhaps the biggest untold story of Western Europe because, for as much as these people preach tolerance, most Europeans I know — very educated people — absolutely hate the “pakis” and the “beurs“. These are exactly the sentiments that the far-right play on, so it is no wonder that they are most popular in white working-class neighborhoods, the same people who consider themselves truly French and British. Resentment against…
On April 25, Liberation Day in Italy, Italian communist demonstrators shouted “10,100,1000 Nassiryahs”. Today they must be celebrating. Three Italian heroes have been murdered in a terror attack in Nassiryiah today. They’re not only victim of terrorists. They’re victim of those politicians on the Left whose first concern is not to heal the frail and declining economy; their first concern is to put an end to the military’s humanitarian work in Iraq. The Italian troops in Nassiryiah had made it clear to Mr. Prodi that they strongly disagree with an immediate withdrawal. It’s not a coincidence that our troops in…
Ten thousand Belarusians gathered to commemorate the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown twenty years after the disaster. It was organized by the democratic opposition led by Alexander Milinkevich and was the first such rally since the end of March when protestors were brutalized following a peaceful gathering of tens of thousands. You can see a minute-by-minute log of the events at Charter 97. They had hoped to gather in October Square, the sight of the post-presidential election protests last month, but lines of riot police blocked all avenues to the square. Furthermore, the trains were ordered not to stop…
Egypt has been rattled by two sets of terrorist attacks in the past few days; one sequence of bombings in the resort area of Dahab three days ago, and today two suicide bombers blew themselves up near security forces. There is, for sure, no lack of purpose or symbolism that accompanies these attacks. It is an attack on the tourism industry, and by extension, any Muslim that is making disposable income and is enjoying life (as most of those injured were Muslims). It is also an attack on the Mubarak regime’s legitimacy. Attacking the tourism industry is a favorite for…
As oil prices hit $75 a barrel, the U.S. is right now caught up in an idiotic debate over supposed price-gouging at the pump. Congress wants to investigate oil companies over it. What they should be doing is asking why the U.S. is dependent for its oil on anti-American Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. We are dependent on him, he knows it, and he abuses us for it. It’s him who, along with his pals the ayatollahs, is deliberately trying to drive oil prices up to $100 a barrel, not the oil companies. That’s not all. Chavez harasses U.S. oil companies…
Yesterday, while we were having lunch or dinner or driving to work or whatever our peaceful pursuits may be, Fidel Castro’s barbarians assaulted Martha Beatriz Roque, the leading Cuban freedom fighter in an ‘act of repudiation.’ This is nothing more than to say a gang assault sanctioned by the state. Radio Mambi in Miami said she was on the phone with them yesterday when it happened, and the Cuban American Foundation has the transcript of what happened, as Martha Beatriz told it here. She said (sorry no time to translate but will later): “…me han dado tantos golpes, me han…
It had to be a day of remembrance of our liberation by the Allies. It has been a day of infamy. Nobody should expect communists or ex-communists to pay tribute to the American fallen soldiers. It’s still too hard for them to recognize that it was America and the Western Allies, and not the Soviet Union, that liberated Italy. They cannot yet forgive them the legitimate help America gave us in preventing Italy from becoming a Soviet satellite. But let’s come to yesterday’s sad events. In Milan, Leftist extremists shouted insults at the former Education Minister (of the Berlusconi’s gov’t,…
We always knew there was something wrong with Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and today that missing link got just a little bit more primal. Turns out his idea of democratic revolution is equal rights for apes under the law. That’s right, Zapatero’s gone ape for ape rights, and given that he’s lost the confidence of his human supporters one can probably surmise that he wants to empower a newer and far more loyal core constituency that sees things as he does. Here are the monkeyshines: The Great Ape Project is founded upon the genetic similarity between great apes –…
…of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico. It’s a thing of beauty. The latest poll shows that the right-leaning free-market PAN party candidate’s lead is now E-X-T-E-N-D-I-N-G well ahead of AMLO’s. This is the third straight poll showing this awesome trend ahead of the July 2 presidential election. Here’s what’s cool about it: Tonight is the first Mexican presidential debate. Calderon can cream PRI dinosaur candidate Roberto Madrazo easily. AMLO, meanwhile, thinking his two-year-long lead was permanent, opted to sit this debate out. Now, the heavy TV exposure for Calderon against Madrazo is likely to extend his lead even further.…
Today Italy remembers the liberation from Nazi-Fascism. Neveretheless, those on the Left march to remember only the (communist) partisans. They have completely forgotten that, if it was not for the United States and the Allies, the partisans couldn’t end the work. It’s to be reminded, however, that most partisans were not communists; many were Christian-Democrats and Liberals, of course staunch anti-communist. Sadly, the Left is once again refusing to pay tribute to the Allies; to add insult to injury, some radicals almost surely are gonna burn the US and Israeli flags, while waving the Palestinian one, as occurred last year.…
People power wins democracy back for Nepal! Just before midnight yesterday, King Gyanendra went on national television and proclaimed to the entire country that he acknowledged the the power of both the political parties and the people, apologized for the death of fourteen protestors at the hands of security forces, and is reinstating immediately the parliament that he dissolved in 2002 before disbanding the institution completely just last year. This is a major victory for the people of Nepal! They went on a planned national strike exactly 19 days ago. Day by day it grew stronger until everything had shut…
Yoeleidys Sigler, daughter of Guido Sigler Amaya, a prominent political prisoner who pledged to never surrender to his jailers’ attempts to ‘re-educate’ him, has called for the immediate and unconditional release of her father. She says that she, her family and the neighbors alike are suffering very much and cannot bear the suffering anymore. Listen to Yoeleidys’ voice here. Our good friend Carlos Serpa Maceira, independent journalist working for the Lux Info Press Agency and the “Cuba-Miami Information Bridge”, informs us about the hunger strike of a political prisoner who was detained on 13 July,2005 , when he was participating…
Panama’s president has come forth with the long-awaited plans for the expansion of the Panama Canal. The $5.5 billion expansion would widen the canal so that bigger ships with more cargo and traffic can go through. Right now, a full five percent of all world trade goes through this canal and there can be a four-day waiting period for ships trying to go through (when there are boat-traffic jams). Panama makes about $1.2 billion a year on crossing fees, but to its great credit, its economy does not stop at those boat fees, but multiplies away into vast financial services,…
Peru’s detested spy chief, Vladimir Montesinos, who committed numerous human rights violations in the 1990s, is a man who belongs in jail. He’s there all right, but his networks of operatives are not. Instead, the unemployed spies and torturers have found a new sponsorship in the candidacy of Ollanta Humala. That tells us a lot about the kind of regime Humala is likely to institute, given that he intends to rewrite the constitution to consolidate power. Alek Boyd has the ominous report here.
Yesterday, April 21, 2006, the United Nations Environmental Program gave out awards to ???????the Seven protectors of the Earth.??????? These seven individuals are hailed by the UN as ???????the Champions of the Earth.??????? One of the seven ???????protectors of the Earth??????? and a United Nations ???????Champion of the Earth??????? is Mikhail Gorbachev! This coming week will be the twentieth anniversary of what is commonly accepted as one of the worst environmental incidents of all mankind????????the Chernobyl disaster. On April 26, 1986, while plant operators were conducting a safety test on Chernobyl’s Unit 4, it overheated and caused a hydrogen explosion.…
There’s less than 3% of the votes to be counted and unless something really unusual happens, Alan Garcia will be the second candidate in the runoff for president of Peru, by a narrow margin. Lourdes Flores is in third place, trailing Garcia by 84,832 votes. I hate Garcia’s guts. But not nearly as much as Ollanta Humala’s. The prime difference between the two men is that Garcia, leftist and irresponsible as he is, is nevertheless a democrat. When his term was up in 1990, and he’d made his big mess of the economy, he nevertheless left office. He didn’t entertain…
In the struggle to name a new election board that won’t be as discredited for its pro-Hugo Chavez biases as the last one, a supposedly transparent and fair process is being put into place and supposedly neutral observers are being chosen. This of course is not happening. The candidates are being asked whether they voted or not – a highly loaded question since only 18% of the voters voted in December and the rest of the electorate boycotted the election. If saying they stayed home on election day means they aren’t patriotic (read: Chavista) then the only people who will…