Blogging the democratic revolution
While last week’s eulogy of President Niyazov that I posted was largely sarcastic and bordered on the maniacally gleeful, I did manage to go into some detail of what I thought would occur with regards to the transition from all Turkmenbashi, all the time to whatever form the next government takes. Mentioning the huge amount of natural gas the lies underneath those sands, there will certainly be a power struggle within the country unless its elites create some form of Politburo-style consensus powersharing. There will certainly be no democratic transition, and this is certainly echoed by every major power that…
Merry Christmas everyone. It’s time for everyone to get some downtime in, and frankly the traffic just isn’t large enough over the holidays to warrant a large amount of posting! I personally am on my way to Madrid where I will spend the time off with my family. So everyone, stay safe and get lots of presents.
When I went to Venezuela late last year, I came back with the impression that it was heading well into Jim Jones territory. There was too much cult of personality there, starting with the gigantic Hugo Chavez billboard that greets you from Caracas airport before you take the highway into the shantytowns, and within the city, all the ‘Chavez IS the people’ posters, with him looking soulful and thoughtful, if not nauseastingly adored by small children gathered around his side. This imagery went well beyond the political and deep into the cultural realm, and beyond even cultural, to the religious…
The great and illustrious leader of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, died today from a heart attack. Pretty impressive way to go for a guy who was supposed to live forever in all of his godliness. Of all the countries in the world, Turkmenistan is perhaps one of the worst in terms of poverty, economic and politics freedoms, and just about every other indicator to the general health of the society. Turkmenbashi was able to create such a utopian society through the careful construction of a massive cult of personality since the end of the Soviet Union. In fact, the man has…
RIA Novosti recently reported that from January through September of this year Russia received about $17.4 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) and slightly more, about $17.9 billion, in the form of international financial organizations’ loans and trade credits. At about $2 billion per month, we can project that Russia will have no more than $24 billion in FDI by year????????s end. Russia is a nation of about 140 million people. That means that Russia has an annual per capita FDI of roughly $170 per person. Virtually all of this investment is attributable to investment in Russia????????s energy sector, specifically…
A The Belmont Club Richard Fernandez discusses the propaganda of Islamic radicals who, at the moment, are ten steps ahead of the West in terms of spreading its message. The speed at which the message is spreading, the reach that it is attaining, and the sheer quantity cannot hope to be matched by the bureaucratic structures of Western Europe when terrorists operate fast and free-cell. The unique nature of the enemy poses a great challenge for the United States in its war in Iraq. While it can never be defeated militarily, it can easily be demolished politically if it doesn’t…
The news of the defeat of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s allies in elections for both local councils as well as the Assembly of Experts is good news to those of us who want to see the influence of the madman diminished. The winners are a general alliance between former President Rafsanajani’s “pragmatic” conservatives and reformists, an alliance which could make way for a slow transition even past where Iran was before Ahmadinejad took power. Here is the Guardian’s article on the subject: The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faced electoral embarrassment today after the apparent failure of his supporters to win…
Slavery, and human sacrifices, are the two great historic curses of our hemisphere that took vast amounts of blood and treasure and time to wipe out after great struggles. But amid these eradications, which were thought to be for good, the seeds of these evils apparently still exist. That’s why we are seeing slavery recrudesce. Who should be the caudillo to first to re-introduce that to our hemisphere? Why, the leader most in touch with his inner barbarism – Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Chavez is proposing to rope in every Venezuelan from ages 18 to 60 to “contribute” free labor…
YouTube is a great site. I’ve seen videos thay have ranged from the hilarious to the downright terrible; a feature of user-driven content. Perhaps another feature is that everyone who posts video is merely trying to become the most popular user by appealing to the masses, usually through comedy, which is why it is rare to find incredible quality and depth of message in a site where so much time is dedicated to making people laugh. Here at Publius, not only did we extensively cover the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, which revealed a strong desire in its public for a…
Bolivians resist the destruction of their freedom and property and their eventual forced work in Marxist collectives How the citizens of Santa Cruz view Evo Morales Santa Cruz is loaded with pro-freedom anti-communist babes Indians don’t like their freedoms taken away either, Indians are protesting the Marxist Morales who also is Indian. However, with guys like him around, Morales cannot claim to speak for all Indians. As for Reuters’s headlines, yeah, this guy looks like a real wealthy oligarch all right. Notice that it’s Bolivians of every color at the march against Morales Bolivians march for autonomy in productive and…
When KGB spy Yuri Andropov (pictured above) expired as leader of the USSR after only sixteen months in office, the West breathed a sigh of relief. Power passed from the first KGB spy to rule Russia into the hands of Mikhail Gorbachev, who seemed far less threatening (even though he was a close associate of Andropov’s). When the USSR itself then collapsed without a shot being fired, many breathed a deep sigh of relief at the West????????s good fortune. Little did they think that the Andropov????????s KGB might return to power in Russia in exactly the same manner. Analyst Pavel…
The State Department has put out a press release detailing new initiatives to support human rights that will begin next year. By and large, the plans focus on supporting NGOs that operate under fierce government repression, thus countering the global trend of cracking down on such organizations from Russia to Venezuela. Here is a list of the three programs: 1) Human Rights Defenders Fund In countries where tyranny persists, and even in states with some semblance of democratic institutions, human rights defenders are frequently put in jeopardy by the nature of their work. They are harassed, physically threatened or harmed,…
Venezuela and Russia show remarkable similarities in their social, political and economic systems and levels of attainment, so it is perhaps not surprising to see their two tinpot leaders, Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez, seeking ever closer relations. An even more disturbing parallel, though, is that in both countries men who are essentially dictators have won ratification of their power through elections that, while fundamentally corrupt, are still a basic expression of popular support despite the vast majority of the population languishing in poverty while the regimes hoard oil revenue windfalls and obliterate individual liberty. UN data, as outlined below,…
Castro’s goon squads beat up Cubans in Havana Sunday Source: Stefania at Free Thoughts Their crime? Celebrating human rights day. You heard that right, they were observing human rights day. That’s why they were beat up by Castro’s ‘repudiation’ squads, the barrio thugs who serve as Castro’s illegal enforcers, beating others with impunity in the name of Castroism. It doesn’t get viler than this. What’s amazing to me is that the ruling Castro brothers don’t seem to be bothered by the irony. What this shows is their essential inhumanity and willingness to strike out at any thinking about human rights.…
Augusto Pinochet, 1915-2006 Source: CNN Chile’s former military strongman, Augusto Pinochet, has died in Providencia, Chile at age 91. Half of Chile is rioting in joy and the other half is rioting in rage. It seems about fitting, because not only did this guy do good and bad things through his life, these acts spanned extremes. 1. Pinochet is most famous for his role in the dirty war that left 3200 people dead in Chile. People were grabbed from the streets by creepy little men in grubby leather jackets and without trial, hurled into secret prisons, where many were tortured…
A procession to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe in Palm Springs Source: The Desert Sun At this time of year, millions of people participate in processions like this across the American hemisphere, an event that unites two American continents, Spain and the Philippines. On or around Dec. 10, millions will march for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. No, it’s not just a Mexican celebration, although the miracle it commemorates happened near Mexico City in 1517. It’s meant to unite the continent. This procession, pictured here, happened the other day in Palm Springs. It’s worth considering in the age…
Peter Mork at Economics with a Face has some intelligent observations about ongoing efforts in certain European cities to eliminate all – repeat ALL – traffic rules in the name of fewer traffic accidents, an idea that scares the heck out anyone who first hears about it. But it turns out, it’s not that crazy an idea at all. Rule-free traffic, seen in some third-world cities, where no one thought to set any rules, turns out to work very nicely. Now Europe’s working on it the concept. Someone apparently went and looked at how well things worked on this matter…
OK, it was a ratbag of a bill. It lumped in everything that possibly could be lumped in, good with bad. Excellent, friendly deserving nations, like Vietnam, Colombia and Peru, (in short, our equals), got much of what they needed. Nations ruled by disgusting, undeserving, ungrateful governments, like Ecuador and Bolivia got plenty too. Messes like Haiti got the golden goose handed to them. Offshore drilling passed. Everyone got something, in what was kind of the last congressional pinata before the Roundheads (Democrats) take over. But boy it was sloppy. All told, I am happier with things this way than…
Anti-communist women from Santa Cruz are detained in Bolivia by police enforcers loyal to the leftist government of Evo Morales, which is showing growing intolerance of political dissent. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened them today for their refusal to support Morales. Source, all photos: Getty Images Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has warned the Bolivian babes of Santa Cruz that he’s coming after them. He declared them people of the ‘extreme rightwing‘ and warned that any refusal to support the oppressive greedy hand of the Evo Morales government, which is characterized by its confiscations, will be met by force – from…
Now that Hugo Chavez has been reelected president by a wide margin, Venezuela is swiftly moving toward a one-party state. I know, you think I’m just being a rightwing alarmist. I’m just making it up, it’s nothing but some ruse to make Hugo Chavez look bad. But this isn’t coming from Venezuelans, or from my imagination. It’s not even overtly coming from Chavez’s office, although he may be thinking it. Given Venezuela’s pretense of being a democracy in the eyes of members-only organizations like the OAS, Chavez may have reason to not say he’s moving to a one-party state publicly.…
Just as we saw after the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, a determined attempt to deflect blame from the Kremlin has issued from the Russophile cabal following the killing of Alexander Litvinenko. It????????s necessary to debunk their ???????arguments,??????? which might mislead the unwary. As a preface, let????????s ask the Russophiles a question: OK, so you don????????t believe the Kremlin had anything to do with the killing of Anna Politkovskaya, or Alexander Litvinenko (or either of the other two murdered members of the Kovalev Committee investigating the role of the Kremlin in the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings). In that case, please answer…
Jeanne Kirkpatrick, 1926-2006 Source: Getty Images, via The New York Times The great Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who was the first to distinguish between totalitarian and authoritarian dictatorships, a key steps toward dividing and conquering the world’s tyrants and winning the Cold War, has died. She was only 80. Her work paved the way for democratic revolutions from the remains of the destroyed dictatorships and she will be forever remembered for that. She was the great President Ronald Reagan’s capable and effective ambassador at the United Nations, and her wisdom and counsel thwacked sense into the U.N.’s bureaucratic sybarites. One of her…
In the wake of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s thundrous electoral victory on Sunday, he’s back in action, legislating new taxes on Venezuela’s battered middle class. For his first move, he’s decided to tax toilet seats as an “inessential item.” I guess the Venezuelans, some of whom elected him, are now supposed to just go without. Bloomberg reports: The announcement by the government follows the Dec. 3 re- election of Chavez, who had said in September that a tax on whisky mimics a tax on ééoligarchs.” The top surcharge of 35 percent will apply to whiskey, vodka, cigars, candles and toilet…
Congress has just wrapped up a huge free trade package! They actually are allowing it to go to the floor for a vote around 4 p.m. Eastern! They darn well better pass it! Not only will Peru, Colombia and Vietnam get some kind of trade relief for the next year (it’s temporary for the first two, but this is better than nothing), pretty much everyone else who wants free trade – The Caribbean, the African states, Ecuador & Bolivia, and Haiti – will get it too! This is fine! Better everyone in than nobody in. If that is what it…
The nominees for the 2006 Web log awards are out! These are great fun to vote for, and they introduce us all to great new blogs we have not heard of. Check out the new candidates at this site here – and when you can, make your vote. Here are my own personal endorsements below – what are yours? Best Blog Instapundit Best New Blog Blue Crab Boulevard Jules Crittenden Best Individual Blog Dr. Sanity Riehl World View Best Humor Blog ScrappleFace Best Comic Strip (no opinion) Best Online Community Free Republic Best Liberal Blog (no opinion) Best Conservative Blog…