Blogging the democratic revolution
Looking for a fiercely independent country in the heart of Central Asia, with a penchant for free enterprise and building a working democracy? Then you’re looking for Mongolia, a stab in the heart to all of the region’s dictators. Well, President Bush just made history by being the first U.S. president to visit Mongolia, a…
Two rounds of voting out of three have been undertaken in Egypt’s parliamentary elections, with the Muslim Brotherhood scoring approximately one fourth of the total seats. But after its initial strong showing in the relatively peaceful first round, the government took the initiative to crack down on the organization by arresting hundreds of its members…
This is the scariest picture ever of evil Donald Rumsfeld, couretsy of CBS. Why does he have no pinky? And is he doing some Darth Vader move, or did he just rip out the CBS producer’s face? What is going on? Via Academic Elephant.
I have now posted my Middle East Week in Review bulletin for the past week. Topics for this week’s bulletin include Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Palestine, Morocco, Yemen and Iran. Notable for democracy watchers is that the second round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections took place on Sunday, and this time the government clamped down…
Venezuela’s Aleksander Boyd at VCrisis has a stunning piece translated from the Mexican press about the extent of Hugo Chavez’s and Fidel Castro’s political meddling in Mexico and its elections. That’s MEXICO – right on our border, walking distance from San Diego and El Paso and Laredo and Matamoros and Yuma – that Mexico! The…
…through free trade. It’s put Mexico on the world map as a player, while Venezuela grows ever less significant. The Fox-Chavez spat just brought it all to everyone’s attention. Investor’s Business Daily has the editorial here. Meanwhile, via Boz, I read in Marcela Sanchez’s pretty good column of the critical need for free trade and…
Where’s the hemisphere going politically? Boz has an excellent news roundup showing the latest political cross currents. Among these are a poll showing left-leaning Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador dropping down in the Mexican polls, Evo Morales of Bolivia apparently ticking downward, Michelle Bachelet of Chile a little lower and possibly facing a runoff and Lourdes…
Election results from Egypt’s first round of parliamentary elections are coming in, and due to the greater transparency and lesser violence than before, the Muslim Brotherhood took a big chunk of seats. Of course, there were instances of fraud, intimidation, and genereal irregularities, but they seem to be committed on an individual basis instead of…
In the wake of the Fox-Chavez spat, Mexico’s leftist presidential frontrunner, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has slid by nearly 8 basis points in the presidential polls. From a Goldman Sachs research note: Gentlemen, Start Your Engines – AMLO Slightly Down on the Polls According to pollster Mitofsky, in November Lopez Obrador (AMLO) lost some ground…
Jane Novak at Armies of Liberation writes regularly about the perfidy of President Ali Saleh of Yemen and the way his government pretends to support the U.S.-led war on terror. Now she’s done it on Al-Jazeera, and it appears to have stirred the pot. This is the specific post regarding her appearance: Jane Novak Slams…
It seems that regime thugs in Tunisia are giving French journalists the kind of treatment American journalists have come to expect from the Sudanese. This is from Al-Sharq al-Awsat, Information Summit: Crisis Between Tunisia & France Because of Assaults on Journalists: On the evening of the “World Summit on the Information Society” which Tunisia is…
So, as you read earlier, I’ll be in New York City all day today for the Pajamas Media shindig at the Rainbow Room. Publius will therefore look more like a LiveJournal today, with me liveblogging and adding to this post all day long. As I write this, it’s 6:30 in the morning. I arrived about…
I’ll be going to the Pajamas Media launch tomorrow in New York City. But first I have to get there. And since I’m too cheap to get a hotel, I’m leaving on the 2 a.m. bus! We might be taking a bit of a detour tomorrow then, with some liveblogging of the conference, pictures, all…
I’ve never been one to put it past Assad to have much class, but this is a bit much. The Syrian government has called unequivocally, through its state-run media, for people to take to the streets of Beirut in order to topple Lebanon’s first independently elected government. Anyone else thinks the heat is starting to…
Miguel Buitrago at the first-rate MABB blog has the whole dynamic explained. The short story is this: Based on current polls, far-left leader Evo Morales is in nearly a tie with his nearest rival. Due to how legislative seats are distributed in the Senate, Morales may not get the majority of votes he needs in…
After nearly three weeks of silence when France was in a desperate time of need for leadership, President Chirac finally made a speech on television outlining his plan for solving the root problems that caused the violent suburban riots. He spoke bluntly of France’s problem with racism, a change of political discourse quite refreshing, but…
Alvaro Vargas Llosa, one of the gold standards of Latin American journalism, has a great new Spanish-language blog with The Independent Institute, a libertarian think tank in Oakland. It’s full of excellent items, and has contributions from first-rate journalists and thinkers from all over the hemisphere. It’s so nicely done – and already I can…
I have just posted my Middle East Week in Review news bulletin for the past week. This week’s bullet-points include links on Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Yemen, Iran and Australia. I have a separate post, Abdullah’s Struggle With Islamic Terrorism, which is a follow-up to last week’s attacks in Amman. It focuses on…
The main Ugandan opposition leader has been arrested and charged with treason, sparking riots all over the country. VIOLENCE broke out in Kampala yesterday after Kizza Besigye, the opposition leader and presidential hopeful, was arrested and charged with treason. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty. Police fired teargas and rubber bullets at…
I just spat my drink out through my nose, or would have if I’d been drinking, when I came across this subtitle at Reason: Palestine, not Iraq, is the best shot at an Arab democracy. I suppose in part that’s because I was recently planning on using the same comparison to make the point that…
Relations have been strained between Mexico and Venezuela since the conclusion of the free trade summit of the Americas. The precise issue at stake: Free Trade. This Sunday, Chavez on his radio program launched a huge hurl of insults directed at President Vicente Fox, resulting in demands from Mexico for an apology within 24 hours:…
President Putin made some cabinet shuffles today. It’s looking interesting. MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin gave his defense minister the additional post of deputy prime minister Monday in a Cabinet shake-up he said was designed to bolster efforts to improve Russia’s military. At a cabinet meeting shown on television station NTV, Putin said the appointment…
Egyptian blogger Abdal Karim Soliman was released from jail after a massive effort pressing for his release. He had been arrested simply for what he wrote on his blog, which was a denunciation of attacks by Muslims on a Coptic nun. It sparked an outrage in the Egyptian blogosphere, prompting a worldwide campaign on his…
Have a good weekend everyone. Like always, blogging resumes on Monday!
Just a month to go before Bolivia’s elections and Eduardo Avila has a roundup of the week’s sentiment from Bolivia’s growing blog community. His excellent Global Voices roundup is here.