Blogging the democratic revolution
Fraudster to fraudster, who could be more pleased with Iran’s stolen election than Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez himself? I guess this means he’s not the only guy at the election fraud party. Read the whole thing here.
There is no issue, none, more critical today than whether the U.S. Congress passes CAFTA. So much is at stake in the treaty that will show whether the U.S. includes Latin America in to its hopes and opportunity or coldly shuts it out. And don’t think Osama Bin Laden, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe aren’t watching – they are. If CAFTA loses, every single one of them will be emboldened. This prospect is unbelievably horrible, and Bush must pay any price, battle any battle, to get this treaty passed. It is that important. If there is a political cost to…
Alek Boyd’s piece on Colombia published here yesterday has drawn a rabid reaction from a tiny shrivelled pro-Chavez news organ, which devoted scads of bandwidth to name-hurling invective. They seem to have a personal problem with Mr. Boyd. This is starting to sound like an embarassing sort of envy. By their headline, they seem to actually believe Mr. Boyd has President Bush in his pocket. They really do see him as a giant threat. Amazing! Read it here, or if you don’t want their chavista cookies and spyware, here.
Can you stand a story on the Venezuelan national budget? I promise you, it’s got gamy details of swindling, pocket-lining, waste, graft and lying. And given that it’s the main vehicle for the spread of the chavista ‘revolution’ it has relevance to the mission of this blog. It’s what Venezuela’s real revolution is up against. Venezuelan writer Francisco Toro has a short, nicely written essay here or if you prefer, here.
To give him the boot. A London newspaper is reporting just that. Read it here. One can only hope the same is going on for Hugo Chavez. If only!
It sure looks like it: LONDON Jun 25, 2005 ???????? Mohammed al-Senousi calls himself a prince, although he has had no throne since his grandfather was ousted in a 1969 coup by Moammar Gadhafi. Al-Senousi, 42, joined hundreds of Libyan opposition members in London on Saturday to push for Gadhafi’s ouster their first conference in exile to tell the world, they said, there is an alternative to Gadhafi that is not Islamic extremism. This group, though seems pretty negative and thinks it more important to condemn the U.S. for recognizing Khaddafi for his improved record than just getting on with…
Ever wondered why George Bush was seen meeting with Phan Van Khai, the communist premier of Vietnam? Same as the real revolutionaries like Maria Corina Machado? This editorial has some background here. Hat tip: Real Clear Politics
Daniel has an important post about the growing erraticness of dictator Hugo Chavez’s relationship with the Venezuelan military. Apparently, they can’t stand him. Hugo Chavez is too into Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, for the Venezuelan military’s liking, and ignores the history that Venezuela’s military for years fought off this Monster at Our Door, and at Venezuela’s door, too. Castro has been nothing but trouble over the decades for Venezuela and Venezuela’s military professionals, who have expended blood and treasure to beat Castro off, and they have no intention of forgetting. This could be quite explosive. Could Venezuela’s revolution begin in…
Not many revolutionaries make the transition from old 1960s leftwing Castro worshippers into New Style revolutionary in the Age of Orange, Cedar, Rose, Daffodil, and Velvet Revolutions, which we live in today. Daniel Duquenal has a fascinating portrait of Teodoro Petkoff, a Bulgarian-Venezuelan leftist who did a stretch as a guerrilla in the mountains long ago, came down, and then went on to much better things. He’s now a leading news editor in Venezuela that pointedly opposes thugs and tyrants. Petkoff launched a new book called ‘Dos Izquieridas’ about the democratic and the non-democratic left. He is a formidable opponent…
It’s jackass season in Washington and with it comes threats from Congress to harass China over its trade gap. Larry Kudlow outlines the incredible progress China has made since 1978 – 1978! – and warns that the U.S. has got to stop hectoring China for doing all the right things. China’s stable currency, its trade of goods with us, its lifting of its poor into the middle class are all things that need to be encouraged, not screamed at in U.S. Congress. Because trust me, China is capable of much worse than the ‘crime’ of trade. Larry Kudlow makes a…
The Times has an incredible piece on how fast and how hard the revolutionary winds of change are hitting Europe. Europeans everywhere are rejecting the Franco-German centralized-welfare-statist model and embracing the Anglo-Roman ideal of freedom and rule of law. It’s happening at breakneck speed, and among people no one ever expected such enthusiastic support from. East and West are uniting under common ideals, not degrading spoils-grabbing. Europeans everywhere are rejecting subsidies, taxes, bureaucracy, privilege, inequality and inertia, in favor of free capitalism and fairness, something that could make Europe the dynamic powerhouse it is meant to be. The Revolution is…
They have started. Venezuela’s oil workers in the eastern part of the country have launched bitter protests against corruption and lost jobs. Their actions have shut down the refineries and the state oil company doesn’t sound as though it is in good shape. As oil hits $60 a barrel, there may be a revolution on. The angry oil workers did stop production. Read it here.
Brilliant Italian journalist Oriana Fallici explains why she’s a revolutionary in an amazing interview with Tunku Varadarajan of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. “In the beginning, I was dismayed, and I asked, how is it possible that we do not have Cavour . . . just one Cavour, uno? He was a revolutionary, and yes, he was not of the left. Italy needs a Cavour–Europe needs a Cavour.” Ms. Fallaci describes herself, too, as “a revolutionary”–“because I do what conservatives in Europe don’t do, which is that I don’t accept to be treated like a delinquent.” It’s all good.…
Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil to Paraguay, just as the Austral winter begins. This is a new major incident of Paraguay abuse from the Venezuelan dictator. His gall and malice know no bounds. He made the threat as a parting shot against the small helpless South American nation at a Mercosur conference in Paraguay itself, always on his best-guest behavior, where he appeared in a bid to gain full Mercosur membership. This isn’t the first time Venezuela has kicked Paraguay around. A former Paraguayan president’s daughter was kidnapped and murdered by Paraguayan thugs who were being directed…
As I mentioned here last April, Luis Ramirez at Voice of America is the best China reporter there is. I noted his daring efforts to report the truth about what is going on in China and and cited his long string of impressive pieces. I was right. Luis has now won one of the most prestigious journalism awards in Asia for this very work I cited. I am so happy for him, it’s what he truly deserved! (As I mentioned in that earlier item.) Sometimes things turn out they way they should. Way to go, Luis, FANTASTIC WORK! Congratulations!
To hear the OAS tell it, Lucio Gutierrez was this noble guy who just happened to be president of Ecuador and due to crazy people out there, got overthrown, and isn’t it a terrible thing when presidents, no matter what they act like, get thrown out? Instability, instability, oh is anything worse than instability? Well, yes, as a matter of fact there is. How about a thug president who doesn’t obey laws, stacks courts, and then invites in a crooked ex-president called El Loco, who vows to be the next Hugo Chavez? What about that? Hmmm? Alek Boyd has a…
Bolivia has been a favorite host-target of Sandalista parasites for years and years. Because no news organization ever cared about this country, it was they who framed the news and the debate about what was really going on in Bolivia. They tell us Bolivia’s just a simple story of the rich oppressing the poor, all elites and businesses being bad, (especially if they are from Santa Cruz), U.S.-style racism holding people back, all Indians monolithically seeking populism, all Indians dirt poor because whites took their money away, all syndicates – syndicates! – in places like El Alto these noble representatives…
An unbelievable 1150 people have been murdered in cold blood by police in just one Venezuelan state. The death squads, which have never before been seen in Venezuela until Hugo Chavez came along, are now spiraling out of control as lawlessness reigns. Activists are taking it to the National Assembly. Alek Boyd has the news here and here.
Nicaraguans in their thousands marched to defend democracy! They don’t want the slimey, evil, communist Sandinistas to take over on legal technicalities. Right now, the Marxist Sandinistas have got President Enrique Bolanos backed into a corner trying to force him to resign. It’s Bolivian stuff. Nicaraguans do not want to lose their president and then be forced to undergo communism once again, their property confiscated Zimbabwe-style, their poverty levels rising higher than ever, and all of their democratic rights ending right then and there. They lived through it once, and they just don’t want it. Babe alert! Support Nicaragua’s freedom…
This item on Zimbabwe’s smoking ruins made my blood go cold. Read it here. Hat tip: Real Clear
No, not in the Middle East. In Venezuela. A first. A crusading journalist who asked too many questions about aluminum mining, the same damn industry the Russian mafia hits journalists for. By terrorists. With never-before-seen-in-Venezuela methods. To terrify. Alek Boyd now has an update here. It turns out they didn’t completely chop his head off, but they came close and the guy died.
Nicaragua’s slimey unelected Sandinista bureaucrats may have finally cornered President Enrique Bolanos who busted them and their nasty rightwing allies for bonafide corruption. Now, they are demanding that he step down for ‘violating the constitution.’ Don’t tell me this isn’t political. And ominous. Read it here.
Boli-Nica has a couple of amazing posts on the growing evidence against Hugo Chavez in the bankrolling of the blockades against Bolivia’s cities this month, the purpose of which was to starve the citizens into submission until they agreed to nationalize Bolivia’s energy resources. Seriously good blogging. Read it here and here.
City government machines are usually filthy even in the most ideal of first-world political conditions, which makes them an ideal operating environment for Venezuela’s dictator, Hugo Chavez. That may be why he’s growing active there. Alek Boyd recently questioned the brazen use of London municipal resources for Chavez’s government propaganda effort and got an amazing response from London officials, disingenuously wondering what the problem was. Read Alek’s account of Chavez’s London onslaught here.