Blogging the democratic revolution
Note: I have been posting articles from my friend Richard Chesnoff on Bloggledygook. His latest is on the Palestinian elections. It is reproduced here in total. Chesnoff is a former correspondent for Newsweek. He currently writes for the New York Daily News and US News & World Report. He lives in New York and France….
‘Lo everybody. I am back after a long, long hiatus from this fine blog (incidentally, I was present at the birth) and wanted to point to a subject that is near to my heart. My daughter spent this past Summer in Morocco, studying Arabic and sociology. I have to admit that I was unprepared for…
Viktor Yushchenko seems at time to be more interested in completing assession to NATO than to tackling the problems of his fragile presidency. This is interesting seeing that NATO officials and member heads of state have not exactly thrown their arms around the Ukrainian president as he moves from constituent to constituent trying to rustle…
Pro-Syria, pro-Hizbollah Speaker Nabih Berri has been re-elected by the anti-Syrian parliament: The 128-seat assembly, dominated by opponents of Syria for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war, voted by an overwhelming majority of 90 for Berri, despite international and local reservations over retaining one of the main enforcers of Syria’s grip over its…
Christopher Hitchens has another must-read article in this month’s Vanity Fair. This time, Hitch visits Iran (now becoming possibly the only “scribbler” to have visited all three Axis of Evil members since 2000). I have a post and link on the article here. Hitchens once again reveals what is at the base of another rancid…
While the French are doing their level best to scuttle the EU constitution, Egyptian voters go to the polls today to vote on a referendum to clear the way to multi party presidential elections: CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – President Hosni Mubarak urged Egyptians to vote in Wednesday’s referendum on constitutional changes that would clear the…
Note: I posted this earlier at Bloggledygook, but then realized that the back story has a lot to do with the struggle for Cuba. Make no mistake: there are those who will do anything to make excuses for Fidel. A post in abdymok on Reporters Without Borders (or RSF for Reporters sans fronti????res) caught my…
The wording of the election law amendment is vague on some points, but it appears that the women of Kuwait have been granted the right to vote and run in elections. The prime minister, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, said that he planned to name a woman minister. “I congratulate the women of Kuwait for having achieved…
ABC is reporting that a grenade was tossed at President Bush as he addressed thousands gathered in Tbilisi, Georgia. Guram Donadze, spokesman for the Georgian Interior Ministry, said no hand grenade was thrown close to Bush. “This is an absolute lie. This did not occur,” Donadze told The Associated Press. Officials from President Maikhail Saakashvili’s…
The president has just finished a mini press conference with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The affection and good humor between the four leaders were palpable. Two of Bush’s statements were particularly telling. In answer to a question speculating on whether the US and Russia would cut a deal in which Russia would…
Michael Totten is back from Lebanon and posting, he says “by popular demand,” a very nice collection of protest babe pictures. I have read posts on some of the less, uh, optimistic websites that state that the whole protest babe thing is bogus because none of those women were Muslim. Not so, says Michael: If…
If this is true, it certainly won’t help the effort in Iraq. However, take care with reading what the article actually says: WASHINGTON – U.S. civilian authorities in Iraq cannot properly account for nearly $100 million that was supposed to have been spent on reconstruction projects in south-central Iraq, government investigators said Wednesday. There are…
Former Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has been staging a hunger strike in jail for the last 15 days. He has refused medical treatment in the Dominican Republic until the interim government drops accusations that he organized a massacre: “Mr. Neptune said he would accept to be evacuated only if all the charges brought against…
Today marks the 100th day in office fr Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko: KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday marked his first 100 days in office, saying his government remained on track to fulfil the demands of protesters who helped propel him to power. “We haven’t betrayed any of the slogans…
Earlier this week, Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky announced that he had offered 10 CDs of the Melnychenko recordings to Viktor Yushchenko. Now, the Parliament has denied Berezovsky an entry visa: KIEV, April 22 (Itar-Tass) – The Supreme Rada (parliament) of Ukraine has refused to support the request of MP Alexander Volkov to Ukrainian President Viktor…
UN diplomats, on a fun-packed junket to Haiti, say that the Caribbean nation is not getting the job done: April 20 (Bloomberg) — Haiti’s political leaders aren’t taking steps toward reconciliation needed for successful elections this year and the interim government hasn’t begun reconstruction projects to stabilize the Caribbean nation, U.S. and Brazilian diplomats said….
Russia billionaire Boris Berezovsky, now called Platon Elenin, says he wants to meet with Viktor Yushchenko to turn over the Melnychenko recordings from Leonid Kuchma’s office. We’re talking ten CDs that supposedly has all kinds of good juicy stuff on them. I have the latest over at Bloggledygook, with a special gift at the end…
At Bloggledygook I have a post on an accusation by a deputy of the Ukrainian opposition that Viktor Yushchenko had a hand in the sales of X-55 missiles to China and Iran.
Pro-Syrian businessman Najib Mikati was appointed prime minister after the resignation (how many is that?) of Omar Karami. At Spirit of America, Mike Totten has a short but pointed interview with student opposition leader Nabil Abou-Charraf. Charraf contends that the latest Karami resignation is a ploy by the government to scuttle the upcoming elections. He…
Asif Ali Zardari was taken to his home by police immediately upon landing in Pakistan. Reposrts are alternatively saying that he has been detained or merely deposited at his home: Hundreds of PPP activists clashed with security forces at the Lahore airport in an attempt to meet their leader. The airport was sealed off after…
Gateway Pundit has a report on the arrest of 20,000 members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who were anticipating the return to the country of PPP leader (and husband of former PM Benazir Bhutto) Asif Ali Zardari: Police continued cracking down on Pakistan People????????s Party (PPP) activists on Thursday and arrested thousands of them…
The Tajik government informed foreign embassies and organizations that they must give notification in advance of contacts with political parties, journalists and NGOs. Foreign ministry spokesman Igor Satarov said the change was designed to guard against “the spread of propaganda”. Observers say the government of this impoverished mountainous state is on the alert after popular…
One more: A former Yukos bigwig says that Russia will have a revolution once Belarus gets its act together. Meanwhile, government elites a trumping up such a possibility so as to portay Putin as a strongman and the only person capable of holding the country together. Indeed, it does seem as if the Russian rudder…
Over at Bloggledygook, I have a post on the trouble the EU constitution is having getting past the new French Resistance. The most delicious part of the story is that it looks as if Chirac might be hoisted on his own pitard. The constitution must be unanimously approved by the member states. In a hilarious…
Thousands of Egyptian students have demonstrated against the government in what is being called the largest protest in Egypt to date. The students – mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood movement – marched at five campuses in Cairo and the Nile Delta. Hundreds of police prevented them from taking their protests outside university gates onto the…