Blogging the democratic revolution
Democracy is at work in this country of ours, where scandal has broken out in perhaps one of America’s most important polls. That’s right, American Idol. US television network Fox has been forced to throw out the latest voting results in American Idol after a bungled display of the phone numbers viewers use to choose their favourite contestant. Fox will have to air an extra one-hour episode of Idol, the top-rating show on US television. The recap special of the prime-time talent contest will consist of taped performances from Tuesday’s show, along with some live segments to fill in the…
Jane over at Armies of Liberation is hallucinating with joy as al-Khaiwani, editor of the al-Shoura opposition newspaper, was pardoned directly by President Saleh. Jane, as you may know, had received correspondence from him and organized a petition to have him freed. Hopefully the blogosphere played a little part. Congrats!
Communist President Voronin was just tapped for possible election again after Moldova’s recent parliamentary elections. He’s pretty confident he’ll win. CHISINAU, March 23 (Itar-Tass) – Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said he was confident that the new parliament elected on March 6 will vote for the head of state at the first try. Voronin made the statement in commends on the talks which the authorities are conducting with the opposition. Communists hold 56 out of 101 mandates in the republic’s parliament, which enables them to form the parliament leadership and the Cabinet. To elect the president, they need the support of…
You may remember earlier in the week when a bomb went off, triggering quite a bit of anxiety about the possiblity of another civil war and the influence of Syrian intelligence. Another one just went off. It took me awhile to find a good article that wasn’t full of “Hizb’allah rules; American drools” filler info. BEIRUT (Reuters) – Three people were killed and five wounded early on Wednesday when a bomb exploded at a shopping center in a Christian town north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, police sources and local television said. The explosion, the second in a commercial Christian…
But not by me. Nathan has put all of his posts on the ongoing developments in Kyrgyzstan into one easy roundup for your viewing pleasure. Once you read that, though, you might want to go to the main page because there will undoubtedly be more.
Big thanks to Ian from The Political Teen for letting me know. This website was featured on Connected Coast to Coast at the end of the segment. What’s better? Ian has the video uploaded so that you can see. I’ll probably be including this link inside family Christmas cards for years to come.
Every day I ask myself, “So, what government will fall today?” Because literally, in 2005, that’s what seems to be happening. Estonia is no exception. TALLINN, Estonia — Estonia’s prime minister announced his resignation and dissolved his government Monday after lawmakers said they had no confidence in his justice minister because of a controversial anti-corruption plan. Prime Minister Juhan Parts, 38, said the government coalition could no longer effectively lead the ex-Soviet Baltic country of 1.4 million people. “The time of this government is over,” Parts said in remarks to the Riikogu, or parliament, adding that his resignation would take…
The huge protest looking to obtain 1 million protestors is scheduled for Saturday, but some people are getting involved a little early. The story I’m going to link to has to do with the EU arms embargo, but the picture and caption is about Taiwan Some 400 drivers line up their taxis to form the word “peace” during a protest denouncing Beijing’s recent approving an anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan Tuesday, March 22, 2005, in Taipei, Taiwan. The protest leads up to Saturday’s planned protest to gather one million Taiwanese to show public disapproval to the anti-secession law that give…
The past few days have brought quite a bit of good news from countries we wouldn’t expect. Just yesterday, the President of Azerbaijan signed a decree to release 53 political prisoners, and scores more. BAKU, Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev pardoned more than 100 prisoners on Sunday, including dozens of opposition politicians whose release had been demanded by Europe’s top human rights body. Fifty-three of the 114 people pardoned were on a list of political prisoners that the Council of Europe demanded be released, Aliev’s office said in a statement. Aliev’s decree came just four days after the Parliamentary…
In my Lebanon roundups, especially when the mass protests were going on, I referenced the online forum of an opposition group known as the Lebanese Forces. Their leader, Samir Geagea, was thrown in jail by the Syrians because of his work against them. Recently, there is a move to get him out. A move is underway in parliament to get Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea released from jail before the spring elections, slain ex-premier Hariri’s Al Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Monday. It said six parliament members have signed a proposed draft bill to amend the 1992 amnesty law on an…
Bruce Chang recently conducted a survey among Taiwanese-Americans living in Southern California and asked them to answer a few questions regarding Taiwan, China, and the new anti-secession law. They seemed pretty calm about it, which is reassuring to those of us on the outside. UPDATE: Last week you may remember something I said regarding the countries supporting China’s anti-secession law. And has anyone noticed that all the countries supporting China????????s anti-secession law have secession problems themselves? Looks like that support is paying off for Azerbaijan, who has just received total support for China on its territorial integrity.
WILLisms is looking into the babe theory, that successful revolutions are more likely to occur when pretty women are involved. And I think he may have gone off into the deep end, given the utter depth of his post. I’m glad someone is crazy enough to do it! WOW: A.M. Mora y Leon has let me know about sweet collection of pictures of the Venezuelan female opposition. Remember to right-click, save-as.
To start off, if even haven’t read it, make sure to catch Daniel’s Ukraine roundup over at Bloggledygook. Now, there are two things regarding the situation in Ukraine that has made me crack a scowl lately, except it doesn’t have anything to do with what Ukraine is doing. It has to do with Washington. Tim Russo from Democracy Guy points me to an article in the Washington Post, while biased sounding as it is, throws out some numbers that just irritate me to no end. In the weeks after a popular uprising toppled a corrupt government in Ukraine, President Bush…
Arthur Chrenkoff has a special roundup of recent events in the Middle East that he has dubbed the “Pro-Democracy Edition.” And in that respect, you should definitely check it out. For an older post in this same regards, check here if you haven’t seen it already.
The object of the caption contest was to fill in the rest of the sentence for this anti-war protestor Below is Sortapundit’s entry: “…the models used in this picture, but all the attractive Americans are Republicans.” Congratulations! You’ve won a one week blogad. I’ll be getting into contact with you to put it up. And thanks to everyone who participated. All of the entries can be found here.
Regime Change Iran has its weekly briefing of Iran up. Don’t miss it!
While the opposition has attempted to step up protests against the monarch, he has been relentless in cracking down. Some pictures are posted at Radio Free Nepal that I’ll reproduce here.
Judging from the Orange Revolution, it is known that for a political movement to be more likely to succeed, the opposition must be united behind a charismatic candidate. There is a new face for the Belarussian opposition front these days, who has recently appeared to challenge Lukashenko for the presidency in summer 2006. And it looks like he may be uniting two of the opposition parties. The Minsk-based “Narodnaya volya,” the biggest opposition daily in Belarus, carried a front page manifesto on 19 February of a new political movement called Will of the People (Volya naroda). The manifesto was signed…
It’s Sunday, and you know what that means! Actually, not much. Except that I’m catching up on my blog reading. Which means you need to check out that latest of David McDuff’s series of posts Dragons and Democracy, part 10!
A lot has happened since the last update. Lahoud was already weak, but now he is even in the position of possible resignation. Karami is thinking of resigning again, and Hizb’allah’s hold is weaker as well. The most startling news over the past couple of days has been a car bomb, which is roundly being said to be a “goodbye present” from the Syrian services.
Husayn from Democracy in Iraq (is here!) has written a lengthy post relaying his thoughts on this important anniversary. Two years is about 730 days. In those days what have I seen. My eyes have seen more than I had ever hoped, more blood, more death and more pain, then I ever imagined or hoped I would have seen. In those days I have seen the worst of humanity, the animal that lives in all humanity, the ability of humanity to destroy at will others, and rob the life given to others by God almight himself. So you ask me,…
A terrorist attack recently occurred in the Qatari capital of Doha; and blogger Natasha Tynes was right in the neighborhood! How terrifying is that? Make sure to read her account. UPDATE: She has some post-blast thoughts up and will be updating with photos soon. PICTURE: Alright, the pictures are up.
A new day, a new anti-war protest! But given that they were wrong wrong wrong, I think it would be fitting to make fun of them. So here’s what I want you to do. Rules: Use the following photos and post in the comments section what you think the sign should say. It should be funny, and made to make fun of hippies/anti-war protestors/liberals/etc. The image starts out as “We apologize for…” and then you fill in the rest of the sentence. Prize: To the best caption goes a one week blogad. Have fun!
Tomorrow will mark the second anniversary of Operation: Iraqi Freedom. Glenn over at Instapundit said it, I think, better than anyone. WAR CRITICS want to mark the anniversary of the war — there will be an “antiwar protest” at my local mall tomorrow and there are all sorts of events planned worldwide — but a proper way of marking the date would be with a mass apology to the Iraqi people, and to George W. Bush, for taking the wrong side at a crucial moment in history. Sackcloth, ashes, and signs reading: WE WERE WRONG, SORRY WE TRIED TO BLOCK…
The fourth straight week after Friday prayer? Interesting. Hundreds of men and women shouted slogans against the Egyptian government and clashed with security forces Friday in a protest against the mass detention and alleged torture of relatives suspected in last year’s Sinai resort bombings. Some 500 protesters demonstrated after Friday prayers outside the al-Rifai mosque, one of the main mosques in the north Sinai town of El-Arish, shouting, “Freedom, freedom.” A large force of riot police surrounded the protest and dispersed the men, beating some with electric prods and batons. Ten men were detained, police officials said. The men dispersed,…