Blogging the democratic revolution
I always forget to check INBB International Bulletin because I always go to the main website. But you need to make sure to visit it because Zed posts a Daily Burma roundup with news about the situation there.
Many of you have asked me (Okay, maybe not) where the donation button came from. It’s my way of subliminally asking for money to offset hosting costs and possibly buy some advertising. If you want to donate, I’ll be eternally grateful, and eternity is a pretty darn long time. I’ll be getting Blogads soon as well, at a very low price, so if you donate now you can still collect your ad time when they get set up. Alright, I’m done pimping myself. For shame, for shame. UPDATE: I was prodded to sign up with Amazon, so I did that…
David McDuff has posted his 8th installment of Going Back.
Discoshaman has his Ukraine update for 02/02. Yulia’s gaining steam, and the new opposition, well, isn’t really there yet.
I was taking a nap and woke up to images on the television of people rioting in the streets; behind the broadcaster’s words that “King Gyanendra of Nepal has just sacked the democratic government for failing to hold parliamentary elections and fight rebels.” Maybe it’s just years of training my fine intuition, but that just doesn’t seem like the right answer. Nepal was thrown into a dramatic crisis yesterday as King Gyanendra sacked the entire government, put the Prime Minister under house arrest and announced he was taking direct power into his own hands. Already reeling from a Maoist insurgency…
Nathan has posted a roundup of news concerning Central Asia. I’m such a whore for these kinds of things.
Laurence found a cool sounding book a posted a review he found. It’s called “Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World????????s Last Dictators by 2025.” Twenty years wait? I’ll be an old by then. Speaking of which, I haven’t said much about myself, so before I hit the sack, how about making the comments for this post where you all guess my age?
Make sure to be checking out Crossroads Arabia; John is revving up the posting due to the oncoming municipal elections. I’ll leave this up to the experts.
I came across this awesome blog today called Window on the Arab World, and more!. It is done by a guy named Kirk H. Sowell, a specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs and a published author. Read his website, the information and commentary is awesome. To start, here is something cool I read: Just now I watched a segment on Al-Jazeera about the attack earlier today in Kuwait against foreigners. The commentator, a Kuwaiti named Ahmad Shiraf, was asked who was behind this, and he responded enemies of civilization who are encouraged by those who glorify terrorism, such as Al-Jazeera!!! The…
Discoshaman already has his first Ukraine update for February up! And things are looking bright for Tymoshenko.
Here’s a big shoutout to Babalu Blog, who just got a big mention on the front page of the Miami Herald. Congratulations! The more people who knows about your cause, the better.
It looks like a total of 489 felons counted so far were allowed to vote in the Washington state elections. That’s higher than than the amount of votes that the fishy third hand-recount afforded to the Democrat candidate for victory. Pretty messed up situation, and sadly, the real winner may never be known. The government doesn’t owe either of the two candidates anything — not even victory. They owe the people what they are paid to do, and make sure that the people’s rightful choice is elected. How hard is it, honestly, for the government to fulfill its basic duties?
Norman Geras is pissed at the Guardian’s editorial section. But honestly, it’s no use getting mad at people who can’t write.
John Hawkins has his own roundup of favorite quotes from blogs on the Iraq election. I’ve posted similar lists earlier on if you’re interested, just scroll.
I hope Bloggle doesn’t mind too much, but I just had to post this in full: Jack Chirac told president Bush in a phone conversation that “The participation rate and the good technical organization of the elections were satisfactory.” Say what you want, but the famous silver-tongued French certainly know how to gussy up a phrase, don’t they? I can see Jack making the moves on one of the tarts on the Champs d’Elysee, running a hand through his thinning pate, leaning in to fill his Gallic nostrils with sweet Parisian parfum, and whispering, “Ah mademoiselle, your lips are quite…
Almost missed this other post by Nathan. Looks like he is keeping up with elections in Kyrgyzstan. More power to him; I certainly have to sleep at times! Lots of links and quotes and commentary. Check it out. I’ll try to find more information in the coming days as well. UPDATE: Russia obviously has a large interest in maintaining the status quo. Good article for some good information, though.
Nathan writes on the upsurge of protests from democratic movements in Central Asia, much greater than they were just a year ago. It’s really good.
Discoshaman has his Ukraine update for 01/31. Read the rest too, he has some interesting thoughts going around. UPDATE: David Geisen has one too.
Andy posts an interesting article relating how revolutions that pull through usually have the help of the capital’s mayor. After observing that the Orange Revolution in Ukraine may never have happened without the support of Kiev’s mayor they go on to argue that, if Putin wants to keep his job, he really needs to keep Yuri Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow, on his side. True. And I’d venture to say, however, that in a totalitarian state as big as Russia, just about everyone Putin thinks he has under his thumb will bail on him when the going gets too rough.
Dan McMinn has two good articles up well worth reading. The first is on Yushchenko’s legacy and the other is a historical profile on Kuchma.
Mohammed ponders the victory over the terrorists, and what must now be done to use this victory to its greatest advantage. If anything, they can take some notes from Ukraine on how to direct that kind of energy.
John is reporting on good press in the Arab media post-Iraq elections: This New York Times article is a surprisingly positive one about both the Iraqi elections and the way in which Arab media covered them. Of particular interest is the coverage of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya network, The daylong reporting of the election process, details on the personalities and almost step-by-step guides to the voting were a significant departure from what the Arab news media has produced in some time. Perhaps the most ambitious effort came from Al Arabiya, which had eight satellite trucks broadcasting from across Iraq, as well…
I hadn’t mentioned it yet give the situation in Iraq, but Yushchenko and Saakashvili were nominated by Senators McCain and Clinton for the Nobel Peace Prize. I got the info via: Blog de Connard. I found it pretty interesting though, since McCain is my senator. I checked out his website and… sure enough. I thought that was pretty cool so I sent him a little e-gram telling him how pleased I was. Here’s the letter: Dear Nominating Committee: We are writing to nominate for the Nobel Peace Prize two men who have exhibited an extraordinary commitment to peace: Georgian President…
Already, David McDuff has posted Part 7 of his Going Back series.
Chrenkoff has posted his next installment of good news from Iraq, but you might need a few hours to read it all. And that is definitely a good thing.