Blogging the democratic revolution
Terry Rogers has got the first financial report since the Orange Revolution. Seems to be a lot of confidence in the new leadership. Wish I had a few hundred thousand dollars to blow!
And here is a new catchphrase to add to your political vocabulary. Outpost of Tyranny is quite a mouthful, and seems like the name of a future expansion pack to World of Warcraft, but promising are some of the little looked after countries named. Rice named Cuba, Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Iran, and…. Belarus! This is one of those rhetorical sentences this is most likely going to be used many times over the next couple of years as the U.S. moves on its foreign policy direction post-Iraq. Best to note is that these are relatively small countries with governments that…
It looks as if the U.S. military and the interim government are finally instituting how they will make the elections safer. Here is a quick run-down of what they will do: -Seal the borders (I’m skeptical as if this is possible). -Extend a curfew. -Restrict movement.
Can anybody say “domino effect?”
Dan McMinn over at Orange Ukraine has a huge roundup of articles regarding the years leading up to the Orange Revolution. They deal with Kuchma’s motives for firing Yushchenko, why Tymoshenko was throwin in jail, and voter preferences in previous years.
Neeka’s Backlog has the calculations done already. And here’s a recent news article. There are some interesting points to note here, however. Opinion polls recently published show that some 60% of this group believe that the state’s task is to provide for its citizens. … Far from welcoming social security reform, the polls suggest that a third of Russians want a return to state planning, and only 10% think free enterprise should be a national priority. What can I say? These people are stupid and have become reliant on the system, and I have no doubt that the former is…
Terry Rogers from Notes From Kiev has found an interesting article about the relative difficulty of purging the bandits from Ukraine government post-election.
Can anyone help Hossein Derakhshan get to the UNESCO conference on free speech in cyberspace? So does anyone know someone who might be of help, especially in the French councilor in Toronto or in the Embassy in Ottawa? To give some background info, he is a college student and a leading activist for freedom in Iran. I write a bit about him here. This is what he plans to do there, if he can make it: At least to embarrass the Iranian delegation which will be arrogant enough to take part in such conference, even with its horrible record of…
Quickly becoming a favorite blogger of mine, Crossroads Arabia talks of recent initiatives to empower the intellectual youth in Saudi Arabia. This is the kind of thing I like to hear, as John notes: A lot of Americans complain that ???????Arabs never talk about change.??????? Those complaints are wrong, of course, but understandable. Stories that contradict the chosen US media narrative rarely get reported. He is right, I never hear about these things on CNN. Perhaps the U.S. news media simply doesn’t cover these things unless they appear in the Human Rights Watch report. It certainly wouldn’t cover it if…
And here is Hersh’s entire piece along with the Pentagon press release.
Bush announced just a day after a reports of espionage in Iran by Seymour Hersh that he will not rule out action. Awesome. “The Iranian regime’s apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Seymour Hersh provides in the New Yorker article titled “The Coming Wars,” the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, said in a statement. Hersh sounds more like a phony — well, loser is a better word — the more I read about him. A much more extended response about him here. And here. Very…
Abbas, under huge pressure from Israel, finally made a declaration for militants to halt their attacks against Israel. But Hamas rejected this call just a few hours after it was made, launching rockets into a nearby settlement. According to the articles, Abbas will be spending a few days in Gaza to have talks with the militants, but that is likely to lead nowhere. Terrorist organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah are self-interested and have no desire to bring the Palestinians a free, thriving society. They know that if that ever happens, they’ll be out of business. Let’s see if…
Via Instapundit, the New York Times reports on the actions behind the scenes of the Orange Revolution. It is an extremely detailed, seven page account of the story about how intelligence officials blocked the suppression of the opposition by the government. For a news story, it was a very exciting read… the kind of thing you would only expect in war novels. Update: But it looks like Daniel Drezner already predicted this!
David McDuff over at A Step At A Time came out with some great content today that I found very unique. He posted a translation of a post on a message board by a Russian man describing how he feels about the pensioner protests. Very, very profound. He also posts his translation of an interview done for a Russian newspaper with Vil Mirzayanov, who gives his expert opinion into the dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko. But again, McDuff is an expert in his own right, having done translations of many Russian works, making a very unique addition to the blogosphere with…
INBB has an article posted about aid from the U.S. and development of democracy in those countries. Even though I could just link to the article itself, I’d rather plug him because he has many interesting articles posted — some even from differing opinions than my own — that I had never seen before. I will say that the man needs trackback though!
Say it isn’t so. The main points are that its welfare systems, restrictive labor laws, and immigration policies with majority Muslim countries are what will eventually split it apart. Unless, of course, they take the time to do some hard reform. Read it all, as it summarizes the global power situation fairly well. But I’d have to give it an overall rating of “Duh.”
Lawrence DiRita of the Pentagon issued a two-page statement rejecting claims of operations in Iran and other countries. There were four specific refutations named. Among these, and let me pat myself on the back, were quotes made by a “government consultant” and a “high-level intelligence officer.” You see, this is why anonymous quotes don’t work. And he was called on it, so he better hope he can prove himself.
After Prince Harry’s little stunt, it seems that the EU is considering an all out ban on synbols Nazi-related. Now that’s just stupid. In a free, open society, people should be able to both wear offensive things, and be berated for being idiots. That, apparently, isn’t a label I would like to give to an organization like the EU. This seems to me, on a large scale, like an attempt to forget European submission and compliance to the Holocaust. But banning an integral part, albeit a poor one, of European history is in no way going to help heal the…
Putin says Israel funded Yushchenko victory. I think Bloggledygook said it perfectly: Notable here is the implication that Putin doesn’t consider Russian aid and support to be foreign per se. Indeed. And I’m not sure how anti-semitic Russians are, but this might be aimed at mobilizing people against Yushchenko on the basis of distaste for Jews or Israel. It has been a mighty political tool in the past. Can anyone comment on this?
Discoshaman has got an update on Ukraine news for January 17th.
Reported here. As much as people are going to complain that Israel is not even giving Abbas a chance, after some rethinking over the past few days, I am going to have to side with Sharon on this. The Palestinian Authority simply cannot act against the militants because they do not have the capabilities to do so. Sharon is actually making a clear-cut distinction here between the terrorists and the Palestinians. The huge division between the Palestinian Authority, organizations like Hamas an Islamic Jihad, and the people is so great that the hyperplurality of it won’t permit the necessary conditions…
This article could have been written any time since the summer of 2003. Of course they’re going to try their hardest to screw with the elections. This isn’t anything new. And they make this foreign fighter issue seem like it’s new as well.
After going through the Human Rights Watch Report for South America, I turned to the section about Abu Ghraib. The article is called The Twisted Logic of Torture. How enticing. I begin to read… A warped and dangerous logic lies behind the Bush administration????????s refusal to reject coercive interrogation. Many American security officials seem to believe that coercive interrogation is necessary to protect Americans and their allies from a catastrophic terrorist attack. Torture and inhumane treatment may be wrong, they contend, but mass murder is worse, so the lesser evil must be tolerated to prevent the greater one. Yet, aware…
Eurasianet has published an article regarding the Human Rights Watch: 2005 World Report, and they sum up the situation in one well-written sentence: According to the rights advocacy group, all of Russia is effectively controlled from Moscow, elections in Belarus are laughable, abuse of prisoners is the norm in Uzbekistan, while Armenia and Azerbaijan are run by authoritarian regimes as the two countries continue their standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh. True. And this article focuses a lot on Russia especially, given that it is the main political body attempting to maintain control in the region. I’m going to go ahead and read…
Seymour Hersh from The New Yorker has reported that the U.S. is conducting secret operations in Iran. They are scouting for potential military and nuclear facilities; very necessary information for a future bombing run. The story makes extensive use of anonymous quotes, and as a journalist, that doesn’t bode too well with me. Like I said, I have no doubt that the U.S. is conducting covert operations, but anonymous quotes make me feel very skeptical. Let’s not forget about Jason Blair. Hersh quotes one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon as saying, “The civilians in the Pentagon want…