Blogging the democratic revolution
With Monday looming as the deadline to submit the Iraqi constitution to the National Assembly for a vote, we’re all sitting here wondering, “Will it be done on time?” President Talabani thinks so. In fact, he’s saying that it will be done early. BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Iraqi leaders rushing to finish a constitution Saturday reported tentative agreements on distribution of oil wealth and other issues, but there was no deal on the main obstacle: federalism. President Jalal Talabani predicted the constitution would be submitted to the National Assembly on Sunday – one day before the deadline for parliamentary approval.…
Daniel at Venezuela News and Views has a STUNNING piece about what the Venezuelan opposition should do now in the wake of Venezuela’s failed municipal elections this past weekend. It’s is AWESOME, beyond Daniel at his finest to something quite godly. He’s like Alexander Hamilton in his suggestions for the opposition of what arguments to use, what tactics to take, what strategy to follow now, in these conditions. It’s truly awesome. Daniel’s rapier diagnosis: The other fact is that at way more than half of your voters, those that usually vote for you, did not bother to vote this time.…
As the deadline for drawing up the new constitution for Iraq is approaching, women and civil society groups are becoming more and more vocal of their opposition to groups who wants sharia to be the civil law of the land. However, whenever they take to the streets to protest, their stalkers arise out of the mist. These stalkers aren’t men, but other women who are perfectly willing to see them subdued. It’s a game of demonstrators versus counter-demonstrators. BAGHDAD (AFP) – A group of ultraconservative Iraqi women confronted a protest by their liberal opponents in central Baghdad as tensions mounted…
When Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. troops and handed over to Iraqi democracy to face justice, just about every Western ambulance-chasing lawyer on the left leapt to his defense. They were a seasoned lot, having one way or another defended every tyrant they knew, some from the days of Daniel Ortega in Marxist Nicaragua, and some from even earlier, as in the days of Vietnam or Stalin’s USSR. They were in the same package of people who come to commie countries to cut cane sugar or teach ‘literacy’ in the name of propping up some dictator. But…
We’ve discussed Belarus quite a bit over the past few days, including an item showing that Congress approved $24 million of funding for opposition parties in the countries. Now, it seems as if the EU has finally moved beyond “stern condemnations” to real action, by getting ready to set aside funds for similar measures that the U.S. is taking. THE European Union is set to provide cash for opposition parties in the former Soviet republic of Belarus. EU diplomats are considering direct funding to allow Belarus’s opposition parties to compete with the pro-government campaign. If approved, it would mark a…
As most House spending bills do, this one almost slipped under the radar. They just approved $24 million dollars to fund democracy in Belarus. The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Wednesday to earmark $24 million for promoting democracy, development of political parties and independent media in Belarus over the next two years, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. The bill on financing the U.S. foreign policy in the years 2006-2007 was passed by 351 vs 78 votes, the House of Representatives Secretariat reported. In particular, the document authorizes the U.S. government to spend $24 million on assistance in building democracy…
The leader of the Yeni Fikr youth movement has been arrested by authorities, who are claiming that he took money from Armenian special intelligence in order to prepare a revolution in Azerbaijan through a plot hatched by the United States NDI. Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor-General’s Office announced on 4 August the arrest of Ruslan Bashirli, leader of the opposition youth movement Yeni Fikir (New Thinking), on charges of plotting to overthrow the Azerbaijani leadership at the instigation of Armenian intelligence operatives. Those allegations, which the Armenian National Security Service and Bashirli’s fellow Azerbaijani oppositionists have both rejected, highlight Azerbaijan’s ongoing suspicion and…
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, a vile Maoist terror group enamored of Pol Pot terrorized the Peruvian countryside. They were communists known as the Shining Path and along with their ugly cousin known as Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), they specialized in murder. Being cowards, they didn’t just go after ‘oligarchs’ (whom they never seemed to find) but unarmed community organizers and civil society advocates, the people who wanted to spread the world democracy revolution by peaceful means. They especially went after those. In the face of these remorseless, psychopathic Marxist death squads, Peruvians organized themselves into curious collectives,…
Developing countries almost never have civil society organizations, making them vulnerable to tyrants who are always happy to fill the void with … tyranny. Rare indeed are the PTAs, the Elks, the Kiwanis, the Ladies’ Auxilliaries, the Neighborhood Watches, the Surfriders’ Foundations, the Explorers’ Club, the Roadrunners – and all the much-maligned but critically necessary spontaneously organized private groups that are the building blocks of democracy. So it was a joy to read that in determinedly democratic El Salvador, our new CAFTA ally, Salvadoran locals got together to clean up the beaches. And had wild exuberant Latin American fun together,…
Alexis de Tocqueville, the extraordinary French observer who chronicled how democracy rose and developed in America, is 200 years old today. In the Age of Democratic Revolution & Civil Society, he gave us all a roadmap that is more important than anyone ever realized. Great economists like Hernando de Soto, who first underlined the importance of property rights, got much of his material from American history and much of that he took from de Tocqueville. Alexis de Tocqueville is a true polestar of authentic democratic revolution and a great capital-L Liberal. The Adam Smith Institute blog has a marvellous essay…
Ugandans went to the polls today to vote in a referendum on allowing multiple parties run in elections. Political parties were effectively outlawed 19 years ago, but President Museveni is being pressured by foreign donors, who supply half of the government’s budget, to enact reforms. Turnout was very low largely due to torrential rains and partly due to apathy. Ugandans are choosing whether to allow multiparty politics in the East African country in a referendum Thursday, the first step in reforming the country’s constitution, which forbids political parties from campaigning in elections. President Yoweri Museveni banned multiparty politics when he…
Greenpeace recently told Venezuelan activist Alek Boyd it had better things to do than defend endangered species in Hugo Chavez’s slash-and-burn Venezuela. So, rare-songbird soup is back on the menu in Chavistaville. A private nature conservancy full of rare animals and plants unique to Venezuela, Hato Pinero, is under the machete by Chavez’s Marxist-Leninist land-confiscators as never before. The Los Angeles Times has the full horrible story on Hato Pinero that Greenpeace doesn’t care about here. Here are the desperate pleas from Hato Pinero’s owners about this ensuing maelstrom of environmental waste ahead: Andres Branger made pleas to save his…
On July 19th I posted on a leak of the draft Iraqi bill of rights, which was published in Arabic on June 30 and translated to English on July 6. After I posted about that draft, a new one was released on July 20 and subsequently translated by Nathan Brown at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Given the three weeks of separation between these two drafts, significant and progressive changes can be seen since June 30. You can read the full text of the new draft, accompanied by the old one, here. One of the smallest yet significant changes…
People in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi demonstrated for the second day against proposed constitutional changes that will leave the country with a watered down premiership and an ultimately authoritative presidency. The government has banned the demonstrations, but protestors say they will take to the streets for a third day. Clashes are also being reported in cities elsewhere. NAIROBI, July 21 (Reuters) – Kenyan riot police guarded the rubble-strewn streets of Nairobi on Thursday as protest leaders promised a third day of demonstrations against President Mwai Kibaki’s handling of a constitution reform. The protests — which have turned central Nairobi into…
The al-Mada newspaper on June 30 published what is apparently a draft version of the equivalent to the Bill Of Rights that is being worked on by a subcommittee in the Iraqi legislature. Omar from Iraq The Model first reported this on that day and provided his commentary on the document, but ultimately it was too large to translate. Nathan J. Brown of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace provides a valuable public service by translating the entire document, so a big hat tip to him. Let’s take a quick look at some of the features of this bill, as…
It’s going to be a horror show. Sumate, the voter-rights civil society group whose leadership is now headed for Hugo Chavez’s dungeons on treason charges, warns that the next election will not be fair. Hugo Chavez has gerrymandered and manipulated it already in his favor. He can’t lose. But that doesn’t mean Venezuelans aren’t trying to fight back. Daniel reports a new blog project ahead called The Sumate Files that is well worth reading for its updates on the Sumate situation and the coming problems with holding a fair election in Hugo Chavez’s New Venezuela. Read it here.
No sheet Sherlock, Papillon’s qualified to vote in Venezuela’s next election. Yeah, that guy, the Devil’s Island movie guy, Butterflies Are Free – him – dead since 1973, he’s on the Venezuelan voter rolls. It’s that bad. Don’t believe me? Read it here. Daniellllllll!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve heard about this for two weeks and have been awaiting its release. Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) and Co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission has introduced legislation into the House entitled the Central Asia Democracy and Human Rights Act. Under CADHRA, all non-humanitarian assistance to each government covered under the legislation would be conditioned on the President certifying that the country is making ???????substantial, sustained and demonstrable progress toward democratization and full respect for human rights.??????? U.S. assistance would be reduced by 33% for each year a positive determination cannot be made. In the third year, all aid to that government…
This Investor’s Business Daily editorial, now available on Alek Boyd’s Web site, describes Sumate’s hard work of creating civil institutions in a democracy and explains how they function as a bulwark against tyranny. That’s what Sumate leader Maria Corina Machado has done, and that’s why Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez wants to put her in prison. There is nothing a tyrant fears more than a REAL revolution from below, which is what this brave woman, comparable to Martha Beatriz Roque in Cuba, is risking her freedom for. Read it here.
Remember back several months ago when Putin declared that regional governors would be appointed rather than elected. It didn’t really matter in the first place, because those elected were already vetted for approval by Moscow. The reason Putin gave is that he would be able to install more popular and competent leaders should they be needed. But elections hold both a practical and symbolic importance, especially when the corrupt and incompetent leadership is not being replaced. Russia????????s abolition of regional elections ????????- a reflex reaction to the Beslan tragedy ????????- has backfired. Instead of bringing order to the North Caucasus,…
Article 72 of Hugo Chavez’s custom made constitution reads “All magistrates and other offices filled by popular vote are subject to revocation.” With such revolutionary prevision as background let me expand into the most notorious case of political prosecution in today’s Venezuela. Since there are no precedents of a systematic attempt at silencing and imprisoning members of a civil group in the country’s history one should start by giving a rough chronological account of events. Hugo Chavez won the presidency of Venezuela in 1.998, his little plan to take power by force, via coup d’etat in 1.992, turned out to…
Chris Borgen over at Opinio Juris has a couple of engaging posts on international institutions and the building of a global liberal order. He argues that Clinton was more successful at promoting a desirable world order because of his support for international institutions, and his greater preference than the White House’s current occupant for treaty-making. I think Clinton does deserve a fair amount of credit for promoting global freedom, but I disagree with Borgen over his use of the term “liberal order” to the extent that he identifies it with international institutions which do little to nothing to promote democratization…
Miguel at MABB on Bolivia has a very significant item utterly ignored in the U.S. media about how Bolivia’s protestors are being coerced. They are being shaken down by Marxist social movements like Evo Morales’ ally FEJUVE, which sends block committees into neighborhoods of El Alto, checking to see that at least one member of the household is out there protesting for Morales’ suicidal nationalization causes. I knew those Indians weren’t doing this on their own! There were too many of them at the pro-Mesa protests in March. They are being forced to protest! Or else. The Morales crew puts…
Alek Boyd has Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s superb WSJ essay on Venezuela’s courageous freedom fighter Maria Corina Machado, who she is, and what she is up against in dictator Hugo Chavez’s nightmare regime. Read it here.
The awesome President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and all of his presidential challengers are setting up blogs for the upcoming presidential race. It’s going to be hotly contested, but I defy anyone to outdo President Uribe in sheer eloquence. He’s a quiet little academic-looking man, but his power is in his thinking, and not only intellectual brilliance but emerald-grade moral clarity. That’s a lot better than how much hairspray. I think this will make politics less a TV show and more a contest of ideas – which is what blogging excels at. Grim’s Hall has a note about it here.…