Blogging the democratic revolution
George Bush has a way of surprising dictators. He gets in their faces when they least expect it. He’s bold. He says what he means and means what he says. Nice to see a real man. Today he symbolically snapped a great wet towel in the face of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Bush openly met…
Stefania Lapenna writes a dazzling essay today on The American Thinker, outlining the meaning of Cuba’s democracy conference held in Havana, including many aspects of it that might not be so obvious. Stefania is a brilliant young thinker whose original work will be read for years to come for its insight. Think I’m exaggerating? You…
Of all the disgusting prosecutions, this one, against the great Oriana Fallaci, probably the finest journalist alive, is the most despicable. No one can compare to Oriana, no one has written with more powerful, penetrating insight and determination than she has. You don’t even need to agree with her to appreciate her. I tend to…
Lovely Stefania in Sardinia, Italy has some truly awe-inspiring near-live photos from the ongoing Cuban Democracy Convention outside Havana right now. The power of these pictures is unbelievable. Only in the blogosphere can any revolution be so chronicled. I dare you to look at these photos without weeping. See them here.
I admit that I ran across this item on accident, because as under-publicized as it is, that would be the only way to find it. While speaking to the International Republican Institute — one of the main organizations that allocates democracy building aid — President Bush proposed creating a special corp of federal workers that…
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…
Here is the first mainstream media editorial I have seen hailing Cuba’s brave democratic revolutionaries – it can be read here.
Castro’s henchmen have disappeared their first delegate to the Conference on Civil Society. His name is Antuan Clemente Hernandez. His event is to be held this weekend. They know what a threat it is to the communist regime. It’s Cuba’s Charter 77, its Declaration of Independence. And its participants face the same risks as those…
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…
Luis Tascon, the Venezuelan congressman who put signers of a recall referendum against dictator Hugo Chavez on a special Internet-accessible blacklist, has met a miserable demise. In this way, he would seem to parallel Joseph McCarthy, who died an isolated drunk. That said, the signers of the petition cannot be compared to McCarthy’s targets –…
Val has important updates on Cubans’ efforts to forge a civil society from the depths of Castrodom. Note that they are doing it from Havana, showing a courage we can only marvel at. And in what will surely go down as a vote of shame, there were actual U.S. Congressinsects who voted against supporting them…
U.S. Congress has just passed a resolution offering support and encouragement to Cuba’s brave civil society advocates, who, like the creators of the Declaration of Independence, are meeting in perilous conditions in Castro’s island hellhole to forge the beginnings of a new civil society, a new social contract, a new means of governance in what…
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has created another useless union this week, positively thrilling the Canadian press, but in Latin America, there is nothing new about it. So here is the deal: In Argentina during the 1990s, people used to joke about the extent of something known as ‘the corporate republic’ or ‘corporate state.’ The corporate state…
Is Jordan heading toward a constitutional crisis? It is rare for Al-Jazeera to report from Jordan on anything, but just now (about 8:00 a.m. Wednesday in Jordan time) I saw a report on a sudden outburst of public anger from opposition parliamentarians over the lack of democracy. Jordan has had an elected parliament for years,…
Tip of the hat to The Emirates Economist for letting me know about this item. Two weeks ago, the parliament voted 24-20 to give women the right to vote in municipal elections. This was heralded as a great first step, but skepticism still remained. And for good reason. The bill failed to pass the second…
I just came across this article in Mosnews saying that $5 million has been set aside in the soon-to-be approved emergency war spending bill for democracy programs in Belarus. The U.S. Senate has approved an extra $81 billion war budget that includes $5 million for programs aimed to support democracy in Belarus, RIA Novosti reports….
I know that the third round of municipal elections in Saudi Arabia are coming up, so I checked out Arab News, which has a lot of material up, but I came upon this article noting that legislation had been passed in Kuwait allowing women to both vote and participate in municipal elections. KUWAIT CITY, 20…
When thousands of Venezuelans came forward last year to exercise their legally guaranteed democratic right to sign a petition to recall their president, precious few realized the kind of use dictator Hugo Chavez could and did make of that signature list afterward. It was published on the Internet – the names, addresses and social-security-number equivalent…
Will Franklin is looking at Bhutan’s Freedom House ranking, the king’s policies, and the newly proposed constitution. Here is the entire thing in PDF. He notes: Bhutan’s proposed constitution is ambitious, bordering on too ambitious. The beauty of the American Constitution is its relative simplicity, which has helped it stand the test of time. Bhutan’s…
Previous statements have said that they would not contest the election results in court, as it would be futile given that it is controlled by Mugabe. Now, they have decided to do so in the districts where the most flagrant violations occured. Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has reversed its earlier…
This article caught my eye just before I went to hit the bed. Very sneaky. Very smart. Observer teams from African countries and regional organisations have been unanimous in declaring the elections free and fair, but the US embassy said that although the Zimbabwe government had not invited it to send observer teams from abroad,…
Hat tip to Andy for this article. The King of Bhutan, a small country located near undemocratic Nepal and India, has drafted a constitution to allow for multi-party democracy. The king of the Himalayan state of Bhutan announced the end of a century of absolute royal rule yesterday with the publication of a draft constitution…
Last Friday, the Venezuelan government declared a new law, one that makes it an actual crime to ‘offend Chavez.’ Chavez of course will say when he is offended. The king decides. And this means bloggers. A new Venezuelan blogger, called Jolly, gives his take here.
John Burgess over at Crossroads Arabia notes an article in Arab News that says 87% of Saudis favor female participation in elections. JEDDAH, 16 March 2005 ???????? A survey conducted by an independent agency in Jeddah showed 87 percent Saudis backing women????????s participation in elections. It also reflected the greater role of media in educating…
The Jordanian government has been for years one of the more open of Arab states, with its monarchs – first the long-ruling King Hussein and now his son King Abdullah – ruling with a relatively light hand (I spent 1997 living in Jordan). Yet as democracy movements gain strength in other parts of the Arab…