Blogging the democratic revolution
RCTV workers in Caracas today protest Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s vow to shut them down Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! News Venezuela’s oldest television station is under the gun from the Venezuelan dictatorship of Hugo Chavez. When I say ‘under the gun’ I mean that literally, and you’ll see if you read further. Chavez has vowed to shut down the 53-year old station and throw its workers onto the streets. Never mind what its workers want, what its advertisers want or what its millions of viewers want. Chavez wants this television station destroyed. He not only wants revenge on a political…
From the time the US and coalition forces deposed Saddam and his Ba’athists, over 25 million newly free Iraqis have had the opportunity to develop a society along a new path; the nature of that path has faced challenges from Iraqi sects, international terrorist groups, and foreign states, and its direction has been hotly debated. I have believed for some time that Iraqis have been making gradual but clear progress on many fronts in their attempt to rebuild a society — in terms of democratic reform, economic development and reconstruction, and other key elements of civil society. A little over…
The Russian media has challenged the Putin regime’s peculiarly atavistic style of governance – its standing practice of rule through murder. Kim Zigfeld at La Russophobe has professionally translated a long and insightful piece from Novaya Gazeta called ‘Spare Organs’ on the Kremlin’s ruling killers. If you follow Russia affairs, it well worth a look here. Komersant has another backgrounder to the current scenario, readable in English, in this post here.
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has signalled his true intentions with more clarity than ever today, announcing that he would expropriate: 1. All the phone lines 2. All the electricity As this happened, a provincial governor from Bolivar state down south let it all hang out, simply saying he wanted to confiscate the entire media, forcing it all under state control. Just ‘nationalization’ don’t you know. Think of the implications of Chavez’s move, there, as well as the nutty governor’s statement. Chavez intends to control all the media and information all through the country. CANTV’s stock has now plunged 16% on…
Poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko on his deathbead Source: Kim Zigfeld, at La Russophobe In his defiant last statement, poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko said, “The bastards got me. But they won’t get everybody.” Incredibly brave words for a man going down in lingering pain from a now-unknown poison. Less than a week ago, Alexander Litvinenko was in perfect health, doggedly trying to find out the truth behind the murder of another Russian journalist in London. In a scene reminiscent of Daniel Pearl’s kidnap, he apparently got too close to people too dirty, and then hit on some nerve too…
I just got this note in from Alex Beech: Censorship in Venezuela official Begins; Live Broadcasts are Forbidden On Tuesday afternoon, a National Guard major notified the country’s private television networks in Venezuela that requests for live broadcasts would have to be submitted to the National Guard twenty four hours prior to transmission. According to Globovision News Channel Director Federico Ravell, National Guard Major Rafael Medina prevented private networks from performing technical alignments necessary for live transmission. Ravell said that the communications regulatory agency (CONATEL) denied any knowledge of the measure. Globovision, which broadcasts opposition campaigning events, will be prevented…
Isn’t there a leftwing site somewhere that devotes itself to watching Fox News “so you don’t have to”? I think there is, and it’s an entertaining thing. Venezuela has its own TV-watcher, doing yeoman’s work, watching the Chavistas in action on the television – our own dear Daniel Duquenal of Venezuela News & Views. Daniel takes us through the latest Chavista television appearance on privately owned Globovision and entertains us with the Chavista performance of one Chavista operative named Calixto Ortega, trying to make sense of the world on that independent medium. Daniel advises us that Chavistas only go on…
StJacques over at Free Republic has translated a fabulous Chilean editorial from El Mercurio blasting the Venezuelan dictator as dangerous for Chile’s interests, right on the heels of Mexico’s blast at Chavez for his ego. Read it here.
Cripes, what’s got into these guys? I used to live in Singapore and I used to write for the Far Eastern Economic Review, mostly slapping around China’s oppression in those palmy expat days. Today, the once-ominiscent FEER, now a news-turned-essay magazine, and down on its heels due to the Internet and global forces, is nevertheless back on the Singapore sheet list. In fact, this time the Singaporean government has downright banned it. And for SUCH a Singapore reason! They said the FEER failed to provide the name of someone they could serve papers to, in the (inevitable) event they sued…
Following the famous United Nations devil speech, this is the singularly best Hugo Chavez cartoon I’ve ever seen, snidely illustrating the realities of the U.S.-Venezuela relationship. I’ve never seen anything so mean. Hugo comes out absolutely pathetic, you’ll never look at him the same way again. See it here.
Major mainstream television networks in France and Brazil have both taken aim at the odious regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. And I don’t mean something small. They’ve put out huge high-advertising long programs out, firing a unusual cannonade at the dictatorship. This has never happened before. These TV programs document Cuba’s long lines, miserable shortages as a way of life, bureaucracy, commissars, vaunted health care that is nothing but a failure, monstrous communist indoctrination that passes for “education,” secret police surveillance, jailing of dissidents, and complete lack of freedom. It’s realistic programming on Cuba that no one in either…
Oriana Fallaci, freedom fighter Source: Mlle Glass’ photos The great Oriana Fallaci, a clear-eyed journalist and universal freedom fighter for democracy, has died. We all knew she had cancer but this is very sad and affecting news. Her impact on world events cannot be underestimated. The Italian journalist went places no one else would go and saw through everything. No dictator could fool her. She exposed and clarified clowns like Khaddafi and others so that we could see what the real tyrannical enemy was like. At the end of her life, she denounced Islamofascism and extolled the value of civilization,…
(To hear the interview in .mp3 format or download it to your iPod, click here or right-click and choose “save target as”.) Since Alexander Lukashenka became president of Belarus in 1994, he has used every avenue possible to repress political opposition to his rule. He has jailed politicians and activists, shut down NGOs both major and minor, destroyed the independent media, and ensured that no man but he will win the so-called presidential election that is held every five years. Some of his biggest opposition, however, comes from university students who crave opportunity in a country whose government regulates the…
Another domino falls. Another symbol, if not the representative of Russian independent media, has been scooped up by a Kremlin ally. The business daily, Kommsersant was sold this week for $300 million to Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov is the owner of Owner of Oskol Steel Mill, the Ural Steel industrial complex, the Lebedinsky Iron Ore Mining and Processing Facility, and Mikhailovsky GOK (he and his partner Vasiliy Anisimov acquired the latter in the beginner of 2005. Ranked the 25th richest man in Russia and the 278th in the world by Forbes with a net worth of $2.6 billion, the 52 year…
For those of you who are eagerly awaiting the next round of “Islamist propaganda Clue,” our friend Jim at Gateway Pundit, along with some particularly acute commenters, has apparently busted the New York Times participating in a Hezbollah photo op. It’s unclear at this point who staged what… UPDATE: LGF has this obvious photoshopped fake, by the same NYTimes photographer. You can also see a slideshow of his photos, which he narrates, here.
Charles at LGF caught Reuters in what looks like an obnoxious faked photo, with lots of dissection and discussion. A special correspondent who works for Reuters sent me this photo from the series, which I believes corroborates Reuters’ story. Judge for yourself: UPDATE: Now that Adnan Hajj has gone public, I feel it’s ok to share the rest of this story. Some readers may have questioned the authenticity of the original photo, even after I presented the above evidence, but surely we can all agree with Adnan’s explanation: As a ÄformerÅ Reuters photographer, I deny having deliberately attempted to manipulate…
This is too funny! Is this the tragicomic end of the Glenn Greenwald saga? Greenwald is presently denying the claims, but I don’t think it helps his credibility that his own biographical blurb reads almost exactly the same as the alleged sock-puppet posts in question… UPDATE: He seems to have changed the tenor of his bio. I wonder what else he’ll be revising? Why Greenwald is probably doomed I believe Glenn Greenwald is probably doomed to relegation. If the suspicions around his online activity are correct — and judging by his response of frantic denial, personal attacks, revisionism, etc., it…
Less than a week after Hugo Chavez threatened to shut down the broadcast press by yanking their licenses, a newspaper editor for the weekly Ahora newspaper was gunned down in a targeted hit. His death raises the total of news editors shot dead to at least four that I know about. Hugo Chavez has it in for the media. And there will be no letup. The death of this editor shows the range of tactics he intends to employ as he begins to dismantle the independent media. Can you imagine the impact of this on the rest of the free…
I did my best to analyze the latest statements by Oriana Fallaci released at the New Yorker. I think you might be interested in reading my article at Tech Central Station here.
6:00 a.m. Greenwich Main Time City: London Brrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!! Brrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnggggggggg!!!!!!!!! Roy: Hullo, mate. William: Goddamn it, don’t you hello mate me, you oleaginous punk. This is Caracas calling. Roy: Wot’s up? William: You know what’s up, Swedish Wonder Kid. And boy you better have an explanation. R: Hunh? W: Haven’t you seen the London Times? We have a crisis. One week before Our Fearless Leader makes his grand debut in London? Do you see what’s in it? R: No, I only read my own Web site, the font of all truth. W: Cut the clowning, blobbo. You know very well what…
Well, as we approach nearly 2 months since Ukraine’s first democratic elections of the century, the political wrangling continues. Any Kiev watchers will be familiar with the daily news stories coming out from Our Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko’s Bloc, The Party of Regions and the Socialists in regard to coalition building talks. Every evening a brief Google news search highlights constant backstabbing, foot-stamping and occasionally outright lies passed on to the international media. Today, one such story emerged from the oh so reliable ITAR-TASS. For the busy, a brief summary: Our Ukraine (Viktor Yushchenko’s pro-European, Liberal Bloc) and the Party of…
A very brave independent Cuban journalist is on his 57th day of a hunger strike for the right to Internet access in Cuba. Guillermo Farinas Hernandez’s case has gotten little media attention, but it’s an important struggle for freedom of information inside news-starved Cuba. Castro knows very well the power of the Internet and its challenge to his brutal and increasingly tattered dictatorship. That’s why he’s repressing the brave ones who dare challenge his rule … not with guns, but with a hunger strike for free information. Guillermo’s, now in its 57th day, is showing no signs of stopping. To…
Perhaps the most irritating part about the entire Belarus affair right now is the lies that come out of the Russian media, and the two-faced and often misled reporting done by many news organizations in Europe. For the former, they tell a story completely dislodged from reality; so far off that you can’t really tell if they believe it, or if they’re just trying to hide their grin. For the latter, they either tell the story to the West and repeat the lies to the East, or are simply so lazy in collecting information that they end up benignly repeating…
Somewhat I feel vindicated. In August last year I posted an extremely thorough piece of investigative blogging regarding Smartmatic; the e-voting machines vendor, which owns Sequoia, that has proven so useful to Venezuela’s wannabe dictator Hugo Chavez. The recent e-voting fiasco in Chicago comes to prove the hypothesis that one thing is to observe how rigged electoral processes in far away lands, which do not affect Americans, are overlooked, or simply ignored, by the mainstream media and an entirely different matter when similar problems corrode the transparency and outcome of elections in US soil. As readers of this site know,…
All four of these journalists pictured in this 2002 photo — Marianella Salazar, Ib????yise Pacheco, Marta Colomina and Patricia Poleo — are now facing trouble from the Chavista regime. Pacheco is in jail, Salazar is headed there, Colomina was subject to a murder attempt and Poleo was charged with murder and apparently sent into hiding. Source: BBC The Venezuelan press is under attack as never before. Contrary to Chavista claims that there is no campaign against the press, today Ibeyise Pacheco, a columnist for El Nacional, a newspaper MY OWN words have appeared in, was ordered imprisoned for slander by…