Blogging the democratic revolution
Some jackass “journalists” desecrated their supposed profession: story here. Read the whole thing.
Here’s my sad nominee, from Reuters AlertNet: Just down the street a fading “USA Is Good” slogan was daubed on a wall, a reminder of the days just after Saddam’s fall in 2003, before American occupation, insurgents bombings, kidnappings and shootings dashed hopes. (Formatting mine. Credit: Michael Georgy, Reuters.)
Mark Steyn has a new killer essay at the Spectator about the collapse of Russia and the spread of Islamic fascism. It’s worth reading if only for the, er, fowl pun partway down page one (there’s one that’s actually funny further down, but I won’t ruin it for you). Excerpt: Moscow has reduced Grozny to rubble, yet is further than ever from solving its Chechen problem. Moreover, the sheer blundering thuggery of the Russian approach has no merits other than affording Moscow some short-term sadistic pleasure as it exacerbates the situation. The allegedly seething ???????Arab street????????, which the West????????s media…
Venezuela’s bloggers have found a call from the BBC World Services to submit questions to Venezuela’s dictator Hugo Chavez online. This event probably is part of a coordinated propaganda effort from the Western hemisphere’s communist tyrants to reach out to the outside world through the Internet. Fidel Castro did almost the very same thing last week, albeit under greater conditions of state control. For Castro and Chavez, the idea is get online with the rest of us and appear hip or perhaps human, via the easily controlled medium of the Internet. It’s not like live TV where a tyrant could…
Aleksander Boyd at VCrisis has an excellent weekly news roundup of events in Venezuela, complete with a variety of media links showing through little turning points Venezuela’s slide downward into totalitarianism. Read it here.
Ever since Gail Collins wrote her infamous editorial blasting Venezuela’s battered opposition for crying fraud in the 2004 recall referendum, I have had a change of opinion, to say the least, about the New York Times. I didn’t have it before – for a rightwinger, I have a remarkably high tolerance for left bias in the media. It’s ok, I can read between lines. But ever since Venezuela, I draw the line at the NYT as a reliable news source. I consider it no such thing. But big deal, it’s not news that another libertarian dislikes the NYT. What’s really…
This past Sunday, 60 Minutes ran an “interview” with Elian Gonzalez, who is now 11 years old. Elian, you recall, was the 6-year old boy who was picked up at sea by two fisherman and taken ashore, where an international custody battle between Fidel Castro and the Miami exile community ensued, leaving bitter and unforgotten feelings among the freedom-loving Cubans now in the U.S. The 60-Minutes interview had a staged appearance, with CBS itself admitting it got “help” from Fidel Castro’s own camera-man, making the film communist-approved propaganda to shed the most favorable possible light on the Castro regime. The…
The magnificent writer and thinker, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, has a truly awesome, knock-your-sock-off essay today on the demise of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, why it’s important, and why we should care. Brazil’s soft left revolution that so many have staked their hopes on has collapsed, leaving the hard Chavista left in place, a disturbing development for an entire continent. He carefully explains the conditions that led to the huge cascading corruption scandal in Brazil and why it’s so bad. He also cites the controversial Brazilian writer, Olavo de Carvalho, as a source. I’m so thrilled he’s writing…
NewsHounds is a leftwing site but I am going to agree with them – strongly – that Fox News gave a boorish interview with President Alvaro Uribe and this marvelous – truly marvelous – president of Colombia responded with stunning class, dignity and intelligence. Newshounds called it very right this time. You have to read it to believe your eyes. Read the whole incredible transcript here.
The Maldives is a small archipelago country located just 500 miles south of India. To European tourists, it is a quaint, charming breath of fresh air that conjures up fantasies of sandy beaches, crystal clear waters, sun-filled days and moon-lit nights. The four star hotels are exquisite, the food likewise, and the locals sweeter than grandma’s homemade pie. But travel guides leave out one essential detail that fails to stand out amid the romanticism: an island dictator that compares much better to Fidel Castro than to Tony Blair. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who many natives conspicuously refer to as “the…
There is a new periodical out now dealing with U.S. foreign policy and America’s place in the world, The American Interest. Vol. 1, No. 1 is out this week; I purchased my first copy today. It is led by such intellectual luminaries as Francis Fukuyama, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Samuel Huntington, among others. Up until now I have mainly relied on Foreign Affairs and The National Interest for in-depth analysis of international issues (along with papers printed out from various think tanks’ websites and books). Given my backlog of purchased but mostly unread periodicals within this genre, I’ll now have to…
It’s one or two days since my FARC news roundup and today I’ve noticed all the non-FARC Colombia news. Google Colombia, skip the FARC pieces, and notice what news is left. Notice how marvellous Colombia’s government is, what fine things it’s done to make Colombia the great wealthy country it’s meant to be, and take a look at the string the visionary measures Colombia’s taken to secure its long-term future. This is the quietest, most peaceful revolution in the world. And it is a real revolution – a great sudden change from 40 years of narcoterrorist warfare and institutional weakness.…
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an in-depth essay today on the Babes of Politics theory, developed in depth here at Publius Pundit, at WILLisms and at Gateway Pundit. It’s excellent. Read it here.
Alexandra Beech has a fantastically insightful essay debunking a truly lousy piece by airheaded Washington Post columnist Marcela Sanchez, who claims Hugie Chavez is just a teddy bear in the region capable of stabilizing it. Well, yeah, the way graveyards tend to be stable places I guess. But Alex shows the reality much better – take a look at the depth of this: That Ms. Sanchez has been hood-winked into believing that Chavez has a Robin Hood side is not surprising. After all, she believes that ???????Latin America today is not in the midst of a Cold War where externally…
Al-Hayat is reporting that the editor of the independent newspaper Al-Wasat was kidnapped by armed men driving a government vehicle at about 6:00 a.m. on Aug. 23. He was bound, beaten, and threatened with beheading. Then they told him that he might want to “remember his children.” What did this journalist do to deserve this? As Al-Hayat reports: “Al-Wasat had published information regarding the children of government officials studying in the United States, Britain and Malasia with all expenses paid by Ästate-runÅ oil companies.” It has also “published articles criticizing the political system.” For more details, see this post from…
In my post yesterday, “Perspective on Islam in Iraq’s constitution,” I argued that Afghanistan has near similar wording in its own constitution and that the mainstream media didn’t harp on it in January 2004. Afghanistan has also not turned into a religious police state like Iran since then. So why is the media barking lunacy over the Iraqi constitution? Alenda Lux was kind enough to prove me wrong. No, not that the media didn’t talk bad about the Afghani constitution, but they actually praised it lavishly. Here is what the New York Times said in an editorial back then: Afghanistan’s…
In the email: One of the most positive recent developments in Morocco has been the rise of TelQuel Magazine, a French-language weekly publication that regularly push the envelope in shocking ways. Most prominent was a massive cover story a few months ago detailing King Muhammad VI’s salary. Other taboo-breaking cover stories have included pieces on re-interpreting the Quran, homosexuality in Morocco, and the country’s drug sub-culture. For a while, TelQuel’s groundbreaking and thrilling journalism seemed to be a sign of progress toward genuine freedom of expression in Morocco – albeit with an unquestioning respect for the king’s right to rule.…
RFE/RL has an interview with Ukraine’s leading lady who we all laud over, Yulia Tymoshenko. It covers a range of topics marking the 6th month anniversary of the new government coming to power. UPDATE: Meanwhile, Russian nationalists are filming a porn movie about Yulia and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Is anyone else anticipating this as much as I am?
Click here, trust me. TechCentralStation.com published my article about it. Hope you like! PS: Carnival of revolutions.
The great V.S. Naipaul, whose glorious fiction and non-fiction books critically delve into the world of the revolutionary countries now democratizing, shares his insights in a truly fascinating interview with the New York Times. It’s a must-read if you like literature or revolution. Read it here.
Miguel has first details of the broadcastings of the TeleChavez network. It’s totally weird. BLECCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!
U.S. blogger Steven Vincent, whose book ‘In The Red Zone’ about Iraq, was kidnapped by Iraqi terrorists dressed as police in Basra and shot dead several times. His blog and his books were critical of terrorist infiltration into the Iraqi government, and were favorably reviewed. What an atrocity. What a damn shame. If you are not familiar with Steven Vincent, you can read about him here and here. UPDATE – with a hat tip to M: This recent essay about the sexiness of democracy in the Middle East is exquisite. What a terrible tragedy this writer’s death is! Don’t miss…
Breaking news – Colombia has jammed Telesur, the pan-American Chavez TV Station, because of its glorification of Colombia’s murderous FARC narcoterrorists. Colombia is at war with these animals. They just murdered at least a dozen policemen, see here, note that President Uribe was ‘visibly shaken.’ Now, at war, they’re acting it. It’s another sharp blow for Hugo Chavez and his Masterplan For The Takeover Of The Americas. Colombia is having none of it. Go, Colombia!
Fidel Castro’s goons were in for the surprise of their lives when a whole neighborhood in Havana rose up and beat them back with sticks when they tried to confiscate a barrio TV set. A line was crossed. Nobody gets between Cubans and their TV sets. Nobody.
An exceptional example of good journalism, the current issue of the Atlantic Monthly has a front cover article on Yasir Arafat, “In a Ruined Country: How Yasir Arafat Destroyed Palestine.” It is very detailed, and I think it would be especially enlightening to those who haven’t followed Arafat closely over the years, but even if you have it is worth reading. Written by David Samuels, it is based not simply on documentary records but on a series of interviews with old Arafat companions following his death. This is what makes it entertaining. You can’t read it online without a subscription,…