Blogging the democratic revolution
It doesn’t get much better than this. I’m translating an excerpt from an article in the Iraqi newspaper Al Bawaba, “Parliament Reviews the Constitution Issue and Jabar Renews His Attacks on Saudi Arabia“: The Iraqi interior minister renewed his attacks on Saudi Arabia during an interview broadcast on Tuesday focusing on how Saudi Arabia treats…
Amid the heaviest fighting since the intifada, the Palestinian government of PM Qureia is coming under ÄfigurativeÅ fire for its inability to deal with parallel military authorities like Hamas. Policeman stormed the parliament building to protest the government’s inability to equip and train them properly to deal with the problem, while legislators themselves voted that…
While the most over-reported story (and the most debunked) story in the press this past August was the drafting of and the opposition to the Iraqi constitution, the most under-reported story in September is how ongoing negotiations have moderated large portions of the document’s opposition. In fact, as some of the contentious issues have been…
From the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on Feb. 14 to the almost successful assassination attempt on journalist May Chidiac this past Sunday, there have now been 13 attacks in Lebanon which have appeared to target Lebanese opponents of Syrian domination (Reuters:
Confirming strongly our theory that the babes go where the heart of the action is. At the Iraq war counterrallies this weekend to defend Iraqi freedom and stand up for U.S. troops, there are some spectacular examples. Go see it here.
Israel began its “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip five weeks ago, essentially removing all Jewish settlers within a week, although the withdrawal of the IDF from all Palestinian areas was not completed for a few weeks afterward. Prior to the withdrawal, there were some, including myself, who argued that withdrawing from Gaza without an agreement…
This report from the Guardian Unlimited draws an accurate picture about how Islamist groups like the Badr Brigade and the Sadrists, while they forcefully maintain the peace, have infiltrated government and society at all levels to the point where they are, in fact, the ones in control. Basra has not been beset by the levels…
The difficulties that Iraqi Shia, Sunnis and Kurds have had in governing their country following their elections have given the world lots of headaches, especially for the United States. But if you really want to see a group of political parties having a difficult time putting together a stable coalition, look to Germany. The best…
I have now posted my Middle East Week in Review post for Sept. 18. I also have a seperate post explaining why I have decided to stop posting daily and instead focus on just posting 1-2 in-depth analysis pieces per week, plus my Week in Reveiw news bulletin.
The delegation of the United States, along with those of many other countries, were not present as Iran’s terrorist president was delivering a speech at the United Nations summit. Meanwhile, over 2000 people outside protested his visit to America. Ouch. In other mainstream news, Iranian president blasts US in first United Nations speech.
The Weekly Standard published its 10th anniversary edition this past week, and as part of that had a series of articles from its writers on what they changed their thinking about given the passing of events. You have to have a subscription to read the articles, but there was one that stood out enough that…
Ever since the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri earlier this year, there has been a strong suspicion that Syria was behind it, although proof was lacking. The UN-led investigation of the murder seems to be turning up some clues, however. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi officials turn up the heat on Damascus over…
Unofficial counts are giving Mubarak a vote count perhaps as high as 80%, with liberal opposition candidate Ayman Nour only up to 12%. This is, perhaps, pretty realistic given the circumstances, and for more on that you should read my previous post. I went into great detail on how fraud and irregularities can be committed…
Egyptians voted on Wednesday in the country’s first ever multi-candidate presidential elections. They no longer had to choose between yes or no for Mubarak, but between ten different candidates. Despite this, however, the day was marked with intense voter apathy. Egyptians are casting their ballots in the country’s first ever presidential election. And no-one in…
Sandmonkey has an update on the Egyptian elections taking place very soon. In sum, the NGOs want to monitor the election, the electoral commission said no, the courts said yes, the commission said “screw you,” and for some reason a delegation from the House of Representatives doesn’t mind. It goes back to the judicial rebellion…
I hadn’t noticed this since I was moving, but The Belmont Club linked to my essay, “It all comes down to federalism,” and discussed it with a great deal of historical context. Here’s an excerpt with the conclusion: Each behind his Mason-Dixon Line. Of course it can hardly stop there. With a Shi’ite state in…
In the interest of continuing the elevation of debate, I think it’s about time to once again tackle the issue of swim suits in Saudi Arabia. You will want to read the first post if you haven’t, which deals with what exactly these swim suits look like, and then the second post, which deals with…
Every reason about why Iraqis are divided over the constitution, from Islamic law to oil distribution to Saddam’s tighty whities, has been beaten like a dead camel in the desert. And almost all of these controversial issues have been worked out, getting down to nit-picky arguments about words like a and the. Important words, no…
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?…
It seems that my post on sexy Saudi swimwear has turned into something of a blogospheric debate. Our good friend Stefania over at the Free Thoughts blog posted on the swimwear as well, and it triggered some disagreement with Egyptian blogger Miss Mabrouk, who says that we were being culturally insensitive and the real issue…
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…
I’m going to make this short and sweet. Bill Roggio posts the latest excerpt from the Iraq constitution and believes that the threat of Islam being a main source of legislation, thus creating an Islamic state like Iran, is overstated by the media. Here is the excerpt: The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and…
If you’re sick and deranged like me, you’ve been refreshing Iraq the Model every five minutes to see the latest updates on the National Assembly meeting. It looks as if they have delayed the vote on the draft itself for three more days so that the parliamentarians will have time to read it over, discuss…
The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), known for its civil unrest and terrorist tactics from countries ranging from Syria to Turkey to Iran, has declare a truce with the Turkish government after the prime minister promised to resolve the problem through more democracy — meaning, trying to help the Kurds out in their demands. I think…
Oh, yes. Mubarak has his official election campaign website up, in English, complete with an “email the president” feature. Click here to let him know what you think about him. As for me, I’ve written him a poem: Roses are red Violets are blue Babes in bikinis Look better than you But that’s probably a…