Blogging the democratic revolution
Freedom House has just released its latest edition of “Freedom in the World,” and 2006 doesn’t look to have been a good year for the advancement of freedom. In fact, in many cases, freedom has declined significantly in areas where just a couple of years ago great gains were being heralded. In it’s press release, Freedom House notes where exactly this is happening, and why. The year 2006 saw little change in the global state of freedom in the world and the emergence of a series of worrisome trends that present potentially serious threats to the expansion of freedom in…
Iran’s Islamofascist barbarians have either come to their senses or caved in to international pressure on the infamous case of Nazanin Fatehi, an unjustly accused Iranian girl whom we’ve blogged about here at Publius as a worthy freedom cause. Nazanin, age 17, was walking in the park with either her little sister or her boyfriend, when she was beset by a pack of brutal thugs who sought to rape her. By Iranian Islamofascist law, she was supposed to just lay back and enjoy it (being a temptress and all), and then take 100 lashes from the state for getting raped…
Aussie Girl, the lovely writer of Ukraine affairs at Ultima Thule, including her wonderful coverage of the Orange Revolution, has died this weekend of cancer. She was only 59. She was one of the sunniest and most insightful presences on the Internet. She was also one of the best bloggers – sharp, to the point and on target. She always was interested in my Russia coverage, which I blogged occasionally on due to my interest in the origins of communism. She always was on target on her observations and she occasionally sent me just the nicest notes. Losing her is…
Do you ever wonder what power it was that made Ronald Reagan victorious during the Cold War? A new history book, compellingly reviewed by Herb Meyer, casts amazing insight on what really happened during Reagan’s great rise to crush communism – and the secret was, Reagan was a … union boss: Like Lech Walesa after him, and like Lane Kirkland who did his own share of communism crushing – and like Venezuela’s potential future leader, oil boss Carlos Ortega – union bosses, when they are good union bosses, have the incredible skills to enact great revolutions. Reagan certainly had them,…
On Sunday December 3rd, the British newspaper The Observer published three stories about Alexander Litvinenko (pictured above right with slain hero reporter Anna Politkovskaya and Chechen rebel leader in exile Akhmed Zakayev in London a few weeks before Politkovskaya’s murder — eerily, the Chechen is the only one still alive). All three stories were based on the same single source, a Russian woman named Julia Svetlichnaja. First there was a story headlined: “I can blackmail them, we can make money” and then parallel story headlined “Revealed: Litvinenko’s Russian blackmail plot.” A third item, a first person account by the source…
The Spanish are known for doing their protests big. Everytime they’ve had an anti-ETA or anti-terrorism march, it’s been huge. They’ve been dealing with terrorism for decades like few developed countries have, and with nearly a thousand deaths accumulated over the years, the airport bombing two weeks ago have been them over the edge. Tonight, rather than going out to the nightclubs or spending time with family and friends, all of Madrid poured into the streets together as one with just one thing to say: No to Eta! From where I am at an internet cafe, it looks like there…
You can kind of hear it in the distance, the tolling bell for Chavez as his regime spirals into ever louder lunacy. But there is a real tolling bell that will get him, the bell of plunging oil prices. That bell is starting to ring so you can hear it. This week, oil prices fell below $52 a barrel. That’s not just bad news for Hugo Chavez, it’s the worst news there could be. Combined with declining production, falling oil prices will ensure that Chavez won’t be making the buku bucks he’s been making in oil earnings, something he’s currently…
Bolivia is edging ever closer to civil war, with armies forming and violence being returned from violence on both sides – the independent, industrious, freedom-loving Bolivians of the four Media Luna provinces in the east, and hardcore socialist cocalero regime of dependency in the Evo Morales-controlled remainder of the country. If you need a primer on what’s going on over there, how to view it, be sure to check out Alvaro Navajas Ruiz’s excellent roundup called ‘Cochabamba Conflict FAQ.’ It’s a wonderful authoritative source on Bolivia and it’s engagingly written so anyone can understand it and seek to learn more.…
It’s a little thin on the ground for polls in this election season, but Boz at Bloggings by Boz has gathered up a few interesting tidbits, such as one on the attitudes of Latin America’s elites toward the new elected governments around the region and found some interesting stuff. Read the whole thing here.
Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon at a funeral for an assassinated official Source: Notimex, via Yahoo! Mexico Felipe Calderon is determined to take back his country. His war parallels that which the U.S. is fighting for Iraq’s freedom but he doesn’t have the luxury of fighting it in another country. He’s fighting the same caliber of thugs the U.S. troops are fighting in Iraq. They are gangsters, they are thugs, they traffic in contraband and they behead their victims. They are as vile as anything Mexico has ever known and world class in the beastliness, every bit a match for Sadr’s…
Charles at Little Green Footballs has happened upon the latest in sexy Saudi swimwear, with the New Zealand-designed ‘burkini’ – something which could keep a whale afloat. Which is just the thing. Islamofascist women are getting fat under all those bedsheets and Islamofascists want them to get swimming to slim down. Which is kind of strange, given the premise of the veil. I thought the purpose of the veil was for women to ‘cover their hair’ because the sight of hair was just too stimulating for Islamofascist men to restrain themselves. To them, women are these potential tramps and temptresses…
Yelling “Fatherland, socialism or death!” Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez was sworn in for his third term, to the sound of crickets chirping. Not one world leader showed up to this Caracas spectacular to witness it – not a single one. Chavez says he didn’t invite anyone, but given his need for adulation, I leave it to you to make up your own mind about the veracity of that. Even Evo Morales said he had better things to do. But the skies were full of world leaders in transport – they all found time to attend tiny Nicaragua’s presidential inaugural, of…
ON DANIEL TREISMAN AND HIS “NORMAL COUNTRY” . . . AND WHETHER PIGS HAVE WINGS The Walrus and the Carpenter walked on a mile or so, And then they rested on a rock, conveniently low: And all the little Oysters stood and waited in a row. “The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–of cabbages–and kings– And why the sea is boiling hot — and whether pigs have wings.” – Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass, 1872 If you are a fan of Lewis Carroll, then you know what happened to…
A car near the Cochabamba governor’s office being burned by Evo Morales’ Marxist militants Source: Miguel Buitrago at MABB Marxist militants like to set things on fire, and these days none moreso than those in Bolivia, who’re burning down the town – of Cochabamba, so to say. That’s why they began massing on a Bolivian governor in Cochabamba state who’s been dissenting from the Morales bid to consolidate power. He’s been elected democratically, but no matter, what’s happening is what Morales does – wears people down until they give up and walk away. That’s what these militants are doing –…
Socialism, in various forms, ranging from democratic to totalitarian, is as natural as breathing in most parts of the world. From Indonesia to Tanzania, from Russia to Congo to Algeria, from Libya to Sweden to Canada to Mexico to Argentina, practically every nation out there has some variant of socialism. The odd thing is, the U.S. is the only exception. Socialism never really took off here, not even during the depths of the Depression, a detail that has baffled even socialists, including Stalin. Some theories given suggest that the U.S.’ lack of a feudal past is the reason why, and…
Just over a year ago, Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine due to a standoff over whether the country would pay full “market price” over the subsidies that it had been receiving. Consequently, given that a large amount of Western Europe’s gas flows through Ukraine’s pipelines, there were a lot of German and French folk freezing their butts off last year until the flow was restored. The news made international headlines immediately, most likely due to who it affected rather than the simple action itself. But regardless, it was the first sign of a Russia ready to bully…
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…
After the departure of Donald Rumsfeld, it is no surprise that President Bush would seek to reshuffle the rest of his war cabinet. It leaves a vacancy that begs that such a void be filled wherever possible. According to the latest news, Bush will be sending Negroponte back over to State while appointing a retired admiral to fill his place; ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad will become the new ambassador to the United Nations; and his own vacancy to be filled by ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker. This all suggests a large realignment in the way that the Bush administration…
Like a rotting jungle, redolent of every odor and fetid color, yet utterly impassable in viney tangles, nothing seems to stop the spreading corruption that has now gripped Hugo Chavez’s communist caudillo hacienda known as Venezuela. Daniel in Venezuela, at Venezuela News & Views has an excellent Venezuela corruption roundup, with links to several sources showing the extent of how corruption is overtaking the country and spreading beyond any reasonable reach of reform, showing itself in many different kinds of forms. Read the whole thing here. And don’t miss Miguel’s excellent translation of corruption stories from Le Monde of Paris,…
Is there any such thing as a Marxist regime without an invasion for territory? The Soviets did it – in Chechnya and elsewhere inside the marginally consolidated Tsarist empire, including the vast booty they took in one quarter of the Ukraine in the aftermath of WWI. Then they moved on to other territories, including forays into Mongolia and Afghanistan over the years, as well as spreading their influence significantly in other nonmilitary manners. Mao did it, rolling into Tibet and Xinjiang. The Southeast Asians did it, with Vietnam invading Cambodia and China – which in both cases were curiously justifiable…
In a December 6th installment of his column ???????Subjective Evaluation??????? for National Interest, Russia scholar Dmitri Simes of the Nixon Center purports to critique ???????highly simplistic and sometimes even misleading coverage??????? of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. Simes argues that although Litvinenko was an employee of the FSB (successor to the KGB) is not appropriate to call him a ???????spy??????? since he never served in a ???????foreign intelligence??????? position but rather was assigned to handle organized crime issues and in that capacity made contact with exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky. He also argues that it is not appropriate to refer to…
Will Cuban dictator Fidel Castro ever die? Or will he just disappear into a miama of rumor? Val Prieto at Babalu blog has compiled a great list of all the dead Castro rumors as they multiply and explained how and why they are originating. He lays them out as anecdotes, gives them a good roughing up, and explains why they matter. He’s done the whole terrific thing in a long piece for Pajamas Media here.
In 1938, when President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized the oil industry in Mexico, everyone said it was the right move. After all, there were some pretty gamy capitalists from the U.S., Britain, France and Spain operating in the country, and getting them out and creating a national oil company, even if it meant expropriations, seemed like a good idea at the time. Today, amid a global oil boom, Mexico can barely keep up with its usual production, and it certainly can produce no additional oil or other energy. It now actually imports natural gas from the U.S., and though it is…
It was a weekend of a lot of explosions. Outside of the bomb attack at the Madrid airport, nine blasts went off across Bangkok, killing and injuring dozens of people. It is another question of why and who, as essentially both the former government as well as the opposition is out of power following a military coup in September. It could be either, and while the former opposition to ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was known to commit such acts, the military is blaming it on Thaksin supports. In this case, either makes sense, and such an attack by Islamists from…
A large reason for my absence here from Publius, beside a hectic end to the year, has been that I’ve been enjoying my vacation time with my family here in Madrid and Andorra. Since I’ve been in the latter for the past several days, it’s been nearly impossible to get on the internet without forking out five euros an hour at the nearest cafe, but a week is long enough to remain holed off from the rest of the world. And frankly, my fingers were getting fidgety. I was in Madrid the day that the bomb went off at Terminal…