Blogging the democratic revolution
Curious about the political temperature in this hemisphere? Wondering what the average Mexican thinks of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s nonstop protests? Want to hear how the Panamanian public feels about the canal expansion or what the Ecuadorean public thinks about its current plate of candidates for its election, come October? Check out Boz’s poll roundup for the past week to see what’s going on around our regional neighborhood here.
Phil Gunson from The Miami Herald recently reported on a memo that Venezuelan Ambassador to the UK Alfredo Toro Hardy had sent to Rafael Ramirez, Minister of Energy and Director of Petroleos de Venezuela. Toro Hardy’s purpose was to keep Ramirez up to speed with regards to developing conversations between his office and Greater London Authority staff, geared at implementing an oil-for-propaganda programme, similar to the one broke with Bill Delahunt and Joe Kennedy’s Citizens Energy Corporation, as announced by Hugo Chavez in his last visit to this city. Interestingly, the memo reveals the names of those involved, on behalf…
The British are rebelling. Their target is their own idiot authorities, the lunatic leftists who’ve managed to get into power on the coattails of the estimable Tony Blair, who’s from the Labour Party, which attracts all kinds. They’ve gotten control of the BBC, of the city of London government, of the regulatory agencies. They are the ones who are putting out all these politically correct rulings, rulings designed to appease local Islamofascists and far-leftist lunatics eager to meddle with and remodel British life, while British voters suffer. That’s why they are rebelling. The Dihly Mail, a newspaper that I had…
Campaign kickoff rally for Manuel Rosales in Caracas Saturday Source: The Devil’s Excrement, which has a lot more here Is there any greater losing proposition than trying to win an election as a non-Chavista in Venezuela? The courts are stacked, the electronic fingerprint machines ensure that HOW you voted is recorded and delivered to the authorities, the vote-tallying machines by Smartmatic can report any result they like regardless of how you voted, the whole election apparatus can be rigged to ensure that if you live in a middle class neighborhood, you’ll stand all day in the sun to discourage your…
According to an article in today’s Guardian Unlimited, United Russia, the largest Russian political party by far, is losing its appeal with the electorate. It seems that the party’s narrow platform, to support the President in every way, is something of a turn-off. So, what is to be done? ‘Create another…ÄpartyÅ…that pretends to be an opponent.’ Yes, Putin is going to manufacture an ‘opposition’ party…controlled by the Kremlin of course. This is another wonderful example of managed democracy in Russia. As Andrew Wilson wrote in his book Virtual Politics, the Russian words often translated managed democracy are better translated directed…
We’re in Belarus, just checking things out, meeting with people, seeing the sights, and taking notes. We’re going down to Pinsk to meet with Adam Goodman of the Being Had Times blog tonight and then after a couple days will be heading back to Prague. I have tons of audio interviews and things to write about, for both Ukraine and Belarus, but it will have to wait until I’m square free out of here.
In January of this year, Gazprom ???????turned-off???????? the gas to Ukraine. The reason? Some say it was economically motivated ???????? Ukraine pays substantially less than the fair market price. So, Gazprom was merely acting as any other economically driven company would. However, perhaps the more frequent explanation for the gas crisis is that it was politically motivated. The common answer under this heading is that Russia used Gazprom as a foreign policy tool/weapon to punish Ukraine????????s new found Western focus. Yet there is a third explanation which I believe is closer to the truth: Russia and Gazprom believe that Ukraine…
Netcraft claims that President Ahmadinejad is running NetBSD or OpenBSD — maybe he will have BSD tortured or killed. Also check out the blog, and don’t miss out on this opportunity to send Mahmoud some e-mail feedback — I’m sure he would appreciate receiving some “generous offers” and perhaps a “limited” amount of your honest advice… Actually, it looks like I got it wrong and ahamdinejad.ir is the blog, while president.ir has a bunch of other stuff. ahmadinejad.ir is apparently running Windows 2000 (infidel software from the Great Satan). Oh, and for readers as well as spam crawlers, please send…
Note to readers – due to technical issues, I couldn’t post the image described in graf one but will do so later -Mora The image above shows a corpulent former Russian President Boris Yeltsin bedecked in toga and driving the ???????young farm girl??????? and ???????young factory fellow??????? from a famous Soviet monument like horses before his chariot. The caption reads: ???????Corruption: An impediment to progress.??????? Will Russia fall as Rome did, it seems to ask? Yeltsin was justly criticized during his reign for personal and systemic corruption but in fairness we must ask: Was it any difference before or since…
As Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz es-Saud meets with Turkish leaders this week, the Sunni Arab world’s desperation should be kept in mind. Though economic concerns have been paramount in Turko-Arab relations for many years, and have grown since the election of the Turkish PM Erdogan, the Saudi King made a few remarks indicative of the Sunni Arab world’s fearful position. At a meeting with the Turkish President Ahmed Necdet Sezer, Abdullah called for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, obviously aimed bolstering Turkish support for the Arab position on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He then stated that ???????Like you…
???????Israel has besieged and ravaged our country.???????? ???????For all this carnage and death???????we demand an international inquiry into Israel’s criminal actions in Lebanon and insist that Israel pay compensation for its wanton destruction.???????? ???????We also insist that Israel be made to respect international humanitarian law…which it has repeatedly and willfully violated.???????? Are these the words of a raging terrorist? Mr. Nasrallah perhaps or another Hezbollah fighter? No. They were written by someone to whom George W. Bush said only four months ago, in reference to his leadership: ???????There’s no question in my mind that Lebanon can serve as a great…
There may be an Arabo-Iranian Cold War brewing, if the Arabs make themselves relevant again As the Arabs furiously try to guilt Syria into curbing Hezb Allah????????s activities and ???????rejoining??????? the Arab world, one cannot help but see an almost laughable, but certainly pathetic, last ditch attempt at salvaging what influence the Sunni Arab states have in the Middle East. Ever since the American invasion of Iraq, the strong men of the Sunni Arab world have become less and less relevant in a region that has become increasingly polarized on various fronts. On the one hand, with the liberation of…
Hey everyone, You’ll have to excuse the lack of posting for the last couple of days. I’ve been in the Czech Republic and have just arrived in Kiev after a 36 hour train ride. The weather has been absolutely Soviet. We’re just hanging out in an internet cafe at Maidan right now, organizing things and preparing to get our visas for Belarus. I will be interviewing many people here in Ukraine as well as in Belarus about democratization activities and political progress over the next week. Tons of video, audio, and pictures to come, though I can’t say how much…
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.
We have previously documented on these pages the horrifying explosion of race-based violence in Vladimir Putin????????s Russia. As ghastly as those developments are, though, something even more sinister is underway in Russia these days, something that makes it seem that Russia would better be referred to as the Neo-Soviet Union: It????????s an attack on democracy itself. Just as it was Britain, by means of Winston Churchill????????s famous ???????Iron Curtain??????? speech, which warned the West about the rise of the original USSR, it is today British journalism that sounds the clarion call that warns of USSR redux. Three major pieces of…
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is surrounded by a big barricade and guard station. I was looking for a tour or someone to interview so that I could write a piece about it for Publius, but the guard said exactly the above. Any readers here who work for RFE/RL who could get me in sometime Monday? Just email me at robertmayerÉgmail.com
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…
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Israel this week in a bid to grandstand with various Arab states, saying he was doing it to protest the war in Lebanon. Now, Chavez could care less about dead bodies, given the far-higher murder rate that has overtaken Venezuela. Deaths don’t bother him. This move instead is part of a geopolitical game he’s playing. He’s doing it because he’s seeking Arab support for a seat on the UN Security Council, and despite having all the extremist credentials, he’s apparently having a terrible time getting it. In a way, it’s not…
Michael J. Totten reported a conversation with Lebanon expert Tony Badran (who blogs as “Anton Efendi at Across the Bay) about the current situation in Lebanon. Totten brings up several points in his piece, but two are especially striking. The first is Badran’s estimation that Hezb Allah has basically taken away the gains that were made by the Shia community in Lebanon, at the very least on the material level. The second is that a new moderate and modern Shia leadership is needed. The first point is troubling because Hezb Allah was able to rise because the Shia had become…
In the early hours this morning, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko accepted the nomination of Viktor Yanukovich for prime minister. Mr. Yanukovich was the 2004 presidential candidate who fraudulently won the first round of elections which sparked the ‘Orange Revolution.’ Though an embarrassing blow to Yushchenko and his one time ally Yulia Tymoshenko, this development was widely expected. The ‘Orange’ forces made several missteps over the past year and the backlash was to be expected. So, it would seem that the pro-democracy government has now been replaced by the corrupt, pro-Russian Yanukovich. But as with all things, the situation is far…
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe recently issued a statement in regards to the large number of civilian deaths in the bombing of Qana this past weekend. Ironically, the statement was issued by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister. “The Russian Presidency in the Council of Europe profoundly deplores the mass deaths of civilians in Lebanon caused by Israel????????s attacks, in particular, the death of dozens of residents of Qana, including women and children. On behalf of the Council of Europe we extend our condolences to the leadership and people of Lebanon. The killings and wounding of…
On July 31st, Basel transforms into Beirut. All day long, loud explosions disrupted the otherwise peaceful and introverted nature of this Swiss city on the border of France and Germany. Huge bangs near and far pierced the air and shook buildings. The first one I heard as I walked down the street that afternoon had made me duck. There was no bombing, however, or terrorist attack. It was mostly teenagers lighting off powerful rockets that are sold in little stands by the grocery stores in preparation for the coming events. August 1 is Swiss National Day, considered the country’s birthday…
Miami Cubans celebrate the coming demise of a brutal dictator Source: Rick at Stuck on the Palmetto blog As the hemisphere’s worst-ever dictator slides into death’s embrace, the mainstream media sweetly qualifies the Monster of Havana, one of the century’s worst tyrants, as a ‘maverick’ and other crap, Val at Babalu blog is providing some of the best real-time coverage and insightful commentary I’ve ever seen on a blog – EVER. EVER. I am too busy at work over these very events to be able to blog much and in any case I would not be able to top the…
When I was in Washington, D.C. last week, I had dinner with the relatives I was staying with at their good friends’ house. These family friends happened to be Iranian. They had a son and two daughters, the boy was the youngest and the girls were about four years apart from each other. I had a conversation with the oldest girl about a variety of things, and by about 15 minutes before her mother had finished making our dinner, it turned political. She was very intelligent, she has one year to go until she achieves her degree in biology from…
In his Washington Post article, Jackson Diehl argues that the recent ‘crises’ in Lebanon & Ukraine (two democratic revolution countries) will provide a dilemma for the Bush administration: should the United States continue to promote democracy even when it yields anti-West countries? The question really boils down to this: were the democratic revolutions about installing pro-West regimes in place of anti-West regimes or were they about installing democracies in place of dictatorships? Though I think Diehl overestimates the likelihood of Ukraine returning to authoritarianism, his larger point has wide ranging implications. Is America really promoting democracy because democracies are peaceful…