Blogging the democratic revolution
With the new advent of new “revolutionary tourists” tramping through the shantytowns of Caracas on guided dog-and-pony “reality tours,” Venezuelans, the latest zoo animals for these gringos, are aghast. Here these unkempt, arrogant, Che t-shirt-wearing Sandalistas are, well-fed and staying in Caracas’ five-star hotels, getting out to get down and dirty among the ‘real people’…
I guess many of you knew Nickie Goomba. He was an Italian-American blogger who had helped create the logos of my blog as well as the blog of other well-known bloggers, such as Big Pharaoh and Sandmonkey. I was shocked today for learning that he has passed away just 3 days ago. It seems he…
Well folks it seems that since Hugo Chavez’s officials can’t get to me, given that I live in a full fledged democracy where freedom of expression truly exists, Ken Livingstone, his ‘social democrat’ comrade in London, has taken issue directly with me stating “Aleksander Boyd is a supporter of terrorism against Venezuelan democracy” (sic) Äremarks…
In a war, the first casualty is truth. So, show trials for ideological deviation have begun in Venezuela. This is characteristic of all communist regimes as they consolidate power. Eventually, the truth is the target. Now in the seventh year of Chavez’s regime, there are new orthodoxies Chavez wants people to accept, ones that ring…
The New York Times is reporting that the Bush administration is considering holding negotiations for a peace treaty with North Korea. To many, this will be a shock. After years of six-way talks to try to convince them to abandon their nukes, it comes to this. However, if you read Publius, this may not be…
The Financial Times describes the gang riots that have taken Sao Paolo by storm: Life in S????o Paulo returned to something like normal by the middle of this week after prison riots and attacks on police and property orchestrated by organised crime left 132 people dead and 53 injured between Friday night and Tuesday morning….
We are getting a lot of keywords today looking for news of Ecuador. I will have a roundup ahead, I do think the conditions are there for democratic revolution because that government has just jumped the shark. Here is one news editorial to start and after I get back, I’ll have a proper roundup. Big…
I have previously remarked on Algeria????????s growing ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and President Bouteflika????????s fiery rhetoric towards France on the issue of colonial apologetics. Both of these issues is contrary to Algeria????????s national interest, though on different scales. The first is an issue of independence in foreign policy, which has been a…
…that Hugo Chavez says he wants to sell to Iran. Miguel has the funniest take ever on this topic, with ‘ewwww, gross!’ photos! You got to see it here.
As you might have heard, the United States resumed diplomatic relations with Libya, one of the most totalitarian countries in the world. To even begin trying to account for how this matches up to the stated “Bush Doctrine” of promoting democracy, and how it will benefit the people of Libya, boggles the mind. It does…
The Peruvians, in the midst of their heated presidential campaign, are having a grand old time lampooning Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who has continuously meddled in their election – promising $3 billion in sewer upgrades for instance if Peruvians elect his promised candidate, Ollanta Humala. As you might imagine, it’s sunk Humala’s candidacy beyond repair….
He’s done it! Hugo Chavez has finally joined the club! He’s a made man! He has status. A leader of a pariah state! It’s an elite club but considerably cooler than that Hated Country Club of Caracas that he’s trying to turn into a shantytown, and dammit, he finally made it. Chavez got the U.S….
For many of us, we are just bloggers. We blog, taking alter-egos, saying all the things we’d like to say in the regular world but don’t, and then return to our normal lives, happily anonymous. For some bloggers, it can get to be quite a contrast indeed. Proto-blogger Matt Drudge, a humdrum Hollywood gift shop…
Red Anti-semitism at work in Italy. From YNet News: Holocaust cartoon stirs row. An anti-Semitic caricature published by an Italian Communist Party’s newspaper depicted Israel’s security fence with welcome sign paraphrasing Auschwitz’s ‘Work Liberates’ . Yasha Reibman, spokesman of Milan’s Jewish community, told Yedioth Ahronoth that the cartoon publication was a very severe act and…
The United Nations was not intended to prevent genocide in Darfur. It was not to swap oil-for-food, depose of rogue regimes seeking weapons of mass destruction, or fight avian flu. It has never had the means or accountability mechanisms available to do so. It was created by the victor powers of World War II ????????…
The Nepal of March, the one of April, and the one of May are unrecognizable parallels of a place trying to make incremental transformations in three months that took the Western world centuries. It is hard to forget that just over a year ago, the country’s King seized absolute power by disbanding the government and…
President Bouteflika’s recent comments regarding the French colonization of Algeria have caused quite a stir. His fuss holds the potential to accomplish a great deed; placing such a burden on the world community’s conscience that they feel moved to take meaningful action in Darfur, or at least to make them seriously contemplate it. But it…
It’s with great sorrow that I learn that the U.S. gov’t caved in to the Mullahs. SMCCDI, a secular , democratic and anti-islamist movement committed to regime change in Iran reports some worrying news. Many Iranian oppositionists had used to support President Bush and now the U.S. gov’t sells its soul to the Islamic regime…
Defying Mubarak’s goons on May 11 Source: AP via Yahoo! News Hundreds more were arrested in Egypt Friday as a result of the massive pro-democracy protests in this pharaonic tyranny that is proving itself a petri dish for Islamofascists. The intent of the democracy protestors is to stop that from happening by stopping tyranny. These…
I was somewhere outside Yogyakarta on this day eight years ago, within sight of Mount Merapi volcano. One of the greatest democratic revolutions in history was about to erupt but I didn’t know it then. I was at a mysterious Javanese graveyard of tombs outside Yogyakarta, where old and young many of them in traditional…
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is nothing more than a brutal leftist thug with aspirations of being the next Simon Bolivar, the next Fidel Castro. He seeks to unite all the nations of Latin America under his wing, so that together, they may challenge the United States. He would lure them into his axis with the…
Egypt exploded into riots after police moved in and cracked down on peaceful protestors seeking to defend judges who were trying to defend rule of law. The targets of repression were treated barbarically by police, as the photos in the links below show. Egyptian bloggers who are seeing all of this firsthand suggest that this…
A dozen of supporters of the Italy Cuba friendship (with Castro) association display a welcome banner as Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez heads to the Vatican for talks with Pope Benedict XVI, in Rome, Thursday May 11, 2006 Why didn’t the Venezuelan freedom fighters in Italy demonstrate against Chavez? It was a good occasion to show…
Evo Morales’ nationalization of Bolivia’s energy resources seemed to be the act of a retrograde madman intent on repeating the mistakes of the 1960s. And largely, that’s what he is. He’s taking Bolivia right down the road to ruin, as if this poor country can afford any more of that. Nationalization has got to be…
…reality to Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez. “If you do not have clear rules for the game, capital is not going to come. If there is no capital, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no employment. If there is no employment, there is no income. If there is no income,…