Blogging the democratic revolution
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 of violence seen in Baghdad and the Sunni triangle but the relative calm that has held since the fall of Saddam Hussein is now under threat, say residents and diplomats. They draw a picture of a once proud but now impoverished port city steadily falling…
After Ukrainian President Yushchenko disbanded the government of Yulia Tymoshenko, he appointed Yuriy Yekhanurov as the new prime minister. However, in order to become installed permanently, the Verkhovna Rada must approve him by majority vote. Well, it looks like that won’t be happening. (AP) – The Ukrainian parliament on Sept. 20 rejected the candidacy of acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov. Yekhanurov won only 223 votes, three less than he needed to be named to the job. President Viktor Yushchenko had tapped Yekhanurov to replace his Orange Revolution ally, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whom he fired on Sept. 8. The…
Why is he doing this to us? He’s appointing incompetent cronies left and right. Who am I talking about? Not some corrupt Chicago machine pol or some New Orleans lowlife political vermin, but George Bush himself! Apparently, he never learned ANYTHNG from Katrina! Do we really need a Julie Myers, age 36, experienced at writing export control briefs, niece to General Myers (Memo to Bush: look up the Latin root of the word ‘nepotism’), leading the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement? You know, the one that guards our borders from bin Laden? The organization that is so badly run…
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 headline I’ve seen in a while comes from the English version of Der Spiegel: Germany Loses Its Own Election. Here are some other English language links from the same publication: Merkel’s Bitter Defeat Who Want’s to be Germany’s Chancellor? Preliminary Results Show Schroder, Merkel Stalemate…
Alexandra Beech, who is Venezuelan, has written a compelling personal story of her observed differences between Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe – and she notices that the differences between the two men are strong. The essay, which amusingly enough has the same title as mine here, couldn’t be more different in content and therefore is worth a good read to see just how many dimensions there are between the tyannical Chavez and the magnificent Uribe. Don’t miss it. Read it here.
Brazil’s failure as a regional leader in the face of growing communist aggression from the likes of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez is a major concern, I argue, in this American Thinker essay here. UPDATE: It’s on Real Clear Politics this morning here. VCrisis has an in-depth analysis from a famous Brazilian writer about the internal problems that are debilitating the Brazilian government, hampering its capacity for leadership. It’s well worth reading here.
Daniel has a good thorough roundup of the ongoing electoral mess in Venezuela, which faces congressional elections on Dec. 4. This will be one hell of a fateful day for this country’s ‘democracy.’ Chavez is likely to totally consolidate power and end elections forever more in Venezuela after this. There’s the interesting problem of his government’s internal disorganization though and Daniel does a skillful job explaining it all out for us here.
Miguel Octavio writes a post about the unbelievable hassle of getting a passport out of Venezuela. He studiously describes the incredible shenanigans citizens must go through (something the FARC, which gets its Venezuelan passports handed to them never worries about) including high bribery rates, unfathomable delays, government blacklists, and now a particularly slimey government official saying that there wouldn’t be passport delays if so many irresponsible Venezuelans who have no good reason to travel abroad in the first place wouldn’t ask for them! Can you believe that? Miguel left out commentary on one thing that he probably didn’t realize (or…
Marvelous Miguel Centellas of Ciao! blog had just what I was looking for, commentary on the news here showing that Marxist Evo Morales has taken the lead in the presidential polls. Miguel cautions us not to despair, Bolivian voters tend to break away from the frontrunner at the last minute so in this regard, maybe the news is not as bad as it looks. He also has other insightful commentary here. Miguel Buitrago at the excellent MABB blog has additional background on the state of this coming election Dec. 4 right here.
The lumbering, overbearing, porkbarreling, intrusive U.S. Federal Government is getting waaaaay too full of itself and overconfident, too. It’s now gotten into its fat head the idea of suing the Club for Growth, one of our favorite must-read blogs at PubliusPundit. It’s doing so on an accusation of soft-money financing. But the fact is, Club for Growth acts as a whip to encourage candidates on all sides of the political fence to adhere to free market ideas – or else. That’s the free exchange of ideas and the putting of one’s money where one’s mouth is. It’s free speech. If…
In the email, Elena Steiger sends this story of an activist in Uzbekistan whose very basic human rights are being breached outright by the government. Elena Urlaeva, well-known rights activist and member of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan, was detained by security agents on August 27, 2005, while distributing flyers at a peaceful protest in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Authorities forcibly committed her to a psychiatric hospital – a Soviet-era technique meant to silence dissidents that is used in present day Uzbekistan, particularly against female activists. Ms. Urlaeva has been detained in such facilities twice before. Each time, she was forced…
I almost forgot about this week’s carnival of revolutions, so check it out. Sorry for the lack of posting today. I’ve been working since Sunday afternoon with no sleep, so I’m a little tuckered out. You know what that means. Pity me!
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.
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.
“I am very confident ÄthatÅ on the 19th of September, the day after the elections here, we are all going to wake up and realize that the heroes of Afghanistan were the people that went out and cast their vote for their own future.” — The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, commenting on Afghanistan’s 18 September parliamentary elections. Witness the face of the young, emerging Afghanistan. Both young and old have joined in the refounding of their nation. This post will serve as a comprehensive roundup for the elections in Afghanistan. It will include links…
A source in Colombia has emailed me to say rumors are flying that Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda, the Marxist FARC guerrilla chief of chiefs, has been shot dead – UPDATE from my source: died in bed. If it’s true he’s been shot or captured, it has the significance of the U.S. taking out Zarkawi or Bin Laden. This aging thug has terrorized Colombia for more than 40 years. Even if he died in bed instead of splattered against some wall as he deserves, it will decapitate the FARC leadership. The FARC denies the rumor. But if Colombia has really got him,…
Harry Hutton has a whole gallery of these Colombian FARC-slaying babes of politics. These women are anti-narcotics cops in the belly of the world’s worst narcotics beast, women who are winning Colombia’s war on terror without any need for U.S. troops. And, yes, they do have looks. For FARC’s ugly phony-revolution guerrillas, these real revolutionary women who are transforming Colombia into a great nation, against all odds, are fearsome indeed. See Harry’s whole gallery of babes here.
UPDATED: While President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia was ringing the opening bell of the New York stock exchange today, his ministers back home were announcing that interest rates would be slashed 50 basis points and nearly a billion more dollars in debt was being repaid. Meanwhile, Colombia’s trade surplus was expanding, tourism was up 19.5%, foreign investment was soaring, banks were lending and remittances were up. Goldman Sachs noted admiringly that Colombia retained a tight fiscal policy despite an election year ahead. The only worry Colombia seemed to have on that day – probably unique in Latin America – was…
The signatures that led to a recall referendum in Venezuela last year have since become Hugo Chavez’s blacklist against his political enemies. Aleksander Boyd has a stunning collection of screenshots showing how Venezuela’s increasingly freedomless regime has used the latest technology to perpetrate low-tech vengeance. It’s a don’t miss because there’s something mind-changing about the images. You won’t look at the issue the same way after you see these photos. See it here.
That’s what Alexandra Beech argues is the real meaning of Secuestro Express, a scary new movie about ‘express kidnappings’ in Venezuela that is making waves in Hollywood. Read her fascinating analysis here.
It’s not often that I write about politics in the United States, but the response on both sides of the aisle to the Hurricane Katrina devastation has really shaken me to the point where I feel it necessary to discuss the implications of the proposals. This blog is about democracy and good government, and especially about how to make them work. So this is rather pertinent. Glenn Reynolds points to this part of President Bush’s speech, in which he advocates a much broader, bigger role for the federal government. Yet the system at every level of government, was not well…
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.
A string of well-connected men are re-entering Russia’s political fray by directly entering as election candidates. These are household names, the men who made up and binded the country’s oligarchy during the ’90s. The big news today is that Mikhail Kasyanov, prime minister under Putin until 2004 and a man with big ties to the Yeltsin family of political and economic giants, has thrown in his hat for the presidency when Putin’s term expires in 2008. Mikhail Kasyanov, former Russian Prime Minister who was sacked by President Putin in 2004, said in a radio interview on Wednesday that he planned…
Driving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is his animosity directed at the U.S. He loathes the U.S. not only because it’s what he really feels (he is said to stiffen in the presence of U.S. citizens) but almost as importantly, because it is politically useful. In Chavez’s logic, if all the blame about the poverty and oppression in the world can be focused on just the detested U.S., the rest of the world will unite behind Chavista ideas and he can then build an alliance to eventually challenge the hated “hegemon.” It’s not working the way he planned though. There are…
After the bombings in London, President Musharraf promised to wage a “holy war against extremism,” as many terrorists are coming from his country. Madrasahs are basically religious schools in the Islamic world, and some of them implant militant Islamic ideology into their students. So the plan is to oversee what they’re doing and keep track of them to make sure that they aren’t doing this anymore. Well, they don’t like that idea. As part of its effort to crackdown on religious extremism, the Pakistani government has ordered Islamic schools, known as madrasahs, to register by the end of the year…