Blogging the democratic revolution
Pro-Syria, pro-Hizbollah Speaker Nabih Berri has been re-elected by the anti-Syrian parliament: The 128-seat assembly, dominated by opponents of Syria for the first time since the 1975-1990 civil war, voted by an overwhelming majority of 90 for Berri, despite international and local reservations over retaining one of the main enforcers of Syria’s grip over its tiny neighbor. Though the May 29-June 19 elections were won by groups that opposed Syria’s role, they had little choice but to back Berri for a fourth straight term after his alliance with the Hizbollah guerrilla group won over 80 percent of the Shi’ite Muslim…
Christopher Hitchens has another must-read article in this month’s Vanity Fair. This time, Hitch visits Iran (now becoming possibly the only “scribbler” to have visited all three Axis of Evil members since 2000). I have a post and link on the article here. Hitchens once again reveals what is at the base of another rancid government that keeps an ancient and great civilization under its heal. The value here is that the author has no agenda to push from either the right or left. He’s perfectly willing to credit the Bush Administration when credit is due and continues to refuse…
Fraudster to fraudster, who could be more pleased with Iran’s stolen election than Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez himself? I guess this means he’s not the only guy at the election fraud party. Read the whole thing here.
There is no issue, none, more critical today than whether the U.S. Congress passes CAFTA. So much is at stake in the treaty that will show whether the U.S. includes Latin America in to its hopes and opportunity or coldly shuts it out. And don’t think Osama Bin Laden, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe aren’t watching – they are. If CAFTA loses, every single one of them will be emboldened. This prospect is unbelievably horrible, and Bush must pay any price, battle any battle, to get this treaty passed. It is that important. If there is a political cost to…
I was just about to post a translation of an article from Al-Hayat on the Libyan opposition’s conference which closed yesterday, and then I noticed that one of my collaborateurs beat me to it with this article a few hours ago (linking to ABC’s website). But the Al-Hayat article takes a different angle on the issue from the ABC article, and so may be worth reading as well. I’ll just provide the link: Window on the Arab World, and More! I will note that whereas our own A.M. Mora y Leon makes the point that the Libyan opposition seemed to…
Alek Boyd’s piece on Colombia published here yesterday has drawn a rabid reaction from a tiny shrivelled pro-Chavez news organ, which devoted scads of bandwidth to name-hurling invective. They seem to have a personal problem with Mr. Boyd. This is starting to sound like an embarassing sort of envy. By their headline, they seem to actually believe Mr. Boyd has President Bush in his pocket. They really do see him as a giant threat. Amazing! Read it here, or if you don’t want their chavista cookies and spyware, here.
Can you stand a story on the Venezuelan national budget? I promise you, it’s got gamy details of swindling, pocket-lining, waste, graft and lying. And given that it’s the main vehicle for the spread of the chavista ‘revolution’ it has relevance to the mission of this blog. It’s what Venezuela’s real revolution is up against. Venezuelan writer Francisco Toro has a short, nicely written essay here or if you prefer, here.
To give him the boot. A London newspaper is reporting just that. Read it here. One can only hope the same is going on for Hugo Chavez. If only!
It sure looks like it: LONDON Jun 25, 2005 ???????? Mohammed al-Senousi calls himself a prince, although he has had no throne since his grandfather was ousted in a 1969 coup by Moammar Gadhafi. Al-Senousi, 42, joined hundreds of Libyan opposition members in London on Saturday to push for Gadhafi’s ouster their first conference in exile to tell the world, they said, there is an alternative to Gadhafi that is not Islamic extremism. This group, though seems pretty negative and thinks it more important to condemn the U.S. for recognizing Khaddafi for his improved record than just getting on with…
Ever wondered why George Bush was seen meeting with Phan Van Khai, the communist premier of Vietnam? Same as the real revolutionaries like Maria Corina Machado? This editorial has some background here. Hat tip: Real Clear Politics
Daniel has an important post about the growing erraticness of dictator Hugo Chavez’s relationship with the Venezuelan military. Apparently, they can’t stand him. Hugo Chavez is too into Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, for the Venezuelan military’s liking, and ignores the history that Venezuela’s military for years fought off this Monster at Our Door, and at Venezuela’s door, too. Castro has been nothing but trouble over the decades for Venezuela and Venezuela’s military professionals, who have expended blood and treasure to beat Castro off, and they have no intention of forgetting. This could be quite explosive. Could Venezuela’s revolution begin in…
Not many revolutionaries make the transition from old 1960s leftwing Castro worshippers into New Style revolutionary in the Age of Orange, Cedar, Rose, Daffodil, and Velvet Revolutions, which we live in today. Daniel Duquenal has a fascinating portrait of Teodoro Petkoff, a Bulgarian-Venezuelan leftist who did a stretch as a guerrilla in the mountains long ago, came down, and then went on to much better things. He’s now a leading news editor in Venezuela that pointedly opposes thugs and tyrants. Petkoff launched a new book called ‘Dos Izquieridas’ about the democratic and the non-democratic left. He is a formidable opponent…
Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe faces mounting opposition from what it seems to be a united front of the liberal party and other more preoccupying factors. A coalition of former presidents -Cesar Gaviria, Ernesto Samper and Andres Pastrana- seems to have found common ground, leaving behing past rivalries, to attack the policies and performance of former party member Alvaro Uribe. Recent appointments aside, that of Cesar Gaviria as party leader, it remains to be seen whether or not they will be able to agglutinate enough votes against the current president, whose prospects of getting re-elected look promising -should the Constitutional Court…
From South Africa to Nigeria, leaders from all around Africa are saying “no” to pressure on Zimbabwe’s Mugabe for his eviction of hundreds of thousands. The African Union itself has said, “If it is in the interests of the Zimbabwean government to prevent crime or improve sanitation or ensure the health of the people or ensure Harare is not turning into another slum, I do not see how the AU should take over the internal legislation of the government.” You may be thinking, “Slum? You mean the one Mugabe created himself? Are these people ignorant?” But obviously, they are not.…
The world could be coming to an end as we know it, but I’m enjoying a family BBQ. More blogging tomorrow, and I’m putting together a bunch of posts so that I’ll have something on the site while I’m in Boston on Monday. Meanwhile, definitely keep tabs on Regime Change Iran.
It’s jackass season in Washington and with it comes threats from Congress to harass China over its trade gap. Larry Kudlow outlines the incredible progress China has made since 1978 – 1978! – and warns that the U.S. has got to stop hectoring China for doing all the right things. China’s stable currency, its trade of goods with us, its lifting of its poor into the middle class are all things that need to be encouraged, not screamed at in U.S. Congress. Because trust me, China is capable of much worse than the ‘crime’ of trade. Larry Kudlow makes a…
The Times has an incredible piece on how fast and how hard the revolutionary winds of change are hitting Europe. Europeans everywhere are rejecting the Franco-German centralized-welfare-statist model and embracing the Anglo-Roman ideal of freedom and rule of law. It’s happening at breakneck speed, and among people no one ever expected such enthusiastic support from. East and West are uniting under common ideals, not degrading spoils-grabbing. Europeans everywhere are rejecting subsidies, taxes, bureaucracy, privilege, inequality and inertia, in favor of free capitalism and fairness, something that could make Europe the dynamic powerhouse it is meant to be. The Revolution is…
Let’s get one thing straight: whether it was Rafsanjani or Ahmadinejad who was selected to win, it doesn’t really matter. When looking at Iran, one only has to know that irregardless of anything, the Guardian Council and Supreme Leader Khamenei in particular control the political levers of the country. Michael Ledeen puts it eloquently, much better than I at two in the morning: Please keep two basic facts in mind as this melodrama unfolds: Neither Rafsanjani nor Ahmadinejad has any intention of altering the basic structure of the Islamic Republic, nor of “liberalizing” Iranian society (the Reich was not notably…
Last week, I wrote about how the media got the story wrong on Iran. Hopefully, they will not make the same mistakes that they made then. To help them out, I’m going to compile articles and photos that show that the Iranians once again boycotted the sham elections in huge proportions. The word has to get out to the world that the regime is completely illegitimate even in the eyes of its own people. If there was ever a time to act, it’s now! Click “more” for all the articles and photos. And remember, if you are a journalist or…
They have started. Venezuela’s oil workers in the eastern part of the country have launched bitter protests against corruption and lost jobs. Their actions have shut down the refineries and the state oil company doesn’t sound as though it is in good shape. As oil hits $60 a barrel, there may be a revolution on. The angry oil workers did stop production. Read it here.
UPDATE: The regime was forced to move the Los Angeles station. New location is listed at the link. The regime is simply relentless! Here is the list of polling places that will be set up tomorrow. If there is one in your hometown or nearby, investigate! Assemble! Protest! Call the FBI. I’m currently in Sacremento at the moment, without a car, and with no ride out. Lucky for them. So if anyone is in one of these local areas, please get out there! A notable removal from the list is the polling place in Tucson, Arizona. Ha! I guess they’re…
When discussing the move towards democracy in Eastern Europe, I always try to remind of the revitalized GUAM alliance, which is meant to secure economic independence toward Russia and move toward western values. The A in GUAM stands for Azerbaijan, which is generally more repressive than the others: Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova. After the opening of a major pipeline, in which many western leaders were present to criticize the government, the government began to allow protests. Well, an MP recently came out and suggested that the country may slide into civil war, recalling the fall presidential elections in 2003 when…
For those of you have have read my report on the Iranian polling station in Tucson, you may be pleased to know that the Washington Times, in an article entitled “Iran’s sham election — on U.S soil,” has picked up my experience as well as that of Will Franklin’s down in Houston and will be investigating further. But the dissidents have their own informal intelligence networks that gather information about where the voting will take place, a fact that displeases the regime and its supporters. On Friday, a clash occurred at one of the polling places, located at the Commerce…
Brilliant Italian journalist Oriana Fallici explains why she’s a revolutionary in an amazing interview with Tunku Varadarajan of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. “In the beginning, I was dismayed, and I asked, how is it possible that we do not have Cavour . . . just one Cavour, uno? He was a revolutionary, and yes, he was not of the left. Italy needs a Cavour–Europe needs a Cavour.” Ms. Fallaci describes herself, too, as “a revolutionary”–“because I do what conservatives in Europe don’t do, which is that I don’t accept to be treated like a delinquent.” It’s all good.…
Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil to Paraguay, just as the Austral winter begins. This is a new major incident of Paraguay abuse from the Venezuelan dictator. His gall and malice know no bounds. He made the threat as a parting shot against the small helpless South American nation at a Mercosur conference in Paraguay itself, always on his best-guest behavior, where he appeared in a bid to gain full Mercosur membership. This isn’t the first time Venezuela has kicked Paraguay around. A former Paraguayan president’s daughter was kidnapped and murdered by Paraguayan thugs who were being directed…