Blogging the democratic revolution
Miss Indonesia Universe, crowned Aug. 25, 2006 Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! News! Miss Kazakhstan World 2005, Miss Kazakhstan Universe 2006 Source: Missosology Miss England World 2005 Source: Yahoo!, via My Pet Jawa Miss Afghanistan Earth 2003 Source: Wikipedia What do these girls have in common? They’re all Muslim beauty queens, showing off their hair, faces,…
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, still refusing to concede the July 2 election Source: Agencia EFE, via Yahoo! Mexico A Spanish newspaper today warned that Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who refuses to concede the election he lost last July 2, is gravely abusing not only Mexico’s democracy, but his own political viability and his left cause…
Adam Gadahn Source: AFP, via Yahoo! News Al-Qaida released a video of a local American, Adam Gadahn, inviting us all to ‘convert or die‘ to bin Laden’s perversion of Islam, following an introduction by al-Qaida monster, Dr. Zawahiri, who’s bin Laden’s Number Two. It’s not his first time in a bin-Laden video. He’s recognizable as…
As if arbitrary arrests, “repudiation acts” and vile assassinations by hanging were not enough, the Castros’ regime ordered their Gestapo to arbitrarily arrest doctor Darsi Ferrer in Havana and attempt to assassinate his 5-year-old son. Darsi Ferrer leads the Center for Health and Human Rights “Juan Bruno Zayas”, affiliated to the Assembly to Promote the…
The decision, by the State Department, to grant a visa to former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami to play taqyia to promote the genocidal Islamist agenda of the Islamic Republic he is part of, has justly angered many, from Jewish organizations to U.S. Senators and Congressmen. But of course it has angered much more the Iranian…
RIA Novosti reported on August 30th that “Russia’s GDP growth of 5.5% in the first quarter of 2006 was the highest among the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations for the period.” Relying on data from the IMF, Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service “said real year-on-year GDP growth in Russia during the first quarter reached…
In Caracas, there are very few green spaces, other than the Avila mountain range, which ruffles the northern side of the vast Venezuelan capital city. The rest is pure urban concrete. Of those few green spaces, even fewer are safe enough to go to without needing a bodyguard or a bullet-proof automobile. But there is…
Remember Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador? The Obragore of Mexico? Today Mexico’s election arbitrators told him to get lost. Mexico’s electoral tribunal making its ruling on July 2’s election Source: AFP, via Yahoo! News Today the Mexican electoral tribunal ruled that there was no cheating in Mexico’s July 2 presidential election, and all of his 300-plus…
For a long long time, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez polled high numbers in opinion polls. Often it was as high as 70% approval. When I was in Caracas, a prominent think tank analyst pointed out to me that about 7% of the population was and always would be hardcore communist. Another 30% to 40% after…
One of the first things I did when I arrived in Kiev was take the subway to Maidan, the setting of Ukraine????????s Orange Revolution in which over one million people camped out and protested against phony elections. It is now a scene of perpetual nostalgia for those cold days and nights when the one thing…
How is this for a new idea? States that have more squiggly borders, on the whole, have more stability and cohesion. States that have harsh, arbitrary ruler-drawn line borders have a terrible tendency toward internecine warfare. Any student of African politics knows something about this, but perhaps for the first time, economists have tried to…
One of the most ominous questions hovering over democratic politics in the world today is how harsh an anti-democratic crackdown Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would be prepared to support in order to maintain control over the Russian population in the event of an economic downturn. Recently, Putin has been recording 70+% approval in public opinion…
In April two prominent observers of politics died. The first, John Kenneth Galbraith was an influential Canadian-American economist of the 20th century. He was a Keynesian and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism and progressivism, died on the 29th. The second, Jean-Fran????ois Revel was a French politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of…
I????????ve just found some month-old photos showing Iranians (in Iran) celebrating the banned pre-Islamic Chahar Shanbe Souri festival. As you know, every woman is forced to wear the mandatory veil when in Iran (this goes for non-Iranian women,too). But, look at how the Iranian women below defied the regime by not fully covering their hairs…
Look, I haven’t even gotten used to the idea of San Francisco raves! Ten years ago, they used to be this thing people I knew did at old warehouses in the South of Market in San Francisco. I think I went to see an indy flick at the Angelica Theatre in New York about these…
There’s a new U.S. development on the horizon that’s coming on us like a Singapore sunrise – which is to say, fast. Small towns in America are rebelling against unchecked immigration, which has spread well past the big cities like Los Angeles and deep into the small towns of America. Tiny Hazleton, Pennsylvania got itself…
I am not talking about Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners are fed and allowed to read the Koran. This is the real deal. This is what they did and in many places still do to you if you are a political dissident in the backward societies of the Middle East. The blog “… Or Does it…
Just over three years ago, the United States and Chile signed a free trade agreement, opening up markets and allowing for greater prosperity in both countries. Now, Chile has signed a free trade agreement with China, the first between the Asian giant and a Latin American country, bilaterally opening up markets on both sides. It…
The results of the a July 30 election in the “Democratic Republic” of the Congo were announced on Monday. Nobody won an outright majority, but I will give you one guess as to what happened given that it has taken over two millions deaths to lead up to this point. That’s right, people started killing…
I have returned from my trips to Ukraine and Belarus. As I sit here editing audio and writing stories, a question has crossed my mind that is hard for me to answer because it requires knowledge of the mass perception of what I am asking. So if you have the time, drop off a comment,…
Do my eyes deceive me? The most leftwing alternative-media newspaper, SFWeekly, in the U.S.’ most leftwing alternative city, San Francisco, has given one heck of a thrashing to the world’s most leftwing alternative Sandalista nuisance group, Global Exchange. The leftwing newspaper’s charge? Rampant Sandalista meddling! SFWeekly is laying it on thick against the leftwing “revolutionary”…
Ruins of a Russian jet crash which killed 170, Aug. 22, 2006 Source: Associated Press, via Yahoo! News On Tuesday morning (August 22) it was reported by the Associated Press and Reuters that a Russian passenger jet, a Pulkova Airlines TU-154 airliner bound from the Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg, crashed in…
Val Prieto, the estimable and amazing Cuban-American blogger at Babalu blog has been asked for advice about creating a post-Castro Cuba, along with Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Carlos Eire and others luminaries, by none other than the White House and its top policy makers. He’s obviously been watched and read for a long time by the…
Venezuela has a peculiar economy. For many decades, it’s been known as Saudi Venezuela, in reference to its vast oil reserves, reserves so high, and so profitable, that it brings in huge dollar reserves. Those dollar reserves strengthen the currency to such an extent that it’s very difficult for exporters in other industries to get…
Next week will mark 15 years since the August Putsch. On August 19, 1991 a group of Soviet politicians calling themselves the State Executive Committee (Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Chezvychainomu polozheniiu, GKChP) attempted to seize power in Moscow. The ???????putsch??????? took a very Soviet form. The Committee announced that Gorbachev was ill and was relieved of…