Blogging the democratic revolution
…in Hungary, where the memories of bleak, gray communism and the tanks and massacres of 1956 are not entirely forgotten. I wrote up the whole unexpected turn of events, with the rightful blog links on Babalu here.
You may have all noticed that I haven’t posted a nice, long entry on Iraq since the referendum. Well, that’s because I’ve been holding my breath. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, so there will be something much much bigger when some more indicative preliminary figures come in. One thing is for…
Today is the anniversary of the day when President Lukashenko held an illegal referendum to secure his limitless rule in Belarus. With parliamentary elections scheduled within the year, it is more important than ever for the people of Belarus to stand with each other and to know that others stand with them. This is why…
Students for Global Democracy has more of the photos from the worldwide Walk For Democracy In Belarus. Here is the press release, accompanied by a sampling of the pictures. Remember, here are the pictures from our own walk in Boston. ******* October 17, 2005 – Ann Arbor, MI; Bloomington, IN; Istanbul, Turkey; London, Canada; London,…
In less time than it takes for a new baby to reach U.S. voting age, the nation of Estonia has transformed itself from a cold, gray, stagnant outpost of the Soviet Empire to one of the world’s most impressive dynamic democracies. Its banks are pristine, its one of the most wired countries in the world,…
This doesn’t look very good. Baku, 17 October 2005 (RFE/RL) — Azeri opposition leader Rasul Quliyev has been stopped by Ukrainian police in the Crimean capital of Simferopol en route to Baku, where he was returning after nearly 10 years in exile, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported. Former parliamentary speaker and Democratic Party of Azerbaijan Chairman…
John Hinderaker at Power Line asks whether the information to date demonstrates that large numbers of Sunnis did, in fact, vote for the new Iraqi constitution. RTWT. UPDATE: On the other hand, in the alternate reality-based community, the Sunnis are being subjugated — because, I suppose, the position held by the majority of Sunnis didn’t…
It was cold and rainy. People were tired and hung over from Friday night festivities. Some cancelled at the last minute and some just kept sleeping. However, despite all that, we still came through and marched out with our signs, deteriorating and wet as they were. There were about a dozen of us total, a…
I have just published the last in a three-part series the global implications of the attacks in London of July 7, 2005. This last post, After London – The Infrastructure of Terrorism in Pakistan, is the one most relevant to democracy issues because it deals with both the socio-political and the military networks of militant…
Well, we can already count one victory: the Iraqis, mired in a Vietquagmire and facing constant (real) terrorism, can be trusted to vote on their constitution in 2005 — just a couple of years removed from living under one of the world’s brutal tyrants — which says a lot about Iraq’s present status and how…
Iraqis voted today on whether to accept the constitution, which Publius has covered extensively. Terrorism was minimal, with only three relatively unsuccessful attacks wounding two police officers and one civilian — which, out of 6,000 polling stations, is a highly ineffective 0.05% success rate. It does indeed look as though the Iraqi and coalition security…
I’m preparing for the Walk for Democracy in Belarus all day today. Posters, people, all that. Should be pretty cool, and we’ll have pictures and video up for viewing. If you’d like to get involved, just go to the link. I hope to see you all there!
Condoleezza Rice, during her trip to Kazakhstan, chased down President Nazarbaev after he left his podium and forced him to answer questions from reporters. She also called on the country to be a leader for democratic reforms in the region. Jim Hoft has a roundup. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stops the Kazakh leader…
One of Britain’s two greatest prime ministers of the 20th century, and one of the greatest people who has ever lived, Lady Thatcher, is celebrating her 80th birthday today. The Reuters picture show here shows her in frail health, but looking absolutely beautiful. Lady Thatcher is one of history’s most authentic revolutionaries. She not only…
Gustavo Coronel has a haunting essay about the terror that stalks the Venezuelan countryside, with cattle-rustlers, marauders, professional killers, paramilitaries, mercenaries, narcoterrorists and Chavista death squads. No one is safe at night – or even at day. Payoffs to different kinds of criminals to prevent them from murdering and pillaging is a way of life…
Aleksander Boyd at VCrisis has an excellent weekly news roundup of events in Venezuela, complete with a variety of media links showing through little turning points Venezuela’s slide downward into totalitarianism. Read it here.
As we have noted in previous roundups, Evo Morales is not the worst Marxist lunatic in the Bolivian political line-up. That honor may belong to Felipe Quispe. He is a far-leftist and indigenous-“rights” romantic who openly advocates violence and who has no chance of winning the December presidential election. So, with diminishing prospects, he says…
Whatever you do, go to THIS democratic festival celebrating of the dawn of freedom and not this Chavista one representing the road to Castrodom. IndyMedia has its announcement up on the Chavista Challenge in Chicago, with all the details about the players – CITGO cheap gas, Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover…all the Huey-Long-style pork-barrel tools that…
Right in the middle of fermenting Panamanian unrest over pension reform, coupled with pot-stirring by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, our Daniel of Yaracuy, Venezuela, found himself in the middle of Panama on a work visit. From shopkeepers, he learned of corrupt Chavista officials blowing in to Panama for shopping trips and money-laundering ventures, sure in…
Ever since Gail Collins wrote her infamous editorial blasting Venezuela’s battered opposition for crying fraud in the 2004 recall referendum, I have had a change of opinion, to say the least, about the New York Times. I didn’t have it before – for a rightwinger, I have a remarkably high tolerance for left bias in…
Hey everyone, I’d like to thank you all for expressing your interest in participating in the Walk for Democracy in Belarus. It is an event that will be held worldwide in places as far-ranging as Nepal, Taiwan, Ghana, England, and right here in Boston in order to raise money for pro-democracy organizations that oppose the…
This really happened yesterday. Francisco Toro writes: Twenty guys with BIG GUNS storm into your apartment one night. They say they’re from the Prosecutor General’s Office. They’re looking for materials relating to … Tulio Alvarez’s “terrorist activities.” …. They leave, a bit embarrassed. The next day, the prosecutors’ office says it has no idea who…
Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kenaan died yesterday in his office, and the Syrian government says that it was suicide; he shot himself through the mouth. But was it? Kenaan was head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon from 1982 to 2003, and basically ran the country for Syria. He was recently questioned as part of the…
With parliamentary elections on a few weeks away, and the prospect of a colored revolution on the horizon, the Freedom bloc (comprised of three major parties) is uniting with another opposition party, the National Unity bloc, in order to support each others’ candidates and ensure that the government doesn’t rig the election. Executives of Azadlig…
An unusual piece of news – Barbados wants nothing – NOTHING – to do with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s pork-barrel spending on cheap oil for his small Caribbean neighors. Tiny but responsible Barbados knows that nothing comes ‘free’ and has no intention of giving away its sovereignty for a barrel of Chavez’s oil. This represents…