Blogging the democratic revolution
I’d like to apologize for the lack of posts in recent days. We’ve been discussing and preparing to implement a major upgrade to Publius that I think you will all enjoy. We’ll have some posts up soon, but I want you all to know that you can look forward to a very new and very different Publius.
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez assumed power to dictate by decree today Source: EFE, via Yahoo! Mexico Never let it be known that Hugo Chavez is not a dictator now. Anything he says, goes. The Venezuelan rubber-stamp assembly passed a legislative bill to let Hugo “rule by decree.”He will continue to expropriate property, devalue the money, levy punitive taxes, indoctrinate Marxism in the schools and install block committees for neighbor to spy on neighbor, creating a Cuba. He is nothing but a brutal leftist thug who’s stolen power in a democracy and used its means to create a dictatorship, and the…
Over the past six months, and especially since Russia cut off the flow of natural gas through Belarus, tensions between the two countries’ political elites has been at a divisive high. Belarus had to give up a majority stake in its Beltranshaz pipeline system or face a huge increase in gas prices. As we described here almost a year ago, such a gas increase would affect the everyday Belarusian to such a huge degree that the impact would likely cost President Lukashenko his job. What Russia has done now, however, is to put Lukashenko on the spot. No longer is…
Two democracies collapsed in South America today – Venezuela’s, where Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has now crowned himself ruler by decree, and Ecuador, where rabid red-shirted mobs aligned with President Rafael Correa, drove the democratically elected opposition congress out of power and into the streets, leaving only Correa with any power and who, as of this writing, is also a dictator in the Chavez-Hitler mould. Is it any coincidence, then, that Hugo Chavez has seized absolute power on almost exactly the anniversary of Hitler‘s assumption of power? What a coincidence. Amid this democratic horror show in South America, at the…
Joshua Frost from Registan writes in TCS Daily that, following the death of the all powerful Turkmenbashi, next month’s presidential election offers a shining opportunity to bring the country’s ÄnowÅ more dynamic political elite into America’s sphere of influence. After all, Turkmenistan is an incredibly strategic important country. To cite a few examples that he gives, it lies between both Iran and Afghanistan, not to mention on top of 260 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Not to mention that Turkmenbashi’s repression may lead to a surge of interest in radical Islam in the country, there are at least three…
Breaking news – Russia’s elite spetznaz goons uses poisoned Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko’s photo at the center of their targets during shooting practice. The Times of London has the story here. But they’re still denying that they had anything to do with killing Litvinenko. My my, how hollow their elaborate protestations of noninvolvement in Litvinenko’s poisoning death ring today! These Putinites lie like thugs.
On October 13, 2006, Human Rights Watch reported on a Russian trial court’s ordering the closure of an organization based in the Russian city of Nizhny Novogorod and known as the “Russian-Chechen Friendship Association.” The RCFA is a nongovernmental organization established by Russians to inform the public about the dire plight of Chechnya and Russian human rights abuses there. The decision came just after the group announced its intention to conduct its own formal investigation into Russian war crimes in Chechnya. Time magazine reported that Amnesty International had characterized the Kremlin’s action as one that “appears to be the latest…
Australian patriot babes celebrate National Day on Friday Source: Tim Blair Hat tip: Instapundit More Aussie freedom babes Source: The Daily Telegraph of Australia Australians were told by their nanny-state minders that their beautiful blue Australian flag was nothing more than nasty gang colors and something to be put out of sight, for fear of offending precious Islamofascists and tribal rights special interest groups. Tim Blair in Sydney has one account of this leftwing lunacy right here. More Australian patriot babes celebrate Source: News.com.au Aussie patriots by the dozen Source: The Telegraph Little did they realize, it was AUSTRALIANS they…
You know the story so far: Russia suddenly drops an oil price bomb on impoverished Belarus, dramatically increasing the price Belarussians are charged because the country was insufficiently slavish in its obedience of the Kremlin, and Belarus responds with a massive tax on Russia’s Belarus oil pipeline transits to Europe, whereupon Russia threatens to cut off all oil shipments to Belarus, and Belarus then bitterly backs down from its tax. Where do we go from here? What does it all mean? Lionel Beehner, a staff member at the Council on Foreign Relations, has an article on the New Republic website…
RCTV workers in Caracas today protest Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s vow to shut them down Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! News Venezuela’s oldest television station is under the gun from the Venezuelan dictatorship of Hugo Chavez. When I say ‘under the gun’ I mean that literally, and you’ll see if you read further. Chavez has vowed to shut down the 53-year old station and throw its workers onto the streets. Never mind what its workers want, what its advertisers want or what its millions of viewers want. Chavez wants this television station destroyed. He not only wants revenge on a political…
Gisele Bunchen in Esquire, 2004 Source: Thomas Hawk blog Beautiful Gisele Bundchen of Brazil has always been my favorite supermodel. Her regal good looks, her tall physique, and her unusual grownup features have always made her a natural for the camera and great photographs. Now she’s given me a reason to really like her – by telling Hugo Chavez he’s repulsive. In fact, she pretty much screwed up her stately nose, narrowed her feline eyes, and sweetly told the fat, leering Venezuelan dictator that he was the Swamp Thing. The Venezuelan dictator had been ogling her like a pervert, in…
From the time the US and coalition forces deposed Saddam and his Ba’athists, over 25 million newly free Iraqis have had the opportunity to develop a society along a new path; the nature of that path has faced challenges from Iraqi sects, international terrorist groups, and foreign states, and its direction has been hotly debated. I have believed for some time that Iraqis have been making gradual but clear progress on many fronts in their attempt to rebuild a society — in terms of democratic reform, economic development and reconstruction, and other key elements of civil society. A little over…
Yesterday’s siege of Beirut by Hezbollah yesterday was a pivotal turning point in the Lebanese story, one so often torn by strife and grief. The fact that the shutdown degenerated rapidly into a showdown shows that they have taken the decided step to escalate tensions in the country to the breaking point. Reports of fist-fights, rock-throwing, and even sprays of automatic gunfire rocked the news. Police reports say that most of these injured were punctured with bullets. Lebanese are once again fighting Lebanese, with over 100 people injured and several dead. On day two fights broke out in Tripoli. Now,…
Charallave airport west of Caracas Source: Globovision I am getting weary of the words ‘expropriation’ or ‘confiscation’ – what’s going on in Venezuela right now is outright stealing. Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez stole himself an airport today, taking over the Charallave small airplane airport well outside Caracas, which is where all the small planes in Venezuela were diverted after Chavez helped himself to Carlota airport in the center of the city in 2004 or so. Of course he has no intention of paying – he didn’t pay any of the oil companies for his thefts and there’s no way he’s…
Freedom! Some of the 19 Cuban freedom seekers who washed ashore in America this week. Welcome, amigos! Source: Babalu Yesterday I had a long conversation with a source in the U.S. foreign policy establishment. I told him Ecuador was making me sick, but I asked him what the foremost concern of the U.S. was in Latin America. He told me two things: Chavez’s declaration that he would dictate by decree … it was really bothering them … and Cuba. He wanted to know why the media was ignoring Cuba because he said they shouldn’t be. Those two matters were preoccupying…
During his 2005 State of the Union address, President Bush set forth a bold plan to to make the advancement of freedom and democracy the cornerstone of America’s foreign policy. Under liberal democracies, the Islamic terrorist and statist authoritarian threat would practically vanish from the face of the earth. Sure, there would be conflicts, but no liberal democracy has ever warred with another; and because democracies respond to the will of the people, there is no rich soil for terrorism to plant its roots. In that speech, he mentioned the word “democracy” seven times and “freedom” nineteen times when talking…
For months now, Hezbollah has been leading mass protests against the democratically elected government of Fouad Siniora. It’s calculations as to the result were off, to say the least. Judging from how anti-Syria protests in 2005 toppled the government, on the surface it would appear as if the same strategy could work for Hassan Nasrallah. He studied the tactics and pulled off the demonstrations without falter. Perhaps what he only saw was the surface. The demonstrations in 2005 were against a foreign occupier, not a democratically elected, domestic government. Unfortunately for Nasrallah, things did not go as planned. Despite all…
The first parliamentary elections since the devolution of Serbia-Montenegro into their own respective countries took place in Serbia on Sunday. Ultra-nationalist Radical Party took home the most votes of any party, with just less than 30% of the vote, but the victory will go to the many Western-oriented, democratically minded parties who will hopefully be able to bang out some sort of coalition in the coming weeks. Here is the result as reported by ISN Security Watch. Radicals take home the most votes, but a coalition of democrats could save Serbia from isolation, but not without a great deal of…
Got a slew of dead-Castro rumors today, this time from people with ties to Washington types who say that the end is extremely near for Castro. The next three days or so will see a new power struggle as communists fight over the dead carcass of Castro in a bid to seize absolute power. What a pathetic scenario the U.S. must prepare for. The real beauty of a dead Castro will be in the rising revolution in people’s democracy – if it happens. But no one knows what the real Cuban people think, so no one knows what will occur.…
The Russian media has challenged the Putin regime’s peculiarly atavistic style of governance – its standing practice of rule through murder. Kim Zigfeld at La Russophobe has professionally translated a long and insightful piece from Novaya Gazeta called ‘Spare Organs’ on the Kremlin’s ruling killers. If you follow Russia affairs, it well worth a look here. Komersant has another backgrounder to the current scenario, readable in English, in this post here.
It was not more than a couple of weeks ago that I picked up a copy of Newsweek at the embassy with that same title. It detailed Moqtada al-Sadr’s rise to power; the murders of his Shia rival, the hesitance of American troops to kill or capture him, and his domination of presdent-day Iraqi politics. Overall, not much new information. However, it was the headline that said it all. Moqtada al-Sadr, given either the lack of will or the lack of ability on part of the Iraqi and American ground forces to counter him, has become the most powerful man…
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who now rules by decree Source: AP, via Yahoo! News So how’d you like one man making all your decisions for you? He’d pick your legislator, or dump him, as he pleased. He’d decide your food security – what you would eat. He’d decide whether you get housing or whether you’d own what you thought was your own house, you’d not make any such decisions as yourself. He’d decide how much of your money you could keep or he could take, just like that. Anything he said, would go. He’d be the law of the land.…
Our friend Jim Hoft over at Gateway Pundit continues the amount of information building up showing that extremist Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be running out of support at home. Prices are doubling and tripling, unemployment is even worse than it was before, and support is dwindling for him in the parliament. Is it a sign of things to come? Read on: he government puts unemplyment at 10 per cent but economists say it could be as high as 30 per cent. The government also says inflation is 11 per cent, but experts estimate it at 30 per cent! Ä…Å…
In Cuba, instead of using democratic decision-making conventions, like voting, governance is done through the screams and hurled objects of swarming Castroite mobs. Any time a dissident becomes known, the mobs which carry out actos de repudio – acts of repudiation – are right there on the scene, howling communist slogans, throwing rocks, and wielding fists. That’s what passes for governance in Cuba, which calls itself a ‘revolutionary democracy.’ Nature’s bullies never had it better. Today, that Castroite practice has been imported to Venezuela. Miguel Octavio, writing on The Devil’s Excrement posts a passage from an article about a terrifying…
No one relishes the idea of getting into a verbal spat with the likes of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan president is a thug, a dictator, a caudillo and atrociously violent and vulgar with words, not even counting spit flecks and dog breath. Fighting with him is like wrestling a pig – you both get dirty and the pig likes it. George Bush won’t do it. Condi Rice wouldn’t do it. Neither will Vicente Fox or Felipe Calderon. Alvaro Uribe won’t, and lately, neither will Alan Garcia (although we hope that will change; Alan knows how to mop the floor…