Blogging the democratic revolution
Daniel noted earlier the blatantly warped and somewhat arbitrary questions, but Mike Connor all the way out in Yushchenko’s Ukraine noticed it as well. They better watch out, or they might develop the same bad international reputation they’ve acquired at home!
Miguel Buitrago at MABB blog in Bolivia has gotten word of four new blogs about Bolivia. See his roundup here. Apparently, blogging has taken off in Bolivia, a superb development, given the hammerlock assorted leftists have always had on news coming out of Bolivia. Now, we don’t need them, we get our news from Bolivians direct. Good work, Bolivian bloggers!
Blogger Miguel Octavio warns that despite the difficulty for many of taking Hugo Chavez entirely seriously, we Americans would be wise to pay attention to the rising tide of anti-Americanism now appearing in Venezuela. Don’t dismiss these ravings, they mean something, he warns. Based on what he knows of the Chavistas and their inherent psychology and known pattern of behaviors, he believes things could get serious.
Even if you don’t speak Spanish you can probably figure out what this cartoon, posted by Mexican blogger Cosme Hace says. I laughed when the cartoon comparison was made between Lopez Obrador and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Lopez Obrador was described as not another Chavez because he wasn’t ‘frivolous and stupid’ enough. Obviously, Hugo Chavez’s acquired a certain image around Latin America we all might not be aware of. Check it out here.
You’d think Carlos Santana wouldn’t make a mistake about what’s hip and what’s out, but that’s just what he did at the Academy Awards last month, showing up in a big Che Guevara tee shirt. So old. So out. So out of it. And so damn despicable. Santana learned to play his instruments with Cuba’s famed Lion of the Bongos, Mongo Santamaria in the clubs of Tijuana after Mongo fled the horrors of the Castro regime. Santana knows very well what the Castro regime is all about. And he went and wore the disgusting tee shirt anyway. Val at Babalublog…
…and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez behind it. I wrote an analysis for American Thinker this morning. It’s here.
I wrote an essay on the political situation in Mexico for American Thinker this morning and I have never gotten a greater reaction to anything else I have ever written. I am stunned. This morning they put it on RealClearPolitics.com. It’s time to step up coverage of Mexico. Read it here or here. Reuters has quoted it here. And a California newspaper has it cited here. Oh my!
The mainstream media largely missed it, but here at Publius Pundit we recently noted a flickering of Ukraine-style protests for democratic reforms in Bahrain. But there is danger as well, for part of the opposition is aligned with Iran (the Sunni-ruled country is majority Shia, but of course only a faction among the Shia population identifies with Iran). This is according to Geostrategy-Direct (subscription required): ÄApril 5Å Bahrain has prepared for a major crackdown on the Shi’ite opposition aligned with Iran. The crackdown is being closely monitored by the United States, whose naval Fifth Fleet is based in Manama. The…
The Christian Science Monitor has an editorial instructing us in what we already know: Zimbabwe is not Ukraine: Viktor Yushchenko, who suffered near-fatal dioxin poisoning in his campaign to unseat Ukraine’s corrupt and authoritarian president, had the support of masses of protesters. But those were healthy, well-fed masses. In Zimbabwe, half the country is on the verge of acute hunger, and the official HIV infection rate is 27 percent. Mr. Yushchenko also had the backing of key institutions. The judiciary ruled in favor of a new election, and Ukraine’s security forces refused to turn their guns on fellow citizens. Zimbabwe’s…
April 4th is the day Moldova’s Parliament holds elections for President. Up for re-election is Communist Party leader Voronin, who won 56 of the 101 votes, of which he only needed 61 to win. In other words, his party needed to pursuade some of the opposition his way. If a president is not elected after two times, then parliament dissolves and a new election is held. Well, five votes isn’t much, so it was a pretty easy battle for Voronin to win. But before the election, the pro-Moscow Democratic Moldova bloc presented a list of 22 demands for its participation.…
Even though their leadership failed to mobilize and call for protests, there are some brave souls in Zimbabwe’s youth who realize that fighting and dying for freedom is a more worthy cause for their lives than complacent slavery. Despite threats of death, a few hundred have taken to the streets to defy Mugabe’s fraudulent victory. JOHANNESBURG, April 4 – Hundreds of supporters of Zimbabwe’s political opposition marched in Harare today to protest what they called the fraudulent victory of President Robert G. Mugabe’s ruling party in Thursday’s parliamentary elections. There were conflicting reports on whether the police broke up the…
Timothy Garton-Ash is not a well-known name in the U.S., but when I was a student in England, during the darkest days of Poland’s martial law, he was the person whose lectures I went to, and the one whose answers to my questions provided the most illumination. He hasn’t changed any after all these years and today he writes about what he knows best in a truly fine summary of the Pope’s contributions to the world’s freedom struggles. Read the whole thing here.
So far, the visit of Viktor Yushchenko to this country has been about as exciting and informative as last night’s so-called opening night. The wave of optimism that recently has spread throughout the enslaved world and now seems stalled over Zimbabwe got its start in the earthquake of the Orange Revolution. The meeting of democracy’s two most maligned and respected faces should be cause for more than platitudes, innuendo and half-baked conjecture. But of course, all we are feted to is the requisite opening paragraphs aching to point out that Ukraine is in the midst of withdrawing troops from Iraq.…
Revolution is hitting Europe hard. A German CEO, writing in Die Welt, publicly condemned the continent for its long record of cowardice against tyrants and terrorists. It’s a challenge so radical and so against prevailing wisdom that it may have the same impact as Emile Zola’s J’Accuse in forcing Europe to be what it ought to be. It was published a few months ago in Germany but is a hot item on the blogosphere today. Alek Boyd has the translation here.
The death of Pope John Paul II, although expected, has nevertheless been strongly felt around the world. One of his main themes was the promotion of democracy and freedom. What I would like to do here is to use this opportunity to look at two other issues close to John Paul’s heart – the future of Arab Christianity in the Arab world, especially those groups – the Uniates and the Maronites – aligned with Rome, and the future of Muslim-Christian relations. Christian Arabs will play a role of course in the democratization of the Arab world, assuming their communities survive…
Blogger Daniel keeps us well-apprised of the everyday aspects of Venezuela’s descent into communism. Today, the grocery stores are demanding ID for even the purchase of bread and water. This is the beginning of rationing. Daniel also gives us a rundown on Venezuela’s state oil company and Hugo Chavez’s mysterious unwillingness to open the books on it, and wonders if might be the real reason he wants to cut off oil from the U.S. Americans keep very good tabs on how much they buy and how much they pay, and Hugo Chavez probably doesn’t want anyone to know how badly…
President Yushchenko of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution has arrived in Washington today and will be staying through April 7th. Time to roll out the red carpet! WASHINGTON, DC — The United States is getting ready to roll out the red carpet for Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the man behind a democratic movement that Washington would like to see spread to other parts of the former Soviet Union and elsewhere in the world. Yushchenko is to arrive in the United States Sunday and will be welcomed by President George W. Bush to the White House the following day. The trip, through Thursday,…
Through two months of bold and sometimes bitter negotiations, pluralism wins through and Iraq has a speaker for parliament. BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi politicians chose a Sunni Arab tobe the speaker of parliament on Sunday, ending a politicalimpasse and taking a decisive step toward forming a governmentnine weeks after historic elections. In a ballot, the members of the 275-seat National Assemblyvoted overwhelmingly to elect Hajem al-Hassani, the industryminister, as speaker. Hassani, a religious Sunni, is an ally ofinterim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. “We passed the first hurdle,” Hassani told reporters. “TheIraqi people have proven that they can overcome the politicalcrisis…
Combined with the old parliament resigning, this piece of good news certainly lends the last bit of credibility the new interim government needs. Akayev has finally resigned. MOSCOW (Reuters) – Kyrgyzstan’s deposed president Askar Akayev tendered his resignation Sunday at his country’s embassy in Moscow in the presence of members of the Central Asian state’s parliament. Akayev fled into exile in Russia last week after ruling his impoverished country for 14 years. Many Kyrgyz see his formal resignation as key to ensuring full legitimacy for new elections provisionally scheduled for June. Akayev signed documents on four points, he said. “One…
Finally the answer comes to the question we’ve all been waiting for: The opposition will not protest. HARARE, Zimbabwe, April 3 — Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday ruled out calling for mass demonstrations to protest what he said were fraudulent results from last week’s parliamentary elections. Instead, he said, his party would redouble efforts to recruit new members from beyond its urban strongholds. Tsvangirai said widespread discrepancies in announced vote totals made clear that the party of President Robert Mugabe, which controlled the nation’s electoral mechanisms, rigged the outcomes in the rural areas where they claimed most of…
I was just reading A.M. Mora y Leon’s post right below this one and a website I remember from a long time ago clicked into my head: cafepress.com. They let you create clothing and apparel using your own images. I figure if Che tees are for the old and unhip, then democracy gear must be the new thing. Therefore, I present to you PubliusPundit.com Democracy Gear. If you go to that link, you will be able to buy an assortment of men’s and women’s t-shirts and bumper stickers with the words “Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy!” on them. Take a look at…
An amazing trend is beginning to show up, on all places, at Ivy League campuses. There, young people who were barely old enough to remember the collapse of The Wall in East Germany in 1989, have sensed a new something in the air and are making it their own statement. Attractive young Ivy League students, some of them sons and daughters of Cuban exiles, and others just interested in Cuba, are coming out and challenging the prevailing Che tee shirt logic of ignorance and stupidity. At Princeton, there was a big spontaneous demonstration against communism in Cuba. Other kids are…
No, it’s not a democracy. No, Hugo Chavez was not fairly elected. Yes, there are arbitrary arrests. Yes, there are political prisoners. Alek Boyd has an ever-lengthening list here.
Jorge Arena has an extraordinary personal account of what Venezuela was in the 1960s, the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo, and the conditions that led up to the rise of Hugo Chavez. It’s readable and lucid and a must read – a truly excellent essay. Read the whole thing here.
There’s no clearer sign a regime is going communist than in the telltale spread of mediocrity. Communists are the great levelers, the equalizers, the exponents of the lowest common denominator as an end in itself. This is why communism in theory is so attractive to tyrants, regardless of their beliefs. If everyone who can make decisions is stupid, tyranny is easy. That’s why political loyalty substitutes for objective merit as totalitarian power consolidates. The net result is Blotting Paper Bureaucrats, first described by Vladimir Voinovich in 1982. Solzenitsyn, with his physicist’s low boiling point for stupidity, also wrote of the…