Blogging the democratic revolution
Venezuela and the U.S. won their wars for independence against their respective colonial masters at about the same time. Six years ago, Venezuela, very quietly, was our number one overseas oil supplier. You never heard about any of this because – guess what – the U.S. and Venezuela have always been amigos. There’s never been a history of anti-American sentiment there. Until Hugo Chavez showed up. Swapping Venezuela’s longtime friendship with the U.S. for that of mendicant Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, bloggers have noticed a dramatic rise of anti-U.S. ravings from Chavez minions in Venezuela. This occurs on the same…
I grew up despising Jerzy Urban, the Polish communist party spokesman, whose lies dropped out of his mouth like an loaded dumptruck . It turns out the fat creep isn’t done yet. Today, he weighed with a new pile of hate for the Pope on his passing, still spewing garbage after all these years. Read it here.
I just got done reading David McDuff’s eleventh installment of Dragons and Democracy. Always a good read!
Freedom House does an annual list of the world’s most oppressive regimes. To some of us, it doesn’t come as a surprise that six of the 18 nations on the list are members of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Significantly, six of the eighteen most repressive governments–those of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe–are members of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), representing nearly 11 percent of the 53-member body. “Repressive governments enjoying CHR membership work in concert and have successfully subverted the Commission’s mandate,” said Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor. “Rather than serving as the…
Yesterday I wrote that Mugabe will not face any consequences if the opposition rebels and he decides to crack down — something he would inevitably do if that happens. While western election observers were kept out amid certain criticism of the election, as we have seen a lot from America and the European Union despite this, those monitoring the elections were all from regional countries: Libya, Zambia, South Africa, etc. Being that South Africa is a democratic nation and a major regional power, one would assume that they would exert some pressure over Mugabe. Not so. In fact, they are…
Two articles published recently in the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat suggest that Arab governments may be making a decisive change in their dealings toward the Palestinians. One was a March 30 article, The Amir of Qatar: ‘The Palestinians Have Proven that Reform and Peace Can Go Together’. The article, citing remarks of the Amir of Qatar Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani at the “Fifth Doha Conference for Democracy and Free Trade,” wrote: ‘The search for reform and the search for peace in the region can go together without conflict or contradiction,’ remarking that ‘our Palestinian brothers have proven this by…
The hours are counting down to the final decision of the opposition in Zimbabwe, one of the “last Outposts of Tyranny” on this earth. Word on the street is that if the order is given, they will protest. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said the party would not pursue legal challenges for the seats it believes were stolen. Instead, he said, “the people of Zimbabwe must defend their vote,” stronger language than he used after 2000 and 2002 elections, which were characterized by massive fraud. But he denied he was calling for people to take…
One of the most admirable men of the last century is passing his last breaths before softly slipping to a more enviable place. Pope John Paul II has been to myself and countless others the spiritual revolutionary that gutted the Soviet Union in its Godless, empty soul. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for the unmatched contribution he made toward securing us a freer world than the one he was born to. Thomas Jefferson once said, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God,” making Pope John Paul II one of His most humble servants. With the Pope’s passing…
Even though this protest was about a week ago, and there are already plenty of photos, Belarus Today has come out with a gallery of photos from the protest that are unique to its own website. And… A babe finally!
I’ve been reading this article with the above title. It’s pretty long and informative, but I think this quote sums it up, “They haven’t ever seen a good election and wouldn’t know one if it hit them in the face.” Truer words have never been spoken!
It doesn’t get worse than this.
So far this is the fourth bomb to strike within the last three weeks, just as Syria will finish pulling out its troops by next week. BEIRUT, Lebanon — A bomb damaged a shopping center in a Christian area northeast of Beirut Friday, the fourth attack against an anti-Syrian target in two weeks. The blast lightly injured seven people, one of them an American, police said. The explosion in the resort town of Broummana, 10 miles northeast of the Lebanese capital, started a fire and shattered glass in several buildings, blew out store shutters and smashed several cars. Firefighters workers…
Well the results are in and they’ve been plenty doctored. Here’s the overview, with the opposition promising something unspecified to happen. Harare ???????? President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party has secured a majority in parliament, according to results announced Friday in an election the opposition says was marred by fraud. Thursday’s vote was seen as a test of the legitimacy of Mr. Mugabe’s increasingly autocratic regime after 25 years in power. Mr. Mugabe, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, is the last on the continent who has ruled his country since independence from the colonial powers. Mr. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic…
The broad picture from many news sources is that Zimbabwe’s voters braved long lines and an unbelievably creative menu of efforts to disenfranchise them – from chicanery to fraud to bribes to murder – and held the line. Returns are showing Mugabe claiming victory, as forecast, and the opposition crying fraud. How they deal with this fraud is the coming question. I have this news roundup organized beginning with a backgrounder or The Stage for action; the the Timeline of events; the Foreign Response; and the observed irregularities: Intimidation, Disenfranchisement and Electoral Fraud. Here is a summary of the news…
…Only after the police tear gassed the protestors. Kampala – Ugandan police used water cannons and tear gas to break up an opposition demonstration on Thursday, engaging in running battles with marchers protesting efforts to extend the president’s tenure. Riot police dispersed the protesters, who were denouncing plans to amend the constitution so that President Yoweri Museveni can run for a third term in office. Police spokesperson Asuman Mugenyi said the demonstration had not been authorised. “They knew that we had stopped it, but they continued inciting people to come and participate in violence and in an illegal assembly,” he…
The Nation magazine has a sugar-coated vision of Hugo Chavez’s Veneuzela, described in an article purportedly written as a “news” story by Christian Parenti, someone who used to spend his time at Young Communist League meetings in San Francisco. Parenti’s trying to make his story appear a respectable reporting job (as Cuban propagandists coincidentally advise) but it’s pretty clear he’s ignoring the biggest parts of the story in his bid to plug Hugo Chavez. Essayist Gustavo Coronel, a Venezuelan who knows the deal, gives a good factual, statistics-heavy rebuttal to this blatant propaganda effort to defend the indefensible. Read the…
Common canard holds that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, whatever his faults, at least is ending poverty through his soup-kitchen programs. Andres Oppenheimer blows the lid off that steaming pot, though, by taking a good look at the Venezuelan government’s own statistics. What he sees appalls him. He writes: Indeed, the latest poverty figures from Venezuela’s official National Institute of Statistics — buried in a mountain of figures deep in the bowels of its Internet site, www.ine.gov.ve — contain the most damning condemnation of the Ch????vez government I have seen anywhere. The figures, on Page 5 of the Institute’s Social Report,…
I’m going to start this off by putting this article in the reverse way that it was written. International human rights organizations and such other groups as the European Union, which on Wednesday called the election “phony,” say the outcome is unlikely to reflect the will of most Zimbabweans. Mugabe controls every daily newspaper, all broadcasting, thousands of patronage jobs, the electoral commission, the courts that would judge accusations of rigging and the dwindling food reserves for a populace on the brink of starvation. Most international election observers have been kept away. And Mugabe increased the budget of his secret…
There’s been a lot of talk with regards to the Iran soccer riots, and it looks like North Korea’s loss to them has triggered riots in the homeland, a rare public display of unrest! Angry North Korean soccer fans interrupted their national team’s World Cup qualifying match against Iran on Wednesday, throwing bottles and chairs at the referee and visiting team. The unrest erupted when North Korean defender Nam Song-chol was sent off for shoving Syrian referee Mohamed Kousa during a 2-to-0 home loss match, which was seen on international satellite television. The violence spilled over outside the Kim Il-Sung…
Wow! It was a quarter ago that I followed John Hawkins’ lead and published a list of my favorite bloggers. Have I been blogging that long already? Certainly my eyesight has gotten worse. Because of changing events in the world, my destinations are certainly different on a day to day basis and the list will probably reflect that. There’ll probably be quite a few changes from last time! But without further ado… 20. Neeka’s Backlog 19. Radio Free Nepal 18. A Step at a Time 17. The Word Unheard 16. Belmont Club 15. Blogrel 14. Barcepundit 13. Bloggledygook 12. Chrenkoff…
Andy has the weekly roundup… up. Everything dealing with Putin and his cronies and the near abroad! Check it out! My personal favorite was Russia’s threat to withhold funding from the OSCE if it doesn’t change its mission from those sickly human rights to security. They would say that, wouldn’t they?
Defying a ban against unauthorized rallies, several hundred people took to the street. Hundreds of supporters of one of Egypt??????s largest opposition groups have defied a government ban against unauthorized protests and taken to the streets of Cairo to demonstrate. Ahead of landmark elections, dozens of Muslim Brotherhood officials chanted that President Hosni Mubarak was no longer fit to rule Egypt. Many demonstrators were detained and remanded in custody for 15 days on charges including “membership of a banned organization, participation in illegal demonstrations and incitement to hatred of the regime,” judicial officials said. Pro-Islamic students at universities in Cairo,…
A few significant things have happened in this arena besides the sale of fighter jets to both Pakistan and India. Secretary of State Rice has recently said that the U.S. aims to make India a world power in the 21st century. Washington: The United States unveiled plans Friday to help India become a “major world power in the 21st century” even as it announced moves to beef up the military of Pakistan. Under the plans, Washington offered to step up a strategic dialogue with India to boost missile defense and other security initiatives as well as high-tech cooperation and expanded…
I was just going through Google news last night and read an article on The Tufts Daily, an editorial piece regarding the Tulip Revolution. A lot of it had to do with post-revolution relations with Russia and how Kyrgyzstan should move away from its influence. Well, besides being physically impossible to move, I dropped a comment on there that I’ll report here for analytical sakes given then I rarely do that. Kremlin foreign policy post-Orange Revolution has been to work with both governments and opposition parties to ensure steady political and economic relations with Russia despite a change of governance.…
The other day, both parliaments were rivalling for power. That got put an end to, with the upper house dissolving. Bishkek, 29 March 2005 (RFE/RL) — The upper chamber of Kyrgyzstan’s old parliament today followed the outgoing lower chamber in suspending its activities and giving way to the newly elected single-chamber parliament. Muratbek Mukashev, the upper chamber’s speaker, read a statement signed by 32 lawmakers from the 45-seat chamber, saying it would end its work “for the sake of stability and to avoid conflict situations.” Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, speaker of the outgoing lower chamber, said before his chamber disbanded yesterday that…