Blogging the democratic revolution
Congressman Bill Delahunt of the U.S. wrote a rosy piece for the Boston Globe this week, touting the glories of Chavista Venezuela. Everything he said looked like it was lifted from the playbook of the Venezuelan Information Office, the propaganda arm of the Marxist Venezuelan regime. Venezuela’s Gustavo Coronel corrects the record in an eloquent essay here.
Andy over at Siberian Light has his weekly news roundup for Russia up. Check it out!
There were some reports earlier that the China-Russia joint military exercises were changed to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan. The Russian army chief categorically denied this. BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhuanet) — Visiting Russian army chief said here Thursday that the preparing Russian and Chinese joint military exercise is not targeted at any third country. “The first joint military exercise is a new way of cooperation between the two militaries,” said Yury Baluyevsky, Russian chief of general staff, who is on his first trip abroad since he took upthe post last July. Instead of being targeted at any third country,…
I meant to get this up this morning. My latest on Ukraine is up at Bloggledygook. The country’s Prosecutor General Pyskun has granted Mykola Melnychenko (Tape Man!) immunity in absentia. Also, Tape Man is under the protection of Boris Berezovsky, who has an interesting history of his own. Also, an interesting idea for a South Africa-style truth commission and some color commentary from former PM Pavel Lazarenko, who has had some, uh, legal problems here in the States. Go on a wade through the byzantine splendor of it all!
Cubans and Cuban-Americans who oppose tyranny have an unusual problem in the United States: It’s not just that they are shut out from all participation in American culture, such as films, books and television. It’s also that they are openly abused and derided by the most powerful cultural exporting machine the world has ever known – Hollywood. This juggernaut has not only slammed the door on Cuban-Americans but hurled rocks at them from the window. Val Prieto at Babalu blog has seen a new example of this cultural attack on Cubans in the U.S. in an American television show that…
You have to be there to know. And to appreciate. As Ireland struggles to shake off the gang violence and thuggery of the IRA in this Age Of Freedom, it makes an intriguing impression on a Venezuelan who is watching events unfold from the U.K. Read Alek Boyd’s fresh insights on what this world revolution is all about as he compares the two struggles here .
As always, Nathan has the scoop. Here’s the introduction to the post: EDM????????s report on the election is probably a good place to start. In sum, President Akayev has a huge majority in the new parliament, protests have spread, and an opposition congress has called for Akayev to resign. If that isn’t the lead in to an action movie, I don’t know what is. Check all three pages worth out. MORE: Another update.
The Lebanese Foundation for Peace is reporting that a military coup has swept Assad’s regime because of disputes over the withdrawal from Lebanon. A Coup d’ Etat took place in Damascus late last night. Intelligence reports coming from within the Syrian Military Command indicate the following: A rebellion split The Syrian Army in two factions . Since yesterday , Damascus is under the de facto control of the Syrian Army, under the command of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, and supported by Syrian Intelligence General Rustom Ghazaleh, Syrian military General Ali Safi, and Firas Tlass son of former Minister of…
Now this, found on Coyote Blog is really funny! You Know its a Dictatorship When: Michael Moore portrays the country as a kite-flying paradise Jimmy Carter sanctioned their last election The UN certifies that there is no genocide They sign friendship pacts with other dictatorships (also here and here and here too) Read the whole thing here. Hat tip: Winds of Change
Today is the celebration of Chaharshanbe Soori, an ancient Persian tradition in which Iranians jump over a fire to leave the mistakes of the past in the flames. The mullahs regime has tried to prevent the celebration from occurring, and it is causing clashes between people and the security forces. This is while OPEC meets in Tehran, and the Iranians are breaking loose. Read this report: Sounds of firecrackers are heard throughout Iran. In Tehran a large crowd is moving towards “Rajaei Shahr Prison”. Callers describe some areas as “war zones”! The power of some fireworks have crushed the windows…
Europe is busy telling Castro’s communist Cuba to ‘dialogue’ with it on human rights. Carlos Alberto Montaner argues that if Europe is serious about human rights in Cuba, it will ask Castro’s regime to dialogue with Cuba’s opposition instead of Europe itself. Given Europe’s tendency to side with failed regimes over ascendent peoples, jealously undermine successful nations that don’t, and stew about its lack of influence in the world because of these repeatedly bad choices, I can’t see them taking him up on this idea. However, Montaner is right.
The outrages and tyrannies engulfing Hugo Chavez’s communist Venezuela are coming faster and more furious than anyone can keep up with. Blogger Daniel in Yaracuy has got the news roundup here.
I personally relate the IRA in many respects to Hizb’allah and Hamas: a bunch of thugs who use coercive intimidation and commit crime because they can’t do policy in a democratic society. Here’s an article on the debate between Labour and the Tories. And while Blair is obviously on the winning side, I believe he is on the wrong side when it comes to dealing with the IRA. Luckily, Sinn Fein is recently getting the cold shoulder from Washington. ÄWorld NewsÅ: WASHINGTON, March 14 : The U.S. government told Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to avoid fundraising during his U.S.…
I haven’t jumped on the bandwagon too much with regards to the insanely hot Lebanese protestors, but that’s because I was waiting on enough material to make a decent sized photo archive. Drop a line in the comments if I’m missing any good photos! Have fun! UPDATE: Hans Nyberg let me know about a sweet panorama that he has of the protest. You click look all around, and even zoom in. I’m using that feature to babe spot. Check it out! And D.B. Light has a collection of all his posts on protest babes. And let’s not forget about the…
Via John Hawkins, I come across a list of proposed slogans for the United Nations. Here are my favorites: – Ignoring the irony of cronies of pissant dictatorships voting in a democratic fashion for 60 years. – Genocidal dictators, beware our harshly worded letters. – Having discussed at length almost every major crisis in the past 60 years. Read the rest!
John Burgess over at Crossroads Arabia notes an article in Arab News that says 87% of Saudis favor female participation in elections. JEDDAH, 16 March 2005 ???????? A survey conducted by an independent agency in Jeddah showed 87 percent Saudis backing women????????s participation in elections. It also reflected the greater role of media in educating the public on the polls. ???????Eighty-seven percent of 240 Saudis who took part in the survey called for women????????s participation in the next round of elections,??????? said Dr. Muhammad Fashetan, chairman of the SAS Center for Opinion Survey and Consultancy in Jeddah. He said the…
With everything going on, I haven’t been able to keep up as much with the usual blogs I read before Lebanon unfolded. So let me direct you to this series of posts I have been keeping up with called Dragons and Democracy, by David McDuff. He’s already on part 9, so you can scroll the the bottom of the post to get to the rest.
**Update 3/16** Things are quickly speeding up in east Asia. Just last week, China unveiled a law that would enable it to attack Taiwan if it tries to secede. And I have to hand it to the Taiwanese. Given their position, it may just be smarter for them to remain “part of China” and still retain their democratic, free-market society… but they won’t settle for less. Taiwan is now pursuing a counter anti-secession law that would allow Taiwan to pre-empt an attack by the Chinese mainland. Stepping up its opposition to China’s “anti-secession” law, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is…
This is good to hear, especially after this report by Omar that talks between the United Iraqi Coalition and the Kurdish Alliance melted down on the 13th. NewsBAGHDAD/ARBIL (Reuters) – Talks between Kurdish leaders and a Shi’ite bloc to form the next Iraqi government have collapsed three days before the country’s first fully elected parliament meets, senior politicians said on Sunday. Between them the two groups have the two-thirds majority needed to form the government and their failure to reach a deal could leave Iraq (news – web sites) in political limbo and further delay efforts to improve security and…
You may remember earlier in the week a couple Bahraini bloggers were arrested and people protested. Well, they’ve been released and with an added boon to all of us: They’ve passed some pro-democracy legislation. The Cabinet yesterday appr????oved the Chamber of Deputies???????? decision to introduce human rights and democracy as subjects at the intermediate and secondary levels and asked the Ministry of Education to consider both subjects in its curricula development plans. Check it all out. MORE: Babbling Bahrania is certainly covering this well.
The past month has certainly been amazing. Following the death of Rafiq Hariri, Lebanese broke out in the streets and protested, eventually forcing their government to resign. Syrian loyalists struck back by staging a hoax rally large enough to break the momentum and dishearten even some of freedom’s most ardent supporters. Everyone, however, except the Lebanese. In a moment truly reminiscient of 1776, the people came together in numbers two and a half times that of their would-be oppressors. And like I said, Assad must be shitting his pants, with Nasrallah quickly following. After Hizb’allah announced on Thursday that their…
A story so hideous I can barely think about it. This is the third such incident in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. This is how Chavez deals with dissidents and troublemakers … and warns the others. To make it even more suspicious, the soldiers, ages 19 and 20, injured in the incident were improving – but all of a sudden died. I do not know any other country where this grotesque ‘punishment’ happens. Read the details here, here and here.
I thought this was incredibly timely given that Kirk had just posted a piece on Jordanian civil society. Natasha Tynes is reporting on an unreported story in the mainstream press that I’m finding particularly interesting. You may all remember a few thousand Iraqis protesting against the insurgents when a car bomber blew up a couple hundred Iraqis. Natasha brings to our attention an article written inside a Jordanian paper that bends, distorts, and outright lies about the entire event. If also portrays the bomber as a martyr. Well, she wasn’t going to have any of that. First, she translated the…
UPDATE: Scroll to the end for all latest updates on the protests! Hizb’allah is showing up less and less in the wire — which may or may not be good. But right now, the focus is on the opposition and what moves they will make in face of the pro-Syria protest last week that brought Kharami back to the premiership. Yesterday, protestors got a little creative, by coordinating with each other to make a giant flag using colored boards. Various opposition groups as well as Hariri’s Tayyar Al Mustaqbal (Future Tide) Movement have been blaring radio appeals for a massive…
The Jordanian government has been for years one of the more open of Arab states, with its monarchs – first the long-ruling King Hussein and now his son King Abdullah – ruling with a relatively light hand (I spent 1997 living in Jordan). Yet as democracy movements gain strength in other parts of the Arab world, Jordan seems to be moving toward a crackdown on professional associations. This is how the London-based Al-Hayat describes the new law in its March 5 article, “Jordan: The issue of freedom and human rights increases the attention of Washington and its demands”: It appears…