Blogging the democratic revolution
The front page news isn’t bringing it to you, but Transition Trends is: The recall of US, UK, French and Indian ambassadors from Kathmandu yesterday was a very welcome sign of co-ordinated international action to protest the royal coup there on 1 February. It’s especially welcome from the US, which seemed less than engaged on…
Ali has posted an incredible piece on the Iraq elections, doing the math for all of the parties and such but makes a very notable observation: One of my neighbors received his family’s ballot with his father’s name included even though he died a year ago. Under reporting of deaths was not that uncommon but…
John Burgess posts an unsigned editorial in Arab news condemning Syria for the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. It may take weeks, if not years, before we know who killed Rafik Hariri. Whoever was behind the dastardly deed clearly wanted to achieve two objectives. The first was to deprive the emerging Lebanese opposition front…
Discoshaman has got it all summed up for you today, so check it out. UPDATE: Dan McMinn notes that the honeymoon period is over. And Aussiegirl posts the entire transcript of a speech by Ambassador John Tefft, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, on the challenges ahead for the United States…
If there ever was a dedicated fanboy of older women, it is me. Well, maybe not, but Orange Revolution posted a good picture I seemed to have missed from Yulia’s photo gallery. Karate chop!
Abdymok has a map of the governor appointment in Ukraine.
Andy notes that the only opposition party in Russia today is the communists. Actually, the KPRF has been the main opposition party in Russia for most (if not all) of the last decade. I haven’t followed it’s fortunes all that closely for a few years but, several years back, it seemed to have comfortably reconciled…
Today’s — er, yesterday’s update is online. You may have noticed my nap ran a little long, so I’m not really sure what day it is yet.
That’s what Daniel Drezner is asking, and as easy as it is for us to discuss theory on these issues, it is much harder to put into practice. Personally, just looking at a map of the region, I take hope in that it is surrounded on three sides by now-free countries. When the time comes,…
Look at this map, it shows which parties won which regions in Iraq. President Bush won’t be pleased that it’s half blue!
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri has been assassinated by a suicide bomber. A Shia terrorist group calling itself “Victory and Jihad” has taken credit, and the Lebanese opposition is blaming Syria, of whom Hariri was a critic. I was just watching a news report on Al-Jazeera covering this, and it is looking like Lebanon,…
Daniel Drezner posts a large roundup, along with some of his own comments, from mainstream media writers about the future effects of the Iraq election. UPDATE: More from Pejman.
You may remember me directing you toward a post about how an Iraqi democrat’s family was killed for his views and actions. Neo Conneli has the rest of the story on this guy’s background, and the lack of coverage in the western media.
Regime Change Iran posts a disturbing article in which an Iranian hardliner makes a choice declaration: ???????We don????????t need any guardian. And if necessary we will select our own president, ministers and parliament members. For without the Hezbollah forces the Islamic Revolution will collapse from within.??????? the hardliner added. On Iran????????s nuclear issue, Kharrazi noted:…
Chrenkoff’s Good News from Iraq installment number 21 is up! Like always, I hope you have a few hours of extra time to read it.
Matt has some recently released poll results that show slightly more Israelis would prefer kicking the Palestinians out over evacuating from the occupied territories. It was 38% for the former and 37% for the latter. Either way, including doing nothing, is simply masochistic. Some ways less than others, which is why it is better to…
Big Pharoah has a “joke of the day” for all of us. Of course, it isn’t really that funny: I have a lovely habit. Every morning I pick up my Al Ahram paper, the number one paper in Egypt, to see how they prioritize their headlines on the front page. This tends to give me…
Andy notes that rallies are taking place all over Russia, from both sides of the Putin/Pensions issue. Young members of the Young Yabloko party wearing orange scarves and bandannas also attended the rally. “The orange I’m wearing does not mean that I support the current Ukrainian leadership, but it is a symbol of freedom and…
Terry Rogers posts an interview with Yury Yekhanurov, chairman of the parliamentary committee on industry and entrepreneurship, about developing small and medium sized businesses. ???????Will small business develop in the current police state system? My neighbors, who work at a market, have to pay kickbacks to the police and the tax people, on top of…
Nathan has got his Valentine’s Day Edition (well, maybe not) of Election and Democracy Watch up. Check it out.
Georgia has been trying to get Russian military bases out for a while now, but it seems as if the situation may get worse: After a two-year interruption and ten years of futile talks, another round of Russian-Georgian negotiations on the withdrawal of Russian troops was held in vain on February 10-11 in Tbilisi. The…
I promise I will never use such extensive alliteration again. David McDuff posts an interview translated into English with Zbigniew Religa, a professor who looks to be a promising candidate in this summer’s presidential election in Poland. He says he admires Wilson, and being the scholarly sort, he gives off that same impression. He has…
I take it they are playing it safe with a precarious situation: BAGHDAD, IRAQ – With a Shiite coalition set to take power in Iraq, American officials have begun grilling top Iraqi Shiite politicians to try to gauge the extent of their relationship with neighboring Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation ruled by its clergy. The…
Not shipments of aid to flood-ravaged Venezuela, but US military aircraft spare-parts shipments. He doesn’t even need military airplanes but here is something that sticks in his craw. This is the same Venezuelan dictator who is famous for turning down a US aircraft carrier full of engineers who were ready to rebuild roads washed away…
Carlos Ball, a Venezuelan journo now at and writing for the CATO Institute, has a razor-sharp take on the meaning of dictator Hugo Chavez’s land confiscations.