Blogging the democratic revolution
Thousands of Iranians are rushing into the streets of the main Iranian cities in order to celebrate their ancient pre-islamic festivity known by the name of “Tchahar-Shanbe Soori” (Fire Fiest). The event has been banned by the regime and labeled as “pagan”, “haram” and “un-islamic”, but millions are increasingly defying the ban by celebrating what…
Source: The Nation It’s morning in Thailand, land of the free, and the biggest rally of the year is engulfing the mighty angel city of Bangkok. Hundreds of thousands of protestors are marching in a bid to force the resignation of Thaksin Shinawatra. Things are getting very tense and the King is starting to stir….
This past weekend, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez altered the national flag to add an eighth star, in honor of the Guayana territory, a territory which once included what’s now part of GUYANA, and which is still claimed by Venezuela, based on a 19th-century dispute. Chavez also shifted the national seal, which has a horse on…
The popular Los Angeles-based Iranian satellite network, National Iranian TV (NITV) has been forced to cut off the broadcasts to Iran due to serious financial problems. The SMCCDI Secularist Movement has details: One of the main bridges of communication with Iran, which is the Los Angeles based “National Iranian TV” (NITV), has been forced to…
Hey everyone, I’m in Honduras for the next week so posting may be a little sparse from me. Luckily I do have access to satellite internet so I’ll be able to pop on occassionally. I will certainly be posting my thoughts on the place tomorrow or Tuesday. Central America is much, much different than South…
Tens of Iranian women who were celebrating the International Women’s Day in Laleh Park, Tehran, were savegely beaten up by plainclothes Islamist thugs. The SMCCDI Movement reports that many women were joined by male supporters in shouting anti-regime and pro-equality-between-men-and-women slogans. Several female demonstrators and a well known poet, Simin Behbahani, were injured due to…
Venezuela’s bloggers are now under an explicit threat of prosecution from known Chavista agents. It started with Alek Boyd’s effort to expose the Chavista regime and the post directly below this one provides the background. Miguel, however, adds a post of much further clarity here. The short story is: Venezuela’s dictator has issued his first…
Alek Boyd at VCrisis recently exposed the bizarre structure of one North American Opinion Research organization, a Florida-based group that shares office space with something called ‘Petrotulsa‘ and purports to take polls in Venezuela which repeatedly claim that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is “popular.” It’s nothing but a front for false propaganda extolling Chavez, which…
The province of Transdniester is one of the most screwed up places in Europe. Arms, drugs, and sex trafficking run rampant, and are even used to fund the government. Elections are for show. And the leaders pay their respects not to the people, but to Russia, whose military is propping up the government. It broke…
A bomb went off in central Bangkok near the home of Prem Tinsulanonda, an adviser to Thailand’s King Bhumibol and a former prime minister. Three cars were trashed and a British tourist was slightly injured. The bomb had been positioned under a bench near a security guard booth but by ‘coincidence’ all three security guards…
Howdy everybody, Hope you are all enjoying the coming of spring (or fall, depending on your hemisphere), wherever it may find you. I’ve been in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, for almost two weeks now. Though the temperature is around 10F when I walk to school, Mongolians think the daily high of around 16F (-8C)…
A political storm had been heading over Iraq with the bombing of the al-Askariya shrine and the sectarian tensions that rose out of it. The Shia United Iraq Alliance used the occassion to push forward with it’s plan to nominate current Prime Minister Ibraham al-Jaafari for the position again, despite the wishes of every other…
Venezuela was fighting like a lone jaguar in OPEC meetings today to urge the cartel to cut oil production so that prices would stay high. Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez needs those high prices to bankroll his fake ‘revolution’ and finance his external meddlings abroad. His so-called revolution is an increasingly ravenous one, and an expensive…
A newspaper office in Los Teques, a small city south of Caracas, was bombed in a multiple molotov cocktail attack that was politically motivated. There were no injuries. The paper, La Region, had done too much reporting on the state of Venezuela’s abysmal health care, led by Cuban agents. Angry fliers were left at the…
Take that, Hugo Chavez! Bright Singapore and lovely Thailand have already negotiated pacts to drop tariffs, challenge China’s export juggernaut, and make lots of money for themselves through trade with the U.S. Now splendid Malaysia is planning to do the same. Malaysia in particular is an important partner because it’s a good democracy and a…
Venezuelans are fleeing their country. When we last looked at the matter, about 300 Venezuelans sought asylum in the U.S. Now, that figure has since grown fourfold, and over 1000 Venezuelans are seeking asylum in the U.S. a year later. The figure is only for 2004, so god knows what it will be for 2005,…
Tens of Iranian women protested again outside the “Azadi” (Freedom) stadium in Tehran. From SMCCDI: The protest took place following the brutality used by Islamic militiamen and plainclothes agents who were sent to remove the female spectators that were attending the 2006 Gymnastics World Cup tournament. Iranian women are banned from attending games involving males…
Boz has the past week’s poll numbers (sorry I didn’t see it earlier!) showing the state of the presidential Horse Races in Mexico and Peru, along with an item showing that Ecuador’s reverting true to its political form. The whole thing, with these and other polls, is here.
Simultaneous bombs exploded in a crowded temple in one of the country’s holiest cities. One of the entire religion’s holiest cities, no less. In a country where rival ethnic and religious groups have frequently clashed for years, the bombing raises the prospect of reprisal sectarian violence. It is holding together for the most part, but…
Last Thursday, an elite squad of government commandos known as Black Mambas stormed The Standard Group, the second largest media organization in Kenya. They disabled transmission equipment at the Kenyan Television Network and burned thousands of copies of the next day’s issue of The Standard newspaperl; both deemed to favor the political opposition. Completely disregarding…
You gotta see this hilarious post from Mark in Mexico about Hugo Chavez’s 100,000-strong quasi army of reservists from the shantytowns that he’s assembling to fend off a U.S. “invasion.” With his great sense of detachment, Mark shows how illogical it is, how unlikely it will be to incentivize anyone to join it, and just…
A Serbian rebel leader convicted of crimes against humanity was found dead in his jail cell, having apparently committed suicide. It was not revealed how Milan Babib did it, just that he did. Milan Babic, the Serb leader of a rebel republic in Croatia and one of the key figures in the Balkan wars of…
Oil-rich Zulia state in western Venezuela, right under the radar, is seeking autonomy or possibly independence from Venezuela. There are now growing calls for it, from an independence group called ‘Our Course.’ Situated near Lake Maracaibo, the rightwing stronghold on the Colombian border is the only state that’s never been mowed down by the forces…
Worker unions at major state electricity and water companies are preparing to hold an informal strike against the government to force Prime Minister Thaksin to resign. They threaten that, should Thaksin resist, unions from other major state companies will go on strike as well. BANGKOK (Reuters) – The heads of government electricity and water unions…
Glamorous Pamela over at Atlas Shrugs scored an amazing interview for her blog – an interview with UN horsewhipper John Bolton. She’s got the first two parts up and will get a third part up later. This goes to show the changing nature of blogging and how blogging is now beginning to supercede the news….