Blogging the democratic revolution
As Jesse Jackson visits Venezuela’s strongman Hugo Chavez at the presidential palace this weekend, with timing that suggests a plan to denounce what he calls the ‘Rumsfeld-Robertson connection’, outside in the streets – violent protests have engulfed Caracas in a sign of Chavez’s tightening grip on power. El Universal has the story in Spanish here and Globovision has the story in Spanish here. Miguel explains it in English for us here. Sources: El Universal, Globovision, Union Radio, Venevision, Reuters and El Nacional. Reuters has the story here. UPDATE: Aleksander Boyd points out media errors in some of the captioning in…
Larry Kudlow has an important essay on the one economic force stronger than oil and all the tyrants who ride in on it: The Federal Reserve. He warns that the Fed doesn’t quite get it on interest rates – it’s obsessing over mortgage prices and risk management instead of commodity prices and the yield curve as it should be. Will the Fed lower oil prices – by destroying everyone’s economy? I agree with Larry in that I don’t think destroying something in order to save it is the way do something. This isn’t way democratic revolutions are best made/ Read…
Hey everyone, I’ll be moving up to Boston on Monday to start going to school again, so there will no longer be any posts on the weekends. What this means is less burn out and better quality posting during the week. So what I’ll do, every weekend, is put a post on the top linking out to a bunch of articles and blog posts that I believe are good reading. It should keep you busy! And if you have an interesting link, be sure to drop it in the comments section for me to add. The only exception to the…
Every reason about why Iraqis are divided over the constitution, from Islamic law to oil distribution to Saddam’s tighty whities, has been beaten like a dead camel in the desert. And almost all of these controversial issues have been worked out, getting down to nit-picky arguments about words like a and the. Important words, no doubt, but ones that could be and were eventually resolved through necessary negotiation. The only issue that can’t seem to be resolved is that of federalism, probably the single most divisive and important issue regarding how Iraq will be ruled in the years to come.…
More thoughts on Pat Robertson’s public recommendation that Hugo Chavez be assassinated from Venezuelan bloggers: Tomas Sancio in Venezuela, in an open note to Robertson, notes Chavez’s many incompetences and says he’s incapable of being the ruthless dictator who could use assassination. (I strongly differ with Sancio here – all the dictatorships I have seen up close or studied are characterized by venal incompetence, including Nazis.) But its broader point about Chavez’s sloppiness is correct and it’s a well-argued essay full of interesting information. Aleksander Boyd takes a clear-eyed view of Robertson’s cheap inane statements and makes the point that…
Boli-Nica reports that Abimael Guzman, the chief of Peru’s Sendero Luminoso, the monstrous Shining Path terrorists who murdered nearly a hundred thousand people, mostly poor people, throughout Peru in the last quarter of the 20th century, is finally facing justice in a civil court. Boli has a picture of Peru’s freakish Pol Pot (an ex-philosophy professor, of course – remember that Pol Pot was educated at the Sorbonne) in his prison stripes, a satisfactory sight indeed, along with an appropriately cold-raged piece about just who the hell he was and why he belongs in prison forever. Democratic Peru is going…
Alexandra Beech has a fantastically insightful essay debunking a truly lousy piece by airheaded Washington Post columnist Marcela Sanchez, who claims Hugie Chavez is just a teddy bear in the region capable of stabilizing it. Well, yeah, the way graveyards tend to be stable places I guess. But Alex shows the reality much better – take a look at the depth of this: That Ms. Sanchez has been hood-winked into believing that Chavez has a Robin Hood side is not surprising. After all, she believes that ???????Latin America today is not in the midst of a Cold War where externally…
Oh man, this is really gross – Hugo Chavez is bed with Marc Rich, the most corrupt speculator of all, a guy who makes George Soros look like a sweet little daisy. Rich is the ultimate sleaze in the world of capitalism, in bed with every dictator and criminal out there. I know a lot of speculators myself but none, not one, ever wants anything to do with his tainted name. They back away from him like salt from pepper in a bowl of water not out of fear or shame, for they have none, but out of disgust. They…
Venezuela’s revolution is complex because it has two sides claiming to hold the revolutionary mantle. The reality is, only one does, the one that does the democratic housework, not the one that spends the night painting the town – with red graffiti. What do the real revolutionaries do? They build the case for democratic revolution. They hold the powerful accountable. They show where the problems are, and precisely. They don’t focus on personality (like the Chavistas do, and come to think of it, Pat Robertson, too). They focus on acts, deeds, facts. Tangible things. They act as voices in the…
El Salvador’s soldiers have served the effort to spread democracy through the world with great distinction. Not only are Salvadorans always there when a tyrant is in need of dislodging – side by side and doing heavy lifting with the U.S., they are well-known for their courage and heroism. Salvadorans do what they do not because they are interested in benefits, but because they are committed to freedom. They are true idealists in today’s world. Ask any U.S. military man, he will know all about it. Here is a great interview with a Salvadoran soldier who passionately defends the cause…
Presidents Kocharian of Armenia and Aliyev of Azerbaijan, two countries tangled in constant conflict, are due to meet face to face at a CIS meeting today and will likely discuss relations between the two countries. In particular, the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Secretary Rice made sure to call them both up and put her word in, urging a solution to be found soon. Question: What did Secretary Rice discuss during her phone calls to Presidents Aliyev and Kocharian? Answer: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke briefly this morning with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Robert Kocharian of Armenia.…
This piece was beautifully written by D.J. McGuire at the China e-Lobby, which is “dedicated to exposing the abuses of human rights, threats to American security, and attacks on general decency committed by Communist China, and to influencing American policy to ensure these egregious acts do not go unopposed.” Make sure to check him out. Fifty-six years ago today, a plane carrying the leadership of the Republic of East Turkestan was on its way to Beijing for talks with Mao Zedong. In circumstances that can at best be called suspicious, the plane crashed, killing everyone on board. Upon hearing the…
Al-Hayat is reporting that the editor of the independent newspaper Al-Wasat was kidnapped by armed men driving a government vehicle at about 6:00 a.m. on Aug. 23. He was bound, beaten, and threatened with beheading. Then they told him that he might want to “remember his children.” What did this journalist do to deserve this? As Al-Hayat reports: “Al-Wasat had published information regarding the children of government officials studying in the United States, Britain and Malasia with all expenses paid by Ästate-runÅ oil companies.” It has also “published articles criticizing the political system.” For more details, see this post from…
Daniel Berczik remember’s that yesterday was Ukraine independence day, which doesn’t bode well for we who didn’t remember at all. So to make up for it, in an ever-increasing desire to raise the level of discourse here at Publius, here is Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s hot daughter dressed down in black leather during the festivities. Let me introduce you to Yevgenia Tymoshenko, aged 25, someone who obviously has her mother’s genes.
According to a Chinese government report, income disparity and government corruption will cause instability throughout the entire country by 2010 if action isn’t taken. This would certainly coincide with anecdotal evidence of increasing large protests, in both size and frequency. China’s rapidly widening income gap has reached dangerous levels, risking social instability by 2010 if the present trend continues, a government report warns. “China’s growing income gap is likely to trigger social instability after 2010 if the government finds no effective solutions to end the disparity,” the Ministry of Labour and Social Security warned in the China Daily. Su Hainan,…
I was afraid this might happen. By suspending parliament and taking absolute power, Nepal’s monarch has effectively isolated and turned civil society against him. Now, it seems that the seven main political parties from parliament, which represent some 95% of the population, will be staging joint protests with the Maoist rebels against the king. Not good. KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepal’s royalist government urged opposition parties on Wednesday to call off proposed talks with Maoist rebels, saying they were playing into the hands of the guerrillas to sow fresh divisions in the troubled kingdom. The warning came a day after the…
It seems that my post on sexy Saudi swimwear has turned into something of a blogospheric debate. Our good friend Stefania over at the Free Thoughts blog posted on the swimwear as well, and it triggered some disagreement with Egyptian blogger Miss Mabrouk, who says that we were being culturally insensitive and the real issue is modesty. My post got linked under the word “disrespect.” Ouch. In any case, Stefania wrote another post responding to Miss Mabrouk in which she lays out how it isn’t really about modesty, but how women should have the choice of whether they want to…
Rumors are flying around Rangoon like mad, as word is going around that Than Shwe, the senior general of the military junta that rules Burma, has been possibly deposed by his number two. Everything is unconfirmed, but Burmese state media has not yet discounted any of the rumors, and Than Shwe isn’t to be seen. Nobody really knows what’s going on at this point, but intelligence officials are working overtime to figure it all out. BANGKOK (Reuters) – Rumours swirled in army-ruled Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand on Wednesday that junta strongman Senior General Than Shwe has been removed by the…
In my post yesterday, “Perspective on Islam in Iraq’s constitution,” I argued that Afghanistan has near similar wording in its own constitution and that the mainstream media didn’t harp on it in January 2004. Afghanistan has also not turned into a religious police state like Iran since then. So why is the media barking lunacy over the Iraqi constitution? Alenda Lux was kind enough to prove me wrong. No, not that the media didn’t talk bad about the Afghani constitution, but they actually praised it lavishly. Here is what the New York Times said in an editorial back then: Afghanistan’s…
“Twenty-five years ago next Wednesday — 31 August 1980 — unemployed Polish electrician Lech Walesa struck a major blow to Soviet communism when, after leading a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, he announced the official birth of the Solidarity independent trade union. Solidarity went on to play a central role in the demise of communism across the Soviet bloc, changing forever the course of history in Europe…” Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is running a couple of articles about the Solidarity movement in Poland, which has since become a symbol for non-violent struggle against tyranny in the…
A young Mexican politician, Gabriela Cuevas Barron, 26, is fighting the onslaught of Hugo Chavez-style communism in Mexico by opposing the candidacy of leftwing PRD presidential contender Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. She continually exposes his sorry record – the bribes, the payoffs, the padded invoices, the neglected police services, the welfare handouts, and the corruption. She dogs him with lawsuits, press briefings, photographs, inconvenient questions in congress – and anything else that will expose his way of business. What is she doing? Something called democracy. Mexico’s angry voters need to understand the extent of the existing corruption with AMLO so…
‘Christian’ televangelist Pat Robertson generated unprecedented headlines about Hugo Chavez in the blogosphere and in the U.S. media Tuesday when he publicly called for the assassination of the Venezuelan dictator. Technorati listed it as its top search on the blogosphere. Google listed it as its top story worldwide in all categories and ran it as its first banner story above a fatal Peruvian jetliner crash. Bloomberg did five updates on this ‘stop the presses’ news item before beginning more coverage here. CNN did a special report. Wikipedia was flooded with inquiries about who Hugo Chavez is. It was the biggest…
I’m going to make this short and sweet. Bill Roggio posts the latest excerpt from the Iraq constitution and believes that the threat of Islam being a main source of legislation, thus creating an Islamic state like Iran, is overstated by the media. Here is the excerpt: The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal. 1. Islam is a main source for legislation. * a. No law may contradict Islamic standards. * b. No law may contradict democratic standards. * c. No law may contradict the essential rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution. Bill Roggio is absolutely correct…
Samarkand may be showing itself to be the new hotbed of civil unrest after the Andijon massacre back in May. Protestors took the to streets after the government gave them only one week to clear out of their homes in preparation for a highway project. And more, the government offered them next to nothing in compensation. Another protest followed, as women demonstrated against the government’s intent to close a bazaar. There were unconfirmed protests in Samarkand back in June as well. Two public protests broke out this weekend in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. On 20 August, demonstrators from the…
If you’re sick and deranged like me, you’ve been refreshing Iraq the Model every five minutes to see the latest updates on the National Assembly meeting. It looks as if they have delayed the vote on the draft itself for three more days so that the parliamentarians will have time to read it over, discuss amongst themselves, and make grandstanding statements to the press. That said, the Shiites and the Kurds have gone ahead and worked out their differences in the constitution, including oil distribution, federalism, and the role of Islam in making laws. The latter being the most disheartening…