Blogging the democratic revolution
The Tajik government informed foreign embassies and organizations that they must give notification in advance of contacts with political parties, journalists and NGOs. Foreign ministry spokesman Igor Satarov said the change was designed to guard against “the spread of propaganda”. Observers say the government of this impoverished mountainous state is on the alert after popular…
I’ve almost lost count of how many times this guy has quit, threatened to quit, and cried in a corner simply because he was on the wrong side of history. Look like this is the last time. Premier-Designate Omar Karami has resigned the task of forming Lebanon’s new government Wednesday. He made the announcement at…
The latest drama out of Kiev is that Boris Kolesnikov, a prominent supporter of Yanukovich has been arrested. KIEV, Ukraine — The arrest of a top politician and businessman closely linked to Ukraine’s richest man has sharpened the conflict between President Viktor Yushchenko and the embattled power brokers of Leonid Kuchma, his predecessor. Boris Kolesnikov,…
I fell asleep and crashed hard last night before I could make a post on this, but 4000 students protested in Moscow. In the crowd were students from various Moscow universities and several groups from Lipetsk, Voronezh and the Moscow region. Some students came to the rally with their professors. Another rally of 2,700 students…
The press is reporting that Paraguay’s ambassador to Venezuela was physically attacked in Caracas Friday. This comes on the heels of the kidnap/murder of Paraguay’s former first daughter by FARC guerrillas directing the operation by email from downtown Caracas. Paraguay has done literally nothing to Venezuela to attract this kind of thuggery. It does however…
It’s started. Cubans in Cuba are publicly meeting to begin their post-Castro revolution. Babalu has it. Don’t miss it. Read it here.
Thomas Lifson at American Thinker has an important item out about growing unrest in China. Huge riots are occurring, not just in the remote, impoverished west, but now in the wealthier coastal cities. At issue is corruption and impunity. And with the rise of mass communications and Internet connectivity, Chinese expectations about governance are rising….
Alek Boyd emailed one of Prime Minister Zapatero’s minions about the purpose of selling chemical agents to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. He writes that in the reply he got from Spain, the Zapatero official said the exported chemical agents were used in tear gas. I guess we know what Hugo Chavez is planning now, given…
Venezuelan journalist Patricia Poleo, whose case we have tracked here was sentenced to six months’ jail by a Venezuelan kangaroo court. They said she misidentified a photo in one of her stories. It’s a characteristic of tyranny to issue draconian sentences for technicalities. But for Venezuela, the free press loses another voice. Government bureaucrats can…
I knew that the parliament had declined new election for June 26 as set by the old parliament, but I didn’t know that they’d set a new date. In any case, it’s not the much further away from the old date. Legislators initially hesitated in accepting his offer to step down, reluctant to allow him…
I thought I’d round up the media from last week’s visit by Yushchenko to the United States. One Eyed Cat has two photos up from the rally at the Shevchenko monument. Leopolis has more photos from this rally, which took place in Washington, D.C. Aussiegirl points us to another gallery from the rally. This website…
Immediately after the falsified elections, the MDC had declared that it would not bother with going into parliament and would not challenge the results in court. The strategy since then seems to have changed since then, with the opposition taking its seats today. Zimbabwe’s leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has taken up…
Will Franklin is looking at Bhutan’s Freedom House ranking, the king’s policies, and the newly proposed constitution. Here is the entire thing in PDF. He notes: Bhutan’s proposed constitution is ambitious, bordering on too ambitious. The beauty of the American Constitution is its relative simplicity, which has helped it stand the test of time. Bhutan’s…
The sad reality of Venezuela’s opposition is its meltdown. Agencia EFE gives a good description of how opponents of the Chavez regime have largely drifted over into Miami, where they are both invisible and increasingly irrelevant to the revolution. Coming to the U.S. is, in a sense, a revolution of its own, because it’s a…
In Venezuela during the April 11, 2002 coup attempt, Miguel analyzes the chain of checks and balances that prevented the event from being far bloodier and more violent than it originally began. Those checks and balances – which he broadly reads as ‘decency’ – are now absent in today’s Chavez regime, which has since slid…
In unstable countries, the fuse of revolution is lit from a burning dollar bill. And right now in Venezuela, there’s very dry tinder indeed. Billions of dollars of oil cash is being stolen by the cronies of dictator Hugo Chavez on a scale never seen while poverty there rises. Forty percent of Venezuela’s economy is…
This week’s carnival of revolutions is up! Find out what’s gone down.
Remember how thrilled you were when that clown-faced leftwing South American dictator with the leering grin got thrown out of power, in April 2002? And then just as swiftly, like some demented jack-in-the-box popping back out of his sealed box, he popped back into the seat of power? Jorge Arena has an interesting interview with…
Recently here on Publius Pundit we had a spirited discussion about democratic reform in Egypt, with me warning of the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood using elections as an opening to come to power and create an Islamist state, a Sunni equivalent of what we face in Iran right now. My initial post, Egypt: Democracy…
In view of the utter silence of the anglo phone MSM with respect to recent announcements of chemical warfare agents and other weapons sold by Spain to Venezuela Ä1Å I decided to dig a little and the findings, as usual, are rather grim. It turns out that Venezuela has been spending, since 2000 Ä2Å, substantial…
As I begin writing this, it is 4:40am, and that makes me feel like starting out with the most ironic item of them day. Lebanon saves Syria from a car bomb. Yes, you heard that right. A truck loaded with 40 kilograms of explosives was seized overnight while on its way toward the Syrian border,…
Always a favorite of mine, Chrenkoff has his 25th installment of good news up!
Several hundred journalists, activists, and colleagues of the late Elmar Huseynov rallied and called for the government to speed up investigations into the murdered editor’s death. BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – About 700 journalists and rights activists rallied in Azerbaijan’s capital Saturday to protest what they call authorities’ failure to fully investigate the death of an…
Gary Metz has posted his week in review for everything that has happened in Iran. Templar Pundit quotes one specific post from Regime Change Iran that I find interesting: At least 1,500 anti-government protests, strikes, and clashes took place in Iran during the year that ended on March 20. More than 450 strikes, demonstrations, and…
Miguel has translated a dazzling article from Spain outlining, in the most precise and concrete terms, why Venezuela can have all the poverty it cares to pay for. It’s chilling and illuminating. Read it here.