Blogging the democratic revolution
Finally the answer comes to the question we’ve all been waiting for: The opposition will not protest. HARARE, Zimbabwe, April 3 — Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday ruled out calling for mass demonstrations to protest what he said were fraudulent results from last week’s parliamentary elections. Instead, he said, his party would redouble…
I was just reading A.M. Mora y Leon’s post right below this one and a website I remember from a long time ago clicked into my head: cafepress.com. They let you create clothing and apparel using your own images. I figure if Che tees are for the old and unhip, then democracy gear must be…
An amazing trend is beginning to show up, on all places, at Ivy League campuses. There, young people who were barely old enough to remember the collapse of The Wall in East Germany in 1989, have sensed a new something in the air and are making it their own statement. Attractive young Ivy League students,…
No, it’s not a democracy. No, Hugo Chavez was not fairly elected. Yes, there are arbitrary arrests. Yes, there are political prisoners. Alek Boyd has an ever-lengthening list here.
Jorge Arena has an extraordinary personal account of what Venezuela was in the 1960s, the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo, and the conditions that led up to the rise of Hugo Chavez. It’s readable and lucid and a must read – a truly excellent essay. Read the whole thing here.
There’s no clearer sign a regime is going communist than in the telltale spread of mediocrity. Communists are the great levelers, the equalizers, the exponents of the lowest common denominator as an end in itself. This is why communism in theory is so attractive to tyrants, regardless of their beliefs. If everyone who can make…
Venezuela and the U.S. won their wars for independence against their respective colonial masters at about the same time. Six years ago, Venezuela, very quietly, was our number one overseas oil supplier. You never heard about any of this because – guess what – the U.S. and Venezuela have always been amigos. There’s never been…
I grew up despising Jerzy Urban, the Polish communist party spokesman, whose lies dropped out of his mouth like an loaded dumptruck . It turns out the fat creep isn’t done yet. Today, he weighed with a new pile of hate for the Pope on his passing, still spewing garbage after all these years. Read…
I just got done reading David McDuff’s eleventh installment of Dragons and Democracy. Always a good read!
Freedom House does an annual list of the world’s most oppressive regimes. To some of us, it doesn’t come as a surprise that six of the 18 nations on the list are members of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Significantly, six of the eighteen most repressive governments–those of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,…
Yesterday I wrote that Mugabe will not face any consequences if the opposition rebels and he decides to crack down — something he would inevitably do if that happens. While western election observers were kept out amid certain criticism of the election, as we have seen a lot from America and the European Union despite…
Two articles published recently in the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat suggest that Arab governments may be making a decisive change in their dealings toward the Palestinians. One was a March 30 article, The Amir of Qatar: ‘The Palestinians Have Proven that Reform and Peace Can Go Together’. The article, citing remarks of the Amir of…
The hours are counting down to the final decision of the opposition in Zimbabwe, one of the “last Outposts of Tyranny” on this earth. Word on the street is that if the order is given, they will protest. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said the party would not pursue legal…
One of the most admirable men of the last century is passing his last breaths before softly slipping to a more enviable place. Pope John Paul II has been to myself and countless others the spiritual revolutionary that gutted the Soviet Union in its Godless, empty soul. We all owe him a debt of gratitude…
Even though this protest was about a week ago, and there are already plenty of photos, Belarus Today has come out with a gallery of photos from the protest that are unique to its own website. And… A babe finally!
I’ve been reading this article with the above title. It’s pretty long and informative, but I think this quote sums it up, “They haven’t ever seen a good election and wouldn’t know one if it hit them in the face.” Truer words have never been spoken!
It doesn’t get worse than this.
So far this is the fourth bomb to strike within the last three weeks, just as Syria will finish pulling out its troops by next week. BEIRUT, Lebanon — A bomb damaged a shopping center in a Christian area northeast of Beirut Friday, the fourth attack against an anti-Syrian target in two weeks. The blast…
Well the results are in and they’ve been plenty doctored. Here’s the overview, with the opposition promising something unspecified to happen. Harare ???????? President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party has secured a majority in parliament, according to results announced Friday in an election the opposition says was marred by fraud. Thursday’s vote was seen as a…
The broad picture from many news sources is that Zimbabwe’s voters braved long lines and an unbelievably creative menu of efforts to disenfranchise them – from chicanery to fraud to bribes to murder – and held the line. Returns are showing Mugabe claiming victory, as forecast, and the opposition crying fraud. How they deal with…
…Only after the police tear gassed the protestors. Kampala – Ugandan police used water cannons and tear gas to break up an opposition demonstration on Thursday, engaging in running battles with marchers protesting efforts to extend the president’s tenure. Riot police dispersed the protesters, who were denouncing plans to amend the constitution so that President…
The Nation magazine has a sugar-coated vision of Hugo Chavez’s Veneuzela, described in an article purportedly written as a “news” story by Christian Parenti, someone who used to spend his time at Young Communist League meetings in San Francisco. Parenti’s trying to make his story appear a respectable reporting job (as Cuban propagandists coincidentally advise)…
Common canard holds that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, whatever his faults, at least is ending poverty through his soup-kitchen programs. Andres Oppenheimer blows the lid off that steaming pot, though, by taking a good look at the Venezuelan government’s own statistics. What he sees appalls him. He writes: Indeed, the latest poverty figures from Venezuela’s…
I’m going to start this off by putting this article in the reverse way that it was written. International human rights organizations and such other groups as the European Union, which on Wednesday called the election “phony,” say the outcome is unlikely to reflect the will of most Zimbabweans. Mugabe controls every daily newspaper, all…
There’s been a lot of talk with regards to the Iran soccer riots, and it looks like North Korea’s loss to them has triggered riots in the homeland, a rare public display of unrest! Angry North Korean soccer fans interrupted their national team’s World Cup qualifying match against Iran on Wednesday, throwing bottles and chairs…