Blogging the democratic revolution
It looks as if Dennis Hastert has done the right thing: Yushchenko to address Senate and House in joint meeting Washington, DC ???????? Word has come in that the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, has been invited to address a combined meeting of the Senate and House during his visit to the U.S. in early April. President Yushchenko is expected in Washington on April 3rd for a private session with U.S. President George Bush on Monday, April 4th. Tentative plans have been discussed for a 3-day visit that will include meetings in Washington DC, Chicago, and Boston. A rally at…
Veronica Khokhlova is back visiting Kiev, and of all things she had a run in with Yanukovich protestors who were vying for Putin’s attention. How bizarre, reading this was like a flashback into three months ago (and I still can’t believe it’s been that long, either). Here’s a link to her photo page where she has the pictures of the mini-rally. UPDATE: Mike notes the same kind of people at an anti-war rally a few days ago.
“Kathmandu” from Radio Free Nepal is updating on the situation there. Things are still looking bad, but the U.S. and India are working to restore democracy as soon as possible. In another encouraging note, USA and India have told they are coordinating for early restoration of multi-party democracy in Nepal. Visiting US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said that after their meeting. “We are in complete agreement that it (return of Nepal’s democracy) must happen and it needs to happen very very soon,” Rice told the conference. Personally, RFN thanks India and USA for…
Fausta in the comments let me know about an article that not only describes the deteriorating situation in Venezuela and spies in the U.S., but how liberal commie-wannabes are idolizing Chavez and his so-called Bolivarian revolution. Check out the article. It has a lot of translations from Spanish articles.
Democracy is at work in this country of ours, where scandal has broken out in perhaps one of America’s most important polls. That’s right, American Idol. US television network Fox has been forced to throw out the latest voting results in American Idol after a bungled display of the phone numbers viewers use to choose their favourite contestant. Fox will have to air an extra one-hour episode of Idol, the top-rating show on US television. The recap special of the prime-time talent contest will consist of taped performances from Tuesday’s show, along with some live segments to fill in the…
Jane over at Armies of Liberation is hallucinating with joy as al-Khaiwani, editor of the al-Shoura opposition newspaper, was pardoned directly by President Saleh. Jane, as you may know, had received correspondence from him and organized a petition to have him freed. Hopefully the blogosphere played a little part. Congrats!
Communist President Voronin was just tapped for possible election again after Moldova’s recent parliamentary elections. He’s pretty confident he’ll win. CHISINAU, March 23 (Itar-Tass) – Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said he was confident that the new parliament elected on March 6 will vote for the head of state at the first try. Voronin made the statement in commends on the talks which the authorities are conducting with the opposition. Communists hold 56 out of 101 mandates in the republic’s parliament, which enables them to form the parliament leadership and the Cabinet. To elect the president, they need the support of…
Blogger Alek Boyd has done an amazing job unravelling the the tangled web of dictator Hugo Chavez’s financial network in the U.S. Linking shell corporation to shell corporation, he’s well on the way to putting together a comprehensive picture of these enemies of the U.S. nesting and operating in our own country. The Chavista network is being exposed. Read the whole thing here and see a telling photo here. P.S.: Eva Golinger looks just like one of those World War II enemy women – Eva Braun? Tokyo Rose? if you ask me.
If you need a summary of what has happened to Venezuela since the dictatorship of Hugo Chavez, Gustavo Coronel, an elegant essayist, has a long but well-written description of the path to ruin, “In Venezuela: The Time of the Barbarians” here.
Miguel Octavio outlines an alarming scenario to Hugo Chavez’s mysterious pattern of actions regarding his assets abroad and at home. The blogger believe Venezuela may be shoved into default, like Argentina, and Chavez is taking steps to shield himself from creditors after the deed is done. To ruin a country’s good name like that should be treason. But it’s likely what Chavez has in mind, and something that will further consolidate his power. Miguel has the alarming pattern of actions explained in easily understood terms here.
The new Ukrainian government continues to contend with the fall out from the dealings of the last Kuchma regime. I mentioned yesterday that Yushchenko has shown a tendency to fall into a kind of minor-league imitation of his predecessor when reporting on his government’s actions. David Crouch notices the same thing: The suicide two weeks ago of former interior minister Yuri Kravchenko, a key witness in investigations into the outgoing leadership’s criminal exploits, has been widely blamed on the government putting its own interests before the legal process – a hallmark of ex-president Leonid Kuchma’s years in power. Mr Yushchenko’s…
You may remember earlier in the week when a bomb went off, triggering quite a bit of anxiety about the possiblity of another civil war and the influence of Syrian intelligence. Another one just went off. It took me awhile to find a good article that wasn’t full of “Hizb’allah rules; American drools” filler info. BEIRUT (Reuters) – Three people were killed and five wounded early on Wednesday when a bomb exploded at a shopping center in a Christian town north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, police sources and local television said. The explosion, the second in a commercial Christian…
But not by me. Nathan has put all of his posts on the ongoing developments in Kyrgyzstan into one easy roundup for your viewing pleasure. Once you read that, though, you might want to go to the main page because there will undoubtedly be more.
Big thanks to Ian from The Political Teen for letting me know. This website was featured on Connected Coast to Coast at the end of the segment. What’s better? Ian has the video uploaded so that you can see. I’ll probably be including this link inside family Christmas cards for years to come.
Every day I ask myself, “So, what government will fall today?” Because literally, in 2005, that’s what seems to be happening. Estonia is no exception. TALLINN, Estonia — Estonia’s prime minister announced his resignation and dissolved his government Monday after lawmakers said they had no confidence in his justice minister because of a controversial anti-corruption plan. Prime Minister Juhan Parts, 38, said the government coalition could no longer effectively lead the ex-Soviet Baltic country of 1.4 million people. “The time of this government is over,” Parts said in remarks to the Riikogu, or parliament, adding that his resignation would take…
Continuing protests in southern Kyrgyzstan are giving rise to speculation that Russia might intervene militarily. Democracy Guy and Registan.net both correctly say, however, that the Russian military isn’t capable of an unwanted intervention (read: invasion), and the geo-political ramifications would be immense – certainly far more than the Kremlin wants to deal with right now. A peacekeeping mission, probably at the invitation of President Akayev, seems to be the only remaining option open to Russia if it wants to find some way of directly intervening in Kyrgyzstan, but that too is an option fraught with problems. Problems which I believe…
This from the BBC yesterday, on Russia finally having had enough with OSCE election observation missions. (thanks to Nathan for picking it up) Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the protests, blaming "extremists". "Extremist forces must not be allowed to use political instability to create a threat to the democratic foundations of the Kyrgyz statehood," it said in a statement. Russia also rebuked the Organization for Security and Cooperation Äin EuropeÅ (OSCE) for declaring that the elections had fallen short of democratic standards. It urged the body to be "more responsible" in its election monitoring conclusions "to prevent destructive elements from using…
The huge protest looking to obtain 1 million protestors is scheduled for Saturday, but some people are getting involved a little early. The story I’m going to link to has to do with the EU arms embargo, but the picture and caption is about Taiwan Some 400 drivers line up their taxis to form the word “peace” during a protest denouncing Beijing’s recent approving an anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan Tuesday, March 22, 2005, in Taipei, Taiwan. The protest leads up to Saturday’s planned protest to gather one million Taiwanese to show public disapproval to the anti-secession law that give…
Last Friday, the Venezuelan government declared a new law, one that makes it an actual crime to ‘offend Chavez.’ Chavez of course will say when he is offended. The king decides. And this means bloggers. A new Venezuelan blogger, called Jolly, gives his take here.
The past few days have brought quite a bit of good news from countries we wouldn’t expect. Just yesterday, the President of Azerbaijan signed a decree to release 53 political prisoners, and scores more. BAKU, Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev pardoned more than 100 prisoners on Sunday, including dozens of opposition politicians whose release had been demanded by Europe’s top human rights body. Fifty-three of the 114 people pardoned were on a list of political prisoners that the Council of Europe demanded be released, Aliev’s office said in a statement. Aliev’s decree came just four days after the Parliamentary…
In my Lebanon roundups, especially when the mass protests were going on, I referenced the online forum of an opposition group known as the Lebanese Forces. Their leader, Samir Geagea, was thrown in jail by the Syrians because of his work against them. Recently, there is a move to get him out. A move is underway in parliament to get Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea released from jail before the spring elections, slain ex-premier Hariri’s Al Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Monday. It said six parliament members have signed a proposed draft bill to amend the 1992 amnesty law on an…
Bruce Chang recently conducted a survey among Taiwanese-Americans living in Southern California and asked them to answer a few questions regarding Taiwan, China, and the new anti-secession law. They seemed pretty calm about it, which is reassuring to those of us on the outside. UPDATE: Last week you may remember something I said regarding the countries supporting China’s anti-secession law. And has anyone noticed that all the countries supporting China????????s anti-secession law have secession problems themselves? Looks like that support is paying off for Azerbaijan, who has just received total support for China on its territorial integrity.
WILLisms is looking into the babe theory, that successful revolutions are more likely to occur when pretty women are involved. And I think he may have gone off into the deep end, given the utter depth of his post. I’m glad someone is crazy enough to do it! WOW: A.M. Mora y Leon has let me know about sweet collection of pictures of the Venezuelan female opposition. Remember to right-click, save-as.
To start off, if even haven’t read it, make sure to catch Daniel’s Ukraine roundup over at Bloggledygook. Now, there are two things regarding the situation in Ukraine that has made me crack a scowl lately, except it doesn’t have anything to do with what Ukraine is doing. It has to do with Washington. Tim Russo from Democracy Guy points me to an article in the Washington Post, while biased sounding as it is, throws out some numbers that just irritate me to no end. In the weeks after a popular uprising toppled a corrupt government in Ukraine, President Bush…
Arthur Chrenkoff has a special roundup of recent events in the Middle East that he has dubbed the “Pro-Democracy Edition.” And in that respect, you should definitely check it out. For an older post in this same regards, check here if you haven’t seen it already.