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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Kick Ortega Out

Image via WikipediaThis revolution for democracy that started in the Arab world has to push out every single dictator in the region, but the fire also has to go to China, to black Africa, to Russia, and now looks like to Latin America as well.

The rats are coming out of their holes. Let them come out. One after another.

2011 is the year for democracy. 2011 has the option to become the biggest year for democracy the world ever saw. We have to make it happen. 2011 could end up being that year, which when it ended, there was not a single autocrat left anywhere. That can happen. But that will not happen on its own. We have to make it happen. And by we I mean people everywhere have to pitch in.

Kick Ortega out too. If he is with Gaddafi, he is not with us. We don't need him. Get out into the streets. Kick this guy out. We have no need for him.

Washington Post: Nicaragua prez call Gaddafi to expresses support Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity. .... Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation. ..... Human rights groups say more than 200 people have died as Libyan security forces crack down on protesters

The Straits Times: Gaddafi Latin American allies show solidarity, caution Gaddafi has responded over the years by awarding the Muammar Gaddafi International Human Rights Prize to Castro, Ortega, Chavez and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

The Fuck With Mugabe
The Chinese Communist Party Can Keep The Power If They Agree To Pluralism, Federalism
This Is Also About Women's Rights
The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too
Democracy: An Israeli Plot?
China: 2 PM, Sunday
Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

The Fuck With Mugabe

Dozens of students, trade unionists and political activists who gathered to watch Al Jazeera and BBC news reports on the uprisings that brought down autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt have been arrested on suspicion of plotting to oust President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Original caption: President of Zimbabwe Robert...

Image via WikipediaKick Mugabe out. Let black Africa wake up too. Why do only Arabs get to have the good stuff?

This dude Mugabe is an absolute nightmare. On the planet he is absolutely the number one example of how a dictatorial virus mutates.

If you want elections, he will give you elections. If you want political parties, he will give you political parties. If you want an opposition leader, he will give you even that. He might even invite that opposition leader to come join his government. But beneath all that is a sheer reign of terror. There is dictatorship. There is autocracy.

This guy likes to talk about race. I know race. I have been offended by racism for as long as I can remember. This guy is no racial messiah. He is a brute dictator. He is an animal. He does not have a second thought about unleashing violence upon his own people.

This guy epitomizes corruption, and brutality. This guy is the prime example of the message that black skin surely is not enough. You also need humanity. You need rule of law. You need basic democracy. You need freedom

Image via Wikipediafrom fear. You need respect for human rights. You need free and fair elections.

You need Mugabe out. I know of an island in the Pacific where he should be sent to spend the rest of his days.

This revolution for democracy has to go beyond the Arab world. It has to go to black Africa. It has to go to China.
The Chinese Communist Party Can Keep The Power If They Agree To Pluralism, Federalism
This Is Also About Women's Rights
The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too
Democracy: An Israeli Plot?
China: 2 PM, Sunday
Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Chinese Communist Party Can Keep The Power If They Agree To Pluralism, Federalism

Image via WikipediaThe impending revolution in China can have a different outcome than that in most places. The revolution in China could conclude with the Chinese Communist Party continuing to be in power.

By summer, if not earlier, China will be rattling too. And this is not going to be something confined to one square in Beijing. The unrest will sweep the country at large, in big cities and small towns alike.

Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

The Chinese Communist Party is going to have to exercise maximum restraint. If the CCP chooses to do what the generals in Burma did, if the CCP goes down the Gaddafi road, then the Chinese Communist Party itself is going to be thrown into the dustbins of history.

But it does not have to be that way. The Chinese Communist Party has undertaken major economic reforms over decades to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. Now it is time for fundamental political reform.

The reform will have to come in the form of amendments to the Chinese constitution that will guarantee human rights, and yes that includes free speech, and yes that includes religious freedom, and amendments that will make it legal to organize political parties in China, and amendments that will allow for a federal China so the people in Tibet can finally breathe after half a century of utter disrespect.

The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too

The Chinese Communist Party should not so much as think in terms of a bloodbath. That path leads to irrelevance for the CCP, and much unnecessary chaos for China.

Image by Matthew Stewart | Photographer via Flickr
I believe the Chinese Communist Party has the option to take a non military response to the impending revolution and guide it in a way that does not disturb China's stellar economic performance.

But I'd be the first to say China does not need a democracy like they have in America. In America they don't have campaign finance reform which makes for a rather silly democracy. The Chinese should architect a multi-party democracy that starts with total campaign finance reform.

China: 2 PM, Sunday
Et Tu, China?

This Is Also About Women's Rights

Image via WikipediaThis tumult in the Arab world has to be taken to its logical conclusion of grand success. Everyone in a position to help has to help. Because this is also about women's rights across the Arab world. Only after a country has become a democracy, and the democratic processes come into play can there be sound hope for concrete advances on women's rights.

Gender equality will not come about right away, but steps towards that gender equality are so much harder if not impossible to take when a country is not a democracy. There are no outlets.

The irrelevant old men who run all these countries need to be all pushed out, and in haste. This is not the time to be polite and civil to people who have reigned mercilessly over their peoples for so long.

The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too
Democracy: An Israeli Plot?
China: 2 PM, Sunday
Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

The Saudi King Is No Exception, He Has To Go Too

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. (2002 photo)

Image via WikipediaGaddafi is about to fall. Then it is going to be the turn of the king of Saudi Arabi. The monarchy in Saudi Arabia has to come to a total end. Monarchies everywhere need to be ended. This is the time to do it.

This is not the time for reform, this is revolution time. Revolution means big, fundamental change.

What is going on in the Arab world has never before happened in the Arab world. The scope of it all is breathtaking. Nothing like this has happened in Arab history in two thousand years. This is a millennial shift. This is tectonic.

Let no one be mistaken. This tide will only subside after every single autocracy in the region has been toppled. The Arab street has spoken. That is the clear verdict.

Democracy: An Israeli Plot?
China: 2 PM, Sunday
Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

Democracy: An Israeli Plot?

Image via Wikipedia

In a Saturday report, the official Libyan news agency said authorities have arrested "dozens of foreign elements trained to strike at Libya's stability and security." It said an investigation already was under way. It also said authorities were not ruling out that those elements were connected to what it called an Israeli plot to destabilize countries in North Africa, including Libya, as well as Lebanon and Iran.

That the regime in Libya should blame Israel for the unrest in the streets of Libya goes on to show how Arab dictators have been using the image of Israel to fool their own peoples. You blame all your problems and all the problems of your people on Israel.

That is why democracy is necessary. I have long held the belief that there can be no true peace in the Middle East until all autocracies in the region have been turned into democracies. When a country becomes a democracy, the democratically elected leader has to answer to the people. The people don't blame Israel for the massive unemployment, they instead vote out the leader. Next.

Anti-semitism does have a cure, it seems like. The cure is total democracy.

China: 2 PM, Sunday
Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

China: 2 PM, Sunday

Image via Wikipedia

“People in cities that fail to organize assembly successfully this time, please go ahead with similar assemblies at 2:00pm of every Sunday afternoon,” said the invitation to protest posted on the overseas Chinese website www.boxun.com, “Persistence means success!”

This is a smart strategy. China will be the very last prize. After every single autocratic regime in the Arab world has been toppled - and that could easily take weeks, possibly a few months - after every autocratic regime in Africa has been brought down, by then the people in China will have warmed up.

Once the people pour out into the streets, there is nothing anybody can do. China could have an interesting outcome. This is what I suggest. Let the people come out into the streets. Don't organize a massacre. Agree to a major constitutional reform such that it becomes legal to organize political parties. Offer federalism.

The revolution in China could see the Communist Party of China keeping power but making way for multi-party democracy and a full fledged respect for human rights. Google gets to go back to China.

Personally I am even more interested in Burma than China. The animals ruling Burma need to be executed by an international tribunal.

Wake up, Burma, wake up.

Bomb Gaddafi's Tent
Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu
Et Tu, China?
When They Open Fire
Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer
Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia
Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Arab Dictators Are Shaking
Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards

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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

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