Sunday, February 27, 2011

Nicaragua, Ortega On The Radar

Daniel Ortega, a Nicaraguan politician.Image via WikipediaKick Ortega Out
Time: Mideast Unrest Spreads to Nicaragua — Virtually: Under the banner "We Will Not Remain Quiet: No More Reelection," some 16,000 Nicaraguan youth activists joined forces Friday to protest the reelection bid by President Daniel Ortega. ...... "Down with Mubarak, Gaddafi, and Ortega!" ...... Ortega, who admitted to receiving personal financing from the Libyan leader before returning to office in 2007, has publicly offered Nicaragua's "total solidarity" to his longtime ally Muammar Gaddafi ..... Last year, Ortega was awarded the Muammar al-Gaddafi International Award for Human Rights. ..... Facebook demonstration ..... a society where social networking websites are becoming increasingly widespread and influential. ...... the virtual march was one of total rejection and repudiation of the candidacy of Daniel Ortega, which is illegal and illegitimate. ....... the only place young people feel they can demonstrate safely against Ortega is in cyberspace..... "Every time a protest march is organized, the Sandinistas call for a countermarch that ends in violence." ...... Baez started the initiative with invitations to 500 of his Facebook friends. It quickly went viral, growing to more than 100,000 invites ....... Nicaragua now has 3G technology in corners of the country that don't even have roads, electricity or running water
TRIPOLI. With leader of the Libyan Revolution ...Image via Wikipedia
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Friday, February 25, 2011

Make Surgical Strikes, Take The Guy Out

F-16s from various Turkish Air Force squadrons...Image via WikipediaEconomic sanctions would be stupid. This butcher has declared war on his own people. Don't declare war on Libya, economic, military or otherwise. Make a few surgical strikes and take the guy out. Decapitate the regime and the game is over. You know where he is.

That would fit the definition of nonviolence. Violence is to stand by and watch as this guy sends warships and gunships to shoot at crowds like they were shooting at dogs. The guy crossed the line about a week ago.

Take the guy out. This game will be over within an hour of this guy's departure.

He has already killed 1,000 people. He will kill a few thousand more. There is no point at which he will say enough. Because vacating the throne or leaving the country are not options for him. He has already made up his mind to commit suicide.

End the game. Enough. It is getting uglier by the day.

A regime has the option to not accept the demand of peaceful protesters. But it does not have the option to unleash animal brutality upon peaceful protesters. A regime that viciously attacks peaceful demonstrators has no claim to sovereignty upon the land it might be laying a claim on.

Gaddafi is illegitimate. He does not rule any country. He is a mad dog. Take him out. If you don't take him out, you are being violent upon the peaceful people of Libya. The first 1,000 deaths might be on Gaddafi's hand, but the second thousand deaths will be on your hand. Don't wait no more. Take him out. You know where he is. Make the surgical strikes.

This guy will not stop on his own. Just like a mad dog has to be put to sleep, this guy has to be put to sleep. That fits the definition of non-violence.

Kick Ortega Out
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
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Kick Ortega Out

TRIPOLI. With leader of the Libyan Revolution ...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
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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
Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, attends ...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
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Sunday, February 20, 2011

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

Logo of the Communist Party of Thailand. The C...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.
MaoImage 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?
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This Is Also About Women's Rights

Muammar al-Gaddafi's signature.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
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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
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Democracy: An Israeli Plot?

Greater Middle EastImage 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
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China: 2 PM, Sunday

Hu JintaoImage 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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Bomb Gaddafi's Tent

Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (in Dimashq, Syr...Image via WikipediaArmchair revolutionaries like myself have to be extra, extra respectful of the people who brave the streets. We have to suggest strategies that minimize human casualties without compromising the broad goal of democracy and human rights.

And so I am proposing America order surgical military strikes, Ronal Reagan style, to bomb Gaddafi's tent in the desert. If he is not in the tent, order surginal military strikes on his presidential palace. If he is not there, bomb the office of Libya's intelligence agency.

This guy actually ordered a missile strike upon peacefully demonstrating people. This guy has ordered machine gun fire and sniper shots at peacefully demonstrating people. This is not a human being.

This guy has left no room for an exit strategy. He is not going to voluntarily leave. He could not vacate the seat of power and stay in the country. He has nowhere to go outside the country. He will either succeed and hang on, not an acceptable outcome, or he will commit suicide, Hitler style, but before that he will have ordered the killings of hundreds upon hundreds of Libyans. Those lives have value. You prevent those deaths by snuffing out Gaddafi. Take him out.

Taking out Gaddafi by an American surgical military strike is the most nonviolent act that could take place at this phase of Libya's democracy movement.

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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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Khameini, Gaddafi, Caecescu

The leader de facto of Libya, Muammar al-Gaddafi.Image via WikipediaAn autocratic regime does not have to meet the demands of a peacefully demonstrating people, but when that regime unleashes heinous brutality upon those peaceful demonstrators, it has crossed a line, and such a dictator deserves a Caecescu death. That still fits the definition of non-violence.

Khameini in Iran crossed that line. There was no limit to the kind of brutality he was willing to unleash. Gaddafi has gone down that same path. They kill demonstrators. They open sniper fire on mourners. They fire army colonels who refuse to carry out the vicious, inhuman orders.

A line has been crossed in Libya. The dictator in Libya has crossed the line. And it is for the masses to rise up like a tsunami. It is time to take over Tripoli.

The masses have what it takes to bring victory on behalf of their peoples. This tide will not stop. This wave will keep on keeping on. The Arab world is finally rising like it never has in its entire history. This is a first.

How many people could Gaddafi kill? 300? 500?

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
Enhanced by Zemanta

Et Tu, China?

Hu JintaoImage via Wikipedia
Washington Post: China cracks down on call for 'Jasmine Revolution': Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a "Jasmine Revolution." ..... Activists seemed not to know what to make of the call to protest, even as they passed it on. They said they were unaware of any known group being involved in the request for citizens to gather in 13 cities and shout "We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness." ...... in the footsteps of recent protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Libya. ..... Authorities appeared to be treating the protest call seriously. ..... Tensions were already high in recent days after a video secretly made under house arrest by one of China's most well-known activist lawyers, Chen Guangcheng, was made public. .... The call for a "Jasmine Revolution" came as President Hu Jintao gave a speech to top leaders Saturday, asking them to "solve prominent problems which might harm the harmony and stability of the society." ..... The ruling Communist Party is dogged by the threat of social unrest over rising food and housing prices and other issues. .... The call to protest was first posted on the U.S.-based Chinese-language website Boxun.com. ...... "This is the most serious denial of service attack we have received," it said in a statement. "We believe the attack is related to the Jasmine Revolution proposed on Feb. 20 in China."


When the people rise, empires fall. China is but one country.



The Arab world, Africa, China: all are fair game.



China needs political plurality, China needs federalism, China needs freedom of speech, China needs religious freedom. China needs democracy and human rights as much as any other country.

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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Friday, February 18, 2011

When They Open Fire

Arab World IImage via Wikipedia2011 is 1989, and this year belongs to the Arab world and to Africa. People are rising. People will rise. They will take over the streets. This is a momentum game. If you let the momentum die you have to wait years, perhaps you have to wait for another generation. That would be too wasteful. The time is now. The time is today. The time is this year.

The streets are on fire. Stoke the fire.

Peaceful demonstrators have a right to demonstrate. Regimes that open fire on such demonstrators have to be countered by peoples and governments all over the world. The US government has to step in with everything at its disposal, upto and including use of surgical military strikes.

A regime does not have to accept the demands of peacefully demonstrating people, but no regime has a right to unleash brutality upon peacefully demonstrating peoples. There are reports demonstrators are being shot at, from the ground, from helicopters in the sky.
A composed satellite photograph of Africa.Image via Wikipedia
That can not be tolerated. America has to step in. It has to warn such governments. It has to use all levers of government power to make sure such brutality is not tolerated.

America was born with a mission. That mission was a total spread of democracy. 2011 is a special year. It is like 1989 all over again. And America has a role to play. People have a right to peacefully demonstrate. That right has to be protected.

A monarcy, any monarchy, is a feudal institution. Every single monarchy in the region has to go. Unelected leaders don't belong in the seats of power. If you were not elected, simply leave.

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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