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
Enhanced by Zemanta

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
Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Barack Is Going To Need Me All Over Again

HONOLULU - DECEMBER 23:   U.S. President-elect...Image by Getty Images via @daylifeBarack is going to need me all over again during his re-election bid, and I am going to be there for him. Barack needed me in his run for the presidency. And he is going to need me all over again. I will be there for him in his hour of need.

I maintain the hunger of someone who was forced to skip the victory parties of June 2008 and November 2008, and felt Inauguration 2009 simply pass him by. I missed the celebrations. I stayed hungry.

I am going to bring that hunger to the table for Barack all over again.

I stopped being a Democrat. I became an Independent. I am an Independent for Barack. And I am going to be there for him.

The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
Obama Has To Announce In January
Jupiter And Obama
30 Points Down In The Polls
Michelle Obama Is Just Fabulous
Maya Soetoro-Ng
Barack, "He Walks Between Worlds"
I Touched Obama: Babel, Barack
Third World Guy
Enhanced by Zemanta

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Iran: Brute Force Does Have An Answer

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. (2002 photo)Image via WikipediaIt is only a matter of weeks now before the mullahs vacate the scene in Iran. These dumbfucks need to go. They never needed to be there in the first place. The democracy activists in Iran have suffered like nowhere else in the Arab world. They deserve to succeed more than the activists in Tunisia and Egypt.

Here's the message: there is an answer to brute force. A nonviolent movement for democracy can succeed in the face of brute force. But you have to exhibit superb organization.

An interim president has to be announced. Mossavi works. And a plan has to be hatched to get a million people out into the streets at once, in every city in the country. In Egypt taking over one square worked. In Iran that will not work. You will have to do what we did in Nepal in 2006. You are going to have to take over every single street in every single city. You have to come out in force all at once. You have to be prepared to see a few hundred of you shot down in the streets. But you can not vacate the scene. You have to get even more energized when that happens. You have to give them a week max. And then you have to march on to the presidential palace to mete out a Caecescu end to Khomeini and Ahmedijed - how do you spell that motherfucker's name?
Ruhollah KhomeiniImage via Wikipedia
Within a week of taking power the interim president is going to have to issue orders to execute all those who issued orders for the killing of peaceful protesters out in the streets. That still fits the definition of non violence. The antidote to Hitler was not a Gandhi fast.

When the generals in Burma killed hundreds and burned those bodies Hitler style, America needed to bomb that town where all the generals live. That would still have fit the definition of non violence.

Iran is like Burma. Khameini is Hitler. He has no place in the 21st century. Cast him off into the Gulf.

Now is the time to strike. Now is the time to get it done. No country in the region deserves it more than Iran. Iran goes then Saudi Arabia goes, then Libya goes, then goes Jordan, Syria.

Drive every single autocrat out. Absolutely every single one of them.
Mussolini (left) and Hitler sent their armies ...Image via Wikipedia
The tactics in Iran are going to have to be different than the tactics in Tunisia and Egypt. Khameini deserves a Caecescu death.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Monday, February 14, 2011

Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia

President Shafat Hussain (center), of the Repu...Image via WikipediaArab Focus, Microfinance Focus
Los Angeles Times: In Iran, Bahrain and Yemen, protesters take to streets: protesters inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia take part in street marches..... The tumult in a region normally kept tranquil under the heavy-handed security of conservative Gulf regimes underscored the widening reverberations of new pro-democracy movements in the Middle East ...... the protesters' numbers have been small ..... thousands more people who turned out for the main scheduled march were walking quietly along the sidewalks toward Azadi Square ...... clashes that in some cases involved young demonstrators beating security personnel ...... west of Imam Hussein Square ..... "The police support us, the Iranians support us." ...... "We would like to stress that Feb. 14 is only the beginning. The road may be long and the rallies may continue for days and weeks, but if a people one day chooses life, then destiny will respond." ...... Yemen, meanwhile, was undergoing its fourth straight days of protests ..... Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president for more than 30 years 
A political revolution is all about momentum. Right now there is momentum. The right thing to do is to stoke the fire. Get the people out into the streets. An amazing regional level political clarity has been achieved. This can not be let go to waste. 2011 is 1989. Two successes in a row are a lot of momentum. This has to be put to good use. Finally Iran's time has come too.

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

Los Angeles Times: Egypt military dissolves parliament, suspends constitution: calling for elections within six months ..... the military, the most respected institution in the nation, was edging toward forming a credible democracy ..... the army left intact the ex-president's Council of Ministers to run the government. ...... Cars honked and drove around the city hub for the first time in more than two weeks as scores of soldiers fanned out into the remaining tent cities on the square and unceremoniously tore them down...... several hundred police officers held a protest of their own in front of the Interior Ministry demanding higher salaries, access to government medical care and rehiring of officers fired for disciplinary or administrative violations.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Egypt: Suleiman Is Not An Option

Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged
Egypt: The Army May Not Take Over
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

SHARM EL SHEIKH/EGYPT, 18MAY08 - Muhammad Hosn...Image via WikipediaThe goal of the revolution is regime change. The goal is a total ouster from power of people who are in power. Mubarak has to vacate the scene, and he has to take his entire entourage with him.

Mubarak is not an option. The military is not an option. Suleiman - I don't even know what he looks like and would like to keep it that way - is not an option.

This is a revolution, people. It will settle for nothing less than a total reshaping of Egyptian politics. Democracy's time has finally come, and no dictator or the dicatator's minion is going go get in the way.

Out, Mubarak, out. Take your entourage with you. Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Arab Democracy: What The US Needs To Do: Stay Deeply Engaged

Nobel Peace Prize 2009, Barack ObamaImage via WikipediaThe US is uniquely positioned to conclude the War On Terror in 2011. The Cold War lasted decades. If we play our cards right, the War On Terror will have only lasted a decade. And Barack Obama might qualify for yet another Nobel Peace Prize.

The way the War On Terror concludes is when every Arab country has been turned into a modern democracy. The roadmap is simple. People come out into the streets and shut the country down completely until the dictator vacates the seat of power. They don't have to leave the country. They just have to vacate the seat of power without engaging in any bloodshed. Then an interim government takes over. That cabinet has one year to hold elections to a constituent assembly. And that's it.

Where the US federal government comes in is there is no other entity that has the option to stay deeply engaged with all levels of the state apparatus in these countries. The idea is to stay neutral politically in the beginning, but make sure there is no bloodshed. And then once the streets have boiled over and achieved tipping point, you call for the dictator's ouster in no unclear terms. You don't incite the street protests. You don't help escalate it. But once they hit that tipping point, you stand on the side of democracy. The clearer stand you take, less bloodshed there will be, and smoother the transitions will be in those countries.

This is not the time to stay neutral. Revolution is not a spectator sport, not for those braving the streets, not for the President Of The United States, not for the Vice President Of The United States, not for the US Secretary Of State.

This momentum that took centuries to build can not be wasted. This is our opportunity to turn the tables across the Arab world. If the sexism in the Arab world has been bothering you, now is the time to act. A country that becomes a democracy starts taking steps to curb all that sexism.

Egypt: The Army May Not Take Over
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

Egypt: The Army May Not Take Over

Hosni Mubarak 2003Image via WikipediaMubarak might try to do that. He might decide to punish the people of Egypt by leaving but then handing over the reins to the top generals in the Egyptian army. That might be his way of saying if you think I was bad, how about this?

Mubarak does not have that option. The people of Egypt are not asking for a military dictatorship. That is what they have had for decades. They are in the streets asking for its end, not rejuvenation.

The mightiest army in the world is powerless in the face of a people who have woken up. And the people of Egypt have woken up.

This is how this drama ends. Mubarak leaves. He does not have to leave the country. He just vacates the seat of power. The constitution is amended to get rid of all anti human rights clauses and to make room for an interim government. An interim president - a civilian democrat like that dude who won the Nobel Prize - comes in with an interim cabinet. That interim cabinet brings in an interim constitution within six months and elections to a constituent assembly are held within a year of taking power. At that point the interim cabinet hands over power to that assembly.

That is the roadmap. The fuck with the military.

Arab Focus, Microfinance Focus
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

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Arab Dictators Are Shaking

Official portrait of Secretary of State Hillar...Image via WikipediaEgypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement
How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards
New York Times: Allies Press U.S. to Go Slow on Egypt: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have each repeatedly pressed the United States not to cut loose Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, too hastily, or to throw its weight behind the democracy movement in a way that could further destabilize the region ..... One Middle Eastern envoy said that on a single day, he spent 12 hours on the phone with American officials. ..... There is evidence that the pressure has paid off. On Saturday, just days after suggesting that it wanted immediate change, the administration said it would support an “orderly transition” managed by Vice President Omar Suleiman. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that Mr. Mubarak’s immediate resignation might complicate, rather than clear, Egypt’s path to democracy, given the requirements of Egypt’s Constitution..... “Everyone is taking a little breath,” said a diplomat from the region ..... “There’s a sense that we’re getting our message through.” .... a sudden, chaotic change in Egypt would destabilize the region or, in the Arab nations, even jeopardize their own leaders, many of whom are also autocrats facing restive populations..... She said that she had spoken to King Abdullah II of Jordan and that President Obama had made calls to other leaders. ...... Administration officials said the tense mood in many of these countries had eased in recent days, as the United States has embraced a transition process in Egypt that does not demand Mr. Mubarak’s immediate departure...... Israeli officials, who have long viewed Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. (2002 photo)Image via Wikipedia as stabilizing influences in a dangerous region, have made clear to the administration that they support evolution rather than revolution in Egypt. They believe it is important to make changes within the system rather than change the system first and hope stability can be maintained.... he has been the Israeli government’s preferred successor to Mr. Mubarak for several years...... Speaking to Mr. Obama on Sunday, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, the Emirates’ defense chief, emphasized the need for “stability” in Egypt ..... The crown prince “also stressed the necessity that the period of transition in Egypt should be smooth and organized through the framework of national institutions” ..... Obama also spoke last week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia..... The Arab leaders all had the same message for the United States, several Arab officials said. They thought Mr. Obama went too far last Tuesday when he said that Mr. Mubarak needed to begin the transition in Egypt “now” — followed a day later by Mr. Gibbs’s declaration that “now means yesterday.” ..... One Arab diplomat likened the democracy movement to a train fueled by university students and human rights advocates..... “Eventually, those students will have to get off that train and go back to school, and the human rights people will have to go back to work, and you know who will be on the train when it finally rolls into the station?” the diplomat asked. “The Muslim Brotherhood.”
President George W. Bush and Egyptian Presiden...Image via Wikipedia

Hillary is not getting it. Mubarak goes. The constitution goes. What comes into place is an interim government and an interim constitution.

America should not feel like it has the option to betray the Arab peoples currently not represented by the governments in place. Washington has been in talks with a whole bunch of illegitimate regimes.

The king of Nepal also tried to scare people by saying if you oust me, you get the Maoists. What these people are saying is if you oust Mubarak, Bin Laden will come into power. Autocrats will use any logic to stay in power.

Hillary needs to stop talking reform b.s. in the face of revolutions. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Enhanced by Zemanta

Egypt: A Revolution, Not A Reform Movement

President George W. Bush and Egyptian Presiden...Image via WikipediaI am so glad Hillary Clinton lost the 2008 primary. I am so glad Joe Biden lost the 2008 primary. These white folks are acting unreal. Hillary thinks the street action in Cairo is chaos that might bring forth the Islamists on stage. Biden went on record to say "Mubarak is not a dictator." That is what happens to you when you spend too many long years on the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

This reminds me of the American ambassador in Nepal in 2005. The dude was hellbent on suggesting there was only a military solution to the Maoist insurgency, and that the democrats should forge an alliance with the monarch who had just pulled a coup and taken over. Made no sense.

This revolution in Egypt is not the US State Department's doing, but the US State Department is hellbent on undoing it. Why? Assange gets more credit that Hillary on the "chaos" in the streets of Cairo. The exposure showed that the governments of the world are incapable of the rapid change that the world is asking for. The message in Cairo is democracy now, not democracy after Mubarak dies in the presidential palace, peacefully in sleep two decades from now.

Mubarak was always a dictator. The only legitimate way to conclude this revolution is by a total ouster of Mubarak and the taking over of power by an interim government led by that Nobel Prize winning dude. His mandate would be to hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year. Then that assembly takes over power.
Time: Egypt Opposition Defiant over VP Warning: a warning from Vice President Omar Suleiman that if their movement doesn't enter negotiations, a "coup" could take place causing greater chaos, as a mass demonstration in a central Cairo square entered its 16th day...... Many have been sleeping underneath the tanks of soldiers surrounding the square to prevent them from moving or trying to clear the area for traffic....... a coalition of the five main youth groups behind the protests in Tahrir Square ...... U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Suleiman, saying Washington wants Egypt to immediately rescind emergency laws that give broad powers to security forces — a key demand of the protesters..... "We won't give up," Wael Ghonim promised at one of the biggest protests yet in Cairo's Tahrir Square...... Many protesters fear he aims to fragment the movement with partial concessions and gestures.
If this revolution does not see complete success through a total, unceremonial ouster of Mubarak, the tide will stop. The tide will not spread to the other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. And maybe it is Saudi Arabia that the US State Department is thinking about. It should not. The Saudi king also has to go.

The next phase of the revolution would be to march on the presidential palace itself. You can not wait forever. You have to take it up one notch.

Connect the dots. Unless all Arab countries have been turned into full fledged democracies, there can be no genuine peace in the Middle East. All those high profile summits organized by the US State Department are sham as long as there is no democracy. And street protests are the best way to bring democracy about. Fan the flames. Don't try to douse them. Saudi Arabia next. Iran all over again.

A democracy movement concludes with an utter, total collapse of the autocratic regime and the taking over of power by an interim government led by the leading democratic activist. And then in a year you hold elections to a constituent assembly.

How Many People Could Mubarak Kill?
Arab Dictators Will Fall Like A House Of Cards
Enhanced by Zemanta