A Commentary on Anti-Semitism in Belarus
Adam Goodman, living in Pinsk, Belarus, relays his thoughts on the president's anti-semitic comments...
April 2008 Archives
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Obama in the Headlights
Filed under: US Elections
It seems that Real Clear Politics has nailed Barack Obama dead to rights on Jeremiah Wright. Though I despise Obama, I can't say I'm pleased about this. It could well bring calls for Obama to back out of the race, putting the more-dangerous Clinton candidacy back in play. He's bottomed out just a few weeks too soon, damn him (though perhaps leftist MSM coverage won't play broad enough and make the connection clearly enough during the primary cycle to finish him off that early)! Then again, this guy is such a dangerous freak that maybe it's better for the nation to take zero chance he will win office.
RCP points out that Wright told the New York Times in March 2007 that he had been "dis-invited" from Obama's announcement of candidacy the month before, and that Obama had told him: "You can get kind of rough in the sermons, so what we've decided is that it's best for you not to be out there in public."
So it's clear that Obama was fully aware of the outrageous, racist nature of Wright's sermons before he even announced his candidacy, and excluded Wright from the announcement proceedings for precisely that reason, in a coldly calculating manner. Boiling mad since then, Wright has now blown the whistle on the betrayal. Even if Obama denies making this statement to Wright, the fact that he was dis-invited does not change. Obviously, his lifelong pastor was not dis-invited (or simply not present) by accident, but because of a political calculation based on Wright's risk factor. And Obama never denied the New York Times quote, which should lay the whole issue to rest.
Hence, when Obama said that he didn't know the content of Wright's sermons, he simply lied. He attended them for twenty years. He's a well-educated, intelligent person. Of course he knew their content. And he traded on it for political gain. For all we know he believed it, applauded it, and still does. And then, he lied about his knowledge of it, and then he threw Wright under the bus when it became convenient to do so.
New kind of leadership? Audacity of hope?
I think not. This is a nasty enough situation that it may merit some spontaneous discussion, so I am opening the comments on this post for those who can responsibly do so and are so inclined.
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redditA Day of Reckoning for North Korea
Filed under: Asia
A perfect storm is brewing over North Korea.
The price of the nation's staple food source, rice, is soaring on world markets due to panicked speculation (there is no actual shortage of the crop).
As a result, the Peterson Institute for International Economics now says that North Korea is facing outright famine conditions. North Korea has stonewalled on the nuclear question, alienating South Korea, a traditional source of aid in hard economic times. Now, it's neighbor to the south is demanding progress in the negotiations as a prerequisite to aid. China, facing the worst inflation rates of the past decade, has imposed strict new controls on rice exports, in effect also shutting the door on North Korea.
Some in North Korea may have believed it was "safer" to sit silently rather than confront the regime, fearing its draconian punishments. But those attitudes didn't save millions in Russia from being pulverized by Stalin's meat grinder, and the people of North Korea must now see that they cannot find safety in silence. North Korea is hurtling down the same path to total destruction that laid waste to the USSR. It is time for the people of the nation to rise and speak in its defense.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe China Toxin in Zimbabwe
Filed under:
The Times of London reports that "the boycott of a Chinese ship laden with weapons for Zimbabwe has cast new light on the connections between the African country's president, Robert Mugabe, and a secretive Chinese arms-trading firm with a controversial track record from the Congo to Darfur. Company documents show that Poly Technologies, the manufacturer of the weapons on board the ship, is ultimately controlled by a clique from China's preeminent military clans with close ties to the Communist party leadership and army."
Michelle Malkin has more.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditObamageddon
Filed under: US Elections
"Obamageddon" is when black New York Times columnist Bob Herbert writes: "A candidate who stands haplessly by as his former spiritual guide roams the country dropping one divisive bomb after another is in very little danger of being seen by most voters as the next J.F.K. or L.B.J. The apparent helplessness of the Obama campaign in the face of the Wright onslaught contributes to the growing perception of the candidate as weak, as someone who is unwilling or unable to fight aggressively on his own behalf. Mr. Obama seems more and more like someone buffeted by events, rather than in charge of them."
In other words, the Obama candidacy is not only terrifying because of the racism or stupidity that clearly lies in his past, but because of the craven weakness that clearly lies before us now. I've warned before that it's the worst thing in the world for America's black polity to put forth their first major candidate without demanding he have real credentials and a real vetting in the early primaries. Now, Obama is setting the cause of black politics back many years.
Obama's response to Wright's recent torrent of hatred? Quoth the Obama: "I may not know him as well as I thought." Can you imagine hearing that from him a few years after he inks a deal with North Korea, Russia or Iran, telling us to "trust him" as he exposes our national security? Gulp.
And let's be clear: The only reason we are hearing Obama back away from Wright now is that he's seeing political consequences from his allegiance. For twenty years he ignored this torrent of hatred -- indeed, he profited from it. It's quite possible that is more outrageous than actually agreeing with Wright's unconscionable racism.
I wrote in these pages just days ago that we would soon see Jeremiah Wright attacking anyone who criticizes him as a racist, and, lo and behold, now he is doing just that. Months ago, when other conservatives were saying Hillary Clinton was the most beatable candidate, I told you that in fact Obama was the prize target. I told you that when the Daily Kos embraces a national candidate, as it did with Howard Dean, it's a sure sign of doom for that candidate. We can only hope it isn't too late for Clinton to scratch and claw her way back into the nomination. Obama has bottomed out even earlier than I dared to imagine.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditBig Brotherski is Watching in Putin's Russia
Filed under: Russia
Two months ago, Human Rights Watch published a 75-page white paper reviewing the effect of a 2006 Russian enactment known as the "Law on Extremism." Just as civil rights activists warned at that time, the law has been used, as HRW documents chapter and verse, to support a wave of attacks by the government aimed not at terrorists but at politically oriented non-governmental organizations which dare to challenge the Kremlin on issues pertaining to civil society and democracy.
As HRW reports, the Kremlin has been systematically attacking all independent political action for some time now:
In 2007 Russian authorities cracked down on opposition political movements and on public protests expressing dissent. Police systematically harassed and detained activists planning and participating in a series of peaceful political protests called "Dissenters' Marches." The protests were organized by an opposition coalition called Other Russia and several other opposition groups seeking to protest setbacks in democracy in Russia.10Protest marches took place in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and half a dozen provincial capitals. Authorities refused to allow or severely restricted the demonstrations. On April 14 riot police and special forces used excessive force to break up the Dissenters' March in Moscow, beating numerous demonstrators and detaining hundreds. Authorities prevented observers and activists -- including Other Russia's leader, Garry Kasparov -- from traveling to Samara to participate in a Dissenters' March on May 18.11
In a case reminiscent of the Soviet era, Other Russia activist Artyom Baysarov was forcibly confined to a psychiatric hospital in Ioshkar-Ola on November 23, 2007, one day before the protest he had been planning in that city.12 He was released one month later.
Within the past few days there have been two more vivid examples of this neo-Sovietization of Russian society. On April 22nd, Other Russia reports, the "appeal of a Russian non-profit organization, shut down after failing to comply with strict new registration rules, was been thrown out by the country's highest court. The Judicial Division for Civil Cases of Russia's Supreme Court, led by Viktor Knyshev, upheld an earlier court order that the refugee assistance group be dissolved for failing to file the correct documents in time. A year and a half after the Law Against Extremism went into effect, there are some 227,000 registered NGOs. According to the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta, only a quarter of those groups had filed correctly by this year's April 15th deadline."
On the same day, ironically, Other Russia reports that "the website of a popular newspaper in Kirov, Russia suddenly stopped working. As it turned out, the Vyatsky Nablyudatel had been targeted by local law enforcement office for alleged extremism. The site's internet host, the 'Hosting Company,' decided to pull the plug after a formal request from the Kirov Oblast militsiya."
Some of the Kremlin's more base apologists claim that actions of this kind do not have the imprimator of the national government, much less the Kremlin, but rather are only the rogue antics of local czars. As if to specifically humiliate these cretins and remove any doubt as to whether these actions are approved by the Kremlin, three days later Russia's lower house of parliament voted to allow the government vast new powers to restrict and silence the mass media.
Some in today's younger generation may look back with contempt on the actions of their forefathers during World War II when faced with the rise of Adolph Hitler. They may ask how the world could have turned its back for so long on the threat it faced, how things could have been allowed to get so far out of hand. They may think that those times are passed, that a similar thing couldn't happen today, not with NATO and the United Nations in place. But reflecting on the impunity with which Russia's dictator, a proud KGB spy, is rapidly recreating the Soviet system in today's Russia, it's not hard to see how wrong such a conclusion would be.
Even now, just as Neville Chamberlain sought to blind the West in the 1930s to the threat posed by Hitler, the appeasers are desperately seeking to cast Vladimir Putin's successor as a closet liberal. Yet, Dimitri Medvedev has remained silent in the face of the new legislative initiative against the press, silent as a new wave of attacks on independent voices in Russia is launched, silent as Putin reaches out to grab more power in his new position as prime minister.
What we need now is a new Winston Churchill. Perhaps American presidential candidate John McCain, who has called for Russia's ouster from the G-8, will prove to be that leader.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditTales of Neo-Soviet Russia: The Khodorkovsky File
Filed under: Russia
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditAnd Now an Obama Burst, and Now a Dumbocrat World
Filed under: US Elections
BFFs
"How does one explain campaigning throughout 2007 on a platform of transcending racial divisions, while in that same year contributing $26,000 to a church whose pastor incites race hatred?"
That's the question Charles Krauthammer is asking presidential contender Barack Obama (shown above with his BFF Al Sharpton) in his latest column in the Washington Post.
The answer from Obama: "Real change has never been easy. The status quo in Washington will fight. They will fight harder than ever to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November."
So, anyone who dares to ask that question, or any other question not approved in advance by His Holiness the Obamacle, is "distracting" us from the truth. How long before such people are deemed racists? How long before "they really should be in prison"? How long before they are?
The nutroots are launching a frenzied attack on ABC for daring to ask Obama these questions during the most recent debate. Naturally, they want to sweep Tony Rezko and Jeremiah Wright and the Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers under the table, not only because of their toxic electoral effect but because Obama botched his responses to the questions so pathetically, bursting his bubble in a millisecond.
Krauthammer: "Take Ayers. Obama makes it sound as if the relationship consists of having run into each other at the DMV. In fact, Obama's political career was launched in a 1995 meeting at Ayers's home. Obama's defense is that he was 8 when Ayers and his Weather Underground comrades were planting bombs at the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and other buildings. True. But Obama was 40 when Ayers said publicly that he doesn't regret setting bombs. Indeed, he said, 'I feel we didn't do enough.'" Obama was also fully of age when he refused to put his hand on his heart during a patriotic salute and refused to wear and American flag on his lapel.
Perhaps has important to Obama's sordid role in all these scandalous affairs was his total inability to face the questions honestly. Though he claims to be about "change," he handled the questions in the same dissembling, evasive manner as all those ordinary politicians he loves to attack, and ended the debate with egg on his face.
People like Barack Obama are the reason the American system of limited government was devised. Like a wolf in sheep's clothing, they seek to insinuate themselves into office rather than to be genuinely elected on their core beliefs, and only unveil their actual plans once they have power. They know that their core beliefs would be repudiated by the voters if exposed, but they believe their core beliefs are the only way to save the people for their own good from their own inadequacies. In this way, all the dictators of the past have been born, and America has been spared them because even when they -- like LBJ and FDR -- come to power, they find that the power they've obtained is so limited that they can't effectively wreck the nation.
They say you know you are over the target when you start taking flak. So, listen to the Daily Kos wail and scream about Krauthammer, and you'll know with what precision he's lasered in on Obama.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Holy Russian Empire
Filed under: Russia
Russia is not required to give freedoms to other religions because Russia is not the United States. People here differ from Americans. I'm not talking about right of a person to have freedom of belief. I mean, instead, the right of an organization to advertise its ideology. Not every country can have the same level of religious freedom as the United States.Most people around me are atheists. Atheism in this country is the most important religion, despite the fact that many atheists call themselves Orthodox. The majority of people, I am sure, are not interested in the struggles among churches for congregations and for what's in the pockets of believers. Never ask me about what the issue is, the issue is money.
If one talks about freedom of conscience in Russia, then: All faiths are equal. But some faiths are more equal than others.
What can I say? In principle, everything in the article is correct. Of course, it's different in different regions, but the general direction of movement is like this. In everything, including the issues dealing with faith, the Soviet dictatorship that is being resurrected wants to point the citizens in the direction it considers the right one. Descending, along with this, to brainwashing or more crude power pressure. All this is obvious and pointless to deny.
The New York Times has offered another installment in its series of long articles about Russia which are translated onto a Russian-language blog and commented upon by Russian readers. Above are four such comments on the new article, which exposes the horrific level of persecution by state-sponsored orthodox Christianity of all protestant religions in the nation. Reporting from the city of Stary Oskyol, the reporter begins:
It was not long after a Methodist church put down roots here that the troubles began. First came visits from agents of the FSB, the successor to the KGB, who evidently saw a threat in a few dozen searching souls who liked to huddle in cramped apartments to read the Bible and, perhaps, drink a little tea. Local officials then labeled the church a "sect." Finally, last month, they shut it down.
The result is that, as shown below, Russian protestants are forced underground into virtual bunkers, hiding from the authorities just as in Soviet times.
Welcome back to the USSR! Russians want to sit on the G-8 panel, but they don't want to extend any of the same democratic values that are the bedrock of that organization's value system in their country. This is fully-fledged neo-Soviet hypocrisy, childish in its ignorance, and it will surely bring Russia once again to catastrophe.
Watch a video report on the crackdown here.
To read more about how the Russian government is using its visa regime to exclude the "wrong" religions from reaching Russia, click here.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussian Oil is Drying Up Fast, No Hope Offshore
Filed under: Russia
We've previously reported on how Russian oil production is falling off fast. Those who hope that Russia can replenish its production by developing offshore fields may be barking up the wrong oil derrick. The energy industry trade publication Upstream Online reported on April 18th:
Russia needs 61 trillion rubles ($2.6 trillion) of investment to develop offshore oil and gas deposits, Rosneft boss Sergei Bogdanchikov has claimed. Exploration alone of offshore regions until 2050 will cost 16 trillion rubles and production 45 trillion rubles more, Bogdanchikov told reporters and government officials in Moscow today.UpstreamOnline also reports:
Russian gas giant Gazprom has booked a a worse than predicted 20% fall in second-quarter net profit, blaming lower sales in Europe and higher operating costs. Net profit fell to 113 billion roubles ($4.62 billion), to International Financial Reporting Standards, from 141 billion roubles in the same period last year and below the average of 129 billion roubles in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts. Revenue rose 5% to 532 billion roubles, in line with forecasts, but the bottom line was hurt by high operating expenses, which jumped 18% year-on-year to 390 billion roubles. Gazprom's total long-term borrowings, including affiliates, rose to 1.105 trillion roubles from 806 billion roubles at the end of 2006.
So Russian gas and oil fields are running dry, trillions are needed to refurbish them, and Gazprom is deep in debt, unable to provide such funds. Blogger Tim Newman, who works in the Russian energy sector, adds:
The $2.6 trillion required by Gazprom and Rosneft is only that amount needed to develop Russia's offshore fields. The onshore developments will need separate funding, as in Upstream Online tells us: "Gazprom Neft, which expects Gazprom to hand over the right to develop all of Gazprom's 11 oilfields within the next two to three years, has said it plans to invest up to $4 billion per year to 2020, or around $50 billion, to boost output." $4bn per year is one hell of a lot of money for a single company to invest in oil and gas projects, if not much beside the $62bn per year that they say they are going to have to come up with to develop the offshore fields. Bear this in mind next time you hear about Gazprom investing in trans-saharan pipelines, Libya, and Nigeria. Despite the political rhetoric and talks of the massive potential and influence of Gazprom, it is Russia's most indebted company. In other words, Gazprom is unlikely to be in much of a position to be financing mega-projects any time soon, and if it is going to sink billions into places like Africa, having never run a major project on home soil let alone in a political minefield like Nigeria, Russians might be waiting a while for their offshore gas receipts.
Russia could, of course, solicit foreign investment to provide the needed sums, but then it would have to share the profits and the control, and it's currently in the process of enacting legislation to make this illegal out of pure neo-Soviet paranoia. The Kremlin imagines that it can simply bleed the nation white, just as was done in Soviet times, using the funds from oil and gas proceeds not to develop the nation or even the energy sector, but to wage a new cold war with the West. Meanwhile, just as in Soviet times, the energy sector and the people themselves get sicker and sicker until finally there is a massive collapse.
Russia replaced the USSR after the most recent collapse. What will replace Russia after the coming one?
Hat tip: Robert Amsterdam
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditDemocratic Doings in Pennsylvania
Filed under: US Elections
The top ten states according to population (in order California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina) control 246 electoral votes for president or 91% of the 270 needed to win the Oval Office. Nine of these states have run their primary election contests so far this year, and Democrat Barack Obama has won only two of them -- Illinois and Georgia -- while Clinton has won all of the top three.
Despite spending truly obscene gobs of cash in Pennsylvania and leading in the overall delegate count, therefore having the wind at his back, Obama was dealt another devastating loss in a major state last night, losing Pennsylvania in woeful, double-digit fashion. Now Democrats are asking: Why can't he close the deal? What's wrong with him? And they are noticing that he isn't winning their core constituencies. If they don't win in Pennsylvania in the general election, they lose. It's as simple as that. Obama crazily referred to the people of central Pennsylvania as bitter hillbillies, and lost their counties by whopping 70% margins across the state.
Obama needs 320 more delegates to reach the nomination, but Clinton needs less than half that number to catch him in the delegate race. Clinton is much closer to catching Obama, in other words, than he is to reaching the nomination. Since the votes of Michigan and Florida aren't being counted but likely favor Clinton just like the other major states, Clinton supporters will reasonably claim they are being cheated if they are denied the nomination. Combined with Obama's wild-eyed and corrupt past, this dissatisfaction spells total disaster in the general election. The contrast between Obama's terrorist, America-hating cohorts and John McCain, a legitimate war hero, will be stark indeed.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditBill Clinton: Mendacious, Pathological Liar
Filed under: United Nations
Now that the country is in the throes of deciding whether to allow another Democrat to take over the Oval Office, perhaps it's useful to consider what the country got that last time it decided to do so.
Yesterday (April 28th), former President Bill Clinton, that last Democrat to hold the office, was interviewed by public radio in Philadelphia. You can listen to the interview on YouTube. At the beginning of the interview, Clinton states that he did not think it was a mistake to analogize between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson, states that he would do it again, and states: "I think that they played the race card on me." At the end of the call, the former President, evidently unaware that he was still on the line, revealed his feelings about that line of questioning saying, "I don't think I should take any shit from anybody about that, do you?"
But when asked about it today by a reporter from MSNBC (watch the exchange here), Clinton denied ever making the statement. The exchange was as follows:NBC/NJ: "Sir, what did you mean yesterday when you said that the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?"CLINTON: "When did I say that, and to whom did I say that?"
NBC/NJ: "On WHYY radio yesterday."
CLINTON: "No, no, no. That's not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I'm not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day."
NBC/NJ: "Respectfully sir, though, you did say . . . "
CLINTON: "Have a nice day." [continues shaking hands with supporters]. I said what I said, you can go and look at the interview. And if you'll be real honest, you'll also report what the question was and what the answer was."
This man is pathologically unable to tell the truth, even when the subject is something he himself said in a recorded interview the day before. And Clinton, at least, was a duly elected governor of a state, hence having clear executive credentials. Now, we face the prospect of a President Obama, mired in real estate and racism scandals and totally unqualified to hold the office.
They follow him around! Remember Gary Hart? Other great hope for America's "Democratic" future!
Is the Democratic Party trying to destroy America?
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditNice Job, Mr. Gore! (Happy "Earth Day" Everybody!)
Filed under: US Elections
Though Al Gore was recently awarded a Nobel Prize, as the Gallup Poll data shown above clearly indicates, American attitudes on the need for action to address global warming are almost exactly the same now as they were thirteen years ago. In other words, Mr. Gore's hysterics have accomplished exactly nothing. In fact, support for dramatic action is actually slightly down from 1995. Some of his key "green" ideas, like "food to fuel," have actually been proven quite harmful to all concerned.
Al Gore stands in a long line of Dumbocrats who have been given their party's nomination for president since World War II without ever holding the office. Others include Adlai Stevenson, George McGovern, Hubert Humphrey, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale and John Kerry. How many Republicans have been in that position? Just two: Barry Goldwater and Bob Dole. That just about says it all, doesn't it?
Oh by the way: Happy "Earth Day," everyone!
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussia: Land of Bestial Hypocrisy
Filed under: Georgia ~ Russia
Once again, Russia has launched a barbaric and unprovoked military assault on Georgian territory, shooting down an unarmed surveillance drone in Georgian airspace. Like the cowards they are, Russians have brazenly denied the action even though Georgia has it recorded on video.
It's genuinely difficult to capture in words the full scope of Russia's hypocrisy where NATO expansion into Georgia is concerned. It operates on three entirely independent levels.
First, there's Russia's actions towards Georgia. Russians tried to claim they won some sort of victory when NATO didn't grant MAP status to Georgia at its recent summit in Romania. As Edward Lucas points out, Russians had claimed that if Georgia made any real progress towards membership, this would be "provocation" and Russia would respond in kind -- yet, although they claimed this didn't occur, Russians still moved aggressively to split off Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Vladimir Putin announced new ties with those regions which were to include trade, agriculture, education, diplomacy and social support. Military assistance was on the table as well. "Support for the Abkhaz military in the form of logistics or ammunition, this is possible," said Putin. Both the former and current prime ministers of Estonia denounced the action. So which is it, Russians? Did you win in Romania, in which case your actions in Ossetia are an outrage, or did you lose and lie about it to everybody? Either way, it's manifest that Russia simply can't be trusted. Either way, its barbarism.
And then there's Russia's attitude towards Chechnya. By setting a precedent for intervention in Ossetia, how can Russia possibly complain if NATO decides to start supporting rebels in Russia's breakaway provinces in the same way? It's not a moot question. Reuters reports that Chechen rebel leader "Sulim Yamadayev, in an interview with Echo Moskvy radio station, said on Saturday amnestied rebels recruited by Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov were engaged in violence and stood ready for another war with Russia." Yamadayev declared: "You think there is order here? This amnestied army goes around with weapons. They do not have to hide and run... They have everything. They are just waiting!" Defense analyst Pavel Felgengauer said of the interview: "This is a very embarrassing statement and a very embarrassing situation for the Kremlin."
And third, there's Russia's proclaimed attitude towards unilateralism and the use of force. How often have we heard Putin screeching about the impropriety of America resorting to force and acting without consultation, only to turn around and do exactly the same thing whenever he chooses? As Streetwise Professor points out: "Putin and Lavrov, so sensitive to Russian territorial integrity, have more than once made irredentist threats against Ukraine, most notably making aggressive noises about eastern Ukraine and the Crimea. Important Duma members have mooted the possibility of renouncing the 1997 Russia-Ukraine interstate treaty guaranteeing the inviolability of Ukraine's borders. On cue, Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces, General Yuriy Baluyevsky, threatened military actions. With respect to Georgia, Putin and Russia have made it very clear of their intention to exacerbate tensions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia."
Russia refuses to respect the rights of Ukraine and Georgia, yet it expects NATO to respect Russia's rights in Chechnya. Russia claims it desperately wants Georgia to stay out of NATO, yet again and again it launches military attacks that leave Georgia with no other choice and belie Russian claims of benign intentions. This is hypocrisy and duplicity that is truly Soviet in scale and quality. If Russia is not careful, its disappearance from the globe may be just as Soviet.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Blind Leading the Blind
Filed under: US Elections
So, let me ask you a question. Suppose you were quite sick, and went to see a doctor. Suppose you were sitting in his waiting room, and you overheard a conversation between the doctor and his secretary. The doctor said: "Last night I had 43 messages, all of them five minutes in length. That would be 215 minutes worth of material -- over three hours." You gathered that the doctor was blind, and each of his nurses would call a special telephone number at the end of each day to give him reports on all the things he needed to know for the following day. The doctor then said: "I stayed up that night from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. listening to the recordings. But that was only enough time to get through half of them."
Would you consent to be treated?
If not, then you'd probably have considerable stress living in New York State today, because that's a real conversation between New York State's new governor David Paterson and a reporter for the New York Times. That's right: He admitted freely, just as he did his extramarital affairs, that he can't fully prepare for a day's work because he's legally blind. He doesn't even read Braille. All he does is listen to taped messages, and try to remember what he can of those he can manage to get to before nodding off at beddy bye time.
It was never for one single second part of the most recent campaign for governor that the state might have a blind governor -- and one reason it wasn't was that the MSM, most especially the New York Times, didn't make it so. They betrayed New York's voters just as surely as the Democrats themselves, who nominated a lying, cheating scoundrel named Elliot Spitzer as their candidate, only to see him resign in disgrace. Thanks to the failure of MSM institutions like the Times, which utterly failed to challenge and question his candidacy, Spitzer won a Soviet-like 70% of the vote and the public remained totally oblivious.
Thanks a lot, Dumbocrats! Your role in leading one of the nation's most significant states really fills us with confidence as to your ability to do the job on a national scale.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditArt History
Filed under: Asia
Did you ever wonder how China came up with the graphic emblem for its 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which it wanted to reflect the open and welcoming spirit it has adopted towards the world in honor of the occasion? Click the jump and have your curiosity satisfied!
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPutin, the Lady's Man
Filed under: Russia
The Daily Mail has reported that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has a mistress. According to the paper, she's Alina Kabaeva, a nubile, 24-year-old rhythmic gymnast with a penchant for posing semi-naked (shown at left). Putin has been photographed with her at least three times, see photos after the jump.
The story originated with a Russian newspaper called Moskovsky Korrespondent on Thursday. The New York Times relates that "Interfax reported Friday evening that publication of Moskovsky Korrespondent had been suspended 'for financial reasons,' according to its parent company, National Media Company." Putin had been asked about the rumors on his visit to Italy shortly after publication.
So one day a newspaper prints a scandalous report about the "president," the next day it is summarily shut down. Coincidence? You be the judge!
Putin says there's "not a word of truth" to the allegations. But sir, if you were having an affair, are you seriously implying you would admit it?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPop Quiz
Filed under: Russia
On any given randomly selected day, what percentage of Russians will access the Internet?
( b ) 68%
( c ) 36%
( d ) 12%
Answer after the jump.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditChina Rolls out its Welcome Mat
Filed under: Asia
In a magnificent display of hospitality and welcome to the world in the buildup to the China Olympiad, the civilized, friendly, reasonable people of China have eaten one of their own. It's a pretty strong indication of how very wrong the world is to even consider boycotting the China games.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditLetters
Filed under: Letters
RE: Vladimir Putin, A National Catastrophe
Dear Publius Pundit,
There is no rule of law or free enterprise in the West, there is the rule of money and state-sponsored big corporations, with high government employment. Western countries are paper democracies, when they are in fact run by powerful bureaucrats like in Russia. Russians don't need the West, but the West needs Russia, the Middle East, Venezuela, Nigeria...etc.Time to wake up my friend, Russian politics and business are not so different from the West, it just has a Russian flavor.
Signed, Mr. GAF
RE: Getting to Know the Real Barack Obama
Dear Publius Pundit,
Good, no great, post on the Obama Drama. Is the graphic yours??? I would like to put it on a t-shirt.... or buy one with it.... keep it up!!!!!
Signed, CW Ivy
Publius Pundit responds: No, the graphic was made by one of Michell Malkin's readers.
Dear Publius Pundit:
I honestly believe you're doing your absolute best to either twist the words that Barack said, or you're choosing to hear the Fox News rhetoric over any context of the sentence. Barack was not against Religion, and his stance on gun ownership(while I disagree with it), is in line with people from all over.
But, as he used bad wording for this(as he said himself, the word 'cling' has too many negative connotations), he stood by what his intended message was: That those are not the important issues in America right now. Right now, it is more important for us to worry about Washington Lobbyists, the Iraq War, and curbing executive power, than issues that have honestly been twisted to become the important parts of the modern republican party(this coming from a republican).
As he has said outside of what you posted, he wants us to come together for the more important issues, and that in the end, while those issues are things that are important to people, that it is better for the country to come together and deal with our biggest problems now, before we move on to working out the things we disagree on- also together.
Signed, Jake
RE: Comments on Publius Pundit
Dear Publius Pundit:
In reading the comments of the various apologists for Russia that have appeared in comments on your blog in the past, an idea struck me from one of the comments that had been posted by "Misha." I've run this idea by others, and they agree. Totalitarianism, it was rationalized, is a "necessary" step towards - democracy. And here is the key - "otherwise, we might have more Chechnya's."
Russia is not a country - it is a federation. And there are many areas that are simply not Russian. They are more Asian, and other than Russian. So indeed, if these other areas start getting ideas in their heads about trying to break away, like Chechnya, then Russia shrinks down to -- nothing. It follows in line with Stalin's comment that if Russia "loses Ukraine, then everything is lost." And with Putin's recent outburst at the NATO summit in a private meeting with President Bush, that "Ukraine is not a state." It falls in line with Russia's history of totalitarian governments.
The justification, among others is - the "greatness of Russia." It's all built on FORCING people to be part of Russia and Moscow. Because without the subjugation of non-Russian people into a greater sort of artificial Russian federation, Russia, in reality, is a tiny little -- nothing.
Signed, Elmer
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditAnnals of Dmitri Medvedev, Pathological Liar
Filed under: Russia
One can't praise highly enough the Russia reporting that is being done by the International Herald Tribune, the Associated Press and the Washington Post. A few weeks ago, the Tribune carried an AP story which came right out and called Vladimir Putin's hand-picked, jury-rigged successor Dimitri Medvedev what he is: A mendacious liar out to recreate a neo-Soviet state. As the AP put it:
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president-elect, has preached freedom and the rule of law, and raised hopes for an end to government pressure on opposition leaders, rights advocates and businesses whose assets the Kremlin wants to control. But events of past weeks are adding to mounting suspicions that Medvedev's presidency may not be all that different from that of his steely-eyed predecessor -- Vladimir Putin.
The AP then goes on to provide a litany of evidence to prove their point.
Maxim Reznik.
Mikhail Kasyanov.
If you don't know these names, and what the Kremlin has been doing to persecute each of them in recent weeks, that's because so many other Western institutions of journalism have been falling down on the job reporting about them, even as the Kremlin unleashes a furious, and ludicrous, propaganda offensive trying to dupe us into believing Medvedev is benign, or even liberal. Andrei Illarionov asks: "We've seen in this last two months what the freedom [Medvedev] talks about really means. Are there any examples of real actions, not just words, that someone can use as proof that Medvedev is a liberal person, economically, politically or over civil rights?"
Can anyone answer his question in the affirmative, and give such examples?
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Dumbocrats, Imploding
Filed under: US Elections
Ouch!
These are not good times to be a Democrat, though they should be if George Bush is unpopular as people say.
Let's leave aside the amazing spectacle being generated as the Dumbocrats prove unable to select a nominee and hurtle towards a bloody brokered convention. Let's pass over Hillary kicking Obamabooty all over last night's debate, and the nutroots going pathetically, predictably ape. Understandable, of course. If Barack Obama can't even beat Hillary Clinton, what will happen to him in a general election -- much less a conflict with a rival of the United States?
Let's just focus instead on this:
First the Dumbocrats lose the governor of New York State to a massive corruption scandal.
Then, the the Mayor of Detroit is on his way out as well.
And now, it's the former Mayor of Newark's turn.
How many other corrupt Dumbocrat whales are yet to be discovered? Only time will tell.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditPutin Rushes to Obliterate Russia's Internet
Filed under: Russia
The Other Russia blog reports that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is rushing to put the final nails in the coffin of Russia's Internet, the country's last bastion of free information and opposition.
First, he's moving against WiFi:
Fontanka.ru online newspaper reports on April 14th, officials of Russia's media and communications agency believe that every wireless user must obtain permission and register their Wi-Fi devices before they can go online. The agency, Rossvyazokhrankultura (short for the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service), believes that it can lawfully confiscate wireless devices from anyone violating this directive.
Next, the content itself:
As the Kommersant daily newspaper reported on April 11th, the Prosecutor General's Office has sent in draft amendments to Russia's lower house of Parliament, the State Duma. The text, in part, suggests rigid new standards for holding websites accountable, and asks for increased government control of religious education programs in an effort to fight racist and nationalist crimes.
That's not to say, of course, that the Kremlin is done with its attacks on the vestigial brick-and-mortar modalities of free expression. Our prior post notes the immediate closure of a theater piece about the Dubrovka tragedy, and Other Russia reports that three days ago the government shut down an art exhibit entitled "Prison, Madness, Equality and Justice" because they didn't care for the human rights content. And I've recently documented Putin's more direct strategy in regard to the Internet: Prosecuting and jailing the bloggers themselves.
Welcome back to the USSR!
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditTales of Russian Barbarism, Unbound
Filed under: Russia
Russia's ability to surprise you (always in a bad way) is quite breathtaking. No matter what horror you see laid before you today, you can be sure that tomorrow Russia will produce something that will make today look like afternoon tea.
Just open today's issue of the Moscow Times, and look what you find:
(1) Not only is Vladimir Putin not stepping down from power after his presidential term ends, not only is he becoming Prime Minister and assuming vast new powers for that office, including direct control of regional leaders, but now, just as in the good old Soviet days, he is also becoming chief of the United Russia party of power. So much for the dastardly lies told by his sycophants about how he would retire to Gazprom or some other background position!
(2) Even more evidence is put forth regarding the blatant electoral fraud carried out by the Putin regime in order to thrust its hand-picked successor upon the nation as an absolute autocrat.
(3) Playwright Natalia Pelevine (pictured above) has her drama about the Dubrovka theater attack canceled "moments after the curtain came down on the play's first performance in Russia." Apparently, it dared to identify the hostage takers as human beings, and this couldn't be tolerated.
(4) Lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, granted political asylum in the United States earlier this year, is charged in absentia for "divulging state secrets." The paper notes: "Kuznetsov has defended numerous high-profile clients against government charges and claims that the case against him is a politically motivated attack orchestrated by the Federal Security Service."
(5) The body of Kremlin critic Anna Mikhalchuk was found "in the Spree River near the Muehlendamm bridge in the capital's central Mitte district of Berlin."
It's almost as if Russia's barbaric dictatorship is trying intentionally to churn out so much horrifying bad news that it will inundate the West's perceptions and cause it all to get washed under the bridge. There's so much of it, it has to be numbered. One has a rich choice of what to be most outraged about, as if from a grand buffet at the Tsar's court.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditGetting to Know the Real Barack Obama
Filed under: US Elections
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." -- U.S. Presidential Candidate Barack Obama, campaigning in Indiana
The man who says he wants to be the president of "all Americans" actually hates many of them, with seething, arrogant, elitist passion bordering on frenzy.
So let me see if I understand, Mr. Obama.
If I live in a small town in Pennsylvania and own a gun, it's because I'm "bitter." There's no legitimate reason for me to have a gun, only bitterness -- presumably, bitterness towards George Bush and every other president who hasn't been you. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was a typo.
If I go to church regularly on Sunday, the same. God is nothing but a mirage of bitterness. It's OK, though, if my church expresses that bitterness, if the preacher says things like "GOD DAMN AMERICA!" from the pulpit. In that event I'd have your approval -- but not really your respect, because to get that I'd also have to be pretending to believe in God in order to advance my political prospects, the way you are for instance. First Amendment? Again, typo.
And if I want America to admit only persons with legal permission to enter the country across its borders, and deport those who lack such permission, the same. Citizenship? It's just a state of mind.
OK, I think I follow you, sir. But there is one thing I still don't understand, that part about "antipathy to people who aren't like them." I can't say as I see how that is explained by small-town bitterness, because after all, you yourself talked about "typical white people" on that Philadelphia radio station, and you're not small town guy.
Oh wait a minute, I know. I forgot you are a Marxist. So, basically, anyone who disagrees with YOU, Barack Obama, does so out of ignorance that would disappear if only they were properly reeducated.
When a tidal wave of outrage swept over him, Obama confirmed that he meant what he said:
Lately there has been a little typical sort of political flare-up, because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois, who are bitter. They are angry. They feel like they have been left behind. They feel like nobody is paying attention to what they're going through. So I said, well you know, when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country, or they get frustrated about how things are changing. That's a natural response. And now, I didn't say it as well as I should have, because you know the truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important.
So, in fact, it appears that church-going and gun-owning and border-enforcing were mistakes arising from the bitterness of our founding fathers and passed on down the generations to us. Barack Obama is going to save us from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson! Hooray!
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditA Little Distraction from all the Politics: Just Something Cool!
Filed under:
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditVladimir Putin: A National Catastrophe
Filed under: Russia
Reuters reports that Ukraine has just cleared the final hurdle in its race towards membership in the World Trade Organization, ratifying the WTO protocol in its parliament. One month from now, Ukraine will become the WTO's 152nd member, from whence it will sit in judgment on Russia's pending application to join the body.
What humiliation for Vladimir Putin's Russia! First anti-Russian Viktor Yushchenko is elected president, foils a Russian assassination attempt, and then leads an "Orange Revolution" when Russia tries to rig his election. Then, anti-Russian Yulia Tymoshenko is elected Prime Minister, overcoming Russia-sponsored street protests designed once again to destabilize the country. On top of that, Ukraine receives a state visit from the President of the United States, who declares that Ukraine must be brought within the protective embrace of NATO -- Russia's despised rival -- and next the boss of NATO itself vows that it is only a matter of time before Ukraine is admitted. And now, WTO membership is served up on a silver platter, while Russia still lamely clutches its begging bowl.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditLetters
Filed under: Letters
RE: The Russian Rx: Take two aspirin and call me . . . from Germany!
Dear Publius Pundit,
I am pretty sure that Russia lost a significant part of its medical personnel with the mass emigration of Russian Jews (and their families) to Israel. Russia's loss, our gain!
Signed, Ruth
RE: Daily Kos: Still Bogus After all these Years!
Dear Publius Pundit,
Thank you very much for your recent post outing Daily Kos. The site is one sided and ignores the facts. I have tried to read it with an open mind but all I saw is candidates getting attacked for no reason other than hate. The site wants the country to unite and come together - the biggest hypocrisy of the site - because for coming together you do not need to attack and tear the other side apart. You need to be open and then state your opinion and stop looking for flaws, you can point them out but do not attack them like crazy. Thank you very much for your article once again. I now will be an avid reader of your site. Thank you very much.
Signed, Donald
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditInflation Continues to Ravage Putin's Russia
Filed under: Russia
As if the world needed any further proof of the extent of Vladimir Putin's failure to effectively govern Russia, Bloomberg reports today that Russia has incurred 5.3% overall consumer price inflation in just the first quarter of 2008. That puts the country on track to rack up 21.2% inflation by the end of the year. "Price growth in the week is unbelievable," said Yevgeny Nadorshin, chief economist at Trust Bank. Last year, Russia incurred 11.9% inflation according to the Kremlin's data, quite likely to be an understatement. Russia was already on pace to exceed that rate by February of this year.
Inflation increased by 70% compared to the first quarter of 2007, when the rate was just 3.7%. Food prices led the soaring index, despite aggressive neo-Soviet moves by the Kremlin to fix those prices; overall food prices were up 2% in the last four weeks alone.
It will not have escaped the notice of the attentive Russia watcher that Putin does not have one single shred of legitimate economics or business credentials to his name. He has attempted to "solve" the inflation problem in same way Robert Mugabe employed in Zimbabwe, simply ordering producers not to raise prices. Similarly, his "solution" to Russia's woeful birth rate was to bribe parents to have children. This proud KGB spy is no more capable of building a real economic or social foundation for the country than of flapping his arms and flying to Mars.
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Russian Rx: Take two aspirin and call me . . . from Germany!
Filed under: Russia
Russia is a nation with yearly medical doctor salaries that average $5,160 to $6,120 while nurses make an average of $2,760 to $3,780 annually. That means a top-end doctor, like a surgeon, is only making about $500 per month, less than the national average of around $650 (the "average" isn't a useful indicator of actual income, however, because it's skewed by the bizarre level of income paid to Russia's super-rich oligarchs). As a result, many Russian physicians turn to corrupt practices like selling drugs on the black market and demanding bribes from patients in order to make ends meet.
Given that background, you will not be surprised to learn that Russia has only 200,000 of the 600,000 physicians it needs as a nation. Who would want to enter the profession on those terms? Russia "spends only three percent of its GDP on health, a figure that is only half of what it should spend and one that puts Russia near the bottom of developed countries" according to scholar Paul Goble, translating a Russian report by Leonid Roshal, the director of the Moscow Research Institute on Emergency Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology. And of that measly 3%, up to a third will be siphoned off by corruption before it ever reaches those it was intended to support. "Today is a favorable moment for Russia. There are both money and the chance to do something," says Roshal. Goble reports: "But on the basis of Moscow's recent actions, he lamented, there is little reason for anyone to expect that any significant increase in funding will occur any time soon."
Roshal understands that Russia's dictator Vladimir Putin would rather spend the nation's fossil fuel proceeds on buzzing America with strategic bombers and helping Iran go nuclear. He knows that a major investment by Putin in healthcare would only create a more vibrant population, one more capable of organizing protest actions against his draconian crackdown on democracy. Putin prefers for Russians to stay weak and sick, thus easier to control, freeing even more funds for his crazed reinvigoration of the cold war.
Incidentally, the situation in the legal profession is little better. Goble points to a recent interview by Igor Trunov, head of the Central Bureau of Lawyers in Moscow, condemning the level of preparation of the country's lawyers in light of a recent announcement by Moscow State University, the Russian Harvard, that "the diplomas of lawyers trained at the University's law faculty after 1992 may be declared invalid because of shortcomings in training they received there."
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del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditSkip the Opening Ceremonies, Mr. Bush
Filed under: Asia
U.S. President George Bush is giving serious consideration to heeding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that he boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in China. In the same way that even paranoids can have enemies, even evil morons like Pelosi can be right sometimes. To quote Michelle Malkin, sometimes even a blind pig can find a truffle.
Mr. Bush should not attend the opening ceremonies. He should not attend any aspect of the games during the opening (as some have wrongly suggested), but should instead hold a public meeting with Tibetan opposition leaders, by teleconference if necessary, and give them all the encouragement he can to continue their fight.
China is already facing worldwide humiliation as the Olympic torch has been violently assaulted as it attempted to make its traditional circuit of the globe, leading to its being extinguished on at least two occasions. All around the world, people of good will are outraged at the barbaric actions of repression taken by China in Tibet, directly flouting the Olympic spirit. The torch has just arrived in San Francisco; hopefully, we will see that bastion of liberalism stand behind its creed and make an even greater show of outrage at Chinese atrocities, which include sending protesters to "reeducation camps" in classic Communist style.
It simply could not be more clear that China did not deserve the games and should not have received them. Having been awarded, America should have withdrawn. If it must attend, then its leader must make the strongest possible statement of condemnation, and must use the opportunity to confront the beasts that govern China on many other human rights issues as well.
NOTE: Publius Pundit no longer accepts comments directly on our posts. Instead, once per week we will publish a "letters to PP" feature in which readers with meritorious observations will get to see their views published on the main page of the blog. If you would like to have a letter considered for publication, send it to: kimzigfeld@gmail.com
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditVladimir Putin, Cracking Under Pressure
Filed under: Russia
As we've previously reported, Vladimir Putin experienced a series of devastating defeats at the NATO summit in Romania last week.
Russia didn't want NATO expanded. Two new countries were admitted (Albania and Croatia), and a firm promise of future admission was given to two more (Ukraine and Georgia).
Russia didn't want defensive missiles in Eastern Europe. NATO unanimously approved their installation.
George Bush, who Putin thought was comfortably in his back pocket, delivered a blistering speech in Ukraine calling for NATO protection against Russian imperialism.
And perhaps worst of all, the NATO policy engineers structured their response so beautifully that it was impossible for Putin to get traction in a PR offensive. He had threatened to boycott the meeting if it didn't do his bidding, but ended up being forced to attend, hat in hand.
It turns out that all this failure was just a bit too much for the malignant little troll to stand, and according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, he cracked like an egg. The paper reported:
Putin "lost his temper" at the NATO-Russia Council in Bucharest during Friday's discussions of Ukraine's bid to join NATO, Kommersant cited an unidentified foreign delegate to the summit as saying. "Do you understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state!" Putin told U.S. President George W. Bush at the closed meeting, the diplomat told Kommersant. After saying most of Ukraine's territory was "given away" by Russia, Putin said that if Ukraine joined NATO it would cease to exist as a state, the diplomat said. Putin threatened to encourage the secession of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, where anti-NATO and pro-Moscow sentiment is strong, the diplomat said, Kommersant reported.
Here we see neo-Soviet Russia laid shockingly bare. Putin openly declares that Ukraine is not a country, much the same way that Iran declares Israel is not. He sounds just like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who believes that Alaska was "given away" to America and must be returned. Unable to get his way by civilized means, he immediately resorts to the tactics of the barbarian.
The hypocrisy is simply mind-blowing. For Putin, Russian territory is inviolable, but the territory of every other nation on the planet is negotiable. NATO must, quite clearly, move decisively to shore up its defenses against this madman, and it is comforting to see that it appears to be doing so.
NOTE: Publius Pundit no longer accepts comments directly on our posts. Instead, once per week we will publish a "letters to PP" feature in which readers with meritorious observations will get to see their views published on the main page of the blog. If you would like to have a letter considered for publication, send it to: kimzigfeld@gmail.com
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditIn Neo-Soviet Russia, Everything Old is New Again
Filed under: Russia
According to Forbes: "Twelve billionaires now hold seats in [Russia's] parliament, with a total net worth of $41 billion, sitting alongside the less wealthy lawmakers, worth merely in the hundreds of millions. The scale of wealth in Russia's government is unparalleled anywhere else on Earth."
Russian poverty is also unparalleled among industrialized nations. Russia does not rank in the top 55 world nations when evaluated for purchasing-power per capita GDP and Russians work for an average wage of $4 per hour. The nation's income inequality score rivals that of sub-Saharan Africa. Russia does not rank in the top 100 world nations for average male adult lifespan, there too languishing among the backward nations of Africa (Russia's scores for good government and corruption are similar Africanesque); the average Russian man doesn't live to see his 60th year.
Given this situation, which is no different than the horrific class stratification that existed in the early 1900s and gave rise to the Bolshevik Revolution, it can hardly be a surprise to see that Bolshevism is on the rise. Thus, the largest (indeed, only) opposition group in the Duma is the Communist Party, and thus the Moscow Times reports that last Saturday a contingent of over 50 National Bolshevik Party members pretended to be carrying out a wedding ceremony on Moscow's famous Red Square, but when they got close enough to the Square's most famous landmark, St. Basil's Cathedral, they "stunned the police [who were guarding the monument] by burning signal flares, holding up placards demanding 'freedom for political prisoners' and chanting: 'We need another Russia!' before police attacked them."
Those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it, until they learn or destroy themselves utterly -- as Russia is doing just now.
NOTE: Publius Pundit no longer accepts comments directly on our posts. Instead, once per week we will publish a "letters to PP" feature in which readers with meritorious observations will get to see their views published on the main page of the blog. If you would like to have a letter considered for publication, send it to: kimzigfeld@gmail.com
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditDaily Kos: Still Bogus After all these Years!
Filed under: US Elections
I get quite a tickle every time I pop in on the chimps and scurrying cockroaches who put out the Daily Kos. Day or night, rain or shine, I know I'll find clear and conclusive proof of leftist self-destruction.
Take today's post by Der Kos himself, attacking John McCain for allegedly anemic fundraising.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditA Ticking Time Bomb in Putin's Russia
Filed under: Russia
My latest installment on Pajamas Media reports startling new facts regarding a ticking time bomb in Russia: a shrinking non-Slavic population combined with rising xenophobia and racism. Click through to check out the details on this horrific crisis in the making, and feel free to leave your comments as to how the West can best respond.
In January, Prague Watchdog reported that in Chechnya, a region of just 1.1 million people, the Russian government itself admits that 400,000 are unemployed. PW states that in fact "only every fifth Chechen is in work" and observes: "In order to feed their families, most of the male population have to engage in types of work they have never done before. A former university professor works as a taxi driver, while a teacher of Russian language and literature repairs cars at home." PW continues:This was the subject of an open letter published in the republic's Vesti newspaper by a group of Chechen scholars and public figures last autumn. They warned the authorities of the dangers of ignoring the problem. "The events of 1991 which led to a change of government in the republic, and ultimately to the outbreak of the first Chechen war, were above all supported by Chechens who were dissatisfied with their standard of living. If the same thing happens now, the consequences for the Chechen people will be catastrophic," the authors of the letter considered.
Think Putin's Kremlin is listening? Think again. PW reports: "The Chechen Department of Employment recently appealed to its colleagues in Krasnodarsky Krai to provide jobs for Chechen construction workers at construction sites in the city of Sochi, which will host the Winter Olympics in 2014. From Krasnodar came the reply that no such vacancies exist."
Russia tells the world it has to butt out of Chechnya because it's "part of Russia," yet because of racism Russians don't see Chechens as equal citizens and won't treat them that way.
The result is that Russia is becoming a boiling cauldron of racial injustice, and there is no Martin Luther King figure to help the oppressed people blow off steam. As such, the pressure can only build until it explodes. Putin's policies have utterly failed. Violence still occurs, the economy is destroyed so resentment builds, and his nationalistic fervor fans the flames of racism.
It's a disaster in the making for Russia.
NOTE: Publius Pundit no longer accepts comments directly on our posts. Instead, once per week we will publish a "letters to the PP" feature in which readers with meritorious observations will get to see their views published on the main page of the blog. If you would like to have a letter considered for publication, send it to: kimzigfeld@gmail.com
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussia Outlaws Democracy
Filed under: Russia
Two bills are moving rapidly through the Russian parliament which neatly encapsulate the tyrannical attitude of the dictator Vladimir Putin towards the institution of democracy and, indeed, the very concept of freedom itself. Amazingly, though Russia has just held a national election, neither one was any part of the campaign -- a neat testament to the reckless disregard for citizenship duties evinced by the people of Russia.
On Wednesday the Duma (Russia's lower house of parliament), as the International Herald Tribune reported, "backed new restrictions on foreign investment, limiting access to strategic sectors like oil and gas, aerospace and mass media." The bill passed by the overwhelming margin of 384-55, and the AP reports that it "is raising concern among foreign investors since it widens the powers of Russian security services in business transactions."
Then on Friday, the Duma voted 363-8 Friday to approve new restrictions on national referendums. To protest the measure, more than 50 members of the Communist Party got up and walked out of the chamber before the vote. Jurist reports: "Referendums are binding under Russian law, and the new restrictions effectively bar referendums on issues including the national budget, taxes and treaties. Communist party members objected to the proposal, saying it deprives Russian citizens of their right to voice their opinion on important national issues." The AP reported Communist lawmaker Alexander Kulikov declaring: "We, the popularly elected lawmakers, are practically stripping the people of being able to express their will and speak out at a referendum. Passing this bill will mean that we're asking people to shut up."
In each case, measures that should at the very least be controversial cruised through the 450-member legislature with at least an 80% majority. Though Putin's party of power, United Russia, won only 64% of the vote in the last parliamentary elections, it was awarded 70% of the seats in the Duma. Together with the sycophantic "Fair Russia" group, the Kremlin directly controls the votes of nearly 78.5% of the body, and on top of that can count on routine support from maniacal ultranationalists of Vladimir Zhirinovsky's party, which controls an additional 8%. As Michael Ivdov notes in the New Republic, this is what Putin's Goebbels, the demonic Vladislav Surkov, "terms suverennaya demokratiya ('sovereign democracy') and what's been rechristened, in liberal circles, suvenirnaya demokratiya: 'souvenir democracy'."
That creaking sound you hear is an iron curtain descending once again across the continent. Pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain.
Talk about neo-Soviet! The only "opposition" to speak of in the Russian parliament left after Putin's purges are the dogged Communists, who control 11.5% of the seats. They are hardly a beacon light of progressive thought, to say the least. Russia's "people's house" has become nothing more than a rubber stamp for the regime just as it was in Soviet times. Blind the consequences, neo-Soviet Russia hurtles once again into the abyss.
NOTE: Publius Pundit no longer accepts comments directly on our posts. Instead, once per week we will publish a "letters to the PP" feature in which readers with meritorious observations will get to see their views published on the main page of the blog. If you would like to have a letter considered for publication, send it to: kimzigfeld@gmail.com
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditDid Somebody say "Lusitania"?
Filed under: Russia
The International Herald Tribune reports that even as Russia was demanding that NATO not embrace former Soviet slave states Ukraine and Georgia, proclaiming that Russia's "sphere of influence" should be respected, it was inking a deal to sell attack submarines to the maniacal anti-America dictator of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. The IHT states: "The ships, known in NATO terms as Kilo-class, are Russia's most advanced non-nuclear submarine. China, India and Iran, among others, have all purchased the subs in recent years."
So Russia is sending dangerous weapons to Venezuela, Iran and China. Chavez openly states: "that his country needs submarines to protect itself against its enemies -- foremost among them the United States." Yet at the same time Russia complains that the U.S. is threatening Russian security by insisting that NATO expand? This is the same kind of just-plain-crazy, childish, have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too hypocrisy that brought down the USSR. Just like the USSR was, Russia appears to be governed by madmen who cannot accurately perceive reality and who are more dangerous to the nation's survival than any foreign foe.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditDemocracy Takes it on the Chin
Filed under: Zimbabwe
The past month or so has been a really rough one for democracy.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditFor Vladimir Putin, the Failure Just Keeps on Coming
Filed under: Russia
It appears that Vladimir Putin's KGB government has finally awoken the sleeping American giant, just as did the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor half a century ago.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditThe Hamas Terrorists Love Barack Obama
Filed under: Middle East ~ US Elections
Sing along, won't you? "If Nescobama can please the whole wide world of psychopathic Hamas terrorists, he can sure please you Mr. & Mrs. America!"
By the way, Billary still has a clear path to the nomination, it's explained quite well here.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussian Protest Babes Demand a Volunteer Army
Filed under: Protest Babes ~ Russia
Oleg Kozlovsky's new English language blog reports on a recent protest march calling for the end of universal military conscription and slavery, as well as the horror of the infamous dedovshchina hazing rituals.
After the jump, images of some of the hot babes who supported their Russian men by marching with them (in another act of blatant sexism, women are excluded from universal conscription). Nothing's sexier than a man out of an illegally and psychopathically imposed uniform!
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditRussia HEART North Korea
Filed under: Russia
Well now, here is something that you simply do not see every day of the week.
North Korea has a website.
That website has a forum.
Here is one of the forum posts:
Pyongyang, February 8 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il was awarded "Dmitri Donskoi" Order Class 1 by the Russian Academy of Security, Military and Legal Affairs on the occasion of his birthday. This highest order would be conferred only on extraordinary military activists. A ceremony of awarding the order took place at the DPRK embassy in Moscow on Feb. 5. The order and its certificate and belt were conveyed to the DPRK ambassador by the president of the academy.Written on the certificate are the following letters: "'Dmitri Donskoi' Order is awarded to Comrade Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, in recognition of his distinguished contribution to the strengthening of cooperation between the DPRK and the Russian Federation and great personal devotion to ensuring the global peace. President V. Shevchenko. The February 5, 2008, decision of the Presidium of the National Committee for Social Commendation. Order No. 008. Moscow ."
Speeches were made at the ceremony. The president of the academy said that it is due appraisal of Kim Jong Il's immortal exploits for the development of the Russia-DPRK relations and global peace and an expression of deep respect for him to award the order to him in the wake of the conferment of the "Petr the Great" Order Class 1 and the titles of academician and professor of the academy in Pyongyang in 2003. All these orders and honorary titles were awarded by the academy under the direct concern of President Putin, he said, adding that figure 8 in the number of the order certificate means infinity and it represents the fact that Kim Jong Il would always remain the great leader of the Korean people and the outstanding statesman of the world. Dmitri Yazov, former defence minister of the Soviet Union, said that there is no such supreme commander in the world as Kim Jong Il who always takes deep care of the servicepersons' living and visits the units on the forefront during his ceaseless inspection of the front.
Isn't that special?
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditGod Bless George Bush! God Bless America!
Filed under: Russia
The Associated Press reports that U.S. President George Bush, visiting Kiev today, has "vowed full support for Ukraine and Georgia's NATO aspirations, saying Russia would have no veto over the ex-Soviet states' membership bids." Bush is shown above warmly greeting Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko, whose face is disfigured after surviving a Kremlin assassination attempt via Dioxin poisoning. The American leader proclaimed unequivocally to his Ukrainian counterpart: "Your nation has made a bold decision and the United States strongly supports your request. In Bucharest this week, I will continue to make America's position clear: we support MAP for Ukraine and Georgia. My stop here should be a clear signal to everybody that I mean what I say: It's in our interest for Ukraine to join."
Glory, glory Hallelujah! At last, the truth is marching on. Better late than never, Mr. President. If you work really hard for the next nine months, you can give birth to a whole new legacy.
Another day, another devastating defeat for Vladimir Putin's Russia.
del.icio.us | digg | technorati | stumble upon | furl | redditSearch
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