I came across this awesome blog today called Window on the Arab World, and more!. It is done by a guy named Kirk H. Sowell, a specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs and a published author. Read his website, the information and commentary is awesome.

To start, here is something cool I read:

Just now I watched a segment on Al-Jazeera about the attack earlier today in Kuwait against foreigners. The commentator, a Kuwaiti named Ahmad Shiraf, was asked who was behind this, and he responded enemies of civilization who are encouraged by those who glorify terrorism, such as Al-Jazeera!!!

The Al-Jazeera journalist just said, “We’ll just leave that as your opinion,” and went on. Bravo!

Via: Ultima Thule

Discoshaman already has his first Ukraine update for February up! And things are looking bright for Tymoshenko.

Here’s a big shoutout to Babalu Blog, who just got a big mention on the front page of the Miami Herald. Congratulations! The more people who knows about your cause, the better.

It looks like a total of 489 felons counted so far were allowed to vote in the Washington state elections. That’s higher than than the amount of votes that the fishy third hand-recount afforded to the Democrat candidate for victory.

Pretty messed up situation, and sadly, the real winner may never be known. The government doesn’t owe either of the two candidates anything — not even victory. They owe the people what they are paid to do, and make sure that the people’s rightful choice is elected. How hard is it, honestly, for the government to fulfill its basic duties?

Norman Geras is pissed at the Guardian’s editorial section. But honestly, it’s no use getting mad at people who can’t write.

John Hawkins has his own roundup of favorite quotes from blogs on the Iraq election. I’ve posted similar lists earlier on if you’re interested, just scroll.

I hope Bloggle doesn’t mind too much, but I just had to post this in full:

Jack Chirac told president Bush in a phone conversation that “The participation rate and the good technical organization of the elections were satisfactory.”

Say what you want, but the famous silver-tongued French certainly know how to gussy up a phrase, don’t they? I can see Jack making the moves on one of the tarts on the Champs d’Elysee, running a hand through his thinning pate, leaning in to fill his Gallic nostrils with sweet Parisian parfum, and whispering, “Ah mademoiselle, your lips are quite average and your legs, your legs, zey are joost like a any uzzer legs. Dunt get me rrrong, cherie, your breasts are like zees morning’s puddings, only wis zat skin on top, zat skin zat, fwankly, I could do wissout. But no matter, mon amour, I would like to take you in my harms and make adequate love to you until you beg, or razzer, you request strongly zat I, a man of good technical organization, bring you to a satisfactory climax.”

Faced with that kind of sophistication and nuance, how is a cowboy to compete?

Let me be the first to recommend Chirac to an American product called Viagra.

Almost missed this other post by Nathan. Looks like he is keeping up with elections in Kyrgyzstan. More power to him; I certainly have to sleep at times!

Lots of links and quotes and commentary. Check it out. I’ll try to find more information in the coming days as well.

UPDATE: Russia obviously has a large interest in maintaining the status quo. Good article for some good information, though.

Nathan writes on the upsurge of protests from democratic movements in Central Asia, much greater than they were just a year ago. It’s really good.

Discoshaman has his Ukraine update for 01/31. Read the rest too, he has some interesting thoughts going around.

UPDATE: David Geisen has one too.

Andy posts an interesting article relating how revolutions that pull through usually have the help of the capital’s mayor.

After observing that the Orange Revolution in Ukraine may never have happened without the support of Kiev’s mayor they go on to argue that, if Putin wants to keep his job, he really needs to keep Yuri Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow, on his side.

True. And I’d venture to say, however, that in a totalitarian state as big as Russia, just about everyone Putin thinks he has under his thumb will bail on him when the going gets too rough.

Dan McMinn has two good articles up well worth reading. The first is on Yushchenko’s legacy and the other is a historical profile on Kuchma.

Mohammed ponders the victory over the terrorists, and what must now be done to use this victory to its greatest advantage. If anything, they can take some notes from Ukraine on how to direct that kind of energy.

John is reporting on good press in the Arab media post-Iraq elections:

This New York Times article is a surprisingly positive one about both the Iraqi elections and the way in which Arab media covered them.

Of particular interest is the coverage of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya network,

The daylong reporting of the election process, details on the personalities and almost step-by-step guides to the voting were a significant departure from what the Arab news media has produced in some time.

Perhaps the most ambitious effort came from Al Arabiya, which had eight satellite trucks broadcasting from across Iraq, as well as numerous video phone links from Mosul, Baquba, Ramadi and elsewhere, and live feeds from neighboring countries. To give particular emphasis to elections coverage, Al Arabiya also built a special studio for the event. Al Arabiya executives did not disclose the total outlay for the effort, but said it was significant.

???????We think this is a very important event, not just in Iraq but in the Arab world,??????? Mr. Hage said. ???????It????????s the first real democratic event in the whole region and it deserved the attention.??????? Giving the event such special attention, Mr. Hage said, would help build Al Arabiya????????s brand as a critical news source, if not expand its viewership.

Al-Arabiya is the second-favorite satellite TV channel in Saudi Arabia (after Al-Jazeera TV). It reaches millions of viewers and has an influence. Its positive coverage of the elections is sending a message; that message is being well-received.

If you think the messiness of Iraq is without positive consequence throughout the region, you????????re simply wrong. Read the article to see the direction Arab media went in its coverage of the elections. Very good piece.

Good to hear. Apparently they were much more positive than the German media.

I hadn’t mentioned it yet give the situation in Iraq, but Yushchenko and Saakashvili were nominated by Senators McCain and Clinton for the Nobel Peace Prize. I got the info via: Blog de Connard.

I found it pretty interesting though, since McCain is my senator. I checked out his website and… sure enough. I thought that was pretty cool so I sent him a little e-gram telling him how pleased I was.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Nominating Committee:

We are writing to nominate for the Nobel Peace Prize two men who have exhibited an extraordinary commitment to peace: Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. In leading freedom movements in their respective countries, they have won popular support for the universal values of democracy, individual liberty, and civil rights. Because of their efforts, the people of Georgia and Ukraine are now constructing new societies based on the rule of law. At the same time, Ukrainians and Georgians are resolving peacefully the complex ethnic and social issues that have in the past threatened to divide their nations.

As a key leader in the ???????Rose Revolution,??????? President Saakashvili guided Georgia to a peaceful change of power that ended a decade of endemic, government-supported corruption. His rejection of violence was critical to the success of Georgia????????s movement. In early 2004, President Saakashvili negotiated a peaceful resolution to the ethnic conflict in Ajaria, and his push for wider political freedoms has positioned Georgia as a stabilizing force in the Caucasus region.

During the presidential campaign in Ukraine, Mr. Yushchenko????????s calls for full democracy and an end to corruption met obstacles from the government, including the denial of media access, official discrimination, and an alleged poisoning attempt. When Ukraine????????s Central Electoral Commission declared Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich the winner in the November run-off election ???????? after massive and coordinated vote fraud ???????? Mr. Yushchenko urged peaceful resistance. By channeling the people????????s aspirations for freedom and democracy into non-violent protest, Viktor Yuschenko sparked the ???????Orange Revolution,??????? and now stands as his country????????s president.

Both presidents have displayed a commitment to peace and the rule of law in removing authoritarian governments. Their leadership has allowed millions in Georgia and Ukraine to reclaim their democratic system and to build a society based on law and individual rights.

We believe that the actions of Presidents Saakashvili and Yushchenko testify to the power of peace and human rights in their battle against oppression. Recognizing these men with the Peace Prize would honor not only their historic roles in Georgia and Ukraine, but would also offer hope and inspiration to those seeking freedom in lands still denied it.

Sincerely,
John McCain Hillary Rodham Clinton
U.S. Senate U.S. Senate

Already, David McDuff has posted Part 7 of his Going Back series.

Chrenkoff has posted his next installment of good news from Iraq, but you might need a few hours to read it all. And that is definitely a good thing.

Freedom House finds in an 89 page study that the Saudi government is distributing hate literature within the U.S. through mosques.

WASHINGTON, DC, January 28, 2005- Freedom House????????s Center for Religious Freedom released today a new report exposing the dissemination of hate propaganda in America by the government of Saudi Arabia.

The 89-page report, ???????Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques,??????? is based on a year-long study of over two hundred original documents, all disseminated, published or otherwise generated by the government of Saudi Arabia and collected from more than a dozen mosques in the United States.

Here’ the full thing.

I thought this picture needed its own post…

Via Jeff Jarvis

David McDuff has posted the next installment of his Going Back series, part six.

Chrenkoff has posted his part 3 of E-day news. And he promises the “Good News From Iraq” roundup tomorrow.

We had already witnessed one sign that North Korea????????s totalitarian system is dissolving, even as its leaders boast of owning nuclear weapons to deter their enemies.

???????It????????s just like the Berlin Wall,??????? Pastor Douglas Shin, a Christian activist, said by telephone from Seoul. ???????The slow-motion exodus is the beginning of the end.???????

In interviews for this article over many months, western policymakers, Chinese experts, North Korean exiles and human rights activists built up a picture of a tightly knit clan leadership in Pyongyang that is on the verge of collapse.

Some of those interviewed believe the ???????Dear Leader???????, Kim Jong-il, has already lost his personal authority to a clique of generals and party cadres. Without any public announcement, governments from Tokyo to Washington are preparing for a change of regime.
…
According to exiles, North Korean agents in Beijing and Ulan Bator are frantically selling assets to raise cash ???????? an important sign, says one activist, because ???????the secret police can always smell the crisis coming before anybody else???????.

Wow. Read the rest. All this just since October, 2002, but that’s not surprise considering the news in-between these times.

While the New York Times spews Molotovian propaganda for land reform in Venezuela, Miguel’s got some AUTHENTIC reporting about what a terrifying disaster it’s becoming, a serious maelstrom of murder, violence, bloodshed and thuggery. This is a must read, the important truth from the blog trumping the flowery ‘Imagine’ picture written up about in the ever-diminishing-in-credibility New York Times.

I was reading the comments from Iraq the Model and noticed the sweet presence of visitors from other lands fighting oppression in their own distant countries. I loved the greetings from the Chinese and Venezuelan names. Word is spreading to every corner on earth,. And the reality is, their time for freedom is going to come too. We are all in this together. And we all share in Iraq’s joy.

Miguel’s got a beautiful short item up in his Venezuelan blog, well worth reading.

Usually John Hawkins does this sort of thing, and he probably will come Monday, but I figured I’d get a jump on it. Now, we all know about the Democratic Underground. It’s basically a breeding website for the far-left socialist type, where they can masturbate each others’ conspiracy theories and nonsensical elitist egos. On such an important day, what do you think their topic of discussion will be? That’s right, how we should never have been there in the first place. From the main post:

9. Again on the Iraqis aren’t stupid note: they KNOW this election is a sham. There might be a tiny percentage who honestly don’t think it’s a sham and then a few more who know it is but hope for the best anyway, but most of them can read the writing on the wall. They know an occupation when they see it and so would you if you were in their shoes. They didn’t ask for this.

Why is it that only the DU is saying that the Iraqis think it’s a sham? Do they have reporters on the ground that we don’t know about?

DrWeird: The people who are happy with the election today… are the same people who were saying “just nuke the sandniggers” yesterday, and they’ll be saying it again tomorrow when the fighting continues. Nobody who actually believes this “democracy” bullshit.

One guy actually tried to rebut some of the poster’s “points,” but was jumped on immediately.

Bouncy Ball: I doubt he or she is even aware of what happened today in Iraq with regards to violence. Too busy sucking up the glorious lies on Faux.

He then posted this, which clarified the rules for our dissenting friend. I guess disagreement isn’t welcome on their forum, like it is here, because they need an escape from the reality where nobody agrees with them.