Libya Next

Gaddafi who is think used to be spelled Qaddafi is possibly trying to run to Venezuela, a rumor he refuted tonight in Tripoli with an umbrella:



Why should he be worried? He's shooting directly into peaceful protests and losing his own government out from under him:

"What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said in a live broadcast on al Jazeera television. "Anyone who moves, even if they are in their car, they will hit you."

...

A group of army officers issued a statement urging fellow soldiers to "join the people" and help remove Gaddafi.

The justice minister resigned in protest at the "excessive use of violence" against protesters and diplomats at Libya's mission to the United Nations called on the Libyan army to help overthrow "the tyrant Muammar Gaddafi."

...

Two Libyan fighter jets landed in Malta, their pilots defecting after they said they had been ordered to bomb protesters, Maltese government officials said.

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The demonstrations spread to Tripoli, on the Mediterranean Sea, after several cities in the east, including Benghazi, appeared to fall to the opposition, according to residents.

Human Rights Watch said at least 233 people had been killed in five days of violence, but opposition groups put the figure much higher.

...

A coalition of Libyan Muslim leaders told all Muslims it was their duty to rebel against the Libyan leadership because of its "bloody crimes against humanity."

The building where the General People's Congress, or parliament, meets in Tripoli was on fire on Monday, as was a police station in an eastern suburb, witnesses said.

Even the Libyan ambassador to the U.N. has pledged allegiance to the people, not the dictator and his family. Per Juan Cole, the cost is high:

I am watching Aljazeera Arabic, which is calling people in Tripoli on the telephone and asking them what is going on in the capital. The replies are poignant in their raw emotion, bordering on hysteria. The residents are alleging that the Qaddafi regime has scrambled fighter jets to strafe civilian crowds, has deployed heavy artillery against them, and has occupied the streets with armored vehicles and strategically-placed snipers. One man is shouting that “the gates of Hell have opened” in the capital and that “this is Halabja!” (where Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered helicopter gunships to hit a Kurdish city with sarin gas, killing 5000 in 1988).

This is what pisses me off about Americans who don't bother to exercise their right to vote.

Sharpen those meathooks.

Now the Blood

Foreign journalists are being asked to leave Iran because they clearly don't want any witnesses. Per the news being faithfully logged by Andrew Sullivan, the regime has brought in foreign Hezbollah troops to attack the protesters, block the hospitals, storm the dormitories. I'm betting that once the dust clears, if there's ever an honest accounting, there will be more casualties than imagined. Big if.

Here's the latest from the candidate who seems to have been robbed:

Message From Mousavi

Via my contacts at the Farsi-speaking BBC, a telephone plea:

I AM UNDER EXTREME PRESSURE TO ACCEPT THE RESULTS OF THE SHAM ELECTION. THEY HAVE CUT ME OFF FROM ANY COMMUNICATION WITH PEOPLE AND AM UNDER SURVEILLANCE. I ASK THE PEOPLE TO STAY IN THE STREETS BUT AVOID VIOLENCE

His wife has called for a peaceful protest Monday, but we'll see if the physical repression has scared everyone off by then, and if the cutting of communications has squelched organization.

What's also disturbing is the Western governments, specifically the European Union, which have accepted Ahmadinejad's victory as it legit. This is either uninformed or willfully blind due to trade deals with Iran. Germany and Spain are being the most cautious and may come out right on this, but the biggest problem will be for President Obama, who argued for dialogue with Iran. Now that the legitimacy of the regime is completely in question (moreso than with their heavily "guided" elections of the past, since this seems like an outright steal), how does he negotiate with them without alienating the those fighting for their democratic rights in Iran who are being imprisoned, beaten and killed?

This means a greater likelihood of an Israeli strike (which will certainly strengthen the regime -- just what they need to divert attention from their bald-faced illegitimacy) and happiness for the neocons.

I'm hoping the nighttime protests of citizens getting on their roofs to cry out, "Allah-u Akbar" continue, but that could lead to imprisonment as well, as houses where the cries are coming from are being marked by the military. My guess is more blood tomorrow, perhaps a squelching of the movement Pol Pot-style, if must be, but unless some major armed wing of the government sides with democracy, there's more repression ahead.

Then there's the optimistic side of me that believes with their actions today, Faux-President Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Khamenei have signed their death warrants.

Like this.

Coup & Rebellion

Iran is the epicenter of political immediacy at this very moment. The corrupt religious power masters appear to have stolen the election in particularly blatant fashion. Juan Cole lays out the facts, classic features of stolen elections on display. Gary Sick has the timeline:

On the basis of what we know so far, here is the sequence of events starting on the afternoon of election day, Friday, June 12.

• Near closing time of the polls, mobile text messaging was turned off nationwide
• Security forces poured out into the streets in large numbers
• The Ministry of Interior (election headquarters) was surrounded by concrete barriers and armed men
• National television began broadcasting pre-recorded messages calling for everyone to unite behind the winner
• The Mousavi campaign was informed officially that they had won the election, which perhaps served to temporarily lull them into complacency
• But then the Ministry of Interior announced a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad
• Unlike previous elections, there was no breakdown of the vote by province, which would have provided a way of judging its credibility
• The voting patterns announced by the government were identical in all parts of the country, an impossibility (also see the comments of Juan Cole at the title link)
• Less than 24 hours later, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene`i publicly announced his congratulations to the winner, apparently confirming that the process was complete and irrevocable, contrary to constitutional requirements
• Shortly thereafter, all mobile phones, Facebook, and other social networks were blocked, as well as major foreign news sources.

All of this had the appearance of a well orchestrated strike intended to take its opponents by surprise – the classic definition of a coup. Curiously, this was not a coup of an outside group against the ruling elite; it was a coup of the ruling elite against its own people.

There were riots in Tehran Saturday from people like you and me, fed up not just with the repressive bullshit but with the thwarting of democracy. Riots like were seen back thirty years ago in the revolution.

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Here's citizen video from the middle of a police attack today.

With the government preemptively silencing text messaging and even Facebook (can one even make an ironic crack here anymore?) it is actually Twitter where information is being shared, although possibly silenced late tonight. Following IranRiggedElect, a whole list here of great Web sources to keep up with the rapidly unfolding events.

This is the big test for the ruling class -- can they crack down again -- and the democracy-hungry members of the populace -- can they sustain their energy and efforts in such an environment.

Change or not?

Mugabe Wins

The result of this past week's war on democracy by fascist Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe has been the withdrawal of his electoral rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, from the dubious run-off set for the end of this week. Said Mr. Tsvangirai:

...he could neither participate “in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” nor ask his voters to risk their lives in the face of threats from forces backing President Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe's government has said "win or war" and war it has been:

A governing party militia blocked his supporters from attending a major rally in Harare on Sunday, the head of an election observer team said. The opposition said rowdy youths, armed with iron bars and sticks, beat up people who had come to cheer for Mr. Tsvangirai.

It was the latest incident in a tumultuous campaign season in which Mr. Tsvangirai has been repeatedly detained, his party’s chief strategist jailed on treason charges that many people consider bogus, and rampant state-sponsored violence has left at least 85 opposition supporters dead and thousands injured, according to tallies by doctors treating the victims.

With the neighbors step up?

Mr. Tsvangirai’s decision to quit the race seems intended to force Zimbabwe’s neighbors to take a stand. There are growing cracks in the solidarity that African heads of state have shown for Mr. Mugabe, an 84-year-old liberation hero whose defiant anti-Western rhetoric has long struck a resonant chord in a region with a bitter colonial history.

The United States and Britain are pressing to put Zimbabwe’s political crisis on the United Nations Security Council agenda on Monday, a step South Africa, the region’s most powerful nation, has consistently opposed.

So South Africa et al are standing idly by while the thug class has been unleashed in classic totalitarian fashion:

Mr. Tsvangirai, a charismatic former trade union leader who has been Mr. Mugabe’s hated rival for almost a decade, charged Sunday that the president’s violent, vengeful strategy had displaced 200,000 people, destroyed 20,000 homes and injured and maimed over 10,000 people in what he called “this orgy of violence.”

That's how it works.

In a just world it'd be next stop, The Hague.

Prescience

From the June 16, 2001 White House Joint Press Conference transcript:

I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialogue.

There was no kind of diplomatic chit-chat, trying to throw each other off balance. There was a straightforward dialogue. And that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship. I wouldn't have invited him to my ranch if I didn't trust him. (Laughter.)

That was the Joint Press Conference by President Bush and Russian Federation President Putin.

There was no kind of diplomatic chit-chat. No trying to throw each other off- balance. Because that would have been the tactic, you see. Putin's only tactic.

The "Nickname Prezdent" proves once again that he is our nation's greatest judge of character:

On a second day of rallies against President Vladimir V. Putin, riot police officers aggressively broke up a protest in St. Petersburg on Sunday, detaining numerous marchers, including two prominent politicians.

The unrest came a day after a similar event in Moscow ended with the arrest of Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and opposition leader, whose coalition, Other Russia, has declared that Mr. Putin is turning Russia into a dictatorship. A judge sentenced Mr. Kasparov to five days in jail.

Similar demonstrations across Russia this weekend, a week before parliamentary elections, were either banned by regional authorities or squelched by the police.

Putin, Musharraf, it's all just friendly fascism. This is what they do.

Kasparov was recently on the U.S. TV circuit hawking his new book and giving a frank reality check on the growth of Putin's repressive, power aggrandizing moves.

Fortunately, the Cheney/Bush White House is responding:

"We are troubled that Garry Kasparov and other leaders of the opposition have been arrested and detained," said White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Once more time:

Heckuva job, Bushie.

Moron

Wondering about the quality of the news you're receiving, maybe even the news with which you start your day?

Think it might be o.k.?

Then tell me how a so-called professional anchor woman, Hannah Storm can focus her interview with the wife of a major party Presidential nomination candidate on the "get" of getting his wife to stick out her tongue?

Meanwhile there's wild repression by our supposed #1 ally in the so-called "War on Terror", a conviction in a huge Congressional Republican corruption case linked to the Department of Defense, and our nation facing “the worst potential financial crisis since the Depression.”

Party on, Hannah. And show us your piercings.

Mission of Burma

There's a lot of bad stuff to report from all over tonight, but the toughest situation has to be the military crackdown on protesters in Burma, dubbed Myanmar by the brutal current regime.

Thanks to the Internet, there's a blogger on the ground there, first hand reporting. It's bloody, so be warned.

Andrew Sullivan has some video of protesters expressing themselves, then meeting repression.

The Buddhist monks have been the bravest, leading the way, and suffering the greatest losses so far.

Still in house arrest but should be leading the country: Aung San Suu Kyi. Staying silent right now.

The GOP Can't Help It

So another Republican official gets busted for living a lie. Poor Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID). So he wanted to hook up with a stranger in a bathroom. If it were too consenting adults (and not a sting operation) then what's the bother?

Is it because he hypocritically works hard to curtail the rights of out-of-the-closet American homosexuals (per Perez Hilton no less)?

* Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)

* Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)

* Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)

* Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)

* Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)

Is it because he previously demonized the very behavior in which we was engaged?

"This sordid fact of homosexual life surfaced yesterday in an AP article yesterday that reports on the number of arrests police have made for indecent exposure and public sex acts in the restrooms at Atlanta’s airport, the busiest in the world. The increased restroom patrols, begun to apprehend luggage thieves, instead uncovered a rash of sex crimes. Airport restrooms have become so popular that men looking for anonymous sexual trysts with other men have advertised their airport availability on Craigslist. One such ad was from a man saying he was stuck at the airport for three hours and was looking for “discreet, quick action.”

Is it because he hypocritically censured President Bill Clinton for his sexual transgression?

Craig: It’s a, bad boy, Bill Clinton. You’re a naughty boy. The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy.

Or is because he attempted to use his position as U.S. Senator to secure favorable treatment?

Craig "handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, 'What do you think about that?'"

Wow, another scandal for the GOP. Between bribery in Alaska, criminal war without end and closeted ideologues, they are The National Enquirer of American politics. With those mags you just know, it can always get worse.

His constituents want him out, his come-on is being re-enacted by newspeople, he going to have to enter some sort of sexual re-orientation camp.

I'm with Kos, very funny, on this:

To me, it's pretty obvious that every conservative anti-gay extremist is gay. If you're not gay, you don't sit around obsessing over gay sex.

If you sit around obsessing about gay sex, then you're gay. It's that simple.

If they came out of the closet once and for all, they'd be much happier and so would we.

Perhaps that's why Craig did this sort of self-destructive and dangerous behavior -- he hoped to get caught, because then he would no longer need to keep up the charade. And now, after Craig rides off into the sunset, perhaps he'll find the peace and self-acceptance that every human being deserves. Too bad he had to be a member of the party which reviles that which he truly is.

Free yourself, Senator Craig. Free the people, free all the people, to be who they really are.

Even Larry Craig.