Assassino! 27 December 2007
Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Pakistan, WAR!.trackback
Benazir Bhutto’s followers with her body, after release from Rawalpindi hospital. Photo from TimesOnline…
Another one….
Asia Times is on winter break til the 2nd of January, with an advisory they will drop in and post as events warrant, so perhaps something by tonight…
IOZ says cui bono a bit vague at the moment… 😉 He also warns against too many tears for dear Benazir. Not to worry!, we are pretty chill here.
Main suspects are warlords and security forces
The main suspects in the assassination are the foreign and Pakistani Islamist militants who saw Ms Bhutto as a Westernised heretic and an American stooge, and had repeatedly threatened to kill her.
But fingers will also be pointed at the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, (ISI) which has had close ties to the Islamists since the 1970s and has been used by successive Pakistani leaders to suppress political opposition. Ms Bhutto narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in October, when a suicide bomber struck at a rally in Karachi to welcome her back from exile.
Earlier that month two Pakistani militant warlords based in the country’s northwestern areas had threatened to kill her.
One was Baitullah Mehsud, a top militant commander fighting the Pakistani Army in South Waziristan, who has ties to al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taleban. The other was Haji Omar, the leader of the Pakistani Taleban, who is also from South Waziristan and fought with the Afghan Mujahidin against the Soviets in Afghanistan. ::snip::
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UPDATE, 3:03 pm — bitter cold here….
Pulling this from Madman forward from the last thread:
- Madman in the Marketplace |
- Getty Images page of photos from the rally today, and the aftermath of the bomber.Dec 27, 10:41 AM — Crazed little revolt on the castle grounds..
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Marisacat 
I’ll refrain from generalizing until they find out who did it. But it would certainly make sense if Al Qaeda did.
That’s the classic objective of terrorism, polarization, eliminate all the alternatives that aren’t the Islamists or the dictatorhip.
I will, however, generalize about American reactions. I’m already seeing it in the media, 9/11 Lite. It’s a “crisis” dammit. We’re at WAR. John McCain and Rudy will make many appearances over the next few days. Huckabee and Ron Paul will go down in the polls.
Hillary’s people will draw the obvious comparisons, she’s the only thing protecting us from the Islamic Extremist Barack Hussein Bin Laden from Illinois.
Way, way OT, if there is sucha thing on this site 😎
Best eva Katrina clip….
It’s all in the mix, some way or another….. 😉
Got way too much time on my hands lately, tween jobs..LOL
Have the NEws Hour on, Karzai met wtih her today (well, their am) before she left for the rally and her speech.
Hmm. McCain’s getting a lot of free publicity out of this.
So there’s motive. How about means and opportunity?
Anyway, they laughed at me when I said Gary Condit demolished the World Trade Center too.
Chrsitopher Hitches entitled his
Daughter of Destiny…. in Slate.
News week has some great weep up, Democracy’s Loss or some such thing…”Hero for Democracy?” that’s it with a question mark…
Back in the day I used to characterize “terrorism” as The Thing. Terrorism is only a tool of The Thing.
The Thing has certain goals, and certain methods of meeting those goals.
The Thing wants total war, on any pretext. Extremism is its best tool. Doesn’t matter what -ism is supporting the extremism.
George Bush completely played into The Thing’s hands with his Iraq war. In fact, once Bush did this, Al Qaeda was no longer important to The Thing’s plans. This is why Al Qaeda sort of disappeared. It’s not that they were scared; it’s that The Thing was getting what it wanted.
When we get a president who tries to do anything sensible and civilized, The Thing will start attacking again. This will be (erroneously) pointed to as proof that “you can’t be soft on terror.” Except terror and kneejerk responses to terror are all part of the game completely controlled by The Thing. And the house always wins, in this case. When you play The Thing’s game, you lose.
In short, expect more terror attacks on American soil if any new American leaders show signs of sensibleness. The Thing hates that.
Counterpunch has a couple of pieces up…
In short, expect more terror attacks on American soil if any new American leaders show signs of sensibleness. The Thing hates that.
so far, from the clips I have heard, they all stuck to the script. Wordy blurbs, signifying nothing.
The worst, that I caught, a toss up between Obamamamama and Commander Romney.
David Schuster did a pretty good job of boxing Ron Paul in about Pakistani nukes. What would you do about Pakistani nuked Dr. Paul?
Paul got out of it by shifting over to the Soviet Union and saying “well we didn’t try to seize 40,000 nukes in Russia”.
Schuster’s not enough of a racist to have said something like “well Muslims are different from Commies”.
But he didn’t have to. The message got across.
Headline in The Note’s afternoon Sneak Peek… without looking I am sure that is from Hillary:
Well this is an actual diary on the Daily Kos.
Breck Girl is out of the Box on the Butto assassination. Woo Hoo
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/27/165555/05/202/426948
ooodles of candidate reaction (and re reaction) at Political Ticker/CNN
thanks for that diary….
and here is the Edwards segment at Political Ticker (with a vid)…
many people are dead, including someone designated as important, there are fires in the streets, a nuclear power may be entering a civil war, and the most important question on CNN is …
… what do the fucking voters in IOWA think?
This is the most narcissistic nation on Earth.
I don’t understand the pressure to hold elections on schedule. Would we have pressured Howard to hold the election on schedule if Rudd were assassinated ten days out?
It isn’t enough time to reorganize in the midst of grief, not in Pakistan and not anywhere else either.
14– No one more so than the raft of idiots at dkos, sniping over which candidate response was worse.
From IOZ comments:
Daughter of the West
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n24/ali_01_.html
A new low for AAR. This evening they are running a call-in show with some psychic fraud named Macaroni Lovehandles or something. Unbelievable.
so where is a good place to get up to date news on Pakistan? Any good Pakistan blogs?
NYCO:
Boing Boing post with links to three Metblogs:
Lehore, Karachi and Islambad.
I figured there would be less chance of getting spammed if I put one link instead of three.
I just started looking around them. The Karachi Metblog has several eyewitness reports.
Online home of Pakistani paper The Dawn.
Mediachannel post with links to several Pakistan blogs.
gosh… it is bitter cold here, which means it must be windy out and around or under 45…
I took a [fast, very fast] tour of the so called liberal blogs and blahgs, EVERYBODY is fighting over who is using the Bhutto death. Get a clue, all the candidates are.
And all the silly headlines around… The Guardian even has one (admittedly out of about 8 between comment, lead pieces, news headlines etc on the killing) about the death of a “courageous liberal”.
sigh.
The Guardian does have a commentary from Tariq Ali:
… madman, thanks for the links to the Pakistani blogs.
8)
SNow in the Bay Area…. it does seem really cold.
and mattes, thanks for dropping that link in also. very informative.
a bit more from Tariq Ali in today’s Guardian, link at # 23:
bhutto’s wasn’t the only pakistani campaign that got attacked today, the emergency times (a lahore university student blog) reported that a nawaz sharif rally got shot at earlier this afternoon.
my money’s on musharraf. take out a political rival, frustrate american plans to replace him, and justify security measures all in one fell blow.
now the battle appears to be in the streets. my thoughts are with the everyday people of pakistan burning tires and throwing up roadblocks, who don’t even exist in the american imaginary of the despotic orient, fuck all the corrupt politicians and generals.
Asia TImes has a post up on the assassination…
Hi everybody!
Well, that was predictable, unfortunately (as far as the personal/family side goes anyway). She certainly wouldn’t have managed to bring democracy back to Pakistan with all of the instability that already exists there and under a constant threat of death.
So many suspects: al Qaeda, radical Islamists, Musharraf, the army, the CIA (what better way to put US pressure on Mush to go after the terra-ists?)
I put a post up about the political circus. It was amazing how quickly the candidates trotted out their “i’m better than the rest of you wankers on foreign policy” creds. Not ‘amazing’, really. Again predictable and just plain ridiculous, imho. No matter what happens in the world, it’s all about how it affects the US, right? Tsuami in Indonesia? CNN will show you how to survive one even if you live in Kansas (because you just never know).
Anyway, hope this finds you all well and I’m glad the xmas madness is over. I’ve finally had a chance to breath and eat. Crocheted my little fingers off. Missed all of the wisdom here. I’ve been so out of touch. Good to be ‘back’.
Hel-oooooooooooooooooo catnip!
Welcome back!
…and good to have you back!
P.S. When I checked in on dkos earlier, I saw the daddy kos berating the unruly children diary over ratings wars at the top of the rec list. 900+ comments at the time.
Huh? What? Benazir Who was assassinated? Sod off. We’re busy talking about ourselves here.
I wonder if they all just realized the Dems are no different than the Repubs when it comes to foreign policy – so why even bother talking about Pakistan? It’s not like their gods and goddesses are going to change anything. (Ooops, did I say that out loud?)
I only have a short break from the crocheting because I promised to do an afghan for a friend’s niece but I plan to stay more in touch with the political scene and the blogs again. I definitely bottomed out – so damn tired of the ’08 election coverage (like it matters who wins in the whole scheme of things??).
CNN has two bits up
One noting Benazir said if killed, it’d be Mushy…
CNN Mush did it LINK
The second 4aEST :
is citing FBI and DHS as saying Al Qaeda claimed responsibility
FBI DHS says AQ, Osama, Col. Mustard,
liberalcatnip, that diary is a study in DK madness”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/27/91210/607/363/426787
You have the klueless kos who instigated all this nonsense with his sports site fantasy play rules, and now like the little boy-king he is, wants to chastise people for acting exactly the way his rules led to the present situation. The simplest thig would be to be rid of the tr and tu and all the other high school clique bullshit. But kos has to keep the kids on the field! Win one for the pootie!
And read kagro x’s lame arguments in that thread for the height in condescending ignorance. What a dick. But he knows how to suck up to his master.
But he knows how to suck up to his master.
– cad
Pooor Daily kos. Just a glorified Glory Hole.
As for Tatiana, the Siberian tiger (and the city hs given out 5, FIVE, different measurements for the concrete wall since the incident):
whoops. “Unholy dust-up at the Church of the Nativity” in Bethlehem.
Wonder who the Alpha PRedator is in that conflab.
I will say it again:
The OUt of Iraq NEEDS to disband and apologise to the US anti war for having been a sideshow.
Lynne Woolsey endorsed Hillary today.
There’s either something very illegal here or Veronica isn’t Swedish.
http://politicalfleshfeast.com/showComment.do?commentId=51738
{waves to catnip}
oh, catnip, btw–due to a de-installed gallery show, I picked up about 15 pounds of red silk string. Long pieces, since they went from wall to wall in the installation.Couldn’t see them being thrown away.
What can I do with all this beautiful string?
liberalcatnip, no. 29,
I would say we can definitely cross the CIA off the list of suspects in Bhutto’s murder. At this point, she was probably on the payroll, along with King Abdullah, Hosni Mubarak, a number of Lebanese politicians, etc. She was to be Our Gal In Islamabad, going after the Islamic fanatics in the regions bordering Afghanistan more aggressively than Musharraff has so far dared to. At this point, the various fanatics are so closely connected to the army and the state security services that it’s most likely (in my opinion) that they collaborated on killing her. Now we have no one but Musharraff, whom we no longer trust.
MCat, no. 38,
I saw footage of that dustup on the DC NBC affiliate last night. It was hilarious, like something Mel Brooks would have dreamed up. The newsreader damn near broke out in raucous laughter, and had a huge smile on her face after the tape of the fight finished. I suppose afterwards, the pugilists shook hands, went out for a glass of ouzo/raki, and laughed about how they should really have directed their anger at the Turks.
Re Tatiana the Tiger:
My zoo also has Siberian tigers, but they are kept in a ravine-type enclosure where the public can only look down on them from a high observation platform (if the tigers get out, they won’t be lunching on these people) or from a same-level window (no more than 15 feet wide) covered with two layers of Plexiglass and set into a thick stone wall. (tigers can’t smell them so much)
The tigers also aren’t fed in front of the public, but in a secluded area. I think feeding big predators with bystanders around is asking for trouble – big cats should never associate spectators with food.
Our zoo also has a novel presentation for the tiger exhibit… as you approach via a winding trail, you see signs (in English and Russian, since they’re Siberian tigers) warning that ruthless tiger poachers are in the area. So when you get to the enclosure, the scenario is that the tigers are hiding from the poachers, which makes it more exciting for the little kids when you actually do get a glimpse of a tiger in the ravine.
It seems like the SF zoo is a rather old zoo that needs major upgrades in thinking, not just facilities. However, it must be said that my local zoo was once considered of the absolute worst zoos in America; after a complete makeover, it’s now a truly nice smaller zoo. Hopefully the SF zoo will modernize and re-think what it does.
When you think about the Bhutto assassination, John Kerry was right in 2004.
You flood Afghanistan with US troops (those 100,000 that went into Iraq) and special forces. You get Bin Laden and draw off the Islamists from the tribal areas in Pakistan into Afghanistan where they can be killed by the US military.
At the same time, you flood Afghanistan with US and UN aid money, advisors, humantarian workers. You set up a model democracy which you would have had the overwhelming and internationalized force to do.
That takes the pressure off of Pakistan and lessens the “need” for a dictatorship. All those Jihadis who went to Iraq would have gone back to their old caves in Afghanistan.
While you do this, you open up relations with Iran and cooperate with them to get rid of Saddam and put in a Shiite majority government under Sadr perhaps.
Too bad Kerry and the Democrats never really had the courage of their own insights and really pushed hard to shift the “war on terror” to Afghanistan. It was just campaign rhetoric and they gave in and supported the war in Iraq with no pressure at all.
From the Gail Sheehy November interview with Benazir Bhutto, to be published in Parade magazine Jan. 6:
“Fortunately for her, the West’s urgent fear of Pakistan as a breeding ground for terrorists has given Bhutto the chance to redefine herself. During most of her exile, she was considered irrelevant by Washington. Then she hired Hillary Clinton’s image-maker, Mark Penn, and began playing up to Musharraf.”
Bhutto’s niece seems to have quite a poor opinion of her:
http://www.parade.com/benazir_bhutto_interview.html
Miss Devore, no. 46,
The Bhutto clan has proven to be a South Asian version of the Borgias. If you click on that link that mattes provides in no. 17, you’ll see that Benazir’s husband was probably responsible for murdering her brother (Fatima’s father), and Benazir, who was PM at the time, used her authority to cover this up — and that’s the best case scenario. It’s possible she knew of the hit beforehand and allowed it to happen. Or planned it herself.
On Sunday night Jeanne and Spider Robinson have set up a “Stardance” in zero-g on Sunday. From a blog this past Sunday:
From the project’s mainpage:
The cynic in me wants to mutter that the world is falling apart, and no one is going to be able to afford to go to space, but the kid who devored science fiction still inside me can only say, “cool”!.
CNN is reporting that the Pakistani gov’t is claiming that she wasn’t shot, or hit by shrapnel: she slipped and fell from the moonroof and hit the back of her head.
How do you make a dreadful situation even worse? The Bush administration is apparently trying to provide the world with a textbook example:
Please note that Mr. Sharif’s political party is being torn asunder by a split between those who take it’s Muslim tenets very seriously, and those who are interested only in paying lip service to it. Mr. Sharif is heading up the latter faction, and the gun battle that killed 4 of his supporters yesterday was part of that intramural party feud.
Please also note that it was Mr. Sharif who oversaw Pakistan’s becoming a nuclear power. As PM he also suspended civil liberties, set up military courts, and dismissed provincial governments with whom he quarreled. He also sent Pakistani troops into Indian held territory to assist some Kashmiri rebels. After they were expelled with heavy losses by the Indian army, India threatened an invasion of Pakistan. It’s also very likely that he conspired with Osama bin Laden in the late 1980s to overthrow Benazir Bhutto’s first government.
Anyone familiar with the goings on in Saigon between late 1963 and early 1965 will feel a sense of deja vu when reading about this.
Madman, no. 49,
Very believeable. If only the Warren Commission had thought of that!
Oh, so much lazy reporting. CNN is pushing the “your tax refund will be late b/c of that horrible Congress” story for days now. Turns out, only a small percentage of people will be affected
I notice that many of those schedules seem to affect lower-income filers (judging by the names … I’m no tax expert). Being too lazy to do more research, I can only wonder how “fixing” a tax that only affects people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year can require a change in the Mortgage Interest Credit.
There are slightly over 300 million people in this country, so if the number affected is right, that’s 4 – 5% of the population. I googled tax refund, and noticed that the stories in the main section of the papers and websites push the scare-mongering version at the top of the story, the business pages tend to give the details at the top.
48 – Crikey, what’s next – bad clams? Bird flu?
My Rep. is celebrated in The Capital Times:
Attytood: The Musharraf Commission to announce that a lone nut killed Bhutto
Attytood: The Musharraf Commission to announce that a lone nut killed Bhutto
Maybe true but it would also prove that the Pakistani secret service wasn’t paying close attention (probably intentionally). Or they completely suck.
I googled tax refund, and noticed that the stories in the main section of the papers and websites push the scare
Why precisely can’t the government just shut down those “Early Refund Loan” scams? They are lending money against US government refunds.
Chris Clarke on SF Zoo:
Why precisely can’t the government just shut down those “Early Refund Loan” scams? They are lending money against US government refunds.
Are you kidding? The IRS was PROMOTING them. The last two years filing electronically took you to a page that provided a long list of different “providers”, most of which offered “early refunds” at the very beginning of the process, an offer that was repeated throughout the process.
This year they seem to have gone back to letting you file directly w/ the IRS electronically. I remember reading that there were many complaints about how different it was to file for free under what they were offering (electronic filing is supposed to be free … many of the “providers” made that difficult).
oops, “different” was supposed to be “difficult”.
The zoo has a bad record in keeping large animals of any type.
BINGO… this is precisely the problem and has been for decades.
The Zoo has been a barely concealed land grab, frankly. 15 or so years ago management of the Zoo was handed over to a non profit org… but the city is reeling that they will have to share in the law suits… And since AZA saw the area within the past few years, I suspect they too will get sued over the insufficient wall.
The moat (if one believes their figures, the latest ones) was more than is advised (it is 33 ft across) but the wall is the problem, falls far short. They have found concrete in her back claws so ti seems she did scale the wall.
It is clear the cops are NOT comfortable (at least as of yesterday) with the idea the cat(s) were “provoked” or baited. However the two survivors have stated they will have lawyers. hard to know iwth no tapes and no witnesses to the events outside the cat grotto.
Are you kidding? The IRS was PROMOTING them. The last two years filing electronically took you to a page that provided a long list of different “providers”, most of which offered “early refunds” at the very beginning of the process, an offer that was repeated throughout the process.
So if you’re the kind of person who’d probably use an “early refund loan” you’d actually be better off not getting a refund, or even paying on April 15th. If everything adds up and you end up paying 10 bucks you’re OK. If you get a refund of 500 bucks you wind up paying back 1500 or whatever in interest by the end of the year.
FYI (I find her so bizarre, I will watch):
Clinton will be George Stephanopoulos’ exclusive guest Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week.”
(from The Note)
Terminus
Protect the brand! At all costs!
The Note:
Chapati Mystery:
via Feminist Law Professors blog:
Women’s Mideast Peace Movement Marks 20 Long Years
Link for Feminist Law Profs … they have good stuff there.
Here’s a piece by Fatima Bhutto that ran in the LA times Nov. 14th.
Aunt Benazir’s false promises
Hey Miss D,
What can I do with all this beautiful string?
Depends on the weight and type, I suppose. That’s a lot of string! I’d google string crafts or check out a place like craftster.org for some ideas. I could see using it for a mural, covering vases, frames or weaving it into something, for example.
JJB,
I would say we can definitely cross the CIA off the list of suspects in Bhutto’s murder. At this point, she was probably on the payroll,
Yes, but this wouldn’t be the first time the CIA used someone towards their own ends in some grander scheme that they cooked up thus being willing to sacrifice her in the process. Nothing the US gov’t has done to put pressure on Mush has worked when it comes to getting serious about the insurgents in the north. Frankly, I don’t think he’s going to be around much longer either – leaving a dangerous void in the political scene in Pakistan.
As for Sharif, I saw a news crawl blurb yesterday that Bhutto’s family has asked him not to attend Bhutto’s funeral. I don’t know if that’s for security or political reasons.
Huckabee calls for border crackdown in response to Bhutto’s assassination
Like your followers, Governor?
Compassionate Conservatism.
HuckaNutter.
Borders are meaningless when the threat is internal.
God, what a dumb cluck. And iirc he has some sermons he is refusing to release that talk of women being submissive. And his Dominionist buds want women fully withdrawn from the workplace.
bow wow.
liberalcatnip, no. 69,
The thing is, we’re no longer putting pressure on Musharraff, we’re trying to dispose of him. The trouble is, with Bhutto gone, there are no likely candidates to replace him with. The whole idea behind returning her to Pakistan was to put pressure on him to be more aggressive in dealing with the Islamic radicals in the border areas – which are only part of Pakistan because the Brits drew a line through southeastern Afghanistan about 110 years ago and added parts of it to their Indian possessions.
The British Empire, the gift that keeps on giving.
I n otice the odd reference here or there, we are looking at Riana again… the “next general up”, head of the mil
Prolly Plan C.
60–
A rather unfortunate AZA statement on the SFZoo incident.
Short version: SFZoo is accredited. Accredited zoos are safe.
AZA is yet another good nonprofit that suffers greatly from a lack of any functioning mechanism for dealing with criticism.
Clinton mère is calling for an international commission on the Bhutto assassination/”fall”, and just going on and on about how her “experience” will undo the damage done by Bush … Wolfie not pointing out that her “experience” showed her to roll over and give him everything he asked for.
Why do I watch this shit?
BTW, it’s a winter wonderland here … the wind is blowing really hard from the east, off Lake Michigan. It’s pretty, in a stuck-in-the-house sort of way.
I can barely remember that there was a time when I would have gone out and PLAYED in this sort of weather.
7576she also is going after Obamamamama for politicising the death (which his guy, Axelrod, certainly did do, but hey, they all have).
Yup, they all are, including her going on about how she KNEW Bhutto and blah blah blah.
Vile people for a vile society.
melvin,
thanks for that. I read a quote from the man incharge of the national tiger program. Think they were called “amurs” …. it was his decision she be bred at Denver zoo and his decision sh be moved to SF for the opportunity to breed here.
All based on a “safe environment”.
Oh and Newsom is in Hawai’i again. I have not checked SF Gate yet today, but I am sure there are more “dvelopments”. At least new measurements for all surfaces….
Edwards criticises Obamama man Axelrod on Hillary:
via http://tpmelectioncentral.com
Guess they are not ready for kumbayah.
Guess they are not ready for kumbayah.
Hey. As long as everybody keeps shopping, the terrorists lose.
JJB,
In my best impression of a CIA plotter, my supposition was that if Bhutto was assassinated, Bushco could point to the terra-ists (who they’ve already blamed), grab Mush by the collar (publicly) and say ‘Look, you uncooperative bastard: we’re paying your allowance to the tune of billions of flipping dollars so you’d better get a grip on your country or you’ll be the next up to be targeted by one of those ‘terra-ist’ bullets.’ This also sets up a very handy excuse for the US to send in troops to Waziristan for Operation Cleanup despite Mush’s opposition. That’s ‘diplomacy’ – Bush style.
Bush ‘to veto’ troop funding bill:
Well, gee. Maybe if the military hadn’t lost billions of flipping dollars transported on pallets to Iraq, the Iraqi gov’t would actually have the funds.
The truth is that Bushco never met a lawsuit that it wouldn’t quash with the full force of the boy king’s power.
Bhutto was apparently killed by the car’s sunroof now. Bush declares a Global War on Sunroofs.
if Bush is vetoing that bill to protect the gov’t of Iraq, can the donks PLEASE now stop funding the whole fucking mess?
It’s not like they shouldn’t be able to turn any attacks back on a Republican veto, right?
Oh, right … nevermind.
Not really as strange as it sounds. If there’s an explosion or if the driver of the vehicle was trying to pull away or if he stopped abruptly, it’s basically just like an auto accident without a seatbelt, only here you have solid metal instead of a dashboard or a stearing wheel.
“Trying to duck” sounds as if it could be a bad translation. It’s probably more like she hit the lever and a huge hunk of metal came down on her head.
The more you read about stuff like this the more you realize how so much sheer chance is involved. I think Gavrillo Princips shot at Archduke Ferdinand like 6 times and missed before Ferdinand’s drive doubled back down the street and gave him another shot.
With 9/11, if one alert ticket clerk had raised a fuss, it might have been remembered a bit like the Milenium bomber.
86 — Guess it is time for a mjor roundup of the eyewitnesses. Amidst the ones I have heard/seen floating around are doctors describing the bullet wounds in some detail, photogs on scene describing gunshots, pics of here in the car just sticking out, not standing on top of it, etc.
CNN has video of a gun, Three shots, then blast.
Doesn’t seem to be moving very fast.
well there were several professional photogs, including the Getty one, who photographed thru it and heard the shots, THEN the blast.
Now she may have hit god knows what on the way down… I just saw a non professional video taping done from her left side, must be one of goodness knows how many. His camera slid away as the noise and tumult hit, but I bet others kept filming.
what a mess.
I can’t believe how the cable news shows are using this to pimp Giuliani.
But note what you’re not hearing. Has anybody heard anybody ask the following question?
Was it a mistake to shift the focus of the “war on terror” from Afghanistan to Iraq?
I haven’t heard this asked once.
well maybe not pundits but that (they voted to forsake the REAL war!! – We don’t have Obama, er Osama!) has been teh core of the rather extreme finger pointing from Axelrod to Hillary (and less so to Edwards)…
it could get hairy [hairier] in Iowa… seems there is some trendline indication (til the next polls come out of course!) that Hillary and Edwards are solidfying as Obama loses some.
The dreaded “early peaking” get mentioned.
May they all bleed to death in the snows and swamps.
well maybe not pundits but that (they voted to forsake the REAL war!! – We don’t have Obama, er Osama!)
I don’t even see any of the Democratic candidates doing it the way Kerry did in 2004.
But I guess they’re so wedded to the war in Iraq now that if they say “well duh. Kind of stupid letting Bin Laden escape to live in a state with actual nukes to move our military over to a defanged secular state without nukes” it makes them look bad too.
I’m not necessarily defending going into Afghanistan in 2001, but it certainly would have made more sense to draw the Pakistani fundis across the border into a state that the entire world agreed you had a right to go into than inavade Iraq.
Maybe Edwards is saying it. I don’t know. But it feels as if there’s a closer consensus on foreign policy this year than in 2004.
Listening to Obama speak puts me to sleep. He’s much too calculated and careful. Makes you wonder what an authentic Obama would look like and that’s not a Good Thing™.
I haven’t heard this asked once.
Me neither. I wonder why…? Hmmm… Oh yeah… 😉
MSNBC is saying that the concussion from the blast slammed her head into the metal handle.
OK. Tweety and Giuliani are now going into the “we should pay more attention to Afghanistan” question and Tweety’s even bashing Bush.
Looks like the media set me up nicely to ask the question they wanted.
MSNBC is saying that the concussion from the blast slammed her head into the metal handle.
So nobody killed her! Whew, what a relief. I thought someone would have to be held responsible. Now the rioters in Karachi can just go home.
Well it’s pretty obvious that the Pakistani secret service has really piss poor emergency procedures.
The should have had a couple of secret service guys immediately cover her up and bring her down to a safe place as soon as they heard the gunshots.
They knew it was coming. Sounds like negligence approacing negligent homocide. Don’t these guys train for this? Don’t they train their reflexes and their instincts?
“The Huffington Post has learned that, in a move bound to create controversy, the New York Times is set to announce that Bill Kristol will become a weekly columnist in 2008. Kristol, a prominent neo-conservative who recently departed Time magazine in what was reported as a “mutual” decision, has close ties to the White House and is a well-known proponent of the war in Iraq”
All they will call you will be deportees
Asylum Airways
This is intended to avoid aborted deportations on regular commercial airlines caused by the interference of other passengers. No one will even see them – or you – go.
hmm
The gay community in Chicago has come out to call two murders anti gay crimes, one mid November and one 5 days ago, the one on Dec 23 is the Deacon and Choir Director at the Obama church…
from the top of the article:
well, I do remember the accusations against Cardinal Bernadin, that were eventually rejected by the gay community in Chicago.
But I really think tying this to Obama is ludicrous.
oops for Huckabee… I missed this this am.
and WHooooops for Edwards, too
102
are they tying it to Obama?
It is only interesting if he is asked about it.
And does badly.
… and scruggs makes for a good break (and is back from hiatus) from the pols and their landlocked drudgery:
Those long words there really make me think of … triangulation. Twice over.
good post from Craig Crawford on how the Clinton camp is playing the polls to assist her downplaying.
Good points on the latest polls, CC read all 34 pages of the internals.
All the Ron Paul news not fit to print. The so-called paper of record screws up yet again.
Okay. Who invented the word “postracial” and didn’t tell me?
Honestly, that sounds like something Stephen Colbert would come up with since he ‘doesn’t see colour’. When do we hit the “postgender” era?
Robert Fisk’s latest on Bhutto’s assassination:
Exactly. Her murder has wiped away all of her sins. (Can Chris Matthews possibly fawn MORE over her??)
And Fisk mentions AQ Khan. I don’t know why but his protection by Pakistan and the US has been a thorn in my side. I think there’s much more to his story than we’ll ever really know.
He ends with this which nails it, as usual:
Exactly.
Get ready for something to blow up (she said, sarcastically): Convicted Guantanamo detainee (Australian David Hicks) walks free from jail.
Off the beaten track: Revealed: The seven great “medical myths”
(Boring) lineups for the Sunday news shows
And with that, I’m off.
Oh yeah – has anyone heard from Tuston?
I always thought that “eight glasses of water a day” thing was b.s. Who on earth drinks that much in the course of a normal day? That’s a LOT of water. I probably drink two to three glasses a day, tops.
Former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif has blamed the current government for Benazir Bhutto’s death:
And it seems this incident has increased the possibility that the country may simply break up:
Well, it was already a ludicrous construct from the start, with an eastern province separated from the main part of the country by something like 1,000 miles of territory, and that now-independent eastern part populated by people who had nothing in common linguistically and ethnically with the majority of their fellow citizens in the western regions (which themselves had all kinds of multi-ethnic/lingual differences). It’s as if Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg were all one province of a federation that included Lithuania as it’s eastern part.
On another note, in the interests of providing an accurate account of historical events, I will note that Gavrilo Princip managed to kill Archduke Ferdinand and his wife on the first attempt. He was part of a group of conspirators who had placed themselves along the procession route in Saravejo that day, and two of his confederates had missed their chance. One lost his nerve because he feared a policeman standing nearby would arrest him (another version I’ve read had him feeling sorry for the Archduke’s wife). The second threw a hand grenade that the Archduke’s driver managed to avoid. It exploded under the following car, seriously wounding two passengers. Later on, the Archduke’s car was taking him to visit with those victims when the driver made a wrong turn. He ended up stalling the car as he attempted to turn around, and came to a halt just a few feet from Princip, who then shot and killed both the Archduke and his wife.
All of this is easily found on the Internet, providing you have the energy to look it up. Or you could crack open one of several books you might own. 🙂
Think I’m stuck in Moderation/spam.
Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki has flown to London to seek medical treatment, apparently for exhaustion and/or heart problems.
This passage from the Fisk article liberalcatnip links to is especially interesting:
Messrs. Fisk and Ali, meet Peter Dale Scott.
Juan Cole has a very good round up of what’s going on in Pakistan. It seems that Karachi, the country’s largest city, former capital, and most important sea port is virtually shut down and sealed off from the outside world. Also note this report, from a commenter:
I wonder what will become of US plans to send troops to Pakistan. “Early 2008” was the time given. Was it expected that Bhutto would be in power post january 8?
I saw a live report by CNN’s Peter Bergen last nite (early morning in Pakistan) where he commented on how eerily quiet it was where he was. Not sure if it was Karachi.
With that in mind, there does not seem to be any way for the Musharraf gov’t to continue.
So, will Bush throw Mush to the wolves or keep propping him up? At this point, it seems he doesn’t have much choice considering the nukes involved.
Avoid the camel dip at your New year’s parties:
http://tinyurl.com/22umv6
Who on earth drinks that much in the course of a normal day?
I’m with you there. If I drank that much water, I’d spend the entire day in the can. (TMI, I know.)
Ewww…camel meat. I suppose it tastes like chicken?
2 from JJB out of Moderation…
Comments 114 and 116
Sorry! for the delay…
8)
JJB, #116
meet Peter Dale Scott.
Interesting stuff on his site as well. Thanks for that link.
The Iowa Caucus Con.
Beyond that, I’m quite sick of the way the Iowa caucuses have been touted as being as important as the actual election day. CNN sure was quick to scale down its coverage of the Bhutto death to move right back into what Joe/Jane Candidate is doing in Iowa – as if any of that is actual news or really matters in the scheme of things. You’d think that whoever wins Iowa wins the election.
[…] a timely link from JJB in the previous thread… we are lost in deep politics and […]
up up and away… LOL
LINK