Beat the rush: be terrified now

Way beyond embarrassing: The world knows, while we continue to deny it, in the face of overwhelming evidence. This is an IndiaTimes story about the CIA manual that OKs torture. Folks, we're gonna pay for this.... Note- IndiaTimes is a decent paper, kinda conservative, but they use pop-ups, damn their eyes. Be warned.

Russia is scheduled to have an election in 2008. Here's Russian politics, today. Given Putin's history (KGB career, later (as President) sent Michail Kodorkovsky to Siberia apparently for disagreeing too publicly...?), I don't expect a clean election. Putin has said he won't run again (he's limited to two consecutive terms, by their constitution), but I suspect one or more of the following: 1) election irregularities in Russia will be used to distract us from irregularities in our own polls, 2) terror threats will be used to cancel/disrupt/postpone elections in Russia and/or the U.S., and/or 3), charges will be brought against reformers (in either/both countries) and they will be declared ineligible as candidates or disgraced.

Just a thought.

Breaking news here: Joint Chiefs of Staff in confrontation with the Washington Post -Excuse me, are we in fucking Guatemala or Pakistan or something? Is this a tentative step toward military intervention in the media? Beat the rush: be terrified now.

Oh, and speaking of Pakistan, their last democratically elected leader, Benazir Bhutto, after being ejected in a 1999 coup led by their current leader (and close personal pal of George) Pervez Musharraf, is threatening to return to Pakistan to challenge Musharraf in an upcoming election. She's got massive huevos. To refresh your memory, Musharraf took power in a coup in 1999, then was NOT democratically elected when he took more power in 2001, nor was he elected in the national election that followed in 2002 (I think he said the country was too unstable at that time, or something). Nor was he elected in the national election of 2004, either (he had other things going on. No, he really said words to that effect). Any guesses as to how the '06 or '08 elections might go there? Is that the ISI knocking at my door?

It's a good thing we have guys on our side who are so committed to democracy-ness.

What I find particularly interesting is that he took office in June of 2000, one month before the U.S. announced that it was preparing a strike on Afghanistan, and that Bhutto herself had been strongly opposed to the Taliban government there, most unlike Gen. Musharraf. Does this tell you anything about the "War on Terror"? It should. Remember that Pakistan gets very upset when they think we've crossed their borders -even in hot pursuit of Taliban soldiers- and that Musharraf's very good friend and trafficker in nuclear materials and secrets, A.Q. Khan, got off scot free...