pfeh, no broken eggs, no cake!

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What does he think? What does he expect? People are rioting for the chance to be Pakistan.

Extra Credit

torched military vehicles in peshawar

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video

It irks the snot out of me that Pakistan got that fat graft artist for a president when it needs someone like Imran Khan in these times. Just drives me nuts. I guess I shouldn't care, they've fucked up so royally over the years, but I goddam do, like crazy.

pakistan on the brink

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This is supremely bad news.

I've been hearing rumblings all day about international military brass meeting secretly recently and the speculation is that it was about bio-terror, but... well... if it's this bad in Pakistan, wouldn't it be safer to assume they are meeting to coördinate how they're going to get the nukes out of Pakistan? Or am I just imputing too much intelligence and responsibility to this pack of kleptocratic madmen we already know suck planets?

still the bravest man in pakistan

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vindicated

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I wish he were president of Pakistan....

talk about missing the point!

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This bit ignores that Khan has experience with the disaster of political coalitions, the joining together for a greater good, or the lesser of the evils, only to have it backfire in a spectacular way. It ignores that neither party that has benefitted from playing the game has anything near the credibility or credentials for truth and justice and democracy in Pakistan that his does. It ignores that Khan is clearly not after position at the expense of integrity. Blows my mind that political advantage trumps truth in the minds of so many humans. It's LETHAL.

one of my favorites talks to another of my favorites

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And a report from his ex, Jemima Kahn, as it is now election day in Pakistan.

this stuff is going to send me to an early grave, clear from the other side of the planet

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Makes it so you seriously do not want to love anyone there. Bad enough to know humans live there at all, let alone someone you love or admire. I find myself wishing Imran Khan would just give it up and settle for being a world class cricket hero in exile.

Which is why this stuff happens to begin with.

It's the only way to make it so it's too hard for good guys to accomplish anything at all.

It's the way to make everyone on the planet give up trying to ease the abjection of the masses in Pakistan.

So. I ask again. WHO is it really doing this stuff?

Hint: Not Pakistanis and not Islamists.

[Goofiest headline I've seen today: Fears Of Violence As Pakistan Election Approaches... ya think?]

fighting the dictatorship

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And pissing off the Zionist right... inciting their resort to bald-faced lies, flaming vitriol, the usual... which I mention at all because it also shows Imran has been here trying to get our government's support for democracy in Pakistan....

[NPR follows him]

[Democracy Now! follows him... and I highly recommend you take the half hour to watch, or listen, or read the transcript.]

i just caved in to my worry

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So I emailed his party and asked them to post some evidence of his continued well-being on a more regular basis. I mean, I can't find any quote from him since almost two weeks ago, and that gets creepy....

Update, 12 January: Proof of Life....

high court in lahore bombing

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And where the heck is my hero?

But these are minor examples. The general’s real skill, of creating illusions and getting away with it is on full display when we look at Pakistan’s newly emerging sanitised media scene. While Pakistan’s largest news network, GEO News, remains banned on country’s cables, at least six new news channels have penetrated the Pakistani airwaves in the past one month. And they include: Express by the Lakhanis; Waqat by Nawa-e-Waqat group; Samma by CNBC Pakistan and News One by the TV One group and then there are perhaps two Punjabi channels as well.

With such apparent availability of multiple choices, one may even find it difficult to talk of the curbs on media - especially when you are talking to a western journalist or a visitor. The official position that restrictions on media have totally eased or that all channels are back on air - except one - appears to be substantiated. Does that mean the forthcoming elections will now take place under the searching eyes of even more expanded media? But has anyone wondered: Where is Imran Khan these days? When was the last time he was seen on TV? Though no formal memos or orders have been issued, but the great Khan has simply vanished into thin air. And that might be a taste of the times to come.

sanest man in pakistan

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this guy rocks!

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Can I give out a Most Decent and Sensible Man in Pakistan medal? Imran Khan has a lock on it... possibly for life... which I hope fervently isn't going to be shortened by the pigs he's fighting.

get to know what i see in imran khan

Posted to YouTube 6 November

22 November CNN interview

freedom fighter

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Imran Khan has been very busy during Musharraf's emergency. He's acting like Americans are supposed to.

i've been doing a little ducking around my weird back alleys on the net

...and I'm beginning to get the idea why Imran Khan was arrested... perhaps why Musharraf declared the emergency at all.... Just a sneaking suspicion, mind you. I mean, a dashing cricket hero, turned politician? A gorgeous ex-wife who couldn't stand life in Pakistan? He let her go to stay home? Far too much like someone who would lead with his heart instead of his wallet.

khan released from prison

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hunger strike

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UPDATE, 20 Nov: The release of political opponents in Pakistan came hours after judges hand-picked by Musharraf quashed legal challenges to his disputed re-election as president. Still, many high-ranking party activists and leaders, such as former cricket star Imran Khan, remained in prison. Khan began a hunger strike Monday to protest emergency rule.

And while some people were being showed out of detention facilities, others were being led in.

In the southern city of Karachi, police detained about 150 journalists today after clashing with them during a protest against the state of emergency, witnesses said. Two reporters were seen bleeding from head injuries.