PML-N swept Punjab and PPP swept Sindh, the Islamic parties lost seats in the territories. Jane Perlez and Carlotta Gall are predicting 110 seats for the PPP and 100 for PML-N. Many ministers and parliamentarians from the Chaudry clan and the PML-Q lost seats.

If, as promised, PPP and PML-N join forces in a coalition government, they have the votes needed to impeach Musharraf and to restore the Constitution.

Good for them!

A few hours after the size of the defeat became clear, the government eased up on the restrictions against, Aitzaz Ahsan, leader of the lawyers’ movement that has opposed the president. .

Mr. Ahsan who has been under house arrest since last November when Mr. Musharraf imposed emergency rule for six weeks, found the phones in house were suddenly reconnected.

“Musharraf should be preparing a C-130 for Turkey,” Mr. Ahsan said, referring to Mr. Musharraf’s statements that he might retire to Turkey where he spent his childhood.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/world/asia/19pstan.html?pagewanted=2&hp

The more I think of the Kristol piece the madder I get. I wish there was a way to out him for the cribbing he did to support a totally dishonest column.

I hope Glenn takes it on, as he has taken on Klein, John King, and other rat trap MSM hacks.

That's great news although I thought it would be days until all the votes would be counted. Is there any way that Musharraf could still find a way to rig the election? Is the Army willing to see him go?

If op-ed Krystol was a hard rock guitar-player and a modern rock band enthusiast who began to promote calm melody, and,

a love for Beethoven... Sorry!

B.K.'s got zilch credibility now!

The GOPS's offspring will cuss.

`

I read R. K. after a trip to India.

Thanks for the beautiful post.

Bill Krystol's crew use a oboist,

to clean earwax from stuff-ears.

No Comment

by Scott Horton

February 18, 9:51 AM

Still Writing as Bad as I Can

George Orwell, my favorite essayist, described reading Kipling’s poetry as “a shameful pleasure, like the taste for cheap sweets that some people secretly carry into middle life.” That, I have to admit, is much the attitude I have towards Bill Kristol’s New York Times columns. They’re so bad, so predictable, so thoroughly clichéd that it’s a sort of malicious treat to read them. And today’s exercise, “Democrats Should Read Kipling,” which offers us Rudyard Kipling supposedly through the optic of Kristol reading Orwell, is a veritable stale Milk Dud. It’s too bad to resist. (continues)

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002431

sorry, the title of the kipling book dedicated to his lost son is "the irish guards in the great war" subtitle, the first battalion. my irish background had to add the republican part, as nasty as that word is in today's context.

anyhow, it is a great piece of writing by a man come to grips with his past through personal tragedy.

too bad our chickenhawks never studied this war...

If you were a Mother of 1, 000 doing the wash upon the rocks at the Grand Canon at midnight,

O, Bless you dear...

I've appreciated you.

The way you pound,

and scrub so clean.

I feel less a surly dog.

The vote counting won't be complete until tomorrow or the next day, and there is still one district to vote (in NWFT, due to the bombing a couple days ago). As with U.S. elections, there are projections and the votes come in first from the big cities. Musharraf has reportedly told defeated candidates to go down gracefully.

General Kayani, the new army chief announced early this week he intended to take the army out of politics -- a position similar to the one the military has in India. I don't know, but my guess is that the army came down on the side of no bloodshed.

This is only the first step on a long climb upward, but it's important, and if the coalition they promised really happens they could get a lot of climbing done. The AWAMI party won big in the territories -- that's the secular party. That means that the Pashtuns are also on board for this. The next step is to revert to the 1973 Constitution and to re-instate the judiciary. PML-N (Nawaz Sharif) campaigned on the latter, he has the lawyers backing him.

If Joe Biden follows through on his plan to increase development aid at the expense of military aid, we'll have done our part for now. The hard work is all Pakistani, and shouldn't be underestimated. They haven't succeeded very well on their other tries at democracy. But there are hopeful signs. They have a successful India to compete with next door. And the lawyers have considerable political capital with the people.

And the border regions are sick of war. The whole thing might just boil down to the militants being put out of business and run out of town.

You can tell I'm being very hopeful right now, but when apartheid came down in South Africa, the world got a whole new way to solve disputes. There's at least the chance that the Pakistanis may show the world a whole new way to defeat religious extremism. Kinda make the RWA faction here look stupid if they did, wouldn't it?

Brilliant!

Do you scour dishes?

I'll glean fresh fruits?

I'll be mighty fair and share.

I'll wash your clothes at a mountain creek?

I'll sing, 'Born Free' and watch the grass grow.

Please don't misunderstand me? I'll shush up.

Bebop? Did you just tell me to pound sand? Or, were you referring to the eight farm-filthy dogs I washed today. If you'd been inclined to get in line with the rest of them, I probably would have scrubbed you too, never bothering to look up, or have been any the wiser. I'm not sure, but it's possible, I might have noticed somewhat less fur on your hide, but chances are I simply would have been relieved that it was somewhat easier to rinse you off.

Yes. I tease. ;->