Yes, the tinfoil hat crowd has been warning for years that Bush would call for Marshall Law and a suspension of elections, due to national emergency. Most people just point and laugh, or if feeling more charitable, simply proclaim that it could never happen here. But it has happened, at least in the government of one of our strongest allies. An ally that we need right now. So how do we remain allies with a country that has just experienced a political shift that is contrary to everything democracy stands for?
Oddly, if I hadn't seen the buzz on this on political blogs, and the Sunday morning chat shows, I would not yet know this happened. Would you? But dammit, we know that Britney Spears got her kids taken away, don't we? If the tinfoil hatters are right, and we're on the road to losing our democracy, we'll scarcely know it's happening until it's too late. And some won't even notice once it's happened: "Politics is boring!"
[Excerpt]
Musharraf imposes emergency measures
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended Pakistan's constitution and deployed troops in the capital Saturday, declaring that rising Islamic extremism had forced him to take emergency measures. He also replaced the chief justice and blacked out the independent media that refused to support him.
Authorities began rounding up opposition politicians, cut phone lines in Islamabad and took all but state television off air, defying calls from Washington and other Western allies not to take authoritarian measures. . .
