Benazir Bhutto

Over at his blog at the Atlantic's site, Matthew Yglesias reminds us that "smart correspondents have made the point that one of the...oddities of western press coverage of Benazir Bhutto is that you tend not to hear about how she's a huge crook. Corruption in a middle-income country, of course, is nothing new and Pakistan in general is not a paragon of good governance. Still, the best of my knowledge Bhutto and her husband [Asif Zardari] stand out as unusually corrupt by Pakistani standards, which is precisely how she wound up ejected from power."

Yglesias links to an article by the New York Times's John F. Burns, published on January 9, 1998--a long piece, but extremely illuminating.

Norman Mailer

There are eulogies galore for Norman Mailer, but one of my personal favorites is "The Big Guy," blogger Phil Nugent's appreciation.

Paul Krugman Lights a Candle in The Darkness

Listened yesterday to a speech of Paul Krugman's on American Public Media's Word for Word. Turned out to be unexpectedly uplifting and heartening, as is this superb review by Michael Tomasky.

Ron Paul, George W. Bush, and Anarchy

Professor Juan Cole argues here that Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's fundraising success is fueled not only by opposition to the war in Iraq, but also by Bush's abuse of government's functions, thus making anarchism seem increasingly attractive.

New Orleans and Political Calculations

The always eloquent Digby has some cogent thoughts about New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, and Karl Rove's political calculus here.