Bhuttofuoco

This probably isn’t the most appropriate time to get into this … oh, well.

It’s worth remembering that Benazir Bhutto is a corrupt beneficiary of nepotism who ran an already screwed up country into the ground. Not that she or her entourage deserve a hail of shrapnel or anything, but let’s just go easy on the idea that the attack on her was fueled solely by Teh!Evilest!Evar!New!Caliphate!Jihadis!

Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But Bhutto’s no heroine of feminism. Please.

 

Comments: 54

 
 
 

Yep. Benazir Bhutto is basically a female Sindhi feudal lord. She’s very accomplished, yes, especially as an Oxford student, but it’s still 20% women’s liberation and 80% being the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

 
 

That’s being generous to the women’s liberation side of the equation, too.

 
 

Malkin & Rielh are teh stupid if they think this was defiantly the jihadi’s, me I’d put the money on the ISI.

 
 

But she’s cute. And she’s rich. And she has kittens. That alone could justify Osama blowing her up, or at least the entire neighbourhood where she happened to be driving.

(I was lying about the kittens part.)
(Also about the cute part.)

 
 

Silly people. Everything bad that ever happens anywhere is the islamijihadimunist facistonazis fault. Until proven otherwise. And even then, you never know.

 
 

I don’t know much about her. Is she the Imelda Marcos of Pakistan?

 
 

Well, Bhutto went a long way toward proving that women in government can be just as corrupt as men can, so that actually DOES help to deflate a certain type of sexism – the kind that puts women on pedestals and declares their innate moral sentiments are automatically better than men’s.

 
 

Also, I think that when I learned that Pervez Musharraf took power from her in a millitary coup, it made me have sympathy with her by default. A misguided reaction, perhaps.

 
 

Is she the Imelda Marcos of Pakistan?

Not by far. She was certainly a less than perfect president, and the deal that brokered her return doesn’t exactly impress with its integrity, either, but she’s not (or at least so it seems to me) an evil shitheel like Marcos, just a somewhat craven, possibly corrupt politician who came to power in large part because of her father’s legacy.

But others may know more about this.

 
 

pro president lege prime minister, natch.

 
 

Also, I think that when I learned that Pervez Musharraf took power from her in a millitary coup, it made me have sympathy with her by default. A misguided reaction, perhaps.

Somewhat misguided, yes. Musharraf actually took power from Nawaz Sharif in 1999. Bhutto hasn’t been PM since 1990.

 
 

lobbey said,

October 19, 2007 at 8:46

Malkin & Rielh are teh stupid if they think this was defiantly the jihadi’s, me I’d put the money on the ISI.

“If”?

 
 

Not to threadjack this thing, but K-lo over at the corner is bragging that bids on the Rush Limbaugh letter on Ebay are over $2 million dollars. Not to be suspicious, but who wants to bet that someone has set up a fake account on Ebay and is bidding this thing up to that level to leave Rush holding the bag? Next they’ll be screaming about how liberals have done this to screw over the military.

 
 

Sadly, No! is once again carrying water for the global Caliphate. Wait until Fauxhammer hears about this one!

 
 

Cue statement from John Boehner:

This bid retraction from hotcock007 dishonors not only mr. Limbaugh, but the thousands of courageous men and women of America’s armed forces who believe in their mission and are putting their lives on the line for our freedom and security. hotcock007 should reinstate his bid and apologize to eBay, mr. Limbaugh, and the families of our soldiers and commanders fighting terror overseas.

 
Sadly, Cambridgeport
 

I all but expected this to happen hearing news of her return to Pakistan on the car radio earlier.

The nice thing about always assuming that anyone who travels to a far-off mooslim land will be beheaded by ululating men in turbans is that every act of violence give you that tasty sense of affirmation.

Did he have inside information that Bhutto would be targeted? If so, he might have contacted the embassy. If not, he can STFU. My mother “all but expects” that I will get AIDS, being in a monogomous gay relationship and all. Constructing a worldview out of movie cliches and prejudices doesn’t count as prescience.

 
 

If we accurately remember history, then the terrorists will have won.

 
 

Well, Bhutto went a long way toward proving that women in government can be just as corrupt as men can, so that actually DOES help to deflate a certain type of sexism

Amen, Jillian.

 
Sadly, Cambridgeport
 

Descent of Malkintent hordes shrieking that this post is proof postive that libtards

A) secretly hate women
B) secretly hate Asians
C) secretly hate freedom
D) are willing to sacrifice dozens of innocent civilians to help the terrorists win, purely for partisan political gain
E) eat babies

in 5…4…3…2…

 
 

Her nickname at Harvard was ‘Pinky.’ Pinky Bhutto. Catchy.

And in the end her old man was hanged, while she (briefly) ascended to power. “Hey, it’s business. Nothing personal.”

As for “I was lying…about the cute part.” I’d hit it, if only for the cross-cultural thrill.

And the orgasm.

 
 

Hey, what happened to my pithy comment?

 
 

I don’t know who was behind the bombing but now that Riehl and Malkin have expressed their belief that it was AQ, it’s a safe bet someone else did it.

 
 

Ann Coulter could have told her she should stay out of politics. Just look what Bhutto did!
.

 
 

I like you imitation of Boehner Bistroist! Spot on.

What is amazing to me is all the winger sites being excited about the total on this auction going up & up and zero speculation that they are being played for a fool.

 
 

80% being the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Hahaha! What country would be stupid enough to vote for someone just because their father was president?

 
 

Bhutto-fuoco!! Best translingual pun on LGM in a while.

 
 

Crap–I mean, on “Sadly, No!” Apologies. Just left LGM.

 
 

Hahaha! What country would be stupid enough to vote for someone just because their father was president?

Well, yeah. But there are two major differences in this case:

1. She was very successful academically on her own merits, or so it seems. Pakistan might have been better off if she had become a poli sci prof or an economist or something. At least some of her motivation for getting into politics was a desire for revenge for her father’s execution by Gen. Zia ul-Haq, who was an order of magnitude worse than any of the petty politicians who followed him, Musharraf included.

2. She returned under a movement towards democracy as a symbol of liberation from Zia’s regime on Zia’s death. So she could of been a Megawati or a successful Aung San Suu Kyi.

Except, she wasn’t.

She’s also no Imelda Marcos, of course. She knows how to run a country, she just happens to be feudal lord, and treated the country that way. It looks like corruption to us soi-disant post-feudals.

 
 

Also off topic, except for a tenuous assassination link, but Chertoff visited the wife’s work this week.

A) She can confirm that he generates an field of icy atmosphere at a radius of eight feet.

B) The officially sanctioned protesters were told the wrong place and time to stage their gathering. (He got there before they assembled and used a route to avoid them on leaving.)

C) The Secret Service blocked off the handicapped entrance to the auditorium, and turned away a 90-year-old lady using a walker.

D) This is crazy, because no one can assassinate the undead
, can they?

 
 

Look, either directly or indirectly, this doesn’t happen without the ISI. It may fall anywhere on a continuum from active participation to tacit approval, but they were involved.

Thing is, that in itself doesn’t mean anything because the ISI is pretty seriously fractured between the piece that supports the Taliban and the piece that supports the Musharraf regime. So it’s hard to tell what they set out to accomplish without understanding which faction was responsible.

But either way, if it traces back to government agencies, it certainly goes a long way toward weakening Musharraf further. And with no good succession plan in place, due to him being a military dictator and all, the fall of his government would result in some pretty ugly chaos, martial law and of course, a big fight over the nuke cores…

It’s not good….

mikey

 
 

Bhutto has alleged that fomer army officers associated with Zia ul-Haq were behind the attack. She has ‘also called for an inquiry into why the street lights along her route had been switched off, saying security guards would have spotted suicide bombers if the street lights had been on’.

 
Sadly, Cambridgeport
 

From your link, Gag:

The BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Karachi says Ms Bhutto is clearly attempting to portray herself as a brave fighter for democracy.

But he adds that there are bound to be questions about why, if she had been warned of a suicide bomb attack, she authorised such a slow public procession from the airport attended by hundreds of thousands of supporters.

oh, SNAP!

 
 

If I recall, it was her husband that was supposed to be the corrupt one. Apparently his nickname was “Mister Ten Percent” because he got a 10% cut out of all the deals going on.

 
 

Mister 15%, I think, and why was her husband “Investment Minister” anyway?

 
 

Well, Bhutto went a long way toward proving that women in government can be just as corrupt as men can, so that actually DOES help to deflate a certain type of sexism

and a certain type of feminism, too.

 
 

The woman is still a national leader who risks her life to take on the sort of crazies who attacked us on 9/11. She may be a flawed hero, but she’s done a lot that merits respect. Heck, just being an outspoken female in that culture merits respect.

 
 

Ms Bhutto reminds me of no one so much as your very own Hillary R Clinton.

 
Sadly, Cambridgeport
 

Ms Bhutto reminds me of no one so much as your very own Hillary R Clinton.

Nice one. Except Bill just wants 15% of the female staffers. (sorry, couldn’t resist)

 
 

The woman is still a national leader who risks her life to take on the sort of crazies who attacked us on 9/11. She may be a flawed hero, but she’s done a lot that merits respect. Heck, just being an outspoken female in that culture merits respect.

People have a mistaken idea of Pakistani society. It’s not all of it tribal NWFP (which is itself not at all homogeneous). If you are a woman living near or on Clifton Road, Karachi (Benazir has a house at 70 Clifton), being an outspoken female doesn’t take a lot more courage than being an outspoken political man or a Western woman—certainly not in her heyday. If you’re a woman who is the daughter of a Sindhi vadêra and major national politician *and* living near or on Clifton Road, Karachi, it takes even less courage. It does take *some* courage, in general, to stand up to General Zia and the military, however.

By the way, she’s part of the problem, not part of the solution on the “crazies” front, and she has and will cut deals with them.

 
 

All I know is that with all this turmoil in Pakistan, Michelle Malkin has retreated to her tree fort and has locked and loaded all her pellet guns.

Bring it on!

 
 

Also, I think that when I learned that Pervez Musharraf took power from her in a millitary coup, it made me have sympathy with her by default. A misguided reaction, perhaps.

Somewhat misguided, yes. Musharraf actually took power from Nawaz Sharif in 1999. Bhutto hasn’t been PM since 1990.

Wow, incontrovertable proof that I really am an American!

 
 

atheist that made me smile.

If you were a wingnut, you would now be burning down Sadly No and at least three other collateral blogs in response.

 
 

Benazir Bhutto was prime minister from 1988-1990 and from 1993-1996. Musharraf removed Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999.

 
 

I always love it when men opine about what this female leader or that female leader says about “feminism.”

A local feminist leader I once interviewed said that “equality will have been achieved when the mediocre woman can rise to the same level as the mediocre man.”

I look forward to that day. I think.

 
 

Bhutto & her wonderful hubby looted billion$ from Pakistan when she was in control. She was called by no less than “People” one of the “50 Most Beautiful” (or whatever crap # they use) back around the late 70s.

People have commented knowledgeably on her corruption, but why has nobody mentioned how truly creepy it is that in a country where the people are as brown as most of India there’s a high-caste group of white skins like her to dominate the lower caste levels? She looks like my cousin’s wife who’s Irish & Italian (& was never placed on People’s most lovely list). Sick, sick, sick!

I suppose in some ways it’s encouraging that other groups can be as stupid and self-destructive in choosing their leaders as we ‘Murikans are, and the Germans and Italians were. So it can’t all be laid at the feet of our benighted public education system.

 
 

People have commented knowledgeably on her corruption, but why has nobody mentioned how truly creepy it is that in a country where the people are as brown as most of India there’s a high-caste group of white skins like her to dominate the lower caste levels? She looks like my cousin’s wife who’s Irish & Italian (& was never placed on People’s most lovely list). Sick, sick, sick!

Well, so, the Bhutto family is actually a very ancient family. But yes, there’s a strong premium placed on whiteness in Pakistan and northern India. For instance, huge billboards over Karachi overpasses advertise horrid poisonous skin-whitening creams. Poisonous, in that the mercury compound in them destroys your liver. However, whiter skin can equal a better job and/or marriage, and as long as you have kids before your liver gives out, and your whiter skin has gotten you good connections…

 
 

A local feminist leader I once interviewed said that “equality will have been achieved when the mediocre woman can rise to the same level as the mediocre man.”

I look forward to that day. I think.

Well, Bhutto’s at least as mediocre as Nawaz Sharif…

 
 

If you are a woman living near or on Clifton Road, Karachi (Benazir has a house at 70 Clifton), being an outspoken female doesn’t take a lot more courage than being an outspoken political man or a Western woman—certainly not in her heyday.

I think it takes some cojones to say it doesn’t take much courage, the day after she nearly got blown up.

 
 

Did you read what I wrote? “…lot more courage than being an…”

 
 

and a certain type of feminism, too.

The kind made of straw.

 
 

I always love it when men opine about what this female leader or that female leader says about “feminism.”

Aung San Suu Kyi has stuck around in Burma, when she could have left for England. Bhutto bailed on Pakistan. The wingers only care about Bhutto ‘cos they think they can some anti-Muslim mileage out of her.

That said, perhaps “feminism” wasn’t the right term to use. I think the post would have made more sense if it had said:

But Bhutto’s no portrait of courage.

That might be more in keeping with how the wingnutosphere played the story.

 
 

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