Army of Dog

From the AP Wire, we find this shocker.

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Intruders ransacked offices of the main opposition party and police detained foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous sign that President Robert Mugabe might turn to intimidation and violence in trying to stave off an electoral threat to his 28-year rule.

Golly, how could he? Corruption, dictatorial control, election-rigging, and national economic suicide are one thing, but an African dictator using intimidation and violence is just beyond the pale.

Earlier, Mugabe apparently launched his campaign for an expected run-off presidential ballot even before the official results of Saturday’s election were announced, with state media portraying the opposition as divided and controlled by former colonial ruler Britain.

Hey, if you buy the idea that blacks in America are unable to fend for themselves because of slavery, this argument actually makes sense.

The police raids came a day after official results showed Mugabe’s party had lost control of parliament’s 210-member lower house. The election commission was slow on the 60 elected seats in the Senate, releasing the first returns late Thursday that gave five seats each to the opposition and ruling party.

MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said hotel rooms used as offices by the opposition at a Harare hotel were ransacked by intruders he believed were either police or agents of the feared Central Intelligence Organization.

“Mugabe has started a crackdown,” Biti told The Associated Press. “It is quite clear he has unleashed a war.”

With any luck we should see an announcement that Mugabe won the election within the day and Jimmy Carter will proclaim the results legitimate.

Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, said Times correspondent Barry Bearak, a winner of a 2002 Pulitzer Prize, was one of those taken into custody. “An American consular official who visited him at the central police station reported that he was being held for `violation of the journalism laws,’” Keller said.

Arresting Bill Keller? Well, you know what they say about blind squirrels and nuts.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm over the detentions and called for the reporters’ immediate release. “It is imperative that all journalists, foreign and domestic, be allowed to work freely,” said Joel Simon, the group’s executive director.

I’m sure the nice man with the AK-47 will cower before your call for immediate release. I know they have to put out these kinds of statements in situations like this, but it just looks so damn impotent.

Zimbabwe lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said “quite a few” American and British people had been detained by police but no charges had been filed against them. She said some were being questioned indiviually by police but were not allowed to have lawyers present.

I have fifty bucks on some Lefty comparing these arrests to Amerika under BushHitler.

“President Mugabe is going to fight. He is not going anywhere. He has not lost,” Matonga said on British Broadcasting Corp. “We are going to go hard and fight and get the majority required.”

This sounds familiar.

“We still have not seen the important thing, which is real live election results,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. “We need to see an official tally, see it soon and have assurances made that this is actually a correct counting of the votes.”

Who the hell do these people think they are, Democrats in Florida?

Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general, said the delay was dangerous. He urged the government and the election commission “to declare the election results faithfully and accurately.”

“We live in an open world today and indeed the eyes of the world are on Zimbabwe, on its electoral commission, on its president,” Annan said. “I urge them to do the right thing, to respect the constitution and to obey the electoral laws. The election results should be released now.”

I’ll sleep well knowing that Kofi “Only-Two-Genocides-On-My-Watch” Annan is on the case. You can bet shit’s gonna get done now.

According to official results, a total of 2,405,147 valid votes were cast in Saturday’s parliamentary contests, supporting opposition charges that the voter roll of 5.9 million names had been hugely inflated with dead and fictitious people.

Socialist economic policy, voter fraud, intimidation, maybe he can find a job as a Democrat strategist.