a little Marx, a little Jesus, a lot of Pervez

LAT, NYT and WP: Musharraf had a busy day yesterday, enacting emergency powers, firing the chief justice of the supreme court, and sending troops into the streets. WP has most extensive coverage, including the fact that Musharraf spoke in English at one point, "to address the United States and the West. 'I would kindly ask you to understand the criticality of the environment inside Pakistan and around Pakistan," he said. '. . .Inaction at the moment is suicide for Pakistan, and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide.'
He then quoted Abraham Lincoln, saying that America's 16th president had broken laws, violated the U.S. Constitution and trampled individual liberties to keep the country together during the Civil War."
NYT has the full text of the proclamation

WP: diplomacy behind the scenes, before the state of emergency and analysts' responses now. astoundingly, "One adviser traveling with Rice saw a silver lining in the rapid turn of events. "Thank heavens for small favors," the official said. Compared to Pakistan, "Iraq looks pretty good."

GDN: general background

more background - The Mission: Dana Priest, who formerly covered the Pentagon for the WP, describes how Centcom under General Zinni advocated for Musharraf in 1999, based on a relationship that formed before the coup (search Musharraf to find the relevant passages -- page 112 is especially interesting).

NYT: apparently going for the RNC sympathy vote, Musharraf said "judicial activism" was hurting the country.

SWJ: another early-20th-century British officer on tribes in Iraq (from a military that didn't contract out the anthropology work)

IHT/NYT: Guantánamo almost gone?

NYT magazine: Venezuela and oil. hands-down, best quote of the week: "[Chávez] has invented a new kind of socialism, which he calls Bolivarian socialism, named for the independence hero Simón Bolívar: a little Marx, a little Jesus, a little anti-imperialism and a lot of the whim of Hugo Chávez, dedicated to the 'comprehensive, humanist, endogenous and socialist development of the nation.'"
IHT: Venezuelans will vote whether or not to continue down the path of Marx, Jesus, and Chávez Dec 2
NYT: even if Chávez can't keep the the gas subsidy going, let's hope this youth orchestra program survives yet another administration

Slate: speaking of oil-rich countries, Iran imports lots of gasoline. huh.

GDN: expulsion of Romanians from Italy turns violent

GDN: legislating the legacy of Spain's civil war: "Unlikely as it seems in a vibrant and modern Spain, the old fault lines of the war that began in 1936 and ended in 1939 with the defeat of the republicans by Franco's nationalist and fascist forces have been uncovered by a new law that was intended to assert formally for the first time the 'moral rights' to recognition of the tens of thousands who fell victim to Franco."

IHT: the US Sentencing Commission reduced the sentence for crack possession by about a year and a half, to 8 years 10 months (about the same amount of time some of those convicted of the bombing in Madrid will end up serving before parole).

NYT: German painters from the frontlines of WWI