Code Pink ‘Bama Bundler

Frontpage is reporting that one of Barack Obama’s big bundlers is Jodie Evans, one of the founders of Code Pink. From Frontpage:

According to Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen, Evans has bundled “at least $50,000” in donations for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. “Bundling” is a process in which people turn over a large number of “individual” political contributions as a group, in the hope of exerting greater influence if their candidate is elected.

Friends
Frontpage is reporting that one of Barack Obama’s big bundlers is Jodie Evans, one of the founders of Code Pink. From Frontpage:

According to Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen, Evans has bundled “at least $50,000” in donations for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. “Bundling” is a process in which people turn over a large number of “individual” political contributions as a group, in the hope of exerting greater influence if their candidate is elected.

According to Human Events reporter Catherine Moy, “Evans and her son, a student who lives at her Southern California address, each also gave the maximum individual allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama’s campaign.”

And who is Jodie Evans? A former political appointee of Jerry Brown during his tenure as governor of California and his presidential campaigns, Evans briefly made headlines in 2003 by arranging for women to claim Arnold Schwarzenegger groped them. However, she has kept lower company for the last few years. Her official biography states “her life has been consumed with Codepink: Women for Peace since September of 2002.”

Of course if you’ve read this blog any time at all or just look at the picture, then you know who Jodie’s good friends are.

Pakistan update

Torkham gate in the Khyber pass remained closed the third day as tribals fight in the area with “militants” – obviously Taliban from their strategy outlined here the other night.

Torkham gate in the Khyber pass remained closed the third day as tribals fight in the area with “militants” – obviously Taliban from their strategy outlined here the other night.

This is backing up returning refugee caravans of Afghans being evacuated back to Afghanistan from a refugee camp near Peshawar. The shops in the refugee camp have all been bulldozed and burnt, but the homes remain as the UN wants the exodus of refugees to go slow.

Meanwhile Laskar-Islami (LI) is sending threats out to factory owners to close evening and nightshifts. This is the inbred luddite streak of the Taliban movement which is one of the reasons they get the big (L)ose wherever they go. People in NWFP and FATA will be losing their jobs if it continues, which isn’t going to win the Taliban fans.

People in the area are also going to start getting very hungry very shortly as all supplies to the region are now backed up down the pass, including fuel, seed for planting, and food stuffs for the region. I predict that the populace will turn on them with a vengeance in short order.

The forces trying to interdict the pass appear to be LI, and the umbrella of Kashmiri veteran groups collected under the HuJI-P umbrella, but they are fighting against locals who know the area much better, so it will be interesting to see how this goes as the “foreign dragon/local snake” factor comes into play here. The concern I have is that this could be largely distraction while something of import is being done elsewhere.

Meanwhile the Tehreek e Taliban are talking about making peace with the new government, and they do seem responsive, but with them attacking the Khyber Pass the PPP government has to be seriously worried. The Government can’t last if someone else holds the Khyber for a long time, it’s one of the lifelines of Pakistan. If the government jumps in to help the tribals, which they should, the Taliban will accuse them of being guided by the US and continue to wage war in Pakistan. If the government doesn’t respond, then they will have let down the locals and the tribals, as well as the industrial base of the NWFP, and the Taliban will continue to war on them anyway. The Taliban doesn’t seek peace, they just want a hudna while they triangulate new angles with the new government in place.

In other news, a fourth Urdu journalist has been killed in Hub.