US ambassadorial jeep barely misses crashing into Kazakh President’s car

My brother-in-law just called me to warn me to be careful about anti-Americanism in reaction to this. Presumably the guy was drunk, but that ain’t right, my friends, that just ain’t right…

But from the US side: The AP story
So maybe it was just a screw up–so this guy stopped peacefully or he was jumped and forced to stop at threat of strangulation?
EDIT: The whole thing has now blown over nicely. It was just a mistake, he was in a big rush and thought he had just gotten lucky by finding the street empty of all traffic. When he saw the limo with the Big 01 KZ, he panicked. Understandable.

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Also while seeking news on that, I ran into this: Three Kazakhs in Guantanomo

And this: Nazarbayev says government leaders should party less Apparently advisors to military attaches should also follow these rules.

Finally, the daugher of the President appears to have figured out that shutting down Borat made the country look worse than Borat himself ever did.

One of the great things about art is that it is seen in context. I just saw V for Vendetta. I’ve read many comments on it, and I gather many are considering this movie in light of the current war and administration–incidentally I love the idiots on IMDB message boards claiming it can’t be about Bush because it’s based on an earlier graphic novel and set in England.

And I sat today in a movie theater in a nation with the adopted slogan, “Evolution not Revolution.” A nation in which people attacked the opposition candidate for President with bricks because they didn’t want him to cause instability. Whose neighbors, and close kin, underwent a revolution last year which when the smoke cleared was apparently one group of powermongers swapping places with another, and letting the criminals gain even more control. Where people stormed the Office of the President and lay waste to it, while the President just disappeared and let them. And there was chaos for a few days and no one knew what was happening, rumors spread, fear was visible and even now people are afraid to go there.

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