Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party announced today that her son, 19-year-old Oxford University student, Bilawal Zardari, has become the titular head of the party. Zardari’s father, Asif Zardari and Bhutto confidant Makhdoom Amin Fahim have been named co-chairmen.

The decision to make the 19-year-old co-ed the leader of Pakistan’s largest political party had been made at a “crucial meeting” on January 29, in which both Zardari’s father, 51-year-old former agriculture minister and convicted felon who spent 8 years in a Pakistani prison for corruption and Fahim were present.

Bilawal Zardari will serve in an undefined “ceremonial” role until he has finished college. Sources in Pakistan expect Zardari’s father to run the country in his place.

”My mother always said democracy is the best revenge,” said the younger Zardari in a news conference.

As the Pakistan People’s Party was reconstituted around Bilawal Zardari, the Pakistani government has been in negotiations with all political parties to postpone the election. The Hindu reported that Pervez Musarraf’s government will postpone elections “in principle.”

Zardari, a self-described “fitness freak” whose hobbies include Tae Kwon Do and target shooting, has spent his childhood in exile between Dubai and London. Previous to his election, he served as student council vice-president at the Rashid School for Boys in Dubai.

The Hindu asked Bilawal Zardari whether or not he would pursue a political career in an interview 4 years ago. Zardari said, “We will see, I don’t know. I would like to help the people of Pakistan, so I will decide when I finish my studies.”

Zardari supporters thronged the streets after the announcement, chanting ”Benazir, princess of heaven” and ”Bilawal, move ahead. We are with you.”

Earlier today, Asif Zardari announced that his family have taken the surname “Bhutto.”

Zardari and the Pakistan People’s Party have tried to convince their supporters that they have found a viable democratic leader in Bilawal, but many believe that this political move will force Pakistan further away from democracy.

“There is no democracy outside of the party,” wrote a blogger on Chapati Mystery. “No reason for it to exist within.”

Traffic along Union Turnpike, which cut Kew Gardens and Kew Gardens Hills into two, virtually indistinguishable neighborhoods buzzed quietly while shop owners and passersby baked in the afternoon sunlight. With less than a week before the November 6th elections, the North and South sides of the turnpike, lined by Chinese restaurants, take-out sushi joints, storefront tax services and liquor stores were as they had always been: colorless; bland; and now, strangely devoid of red, white and blue posters riddled with the stars, stripes, perfectly-coiffed hairdos and capped teeth that have become hallmarks of the American political campaign.

Even hoary political warhorses seemed ambivalent about an election in which Republicans are challenging four Democratic incumbents for judgeships in both the 4th Municipal Court and the 11th Judicial District of the State Supreme Court
“This is an off year,” said Phillip Ragusa, Chairman of the Queens County Republican Party.

Ragusa and the Queens County Republican Party have decided to let the elections ride. Instead of actively campaigning for the judicial candidates, Ragusa threw a party to bring more of the area’s 15,870 Asian Americans into the Republican fold.

The event, which drew over 300 people including Republican Senator Frank Padavan and raised more than $30,000 for the party, introduced Queens’ overwhelmingly democratic Asian-American community to rising stars among the Republican set, among them, District Leader Peter Koo and Carolyn Chen Ming, a prominent organizer in the borough’s GOP.

“We’ve had a strong relationship with all members of the Asian-American community for years,” said Senator Padavan. “They voted for me and I’m a Republican.”

John Wang, executive director of the Asian-American Business Development Center doubted the truth of Senator Padavan’s statements.

“I’m not sure about the number of Asian-Americans participating in the Republican committee,” Wang said. “But in any event, there are still more Asian-American democrats in Queens than Republicans.”

More than 63 percent of registered voters in Queens were listed as Democrats in the last United States Census. Only 14.3 percent self-identified as Republicans.

A party foot soldier, Ragusa said that Asian-Americans in Queens have the same values as Republicans and, when faced with a choice, would support the party’s platform: lower taxes; less government involvement; family values; and good schools. Together with Peter Koo, Carolyn Chen Meng and party stalwart Meilin Tan, formerly vice-president of the Queens County Republican Party, Ragusa planned to organize outreach to Asian-Americans in Queens. Regrettably, Koo has been out of the country for the last few weeks; Chen Meng has been unavailable by phone; and he has not spoken to Tan since he supported Peter Koo against her in the last District Leader election.

Undaunted, Ragusa has arranged to speak at a Republican
Fundraiser in Flushing tomorrow night where he’ll try to
Build financial support for candidates in the 2008 and 2009 elections.

“We’ve got two seats in the Senate and we’re trying to get a third,” he said.

On July 7, 2005, Sergeant First Class Jeffrey E. Mittman was conducting operations in his Humvee when an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up. The explosion launched a projectile though the windshield. The object sheared off Mittman’s nose and lips, knocked out all of his teeth and blinded him. Mittman was sent back to the United States in a coma. After more than two years of facial reconstruction surgery, Mittman found himself in completely different surroundings. He was led to Manhattan’s posh Metropolitan Club where he told his story to Henry Kissinger, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters and Ted Sorensen.

“My sacrifice,” he said, “was not that great.

Sargent Mittman was introduced by VA Secretary and former RNC chairman R. James Nicholson.

With Mittman seated two feet away from the podium, Secretary Nicholson said that there are fewer casualties in the current war than in any previous conflict.

“One in four combatants died in every US war,” Secretary Nicholson said. “In Iraq one out of 17 did: it’s a testament to our efficiency and medicine.”

Doctors were able to save Mittman’s life and since being Injured, he had devoted himself to advocacy on behalf of visually impaired people.

“I promised myself that I would be a positive influence on society,” he said.

Secretary Nicholas said that there are now 20,000 vision-impaired veterans in the US. Dr. Tara A. Cortes, chairman and CEO of Lighthouse International, an organization that advocates for the visually impaired, said that war injuries like Mittman’s are driving vision loss in the US to epidemic levels.

Mittman is able to see 12 to 18 inches through the use of his iStick, a vision-enhancing tool located in his laptop, and navigate with a special GPS that is attached to his PDA.

Secretary Nicholson said that both tools are now available to all vets through the Department of Veterans affairs.