Pakistan

So, when George Bush says "Our hope is that he will restore democracy as quickly as possible..." was the very next question, "So you think Musharraf should step down?" Or forget the question, and just run the headline: "Bush says Musharraf should step down" -- the plain english meaning of his words.

To say that Musharraf should "restore democracy" means, by definition, reverting to the time before he illegally took power in a military coup. Right?

And I do so wish reporters would avoid using Musharraf's words, "emergency powers". For these powers to be "emergency"-based, there would have to be an actual, you know, emergency. The only emergency in Pakistan at the moment is the terrible, urgent problem of the rule of law possibly applying to the President and ruling him an illegal usurper of political power. While I can see this is an emergency to our man in Islamabad, it's not a justification in any way for his actions.

Reporters generally try to be careful about using labels -- you don't uncritically use the words "pro-life" to describe abortion protesters, for example. The same rule should apply here.