Houston, Your message might be correct. Let's say it is. But the janata is NOT buying it to come out in support of it in large numbers -- as EVIDENCED by their lack of participation in these rallies. Maybe the janata is NOT stupid. Maybe the message itself is STUPID. Have you thought about that? In politics, it's important to keep the message simple, vivid and personal so that it MOVES people to take actions. It's for no reason that leadership in politics or in anything is about stirring people's emotions for a cause, and the word 'emotion' shares the same root as the word 'motion'. Sure, for the sake of this kura-kani, saying that the King is looting the country may get you brownie points with the Nepe-esque intellectuals to earn your usual loaf of "wah-wah-cha-cha" kind of praise. BUT for the janata at large, the acts of loot committed by the netas is MORE vivid, more personal, more recent and more easy to understand and more of something that they can relate to . . . therefore find it easy to respond to by giving the netas "gaali". And this is what MOST Nepalis do. Similarly, Maoist atrocities are also MORE vivid, personal and easy to understand and then DENOUNCE . . . for almost all reasonable people. OK, Bush might not have the 'right' message. But whatever his message is, it seems to work well to give nightmares to the Democratic Party, which is in a complete disarray. **************** ISO, let me correct myself: judicial independence is a component of liberal democracy. The word liberal in 'liberal democracy' implies, as per Farid Zakaria, that all the usual bill of rights are there; if so, then, for that liberal democracy to function, there has to be a mechanism for those rights to be defended in case of violations. Judicial independence assures that violations can be examined without undue political pressure. oohi ashu