Pasty White Bastard

Or
Separated From the Living, But Equally Despised

Or
Crossing Over the Rubi-Gone

Or
The Corpse Wore White
(Props to Monty)
P.W. Botha, The Man keeping South Africa down for 11 years and providing the political spice to Lethal Weapon 2, has died at the age of 90. Botha was a Nazi sympathizer in WWII, and following the war won a seat in Parliament with an ultra-right party that advocated white supremacy and racial segregation. As prime minister in the late 1970s, he began work on a new Constitution that he said would reform many apartheid policies, but it was little more than a whitewash, as the nation’s black majority continued to be barred from just about everything. Botha became president in 1984, and with domestic unrest roiling and international condemnation, he agreed to meet with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress. In an address where he was expected to announce major reforms and release Mandela, Botha instead declared that he would not be dictated to and everything is just fine and Mandela remained blackballed in jail. To ensure the country would remain white side up, Botha gave broad powers to the police to put down uprisings, and more than 4,000 were killed and as many as 50,000 imprisoned without trial. After winning re-election in 1987, he suffered a stroke 2 years later and resigned, setting the stage for F.W. de Klerk to become president, and he quickly released Mandela and started enacting the long-promised reforms.

Michelle was the only one who got more than a big smile, big smile out of Botha’s death and her Die Already! squad moves into a tie at 26th.

For Tom the news is more bittersweet, as this is the third member of one of last year’s lists he’s lost. Once again, Rosenberg’s First Rule: Once you’re on a Dead Pool List, there’s only 1 way off it. Course, I’m kicking two ’06 picks to the curb for ’07, so….