Hello Kettle? This is Pot...

Oh this is just priceless. Apparently the irony is completely lost on everybody's favorite Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. After a recently completed trip to Russia and a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Secretary Rice had this to say...

"The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has amassed so much central authority that the power-grab may undermine Moscow's commitment to democracy."

I wonder if Condi has ever once used her keen intellect and powers of observation to voice concern over a certain branch of government that's amassed so much authority and grabbed so much power that it threatens democracy say... closer to home?

Nahhhhhhh... probably not.Secretary Rice went on to say...

"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma."

Funny, I think all of that could be applied not just to Russia, but to say... the United States? There is definitely too much concentrated power in the White House, we all most definitely have serious doubts about the independence of our judiciary, especially all of those right-wing assclowns currently sitting not just in the federal courts, but on the Supreme Court as well. And being that the Bush Administration has been caught several times, by the GAO, running domestic propaganda, I'd say we probably all have very serious questions about our media and given the spineless nature of our Congress and the way they piddle themselves every time Bush says "boo," I'd say we probably have some questios about the strength of Congress. Yup. That entire quote seems pretty tailored to the good ol' United States these days. But we're more concerned with the Russians? Interesting.

Condi also had this little nugget of brilliance to impart...

She hoped the efforts of rights activists would promote universal values of "the rights of individuals to liberty and freedom, the right to worship as you please, and the right to assembly, the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state."

Priceless! Hey Condi... don't you think it would be really nice to have those things secured here, in this country before we start lecturing other countries about liberty and freedom? Don't you think that maybe, just maybe, we should ensure that the rights and freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution are adhered to by the government before we run around the globe telling other people how to live and how to govern their lands? Maybe?

I mean listen to this, Condi. Alexander Brod, head of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau had this to say...

"Not all is ideal in America, either. We see protests against the war in Iraq and violations of human rights on the part of security services and violations of human rights in countering terrorism."

Okay, anytime the Russians can hold the moral high ground and tell us that we're quashing human rights, we're in trouble. How terrible is it that countries like China, North Korea, Iran, Russia and a whole host of others can point to the United States now, lecture us on properly observing human rights and be right about it???

There was a time in this country's history where we were the example, where we set the bar on human rights, where we had the moral high ground. Yes, unfortunately, those were before the dark days of the Bush Administration. We are now a country that quashes the rights of citizens at home, tortures, murders and violates all sorts of basic human rights. That shining city on the hill we are, no longer. Thanks, Georgie.

Secretary Rice, I just have to say that you've got one enormously huge, cast-iron set of gonads to lecture the Russians about democracy, liberties and freedoms. Cast-iron ones, I tell you. How about you and your little friends in the White House try putting democracy back into our own country before you open up that gap-toothed piehole again. Otherwise, you may just look like an arrogant, ignorant, condescending idiot. Oh oops. Too late.

~Kevin S.