Unfrickin believable! Rice Prods Moscow on Press Freedoms!!!

[babsbunny]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_re_eu/rice


Rice prods Moscow on press freedom, Iran........ By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
38 minutes ago



MOSCOW - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday delivered a symbolic rebuke to Russia over shrinking press freedoms even as she courted President Vladimir Putin for help punishing Iran over its nuclear program.



Rice made a point of scheduling an interview with Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper where a reporter critical of Russian policy in neighboring Chechnya had worked before her murder this month. Rice also met with the reporter's son.

Rice's one-day trip to Moscow followed talks in Asia last week over North Korea's nuclear test on Oct. 9. Russia voted for U.N. penalties against North Korea after the test, and the United States is seeking Russian cooperation for an upcoming vote on sanctions against Iran.

[Union Thug]

1. Cliche' time: Pot, meet Kettle. n/t

[Just-plain-Kathy]

2. K & R

:kick:

[indepat]

3. Almost all frickin words emanating from the mouths of this cabal are

unfrickin believable. :evilfrown:

[Igel]

4. If the NYT and WaPo were in Russia,

right now their chief editors would be in prison with some of their reporters. Or dead.

Criticism is possible, even severe criticism, but comes with a risk. Some risk are minor and trivial; others are pretty nasty. Given the official secrets laws, many of the 'leaks' we see in the US would either not happen, or would result in some real penalties, not detention for a few months in a minimum security prison until a reporter testifies. Here, we see outrage when a dem staffer is suspended for a few weeks and confuse it with fascism.

Of course, Putin is a far cry from being as repressive as Brezhnev. Even more liberal than Soviet policy during the much celebrated Thaw. That didn't keep some Russians I worked with saying that Putin's more repressive than Stalin. The Americans in the room stared at the Russians, and they realized how ludicrous they sounded.

One shouldn't let hyperbole color one's view of the world. Dangerous business, that.

Meanwhile, the State Department is preening itself that it's finally adopted the standard transliteration of the Ukrainian name for Kiev (Kyiv), replacing the old official spelling, which was the standard transliteration of the Russian version. Of course, their spokesman couldn't actually explain the change coherently. And when the spokesman tried to pronounce it, he got it laughably wrong.

[Laughing Mirror]

5. NYT & WAPO shouldn't be imprisoned for what they've done?

Pushing the lies that led the country to illegal wars and war crimes?

Some of us here think they should be in prison.

[saltpoint]

6. Dr. Rice is lecturing the Russians on press freedoms the same week

her boss signs a bill sanctioning torture.

Ya can't beat this bunch for sheer audacity, can ya?