Bush on Democracy in Egypt: Pot Calls Kettle Black

The administration is paying lip service to democracy in Egypt. Not too long ago the Bushies were using Egypt as a convenient place to send "terrorists" to be tortured. Mubarak must be scratching his head:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she raised U.S. criticism of Egyptian democracy efforts with President Hosni Mubarak, but added the United States would not try to dictate how Egypt should proceed.

"I've made my concerns known, as well as my hopes, for continued reform here in Egypt," Rice told a news conference in this southern city after talks with the Egyptian president and foreign minister. "The process of reform is one that is difficult — it's going to have its ups and downs."

This is also the same country that refuses to help stop the genocide in Darfur. I guess it depends who's ox is being gored:

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt rebuffed a request today from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to influence Sudan’s president to drop his objections to United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur.

At a morning meeting with the Egyptian president here, Mr. Ban said he had asked for help in changing the mind of the Sudanese leader, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been defying United Nations requests to put troops into Darfur to help the overwhelmed African Union mission there.

There is more democracy in Hong Kong than in Egypt. And Hong Kong is part of totalitarian ruled mainland China:

Donald Tsang was re-elected today by a wide margin as Hong Kong’s chief executive, following a campaign that drew unexpected interest as the first contested election for the territory’s top job since Britain returned it to China in 1997.

Mr. Tsang prevailed by a vote of 649 to 123 over Alan Leong, a former chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association who was the first democracy advocate to obtain a place on the ballot here.

Another non-democrat "friend" of the enlightened Bush administration is facing strong opposition:

For the past seven years, the Pakistani judiciary has swallowed hard to accommodate the military rule of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, repeatedly bending in matters of law and constitution.

But in the two weeks since the president fired the country’s top judge, whose rulings had begun to challenge the Musharraf government, outraged Pakistani lawyers and others have poured into the streets, setting off an unprecedented outburst of frustration and signaling the most serious challenge that General Musharraf has faced.

Another non-democratic leader, Vladimir Putin, is apparently consolidating his control over Russia. Bush must be envious:

Russia's next parliament is likely to have no genuine opposition after a court in Moscow yesterday banned a leading liberal party from standing in elections.

Russia's supreme court announced that it had liquidated the small Republican party, claiming that it had violated electoral law by having too few members. The party is one of very few left in Russia that criticises President Vladimir Putin.

The move against Russia's opposition came as pro-democracy activists prepared for the latest in a series of anti-government rallies that have infuriated Russia's hardline authorities.

Speaking of opposition, this president is having trouble with his own totalitarian tactics. He's been outed and now has to reevaluate those tactics. Outsourcing torture is a casualty of increased criticism over the conduct of the Iraq war and loss of Congress to the Dems:

A sharp debate within the Bush administration over the future of the Central Intelligence Agency’s detention and interrogation program has left the agency without the authority to use harsh interrogation techniques that the White House said last fall were necessary in questioning terrorism suspects, according to administration and Congressional officials.

The agency for months has been awaiting approval for rules that would give intelligence operatives greater latitude than military interrogators in questioning terrorism suspects but would not include some of the most controversial interrogation procedures the spy agency has used in the past.

The pet poisoning scandal will shed light on our one-sided policy of taking in imports from China, a country that obviously has less restrictions on the type of chemicals it uses in production. This tragedy should be a black eye for the outsourcing advocates:

Pet owners were rechecking their cabinets and threatening legal action after state officials said rat poison was found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs.

It was unclear how many deaths would eventually be linked to the "cuts and gravy" style food produced by Menu Foods, but scientists said Friday they expected more would be announced.