Google News is apparently infatuated with the Australian press, as there is at least one news flash from there on my home page every day. Or perhaps they’re actually good journalists. You see, I have nothing around here to hold up as a standard…

Today’s .au article was from The World Today and summarized Condoleeza Rice’s speech about the U.S.’s sucky Middle East “policy”. The reporter did a fine job, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah, but my favorite part was this Condy quote:

The fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty. It is time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy.

Wow. Isn’t the “fear of free choices” exactly what has been motivating the Conservative Right for years? Take this example from Wisconsin. Or this one. Okay, the last one may be stretching my current point a bit, but it still pisses me off.