I know, you're probably just as floored as I am. Curious, though, that MSNBC would think to use such a pejorative headline for their story; don't they know most people are distracted today by the New Hampshire primary?
Oh . . . I see:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22561444/Bush freedom agenda stalls in Middle East
Lebanon remains administration's last flickering flame for democracy
updated 4:14 p.m. PT, Tues., Jan. 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - For years, President Bush has eagerly waved a flag for democracy in the Mideast from afar. This week, he steps gingerly into the troubled region where his freedom agenda is stalled.
Bush proclaimed in his second inaugural address that the U.S. would work for democratic reform in every nation and culture "with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
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"I think it is fair to say that this rate of progress has not continued in the way we would have hoped," Hadley said, adding that the democracy agenda suffered a setback when the militant Islamic group Hamas swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006.
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I mean, if people are going to go to all the trouble of voting, why don't they install reactionary authoritarian dictators, like Bush wants them to?