" What rise in freedom?" by Robert Kuttner at Boston.com: "As Hendrik Hertzberg wrote in The New Yorker after the Iraqis managed to hold an election, 'One can marvel at the power of the democratic idea. . . . Perhaps it can even survive the fervent embrace of George W. Bush.'" I'm not holding my breath.

Kuttler's piece is illuminating, but I disagree with his characterization of Aljazeera, likening it to Fox News, for which latter I don't think there's even a close match in terms of ignorance, blind partisanship and general idiocy--except perhaps for Tass under the Soviets. And though we've a right to expect as much from him, I don't think it's likely we'll see George W. Bush holding to his word on anything.