LIE OF THE WEEK: 05-05-2006

Vice President Cheney on his visit to Kazakhstan:

"At a news conference with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Cheney held up his host as a model for Iran to follow in the gathering controversy over Tehran's possible pursuit of nuclear weapons [...] Cheney had come to discuss Kazakhstan's long record of help in the war on terror, trade issues and energy"

THE TRUTH: Kazakhstan is a model for nothing. It is a very cruel dictatorship with very little freedom for it's citizens. Just because it has been cooperative in giving up it's previous Soviet nuclear arsenal (which it didn't have the means to keep anyway and which cost us billions of taxpayer dollars to help clean up) and just because it has been allowing us to use it's airspace and territory as we fight the war in Afghanistan does not mean it should praised as making progress towards democracy (which it truly has not done other than some fancy window-dressing).

For Vice President Cheney to speak so strongly against the democratic failures of Russia (which actually is a democracy, although with major flaws) and to then praise the democratic success of Kazakhstan (an autocratic oppressive state) is nothing but the purest of political hypocrisy.