So much for promoting democracy around the world

Instead, the White House is selectively choosing when and where to talk about democracy. Bush is now sending out Cheney to do the talking with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, two countries generally not associated with links of any kind to democracy other than repression. Good ol' Condi meanwhile is heaping praise on Equatorial Guinea, another country known for repression, torture and naturally, heaps of oil. Equatorial Guinea is also good friends with Robert Mugabe, someone who is lacking oil and has been brutal with political dissent but somehow makes it on to the bad list for the WH.

So are we going to support world democracy or are we going to deepen our ties to oil dictators?