So regard this as a rant or not, but what the fornicate is going on with Russia these days?

Putin is turning slowly into another Baltic state dictator. The Kremlin and the FSB (KGB) are cracking down on truth, justice, and freedoms. The Russian press is being locked down, they are booting out the British Embassy because the British government is actually trying to investigate and charge people in the murder of the Russian defector (whom the Ruskies would call a traitor). The recent killing (read state sponsored murder) of Anna Politkovskaya who was investigating into Chenya. Since 2000 (When Putin was elected), 13 journalists were killed, and amazingly, not one murder has been close to being solved.

Not a bad word from this government though. Even though he has publicly bad mouthed our efforts to fight terrorism. What the fornicate, really?

So do you believe in world policing then? 

All mean are created equal??  And Rape isn't illegal everywhere.......

I can't, but as far as enforcing the country's laws I would see an issue with us enforcing Islamic law.

in a way, yes. Monitor the freedoms that countries are losing, and use a mixture of diplomacy and speaking directly to the populace to get those freedoms back.

And I DO believe the same should happen to us. For example, I for one feel we LOSE freedoms when the governmental agencies feel that they can wiretap, get records, and do other looking into our private lives with no warrant.

For example, Bush's policy of giving the middle finger to the secret court and the federal agencies saying "cool man" breached our freedoms. It would be a positive thing for other countries to use their diplomatic relations with us to say "hey, we are noticing that your citizens are having their rights to privacy eroded" and to set out things like ads and talks about this.

We are lucky that so far our press is free to talk about these things, to question and criticise decisions the gov't makes and wars it undertakes.

This is not to sound like bush is telling the feds to arrest and detain reporters, he isn't. It would take a lot to really become like Russia, but it CAN happen. All you need are people who will do whatever they are told to do by superiors who are intent on staying in power. It's good to have checks on power.

All good questions, and ones that people ask themselves, or at least should, everyday.

I for one think that when there is genocide such as Darfur, it is the duty of all humans to step up and say NO.

Now who are we as Americans to say that our way of government and laws are better than those of say, CUba, or Venezuela? That's a good question. I feel that what we should be saying is "Hey, we are not perfect, but we are not arresting newspaper columnists for saying our president is making wrong decisions. We are not assasinating people who disagree with our government or who are pointing out flaws"

No one is perfect, and no country can truely have the notion of All people are free, that would just lead to anarchy. Laws do exist, they must, and while our {current} law saying that women can abort is not one that you {citizen of country X,} agree with, the principle behind it, that women are equal with men, needs to be a world wide given.

Sure, that's putting a "western" spin on it, but just becuase one group of people do something doesn't mean that it ultimately is the correct thing. Just because one group of people puts another group behind bars with no legal counsel despite the laws of their country stating they should have it, does not make that first group correct in their actions.

I"m praying for a Comet.   

Will this Suffice for now?