A good step forward for democracy

Congressional Democrats have caved in on the Iraq spending bill. Contain your astonishment. If Kerry voted for it before he voted against it, Dems in Congress voted for it before they voted for it before they voted for it before they voted for it before they voted for it before they voted for it before they voted for it....

The US has called the abolition of term limits for Kazakhstan’s “President” Nursultan Nazarbayev a “good step forward for democracy in Kazakhstan.” Hurrah! Okay, actually the US is trying to ignore that part and focus on some other rather minor amendments to the constitution, such as giving the rubber-stamp parliament some voice in the naming of the powerless prime minister. Anyway, says the US ambassador, just because there are no longer term limits, it is “very speculative” to suggest that that means Nazarbayev will be president-for-life, just because he’s fixed every election he’s ever held. At the daily State Dept briefing, Scott McCormack also claimed there were “a whole host” of reforms that indicated Kazakhstan was moving “in the right direction.” He was unable to name any of them.

Military Jargon Watch: the latest term for the bad guys in Iraq: “abusive sectarian actors.”