Even some of the denizens of the far Right are beginning to work out that the Russians aren't afraid of their bark and may just bite back in return. Witness manly man Mark Hemingway writing at The Corner on NRO:

(T)his should be a big story:

Russia has informed Norway that it plans to suspend all military ties with NATO, Norway's Defense Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the military alliance urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia.

... the NATO-Russia Council which has been active and productive for a number of years now. Russia severing ties with NATO is a significant step, and not necessarily for the better.

No, really? Could you explain it to the White House, where Bush is still trying to bluff on a busted flush? Today he told Russia they must leave Georgia "now" and the Russians basically replied "Gonna make us? You and which army?" And then there's this:

It was unclear if there would be any impact on a crucial aspect of NATO-Russian cooperation: the deal under which Moscow allows aircraft supplying the NATO-led force in Afghanistan to fly through Russian airspace.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was "not going to shut the doors" on cooperation with NATO, but he pointedly raised the issue of Afghanistan transit.

"After the famous NATO meeting (when the alliance froze contacts with Russia), some leading alliance officials were whispering in my ears: 'You are not going to halt the Afghanistan transit, are you?,"' he said.

As I say, busted flush.

Dave Schuler at Outside The Beltway:

... like us, Russia is quite paranoid. Or, as Woody Allen once quipped, what’s a three syllable word beginning with ‘P’ that means you think that everybody’s against you? Answer: perceptive.

Dave argues that the Bush administration simply went along "fat, dumb, and happy" with the Clinton Administration's policy of making clear to Russia that there had only been one winner of the Cold War and I think there's a lot of truth in that, although the Bush hawks have taken it to a whole new level. But as Clinton-era hawks commenting on the Georgia crisis have reminded us, they don't really believe in compromise and diplomacy. While in domestic politics "It's Clinton's Fault" doesn't hold water 8 years later, in foreign policy, where other nations see "America under successive leaders" while Americans see "the Clinton and Bush administrations", 8 years is just enough time to put a good hoppy head on the home-brew of resentment.

The real problem, however, is that we're in danger of turning that perception into one of "three successive American leaders".

This is funny cuz it's true.

BlogSchmog:

How to get deported in three easy steps. First, go to China. Second, take footage of protesters in Tiananmen Square. Third, put footage up on Qik.[..]

Noel Hidalgo-(a.k.a. Noneck) an activist I once met online in 2006 while attending RootsCamp in Second Life-had a camera as he walked through Tiananmen Square and happened upon some people protesting the human rights violations in Tibet. He wound up on a plane back to the States. Fortunately, Noneck twitters:

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Didn't we already win in Afghanistan? This is tragic:

A huge blast from a suicide car bomb at the gates of the Indian Embassy on Monday killed 41 people in the deadliest suicide car bombing since the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 ousted the Taliban.

Among the victims of the attack, the first in seven years on a regional diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, were at least four Indian citizens: the Indian defense attaché, a political counselor and two other Indian officials. Six Afghan police officers were also killed. Many of the rest appeared to be civilians.

The fact that the Indian Embassy was attacked raised suspicions among Afghan officials that Pakistani operatives allied with the Taliban had used the bombing to pursue Pakistan’s decades-long power struggle with India.

Juan Cole covers it...

AP also noted that Sunday's attack came in the wake of pledges of reprisals issued by the Pakistani Taliban because of Pakistani military operations against them in the Khyber area...

The BBC has more...

No-one has admitted being behind the attack, the deadliest in Kabul since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001. Afghanistan has seen a sharp increase in violence, particularly in the south and east - and Taleban militants recently vowed to step up their attacks in the capital. But the latest blast - in what was supposed to be a secure area of Kabul - will greatly concern Afghan government officials, says the BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul.

File under "wow, our national reputation really is in the toilet": a Canadian court rules that since the US military in Iraq may have forced a deserting soldier to commit "a war crime, a crime against peace or a crime against humanity," he can legally apply for asylum in Canada to avoid further military service. CBC, h/t to commenter 'always interested':

[US Soldier Joshua] Key was sent to Iraq in 2003 as a combat engineer for eight months where he said he was responsible for nighttime raids on private Iraqi homes, which included searching for weapons.

He alleged that during his time in Iraq he witnessed several cases of abuse, humiliation, and looting by the U.S. army.

When Key was back in the U.S on a two-week leave, he said he was suffering from debilitating nightmares and that he couldn't return. A military lawyer told him that he could either return to Iraq or face prison.

Instead, Key took his family to Canada and applied for refugee status.

Citing a case from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeal, [Canadian Federal Court Justice Robert] Barnes said officially condoned military misconduct could still support a refugee claim, even if it falls short of a war crime.

"The authorities indicate that military action which systematically degrades, abuses or humiliates either combatants or non-combatants is capable of supporting a refugee claim where that is the proven reason for refusing to serve," Barnes wrote....

Key's lawyer, Jeffry House, said the ruling expands a soldier's right to refuse military service. Read more...

BBC: (h/t miss kitty)

At least 1,000 residents of the central Somali town of Dusamareb have held a protest against a deadly US attack.

The missile strike on Thursday killed the leader of a group which the US links to al-Qaeda. At least 10 others died when a house in the town was hit.

One of the protest organisers said people feared further strikes by US forces on the town.[..]

In Dusamareb, people protested against Thursday's US strike, shouting slogans such as "Down with the Bush administration".

One of the organisers, Abdirasak Moalim Ahmed, told the Associated Press news agency: "Our town has been severely affected by the recent US attack and still we fear because planes continue to fly over our city."[..]

Al-Shabab, which the US says is linked with al-Qaeda, controls parts of central and southern Somalia.

The group says it is a purely Somali movement and denies involvement with al-Qaeda.

Is anyone else suspicious of the ease in which the Bush administration paints any and all Islamist movements under the umbrella of "al Qaeda"? Fool the American people once, shame on you. Try to fool the American people over and over and over....

Last week Bill Moyers sat down with Leila Fadel while she was stateside to receive a George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting. In this interview she bluntly lays bare all the spin on Iraq and Iran in a way that is all too rare these days.

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I can't say enough good things about this brave woman, but I would echo all of what Spencer and Matthew have written about her and then some. McClatchy, one of the few sane voices on Iraq since before the invasion (when they were still known as Knight-Ridder) continues to impress.

Watch the full interview on Moyers' PBS website, and you can check out Leila Fadel's McClatchy blog, Baghdad Observer and her team's Inside Iraq.

Transcript after the jump.

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Am I missing something here? What's up with Bush's National Security Advisor? Does he not want to say Tibet or Monks or rioting in Tibet when responding to the human rights violations that are going on? I know China owns us and all. I'm not an expert on this, so please fill me in too...

Hadley: The president is going to the Olympics. What he’s doing on Nepal is what we think the international community ought to be doing, which is approaching the Chinese privately through diplomatic channels and sending a very firm message of concern for human rights, a concern for what’s happening in Nepal, urging the Chinese government to understand that it is in their interest to reach out to representatives of the Dalai Lama, and to show, while the whole world is watching China, that they are determined to treat their citizens with dignity and respect.

Nepal did just hold their first elections, so maybe it's on Hadley's mind, but the representatives of the Dalai Lama would be in Tibet. Is it too much to expect the National Security Adviser to keep that straight?

And if there is a good reason, please post it in the comment section. Read/Watch this and step into Bizarroland: via ABC's This Week:

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Full transcript below the fold.

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In a sign of just how toxic the Bush administration has become for Australian politicians after years of former PM John Howard's all-too willing servility, current prime minister Kevin Rudd gets into trouble at home for "conduct unbecoming of an Australian prime minister" by saluting Bush at the NATO summit.

Greens Leader Bob Brown was also unimpressed, accusing Mr Rudd of belittling Australia and being subservient. "There is a streak of John Howard's 'deputy sheriff' in Kevin Rudd's slip-up," he said. "We are not the 51st state of the United States of America and Mr Rudd's salute carried a subservient connotation many Australians won't like."