Greenwald slams another dunk

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: The fruits of democracy:

"Hugo Chavez was overwhelmingly re-elected yesterday as Venezuela's President. Opposition to the United States played a significant role in his successful campaign, as he promised 'a more radical version of socialism and [to] forge a wider front against the United States in Latin America.'

Over the last two years, the Palestinians democratically elected Hamas leaders. The Lebanese have democratically elected Hezbollah to play a major role in their parliamentary government. The Iranian-allied militias in Iraq are led by factions with substantial representation in the democratically elected Iraqi Government. And the Iranian Hitler himself was democratically elected "

First off, if you aren't reading Glenn Greenwald regularly, you should be. Always insightful, he nails home point after point regarding several issues -- especially lawless indefinite detention ala Jose Padilla and illegal warrantless surveillance (side note: Firefox doesn't recognize the word warrantless -- it tells me its not a word, good for Firefox, the word shouldn't be in an American's vocabulary).

Today, Greenwald led with a post on the spread of democracy and its inverse relation to friendly foreign governments. It seems all one needs to do in the current world political climate is run an anti-Bush, anti-American-foreign-policy, campaign and its the secret to getting elected around the world. Even our staunchest allies are feeling the sting, Tony Blair's approval rating sits at 27%, and he has resigned his role as Labor Leader following his current term as Prime Minister. Obviously the new British government will not be openly hostile to America, but undoubtedly the British peoples' perception of Blair as Bush's poodle contributed to his historic fall from record high approval ratings in his early (pre-Bush) days in office to his current near record low popularity. The message from voters around the world -- and as the Democrats showed in the midterms in the United States as well-- is clear, "Supporting Bush's foreign policy is bad for you at the ballot box. Opposing America's current foreign policy is good for you come election day."