Sigh

From Today's New York Times:

The Bush administration signaled Sunday that it would probably keep billions of dollars flowing to Pakistan's military, despite the detention of human rights advocates and leaders of the political opposition by Gen.Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president.

. . . .

. . . the officials argued that it would be counterproductive to let Pakistan’s political turmoil interfere with their best hope of ousting Al Qaeda’s central leadership and the Taliban from the country’s mountainous tribal areas.

Because what better way to protect the American way of life than by sending our tax dollars to regime that has never shown much interest in democracy?

Another fun article here: since 9/11, the unwelcome atmosphere in this country, including an "entry experience [] among the world's worst," has cost the US $94 billion in visitor spending, 200,000 jobs, and $16 billion in tax revenue. That's a lot. If we make it oppressively difficult for people to come here, they'll never know what a great country we live in.