In politics, as in magic, distraction, or misdirection, is a major part of the art. That's what I thought when I saw this bland travel note tucked (behind parentheses) into the middle of today's political schedule on ABC's The Note:
(The White House announced this morning that President Bush has asked Vice President Cheney to travel to Lithuania, Kazakhstan, and Croatia at the beginning of May to "advance the President's Freedom Agenda.")
What could sound more mundane? Except, there's something weird about that list. Something weird beside the phrase in quotes, that is. Kazakhstan? Let's go to Google News, and see what's up in Kazakhstan. Aside from the stories about handshaking with the Russians, a perpetual duty for a former Soviet colony, there are these two items:
China and Kazakhstan are discussing three options to increase natural gas supplies from Central Asia to China...
And this...
Uranium production to be launched in Kazakhstan
RBC, 19.04.2006, Kiev 11:50:48.Production at the Zarechnoye uranium deposit in Kazakhstan developed jointly byt Russian and Kyrgyz companies will be launched in December 2006, President of Kazakh national company Kazatomprom Mukhtar Dzhakishev told journalists in Kiev. He anticipates that the venture will be able to reach its projected capacity of 500 tons of uranium per year by the end of 2007. He emphasized that the development of the deposit implied the construction of a plant alongside other tasks.
There's nothing more important than freedom, unless it's...enriched freedom.
