Our sharp-eyed Secretary of State

Condi Rice visited Moscow this week for talks on the President's proposed missle-defense system, to be based in Poland and Czechoslovakia. While she was there, she apparently was moved to take stock of Russian domestic affairs and discovered that there has been an alarming concentration of power in Vladimir Putin's hands--why, they've taken power from regional officials, clamped down on news outlets that broadcast critical views and made troublesome journalists disappear. This evidently isn't the direction she hoped they would take there, and she told them so. No word on the response she got, but I've got my suspicions.

These developments have only been on the front pages for about seven years. I guess I'm tempted to say NOTHING gets by this woman. Secretary Rice, always sur le qui vive!