The Perfect Ordure.... I mean 'Order.'

Here's the thing with education: you don't want right-wingers writing your textbooks. The 'American Taliban' has been trying for the better part of a century to prevent youngsters from learning science because it leads to moral degradation. Japanese nationalists have managed to keep most references to WWII atrocities out of textbooks because it would make kids ashamed of their country. Soviet leaders presented Oliver Twist as a realistic depiction of kids' lives in Europe and America because they had to make their own crappy reality look good.

Now Russia is back at it, complete with old-school doublespeak. 'Sovereign democracy'?!?

The principal author of the history manual -- "The Newest History of Russia, 1945-2006" -- is Alexander Fillipov, deputy head of the National Laboratory of Foreign Policy, a research institute affiliated with the Kremlin. . . .

"Sovereign Democracy" is the title of one of the history manual's chapters. The term was coined by Kremlin strategist Vladislav Surkov, who attended the launch of the two books at a teachers' conference in Moscow last month. Supporters of the president use the phrase to describe the centralization of power under Putin as essential to the building of a stable Russian state, free from outside interference. . . .

Other events, such as the so-called Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004, in which hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians overturned the official results of a presidential election they believed to be fraudulent, are explained as largely American-inspired plots. . . .

It's a must-read, and another reminder of just how simple it is for authoritarianism to rise from its grave, stronger than ever-- by popular demand. Let's just be thankful that BushCo isn't into writing textbooks. Because you just know that it would tell us how they saved New Orleans, created a vibrant democracy in Iraq, fostered a booming economy, and ended the scourge of sex outside of marriage.