Do as I say, not as I do.

I picked this one up from Scotsman.com News:

“The irony is the Arab regimes, who criticise the gaps in the (Iraqi) elections and demand they be honest and transparent leading to full democracy for all Iraqis, are themselves banning such elections for their own peoples,” said Lebanon’s Al-Anwar political analyst Rafik Khoury.

Update:

This story from the CS Monitor highlights the growing 'power of the press' within the Arab world - and how it isn't ALWAYS aimed squarely at comdemning the United States. It should be interesting to see how this sort of brow-beating (dare I call it muckraking?) is applied to Arab governments if the democratic process in Iraq advances:

The Arab media's success in forcing Arab leaders to change their response to the tsunami is quietly revolutionary. Arab leaders haven't generally been accustomed to paying attention to public opinion, nor to the media, which they generally can control, repress, or shut down. Satellite TV stations such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya can not be so easily controlled - nor ignored. That humanitarian relief for the victims of the tsunami - rather than more predictable issues such as Israel or Iraq - has become a focus of the Arab media's outrage, and that Arab leaders responded, offers a genuine new road for Arab politics.

Irony