Wait, What?!

No, seriously. Pardon my French, but WHAT THE HELL?!
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2013/05/209579.htm#IRAN

The United States government is no longer even bothering to obscure the fact that their support for human rights is naught but facile, farcical posturing. The spokesperson for the Department of State refuses point-blank to condemn gender-based apartheid and discrimination in Iran. She goes on to claim that the administration supports "free and fair" elections, but that definitions of "free and fair" may vary*. I'm sorry to be the one to bring the cold rain of logic onto your morally relativistic parade, Ms Psaki, but if you don't have an actual standard to which you adhere regarding freedom and fairness, then you can't ever claim anything is or isn't "free" and/or "fair".

To any reasonably intelligent and objective observer, the upcoming elections in Iran are clearly neither free nor fair (and it is not only women who are disenfranchised). Yet is it possible that our State Department somehow believes they are free and fair? If not, why not just express disapproval and move on? If so, we should all be concerned, not least anyone claiming to be a feminist.

I do not hold that the United States is required to police the doings of other nations. If the citizens of the United States, represented by the State Department, do not wish to interfere in political operations in Iran (or anywhere else), then it should be acknowledged and simply stated as the preferred course of action. But I am truly shocked and disturbed by the obvious and utter lack of cognitive dissonance displayed repeatedly by a person who, as a public spokesperson of the State Department, is a high-ranking official in our government. Ms Psaki and the department she represents are lacking entirely in both honor and self-awareness.

*I'm beginning to suspect that for the State Department, definitions of "human" and "rights" may vary as well. That would explain much regarding their approach to human rights.