Just a simple coincidence, no doubt. After all, Bush did look into his heart and I think we all know Bush's judgment is infallible.
Moskovsky Korrespondent, the newspaper that first reported rumours of a marriage between Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabaeva, a 24-year-old gymnast, has closed, shortly after the President told journalists it was unacceptable to pry into his private life with "snotty noses and erotic fantasies".
Who could imagine such good fortune for a dictator in an oil-rich country? I'm sure "Vlad" (that's what his oil buddies call him) is thankful for the gas guzzlers who are building his retirement package. He might even think about friends in Congress who hold back environmental laws and protect Big Oil as they maintain a stranglehold on our energy future.
To help streamline the connection, Putin is now rumored to be joining Gazprom. Aren't we lucky to have so many good friends in the oil industry around the globe?
This morning, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reported on a tough diatribe from Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed across the table at the U.S. Secretaries of State and Defense. According to Mitchell, Condi Rice was "visibly taken aback by Putin's threatening tone..."
In a tense start to talks on a range of thorny issues, President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned U.S. officials to back off a plan to install missile defenses in eastern Europe or risk harming relations with Moscow.
Addressing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Russian president appeared to mock the U.S. missile defense plan, which is at the center of a tangle of arms control and diplomatic disputes between the former Cold War adversaries.
U.S. foreign policy is mockable. And, as the leader of our foreign policy, Condi is certainly mock-worthy.
Condi and Gates are in Russia to sort out the Iran situation. Like that's going to happen.
Although it should come as no surprise to anyone, since Bush has told everyone in the past that "he doesn't do nuance", his more recent interest in working with the UN as well as his meetings with Putin have exposed him again for the weak leader that he truly is. He will always talk big, but the results are stunningly less impressive. Even with help from daddy, he can't deliver anything other than more talk about seeing the real Putin ("consistent, transparent and honest"), whatever that's supposed to mean.
Maybe if Bush speaks sloooooowwwweeeeerrrr and loooouuuuddddeeeerrrr, they might understand, no? Don't be surprised if that's what the right actually thinks about their message. No surprises here.
The US comes in for sharp criticism. "Global distrust of American leadership is reflected in increasing disapproval of the cornerstones of US foreign policy," the survey says. "Not only is there worldwide support for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq but there is also considerable opposition to US and Nato operations in Afghanistan ... The US image remains abysmal in most Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia and continues to decline among the publics of America's oldest allies."
Nine per cent of Turks, 13% of Palestinians and 15% of Pakistanis take a favourable view of the US. In Germany, the figure is 30%, in France 39% and in Britain 51% - all down on previous surveys. Only in Israel, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya do majorities believe US forces should stay in Iraq.
The good news in this otherwise predictable but still sad study is that there is a world leader who even even less trusted, so at least Bush has that going for him. Break out the Champagne, errr, the non-alcoholic beer, Putin is worse!
Rising powers such as China and Russia get mixed reviews. Russia's Vladimir Putin scores worse than George Bush in terms of confidence that he will "do the right thing" in world affairs - 30% believe he will, against 45% for Mr Bush.
He is kidding, right? Lecturing Putin about derailing democracy? Sorry, Mr. Bush, but Putin is doing exactly what you and Cheney and the Republicans have been doing in our country over the past six years. When the going got tough, you threw democracy under the bus. You and the Republicans are fair-weather democrats. You only believe in democracy when the going gets easy. When terrorists strike, when you fear for your nation's safety, you are the first to roll back democracy, to spy on your own citizens, to take away their rights to a fair trial, to try them in secret courts - just like the Soviets used to.
Remember that cute little phrase that the Republicans in the Senate all liked to quote in order to justify revoking our democratic liberties at home? You have no constitutional rights if you're dead. Here is the former Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, the guy who was in charge of making sure the Bush administration didn't violate our democracy by illegally spying on us just like the communists do on their own citizens:
"I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties," Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) remarked at yesterday's Hayden confirmation hearings, "but you have no civil liberties if you are dead."
GOP Senator Jeff Sessions referring to the rightness of Bush's domestic spying after 9/11 declared melodramatically:
"Over 3,000 Americans have no civil rights because they are no longer with us."
...Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said on December 20, 2005:
"None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead."
What they mean is, what's the point of upholding the Constitution's rights if we end up dying as a result? Well, I suspect Putin would argue that you have no fledgling democratic reforms if you're all dead. So spare us the lectures directed at Russia, Mr. Bush, a country that has suffered the same kind of terrorism that America faces, and actually suffers from greater instability than we do by far (they've even got a serious separatist movement). That certainly doesn't excuse Russia rolling back democratic reforms - I don't believe that any country should roll back democracy for any reason. It's not as if the Framers of the Constitution, the guys who signed the Declaration of Independence, were living during stable and secure times. Yet it was during times of trouble, times of uncertainty, times of danger that the founders of our country penned those very freedoms that Bush and Putin now believe aren't required during times of danger.
George Bush and the Republicans don't believe in democracy. They have no right to lecture Putin for doing exactly what they would do, exactly what they have done.
Another odd moment for Bush today, when speaking about Vladimir Putin and Bush's proposed expensive missile defense system that has both Putin and Eastern Europeans concerned:
"My message will be Vladimir — I call him Vladimir — you shouldn't fear a missile defense system," Bush said.
Ever the savvy international diplomat, though at least he's not calling him "Vlad" these days.
At least we can rest comfortably that Bush looked into his heart and soul and saw a man that he could work with. Arresting people and throwing them in prison...no wonder Bush likes Putin.
Thousands of police officers massed to keep the demonstrators off landmark Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow, beating some and detaining many others, including Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who has emerged as the most prominent leader of the opposition alliance.
