Random Ranting on Tiger, Russia, and Baseball

On today, the first day of the Tiger Woods Invitational Fun Fest, otherwise known as the Masters I have some random ideas that are not cogent enough to put into an essay. I also have taken so many supplements that I have ADHD. So there is no way I could have the patience to write 3,000 words about any one subject.

* I need to again make my push to have the Washington Nationals be moved back to Montreal where they came from. They are a terrible team and will always be a terrible team if they are forced to stay in Washington, which is one of the worst sports cities in the world. They have no fans. More Phillies fans have shown up for the first two home games of the season than any Nats fans (by a 5:1 margin) I think Budapest is a better sports city (killer soccer team and roving gangs of communists). I will continue to refer to the Nationals as the Expos until they move back to Canada...or move to Vegas.

* Speaking of Vegas, I am still in support of moving an NBA team to Las Vegas. I believe that it is the absolute perfect city to have a NBA team in this era. The All-Star Weekend in Vegas a few years ago was one the greatest Vegas sports weekends ever. Huge gambling on non-sensible things. Guns being displayed at every strip club and poker table. Multiple unplanned pregnancies of Vegas natives. It had everything you could ever want. So why not have it year round? Add Jordan to run the team into the ground. Have a washed up Rasheed Wallace and Allen Iverson as starters. Add Artest, Shaq, Stephen Jackson, and Gilbert Arenas (and his arms cache) to the mix and David Stern will have to quit running the NBA because he would have so many ulcers that all he could consume is Ensure and Slimfast.

* I know the Houston Astros are not a good baseball team, but watch out for the San Francisco Giants. They have some stellar pitching and just enough offense to contend with the Rockies and Dodgers in their division. This will hold until Lincecum throws his arm out in September or gets caught with Barry Zito driving around San Francisco with about 200 pounds of weed. Dippy would be so proud. By the way, Zito is also pitching better. His fastball is up to 87 and 88 as opposed to 82. His ball placement is significantly better (and he's smoking more pot than usual).

* Dippy is now completely out of control. I don't know if he can make it to his seasonal job at the Wyndham. He's being chased by Russian mobsters with AK-47s. I have no idea where he is an really what kind of trouble that he has gotten into. he was supposed to be interviewing West Virginia basketball coach Huggy Bear, but he couldn't make it to Indy. His girlfriend got involuntarily hospitalized in Virginia for trying to pull out all of her eight seven piercings and then decided to call the mayor of her town to ask him where his 15 year old daughter was at 2:37 in the morning. Not good at all. Dippy sent a text message about some sort of seven foot rabbit with an AK-47. This clearly means that he is also dropping acid. His whole Russian bride pyramid scheme was outrageous and brilliant, but Dippy went Tony Montana "Scarface" crazy and now some guy named Vladimir is chasing him down.

* In regards to Russia, their war on terrorism continues against the Islamic militants in and around Chechnya. Early last week, two female homicide bombers blew themselves up on subway trains in Moscow. The subway in Moscow is used by several million people on a daily basis. Think New York City and you should get the idea. One of the homicide bombers was the 17 year old widow of a killed Chechnya militant leader. Though female homicide bombers do not have the after-life perks of their male counterparts (though some suggest that a woman would be reunited with her husband in the after-life though this is not widely accepted) this marks further deepening of the war on the part of militants. Female bombers have struck in Russia before (at parks and festivals), but not on crowded subways. Until now. They are unlikely to stop and the Russian authorities will act just brutally enough against the Chechens to continue the tic for tac bloodshed. Furthermore, the Russian government may be OK with this in the short term. Vladimir Putin wants to get his Stalin on by "crushing" the terrorists into the ground. He did everything but bang his shoe on the podium. Putin is on the Russian roster as the prime minister, which really means that he is the President. Meanwhile the figure head President is Dimitry Medvedev who is the puppet of Putin until the next election. Putin will run as President again and will run on a campaign of fear (just like Bush, Rove, and the GOP here in the US) stating that only his father-like leadership can lead Russia to victory over the "animals" from the Caucasus Mountains. Putin has been accused of having the FSB (the Russian version of the FBI/CIA) blow up apartment complexes in Moscow and blaming the attacks on the Chechens. Lest anyone forget that Putin was a staunch Stalinist Communist and also a KGB head before politics. So stunts like this are not out of the question. So the new attacks fall right into his future plans perfectly (maybe a little too perfectly). The Russian culture is one built on paranoia. Fear of outsiders. Fear of Fascists. Fear of capitalists. Fear of themselves. Fear of their fellow neighbors. Fear of the KGB. Fear of famine. Fear of George Bush. Fear of Spider-Man. Sorry, I made the last two up. I think. This paranoia had led to the continuation of Russians desire to have a father-like saviour that leads the populace against whatever the current threat is. It worked against the Poles, Mongols, Finns, Americans, and Germans (twice). It has worked for close to two decades now with the Chechens. This allowance for a single authoritative leader allows the populace to ignore the fact that basic freedoms are vastly reduced such as independent press, public demonstrations, political choice, and freedom to shop at the Gap. OK, I may have made that last one up again. The Russian government tells the population that they are taking control and freedom from them in order to protect them and to actually give them freedom (i.e. freedom from threats). Remember, George Bush II (President Asterisk) tried to pull the same stunts in 2001 and got away with it for at least four years (just long enough to get him re-elected) As a result, the new wave of terrorism by "Black Widows" brings on a newer edge of fear into the mix. This plays into Putin's hands. He will say that the country now "needs" him to take over. They need him to make things right again. The population will have no choice but, to listen and respond (because in the background any and all opposition will be crushed and labeled as "sympathizers") with their votes. The violence will continue in the Caucasus and in Russia's largest cities. Just what Putin wants.

* I wasn't going to do it. I was not going to watch our favorite psychopath Tiger Woods hit his first competition golf ball in Georgia. However, as the clock struck 1:40 pm EST I switched from watching Dippy's favorite baseball team, the L.A. Dodgers, to the Masters. I was one of 400 million people who did the same thing. The crowd was 400 deep along the fairways, greens, and at the tee. They gave him a loud ovation as he was introduced. Clearly, Tiger "looked" like he was moved by the response. In all likelihood, he cared less about the crowd's response (except for his need to give him unconditional positive regard) than the hummer he was going to get on the "19th Hole" after the round. I was unmoved by the crowds response. It is clear that all they care about is golf (not necessarily a bad thing if we all are to move on). The first tee shot landed in the fairway. The crowd cheered. It all seemed back to normal. But, its not. Everything has changed. Images have been made, broken, and remade. Nike launched a new ad featuring Tiger's fake sullen face and his deceased father's voice admonishing and questioning him (totally out of context). This is the new image of Tiger. It is the image of feeling sorry for Tiger. For empathizing with Tiger. It's classic advertising. And it will work...even though it really shouldn't. I just hope that not everyone will be as fooled as I think they will be. I am certainly not. There is nothing to empathize about Tiger. He is not like anyone of us. There is no way we can even imagine what it is like in his shoes. He is on a totally different plane. He is richer than 99.9% of us. He plays "a game" for a living. That means that he is on another level (not higher or lower) than 99.999992% of us. How can we empathize with that? Dippy the Pirate Bear is more real than Tiger's new image can ever be and he is an emo kid in a bear costume. You know who I empathize with? Any player that has to be paired with Tiger during the tournament. Those people are going to deal with 400 times more distractions than they are used to and it will hurt their chances. Tiger is not going to contend this weekend, but as long as he makes the cut that will all the TV networks and Nike will care about. If I have to see the new Nike ad anymore I am going to throw my TV out of the eighth floor of a college dorm in Richmond after setting it on fire.

When Russia's Bear Cage Is Rattled...It Gets Opened

I have been asked by a number of people in the last twenty-four hours about my thoughts about the Russian invasion of the country (not the state) of Georgia on Friday. This story was the second or third most read story on most news oriented websites yesterday. The top stories in the U.S. were John Edwards confession of his extramarital affair in 2006 and the Olympic opening ceremony in China. So the timing of a Russian invasion of one of it's former republics was good timing from the Russian PR perspective.

Not that the Russians particularly worry themselves over bad international PR. Matter of fact, they were more than happy to have this PR event as proof that the Russian "super power" is nothing that satellite nations on it's border want to mess with.

The Russians have had heated relations with all of it's former republics since each of them became sovereign after the fall of the USSR. They have taunted them, threatened them, and even punished them at times for their insolence. The Russian FSB poisoned a pro-American presidential candidate in the Ukraine. They cut off gas and oil supplies to that country out of spite. They have been threatening the country of Georgia for years that if they rattled the Russian bear cage hard enough that they would just open the cage.

So none of this is of any surprise to anyone who knows Russian history. Russian history is cluttered with multiple incidents of jumping on top of smaller countries on their border in an effort to expand their territory. They have been doing this for centuries. They have just been looking for an excuse to strike another neighbor and prove to the world that the big Russian bear has now woken up and is ready to eat and destroy everyone in it's wake. They got that excuse with Georgia.

The Georgian republic of South Ossetia has attempted to separate themselves from Georgia for the last decade. The population of the republic (slightly more than the city of Lynchburg, Virginia) are mostly Russian and have thrown their lot with Moscow. The Georgian, pro-US government (mainly because of their corruption which is always a lure to the Bush White House) have attempted to reel them back into the fold ever since. The Georgian separatists have been fighting the Georgian military for a number of years to a virtual stalemate. Russian military peace-keepers (the ultimate of oxymorons) have been in the region in order to keep the peace between the two sides. The Russians have threatened the Georgians that if they made any significant attempt to re-take South Ossetia by force would result in nasty consequences. On Thursday, the Georgian military entered South Ossetia to once and for all to re-take the republic. They launched air strikes and troops directly at the Russian "peace-keeping" troops.

As a result, the bear cage was opened on Friday.

Now, the rational response to the situation would be either to reinforce Russian peace-keeping troops and drive the Georgian forces out (leaving out the question as to whether or not Russian troops should have been in Georgian territory anyways) or pull all of their military and citizens out of the region. However, in the world of the three degrees of President Asterisk (Bush), rational thought is non existent. Russian President Medvedev who is a clone of Prime Minister (and president for life) Valdimir Putin who is a clone of President Asterisk "decided" to hit the nail with a tank instead of a hammer. The Russian military under the guise of protecting it's "peace-keeping" troops and it's citizens launched a full blown invasion of South Ossetia and Georgia. They launched air strikes on both key financial, military, and civilian targets in Georgia. They thrusted 2,500 ground troops and moved their naval fleet to the Georgia coast to the west. Scores of citizens and troops have been killed (some count hundreds and others state something close to 1,500) in the melee.

Georgia has appealed to it's ally the U.S. and to the U.N. for assistance which is akin to asking New York City citizens to rescue someone from a mob of thugs. The response from the US and the UN has been sharp words, but little action. Georgia who has applied to be a member of NATO (another major sore point for Russia) have seen that application go out the window. They are now going to be on their own.

Russia wants to prove a point. The point is that they are again re-emerging as a financial and military power. This is steeped deep in their history. Their history is full of self-imposed and outside influenced paranoia. They fear their own selves and any other country near them for fear that they will be invaded and possibly subjugated (e.g. the Mongols, the Finns, the French, and the Germans). The response of Russia given their paranoia is to always appear to be a significant threat to anyone who messes with them. They rattle their own bear cage to show everyone that it is ready to strike at any given moment. Their message: "Hit the cage with a stick and we'll let the bear out. Period. No mercy will be permitted as a result." This is the classic Russian motto to the world. We have now seen it again.

So now that Russia has proven their point. Yes, they are paranoid. Yes, they have re-emerged as a significant financial force in Europe. Yes, they have the appearance of military might. The only reasonable option. As if the President Asterisk clones in Russia are reasonably rational!! The only reasonable option is shut the operation down. Stabilize South Ossetia to the level where there is peace in the region with negotiations on what is in the best interests of the people of the region. Let the people of South Ossetia decide their fate. With the bear or the poor soul that rattled it's cage.

My Sunday Rant

As you all may have guessed that I have been on hiatus. I decided to check myself into rehab due to logging onto ESPN's Tournament Challenge website to check on my twenty brackets every ten minutes. I was checking even on days when there were no games being played. I was on my way to checking the website for weeks and months after the tournament is over. Rehab for internet addiction apparently is a growing industry in Far Eastern countries. South Korea, for example, is the most web advanced country on Earth has rehab facilities for people addicted to the internet. Several of the subtle signs apparently include: having more than two e-mail accounts (I have four), having multiple web-enabled devices (I have two phones that are web-enabled on top of having three computers), and constant text messaging (no, not me, that's my twelve year olds' obsession). It's really too bad that South Korea is so advanced as they are likely to blown up by North Korea at any moment. North Korea, by the way, is virtually and literally dark when it comes to the internet, electricity, food, dogs, and health care. However, they have nukes and a crazy leader with the worst haircut of any leader since Hitler. So I checked into rehab here in the States for checking the tournament websites so often that the tips of my fingers bled and my wife threatened to leave me for a married neighbor.

Speaking of marriage, I read that authorities in Texas have entered the property of a polygamist. I know that the concept of polygamy is based out of a very loose interpretation of religious doctrine, however, what's the point? There is no way on Earth that any husband can make one woman happy let alone three, six, twelve etc. There is no way. Anyone who takes two or more wives simultaneously should be arrested not for polygamy, but for sheer stupidity. Marrying anyone at all for anybody is almost nearly as preposterous of an idea. Marriage is simply a religious/social control/financial/legal contract. That is all it is. This contract is on a piece of paper and requires even more pieces of paper to dissolve (plus half of everything and tons of attorney fees). This contract goes against human nature. Romantic love as it stands is simply a biological impulse that eventually goes away in time. Put more simply, love is a drug, you use it with the person who you "love" for awhile, you become addicted and then you build tolerance and then there is no effect anymore...until you find someone else and start the cycle all over again. When we first "fall in love", which really is your brain's biological clock alarming you of the need to create clones of you, we put our best foot forward. We do all sorts of things that we would never do normally (just like with drugs and alcohol) that are adventurous, impulsive, spontaneous, and exciting. Then as time moves on we all revert back to who we are normally as the tolerance of the "love drug" and it's vessel build towards feeling nothing at all. Sure you may eventually have mutual respect, you may care about the other person, you have deep lasting memories, but the "love" changes into something else entirely. When we move back to who we are normally we fall back to whatever patterns of behavior desirable or undesirable that have gotten us to this point. This happens for both men and women in different ways and at different times, but the end result is still the same. The course of romantic love lasts about a year, maybe two, BUT ONLY when the couple is together. If they are apart and can not be near each other than the unrequited love process begins where there are withdrawal symptoms and cravings (until you find someone else). After the first year or two the excitement and high is over. At that point, it's time to move on. Our biological clock tells us this. Our brains tell us this. However, the church, the law, and society felt the need to put some sort of control over this process by creating concepts of marriage and child custody/support. So as a result, marriage became a contract, a covenant, and a ill-fated attempt to shackle what is a biological drive and process. The question I ask is this: Should people high or drunk get married? No, they are under the influence. Same thing with marriage during that intoxicating one to two year run that most couples have. You are under the influence of your biological cravings and should not enter a contract that somehow gives the impression that it will last. In fact, it does not. The facts are that those intoxicating feelings go away for the "object of you love" and then the resentments and everything else begins. In the end, people in this marriage are not attracted to each other anymore, may not even like each other, and most of the time can not stand being in the same room with them for ten minutes. In the end, the best thing to do (especially if there are no children involved) is to walk away. At some point, you may decide that after the intoxication wears off that you may actually like the person and want to raise a child together, then stay togther...BUT think twice about getting married. The biological clock always has an alarm function.

Lastly, I have watched ESPN for weeks now and I am so insulted by the fact that everyone on the set wears a suit except for Bob Knight. We all knew prior to this point that he is a complete psychopath, but this run over the last few weeks has proven it. Here we are in the Final Four and there he is with Vitale, Bilas, and another talking head all wearing $800 suits made by sweatshop workers in Milan and then there is Knight wearing an ugly ESPN sweater over a red shirt. They do not even match! If I can tell they don't match then it's a terrible outfit. Knight is the worst eyesore I have seen on ESPN since having to look at Vitale's chromedome for the last twenty plus years. Who the hell does he think he is? Everyone on ESPN wears a suit on the set!! I am saddened that ESPN was so desperate to have him as an analyist that they were willing to waive the dress code. What message are we sending here?

P.S. I also read that Russian death cult leader and soon to be ex-President Putin decided to crash the NATO talks in Europe over the weekend. He is very worried that the US will build a missile shield over the European Union as part of the NATO defense treaty. This has been something that President Asterisk has been pushing for years. This also illustrates two things: One, how far behind the times our President is and secondly, how paranoid Russia remains. This whole missile defense idea made more since for Europe back in the 80's. It is an outdated concept for Europe now. The US should really consider using a defense shield over it's allies in Asia where the true threat lies. Rogue and soon-to-be rogue states of Pakistan, North Korea, and India all possess nukes and are led by leaders who are insane or their governments are fragile due to the threat of extremists. Again, another example of our President's strategy to chase after ghosts of the past. Secondly, Russia remains paranoid and Putin illustrated this perfectly by crashing the NATO party without an invite. No one invited him to the dance and there he shows up scared that his girl (Poland) would be stolen away by the big jock (NATO). Russians, by nature and history will always remain extremely fearful of any and all perceived threats. However, a missile defense shield being advertised by President Asterisk is really no threat to Russia. Again, Putin (President *'s mentor) is also chasing ghosts.

Medvedev Wins!!!!

The only English language independent newspaper in Russia tonight splashed the headline that Dmitry Medvedev was headed to a landslide victory in the Russian presidential elections held on Sunday. According to the Moscow Times, Medvedev had 68.5 % of the vote with about 70% of the votes counted. The closest candidate to Mr. Medvedev was a ultra-nationalist Communist who has run for president more times than Brittany Spears has wigged out in front of cameras. He had 18 % of the vote. So, Vladmir Putin's reign as president of the new Russia ends. But wait, it is not truly over. Is it?

Mr. Medvedev indicated during the campaign that wasn't that he was going to name Mr. Putin as his new prime minister if elected. Medvedev did not undergo a gauntlet of campaigning a la Clinton and Obama. He made a few appearances, but did not debate his opponents and did not go cross country holding any babies. Nonetheless, the image of Putin and Medvedev was seared into the hearts and minds of Russian voters. Children who were sending art projects depicting the election were clear in their choice of Medvedev. The main reason for this is that there were numerous statements made by school teachers to parents that if they did not vote for Putin's hand-picked choice that their children would get bad grades. The pictures sent by school children also paired the two love birds together. They depicted Medvedev and Putin holding up a map of Russia wearing a weightlifting outfit and a judo uniform respectively. Another picture of the married couple showed them coming off an airplane in a foreign country. The picture was entitled "Medvedev and Putin together on a trip to a foreign country." You have to love the imagination of Russia's impressionable and coerced children. Imagine when young Ivan came home from school with a teacher's note saying that if they didn't vote for Medvedev that young Ivan would be getting a "F" in "Revisionist Russian History." In that class Putin becomes the new Stalin and wages war against the Nazis. Putin himself then finds Hitler in a Berlin bunker and kills him with his bare hands just like he did with that 5 ton bear in the woods in Siberia.

Children were not the only ones used as pawns to control the elections. Their teachers were also threatened in many places with being fired if they did not cast a ballot for Medvedev. A story in the Moscow Times illustrates the group think of Russian politics. The story depicts a mother of two living above the Artic Circle getting into her best clothes with her aged mother and going to the polling station to place a vote for Medvedev as he represents the "only true future" for Russia.

Election monitoring agencies throughout Europe decided against sending their agents to Russia to monitor the election. The reason was not because they felt the Russian election were going to go as well as let's say--in Cuba. It was because the Russian government was going to place too many "restrictions" on their ability to their jobs. Classic Russian paranoia. One has to remember that the Russians are the most paranoid people in the history of civilization. They expect bad things to happen. They expect that someone out there is out to get them. It will be either another country, their neighbor, their lover, the KGB, or their dog. It does not matter. They are paranoid and refuse to open their windows for fear that sunlight will somehow shine through--and give them skin cancer. It does not matter that they have had democracy for 17 years and Communism is relegated to 18% of the vote. The Russians are paranoid and the idea of getting people to guess the answers is part of their DNA. Just like watching reality TV is in our DNA. So what all this means is that if the monitors had come to Russia they would have been made to stay in their hotel rooms drinking vodka watching the results just like everybody else. Then they would have been drugged, put in a car, driven out to Gorky Park, shot in the head, and their bodies would have been found in a staged scene back at the hotel with fifty year old hookers.

There have been outcries of fraud from many in the country. Reports indicate that bosses in factories forced employees to vote for Medvedev for fear of their jobs. People in Moscow report seeing ballots marked for Medvedev were already in the ballot box prior to the polls opening. These allegations will be quickly squashed. It will not matter if they are true or not. Medvedev will be the new President--on paper. Soon after Putin will be named as the new prime minister. This insures the obvious: Putin will always be in the background. He will be pulling the strings on his hand picked successor. He will continue to be the centralized head of the Russian state long after Medvedev takes the oath of office. He will remain as czar. This is what the Russian people expect. It's in their DNA. They can't help themselves.

President Asterisk Has A Man Crush On Putin!!!

Time magazine named Vladimir Putin their Person of the Year in 2007. I had not known this until I was walking through my local bookstore and saw a face that could only remind me of a bad vampire movie. The face of the current and future Russia: Vladimir Putin.

For most people, I imagine that Putin being named as a Person of the Year in the U.S. was a curious choice and I was albeit surprised myself. Not at Time's choice, but by the fact that they were able to get a picture of the man in perfect cold icy death stare mode. Completely stereotypical Russian. Perfect man crush material for President Bush.

I believe that it should be noted that there are significant comparisons between Putin and our current President Asterisk. It should also be noted that Putin has managed to do things that our President would simply love to do, but probably could not get away with it. Both Putin and * hate any known opposition to their rule. They refuse to listen to any dissenting voices within their own government and populace. Putin has taken it one step further by shutting down TV stations and newspapers that have had the audacity to challenge his leadership. This is an arena that I am sure that Bush would love to be able to do, but would never get away with it. Putin has gotten away with it by systematically destroying any political party or individual that openly or secretly has cried a dissenting voice. He has done this by arresting, harassing, and threatening anyone who could possibly challenge him. Gary Kasparov, the former chess champion has been arrested numerous times for speaking out. Putin has been accused of even having real or imagined opposition leaders killed. Anna Politkovskaya, the opposition writer was murdered in her own apartment building and there has been no suspects or an investigation of any merit by authorities. Bush, on the other hand, manipulates the media by giving them propaganda to read to the Paris Hilton crazed masses. He and his cronies attempt at every turn to conduct smear campaigns to discredit their opposition as "non-American" or "anti-our military" when a different course is suggested on Iraq or the War on (the Wrong) Terror. Putin is more obvious, but Bush does the same things in a more subtle fashion and less noticed by most of the populace. President * and Putin have both launched a vicious and randomized war on terrorists-and failed miserably. At great loss of time, money, and most importantly, lives, Bush has waged a war on Iraq and Afghanistan that has not greatly reduced the threat of terrorism to America but, in many ways increased it worldwide. He has increased it world-wide by ignoring and angering the international community by initiating the war with Iraq for his own personal reasons (avenging Daddy Asterisk). Now, America is scorned throughout the world for showboating it's superpower status and simply being ignorant and arrogant. As a result, the world is not safe for Americans anywhere. Putin, on the other hand, has launched a vicious war on his own turf against the Chechens who only want their own independent state. Putin has labeled them terrorists (to garner popular opinion) and has launched his own brand of terror against them. He has used the same tactics against them as they have used against the Russian people. Random attacks, death squads, and bombings have been the norm for the Russian military and security services. It has been even rumored that Putin ordered his own security services to blow up Russian apartment complexes in order to blame the Chechens for terrorizing the motherland, enhancing the fear of the Russian people, and increasing support for his Stalinist measures. There have been similar conspiracy theories about Bush's role in terror activities on U.S. soil so one wonders what he is capable of (particularly if he thought he could get away with it). The result for Putin? Hundreds of people killed in a theater in Moscow, hundreds of people killed at a school in Ossetia, and at least one airliner shot out of the sky killing hundreds.

Putin made the following statement at his annual New Year's speech two days ago:

"We not only restored our territorial integrity but also we felt united. These years we worked together in order to preserve our country and turn it into a modern, free and strong state, which may be convenient and comfortable for citizens' life...We see that Russia has been strengthening every year. We see that our economy is growing and new opportunities are opening for the people...Let us wish each other new success and raise our glasses to the health and happiness of our relatives and to those we love and take care of most of all, and to whom we give our warmth and to whom we will be close...Let your longest dreams to come true."

Doesn't this sound familiar to the numerous President Asterisk speeches where he has told the American people that we are safer, the economy is better, and the war has been won?

Another similarity that people are looking forward to is that this year Russia and the U.S. will elect a new President. In two months, Russians will take to the polls in a general election that has only been held four times in Russian history. The problem is: there is only one viable Russian candidate (We may not have any when all is said and done here in the U.S. if Iowa is any indication). Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has been hand selected by President (Head Vampire) Putin to head his party into the next election. The other candidates have been harassed and arrested into oblivion. This is a move that Bush dreams of. In another move that I imagine our own President * would love, Putin has named himself the future Russian prime minister in order to stay involved in Russian politics. An important thing for Americans to understand about Russia is that in over a thousand years Russia has never had a leader or leadership that was not significantly authoritarian in nature. For centuries, Russia has had heavy handed czars, Party leaders, and Presidents. One could site Yeltsin and Gorby as exceptions, but both landed in exile in their own country-on house arrest. The Russian people are comfortable with leaders who are heavy handed and aggressive in their leadership. They actually feel safer and have more pride in their country. The opposite is true for America.

To Putin's credit, he has done a few things that Bush ("*") has not in his years as President of Russia. The economy in Russia has grown by at least seven percent every year in the last four years. Russia has paid off all of their debt. Russian workers salaries are on the average double than what they were in 2003. Even without opposition, Putin would likely have huge support in his own country for these reasons. These reasons coupled with Russia once again harassing their weaker neighbors, enhancing their military, and sending nuclear fuel to everyone's favorite party country Iran make Putin a major force to be reckoned with. More so then his admirer Bush? Yes. To the world, Bush is a joke. To the world, Putin is the head vampire of a rising power. This is where each man goes their separate way despite the "man crush" each has for the other.