I can only comment as myself in this lj, not post, so I'll use Angela and just step out of her skin for a moment to note the Democrats' election victory yesterday that will place the real Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House when the new session of Congress starts in January. speaker_pelosi, wherever you are, what a shame worldaffairs lost you as a player ( Read more... )

Happy Belated Birthday, Vladimiro! *air kisses* Very thoughtless of that journalist to go and get herself killed on your birthday. Must have put quite a damper on the festivities.

I don't quite know what to say to you, Vladimir. Saying that I hope your birthday on Saturday bought you everything you wanted seems ... wrong ... in light of Anna Politkovskaya's murder. But perhaps you're feeling as awkward as the rest of us are, and that's why you haven't spoken out about this tragedy.

Vladimir? You don't know anything about this, do you?

Outspoken Putin critic shot dead in Moscow

-_-;

( CULTURAL AFFILIATION FOUND TO IMPACT ON RUSSIAN DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS )

*brushes off hands*

Ok, so that whole Paris Club debt thing has been paid off. That's a weight off my mind... now I just have to figure out about those damned islands over in the east, how to combat racism, what to do about the WTO, and things should be hunky dory.

*sigh*

Just kidding - ha ha. No, really, I'm all ready for the G8, it's going to be quite nice... hmm, I wonder if they seeded the clouds over Pietr for rain? Well, no matter. Nothing can rain on my parade. Not the weather, not international or global criticism. Though some people have been rather nice. Thanks Angie, for your understanding. You'll get the ( Read more... )

Stephen Hadley, who is President George W. Bush's national security adviser, said in Moscow on July 10 that at the G8 summit Bush will raise concerns about Russian democracy with President Putin "frankly but privately," Reuters reported. Hadley noted that Bush has a good relationship with Putin, "and one of the reasons he does is because he thinks ( Read more... )

You try to do something nice once in a while, like maybe not look like such a big, ugly dictator, and so you actually let the opposition get together for a rally, or a love-in, or whatever the hell it is that they do, and what do you get? Nothing. Nada. Nichevo. Not a lick of gratitude for your efforts. All people do is complain, complain, complain ( Read more... )

I was planning to write a long, detailed post about Italy's great victory over France in the final match of the World Cup, but I'm afraid that would seem as though I were boasting and rubbing France's face in the dirt.  And while that might be exactly what I'd like to do  And of course that would be a complete betrayal of my personal nobility and ( Read more... )