In case you were sleeping, the Bush administration has looked up from its reassembly of Humpty Dumpty in the middle east and noticed, in apparent dismay, that relations with Russia and South America have fallen apart.  Golly Batman, how could it have happened?

That fountain of truth, Pravda, has been faithfully grinding out their grievances in regard to US insolence around the world.  Now that Russia has extinguished most of its free press, they can focus on a more coherent message.

Perhaps someone can set me straight.  The Soviet Union implodes in the early 1990’s. Arguably the most notable political event of the latter 20th century. Russia experiments with market economics. Yeltsin leaves. KGB veteran Vlad Putin takes power. Some oligarchs go to prison. Bad time in Chechnya. Journalists are assassinated. Dissassembly of what went for a free press happens.  Polonium murder of Litvenenko.  Putin initiates dispeptic criticism of US policy in general, and US plans for missile placement in former eastern bloc real estate in particular.  US awakened from desert trance to find that Russia is pissed.

Perhaps if the Dobson krewe in Colorado Springs were more interested in Russian politics they might have directed Cheney to pay more attention.  Wow. Did I say that? That was really cynical.