Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Political Corpse? - GOP Says Thanks for Perfect Storm

Russia's President Dismisses Georgia Leader as "Political Corpse" - This headline will no doubt shock all As Good As News Readers, just as it shocked me. First, naturally, I was confused to find that Jimmy Carter was still alive and some Russian named Medvedev, a retired tennis player I think, was very mad at him. Then I realized it must be just a small mistake on Medvedev's part. Texas, Georgia - to a Russian they must seem pretty much the same. The only political corpse around here seems to be The Decider. The Republican party cheered warmly for Gustav as W came on the screen. Gustav was in fact the perfect storm. It rained just hard enough to give W a plausible excuse to stay away - allowing McCain to minimize his exposure to W's radioactive fallout. In the United States, Gustav was just mild enough to avoid massive, widespread death and destruction and trigger grim memories of Katrina.

In the same article, note Putin's announcement about a new natural gas pipeline from the central Asian republics to Russia. Despite the minor confusion over US geography, the Russians are doing a great job of controlling natural gas from most of the stans, with pipeline deals that bring the gas to Russia, not the EU, India or China. Unlike it's neighbors, Turkmenistan's gas is not all Russia bound for the long term. By working on pipeline deals with India and China, two of the worlds largest, fastest growing economies, Doc Gurby is only going to get a better deal for his country. This former dentist is crazy like a fox.

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