don't screw with putin

If you ever feel nostalgic for the days of the KGB and the Cold War and assassination plots, take comfort that Putin's Russia is still up to their old tricks. The former Russian spy and critic of Maximum Leader Putin, Alexander Litvinenko, died in London from poisoning. And no, I don't think the Syrians are responsible for this one. Probably the same people that killed that investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya last month -- a murder that Litvinenko was investigating himself.

So if you decide to investigate LITVINENKO'S death, you might want to watch your back and hire a food taster. Because Tsar Vladimir I mean President Putin doesn't seem to cotton to such activities.

I wonder when Bush looked into Putin's limpid eyes and gauged his soul, if he saw the soul of a heartless assassinating anti-democratic thug. I mean, did Bush like what he saw (which would be bad), or did he just completely misread the man (which would be less bad but still bad)? Mark up another one on the score of not-so-excellent Bush judgements, probably even worse than letting Sammy Sosa be traded, but not as bad as the one that said Iraq had WMDs and would be a cakewalk...