berlusconi flourishes under financial crisis

there have been a number of articles over the past few weeks about how silvio berlusconi, the 72 year old prime minister of italy and media mogul has seen his popularity rise during the present international banking crisis. the new york times notes that berlusconi is in very good spirits. this article comes 4 days after a similar version ran in the financial times.

could it be that the editors of the new york times are following the lead of international newspapers when it comes to covering international news, as opposed to generating their own stories?

what’s also questionable about the article is the mention of russia followed by vladimir putin’s poll number while there is zero mention of the present president of russia, dimitry medvedev. even in the u.s. presidential debates, the moderators insisted on discussing vladimir putin (as did the presidential candidates) while ignoring medvedev. although putin may be the power behind the power. until we 100% know, it seems that there should at least be some acknowledgement that russia has a new head of state.

putin and medvedev hand mccain u.s. election

consciously or unconsciously. russia has perhaps handed john mccain the u.s. election. george will hints at this in an opinion piece in the washington post.

mccain takes strong stance against russia; foreign policy advisor lobbied for georgia

john mccain took a strong stance against russia in the russia-georgia-south ossetia crisis that erupted during the opening ceremony of the olympics, vladimir putin, prime minister of russia, appeared at. according to politico, a public relations firm working for the russian federation pointed out that randy scheunemann, mccain’s foreign policy advisor used to be a lobbyist for the georgia government. is it possible that mccain has experienced another senior moment and mistakenly believes the conflict (aka, war) is between russia and the u.s. state of georgia?

have you wondered why most of the news reports on the russia-georgia-south ossetia conflict generally fail to mention dmitry medvedev, the current, baby-face russian president?

does this conflict underscore the impotence of most heads of state? well, minus putin. while putin enthusiastically waved to the crowd at the opening ceremony of the beijing olympics, russia was simultaneously bombing georgia. george w. bush, nicholas sarkozy, and presumably other heads of state sat in the crowd supporting their respective nations at the event. so it’s not as if no one has any idea where putin is, if he is, as many heads of state believe, still the russian federation’s puppet master.

nicholson past his sale date, russians have specific jeans for vodka

both kurt russell and jack nicholson are definitely past their sale dates. perhaps it’s time to toss them out?

perhaps one reason putin was able to drink sarkozy under-the-table during the g-8 summit is because russians have special genes that allow them to drink vodka.