Article

2006-11-30 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Russia now looks like a gangster state, led by a vindictive and ruthless thug.

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Posted by 3dc 2006-11-30 01:29|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Note this is UPI and SpaceWar.com making the claim.

Methinks this is where the highlighting probably should have ended.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2006-11-30 02:26|| 2006-11-30 02:26|| Front Page Top

#2 HHHHHHMMMMM, so the US-Allies destroy 7000 bad guys yet we are not only allegedly losing but we are the ones being portrayed as the "true" Baddies; Its the Russians themselves who let slip that their oil resources, etal. will run low in circa 20-25 years, similar to the Iran-yuns; and thirdly, by this definition of "Statecraft" the US Dems are by definition NOT engaged in Statecraft = National Interest becuz "personal feelings" agendas is how they won 2006.

As for "Colossal political defeat" of the USA > see NEWSMAX > JOHN L. PERRY article HISTORY'S GRACE PERIOD = People expect and want "great things" from America, that a key premise of the BUSH DOCTRINE is to HELP STRUGGLING NATIONS ACHIEVE AND SUCCEED TO AMERICAN = PSEUDO-AMER STANDARDS VIA LOCAL DEMOCRACY, NOT US-ONLY/SPECIFIC CONQUEST-CONTROL, and that NO ONE, NOT EVEN AMER'S ENEMIES OR MOST OF THEM, CAN AFFORD, DESIRE, OR RISK AMERICAN DEFEAT IN THE WOT.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2006-11-30 02:47|| 2006-11-30 02:47|| Front Page Top

#3 Zenster - preview doesn't always work in firefox on linux. Don't know why but I have lost posting that way.

Posted by 3dc 2006-11-30 03:04|| 2006-11-30 03:04|| Front Page Top

#4 Zenster - preview doesn't always work in firefox on linux. Don't know why but I have lost posting that way.

Likely due to poor java support in Linux.

Posted by badanov 2006-11-30 04:33|| http://www.freefirezone.org]">[http://www.freefirezone.org] 2006-11-30 04:33|| Front Page Top

#5 Rantburg uses java? News to me. And I am running the latest and greatest JAVA from Sun on Linux+firefox.

Now non-portable/nagigator_dependant JAva-script that could be a problem.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2006-11-30 06:02|| 2006-11-30 06:02|| Front Page Top

#6 Same here latest j2re no problem with FireFox and JAVA. Preview always works for me. I do get some wonky PHP effects sometimes however.

Russian ~~Mafia~~ Government croupt? Never heheh.

Posted by Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-11-30 07:25|| www.sockpuppetofdoom.com]">[www.sockpuppetofdoom.com] 2006-11-30 07:25|| Front Page Top

#7 Russia now looks like a gangster state, led by a vindictive and ruthless thug.

And the description differs from Stalin how?

Posted by Procopius2K 2006-11-30 10:10|| 2006-11-30 10:10|| Front Page Top

#8 There are two leadership doctrines that are popular today, centralized or decentralized. That is, if the "big boss" is the center of things, that the purpose of the organization is to back the big boss, then it is centralized. If the "big boss" represents the organization, and executes based on his judgement the group consensus, then it is decentralized.

In a nutshell, Mafia bosses, Bill Clinton, and Putin are in the former category. They see the purpose of the entire system is to support them, and what they want, goes. Loyalty is to the big boss, not the system.

The other form of leadership is much harder, but often gives far more satisfactory results. The leader is just the greatest among peers, and though his is the final decision, he avoids going against the consensus of his near-peers. All of them serve the system instead of the man. And they make far fewer rash, if emotionally satisfying, decisions because of it.

Posted by Anonymoose 2006-11-30 10:19|| 2006-11-30 10:19|| Front Page Top

#9 Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union it has always amused me to hear people whinge about how "The Russian mafia this" or "The Russian gangsters that".

I just smile and say how all that really happened is they merely took off their uniforms. Other than that, there has been little if any change, save for the worse, if that is even possible.

~~Ras~~Putin's blatant triangulating with Iran has been disappointing but I'd sure hope that no one thinks it was entirely unexpected. When it comes to hard currency, Russia works both sides of the street like a jonesing crack whore.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2006-11-30 12:33|| 2006-11-30 12:33|| Front Page Top

#10 Precisely, Zen. Thay like having us occupied with muzzie crazies. It keeps the heat off of them. Same deal with China.

Posted by mojo">mojo 2006-11-30 14:50|| 2006-11-30 14:50|| Front Page Top

#11 "Russia now looks like a gangster state, led by a vindictive and ruthless thug."

And this is different from the old days how, exactly....?

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2006-11-30 15:33|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html] 2006-11-30 15:33|| Front Page Top

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