Comrade Citizens, I bring greeting from the West

Now let’s talk about Private Accounts.

This via the Chicago Tribune:

Trip will test president's personal bond with Putin
BY MARK SILVA AND ALEX RODRIGUEZ Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Sixty years after the United States and Russia's shared victory in World War II, relations between the nations rest with two leaders whose friendship, once marked by unusual personal warmth and common purpose, has deteriorated noticeably.
The relationship between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin will be on display - and tested behind the scenes - during Bush's five-day European tour starting Friday
…

Having apparently completely tapped out Americas vast reserves of fake, hand-picked “Town Hall” crowds and Potemkin events in front of which he could keep flogging his failed Social Security Evisceration Plan, the President has taken his Lootapalooza tour to the homeland of Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin himself.

Or perhaps Laura Bush is there to lay a wreath on fellow well-endowed equestrian appreciator, Catherine The Great.

Or perhaps Putin (That’s President Pooty-Poot to you) needs his soul looked into again to see what’s happening. Sort of a 10,000 mile checkup. Pity that “Heart Breaker and Nine-Lives-Taker” Herr Doktor Senator Frist’s Magic Remote Diagnostic Powers aren’t trans-Atlantic in scope. Maybe it’s like vampirism and crossing running water or something? Which is a shame because gas prices being what they are, conducting Foreign Policy via Faith-Based Ouija Board sessions instead of flying hither and thither on Air Force One would sure save me the taxpayer a chunk of change.

Well, whatever the real agenda, we wish our President go-with-God on his Mission to Moscow. In fact, I said a little prayer this morning to help speed him along his way.

“Oh Lord, maker of all things and fountainhead of all faiths, please don’t let this dry-drunk, feeble-minded idiot embarrass us abroad any more than he already has. Or get me thirty slippery minutes with Rosario Dawson. Either way, it’s good for me.”

Amen.