Two Russian supersonic strategic bombers, the advance party for a deployment of Russian forces for a joint exercise, landed in Venezuela on Wednesday in a move guaranteed to infuriate all believers in America's divine right to hegemony. The Tu-160 bombers(pictured above) are reputed to be the equals of America's B-1 and with an even bigger weapons load. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that the bombers were there for 'training purposes' and added that he planned to fly one of the aircraft himself.

The entire exercise is designed to send a "how do you like it?" message to the West, following the US and allied military presence in Georgia and the Black Sea:

Russia's Defense Ministry said the two Tu-160 bombers flew to Venezuela on a training mission. It said in a statement carried by the Russian news wires that the planes will conduct training flights over neutral waters over the next few days before heading back to Russia. Also Wednesday, NATO said it ended a routine exercise by four naval ships in the Black Sea. Russia had denounced the exercise as part of a Western military buildup sparked by the Georgia conflict. ... Earlier this week, Russia said it will send a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes to Venezuela in November for a joint military exercise in the Caribbean.

Let's not forget, too, that US advisers were in Georgia when it launched its full military might into its own breakaway province of South Ossetia and that neoconservative advisers to the administration and the McCain campaign have called for turning states along Russia's borders into US-armed "porcupines". To imagine how Russia sees its own national interest threatened, imagine if Cuba, Venezuela and other nations around America's Caribbean "pond" became Russian-armed permanent bastions in America's backyard. There's a lot of other tit-for-tat going on right now too. Not only has Russia said it will send a fleet to Venezuela - something that will tax Russian naval readiness to the utmost - but it has called for an embargo on arms imports to Georgia at the UN. That one won't get out of the Security Council because the US will veto it but it is another purely political maneuver, making a statement about involvement in Russia's backyard. There's a new combatative style of rhetoric at the UN too, which again points to a breakdown in the post-perestroika monopolar world the neocons foolishly believed would last forever. Matters haven't become as bad as during the actual Cold War just yet, experts say - but does anyone doubt that with the angry man, John McCain, in control of what would pass for US diplomacy, it wouldn't get worse? He might even make John Bolton his Secretary of State! A McCain presidency would lead to America's allies putting even more distance between themselves and the US and finish off the assault on American prestige that George Bush has so successfully mounted. Obama, by contrast, offers a badly needed new detente before the world returns to dark days and a ticking nuclear clock.

Even some of the denizens of the far Right are beginning to work out that the Russians aren't afraid of their bark and may just bite back in return. Witness manly man Mark Hemingway writing at The Corner on NRO:

(T)his should be a big story:

Russia has informed Norway that it plans to suspend all military ties with NATO, Norway's Defense Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the military alliance urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia.

... the NATO-Russia Council which has been active and productive for a number of years now. Russia severing ties with NATO is a significant step, and not necessarily for the better.

No, really? Could you explain it to the White House, where Bush is still trying to bluff on a busted flush? Today he told Russia they must leave Georgia "now" and the Russians basically replied "Gonna make us? You and which army?" And then there's this:

It was unclear if there would be any impact on a crucial aspect of NATO-Russian cooperation: the deal under which Moscow allows aircraft supplying the NATO-led force in Afghanistan to fly through Russian airspace.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was "not going to shut the doors" on cooperation with NATO, but he pointedly raised the issue of Afghanistan transit.

"After the famous NATO meeting (when the alliance froze contacts with Russia), some leading alliance officials were whispering in my ears: 'You are not going to halt the Afghanistan transit, are you?,"' he said.

As I say, busted flush.

The Mahablog: The GOP Advantage: Stupid is easy. Smart is hard.

The G Spot: Health Care, Obama, and the perils of post-partisanship

Faithful Progressive: New McCain ads based upon other classic Russian novels

The Root: It Breaks A Village

Right Wing Watch: "New Evangelical" Warren just like the old ones. He calls pro choice pols "holocaust deniers."

Ezra Klein: The rich define the rich

While Bush cheered on at the Olympics---another failed policy is revealed.

If Bush, Cheney and their oil buddies (they only seem to get really excited these days when there's a bunch of oil or pipelines at stake) have been making promises the US can't keep, it only serves to create a sort of martyr cause for them to use down the road. In fact, it's possible that's the whole point. Push for NATO, push for military involvement, push for permanent presence. That seems to be the neoconservative longterm energy plan ---- rule the world. Same as it ever was.

Oh, and the conservos should probably soft peddle the self-righteous screeching about how the Russians broke the law and invaded for the purpose of "regime change" and occupation...read on

And it looks like the neocons are getting excited that we might go and fight Russia.

Continue reading »

TBogg: "Real men vote for McCain?" You mean lying, jive-ass, sissy-ass chickenhawk cheerleaders who dress up in flight suits to play Air Force, but send other people's children out to die for their lies, and can't speak in complete sentences? Those kind of 'Real Men?'

Gristmill: A simple regulatory fix to the coming power crisis

Ken Silverstein: Russian and Serb interests paid for Congressman Curt Weldon's family vacation to Europe.

The Existentialist Cowboy: How "stealth ideology" helped Bush shred the Constitution.

Economist's View: Can young Americans compete in a global economy?

Instaputz: Really, Putz? Really?

War and Piece: Interesting trail connecting McCain and his campaign manager Richard Davis to a Russian aluminum oligarch banned from the US for alleged organized crime ties and the pro-Kremlin side of Ukraine's Orange Revolution, through a Connecticut investment firm called Pegasus.

Connecting.the.Dots: A Starbucks/moonshine cocktail might be just the pickmeup Democrats need this year.

A Tiny Revolution: Sistani forbids long-term US basing agreement

Words of Power: The Crow Nation understands. So do some others. Get ready to strap it on people.

Happy Valley News Hour: Are John Hagee's statements really that offensive?

The Vanity Press: A takedown of the Tory rhetoric that's recently been imported into the American right.

Sadly, no. As this Australian news report acknowledges, Dubya just gave The Chasers all new material.

Download | play Download | play

To remind Bush what APEC actually is (from their website):

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is the premier forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

Since APEC's birth in 1989 it has grown to encompass 21 members spanning four continents, and represents the most economically dynamic region in the world, accounting for approximately 40 per cent of the world's population, 56 per cent of world GDP and 48 per cent of world trade.

The 21 APEC Member Economies are Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People's Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; The Republic of the Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States and Viet Nam.

Nope, can't see why that would be worth getting right, can you?

In the "glass half full" category, APEC leaders, led by Canadian PM Stephen Harper, agreed to working on curbing global climate change. In the "glass half empty" category, the agreement--made with the top 4 biggest polluters (US, China, Japan and Russia)--is non-binding.

Via Reuters:

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in one of his harshest attacks on the United States in seven years in power, accused Washington on Saturday of attempting to force its will on the world.

The White House said it was "surprised and disappointed" by Putin's accusations but added Washington expected to continue to work with Moscow in areas such as counter-terrorism and reducing the spread and threat of weapons of mass destruction.

In a speech in Germany, which one U.S. senator said smacked of Cold War rhetoric, Putin accused the United States of making the world a more dangerous place by pursuing policies aimed at making it "one single master".

Attacking the concept of a "unipolar" world in which the United States was the sole superpower, he said: "What is a unipolar world? No matter how we beautify this term it means one single center of power, one single center of force and one single master."

"It has nothing in common with democracy because that is the opinion of the majority taking into account the minority opinion," he told the gathering of top security and defense officials. Read more...

KY Herald Leader:

British officials said yesterday there was "sufficient evidence" to charge a Russian former KGB agent with murder and seek his extradition from Moscow in the sensational poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.

Litvinenko, 43, a vocal critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was poisoned by the radioactive isotope polonium-210 and died Nov. 23.

On the day he fell ill, Nov. 1, he met with former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy for tea at a London hotel.

"I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoy with the murder of Mr. Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning," Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald said, immediately setting off a diplomatic confrontation between London and Moscow.

CNN:

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died at the age of 76, a Kremlin spokesman confirmed Monday.

Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, but gave no further details.[..]

He became the first democratically elected president of Russia in 1991 and two months later put down a coup attempt against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

One of the images most associated with Yeltsin is that of him sitting on a tank during the raucous street rallies that marked the coup attempt.

"I think that is the image that he would like people to have forever," former Yeltsin adviser Alexander Nekrassov told CNN Monday.

But just two years later, he ordered tanks to storm the Russian White House to oust barricaded deputies who dug in after Yeltsin dissolved parliament, accusing it of blocking reforms.

"He has trampled on democracy," said Gorbachev in a later interview. "The first freely elected elected parliament in Russia in 1,000 years and he fires on it with tanks!"

Yeltsin was both loved and hated by fellow Russians, said Matthew Chance, CNN's senior international correspondent in Moscow.