Their Guy vs. Our Guy
- Thread starter bugscoe
- Start date
Their guy... looks like somebody that should be respected.
Our guy... looks like he should be wearing a dress.
Our guy... looks like he should be wearing a dress.
Putin To Protesters: You'll Be Beaten If You Continue To Rally
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin disparaged Russian dissidents in crude street language in an interview Monday and said they would keep getting beaten if they continued to hold unauthorized rallies.
Putin has never shown much tolerance for dissent. After he became president a decade ago, Russia cracked down on opposition leaders and increased government control of the media. Now as prime minister, Putin still wields tremendous influence over policy, despite the presence of President Dmitry Medvedev. Putin has been coy over whether he will run in the 2012 presidential election.
Putin told journalists on Monday that it was "complete gibberish" that he continues to run the country.
"I'm tired of foreign policy," Putin told journalists traveling with him in Russia's Far East. He said Medvedev was handling it well and he saw no need to interfere.
In the interview published in the newspaper Kommersant, Putin defended his record and touched on a variety of topics, including foreign policy.
He said President Barack Obama seemed sincere in his desire to improve Moscow-Washington relations, despite U.S. policies that appeared more hostile. Putin pointed to continued U.S. military support for Georgia following its brief war with Russia in 2008 and U.S. plans to put a missile defense system in eastern Europe.
He also said imprisoned oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky deserved his punishment. Khodorkovsky, serving an eight-year sentence after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion, is now on trial on new charges that carry a sentence of up to 22 years.
Putin said in the Kommersant interview that he was surprised to learn of the second case against Khodorkovsky. That claim caused some wry amusement among Khodorkovsky's supporters, who say the legal assault against him was punishment for challenging Putin.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/30/vladimir-putin-im-tired-o_n_699330.html
Sad to say it but I gotta go with hermette on this one... An authortitarian fascist doesn't represent an ideal archetype for a national leader...
His economic policies are, for the most part, pretty solid. However his record on individual liberties, privacy, and private property is an absolute nightmare. However, with that being said, point taken...
His economic policies are, for the most part, pretty solid. However his record on individual liberties, privacy, and private property is an absolute nightmare. However, with that being said, point taken...
Yeah, that's my main problem with republicans. They have a salvagable record with regard to upholding economic liberty and fiscal responsibility, bush and co not withstanding (biggest fiscal nightmare in most of our lives, at least SO far although Obama is on track to out do him). But they have a terrible record of upholding personal liberties- war on drugs, protection from illegal search and seizure being absolutely walked on, constitutional rights, "three strikes" laws, creation of the prison colonies which house over 1% of adult americans, advent of modern debtors prison (child support, bounced checks, unpaid tickets and fines), the "patriot act"-the surveillance state we have now which led us to be ranked an 'endimic surveilance society' by privacy international, the list goes on- mostly republican creations... The fact that they have a better record upholding economic liberty doesn't erase these transgressions as far as I'm concerned. That being said, the most fiscally competent leader we've had in the last 3 decades was not a republican- Slick Willy cut capital gains tax in half and worked wonders for the US economy. It's hard to paint someone who pulls a move like that as a "leftist". You know, the very thing your buddy hellodollar was bitching about?
Quote from hermit:
Gee, no way
