But just as armed American Dons could also exude pious charm in unarmed business deals, so Russia's Don famously fashioned a counterfeit soul to disarm the main obstacle to its devious designs. Bush is better at spotting evil from afar.

The premature death toll of vocal opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin is mounting. The apparent poisoning death of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko is only the latest.

Sky News reports:

"A large quantity of radiation, probably from a substance called Polonium 210, has been found in the body of dead ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

The "major dose" of alpha radiation was detected in his urine, said Government experts, who added that Polonium 210 is only dangerous if ingested.

They also revealed that police have found radiation at three locations: his Muswell Hill home, a central London sushi bar where he ate shortly before falling ill, and a hotel where he had met two Russians that morning.

Before he died in a London hospital on Thursday night, Mr Litvinenko wrote a statement on Tuesday blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering his murder.

The distraught father He accused the leader of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value".

He told Mr Putin: "You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women."

The Russian President said the death was a tragedy, but he had not seen any definitive proof that it was a "violent death". He also brushed off suggestions linking him to the case.

Mr Litvinenko's tearful father Walter said: "This regime is a mortal danger to the world", adding: "It was an excruciating death."

Mr Litvinenko's supporters said he was killed because he was investigating the murder last month of journalist and fellow Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya.

see link to full text of statement:

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/24/uk.spy.statement/

The murdered journalist and activist noted by Litvinenko are not the only suspicious deaths of Putin's internal critics in recent years, not to mention the attempted murder of Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's who recovered from his mystery illness which was also caused by poisoning.

Meanwhile The Don's partners in Crime, Presidents Assad of Syria and Ahmadenijad of Iran, continue to live as Lebanon’s industry minister, Pierre Gemayel, a fierce opponent of Syria and Iran was murdered in broad daylight and Iran's Bearded would be destroyer of Israel is promised nuclear defense assistance and delivered missiles from his Godfather.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/24/061124134543.qth288nm.html

Reckon James Realist Baker, the kook leftists on his commission and the Kook DEM Party still favor dialogue with the Axis of Evil Leader, its Basher flunky and the unextinguished ember from the ash heap the Evil Empire was buried under?

Even the Libs in the UK suggest not. see link

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2466572,00.html

But what inspired this blog entry was hearing Fred Barnes on Brit Hume's show discussing the speculation that the Baker Group was considering proposing talks between the US, Iran and Syria over ways to stabilize Iraq last night, agree with the rest of the panel that "given the assassination in Lebanon", surely their could be no talks between the US and Iran/Syria now.

Ok, let me get this straight. Iran has been the world's number one sponsor of terror since 1979 and was singled out by President Bush, along with Iraq and North Korea, as part of the Axis of Evil that threatens America after 911. Iran's forward infantry army, The Hezbos, are stationed in Lebanon where they regularly, and as recently as THIS PAST SUMMER, wage war on Israel. Administration officials have frequently commented on Iran and Syria as aiding and arming our enemies in Iraq. The Members Only donned Bearded One regularly declares that he intends to wipe Israel off the map as he defies the UN over his oil-rich nation's ongoing nuclear program for "peaceful" purposes.

But IF ONLY Lebanon's Gemayel continued to breathe the air in Earth's atmosphere, Syria and Iran would be acceptable partners to discuss bringing stability to Iraq?

Has Putin poisoned the entire Beltway? What else can explain the Alice in Wonderland conventional "wisdom" spewing forth from there.

I suspect this whole notion was a trial balloon put out by Baker. And, I suspect we will talk to them, as in, "you have 72 hours to give up the nuke program, disarm the Hezbos and cease and desist arming our enemies in Iraq or your tenure as heads of state will end."

Christopher Hitchens puts Baker in perspective in his latest:

James Baker is the last guy we should listen to about Iraq

.....The summa of wisdom in these circles is the need for consultation with Iraq's immediate neighbors in Syria and Iran. Given that these two regimes have recently succeeded in destroying the other most hopeful democratic experiment in the region—the brief emergence of a self-determined Lebanon that was free of foreign occupation—and are busily engaged in promoting their own version of sectarian mayhem there, through the trusty medium of Hezbollah, it looks as if a distinctly unsentimental process is under way.

This will present few difficulties to Baker, who supported the Syrian near-annexation of Lebanon. In order to recruit the Baathist regime of Hafez Assad to his coalition of the cynical against Saddam in the Kuwait war, Baker and Bush senior both acquiesced in the obliteration of Lebanese sovereignty. "I believe in talking to your enemies," said Baker last month—invoking what is certainly a principle of diplomacy. In this instance, however, it will surely seem to him to be more like talking to old friends—who just happen to be supplying the sinews of war to those who kill American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Is it likely that they will stop doing this once they become convinced that an American withdrawal is only a matter of time?

At around the same time he made this statement, Baker was quoted as saying, with great self-satisfaction, that nobody ever asks him any more about the decision to leave Saddam Hussein in power in 1991. It's interesting to know that he still feels himself invested in that grand bargain of realpolitik, which, contrary to what he may think, has not by any means been forgotten. It's also interesting in shedding light on the sort of conversations he has been having in Baghdad. For millions of Iraqis, the betrayal of their uprising against Saddam in 1991 is something that they can never forget. They tend to bring it up, too, and to fear a repetition of it. This apprehension about another sellout is especially strong among the Shiite and Kurdish elements who together make up a majority of the population, but it seems from its public reports so far that the ISG has not visited the Kurdish north of the country. If Baker thinks that the episode is a closed subject, it shows us something of what the quality of his "listening" must be like.

In 1991, for those who keep insisting on the importance of sending enough troops, there were half a million already-triumphant Allied soldiers on the scene. Iraq was stuffed with weapons of mass destruction, just waiting to be discovered by the inspectors of UNSCOM. The mass graves were fresh. The strength of sectarian militias was slight. The influence of Iran, still recovering from the devastating aggression of Saddam Hussein, was limited. Syria was—let's give Baker his due—"on side." The Iraqi Baathists were demoralized by the sheer speed and ignominy of their eviction from Kuwait and completely isolated even from their usual protectors in Moscow, Paris, and Beijing. There would never have been a better opportunity to "address the root cause" and to remove a dictator who was a permanent menace to his subjects, his neighbors, and the world beyond. Instead, he was shamefully confirmed in power and a miserable 12-year period of sanctions helped him to enrich himself and to create the immiserated, uneducated, unemployed underclass that is now one of the "root causes" of a new social breakdown in Iraq. It seems a bit much that the man principally responsible for all this should be so pleased with himself and that he should be hailed on all sides as the very model of the statesmanship we now need.

Read the whole thing

http://www.slate.com/id/2154164/

We do need to talk to Iran and Syria. For Baker and his ilk, so long as 72 hours have passed between Iran/Syria sponsored killings of our Allies and/or Troops, Basher and Beard can visit him in Baltimore over Blue Crab. But for Bush, I suspect his end of the dialogue will be from the Oval office, hopefully after bombing has commenced.

The wild card in this is The Godfather of Mother Russia and the continuing revelations of his misread soul.

www.race42008.com

"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson