Poor Stalin, he still can’t catch a break:

Even after Medvedev announced an end to operations, Russia continued to bomb the almost completely abandoned city of Gori, which led to the death of civilians, including a Dutch journalist. The city’s central square, dominated by a statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who was born in Gori, was shredded with shrapnel from a bombing Tuesday afternoon.

Turns out, that statue is the last standing original Stalin statue.  Here’s the tyrant in happier days.

Glenn Reynolds notes this in his tribute to the late Arthur C. Clarke, author of “2001″:

He was a very thoughtful guy, and a very good correspondent; he even autographed a copy of 2001 for my daughter when, at age 2, she could name all the moons of Jupiter. I doubt that I would do as well, if I attained his degree of fame. I nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize, but Yasser Arafat got it instead. I think it’s pretty clear that Clarke would have been a better choice . . .

No doubt.  Here’s the 1994 New York Times piece with details of the Nobel nomination.

Here now is the next installment of our regular series — the Joke Reality Check — in which we put jokes told on the campaign trail or in the media or in the general political discussion through a VIP check-up and washing. We check whether jokes are stolen, poorly-premised, or poorly written or delivered. And we offer strategic advice to improve the attempt.  If we’re not too lazy.

When we read this about John McCain’s meeting with President Bush last week …

McCain, an Arizona senator, picked up the president’s endorsement for his candidacy while dining on something simple: a hot dog.

“He said he was having a hot dog, so I had a hot dog,” McCain, referring to Bush, told reporters on his campaign plane during a flight to Florida …

… we thought we could go one of two ways with dissecting the joke.

One, we could go the difficult route and note the similarity between McCain’s line and that used in connection with other aging presidentially-ambitious Senators …

Bob Dole on following Strom Thurmond’s example at Capitol Hill receptions. “If he takes a shrimp, I take a shrimp. If he takes a banana, I take a banana.”

Or, we could go the easier — and arguably more satisfying route — by showing this …

Yeah, I’m with you.  Let’s just show the photo.  It worked for John Kerry.

We learn this about the man poised to become Russia’s next president, Dmitry Medvedev:

Medvedev’s memories of the Soviet past, as he told Itogi magazine, include his dreams of getting a pair of Levi’s or Wrangler bluejeans or a copy of “The Wall,” by the rock band Pink Floyd. He remains a fan of the kind of driving, grandiose rock performed by groups such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. His latest passion is his iPhone.

We’ll probably hear lots more in the coming hours and days about Hillary Clinton’s special relationship with Benazir Bhutto.  Here’s one anecdote, however, that might not get as much attention.

From the Washington Post’s coverage of Hillary Clinton’s 1995 visit to Pakistan:

At the luncheon table, Clinton was sandwiched between Bhutto and her mother, Nusrat Bhutto. The two Bhutto women have engaged in an acrimonious public feud since the mother sided with Benazir Bhutto’s brother — who opposes the prime minister politically — during Bhutto’s election bid 1 1/2 years ago.

At today’s lunch, Nusrat Bhutto began devouring a salad with her fingers before the guest of honor sat down, and then made a show of reading the menu during Clinton’s brief speech, drawing embarrassed looks from others seated at the table.

That’s the title of an excellent book I’m reading now, written by Dr. Thomas Henricksen, Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the U.S. Special Operations University.

American Power after the Berlin Wall tells us what is going to happen in the near future in foreign policy based on our recent past.

It describes the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy after the Berlin Wall collapsed, covering what went right and what went wrong in our military and humanitarian interventions into Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq twice.

No other single book, and in only 250 pages, covers these wars, conflicts, and occupations, while discussing critically things like nation-building, democracy-spreading, and stabilizing a turbulent world.

At the conclusion, Henriksen notes that war on terror will have to be fought without resorting to more occupations because they are too expensive and too unpopular at home.  We will have to turn to helping others to wage their own fights against radical Islam and by using our military power selectively.  Clever countermeasures are needed in this long conflict with militant Islam.

It’s a fascinating read and an important addition to our understanding and appreciation of foreign policy — all done in easy-to-embrace narrative.

(And if you’re into good deals for your foreign policy books, Barnes & Noble has the best price.  Click here to see.)

Braving today’s gorgeous D.C. weather, we took the Extreme Family to the National Zoo to explore the new Asia Trail exhibit.

Lo and behold, what do we discover?  According to National Zoo signs there are animals from the Orient which are naturally found in Myanmar.  Not Burma, as freedom lovers advocate calling the country, but Myanmar.

Perhaps we should suggest that the National Zoo — which is run, after all, with federal tax money — relabel their signs to say Burma?  Heck, while we’re at it, let’s urge them to rename the country as Reagan Burma.

Glenn Reynolds reminds us to say Burma, not Myanmar.

For good reason.  From C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” this morning, here’s Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-IL), ranking member of the Asia Subcommittee:

… there’s even a dispute as to the name of it.  The popularly elected people who were elected in 1990 to the 485-member parliament led by Aung San Suu Kyi were never allowed to be sworn into office.  They just — they were elected, the junta came in and said that’s it, you’re not going to be able to take over office.  And of course she’s been under house arrest.  … And so of the popularly elected people and now the government in exile calls it Burma and the junta calls it Myanmar after the Myan people, I guess the major tribe if you want to call it that rules the country.  And here is a country that the Brits came into in 1824 in their colonization and completed that — actually in 1885, an exit to India.  And then as with India, they got out of the colony.  This is since 1947 and ‘48.  But the Brits did leave behind something interesting in Burma and that is they really left the rule of law not as strong as in India.  They left behind the civil service institutions, the organizations for setting up trade.  And I think it was in the ’30s that Burma actually led the world in exporting rice.  So it’s a country with a tremendous amount of potential.  Very strong people.  There are about a million Burmese that are living in exile, many in Bangladesh and other parts of the surrounding countries there.  So it’s important for the United States and for the world to keep our eyes on this country because it has the real possibility of becoming yet another democracy in Asia.

Check out what this Australian reporter was bitching to President Bush about.

Q: I can assure you it doesn’t always look like this, with steel fences and concrete barricades and armed guards on the street … As leader of the free world, the people of Sydney don’t see their city looking all that free at the moment. And how’s that going? We thought that we weren’t going to allow terrorists to do this to our free society.

Huh?  How exactly do “we” allow terrorists to put up fences and barricades?

We’ll save the easy route of responding in kind with a Crocodile Dundee reference (Australia to terrorists: “That’s not a knife.  That’s a knife!”) for another day.  Instead, let’s simply enjoy President Bush’s wonderful response:

PRESIDENT BUSH: First of all, in terms of whether Sydney is going to return to normal after I leave, or after we leave, I suspect it might, don’t you? I don’t think this is a permanent condition. I think the great freedom of the city of Sydney is going to return quite rapidly, which is different from other societies in the world.

Indeed.  Now let’s round up the evildoers in Gitmo and feed them all a vegemite sandwich.

Turns out, those Condoleezza Rice boots are made for walking — and talking — and maybe some purring.
From the Washington Post:

During a trip to Europe early in her tenure as secretary, Rice sported a dramatic outfit at a U.S. military base in Germany: a black skirt that hit just above the knee, along with a black coat with seven gold buttons that fell to mid-calf — and hung open to reveal sexy, knee-high boots.
The trip was notable for the administration’s move to support European efforts against Iran’s nuclear program, but the photographs of Rice dominated the news. Talking with Wilkinson, Rice professed puzzlement about the fuss over her boots. Wilkinson said he didn’t feel comfortable explaining the reason.
“Oh, Jim, you’re like my little brother,” Rice teased. “Tell me.”
Wilkinson finally answered. “Men like these,” he admitted.
Rice leaned over and whispered: “We know that.”

Indeed.  Sexy legs and a foggy bottom.  Works for me.  We want a State Department, not a Staid Department.
And truthfully, which gets you more excited about foreign policy opportunities.

This:

Or this: