Hello Dave,   
      
    MM>> Russian President Putin ..voter fraud?! No way...he's too awesome! BTW   
    MM>> comrades, where can I get iodine pills in case of 'accidental'   
    MM>> radiation poisoning...   
      
    LL>> Chernobyl?   
      
    DD>> Probably he was thinking about Alexander Litvinenko and the radioactive   
    DD>> isotope of thallium used on him in London a couple - three years ago.   
    DD>> (2006)   
      
    LL>> There were a number of incidents that Putin was accused of   
    LL>> being (indirectly) involved in.  However, nothing definitive   
    LL>> has ever been proven.   
      
    DD> When you own the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation)   
    DD> and   
    DD> the espionage agency SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) which are the   
    DD> successors to the old KGB (Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti or   
   Committee   
    DD> for State Security) and GRU (Military version of the KGB) and are the head   
    DD> of a   
    DD> very patriarchal and hierarchal gummint - it's hard to prove anything   
    DD> against   
    DD> you. Unlike the US, where Tricky Dick could only wish he had that sort of   
    DD> control.  Bv)=   
      
   Medved is more the Russian than Putin.  But Putin is the lady's man,   
   and was popular among the masses during his previous stint as prez.   
   Nixon was a terrible president, and lacked the charisma.  Wishing he   
   had it left him depressed at time.  Which is why he went off the rails   
   at times, banging on the piano while singing awful tunes (although it   
   probably his voice rather than the songs).   
      
    DD>> The former USSR has its own version of the Mafia's omerta.  SCHTOOM!!!   
      
    LL>> The politburo (committee) ran the USSR, not a godfather (president).   
      
    DD> They are analogous. Not to mention that Litvinenko was LONG after the   
   demise   
    DD> of the USSR and politburo.   
      
   It must have been the lingering after-effects...   
      
    LL>> But in ways, that is how the Mafia works.  Each family has a godfather.   
    LL>> The godfathers periodically get together, forming a committee.  During   
    LL>> those meetings, godfathers are able to hash out their differences with   
    LL>> each other.  Those godfathers who are unable to hash out their   
    LL>> differences are told to leave the room, and a war between those   
    LL>> families erupts.  The dispute is settled, the new godfathers welcomed   
    LL>> to enter the room, and all is well.   
      
    DD> I was friendly with a Mafia godfather and had no knowledge that he was   
    DD> mobbed-up until the big scandal about the Appalachin Conference broke. The   
    DD> Zito   
    DD> brothers (Frank and Tony) ran an outfit called Modern Vending which had   
    DD> cigarette machine and jukeboxes all over central Illinois. They paid well   
    DD> and   
    DD> were nice guys. Their brother Sammy was a retired coal miner who didn't   
   have   
    DD> much to do with his brothers and lived in a two room apartment in a   
   flea-bag   
    DD> hotel. As it turned out they kept a lid on things. After their deaths   
   (from   
    DD> natural causes) things went nuts around here ... bodies dropping into corn   
    DD> fields, bobbing to the surface of ponds and lakes, people being   
   knee-capped,   
    DD> etc.   
      
    DD> Down toward the bottom of the   
    DD> http://mafia.wikia.com/wiki/Apalachin_Conference   
    DD> article you will find:   
      
    DD> Frank Zito - Springfield, Illinois Zito Family Boss (Chicago Outfit   
    DD> Caporegime)   
    DD> listed among the people arrested. To me, and the others in the   
   neighbourhood   
    DD> he   
    DD> was just a nice old man who gave us work and paid us well for that work.   
      
   I was friendly with Carlos Marcello's godchild, Liz.  She was an orphan,   
   and Carlos had taken her under his wing, raising her up to womanhood.   
   And then she got married, Sicilian-style, to what seemed to be a very   
   nice and wealthy man.  However, her man did not treat her right.  So   
   Liz shot him dead.  In cold blood.  In the back.  Nice girl, know what   
   I mean?  Anyway, she was arrested, charged with first degree murder,   
   and stood trial.  Carlos made sure she had the best attorney that mob   
   money could buy.  A high-priced lawyer from NYC represented her, the   
   trial held deep in Cajun country.  The jury found her not guilty on all   
   counts.   
      
   She really was a nice girl.  Would come over to my house from time   
   to time with her specialty home-made lasagna.  The best in all the   
   world.  I wish I had her recipe.   
      
   Mobsters and their kin can be nice people.  Just be sure never to   
   cross them.  And when offered a dish of lasagna, you had better tell   
   the lady it is better than "good".   
      
   --Lee   
      
   --- MesNews/1.06.00.00-gb   
    * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)