The 'Stans are Steamed

Apparently the Kazakh Embassy does not find Borat, the fictional fun-loving, genitalia-happy, incest-prone representative of Kazakhstan on Da Ali G show to be a laughing matter.

The ideas of satire and freedom of speech are fine, and we will always defend them vigorously. Yet, in these times of great peril and tension, Mr. Cohen and his show should really know where to draw the line. Humor of Mr. Cohen’s type is vicious and comes perilously close to “fighting words.”

So the Kazakh press attache is threatening to whoop some Borat ass, is how I read that. When questioning my Kazakh colleagues about their take on this hot-button issue, they just look at me quizzically and tell me Borat is not a Kazakh name.

In other news, I just came back from a talk by Georgian President Saakashvili, which brings me up to two viewings of the Georgian President, and zero of my own. Why, oh why do you hide from me, W? When I last saw Saakashvili all shiny and new from his new presidency, he was very smooth and polished. Today, he was totally losing his shit because the Russians are steppin' all up in his grill. And then he got really exasperated when someone questioned media freedom in Georgia (which is pretty damn free, esp. for the CIS), and he unwisely defended it by noting that Georgia is a small, gossipy country and even if he shut down every TV station, people would just tell each other everything. Fer real. Take that CNN; if we weren't such a big country you'd just be a surrogate for my big mouth.

And that's political commentary for Thursday, peace out bitches.