The Politburo Diktat

Decadent Bourgeois Capitalism

Is bad morning for Commissar. First, shoulder still hurts like pain in zadnitza. Second, still looking over hurting shoulder for "few remaining regime loyalists" from ousted regime who may be ...

Third, as Map fad fades, Commmissar anticipates possible sitemeter-spike-self-impalement, in very near future.

But more important, Commissar reads of election in Russia. Commissar telexed friend in Mockva, asking what percent of vote winning candidate will get. Have office pool. Some say 99.95% Others say 99.20%. Ha. Commissar picked 99.45% - very shrewd bet. Anyway, friend say, "Do not know yet. Election not until Sunday." Pffah! What kind election is this? Results not known in advance?

But it gets worse. this report on the election:

The Communist Party in particular has found itself on the defensive because of its embrace of business. Government-controlled television has featured critical stories about the executives on its ticket. One of them is Aleksei P. Kondaurov, who is virtually assured election because half of the seats are chosen according to parties' total votes nationwide and he is ranked 13th on the Communists' federal list.

He is also an executive of Yukos-Moscow, the oil company's main subsidiary.

It is one measure of the ideological upheaval in Russian politics that he argues that the Communist Party is now the party of business.

"Today's Communist Party does not reject private property," he said. "It does not reject the mechanisms for market development. The Communist Party is for the strengthening of democratic institutions and the development of civil society."

He said the prosecution of Mr. Khodorkovsky and Yukos proved that Mr. Putin and United Russia favored greater state control over the interests of private enterprises.

Still, Mr. Kondaurov's candidacy and that of other executives have exposed deep divisions within a party still struggling to formulate a post-Soviet message.

Leonid S. Mayevsky, a Communist member of the current Parliament, publicly criticized the party at a news conference last month, saying that 28 percent of its candidates were millionaires.

"Is this the party of the people or of the millionaires?" he asked.

He was promptly expelled from the party.

More decadence reported from Beijing:

For a country that used to frown on women even wearing makeup, let alone showing off their bodies for prizes, China is stepping out into the international beauty contest arena with quite a swagger. As first-time host to the Miss World pageant, it is hoping that a foreign television audience even bigger than its own 1.3 billion population will be as wowed by the charms of China as by those of the contestants. Beauty queens from a record 106 countries have been parading before the cameras in recent days at historic sites and beauty spots across the country.

They wrapped themselves in fur coats on a snowy Great Wall that once served to keep out foreigners - no matter how good-looking.

Now they have unpacked their swimsuits on the southern tropical island of Hainan as they prepare to vie for this year's crown in the resort town of Sanya on December 6.

Is enough to make Commissar roll over in his as-yet-undug grave.