When: Saturday, April 20th, 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific

Where: Saturday Night Cigar Lounge with Taylor on Blog Talk Radio

What: Saturday nights were meant for cigars and politics.

Hear Taylor and his co-host Liz Harrison talk about everything from the past week – from politics, to news, to books, and entertainment. Whatever comes to mind, and of course, sobriety is not likely.

Tonight: Tonight, of course some talk about the Boston Marathon suspected bombers. Otherwise, who knows? We’re all sleep-deprived, so anything could happen! And we might end up with a friend or two from other talk shows calling in. (Yeah, we’d love to let you know who, but all our friends are just as sleep-deprived, so it’ll be whoever can manage to stay awake for the show!)

As far as motives to attack the U.S., there is at least one theory about why Chechen separatists might consider that a viable option. Since a terrorist attack in 2004 at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia where over 380 were killed, Russia and the U.S. have a common enemy – Islamic terrorists. Some Chechens were involved in that attack.

But Chechnya primarily remains in opposition with Russia – a battle that has been waged for at least 200 years. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not known for having a “soft touch” with anyone that disagrees with him, and the Chechens are no exception. Anna Politkovskaya – a journalist in Moscow – built a reputation for being critical of Putin for human rights violations in Chechnya. She was murdered on October 7, 2006. Trials (and re-trials) against her accused killers should be starting soon. That likely doesn’t change the opinion of some Russians and Chechens alike that have thought Russian leaders aren’t displeased with the fact that Politkovskaya was killed.

As for terrorism rooted in the Chechnya region, apparently the violence has increased in the past year. The entire North Caucasus region is affected by these activities, the most recent in Ingushetia. Whether or not this unrest has spilled over to U.S. soil remains to be seen. However, it does place a statement made by Mitt Romney during the presidential campaign in perspective.

Has the first die been cast that will lead to the “Zombie Apocalypse”?

Vladimir "The Zombie" Putin

Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin may have just thrown that die, according to the UK Daily Mail.  The report states that Putin and his Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov have given the green-light to approve the development of

Mind-bending ‘psychotronic’ guns that can effectively turn people into zombies have been given the go-ahead by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The futuristic weapons – which will attack the central nervous system of their victims – are being developed by the country’s scientists.

They could be used against Russia’s enemies and, perhaps, its own dissidents by the end of the decade.

The Daily Mail reports that sources in Moscow have cited Putin as saying that these weapons are “entirely new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals.” And that these new weapons “will be comparable in effect to nuclear weapons, but will be more acceptable in terms of political and military ideology.”

As if Putin’s remarks weren’t unsettling enough, the Defense Minister’s remarks during the announcement provided remarkable foreshadowing into the future of Russian weapons development.

“The development  of weaponry based on new physics principles – direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, and so on – is part  of the state arms procurement program for 2011-2020.”

Rest assured that the US and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) will not be too far behind in developing these types of weapons – if they haven’t already.

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Vladimir Putin will once again serve in the Kremlin as President of Russia, raking in an estimated 62% of the vote one day ago.  The closest competitor in the race was communist Gennady Zyuganov, bringing home around 17% of the votes.

Mr. Putin will enter his 3rd term (6 year term) .  He is returning after a 4 year gap where he served as prime minister under Dmitry Medvedev: who will now become Prime Minister.

However all is not well in the Russian Federation as opposition leaders have said that the result was marred by ballot-rigging and bribery.

The U.K. Daily Mail is reporting that Mikhail Kasyanov, Mr Putin’s former prime minister and now an opposition activist, said: ‘These elections are not free, that’s why we will have protests tomorrow. We will not recognise the president as legitimate.’

Even the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, has unkind words about Putin, saying, “These are not going to be honest elections, but we must not relent.  Honest elections should be our constant motto for years to come.”

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