It will now be referred to as the Freedom Soup Belt

Here's another "never thought I'd see the day" gem brought to you by BushCo: German Chancellor Gerhard Shroder sees Vladimir Putin as more committed to democracy than the president of the United States. If Bush himself hadn't looked into Putin's soul and seen what a great guy he was, I might have trouble believing it.

But when it came to the planning for the Iraq war, Schröder, referring to Bush, told Der Spiegel that "if a person adopts a policy based on what he gleans from his prayers, in other words, a personal talk with God, it can lead to difficulties in democracy."

Schröder went on to criticize the growing role of religion in U.S. politics.

"We rightly criticize that in most Islamic states, the role of religion for society and the character of the role of law are not clearly separated," he said. "But we fail to recognize that in the U.S.A., the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies."

When asked by Der Spiegel if he still believed Putin was an "impeccable democrat," as Schröder himself called him during one of his several meetings with the Russian president in 2005, he replied: "I have nothing to correct."