RUSUTSU, Japan — First it was “Yo, Blair,” and now it’s “Yo, Harper.”

U.S. President George W. Bush’s penchant for street slang was again on display on the first day of the Group of Eight summit in Japan. A televised feed of the event showed Bush casually wrapping an arm around Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua and calling for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s attention.

“Yo, Harper. The president of Nigeria.”

For the record, I don’t particularly care how Dubya addresses Stephen Harper. They can high five each other, hug, or do the secret neocon handshake, and it won’t mean much to me. But, being in July, I guess this is what passes for political news.

I’ve been browsing a few wire reports on the story and I must say I did enjoy seeing the following descriptions applied to our PM by the international press:

“a rather stiff and shy figure”

“the somewhat wooden Canadian leader”