This is from Drudge Report and Matt Drudge is hosting it on his own site, so I am not sure about the accuracy, but regardless it’s an interesting read:
A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.
Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily IZVESTIA published on Monday: “The dollar is not secured by anything. The country’s foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse.”
The paper said Panarin’s dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year’s events.
When asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said: “It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving. Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world’s financial regulator.”
When asked who would replace the U.S. in regulating world markets, he said: “Two countries could assume this role: China, with its vast reserves, and Russia, which could play the role of a regulator in Eurasia.”
Asked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: “A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”
He also cited the “vulnerable political setup”, “lack of unified national laws”, and “divisions among the elite, which have become clear in these crisis conditions.”
He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.
He even suggested that “we could claim Alaska - it was only granted on lease, after all.” Panarin, 60, is a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has authored several books on information warfare.
Read more.
God bless YouTube for exposing this witch:
In the latest clip, which is already being viewed on video-sharing site YouTube, Ms Couric asks: “When it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?”
Mrs Palin replies: “I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.”
Ms Couric: What, specifically?
Mrs Palin: “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.”
Ms Couric: “Can you name a few?”
Mrs Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.”
Oh my. Dear lord. Fast forward to 7:30 and see Sarah Palin get protected from witchcraft.
Oh I think we passed church and state a few miles ago.
Wow. Sarah Palin Acte Deux with Katie Couric, in which she explains why Alaska’s border with not one, but two foreign nations, add to her foreign affairs cred. Again, one word: wow. This makes Sarah Palin in Act One look smart. Be careful not to pull anything when you laugh.
Washington Post’s latest article takes Governor Palin to task for inflating Alaska - and her own - contribution to the US’ energy landscape.
The woman touted by John McCain as the most knowledgeable person in America on energy issues has been having a lot of trouble getting her basic energy statistics straight. Last week, Sarah Palin told Charles Gibson of ABC News that her state, Alaska, produced “nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.” On Monday, she told a campaign rally in Golden, Colo., that she had been responsible for overseeing “nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas.” Both claims are way off.
THE FACTS
While Alaska is a leading producer of crude oil, it produces relatively little natural gas, hardly any coal and no nuclear power. Its share of oil production has been declining sharply, and the state now ranks lower than Texas and Louisiana. Alaska is the ninth-largest energy supplier in the United States, accounting for a modest 3.5 percent share of the nation’s total energy production.
After nonpartisan Factcheck.org pointed out Palin’s error in her interview with Gibson, the governor revised her statement somewhat, limiting it to oil and gas. But data compiled by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) contradict her claim that she oversees “nearly 20 percent” of oil and gas production in the country. According to authoritative EIA data, Alaska accounted for 7.4 percent of total U.S. oil and gas production in 2005.
It is not even correct for Palin to claim that her state is responsible for “nearly 20 percent” of U.S. oil production. Oil production has fallen sharply in Alaska during her governorship. The state’s share of total U.S. oil production fell from 18 percent in 2005 to 13 percent this year, according to the EIA.
The McCain-Palin campaign did not respond to a request for an explanation.
THE PINOCCHIO TEST
The Republican vice presidential nominee continues to peddle bogus statistics three days after the original error was pointed out by independent fact-checkers.
Source. Yes people, the lies continue… Why, from Republicans themselves:
While the media is slowly starting to call the McCain campaign on their dishonest tactics, McCain’s staff boasts that they don’t care. As a McCain spokesman told the Politico, “We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.”
Enough said!
Sarah Palin, a liar? No way.
“She’s not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten,” said Walt Monegan, the Alaskan official whose dismissal by Sarah Palin is the focus of a state investigation known as “Troopergate”. “And she’s not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me.
Palin is running on a platform of reform. Hmm… sounds like hypocrisy to me:
An Alaska judge warned Gov. Sarah Palin’s family against trying to get her then-brother-in-law fired, according to court records.
That warning came long before the controversy over her dismissal of the brother-in-law’s boss, the state’s public safety commissioner, records show.
Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, is battling allegations she and her advisers pressured Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire her sister’s husband, State Trooper Mike Wooten.
Palin’s sister, Molly McCann, and Wooten were in the process of getting a divorce when the judge hearing the couple’s case said McCann’s family appeared to be putting Wooten’s job at risk at a time when he would be required to pay child support.
“It appears for the world that Ms. McCann and her family have decided to take after the guy’s livelihood, that whatever who did what to whom has overridden good judgment,” Superior Court Judge John Suddock said during an October 2005 hearing. “Aesop told us not to slay the goose that lays the golden egg. For whatever reason, people are trying to slay the goose here, and it tends to diminish his earning capacity.”
At the time, Palin was a private citizen and would not become governor until 2006. In complaints filed with the state police, she and other relatives had accused Wooten of threatening her family during the divorce.
Suddock was in the process of settling the couple’s property and child-support arrangements in the 2005 hearing. The judge said his decision might have been different had Wooten’s continued employment with the state police been more certain.
“The plaintiff’s table has created a situation where that is a very fragile outcome,” he said.
Wooten’s union representative testified that the trooper was the subject of a “constant stream” of complaints from his ex-wife’s family. “If things don’t change, Mike’s career is in jeopardy,” the union rep said.
“My advice to Mike was to find another job,” said John Cyr, now executive director of the Public Safety Employees Association. “I think he needs, career-wise, to look for work elsewhere.”
CNN obtained audio recordings of the hearing from the court clerk’s office in Anchorage, Alaska. Roberta Erwin, the attorney who represented McCann, declined comment on the case Wednesday, and other representatives of the governor did not immediately return phone calls.
Wooten was suspended for five days in March 2006, after state police commanders determined he had used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson “in a training capacity,” drove his patrol car while drinking beer and illegally shot a moose using his wife’s hunting permit.
In a February 2008 hearing over new custody issues, Wooten briefly complained that “disparagement” by his ex-wife’s family was continuing.
Complaints about Wooten from Palin and her family have been under scrutiny since Gov. Palin’s July firing of Monegan, whose duties included management of the state police force. After his dismissal, Monegan said he was fired because he refused to succumb to pressure from the governor’s office to fire Wooten, and his allegations have led to an investigation by the state Legislature.
Palin has denied any wrongdoing, saying the commissioner was removed because of disagreements over budget issues. Her attorneys have called Wooten a “rogue trooper” and said no one in the governor’s family knew of his suspension until after Monegan’s dismissal.
Spokesmen for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign have said the legislative probe has become a “political circus” since McCain tapped Palin as his running mate in August.
Palin originally pledged to cooperate with the investigation and disclosed that members of her administration had contacted state police officials nearly two dozen times to discuss Wooten. But last week, she asked the state personnel board to conduct its own probe, and a string of witnesses has failed to show up at scheduled depositions with the investigator hired by the Legislature.
Last week, Cyr’s union filed its own complaint against Palin and top aides, accusing them of improperly attempting to use confidential information from Wooten’s personnel files against him. The McCain campaign says Wooten agreed to release his files during the divorce proceedings, and the information was in the public domain.
PLAY
