Quote of the day

This has to be one of Jerome Doolittle's absolute best lines. Sometimes the guy is fucking awesome. This is one of those times.

...the Washington Post has been considered a liberal paper by those who don't read it.

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Shame on us

Christopher is right.

I'll admit I just missed this. No willful omission involved. I just fucked up and don't read Talking Points Memo because I'm lazy and it's often boring.
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Great name

Apache Junction, Arizona

OK, my outrage doesn't subside

After 200+ years we've come to this? Where a petulant child rules you?

Wake up you fucking morons, you are being controlled by an idiot and you take it day in an day out.

Ya gonna accept an invasion of Iran? Yes you will.

I'm fine

After that horrid post before, I'm doing well. I took my meds and am very calm. Don't worry.

Hahaha. Like I think you really would worry about me.

We who post on the internets tubes hold a much higher opinion of ourselves than we deserve. But we have your attention. Lol.

HATE

I can't imagine hating another human more than I hate George W Bush.

Jesus fucking Christ he is such a fucking asshole.

Any American who voted for this fucker should be ashamed for the rest of their lives.

Bush defends his actions in Iraq

From fucking Virginia and not where Americans are dying.

H/t CNN

Bush is no fucking Solomon

I've read lefties and righties refer to Bush as Solomon. He is no more wise than your average paper cup. Deal with it.

Ed Morrissey, who was not very happy with President's immigration bill and wanted Congress "to find a solution that respects the rule of law," compared the President to Solomon. "In opting for commutation, Bush has attempted a Solomonic decision to split the baby," Morrissey wrote. "Unfortunately, like Solomon, Bush will probably find neither side satisfied." Although I agree with Morrissey that Bush is as wise as Solomon, I'm not sure he is interpreting the biblical story correctly. As I recall one of two women who claimed the baby was perfectly happy to settle for half a baby and it was only the real mother that objected. To tell you the truth I never understood why the other woman thought having half a baby was a pretty good deal, but I guess times were different back then. Morrissey thinks that half a baby is all the President could give Libby for now.

There is absolutely nothing wise about Bush. He's an idiot we have to endure for a few more months.

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And such is ignored?

How fucking quaint is this? The Brits were warned about attacks and...listen to the crickets...

"Those who cure you are going to kill you."

That, a British priest said Wednesday, was the cryptic warning made to him in Jordan by a purported al-Qaida chief months before the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow that have been linked to a group of foreign Muslims working as doctors in Britain.

British authorities have said the attacks bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida operation, but security officials say investigators are still trying to determine whether there was any direct link between the alleged plotters and an outside mastermind.

Canon Andrew White, a senior Anglican priest who works in Baghdad, said he met the man privately with a translator and sheik after holding talks with Sunni Muslim tribal and religious leaders April 18 in the Jordanian capital, Amman. He meets regularly with extremists in an attempt to calm Iraq's sectarian violence.

He said religious leaders told him the man was an al-Qaida leader who traveled from Syria to the meeting. The man, an educated Iraqi in his 40s and dressed in Western clothes, warned of attacks on Britain and the United States, White said.

"It was like meeting the devil," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "He talked of destroying Britain and the United States and then said, 'Those who cure you are going to kill you.'"

OK, let me get this straight. A cleric was warned the UK would be attacked and no one did anything. And Bush was warned of an attack and did nothing.

Is there a fucking pattern here? You don't have to don your tinfoil hat to realize somethings very fishy about all this.

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Alan Johnston Goes Free!

Sometimes there is good in the world.

Thanks to negotiations between Hamas and his kidnappers, Johnston wasn’t killed in a cowboy raid. Good to Hamas for that wise tack. While there are many concerns about Hamas’ takeover of Gaza, there is no denying the security situation seems to be improving now that Fatah and Hamas aren’t shooting at each other. I hear the clans in Gaza, who had run the place for a while and one of which was responsible for Johnston’s kidnapping, are running scared now that Hamas is in charge. That may be a good thing.

We should be happy.

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Beyond kewl

And frightening, disgusting or sad at the same time. We report, you decide.

From Jonco who is my gawd.

I am such a fucking thief

Please forgive me.

(stolen from Big Shot Bob in Texas)

Must read IMHO

This is my absolute last post about Libby's commuted sentence.

OK, I may be lying, but I think its my last post. I don't know when I'm lying. I'm psychotic.

Less than a month after leaving the presidency and amid nationwide anger over his last minute pardons, Bill Clinton tried to excuse, in a New York Times op ed article, his pardon of Clinton donor Marc Rich and his partner by claiming, among other things, three "distinguished Republican attorneys" had "reviewed and advocated" the pardons.

One of the three was the then little known I. Lewis Libby, who, Clinton wrote, to emphasize his legitimacy, was the new vice president's chief of staff.

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The Upside of Flaming Cars: Politicians and the Press Exploit the British Terror Attacks

The Brits took these attacks in stride. But the US media ran with the fear factor.

In the wake of the failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, tens of thousands of Brits donned their stiff upper lips on Sunday and took in a concert at Wembley stadium in honor of Princess Diana.

In Washington, opportunistic politicians donned their curled lips and went on the Sunday shows to use the attacks as an excuse to allow the president a freer hand to spy on the American people.

Have I said, "fuck the press" lately? If not I'm overdue.

Come on. Two car bombs were non-issues and the one in Glasgow was so pathetic as to be a laughing matter. The car didn't even enter the fucking building.

Are terrorists a problem? Ya bet your sweet ass they are, but you have a better chance of dying on your commute to work in a traffic accident than being blown into tiny pieces by a terrorist. Face the fucking reality of it all.

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BTC News

Just added BTC News to my RSS reader. You should too.

Jesus H Christ looking for donuts, but I don't have time to read my other RSS feeds and I add another. Am I masochistic?

In which I lose my cool while debunking right wing Libby myths at the White House press briefing

Need a touch of reality? We gotcha covered.

Today at the White House press briefing, I got into a somewhat heated (on my part) dispute with John Gizzi, political editor of the right wing web magazine HumanEvents.com. It happened like this…

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Must read IMHO

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A challenge to Eli

I'm numero uno, at least in searches for Michelle Malkin anchor baby.

Yes!!!1!!

It isn't as sexy as Eli's "bully gave me a wedgie pulled up my underwear pictures" search or "pimples under baby’s eyes", but I'm still number one on the anchor baby search.

Hey, I take my conquests seriously and revel in being first.

OK, I'm a Google whore.

I'm also confused. Many bloggers do searches on their names and Michelle has never commented on my many posts about her being an anchor baby.

Hmmm. Because she realizes she is and can't defend herself? Just asking.

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Stop this idiocy

A couple headlines. OK, I'm fucking lying. There are several headlines and links. Jesus H Christ on a beach blanket, but its fun to have such unlimited control. Muahahaha.

Obama Takes Lead In Money Raised

For Romney, a Fundraising Drop-Off

McCain cuts staff as funding woes build

Fund-Raising Woes

With fundraising apprently drying up, Romney writes himself a check

Senate Q2 Fundraising Numbers

Fund Raising Totals May Signal Changes Among Upper Tier Candidates

Stop it. These headlines and links could go on ad infinitum. Media seems to believe, as do too many bloggers, money accumulation identifies viable candidates. If so America is in the shitter.

Money is important, but as Henry Tyroon (James Garner) says in Wheeler Dealers (1963), "You don't go wheelin' 'n' dealin' for money. You do it for fun. Money's just the way you keep score."

Don't do it. Money is not your god. Money is a convenient way to trade, but it is no deity.

Quit equating money infusions with political strength. I don't know, but suspect Abe Lincoln didn't have tons of money.

While we're at it, forget the Libby stuff. Its over and done unless Fitzgerald can nail him in appeal, but Bush would just commute his sentence again so all is right with the world.

Forget Paris Hilton.

Forget the botched and totally amateurish attempts to attack London and Glasgow.

Blog about your cats.

Am I the only one who finds it interesting Lee Remick would be billed ahead of James Garner in 1963? Guess ol' Jim hadn't hit is stride. Or Women aren't cherished after a certain age.

Hmmm.

Japanese defence minister resigns over remarks on atomic bombing

Ah, if only Bush had the integrity and honor of this man.

Japanese Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma resigned Tuesday taking responsibility for his controversial remarks on the US atomic bombing.

Kyuma told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that his resignation was accepted, media reported.

During his speech Saturday in Chiba Prefecture, Kyuma had said that the US atomic bombing near the end of World War II 'could not be helped'.

Fumio Kyuma resigned after one probably ill conceived statement and Bush makes such motherfucking stupid statements daily.

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Africans at summit debate unity

Wow! Just wow! I didn't anticipate this scenario at all. So much for my claim of having crystal balls (which I do). No really. I do have several crystal balls. Many more than most people.

But I digress.

African leaders argued fiercely yesterday over whether to rapidly create a single state stretching from the Cape to Cairo, and one small group threatened to break away and forge ahead with the project.

Delegates said the atmosphere in an African Union summit was charged, as a group of states led by Libya's Moammar Khadafy and Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade argued with a more gradualist majority led by South Africa's Thabo Mbeki.

"I think everybody is a little bit tense, because they know how serious this is," said Senegal's foreign minister, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio.

"It is getting heated between Khadafy and the southern Africans," said one delegate who did not want to be identified.

While almost all the 53 member nations agree with the goal of African integration and eventual unity, most of the summit leaders want that to be a gradual process.

Gadio held out the prospect that a small group of states committed to creating a United States of Africa could push forward without the others and sign up to federation, ironically splitting the AU over the idea of unity.

"If Senegal wants to build this union with two, three, four more countries, there is not a country in this room that has enough power to tell Senegal you cannot do it," he said.

So maybe this will happen much quicker than I thought.

And no, the picture above is not of my crystal balls. Mine are much larger. Hahaha.

Did I mention the brass ones?

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Prosecutor: Classmate helped hide body

Before you read the rest of this post, please accept my apologies. I am so ashamed.

Prosecutors said a former classmate of a man suspected of killing his pregnant girlfriend helped dispose of her body, then lied to investigators.

The good news is Bush has set a precedent. Its perfectly fine to lie to Investigators à la "Scooter" Libby.

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Must read IMHO

For those who really would like an unemotional, knowledgeable and complete chronology of what has happened in Iraq. Fascinating stuff.

Some people think that anyone who disagrees with the American invasion and occupation of Iraq is either a bleeding-heart liberal appeaser, a George W. Bush hater, a blame America firster, an underminer of the troops, a traitor, or a geopolitical naif.

To those who see opponents of the war as fitting into one, several, or all of these categories, I say read this page. I will make no arguments herein, nor even commentary. I will twist no data nor spin any tales. I will even include some of the comments and arguments made by the administration and its supporters.

...

Right after 9/11, according to [Richard] Clarke, "The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.' Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this. I said, 'Mr. President. We've done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There's no connection.' He came back at me and said, 'Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection'. And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report. It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, 'Will you sign this report?' They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again'."

...

As war loomed, Iraq made broad overtures to the United States to prevent an invasion, offering to allow full, on-the-ground, American weapons inspections, anti-terrorism cooperation, oil concessions, and even backing for the US position in an Israeli/Palestinian peace plan. The only thing Saddam balked at was regime change, but even then he offered to hold elections within two years' time. The Americans were also informed by the Iraqis at the time that there were no existing WMD. The Iraqi representatives "could not understand why the Americans were focused on Iraq rather than on countries, like Iran, that have long supported terrorists". The Bush administration rejected their offer, despite that it met every demand that Bush was publicly making.

(via Smirking Chimp)

Climate change should be humans' top priority

From a very responsible and reliable source come some very frightening words on climate change (or global warming).

Reading a scientific paper on the train this weekend, I found, to my amazement, that my hands were shaking. This has never happened to me before, but nor have I ever read anything like it. Published by a team led by James Hansen at Nasa, it suggests that the grim reports issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change could be absurdly optimistic¹.

The IPCC predicts that sea levels could rise by as much as 59cm this century². Hansen’s paper argues that the slow melting of ice sheets the panel expects doesn’t fit the data. The geological record suggests that ice at the poles does not melt in a gradual and linear fashion, but flips suddenly from one state to another. When temperatures increased to 2-3 degrees above today’s level 3.5 million years ago, sea levels rose not by 59 centimetres but by 25 metres. The ice responded immediately to changes in temperature³.

We now have a pretty good idea of why ice sheets collapse. The buttresses that prevent them from sliding into the sea break up; meltwater trickles down to their base, causing them suddenly to slip; and pools of water form on the surface, making the ice darker so that it absorbs more heat. These processes are already taking place in Greenland and West Antarctica.

¹. James Hansen et al, 2007. Climate Change and Trace Gases. Philiosophical Transactions of the Royal Society – A. Vol 365, pp 1925-1954. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2007.2052. http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2007/2007_Hansen_etal_2.pdf

². Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, February 2007. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis – Summary for Policymakers. Table SPM-3. http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

³. I am grateful to Marc Hudson for drawing my attention to this paper and giving me a copy.

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Crisis Looms as Global Warming Hits Africa

The water crisis is coming sooner than I anticipated here, and here.

Joseph Manyara crouches over loose rocks and digs his hands into a muddy sludge seeping with water. Soon, his hands are filled with water, which he empties into a bucket.

He repeats the procedure several times, surrounded by scores of impatient children also waiting to fill their buckets from Ngarenaro River on the base of Mount Kenya.

"There is little water left," says Manyara with a note of despair. The river, which was once roaring with water from the mountain, is now only a silent sludge limping downhill. At times, clean water seeps from the rocks, but it is never enough for residents of Kirua village in Central Imenti District.

Mr John Gitonga of Subuiga area in South Imenti District points at what used to be Maranya River.

"If more people came to draw water, we would fight. It is not enough for all of us," says Manyara. Residents say this is one of the many rivers flowing from Mount Kenya, that have dried up over the years.

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Laura Ingalls

Most people don't know Laura Ingalls eventually became Laura Ingalls Wilder. Above is her tombstone. But becoming Wilder is explained by this video.



I have no shame.

(Little Ho via Jonco)

Libby Skates

ABSOLUTELY FUCKING EXPECTED!!!1!!

President George W. Bush spared Lewis "Scooter" Libby from prison in the CIA leak case, saying his 2 1/2-year term was "excessive."

Bush acted after a U.S. appellate court today refused to let Libby, 56, stay free during his appeal. Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to investigators probing the 2003 leak of Central Intelligence Agency official Valerie Plame's identity. Libby's backers had argued for a pardon.

The US has no "rule of law" and definitely no justice.

Fucking criminal administration!


Sidetrack:

How must Patrick Fitzgerald feel. After years of careful, meticulous work all goes up in smoke.

Have I said FUCK yet?

Gawd you must be so fucking proud of yourself if you helped this asshole (Bush) to gain office.



Have I expressed my anger adequately? If not ______________ Bush.

Fill in the blank for yourself.

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Anchor a drag on Bush's boat

President George W. Bush
watches as fishing guide
Billy Bush tries to pull
up the stuck anchor during
a fishing trip Sunday,
July 1, 2007 in Kennebunkport,
Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Bush really does fuck-up everything he tries to do.

The Secret Service bailed out President Bush on Sunday when his boat anchor got wedged in rocks along the Atlantic Coast.

Relaxing before his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the president went fishing with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and daughter Barbara.

They dropped the anchor to fish less than 100 feet from shore at Biddleford, Maine, but when they decided to leave, they couldn't, according to an Associated Press photographer who took pictures of the incident.

A fishing guide along on the trip tried unsuccessfully to pull up the heavy anchor.

Soon after, a member of the president's security detail called divers aboard a Secret Service boat that had been following.

What a maroon!

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Cat blogging

A little late, but...

Lieberman Uses Foiled British Terror Plot To Push For Greater U.S. Domestic Spying

We should have seen this coming from several miles away. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being a neocon and 10 being a liberal, Lieberman logs in as about a 2.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) used the foiled terror attempts in London to call for greater domestic spying here in the United States. Lieberman said, “I hope these terrorist attacks in London wake us up here in America to stop the petty partisan fighting going on about…electronic surveillance,” in apparent reference to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subpoenas for documents related to Bush’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program.

...

Liebermen [sic] went further in his calls for greater domestic spying. “The Brits have got something smart going. … They have have [sic] cameras all over London. … I think it’s just common sense to do that here much more widely.”

He is a DINO (Dem In Name Only). And if that weren't bad enough, he's a friend of Barney.

(via True Blue Liberal)

African Union summit opens in Accra, Ghana

This just might turn out to be one of the biggest news stories of the year. We won't know for a while, but a united Africa could become a powerhouse very quickly.

Declaring himself a "soldier for Africa", Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi called on the continent on Saturday to unite under a single government so it could compete in a globalised world.

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Brown gives up the power to declare war

Now isn't this just damn refreshing. Apparently PM Gordon Brown isn't another Tony Blair. At a time many world leaders are trying to consolidate and increase their power, Brown's going in the opposite direction.

Gordon Brown will this week propose surrendering historic powers delegated to previous prime ministers by the monarch as part of a wide-ranging programme of constitutional reform.

The reforms are expected to involve Mr Brown giving up royal prerogatives traditionally exercised by the prime minister, such as the power to declare war without parliamentary approval or to appoint bishops to the Church of England.

The House of Commons will be given new powers, including the right for MPs to recall Parliament during a recess if there is a national emergency, to hold American-style confirmation hearings for appointees to key public posts and to ratify international treaties.

In the longer term, Mr Brown is considering a British Bill of Rights, enshrining the civil liberties of citizens currently set out in the Human Rights Act and European Convention on Human Rights, to give a greater sense of what it means to be a British citizen.

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Bush pushes the boat out to welcome Putin

Did you say lobster and sailing?

OK, the headline ain't so bad. Wouldn't have been my choice of words, but it works. Although I doubt Bush did any actual boat pushing.

However, the opening paragraph is horrid:

President George W Bush is hoping that lobster and sailing his father's New England retreat today will help to woo Russia's president Vladimir Putin into putting pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear programme. [emphasis mine]

Oh yeah, a little lobster and sailing should do the trick for foreign policy.

Bush, what a maroon!

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Beijing tells residents water safe straight from tap

Getting ready for the 2008 Olympics?

Residents of China's capital have been assured that their tap water is "drinkable even without being boiled", state media reported, a breakthrough of sorts in a country where boiling drinking water is second nature.

The Beijing Waterworks Group said the 2008 Olympic host city's water had passed 106 tests for contaminants set down in new national standards, the Xinhua news agency reported late on Sunday.

"This is a blessing for Beijing residents," said the China news agency. "For many years now, owing to a host of environmental factors, the quality of Beijing water has been doubted by the outside world."

Many of the city's near 16-million dwellers might need convincing. Grumbling about metallic-tasting and unhygienic pipes is widespread. [emphasis mine]

Uh, NO! This isn't a breakthrough of sorts, but a major achievement. If you've ever been to a country, and there are many, where the water must be filtered (often more than once) and/or boiled before its safe to use, you would recognize the significance of this.

I was in an Asian country and was served a couple hard-boiled eggs which had been rinsed under the tap. There were probably no more than 4-6 drops of water left in the bottom of the bowl, but I got sick as hell. Safe tap water is unbelievably convenient.

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Civilian Deaths in Iraq Down 36 Percent

A couple things about this report:

1. Its really a good news/bad news report. Civilian deaths are down, but American casualties are high.

2. I'm too lazy to research it, but my gut feeling is civilian deaths have not dropped despite what this anonymous source says.
The news reports list Iraqi civilian deaths every day. You can take that for what its worth.

The fact the third paragraph starts out with "At least 1,227..." suggests the body count could be higher.

Iraqi civilian deaths dropped to their lowest level since the start of the Baghdad security operation, government figures showed Sunday, suggesting signs of progress in tamping down violence in the capital.

But American casualties are running high as U.S. forces step up pressure on Sunni and Shiite extremists in and around Baghdad.

At least 1,227 Iraqi civilians were killed in June along with 190 policemen and 31 soldiers, an officer at the Iraqi Interior Ministry's operations room said. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the figures.

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Blacked Out by the Corporate Media, Impeachment Advances

This little engine is gathering steam, but US media doesn't seem to grasp it yet.

The corporate media are disgracing themselves even further, if that is possible, on the impeachment story.

On Thursday, three more members of Congress signed on to Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s bill to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney (H Res 333), bringing the total number of co-sponsors of the bill to 10. That in itself would be national news, but there is more to it than simple numbers. The new sponsors include two freshman, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, who ran for office calling for impeachment, and Hank Johnson, who took over the seat of pro-impeachment Rep. Cynthia McKinney (McKinney filed her own bill of impeachment against President Bush in the waning days of the last Congress), but the group also includes Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA).

What makes McDermott significant is that he is a senior member of the Washington state delegation to Congress, a 9th-term legislator with considerable clout in Congress who sits on the House Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees, who chairs the subcommittee on income security and family support, and who has, in the past, said he was opposed to impeachment.

And I'm not saying Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is a clown.

(via True Blue Liberal)

The coming collapse of the US dollar

Here's a little something that's getting no traction in the US media.

The skew in the global financial system -- commonly called 'global imbalance' -- seems to be fast spiralling out of control.

For some time now economists have been engaged in the mother of all debates: whether the US dollar would collapse by as much as 40% when compared to other currencies (some are even betting on the US dollar going belly-up) or whether there would be an orderly devaluation -- that is, a gradual revaluation of other currencies vis-�-vis the US dollar.

In effect, the question that is confronting us is not 'whether' but 'when' and by 'how much.'

So hang onto all the dollars you can. They're always good for origami.

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Ouch!

This hurts, but doesn't surprise.

You Are 56% Cynical

Yes, you are cynical, but more than anything, you're a realist. You see what's screwed up in the world, but you also take time to remember what's right.

How cynical are you quiz.