While the leaders managed to paper over any rifts by the time they emerged from their meeting, their lack of agreement on a British-style guarantee of loans made between banks worried economists.

If other countries do not follow the same course as Britain, they said, it could destabilize the financial system, because money may flow to Britain from countries without those same guarantees.

“You now have the full faith and credit of the British government standing behind the banking system,” said Barry Eichengreen, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. “The British could suck deposits from continental Europe and even the United States.”

“All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on Youtube and everything else,” Biden said — referring to McCain and Palin tying Obama to Weatherman bomber Bill Ayers and accusing him of “palling around with terrorists.”

“John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him,” he said to cheers. “In my neighborhood, you got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.“

And we have not yet even felt the full economic brunt here. I fear we may be at that moment just before the tsunami hits — when the birds take flight and the insects stop chirping because their acute senses can feel what is coming before humans can.

I have never been overly political, and I am purposely registered as ‘unaffiliated’ in California, as I’ve never felt that a two-party system was inherently democratic. I’ve also never been an alarmist nor have I been a rabid politico. Several events, both public and private in nature, have led me to the point where I simply cannot look away from what’s happening right now.

I am a student of journalism, political science and law, holding degrees/backgrounds in all three. What we’re seeing now is nothing short of terrifying if people take a step back and do some basic analysis on a macro level.

What this horrible McCain/Palin campaign is doing is reminiscent of the worst of the 1930’s. Whipping uneducated, mindless acolytes into a violent – perhaps literally – frenzy, stirring fear and playing our citizens against themselves and each other. We’ve seen ‘journalism’ in Sean Hannity broadcast a disgusting and totally false propaganda hit piece in furtherance of this movement. We’ve even recently seen a quasi-nationalization of our main business – credit – much like what happened 70+ years ago.

I’ve never been an alarmist nor someone to lean towards the melodramatic, but am I wrong in feeling as though our governmental system and very freedom could be at stake in the coming weeks? This terrifies me, and has prompted me to act.

"Some countries will slip toward balance-of-payment crises."

On September 17, 2008, the record set after the Black Monday crash of 1987 was broken as the TED spread exceeded 300bps.

Sarah Louise Heath Palin (born February 11, 1964) is the current governor of Alaska, Republican vice presidential candidate, a compulsive breeder, and a major lady dick.

The only thing Sarah Palin seems to enjoy more than having children is giving those children ridiculous names and inadequate sex education.

Palin served as both a city councilor and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, a nightmare of suburban sprawl located in the armpit of the state’s two major highways. Somehow, she was elected governor of Alaska in 2006, not only becoming the first woman, but also the hottest chick ever to hold the office.

On August 29, 2008, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain performed perhaps the greatest political mindfuck in American history by announcing that he had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin celebrated by ovulating.

Sarah Palin is helped inordinately by the fact that no one knows anything about her or Alaska, and probably never really will. Regardless of whether she turns out to be a disastrous pick for the McCampaign, Sarah Palin is a total MILF.

As long as she does not murder a puppy then potty herself on stage, the pundits will proclaim it a win.

Many people lingered outside the venue like some weird sort of survivors, talking about what they'd just witnessed with mostly awed shakes of their heads. The comparisons came quickly and furiously. "Like standing behind a 747" one guy in front of me texted midway through the onslaught. I couldn't help but think of the 2007 Danny Boyle film "Sunshine," in which one of the crewmen sent on a mission to the sun becomes addicted to the power he sees when he looks at an ever-approaching sun.

It made me think that if we do enter hard times, something really strange could happen to our political culture. The Great Depression gave us fascism, communist intellectuals and all sorts of odd movements. I doubt we’re in for a Great Depression, but if times get tough I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some sort of radicalism resurface, of the sort we haven’t really seen since the 1960s.

Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego and his rude behavior towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have some redeeming qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from Bangladesh. I asked him about this one day, and his response was shocking: "Oh, that was Cindy's idea - I didn't have anything to do with it. She just went and adopted this thing without even asking me. You can't imagine how people stare when I wheel this ugly, black thing around in a shopping cart in Arizona .

NEED SARAH PALIN LOOKALIKE ASAP FOR ADULT FILM (LA)]
Date: 2008-09-10, 8:20PM PDT

Looking for a Sarah Palin lookalike for an adult film to be shot in next 10 days.

Major adult studio.

Please send pix, stats etc. ASAP

Pay: $2000-3000

* Location: LA
* Compensation: $2000-3000

Of concern to McCain's campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin's interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how "infuriating" it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

"I've been following her religiously," he said Monday at the bar. "I had never heard of her before, like everyone else. I find her bizarrely fascinating, even though I pretty much despise everything she stands for."

Despite their political differences, Elliott admits to a bit of a crush on the Alaska governor. He began painting her smile and trademark glasses, he said, before filling in the details: a gun, red high heels, polar bear rug, rugged Alaska landscape and a scared moose. His daughter, who looks a little like Palin and does a great impression of her, served as model for the governor's body.

John McCain: Of course not. But, look, I understand this day and age of "gotcha" journalism. Is that a pizza place? In a conversation with someone who you didn't hear … the question very well, you don't know the context of the conversation, grab a phrase. Gov. Palin and I agree that you don't announce that you're going to attack another country …

Couric: Are you sorry you said it?

McCain: … and the fact …

Couric: Governor?

McCain: Wait a minute. Before you say, "is she sorry she said it," this was a "gotcha" sound bite that, look …

Couric: It wasn't a "gotcha." She was talking to a voter.

McCain: No, she was in a conversation with a group of people and talking back and forth. And … I'll let Gov. Palin speak for herself.
...
Palin: Well, as Sen. McCain is suggesting here, also, never would our administration get out there and show our cards to terrorists, in this case, to enemies and let them know what the game plan was, not when that could ultimately adversely affect a plan to keep America secure.

Couric: What did you learn from that experience?

Palin: That this is all about "gotcha" journalism. A lot of it is. But that's okay, too.

"We're going have to raise import tariffs in order to protect American jobs and manufacturing."

Look for the appearance of the following words in days to come: cranky, grumpy, crotchety, angry, mean, rude, sneering, snarling, contemptuous, off-putting, snide, boorish, and worst of all, not Presidential. SNL will probably drive the point home in a skit that will become the dominant narrative tonight, and McCain will become boxed in regarding his behavior in the second debate, much as Gore was unable to be as aggressive as he wanted in the second debate (I remember the running joke was that Gore had been medicated for the second debate). And if McCain does not tone down the contempt, it will simply feed the narrative. Or, if we are really lucky, as someone suggested in another thread, McCain will overcompensate and spend the entire time comically and creepily attempting to make eye contact with Obama (think Al Gore walking across the stage to stand next to Bush, and Bush looking at him as if to think “WTF are you doing?”).

This should be terrifying for the McCain campaign for two reasons. First, the base will not understand it. To them, a sneering, contemptuous jerk is a feature, not a bug. When they try to tone down McCain, it will turn off the diehards. Look at the reaction of the base to Palin’s RNC speech- they LOVED that she was, for all intents and purposes, nothing but an asshole the entire speech. They loved the “zingers” that were written for her. The rest of the country recoiled in horror, and Obama raised ten million the next 48 hours.

Kissinger, speaking Monday at George Washington University along with four other former U.S. State Department secretaries, said the next president should initiate high-level discussions with Iran "without conditions," ABC News reported.

She’s a junkie-and a junkie of the worst kind: A junkie-snitch who turns in all the people who supply her habit and cover for her, and gets away with it because of her rich family connections.

Normally we here at eXiled Online would never stoop to outing a junkie. But the problem is, we all may be forced to look at this desiccated vampire’s face for the next eight years, watching this lowest form of junkie-snitch blissfully living life in a pillow-world of opiates, while her husband sends all of the less-fortunate junkies away to the federal rape-camps, merely for trying to feel as good as his wife does.

McCain's campaign said the candidate confirmed to CNN on Thursday that he would not appear. But until yesterday afternoon, when rumors swirled about the pullout, McCain -- who has touted his ``straight talk'' politics -- gave no public indication that he intended to duck the nationally televised showdown.

The bait and switch on the debate left the Arizona senator -- whose favorite campaign line is ``I'll always tell you the truth'' -- wide open to blistering criticism from his rivals.