Russian Professor Predicts U.S. Will Collapse and Break Apart in 2010: Russian Media Loves His Predictions

A Russian professor has predicted a 45%-55% chance that the United States will collapse under the economic strain that it's under, a second American Civil War will break out and several new nations will emerge from the wreckage.

Yeah, right.

But his wild predictions have found an audience in the Russian media, which has been interviewing him like crazy. Despite his reputation as a KGB analyst, he couldn't predict the breakup of his own country in 1991, yet he's prognosticating an American collapse in 2009-2010. His anti-Americanism has found support in Russia and in the Kremlin, who blame Washington for everything.

His description of the six new American nations to emerge from the article: California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

Thhhhp!

My prediction: 2009 will come and go. So will 2010. America will emerge from it's economic woes sometime in 2010, with a new focus on paying off the sizable debt that is currently being accumulated.

This guy has read too much Harry Turtledove (an alternate history author). Too many of his ideas look like they've been plagiarized from Turtledove and other "what if" authors that I've read.

Hamas Has Been a Disaster for the Palestinian People; Israel Has No Choice But to Put Hamas Into Its Place

Governments around the world have been quick to issue statements condemning the latest fighting between Israel and Hamas and called for a cease-fire between the two sides.

A CEASE-FIRE??!

Hamas is responsible for most of the civilian casualties. They're positioning their military hardware next to schools, apartment buildings and houses, and not allowing the residents to flee for their lives when they know that Israel is destroying Hamas hardware whenever and wherever they find it. Hamas knows full well what will happen when their hardware is hit by Israeli bombs while sitting next to an occupied building: noncombatants die.

Israel was content to leave Gaza alone, until Hamas broke the cease-fire and began firing rockets into southern Israel, which provoked the Israelis to fire back.

As far as this talk of a cease-fire goes, it would be like asking the United States to negotiate a cease-fire with al-Qaeda. Why should Israel be made to agree to a cease-fire with a terror group bent on it's destruction?

Hamas has proven it can't run a picnic, let alone the Palestinian government. Yet the Palestinian people voted for Hamas and got exactly the type of government that they wanted. All that Hamas has brought is death and destruction to the Palestinian people. I wonder if the majority of Palestinians will be thinking about that the next time they have an election.

So How Many Banks Have Restored Lines of Credit Since the Government Bailed Their Bankrupt Hineys Out?

The $850 billion question being asked of the major banks who took the government bailout is this: what did you do with the money, and why aren't you loaning money to your customers that the money was intended for?

Of the 210 banks who took the bailouts, how many have restored lines of credit to their customers?

Not many. They aren't answering questions as to where the money went, have reduced or eliminated lines of credit to their customers, and have paid out "golden parachutes" (bonuses) to their executives, despite claiming that they wouldn't do so.

If the banks aren't more forthcoming in what they've done with the money, then those loans should be revoked and the banks seized.

They cannot do what they've done and then pretend that they owe the taxpayers nothing. That won't fly.

This is just more proof that the sheer size of the bailout was a huge mistake, isn't working and is in desperate need of fixing.

Biden Talks of ANOTHER $700 Billion Stimulus: This is a BAD Idea

VP-elect Biden said during an interview today that the "...economy is in danger of absolutely tanking" and would take another stimulus (in the range of $600-700 billion) to get things back on track.

I would like to know if this will involve borrowing more money from China.

Because if it does, then I am absolutely opposed to this move. We CANNOT afford more debt. They should be doing these stimuli from money they already have in the bank from taxes. They need to be PAYING DOWN the debt, not increasing it.

The cumulative effect of all this debt will lead to the end that Biden is currently predicting, and the bill WILL come due eventually.

Kennedy Considering Asking Governor of New York to be Appointed to Clinton's Seat: Why This is a VERY Bad Idea

Now that Senator Sniper-Fire has been nominated to be President-elect Obama's Secretary of State, the race is on to fill her seat. Caroline Kennedy, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Representatives Maloney and Millibrand, along with Bill Clinton, are currently the favorite picks of the talking heads on the news shows.

I don't like the attention that the media is giving to Kennedy, merely because of her last name. She should probably pick up some political experience and hold some other offices before asking the Governor of New York to appoint her to fill the remainder of Clinton's seat. And I'm talking about elected positions, not appointments due to her family connections.

She's an excellent fundraiser, having raised over $65 million for the New York public schools. But being an effective fundraiser does not necessarily translate into being an effective politician who responds to the needs of her constituents. The only track record that we have are position statements that she's made when her liberal media friends ask her for her opinions on the issues of the day.

She's already said that she supports gay marriage, abortion rights and supports gun control. If she ever ran for President, I would not vote for her based on those principles alone.

Her support for gay marriage and abortion rights is also contrary to her beliefs as a Catholic, and that's another serious issue for many people. You can't be pro-choice and be a Catholic; those positions are mutually exclusive from one another. Being Catholic is about being part of a pro-life religion. She's either a Catholic, or she's not. There is no such thing as a liberal Catholic. But it seems like many Catholic politicians from out East abandon their church's most sacred laws in the name of their politics.

Religious beliefs aside, the interests of New York would be better served by picking someone who has experienced going through a campaign and has at least held public office.

Name recognition alone isn't enough to hang one's hat on. We've all eyewitnessed the truth of this statement recently, when a virtually unknown politician named Obama beat a political star with the name-draw that Hillary Clinton has and went on to become the first African-American President. Name recognition is but one piece of the puzzle.

Governor Paterson would do his state a favor by looking elsewhere for a suitable and more seasoned replacement.

Bill Clinton Doesn't Need to be Involved in Senator Sniper-Fire's Confirmation Hearings: Obama's Calling the Shots, Not Bill's Charities

There's been a story circulating around that former President Clinton may be called into Senator Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearings to testify about possible conflicts of interests with regards to her nomination as Secretary of State.

He's already agreed not to accept foreign government donations to his charities. But more than that, Hillary's not taking orders from her husband on foreign policy matters; her boss is President-elect Obama.

Former President Clinton doesn't need to testify. It's a side-show that Congress doesn't have time for, and can handle privately with the Clintons and AWAY from the hearings. This hearing is about Senator Sniper-Fire, not President Clinton.

Oops, did I say that out loud?

Obama's Ties to Chicago Policitians May Be a Problem:Illinois Governor is Tip of the Iceberg

The shock waves are still coming out of Illinois, following the FBI arrest of the governor of Illinois on charges of graft, extortion and other corruption charges.

Governor Blagojevich has been accused of trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Obama following Obama's resignation from the seat to prepare his new Administration. And he apparently interfered in the Tribune Company's sale of Wriggley Field to extort the board to replace the editors at their newspaper (the Chicago Tribune) who were calling for his impeachment. Tribune filed for bankruptcy on Monday; the sale of the baseball field could have netted the company $100 million.

The accusations contained in the FBI summary are staggering.

I'm starting to get the feeling that the level of corruption that the governor is involved with runs much deeper than has been revealed so far; and because Obama was a legislator in Illinois for ten years, his involvement with other state legislators and associates who were involved with this corrupt governor will be under close scrutiny.

I'm very uncomfortable with another Administration coming in with the kind of potential baggage that dogged the Clintons for years. It feels all too familiar and is the kind of thing that, as we have already seen, will lead to never-ending investigations, regardless of whether the President-elect did anything wrong or not.

This is one of the reasons that I liked Bush in the beginning: when he first came into the White House; there were no skeletons rattling around in a closet; Clinton came in with lots of them.

Whose example will Obama follow, I wonder?

Auto Bailout Bill Passes House: Senate Bill Faces Filibuster

The House of Representatives passed their version of a bill which partially bails out the auto industry in exchange for a controlling interest in those corporations. It appears that the bill will face an uncertain future in the Senate as the GOP has threatened a filibuster unless changes are made in the bill.

I have mixed feelings about this bailout.

While I do think that the people of Michigan have suffered enough, I don't think that government will do a better job of making the auto industry better. I do not like the idea of a "car czar," nor his/her power to put the companies into bankruptcy or withdraw potential bailout money without some protections for the corporations, as well as some oversight of the "car czar."

And the government is already into too much private business.

I also do not think that copying Venezuela's economic model is a very smart idea. In fact, it's a really dumb move.

And now that we have an incoming socialist President, I fully expect this nationalization process to accelerate. The debt he's going to inherit and his current "tax and spend" plan is going to put the economy deeper into the hurt locker that it's already in.

The government needs to come to it's senses before it's presented with a bill that it can't pay.

Those Who Want Obama To Take Office Immediately Should Cool It: EVERY New Administration Needs Time to Get Set Up Properly

I was listening to Limbaugh today and he played back several sound clips of TV commentators wishing that the Constitution was amended so that Obama could take office on December 1st instead of January 20th. He's correct in telling Obama's TV news friends to settle down, but not for the reasons he listed.

He said that Obama doesn't want to take office due to the fact that the economy will worsen between now and January 20th, and that Obama doesn't want to be seen as being in charge when things really get bad this month; especially if one or more of our auto companies dies at the end of the month.

Putting the politics aside for a moment, the actual reason that there is a lag between the election and the time the new President takes office is that any new incoming administration needs time to fill many thousands of jobs, and not just the cabinet-level positions.

And until the adoption of the 20th Amendment in 1933, the lame-duck period was actually longer; Inauguration Day wasn't until March 4th prior to that. And the four-month period (between the election in 1932 and the inaguration in 1933) really hurt the country as the Great Depression was at it's peak during this time, and critical decisions were being put off.

There's no reason to alter the Constitution. Period. And even if they pulled it off, none of the states would be able to schedule votes before the January 20th Obama inauguration.

And I wouldn't be so anxious to rush a seasoned President out the door in return for someone who's been in federal-level politics for a grand total of four years. Obama will have his chance soon enough.

$10 Million Bonus for Merrill Lynch CEO Under Discussion: They Meant BOGUS, Not Bonus as Company Takes Bail-Out

Merrill Lynch became the latest bailout recipient to raise the ire of Congress and the public when their CEO asked for a $10 million bonus, weeks after the company took a taxpayer-funded bailout from the federal government.

If their executive board authorizes it, the government ought to consider revoking the company's bailout.

This is just one more proof that the entire bailout package was a very bad idea. There's no accountability, the companies aren't following the conditions of the bailout, and some of these companies will drive themselves into the ground pulling crap like this.

$2 trillion for stuff like THIS?

Nations Begin Signing Cluster Bomb Ban: Can We at Least Design the Weapon So ALL the Bomblets Explode?

One of the most infuriating things about cluster bombs is that when the weapon is deployed, and hundreds of bomblets are deployed, not all of them explode, which turns the impact zones into deadly minefields. Here's what a cluster bombing looks like:



Despite what the announcer says, not all nations that have cluster bombs deploy them correctly. Israel hit southern Lebanon with cluster bombs (supposedly the upgraded units with the self destruct units, but take a look at how effective the self destruct actually is.) The following video was taken by an Australian after the Israeli-Lebanese/Hezbollah war (audio commentary starts about 14 seconds into the video):



Israel and Russia both used cluster bombs in close proximity to civilian populations; the Russians disregarded the rules of war and dropped the munitions directly onto Georgian cities during their war earlier this year, deliberately targeting civilians. They did the same thing in both of their Chechnyan wars (Shali, Chechnya, in 1995, and in Elistanzhi, Chechnya, in 1999).

NATO used them in Yugoslavia, we used them in Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam. And in every use of them, there's a minefield left over. It's believed that ten million

And now there's an international conference going on; 100+ nations are going to ban them, including Afghanistan, Laos, Lebanon, Great Britain and 18 of 26 NATO countries. 88 nations are expected to sign it today, with 22 promising to sign tomorrow; when this is done, it will go to the United Nations where the remaining nations of the 192-member General Assembly can sign it as well.

The United States, Russia, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and several others have indicated that they will not sign it.

If we cannot design the damn thing to work as intended, perhaps we SHOULD sign the treaty and develop an effective system that will detect and detonate leftover munitions with minimum risk to the mine clearing teams.

Cluster bomb munitions can kill years after a peace treaty is signed between two warring nations, and that's not right, especially if little kids are the ones picking up the bomblets and having them explode in their hands, or blow their legs off.

I'm in favor of the treaty. These kinds of weapons, while very effective at destroying an enemy target, can be replaced with more reliable weapons that function as performed. The failure rate is simply too great to ignore.

Media Matters Goes After Bill Cunningham: Some of His Comments Earn Him Title of "Purveyor of Hate Speech" From Liberal Group

Media Matters has set it's sights on conservative commentator/radio host Bill Cunningham for some of his controversial comments about poor people, blacks, the unemployed and other groups.

He came into the national consciousness during the recently concluded Presidential elections when he introduced John McCain at an event in Cincinnati. He used President-elect Obama's full name (HOW DARE HE USE THAT NAME!) and said that he was a "hack" and a "Daley-style Chicago politician" among other things.

McCain didn't like it, and immediately repudiated what Cunningham said, which prompted Cunningham to say that he had been thrown under McCain's "Straight Talk Express" bus and trampled. He pulled his support of McCain and returned to his local talk-radio show. McCain knew who was introducing him, yet made no effort to find someone else to do the honors.

In the months since, he made some very nasty comments about Obama that Media Matters has zeroed in on. And truth be told, Cunningham is in the same vein as Michael Savage and Bill O'Reilly; he sometimes says the right things the wrong way. The specifics that Media Matters quoted in their report are as follows (credit: Media Matters web site) :

• Alleging that "Obama wants to gas the Jews"

• Invoking "[s]ix-six-six" and "the beast" in discussing "Barack Hussein Obama"

• On Obama Sr.: "That's what black fathers do. They simply leave"

• On the poor: "[P]eople are poor in America ... because they lack values, morals, and ethics"

• Declaring that America's "so-called noble poor" don't use birth control so that "the mom can get more checks in the mail from the government"
  
  
• "We are the only country in the world where poor people are fat."

The part that Media Matters forgets is that as inappropriate as some of these comments apparently are (while out of context, mind you), it's also protected speech.

I definitely don't agree with everything that Savage, O'Reilly and Cunningham say. They're their own worst enemies at times, but I also disagree with Media Matters on how they cut and paste comments together to make their victims look as bad as possible.

If fascism does start in this country, it'll start in the media with the same kind of tactics that Media Matters employs when going after people they don't like.

The Post of U.S. Secretary of State is Part of the Foreign Policy Team, Not the National Security Team

I keep hearing that the Secretary of State is the head of the President's national security team. With all due respect, no it isn't. The Secretary of State is the head of the President's foreign policy team.

The head(s) of the actual national security team are the Homeland Security Director, the National Intelligence Director, and the Secretary of Defense.

The Secretary of State is the President's chief foreign diplomat.

The National Security Council, of which the Secretary of State is a member, also includes the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Adviser as well as other departments as needed. The President is the chair of this council.

The President uses the National Security Council to get the experts in their various departments to come up with a comprehensive national security and foreign policy. Once the President decides, the Secretary of State executes the diplomacy, while the other departments execute their own part of the plan.

So it's quite confusing when the media portrays the post of Secretary of State as something other than it is.

Pentagon Preparing 20,000 Troops for Domestic Use: Conspiracy Theorists Run Wild Over This

This has been underway for some time, but the Pentagon is preparing a 20,000 strong military force for domestic deployment in the event of a city-killing terrorist attack, such as a chemical, biological, or nuclear strike.

Some talk-radio personalities are saying that this will be the tool used to overthrow the Constitution and establish fascism in this country. I disagree with Glenn Beck's assessment. When a nuclear attack happens (WHEN, not IF), we will be thanking God that these troops are available to help. If we are the targets of a Mumbai-style terror assault, people like Glenn Beck will be the first ones publicly calling on the government to use these troops immediately.

I do not believe that this force will be used to overthrow the Constitution, but to strengthen it, and to help our domestic institutions protect the American people from the kind of people (with their fourth-grade educations) who murdered so many in Mumbai, including six of our fellow citizens.

I'm not going to sweat it. The Fairness Doctrine is more of a threat than these troops are.