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Pure Schizophrenia in the McCain Campaign

Even more spectacularly than we could have ever hoped the love triangle between McCain, Palin and Hicktown USA is imploding. McCain's desperately to remind us he is human, Palin's trying to show us she's Superhuman and Hicktown is reeling with the news that Obama isn't an Arab.

One particularly blinkered McCain supporter Gayle Quinnel has typified the whole of the Republican campaign, showing it to be bigoted and playing on the farcicaly ill-educated people it uses for it's supporter base. When Mz Quinnel was asked why she couldn't trust Obama she fumbled for a while, spouted rubbish and then looked confused. Meanwhile the American people watched on in disgust as though she were a gymnast with diarrohea.

GQ: "He's not, he's a...umm, he's an Arab"
McCain: (Shakes head with despair)
GQ: "(Looks confused) He's not?"
McCain: "No"
GQ "No? (Even more confused, but wait he's black (sort-of) but not an A-rab, how the begeezus does that work!?)
McCain: (Respectfully) "No mam" (snatches microphone away)

McCain's next comment surely winning the backhanded political compliment of the year, and I paraphrase. "He's not an Arab he's a decent family man citizen." What!! Hang-on he's not an Arab, he's a family man. Miss GQ sure stands corrected there, does bigot cancel bigot or just create Texas?

We must all feel a little sorry for McCain, he old and tired. He's coming to the end of a hard-fought campaign with little chance of winning. His position is as un-desireable as a mooseWall St. He's stuck between the dim-witted grassroots supporters who's sole political knowledge comes from Republican publications and the dangerous maniachal Palin who seems intent on leaving McCain far behind to fight to Republican ticket in 4 years time. McCain, consider this a political obituary. Franklin

Leader Returns from Exile Amid Icy Reception

We've had Statesman Blair, buffoon Bush and want-to-be Statesman Sarkozy, enter Leader Brown.

After a rough week Iceland considers adopting
the Zimbabwean Dollar

Amid months of backstabbing, dull political skulduggery and Blair tinted spectacles, Brown's Falklands have arrived. With Miliband ensonced in the Dept of Global Warming and Darling doing his best Belgrano impression we have seen our Leader bounce in the polls. Brown's handling of our fellow island nation seem taken straight from the sombre pages of innit24. The handling of the Iceland situation was immoral, ill-advised and contrary to what Darling had said, but damn it made me proud! Out were was the dithering and endless itellectual debate; In were the gut decisions and rock solid stance. Undercutting the ever unpopular Darling and annoying the heck out of the Icelandic PM made this an ever better decision.

For the benefit of every rational voter in Britain I hope Brown has learnt the lesson that every leader must. At all times but especially those of turmoil it matters not what decisons you make, merely that you make them, and be damn well sure you stick to them. If you can instill a bit of national pride by pissing off tiny nations more indebted than Hicktown USA then even better!

It's time now for Brown to pull Britain together and cajole all the EU Nations as Schreiber has asked into finding a joint decsion. Then we can kiss and make up with Iceland (and Russia who's backing them) and bully the IMF into realising that short-term growth is not a substiute for sound economic fundamentals and sustained but steady progess. Vive sens! Franklin


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So, who's going to buy Iceland?
Brown declares war on Iceland (cracking read!)

The markets and the Union

As fear takes over the stock markets completely, we cannot but wonder why we are so utterly unable to deal with the financial spirits we called years ago and loved so dearly for so long. The biggest problem though is that we don’t just lack the knowledge of how to deal with our ever-shrinking markets, but we don’t even know who should deal with it.
And it seems as though the market forces we created are now stronger than us. This sounds super apocalyptic, but it is true. The credit crunch became a financial crisis, which is now about to become a perpetual economic disaster. Whilst the stocks crash all across the continents and banks go bust, business owners are already forced to declare bankruptcy. Brokers are seen in tears outside the stock exchanges in London, Tokyo, New York and Frankfurt, even though the central banks cut interest rates like a baker cuts bread. This morning, the value of City shares fell by £200m and stocks in Frankfurt and Paris dropped by 8%, again. The Sun says a cold war started between Britain and Iceland, and the Telegraph thinks the markets will end in a “complete bloodbath”. To make the catastrophe worse, everyone has a cold.
And here the big question: Who can help us and our markets? God? Marxism? Suicide? – I don’t know, really. But it is interesting to see that the one and only big player in international economic cooperation is as quite as a dead person, since the crisis started.
And yes, I’m talking about the EU. For about 60 years we have given more and more economic sovereignty to our friends in Brussels and now we ignore them. We ignore the very institution that could maybe be the only rescuer in this awful situation.Even though it was first planned to try a EU move and centrally coordinate all emergency measurements; at least after the Merkel Move, it was clear that all countries would have to fight for themselves. Hours after a meeting with Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvia Berlusconi, promising a EU solution to the crisis, Merkel guaranteed all savings in German banks (the Economist reports that this pledge is worth more than €1 trillion). Those nations fearing that the German move might destroy their banking system (even more), copied the move quickly. Hours after Sweden followed the Merkel move (which actually was the Irish move, as they were the first to guarantee the money in their banks, but the alliteration Merkel move just sounds better in headlines) Swedish banks are said to have advertised in Finland that investors should bring their money quickly to Swedish banks to be save, thus forcing the Finnish government to react as well.
French Prime Minister François Fillon even thinks it’s “logical” that the nation states and not the überstate EU deals with the crisis. But the real reason for this nationalist approach to the crisis was put into words by German finance secretary Peer Steinbrück. He said: “We as Germans don’t want to pay into a big pot where we don’t have control and don’t know where German money might be used.”
He is right, there is this fear that some taxpayers in some countries will have to pay for the problems caused by other countries. For example, many people on mainland Europe strongly disliked the Turbo Capitalism of the City of London and are now scared that they would have to pay for it. In the same way as British taxpayers would not want to pay for the disastrous management of Icelandic banks.
However people feel about it, a EU-European approach would be the best thing at the moment, keeping in mind that we know that the EU has been great in dealing with economy for the last 60 years. Why would Brussels not be able to deal with this crisis?
We should give Europe a chance.
Schreiber

Reminder

Please be careful when making out a cheque, as your bank might bounce.
Schreiber

Crisis in the nordic Paradise

The country has the 5th highest GDP per head; the highest quality of life (shared first place with Norway); is on the second place in the technological readiness index; has the second highest car ownership (632 out of 1000 citizen own a car), and has the 9th highest life expectancy (in fact, it has the second highest male life expectancy, after Andorra).
Which country am I writing about?
I’ll give you another hint. The country I’m thinking off is the probably worst affected by the credit crunch.
Yes, indeed, I am talking about Iceland. Did anyone by any chance check the value of the Icelandic Krona today? – 1 Euro is today worth 145 Krona. That means 1 Krona is not even worth a freaking Euro cent! I remember last year the Euro being worth less that 100 Krona.
In Iceland we see for the first time properly, how the financial crisis can affect the state. Prime minister Geir H. Haarde even spoke about the real danger of “national bankruptcy”.
The Allthing, the Icelandic parliament, even introduced emergency laws trying to fight the financial crisis. These emergency laws allow the state to interfere with the finance sector. However extreme and brutal these laws are, none of the political parties in the Allthing rejected them. This is how extreme this crisis is.
How did it get all that bad? Iceland's banks made a fatal mistake several years ago, offering great deals to people on the ireland and abroad (Britain mostly, but also Germany and the Scandinavian countries). Today, the banks cannot cope with the debts anymore, as they equal to 12 times the size of the entire Icelandic economy.
The government now manages the third largest bank, Glitnir Bank, and the second largest bank, Landesbanki Island HF. However, several experts seem to doubt the government's ability to cope with the disastrous banks. One of the emergency laws that were passed by the parliament ruled that the government does not have to guarantee the money in the banks anymore. Nevertheless, the government wants to save the money for Icelandic citizens, but not for foreign investors. This could hit many Britons hard. However, I have heard from informed sources that the British Government might sue Iceland over British deposits account holders with Landsbanki's Icesave Internet banking.
The danger that Iceland might become the first country that has to declare national bankruptcy due to the financial crisis is as real as the crisis itself.
Schreiber

Is the Far-Right due another [sic] millenarian rebirth?

The steady rise in fascist attacks will make us face up to our past, present and future.

The election of two far-right parties in Austria should have been a wake-up call to us all, but it's only on the pages of innit24 that it seems to be getting the coverage it deserves. It can be said that every country gets the Government it deserves, we have to hope this is far from the truth. There have been various recent elections where the right have made significant gains. None was more bitterly opposed than when Jean-Marie Le Pen (slightly right of Attila the Hun) won enough votes to contest Chirac for French Presidency in 2002. The fact it merely tipped the balance it the National Assembly from centre-left to centre-right we can now see was telling of a darker problem looming.

Stories of racist attacks throughout the EU have been reaching the British media for years. They all tell of increasing violence against immigrants and the slow march towards aggressive Nationalism. The worst stories appear the be centred around Moscow, France, Germany and now Austria. All countries that one would have hoped, in the strongest possible terms, WOULD KNOW BETTER.

If we all follow France's lead and bury our heads in the sands of our colonial pasts there is no hope. Perhaps the most shocking stories were those of the Paris riots in 2005, where France's repression of it's colleagues in arms in the Algerian war reared it's ugly head. The mistreatment and alienation, as France has perfected, creating virtual ghettos for it's immigrants breeding hatred and bitter recriminations.

Until we can bring together all elements of society to form dynamic and sacrificial (on both parts) solutions to our clearly desperate problems the march of the far-right will continue. These aren't men in jackboots with Chaplineqsue moustaches, these are people with suits, facts and disarming rhetoric. The solutions aren't simply rooted in control of the population but go down the the very core of society: Our town planning, the way our services are provided, our attitude to ourselves and others but most importantly, the way we deal with the issues. Frank openness is the only way.

It's time we accepted our pasts, dealt with the present and plan for a better future. Franklin