Screenshot: Sarah Palin

This is Governor Palin's face at the very instant she utters the word "Obama," 7:56 into the CBS interview with Katie Couric. This screenshot is unaltered.

Financial capital of the world

This got me thinking: most older countries (the UK, Japan, France and Spain) have their financial and political capitals located in the same place. But newer countries, such as Italy, Germany, Canada and the US tend to have separate seats for political and financial power.

Does this week's collapse of New York and rise of Washington mark an epochal coming-of-age for the US?

Palin modifies her views on missile defense

Sarah Palin on global warming

Palin's Education platform

Sarah Palin is worried about Russia

The Hadron particle collider

A recap:

1. An unstable and pugnacious ally starts shelling one of its own cities, a deliberate provocation against the Kremlin, which, being the Kremlin, responds in force. Dick Cheney is dispatched to the region to assure the ally that we're ready for them to join NATO.

2. The US invades Pakistan, an nuclear-powered ally already teetering on the edge of collapse. Rather than make an effort to confer legitimacy to the new Democratically elected government, we give them what is tantamount to the back of the hand. Civilians are killed in the raid, which, as with almost all such American efforts, comes across as half-assed mucking about. Pak is pissed.

3. Insane vampire Kim Jong Il dies or has a stroke. No one knows who's in charge or what's going on in a half-starved nuclear power with a lot of big guns.

4. The Treasury takes over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the market flies into an epileptic fit. Lehman Brothers announces everything must go sale, and no one shows.

5. Venezuela and Bolivia yank their ambassadors from the US and announce naval excersizes with Russia in the Caribbean.

6. The current frontrunner to win the presidency, arguably the most physically unfit candidate in the history of the US, allows his Vice Presidential nominee to answer some softball questions from the Disney Channel. This is what if feels like:



America loves it.

Russia loves the Alaska Independence Party

Russia loves the Alaska Independence Party. The Kremlin has a storied history, after all, of using its neighbors' disgruntled minorities as a lever to expand its own geopolitical influence.

Beyond the hilarity and hijinks that is the Sarah Palin Vice Presidential nomination, her links to this little-known group deserves a bit of digging. What do we know about these guys, beyond their crappy design concept? (Their logo looks like something you'd see stenciled on the side of a van).

Marc Ambinder has made a good start here, but I want to know more about this group.