Cardinal Pell, Australia's representative at next month's secret conclave to elect a successor, said Benedict XVI was a "brilliant teacher" but "government wasn't his strong point" in a candid interview on the eve of the pope's departure. "I think I prefer somebody who can lead the Church and pull it together a bit," Cardinal Pell said.

Australia's most senior Catholic cleric also said the 85-year-old pontiff's decision to resign – the first pope to do so since the Middle Ages – set a worrying precedent for the Church. "People who, for example, might disagree with a future pope, will mount a campaign to get him to resign," he suggested. Asked what he would be seeking in the next pope, Cardinal Pell said he wanted somebody "who'll maintain the tradition, both in faith and especially in morals, where it's under attack."

"I want somebody who is able to speak to the world," he said. "And also I would like somebody with strong pastoral experience in a diocese who is able to lift the morale of the Roman Curia, and perhaps provide a bit more discipline."

Over time this has been proven to be a complete and total lie considering all of their policies have been directed towards the American people instead of so-called foreign Al-Qaeda terrorists. They’ve left the border wide open, setup unconstitutional checkpoints at airports with naked body scanning devices and have even gone so far as to setup unlawful security checkpoints at bus stations, highways and train stations.

In 2012 they purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition and just recently ordered another 21.6 million rounds of ammunition to add to their stockpile. The amount of ammunition that they have ordered is enough to wage a war for many years. Since they are not a military organization and they are based domestically here in the United States, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the ammunition is being stored in case they need to use it against the American people.

This is all happening at the same time Congress is attempting to shove through several gun control laws that would restrict the average American from purchasing firearms and ammunition. Since the Obama regime and the assorted control freaks in Congress are attempting to dismantle the second amendment on every front, it is entirely hypocritical to see them purchase such a large amount of ammunition.

There will be a day when the economic system completely unravels and when that happens, millions of Americans who are currently obsessed with bread and circus spectacles, reality television and other junk will immediately become aware of how badly they’ve been screwed. They will direct their anger and outrage towards the federal government and this is why they are preparing for war against the American people. The chances of a civil war happening in the United States is unquestionably becoming a more likely possibility by the day especially when there is zero possibility of any real change happening in Washington DC.

It meant, in other words, that people with severe impairments could look forward to more than a life spent staring at walls in under-resourced care homes. Which is as you'd hope. Anyone who is even vaguely human wants to know that certain support systems are in place. Suffering a serious injury and/or disability, which let's not forget, any of us might, is surely challenging enough without also finding that your human right to independence is in society's ever-burgeoning "can't afford it" category.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) absolutely insists that this isn't a cut – that "the ILF will be incorporated into local social care arrangements… to ensure fair, targeted support." It will be a cut, though. Anyone who says that councils will be able to finance these complex care packages in this appalling funding environment, with monumental care funding gaps, is dreaming.

Mr Steinbrück, the candidate for the Social Democratic Party, made the comments at an event in Potsdam on Tuesday that was part of a nationwide tour for his own campaign, said his spokesman, Michael Donnermeyer. During the event, Mr Steinbrück described former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as “a clown with a special shot of testosterone.” At another point, he extended his remarks to include Beppe Grillo — a former comedian whose Five Star Movement won more votes than any other party in the Italian elections that ended Monday — saying that “to a certain extent, I am upset that two clowns have won.”

German leaders have not sought to hide their dislike for Mr Berlusconi, who they say dragged Italy into the euro zone debt crisis. Before the Italian vote, several allies of Ms Merkel made clear in public remarks that they supported Prime Minister Mario Monti and his program in Italy. But Mr Steinbrück’s comments appeared to hit a nerve with President Giorgio Napolitano, who is overseeing the delicate negotiations to form a new government after the Italian vote failed to produce a clear governing majority in both houses of Parliament.

“We deeply respect Germany for its successes,” Mr Napolitano said Wednesday in a speech to the Italian community in Munich. “Germany was capable of resurrecting from its own ruins and rebuilding a new Europe together with Italy. We respect, but naturally we demand respect for our own country.”

His comments continued what has become a running dispute between Woodward, perhaps the country's best-known print journalist, and the Democratic White House over who is responsible for the across-the-board cuts scheduled to begin on Friday. Last week, Woodward [who first gained fame in the 1970s from exposing the Watergate scandal during the administration of President Richard Nixon] published an opinion piece in the Washington Post - where he is an associate editor - saying the administration was "wrong" to blame the cuts on Republicans.

On Wednesday he attacked Obama for drawing national security into the budget debate. "So we now have the president going out (saying) 'Because of this piece of paper and this agreement, I can't do what I need to do to protect the country.' That's a kind of madness that I haven't seen in a long time," Woodward told MSNBC on Wednesday.

Looking resigned to the $85-billion in "sequestration" cuts starting on Friday, government agencies began reducing costs and spelling out to employees how furloughs will work. Expectations were low that a White House meeting on Friday between Obama and congressional leaders, including Republican foes, would produce any deal to avoid the cuts.

Put into law in 2011 as part of an earlier fiscal crisis, sequestration is unloved by both parties because of the economic pain it will cause, but the politicians cannot agree how to stop it. A deal in Congress on less drastic spending cuts, perhaps with tax increases too, is needed by Friday to halt the sequestration reductions which are split between social programs cherished by Democrats and defense spending championed by Republicans.

The truth is that even if the sequester goes into effect, the US government will still take in more money than ever before in 2013 and it will still spend more money than ever before in 2013. So it is a bit disingenuous to call what is about to happen “a spending cut”, but for the sake of argument let’s concede that point. Even if the budget really was being “cut” by 85 billion dollars, that only would only amount to a “cut” of 2.4 percent to federal spending. It would barely make a dent in the federal budget deficit for 2013.

The US government would still accumulate about as much new debt in fiscal year 2013 as it did in all the years from the inauguration of George Washington to the inauguration of Ronald Reagan combined. Our debt to GDP ratio would continue to soar. The sequester cuts would essentially only be a minor bump on the road to financial oblivion. But if you listen to Barack Obama and his allies, they would have you believe that we are facing a great national crisis because of these impending cuts.

They would have you believe that hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs and that many government agencies will no longer be able to operate effectively. They would have you believe that “granny won’t get her lunch” and “roofs blown off by Hurricane Sandy won’t get repaired”. Well, if all of that is true, then what in the world would our country look like if we actually cut a trillion dollars from the federal budget this year and started living within our means?

Italy currently has a debt to GDP ratio of more than 120 percent, and Italy has a bigger national debt than anyone else in Europe does. That is why it is such a big deal that Italian voters have just overwhelmingly rejected austerity. The political parties led by anti-austerity candidates Silvio Berlusconi and Beppe Grillo did far better than anticipated. When you combine their totals, they got more than 50 percent of the vote.

Italian voters have seen what austerity has done to Greece and Spain and they want no part of it. Unfortunately for Italian voters, it has been the promise of austerity that has kept the Italian financial system stable in recent months. Now that Italian voters have clearly rejected austerity, investors are fearing that austerity programs all over Europe may start falling apart. This is creating quite a bit of panic in European financial markets right now.

On Tuesday, Italian stocks had their worst day in 10 months, Italian bond yields rose by the most that we have seen in 19 months, and the stocks of the two largest banks in Italy both fell by more than 8 percent. Italy is already experiencing its fourth recession since 2001, and unemployment has been steadily rising. If Italy is now "ungovernable", as many are saying, then what does that mean for the future of Italy? Will Italy be the spark that sets off financial Armageddon in Europe?

“The result touches us all,” said Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo. “It is a jump into the void that bodes well for nobody, neither for Italy, nor for the rest of Europe.” Almost 57 percent of the Italian vote went to parties that have vowed to tear up the EU austerity script. Together they control a majority of senate seats.

Even if the centre-left leader, Pier Luigi Bersani, can put together a “grand coalition” with Mr Berlusconi, there is no going back to the hairshirt regime imposed by Mario Monti’s technocrat government at the EU’s behest over the past 15 months. “A deal with Monti is impossible,” said Mr Berlusconi on Tuesday. “His austerity policies have put the country into a dangerous recessionary spiral, with rising debt and unemployment, and the closure of a thousand firms a day.”

The great fear is that the European Central Bank (ECB) will find it impossible to prop up the Italian bond market under its Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) scheme if there is no coalition in Rome willing or able to comply with the tough conditions imposed by the EU at Berlin’s behest. Europe’s rescue strategy could start to unravel.

Andrew Roberts, credit chief at RBS, said: “What has happened in these elections is of seismic importance. The ECB rescue depends on countries doing what they are told. That has now been torn asunder by domestic politics in Italy. The big risk is that markets will start to doubt the credibility of the ECB’s pledge.” It is a widely shared view. Luigi Speranza, from BNP Paribas, said: “We fear the markets could lose faith in the OMT’s effectiveness.”

The troika mission has returned to Greece, but this time things are different. No front page headlines are warning about new painful demands made by Greece's international creditors, no government officials are pleading for unity in the three-party coalition in support of unpopular measures. And there is no overhanging fear of a long drawn-out process of evaluation, full of innuendos about a catastrophic default or euro-zone exit.

On the contrary, the government in Athens is going on the offensive this time, presenting its own list of demands. The Greek government is determined to push lenders to agree on a list of concessions it hopes will help to alleviate the crisis. They include a lower VAT, or sales tax, for restaurants, the allocation of EU funds to combat unemployment and a new law aimed at making life easier for indebted households.