Cry Me a River -- Big City Bankers

Apparently we should all feel sorry for those big-city CEO's who will now be reduced to earning a paltry 1/2 million per year. Apparently, when you deduct taxes, pension etc. that only leaves you with an annual income of $293,000. Not nearly enough to live the Big Apple lifestyle. I mean if you want a chauffeur who can double as a body guard you'll have to fork out $125,000 per year. Just the nanny will be $45,000, and for that matter expect to pay at least $32,000 per child for private schools and should they need tutors for their SAT $250 an hour. $35,000 on clothes, $12,000 on a personal trainer, $16,000 on vacations (minimum of one sun and one ski) the list goes on.

I mean how are they supposed to maintain their lifestyle? They'll end up taking the bus and sending their kids to public schools! Sorry dudes, my empathy is malfunctioning obviously.

Check out the article in the from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=500K&st=cse

Rachel Maddow with just the right amount of outrage

I was watching one of those newsreports a few days ago where they have liberal and conservative pundits talk about policy. I jumped in mid-stream to hear the conservative pundit claim that funding retraining programs for recently unemployed was a waste of money. "Retraining programs don't create a single job." He said. I agree they do not create jobs they just help people to get rehired, the also help industry by providing a skilled workforce. I just cannot understand this mentality which shows a thorough disregard for people's well-being. Keeping in mind that in the US, when you lose your job you also lose your healthcare and possibly your home, this just strikes me as not only counter-productive but mean. When accused of being heartless he shook his head, no need to respond, I'm sure he thought that made him come off as 'tough' and the liberal as 'soft'. What about the Auto workers? Should they content themselves with an associate Wal-Mart position which won't pay them enough for decent healthcare, probably wont allow them to make mortgage payments and certainly wont allow them to send their kids to college?

So later on that day, I was reading Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope" in which he was describing the moral dilemma of a republican colleague who could not decide if giving subsidized breakfasts to young children in deprived school districts would break their spirit of self-reliance. Obama pointed out that five year olds don't tend to be self-reliant but they do fail to learn when they are malnourished. The republican stuck with his gut instinct and voted against funding the mal-nourished kids.

So now we're in a major economic crisis and what do the republican's suggest? Tax cuts. But Tax Cuts are not as effective a stimulant as spending. Tax cuts do not help the jobless and will disproportionately reward the wealthy who will most likely save it rather than spend or invest in the current state of affairs. Apparently food stamps are an incredibly effective stimulant. (They allow low-income / unemployed individuals to purchase food and only food, they cannot be used to buy say a CD or a restaurant meal or a cinema ticket). I am astonished that anyone would want to cut funding for food stamps at this point in time but some republicans do and they are even trying to leverage that issue in exchange for support of the stimulus package. They must truely believe that the poor deserve hardship and maybe a little starvation.

Rachel Maddow responds in a way that even republicans might just understand.

Fantasy New York Times

Brilliant, check it out http://www.nytimes-se.com/

Inauguration ceremony, January 20, 2009

So the weekend built up to the inauguration with a free concert at the National Mall. The National Mall is the open space that streches from the Capitol all the way down past the Washington monument to the Lincoln memorial. The concert was held in front of the Lincoln memorial facing a frozen lake and a crowd of almost half a million which stradled the frozen pool on all sides. There were so many celbreties and famous musicians that I'm sure I could only name about half. U2 played two songs, "Pride (In the name of Love)" and "City of shining lights". Beyoncee, Stevie Wonder, Garth Brookes, Bruce Spingsteen and many others also sang. The ceremony was a mixture of music and historical presentations given mostly by film stars. Barack Obama and Joe Biden also gave short speeches. 

 

The inauguration ceremony was a different kettle of fish. Almost 2 million people showed up. I have certainly never seen a crowd of 2 million before and I have to admit it was quite an impressive sight. It was freezing but the buzz of being there made it worthwhile. Freezing as it was, it was also quite a nice clear day. I have to wonder what was going through George W. Bush's mind as he emerged from the Capitol to see millions of Obama supporters waving American flags. I don't know how many people showed up for his inauguration but I do know that it was nothing like today. I was a few hundred meters back from the Capitol but as soon as Bush appeared on the Jumbo Screen the crowd Booed very loudly. He must have heard it. I hope he did. He had a strange expression on his face every time he appeared on the screen almost as if he were observing some foreign ceremony and didn't quite understand what was going on. His staggeringly low approval ratings must have been a hard pill to swallow while his sucessor was given a hero's welcome. The pictures below give an idea of just how many people were there watching.

 

 

Landslide Victory

Final figures not available yet but it's a landslide victory for Obama.

People are taking to the streets here in Washington D.C. There is singing and chanting and fireworks everywhere. It's really crazy.

In anticipation of election results

I can't believe that it's finally November 4 and that tomorrow we will know who will be the next president of the United States. We all know the polls have been pointing toward the same conclusion but there is always that niggling worry that something could go wrong. I only heard about the Bradley effect a few days ago and I hope that it's not going to be a factor. I was looking at the news last night and a French philosopher and political commentator Bernard-Henri Lévy said that he thought a wave of depression and disappointment would spread across the globe if McCain wins. I don't think that McCain is terrible but I don't agree with him on most issues and I don't think I could accept a McCain win because I think that if that happens it will be only because of irrational fear his campaign has stirred up against Obama and that is wrong. I'm rooting for a landslide win of historic proportions so that we can all feel truly vindicated after 8 disasterous years under one of the worst American presidents ever. Fingers crossed!.

Who's more Irish Obama (O'Bama) or McCain? with less than 3 weeks to go somebody needs to wrap up the Irish vote obama mccain comparison

You might be surprised to learn that that the race between Obama (or O'Bama as us Irish like to call him) and McCain has failed to mention the all important topic of their Irish ancesters. They should be boasting about their ancesters from the emerald isle. Ireland has produced some of America's finest presidents. John F. Kennedy being the most famous, but also Bill Clinton. Hillary isn't afraid to show her enthusiasm for Ireland. Check out her shamrock collar below!

That's awesome Hillary but O'Bama needs to take a leaf out of your book. Now let's get down to the ultimate Obama McCain comparison. Wrapping up the Irish vote would be what my fellow Irishman O'Bama calls 'a game changer'. Oh yes. I'm deadly serious. Obama's reluctance to acknowledge his Irish heritage is a grave political gaffe in my opinion. According to the US census 34.5 million americans claim Irish ancestry. That has got to be a lot of undecided votes. Remember when JFK thought there would be no political gain to visiting Ireland and then he got a bigger crowd than the pope? You know what O'Bama, many Irish people are not too happy with the current pope. They want change they can believe in so a US presidential candidage is way more likely to get their attention. McCain and Obama may have little in common when it comes to their campaigns but similarities between Obama and McCain include their ineffectual attempts to bag the Irish vote.

What's even more upsetting about this is that O'Bama received a written invitation from an Anglican rector in Moneygall Co. Offaly. According to the Washington Post rector Stephen Neill sent a fax to the Obama Campaign church records relating to the Kearney Family including baptismal records.This supports research done by Megan Smolenyak, chief family historian for Ancestry.com, an online repository of family history record. It's a no brainer really. The icing on the cake would be that Offaly could lay claim to a US president and their neighbor Tipperary would have to shut up about spawning Ronald Reagan. Only Tipp could be proud of Ronald Reagan. The Irish are already embracing O'Bama.

So the only remaining question is: Can McCain play the Irish card? Well he has tried, see below.

Fatal flaws: McCain's ancesters are from Antrim which is in Northern Ireland. Nothing wrong with Antrim or it's people of course but it just wont fly. Successful presidents have a history of links to the heartland Republic of Ireland, sorry Ulster southerners just have more charm. This gives O'Bama a distinct advantage. Also, McCain has the shamrock all wrong. In Ireland shamrocks have 3 leaves. Never, never NEVER 4 leaves. Four leaf clover is not an Irish shamrock. According to the wikipedia article on shamrocks:

The shamrock, a symbol of Ireland and a registered trademark of the Republic of Ireland,^[1] is a three-leafed old white clover,.

Compare to Hillary's awesome authentic shamrock collar above and notice the 3 leaved shamrocks. McCain has in effect lowered the bar. All O'Bama needs to do now is to wear the correct shamrock preferably standing between two american flags and the Irish vote will be nailed. He could even throw in Biden's Irish roots, beats Scranton any day. Again ,sorry Scranton but it's true. When it comes to small towns nowhere has smaller or more rustic towns than Ireland. Unlike Sarah Palin, small town Irish people believe in evolution and are concerned about global warming. Could be a win-win situation for the democrats if they could only see the possibilities. I would like O'Bama to explicitly embrace his Moneygall roots but for the minute I'm going to content myself with this T-shirt which is unfortunately is no longer available but was for sale on the official OBama website.

This is what Air Force One will look like if the next president of the US fully embraces his Irish roots: