Bail out

The parliament of the most powerful country in the world, after public awareness, and a televised debate and vote say no to a €700 billion bail out. Our boyos sort out a €400 billion promissory note in the dead of the night.

Hmm...says something that.

Sarah Palin vs Miss Teen South Carolina

Now this is frightening. Its becoming increasingly obvious that the VP candidate for the Republican Party, Sarah Palin, is....well there is no real polite way to say this....a total and utter moron.

Last week she did an interview on NBC in which she rambled on in the most incoherent manner. In large sections of the interview she was talking complete unconnected jibberish.

Does it matter - well yes, as Jack Cafferty of CNN notes "this woman will be one 72 year old's heartbeat away from being president of the United States"

In an earlier ABC interview with Charlie Gibson, amongst others things Palin demonstrates deer in headlights ignorance of the Bush Doctrine

Now have a look at the links above of the not improbable future President of the USA and compare her answers to Miss Teen South Carolina response under questioning and tell me who is smarter.

I've been busy!

Well it might look like I've been slacking but only on the blogging front. As a councillor I find the busiest time is September, schools are back, people back to work and I get a huge upsurge in constituency cases.

It didn't help that I went off to see Ireland play Montenegro in Podgorica. A fair 0-0 draw was the result. I think a point gained than 2 points lost, as Montenegro are a good side, growing in confidence and will take points off teams at home.

With three friends I popped over the border to Albania for a couple of days hiking in the Accursed Mountains. Fantastic. See pic.

I spoke at and attended the Electric Picnic, my debate on Friday night on Cultural Diversity in Ireland was a bit of a mess, not helped by two of my fellow panellists being a bit....well.....tired and emotional?

However the world greatest band did reform and were amazing.

Sinn Féin Donaghmede had its Local Election 09 convention on Tuesday the 23rd. I was the only person nominated so I am the candidate again. So the next nine months will be a hard slog as we try to get to all 10,000 homes in the constituency.

Also had a piece in the Irish Times on Saturday on skiing and hoping to get more writing done on snowsports over the winter.

On a wider note that US bailout will probably go ahead, I just wonder whether the nature of the public negotiations will scupper any confidence building measure in the banking sector. If it does expect big overnight gains in Irish banking stocks, which at this stage are well in the bargain basement.

Oh and I gave up smoking on Monday......grrr.