Idol Chatter

After months of what seemed to be unrelenting bad news, over the last week we’ve actually gotten some good news.  CitiBank reported last week that they were going to earn a profit.  GM indicated they could get by for now without any additional funding.  And for many folks, most happily, the stock market has been trending up.

The US economy is the strongest in the world.  We know we will recover from this recession but it’s just uplifting to hear some good news.  Now we can sit back and consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe the economy has hit it’s low point and is just beginning to bounce back.

Of course recovery won’t happen overnight but it will happen.

After being briefed that the nation’s unemployment rate could increase to 9% today, it’s reported that President Elect Obama is now looking to create or save up to 3 million jobs.  This is a half million more jobs than he had set as a goal last month and now 3 times what he pledged during his election run.

The number coincidently covers the expected number of future job losses now being forcast as the economy continues to wallow in what is now the worst recession in decades.  While admirable to want to keep the nation employed, one has to wonder if these notions are a bit to simplistic.  For one, it ignores the fact that the skills of the people now losing jobs may not come close to what is needed in the government manufactured ones.  Moreover, the concept of bring major government projects aimed at increasing employment to actually getting folks employed quickly is unrealistic.

The unpleasent truth is more likely that we are going to struggle for another year or two before the economy begins to right itself.

OK this is not one of those subjects I tend to spend much time on but in watching the evening news I saw this short spot on how there isn’t the money there used to be in recycling.  Kind of a bummer really when you think about it.  Many of us need a bit of encouragement to ‘do the right thing’  – especialy businesses.  If we can incent them to dispose of trash in an environmentally friendly manner, all the better.

If businesses go from making money by recycling to having to pay for pick up, one has to wonder if they’ll start to opt for just sending it to the landfill.  That would be unfortunate.  Regardless of what you believe about the cause of the worsening of our fagile balance here on Earth, we should all do the right thing to keep our planet not just good for our lifetime but good for the multitude of generations to come.

With the blow up of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe expenditures reportedly totaling around $150K, Campbell Brown of CNN’s No Bias, No Bull put the issue up for pubic debate – do women have to work harder than men?  Are they judged more harshly – especially when it comes to how they look?

We could probably go round and round on this issue.  But perhaps the more interesting subject is how put together do you need to be to step into the political limelight at the level Sarah Palin has?

Sarah’s background is not one the oozes money.  Pictures released of her old wardrobe pre VP run showed a women doing her best with a limited clothing budget but you wouldn’t cite her as having great fashion taste.  Others running for office come from a situation of greater incomes (didn’t Obama make several million last year?) and frankly years to build up the stylish wardrobes they sport.

Looking at all the candidates and their wives (since Sarah is the only women I’ll throw the wives in too) you can see that they all dress extremely well.  I mean come on, if anyone doesn’t think Obama is spending a ton on his wardrobe, not to mention his wife Michelle’s understated high style selections (how often have you seen her look drab or wear the same outfit twice?).  And McCain has a solid wardrobe that probably costs more than it looks and his wife Cindy (who has a fortune) is often sporting top designer wear with lovely if pricely jewelry.

Perhaps the real issue is whether we’d really take anyone who shops at Target seriously.  The unfortunate truth may just be that we are more influenced by the proverbial ‘book cover’ than we want to admit.

This week the girls go bonkers. Well maybe or maybe not, I suppose it depends on your point of view.

In the Democratic camp, Barbra Streisand takes out after John McCain. Clearly this gal does not like that guy. Well when your are so deeply entrenched in the democratic leftist mentality this type of attack can hardly be surprising. Babs calls McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin ‘desperate and irresponsible’ and that it was pandering to women.

Pandering? Well that’s a personal call but one could argue that Obama’s pick of Biden was uninspired and unimaginative.

In the other corner, Elizabeth Hasselbeck from The View takes a shot at Michelle Obama after John McCain’s wife Cindy was interviewed on ‘The View’. According to Elizabeth, who as far right as Babs is left in her political views, she enjoyed that Mrs. McCain came on just to talk and took a shot at Michelle who apparently had a rather extensive list of subjects that were not to be brought up.

Maybe Mrs. Obama had an ‘off limits’ list but come on Elizabeth, it’s The View, not 60 Minutes. Give Michelle a break – she’s not running for office, her husband is.

Perhaps both gals ought to stop spewing negative feeds about what they don’t like and spend more time bringing focus to issues we really need to deal with. That’s a vote to grow up gals!