In the midst of the debate on the Irish bailout and the crumbling government, our Dail took a brief timeout to welcome the North Korean ambassador. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only person who noticed this or I would have been questioning my sanity.
politics
What A Difference A Week Makes, Eh?
I like the bit where Lenny says “lets be clear about this” before obfuscating completely. Also, the audible sigh from Paxman at 2:25.
The Wall Street Journal Is Watching, Biffo
My favourite part is the communications director from the Construction Industry Federation saying with a straight face that a shortage of housing in Ireland is imminent. These people are nothing if not determined in their spin.
Still Crazy
Finally a use for those retired army officers.
Oh Look, Damn International Media Ignoring Government Spin. Again.
Just for posterity, here’s a screencap of the CNN international edition website from this morning. It’s good going for a great little country like Ireland to scoop both leads, no?
At the same time, the Financial Times seems to have noticed some of the more important news leaking its way out about not attempting any more bond auctions until after the budget.
Bizarro Ireland brings you Cementgate
Folks on Twitter got busy with the puns immediately after news of the unscheduled arrival of the cement mixer at the gates of Leinster House this morning. The BBC have the story up on their site.
"Topnotch Stuff as a General Rule"
I missed this news at the time. Iceland’s Best Party won six of the fifteen available council seats on Reykjavik’s City Council. Party leader Jón Gnarr is now the mayor of Reykjavik.
“We stand for an honest approach and participation when it comes to governing the city. [Our support] is a reaction to politics and politicians who have been unwilling to stand up and admit they are responsible. [The elections] were a democratic protest against negligence.”
Some aspects of their platform are explained in the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/v/xxBW4mPzv6E&hl=en_US&fs=1
A profile of Jón Gnarr, from the New York Times.
So long and thanks for all the billions
http://www.youtube.com/v/aDtYwqo6g84&hl=en_US&fs=1&
via thestory.ie
You’d almost forget that Anglo is owned by the State, wouldn’t you?
$865 billion, go Ireland!
http://www.youtube.com/v/5D0VhS8qXT0&hl=en_GB&fs=1&
Helpful related graphic from the New York Times.
‘The victims of Ireland’s economic collapse’ from the Guardian.
Nobody saw this coming
http://www.youtube.com/v/vc8ykHoBXmQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&
via thestory.ie
Why do I not believe him?
He already postures as if he has Plausible Ignorance on his side. “very well capitalised”. He says that the Irish banking system doesn’t have exposure to subprime “US sector”. Da fundamentals are strong, no explanation of what these fundamentals might be. “Irish economy is greatly diversified”, yet again, say wha?
The “banking system has been a big beneficiary of that growth”. Repugnant and revealing.