Is It Just Me?

I realize this has been an especially brutal winter on so many levels and that may account for my grumpiness. But there are a few things I just have to bring to your attention.
-Isn’t it just a touch early for the unveiling of the official Michelle Obama first lady portrait? And could we pull back the throttle on the Jackie Kennedy look? We get it.
-The CEO of Europe’s largest budget airline Ryanair is quoted as saying he was considering charging a fee to use the bathroom on his planes. Talk about squeezing the last drop out of the customer.
-Nice to see 89 year-old Manhattan DA, Robert Morgenthau, finally hanging it up after 35 years and and 3.5 million cases. He clearly overstayed his welcome but you have to love a guy who got himself re-elected a few years ago at 86.
-Speaking of octogenarians, the New York Post fired gossip columnist Liz Smith. Her column was a bore and a half and somehow included an Elizabeth Taylor mention every day but she did have a great exit line. Liz told a TV interviewer “there was something exhilarating about getting fired at 86.”
-Newly minted New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s poll numbers are dropping faster than the stock market. Her public appearances have become unintelligible political babble often interrupted by staff notes telling her to shut up and move on. Somewhere Caroline Kennedy is smiling.
-Speaking of Caroline Kennedy, she makes one of my favorite arguments about celebrities and privacy. How many phony wannabees jdo you see or hear complaining about the paparazzi and the media invading their space. Well there have been few people more famous or sought after than Caroline Kennedy. But she has managed for years to be nearly invisible except for her intentional embrace of the media during her ill fated Senate quest. With that over she has retreated again into thin air proving if you want to you can avoid the TMZ treatment.
-The race to succeed Gillibrand seems to be all Jim Tedisco. The republican assembly leader is saturating the airwaves in anticipation of the March 31st special election and leads his democrat opponent Scott Murphy by 10 points. Either someone forgot to tell Murphy when the election is or he has no money for ads.
-Did you see that story about the English businessman who dropped his cell phone on a beach and it was found a few days later in a cod’s belly and the fisherman hit redial and traced the phone back to the owner? Color me cranky but that’s why they call bogus stories fishy.
-Hillary Clinton seems to be enjoying high stepping it around various foreign capitals pontificating on the great issues of the day. Note to Hillary: It still doesn’t make you president of anything.
-The stock market continues to give the various Obama stimulus/mortgage plans the back of the hand. It seems to be saying his plans are either dead wrong or not enough. At some point soon this will become his economic disaster. People are really getting killed out there and don’t need the president telling them what they already know. They want results not speeches.
-BTW…Can somebody just take Citi bank and Bank of America outside and shoot them. Both are complete train wrecks and putting another dime into them is a fiscal obscenity. Let them go belly up and have fresh private capital reassemble the pieces. The same is true of GM and Chrysler. Why would you give them another nickel?
-Obama gave a speech yesterday detailing his plans for an Iraqi surrender, I mean withdrawal. Was it just me or did he and his timetable sound a lot like George Bush. I guess only a republican is eligible for war criminal status.
-Finally if you want to get your protest groove on in these waning days of winter, try dialing up NYProtest.com. It’s an internet listing of street protests distributed by lefty activists. Talk about a good time! Peace out my brother.