obama Inauguration

[The Real Laoislad]

He looks pissed off and bored of the parade at this stage

[ziggysego]

Of the 44 US Presidents, 24 have had Irish roots.

   1. George Washington 1st President
   2. Andrew Jackson, 7th President 1829-37
   3. James Knox Polk, 11th President 1845-49
   4. James Buchanan, 15th President 1857-61
   5. Andrew Johnson, 17th president 1865-69
   6. Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President 1869-77
   7. Chester Alan Arthur, 21st President 1881-85
   8. Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President 1885-89, 1893-97
   9. Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President 1889-93
  10. William McKinley, 25th President 1897-1901
  11. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president 1901-09
  12. William Howard Taft, 27th President 1909-13
  13. Woodrow Wilson, 28th President 1913-21
  14. Warren G. Harding, 29th President 1921-23
  15. Harry S. Truman, 33rd President 1945-53
  16. John F. Kennedy, 35th President 1961-63
  17. Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President 1963-69
  18. Richard M. Nixon, 37th President 1969-74
  19. Jimmy Carter, 39th President 1977-81
  20. Ronald Reagan, 40th President 1981-89
  21. George H. W. Bush, 41st President 1989-93
  22. Bill Clinton, 42nd President 1993-2001 (his mother's maiden name was Cassidy)
  23. George W. Bush, 43rd President 2001-2008
  24. Barack Obama, 44th President 2009-present

For the sake of hardstation, I got this from Wiki

[J70]

Memorable, historic day - two million people on the Mall to see it happen. There were people in my workplace, black, white and hispanic, in tears when he walked out to sworn in. Its a pity himself and Chief Justice Roberts fluffed their lines a bit, but that was about the only slip-up on the day - apparently the huge crowds were handled without a hitch.

[ziggysego]

Chief Justice Robert has a slight brain problem which sometimes slows him up and causes them small 'fluffs'. No harm in it at all. Great day for a new world.

[Tyrones own]

Congratulations..Ye must be like a dog with two mickeys today lads
Didn't make the trip I take it J?

[ziggysego]

Someone's bitter

[J70]

Congratulations..Ye must be like a dog with two mickeys today lads
Didn't make the trip I take it J?

I hate crowds!

[carribbear]

Thats a lot of people who took time off from work today or maybe it was a sick day. No wonder the american economy is going down the pan with that sort of slacker attitude.

[stephenite]

Thats a lot of people who took time off from work today or maybe it was a sick day. No wonder the american economy is going down the pan with that sort of slacker attitude.

So it wasn't the sub prime mortgages after all? 

[Tyrones own]

Don't be silly lads, they're the ones with no work to go to thanks to Dubya.

[give her dixie]

Without a doubt, the best part of today was seeing wee George getting into the helicopter and flying off into the sunset.
Good riddance George.

[DrinkingHarp]

Thats a lot of people who took time off from work today or maybe it was a sick day. No wonder the american economy is going down the pan with that sort of slacker attitude.

Study: U.S. employees put in most hours

August 31, 2001 Posted: 2:07 AM EDT (0607 GMT)


By Porter Anderson
CNN Career

(CNN) -- You're not imagining it. The United Nations' International Labor Organization (ILO) has the proof:

"Workers in the United States are putting in more hours than anyone else in the industrialized world."

Lawrence Jeff Johnson -- the chief labor market economist who has led the ILO team in producing its new "Key Indicators of the Labor Market 2001-2002" study -- also says American workers are, per person, more productive than their counterparts in other countries.

"But we're not the most efficient, when you compare it per hour, looking at the Belgians and the French."


It seems almost cruel to mention this to our Stateside readers on Labor Day weekend, but Johnson says the Europeans' comparatively long vacations -- four to six weeks per worker -- may have something to do with this. "Maybe they're not so stressed" as American workers, who on the average may get two weeks' vacation.

One thing Johnson says doesn't merit emulation is a workweek shortened by law, as in the French workplace where a 35-hour week is the legislated standard. "Mandating it doesn't work," Johnson says. "In fact, they'll tell you that the '35-hour workweek' really means working the equivalent of 35 hours per week over the year.

"But if we're working ourselves to death in the United States," he asks, "why are we increasing the hours? Almost every year we increase the hours of work. American workers put in long hours to make up the gains" in efficiency seen in France and Belgium.

"There are lessons to be learned from workers in Europe."

To that end, the ILO is planning a special Global Employment Forum for November 1 to 3 in Geneva, this U.N. agency's headquarters, with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan among the attendees. "I'm not going to say that the Europeans do it better," Johnson says, "but we (Americans) need to open ourselves up to learning a little more from others. We don't always do it best."

# International Labor Organization: U.S. employees work longest hours


In hard numbers, what Johnson is saying is that his ILO statistics show that last year the average American worked 1,978 hours -- up from 1,942 hours in 1990. That represents an increase of almost a week of work. And it registers Americans as working longer hours than Canadians, Germans, Japanese and other workers.

What's even more concerning, especially to Johnson and his fellow ILO analysts, is that "the increase in the number of hours worked within the United States runs counter to the trend in other industrialized nations," he says. There, "we're seeing a declining number of hours worked annually."

Using the most recently available data, the ILO has determined that the average Australian, Canadian, Japanese or Mexican worker was on the job roughly 100 hours less than the average American in a year -- that's almost two-and-a-half weeks less. Brazilians and British employees worked some 250 hours, or more than five weeks, less than Americans. Germans worked roughly 500 hours, or 12-and-a-half weeks, less than careerists in the States.

Of countries classified as "developing" or "in transition," only South Korea and the Czech Republic tracked workers putting in more hours than American laborers. The Koreans logged almost 500 hours more annually than Americans, the Czechs doing some 100 hours more work than U.S. workers on average.
World of work

The ILO predates the United Nations, having been founded in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles. A U.N. agency since 1946, it sets and promotes standards for workplace rights, job creation and occupational safety and health. The organization has 175 member countries.

Johnson calculates that the worldwide labor force stands today at nearly 3 billion people -- roughly half the planetary population.
The International Labor Organization's full study is to be released in November for its Global Employment Forum in Geneva.
The International Labor Organization's full study is to be released in November for its Global Employment Forum in Geneva.    

Of that large group, the agency estimates that 160 million workers are unemployed. About 41 percent of the unemployed pool, about 66 million, are thought to be younger people.

And there are some 500 million "working poor." They're unable to make more than US$1 per day.

When it comes to the productivity issue, the ILO team is talking about "value added per person in 1990 U.S. dollars."

"Since the mid-1990s, U.S. labor productivity has grown considerably faster than most other developed (industrialized) economies," says Johnson. "Between 1995 and 2000, the average annual labor productivity growth rate in the United States was 2.6 percent, up from 0.8 percent between 1990 and 1995. Within the European Union, the labor productivity growth rate was 2.4 percent from 1990 to 1995. It decelerated to 1.2 percent from 1995 to 2000."

Ask Johnson what's going on and he immediately heads to an area of debate frequently touched on at CNN.com/Career -- the overtaking of personal time by work.

"I played golf on Sunday with a friend of mine, the vice president of a telecommunications firm. His phone rang three times, all work-related.

"We have this blurred line now between what is work and what is play. But we don't want to give up that edge. We American workers don't want to take time away from work.

"If we talk about a concept of 'decent work,' why are we increasing the hours we spend at it? In 2000, I would have thought we'd start seeing some retrenchment in those hours. We didn't.
     EXTRA INFORMATION
• Annual hours worked per person, 1990 and 2000
• Labour productivity per person employed, selected economies, 1990-2000


"Now, the numbers I've been seeing between January and now show that the hours have fallen back a little bit. But that's easy to contribute to companies slowing down their manufacturing, less overtime on the job. The economy slows down somewhat, the hours get pulled back. But productivity continues to grow."

One of the most interesting national cases in the ILO's purview, of course, is the Republic of Ireland, a kind of poster country for European potential as workers there get ready to deal at last in euro coins and bank notes.

The well-documented new productivity of Ireland -- 7 percent growth in productivity in terms of value added per person employed -- is a story of almost non-existent unemployment. "A lot of companies from the United States," Johnson says, "went to Ireland to start penetrating the European market. Ireland has the common-language advantage for American companies.

"Ireland also has a very highly educated labor force, a trained labor force -- so much so that a lot of Irish engineers and technical people went abroad in the 1980s and have only returned in the 1990s. They also have a very business-friendly environment and a good proximity to other markets of Continental Europe.

"But the Irish also take long vacations," Johnson says with a sad laugh.


"The lower skills have been earning less, the higher skills more," says Johnson of the United States' earnings picture. Real earnings of laborers and welders, for example, trended downward somewhat during the last decade, while earnings increased for occupations demanding more formal education -- computer programming, accounting, nursing and teaching."

The ILO also reports that the wage gap between men and women persists. In 2000, female accountants in the U.S. banking sector, the agency says, earned 27 percent less than men in the same work. Female computer programmers in the insurance sector earned 10 percent less than male programmers.
Lawrence Jeff Johnson, economist, International Labor Organization
ILO economist Lawrence Jeff Johnson: "If we're working ourselves to death in the United States, why are we increasing the hours?"    

There may, however, be a narrowing trend between men's and women's wages, Johnson says, even as the world faces an estimated growth of 500 million workers in the next decade.

As he and his agency work to prompt study and policy-making among countries' leaders through such events as the coming Geneva conference, Johnson says he never loses sight of the careerist irony in being an American abroad -- while displaying the work-driven patterns he studies in his native culture.

"I live in Switzerland with my wife and two young daughters, we've been there for five years," Johnson says. "We very much enjoy the lifestyle there. Unfortunately, I work myself like an American.

"I have a young American associate in the office here working with us, went to Georgetown (University), London School of Economics. She has settled into the (Swiss) culture," its work pace and rhythms.

"She can take a long vacation. I can't."

[Declan]

When he said "To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist" -  I immediately thought of our own government

The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages and accepting donations.

The Library will include:

1. The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.
2. The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won't be able to remember anything.
3. The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.
4. The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don't let you in.
5. The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.
6. The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room, which no one has been able to find
7. The National Debt Room, which is huge and has no ceiling.
8. The Tax Cut Room, with entry only to the wealthy.
9. The Economy Room, which is in the toilet.
10. The Iraq War Room. (After you complete your first visit, they make you go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth visit.)
11. The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shooting gallery.
12. The Environmental Conservation Room, still empty.
13. The Supreme Gift Shop, where you can buy an election.
14. The Airport Men's Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican Senators.
15. The Decider Room, complete with dart board, magic 8-ball, Ouija board, dice, coins, and straws.

Note:  The library will feature an electron microscope to help you locate and view the President's accomplishments.

The library will also include many famous quotes by George W. Bush:

1. 'The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.'
2. 'If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.'
3. 'Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.'
4. 'No senior citizen should ever have to choose between prescription drugs and medicine.'
5. 'I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.'
6. 'One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.'
7. 'Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.'
8. 'I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.'
9. 'The future will be better tomorrow.'
10. 'We're going to have the best educated American people in the world..'
11. 'One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.' (During an education photo-op)
12. 'Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it
13. 'We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.'
14. 'It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.'
15. 'I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.'... (George W. Bush to Sam Donaldson)

PLEASE GIVE GENEROUSLY!

Sincerely,

Jack Abramoff, Co-Chair
G.W. Bush Library Board of Directors

[5 Sams]

Without a doubt, the best part of today was seeing wee George getting into the helicopter and flying off into the sunset.
Good riddance George.

Some guy on Tubridy this morning summed it up perfectly....he said the sight of BO'B and the Bean Chéile waving off the Bushes in the helicopter was "like the end of a bad date."

[thejuice]

This had me thinking when did I first encounter President Obama. I was listeninging to the Dr King speech on Youtube about 3 years ago while I was in college. That speech has always been important to me, our school headmaster in the little Cushinstown primary school near Kilmoon cross where I used to go, used to play a cassette recording of that speech and tried to explain the importance of it. The words are still with me to this today;

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

Not then and even not to this day can I ever understand why you would judge a man by his skin colour or ethnicity. Anyway after the speech had ended there was a related video of someone named senator Obama from Illinois. Out of curiosity I clicked on it and listened to him speak. His words were similar to those of Dr. King, talking about judging men by the content of their character.

Nothing that he said was earth shattering, it just made sense. It was something that deep down we all know whats possible we just dont want to face up to. He was just saying things that I had often wondered why political leaders haven't said more often. From that moment on I knew we would be hearing more and more about Barrack Obama and when I heard he was running for President I was certain he was going to win.

Is Feidir Linn.