Getting abducted by space aliens is not an obstacle to social advancement in Japan.
Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan's Prime Minister-elect, Yukio Hatoyama, is a lifestyle guru, a macrobiotics enthusiast, an author of cookery books, a retired actress, a divorcee, and a fearless clothes horse for garments of her own creation, including a skirt made from Hawaiian coffee sacks. But there is more, much more. She has travelled to the planet Venus. And she was once abducted by aliens.
Now, is that cool or what?
Her husband is a real alpha who boasts going after his now wife while she was still married to her previous husband.
It was there, while working in a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco, that she met Yukio, then a graduate student at Stanford University. Miyuki was still married to her first husband. "The average man chooses his mate from among unmarried women," Mr Hatoyama boasted years later. "I chose mine from among all women."
I'm already bored by the Obamas. I thought they'd offer entertainment value even as they implemented policies I think are harmful to my interests and those of most Americans. He's humorless (in addition to being a politically correct persecutor). She's uninteresting to anyone with a brain. We need some more interesting politicians to pay attention to.
After going thru a short honeymoon Obama is unpopular. Where else to turn? The Arnold Schwarzenegger show is running down. We have a choice between this Japanese prime minister and his wife, the very entertaining Silvio Berlusconi of Italy (teen girl, hookers, other entertainment), or who? Is there a third major political figure worth paying attention to?
Joe Biden says you only have to make over $150k to escape the middle class. This is great news for people who aspire to become upper class.
But in an interview Monday with a Scranton television station, WNEP, Biden was explaining how the Obama tax policy would no longer give tax breaks to the “very very wealthy” and appeared to set the bar lower.
“What we’re saying is that $87 billion tax break doesn’t need to go to people making an average of $1.4 million. It should go like it used to. It should go to middle class people — people making under $150,000 a year,” he said.
Those comments fit into the Republican narrative aimed at voters who, are promised a tax break under the Obama plan. They argue that in order to pay for his spending initiatives, he’ll wind up taxing a lot more people than he says, a charge the Obama campaign disputes.
You might have thought you needed to make a half million or even a million a year to be upper class. After decades of inflation I would think even a million just isn't that much. But Joe Biden, supporter of the working class, wants to give us a more achievable goal to shoot for. $150k for entry into the upper class becomes a possible goal for a large fraction of the population. Work 2 jobs. Get your spouse to work 2 jobs. You too can enter the upper class.
America. What a great country.
Under Obama the top federal tax rate will probably hit 43%.
Under Obama's plan, the marginal federal income tax rate for those with the highest incomes would go back to 39.6 percent from 35 percent, perhaps earlier than already scheduled under the Bush tax-cut legislation for the end of 2010. Also, Obama would impose a smaller payroll tax, perhaps 2 to 4 percent but not yet specified by the Obama campaign, on income above $200,000 and $250,000. So the marginal federal tax rate – the rate on the last dollar earned – could climb as high as perhaps 43 percent.
Mind you, if you live in a state with a high state income tax then your marginal income tax rate could surpass 50%. That is just plain wrong. You are also going to pay sales taxes and assorted fee taxes on your utilities as well as property taxes and still other taxes.
you are out of touch with the struggles of most Americans.
CHESTER, Virginia (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama attacked Republican John McCain on Thursday for not knowing how many houses he owns and said it proves his presidential rival is out of touch with the economic struggles of most Americans.
Am I really supposed to follow this election and blog on what Barack Obama and John McCain say as it if they are making serious utterances on weighty matters? Should I read up on what the "house flap" is about that I see on the front of Google News? (and Google News needs a feature for excluding any stories that mention certain politicians) I read that first paragraph on that Reuters story and couldn't read the whole thing.
I do not know how many houses Barack owns. I also do not know how many houses Cindy McCain owns. But unless she likes to keep almost all her money in negotiable securities she probably owns more houses than Barack.
But since I do not know the answers to these weighty matters I am out of touch with the economic struggles of most Americans. Geez, I unfortunately do not feel out of touch.
My ambition: To become so rich and well insulated from what is going on around me that I can really be out of touch with the economic struggles of most Americans, Brazilians. Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Rumanians, Bolivians, absolutely all Nigerians, definitely almost all Georgians (though I hear they are very hospitable and friendly), and emphatically any Iraqis and Afghanis in Iraq or Afghanistan. If I'm leaving out anyone I do not mean to insult.
Update: Glancing at yet another article excerpt on the front of Google News now makes me think that the "that he owns" refers to McCain's houses, not Obama's. Reuters expects me to really be on top of this incredibly important story. McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns. This is an important crisis or turning point in the campaign. I see it now. Maybe it means that Cindy goes out and compulsively buys homes while John campaigns.
Update: So I went to Daniel Larison's blog hoping maybe he'd be writing about Georgian Orthodox Christianity as distinct from the Russian Orthodox flavor. But no. More McCain and Obama. I can't escape them. They are everywhere. But Daniel makes some good points. In a nutshell: McCain compensates for being rich by knowing less. Yup. We aren't an intellectually serious country. George W. Bush demonstrates the electoral value of a lack of curiosity in America.
Tagging Obama as aloof was not entirely new in February, but my commenters at the time thought I was off the mark. Politico apparently made the same claim in a December ‘07 article. However, I think the aloofness goes hand in hand with the wonkishness and expertise, so that while it is electorally a problem it is a signal of other desirable qualities. It’s just not often the case that someone with this combination prevails in a popular election. Most of McCain’s critics probably think that it deals him a serious blow to describe McCain as a visceral, emotionally-driven person, but I think those of us who are against McCain (regardless of whether we are for Obama) make a mistake if we treat this as an electoral weakness, just as we are missing something when we emphasize how little McCain knows about any policy questions. They are the sources of his strength as a candidate, and I suspect that they are part of the explanation for why he continues to run far ahead of the generic GOP candidate.
I'm trying to compare McCain and Obama the way Roissy might do it. On the one hand Obama is younger and supposedly therefore more virile. But he's too skinny to be all that virile and he has big ears. But McCain is old with a lopsided face. Who comes out ahead? At least McCain was a pilot which is a virile alpha male occupation. McCain has more money but he married it.
McCain's tax returns showed a total income of $405,409 in 2007. According to her 2006 tax returns, Cindy McCain had a total income of $6 million. Her wealth is estimated by some at $100 million, based on her late father's Arizona beer distributorship. She has not released her 2007 returns, which she files separately from her husband.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported making $4.2 million in 2007.
Obama made his money off of a book. Sorry, that's not an alpha male way to make a lot of money. Besides, he's got a feminist wife with a resentful attitude. I figure McCain wins points for not knowing how many houses he owns. You aren't supposed to spend all your time counting your stuff.