The Past Week: April 5-April 11, 2009 (“President Panytwaist”; A Split Among Progressives over War Spending Plan?; Smear Campaign in Britain; “Sageism”)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Well, with Obama back in Washington, I know we can all sleep better, right???

Here’s another British writer (a society writer?) who is glad to be rid of him… courtesy Kenosha Marge:

Is it Just Me?

Gerald Warner

Barack Obama: President Pantywaist – new surrender monkey on the block

Posted By: Gerald Warner at Apr 10, 2009 at 10:20:05

President Barack Obama has recently completed the most successful foreign policy tour since Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. You name it, he blew it. What was his big deal economic programme that he was determined to drive through the G20 summit? Another massive stimulus package, globally funded and co-ordinated. Did he achieve it? Not so as you’d notice.

MORE

Priceless!

Also from Kenosha Marge, this little tidbit on Obama’s war spending bill:

Woolsey splits with Obama on war bill

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is the first — but likely not the last — liberal Dem to blast the Obama administration’s $83.4 billion war spending plan.

MORE

Gee, between Evan Bayh and the “practical Democrats” and Arlen Spector throwing a wrench in the card-check bill, it seems that the “Good Ship Lollipop” is taking a teeny tiny bit of water.

Meanwhile, across the pond, it looks like some of Obama’s best techniques are being copied…from the BBC:

No 10 ‘smear’ messages published

E-mails discussing smearing top Tories that led to the resignation of a senior Number 10 official have been published.

Damian McBride, the PM’s ex-political press officer, quit after the messages were picked up by a Westminster blog.

In them, Mr McBride made obscene and unfounded claims about the personal lives of party leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne.

The Conservatives urged Gordon Brown to explain how the allegations came to be sent from an official e-mail account.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: “This is an exceptionally serious matter and he needs to explain immediately what happened.”

MORE

Also in the British news…women newsreaders are getting fed up with sexism in the broadcast industry.  Selina Scott, who’s now 57, won a lawsuit, it seems.  I remember when Scott was the “flavor of the month” but apparently no more:

You won’t see women going grey in front of the cameras

Female broadcasters speak out against sexism and ageism in industry

By Emily Dugan

For female broadcasters, it is a truth universally, and unhappily, acknowledged: after the first wrinkles and grey hairs they can start counting down their days before the camera.

For male colleagues, the story is different. Grey hair and craggy skin are marks of distinction, and careers can continue to flourish.

Yesterday, concern over the disparity flared up, with a series of high-profile women speaking out against “sageism” – what they see as a toxic combination of sexism and ageism – by which competent and popular female broadcasters are shunted into the sidelines

The former Five news presenter Selina Scott said that, despite nearly 35 years of anti sex-discrimination legislation, ageism remains rife in television. Last December, 57-year-old Ms Scott won a landmark out-of-court settlement and an apology in an age-discrimination suit against the TV channel after it reneged on a deal for her to cover for Natasha Kaplinsky during maternity leave.

“Companies want to employ only young people, so ageism has gone underground,” Ms Scott said. “It has become institutionalised and it is pervasive. Like mercury, you can see its insidious manifestation everywhere, but try getting a grip and it slips away… A senior producer told me it was comparable to McCarthyism in Hollywood in the early Fifties – a witch-hunt in which anyone accused of communist sympathies had their careers destroyed.”

MORE

Ms. Scott has a lot more to say, but who’s really listening these days?  I was just thinking today about how in my life I’ve seen a huge explosion of  progress on women’s issues only to be followed by a great deal of slippage.  It’s so disappointing!

THE PAST WEEK

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (April 11, 2009) Carnage in the Garden; Blossoms; Harvesting Water; Empty Clouds; Spoiled Squirrels

Here It Comes…the (Not so New) NEW Republican Wedge Issue!!!!!

Take a Ramble…

The Scanner-Politics 4/8/2009 (Double Talk; Overstaying a Welcome; Moyers Talks to William K. Black, the 1980’s Regulator Who Cracked Down on Banks–He Levels Accusations of Law-Breaking Against Obama & Company

While Obama is Overseas, Congress Sets Us Up to Go Broke…Where We Stand Now

The Past Week: March 29-April 4, 2009 (Hugo Chavez Takes Over Food Producers, Sounds Off on the G-20; A Government Bailout Special; “The Reluctant Ones”