The Past Week May 3-9, 2009 (Chicago Suits Pressure Wells Fargo; Push for a Single-Payer Advocate at Baucus Table; David Cameron Interview Re: British Politics One Year Away from Election)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Early in the week, my mother mentioned how Hart Schaffner Marx, the suit maker based in Chicago, were on verge of going under because Wells Fargo no longer wanted to back them.

My immediate reaction was that there’d be pressure put on Well Fargo.

Well, Chicago Correspondent Leslie sent this along which proves me right…although it wasn’t very difficult in today’s climate to think of this scenario. From WBBM 780 Chicago:

May 8, 3:29 AM EDT

Giannoulias threatens bank over Obama suit-maker

DES PLAINES, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is threatening to pull state business from Wells Fargo & Co. unless the bank stops trying to liquidate a company that makes suits for President Barack Obama.

Giannoulias made the ultimatum outside a Hartmarx Corp. factory in Des Plaines Thursday. Chicago-based Hartmarx is the nation’s largest maker of men’s tailored clothing.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Jan. 23. It employs about 3,000 workers represented by the Service Employees International Union.

Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham says Wells Fargo is custodian of an $8 billion state portfolio.

We’ve explored Giannoulias’ actions in the past here at IA. See:

IL State Treasurer/Obama Ally Giannoulias Planning to Challenge Roland Burris–Report from Our Chicago Correspondent; Medicare Musings

Parts 1 & 2–The Lineup: A Who’s Who of The Associates of Barack Obama

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The folks over at HealthJustice continue pushing for single-payer to be included in the discussion about the “reform” of healthcare.  Their latest update:

Fax The Finance Committee Again
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Senate Finance Committee is hearing about health care reform, insurance-company-style, once more on May 12.  Thanks to courageous protests by the Baucus 8, there is a better chance that a single payer advocate will be at the table.  Three names are proposed: Rose Ann deMoro of CNA, Dr. Marcia Angell and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.  Sen. Schumer of New York has tentatively agreed to ask Sen. Baucus to inslude a single payer voice if — and here is the rub — another senator will also ask.  The Senators to target are Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Kerry of Massachusetts and Rockefeller of W.Virginia. So crank up those fax machines once more, especially if you are from these states, and lets blast the faxes to the White House and to the Senate Finance Committee members this weekend.  We have sent 27 thousand faxes to Congress so far.  Let’s send another 27 thousand just this weekend. Go to this page on 1payer to send your free fax. Send one. Send all.  Demand a seat at the table.

This game about needing to ask another senator has been pulled before, course.  We needed one Senator to get the ball rolling to fight the “selection” of Bush in 2000, remember?

Anyway, I’ve been emailing and faxing courtesy HealthJustice and I hope many readers will do the same!

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The Independent (UK) has an exclusive interview with the probable successor to Gordon Brown, Tory David Cameron.  It’s an interesting read and the next year before the election should be fascinating to see how it all unfolds.

…To the Tory leader and his party, this must be what waiting for power is like.

As it stands, Gordon Brown’s Government is reeling from setback after setback. The Prime Minister’s authority appears to be draining away. He is openly ridiculed by members of his own Cabinet, his expenses claim left open to question, his Government’s policy dictated to a minister by Joanna Lumley, the economy trapped in recession.

SNIP

It is Thursday 7 May, and in exactly a year’s time, if the polls are right and if Mr Brown is not ejected from office before then, Mr Cameron could be standing on the steps of 10 Downing Street having overnight brought to an end 13 years of Labour government.

Let’s recall how Obama and Cameron met during Obama’s summer tour of Europe.  At the time, this happened:

Breaking: Tory Leader David Cameron “Hearts” Obama, Talks about “Progessive Goals” Achieved by “Conservative Means”

At the time I wondered “Are Cameron and the Tories following Obama’s lead, or is it the other way around?”

***

THE PAST WEEK

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (May 9, 2009) ROADRUNNER in the Yard!

A Black Blogger’s Take on Obama’s Ambivalence toward the Real Problems in the Black Community

Tidbits from the 100 Days Debacle/Join the W.A.M. ACTION Against the Mainstream Media

Kurdish Women “Bend It Like Beckham” Pursuing Freedom

The Past Week: April 26-May 2, 2009 (Cap & Trade Speed Bumps; Tiny Houses; Obama’s Unchecked Spending Could Doom Health, Energy Plans)

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”

British Commentators: The Chosen One Looked “Shattered” After Meeting Brown….and Did Cameron/Obama Discuss “Conservative Means” to Achieve “Progressive Goals”?

I decided to look behind the headlines to see what British commentators from some of the print media have been saying about the Obama visit.

Perhaps the most revealing column is by Cole Morton, writing in the Independent (perhaps my favorite of all the British publications).   In a piece entitled “Obama on Tour: Three Special Relationships in One Day,” Morton writes this interesting passage:

When Barack Obama arrived at No 10 yesterday, he looked happy, relaxed and pleased to be there. He smiled and waved to photographers on the other side of Downing Street, calling a cheery, “Hello!” Camera flashes caught Gordon Brown waiting for him in the shadows of the hallway.

But when the US presidential candidate came out again two hours later, after a long chat with the beleaguered Prime Minister, he looked shattered. The smile had faded. Now he spoke so softly that only the closest microphones could hear him. As usual, the cut of his sharp, dark suit echoed the Kennedy era, but the charisma had drained away.

He had no advice for Mr Brown. But he did have an observation. “You’re always more popular before you’re actually in charge of things,” he said. “Once you’re responsible, you’re going to make some people unhappy.”

In case you haven’t heard, Gordon Brown is in a very precarious position at this moment. There are rumors of moves by his own party to have him removed. (Echoes of the forces that worked against Hillary Clinton?)

Morton goes on to say:

Afterwards Barack said their chat had been “wonderful”. But after the euphoria of Berlin and the glory of Paris, his Washington entourage was shocked to be made to sit outside on the tarmac. One said the White House would never be allowed to look as tatty as the grimy No 10. In one window the nets had been pushed aside for a cardboard packing case. The symbolism was unfortunate.

The senator talked about Afghanistan and Iraq, climate change and the credit crunch, saying some problems were best solved together. Was there still a special relationship? “Absolutely.” He paid tribute to British troops. Then he seemed to lose interest.

If he lost interest on this visit, what’s he going to do if he has a hard morning in the Oval Office? And isn’t his staff just “precious” about their horror of waiting out in the street and being put off by the less-than-grand 10 Downing Street?

Meanwhile, the Telegraph has the results of a new poll on the public’s attitude to David Cameron, the Conservative leader.

The first detailed analysis of the public’s perception of the Conservative leader reveals that his popularity is increasing rapidly but there is still concern over his substance and ability to connect with ordinary people.

(snip)

Today’s poll found that half of the British public regarded the Conservative leader as a “lightweight” with 44 per cent of those questioned saying he is “not in touch with ordinary people”. Only 27 per cent of people describe Mr Cameron as “deeply serious” with 39 per cent saying he is “somewhat shallow”.

Mr Brown and Labour have repeatedly accused Mr Cameron, a former public relations executive, of being a “shallow salesman”.

However, the poll also finds that the Conservative leader is increasingly popular with the public and his strategy of moving the party away from its nasty image is beginning to work.

“Lighweight” but “increasingly popular”….  Sound familiar? And a forrmer PR guy as Prime Minister?  WOW!

In the Sunday Times, Richard Wood details the Obama-Cameron encounter in his piece, “Barack Obama: He Came. He Saw. He, er, Left.”

The two met outside in New Palace Yard. The senator placed a hand on Cameron’s shoulder, and Cameron gestured up at Big Ben, an image of old and new, power and changing times that probably had Brown gnashing teeth and biting nails all at once.

Cameron rammed home the point that he’s the same sort of new kid on the block by giving Obama a selection of CDs by the Smiths, Radiohead and Gorillaz.

For more than an hour Obama talked with Cameron, overrunning his allotted time as they discussed world affairs, the Middle East (again) and balancing politics with family life. Tory insiders later claimed that the senator had said to Cameron: “I want to congratulate you on all you’ve achieved.”

Onlookers chanted: “Oba-ma! Oba-ma! Oba-ma!” But in truth, the prophet underwhelmed. As he implied, he is neither genius nor idiot, just an everyday global saviour.

I’d like to ask Obama exactly what he thinks Cameron has achieved…is he referring to his admiration of the Cameron’s PR skills??

Wood also provides more detail about the “time to think” exchange.

Cameron:“These guys just chalk your diary up.”
Obama:“Right. In 15-minute increments . . .”
Cameron:“We call it the dentist’s waiting room. You have to scrap that because you’ve got to have time.”
Obama:“And, well, and you start making mistakes, or you lose the big picture. Or you lose a sense of, I think you lose a feel . . .” Cameron:“Your feeling. And that is exactly what politics is all about. The judgment you bring to make decisions.”
Obama:“That’s exactly right. And the truth is that we’ve got a bunch of smart people, I think, who know 10 times more than we do about the specifics of the topics.
“And so if what you’re trying to do is micromanage and solve everything then you end up being a dilettante but you have to have enough knowledge to make good judgments about the choices that are presented to you.”

Yup, Obama is ready to rely on all those advisors he has because they know “10 times” more than he does. Well, considering that he knows zip, how much more can these advisors know?  Not encouraging.  He sounds EXACTLY like George Bush when he was running in 2000.

But what’s missing from the accounts of the “new kids” confab is the the subject which Cameron brought up a couple of weeks ago, before the arrival of The Chosen One.

A little over a month ago I wrote about an interview in which Cameron praised Obama’s Father’s Day speech (Breaking: Tory Leader David Cameron “Hearts” Obama Talks About “Progressive Goals” Achieved by “Conservative Means)

Even more interesting is a comment Cameron made about how he views the modern Conservative Party in the UK.

Cameron “appeals to the centre and left ‘to recognise that the modern Conservative party is on the brink of a very big and exciting argument that if you want to pursue progressive goals in Britain, whether it is greening the environment, tackling poverty, unlocking social mobility, there is a really good case to say that you can best achieve those by Conservative means.'”

MMMMM. Are Cameron and the Tories following Obama’s lead, or is it the other way around?

I’m still wondering about that statement. And I still think it describes the way Obama thinks to a “T.” He talks a good game, but in the end, many of his ideas sound like they could fit in with Republican approaches. We’ve seen his flip-flopping vote on FISA. Social Security is one area I wouldn’t trust him on…all that money from Wall Street is coming in for a reason. And, how “progressive” was his bill on nuclear safety after he caved to the “conservatives”/GOP and re-wrote the bill to help out Exelon?

If there’s one thing that should be kept in mind as this miserable election season progresses, it is Cameron- the-PR-man’s clever phrase “progressive goals…best achieved… by conservative means.”  It sound great as a slogan, but what would actually happen if Cameron–or Obama–wound up in charge?

My guess is that with Obama we’d get “watered down progressive goals” to achieve the satisfaction of “conservatives.”  And that’s reality, not PR…

Breaking: Tory Leader David Cameron “Hearts” Obama, Talks about “Progessive Goals” Achieved by “Conservative Means”

Today’s Guardian (Wednesday, July 16) is running a story on an interview the paper conducted with David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party.  Cameron is echoing Obama’s comments in is Father’s Day speech about absent black fathers and the breakdown of the black family.

David Cameron joins the bitterly contested argument over family breakdown and race today by praising Barack Obama’s warning that too many black fathers have abandoned their responsibilities to their children.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, the Tory leader says that many black church leaders have expressed the same anxiety to him, and that it is time for a “responsibility revolution” to change patterns of behaviour.

Referring to Obama’s speech, in which the US Democratic presidential candidate warned that absent black fathers were behaving like teenagers and shirking their responsibilities to their children, Cameron said: “I think he’s absolutely right. I mean I think it’s a very brave thing to do. And it will have a huge influence that he has said it. I’ve had a number of meetings with black church leaders who make the same point. They are concerned about family breakdown and social breakdown, and want to see what I call a responsibility revolution take place.”

Is it really all that brave?  It’s been said before by Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr. who also understood the barriers that contributed to the problem.  BIll Cosby set off a firestom of controversy when he revisited the subject back in May 2004. At that time, Cosby was roundly criticized for his comments (NPR report here).  But will Obama get the same treatment?  The same professor who was critical of Cosby in the above NPR report, Michael Eric Dyson, was out again last month, writing a piece for Time magazine, in which he opines that Obama’s speech was “calculated to win over socially conservative whites who were turned off by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s tirades against persistent racism.” He goes on to say that:

But in his desire to appeal to such voters, Obama may have missed the balance that King maintained. Personal responsibility is a crucial, but only partial, answer to what ails black families. Huge unemployment, racist mortgage practices, weakened child-care support, stunted training programs for blue-collar workers who’ve been made obsolete by technology, and the gutting of early-childhood learning programs are all forces that must be combated. If we rightly expect more black fathers to stick around to raise their children, we’ve got to give them a greater opportunity to stay home.

To many, Obama seems to be declaring the civil rights battle over and by diminishing the complexity of the issue, seems to be echoing right wing commentators more than Jackson or King.

Even more interesting is a comment Cameron made about how he views the modern Conservative Party in the UK.

Cameron “appeals to the centre and left ‘to recognise that the modern Conservative party is on the brink of a very big and exciting argument that if you want to pursue progressive goals in Britain, whether it is greening the environment, tackling poverty, unlocking social mobility, there is a really good case to say that you can best achieve those by Conservative means.'”

MMMMM. Are Cameron and the Tories following Obama’s lead, or is it the other way around?

“Progressive goals achieved by Conservative means.” If that isn’t a blurring of the political lines…

Keep an eye on that phrase…because it probably describes a lot of what we’ve heard already from Obama and more of what we might be hearing from him in the future…