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”

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”

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

As the  G-20 circus brought out the whole gang in London, Hugo Chavez was doing his thing in Iran.

Chavez had this to say about the G-20 summit:

Venezuela’s Chavez: Capitalism Must End

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday ridiculed the G-20 summit’s attempts to deal with the global financial meltdown, saying that capitalism is in crisis and must end. Chavez criticized the G-20 nations’ pledges of more than a trillion dollars for lending to struggling countries at Thursday’s summit in London, calling it “the same medicine that’s killing the patient—a trillion dollars … more money for a bottomless pit.”

SNIP

The IMF and the World Bank are “tools of imperialism” and must be eliminated, Chavez said.

MORE

Well, he has a point…But does this mean that he’s no longer Obama’s “best buddy” since Obama is part of the Obama Borg?

Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago, Chavez took steps to deal with Venezuela’s economy during this global economic crisis:

Chavez trims budget, adds debt to counter crisis

(SNIP)

Chavez, who won a referendum last month allowing him to stay in office as long as he keeps winning elections, is popular for spending oil revenues on health and education programs for the poor majority.

During 10 years in office he has nationalized much of Venezuela’s economy including major oil projects as part of his drive to build a socialist state.

On Saturday, he cut the 2009 budget by 6.7 percent to $72 billion, raised the minimum wage 20 percent and increased planned government financing to $16 billion from $5.6 billion. And he increased a sales tax to 12 percent from 9 percent.

(SNIP)

Economist Luis Vicente Leon described the package of measures as moderate but said the government was gambling crude prices would recover later this year.

“These are not truly deep measures, they don’t attack the fundamental problems of the economy,” Leon told Reuters.

Faced with Latin America’s highest inflation, Chavez has in recent weeks increased pressure on business to lower prices by taking over farms and rice mills and threatening to nationalize the country’s top private employer, which makes food and beer.

What do you think of that last part?  When does Obama go after the food supply?

***

The next two items courtesy Kenosha Marge:

***

A couple of weeks ago we learned that Evan Bayh has put together a group of “pragmantic Democrats.”  Then there are the Blue Dogs:

Centrist Dems: Dogged If They Do, Dogged If They Don’t

By Froma Harrop

There’s trouble around the Democratic campfire. The party has the White House and solid congressional majorities. But what it doesn’t have is everyone on the same page, strumming the same chords, singing the same tune.

Liberals who kept the fires burning during the long Republican reign now fear that moderate Blue Dog Democrats will thwart their much-delayed dreams. Elected from purplish parts of America, the Blue Dogs are fiscal conservatives who regard expensive new programs with a wary eye.

What’s a liberal to do? First, recognize that the Blue Dogs are the reason Democrats have such nice majorities. They are why the dreams are even on the menu. Second, concede that the Reluctant Ones have a point.

(MORE)

“The Reluctant Ones”…has a certain ring to it, yes?

***

THE PAST WEEK

*By American Lassie

Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness (April 4, 2009) Spring Winds; Squirrel Wars; Bees Invade Feeder; Wounded Butterfly; Sunrise Over the Organs; Slick Lounges Around

Non-Stop Campaigning Here in NM-CD2 By Bill Richardson’s Hand-Picked Freshman Rep Harry Teague, Who’s Splitting His Votes Pro/Con on Obama Policies

Iowa Gone Wild With Nazi Reference at Public Hearing (Listen to the Audio) as New Yorkers in CD-20 Test Obama’s Popularity

Canada Follows the U.S. Terms for GM/Chrysler; Harper Still Worrying About the “Eased” ‘Buy-American’ Clause in Stimulus Package

Closing Out Women’s History Month With Dr. Mary Schweitzer, Ground-Breaking Molecular Paleontologist, and a Special T. Rex

*China, the Treasury, and Real Estate (As in the New World Trade Center); Cross-Pollination:The New America Foundation/Council of Foreign Relations

The Past Week: March 22-28, 2009 (A Split in Russian Political Forces as Putin Weakens; The Voice of Korea, North Korean Propaganda Outlet; G-20 Protests Begin; A Prescient Wish for a Bush Successor ca. 2006; X-Rated Google Earth)