Obama "Upbeat" About GM. And the Middle East Peace Process.
Monday, June 29, 2009
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President Barack Obama, according to a headline in The New York Times, is "Upbeat for G.M.'s Future."
That seems a bit, well, wacky. But then, this is the same guy who is "upbeat" about the Middle East peace process, according to AFP. So that puts the remark in perspective, I suppose. After all, as Justice-to-be Sonia Sotomayor now knows, context is everything.
Over at Out of Control, the Reason Foundation's Shikha Dalmia, with some entertaining snippiness followed by good economic analysis of G.M.'s situation:
"I am confident that the steps I'm announcing will mark the end of the old G.M., and the beginning of a new G.M.," [Obama] said. Great! Then what do, we, the taxpayers, who have just been forced to fork over $50 billion to G.M.—in what is it? loans? stock?—have to worry about? The president is cool with it. And he, after all, has an Ivy League degree, a silver tongue, not to mention a glamorous wife with lovely arms who dotes on him. But even His Awesomeness can't command a drowning man to swim after tying lead weights around his ankles.
The president seems to think that there is nothing that G.M. has that a visit to bankruptcy court won't cure. Amputate its liabilities to bondholders, excise all its promises to unions (no, actually, scratch that one, that didn't quite happen) and, presto, it'll be ready, once again, to kick some foreign ass.
If only!
Read the whole thing, and stay tuned for an upcoming cover package on the GM fiasco in our next print edition.
Obama "Upbeat" About GM. And the Middle East Peace Process.
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Obama "Upbeat" About GM. And the Middle East Peace Process.
[Source: News Leader]
Obama "Upbeat" About GM. And the Middle East Peace Process.
[Source: Rome News]
posted by 88956 @ 5:08 PM,
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Gay mayor's illicit love shakes a Texas town
PrintEmailPDF The small Texan city of San Angelo has been turned upside down by one of the most unusual sex scandals ever to make an impact on American political life.
Joseph Lown, the popular mayor, suddenly resigned last week after revealing he had fallen madly in love with an illegal immigrant. That was the first revelation; the second was that his new partner was another man.
Not surprisingly the news has become the talk of Texas. In the socially conservative and solidly Republican state, gay marriage and illegal immigration are probably the two hottest potatoes in town. Perhaps, then, it was no wonder that Lown announced the end of his career from Mexico, where he had fled to be with his new boyfriend and from where he could mourn the end of an otherwise successful political career.
The news came as a bombshell. Lown, aged only 32, had just won a fourth term with a massive 89% of the vote. He was immensely popular after having worked long hours to fix the city's infrastructure and attending hundreds of community meetings.
But, in a scene of drama that would be hard to top, he sent a text message to a city official hours before a ceremony to swear him back into office. Lown explained he was in Mexico City with the man he loved, and would not be coming back any time soon.
Not surprisingly, some local commentators greeted the news with a degree of hyperbole. "It was, simply put, the most stunning abdication since Edward VIII gave up the British throne for Wallis Simpson in 1936," declared Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle
It left San Angelo officials bemused. At a hastily called press conference they were at pains to point out that Lown had left not because his partner was a man, but because he was illegal. Lown's decision to resign, they said, had been taken because no mayor could be seen to be aiding and abetting someone who had broken the law. "He hopes that the people of San Angelo will respect his decision," said Ty Meighan, the city council spokesman.
Despite the image of Texas as firmly in the anti-gay bible belt, there is a strong chance of that happening. The demographic nature of Texas has changed in recent years. Houston, Dallas and Austin all boast thriving gay communities. Dallas, in fact, has an image as the "gay cowboy capital" of America.
Lown himself seemed to back the view that his decision to follow his heart had struck a chord with the citizens of San Angelo. In a press conference from Mexico, Lown said he had received hundreds of messages of support. He had already personally replied to more than 300 of them. "I am frankly very touched. Touched deeply by all the support of the people in our city," he said.
Lown explained that he and his unnamed partner would shortly be moving to another city in Mexico. There they would embark on the long process of trying to apply for legal residency for his boyfriend, although he admitted that could take years. He said he wanted to come back to the United States but, in the finest traditions of great love stories, he said that he had to follow his heart and try to make things work with the man he loved.
"I had to give this situation the opportunity or I would regret it the rest of my life," he said.
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Gay mayor's illicit love shakes a Texas town
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Gay mayor's illicit love shakes a Texas town
[Source: Sun News]
Gay mayor's illicit love shakes a Texas town
[Source: The Daily News]
Gay mayor's illicit love shakes a Texas town
[Source: News Article]
Gay mayor's illicit love shakes a Texas town
[Source: News Leader]
Gay mayor's illicit love shakes a Texas town
[Source: Boston News]
posted by 88956 @ 4:48 PM,
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When Reality TV Stars Go Bad, Who?"s to Blame?
Apparently, reality TV couple Spencer and Heidi Pratt - who got their start on MTV?"s The Hills and are now a part of this summer?"s I?"m a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here - have run afoul of one of NBC?"s reality programming head honchos with their latest attention-getting antics.
They are everything that?"s wrong with America,? executive vice president of alternative programming for NBC and Universal Media Studios, Paul Telegdy, said in a statement to Access Hollywood. ?SThey are insincere, lazy, entitled and they claim the devil has possessed them.
Apparently the couple not only demanded the royal treatment, but threatened to quit more than once and basically acted like a couple of spoiled brats.
I?"d like to ask Mr. Telegdy: what did he expect? Reality shows take everyday people and turn them into minor celebrities overnight. It?"s not like they had to work for years honing their craft while they waited tables and went on endless auditions, hoping and praying for their big break. (Of course, if one or both of your parents is Hollywood royalty, you skip that part and move right on to the big time.) The only ?Swork? involved in reality stardom is standing in line to audition, hoping to get picked; although sometimes people with unusual life circumstances are approached by producers who hope to exploit their lives for ratings that translate into dollar signs (think Nadya Suleman, lovingly referred to by society as the ?SOctomom?).
So think about it: one day you?"re just an average person, perhaps an office drone or a stay-at-home mom whom no one would look twice at while at the grocery store or standing in line at the movies. Next thing you know, every detail of your life is laid bare for public consumption, you?"re chased down daily by the paparazzi, and your every move, including your hairstyle and weight, is dissected on shows like Entertainment Tonight. The entertainment media that feeds off of celebrity like a pig at the trough is really quite nauseating at times.
Granted, it can be said that people who seek such fame are asking for it. All you have to do is see what happens to others, like Jon and Kate Gosselin, whose marriage seems to be unraveling and who have dominated the news headlines for weeks. Or Susan Boyle, whose sudden rush to fame via Britain?"s Got Talent with a boost from YouTube was so stressful that, after being labeled the favorite to win but coming in second in the show?"s finale, she checked into a clinic citing ?Semotional exhaustion.?
But really, who is truly prepared for the pitfalls of fame? We?"ve seen professional singers and actors, who are supposed to know the ropes, crash and burn. (Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan come immediately to mind.) Suddenly wealthy and surrounded by yes-men and other sycophants hoping to somehow cash in on the cash cow, it?"s hard to keep real life in perspective.
Heck, even being an amoeba in the large ocean of internet publishing can be unsettling at times. I?"ll never forget my first ?Syou?"re a ****? e-mail from someone who didn?"t agree with something I wrote. It?"s truly unpleasant, but unfortunately it also comes with the territory. I?"m working on getting a thicker skin.
So the Pratts are acting like prats. Naturally, much of the blame lies with their crass attitude and what Paul Telegdy of NBC noted as their sense of entitlement. But what of the responsibility of reality TV programmers? They put on these shows because they?"re popular and are relatively inexpensive to produce and essentially create the monsters that populate them. Who can forget the hapless Stephen Fowler of Wife Swap, whose contemptible treatment of his guest wife Gayla Long earlier this year earned him the hatred of millions across the nation? It cost him both personal and professional embarrassment, and likely had a negative impact on his own marriage. He claimed that he was egged-on by the show?"s producers to ham it up. From what I?"ve seen, I doubt that he needed much egging.
But no one will ever really know, and surely the show?"s director and producers bear some responsibility for the final product. Reality TV isn?"t spontaneous; it?"s scripted, manipulated, and edited for entertainment and shock value. Big gasps equal big ratings. Someone at the gym I go to even speculated that the Gosselins?" marriage issues are a put-up job intended to boost ratings.
Then there?"s us - the public. We put these individuals up on a pedestal and wait like vultures for them to slip up so we can trash them at the first opportunity. Nothing says schadenfreude like gloating over Contestant A being voted off the island because he lost the bug eating challenge for his tribe.
And what happens to these reality stars when the cameras stop rolling? Some manage to use their experience as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things as Elisabeth Hasselbeck did. Others manage to return to everyday life. Still, others likely have difficulty adjusting to their loss of celebrity and must deal with depression, etc. But there?"s always a fresh batch of suckers around the corner, waiting for our thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
When you look at it, there?"s really no one person to blame when reality TV stars go bad. We?"re all culpable in one way or another. And what does that say about us as a society?
When Reality TV Stars Go Bad, Who?"s to Blame?
[Source: Good Times Society]
When Reality TV Stars Go Bad, Who?"s to Blame?
[Source: 11 Alive News]
When Reality TV Stars Go Bad, Who?"s to Blame?
[Source: Abc 7 News]
posted by 88956 @ 3:47 PM,
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