]]>Bair has reportedly butted heads with Geithner and other bailout officials during the course of the crisis. According to the Bloomberg report, Geithner doesn’t think she’s “a team player,” fighting for her agency rather than the good of the entire financial system.
Congressional Democrats — Frank first among them — on the other hand have heaped praise on Bair, a Republican, for her advocacy of foreclosure prevention, which she distilled into a proposal to use taxpayer money to refinance more than a million troubled mortgages. She has suggested that some of the $700 billion be used to fund her plan.
...
Frank credited the current resistance to doing more about foreclosures to ruffled male feathers. “I think part of the problem now is that, to be honest, Shelia Bair has annoyed the Old Boys Club.” He likened the situation to several regulators “up in the treehouse with a ‘No Girls Allowed’ sign.”
]]>Another Iraqi lawyer, who requested anonymity, said that some fathers had started to hire professional hitmen to carry out 'honour killings' which were then covered as 'sectarian murders'. He said: 'The life of these women isn't higher than $100. You can find a killer standing in any coffee shop of Basra, discussing prices of a life as if he was buying a piece of meat.'
Mariam Ayub Sattar, an activist in Basra, said that any woman caught speaking to a man in public who was not her husband or a relative was considered a prostitute and punished. A fortnight ago three women were burned with acid while walking through a market in Basra after stopping to speak to a male friend, Sattar said.
Nine of the 12 voluntary organisations helping women in Basra have closed down since the US-led invasion.
The report is fascinating reading, and it's not difficult at all to see where the abuse of power finding arises; especially when hearing about Todd Palin asking the Public Safety Commissioner to meet in Governor Palin's office.
I don't remember any spouse of an elected official exercising such power. Some will say that Nancy Reagan did on behalf of her husband, but she didn't call meetings on his behalf. Other will mention Hilary Clinton, but when Bill Clinton did try to involve his wife in promoting universal health care, he was slammed royally by Congress, and had to back off. From that point on, Hilary Clinton played the "First Lady" role, by the book. Again, though, she never called public officials into the Oval Office and demanded action.
I don't think there's anything wrong with a spouse of an elected official getting involved in causes, but I do think it's incredibly wrong to actually pull officials into meetings, especially in a formal surrounding. Think of Laura Bush calling the head of the CIA into the Oval Office, and presenting supposed evidence of weapons of mass destruction and demanding he do something about it. Frankly, we couldn't imagine it -- no leader, not even a bad one, would allow such an action to happen.
Returning to the report, it's well written. No one denies that Palin had the right to fire Monegan. It was her actions in getting other officials to approach him on behalf of her sister, and Todd's presumption of authority that were dead wrong, and in violation of Alaska's own ethics act.
Add this finding to her attempts the last few weeks to incite hatred, even violent hatred, against Obama, and I think it would be difficult to deny that Sarah Palin as Vice President, or especially President, would not be in the best interests of this country.
]]>This following yesterday's embarrassing fiasco when the campaign was so terrified that Palin may be asked a question from reporters that they almost missed their photo ops showing Palin with world leaders.
]]>This following yesterday's embarrassing fiasco when the campaign was so terrified that Palin may be asked a question from reporters that they almost missed their photo ops showing Palin with world leaders.
The McCain campaign's control of access to Palin from officials in Alaska investigating "Troopergate" contradicts Palin's earlier statements that she would welcome the investigation, and also follows on the Campaign staff's demands for a more formal debate format with Biden, because of Palin's lack of experience.
The Democrats have been accused of sexism in regards to Sarah Palin, but from my viewpoint, most of the worst of the sexism is coming from the McCain camp. Though Sarah Palin hasn't been forced to wear veil or walk two steps behind McCain, the treatment of her and her isolation from the world is strongly reminiscent of behavior towards women in societies where women are expected to be seen, but not heard.
As a woman, I am outraged at such behavior.
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