Women’s groups say doubts cast on chambermaid’s credibility will send wrong message to victims of sexual assault Rape victims around the world may be more fearful of reporting their experiences, as a result of the apparent implosion of the rape case against the against the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn , UK women’s groups warned. Campaigners warned that doubts about the credibility of the New York hotel worker who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault on 14 May could make victims fear that only “perfect victims” could report rape and receive justice, and could lead to fewer women reporting sexual attacks. “The message that this case gives is that, as a society, we still carry notions of a what a perfect rape victim should look like, and what “real rape” is,” said Holly Dustin, manager of End Violence Against Women . “Rape victims can be less than perfect, they can have insecure immigration status, they can be prostitutes – and they can still be raped. This sends the message to women around the world that unless you are a perfect victim the system will eat you up and spew you out.” The case, which centres on allegations that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted a hotel chambermaid after she entered his room to clean, appeared to be imploding after new and damaging stories appeared yesterday in New York newspapers about the woman at the heart of the allegations. Reports on Friday suggested that prosecutors believe they have uncovered lies told by the 32-year-old Guinean-born woman and that she cleaned two rooms, including that of Strauss-Kahn , after the alleged attack, rather than reporting the incident to her supervisor immediately as she originally stated. After Strauss-Kahn hired a team of private investigators allegations also emerged that she made a phone call soon after the alleged rape attempt to a man in prison for drugs violations, in which she talked about possible financial gains to be made from pressing charges and that she had received cash deposits into her bank account over the past two years. Questions were also raised about her asylum application to the US. Dustin said the fallout from the fresh allegations could have a negative impact on potential jurors in rape cases, the media and the general public. “Women will look at how this woman has been treated and think their credibility will be attacked in the same way. It reinforces those notions about what a rape victim needs to be to see justice.” Rapes were already severely under reported, she said. “The vast majority of rapes, around 80-90%, of rapes go unreported in England and Wales, and of those reported rapes only 7% result in convictions.” Fiona Elvines, operations coordinator at Rape Crisis South London said although improvements had been made around the investigation of rape, there was still a lack of understanding of the impact of the crime on women who survived it. “Yet again another message goes out to the thousands of women in this country alone who are currently debating whether or not they should report the violence that has been perpetrated against them, that they will be the ones on trial,” she said. Strauss-Kahn’s bail, which included $1m surety, electronic tags and 24-hour armed guards has been removed since doubts emerged about the hotel worker’s statements. National Rape Crisis helpline: 0808 802 9999. Dominique Strauss-Kahn Rape Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Kurtz Ignores MSNBC’s F-bomb in ‘Reliable Sources’ Segment About Halperin’s D-word
July 3, 2011 No Comment
CNN's Howard Kurtz began Sunday's “Reliable Sources” talking about Mark Halperin's infamous D-word said of Barack Obama on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” Thursday. Rather hypocritically, there was absolutely no mention of the following F-bomb dropped during prime time on MSNBC's “The Last Word” just three days prior (video follows with partial transcript and commentary, vulgarity warning): ACTOR PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN: Not fair! It's not fair! All my life, I've been afraid of becoming like him, all my life. All my life with you and it`s not fair. You can't just say he is sorry and make it all go away. It's too late. It's not that easy. It's not fair. It's not fucking fair. This was a video montage put together by Lawrence O'Donnell's staff. Everybody knew that word was there, but MSNBC left it in. Yet when Mark Halperin said President Obama acted like a “dick” three days later, the network behaved like he had mentioned the most horrible thing ever uttered on this television station. How could Kurtz – who claims to be a “media analyst” – have missed this? Just as curious, Kurtz noted how he had to apologize for a guest saying “dick” during a discussion about WeinerGate a few weeks ago. But he neglected to tell his viewers that MSNBC had intentionally aired a far worse vulgarity three days before Halperin's. Such a revelation would have made MSNBC's reaction to the D-word rather hypocritical as it certainly couldn't have been due to such a minor vulgarity by comparison to what was aired Monday evening during prime time. It would have instead made it quite clear that Halperin's offense wasn't the word he used but who it was addressed to. Why Kurtz opted not to delve into this Sunday seems equally hypocritical.
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Money will help feed 1.3 million people in region experiencing worst drought in decades Britain is to provide £38m in emergency food aid for 1.3 million people in Ethiopia, as parts of east Africa experience the worst drought in decades . The international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, announced extra cash for the World Food Programme’s work in Ethiopia on Sunday. “Through no fault of its own, the Horn of Africa is experiencing a severe drought caused by the failed rains,” he said. “Britain is acting quickly and decisively in Ethiopia to stop this crisis becoming a catastrophe. We will provide vital food to help 1.3 million people through the next three months. “For the response to be effective, we need the most up-to-date, accurate information on the level of need in Ethiopia. The country has made great strides in many areas over the past 30 years and this emergency relief will help to ensure that these gains are not eroded.” Mitchell urged the Ethiopian government to provide latest numbers of those affected in the country’s south so aid agencies could target relief. The international development secretary also unveiled extra help for 329,000 malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Oxfam welcomed the move and said the money could not come soon enough. “There are already critical and life threatening food shortages in Ethiopia and across the Horn of Africa region,” said Jane Cocking, the charity’s humanitarian director. “Two successive poor rains have left millions of people struggling to get food as hundreds of thousands of livestock have died and crops have failed. Other donors now need to follow suit and increase funding before it is too late.” Save the Children has launched a £40m emergency appeal to for aid to help thousands of Kenyan and Somali children. “Thousands of children could starve if we don’t get life-saving help to them fast,” said Matt Croucher, the group’s regional emergency manager for east Africa. “Parents no longer have any way to feed their children. They’ve lost their animals, their wells have dried up and food is too expensive to afford.” Thousands of Somalis have left their homes in search of food, with malnourished children walking for days in searing heat and risking conflict to find help. In Kenya, there are reports of people feeding their animals the thatch from the roof of their huts in a bid to keep them alive, leaving families without adequate shelter. Many children are eating just a single bowl of porridge a day, missing out on the basic nutrients they need to survive, says Save the Children. The UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs estimates that 10 million people across the Horn of Africa are facing a severe food crisis following a prolonged drought in the region, with some areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia , Ethiopia and Uganda, experiencing their worst drought conditions in 60 years. The Kenyan government has declared the drought situation a national disaster, with malnutrition mortality rates in northern Kenya exceeding emergency thresholds. UN humanitarian appeals for Somalia and Kenya, each about $525m (£326.6m), are barely 50% funded, while a $30m appeal for Djibouti is just 30%, say UN officials. Ethiopia Africa Drought Famine Kenya Somalia Mark Tran guardian.co.uk
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BBC Trust chairman said BBC managers’ ‘toxic’ salaries were unpopular with viewers and licence fee payers Lord Patten, the BBC Trust chairman, has hinted at pay cuts for senior executives at the corporation. Lord Patten said BBC managers “toxic” salaries were unpopular with viewers and licence fee payers ahead of announcements BBC salaries. “There are four aspects which we will be making announcements about in the next few days,” he said. “First of all there’s the pay level at the very top; secondly there’s the number of people who get more than £150,000 ; thirdly there’s the number of people who are deemed to be senior managers; and fourthly there’s the whole issue of fairness across the board, with senior managers getting some deals which don’t apply to others. “We can deal with all that and if we do so, we will deal with one of the most toxic reasons for the public’s lack of sympathy with the BBC as an institution, even though they like enormously what it does.” Lord (Chris) Patten, Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong and a former Conservative party chairman, hailed research by Will Hutton of the Work Foundation into a government proposal to limit top public servants’ pay to no more than 20 times that of their lowest paid staff. Speaking to BBC1′s Andrew Marr Show, Lord Patten said: “I will be looking very closely at what Will Hutton said about top pay in the public sector – there were some very good ideas.” He added: “You look at the relationship between top pay and median pay and I would like the BBC to be the first organisation in the public sector which gets into implementing some of Will Hutton’s ideas.” Lord Patten took over as chairman of the trust – the corporation’s governing body and charged with protecting licence fee payers’ interests – in May and today said he wanted a “more flexible, leaner” BBC, “aware of the principles on which it was founded”. He said it was “a fantastic organisation”, but said it should “take out a lot of costs” and learn to live within its £3.5bn budget, funded by the £145.50 licence fee. “We are looking at how much we can get through greater efficiencies, through greater productivity and how much will involve us stopping doing things we would like to do but which are probably expendable.” He said channel and station closures were possible, but praised the much-criticised BBC3 which screens shows such as World’s Craziest Fools, Don’t Tell the Bride and Kids Behind Bars. Lord Patten BBC BBC Trust guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said Sunday that it was a mistake to argue that it is unconstitutional not to raise the debt ceiling. Section 4 of the 14th Amendment reads : “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.” On a conference call last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters that the idea that the 14th Amendment requires the debt ceiling to be raised was “certainly worth exploring.” “That’s crazy talk,” Cornyn told Fox News’ Shannon Bream. “It’s not acceptable for Congress and the president not to do their job and the say somehow the president has the authority to then basically do this by himself.” “We ought to sit down and work together, and it shouldn’t take the form of press conferences like the president gave last week, where he was essentially the schoolmarm, scolding Congress for not getting its job done when, in fact, he is the one who has not stepped up and given us a proposal,” he continued. In May, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner pulled out a copy of the Constitution and read the 14th Amendment during a discussion with Politico about raising the debt ceiling. “This is the important thing -’shall not be questioned,’” Geithner said. For his part, President Barack Obama has sidestepped the question . “I’m not a Supreme Court justice so I’m not going to put my constitutional law professor hat on,” the president told NBC’s Chuck Todd at a press conference last week.
Continue reading …Liz Trotta: Bachmann and Palin Both Took the Same American History Class at ‘Fleabag U’
July 3, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media What’s the world coming to when a Fox commentator like Liz Trotta is quoting Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi (even though she got his name wrong) and the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein? From Raw Story — Fox commentator: Bachmann and Palin took history at ‘Fleabag U’ : Liz Trotta, a commentator on Fox Saturday, remarked that two top conservative females, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, would inevitably be compared: “it’s almost preordained because it seems to be they both took the same American history course, and it may have been at Fleabag U.” Trotta was playfully quoting Rolling Stone‘s Matt Taibbi and Ezra Klein, but she didn’t refute the fact that Palin and Bachmann have each had their share of flubs, between Palin’s Revere gaffe and Bachmann’s insistence that John Quincy Adams is a founding father, among others. More like Teabagger U if you ask me. Look out Liz, Palin will be coming after you on her Facebook page for being mean to her and her buddy Michele.
Continue reading …American Productivity At Record Levels — With Income And Wages In The Basement
July 3, 2011 No Comment
enlarge First, go look at these charts. Now read this , and then this Mother Jones piece: Webster’s defines speedup as “an employer’s demand for accelerated output without increased pay,” and it used to be a household word. Bosses would speed up the line to fill a big order, to goose profits, or to punish a restive workforce. Workers recognized it, unions (remember those?) watched for and negotiated over it—and, if necessary, walked out over it. But now we no longer even acknowledge it—not in blue-collar work, not in white-collar or pink-collar work, not in economics texts, and certainly not in the media (except when journalists gripe about the staff-compacted-job-expanded newsroom). Now the word we use is “productivity,” a term insidious in both its usage and creep. The not-so-subtle implication is always: Don’t you want to be a productive member of society? Pundits across the political spectrum revel in the fact that US productivity (a.k.a. economic output per hour worked) consistently leads the world. Yes, year after year, Americans wring even more value out of each minute on the job than we did the year before. U-S-A! U-S-A! Except what’s good for American business isn’t necessarily good for Americans. We’re not just working smarter, but harder. And harder. And harder, to the point where the driver is no longer American industriousness, but something much more predatory. Productivity has surged, but income and wages have stagnated for most Americans. If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000. SOUND FAMILIAR: Mind racing at 4 a.m.? Guiltily realizing you’ve been only half-listening to your child for the past hour? Checking work email at a stoplight, at the dinner table, in bed? Dreading once-pleasant diversions, like dinner with friends, as just one more thing on your to-do list? Guess what: It’s not you. These might seem like personal problems—and certainly, the pharmaceutical industry is happy to perpetuate that notion—but they’re really economic problems. Just counting work that’s on the books (never mind those 11 p.m. emails), Americans now put in an average of 122 more hours per year than Brits, and 378 hours (nearly 10 weeks!) more than Germans. The differential isn’t solely accounted for by longer hours, of course—worldwide, almost everyone except us has, at least on paper, a right to weekends off, paid vacation time (PDF), and paid maternity leave. (The only other countries that don’t mandate paid time off for new moms are Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Samoa, and Swaziland. U-S…A?) To understand how we got here, first let’s consider the Ben Franklin-Horatio Alger-Henry Ford ur-myth: To balk at working hard—really, really hard—brands you as profoundly un-American . Who besides the archetypical Japanese salaryman derives so much of his self-image from self-sacrifice on the job? Slacker is one of the most biting insults available in polite company. And so we kowtow to—nay, embrace— a cultural maxim that just happens to be enormously convenient to corporate America. “Our culture has encouraged me to only feel valuable if I’m barely hanging on to my sanity,” one friend emailed as we were working on this article. In fact, each time we mentioned this topic to someone—reader, source, friend—they first took pains to say: I’m not lazy. I love my job. I come from a long line of hard workers. But then it would pour out of them—the fatigue, the isolation, the guilt. I think I was ahead of the curve on this one, because back in the 1980s, during the Age of Reagan, I lost every shred of anything resembling company loyalty and started telling my friends: If you’re not paid for it, don’t do it. Even today, I’m amazed at the number of people who refuse to go out for lunch, instead eating at their desks while checking their email and working. I also told my friends, “Don’t have higher standards for your work than your boss does.” Meaning, if your boss doesn’t think strongly enough about getting something done to hire additional people or pay overtime to get it done, why should you break your back trying to do it? Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s that bosses rarely appreciate all that extra effort. Instead, they nod and say to themselves, “See, I knew they could do it.” And then the next thought: “So why don’t they work that hard for me all the time?” It’s a no-win game. I can understand why people feel they have to do that now, because we’re back in the Gilded Age and we’re supposed to be grateful to have a job. But really, why should you be? They should be grateful you’re still vulnerable enough to be exploited while they make record profits.
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Yingluck Shinawatra set to be country’s first female leader as prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva prepares for opposition Thailand’s Democrat government has conceded defeat in Sunday’s election – putting Yingluck Shinawatra on course to become the country’s first female leader, five years after her brother Thaksin was toppled as prime minister in a coup. Preliminary results suggest a remarkable turnaround for Thaksin, a billionaire now living as a fugitive in Dubai. Although Yingluck is putatively leader of the Puea Thai party, she is regarded as his proxy. Yingluck, a 44-year-old businesswoman who entered politics just six weeks ago, cautioned that she was waiting to see the results on Monday. But she added that she had already spoken to the Chart Thai Pattana party, whom she said would take a coalition past the halfway mark in the 500-seat parliament. “We have tough days ahead and all of this is just the beginning,” she said. “I’ll do my best and will not disappoint you.” Five hours after polls closed , the election commission projected Puea Thai would win 261 seats with prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrats taking just 162. An absolute majority would prevent the weeks of horse-trading to form a coalition that many had expected. Hundreds of redshirt supporters squeezed into the party’s Bangkok headquarters and crowded outside – chanting, cheering and applauding as results came in. Many waved pictures of Yingluck and Thaksin and some let off firecrackers to celebrate. Moments before Yingluck spoke, Abhisit congratulated the opposition “for the right to form a government”. He said he wanted to see unity and reconciliation, and added that the Democrats were ready for opposition. Analysts have warned that the election could lead to further turmoil in Thailand, after years of intense political conflict. Last year more than 90 people died in clashes as the military cracked down on Thaksin-supporting redshirt protesters in the centre of the capital. Exit polls had predicted a landslide for Puea Thai, but Dr Andrew Walker, an expert on south-east Asian politics at the Australian National University, said even an absolute majority would be remarkable. “If they get [one] they will be only the second government in Thailand’s history to do so, the first being Thaksin Shinawatra’s [in 2005]. It shows this is still a very strong electoral brand,” he said. Earlier, Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University said: “If they win at all it’s a big statement. “[It means] the ideas and policies that made [Thaksin's] original Thai Rak Thai party so electable are unstoppable and indestructible … This is a party that has been dissolved twice; its leading politicians have been banned twice; it’s being led by a deposed exile and former prime minister a six-hour flight away.” Redshirt leaders have warned they will take to the streets again if Yingluck wins the vote but does not become prime minister. They have said they fear that opponents could attempt to mount a legal challenge to her, or even another coup. Analyst Chris Baker said it was likely that opponents of Thaksin had a plan B. “[Most] likely, I think, is that it will look calm for a short time. But there have been several things said in the last week that suggest the Democrats and their supporters will accept this result – but not what it means,” he said. “If Puea Thai do what they say they will – bring Thaksin back and change the constitution – [opponents] will resist that in the same way as before, with street demonstrations and so on. I don’t think we can avoid it … We are in a changing political society and there’s big resistance from the old institutions: the bureaucracy, monarchy, military and a lot of the middle class.” Thaksin told the Thai PBS television station: “I have wanted to come back since yesterday, but I do not want to create problems.” He spoke in a telephone interview from Dubai, where he lives to avoid a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power, which he says was politically motivated. Puea Thai leaders have repeatedly indicated they plan an amnesty allowing Thaksin to return to Thailand, though his sister has said it is not a priority and that an amnesty would not be about one person. The billionaire has polarised Thai politics. He draws his support largely from poorer residents in the north and north-east – who see him as a champion – while the Democrats are dependent on the urban upper and middle classes in central Thailand and the south. They regard the former prime minister as corrupt and autocratic. “I have been waiting five years [since the coup] for this moment,” said Sompoon Tamakaew as he watched the results at Puea Thai’s headquarters. “Bangkok is full of the elites and upper classes, so they don’t really understand how much of an impact Thaksin had.” Sompoon, a 50-year-old gardener from the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, added that he was not worried that elites would seek to interfere again. “I don’t think [another coup] will happen, but if it does I will keep fighting,” he added. Police said more than 170,000 officers were on duty throughout the country on Sunday to monitor voting by 47 million eligible Thais. Britain was among the countries warning its nationals of potential violence, urging visitors to avoid demonstrations. Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Breitbart: Media Ask Palin and Bachmann Gotcha Questions to Make Them Look Stupid on YouTube
July 3, 2011 No Comment
Conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart was on Saturday's “Fox & Friends” to discuss the double standard concerning how President Obama's gaffes are reported compared to the miscues of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. In Breitbart's view, “Life for [Palin and Bachmann] is a permanent game of Jeopardy where the George Stephanopouloses of the world, he of the Clinton war room, are there to try to make them look stupid on YouTube” (video follows with transcript and commentary): MOLLY LINE, CO-HOST: Does the mainstream media have a bias against conservative women? Our next guest, Andrew Breitbart from BigGovernment.com joining us. DAVE BRIGGS, CO-HOST: Andrew, good morning to you, sir. No, he's not one of the Founding Fathers, but I think the questioning here, these very questions being asked of Michele Bachmann, would you hear those posed to Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, etc.? ANDREW BREITBART: No, well, you wouldn’t hear this against Barbara Boxer or Loretta Sanchez. The thing is that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann represent an existential threat to the Democratic Party the way that 20 years ago Clarence Thomas as a black man represented to liberals and the Democrat Party. The Democratic Party likes to think of itself as the party of minorities, and when in the Republican Party so many women and attractive women and accomplished women rise to the top, it's going to take the media to destroy them because at the end of the day, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, you go by the polls, represent what the American people represent on the issues. LINE: You know, our lawmakers and the candidates themselves, they're not infallible. They do make mistakes. And we have a little clip here together of some of the mistakes, the gaffes that President Obama has made. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. I've now been in 57 states. I don't know what the term is in Austrian. Wheeling and dealing. Navy corpsman Christian Bouchard. Corpsman Bouchard. Corpsman Bouchard. Malia’s thirteen, Sasha’s ten. They're thirteen and ten. (END VIDEO CLIP) LINE: Now, you know, everybody does make mistakes out there, but do you feel like the media is treating President Obama differently from how they’re treating Michele Bachmann as she gains steam on the campaign trail? BREITBART: Well, what you just saw with President Obama they call in tennis an unforced error. What they try and do with Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann is to force errors, to ask gotcha questions. Life for them is a permanent game of Jeopardy where the George Stephanopouloses of the world, he of the Clinton war room, are there to try to make them look stupid on YouTube. Indeed. We saw this in 2008 with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson's interviews of Palin where it was clear that she was being quizzed like a game show contestant by an arrogant moderator doing his or her best to make the former Alaska governor look foolish. Now Bachmann is being subjected to the same treatment. As this isn't how male presidential candidates are questioned, and wasn't the way the press handled Hillary Clinton in 2008, one has to conclude that attractive, conservative women are flat out treated differently by America's so-called journalists. Pretty pathetic.
Continue reading …Breitbart: Media Ask Palin and Bachmann Gotcha Questions to Make Them Look Stupid on YouTube
July 3, 2011 No CommentConservative publisher Andrew Breitbart was on Saturday's “Fox & Friends” to discuss the double standard concerning how President Obama's gaffes are reported compared to the miscues of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. In Breitbart's view, “Life for [Palin and Bachmann] is a permanent game of Jeopardy where the George Stephanopouloses of the world, he of the Clinton war room, are there to try to make them look stupid on YouTube” (video follows with transcript and commentary): MOLLY LINE, CO-HOST: Does the mainstream media have a bias against conservative women? Our next guest, Andrew Breitbart from BigGovernment.com joining us. DAVE BRIGGS, CO-HOST: Andrew, good morning to you, sir. No, he's not one of the Founding Fathers, but I think the questioning here, these very questions being asked of Michele Bachmann, would you hear those posed to Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, etc.? ANDREW BREITBART: No, well, you wouldn’t hear this against Barbara Boxer or Loretta Sanchez. The thing is that Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann represent an existential threat to the Democratic Party the way that 20 years ago Clarence Thomas as a black man represented to liberals and the Democrat Party. The Democratic Party likes to think of itself as the party of minorities, and when in the Republican Party so many women and attractive women and accomplished women rise to the top, it's going to take the media to destroy them because at the end of the day, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, you go by the polls, represent what the American people represent on the issues. LINE: You know, our lawmakers and the candidates themselves, they're not infallible. They do make mistakes. And we have a little clip here together of some of the mistakes, the gaffes that President Obama has made. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. I've now been in 57 states. I don't know what the term is in Austrian. Wheeling and dealing. Navy corpsman Christian Bouchard. Corpsman Bouchard. Corpsman Bouchard. Malia’s thirteen, Sasha’s ten. They're thirteen and ten. (END VIDEO CLIP) LINE: Now, you know, everybody does make mistakes out there, but do you feel like the media is treating President Obama differently from how they’re treating Michele Bachmann as she gains steam on the campaign trail? BREITBART: Well, what you just saw with President Obama they call in tennis an unforced error. What they try and do with Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann is to force errors, to ask gotcha questions. Life for them is a permanent game of Jeopardy where the George Stephanopouloses of the world, he of the Clinton war room, are there to try to make them look stupid on YouTube. Indeed. We saw this in 2008 with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson's interviews of Palin where it was clear that she was being quizzed like a game show contestant by an arrogant moderator doing his or her best to make the former Alaska governor look foolish. Now Bachmann is being subjected to the same treatment. As this isn't how male presidential candidates are questioned, and wasn't the way the press handled Hillary Clinton in 2008, one has to conclude that attractive, conservative women are flat out treated differently by America's so-called journalists. Pretty pathetic.
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