Athlete Semenya's family brush off gender controversy

Aug 20, 2009 - JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – South Africa's new 800-metre world champion Caster Semenya was declared a "golden girl" by local press Thursday, with the athlete's family shrugging off questions about the runner's gender. All major newspapers' front pages pictured a triumphant Semenya who powered to a 1minute 55.45seconds win -- the world's best this year -- shortly after the athletics governing body announced that the runner's gender was to be verified. "She is my little girl. - 24 Comments

Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care

Jun 18, 2009 - Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care JEFF ZELENY and DALIA SUSSMAN (New York Times) A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, A distinct gulf exists between Mr. Obama’s overall standing and how some of his key initiatives are viewed, with fewer than half of Americans saying they approve of how he has handled health care and the effort to save General Motors and Chrysler. A majority of people said his policies have had either no effect yet on improving the economy or had made it worse, underscoring how his political strength still rests on faith in his leadership rather than concrete results. As Mr. Obama finishes his fifth month in office and assumes greater ownership of the problems he inherited, Americans are alarmed by the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been doled out to boost the economy. - 0 Comments

Women in Politics After Hillary and Sarah

Nov 17, 2008 - The “Bitch” and the “Ditz” How the Year of the Woman reinforced the two most pernicious sexist stereotypes and actually set women back. By Amanda Fortini/NY Times Published Nov 16, 2008 In the past few weeks, Sarah Palin has been variously described as a diva who engaged in paperwork-throwing tantrums, a shopaholic who spent $150,000 on clothing, a seductress who provocatively welcomed staffers while wearing only a towel, and a “whack-job”—contemporary code for hysteric. Worse, she was accused by a suspiciously gleeful Fox News reporter named Carl Cameron of not knowing Africa was a continent, of being unable to name the members of NAFTA, indeed of being unable to name the countries of North America at all. - 4 Comments

Forget Red vs. Blue -- It's Educated vs. People Easily Fooled (public)

Nov 12, 2008 - By Chris Hedges, Truthdig Printed 11/12/2008 We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. - 39 Comments

Clinton wins Ohio; Texas still too close to call

Mar 04, 2008 - N.Y. senator also takes Rhode Island, NBC projects; Obama wins Vermont Voters lined up to vote Tuesday in Chillicothe, Ohio. So many Ohioans turned up for the Democratic primary that some counties ran out of ballots, delaying the reporting of returns. - 12 Comments

Wedded to Work, and in Dire Need of a Wife

Aug 17, 2007 - Oh the conflict of a woman's responsibilities. Granted I am not at the age of marriage or raising a family yet, I will soon be in only a matter of a couple of years. So when I told my female cousins (who are all married with children) how I would want to head back to work after having a child, they laughed and said "that's what we all said before we got pregnant." - 8 Comments