Thanks to Bizzywomen.com for this guest post:

As a woman that tries to be sensitive to the needs and feelings of others, I supported President Barack Obama’s run for the presidency. I felt that he really understood the feeling of women and that he connected with me personally, and we really needed the change that he offered. Now I am rethinking that position.

I am no lover of Rush Limbaugh, but I do respect his right to practice free speech, and even though I don’t agree with 90% of what he says, i certainly wish him no harm nor think that he is a traitor or a terrorist. This weekends white House Corresspondents dinner, was the stage for comidienne Wanda Sykes unleashing a barage against Mr. Limbaugh, in what i would term terrible distatse, and President Obama laughing hysterically at the jokes.

According to the Telegraph: ” I was at the dinner and I began by laughing at Sykes’s gentle teases about the press loving Obama so much they never capture him on film smoking but often seem to get him on the beach.

It was amusing when she quipped that Obama trying so hard to be all things to all men that the next thing is he’ll be seen mowing the White House lawn.

But the speech took a very ugly turn when she laid into Limbaugh.

This is what she said: ”Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you’re saying, ‘I hope America fails’, you’re, like, ‘I dont care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq’. He just wants the country to fail. To me, that’s treason.

“He’s not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight.”

She then concluded: ”Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails, I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that’s what he needs.” Obama seemed to think this bit was pretty hilarious, grinning and chuckling and turning to share the “joke” with the person sitting on his right.

There’s not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead.”

Now let’s not forget Obama’s appearance on Jay Leno a few months back when he made his infamous ‘Special Olympics’ joke.

This stuff is not funny and it shows a disrespect towards anyone who is not cut out of the same mold. This is not how Obama campaigned, but to my chagrin, it seems like a pattern, and it’s not something that I am proud of. As a parent, this is not the kind of bahvior that i want my kids to be exposed to.

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Well here we have Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama tightening the screws on Israel, linking support for a hard line on Iran to Israeli progress with the Palestinians. She says without progress on the Palestinian negotiations, the world would stop supporting containing the Iranian Nuclear program.

According to the Jpost: “For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can’t stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand in hand,” Clinton told the House of Representatives.”

What drivel. If she hasn’t noticed, Iran is a problem for the west, not just Israel. Huge demographic changes in Europe, Asia, and more and more in the US, has fundamentalist Islam on the move. Wake up America but fundamentalist Islam doesn’t like your culture.

Wasn’t it former President Bill Clinton who used to say that his mother aways told him to do what’s right for Israel, and he will be blessed.

Well I guess Hillary didn’t listen to her mother in law.

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Thanks to THEGRUBSPOT.com for submitting this post:

No new clothes. Enter the black-tie affair after photographers have already gone home. So is the life of a wife of a man who is CEO of a financial institution that accepted TARP funds.

According to Portfolio.com: ” I haven’t even looked at spring clothes; God forbid someone catches me out in something new. Keeping up with fashion seems somehow decadent in this new era, like getting Botox injections or catered dinners. Like so many others, I’m shopping in my closet. I’ve bought exactly two things this year—makeup and panty hose. If I buy a present for someone, I have the package sent to their home. I don’t want to be spotted climbing into a taxi, laden with Bergdorf Goodman shopping bags.

As you can see, being a TARP wife means, in short, making decisions according to a complex algorithm: balancing the need to look like your world hasn’t crumbled beneath you-let’s not alarm the investors!—with the need to appear duly repentant for your subprime sins. It also means we’re part of the community of more than 400 companies that have received government bailout funds, whose fall from grace has been swifter and harsher than any since Mao frog-marched intellectuals into China’s countryside.”

She clearly has a point. After all in just 3-4 months we no longer applaud success, instead, successful people have become demonized.

She goes on to say: “Here is the reality: TARP managers are scared to death. The executives of these companies are desperately trying to hold their businesses together while complying with a slew of damaging bills flooding out of Congress. My husband has battled the shutdown of the credit markets and a deteriorating business environment for two endless years without respite. He’s exhausted, terrified of losing the company, and beaten down by the constant criticism hurled at him.

I’m trying to buck him up and not complicate his life. The last thing he needs is unpleasant publicity, so I’m learning to fly so far below the radar that I have perpetually skinned knees. We’ve picked up new habits, like making donations anonymously and sneaking in late to black-tie galas after society photographer Patrick McMullan has packed up his camera and gone home. We now regularly turn down the invitations we receive from museums and arts organizations that will inevitably be followed by a request for funds. No point in getting their hopes up. “

Let’s hope we get back to encouraging success, and stop taking out our frustrations on innocent CEO’s.

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Could the Obama plan to regulate the VC industry in the US, provide a big boost to the Israeli VC industry? Sure could be the case. With Obama trying to regulate everything that has a smell of money, the VC industry could be in for trouble. That means opportunity for Israel. this means that the new Netanyahu government must cut taxes across the board and especially corporate taxes, that will help spur job growth and entrepreneurism.

Batya Feldman of Globes has an interesting interview with some local VC players. An an interview with Benchmark’s Michael Eisenberg: “Opposition to the rules being drafted is to be found in Israel as well. Michael Eisenberg, partner at VC firm Benchmark Capital, takes issue with the intention to impose the regulations on the world of venture capital.

“Geithner spoke of the need for regulation of anything that could become a substantial threat to the economy,” he says, “and I don’t see how a venture capital fund could represent a threat to the entire financial system. But we can relax. Regulation will apply to venture capital finds that will be put together in the future, so no problems are expected for funds that have already raised capital.”

How far will the new rules affect Israel’s high-tech industry?

“It’s hard to know what the regulation will consist of. If there’s a requirement to report on every investment, that will be impossible. However, for Israel this is in fact a once in a lifetime opportunity, one that could make it a world financial center. If they impose restrictions on the funds in the US, in Israel we should give incentives, loans and insurance that will encourage funds to register in Israel. That way we won’t be the carriage but the locomotive.

We here about the demise of the Israeli VC industry. Maybe Israel can capitalize on Obama’s mistake and not only save the VC industry, but have it both flourish here and attract foreign funds as well.

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