Wahhhhhhh!
USA still lumber 1! Europe sinking ship leh
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/03/04/1819977.aspx
British PM calls for 'New Deal,' elevates Obama
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on the United States today to join the U.K. and other countries around the world to “seize the moment” and launch a “Global New Deal.”
“[W]e should seize the moment, because never before have I seen a world so willing to come together,” Brown said in an address to a joint session of Congress in Washington. “Never before has that been more needed. … We can achieve more working together.”
He continued, “I believe that ours too is a time for renewal, for a plan for tackling recession and building for the future. Every continent playing their part in a global new deal, a plan for prosperity that can benefit us all.”
Brown used the word prosperity, by the way, eight times in his approximately 32-minute speech, an average of about once every four minutes.
The intent of his speech was to call for the U.S. to do more about the global economy -- by outlawing shadow bank systems and off-shore tax havens, uniform bank regulations and lowered worldwide interest rates and to reduce carbon emissions -- but he didn’t get there until about two-thirds of the way through.
Brown, who is faltering in polls back home, seemed to relish in the hand-shaking and adulatory applause -- a familiar sight from this chamber for Americans, who are accustomed to seeing similar displays during State of the Unions. Brown seemed to get to every hand he could reach, even shaking hands off from the podium during introductory applause for him.
“I come in friendship,” he proclaimed, adding, “to renew our special relationship.”
He cited the U.S.’s role in putting a man on the moon as well as helping to end the Cold War. “You are irrepressible…. It’s impossible to come here without your faith in the future renewed.”
He thanked the U.S. for fighting in World Wars One and Two and added that in today’s fight, terrorists “have not and will not destroy the American spirit.”
But he then went right in on the global recession. He said that one lesson learned has to be that markets have to be “free, but not values free.” He added that ideology shouldn’t get in the way and that markets shouldn’t just enrich the rich. Brown lauded Obama’s efforts with the stimulus and the restructuring of banks. He called for investments in education domestically as well as in places like Africa, so poor children aren’t lured away to madrassas where they learn to “hate us.”
America’s “reach goes far beyond its geography,” he reminded.
He called current European leader the most “pro-American” he can remember. And that there is no “old Europe” or “new Europe” – “only your friend Europe.”
Elevating Obama
Brown’s elevation of Obama to iconic status should not be missed.
It has been widely noted that Brown was hoping to come to the U.S. at a difficult political time and bask in the glow of Obama, who, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, enjoys high ratings.
“America is renewed under a new president,” Brown said before thanking Obama for, in fact, giving the whole world a “renewed hope in itself.”
He even went so far as to put Obama in the class of 20th Century icons -- Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, who have held idol status as aspirational emblems of their political parties.
“[W]orking together, there is no challenge to which we are not equal, no obstacle that we cannot overcome, no aspiration so high that it cannot be achieved,” Brown said. “In the depths of the Depression, when Franklin Roosevelt did battle with fear itself, it was not simply by the power of his words, his personality and his example that he triumphed. Yes, all these things mattered. But what mattered more was this enduring truth -- that you, the American people, at your core, were, as you remain, every bit as optimistic as your Roosevelts, your Reagans and your Obamas. This is the faith in the future that has always been the story and promise of America.”
‘Sir Edward Kennedy’
Brown also announced that the U.K. was granting honorary knighthood to Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, or “Sir Edward Kennedy.” Patrick Kennedy sought out Brown and the two hugged after the speech.
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USA still lumber 1! Europe sinking ship leh
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/03/04/1819977.aspx
British PM calls for 'New Deal,' elevates Obama
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on the United States today to join the U.K. and other countries around the world to “seize the moment” and launch a “Global New Deal.”
“[W]e should seize the moment, because never before have I seen a world so willing to come together,” Brown said in an address to a joint session of Congress in Washington. “Never before has that been more needed. … We can achieve more working together.”
He continued, “I believe that ours too is a time for renewal, for a plan for tackling recession and building for the future. Every continent playing their part in a global new deal, a plan for prosperity that can benefit us all.”
Brown used the word prosperity, by the way, eight times in his approximately 32-minute speech, an average of about once every four minutes.
The intent of his speech was to call for the U.S. to do more about the global economy -- by outlawing shadow bank systems and off-shore tax havens, uniform bank regulations and lowered worldwide interest rates and to reduce carbon emissions -- but he didn’t get there until about two-thirds of the way through.
Brown, who is faltering in polls back home, seemed to relish in the hand-shaking and adulatory applause -- a familiar sight from this chamber for Americans, who are accustomed to seeing similar displays during State of the Unions. Brown seemed to get to every hand he could reach, even shaking hands off from the podium during introductory applause for him.
“I come in friendship,” he proclaimed, adding, “to renew our special relationship.”
He cited the U.S.’s role in putting a man on the moon as well as helping to end the Cold War. “You are irrepressible…. It’s impossible to come here without your faith in the future renewed.”
He thanked the U.S. for fighting in World Wars One and Two and added that in today’s fight, terrorists “have not and will not destroy the American spirit.”
But he then went right in on the global recession. He said that one lesson learned has to be that markets have to be “free, but not values free.” He added that ideology shouldn’t get in the way and that markets shouldn’t just enrich the rich. Brown lauded Obama’s efforts with the stimulus and the restructuring of banks. He called for investments in education domestically as well as in places like Africa, so poor children aren’t lured away to madrassas where they learn to “hate us.”
America’s “reach goes far beyond its geography,” he reminded.
He called current European leader the most “pro-American” he can remember. And that there is no “old Europe” or “new Europe” – “only your friend Europe.”
Elevating Obama
Brown’s elevation of Obama to iconic status should not be missed.
It has been widely noted that Brown was hoping to come to the U.S. at a difficult political time and bask in the glow of Obama, who, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, enjoys high ratings.
“America is renewed under a new president,” Brown said before thanking Obama for, in fact, giving the whole world a “renewed hope in itself.”
He even went so far as to put Obama in the class of 20th Century icons -- Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, who have held idol status as aspirational emblems of their political parties.
“[W]orking together, there is no challenge to which we are not equal, no obstacle that we cannot overcome, no aspiration so high that it cannot be achieved,” Brown said. “In the depths of the Depression, when Franklin Roosevelt did battle with fear itself, it was not simply by the power of his words, his personality and his example that he triumphed. Yes, all these things mattered. But what mattered more was this enduring truth -- that you, the American people, at your core, were, as you remain, every bit as optimistic as your Roosevelts, your Reagans and your Obamas. This is the faith in the future that has always been the story and promise of America.”
‘Sir Edward Kennedy’
Brown also announced that the U.K. was granting honorary knighthood to Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, or “Sir Edward Kennedy.” Patrick Kennedy sought out Brown and the two hugged after the speech.
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