Three Cheers for Those Crazy Pennsylvanians

Can you say “I told you so”? -Knew you could. It looks like the way Arlen Specter figures it, change wasn’t just coming, it was unavoidable with the election of Barack Obama. But I’m not going to put words in the man’s mouth; instead, I’ll direct you to his Big Announcement of today. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042801523.html?hpid=topnews

Yep, the man’s gonna switch parties because he wants to keep playing with the kids on the Capitol Hill playground. Lieberman did it, but he did it to the tune of “Miss Inpedendent” (all respect due Kelly Clarkson). That was Connecticut-ese for “I’m pissed at the Democrats for not having gotten me elected with Al, but I’m not so pissed that I’ll become a Republican…I’m just gonna go over here and eat an Independent sandwich.” -Said action successfully assured him Freaky McFreak status on the Hill, confirmed by his endorsement of John McCain during last year’s presidential campaign.

Yeah, yeah…Norm Coleman still gets to have his day in front of the Minnesota State Supreme Court to try to wrest the senate seat away from Al Franken, and Specter still has to win as a newly-minted Democrat in the fall, but Specter’s a shoo-in, and Minnesotans are sick of Coleman whining. All that to say the Senate balance may tip in favor of Democrats, a huge coup no matter where you stand.

Specter claims there are over 200,000 registered Republicans in Pennsylvania who switched parties in 2008, and he’s listening to their political re-awakening. What does this say about anyone who switches parties? That they’re fickle? -No. At least that’s not what my former boss meant when he voted for Obama, and he’d been a lifelong Republican-voting Conservative from New York. From Guantanamo to the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, from the war in Iraq to the Patriot Act, if you could name the congressional act or Presidential veto and it was linked to the Bush administration, he was supremely angry with it. He let his voice be heard on November 4 with the two-toned principle of Voting For the Opposition. He didn’t switch parties, but he also didn’t abstain from voting. I don’t know what’s more insulting: no vote from a previous supporting member, or the slap in the face that accompanies the vote for another party.

So Specter’s on to something here. If people like my boss, who were die-hard Republicans, became so inflamed by Bush/Cheney rhetoric that they jumped ship, there might be some more Republicans who’ll do the same to stay working in Congress. If members of the House follow Specter’s lead, the Democrats’ win could increase exponentially: a filibuster-proof Congress. Wouldn’t that be a sight?

Mothers Behaving Badly?

A friend recently confessed to me that she’s a “thug mom.”  I listened to her as she described her frustration with her kids.  “I do everything I can, and they STILL don’t listen to me.” 

-I’m not a parent, but I think I get the idea.  She initially uses reason to elicit desired behavior from her kids, issues stern warnings, and finally resorts to full-on threats to get their attention.  I can picture her at the end of a long work day, negotiating with her errant children, exhausted from everything she’s had to do to get through the day…and I really feel for her.  No one likes to come home to a couple of petulant munchkins who are selectively deaf.  She’s a single parent, with a deadbeat ex who doesn’t contribute, period, so she’s all on her own.  No wonder she feels like she’s inadvertently become a Mommy Mafioso.

I suggested taking away privileges: hit them where it hurts most.  No video games, no TV, no texting, no sleepovers, no nothin’.  I don’t know if it’s the ideal way of tapping into good behavior from a child, but I know it sure worked on me when I was little. 

Her fatigue isn’t the same kind of fatigue experienced by new mothers for the first year of a child’s life.  She’s well beyond the timeframe when she was most likely to try to pass the kid off to the Christmas tree, mistaking it for her husband.  Her world is one of being overworked and underpaid, working like hell to keep a roof over her head, yet loving her kids to pieces – and feeling unappreciated by them because they’re still too young to understand.  So now she’ll threaten them with an 8-year-old’s equivalent of having his kneecaps broken: life without Wii.  Thug mom, indeed.

I live 3000 miles away.  I can’t offer to take them off her hands for a few hours, and I can’t drop in to help out with something as simple as washing the car…but as I listened to her vent, I realized the best thing I could do was just that – listen.  And offer to bring a shovel.  She told me later, when all was calm, that it was the best thing I could have done for her.  Just call me her “goon friend.”

-for Elizabeth in Nashville

Earth Day 2009 – Bringing home the bacon in my own bag

I sometimes market at a cool little joint called Trader Joe’s.  There are a lot of reasons to like it, least of which is their BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) deal:  if you schlep your groceries in your own bag, they’ll enter your name into a weekly drawing for a $25 gift certificate.  Hey, $25 worth of groceries sounds like a deal to me, especially since I’m unemployed at the moment.

So when I got to the register today, on Earth Day, I pulled out my screaming yellow nylon shopping bag.  The cashier remarked that it smelled good (it was freshly-laundered), and that more people should be bringing their own bags.  I expressed surprise at this, on today of all days…what was the world coming to on Earth Day if people couldn’t for ONE DAY bring their own shopping bags?  That’s when she said, “yeah, one woman said she hadn’t won the weekly drawing, so she had quit bringing her own bag.”

Oh, for climate change’s sake.  This Valley Girl missed the entire point of bringing a reuseable bag with her.  I’ve been bringing my own bag with me now for two years to Trader Joe’s, writing my name every time on a little ticket stub, and throwing it in the mouth of the Kon Tiki god perched on the manager’s bay – and I haven’t won yet, either!  I don’t claim to be the smartest kid on the block, but even I connected the dots on this one.

So here’s to all of you who did something for the good of the planet today; I think we have a right to feel smug and superior today because of our collective effort.  We won the Trader Joe’s contest, figuratively-speaking.