A Bed of Lilies

Hot dang. Obama sure knows how to warm the cockles of this little feminist's heart. Today he signed his first official piece of legislation, making the Lily Ledbetter Bill a law. (I'm just a bill, only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capital Hill. You know the words, sing along with me . . .)

While the bill doesn't go so far as to guarantee women be paid the same wage for the same job as a man (a pause as I wipe away a tear for the much maligned Equal Rights Amendment, what an amendment to the Constitution should be, something that GIVES people rights, rather than taking them away), it does give women and others who are discriminated against in their pay longer to take legal action.

Workers now have six months after receiving ANY discriminatory paycheck to bring a lawsuit against an employer. Prior to Ledbetter you only had six months from receiving your FIRST discriminatory paycheck.

Speak Right

January 28

ashfault/asphalt

"Ashfault" is a common misspelling of "asphalt."

from Common Errors in English Usage

REALLY??? WTF????

And in other Common Errors, the correct phrase is "all of A sudden," not "all of THE sudden."

Now you know. Anyone missing my Bush Countdown Desk Calendar yet?

Critter Corner

Yep, folks time to once again put on your Ranger Rick hat. We need to help the wolves. The Bushies did away with protection of wolves in Yellowstone and the Rockies. According to savethewolves.org, Obama has suspended Bush's suspension and now we just have to encourage the government to create a more responsible plan to allow our furry friends to live in harmony with us bipeds.

Strange Days

Damn skippy the world is a strange, strange place. I had a craptastic evening like I expected and woke up to drizzle and a continuing foul mood, like a bad hangover that no amount of tylenol and greasy food will shake. I went off on a rant about the unsafe conditions at our local mall and how people just needed to be civilized. The spouse told me I was angry. Like his mother angry.

While I love me some good righteous indignation, I do not want to be bitter, old woman angry. I long for crotchitiness in my old age ala "I'm an old southern woman, we are supposed to grow things and wear funny hats," but not "I watch Cavutto at 4pm and rail against anyone that Bill O'Reilly casts his beady eye against."

So I vowed as I left the house to suck it up and be happy, even if I wasn't. To smile at people and force myself to be in a good mood. And then I read my horoscope at work a moment ago:

If you wake up in a blue mood, remember that you can turn things around just by willing them to be different. You can make yourself start feeling good as soon as you start thinking good thoughts! Toss out your worries, your fears, and your preoccupation with unconstructive things. It's important to feel your feelings and give yourself time to process them, but there comes a point when you just have to say 'no' to negative thinking. To help switch your emotional gears, watch a sitcom or visit with a funny friend.

Yes gentle readers, the world is a strange place, but methinks this is a slap in the face from the gods for me to straighten up and fly right. Now if I could just remember which closet I locked that damn pollyanna in . . .

It's the End of the World As We Know It . . .

And I feel like shit. There I said it. Pollyanna is on vacay today and my mood is sour, sour, sour. It is raining. I am hungry. And I have a heinous meeting tonight that I have been dreading for weeks. Perhaps tomorrow I will hoist up my bra straps and get back on my happy horse, but not today folks.

Let's start with yesterday's layoffs. Anytime someone, anyone gets laid off it sucks. No matter what your back up plan, no matter how prepared you are, even if you know it is nothing personal or at all related to your job performance it sucks. It sucks financially, it sucks for your self-esteem, and it certainly doesn't make our economy any better. (Maybe I should have titled this post "It Sucks"—that seems to be my true theme here.)

How many got the axe yesterday when Microsoft, Caterpillar, Home Depot, Sprint and the merging Wyeth and Pfizer, among others, lowered the boom? According to AP about 40,000. Lovely. And in that 40,000 were three of my friends. They were three of 10 who got laid off at one of my previous employers. I have had friends laid off before, and while I know that three or 10 seems like chump change in comparison to 40,000, I knew most of these people and that makes it all different. Everything is relative gentle readers.

And what is best served with a delicious main course of "It Sucks?" Why a healthy spoonful of "We Know It Sucks," as consumer confidence declined again in January (wonder how much lower the numbers would be if the stats had come out after people knew about all the layoffs?) Did I mention I was hungry?

Meanwhile, the GOP bone heads in Congress are trying to rally support to block Obama's economic stimulus plan. Dang. I sure do hope John Boehner (or as I like to call him Boner) have some money socked away in their mattress's for a rainy day. I wonder how many of his (and the other Republicans) constituents have been hit by yesterday's layoffs and are desperately looking for something, anything to give them some hope or a way to keep their families feed and sheltered? I wonder if they will like that the GOP is trying to block the new administration's efforts to help? I wonder if they wouldn't like an explanation from the previous Congress and administration on where exactly that previous bailout money went? It isn't like the banks are giving loans to average folks like me these days. Hell no. They are too busy giving back door bonuses to their high dollar employees like Merrill Lynch did before their buyout by Bank of America went through. Classy, real classy folks.

Forgive my ranting, but it makes me angry and I don't know what to do with my anger. (If you can id the movie I stole that line from, I might just smile a little today. Maybe.)

Rush's Rant

I do not and will never understand the appeal of Rush Limbaugh. To me, the man is vile and endemic of what is so wrong with conservatives. Rush had this to say the other day:

My hope, and please understand me when I say this. I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, 'Well, I hope he succeeds. We've got to give him a chance.' Why? They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated, the search-and-destroy mission had begun. I'm not talking about search-and-destroy, but I've been listening to Barack Obama for a year-and-a-half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed.

On one hand I am forced to agree with Rush. I did hope that Bush would fail. No let me rephrase that, I KNEW Bush would fail. His policies were not about looking out for the best interests of the majority, they were exclusionary and meant to divide rather than unite us as Americans. So Rush's basic premise is accurate, but there is a bit more going on here, obviously.

First, Obama and Bush are not only different men from different parties with different belief systems and different goals, but Obama is president during a time that is dramatically different than the one in which Bush became our commander in chief.  Bush inherited from the Clinton Administration a country in really pretty good shape, both in terms of our economy and our perception in the world. Obama has not been gifted with either of these luxuries. America's reputation around the world is in shreds and our economy continues to spiral down. (Is it just me or does it remind you of those nightmares where you are falling and there is no bottom?)

What this means is Bush failing and Obama failing as president become two entirely different matters. Of course, Bush's failures have led us to this situation that somehow, someway, Obama must resolve. But if Obama fails, what does that mean for America and Americans?

And the bigger question here, in relation to Mr. Limbaugh, is how DARE he be so cavalier with the future of our country? I am sure I am not alone with any of you gentle readers in personally being affected by this seemingly, over night breakdown of our economy. I have my own woes, which are slight in comparison to the woe's of my friends who have been left without jobs, health care, etc. as a result of the greed of bankers, brokers and their ilk.

I am quite comfortable in apologizing for my part in creating this mess by wishing Bush would fail. But I can not abide the thought that someone would wish for Obama to fail, guaranteeing a further decline for our country. That is truly unamerican and Rush should be ashamed.

Sound Bytes

A selection of my favorite comments, quotes, meanderings from yesterday's festivities:

"The challenges we face are real," he said. "They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America—they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."

President Obama

"A farmer considers the changing sky/ A teacher says, 'Take out your pencils, begin.'"

Elizabeth Alexander, Inaugural Poet

"Later I asked Hughley why we're all so invested in the Obamas' relationship, our focus on their "first dance" like that at a wedding. "I know why I am – because I've seen that in my own life, and on the Cosby Show, but I've never seen it represented that way in public life." Confession: I am paraphrasing that, because he was actually interviewing me, and I didn't have a notebook. But that was his point, and I know he's right."

Joan Walsh, Salon Editor in Chief

"People watched the big screen and when Mrs. Obama appeared, there was a roar, and when the Current Occupant and Mr. Cheney came out of the Capitol, a low and heartfelt rumble of booing. Dignified booing. Old black ladies around me tried to shush them -- "Don't do that!" they hissed -- but it's a democracy, and how will those men know how we feel if we don't tell them?"

Garrison Keillor, writer

"Obama arrived in the Oval Office at 8:35 a.m., according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The president spent 10 minutes alone, reading a note left for him in the desk by outgoing President George W. Bush. The note had been placed in an envelope with a note saying: 'To: # 44, From: # 43.'"

CNN

So it begins.