Governor Sarah Palin announced yesterday that she will resign as governor of Alaska at the end of this month.

Okay. Weird.

Her reasons are a little muddled, but here is what she said in her press conference:
1. “I am not wired to operate under the same old ‘politics as usual.’”
2. “I am taking my fight for what’s right – for Alaska – in a new direction.” (Anchorage Daily News, 7/3/09)

She spent a lot of time enumerating her many accomplishments as governor. She spent some time answering those who criticized her during her vice presidential nominations. She spent a little time talking about her family. So I’m confused.

She has accomplished so much as governor that she needs to quit now? If you’re trying to justify a decision to step down and convince your constituents that it is “what’s best for Alaska,” shouldn’t you play down what a good job you’ve done?

I’m inclined to think this is a stunt designed to gain more attention and maintain the “maverick” label she and McCain worked so hard to attain: however, this seems like a pretty risky gamble. She and McCain also tried to garner reputations as defenders of the Constitution and representatives of “real America” (Palin, 10/16/08). Well, the constitution of Alaska sets up the governor’s job as a four-year gig. The people of Alaska hired her for a four-year job. Does that mean she would be a “lame duck” for the next year and a half? Yes. Since she decided not to run for re-election in 2010, she would have the “lame duck” label. That is the way the Alaskan constitution is set up. Palin said she rejects the “fun some governors have as lame ducks… travel around the state, to the Lower 48 (maybe), overseas on international trade” ((Anchorage Daily News, 7/3/09). Fine. Keep working to effect the change you wanted to achieve, Gov. Palin. Don’t travel. Don’t have “fun.” But don’t chuck your constitutional role out the window along with the faith of your constituents.

If I were an Alaskan who had voted for Sarah Palin, I’d be pretty ticked off now. Evidently, many Alaskan Republicans do feel this way. As I read through the many reactions to Palin’s announcement on the Anchorage Daily News site, I saw many people who felt betrayed by the woman of whom they had once been so proud. Not only did she take 3 months out of her job to run for vice president, now she can’t even be bothered to complete the term she was elected to? Taking office in December of 2006 and stepping down at the end of this month, she will have completed 32 months of her 48-month term. If you subtract the three months she spent campaigning with McCain, that’s 29 months working as governor of Alaska. In private enterprise, she could be sued for breach of contract. Is that what “mavericks” do?  Let down the people who elect them to serve?

Finally, I noticed a rather odd omission from her speech. I guess I expected her to say something about wanting to spend more time with her family. Not because she’s a woman, but because most politicians talk about their families when they announce a decision like this. Also because she was supposedly such a family-values candidate; however, she said nothing about leaving office to spend more time with her family or her children. Every time she mentioned her husband or her kids it was to use them as a supporting detail: “I choose, for my State and my family, more ‘freedom’ to progress,” “this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life - my children.” Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this. Sarah Palin prides herself on being different. Perhaps that means spending more time with family is not high on her priority list.

This announcement is just another move in a long line of unusual decisions by Sarah Palin. I understand her desire to do something other than “politics as usual,” (Anchorage Daily News, 7/3/09) but often politicians do the same thing as all their predecessors because it is the right thing to do. Like serving out the term for which you were elected as defined by the constitution of your state.

I haven’t posted on my blog for a good long while. Two reasons: one, I’m generally happy with Obama’s administration; and two, I’ve been BUSY!

This post won’t be very long, but there is something that’s been irking me for a while. One of President Obama’s first orders of business was to close Gitmo. Great. Problem was that he didn’t have a clear plan for disposing of the prisoners who were there. That’s a pretty big problem, especially since a whole bunch of legislators were quick to pop up and say, “You’re not sending Gitmo detainees to MY state!”

What I find ironic is that these legislators are primarily Republicans. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Kit Bond of Missouri, Pat Roberts of Kansas, John Shadegg of Arizona and Lamar Smith of Texas are running around like Chicken Little, screaming “The terrorists are coming! The terrorists are coming!” What happened to the Paul Revere attitude? Yep, the terrorists are coming. Let’s kick their a$$@$!

Isn’t this the same Republican party that loves its guns? “You can have my gun when you pull it out of cold, dead hand” and all that? The party of “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” and “Terror unanswered can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments. And you know what? We’re not going to allow it” (George W. Bush, 9/20/09).

That’s some pretty tough talk. So what happened to the conservatives who love 24, Chuck Norris and the NRA? Why have they suddenly turned chicken in the face of “about 100 suspects” in Guantanamo Bay? (USA Today, 5/18/09) Why the sudden wimpiness, conservatives? Can’t our nation put its money where its mouth is?

You know what? I think we can. These terror suspects aren’t any smarter or scarier or more dangerous than Charles Manson (whom my grandfather taught at Gibault!) or the Unabomber or any of the other many evil Americans we currently incarcerate. Bring ‘em on. We can handle ‘em. And we can even do it legally, so their supporting regimes cannot claim victory over American ideals. Take that, ya terrorist jerks!

And by the way, Republicans, please quit quaking in your boots and whining about the possibility of a few terror suspects ending up in a prison in your state. You’re making us look like a bunch of weenies.

March has been rough for my family and circle of friends. Aside from the general malaise caused by the recession, we’ve been dealing with a lot of health problems. My diabetic godmother has been in the hospital for weeks, battling an infection in her foot. She had to have her big toe amputated, and they’re fighting to save the rest of her foot. My kids have been taking turns getting sick; my 3-year-old was actually hospitalized for dehydration after a couple days of nonstop vomiting. Lovely. One of my sister’s lifelong friends has a 3-month-old who had to have emergency open heart surgery. The baby’s doing alright now, but last week, her mother lost her job. Argh.

Needless to say, we’ll all be happy to see April arrive. In the meantime, though, I’ve been trying hard to look on the bright side, remembering things I love, and looking for new things to enjoy. Here is some of the stuff that has been keeping me sane through these bleak gray weeks. Maybe some of it will help you too!

1. NCAA basketball - Thank God for March madness. Otherwise, we’d all go mad in March. We’ve gone from 70-degree weather to snow today. At least we can snuggle up and watch some great college ball!
2. Chuck - I love this TV show! It has taken an intriguing turn in the last couple weeks, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s episode.
3. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - Stewart’s feud with that frenetic, financial freak Jim Cramer made for a nice distraction for a while.
4. Japanese Hibachi Grill - I have been craving sushi and hibachi for a while. Last night, my hubby and I had our first night out in weeks, and he treated me to Japanese at a new place in Plainfield. It was expensive, but a very tasty treat.
5. Guacamole - I gave up alcohol for Lent, so I haven’t been able to “taste the summer” with tropical drinks like margaritas and mojitos. Avocados are in season, though, so I’ve been able to get them cheap and make guacamole. Reminds me of sun, sand and surf in Puerto Vallarta!
6. New flip-flops - cheap and colorful. I bought a whole bag of them from my Avon-lady aunt. The joy of new shoes and the promise of warm weather without the guilt-inducing expense.
7. Hair color - I went red. It’s still too early to go blonde. Maybe in June.
8. Old comedies - A lot of classic comedies have been popping up on various cable channels. I’ve enjoyed “Blazing Saddles,” “Trading Places,” “Paint Your Wagon,” “Some Like It Hot,” and “It Happened One Night.” Great flicks.
9. Spring dresses - I’ve been collecting gift cards from Dress Barn since Christmas, and I ended up with over $200 after my birthday. They were having a nice sale last week, and I ended up with two. I still have $60 in gift cards!
10. Alternative music - Between NBC’s Chuck soundtrack and my Facebook friends, I’ve discovered several great new songs from bands I’d never heard before: The Fratellis, The Eels, Asteroids Galaxy Tour, and Switches.
11. Seedlings - In the rare moments when both kids were healthy, we started some tomato, pepper, and basil plants in little plastic cups in the kitchen window. They’re sprouting now. Something about the process is very wholesome and uplifting.

Here’s to April! I hope it’s better for all of us!

I haven’t written anything for a while. Mostly, I’ve been reading and waiting. I read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen.I really should have picked it years ago. I love Austen, and Northanger Abbey is a biting satire of Gothic literature which is my academic specialty. Every time I read Austen, though, I close the book in despair, knowing I will never be able to do what she does. She is amazing.  She creates characters you care about, and she does it with this nearly inexplicable combination of subtlety and obviousness. Her genius is enough to make any other writer hopeless.

The Austen book’s pretty short, and I finished it over last weekend, then switched gears completely. I picked up James Ellroy’s The Black Dahlia at the Writing Center book exchange. It’s historical fiction which is a favorite genre of mine, and it’s set in post-WW II Hollywood. It’s horribly violent and bleak and crass, though. Kind of like Trainspotting set 40 years earlier. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but it was compelling.

Speaking of compelling discussions,  I watched Meghan McCain on Rachel Maddow last night. She seems like a lovely young lady who is smart enough to keep her mouth shut when she’s not educated on a subject. A rare and admirable quality in a Republican. Evidently, she’s writing for The Daily Beast now, and she’s gotten some rather nasty criticism from neocons who don’t like what she’s saying. She’s been condemning Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, so she obviously has good taste. Listening to her gives me hope that the next generation of Republicans will reject the politics of hate, paranoia and intolerance that has dominated their party in the last 15 years.

I’ve also recently discovered a new hero of sorts - a man named Frank Schaeffer.  He is the son of Francis Schaeffer, one of the architects of the Christian Right movement and one of the founders of Focus on the Family. But Frank’s faith led him down a very similar path to the one I’ve been following. He has now rejected most of the Republican platform. He writes for The Huffington Post, and is both pro-choice and pro-life. (No, they are not opposites!!! Yes, it is possible to be both!!!) I first heard him on NPR a few months ago, and I was really impressed and relieved to hear I am not alone. There are other liberal Christians out there who are finally feeling free to make themselves heard.

Speaking of faith and Christianity and all that, it’s Lent. Like an idiot, I gave up alcohol. I started regretting it less than 24 hours after Mardi Gras. Only 31 days left now. Argh.

And the days are interminably long now that stupid, stinking Daylight Savings Time is upon us again. This whole week has been awful, and DST is mostly to blame. It has my whole family’s sleep schedule off completely. It makes me anxious to see the sun still up at 8pm in MARCH! Heavens! By June 21st, the sun won’t go down until midnight. Do you know how hard it is to get kids to bed at a decent hour when it’s still light outside?!? I guess that doesn’t matter to the politicians and corporate bigwigs who pushed it through the State Legislature so they could get more golf time.

Speaking of kids, I’m worried about my son. He seems to be getting lost in the shuffle at school. He’s very bright, and he’s getting terrific grades. He never gets in trouble. But he complains about school all the time. He hates it. I don’t know what to do about it. My daughter loves school. I loved school. My husband, however, dropped out at age 16. Is it a boy thing? And if it is, what’s the problem? Are boys just bad at school? Or is school bad at boys? I have a feeling it might be the latter…

I’m also worried about my godmother. She’s in the hospital with an ulcerated foot, and she could lose it completely. She’s a morbidly obese diabetic who doesn’t take care of herself at all. I seem to see a lot of people lately who put themselves into painful, difficult situations because they consistently make terrible decisions. I try to be sympathetic, but I get so angry with them for being irresponsible and blind to the consequences of their own actions.

I am looking forward to our annual St. Pat’s party, though. It’s always great to see friends. I’ll be sober this year, so I can enjoy watching everyone else get un-sober!

And I’m looking forward to March Madness, even though my poor IU Hoosiers will not be playing in the post-season. I’ve still got my Butler Bulldogs! And I can always enjoy rooting against Duke and North Carolina. College basketball really is the best sport in the world.

So we’re waiting. Waiting for news about my son and my godmother. Waiting for St. Pat’s and the end of Lent. Waiting for the NCAA tourney to start. Waiting for summer and the end of Daylight Savings Time. I hate waiting when it’s stopping me from getting things done. If I had information, I could make plans. As it is, I feel like I’m in the waiting room of life’s doctor’s office. Very annoying.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been sick with a cold for about a week or because it’s been snowy and cold here in Indiana for ages. Or maybe I’ve just been cooped up inside for too long with nothing to do but work. Whatever the reason, a bunch of people are really getting on my nerves lately.

I guess I’ll start with Congress because the majority of irritating folks work in there. First, the House Republicans. Seriously. Not one vote for the stimulus plan? One-third of them managed to vote for George Bush’s bank bailout back in October. So evidently, they can overlook party politics and their proven-not-to-work economic philosophies when a bill supports big business that has shot itself in the foot by being too greedy. When it’s a bill to help out average Americans who find themselves in dire straits because of big business, however, the G.O.P. suddenly comes together to make a moral stand against “socialism.”

Then there are the Republicans in the Senate who keep droning on and on about “tax cuts.” Yeah, because tax cuts have worked so well in the past. Moody’s, an independent and nonpartisan financial analysis company, recently released an eye-popping chart showing what government actions stimulate the economy and by how much. For every $1 the government spends on tax cuts, the economy produces about $1.16, depending on the type of tax cut. Permanent tax cuts actually result in a LOSS of about .36 on the dollar, again depending on the type of tax cut.  The most stimulating actions the government can take include food stamp increases ($1.73 for each dollar spent), infrastructure spending increases ($1.59 for each dollar) and state government aid ($1.36 for each dollar). So while hundred of thousands of Americans are losing their jobs and finding themselves perched on the brink of financial ruin, Senate Republicans are playing playground politics, refusing to play with the other kids unless they get their way even though their way is far more ineffective. Tax cuts won’t help my MANY friends who have lost their jobs and just trying to figure out how they’re going to keep their homes. Besides, the tax cuts the G.O.P. are advocating really don’t mean much to the big companies and m/b-illionaires they love so much. Those fat cats have herds of lawyers and accountants who shelter their money in investments or offshore accounts so they don’t have to pay taxes anyway. Argh.

Then there’s Dick Cheney who just needs to shut up and go away. On February 3rd, in an interview with Politico.com, he launched another terror campaign, frightening Americans with the threat of another major attack with “a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind”  (politico.com, 2/4/09). Chiding President Obama and the millions of Americans who voted for him, Cheney shook his finger at all of us for being “more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States.” Yeah, Dick, that’s what we’re worried about. Osama bin Laden’s Miranda rights. Look, dude, your party lost the election. What’s more, the major terrorist attack that occurred on September 11, 2001, occurred ON YOUR WATCH! And you had received intelligence that it might happen and ignored it. Need we remind you that, just a month before 9/11, during the President’s daily briefing from the C.I.A., you and George were told Bin Laden was “determined to strike” the United States. You did nothing with that information. Thanks for continuing to try to terrify us with vague warnings while simultaneously attempting to vindicate yourself for your own egregious failures. Now go back under your dark rock and leave us alone. We’ll do our best to protect the country, which is more than you ever did.

But my ire is not solely restricted to Republicans. Plenty of Democrats are doing stupid, annoying stuff too. Rod Blago-however-you-spell-the-rest-of-his-name is one of them, but I don’t want to give him any more attention because it feeds his egomania. I just wish he’d go away to wherever corrupt, pathologically self-centered politicians go after they’ve had their 15 minutes of infamy. Blah.

And what’s up with all these Obama nominees not paying their taxes?! Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner, Nancy Killefer, and Hilda Solis should be slapped. Honestly. How do they get away with not paying thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes for years? When I was 23, working for $7.50 an hour in the mall, the retail company I worked for went under and conveniently “forgot” to pay its employees payroll taxes. I ended up owing the I.R.S. about $2100. Within weeks, the I.R.S. was all over me to get that paid. Although it was an astronomical sum to me at the time, it was nothing compared to what these Democrats owed. Idiots. Obviously, Democrats are not as good at sheltering their income as the Republicans are.

Speaking of idiots and astronomical sums brings to Bernie Madoff who just needs to go to prison. How is it possible that he is still roaming his luxurious penthouse apartment in Manhattan while hundred, perhaps thousands, of his former clients have lost everything? Some of his elderly investors, some of them in their 90’s, are having to go back to work just to stay afloat. Others who were involved with Madoff took the quick route and committed suicide. Until his trial, Madoff needs to be sitting in jail, not a plush apartment. His assets should have been frozen immediately, not weeks later after he’d already mailed some of them off to friends and family. And when he’s convicted, the assets should be liquidated and disbursed to his victims based on their needs, not their investment.

Finally, there’s Etta James. Look, I’m no Beyonce fan either. And if I were a Republican whose song was being used by a newly elected Democratic president’s inauguration ball, I’d probably be annoyed too. But Etta needs to remember that people buy tickets to hear her singing, not her political rants and professional beefs. Shut up and sing, Ms. James.

I guess that’s it for now. I could go on with usual suspects - Rush (”I hope Obama fails”) Limbaugh and Ann (voter fraud doesn’t apply to her) Coulter, but I feel a little better for having vented now. And this much negativity in one blog post is way too much already!