Posts Tagged Elizabeth Warren

The GOP fought the spotlight Tuesday with Isaac, the hurricane (recently downgraded to a tropical storm) that pounded the Gulf, as Republicans pounded President Obama in Tampa.  Mitt’s wife Ann was the star attraction last night at the convention, followed by New Jersey’s governor Chris Christie.

Let’s go back to late 2001 so you’ll understand better who I am and how I see people.  Not long after 9/11, people in their grief latched on to goodness wherever they thought it came from and President Bush received astronomically high approval ratings for his response to the crisis.  If it was 92% who supported his handling of the situation, I was in the other 8%.  It was not simply about my belief that he was a misguided fool, curious about nothing, but that he lacked empathy.  So while I didn’t doubt that he was sad and sorry about the terrorist attacks, I also didn’t believe he possessed the depth necessary to feel for us as a country and sustain those feelings.  When, with then Mexican president Vicente Fox, he tested the phrase “Wanted: Dead or Alive” in regards to Osama bin Laden, I was further disgusted.  This is all to say that I won’t jump on the Ann Romney bandwagon today just to join the crowd and feel good.  I’m a tough audience.  I’m also a Democrat.  Did I mention that?

Instead of politics, Ann Romney wanted to talk about love.  Okay, that’s fine.  I’m all for love.  But then she proceeded in the first half of her speech to talk to me as a woman, and to assume all women need to identify themselves by the myriad ways we are better and different than men.

“I’m not sure if the men really understand this but I don’t think there’s a woman in America who really expects her life to be easy,” she told the adoring crowd.  It smacked of all the chain emails I’ve received over the years from women in which the struggles of mothers and wives are put up against fathers and husbands and elevated to a holy uniqueness.  I hate those emails.  I’m a mother.  I’m a wife.  Of course my problems are not the same as my husband’s, but just because they’re different doesn’t mean they are better or more important.  I have no doubt Ann Romney is a good wife, mother, equestrian, and neighbor.  This isn’t a personal attack (or maybe it is).  I just didn’t like her assumption that we required a lift up from our lot in life compared to menfolk, that’s all.  The second half of her speech worked better, illustrating her husband as a man who gets things done.  “This man will not fail”, she convinced us, and then, “This man will not let us down.  This man will lift up America.” She had me.  She had everyone.  And then Mitt came out and the air came out of the balloon.  I don’t doubt he’s a man of action.  I just don’t agree with his methods of fixing the country.  Oh, and he bores me.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie followed as the keynote speaker and someone on Twitter said he looked like he ate Mr. Romney.  All I can say is – that would explain why he sounded like the Republican presidential nominee himself – because he had ingested Mitt.  Christie didn’t mention the man’s name until the very end of the speech.  As for the speech itself, it was standard fare, though unlike Ann, he wanted respect more than love.  He also reminded us of the GOP convention theme – We Built It.  To that I say, read this from HuffPo, and read this quote from Elizabeth Warren.

And what’s with the backdrop?  Are those clouds?  Mist?

Tonight, Eddie Munster Paul Ryan.

Columbus Day.  The girls had off from school to which I say, after the fact, WTF?  Unless you’re in New York or Chicago (Little Italy), Boston (the North End), or San Francisco (North Beach), and eager to celebrate Italian heritage with a parade, very few seem to want to acknowledge the fifteenth century explorer who opened up the New World.  While billions can appreciate his “end”, not many laud Columbus on his means.  The brutality with which he treated the natives he encountered, not to mention the diseases he brought with him to the Americas, sully what once was a stellar, albeit ignorant, reputation.  So here in Los Angeles, there is no parade and as hard as I looked, I could find no celebration of all things Italian anywhere.  It’s a half-ass day of recognition.  The public schools were open, mail delivery was ceased, most banks were closed, but more people went to their jobs here in California than didn’t.  The girls and I were left to our own devices, so naturally we went pumpkin shopping and had Mexican for lunch.  The day made no sense, except that I came to a clear understanding, while gathering items at Trader Joe’s, that my frequent unhappiness derives from the fact that at least one of my daughters hates me at any given moment.

Occupy Wall Street – coming to a town near you.  It’s in New York, where it started, but also now in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.  Don’t have time to join them?  Don’t want to but agree with their message and mission?  Why not go to We the People at WhiteHouse.gov?  I’ll tell you why – because you don’t know about it.  It was launched September 22^nd to zero fanfare because, I assume, the White House fears its potential success as a tool for American activism.  And you know what?  They should be afraid – very afraid.  Go check it out.

Bare naked lady: My friend Jessica wrote a post about a meme circulating on Facebook that shows a large woman with a beautiful face sitting naked in a chair, and then something about a mermaid and a whale.  Needless to say, the story has garnered a gazillion comments because, duh, it’s about women and their weight/body image.  Here’s my two cents, actually a question.  How many ladies have yanked off their clothes and pulled up a chair to the full-length mirror, sat sideways, left leg over chair arm, right arm across midsection, and compared themselves to French model Tara Lynn?  I didn’t.  I did not.  I’m just asking.

Elizabeth Warren: I’ve been following her on and off since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was just an idea, and watched in horror (too strong?) as the banks, Wall Street, most Republicans, some Democrats, and President Obama decided she was trouble – for different reasons – and made sure she wouldn’t be in charge of an agency she helped create.  Thanks to Suzanna Andrews at Vanity Fair, we learn more of the story, it should make us angry, and then we should contact our friends in Massachusetts who have the ability, with their vote in 2012, to send Elizabeth Warren to the Senate.  She’s running against Scott Brown.

FYI: there’s no “Glee” tonight.  The Texas Rangers take on the Tigers in Detroit in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, which is on Fox.