Sarah Darer Littman

I woke up this morning to a snow covered landscape; the kind where everything seems new and fresh and even the ugly is temporarily made beautiful. And so it is today, when Barack Obama, the first African-American president has just been inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States; things on which we’d given up hope over the last eight years once again seem possible, things like diplomacy, respect for the rule of law, “humility and restraint”.

Snow on trees, Inauguration morning 1 20 09

I know that underneath the snow, underneath the shining hope of today, we still have economic morass to confront, military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, terror threats, the need to help negotiate some sort of peace in the Middle East and all the while we still have the same political chicanery in Congress.

But for today I watched with joy in my heart, along with millions of others. Even though I was alone in my house, thanks to technology I was able to watch and comment with friends in places like California, Vermont and Texas via the CNN/Facebook Live Feed. The Internet really does make it a small world after all. We reached across Cyberspace to joining hands and hearts, laughing, crying, cheering, sharing what was so wonderfully expressed by poet Elizabeth Alexander, that:

“In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.”

The writing has been on the wall for print and now, for the first time, a Pew Research poll shows that the Internet has surpassed all other media except for television as the main source for national and international news for those surveyed.

For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%.

For young people, however, the internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television.

TV networks watch out.

source: Pew Research Center

This news shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but it doesn’t bode well for those who like to feel the rustle of newsprint with their morning coffee. Combined with a sluggish economy and declining ad revenues, newspapers are hurting, as evidenced by recent warnings of further job losses at the Greenwich Time/Stamford Advocate chain by Hearst. You wonder who will be left to report the news.

Also of interest was the Top News Interest Stories of 2008 as measured by Pew’s News Interest Index.
If you were ever in doubt that the way to capture the attention of the American public is through their wallets, be in doubt no more. The economy and the election were the main focuses of our attention in 2008. The Iraq War didn’t even register in the top 15. Sign of success, fatigue, or just too worried about the problems at home to get worked up about what’s going on over there?

source: Pew Research Center

The AP is reporting that Michael Sohn, Chris Shays’ campaign manager for the last several elections is the target of suspicions that money was misappropriated from Shays’ campaign fund, according to two Republicans familiar with the matter.

Last Friday, former Congressman Shays, revealed that following a post-election review, his campaign became aware of a series of anomalies that appeared to be the result of fraudulent activity by a former campaign staffer. Names were not revealed, but Shays said the matter had been referred to federal
authorities.

Now the AP says:

Two Republicans familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the investigation is pending said the suspicions involve Michael Sohn, who was Shays’ campaign manager for the past several elections. Sohn left last week for his honeymoon in Asia and did not return telephone messages left on his cell phone.

Another person familiar with the matter said Sohn was traveling abroad with the full understanding of federal authorities.

This is quite a betrayal, if it is indeed Sohn. It’s not been a good autumn for Chris Shays.

Is Joe Scarborough, who has been a crusader against the use of profanity on the airwaves, just another hypocrite?

This morning, Scarborough let loose with the “F bomb” on nationwide TV. Good thing my kids weren’t watching, although apparently some other outraged viewers’ kids were.

It’s obvious from watching the clip that Scarborough meant to say “the F word”, and was quite appalled when he finally realized that he’d actually dropped the F Bomb. But look how easily those words fell from the lips of someone who has, in the past, claimed: “my mom put soap in my mouth more than once or twice”, and railed against their use by “rock stars and entertainers.”

Believe me, my language leaves something to be desired at times. I try to keep it clean, not least because my daughter bought a swear jar and charges usurious rates for even minor infractions, but mainly because I try to set a good example. But I haven’t been campaigning for higher FCC fines for swear infractions, as Scarborough has.

According to Scarborough’s own past rants, it’s not enough that MSNBC just issue an apology. Clean Joe was outraged when the FCC refused to impose fines on ABC after Bono used the “F” word during a live broadcase of the Golden Globe Awards because it was ruled that it wasn’t a violation of the indecency rules:

“Kids were watching this. You’ve studied television and pop culture. What does it say about our FCC that we’ve come this far or you could say gone this far backward that somebody could say the “F” word on TV and get the federal government’s approval?”

Sounds like by his own standards, Scarborough and MSNBC should be in for a pretty hefty fine.

Four years ago this month, my then eight year-old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Since then, we have lived with the daily struggle of trying to live with this condition, trying to keep her blood sugars in balance yet allow her to continue the activities of an ordinary twelve year old. It isn’t easy, and there’s never a vacation from the needles, the testing, the constant worry about both her short-term health and the long-term complications.

One of the most promising avenues of research for curing diabetes is stem cell research.
So when I read a previous post on this site which spoke of the “sins inherent in…human-embryo research” I found myself angry as I haven’t been in a very long time.

I am a person of strong religious faith, but I have found my faith challenged over the last eight years as I have seen the ways in which religion has been an instrument of intolerance instead of understanding and how the religious right is trying to impose its beliefs onto the laws of this country.

How is it possible, in a land where we were guaranteed freedom of religion, that I should be told there is a “sin inherent” in human-embryo research, when the laws of my faith say that is not the case? Are we saying that the Catholic Church is the ultimate arbiter of what is “right” in the United States of America? I don’t see that written anywhere in the Constitution – in fact the First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

I try very hard to respect the religious beliefs of others. It was a matter of great pride to me that my first book, CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET CATHOLIC not only won the Sydney Taylor Book Award, from the Association of Jewish Libraries, but was also named one of “Ten Books Suitable for Christmas Gift Giving” by the Catholic News Service. I wonder then, why others cannot extend the same respect to my beliefs; why they feel compelled to try to impose their beliefs on me and others like me, why they want to legislate their beliefs into the laws of the land so that even though my religion allows for research that could help cure my daughter, they seek to prevent that because to them it is a “SIN” – because to them a group of cells is more important than my beautiful, living, breathing child.

I shall be praying too, on Election Eve. I’ll be praying that we will be freed from the forces of intolerance. I’ll be praying that people will learn that different faiths believe different things, and that living in a pluralistic society we need to learn to respect other’s beliefs. I’ll be praying for the election victories of candidates who understand those things. And I’ll be praying for a cure for diabetes, may we find it soon, please G-d.

In these difficult economic times, you’ve got to wonder how it’s going to go down with “Joe Six Pack” and all those other “Hockey Moms” down at the carpool when they hear about Sarah Palin’s big ticket shopping spree courtesy of the Republican National Committee. Yes, all you fiscal conservatives out there – aren’t you glad to know that the hard earned dollars you donated to the RNC went to such items as a one-day spree at for $75,062.63 at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis in early September? Or $4,716.49 on hair and makeup?

Politico broke the story yesterday, and it’s starting to get legs today. The McCain campaign issued a statement trying to deflect attention:

“With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses,” said spokesperson Tracey Schmitt. “It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.”

It would be much easier for the campaign to go with that line if they hadn’t been spending the last two weeks trying to make out like they were the party of the working class, of the “Real Patriotic America”. I wonder how many “Real Patriotic Americans” in those small towns out there, how many military wives, how many farmer’s wives, how many teachers and nurses, how many…well, hockey moms in the carpool – how many of them could afford to go drop $49,425.74 at Saks Fifth Avenue. How many of them can even afford to shop at Saks in the first place?

And since the McCain/Palin ticket have been so fond of the guy, let’s put this in “Joe the Plumber” terms. What Palin has spent on clothes in a month is over four times the the median salary ($37,514) for a plumber.

I didn’t buy Sarah Palin’s hokey “I’m just an ordinary hockey mom” schtick during the vice-presidential debate and it turns out it wasn’t just hokey, it was hocus pocus.

It’ll be interesting to see if the same pundits who spend hours bloviating about John Edwards’ $400 haircut will have anything to say about Palin’s $4,000 hairdos. After all, even if Edwards got a $400 haircut ever week, it would take him 7.2 years to rack up the kind of expenditure Sarah Palin cost the RNC in a month.

Not to mention the legality of it all. As Politico notes:

The cash expenditures immediately raised questions among campaign finance experts about their legality under the Federal Election Commission’s long-standing advisory opinions on using campaign cash to purchase items for personal use.

It’s not just the RNC who’s been opening up the purse for the Palin family. The Alaskan taxpayers have been charged $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since Palin took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls. It’s one thing if they were all for official business, but apparently many of these trips were for events to which the girls had not been invited. After she’d been selected as VP candidate and the records were being subjected to scrutiny, Palin went back and amended the expense reports to say “First Family attending” or “First Family invited.”

Maybe she is a maverick after all – if she defines “maverick” as meaning “The rules apply to everyone except for me.”

Either way, she doesn’t look like a good fiscal conservative – or an average Joe.

While I’ll be the first to admit that she wasn’t the train wreck I expected, I sat through the Vice-Presidential debate wondering if it is simply genetically impossible for Sarah Palin to answer a question with a straight answer.

I also became extremely irate when she kept repeating NU-CU-LAR, a la George Bush (whom, you will note, she quite happily threw under a bus). “It’s NU-CLEE-AR, dammit!” I shouted at TV.

“Chill out, Mom” my 12 year-old said.

“I can’t, honey,” I told her. “I can’t take another four years of having our nation’s leaders massacre the English language.”

Call me old fashioned, but if you cannot even pronounce the word correctly I don’t think you should be qualified to be in charge of our nuclear arsenal, or be charged with pursuing policies which might - in the worst case scenario - lead to its deployment.

But back to Ms. Palin and her non-answers. Slate has a great piece in which Kitty Burns Florey diagrams some of Palin’s sentences from recent interviews.

There are plenty of people out there—not only English teachers but also amateur language buffs like me—who believe that diagramming a sentence provides insight into the mind of its perpetrator. The more the diagram is forced to wander around the page, loop back on itself, and generally stretch its capabilities, the more it reveals that the mind that created the sentence is either a richly educated one—with a Proustian grasp of language that pushes the limits of expression—or such an impoverished one that it can produce only hot air, baloney, and twaddle.

Hmmm. Let’s take a guess on what the diagrams of Sarah Palin’s sentences show us?

from Slate

This is from her interview with ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson:

I know that John McCain will do that and I, as his vice president, families we are blessed with that vote of the American people and are elected to serve and are sworn in on January 20, that will be our top priority is to defend the American people.

Florey says:

I had to give up. This sentence is not for diagramming lightweights. If there’s anyone out there who can kick this sucker into line, I’d be delighted to hear from you. To me, it’s not English—it’s a collection of words strung together to elicit a reaction, floating ands and prepositional phrases (”with that vote of the American people”) be damned. It requires not a diagram but a selection of push buttons.

Last night, I felt like I was watching a Stepford Wife who’d been programmed with folksy winks and “John McCain and I” phrases to parrot in response to each and every question. When Gwen Ifill asked what programs she and McCain would have to give up from their election agenda because of the economic crisis and she said none and went off about lowering taxes again I was thinking that despite her claims to be Mrs. I Live On Main Street, she must be living on a completely different planet than the rest of us. Either that or she has absolutely no understanding of macroeconomics. Either way, it’s a scary prospect to imagine her a heartbeat away from the Presidency with a 72 year old in office.

Or, as Florey sums up:

In a few short weeks, Sarah Palin has produced enough poppycock to keep parsers and diagrammers busy for a long time. In the end, though, out of her mass of verbiage in the Sean Hannity interview, Palin did manage to emit a perfectly lucid diagram-ready statement that sums up, albeit modestly, not the state of the economy that she was (more or less) talking about but the quality of her thinking:

from Slate

Fortunately, the polls show that American people seem to be seeing through her empty words.

Despite an economic climate where even the people who I normally call when I’m freaking out about the stock market are freaking out about the stock market, the Himes campaign raised over $800,000 towards his Congressional run in the 4th CD in the third quarter.

The final numbers have yet to be confirmed, but it’s already apparent that this is the most successful quarter ever posted by a challenger to incumbent Congressman Chris Shays, and indeed, is probably one of the most successful fundraising quarters of any congressional challenger in the country.

“These totals show how much Connecticut voters want change in Washington,” said Dana Houle, Jim Himes’ campaign manager. “The fact that voters set aside their own financial concerns to make sure Jim wins this race is just one more indicator of how much people of the Fourth District want change. Chris Shays sat idly by while Wall Street got out of control. In Congress, Jim will get our economy back on track by delivering a tax cut to the middle class, a stimulus for our economy, and putting in place smart regulations that will make Wall Street work for all of us.”

Meanwhile Shays is using his campaign funds sending me, a registered Democrat, a campaign leaflet portraying him with “The Hopefulness of Obama - the Straight Talk of McCain”. “Both Ways Shays” at his best. I can tell you now that schtick won’t stick.

Congressman Shays has also been getting heavy support from the National Association of Realtors PAC, according to The Hill.

Shays, who faces businessman Jim Himes, received $510,000 in assistance, including $260,000 in direct mail and $210,000 on TV ads. …Shays…got about $40,000 in surveys, as well.

It’ll be interesting to see Shays’ numbers when they come out. Money doesn’t win elections but Himes strong showing must have Shays feeling the heat.

Apparently, as he watched the potential agreement for his $700 billion financial bailout package fall apart in a sea of acrimony yesterday, President Bush remarked, with surprising eloquence: “If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down.”

He’s not kidding. Yesterday, with the demise of Washington Mutual, we saw the largest bank failure in American history. The other night, I was trying to explain to my 15 year-old son just how worrying things are at present. “Let’s put it this way – the people who normally tell me to stay calm and think of the long term when I start getting sick to my stomach about the market are telling me that they are sick to their stomach about the market. That’s how bad it is.”

We’re not the first nation to go through a financial crisis like this and we won’t be the last. Reading reports of what transpired in Washington yesterday, with House Republicans coming into the meeting and scuttling the deal, does not inspire one with confidence. We’re in for another rocky day in the markets, for sure.

The counter proposal, from the House Republicans, calls for the government to set up an expanded insurance system, financed by the banks, which would rescue individual home mortgages, rather than buying up the mortgage-backed assets that are wreaking such havoc with financial institutions. They also want, surprise, surprise, less regulation, because, you know, that’s really helped keep us out of trouble, and despite massive deficits, they also want more tax cuts.

There are plenty of commentators out there who are speculating on why the House Republicans are playing this dangerous game. I’ll give you a sampling, here, here and here, so I can stick to the point.

Perhaps the House GOP can learn something from our European counterparts.

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times this morning about how the Swedes solved their banking crisis in 1992.

Sweden did not just bail out its financial institutions by having the government take over the bad debts. It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks. Banks had to write down losses and issue warrants to the government.

That strategy held banks responsible and turned the government into an owner. When distressed assets were sold, the profits flowed to taxpayers, and the government was able to recoup more money later by selling its shares in the companies as well.

“If I go into a bank,” said Bo Lundgren, who was Sweden’s finance minister at the time, “I’d rather get equity so that there is some upside for the taxpayer.”

Sweden spent 4 percent of its gross domestic product, or 65 billion kronor, the equivalent of $11.7 billion at the time, or $18.3 billion in today’s dollars, to rescue ailing banks. That is slightly less, proportionate to the national economy, than the $700 billion, or roughly 5 percent of gross domestic product, that the Bush administration estimates its own move will cost in the United States.

But the final cost to Sweden ended up being less than 2 percent of its G.D.P. Some officials say they believe it was closer to zero, depending on how certain rates of return are calculated.

I want some equity for my portion of the $700 billion bailout. Although my Republican friends might be shuddering, viewing this as the first step down the road to socialism, I call it getting a return on my investment as a taxpayer. And my Republican daddy always taught me getting a good return on an investment is a good thing.

My daughter and I went to our first NASCAR event at Riverhead Raceway last weekend (you can read how that came about
here) and it was a real eye opener for both of us. As my daughter commented when we waiting to buy refreshments, “It’s not at all like going to watch the US Open tennis, is it?” No, Dorothy, we’re not in Queens anymore.

Photo illustration by Jeff Rosenkrantz of NY Daily News

The evening consisted of several auto races, followed by two demolition derbies. I know it takes all kinds to make a world and that it’s people’s differences that make things interesting, but after two hours of watching cars go around the track I was bored silly. I think part of it is the stopping and starting for crashes and the cleaning oil off the track. Long periods of waiting for shorts periods of actual action. And as my daughter who is truly a Millenial in outlook, commented, “ It’s so Un-Green!”

It was during the September 11th tribute that I really began to feel like I was on another planet, which is a shame, considering that seven years ago we came together as a nation, united in grief and resolve. I felt a swell of pride as I sang America the Beautiful, and then listened to a crackly recording of John Wayne’s “America, Why I love her”. Then the raceway announcer came over the loudspeaker and said, “Seven years ago the terrorists tried to change America but they didn’t succeed!” The crowd started cheering loudly in agreement, but I stood there frozen, thinking of all the ways this country has changed since that tragic September morning.

I thought about how the Bush Administration, with 9/11 as its excuse, has made a systematic assault on our nation’s civil liberties. I thought about the warrantless wiretapping scandal, and about holding a U.S. citizen without charge for three and a half years because Bush had designated him an “enemy combatant” thus denying him his constitutional right to due process of law. I thought about how the administration tried to politicize the Justice Department, to the point that, according to Congressman John Conyers, “even interns had to pass a partisan litmus test.” I thought about how we were a nation that believed in international treaties and the Geneva Conventions, and how in the seven years since 9/11 we’ve come to the point where some people think that it’s okay to torture, or that they will rationalize in their head that water boarding, which we’ve always considered torture if done to our soldiers, is just an “enhanced interrogation technique”. I thought about “extraordinary rendition”, which in the past has only been used against people with a proved list of crimes against them, but under the Bush Administration has been used to deport innocent people merely under suspicion of illegal activity to third countries where they have been undergone brutal treatment.

I thought about how the government used 9/11 as a pretext to engage in an unnecessary war that has cost more than 4, 100 American servicemen and women their lives and wrought havoc with our economic outlook.

As I was standing there, thinking all of this, the announcer continued: “and one of the great things we can be thankful for about America is that we can WRECK SOME CARS!” More loud cheering.

Maybe the announcer was right. Maybe the terrorists didn’t change America. Maybe WE changed America for them – because there are enough people out there who are willing to give up their civil liberties as long as they can go watch cars being wrecked on a Saturday night.

The evening’s finale was a school bus demolition derby, which I found somewhat disturbing, but I think that’s because I’m a mom and I tend to over think these things. One of the buses had Obama in ’08 painted on the side and I happy to report that bus emerged victorious. I’ll take it as a positive sign.