Rock the vote!

Election day is upon us, so--whatever your political affiliation-- don't forget to exercise your right to vote!

I will be working the polls at the elementary school where I teach for a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon. I will be campaigning on behalf of Board of Education candidates and against a Tax Referenda question on the ballot. I typically don't do this because I don't happen to live in the county where I teach and I've always felt that it would be somewhat hypocritical for me to campaign on tax issues when I don't pay tax in that jurisdiction. This year, things are a little different. There are a lot of new voters who have recently registered and they may not be very savvy on local government affairs. Unfortunately, I've seen first hand how some of these property tax limiting legislation can totally ruin a school system. I began my teaching career in another neighboring county which passed such legislation. After six years of teaching I, along with about 500 others, got laid off. To make things worse, this happened just after DH and I had bought our house with the 18% mortgage interest rate! Can you tell that was in the early 80's? Hard to believe we paid rates like that, but we did. It was a scary time because it was a time of teacher gluts unlike now when we have a national teacher shortage. Things got pretty bad--so much so that we almost lost our house. But looking outside of my own little world--the school system went straight down the crapper! By the time they laid us off, they had been in a 5 year decline due to lack of funding. It literally got to the point where parents were stealing reams of paper from their government jobs to bring to the teachers to use at school because we just didn't have any. Things continued to get worse and my friends who remained in that school system told me that getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to me. What does that tell you!

I'll never understand how American citizens don't make the connection between taxes and public services. They scream for lower taxes but they don't want cuts in services. And those of us who provide some of the services perpetuate the problem by continuing to do what we do--including hours and hours of unpaid overtime--because we care for the kids. If we decide that we can't continue to provide the same level of service when our pay is cut or we lose benefits, we are made into the bad guy!

Dear Government--Taxes are bad. Please lower our taxes. And while you're at it, please find us jobs, provide us with health insurance, bail out our sub prime mortgage and give us grants so that our kids can go to college. That is the bill of goods that people will buy. There is just no logic in it. Now I don't love paying taxes, but I understand the necessity and I understand that when the money is used wisely, it can make our society better. Other democracies pay much higher percentages of taxes--but then they get health insurance, retirement, child care, college education etc. etc. Wow! You can't tell me that the standard of living in such a place isn't better for everyone!

Here's to hope!


I'm planning on bringing my ongoing Petal Edge Scarf with me to knit in line at the polls just in case it's a long wait!

Let's hope that tomorrow night we are toasting a victory rather than chugging shots over a defeat! I suspect that it may be Wednesday before we will even know the outcome.

Thankfully, our days are numbered for the following!
Bushism of the day:
"A lot of times in politics you have people look you in the eye and tell you what's not on their mind." --George W. Bush, Sochi, Russia, April 6, 2008

Kitty Cam: Mikey would like to offer a nonpartisan message.


Cosmo, on the other hand, isn't so nonpartisan.

I guess you could call him a Democat!

Live from New York!

In case you missed Sarah Palin on SNL . . .

Live from New York . . .

It's Saturday Night Live's version of the VP debate!



I have to admit, that if Obama wins, I will miss these sketches. However if McCain wins, we'll see them for the next 4 years--only they won't seem so funny then.

Tina Fey does it again!

First of all, please forgive me if you find these comedy skits offensive. I think they are absolutely hilarious! So here is the skit from last night just in case you missed it!

A non partisan message from Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton

Just in case you missed this . . .

Short update

Not much going on around these parts. I have no knitting news to speak of except that I ordered yarn for the Silken Scabbard. Little Knits just got in the Silky Malabrigo and they had a solid in a lovely wheat gold color. I had originally considered getting some KnitPicks Andean Silk in Raisin which is a deep deep purple. My concern was that a color that dark wouldn't show the lovely cables on that sweater so I was delighted to see the Malabrigo.

I've been working on my brocade jacket. To my sewing friends--I have one piece of advice. If you ever have the opportunity to use Pellon fusible interfacing from JoAnns--Don't! I have used Pellon for more years than I care to count, but this stuff was simply the worst! I followed all the directions for fusing to a tee. Check this out:

Notice all the puckers? I placed the damp press cloth over the interfacing/fabric and held the medium heated iron on for the number of seconds indicated. For a split second, the interfacing looked smooth but as it cooled, it started puckering. Every piece that I interfaced did this. Since my fashion fabric is heavy enough the puckers don't show on the right side. However when I went to add my pocket facing to the interfaced piece, I found that the interfaced piece had shrunk by 1/2 inch due to the puckering. I was able to compensate by making sure that I measured my seam allowances using the uninterfaced piece. Does that make sense? I will say that you get what you pay for. I think I will make a trip to G Street Fabrics and just stock up on all different weights and types of interfacing to keep on hand so I can avoid this type of situation in the future.

One thing I did treat myself to at JoAnns' was this:

Two pairs of small scissors! I have several pairs of 4 inch embroidery scissors but they don't have the muscle that these little sewing scissors have. I wanted some small scissors that I could use to cut buttonholes and clip seams. Scissors that would cut multiple layers of fabric all the way to the tips. Embroidery scissors, while very sharp, do not do that. They cut thread and that's about it! The 5 inch craft scissors are very similar, but they are capable of cutting much heavier materials and I thought they would be good for coating and leather.

Other news--look what was waiting at my house last Tuesday:

Courtesy of the Howard County government! I assume these were given to all homes in the county as the brochure said that the bin belongs to the address. I find this rather humorous given the current state of the economy. Next year we will probably be denying cost of living increases to all our public employees and experiencing numerous reductions in public services, but we got new recycle bins! I was more than content to put my paper recycling in brown paper grocery bags and my other recycling in clear recycling bags, but obviously the powers that be thought that wasn't good enough. I realize that these bins were probably bought and paid for a couple of years ago when the budget was in better health, but it sends a rather ridiculous message, don't you think?

Today was my first Monday at school and it felt every bit like a Monday--complete with a long, boring, irrelevant meeting at the end of the day. I had hoped to work more on my jacket when I got home, but I wanted to watch my main man Obama on Keith Olberman's Countdown. Also, I've been rather fascinated with the whole Sarah Palin thing though I must admit that she scares the bejeezus out of me. I have one question for all you good folks--something that I've been thinking about after watching all the commentary on the conventions--If questioning Sarah Palin's experience makes one a sexist, does questioning Barack Obama's experience make one a racist?

And with that, I will offer my Bushism of the day:
"I'm going to try to see if I can remember as much to make it sound like I'm smart on the subject." --George W. Bush, answering a question about a possible flu pandemic, Cleveland, July 10, 2007

Kitty cam: Samantha strikes a pose!

Jon Stewart hits the nail on the head, once again!

As does Stephen Colbert! Click here to see last night's special episode!

Let the Games Begin!

Today is the first day of the Republican National Convention. We've already had the Democratic National Convention. Now the fun will really begin. First of all, let me preface this by saying that I am a die hard Democrat--but then if you read my blog regularly, you already know that. I haven't always been, however. I voted Republican in my first two elections. Probably because I was young, unaware, and content with the status quo. What happened? Ronald Reagan is what happened. In 1980, I voted Democratic for the first time and have ever since. Ronald Reagan terrified me and to this day I will never understand why the conservatives worship him so much. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not one of those who just vote my party line without thinking. I just vehemently disagree with every policy the Republican Party has put into play. It is frustrating though to not be enthusiastic about one's candidate which has been my experience. 1992 changed all of that. I was totally psyched about Bill Clinton. I was enthusiastic and I felt that for the first time I was actually voting for a candidate rather than just voting against his opponent. This feeling repeated in 1996. After that, it's been back to the same old thing. Don't get me wrong--I liked Al Gore and John Kerry. I just wasn't enthusiastic about them. This year, I experienced the enthusiasm once again. I supported Hilary Clinton and I was totally psyched during the primaries that she started out doing so well. When she lost the bid for the White House, I felt that same ambivalence once again. That is until last Thursday. I always liked Obama but last Thursday night I finally drank the Koolaid. He hit nail on the head in his speech--again and again and again. And the Clintons did me proud by enthusiastically endorsing him. They need to drive that message home because there is so much riding on this election. 

I must admit that I am puzzled by the Republicans' desire to have a "regular person" running for VP or any other high office. I meet people who like that. I have a relative who voted for Bush because "he talks just like I do." Excuse me? I love regular folks. I am one. But I want an exceptional person running the country not my next door neighbor! I want someone intelligent, thoughtful, reflective, experienced, well spoken etc. etc. etc. Not some maverick who doesn't understand how Washington works. I've lived in the DC area all my life. One has to know how to work the system. Being a "Washington insider" is not a bad thing if you use your knowledge of the system to enact change. I believe that is what Barrack Obama and Joe Biden will do. The thought of John McCain being old and his running mate having no clue about living in a diverse world terrifies me. The woman was mayor of a town of 7000 and governer of a state of 600,000. Tell me--how diverse is Alaska? Pardon me if I just don't get it. More important than experience is the issue of judgement. George Bush had years of experience. Add his years to those of John Ashcroft and Ronald Rumsfeld and I bet you have more than 100 years of experience. Look what those years of experience have cost us as a nation. We have gone from peace to war, economic surplus to record deficits, global respect to global loathing, and the list goes on.  So here is a list of why I believe Obama needs to win this election:

• the war needs to end
• we need to regain our standing in the world
• we need qualified people in positions of authority ("Heck of a job, Brownie")
• we need to take care of the earth and not abuse its natural resources
• we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and explore alternative energy sources
• I believe in our right to free speech
• I believe that patriotism doesn't mean blindly accepting what the administration tells us to believe
• we need to lift people out of poverty, not put more people into poverty
• we need to create jobs in the United States, not ship more jobs overseas
• we need to educate our children adequately and appropriately, not have them slaving over math and reading tests all day.
• we need to find a way for everyone to afford a higher education
• we need to provide health care to everyone
• we need to protect a woman's right to choose
• we need to protect lesser species from extinction
• we need to all have a voice

If you are not registered to vote.  Please register.  I won't tell you who to vote for.  You have to make that decision on your own.  But please exercise your constitutional right to be heard. Please don't refuse to participate then complain about the outcome of this election.   We are one of the few nations on earth that gives all its citizens a voice.  Please use yours.  There is just too much at stake.