Shame

I have a confession to make. I am not nearly the good liberal I make myself out to be. Father, forgive me, for I have sinned. I do not watch "The Colbert Report." I have never watched "The Colbert Report." Why? I dunno. I'm usually busy at 7:30pm. Doing what? I dunno.

If we're home, I'm often reading in the kitchen papasan while Annie's at the computer. And Carl's watching "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." Sometimes I watch it with him. My darling son is usually in the den, watching tv and playing war games. I didn't realize, though, that at 7:30pm, my darling son is usually watching "The Colbert Report." He's cooler than I am, that Jonathan.

So, anyways. The reason that I make this confession is that last night I watched the video of Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Oh. My. God. You can watch it yourself at the Countdown website. It was an amazingly edgy, barely funny because it was so accurate slam after slam of Bush and the Bush administration. The liberal blogosphere has been talking about it quite a bit, and talking about that fact that no one else is talking about it.

Well, someone else has finally talked about it. Not really, but Daily Kos is using it as an excuse to talk about it more. House Minority Whip Democrat Steny Hoyer defended Bush after Colbert was done with his deadpan, dead-on hits on Bush. Says Steny, "I thought some of it was funny, but I think it got a little rough. He is the president of the United States, and he deserves some respect. I'm certainly not a defender of the administration, but (Colbert) crossed the line with . . . bad taste."

Huh? In my book, Colbert showed the best possible taste. He got up and told the truth in a funny way at an entertainment venue designed for humorous slash and grabs. He told the truth. Unlike so much of our mainstream media who are, for the most part, absolutely incapable of straightforwardly calling a spade a spade, he told the assembled group--including the President--just what he thought of him and them. In the guise of humor. Not.

Ray Nagin was at the Dinner. Did you know that New Orleans is not exactly up and running yet? Remember New Orleans? Katrina? Much of the city turned to wasteland? Guess what? A lot of it is still wasteland. If you're tired of hearing about NOLA and Katrina, tough. Go read Peter King's short column about his visit down there at SI.com, of all places. It should embarrass and shame all of us for allowing our government to "forget" to finish the job down there.

And speaking of jobs. I've got one, even though no one pays me for it. In fact, I have a number of jobs. And a study released by Salary.com says I ought to be paid about $134,121 for doing it. My job is being a stay at home mom. Now, my particular flavor of this job is different. One of my kids is out of the house all day at school. But the other is here at home, where I'm teaching him. Seems like that probably adds a bit to the above figure. OTOH, I have someone clean my house every other week. So subtract a bit.

It's a shame to all who benefit from stay at home parents that there is no economic benefit for those who do so. No social security. No job security (know a lot of women getting alimony after divorce?) No leg up when they reenter the job market. Don't think YOU benefit? Who volunteers at your kids' schools? Who picks them up when they're sick and you can't get away? Who has them over for extra play dates in the summer during break? Who notices trouble in the neighborhood and gives you a call about it? Who runs over and lets your dog out when you forget before you leave for work in the AM?

Parents. We're more important than we're paid for.

Later,
Liz