What an amazing year to dial into politics. None of us has a crystal ball but it will sure be interesting to see which way the moderate Moms across this country vote next Tuesday. I think we’ve all learned a lot, haven’t we? First of all, it ain’t over ’til it’s over. Second, everyone has gotten a lot more independent in their thinking. Not just the Independents. Women are not so easily corralled over birth control and abortion. While I believe Gallup is experienced enough at what they do to be right about Mitt Romney winning this thing, even polling isn’t the same. I just read a great article about the fact that people don’t feel comfortable answering questions about who they are voting for over a cell phone connection which could possibly skew poll results, especially among young voters who primarily use their cell phones to communicate.
There were times when I liked the Mitt Romney who ran Massachusetts better than the Presidential candidate. Back when it was okay to be a Republican and say you were pro-choice, pro-stem cell and heck ya’, you cared if people could get health insurance or not. But I blame the process and not the person. How else does a moderate Republican get the nomination when the social conservatives have gummed up the process?
A lot of moderate Moms might not feel good about voting for Romney if they believed he was going to be the guy at the top when abortion rights unraveled. Personally, I’m hoping he’s going to be too busy turning the economy around and leave the fight over abortion to Congress and the states. And when the engine starts revving again, and people are busy working, that government intrusion into the bedroom will be relegated to the back burner. That’s usually the way it works, isn’t it? Hopefully, when jobs open up and the economy improves, women will stop being used as targets. Call me naive but today’s modern woman, as nuanced a thinker, as capable a breadwinner and as fickle a voter as she is, is not going to stand by while legislaters try to unravel rights we earned more than 40 years ago.
Looking back at this year, I think we Moms learned a lot. For me, blogging helped me to stay informed and really consider my vote. A single Mom, trying to pay the mortgage, trying to find paying work and having to borrow money, I could relate to what was happening to our country and to a lot of my fellow Moms. I realized firsthand, it’s about downsizing and reconsidering priorities with a goal to a healthier financial future. I guess I just trust the Republican candidates more to do the same thing on a larger scale.
Once Jon Huntsman went by the wayside, I turned to Mitt Romney and the more I listened to him talk about turning organizations around, the more I liked what I saw. And once the filter between Romney and the voters was removed, the way it was in the debates, Americans warmed up to him, too.
A moderate, I was surprised about how my resolve against re-electing Obama really strengthened over the course of the campaign. I just saw the Democrats and the press giving Obama a free ride when he was playing the very campaign tricks the social conservatives once had a lock on. Like trying to divide and distract women by trotting out social issues.
Whoever is elected, let’s hope the interest in the Moderate or Independent voice lives on past next Tuesday. Because most moderate Moms seem to be saying our top concern is the economy, we want to feel like our government can protect us from threats from abroad but we need to know we are not making ourselves vulnerable here on the home front by being in such poor shape financially, we want to take care of our planet but we need to develop energy independence, we want our kids to have a good education and we want to feel good about our country again.
I don’t have the answers but I think Moms can define and tackle almost any problem when it involves their kids. I just hope they turn out in droves to vote next week! And that more of them will consider running for public office. And inspiring those kids, errr, I mean political parties to be nice and work harder to fix this country’s problems! And yes, I admit it. I hope they vote for Romney.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/oct-28-in-swing-states-a-predictable-election/
http://news.yahoo.com/critical-ohio-mitt-romney-urges-supporters-persuade-democrats-012531229–abc-news-politics.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/13/2894489/poll-majority-want-tax-cuts-for.html
From AllRecipe.com
Ingredients Edit and Save
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1 large portobello mushroom, stem removed
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1 tablespoon spaghetti sauce
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1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
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1/2 tablespoon sliced black olives
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4 slices pepperoni sausage
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1 clove garlic, chopped
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Place the mushroom on a baking sheet, and bake for 5 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from the oven, and spread spaghetti sauce in the cup of the cap. Top with cheese, olives, pepperoni and garlic.
- Bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and golden.
- PREP 15 mins
- COOK 25 mins
- READY IN 40 mins
National student online poll has called four elections correctly
By NCC Staff | National Constitution Center – Wed, Oct 24, 2012
An online poll taken by millions of American students has forecast four presidential elections correctly. But will it get another election correct next Monday, when the public finds out the results from the OneVote 2012 project?
onevoteChannel One, the education media service, ran the elaborate polls in 1992, 2000, 2004, and 2008, and the middle- and high-school students picked Bill Clinton, George Bush (twice), and Barack Obama correctly.
The students and teachers involved in the OneVote project aren’t taking a simple straw poll.
Students across the country are filling out ballots this week, which are vetted in the classroom by their teachers. The educators file the votes on the OneVote website. Voting ends at 10 p.m. ET on Friday.
A team at OneVote then looks at polling patterns to make sure there aren’t any irregularities.
The final results will be listed at onevote.channelone.com.
It’s unknown if political pollsters and the campaigns will slice and dice the OneVote results like they examine political tracking polls.
But OneVote could be a window into the future of voting, since all the votes are submitted electronically after the students fill our paper ballots (no hanging chads here).
The OneVote project also mimics other institutions in the mainstream voting world. Teams of students work on videos throughout the fall, which classes watch as students prepare to research issues.
The candidates have student “surrogates” who write about their parties, and there will be a post-election spin room where the results are argued about and analyzed.
The results from past elections, though, varied greatly from this year’s election.
For example, in 2000, Bush won the student election with 58.9 percent of the 877,497 middle- and high-school students who voted. The biggest issue to students then was crime and violence.
In 2004, Bush won again with 55 percent out of 1.4 million student votes. He even won Pennsylvania and had a near sweep of the swing states.
In 2008, Obama had a big win with 58.5 percent of the student vote, according to OneVote’s press release. The economy was the biggest issue, followed by the war in Iraq.
Currently, the economy is the biggest issue on students’ minds, based on survey data from OneVote.
By Debbie Baldwin
It has been a strange week. Normally I write this column on a Thursday, a nice, relaxing day—no pressure. Usually Cranky Whiny and Punch have engaged in some sort of hijinks—a soccer mishap or a bake-sale fiasco—but for some reason, this week was different. I was out of gas—literally and figuratively: I had no column and my car ran out of gas (I say that like it’s my car’s fault). Now, normally when life hands me lemons…but not today.
When Friday rolled around, I still had nothing. Cranky was invited to a homecoming dance, Whiny was hitting a haunted house, Punch was going to his first league dance; but still, no light bulb. Well, there’s always Saturday, I calmed my panic, I will write on Saturday…
Saturday, as it happens, was my high school reunion. Surely, that would be the source of some inspiration—reconnecting, aging gracefully, the circle of life…nothing. Well, there’s always Sunday, the Lord’s day, surely inspiration will strike. The only thing that struck that day was a misplaced soccer kick to Punch’s foot and an afternoon of X-rays. I’ve already written about the trip to Urgent Care. Is it worth a visit from child services to get a darned article? I pondered it.
Then Monday rolled around—it’s go time. I parked in front of my keyboard and stared at my computer screen. Write, d@mn it. Write something, anything. Write a trivia quiz or something snarky about movie sequels and remakes, but my fingers just wouldn’t hit the keys. And that’s when I got a text from Cranky: Mom, I think I’m going to throw up. So I picked her up from school, parked her on the couch with a 7-Up, remembered Whiny needed to be at the eye doctor in an hour, and Punch needed a follow-up exam for his foot—and I apparently needed some sort of mood stabilizer. In the end, I had 35 minutes to do what I had six days to complete. Hopefully, I learned my lesson. Truth be told, I’m a fan of procrastination–it’s one of the few things I don’t put off.
By SAM SIFTON
Pork Butt
1 whole bone-in pork butt or picnic ham (8 to 10 pounds)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons brown sugar
Ginger-Scallion Sauce
2½ cups thinly sliced scallions, both green and white parts
½ cup peeled, minced fresh ginger
¼ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)
1½ teaspoons light soy sauce
1 scant teaspoon sherry vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
Ssam Sauce
2 tablespoons fermented bean-and- chili paste (ssamjang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
1 tablespoon chili paste (kochujang, available in many Asian markets, and online)
½ cup sherry vinegar
½ cup neutral oil (like grapeseed)
Accompaniments
2 cups plain white rice, cooked
3 heads bibb lettuce, leaves separated, washed and dried
1 dozen or more fresh oysters (optional)
Kimchi (available in many Asian markets, and online).
1. Place the pork in a large, shallow bowl. Mix the white sugar and 1 cup of the salt together in another bowl, then rub the mixture all over the meat. Cover it with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
2. When you’re ready to cook, heat oven to 300. Remove pork from refrigerator and discard any juices. Place the pork in a roasting pan and set in the oven and cook for approximately 6 hours, or until it collapses, yielding easily to the tines of a fork. (After the first hour, baste hourly with pan juices.) At this point, you may remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for up to an hour.
3. Meanwhile, make the ginger-scallion sauce. In a large bowl, combine the scallions with the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and taste, adding salt if needed.
4. Make the ssam sauce. In a medium bowl, combine the chili pastes with the vinegar and oil, and mix well.
5. Prepare rice, wash lettuce and, if using, shuck the oysters. Put kimchi and sauces into serving bowls.
6. When your accompaniments are prepared and you are ready to serve the food, turn oven to 500. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining tablespoon of salt with the brown sugar. Rub this mixture all over the cooked pork. Place in oven for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, or until a dark caramel crust has developed on the meat. Serve hot, with the accompaniments.
Bookworm: ‘Vote for ME!’ by Ben Clanton
!["Vote for ME!" by Ben Clanton. $16.95, 40 pages](http://sav-cdn.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/11583963.jpg ""Vote for ME!" by Ben Clanton. $16.95, 40 pages")
Your dad hits the “quiet” button on and off all night long. He might even throw things at the TV, or rip up some of his mail. Your mother shakes her head and avoids the telephone, and you think you know why: There’s an election going on this year, and grown-ups are fierce about who should win the contest.
It’s odd, isn’t it? And it might not make a whole lot of sense to you, but read the new book “Vote for ME!” by Ben Clanton, and you may understand a little bit better.
Elephant and Donkey were holding an election. Both of them wanted to win but, of course, only one or the other could.
Donkey said that people should vote for him because he was Number One. Elephant said Donkey was Number One Bighead.
Then Elephant said he was “super cute.” He thought everyone should vote for him because he was adorable. Donkey thought that was ridiculous.
Donkey offered to hand out candy if everyone voted for him. Elephant offered to hand out peanuts. Donkey said he was like family and you have to vote for family. Elephant thought that was ridiculous.
Donkey rolled out a long, long, lo-o-o-ng list of reasons why everyone should vote Donkey. One of the things was “Elephants Stink.”
Elephant didn’t like that much. He started to throw big gobs of mud at Donkey. They began calling one another names and the mud-slinging was everywhere. The names were loud and they were really mean. Things got nasty because Elephant and Donkey were angry at one another.
And when you’re very, very angry, it’s easy for someone to get their feelings hurt – which is exactly what happened. Donkey and Elephant were both sad for that. They apologized and decided that they could still be friends.
But friendship doesn’t settle the vote and somebody still needed to be chosen for First-Place. Who would you vote for? And who do you suppose was the all-time big vote-collecting winner?
You know that little kids have big ears, so there’s no doubt your child has been listening to what’s going on in the country. But does (s)he understand? Maybe not, so “Vote for ME!” is a book to find.
Using iconic symbols for the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as a story that perfectly illustrates the squabbling that happens, author Ben Clanton shows kids that all the yelling and literal (in this book) mud-slinging might be scary and mean but, in the end, we can all try to get along again.
Kids will appreciate that message because it makes this grown-up fight seem rather silly. Along those lines, I think this book will charm the socks off adults, too, whether they’re foam-at-the-mouth politicos or just tired of the whole darn thing.
If the election has been Topic One at your house, then take a second look at this book. For you and your child both, “Vote for ME!” should be a front-runner.
Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.