Mothers of Intention Summer Reading List

Well, the Fourth of July fireworks are over and summer is in full swing! So it's time for this year's Mothers of Intention summer reading list! While we often think about something a little lighter for those days by the pool or at the beach, here are a few suggestions I'd like to make to keep our minds percolating until the kids head back to school:

Womenomics, by Claire Shipman & Katty Kay -- These two journalists have written an eye-opening book about getting us to recognize the power women have in the workplace to create the kind of work experience we want without sacrificing the time we want and need to spend with our families. I was really honored that both of these fantastic journalists agreed to have a book party at Chez PunditMom last week and inspired all of us in the room to rethink how we approach our work lives.

If They Only Listened to Us, by Melinda Henneberger -- A great, quick read about women around the country who've taken control of their own political power that makes you think about what else we should be doing to make sure we're not pigeonholed as "soccer moms."

Have a Nice Day, by Justin Webb -- Justin and his family are friends of ours and they are headed back to England later this summer after many years of living in the U.S. Justin has been the BBC's North America editor and has a fresh perspective on how Europeans view us and our ideas on politics, religion, freedom and a variety of other topics, as well as our penchant for telling everyone to "Have a nice day!"

Life Happens, by Connie Schultz -- Regular readers here know I'm a big fan of Connie's column at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. This volume is a wonderful compilation of some of her best essays on life, love, and family. You won't be sorry you packed this one in your beach bag!

Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters, by Nancy Pelosi -- This little volume is an interesting read as a pep talk from the first woman Speaker of the House to encourage girls to stake a claim to their power, know opportunities when they see them and being active in their efforts to get a seat at the table of power. Who would know better on these things than Pelosi?

The Brethren, by Bob Woodward & Scott Armstrong -- It's an oldie but goodie about the real inner machinations of the Supreme Court. With the current makeup of the highest bench in the land and the upcoming confirmation hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor, this, along with The Nine by Jefrrey Toobin, would be entertaining and enlightening reads for the summertime, even if you're not a "recovering" attorney like me!

So there you have it! PunditMom's summer reading recommendations. If you've got some thoughts on non-traditional beach reading, let me know in the comments!

Is Paris Hilton Still Available for a Cabinet Post?

As we're coming up on the long holiday weekend, the PunditMom family is heading out to sunny California to visit family. While we're away, I thought it would be fun to revisit a couple of posts from the heat of the presidential campaign last year.

Remember when Paris Hilton decided to run for president? I still stand by my original thoughts at the time -- there might be something to the idea of getting her to serve in some governmental role. Remember how conversant she was on an effective energy policy?

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Plus, I still have to admire the way she seized that moment not only to reinforce her patented image that keeps her in the public eye, but she also planted the seed that maybe she's something more.

Well, maybe she's not, but there's still a lesson for us in this video -- own your message and don't let it be co-opted by others. Granted, a Paris Hilton political video isn't the thing she's going to hang her hat on for keeping herself in the spotlight. But she found an effective and humorous way to turn a negative portrayal of herself into a huge positive. You've gotta like that in a girl!

Now, I'm not suggesting that I want to see Hillary Clinton in a tankini or that Nancy Pelosi should shoot a commercial sitting on a chaise by the pool and a tropical drink to talk about health care. But there is a valuable media lesson we can all learn from Paris.

What slots are still open in the Obama administration? I'm pretty sure she's available to start ASAP!

PunditMom Photo Saturday -- A Peek at the Trip We've Been Waiting For

I've been waiting for this trip for a long time. We've been informally planning it since PunditGirl was a baby and now the wheels are in motion. More importantly, the airline tickets have been obtained with the frequent flier miles we've been hoarding since we stepped off the plane with our PunditBaby in January 2001. The itinerary is taking shape and we'll soon be getting together with a few of the other adoptive families who will be sharing this "homeland" tour with us.

So while we're off visiting family this weekend, I wanted to share this news with you! Next March, the PunditMom family will be heading off to China to give PunditGirl her first chance to explore her birth country.

And, just as exciting, PunditGirl and I are going to start a new blog soon to keep track of our trip preparation, how we're all feeling about this adventure and, ultimately, to share our trip with you as we experience it! I'm thinking there might be a book in this somewhere, too -- maybe something like the one PunditGirl's photo is already in!

We'll sight see, visit her hometown and hopefully get to meet with the head nanny of the baby home who will be able to talk with PunditGirl a little bit about her time there, maybe filling in some of the holes about her first months that she asks about frequently. It's scary and exciting all at the same time, so we figured what better way to document this than by sharing!

More to come soon. In the meantime, have a great holiday weekend.

Photo by PunditMom

Sarah Palin Resigns as Alaska Governor

Just when we thought the Fourth of July weekend was going to be dominated by continuing coverage of Michael Jackson's death, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin stepped in to give us something else to talk about -- her sudden and unexpected announcement that she will resign before the end of the month.

You can watch the full speech which was a little on the bizarre side, especially the part about only dead fish going with the flow. She said she's not wired like a normal politician and doesn't want to advocate for Alaska in the usual manner and so is starting down this new path for Alaska? Palin compares herself with a point guard in her decision? She sure seemed like an overly caffeinated point guard to me and the people of Alaska have to be asking themselves, "What were we thinking when we elected her governor?"



These are some really concerning ramblings by a woman who came awfully close to being the Vice President of the United States. And after reading the Vanity Fair article about her just today, I have to believe she still has political aspirations -- but if so, her actions make absolutely no sense. Maybe in her mind she is carving out a new path to political fame, but it seems like it will be a winding and unlikely path.

Palin says this decision has been in the works for a while, partly because some have mocked her son Trig? Really? I haven't heard any of that. To be honest, her ramblings made no sense and really made me question what is really going on here. And, if she had become vice president, would she be resigning that office today? Or is there some oddly crafted plan to run for the Senate in 2010 or the White House in 2012? And why would anyone vote for her again if she can't even last four years in the Governor's office of a sparsely populated state?

There's sure to be a lot of speculation and analysis over the coming days and I, along with many others, definitely want to be there to see how this unfolds.

My biggest hope is that the very strange tale of Sarah Palin doesn't dissuade other mothers of small children from running for office. There's something to be said for having that perspective in state houses, governor's offices and in Washington, D.C. I hope the strange path that Sarah Palin seems to be on doesn't keep other moms away from the political world.

I think there's more to explore and examine on this story and I am looking forward to writing about it in the coming days!

Sorry for the Brief Delay

Sorry I didn't have a chance to write about the health care stuff I had planned for today. Between errands and getting an exciting last minute call from CNN with Rick Sanchez to talk about Jenny Sanford (!), with Rick Sanchez I ran out of time.

But if you'd like something to read, I have a post that could be well worth your while! Think shampoo, free products and Visa gift card giveaway! Trust me, you'll be happy you spent a little time at PunditMom Reviews!

Has Anything Changed When it Comes to Media Coverage of Adoption?

Last year at this time, I got all riled up about an article in Vanity Fair and its cover article on Angelina Jolie. As PunditGirl continues to work through the questions in her curious little head about the permanence of adoption and the questions that people sometimes ask her about our family, I was reminded of this post. I don't think anything has really changed when it comes to the politics of adoption or how many in the media write about our families, so I thought I'd dust this one off and see what you think -- has anything changed since I gave Vanity Fair the PunditMom"Stupidest Question of the Month" award?

I only occasionally buy Vanity Fair, but I'm stocking up on some vacation reading and thought the the July issue would be good on the airplane.

Angelina Jolie of the full lips and even fuller tummy is on the cover of July's Vanity Fair with an accompanying article about her motherhood, her children and the impending arrival of twins.

I know Angelina gets a bad rap from a lot of people about her various adoptions, but as a mother by adoption, I don't have a problem with her or her how she's chosen to create her family. She's opened her heart to children who needed families and, as far as I can tell, has done a pretty good job, even with all the celebrity stuff they have to deal with.

Until her critics have adopted a child themselves, I say keep your words to yourselves.

As for the author of the article, Rich Cohen, well, I'm hoping there's a special place in hell for him. No one who has a profile high enough to write for Vanity Fair ought to be asking this kind of question:

"I asked [Jolie whether] there is a special bond between a mother and a child she has carried as opposed to a child she has adopted."

Say WHAT!?!?

Jolie dismissed that ridiculous notion out of hand. But when people like Cohen continue to advance the stereotype so infamously put out in the media by Rebecca Walker last year -- that one cannot love an adopted child as much as one created from one's own flesh and blood -- it serves only one purpose, which is to diminish families that look different than most, families like mine.

Why is it that many people still feel that the bonds of blood are stronger and more lasting than any other? I can tell you from a lot of different experiences I've had in life, that just ain't so.

I realize that without sensational, ridiculous questions like the one Cohen asked Jolie, Vanity Fair probably wouldn't sell as many magazines. But as long as editors and publishers allow questions like his to appear in stories that feature adoptive families, the message that all our children will get is this -- creating a family by adoption is second best and love for a biological child will trump the love for adopted children any day.

PunditGirl is already struggling with the idea of whether love is permanent. I don't need anyone else, even a Vanity Fair writer, feeding that worry.

Jenny Sanford -- The Political Spouse Role Model for My Daughter

Personally, I couldn't care less about the personal "antics" of so many politicians these days. It's not really important to my life how people like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford characterizes "adventure travel."

What does bother me a lot, though, is the money shot we so often see of the wives of philandering politicians -- standing by the side of their husbands, trying to show solidarity and the apparently elusive family values that so many of them talk about before they get caught doing something, well, not so family values-like.

Why do I care? Because sooner rather than later, my nine-year-old daughter is going to start watching more news and she'll see these women who have decided that even though their husbands have done something terrible to them, and to their families, there is still an obligation to stick with them. Personal decisions aside, it just seems that visual is the rule rather than the exception, these days. And the message it sends to our kids is that it's OK for husbands to wander and that wives will still stick around, regardless of how badly they've been betrayed.

That is, until Jenny Sanford.

You had to guess that there was something up with the story of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and his quick "decision" to change his trip from the Appalachian Trail to Buenos Aires! When the truth came out, as it always does, it was refreshing not to see his wife at his side, silently condoning what he'd done and the lies he had told.

That's the example I want my daughter to see. Not that there isn't a time and place for forgiveness, but I hate it when these Masters of the Universe get caught and we have to see their wives standing next to them, telling the world implicitly that what happened was OK.

Jenny Sanford is the example I want our children to learn from. She's a strong woman in her own right, apparently gave her husband a chance to make things right when she learned about his affair and when he didn't, there was no big scene -- she just did what she knew she had to do for herself, her children and her own life.

Jenny Sanford was apparently instrumental in making Mark Sanford the political success he is today. According to the Washington Post, when asked about what the South Carolina governor was going to do now without her advice, she responded:

"His career is not a concern of mine. ... He's going to have to worry about that. I'm worried about my family and the character of my children."

That's a pretty refreshing response from a political spouse these days. It's given me hope that in the future there will be space for the aggrieved spouse ('cause you know it's going to happen again) to choose something other than the "standing by your man" photo op and sending a message that sometimes it's better to do what's right for your own life, regardless of the political consequences.

So Much I Didn't Know

A friend forwarded this video in connection with some research she's doing for PunditGirl's school. The information is truly amazing, and makes me think about how when I graduated from law school 20 years ago, I thought I knew the world as it was going to be for much of my life.



Yeah, I was SOOO wrong!

Supreme Court Says School Strip Search Unconstitutional, But Where are the Consequences?

Six years ago, 13-year-old Savana Redding was called to the principal's office because another girl claimed she had given her prescription strength ibuprofen in violation of the school's strict "zero tolerance" drug policy. When school officials didn't find anything in Redding's backpack or other belongings, they ordered her to strip to her underwear and pull her bra and undies to the side, exposing herself, so they could make sure she wasn't hiding any pain relievers under her clothes.

I can't even begin to imagine how humiliated and violated I would have felt as a young teen if that had happened to me. We're taught pretty early in school that as Americans we have certain protections and rights. Now, the Supreme Court has ruled that Redding's Fourth Amendment constitutional rights were violated when school officials made that extremely questionable decision to ask a young high school girl to strip in the name of "zero tolerance."

In an 8 to 1 decision, Justice Clarence Thomas being the lone dissenter, the Supreme Court ruled that the search that was performed on Redding went beyond what was called for in that situation and that, as a result, her constitutional rights had been violated.

After reading the accounts of the oral arguments, I was pretty sure the court would rule against Redding, opening the door to increasing numbers of overly intrusive searches of students. The male justices jokingly talked on the bench about how high school boys are comfortable with being naked in the locker room and snapping each other with towels, and seemed untroubled by the clear difference between locker room antics and being forced to strip in front of your assistant principal.

At the time, Dahlia Lithwick at Slate recounted:

This leads Justice Stephen Breyer to query whether this is all that different from asking Redding to "change into a swimming suit or your gym clothes," because, "why is this a major thing to say strip down to your underclothes, which children do when they change for gym?"

This leads [Justice Ruth Bader] Ginsburg to sputter—in what I have come to think of as her Lilly Ledbetter voice—"what was done in the case … it wasn't just that they were stripped to their underwear! They were asked to shake their bra out, to stretch the top of their pants and shake that out!" Nobody but Ginsburg seems to comprehend that the only locker rooms in which teenage girls strut around, bored but fabulous in their underwear, are to be found in porno movies. For the rest of us, the middle-school locker room was a place for hastily removing our bras without taking off our T-shirts.

Lithwick also reported that the justice who laughed the hardest and loudest at the idea of high school kids in their underwear was Clarence Thomas. Maybe he was just remembering his own youthful Tom Cruise moment.

After the argument, Justice Ginsburg lamented, seemingly out of frustration, "They have never been a 13-year-old girl. .... It's a very sensitive age for a girl. I didn't think that my colleagues, some of them, quite understood."

Some of my faith has been restored that a little common sense remains at the Supreme Court, but the justices still missed an opportunity to tell parents across the country that there will be consequences to school officials who cross this line -- the justices refused to allow Redding's case for damages against the assistant principal to move forward. So, while we can feel better about the fact that schools should not be strip searching our kids for pain relievers, if they do, there's really no recourse.

Another thing that occurred to me is that given the kinds of questions (and jokes) raised at the oral argument, something must have happened between then and the decision's announcement, because while SCOTUS questions don't always reveal which way the justices are going to rule, they can be a reliable indicator.

But I have to wonder, in light of the apparent change between oral arguments and the decision, what happened to help produce this major shift in thinking?

I'd like to imagine that maybe Ginsburg had had just a little too much of her colleague's callous remarks, that she marched herself into their chambers and had a little "talk" with all of them. I know that's not really how the Supreme Court works, but I love the visual image of Ginsburg reminding her male peers of the teen years of their sisters or daughters or friends, and that she made them reach back into their own memories of childhood and apply some common sense to this one. I want to hold on to my fantasy mental imagine that Ginsburg turned the ship on this one by asking Chief Justice John Roberts to think about this case and imagine it was his own daughter in Redding's position. If she was able to do that, maybe the Supreme Court has taken a slight turn in women's favor.

A girl can dream, can't she? After all, Ginsburg is carrying a big load for all women and girls until we get another woman on the Supreme Court.

Nico Pitney -- Foot in the Door or Flunking Journalism 101?

President Obama made a really big deal out of calling on and highlighting the fact that he called on Nico Pitney of The Huffington Post at his news conference. Pitney asked Obama a question about Iran, which is really no big surprise, even though the point of the news conference was to discuss the health care agenda.

But it turns out, according to Dana Milbank at The Washington Post, that Pitney was invited to the news conference by the White House (usually if you're not credentialed with a hard pass you have to request a pass to get into a news conference at the White House) AND was asked to pose a question about Iran from the perspective of the Iranian people.

Good topic? Yes. Interesting perspective? No doubt. But as a journalist (yes, I AM a journalist, I just happen to have a blog, too) I just have to say -- WHAT?!?!

Don't get me wrong -- I love that the Obama administration wants to call on political bloggers at the news conferences. More of us should be in there (I'm putting that on my 2009 'to do' list now!) But last time I checked my journalism ethics, it's not really kosher to have the person being questioned feed the queries to that reporter ahead of time.

So I have to wonder whether the invitation to attend the news conference was contingent on Pitney asking that question? What if he had said, "Thank you so much! I will definitely be there, but I prefer to decide on my own which question to ask if called on."

That's what I would have said. At least I think that's how I would have responded. Or would it have been too tempting an opportunity to pass up? Would I have rationalized it somehow -- well, just this one time I'll ask the question they want me to. After all it is timely and topical. And it would get PunditMom some really good exposure!

I'm pretty sure I know the answer. I'm disappointed in Pitney and The Huffington Post for agreeing to that condition. I'm even more upset at the Obama White House. I thought they'd be better than that. Next thing you know, they're going to be calling up Helen Thomas like the Bush people to make her give up her seat to someone they think will be more sympathetic to their cause.

Don't call me if that happens. If it does, I'll be out looking for a new profession.