MADAME Speaker!!

The FIRST thing that I've got to say about this is ABOUT FUCKING TIME! England, India, even Pakistan have had female leaders, but this is the first time that the US has had such a visible female leader. I'm really excited to see what direction she will take the Congress in, and 2007 should prove to be an extremely exciting year politically.

Having a female Speaker of the House in America (yay, finally!) leads me to think about the concept of citizenship. I've never been able to stand up proudly and say, "I'm an American." The reasons for that are complicated, but primarily because the image I have in my head of myself is not at all reconcilable with the mental image I have of the 'ugly American' that I saw so much of when I lived in Europe. That person isn't me; therefore I don't feel like the label of American citzen "fits" me. So many things make me embarrassed about my citizenship; but the fact that the House of Representatives have appointed a woman as their leader makes me proud to call this country my home.

Listening to NPR on the way home I heard Robert Segall interview now Minority Leader John Boehner who said something incredibly stupid. They were talking about the change in leadership, and Boehner said that the Republicans "no longer have the burden of government." D'ya think his constiutents might disagree with him in the slightest? I think, and this is just conjecture here, but I think that they elected him to govern, not to sit in Washington with his thumb up his ass.