Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Happy Helen DAy!!!!

Woo Hoo!

If you haven't seen it yet, here is the JibJab year end wrap up:

http://sendables.jibjab.com/originals/never_a_year_like_09

Helen - a class act indeed. (Now how did you rate co-authoring a book with her, Poobah? (just kidding, of course)).

Flatus - hard to argue with scalloped potatoes - btw, see comments about sour cream re: M&C - equally applicable to scalloped potatoes.

mmmm, sour creammm. magic ingredient. can turn a so so soup into a gourmand's bisque. it can make plain jane mashed potatoes into a fancy pommes pouffe.

bw, a fast foolproof quiche is with eggs.dollop or so of salsa, sour cream & a shredded cheddar topping

Sour cream is the secret ingredient in my sister's banana pudding, too--to DIE for--

oh, jeez - look what I started...as if I know diddly about cooking (but I do know what I like !-)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/2009-the-things-i-want-to_b_404874.html

RFLMAO - Arianna shoots, Arianna scores.

"A new Gallup poll released Monday showed that most Americans believe First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are among the political "winners" for 2009"
http://www.rttnews.com/Content/PoliticalNews.aspx?Node=B1&Id=1166755

Breaking news! Obama forced to leave the golf course!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091228/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_personal_matter;_ylt=AlXnczQLqt2E.2Odj4kXwmG2GL8C;_ylu=X3oDMTNkY2Z0MWdlBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjI4L3VzX29iYW1hX3BlcnNvbmFsX21hdHRlcgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzUEcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNvYmFtYWxlYXZlc2c-

I'm a very plain eater. My idea of mac n cheese is just noodles with New York Extra Sharp Cheddar cheese, a lot of it. Add some milk to the dish, bake it covered for an hour or so, take the cover off, and let the cheese on top brown. I'm not really a cheese lover, thank god, but nothing in the world tastes like that melted extra sharp cheddar. I take it to potlucks and people are always surprised - never tasted it before.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275762

Another kid with a scar on his chin.
How many out there have scars on you chins?

I've got one

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2009/12/28/2009-12-28_ambulance_called_to_obamas_hawaiian_vacation_home_after_child_of_family_friend_h.html

Jack

chin, lip, forehead and by one eye

two brothers

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275764

Jack, That one brought back a bad memory. My mother worked as a checker in a super market. After school I usually ran in to say I was home from school. One day someone had broken a bottle of milk (when it was still glass) and before it could be cleaned up, I skidded on one piece and landed on another. Being somewhat stoic, I held my chin together and walked up to my mom with copious amounts of blood streaming down my arm. Everyone else is panicing and the person I got the stoic from said, "You will need stitches".

Only objection the doctor thought I needed nurses on both arms and legs while he did the sewing. Stupid man! They hurt more than the dumb stitches.

I nearly cut the complete tip off the end of my little finger at work one day and the customer took me to the emergency room for stitches. Once I was prepped and ready for the doc, he said, "I am gonna deaden this and you might feel a slight twinge." My thought was, "if this hurts I am gonna kick your ass." Luckily for him, I never felt a thing. He took seven stitches in it. It was later that the throbbing started.

This new stuff re Yemen is causing me to wonder if things are really worse than we think.

i firmly believe that things are always worse than we think.....and then some.

i firmly believe that things are always worse than we think.....and then some.

Posted by: sturgeone Author Profile Page | December 29, 2009 2:02 AM

Yikes!

My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of other pessimists.

--Jean Rostand (1894 - 1977)

Sturg

Well there's a position that avoids disappointment

sometimes I'm disappointed by optimists........

(definition of optimist: trombone player with a beeper........)

My greatest disappointment is how mean people can be for no reason

things being worse than they seem........did anyone in 2000 really think that bush and cheney could be as bad as they subsequently turned out to be? Nahhhh......."How bad could they be?"

well......maybe Molly Ivans............but i bet even gore vidal was surprised........

yes.....mean people suck.

reminds me of something i read yesterday in human, all too human.......

Cruel men as retarded men: We have to regard men who are cruel as stages of earlier cultures which have remained behind: the deeper formations to the mountain of mankind which are otherwise hidden are here for once laid open. They are retarded men whose brain has, through some chance or other in the course of hereditary transmission, failed to develop in as sensitive and multifarious a way as is normal. They show us what we all were, and fill us with horror: but they themselves are as little accountable for it as a piece of granite is for being granite. Just as certain human organs recall the stage of evolution of the fish, so there must also be in our brain grooves and convolutions that correspond to that cast of mind: but these grooves and convolutions are no longer the riverbed along which the stream of our sensibility runs.

--FWN

Yeah who can forget all the media coverage of Gore Bush when the reporting implied there was very little difference between the two.

The SF Crapital said there was NO difference to be made on the abortion issue and yet the first thing Shrub did was an anti abortion policy.

I hate the media

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29herbert.html?th&emc=th

"A Less Than Honest Policy"

"There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version of President Obama’s effort to reform health care.

The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which are popularly viewed as over-the-top plans held only by the very wealthy. In fact, it’s a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care.

Which is exactly what the tax is designed to do.

The tax would kick in on plans exceeding $23,000 annually for family coverage and $8,500 for individuals, starting in 2013. In the first year it would affect relatively few people in the middle class. But because of the steadily rising costs of health care in the U.S., more and more plans would reach the taxation threshold each year.

Within three years of its implementation, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax would apply to nearly 20 percent of all workers with employer-provided health coverage in the country, affecting some 31 million people. Within six years, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax would reach a fifth of all households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually. Those families can hardly be considered very wealthy."

is one an optimist or a pessimist if one believes things can always get worse?

I'd say "optimist"...........a pessimist KNOWS things will get worse.......

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/28/mary-landrieu-magically-cares-about-cost-control-when-it-might-help-millionares/

"Mary Landrieu Magically Cares About Cost Control When It Might Help Millionaires"

"After working very hard to kill many progressive idea about how best to control health care costs, Mary Landrieu has found one she likes. Too bad it is the one that will most benefit millionaires:

I can only support a bill if the Cadillac plans are taxed at the level they are in the Senate [bill,]” said Landrieu. “It’s not because I’m thrilled about taxing those plans, which I’m not, but it is the No. 1 cost-containment measure in the bill. It’s what is going to drive costs down over time.”

Well that is just a great justification for keeping the Cadillac tax. After Landrieu fought for months to kill the public option in the Senate, which would have brought down costs, and voted against drug re-importation that the CBO said would save American consumers around $100 billion, she is worried about cost control. I can only assume based on her vote on the Dorgan amendment that she would also be opposed to government price controls on drugs, to get them in line with prices in Canada, or direct Medicare drug price negotiations, since both would upset PhRMA. It seems Landrieu is against the progressive ideas for controlling health care’s spiraling costs, but uses the issue of “cost control” to defend only one provision."

not always are or be worse, but is possible to become worse.

yeah, sturge, that's it.

remember childhood days when a parent would counter a disgruntlement with "you think things are bad now, just you wait".....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/obama-the-fallen-messiah_b_404531.html

"Obama, the Fallen Messiah"

"Now that some of Obama's most zealous supporters are beginning to express grave doubts about his ability to deliver the transcendent change he promised, they should consider their role in contributing to the problems Obama faces with both his Democratic base and his opponents on the right. Many of Obama's harshest progressive critics embraced a secular salvation fantasy that Obama cleverly channeled and cultivated to excite them and distract from his lack of progressive accomplishments. In the end, Obama's messianization created false expectations while establishing political space for the right to undermine and delegitimize him."

In the end, Obama's messianization created false expectations while establishing political space for the right to undermine and delegitimize him." from Tony's link

And he couldn't have done it without the fawning media trying to make up for their ridiculous reporting that led to the election of Shrub combined with their Bill Clinton hatred (jealousy)

Somehow I don't think the architects of "911" phone calls envisioned their being played ad nauseum for television entertainment.........

We are getting snow...and a lot of snow. 3 -5 inches for us today! Woo-hoo.

Now the media is repeating the attacks against SEc'y Napolitano -- they are deliberately getting the story wrong on what she said and what she explained. She never said the system worked... that is out of context. She said once the attack happened, the response was as it should have been.

Calling her statement similar to "heck of job Brownie" is swiftboating of the worse kind. It is a lie. Nice going as-wip-s of the media.

Nothing like the smarmy Willie Guist to get a story completely wrong and smirk as he does it. The money for lying must be good. Guist has his nose stuck in Joe Scarbrough's butt

Flate......speaking of headlines for the burning bush bomber:

NY Post:

"Great Balls of Fire"

KGC...it is probably because Obama is not running the country and the Christmas crew was handling things while he is away. It had an unprofessional feel.

BW

I get your point but they covered this yesterday and even had Sec'y Napolitano on andclearly understood what she was saying and Guist at that time even pointed it out to Peter King who was spreading the gooper message. I can only believe they got editorial direction to attack Napolitano.

I put all of this in the same category as swiftboating. Lies which the media pretends might be true.

Big First Year Leaves Obama Tired.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091229/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_tired_obama

It's funny to me how many people's remarks are either taken out of context or they are misquoted altogether.

"Quote me as saying I was misquoted." - Groucho Marx

KGC

I saw the Peter King interview and I thought Savannah did a good job of taking the bluster out his pitch. The men of mojo could only make personal remarks about his hair.

I block the republican'ts rant. The US may never recover from GWB during my lifetime. It is so depressing to me.

Corey

Good one. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year, KGC, All!

Bob Herbert sends up a red flag:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29herbert.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

"Nothing like the smarmy Willie Guist to get a story completely wrong and smirk as he does it. The money for lying must be good. Guist has his nose stuck in Joe Scarbrough's butt" as stated by the brilliant KG Cracker.

Don't fool around Ms Cracker, tell us how you really feel. Don't mince words. :)

OOOPS! Tony already posted the Herbert article...sorry for the duplication. It is a serious piece...

Gracias Senor Dooty.

During the 2004 campaign, I watched Mike Barnicle and Tom Oliphant tell Joe scarborough there was no truth to the swiftboat stories. Scarborough sat there and agreed and then spent the next six weeks attacking Kerry using the swifboaters. To me this is the same shameless crap.

There should be an independent fact checker who comes out at the end of each show to set the record straight.

Damn...and I started to get hopes for Willie G when he called Peter King on his BS the other day. What I really fear is that anything and everything is twisted into controversy for ratings.

Generally I like Willie Guist although it should be remembered he started out as Tucker Carlson's sidekick

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275802

Indepentent fact checking would be great, KGC. C-Span could use that as well, I am sorry to say. Also, did you see that Eugene Robinson is kind of carrying the "system worked" story along the same lines?

Bought the Moet yesterday. Can we start the New Year early? This decade needs to end NOW!

Belief in inspiration: Artists have an interest in the existence of a belief in the sudden occurrence of ideas, in so-called inspirations: as though the idea of a work of art, a poem, the basic proposition of a philosophy flashed down from heaven like a ray of devine grace. In reality, the imagination of a good artist or thinker is productive continually, of good, mediocre and bad things, but his power of judgement, sharpened and practised to the highest degree, rejects, selects, knots together; as we can now see from Beethoven's notebooks how the most glorious melodies were put together gradually and as it were culled out of many beginnings. He who selects less rigorously and likes to give himself up to his imitative memory can, under the right circumstances, become a great improviser; but artistic improvisation is something very inferior in relation to the serious and carefully fashioned artistic idea. All the great artists have been great workers, inexhaustible not only in invention but also in rejecting, sifting, transforming, ordering.

If productive power has been blocked for a time and prevented from flowing out by an obstruction, there occurs in the end an effusion so sudden it appears that an immediate inspiration without any preliminary labour, that is to say a miracle, has taken place. This constitutes the familiar deception with whose continuance the interest of all artists is, as aforesaid, a little too much involved. The capital has only been accumulated, it did not fall from the sky all at once. Similar apparent inspiration is also to be found in other domains, for example in that of goodness, virtue, vice.

--fwn

patsi...it is why I like the weather cube...robotic voice reporting condiitions. No editorializing. No chicken little. I need a news cube reporting on conditons as they are.

Robinson's story (thanx Patsi) is inline with Blondewino's perspective-the idea of a bit of fumble due to lack of experience dealing with the lying suckers in the media

Flatus and Sturge -- have you seen this? South Carolina politics. As crazy as Tennessee and Texas? LMAO!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/interactives/southerners_091009/index.html

patsi......yep, quite familiar with that episode.....was even in school with a couple of Brooks' descendants......those guys easily passed the "Pride" test.........

patsi.....oops....it's a whole time-line.......GREAT......thanks......lol

postscript to jenrette.......after his fall from grace with the sea he was arrested for shoplifting a pair of flip-flops in myrtle beach......

Napolitano is not very charming or disarming. I think if she upped the alert to baboon red, it would have satisfied a lot of folks.

it is sunlight here...there were jack rabbits in the arroyo before dawn. No birds awake as of yet. The snow is really beautiful.

It's raining here and kind of gloomy fits my pissed off mood

Red Terror Alert:

http://www.dsphotographic.com/g2/12649-3/Baboons+-004.jpg

sturg...now you are talking. In the GWB world, he would have already deputized us all. Go shopping and keep an eye out for the bad guys. Shoot on sight.

KGC...like I said, I am depressed over the fact that we will live the GWB legacy for the rest of our lives.

I have mentioned Yemen here for more than a year. I reported Saudi and Jordanian troops on the ground on the Yemeni border facing AQ and Iranian-backed militants and taking casualties. I have posted links to reports of US drone attacks on Yemen and called Yemen the next major front in the War on Terror, but then most don't notice until after crisis.

Saudis. Egyptians, Israelis and US naval forces have been trying to keep Iranian arms from Yemen and Obama ordered weeks ago drone strikes in Yemen which almost killed the inman who encouraged Hasan to murder at Ft. Hood. While Bush released Gitmo captives that ended up in Yemen, he did so under strong Democratic pressure to lighten the roll call at Gitmo. Still, Obama has released even more that have gone back to war against us.

The US drone attacks in Yemen happened after AQ launched operations to blow up the Delta flight. At least Obama acknowledged that all terrorists are in the US cross hairs, but the faliure to deny the Nigerian a VISA ought to be a problem. I did not hear Obama call the attack on Christmas day a man-made disaster. He was careful not to talk about the Islamic roots of such terrorism. As I say repeatedly, terrorism is a political game-changer. Already the cry from the Left about "war" is rather quiet. Of course, it isn't about "war", it is about security, the rule of law and shutting down the only real threat to world peace unless some one can tell me what other conflict threatens the cooperation of the world. If the world powers cannot squeeze this evil dry, we are rather lame. Unity and strong measures can blunt this threat WITHOUT major war, destruction or death. That is of course, the goal of intelligent use of "power".

The NYT had an article yesterday about AQ in Yemen. Yes, AQ is in Yemen and so is Iran which the NYT did not mention. Why? Because such juxiposition of facts would indicate a strategic alliance between AQ and Iran. THe article does not report the fact of Arab ground forces and the presence of Quds. How can the NYT omit this information? Read it for yourself: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/world/middleeast/28yemen.html

I also mentioned how pathetic I thouht Napolitano was on the Daily Show -partisan and hardly sharp on security questions as she joked with Stewart. Today the NYT draws comparisons with the O-team and Bush in terms of mistakes, reponse and partisan behavior when dealing with security. So what else is new?

On another note Spitzer makes some sense as he tries to rehabilitate his image: http://www.slate.com/id/2239986/

And as far as the NYT, it has a good op-ed on how AIG bets against us all. Not good.......

Morning Craig, you and Helen rock........

To all, I hope you had a great holiday. I'm getting ready for this weekend....

BW, a long time ago I used to have the UPI Latin America feed go to a teletype in our closet. That was almost the closest thing I had to unfiltered news.

Now, when we're stock with perhaps four or five colossal news organizations managing content on TV, Cable, Newspapers and radio we are put in a terrible position such as people here have described so many times.

The few real journalists who are left must feel tremendous pressure to conform.

How many times in how many industries have we seen that big is bad?

Thought for the day :
" The minute a man is convinced that he is interesting, he isn`t. "

"like I said, I am depressed over the fact that we will live the GWB legacy for the rest of our lives"

BlondeW-- God, that is SO true!

"How many times in how many industries have we seen that big is bad?"

Very true, Flatus. Like Earl Butz's infamous statement about family farms: Get big or get out.

1890 US 7th Cavalry massacre 200+ captive Sioux at Wounded Knee SD; Indian "war" in the west

"What I really fear is that anything and everything is twisted into controversy for ratings."

Patsi, Plain and simple: Hammer, nail, head.

c-bob...thanks for remembering Wounded Knee.

Flatus good list, but include movies. They feed us our daily media...to deliver us from evil.

http://stubbornfacts.us/domestic_policy/constitutionality_obamacare_not_open_and_shut For New Pogo

We might want to focus on the Legacy Obama will leave us. Despite the gestures by Obama, the conflicts in the world grow which indicates that Bush had little to do with the causes. I recommend everyone watch the rerun of the 60 minutes interview of the CIA guy who led the ousting of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There is a big difference between realism and action. Another terrorist operation might very well produce body scans and profiling as well as drone attacks from the Far East to Africa.

On another note, I wonder if Fox will continue on Time Warner. While I won't miss Hannity, but my sports programming might be ruined........maybe it is time for a dish.

China Guarantees a Market for Renewable Energy

China is trying out an interesting new rule that privileges energy sources like solar and wind power over coal. The country has modified existing law to require that utilities buy all the available power from renewable energy developments.
http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10002714/china-guarantees-a-market-for-renewable-energy/

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275791

That is a rather lame explanation. Listen to her words and you get the clear impression that "things worked". If she was refering to what happened after the attack, what was that? The passengers subdued the terrorist? The President came right out and spoke or finished his golf game? Napolitano has been poor on many occasions and does not instil confidence. I have watched her deflect questions and give the patronizing responses that say, "everythings okay, don't you worry". She didn't answer Stewart's questions and quickly points ot Bush era mistakes as if to give herself cover. She blew it big time when she went before the Press Corp and rightly had to correct her poor choice of words. Although she knew we were lucky hundreds didn't die, she downplayed the scope at first and said nothing about the failure to take the warning of the bomber's very reputable father seriously. If Napolitano was a Republican, you all would be lampooning her and calling the knee-jerk reactions of new flight rules, "an affront to civil liberites and the destruction of the Constitution". As the NY Post said today, it is time we stopped giving little old ladies for the Mid West a hard time and focus on people who are far more likely to be involved in terrorism. So far the reform of Homeland Security seems a lot of hot air....

Pressure rises to stop antibiotics in agriculture

FRANKENSTEIN, Mo. -- The mystery started the day farmer Russ Kremer got between a jealous boar and a sow in heat.

The boar gored Kremer in the knee with a razor-sharp tusk. The burly pig farmer shrugged it off, figuring: "You pour the blood out of your boot and go on."

But Kremer's red-hot leg ballooned to double its size. A strep infection spread, threatening his life and baffling doctors. Two months of multiple antibiotics did virtually nothing.

http://www.seattlepi.com/health/1500ap_when_drugs_stop_working_the_meat_we_eat.html

And in a nation that used about 35 million pounds of antibiotics last year, 70 percent of the drugs went to pigs, chickens and cows. Worldwide, it's 50 percent.

China derailed the Climate Summit (tried to blame Obama for that) and now pushes this stuff out to blunt world anger. They will continue to base their growth on coal and oil and spend more on nuclear than solar or wind. By the time their dam project is finished they will have to guard it against terrorists and earthquakes.

The only real way to lower CO2 from China is to push clean coal for now, but then I rather doubt China even wants to spend money on that. "Let them eat coke........"

And in a nation that used about 35 million pounds of antibiotics last year, 70 percent of the drugs went to pigs, chickens and cows. Worldwide, it's 50 percent.

Posted by: Colorado Bob | December 29, 2009 10:09 AM

This is the reason I gave-up the above animals for eating purposes over 22 years ago. It doesn't mean I am not killing myself with other toxins...just a choice of how to take my poison.

Photos of standpipes with anti-sitting devices

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/28/photos-of-standpipes.html

Ari did find an exception to the anti-sitting technology though: a stand-pipe outfitted with a tiny seat. Above it was a sign: "Please be seated -- rest, dream, this is New York." The seat was sponsored by a realty firm.

http://cbhopibluecornexperiment.blogspot.com/

I am glad you did get the seeds, c-bob. I posted a snow photo, too.

Blonde -

Great togs on the dog.

bologna is over five years old and this is the first significant snow she has seen.

i lost nbc cable...MSNBC, CNBC, Weather channel national feed. Fox and CNN are coming through. Might be something with the comcast deal. : )

Gumbo: The Mysterious History

http://food.theatlantic.com/stories/gumbo-1.php

Poppy Tooker, a well-regarded New Orleans cooking instructor and slow-food advocate, also offered some wisdom regarding the roux.

"What is not in the recipes, what I rarely see written down, is the element of adding the onions first," she said. "That's going to make the roux get darker because of the sugars in the onions. And then you can add the other seasonings--the celery and the bell pepper." That combination--onions, celery, and bell pepper--is often called the "holy trinity" of Creole cooking. But Tooker has little patience for that conceit. "All this bullshit about the 'holy trinity' of Creole cooking--that's a late 20th-century invention," she said, growing a little agitated as she explained that celery is hardly a traditional element of New Orleans cuisine. "It's really a Creole mirepoix. It's not the holy goddamn trinity!"

c-bob

interesting read, however, the pirates were never mentioned --

http://www.gone-ta-pott.com/Pirate_Recipes.html

Further flooding as Spanish rainfall reaches record books

http://www.theolivepress.es/2009/12/29/further-flooding-as-spanish-rainfall-reaches-record-books/

in Spain rainfall is measured in terms of litres per square meter over a given period.

http://mattikaarts.com/blog/game-recipes/roast-goose/

Hey patd how did your goose come out --this looks like a pretty good technique

In Memoriam: Musicians We Lost In 2009

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121776270

Karl Rove, former senior adviser to President George W. Bush, has been granted a divorce in Texas after 24 years of marriage, family spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31036.html

C-Bob,

Two things jumped out at me in your Karl Rove divorce post.

1. What a fall for Dana Perino, from White House Press Secretary to "Spokesperson for the Rove family."

2. Someone was actually married to Karl Rove??

Faced with a shrinking land, and relying on emergency food supplies, the Carteret islanders are evacuating their homes. The plan is to move the entire 1,000-strong population to Bougainville, an island about 80km (50 miles) away. This will make the Carteret Islands the first lands to be abandoned because of rising sea levels.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article6970726.ece

2. Someone was actually married to Karl Rove??

Ed -
No word on if she had to chew her arm off to get away.

http://trueslant.com/saralibby/2009/12/29/marriage-warrior-karl-rove-gets-a-divorce/

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275843

kgc, goose was a hit. 10 pounder amply fed four people, provided leftovers for another meal, goose sandwiches and goose soup (which was composed of stock from the carcass, the usual suspects - fresh chopped onions, carrots, celery and garlic- the leftover wild and brown rice, green beans and giblet gravy). the dogs have lived high on the goose leftovers too. also have a quart of goose grease left (to used like butter or to make fancy bird suet).

the link you posted is a good way to do it... however, i always stuff it first with a peeled and cored apple, onion, carrot & celery. you also could substitute an orange for apple.

considered throwing the leftover mincemeat pie in the goose soup too but tho't better of it. had to save one more piece to eat with the homade icecream. good thing the dogs weren't still in the kitchen or they also might have wound up in the soup. come to think of it, haven't seen bucky the cat lately.

Two things stand out: this divorce is not MC Rove's first and--okay, pardon me for being mean, but how did he charm his way into two marriages in the first place?

Some women must not be very picky. (^_^)

"how did he charm his way into two marriages in the first place"

fair, same way he got an absolute nincompoop elected president.

Yeah, Bob as our legends fade into the sunset, we do too.

.http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr/9009/9895246/CAPITAL_CULTURE_Big_first_year_leaves_Obama_tired

Not that Obama didn't put a whole lot on his plate, would anyone want his job?

Here's Dean for the former Mrs. Rove. There's no other explanation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXFoOYxMnvg

“What Rove does,” says Joe Perkins, “is try to make something so bad for a family that the candidate will not subject the family to the hardship."

the above quote from the trueslant link makes me wonder if this was what happened to perot and who knows how many others.

Obama's New Year's Resolutions

(1) I will not betray the left
(any more than is necessary).

(2) I will not send any more troops to Afghanistan (unless the generals ask for them).

(3) I will do everything I can to create jobs
(if I can get 60 votes in the Senate).

(4) I will do everything I can to help Democrats win in 2010 (go on vacation in October).

(5) I will bring peace to the Middle East
(by bombing Yemen).

nash, i have a sinking feeling #5 is already in the planning stage.

tony, the argentine knot is tied...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8433240.stm

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275853

With misdirection, misrepresentation, half-truths, outright lies, and smarm, not charm. You're right, Pat. Sorry; I should have thought of that but was distracted by my beloved baritone Thomas Hampson singing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW6XUxw0MrM

which gave me the giggles: "Blut! Ich muss blut!"

Rove, however, reminds me of the sleazy blackmailer in the Sherlock Holmes story "Charles Augustus Milverton." Even looks like a Sidney Paget drawing that illustrated the story.

Weather forecast for northen Maine tonight:

Temp -1 degree F, winds 25-35 mph, wind chill -20 degrees.

This is not that bad. It's not really considered "cold" around here unless it gets down to -10 degrees (actual temp, not wind chill.)

"How cold is it?" Northern Maine cultural values.

0 degrees "No too cold."
-10 degrees "Cold."
-20 degrees "Pretty darn cold."
-30 degrees "Don't know if the truck will start."

patd: War with Yemen? The Pentagon thinks they can WIN this one.

Has anyone seen the pictures of the bomb the Nigerian guy was using? He had the explosive packed in his undershorts right around his...equipment. It didn't explode, it just caught on fire.

The question is, will this stand up in court?

(I'm sorry, I can't help it.)

how cold was it?

CARSON: "It was so cold that I saw a politician with his hand in his own pocket."

or better

CARSON: "It was so cold that the flashers in New York City were only describing themselves to people."

http://www.dailypress.com/shopping/dp-top10.coldjokes.pg.0115,0,1984500.photogallery

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275846

LMAO@Ed!!!!!

War with Yemen?

Nash, it's this whole bad idea of calling everything a 'war' whether it be against obesity or the Mongol Horde that needs changing.

Our presence in Afghanistan and, now, in Yemen are being categorized as part of the War against Terrorism when in fact they should be considered sub rosa special operations/law enforcement/intelligence actions against a terrorist hierarchy seeking refuge and volunteers to further criminal acts against the United States and its people.

"The question is, will this stand up in court?" -Nash

The facts are sure to trickle out.

we call them wars; b/c our sons, and daughters are getting killed over there:

Once that China get it's hands on the Iranian oil; the development of an ambitious 7,000 kilometer pipeline to link the regions gas fields to cities on China's eastern seaboard...then we can come home. Meanwhile we will keep our troops dying over there for it..or when we get the oil in our hands...

Politico reporting the Congressional complex around the Capitol shut down after reports of a man with a gun.

Oh boy.

Politico now reporting Capitol complex has reopened after capitol police give the all-clear. No man with a gun. Or if there was, he's gone.

Guess everybody's a bit edgy with the two Detroit incidents and the stress of the holidays.

Solar, what I didn't say is if we call things a war, then we add layers and layers of unnecessary people who will, in-turn, be vulnerable.

If we don't call it anything beyond we're over there taking care of business, then we can get by with a small fraction of the people that would be required if we called it a war.

Either way people will be kill. But, by doing it my way, many fewer people will return through Dover.

Posted by: Nash2.0 Author Profile Page | December 29, 2009 2:41 PM

Lynn Sweet got to say scrotum on national television
you could tell she thought a long time about which word to use

wonder why "chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." comes to mind?

the way this is going it won't be long fore someone's gonna link to a Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts song........

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275859

"However Bishop Juan Carlos, of the southern Argentine city of Rio Gallegos, called the marriage "an attack against the survival of the human species"."

Pat,
Thanks for that link! Above is the typical response from the Catholic Church!Time is not on their side...Gay people aren't going away and neither will their desire for equal rights...Baz,in Australia thanks you also...

Flatus,

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275871

I has to think a cpl of times before I made my post. I almost always agree with you, or mostly anyway; about how we should fight these new wars. Im all for some hit squads to roam the country sides of the pak arena, and for the drones to do most of the work for us.

If we had the fire power of controlled drones, and our troops at the boarder, so they ( the insurgents ) could not spread out in the other countries, then we could patrol; lets say Pakistan, and chase them into our forces.....when we could do this on a sustainable amount of time; and see some success, then and only then we should build any schools or buildings. Uncontrolled they would just be brought down.....

The other parts about us calling a war on everything...I agree all we are doing is adding layer after layer: That is also how we should feel about unneeded Military Basses at this time...they are just another layer after layer of unneeded expense imo.!!!

Tony,

Thanks for the shout outs...keep it up, U are doing great, and seeing things as they are.!!

Patsi,

I crack u-up, and then you call me a slacker......I almost cracked up when I saw that ....hahaha

Pat,

U Funny, as my pal Tony say's.!!!

"But peace efforts have already been overshadowed by Israel's announcement on Sunday that it had invited tenders for the construction of hundreds of new homes for Jewish settlers in occupied Arab East Jerusalem.

Egypt's bigger problem ... Welcome Mr Netanyahu
The announcement prompted criticism from the US and EU, alongside Egypt.

Netanyahu announced a 10-month moratorium on new housing projects in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in November, but that suspension was not applied to East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967.

Separately, four Egyptians filed a request with the country's prosecutor general demanding Netanyahu be arrest over his treatment of the Palestinians.

In their request, the activists stated they were "filing this on grounds that the constitution states that Egypt is part of the Arab nation ... and that the Palestinian issue is the central Arab cause".

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009122911147825821.html

http://www.taylormarsh.com/2009/12/29/anne-e-kornblut-women-for-president-and-her-unending-clinton-smears-turned-around-for-cash/

"Anne E. Kornblut, Women for President, and Her Unending Clinton Smears Turned Around for Cash"

"Anne E. Kornblut has a book coming out. She’s giving advice on how a woman can crack that final “highest, hardest” glass ceiling. No, it’s not a comic book, but it should be.

Ladies and gentlemen, exhibit A from Ms. Kornblut is the quote at the top, which proves she’s actually got no interest whatsoever in outlining what it will take to get a female president. That she believes it’s unique for a politician “to talk. And talk. And talk” renders her analysis worthless. Males have been doing it for two centuries in America, but when Hillary Clinton does it it’s “the filibuster.” But none of this means that the Kornbluts of Traditional Media haven’t been influential.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is now in, very in, so capitalizing on all things Hillary, while not forgetting the latest political phenom, Sarah Palin, has to pay, right?"

KGC,
This goes to what you saying about some in the media.Every time i see Kornbluts i turn the channel,she's BS.I'm sure Tweety loves her...

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275876

Hello Solar,been missing you!! When I don't see you much,i just keep hoping the work is pouring in.I can't believe how politically Independent I feel,its freeing.I know however that I will never vote Republican,unless they drop their attachment to the right wing nuts..Its the social issues for me..I will not vote the lesser of two evils anymore though,never..Stay well,its cold here 55 now with a low of 44,happy?Ha ha,you funny too..

Tony,

I remeber Don-1 said that he was going to be around the T B area, are you and him going to have a cpl of drinks together??

No, I will never vote for an R, or the lesser of two evils....but would really take a good long look at someone like Chuck Hagel...ex Republican Sen.

ps. go ahead, take your best shots...its going to be a cold winter, and im already freezing my dillos off, hahaha

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275880

Ha,Solar,
Yes I would look at voting for C.Hagel.It would depend on how he stood on a womens right to choose and gays,yes in that order!! I would love to have a few drinks with Don,but Tampa is about 3 hours from here.Your dillo's are frozen,ha well at least there not on fire!! Look up thread those guys had me in stitches earlier..

http://trueslant.com/nealungerleider/2009/12/29/the-united-states-secret-war-in-yemen/

"The United States’s secret war in Yemen"

"In the week before Abdulmatallab’s airplane bombing, the United States quietly made two cruise missile attacks on Yemen. The missiles were aimed at a suspected al-Qaeda in Arabia training camp near the capital of Sanaa and a location where “an imminent attack against a US asset was being planned” — despite the fact that an attack on the United States took place less than 8 days after the cruise missile attack."

Tony -- Korn-crap and Tweety went on and on about how women need to modulate their voices so they won't be too shrill for a campaign. Piss on both of them.

Tony, if you're going to charcoal broil the armadillos, be sure to vent the shells before starting.

Tony,

A very good article about our secrete war in Yemen: It is a secrete only because our top notch new outlets, won't tell anybody.!!

KGC, said something that should be seriously considered: We need a fact checker after each segment.! after each point of view from the two spinners of any given subject. I also would like someone like CNN to dedicate a full night about each different subject, one for each night.....to inform the uninformed....

Funniest comment of the day,
Patd (5:21 PM): "Chesnuts roasting on an open fire."

I don't know Nash. I laughed awfully hard when I read this one:

It's not really considered "cold" around here unless it gets down to -10 degrees (actual temp, not wind chill.)

"How cold is it?" Northern Maine cultural values.

0 degrees "Not too cold."
-10 degrees "Cold."
-20 degrees "Pretty darn cold."

I don't know how you take that kind of weather. I guess you get acclimated to it pretty quickly. Very funny posts today Nash.
-30 degrees "Don't know if the truck will start."

This is interesting, to say the least: (hope it doesn;t annoy anyone. " : the Pentagon’s budget remains larger than the next seven powers combined."

Self-doubt tarnishes Brand America
"If a week is a long time in politics, a decade is starting to look like an age in geopolitics. Comparing the America that began the 21st century with the America of today is to witness a country that has in some ways quite radically altered its view of itself and its relationship to the world.

In short, the metallic rust of decline has crept into the American soul. “You could argue that the first decade of the 21st century was the last decade of the American century,” says David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official and student of US foreign policy. “We are now entering the multipolar century.

.... What then has caused this shift in perception over the last decade? The best way of encapsulating it is to contrast the high noon of globalisation during Mr Clinton’s 1990s – what Republican critics liked to call the “holiday from history” – with the highly-indebted America Mr Obama inherited from Mr Bush.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/226234ca-f4a7-11de-9cba-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

ahhh.......roasted armadillo..........or possum on the half shell as it's known in some parts........

oops, sorry I messed up that quote of yours Nash.

War with Yemen? It seems that before we can get out of one war (Iraq) we need to get deeper into a second one (Afghanistan) AND have a third one lined up when the voters get tired of #2.

Future fronts of the "war on terror" (after Yemen).

Nigeria, Sudan, Pakistan (after the inevitable radical Muslim coup), Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Indonesia.

Of course, in order to find enough soliders we'll have to revive the draft. We're running out of kids dumb enough to buy into the "be all you can be" bullshit.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275891

Yes, thats what I see for the future. Endless wars, and before U know it...it just becomes a part of growing up.......that is if you survive them. About the draft; " BRING IT ON".....no exceptions; even the rich brats get to play soldier....

chloe: A couple of years ago it got down to -40 around here. That's why I have an electric engine block heater installed in my truck. (You plug it into an electrical socket mounted on an exterior wall). It's a nice thing to have but sometimes the plug freezes in the socket and I have to use a hair drier (on a long extension cord) to thaw it out.

Also, people around here drive around with sleeping bags in their cars so they don't get frostbite waiting for AAA to come when their car breaks down in winter. Thank God for cellphones, by the way. I don't know what people did before they had them.

solar: No way will the draft EVER be fair. Rich kids, and middle class kids, if they have their act together, will be able to avoid it, just like they did during the Vietnam war. The poor have always been, and always will be, cannon fodder.

They carried EE-8s with _very_ large spools of cable.

Nash, The only time I ever saw it that cold is in the movie, 'Fargo', one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. That movie was so funny 'because' there was the kind of cold that most of us only hear about. Did you see it?

That's what's so great about your posts. You're always making fun of things or people, and that's about all you can do: laugh at it. Your jokes (posts) make it all a lot easier to deal with (cope?), because first we laugh at it, and then realize it's all too bizarre to take so seriously.

... ditto on the cell phones, by the way.

Hi Solar,
You brought up the Egyptian Constitution, which always tickles me. Egypt still dreams of a pan-Arab Empire ruled from Cairo. That Nasserist language remains in the Constitution, because it isan article of political faith for the ruling party, a pipe dream that can still get some Egyptians excited. However, it is as realistic as putting cookies out for Santa. I laugh every time I come across it, because although Egypt is the most populous Arab country, it has little influence in the restof the Arab world. In fact none of the Arab countries have much influence over the others, except Syria over Lebanon.

Re the "centrality" of the Palestinians, Egypt is building a titanium steel 'wall' from deep underground to high above ground all along the border with Gaza, in order to keep the Palestinians out of Egypt. It is an Arab mirror to the Israeli's wall.

tonyb

and newspapers wonder why they are going under....

Hi Chloe,
So glad to see you..Thanks for the link.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275883

Patsi,
I'm with you,piss on them..

XR, Hey, back at U.

Yep I know all of that, but still want to keep the new construction that is illegal in any language, or country, in the news...glad when someone points out that piece of pig shit Netenyahhoo out for what he is....thanks for answering Whispering Pete......About Egypt, They are getting what they deserve, after starting a war for the French, who then gave the Israeli's tier first big bang.....nothing in that area is cut and dry.....

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275898

KGC,
Yep,so true.

We've had -35 F in the Twin Cities, - 43 where I lived in the 70s, about 45 miles out. Tower had the state's record low on Groundhog's Day, 1996, perhaps because the thermometer at Sudan froze - 60 F.

Below -30 F, oaks and elms shrink away from their bark, making loud banging noises. Roofing nails get squeezed out with a pop.

Spit freezes before it hits the ground. at -35 F the spit will freeze and expand so quickly that it will break in mid-air. This is the temp at which non-human life ceases to move about above ground. In 1974, we had a freak blizzard in Southern MN, around the town of Madelia. Farmers who didn't get their stock in in time were out of luck, and the stock had it even worse. More than 400 cows froze to death standing up in that county.

When I was a kid, the private school hockey leagues continued to play when it was - 35 F. I remember a game : Cretin vs St Paul Academy (?in '64 ?) The players were fine, but the coaches, scorers, etc. lost the skin on the windward side of their faces the next day. At that temp, one's breath freezes instantly into a haze of almost microscopic crystals that float in front of one's face. When the angle of the sun is just right, the frozen breath reflects and refracts the light into a shimmering fog.

At -40 F, there is perfect silence. Lower than -43 F is terra incognita for me.

Oh, ya. Keep blinking at those temps, cuz your corneas can freeze and peel.

chloe: Yes, I saw "Fargo" and the similarity to northern Maine was striking. I guess its a rural culture thing.

The extreme cold (January is the dangerous month) is scary. There are a lot of farm roads up here where, after dark, it might be hours before another car came along if you break down. So you have to have sleeping bags or blankets. (And a cellphone.)

But the nice thing Maine is that people WILL stop and help you. And after you live up here for a while, YOU will stop to help people also. You absorb the culture. I'm from Massachusetts and people will NOT stop to help you.

Maine is still the "frontier." People are both fiercely self-reliant and reflexively helpful. Survival is a collective enterprise, not the individualistic Darwinian nonsense that the right wing embraces.

Illustrative annecdote: A friend of mine lives on a country road. One winter day, she came home one day and found a note on her kitchen table. A woman whose car had broken down walked to her house, entered, and used the phone to call AAA. The house, of course was not locked (no one up here locks their doors.) While she was waiting she made a pot of coffee, drank a cup, and left $1.00 on the kitchen table.

What's unusual about this is that no one up here thinks it's unusual. When you tell people the story they say, "So?"

Solar,
I feel for the Egyptians. Nasser promised them heaven on earth when they got their big dam. Free KWHs for everyone ! BS. They traded farmland for Kilowatts. Now, instead of getting the annual deposit of rich mud from upstream, farmers have to import fertilizer. Big Projects have a way of costing more than they are worth.

Many, maybe even most, Egyptians still have a standard of living lower than their ancestors 3,500 years ago. This is another example of the Big Lie regarding Big Projects. Too bad.

In Massachusetts, if someone came home and found a note like that, they would FREAK OUT and call the cops. The cops would come and dust the kitchen for prints.

In Maine, if you called the cops anfd told them this story, they would say, "So?"

x-republican: Unlike the western states Maine does not get "blizzards," heavy snow & high winds combined with cold air.

When it gets really cold here (-20) there is usually NO wind. If it snows when its very cold it's usually only a light dusting. Heavy snow usually means warm temps (10-20 degrees) but, again, rarely with much wind.

That being said, we (Caribou, ME) often do have the coldest temps in the nation.

Minnesota Territory was politically abd economically organized and plundered by New Englanders, a high % of whom came from Maine. In MN history books, they are often referred to as the Mainiacs.

Before the arrival of the Mainiacs, it was just the Chippewa (Ojibwe) who chased out and supplanted the Cheyenne in the 1740s vs the Dakota, and the occasional Frenchman, French Canadian, German pirnce or Italian nobleman passing through looking for China.

Rachel Madow had a great show, as usual.

MSBNC should give her the 5:00 PM & 7:00 PM slot and move Matthews to 9:00 PM.

Also, rename "Harball" to "Conventional Political Wisdom Uttered by Beltway Hacks."

abd = and; Pirnce =prince

Rename it 'Hairball'. Move it to the 5th Wednesday of months that begin with the letter L.

Some smart guy once said that "politics is the art of the possible." Maybe back then, but no more. For the last 10 years, politicshas been the art of the predictable, if not the art of the inevitable.

Hardball

= Vapid platitudes that you heard elsewhere already, and that weren't even relevent the first time.

= Big mouth queries blind and deaf men.

= The hollow men, the stuffed men, head piece filled with straw, leaning together.

Nash, I don't understand how a brainy guy like you can tolerate that show.

xrepublican: Those Mainiacs probably came from southern Maine. Northern Maine wasn't really "settled" until the late 1800s and those settlers (mostly Irish from the slums of Boston) are still here. (This explains all the potato farms.) Of course, the indigenous MicMac and Maliseet tribes were always here, and still are, along with the French-speaking descendants of the Acadians. We've even got a colony of blonde Swedes who were lured here with the (false) promise of free land. Google "New Sweden Maine" for their fascinating story.

Ethnicity up here is convoluted as all these people have been intermarrying and eveyone is related to everyone else. Natives can recite their family trees going back 4-5 generations.

Oh, there's also the Italian POWs from World War II who were allowed work release on the potato farms who ended up marrying farmer's daughters.

Nash,

Also, I got my knowledge of NE blizzards from D W Griffith's 1920 silent Gish movie, 'Way Down East'

Don't tell me Griffith lied to me about that, too !

Netanyahu is not the ideal President Israel needs now, that is for sure. His 700 units in East Jerusalem is a dumb idea because as Goldberg says, 1. Israel will likely retain these areas in a final agreement and nothing he does now will appease the settlers. I suspect he does this to soften the attacks on him that he is appeasing enemies while they prepare for war. Many Israelis who don't support the settlers still are angry that Palestinians still teach hatred and want a State so they cab continue their armed struggle against Israel.

To equate this move by Israel to the activity on the other side of the divide is absurd. Far more serious events are unfolding.

While I mentioned here during the primary that Obama or Hillary would face both AQ and Iran in Yemen, the idea that Israel could be forced to negotiate a peace deal with such a threatening strategic alliance and with Hizb'Allah and Hamas preparing for war as Assad helps to deliver weapons along with NK is not rational.

I see some have solutions....really? We cannot secure the borders of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza or Yemen. We can't secure our own border. Drones will unfortuately kill many innocents. Omar with Pakistani nukes? I believe this latest terror attack will keep the administration from releasing more Gitmo inmates. It will question the PC attitude of the administration concerning security and how terrorists are spreading and plotting.

Standing up to terror and cementing lasting alliances for an enduring security is called "war" by some. Some call it securing an eventual peace. Well you can see political reality at work today. We are not going to walk away and when I hear how soldiers may die in that struggle, I consider the 300 that were lucky not to die on Delta. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Policemen don't deliver drones and you need intel on the ground. Hell, some terrorists are intercepting video from the drones. Hizb'Allah has its own drones. Technology is increasing fast.

Middle East peace revolves around Iran right now. Iran and Pakistan are two most dangerous nations for different reasons. Iran says it will execute opposition leaders and calsl the events in Iran staged by Israel and the US. Intel has caught Iran trying to buy uranium as it seeks to inflame Yemen and prepare Hizb'Allah and Hamas for war. The regime is desperate yet revolution is far from secured. Ahmadinejad may exectue many people and instigate war as he is trying to do now.

Please note that Iran and AQ are on the same page in Yemen. Iran allowed OBL son to leave Iran so he could set up terror operations in Lebanon. Iran has formed a shakey alliance with the Taliban. Nukes in Omar's hands is not an option.

Obama has followed the track of Bush in terms of confronting terrorist bases. Democrats are stunned. Laardie so far has been exactly right. Obama must realize the threats I have mentioned here repeatedly. I will also repeat a basic fact that no one here has countered: cooperation and ultimately peace depends on the degree we enforce rules and civil behavior. Technology and the multipolar politics of the world has run the old clock out. We are on a new time frame and the degree we live pretty much the same is largely based on the sacrifice of our soldiers and the determination of our leaders and allies.

To turn away, or deflect to lesser issues like 700 apartments in East Jerusalem or the imagined good will for religious fanatics prevents us keeping it real. Those who target us, do not do it because of Israel, but because of who we are and the sense of justice we will defend. They hate gays, they consider women inferior. They laugh at Democracy and think Liberty is the Devil's creed. Remember, the Mullahs have implied we murdered people in the streets of Iran. We have staged the protests because we are the Great Satan and Israel merely the lesser one. And these fantics will have nukes soon.

How will we like the future when miscreants with nukes can extort us all? They will hold their innocents as hostages against retaliation while enabling proxies to do their terror. This is not a world Obama or Clinton seek. I dare say they will do all they can to prevent this.

Or so we can all hope. Thus the year ends in great realism and depression. That is a better place than false hope and fantasy.......

Gotta run, Sweetie's car is stuck in a parking lot next to the Dorothy Day Center.

G'night.

What I plan to do on New Year's eve: one of the cable channels has a 24-hour marathon of the Three Stooges.

As Jerry Seinfeld noted, the difference between men and women is that all men love the Three Stooges and all women hate them.

As one of my female friends said today, "I just don't get it. What's so funny about men slapping each other?"

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275901

I see some reserve the greatest insults against the President of Israel. Given the news of the day and the comments from Hizb;Allah, Iran and others, note Solar reserves his deepest venom for Netanyahu. Say what you will, but if we counted up all the meanest words Solar has uttered here, guess where they would fall? Republicans and Israeli leadership. That says a lot as does the label of war on every threatening news item. By that definition, the news is full of war talk today. War this, war that. And as the shit flies our way I bet you dollars this narrative will change. The audience will become mute as reality descends. AQ has a plan to put hard to detect explosives on planes and whatever and the nastiest words are delivered to Netanyahu?...

Marvelous, simpy marvelous and even I don't particularly like the guy.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275918

Try the South Park Marathon. It is far more educational.

" Lynn Sweet got to say scrotum on national television "

In my best " Side Show Mel " voice :
" Shall the children be exposed to scrotums ? "

Angry Springfield mob does something ......

Another difference between men and women is that women think taupe is a color and men don't.

My comment re Yemen and things being worse than we thought was meant to reflect on Obama's apparent change of heart - maybe it's because what he knows now has sobered him more than he expected.

KGC, I'm sorry re the rain because I'm loving it and it apparently is a downer for you. We are so far behind now, you'll really have to suffer if we're gonna catch up.

Three Stooges on AMC ..... digitally remastered .

" You will tell me about these Stooges ? "

Some funny stuff on this thread today folks. Thank-you one and all .

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275921

LOL.....Bob..

Bethyboo I agree and it must be that the military is quite certain in the threats presented. I suppose if even Solar saw the daily briefing he would would say "holy shit". Obama also knows now how little his gestures have changed the terror trajectory and that the situations are building to boiling point. I think he is also seeing that anything that makes Iran look stronger hurts the chance for reformation of Islam.

Can you imagine after he pulled Missle Defense from Poland, Putin now says our missile defense requires Russia to build more offensive systems to counter us? Who is Russia fighting, us? China just tried to blame the Climate Summit falirue on Obama. Rather than behave like a party seeking peace, Abbas and the Palestinians are trying for defacto recognition at the UN without the basic renunciation of hatred or terror. Yep, I think Obama is seeing the world as it is and not how it ought to be. Somewhere I see Hlllary smirking. Not for long, next year the slide continues with the GOP sensing an opportunity along with our numerous adversaries. Next year will be more troubling than the last.

Maybe I'll move to Tahiti, or will that be under water Bob?

The some total of what I've learned this year :

" First, ......... you make a roux "

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275914

Nash --

I followed your suggestion to google New Sweden Maine. I got to a wiki piece about the man who poisoned the church coffee pot, poisoning 15 elderly folks and killing one before taking his own life. Had a vague recollection of that tragedy when it occurred in 2003, but no clear grasp of what had happened. Apparently this notoriety is the town's headline claim to fame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Sweden,_Maine

Max,

I was just going to turn off my comp.

U say that I have false hope and fantasy.! and we should go after the great Satan:

We are the great Satan.....we just have a good PR firm. Ask the Indians, The Mexicans....they were the first..to realize this fact. this is my country now, and would defend it against Mexico, or any other country. History is history, U want to go to war...go head, but stop the bs...the bs that we don' reap what we sow....(would U go to war against Israel??) .about the reasons for the wars..and the lies that got us into those wars.!! just like the lies that you spread.......I like the part, that you say to look the other way, while Netanyahu does his thing.......you are all bs....go head and take the last shot of the year...i will let you have it your way..until next year, when I call you out on your lies, chicken hawk......The Hezbollah pig shits are just as bad,...both the innocent people of both countries are in the hands of crazies, and U want us to be the same...Obama does know a lot more, now that he is briefed by his corporate Military leaders...he is no diff than Bush, or any President that wanted some other people lands, or wealth, the power to control them..no diff at all.....

Max -
RE :
Water ...........
Water is much easier to deal with than fire. " .... get to high ground ". No where in the world, are there wild land firefighters who are "deniers" . I have their quotes going back 3 years now from all over the world. This year were the largest fires I ever saw. When the fires come, there is no
" High Ground ", ........ Only luck .

Many of these people leaving their homelands in the Pacific over the coming decade will move to New Zealand, they are on the move there now.
I saw a story about some of them on the move in the Mississippi Delta just a few weeks ago. Some little place in La. we've never heard of, being abandoned because the ocean is on the move.

Re Craig's Joementum and Rove divorce tweets:

Good people of CT, RECALL JOEMENTUM!!!

As for Rove--a FB friend suggested he bunk in with the guys at the C Street house awhile. I wish myself Rove would pull a Spock--remember Vulcans "retreating into their privacy"?--and stay there.

And after having watched the Kennedy Center Honors, I'm now officially madly in love with Dave Brubeck. His music had me mesmerized.

(And the Boss's had me rockin' but that's a whole nother story.)

Nite all.

Thx for the heads up Fair, I don't check the TV guide enough. KCH is one of our faves. Comes on here in 10 minutes Owe you one.:-)

Fiji -

The 2009 Fiji floods occurred on January 10, 2009, and the following days after Tropical Depression 04F hit the western section of the island of Viti Levu in Fiji.[11] This area is ordinarily the "dry" side of the island. The floods left eleven people dead, including three teenagers,[12][13] with six drowning in the flood waters, and a landslide killing another two.[11] In some areas, flood waters reached heights of up to 3 meters.[14]

386 mm fell in this event , that's 15.19 inches of rain in 2 days. This is the all time record for Fiji.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Depression_04F_%282009%29

Saw " Sherlock Holmes " today , what a buddy movie. Spend the money ... it's worth it for the production values alone.

Cbob, Also thx for the note about Wounded Knee. What always strikes me about that and other similar events is it''s not that long past. All four of my grandparents were alive and living within 600 miles or so from there, plus, it was the US Army 7th Calvary. So much explaining one's attitude.

what i learned in Moose Jaw: -40 degrees F. = -40 degrees C.

dont know if it's true or not, but I learned it just the same.......and if you go out without a scarf over your face you get icicles on your moustache.........the parking lots have electric outlets at every space and everybody plugs their car in at night.....and it doesnt hurt to take your battery inside at night.......

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/12/roll-call-tv-helen-thomas.html#comment-275919

Max, your criticisms and characterization of Solar's posts are ill-informed or spin -- am not sure which. Maybe both. But Netanyahu is and always has been a warmonger. His philosophy about the US and the Muslim world is: Let's you and them fight.

Craig -- I am LOVING your using these two thoughts side by side: 'systemic failure' and Karl Rove Divorced.

good morning, patsi, new thread