On this Senate Bill debacle

Dear Mr. President.

I must say, way to not lead on health care. The Senate version been an immense failure on cost containment, ending anti-trust exemptions and preventing recission. While, certainly, mandating coverage is a new approach to "expanding medical care for all", demanding that we buy the crappy private insurance makes this "victory" fall flat. This is a monstrous bill and your failure as party leader to set goals and keep certain grandstanding senators in line is also evident. The only reason I could support this is if there was a guarantee that conference & reconciliation will be used to fix it. In a period of horrendous fiscal stress, your administration has chosen to add to our bills. Thanks. Thanks a lot. And thank President Rahm for his contribution to the Democratic Party's corporate credentials. What an immense disappointment.

I suppose

So many things have happened and so few of them good. It's all brought me to a hard stop on projects because, frankly, I just can't move forward. It just needs writing down and maybe then, I can get some momentum back, because playing wow and feeling like death aren't in my life plan.

A Pretty Angry Rant

Mr. President, I worked hard to get you elected. I supported you over others who I felt were more progressive. Let me say right now, I have never, ever been so disappointed in a president as I am in you right now. I did not elect Rahm Emmanuel. I could care less about his ill-considered blue dog strategy. And I have no problem in conveying to him that his feelings about progressive democrats are definitely returned as he shows his arm twisting abilities are woefully limited across the aisles where they belong while flexing and snarling at progressives to keep us in line for things we do not believe in.
Mr. President, you were charged with many duties at your investment. Health care is, sadly, not the biggest, but it's up there. Most of the people who voted for you, voted for you based on a platform of health care for all. Not co-ops with limited success rates, not mandated insurance as a source of even more corporate profits. We understand the need for health insurance reform, but we voted for health care reform. I am sick to death of watching the Democratic Party wet itself in fear at the near regional Republican Party's rantings. I cannot believe the lack of skill in handling the message of health care reform. What kind of disconnected, pardon me, idiots do you have on board? Months later and you still don't have a sound bit that explains health care goals and diffuses wild lies? Really? You can't simply your message and infuse it with some passion? Unbelievable.
I did not vote for Olympia Snowe for president, nor did I rally for Max Baucus. Why are you working with Olympia Snowe for HealthCare Reform? We don't want a watered down bill that's palatable to the one marginally sane republican! This pathological need to get their buy-in has produced the low value Cap & Trade Bill that even now is stalled. Ridiculous. As support for a public option drops from 75% to 55% because of the insanity and, frankly, your dispassionate delivery and your advocates constant flipflopping, there is no one to blame but you. YOU are spending your political capital on nothing and wasting the advantages that you entered with. Quit wasting time, quit dragging the Democratic Party back to irrelevance and empowering Republicans after the American People told them we didn't want their input anymore!

President Barack Obama, you have no idea how much it pains me to say this. You've lied. You've lied about supporting the public option. You've lied that single payer wouldn't pass. You've lied about bringing change to the White House and America. You've lied about giving a damn about the millions of uninsured, unemployed Americans. It seems that all you and your key staff care about is securing a gift bag legislation for the Big Pharma and Insurance Companies for future DNC/DLC election funding. As one of the many and growing former Obama supporters who are absolutely disillusioned with you only 8 months into your term, I can promise that this will fail. You can get all the money you want, but you won't get our votes or support anymore. We wanted a strong, democratic minded president, we've got another corporate tail chaser who thinks the seat of power in this country is for making things better for the rich.

Shame on you and all your staff for your games playing and moneygrubbing. We needed you to fight for single payer, we've allowed you to talk us down to a strong public option. If you want to spend the next 3 years with disdain from your supporters and a herd of right wing crazies at your back, congratulations, you're almost fully there. I propose that you should consider whether that's really the way you'd like to spend your next 3 years.

Food Fight

I'm watching Man vs Food and I just don't get this phenomena. What's the point of taking something we really just need for survival-food-and making it into some sort of an endurance sport? The mind boggles. I'm watching 2 men eat a pizza about 24" diameter with more meat protein and fat than anyone needs to consume in a day. Or 2 days. Why? What's the point of a spectacle like this? What's worse is the fact that hunger in America is growing. More and more families can't scrape together the money for half the crap on this pizza that, by the way, the consuming duo can't finish. And the remainders-which could be a family size pizza by themselves, will be heading for the trash. I'll be honest, I'm not too fond of the culture of feast while others famine, but apart from an individual ethical stance, there's very little that can be done. Why can't people donate large meals to charity groups instead? That's a lot better than making a sport out of gluttony.

Ah well, here's another recipe. Not quite fine dining, but it's been good so far. And it stars little bits of food that are quite healthy.

1lb ground turkey or chicken
1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs or just plain breadcrumbs
2tbs of chopped garlic
about 20 leaves of fresh basil, chiffonnaded (stack them into a pile, roll it into a cigar, chop the cigar into little rolls)
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 tblsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon pepper
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Put every thing into a big mixing bowl and using your very clean, fresh washed hands, mix the whole deal together. In a large sauteing pan, coat the bottom with a nice spray of olive oil (a tsp, max). While that's heating up, with a table spoon or a melon baller, start scooping out little bits of your mix and rolling them into balls. Nothing fancy, just a firm meatball. Do this until your meat is gone. Now place those little balls into your pan and brown each side until, well, brown. This is your first step.

Now to make it a meal. Here's where you can make it different everytime. You can take half a pound of greens like spinach, or, in my garden, arugula, mince and add over your meatballs. Mushrooms go nicely and fresh from the garden cherry tomato halves. You can also just pop a big 16oz can of chopped or crushed tomatoes over this. What's nice is that extra vegetables allow you to get more out of the meal, like say, a lunch. In fact, this is a great way to hide extra vegetables that your family won't eat, like say, eggplant. Mince it fine and they'll never know. 2 cans of tomatoes, a pound of spinach, some onions, mushrooms and even finely chopped carrots drive up the nutritional value. Pour it over some long grain brown rice, orzo or rotini pasta and you have a great meal.

I've even set a spoonful of pasta over a bed of lettuce with this on top. No pics as of yet, because it get's eaten way too fast for shoots. Have fun!

Shark Bait

I've decided something. I've decided I can't stand Discovery Channel's Shark Week. Sharks are dangerous. But so are you. You're more likely destroying the life of a few hundred sharks rather than 1 shark harming you. Discovery Channel just amps up the paranoia with shark attack stories and stupid slasher flick type commercials. Sharks rarely attack humans and are increasingly beset with habitat reductions and fishing kills. It's completely irresponsible for the Discovery Channel to spend it's time doing more to add the myth of predatory shark. These are some amazing, ancient animals that we still don't fully understand. Yet we're killing them off.

I just don't get it. Why does the Discover Channel take such a stupid tack on this subject? Can't they figure out something else to fill programming? If I can, they should be able to.


übercool prehistoric frilled shark

Learn more about the troubles sharks are facing.

Get To Know Your Grazzroots!

I thought it might be nice to get to know some of these helpful organizations pulling people together and directing them like a stream of invectives towards Democrat Representatives, often representatives that are not their own. I know many on the right don't care too much for groups like Move On or Organizing For America, since they are 1. liberal and 2. Spawn of Satan for not agreeing with you, but they are groups that grew out of citizens wanting to organise. It's kinda why it's called grassroots, because they grew, 1 by 1, interested person by interested person. This current crop, didn't exactly start that way.

First up is... Conservatives For Patients Rights.
Now, when I saw this group, I thought, "right on, I can get behind a group for patient's rights." Then I found out how they jumped out fully formed with a big old website and bumper stickers and a set of talking points and a full network... Meet Mr. Rick Scott. He's real peach. He was also former CEO of Columbia Hospital Corporation. This is a company (and don't be fooled by the fact that it's a hospital, it is a company) was fined 1.7 billion, that's right BILLION, for overcharging Medicaid & Medicare. So, this jerk, is a key factor in why Medicaid and Medicare are getting drained. He's only not an ex-con because he stole a huge sum instead of a small one. That's how justice works in America. Steal $100, go to jail. Steal a few billion, get a fine, lose your job, keep your money. You can't arrest a corporation.

So, he's made his money off of the little people's illness. As far as sucking off the public teat goes, he's beaten every supposed urban welfare queen with a cadillac. I'm not saying he can't be the sugar daddy for a burgeoning peoples group, I'm just saying that he's protecting a status quo that has worked very well for him, not so well for all around. I'd also like to point out that...CPR doesn't seem to have any actual solutions to offer. Maybe that's why shouting down your reps and other citizens is deemed correct.

Farmer in the dell

Here we are in high summer and the garden is going along it's merry way. It's the most meditative thing I do besides Warcraft.
I must say, I wasn't sure if I could grow anything besides a tomato and some weak ass peppers. The idea of growing something that would eventually make it to my table was as far away as that size 2 swimsuit from Victoria's Secret. It's highly possible it could happen, but acts of god seem to be required.
But, here's this summer's food report.


about 3lbs of cherry tomatoes, unfortunately, I let too many ripen on the vine and lost a few. Not that I'm running out of cherry tomatoes.



I already ate this season's first oro blanco eggplant. And it was delicious.



One of the first squash. The damn bush is getting bigger and bigger tho.



Considering how many blossoms are on my two squash vines, I'm thinking there will be a lot of succotash.



And this pumpkin vine is taking advantage of both the free trellis and a pine tree.



This is the arugula, which has been hacked down to more manageable size. Twice. It grows like a weed.



And here's to the fall's future eats, my potato patch! I think there's some yukon gold in there and I can't wait.

I think everyone will have to think about ways they can provide for themselves, no matter how small the space. It's been hard, but it has been worth it.