Win The Future Eh?

It's a great slogan...well other than the fact the it contracts to WTF. As much as I'd like to believe that we have the wherewithal to actually take a shot at the future I am sorely disabused of the idea that we have the spit to do it. The reality is that we have moved all of the foundation of greatness overseas. Its in China and India now. Yeah, I know we still have good schools and some high tech invention stuff and all that, and that's great. The thing is we can't do the small shit any more. For instance, we can't make our own shoes or clothes. Fully 95% or more of it comes from China or somewhere. I dare you to find some "Made in the U.S.A" clothes or shoes. (truth be told New Balance still has one or two shoe lines made here.). We also don't make our own tools. In my part time job I sell tools and nothing is made in the U.S. and that includes DeWalt and Milwaukee. Every screwdriver, screw, saw, knife, chisel, bolt, blade, and tool pouch is made in China, as well as every light fixture, ceiling fan, electrical switch, receptacle, shovel, hoe, pitchfork, rake and pretty much everything else you find at your local DIY store.

In the Wal-Mart driven world we live in today there ain't nothing, to speak of, "Made in the U.S.A." and that is the fundamental problem. Have you noticed how many products today have "Distributed by" instead of "Made by"? There is a reason and that is because we don't make it here anymore. I know that we no longer manufacture vitamins and other food supplements here in the U.S....all of it comes from China. I wouldn't be surprised to find that all the toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and Goddess knows what else comes from there as well and is just distributed by P&G, Kraft, General Foods and the rest. Who knows, because you sure as hell can't tell from the labels on anything....it all says 'distributed by'. Just check your next load of groceries and see what I mean.

To get back to the point...I just wonder if we have the spit to 'win the future'. We have been wedded to cheap crap from overseas for so long do we even care? We have been convinced that a box of chemicals is food and most are perfectly happy with a plastic frozen pizza or a Hungry Man dinner. Not a positive indicator for the future. Jeebus, when Jamie Olive showed a potato and several other fresh vegetables to school kids in West Virginia none of them recognized or could name them!

If you want even more proof that we are too lazy/stupid/poisoned/drugged to 'win the future' just consider that a large portion of our fellow citizens actually pay attention when someone as butt ugly stupid as Sarah Palin opens her pie hole. That alone should tell you that we are probably doomed and I won't even bother to mention most of the elected Republican party.

Seeds and More Seeds

The first batch of seeds are now on order. It is always a trial to decide which of the hundreds of varieties and I always tend to fail on the extra choice side which means I order more than I will probably actually need. The thing is if you want just a couple of plants of a certain variety you still have to order a packet of 50 or a 100 seeds. The good thing is that if you keep them carefully they will last for a couple of years.
It is always a pleasure to scour all the seed catalogs but a trial to narrow down your order to something reasonable since they all look so good. I got away this year with less than $200 but only because I kept seed from last year and saved the heirloom ones.
I've still to order my heirloom seeds from Seed Savers but that will happen tomorrow just as soon as I can narrow down my order to something sane. I want to grow everything, especially all the heirloom beans but I have to restrict myself to just a half dozen or so.

Spring Is Coming

It's warmed a bit today and I've got spring fever and have the itch to plant something. I've been looking through seed catalogs and am just about ready to make the big winter order. As luck would have it I just came back from Home Depot where I needed a small submersible pump for the greenhouse and while there I took a stroll through the garden department. Lo and behold they had starts for both horseradish and rhubarb. I have been looking for both as they are two things I don't have growing in the home garden. I'll get them started in pots in the greenhouse today as it is too early for them to go outside and that way they will be ahead of the curve come proper spring. I'll get some dirt under my fingernails today after all. When the harvest comes we'll all have a nice rhubarb pie.

I also stopped by Pike Nursery on the way home and found some organic leek seed which needs to be started now as well. I've still got leeks growing in the garden in spite of the horrible freezing weather and snow. The outer leaves are a little worse for wear but the freezing hasn't hurt the inside and if anything I think the cold has made them sweeter than normal. They will be, of course, one of the key ingredients in my cock-a-leekie soup in honor of good old Robbie Burns tomorrow night. And yes, there is a wee dram in the forecast.


Off to play in the dirt.

Cock-a-Leekie Soup

Seeing as how it is almost Burn's night (January 25th) and as how I haven't posted a recipe in a while I thought I would share one for cock-a-leekie soup. This is a traditional Scottish soup that is often included as the starter for a Burn's night supper. It's a very simple recipe and this is just one of probably thousands and some even including prunes. I think this simple preparation works best as a starter. It's not too heavy and you need to save room for the haggis(great chieftain o' the puddin' clan) and the bashed neeps and tatties.

The traditional method involves the slow simmering of a whole chicken but a cup up chicken will do the trick as well... you just want to be sure you have both white and dark meat.

Ingredients

1 pound or so of chicken breasts and thighs, skinned
4 cups chicken stock,
2 bay leaves
2 oz. or 1/3 cup long grain rice,
2 medium leeks, thinly sliced (using only the white a light green parts)
2 carrots, coarsely grated
1 pinch ground cloves,
1 tbsp chopped parsley
coarsely ground black pepper to taste
1 tsp fine sea salt or to taste (depends on how salty your broth is...taste it)

Process

Place the chicken in a pan with the stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Skim the surface of the soup and discard any scum that has formed. Add the vegetables, rice, cloves, and salt, bring back to the boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves and discard. While not absolutely necessary I like to remove the chicken, remove the meat from the bones and return the meat to the soup as it makes it a little nicer to eat.

This will make 4 nice bowls of soup.

Wally World's New "Healthy Food' Initiative

On the surface this is all apparently a move in the right direction. Wal-Mart is the biggest food store by a factor of two in the nation. One should never forget however that Wal-Mart is in business to make money. They are not a social service agency.

Marion Nestle tackles some of the issues and questions surrounding this new deal from Wal-Mart and she touches on some things that I think we need to keep in mind as we see this go forward.

We are still talking about mostly processed foods and highly processed foods with slightly less salt and sugar are still questionable food choices.

Two, lowering prices on produce can impact small farmers. Wal-Mart is famous for using their clout to drive companies out of business. We need to insure there is some balance here.

Lastly, no one is talking about Wal-Mart's nearly criminal low wages and working conditions and how these practices drive a lot of poorer people to make necessarily poor food choices.

GOP Belt Tightening

We are now seeing how GOP belt tightening will go. but basically, if it has anything  to do with arts, culture, public transit, infrastructure or the environment..its toast but Goddess forbid we touch defense spending.

The Republican Study Committee proposal would cut fiscal 2011 spending back to 2008 levels, which would save $80 billion, and push spending in fiscal 2012-2021 even lower, to fiscal 2006 levels, which would save $2.29 trillion, according to a summary. The proposal would strike funding for specific government programs, including the following:

• Corporation for Public Broadcasting subsidy: $445 million a year.
• National Endowment for the Arts: $167.5 million a year.
• Amtrak Subsidies: $1.565 billion a year.
• Community Development Block Grants Fund: $4.5 billion a year.
• New Starts Transit: $2 billion a year.
• Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants: $2.5 billion a year.
• Title X Family Planning: $318 million a year.
• Applied Research at Department of Energy: $1.27 billion a year.
• U.S. Agency for International Development: $1.39 billion a year.

Hobbit Marathon

I have mentioned the new BluRay disk player I got myself for Christmas. Pretty slick. It is an internet enabled model (Panasonic) and I have it hooked up to the wireless in the house so I have already watched some Netflix movies  via the tubes. It came with a one month free trial. My first impression is that there are really too few movies to select from that are accessible via the internet...I estimate only 1 in 10 movies available from Netflix are available so I am going to have to think about the monthly charge but it is only $8 or so.

Anyhow, I rented the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy on BluRay yesterday so it is going to be a marathon to get them viewed before they have to go back on Saturday. Believe it or not I have never seen any of the movies so I am looking forward to it. I did read the trilogy many years ago. I have, however, had a pint in Tolkien's favorite booth at the Eagle&Child pub in Oxford so that is something I guess.

I Like Covers

I have been seeing ads on the idiot box for the Tempurpedic mattress. I might consider it but I like to sleep with covers. I also don't normally drink wine in bed especially while Madam jumps up and down so I guess it is out.

Over The Edge

I'm come to the conclusion that it might be best for all concerned if we just went ahead and collapsed as a country. I mean let it all go. Why all this creeping slowly to the precipice? Get it over with. Screw the debt ceiling, let the bankers and wealthy have all the money, let the corporations that grow our food run amok and just get along with poisoning us all. Repeal the affordable care act, don't fund the new food safety laws, quit funding education and and all this 'socialist' welfare like food stamps and unemployment.  We might as make it a law that everyone has to own a gun as well.

I am, of course, being facetious but seriously... maybe if it got bad enough. If folks were going to door(at least to those people who still have doors) begging for food or a blanket to keep warm. If friends were suffering or even dying for lack of medical care. If you had to fight or threaten others to get food. The worst of the worst you can imagine is happening maybe people would wake up and pay attention to what IS happening. It's like the old joke about working with mules. First you have to whack them over the head with a two by four to get their attention before you can proceed to get anything done.

I'm just watching this daily slide or slow circulation around the drain and am wondering how bad it has to get before people wake up to the reality. Right now the GOP is wasting money and time voting to repeal the not so great but better than nothing Affordable Care Act and are offering nothing (really nothing) in return and in the process are building all their arguments on bald face lies in complete rejection of reality  and all the while knowing it is a waste of time and will go nowhere beyond the House.

Just today Jack Kingston (R-Ga) stated in the AJC that he was seriously doubting that the Congress would fund(1.5 billion dollars) the new Food Safety Modernization Act since America's food supply was 99.9 percent safe and the benefit just wasn't there for a .1% increase in food safety. Believe it or not, he and his staff reached the 99.9% number by taking the number of food related illnesses last year as reported by the CDC and dividing it by the number of meals Americans eat each year. While this is a valid 'statistic' it actually represents you chances of getting sick from your NEXT meal and is not a measure of our food safety. The actual number, as calculated by the CDC and others, is that 1 in 6 people will suffer from a food born illness within the next 12 months and that poor food safety costs us some 150 billion dollars a year. This rube is in charge of funding food safety....think about it.

Yes, all in all, it is probably just time to jump the shark or at least get to the point where people will begin towake to the reality of the crumbling of the American Dream. This waiting for the other shoe to fall is killing me.

I Refuse To Accept

I had to work today so I didn't get a chance to post this this morning. If you have been visiting here for any time you have figured out that I am probably what many call a socialist or at minimum a dirty hippie. What I really am is someone who tries to live a life of peace and love. I have embraced the teachings of the Buddha and to some degree it is because I lived through the struggles of Dr. King to find the way to a better future for all of us.
In celebration of Martin Luther King Day, a portion of his Nobel acceptance speech:

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that We Shall overcome!

Breakfast Heaven

I don't know if you know that you can now buy proper Irish butter in the U.S. I get my Kerry Gold at Trader Joe's since it is the best price I've found. Warning...once you try it you will be spoiled for any other butter. It's a little pricey but oh my how good it is.

Anyhow, a truly scrumptious breakfast treat is homemade bread toasted and smeared with lots of Kerry Gold butter and then topped off with Bonne Maman confit de framboise (raspberry preserves). It really can't get any better than this, especially when accompanied by a nice cup of strong Irish tea. And yes, it's what I had for breakfast along with a couple of sunny side up eggs and locally sourced market bacon. I'm happy.

Supermarket Navigation by Darya Pino

This diagram is all over the Internet. I got it from Marion Nestle at Food Politics. It is is worth sharing as it easily codifies Marion's rules about finding real food in the market. Which are:

• More than five ingredients (too processed)
• An ingredient you can’t pronounce (ditto)
• Anything artificial (ditto)
• A health claim on the front (these are always about marketing, not health)
• A cartoon on the package (it’s being marketed to kids)

The actual designer is Darya Pino (of Summer Tomato):

Hunkered Down

I know it has been quiet around these parts but I have worked a couple of days but otherwise Madam and I have just hunkered down. I did a little cooking...cheese souffle, meatballs, pizza, kept the birds in suet and seed and all of that. We got in quite a few games of Scrabble and watched a few movies. Nothing earth shattering.

Been reading all the stuff about Tuscon, Australia, Brazil and every thing else that seems to going awry. Glad to see the moose princess managed to put just a little more distance between her and any suspicion of intelligence or civility and the President probably made his best speech since taking the White House. Just amazed at the insanity that is evidently running rampant in Arizona where Glock sails have skyrocketed since the tragedy. WTF?

One of my regular customers is Aussie and he has been giving me the inside dope on the flooding. The pictures we are seeing here aren't doing the misery being experienced justice. Bad show all around.

Brazil's tragedy is even worse and expected to get even more so. Thousands missing.

Atlanta is slowly digging out from the winter storm...schools still closed and the roads are still spotty with snow and black ice. If you are careful no problems. It should get into the 40's today and tomorrow and that should help a lot.

Icebound

The weather folks were correct for a change. Lots of snow yesterday(about 6 inches here) plus the freezing rain overnight. I made it to work yesterday morning when it was still just snow on the roads but this morning it is nothing but ice. The arctic air is due this afternoon and we will see the middle teens overnight which makes the possibility of getting to work for my shift tomorrow pretty much nil. Not enough icing to cause power problems but the roads are horrible. I went out to get the paper this morning and the street is glazed over big time. It may be this bad all week if the sub freezing temperatures hold as predicted.

More Winter Weather

The talking heads are saying we will have a pretty good winter storm tomorrow night. That will make two so far this winter and there are a lot of winters we don't get snow at all. According to the TV we might see six inches here north of Atlanta but the bad part is that is is supposed to turn to freezing rain on Monday. The ice is what really sucks. I have to work today, Sunday and Monday and tomorrow and Monday are all early starts. Monday will be the challenge. If there is a lot of snow and ice the ten miles or so to the workplace will be tough. All main surface streets but a couple of nice hills along the way. My Hyundai, with front wheel drive and traction control, is pretty good in the snow but I worry about the idiots that aren't too swift at driving in snow and ice. It's really a zoo here in Atlanta when we get snow.

Third In Line For the Presidency...Think About It

From Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, asked by NBC's Brian Williams to name a federal program that could be cut:

"I don't think I have one off the top of my head."

This is the guy that is 3rd in line for the presidency! How can a person spend 20 years in Congress, and who has just waged a brutal midterm campaign that focused almost completely on the need to slash government spending, not be able to come up with a single program cut off the top his head? The taxpayers are sure not getting their money's worth out of this clown.

Paging Dr. Freud, Paging Dr. Freud

Rep. Steve King (R) lauds Speaker Boehner's 'mendacity', says it's beyond reproach.

I spit my tea all over my screen. This might be actually 'speaking truth to power'. LOL

h/t TPM

No Surprise Here

While it is the most profitable business in the world making obscene profits daily, it just isn't ever enough. Thanks to our bought and paid for friends in Washington the criminals running BP felt sure there was no down side for them to try and squeeze just a little more money out of the Macondo well.  Recent reports show that we are still at high risk for more such disasters.

Many of the poor decisions taken on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig before the fatal blow-out on 20 April were taken to save time and money.

"Whether purposeful or not, many of the decisions that BP, Halliburton, and Transocean made that increased the risk of the Macondo blowout clearly saved those companies significant time (and money)," the report said.

In a separate chart, it identified nine decisions that increased risk; seven of these saved the companies time. BP was involved in all nine decisions.

BP, which owned the well, did not enforce the proper controls to manage those increased risks, the report said. "BP did not have adequate controls in place to ensure that key decisions in the months leading up to the blow-out were safe or sound from an engineering perspective."

Cabbage Is For More Than Cole Slaw

Now that the Rethugs are back into power and pledging austerity(they are lying of course about shared sacrifice...what they mean is sacrifice for us grunts and none for the wealthy) I thought maybe it would be good time to talk about some more "cheap eats". When you mention cabbage to people they usually think of cole slaw, or corned beef and cabbage or even sauerkraut but they very rarely consider it in other ways. Not that there is anything wrong with any of the above but there are options when looking for something to do with a cabbage.

With a little seasoning you can do a lot with a cabbage and with cabbage we are talking "cheap eats" as you can get a head of cabbage for less than a dollar many times and a head of cabbage can go a long way.
This recipe is for a 'cabbage foundation' that you can take in any number of directions. It's nutritious, filling and tasty and depending on what you add to your 'cabbage foundation' it can be a complete meal. The following is sort of "Indiany" with the turmeric but I'll have some other variations down a little bit later.

For the 'cabbage foundation' you'll need:

a head of cabbage that weighs in at about 3 and a half pounds or so
3 tablespoons of peanut or canola oil (if you only have vegetable oil then use it) and there is always clarified butter.
1 1/2 tsp of whole cumin seeds
1 tsp of ground turmeric
a pinch of two of red pepper flakes (use according to your heat tolerance)

1 tsp kosher salt or to taste

Core and finely chop the cabbage just as you would for a coarse cole slaw...about 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces.
In a large pot or wok heat the oil the turmeric, cumin seeds and red pepper until you can smell the spices and the oil is hot. Add half the cabbage and stir for about two minutes or until the cabbage starts to wilt a bit. Add the rest of the cabbage and cook for another ten to twenty minutes or until  the edges of the cabbage begin to brown a bit(this depends on how high you have the heat and all). Season with salt and serve.

This is in its simplest(and cheapest form) but you can add to this. To add some additional protein try adding two cups of frozen peas when you add the first cabbage or instead of peas try canned chick peas or other beans (just rinse them first). Another great addition is to add nuts to the hot oil before you add any cabbage and toast them briefly before proceeding. Unsalted cashews, peanuts, pecans, walnuts, almonds, whatever, again about two cups or two handfuls. Adding both beans or peas and nuts of some type will pretty much make this a complete meal. Don't overlook other additions such as raisins or frozen corn. The 'cabbage foundation' is pretty flexible and don't feel like you are stuck with cumin and turmeric either. Other herbs and spices are friendly with cabbage as well. Thyme, oregano, Herbes de Provence are good choices as is chili powder and paprika. The texture and flavor of the cabbage is a good backdrop of any number of things just don't overdo the spices and drown out the cabbage. A teaspoon or at most two when heated with the oil will do a fine job of flavoring a nice pot of cabbage.

Here is a combination worth trying if you are a Mexican food lover. Instead of turmeric use a tsp and a half of good chili powder, keep the cumin seeds and add a tsp of dried oregano...the red pepper flakes are optional here and will depend on your chili powder. Add a cup and a half of pine nuts to the oil with the spices before the first cabbage and cook for a couple of minutes. A can of drained and rinsed pinto beans or black beans  go in with the first cabbage and a handful of raisins with the second batch of cabbage. Another variation would be to use smoked paprika instead of the chili powder. Don't overlook the 'baking section' of your spice cabinet either. Allspice, nutmeg and even cinnamon can add an interesting note to this dish but then we might be talking pecans, walnuts, and dried cranberries. Remember...NO Rules!

Enjoy!

Not So Good On the Bee Front

Via Grist, more really bad news in the bee world, with new findings that "four previously abundant species of bumblebee are close to disappearing in the United States."

If we lose the bees we starve to death....that's a fact!

Not So Fast On That Tofu

Somehow Americans have been convinced that all things "soy" are good for you. That is not actually the case. People also point to the fact that 'soy' is a major part of the Asian diet and has been for centuries but again, that is a little misleading. Most of the soy that Asians eat is fermented as in miso or soy sauce and they actually eat very little of it. Americans however, are consuming it in huge quantities in tofu, soy milk and as TVP and as additives to other foods.

If you have added a lot of 'soy' to your diet I suggest you read the link above. Unfermented soy is very high in 'phytoestrogens' and these are similar enough to human estrogen that the body reacts to them in unwanted ways. This is especially true of children. One study in New Zealand found that infants fed soy milk instead of cow or human milk had seventeen thousand times the estrogen level in their blood than those fed cow or human milk. High levels of estrogen in males suppresses testosterone and can have bad impact on you know what. It has also been found that soy increases the likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease.

It is just something you ought to be aware of. Never overlook the fact that soy beans are a huge agricultural product in the U.S. and as such the purveyors of same have a financial reason to keep us in the dark about how their products affect us.

Floods Down Under

These floods are really unprecedented and unbelievably vast but don't even mention global climate changes.  Oh! and Al Gore is still fat!

Getting The Oil Squeeze

Oil extended a rally above $92 a barrel on Monday, spurred by expectations that a global economic recovery is gathering strength and as market bulls set their sights on $100 a barrel.

U.S. crude was trading 77 cents higher at $92.15 a barrel by 1108 GMT (6:08 a.m. ET), just off a session high of $92.20, its highest since October 2008. It settled at $91.38 on Friday, marking an annual gain of around 15 percent and the highest year-end price since 2007.

Brent was up $1.20 a barrel at $95.95, off an intraday peak of $96.04, also the highest since early October 2008.

This is not boding well for a recovering economy.  Every gas station I passed today had the price of regular at about $3 a gallon. The cheapest was Quik-Trip at $2.949. This continuing run up is going to keep our recovery at 1 - 2% at best and that means no jobs and basically no growth. The prices are being run up by the speculators hoping to make a few bucks off the world's misery before things turn worse but the weakness in the dollar is contributing. Can't say it is very encouraging.

HFCS Again

I've talked here at length about the dangers of consuming High Fructose Corn Syrup. People continue to research it and new findings about how bad the stuff is for humans are almost daily occurrences. Here is an article from Dr. Mercola that summarizes what we know about the bad stuff HFCS can do to you. In spite of the commercials from HFCS producers that it is just like sugar. It is not and too say so is a lie.

Here is the bottom line. The sugar fructose is toxic to humans. Historically humans only consumed maybe 15% of their sugar as fructose, mainly from fruit. That small amount is tolerable. Recent tests have shown that the HFCS in most sodas is actually 65% fructose(not the 55% we were told). Regardless, that is too much fructose for the body to deal with. Fructose is not metabolized like glucose, which when unused passes out of the body. Fructose is solely processed by the liver and unused fructose is stored in the body as fat and not passed out. An extra HFCS soda a day can add 15 pounds to your body weight in a year.

Now the food producers are trying to get the FDA to allow them to call HFCS, corn sugar on their labels. For now the food folks have to tell you that they use HFCS and maybe soon it will be corn sugar but regardless it is easy to avoid if you just read the label. The good news is that some folks in the food industry are taking the dangers of HFCS seriously and have stopped using it and switched back to plain white sugar.

It's Going To Be A Long Year

I don't know of any other way to put it. The GOP controlled house is going to demonstrate how profoundly insane they really are and we, as a nation, are going to be held hostage by them. We are going to have to rely on the sanity of the Administration and that means we are going see and very spectacular unwinding of progressive government in the near term.

It is going to be ugly...Here is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made on "Meet the Press " yesterday.
Graham was asked about raising the federal debt limit, and he acknowledged that failure to do so "would be very bad for the position of the United States in the world at large." Graham added, however, that he's nevertheless inclined to play a radical game of chicken, with the economy and the stability of the United States' role in the global financial system hanging in the balance:

"I will not vote for the debt ceiling increase until I see a plan in place that will deal with our long-term debt obligations, starting with Social Security, a real bipartisan effort to make sure that Social Security stays solvent, adjusting the age, looking at means tests for benefits. On the spending side, I'm not going to vote for debt ceiling increase unless we go back to 2008 spending levels, cutting discretionary spending."

"very bad for the position of the United States" he says. He is lying because, regardeless of the the evidence, he is not stupid. He knows that defaulting on our debt would be catastrophic, to say the least, for the world economy and it would make the melt down of 2008 look like a hiccup.

These idiots are going to play chicken with the world economy knowing that President Obama will cave on all their demands rather than see the world economy destroyed on his watch. Very ugly business.

1/1/11

I got nothing to say I just wanted to have that title on the tubes. I'm working tomorrow but off the rest of the week so there actually might be something to read here. I can't say I have good vibes about the coming year or two so we'll play it a day at a time.