More Hungry

According to this piece in The Washington Post:

The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a government report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children.

In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children -- more than one in five across the United States -- were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than 12 million children the year before. And the number of children who sometimes were outright hungry rose from nearly 700,000 to almost 1.1 million.

Among people of of all ages, nearly 15 percent last year did not consistently have adequate food, compared with about 11 percent in 2007, the greatest deterioration in access to food during a single year in the history of the report.

Absolutely shameful!

This country needs to seriously reconsider the amount of money we are investing in war in light of the growing number of hungry people. The proposed 2010 budget for the DOD is 664 billion dollars and represents a 7% increase(you do the math) over 2009. WTF?

Before my recent 'early retirement' I was trying to make monthly contributions to the Atlanta Community Food Bank but I had to stop for obvious reasons and while such contributions are good and help they are not the answer. I am probably not the only one that has had to trim my charitable contributions and regardless, community food banks are not the solution and only meager stopgap. This shouldn't be happening in the greatest economy in the world, deficits or not. Hungry adults are one thing but children going hungry or being undernourished is criminal. Children deprived of proper nutrition will impact the qualityof the next generation in many ways and while we may not be able to give every child everything they need to "be the best they can be" we can at least not challenge them with hunger on top of the other problems we are 'gifting' them with.

Two Faced

What a bastard. Sen. Tom Coburn, the ultra right GOP jerk from Oklahoma doesn't have any trouble at all throwing money at the sundry unnecessary wars and likewise doesn't appear to lose a wink of sleep whilst sending American soldiers to be killed or maimed in far away places for dubious reasons. He does have a problem when it comes to dealing with the results of his warmongering though.

Even though the bill to consolidate veterans benefits passed through committee unanimously Mr. Coburn singlehandedly is blocking allowing it to come to a vote. He thinks the 3.7 billion over 5 years should be offset by reducing other spending. All the money for war but nothing for its aftermath.

The Republican Senator from Oklahoma is one sick puppy.

h/t Steve

Hand Wringing Alert!

Lock up the women and children and round up all the livestock...break out the duct tape! Our dithering, socialist leader is going to bring Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, to New York City for trial in civilian court. In spite of all the dangers and warnings from the far right wingnuts he is going to do it anyway.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, a federal law enforcement official said early on Friday.

But the administration will prosecute Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri -- the detainee accused of planning the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen -- and several other detainees before a military commission, the official said.

The decisions to give civilian prosecutors detainees accused of the 2001 terrorist attacks and keep the case of the Cole attack within the military system are expected to be announced at the Department of Justice later on Friday by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

Get ready, because you are going to hear the screaming from wingnuttia, once again, about how our criminal justice system couldn't possibly hear a case against a terrorist suspect. Never mind all the U.S. criminal courts that have already successfully heard cases against terrorist suspects. What's even worse is that if KSM is convicted he will end up in an American super secure prison that can't possibly manage to hold terrorists. Never mind all the terrorists that are already safely locked away in American prisons.

There is going to be widespread panic on the right over this, despite all the evidence to the contrary. All of the usual suspects from mini Cheney to Rove are going to be howling for weeks over this monstrous development. You have to ask yourself why they are so afraid of KSM getting a fair trial.

Liberal Food vs. Conservative Food

Kay at the Internet Food Association website has found a survey by Hunch.com , a site that uses “collective knowledge” to answer questions, on “food-related preferences” by those on either side of the political spectrum. While there is probably more to it all than just political leaning, like urban or rural and educational level, it’s worth taking a look at because it seems to make sense. For instance, liberals prefer arugula and “bistro-style” fries while conservatives like iceberg lettuce and McDonald's fries. It's telling that conservatives classify Velveeta as “cheese” and accept Iceberg lettuce as an adequate means of eating plants. It is surely not scientific but I found it entertaining to read through. Do your food preferences echo your political philosophy? Mine pretty much do.

BTW both liberals and conservative seem to think bacon double cheeseburgers are delish.

Something Worth Reading

Josh Marshall points us to a powerful piece by a Daily News reporter on his meeting with President Obama at Arlington yesterday. Powerful piece . It's not long, but well worth a minute or two of your time.I am not ashamed to say that it left me a little misty.

Change in the Air?

There have been scores of anonymously-sourced reports alleging one thing or another about President Obama's next step with respect to the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. I may be completely wrong but it seems to me as if the President is finally beginning to realize that he is in a 'no win' situation and that the old axiom that says "Afghanistan is where empires go to die" is the hard truth and throwing more American blood and treasure onto the sands there is not the answer. Couple this with the latest 'leaked' cable from Ret. Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, who has put in writing his "reservations about deploying additional troops to the country." Eikenberry is not just some diplomatic functionary, he was recently the top American military commander in the country and his concern lends credence to the this AP report suggesting that the president has been presented with a series of options, none of which he finds compelling.

President Barack Obama won't accept any of the Afghanistan war options before him without changes, a senior administration official said, as concerns soar over the ability of the Afghan government to secure its own country one day. [...]

He remains close to announcing his revamped war strategy -- troops are just one component -- and probably will do so shortly after he returns from a trip to Asia that ends Nov. 19.

Yet in Wednesday's pivotal war council meeting, Obama wasn't satisfied with any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, one official said.

The president instead pushed for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government. In turn, that could change the dynamic of both how many additional troops are sent to Afghanistan and what the timeline would be for their presence in the war zone, according to the official.

The DoD is trying to push the president into escalating the U.S. presence with help from Clinton, Gates and others. President Obama seems to realize that he is being rushed and he is pushing back and that is a good thing. Somewhere I read that the President is seriously concerned with seeing results and getting out or put another way "wants to know where the off-ramps are."

The Pentagon and 'chickenhawks' aren't going to like this and you are going to see another round of complaints about 'dithering'. So be it. I am firmly convinced that Afghanistan is a lost cause and that we should be pulling out as fast as we can. Our efforts in the area should be at stabilizing Pakistan, a nuclear threat, and leaving Afghanistan to its own miserable devices. It's nice to be the 'Lone Ranger' to the world when there is hope of accomplishing something positive but a lost cause is a lost cause and the sooner you stop digging the better.

Like a Bad Penny

Now that CNN has solved their 'Dobbs' problem where do you think he will show up? Politics? Are we going to see a Palin/Dobbs or Pawlenty/Dobbs ticket from the GOP in 2012? My bet is FAUX News. Regardless, you can bet that 'like a bad penny' he'll be back.

Hopeless

You can well imagine that I really don't think much of Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. He has been a leading GOP whack job for years and years, first in the Congress and now as a Senator. It appears, however, that he is not a total ass and that has caused him to find unanimous disfavor with the Republicans in his home state.

The Charleston Post and Courier reports that Charleston County Republican Party's executive committee has voted unanimously to censure South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham for continuing " to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism."

What was this heinous crime? It seems that Mr. Graham has made the mistake of reaching across the aisle to Senator John Kerry and co-authoring an op-ed in the New York Times that laid out a framework for climate legislation and described a "blueprint for a clean-energy future that will revitalize our economy, protect current jobs and create new ones, safeguard our national security and reduce pollution."

The two treasonous Senators called for:

- Aggressive reductions in emissions.

• Nuclear power as a core component of electricity generation.
  
• Financial incentives for carbon capture and sequestration.
  
• Additional domestic oil and gas production.
  
• Ensuring that U.S. companies are not put at a competitive disadvantage.
  
• Establishing a floor and a ceiling for the cost of emission allowances.

What's even worse, and this was probably the straw that sent the mouth breathers back home over the edge, was that they had the unmitigated gall to further align their argument with national security, of all things:

Both of us served in the military. We know that sending nearly $800 million a day to sometimes-hostile oil-producing countries threatens our security. In the same way, many scientists warn that failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will lead to global instability and poverty that could put our nation at risk.

All snark aside. This action by the idiots in the state just North of me illustrates why moving the country forward in the current political situation is going to darn near impossible. That Senator Graham would be censured for such a reasonable act of bipartisanship speaks volumes to the intransigence of what seems to be left of the old Republican party. How are we going to move anything positive forward when what's left of the GOP see all attempts at finding a bi-partisan solution on any issue as something not far from treason?

Flooding Update

It finally quit raining and I ventured out to check on the garden. Mother Nature foiled me again. The nice ditch I dug to divert the runoff from the West got clogged with leaves and the rushing water charged right through the middle of the freshly tilled garden and made its own ditch. I am basically back to square one. Going to have to rethink the water control effort. Estimate is that we got about 5 inches during the last 24 hours and thank goodness it doesn't happen often, well except twice in the last two months.

Veteran's Day

To all my fellow veterans: Thank you for your service and sacrifice.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae(1872 - 1918)

To the Life Boats!

Tropical Storm Ida is doing her thing. It has been raining at a pretty good clip since late last night and it still raining now at 10pm. I can't guess how much it has rained in the last 18 hours but its a bunch. We'll know tomorrow morning(if it stops raining) how bad the damage is. I tilled(3 times) and loaded up a mountain of leaves in the garden but I don't know if it can absorb this amount of water. Frustration, frustration. There is a ditch to divert the run off from the property to the West but we'll just have to wait and see.

In an attempt to temper the depression over all the rain I decided that something earthy, warm and nourishing had to be on the dinner menu tonight. I relented and bought 4 chicken thighs to braise. A simple mirepoix and Herbes de Provence along with a little white wine and chicken broth did the trick. Slow cooked for three hours and served over a blend of brown basmati and wild rice. It would have been better with a free range chicken but 'industrial' chicken thighs were $.99 a pound and I am on a lean budget. I shudder to think how you can raise a chicken to market weight and sell it at that price humanely but.....I rationalize the purchase of 'industrial' chicken by knowing that I raised the chicken thighs to their highest potential and thus honored the chicken's 'ultimate' sacrifice...I know it's weak... but a little slack.

Has anybody been watching TV and noticed that every car insurance company can save you money over your current plan if you switch? Someone needs to organize an auction or something so us rubes can figure out who has the cheapest insurance for real. They seem to be picking on GEICO...it's probably some suppressed gecko hate or something.

Newt Changing Stripes

Just what we need! It seems that after Newt polled in single digits at the last "Value Voters Summit" behind such luminaries as Huckabee, Pawlenty and Palin he decided he needed a little more Jesus in his act. Seems he is trying to paint himself as a 'religious conservative'. Please Newt just go away. You had your shot and screwed the pooch and in the process proved you were really a lightweight in a fat boy's suit.

Hurricane?

I have spent the last few days repairing all of the damage from the 'epic' rains of September. It finally dried out enough for me to till it all yesterday and now we have a hurricane coming....figures.

HRC Passes the House

So we got a health care bill through the house. This is the first time since Medicare that Congress has passed any major health care reform. Not a great bill but considering all of the special interests and lobbying by Big Pharma, insurance providers and others it is sufficient for the day. The pro-choice people sacrificed themselves for the greater good it seems, but there is still reconciliation to be done and who knows what will happen if and when the dysfunctional Senate passes their own version. I am a proponent of single payer but for the time being I can live with what is done so far.

Oh, and my Congressman Tom Price was a bigger dickhead than usual during the proceedings and I will tell him so the next time I see him or his wife(our new city council woman).

Water Kites

Seriously cool development from the Swedish firm Minesto (part of Saab).

A completely new concept of underwater wave energy using a simple 7 ton kite turbine design has been developed by Minesto; which is a spinoff from the Swedish military and aircraft design firm Saab. The Deep Green underwater turbine captures the power of the ocean just like a kite in wind. The system could generate 18 terawatthours of energy annually, enough to provide nearly 4 million British households with reliably green electricity every year. UK households now use about a third of what average US households use in energy.

There is a video and picture at the link. This looks very promising.

Epic Floods

The USGS has released its analysis of the September flooding in Atlanta and it was defined as 'epic'. They usually class such events as either a 100 year event or a 500 year event but the rains in September exceeded the parameters for either. From 8pm September 20th until 8pm the next day some areas received more than 20 inches of rain. Our normal annual rainfall in the area is usually about 50 or so inches which means that we recieved nearly half of our annual rainfall in 24 hours. I can testify that my garden suffered 'epic' damage and it will take me years to recover fully.

Bad Numbers

The October jobs numbers are out and it is not good. "The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September".

I think it is time to refocus our efforts on job creation.

Paul Krugman, Obama’s Faces His Anzio (and why we need more jobs/stimulus):

If the Democrats lose badly in the midterms, the talking heads will say that Mr. Obama tried to do too much, this is a center-right nation, and so on. But the truth is that Mr. Obama put his agenda at risk by doing too little. The fateful decision, early this year, to go for economic half-measures may haunt Democrats for years to come.

Obama was left with a lot on his plate by the last administration. And the efforts at health care reform, environmental policy change, financial reform, an education bill, immigration reform are all important but the jobs picture has become, I think, the number one priority.

The Republicans proved yesterday that they are not serious about moving the country forward. The Republican leadership embraced extremism at the Michele Bachmann 'tea party' event on the Capitol steps. It was an ugly spectacle. It just reinforced the notion that the GOP is not going to partner with this administration to address the problems that we face. Moreover, it proved that they are seriously pushing the fact that they are, if not completely insane, irresponsible and detached from the reality that is America today. We cannot count on them to be at our side as we try and move forward.

We need to re-prioritize and get something done that will add jobs and, in turn, build the economy.

Mixed Emotions

It seems scientist at Stanford have used stem cells to create human eggs and sperm. This development, besides taking sex out of the human reproduction equation, creates some big questions around the ability to engineer the human race. From a geeky, science fiction point of view this is all very cool but from a philosophical one its as scary as all get out.

to quote the article:

Now that we can genetically create children out of a lab with a few samples of skin cells, we can continue to refine the genetic make-up of our species and "refine" our genes, potentially putting evolution into our own hands.

We are obviously making some good progress in stem cell research.

Sick, Sick People

If you were wondering just how twisted the teabaggers are(ably assisted by such exemplary Republicans such as Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (VA), Roy Blunt (MO), Jeb Hensarling (TX), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), Michele Bachmann (MN) -- who was a key organizer of the event -- Virginia Foxx (NC), Ginny Brown-Waite (FL), Jean Schmidt (OH), Sue Myrick (NC), and many more) then you should have to go no further than see the image of Holocaust victims from Dachau used on their posters today at their Washington rally.

h/t Matthew Yglesias at Think Progress

Boxer Serves Up a Wedgie

It's about time the Democrats fought back against the delaying tactics of the Republicans on every important issue facing us but this latest move by Barbara Boxer is going to get a lot of GOP skivvies in a knot:

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved climate change legislation Thursday with no Republicans voting for the bill or even participating in the process.

With Republican boycotting the proceedings, Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) relied on a little used interpretation of committee rules to move the legislation. Traditionally, two minority members are required to conduct committee business. [...]

“This is not a procedure we wanted; it’s a procedure that’s available to us,” said Boxer. “The majority has to be able to do its work…otherwise the whole Senate could come to a screeching halt.”

Republicans called Boxer's move the “nuclear option,” warning that it violated decades of committee precedent.

“I am here to appeal to you and the members of the committee,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the committee, said in a brief statement. “In the history of this committee, we have not been able to find a time when the bill has been marked up without minority.”

In his typical fashion Inhofe is being an asshole and simply ignores the fact that he and the rest of the Republicans on the committee were being childish snots by not even having the common decency to show up for the hearings. Screw 'em!

The Committee sent the bill to the full Senate this morning after it was approved by a vote of 10-1. Baucus was the only dissenting vote.