Nasty Cold Day But Perfect for Baking

We are under a winter storm watch but it looks like most of it will stay North. I just talked to my Mom in far Western Virgina and they have about 8 inches and it is still coming down. The temp here is 34F right now so I think we are safe.
I spent an hour this morning adding a stage to my worm bed. Now I just have to wait and see if they 'move up' into the new digs so I can harvest the castings. They seem to be happy and are reproducing as there are a bunch of very tiny worms and I can see more 'eggs' all around. Madam laughs at me cutting up vege scraps into tiny bits to feed them but it is amazing how much they can go through.
The first little broccoli plant is popping through the soil this morning which is always good sign. It is absolutely amazing that you can create a living plant out of a seed no larger than a grain of sand. It never fails to renew me when I have the first garden plants on  the way.
So, since anything outside is not in the picture I am going to bake some biscotti and get a batch of sour dough bread going. I should have a fresh batch biscotti just ready for tea this afternoon. I picked up a bad habit from my English friends and the day just doesn't seem complete without an afternoon tea and biscuits. I drink green tea during the day but in the afternoon I like a nice cup of Twinings English Afternoon Tea blend.

Where Are We With Health Care Reform

In spite of the comments by the President during the SOTU progress on reforming the nation's health care problems seemed to move further into the future this week and possibly out into the 'never' zone. OK, let's take one more crack at figuring out the likely fate of healthcare reform.  According to the Washington Post, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are still far apart and "congressional Democrats remained in disarray Thursday about how to move forward, with at least some pointing at the White House as the cause of the legislative standstill gripping Capitol Hill." . So what's the White House saying? According to the New York Times:

With Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul stalled on Capitol Hill, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview that Democrats would try to act first on job creation, reducing the deficit and imposing tighter regulation on banks before returning to the health measure, the president’s top priority from last year.
....Mr. Emanuel, the chief of staff, said he hoped Congressional Democrats would take up the jobs bill next week. Then, in his view, Congress would move to the president’s plan to impose a fee on banks to help offset losses to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the fund used to bail out banks and automakers.
Lawmakers would next deal with a financial regulatory overhaul, and then pick up where they left off on health care. “All these things start and lead to one place: J-O-B-S,” Mr. Emanuel said.

So, according to Rahm, health care has moved into at least 4th place behind jobs, bank reform and the deficit in White House priority. When you look at the ability of the Congress to move anything forward over the last year thanks to, mostly but not completely Republican obstruction, the best case scenario on health care action would be a couple of months off but realistically more like four or five months and with this being an election year 'never' could be a real possibility.


Things are changing daily and it is too soon to pronounce anything probable in this Congressional cycle but my gut feeling tells me that if health care reform is moving down in priority then chances get worse daily and the whole thing is dead for the near future. Jobs and financial reform and the deficit are important but I think getting a handle on the health care crisis still should be the number one priority. Jeebus, Congress has been working on it for a little over a year now and while the results are still far from adequate they at least address some of the big issues. Putting this issue to bed will go a long way in finding some light to shine on the other big issues as well. I'm still waiting and have my fingers crossed but I beginning to get that hollow feeling.

New Technology

I'll be off the net for a while today while AT&T switches me over to fiber. Fiber optic has just been installed down my street and AT&T is offering a good deal on switching the whole deal over. No more DSL and no more satellite TV and now voice over IP. There really hasn't been anything wrong with Direct TV (except that it goes missing in heavy weather) and DSL has been pretty good since I had all the issues with noise fixed but bundling all my needs under one vendor and getting the reduced rates for long distance is going to save me money and improve reliability and give me more internet speed. I think it's a win. Evidently the DVR that comes with the fiber can record 4 programs at once and the recorded programs are available to any TV in the house which is pretty cool.

One more bonus is that I won't have to hear Madam comment about how ugly the satellite dish is every time we come into the driveway. I do have a fear that Direct TV will just take back the DVR and tuners and leave the dish for me to remove and if that is the case then I'll have to have my daughter come and do the roof work since Madam gets screamy when I make noises about climbing on the roof. Minimonk the firefighter does a pretty good job with ladders and scrambling around on the roof and maybe we can trade me tilling their yard for removing the dish.

The Reality

I watched the SOTU last night and thought the President did what he needed to do. He could have been more forceful by laying out some plans for getting his agenda through Congress especially the disaster that is health care reform. I was glad to see him call out the GOP for their obstruction and partisan bullshit.
Regardless, I just have to keep reminding myself that, even in light of what I feel President Obama's failures so far have been, it could be John McCain as CIC. That, in and of itself, gives me some hope that we will move forward.

Are Half of Us This Stupid? I Guess So

 This is very scary:

Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday.

A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network.

Thirty-seven percent said they didn’t trust Fox, also the lowest level of distrust that any of the networks recorded.

I don't watch FAUX News ever but I know plenty of people that do. I just thought that my acquaintances were a little dim but it seems I was wrong. I just can't believe that effectively half the people in the nation turn to FAUX for their news. This does not augur well for our future.

The Cycle Begins Again

The 2010 gardening season is starting again. I planted broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, parsley, chard, and celery in seed trays and will finish with the Chinese cabbage and assorted lettuces today. Still too early to get the tomatoes and peppers going but I will in a few weeks. I am trying something new this year. We and friends have been saving the cardboard tubes from paper towels and toilet paper all winter and I am cutting the TP tubes in half and using them to hold my potting soil for starting seeds. Much cheaper than buying the peat pots and it is finding something useful to do with all that cardboard. It allows me to get sixty plants started in a standard flat. Not absolutely 'organic' but close and it is recycling. The worms don't seem to have a problem with shredded newspaper so I figure the cardboard tubes couldn't be that far away. We shall see.

I been getting all the seed catalogs for weeks now and am just about ready to start ordering seeds. I saved a lot of seeds from last year for tomatoes, peppers, okra, squash, beans, etc. but things like cucumbers and such don't reliably save since I have multiple varieties planted and they cross. I would still get cukes but who knows what would come out in the end.

Biscotti Mistake

Back in September I posted a recipe for biscotti and I left out the 2 tsp of baking powder. I apologize to anyone that made some rather heavy biscotti as a result. They really are much better with the baking powder. My daughter the other day complained that her biscotti weren't as light as mine. I asked here if her baking powder was reasonably fresh and she said "What baking powder?" Whoops! The recipe has been corrected.

Joe On Socialism and Tea Partys

Joe Bageant has another response to a reader up and I think it is worth a read. The reader challenges Joe's previous arguments for socialism and, as usual, Joe responds with wit and a deep insight into exactly what is wrong with our world today. In response to the reader's challenge on there being no successful demonstrations in the world of socialism working (citing China and Russia as examples) Joe responds, in part, with his definition of socialism:

To my mind, socialism is this:
A community and national philosophy, a commonly shared and not necessarily politicized way of life wherein the first priority is the fundamental well-being of the people (also known as "the masses," a term you have probably been programmed to wrinkle your brow in ominous suspicion of.) "Fundamental well-being" means that everyone eats well, enjoys safe and adequate homes and a common standard of good health. It means that children are educated to do more than just the rote tasks that serve corporate empires. It means the man actually doing the work man negotiates the value of his labor. It means that somewhere in the last third or quarter of his life, that working man, after enjoying his freedom, bacon and common work, and diligently sustaining his fellow men, is released from his toil. Released into security and peace and modest but guaranteed sustenance. He is free to nurse his aches, chase old women or take up Bourbon or Buddhism. Or both, as I have. Whatever he chooses as a free man in a free and benevolent socialist society.

I sure don't have any arguments with it.

Burns Night

Bryan at Why Now? reminds us that tonight is Burns Night. It is the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns the famous Scot poet who was born this day in 1759 in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. It is traditional among those lovers of Burns to gather on this night and recite his poems and raise a 'wee dram' of good malt whisky.

I won't be doing the celebration with other Scotsman or be having haggis but I will raise a toast to him this evening. The picture is of one my prized bottles of single malt (sadly almost empty). This is a special bottling of 24 year old single malt from the Royal Lochnagar distillery in Crathie, Aberdeenshire near Balmoral castle in the Eastern Highlands. This is bottled at cask strength and is a whopping 55.7% alcohol. It was distilled in 1972 and bottled in 1997. This distillery(1845) is one of the only ones ever to receive an appointment by the British Crown and was given the 'Royal' designation by Queen Victoria and King Edward VII as well as George V.

The little wooden cup next to the bottle is an antique Scottish quaich which is a traditional cup for whisky in the Highlands. This one is a treen cup and is made of light and dark wood put together like a barrel and lashed together. I acquired it in an antique shop in Dumfries, Scotland which also happens to be where Burns died in 1796 at the young age of 37.

A Futurist Talks About What's Next

I can recommend highly an article by Sara Robinson, the wonderful futurist writer at A World of Progress. In it she covers 10 cherished progressive 'truths' that we need to seriously reconsider if we are going to successfully navigate the new landscape of life and politics in this new century. It's definitely worth a read. Here is a bit of the introduction:

Being progressive in the Second Year of Obama is going to mean something very different than it did even just a few weeks ago. We're in a whole new territory now, and the maps we've been using since the 1960s don't even begin to match the new terrain we're now wandering in. In particular, there are several key assumptions that have been central to progressivism in the past that we should seriously consider leaving by the trailside before we head out into this new wilderness. They have served us well in the past; but now, they're just old baggage that will bog us down.

Pain Poilâne

Yeah, I know it is National Pie day and I did the pie thing but I decided yesterday that this weekend I would try once again to make a traditional pain Poilâne. My other attempts were good but not great so I try again for the great loaf. This is a real bread baking challenge since it is a huge loaf (2Kg) and almost all whole wheat and naturally fermented. The truth is that even though it is called 'whole wheat it is actually made from what the French call 'gray flour' or 85% extraction flour(some but not all of the wheat bran is retained). We can't get that here in the U.S. easily so I make my own using a blend of mostly King Arthur White Whole Wheat and King Arthur bread flour.
The bread is named after Lionel Poilâne whose bakery or boulangerie is most famous for a round, two-kilogram sourdough country bread referred to as a miche or pain Poilâne. I was fortunate enough to actually visit the original boulangerie on rue du Cherche-Midi in Paris. It took Madam and I 3 days to eat just the half loaf I bought but it was one of the highlights of our trip to Paris. A lot of people consider the pain Poilâne the standard by which all other bread should be judged. I make sourdough whole wheat bread every week but I cheat and use a little yeast and regular whole wheat and all purpose flour. Making a loaf of bread with only a sourdough starter for leavening is another challenge altogether. Add the additional challenge of almost all whole wheat and the low gluten and you really are talking baking.

I made the first phase levain (firm starter) yesterday and this morning made the final dough which is fermenting(rising) now. Since it is so large it can't be made in the big Kitchen Aid mixer and all of the kneading had to be done by hand. It is one large loaf. I am actually going to make two boules instead of the one large one so I can freeze one. It is only Madam and I after all.

If anyone is interested in a real bread baking challenge I will share my recipe and method.

I did manage to find a picture of the giant pain Poilâne resting in the shop in Paris....isn't it gorgeous? Notice that all are scored with a big 'P'. Cool!

Rethinking the Escape

I've considered the UK a potential alternative to staying in the states after the meltdown but with some of the latest developments in 'big brother' I might have to rethink that whole scenario. The thought of spy drones circling over the Cotswold's or the Peaks just doesn't seem proper.

Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers,¹ in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance.
The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police.
....Five other police forces have signed up to the scheme, which is considered a pilot preceding the countrywide adoption of the technology for "surveillance, monitoring and evidence gathering". The partnership's stated mission is to introduce drones "into the routine work of the police, border authorities and other government agencies" across the UK.

¹British slang for people who illegally dump trash anywhere other than an authorized landfill.

It's National Pie Day

I made the classic lemon meringue with Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk. It's one of my favorites. I do increase the eggs to three yolks and three whites though. I also sometimes take a little of the meringue and mix it into the lemon egg mixture just to lighten it a bit. Regardless it is great pie and very easy to whip up.

It's always a tough choice when it comes to pie. Libby's Famous Pumpkin pie is also hard to beat.

I am also a sucker for a great apple pie.

What's your favorite pie?

Pulling Life Support?

 Not good news:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just told reporters that she does not believe she has enough votes in the House to pass the Senate health care reform bill as-is—at least not yet. “I don’t see the votes for it at this time,” Pelosi said. “The members have been very clear in our caucus about the fact that they didn’t like it before it had the Nebraska provision and some of the other provisions that are unpalatable to them.”
“In every meeting that we have had, there would be nothing to give me any thought that that bill could pass right now the way that it is,” she said. “There isn’t a market right now for proceeding with the full bill unless some big changes are made.”

Since Madam Pelosi has been the only person in Washington to regularly deliver the votes, you can asssume that the rest of the agenda is in serious danger. The two big ones climate change and financial regulation are surely going to be tough in the current atmosphere. Unless something changes, in a big way, the Dems in Congress are going to spend the rest of their time this year running for cover and moving to the right and all because they are misreading the election results in Massachusetts. It was about a failure to lead effectively and not about the so called 'overreach'. People wanted what was promised...it's as simple as that.

I am serious when I say I don't want to hear the word 'bipartisanship' uttered anymore. The GOP is going to say no to anything and everything that is offered unless it lowering taxes on the rich and screwing the middle class. They might approve another war or two but that is about all you can expect. So far, their campaign of saying NO to everything is working for them and I am sure they see no reason to change after Mass.

NO Good For You

Here I go talking about 'Franken foods' again. Since about a billion pounds of potato and corn chips are about to be consumed on Super Bowl day I figured it would be a good time to remind everyone that the simple fact is that about 75 percent of all processed foods in this country contain some GM ingredients. I will almost guarantee that that chip you dip during the game is at least partially GM unless it is organic. No matter how hard you try you are going to get some GM food in your diet in the U.S. It's in just about everything.

New research shows that when GM corn is fed to mice and pigs they show organ and blood abnormalities, as well as immune dysfunction. Scientists have discovered reproductive problems in pigs and cows with GM food in their diets.  There is a reason one of the main rules in Michael Pollan's new book Food Rules is 'Don't eat anything advertised on TV'. and I still try and live by the rule 'If your grandmother wouldn't recognize it as food, it probably isn't.'

Since there are no laws requiring GM labeling it's tough to know what's has GM ingredients and what doesn't?  The most prevalent GM crops are corn, soy, cottonseed and canola. You definitely want to look for organic food that contain those ingredients. By definition, an organic food or crop cannot be genetically modified or contain GM ingredients. It is not just the 'Big 4' though. Things that you might pick up in the store such as sugar, zucchini or yellow squash have a good chance of being GM as well.

Like I said, you are not going to be able to avoid 100% of the GM stuff, it's just too prevalent, but you can reduce the amount you eat by growing your own food and shopping wisely. The Institute for Responsible Technology has compiled an excellent Non-GMO Shopping Guide that you can download for free.

SCOTUS Changes the Game

The Supreme Court has opened the corporate money floodgates for the next election:

In a ruling that radically reshapes campaign-finance law, the Supreme Court has struck down a key provision of the McCain-Feingold measure that bars corporations and unions from pouring money into political ads.

Can you imagine the difficulty of a small reform focused candidate going against the kind of money that corporations will be able to drive into a campaign. While it is still early I am tempted to believe Russ Feingold when he says this will take us back to age of robber barons. Corporate money will be able to silence any voice that runs counter to the interests of big business. We are so screwed.

The Way Ahead is Forward Not Backward

It is very much a waste of time to try and say this in any other way so let's just say I agree with every word quoted here from Jon Walker at FDL:

Let me put this as simply as possible. Democrats control everything in Washington right now. They control the White House. They have a huge margins in the House and in the Senate. Democrats have larger margins in both chambers than any party has had for decades. They have zero excuses for failing to deliver. Americans will not find some nonsense about having only 59 Senate seats as an acceptable excuse for failing to accomplish anything. If Democrats think they can win in 2010 by running against Republican obstructionism, they will lose badly. Not only will Democrats lose badly if they adopt this strategy, but they will be laughed at. Republicans never had 59 Senate seats, and that did not stop them from passing the legislation they wanted. Trying to explain to the American people how, despite controlling everything, Democrats cannot do anything, because a mean minority of 41 Republican senators won’t let them, is a message that will go over like a lead balloon. If you try to use that excuse, people will think elected Democrats are liars, wimps, idiots, or an ineffectual combination of all three.

Absolutely!  Let's quit fighting with the people that agree with us on 80-90% of  pretty much the entire progressive agenda and focus our effort and our aggression on the Republicans and push ever so much harder at moving the agenda forward. 

That Went Well

Been busy all morning with doctor, groceries etc. so I am just now getting around to seeing the circular firing squad that is the Democratic party point their fingers at everybody about the 'disturbance' in Massachusetts yesterday. I've already said all I am going to say and that is shame on you  Massachusetts.
If there is anything at all to say about yesterday that is positive it might be that this better wake up the White House and get them seriously thinking about finding some other job for good ole Rahm. The only other positive thing to not is that Holy Joe isn't the 60th vote anymore.

The reality is that this should not change the dynamics of the Congress all that much. With Joe in the mix we really never had the vaunted 'filibuster proof' majority anyway and the Dems still control all three parts of the government. Now they just have to figure out how to actually govern. The GOP never had this much control and they still managed to get their agenda driven through(wars, tax cuts for the rich, etc.).

Let's get with the program.

Massachusetts Voters

If Massachusetts voters think punishing the Democrats, for whatever reason, by not voting tomorrow in the special election for Ted Kennedy's seat thereby enabling the victory of a Republican who has vowed  to halt any chance at health care reform and is a big supporter of Wall Street then they need to think again. It is nothing more than cutting off your nose to spite your face. Turning this seat over to the GOP will be a tragedy for Massachusetts and the nation. Please get out and vote for Martha Coakley. Ted Kennedy spent his life fighting against the likes of Brown and for the American people and to see his seat given to a shit like Brown would be the greatest insult to the Kennedy legacy one could imagine.

Cheerful Thoughts from Joe

Joe Bageant:

Still, there are always those citizens who will not settle for simply voting based on what they have been fed. They detect the odor of swill, but cannot quite name the ingredients. So they feel they must test democracy, exercise their uncontrolled “freedom of choice” as fully as possible through activism. So they turn to one of the two controlling political parties to put them to work. After all, anyone who doesn’t is considered a kook. Right?
In a marvelous bit of Mobius strip logic, the activists end up working toward the success of some minute difference in national policy that serves the purposes of the established power cartels. The main difference is in the degree of profitability for the corporate state. More profit or a helluva lot more profit. In the end, the activists find themselves working for the election of someone who, by the very nature of being selected as a candidate by the system, has been vetted by his or her own elite peers as one who will — ta ta! — preserve the system from change.