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Sep 02 2012
Punting the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition
“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
The Sunday Talking Heads:
Up with Chris Hayes: Joining Chris at 8 AM ET will be: Van Jones (@vanjones68), the former special adviser for green jobs in the Obama White House and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream; Rob Zerban (@robzerban), the Democratic candidate challenging Rep. Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s first congressional district; Cynthia Dill (@dillesquire), a state senator from Maine and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R); New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (@TeamJeffries), Democratic congressional candidate in New York’s 8th district; Arizona State Senator Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema), Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona’s 9th district; Nate Shinagawa (@nateshinagawa), the vice chair of the Tompkins County Legislature in New York and Democratic congressional candidate in New York’s 23rd district; Robert Wolf, former president of UBS Bank, member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and host of the weekly webcast “Impact Players” on the Reuters YouTube channel; John Nichols (@nicholsuprising), Washington correspondent for The Nation and associate editor for The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin; Neera Tanden (@neeratanden), president of the Center for American Progress; and Rose Aguilar (@roseaguilar) radio host of “Your Call” on KALW radio in San Francisco and op-ed contributor to Al Jazeera English.
This Week with George Stephanopolis: This Week’s guests is White House senior adviser David Plouffe.
The roundtable debates the Republican and Democratic conventions, with ABC News’ George Will; Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton; Romney campaign senior adviser and former Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey; Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile; and political strategist and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd.
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer sits down with key voices for the Democrats, Gov. Martin O’Malley, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter.
Then, a roundtable with the Washington Post‘s Dan Balz, Bloomberg Television’s Trish Regan, Georgetown University’s Michael Eric Dyson and CBS News political director John Dickerson.
The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Helene Cooper The New York Times White House Correspondent; Kelly O’Donnell NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent; Sam Donaldson ABC Reporter; and John Heilemann New York Magazine National Political Correspondent
Meet the Press with David Gregory: MTP’s exclusive guest is former Obama Chief of Staff Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The roundtable guests are former GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich; former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and Vice Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee Carly Fiorina; presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; NY Times columnist Tom Friedman; and NBC’s Tom Brokaw.
State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms Crowley’s guests are Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley; Obama Senior Campaign Adviser Robert Gibbs; CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin and The Washington Post‘s Dan Balz.
Sep 02 2012
What’s Cooking: Peanut Butter & Chocolate Lover’s Trifle
It’s the last holiday weekend of Summer and what better way to celebrate than with a backyard Clambake. So what’s for desert? S’mores are passe but who doesn’t love chocolate and peanut butter. Peanut Butter & Chocolate Lover’s Trifle is really easy to put together with a minimum amount of cooking. It does require a large serving bowl, preferably glass so guests can see the luscious layers.
Peanut Butter & Chocolate Lover’s Trifle
Ingredients:
Either a box of brownie mix, or a homemade batch of brownies. You can also use chocolate cake. Store made is a quick substitute Whipped cream, about two cups. Canned (use the heavy cream version) or homemade. Peanut butter sauce (melt one 10 ounce package of peanut butter chips with 1/4 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/4 tsp of vanilla over low heat until combined, let cool). Reese’s peanut butter cups, chopped Kit Kat bars, chopped or Reese’s Pieces 2 packages of instant vanilla pudding made according to their directions. Directions:
Layer the bottom with broken up brownies or cake. Top with vanilla pudding, peanut butter sauce, Reese’s peanut butter cups & Kit Kat bars or Reese’s Pieces, and a layer of whipped cream. Continue building your trifle with these layers until you’ve run out of ingredients or room 🙂
Kari Goodwin who created this recipe for her blog, Minute on the Lips didn’t post how many chocolate lovers this recipe would serve but there was plenty for 8 guests with left overs. As for calories per serving, if you need to ask you probably shouldn’t be eating this. But hey, it’s a holiday, take an extra lap around the track for the next week.
Sep 01 2012
Health and Fitness News
Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
As long as there are still peaches, plums, apricots, berries and nectarines to be had, I’m buying them up and making pies and galettes. A galette is a free-form pie, more rustic than a tart. Although they’re usually made with classic buttery pie dough or puff pastry, I’ve been working at developing a dough recipe that is delicate and tasty but not too rich. I decided that a yeasted dough could work, and came up with a formula that yields enough for two galettes but has only 60 grams of butter (about 4 tablespoons). The flavor is nutty and rich because of the whole-wheat flour, but the dough isn’t heavy. The trick is to roll it very thin, then freeze it right away so that it doesn’t continue to rise and become too bready, and also so that it’s easy to work with when you are ready to assemble the tart. The dough works beautifully for these free-form galettes.
~Martha Rose Shulman~
This yeasted dough is a cross between a pizza dough and pie crust dough.
Nectarine or Peach and Blackberry Galette
Almond flour spread over the crust before baking adds flavor and absorbs juice to keep the crust from getting soggy.
Apricot, Cherry and Almond Galette
Baking deepens the flavor of even less than perfectly ripe apricots.
Plum, Almond and Orange Galette
The plums’ deep color and the perfume of orange zest give this tart extra appeal.
Mixed Red Fruit, Apricot and Hazelnut Galette
Use whatever stone fruits and berries you like for this delicious odds-and-ends pie.
Sep 01 2012
What We Now Know
What we have learned this week is discussed with Up with Chris Hayes guests Josh Barro (@jbarro), writes Bloomberg View‘s “The Ticker“; David Sirota, (@davidsirota) writes a nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column and hosts a radio show, “The Rundown with Sirota and Brown“; Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox), columnist for “The Guardian” and founder of the political blog Wonkette; and Bob Herbert (@bobherbert), distinguished senior fellow at Demos and former New York Times columnist.
During the RNC Convention, Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney partied with millionaire and billionaire donors on a yacht registered in the Cayman Islands.
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told the Washington Post: “The demographics race, we’re losing badly ….
We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term“
90% of the GOP is white.
Projected US White Population in 2050: 50.1%
NBC/WSJ Poll: Romney has 0 % Of African-American Vote.
Only 2% of the delegates at the RNC Convention were Black.
Federal judges are overturning controversial laws passed by Republican controlled states that discriminate against minority and disenfranchised voting rights.
Texas: Court rejects Texas legislative districts as discriminatory
Federal court overturns Texas law requiring voters to show photo ID
Texas is appealing both of these rulings.
Florida: Federal Court Blocks Florida Early Voting Restrictions
Ohio: Federal court overturns Ohio early voting restrictions
We now know what a gay bar at the RNC Convention looks like: It’s hard to tell who is gay or straight since they’re all dressed like Alex B. Keaton; what really identified it as a Republican Gay Bar was the Go-Go dancers were all wearing t-shirts and long pants.
Oy.
Sep 01 2012
What’s Cooking: Clambake
Labor Day weekend is here, for some too soon, for others not soon enough. It has been a long very hot Summer. It is still time for celebration and breaking out Summer’s traditional recipes. Many of us have been to the traditional Clambake at the beach when we were kids. But since regulations at most public beaches prohibit open fires, the clambake has been relocated to backyard grills and the stove top. Actually, it’s easier and a lot less work and can be done indoors anytime you get an urge for the taste of Summer.
This recipe is an adaptation one one I found on line. You can modify the ingredients to suit your own taste and budget. The recipe serves four but can be easily doubled for more guests. I use andouille sausage for its spiciness. Kielbasi or pre-cooked Italian sausage are equally good. Lobsters can also be added. This season the market price is at a record low.
To remove the sand out of the clams, take the tightly sealed clams and soak them in water for about 20 minutes. A quick trick to make sure the clams are alive and safe to eat, if the clam is partially open, tap the shell, if it closes, the clam is alive. I go to a market where I can hand pick the clams. After cooking, discard any clams that have not opened.
Equipment:
- 8 in x 8 in Disposable aluminum pans
- Aluminum foil
- Tongs
- Heavy oven mitts and/ or thick towels
Ingredients:
- 1/2cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/3cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 4 medium red potatoes, halved and sliced into 1/8-inch half-moons
- 3/4 pound jumbo shrimp (11/15 count), peeled and deveined, tails left on, cold
- 2 pounds littleneck clams, rinsed and scrubbed
- 1 package (12 ounces) andouille sausage, thinly sliced
- 2 ears fresh corn, each shucked and cut into 4 pieces
Preparation:
1. In a small bowl combine the butter, lemon juice, seasoning, garlic, and thyme.
2. Prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat (350° to 450°F).
3. Cut eight sheets of aluminum foil, each about 12 by 20 inches. Line an 8×8-inch cake pan with two sheets of aluminum foil, arranged in a crisscross pattern. Layer the bottom of the foil-lined pan with the sliced potatoes (this will help insulate the shellfish and keep them from overcooking). Top the potatoes evenly with the shrimp, clams, sausage, and corn pieces. Drizzle each packet evenly with the butter mixture. Close the packet by bringing the ends of the two inner sheets together, folding them on top of the filling and then bringing the ends of the two outer sheets together, folding them down. Repeat this procedure with the remaining packets.
4. Grill the packets over direct medium heat, with the lid closed, until the clams have opened, the shrimp have turned opaque, and the potatoes are cooked, 20 to 25 minutes. To check for doneness, using tongs, gently unfold one of the packets and carefully remove a potato, being careful not to puncture the bottom of the foil. Using a knife, gently pierce the potato to ensure doneness. When everything is cooked, remove the packets from the grill. Carefully open each packet to let the steam escape and then pour the contents into warm bowls. Serve immediately.
For larger crowds, I use the big disposable aluminum pans used for buffets and cook the potatoes, corn and sausage separately from the clams and shrimp.
Enjoy
Sep 01 2012
Punting the Pundits
“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
Mark Weisbrot: Raising Minimum Wage Can Yank Millions Out of Poverty and Jump-Start Economy
The federal minimum wage is just $7.25 an hour and hasn’t been raised in three years. But a raise is much more overdue than that. If we look at the minimum wage 44 years ago, and simply adjust it for inflation, it would be more than $10 today.
This is another ugly symptom of what has gone wrong in America over the last 35 to 40 years. From 1979 to 2007, about 60 percent of the income gains have gone to the now infamous 1 percent at the top, with the majority of those gains going to the top 0.1 percent – people who made, on average, $5.6 million per year.
But some of the worst effects of giving more to those who have the most have affected people toward the bottom of the income ladder, and there is no excuse for it.
Glen Ford: US is the Worst Police State in the World – By the Numbers
There’s no getting around the fact that the United States is the Mother of All Police States. China can’t compete in the incarceration business. With four times the U.S. population, it imprisons only 70 percent as many people – about the same number as the non-white prison population of the U.S. Even worse, 80,000 U.S. inmates undergo the torture of solitary confinement on any given day.
When U.S. corporate media operatives use the term “police state,” they invariably mean some other country. Even the so-called “liberal” media, from Democracy Now! to the MSNBC menagerie, cannot bring themselves to say “police state” and the “United States” without putting the qualifying words “like” or “becoming” in the middle. The U.S. is behaving “like” a police state, they say, or the U.S. is in danger of “becoming” a police state. But it is never a police state. Since these privileged speakers and writers are not themselves in prison – because what they write and say represents no actual danger to the state – they conclude that a U.S. police state does not, at this time, exist.
Considering the sheer size and social penetration of its police and imprisonment apparatus, the United States is not only a police state, but the biggest police state in the world, by far: the police state against whose dimensions all other police systems on Earth must be measured.
The other day I picked up on something in an op-ed in Slate titled “Why I Love Paul Ryan” by the commentator William Saletan that illustrates the conventional wisdom that has let the essentially ridiculous Paul Ryan rise so far. Today let me pick on William Galston – not a household name, but a good representative of the Beltway gone bad.
In an op-ed in The New Republic, Mr. Galston, a contributing editor, urges Democrats not to “demagogue” Mr. Ryan, but despairs: “Here’s what I fear will happen instead. The Obama campaign will not take the other side in a high-minded debate. Instead, it will relentlessly attack Romney-Ryan for plotting to ‘end Medicare as we know it,’ and for leaving the poor to go hungry without food stamps and suffer, even die, without health insurance.”
What’s wrong with this lament?
How about the fact that the Romney-Ryan plan actually is a plan to end Medicare as we know it? (And why the quotation marks? That’s what it is – replacing the system with fixed-value vouchers.) It is also a plan for drastic cuts in food stamps and Medicaid, not to mention canceling the expansion of coverage under the Affordable Care Act, which would mean lost insurance for tens of millions of Americans – thousands of whom would, in fact, die as a result.
Yet pointing out these truths is, in the eyes of Very Serious People, “demagoguery.”
Charles M. Blow: The G.O.P. Fact Vacuum The G.O.P. Fact Vacuum
Honesty is a lost art. Facts are for losers. The truth is dead.
Pick one.
Whatever the term of art, they all signal a dark turn, and, this week, the Republican Party took that turn with reckless abandon.
Lying is certainly nothing new in politics. One could even argue that it’s fundamental to politics. Saying incredible things in a credible way is the art; using math of vapors to sell dreams of smoke is the craft.
But Paul Ryan’s acceptance speech on Wednesday took things up a notch. [..]
Romney long ago demonstrated that he was willing to do anything and take any position – even if they contradicted previous ones – to make it to the White House. And while that may be fine for him, it shouldn’t be fine with us.
We deserve better and should demand better. We deserve better than a weather vane candidacy that doesn’t care whether it’s being candid. We deserve better than a party and a presidential aspirant so wanton that they refuse to let facts get in the way of a fairy tale.
Robert Reich: Labor Day 2012 and the Election of 2012: It’s Inequality, Stupid
The most troubling economic trend facing America this Labor Day weekend is the increasing concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the very top — among a handful of extraordinarily wealthy people — and the steady decline of the great American middle class.
Inequality in America is at record levels. The 400 richest Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 150 million of us put together.
Republicans claim the rich are job creators. Nothing could be further from the truth. In order to create jobs, businesses need customers. But the rich spend only a small fraction of what they earn. They park most of it wherever around the world they can get the highest return.
The real job creators are the vast middle class, whose spending drives the economy and creates jobs.
Richard (RJ) Eskow: Goodbye, Liberty! 10 Ways Americans Are No Longer Free
Our struggle for liberty is a fight against concentrated wealth.
Our most fundamental rights, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, are under assault. But the adversary is Big Wealth, not Big Government as conservatives like to claim. Consider:
Life? The differences in life expectancy between wealthier and lower-income Americans are increasing, not decreasing.
Liberty? Digital corporations are assaulting our privacy, while banks trap us in indebtedness that approaches indentured servitude. The shrunken ranks of working Americans are being robbed of their essential liberties – including the right to use the bathroom.
The pursuit of happiness? Social mobility in the United States is dead. Career choices are increasingly limited. As for working hard and earning more, consider this: Between 1969 and 2008 the average US income went up by $11,684. How much of that went to the top 10? All of it. Income for the remaining 90 percent actually went down.
These changes didn’t just happen. Wealthy individuals and corporations made it happen – and they’re still at it. Meanwhile, Corporate America’s wholesale theft of your individual liberties has been rebranded as a fight for … the corporation’s individual liberty.
Sep 01 2012
On This Day In History September 1
This is your morning Open Thread. Pour a cup of your favorite morning beverage and review the past and comment on the future.
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
On this day in 1897, the Boston subways opens, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America. It was the inspiration for this song by the Kingston Trio.
Sep 01 2012
The American Taliban
HBO’s series The Newsroom debuted ten weeks ago. Written by Alan Sorkin it is a fictional behind the scenes look at a cable news network, Atlantis Cable News (ACN), its star, Will McAvoy, the Republican anchor for its premier news program, News Night and his staff. Each episode has focused around a major event in the recent past, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the killing of Osama Bin Laden. In the last episode of the season, the News Room took on the issue of voter ID laws and the non-issue of voter fraud.
Sometimes it takes a fictional character to poke the hive.
The American Taliban cannot survive if Dorothy Cooper is allowed to vote
Ouch
Aug 31 2012
Blue Moon Lights Tonight’s Sky
Tonight’s Blue Moon is special since there will not be another until 2015.
The moon will wax to its full phase at 9:58 a.m. EDT (1358 GMT) today, bringing August’s full moon count to two (the first one occurred Aug. 1). Two full moons won’t rise in a single month again until July 2015. [..]
Tonight’s blue moon also happens to fall on the day of late astronaut Neil Armstrong’s memorial service. Armstrong, who on July 20, 1969 became the first person to set foot on the moon, died Aug. 25 following complications from heart surgery.
So stargazers may want to keep Armstrong’s “one small step” in mind as they gaze up tonight.
“For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request,” Armstrong’s family wrote in a statement shortly after his death. “Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”
So if your sky’s are clear tonight, even if they’re not, go outside, reach up with your arms towards the moon and breath.
Aug 31 2012
Punting the Pundits
“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
The New York Times Editorial: Mr. Romney Reinvents History
Mitt Romney wrapped the most important speech of his life, for Thursday night’s session of his convention, around an extraordinary reinvention of history – that his party rallied behind President Obama when he won in 2008, hoping that he would succeed. “That president was not the choice of our party,” he said. “We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than divides us.”
The truth, rarely heard this week in Tampa, Fla., is that the Republicans charted a course of denial and obstruction from the day Mr. Obama was inaugurated, determined to deny him a second term by denying him any achievement, no matter the cost to the economy or American security – even if it meant holding the nation’s credit rating hostage to a narrow partisan agenda.
Cenk Uygur: The Real Convention Is at Cracker Bay
One of the reasons this Republican convention has been so deathly dull is that the real action isn’t at the convention. It’s at Cracker Bay. That’s the name of the yacht where the Romney team just hosted 50 partiers, including some of his top donors. This was one of about a dozen events outside of the convention where they had private meetings with donors giving more than $1 million dollars to his campaign. Over $1 million a piece. Now, where do you think the real policy gets made?
You think Mitt Romney gives a damn what a delegate thinks? The only delegates that matter were on that yacht. They call this group the “Victory Council.” This is made of people who are literally millionaires and billionaires and who dictate what Mitt Romney’s positions will be. He’s a legendary flip-flopper, but if you want to know what he really thinks you had to be on that boat.
I built this column.
I built it all by myself in this second American century.
I built it after seeing banners at the Republican National Convention saying, “Build, Baby, Build!” So I decided to drill down and see what I could find.
I found I needed a laptop that somebody else had built, somewhere outside the United States, somewhere like China, where there’s a lot of building going on. Naturally enough I discarded the computer in horror because I believe in building things myself from the ground up, just like my role-model Mom told me. She, by the way, was from Sicily and came via Wales to the United States, where she built a small business.
Now, that’s the last time I’m going to mention foreign countries in this self-built column. Real Americans know the rest of the world does not exist. The rest of the world is just a bad fantasy the other party has.
John Nichols: Mitt Romney: His Party Is the Problem
Who knew that Mitt Romney was such a fan of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign?
“How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America?” Romney told thousands of Republican delegates, alternates and hangers-on Thursday night. “Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and Change had a powerful appeal.”
Speaking of the “fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president” Americans felt upon Obama’s election, the man who will now seek to prevent the Democratic president’s reelection told the 40th Republican National Convention about how much he had hoped Obama would succeed “because I wanted America to succeed.”
But it wasn’t just that citizens wanted America to succeed. As Romney noted: “Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get ahead a little more, put aside a little more for college, do more for their elderly mom who’s living alone now or give a little more to their church or charity… This was the hope and change America voted for.”
In this, Romney was right.
Laura Flanders; The Bushwomen. They’re Back.
There she is, just the woman I was thinking of, on the op-ed page of the New York Times. Except she isn’t apologizing for her role unleashing the GOP’s “war on women.” She is writing about terrorism and the Clean Air Act. What I’d wanted someone to ask Christine Todd Whitman about was the day at the 1996 RNC, when she helped coronate today’s extremist GOP.
Former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman is usually described in the money media with the words “moderate” and “pro-choice” glued firmly to her name. Republican in a pro-choice state, she’s on the record saying that abortion is “a personal decision between a woman and her doctor,” and the government has no business telling a woman what to do. (That used to be the conservative position.) She’s held up by pro-choicers as a tragicomic victim, abandoned by her party, but the fact is, Whitman’s done more to help the vicious wing of the GOP than she ever did to stop the backlash.
Richard Dreyfuss: US Sells Three-Fourths of Worldwide Arms
Here’s the opening phrase of a scare story in the Washington Post from this weekend:
China’s arms exports have surged over the past decade… [..]
China doesn’t even show up as a blip on the screen. The Post buries in the piece that China is “the sixth-largest arms exporter in the world.”
So dominant is the United States in worldwide arms trafficking that-get this!-US arms sales to a single country, Saudi Arabia, totaled $33.4 billion last year. That amount surpassed the entire total of US arms sales to all countries in the world in 2009, $31 billion. A commentary by a Wall Street analysis site notes happily: “The news confirms how critical defense, airplane, and agricultural exports are to the overall American trade balance.”
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