tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82373612024-02-03T01:56:43.961-06:00FranabananaPeel it and you get: A bite of politics. A bite of pop culture. A bite of books. A bit of Jewishy goodness. A bite of TV. A bite of miscellaneous musings. A slippery yellow peel.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-87056631431774443672008-01-24T11:54:00.000-06:002008-01-24T13:06:01.328-06:00What do you do with an empty blogger?Well jeez what is the point of having a blog if you don't do anything with it?<br /><br />Politics just don't float my boat no more.<br /><br />Food, recipes, - I can do that. I SHOULD do that. But so many do it better.<br /><br />Being a mom. OK. But it doesn't consume my life anymore, now that my son is a gradeschooler. Should I write about being the mom of an "only"? Does anyone care?<br /><br />Technology and other cool stuff? If I just listen to what my husband is up to, I can do that do too.<br /><br />Then there's TV, music, entertainment, gossip - so not my bag I should leave it to the experts. We just switched to Comcast - is that fun to write about?<br /><br />Jewish stuff? Yeah, I could do that. As long as it involves mahjongg!<br /><br />So here are my new topics:<br /><ul><li>Mommy-ing a gradeschooler/only child</li><li>Having a kosher Jewish home</li><li>Recipes and food (Jewish/kosher focus)</li><li>Cool mahjongg stuff</li><li>Gadgets/technology with focus on the home</li><li>Stuff I like (housewares, clothes, paper goods)</li><li>What I'm reading/watching/listening to</li></ul>A new goal: one short blog a day. I guess this counts...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-2263606325879966702007-12-11T09:11:00.000-06:002007-12-11T09:25:46.739-06:00Drash on the LeeveesI LOVE this. Rabbi Yonah at Blog Shul completes his <a href="http://rabbiyonah.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/midrash-of-hanukkah-rocks-volume-2">Midrash on the LeeVees album</a>.<br /><br />My son has been listening to the LeeVees Hanukkah Rocks album nonstop for the last two weeks. What can I say, it beats most any Hanukkah album every made, and 99.4% of all Christmas songs as well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-35056379974203316362007-12-10T09:42:00.000-06:002007-12-10T10:12:35.073-06:00Best Recipe: Parve Mashed PotatoesNow if you are like me, and I hope you are, you are a huge fan of mashed potatoes. I adore mashed potatoes. <br /><br />The sad thing is ever since I have gone over to kosher, I rarely get my fill of mashed potatoes. Although <a href="http://taboungrill.com/">Taboun Grill</a> has delicious kosher meat dishes, their mashed potatoes are merely OK. I'm just not sure that the middle-eastern cooks really "get" the creamy goodness of mashed potatoes. Plus, there is no gravy.<br /><br />I have been known to order mashed potatoes as a side dish with fish (yes, I eat fish and vegetarian when I go out), but still there's nothing like a big plate of roast chicken with mashed potatoes.<br /><br />So this past Thanksgiving I was assigned to make kosher mashed potatoes for my large extended family. Of course only my mother-in-law and I care about kosher parve, but luckily she was in charge and was making all kosher turkeys! Yay!<br /><br />First step was to invest in a potato ricer. My sister got one of these years ago, and has raved about it. I HATE to buy one-use gadgets, but every now then you gotta go for it. So I got the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-26981-Potato-Ricer/dp/B00004OCJQ">Oxo Good Grips Potato Ricer</a>.<br /><br />Then, I grabbed a 10# sack of russet potatoes. (Don't get me started on those waxy Yukon Golds.) I needed potatoes for 19 people, so I think I peeled about 8 pounds of potatoes. Probably 10-12 medium-large Russets. Not the huge-mo baking potatoes; the more modest bagged Russets.<br /><br />Next, I got a stock pot of water going. I cut the larger potatoes in half, put the smaller ones in whole, added a couple good spoonfuls of salt, brought the water to a boil, and reduced it to simmer, cooking the tatties for about 1/2 hour until they were nice and soft.<br /><br />Using a slotted spoon, I pulled the potatoes out and one at a time, put them through the ricer. This took all of 5-10 minutes and the texture was perfect.<br /><br />Now here's the secret to parve mashed potatoes: <a href="http://www.tofutti.com/ss.shtml">TOFUTTI SOUR SUPREME</a>. I added about 2/3 c Tofutti Sour Supreme, and 6-8 T of Smart Balance tub maragine, along with salt and white pepper to taste. (You can use black pepper, but I like white pepper for white mashed potatoes.) To make the potatoes a little looser, I added small amounts of the water you boiled the potatoes in - I started with a couple tablespoons and kept going until they were the texture I wanted. I probably used about 1/2 c of the reserved boiling water. This is instead of the milk that is typically used for dairy mashed potatoes, or stock for meaty dishes.<br /><br />I received many rave reviews, from people who had no idea they weren't the typically creamy dairy potatoes.<br /><br />Here is the formal recipe, sized down for a medium-sized family dinner. I like big portions, so if you want extra, size up. Keep in mind that the recommended amounts of sour cream and margarine are just personal preferences. Feel free to adjust as you see fit.<br /><br />CREAMY PARVE MASHED POTATOES<br />8 servings<br /><br />3 pounds of Russet potatoes<br />1/4 c Tofutti sour supreme<br />2-4 T Parve margarine (I prefer Smart Balance)<br />Salt<br />White pepper<br />Reserved cooking water from the potatoes<br /><br />Peel the potatoes and put into a large pot. Cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are soft. <br /><br />Remove the potatoes from the water; do not throw out the water. Reserve at least 1 cup!<br /><br />Put the potatoes through a ricer, or mash with a fork or masher. Fold in the sour supreme and the margarine. Add small amounts of water about 2 T at a time to get the desired smoothness. <br /><br />Serve hot with kosher gravy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-47667791852816612672007-02-01T17:05:00.000-06:002007-02-01T19:05:31.213-06:00Recipe: Kosher Beef Barley Mushroom StewHere is a great winter meal -- all in one pot. The key to the recipe is making sure the beef is tender. Sometimes stew meat cooks quickly; sometimes it takes a bit longer. Figure a minimum of 2 hours total cooking time.<br /><br />Ingredients<br />2-4 T olive oil<br />2 lbs beef stew meat (chuck, shoulder)<br />1/4 lbs beef fry (cured beef bacon), chopped<br />1 med onion, chopped<br />1 small celery rib, chopped<br />2 carrots, chopped<br />4 cloves garlic chopped<br />1 large can of tomato sauce (28 oz)<br />2 c broth (chicken, beef, or vegetable) or other liquid (water, red wine)<br />1/2 t each of dried thyme, rosemary and oregano<br />1 bay leaf<br />salt and black pepper to taste<br /><br />3/4 c pearl barley<br />4 med red potatoes, chopped into cubes<br />8 oz mushrooms, quartered<br /><br />1 c. frozen peas and/or green beans<br />1/4 c chopped fresh parsley<br /><br />Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven or stock pot over a med-hi flame. Add half the beef cubes and brown on all sides. Remove from pot and add the other beef cubes. It will take about 5-10 minutes to each batch to brown.<br /><br />Remove the beef cubes. Turn the flame down to med-low. Add the chopped beef fry and cook about 5 min until the beef is crispy. Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic and saute until softened, about 5 min. <br /><br />Add the beef back to the pot, along with the tomatoes and broth, herbs and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for one hour.<br /><br />After an hour, add the barley, potatoes and mushrooms. Cover and cook for 45 minutes. <br /><br />At the end of the 45 minutes, test the beef to be sure it is tender. It should be easy to chew and soft. If it is not, continue cooking, checking every 10 min. When the beef is tender, add the frozen beans and peas and the chopped parsley. Cook for another 10 minutes. Salt again to taste.<br /><br />Serve with crusty (parve) bread.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-81091664007402207322007-01-22T15:29:00.000-06:002007-02-01T20:29:39.177-06:00Big Fun Mah-Jongg SundayWhile many Chicagoans were basking in the glow of a Bears playoff victory, I was feeling the true joy of having played 4+ hours of mah-jongg yesterday. <br /><br />Some friends accosted me on my way to minyan after dropping my son at his Hebrew class. Given the choice between minyan with the <span style="font-style:italic;">altekockers</span> and mah-jongg, I made a choice to pray another day. And God seemed like he was going to withhold victory, as I had bad hand after bad hand. But then at the end, I played and won a closed hand. Oh bliss, oh rapture!<br /><br />Then, my regular mah-jongg group convened at 7:30 last night, and I had no compunction about going out in semi-blizzard conditions and icy roads. Again with the bad hands most of the night, but, then, joy of joys, I managed to win on a closed hand. <br /><br />Wow, two closed hand victories in one day. True big fun.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-775602036783647802007-01-13T20:02:00.000-06:002007-01-13T23:36:41.868-06:00Make All Happiness Joy: MAHJ!I started playing mahjong about 9 months ago. I was pulled into the game by some friends (well, at that point they were acquaintances) at my synagogue. After a few lessons, I was off and running.<br /><br />I know I really like a game when after I play it, I think about it, dream about it (literally, at night, dreams), and want to learn everything there is to know about it. That was me with mahjong. I couldn't wait to play the next time, and since that day, I think I've played almost every week. <br /><br />I couldn't wait to tell my mother, who had a regular afternoon mahjong game when I was a youngster. I can remember the ladies mixing the tiles and calling out "crack...bam...dragon." But I never learned the game, and eventually she stopped playing. Bless her heart, we recovered two old sets, one of which belonged to my grandmother. I use it now, and it's wonderful to play with.<br /><br />Mahjong American Style is a tricky game -- there is a lot of luck involved, and a decent amount of skill in choosing a hand, and it can be painful and beautiful. Even today on my Shabbat afternoon game, I went for a pairs hand that was a long shot. But it looked so pretty on my rack, I had to go for it.<br /><br />A great part of the fun has been a newfound camaraderie with my mahjong ladies. Yes, I have turned into my mother! It's been a long time since I have had close girlfriends. As a work-at-home (not stay-at-home) mom, I've been out of regular social circles for a long time. And here I found a group of women who have been a lifeline for me; people I can call for advice, talk about our kids, our husbands, gossip, schmooze, laugh, and cry when our hands go dead.<br /><br />I'll probably have a lot more entries on mahjong. Along the lines of "mahjong, it is so like life..." Gack!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-10191604251300108512007-01-12T20:27:00.000-06:002007-01-13T19:27:34.074-06:00Bad pundits...bad, bad punditsThis <a href="http://www.radaronline.com/features/2007/01/betting_on_iraq_1.php">great article</a> on how well the pundits who were WRONG about Iraq are doing; by comparison those who were RIGHT are still struggling on the outskirts of mainstream media outlets.<br /><br />Can't we fire pundits? I'm so weary of these bobbleheaded babblers who are paid millions of dollars to discuss their empty useless hypotheses.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-90576602906756380482007-01-10T21:55:00.000-06:002007-01-13T19:58:30.454-06:00Half Birthday CakeMade a 1/2 layer peanut butter with choco frosting 1/2 cake for my dear son's 7.5 birthday today.<br /><br />It was a doctored white cake-mix with about 3/4 cup peanut butter added, a bit of extra vanilla and a reduced amount of oil. The cakes really rose up in the pan, so I probably could have cut the eggs.<br /><br />The frosting was a 1/2 cup of melted chocolate chips, a few tablespoons of cream and 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, a dash of vanilla, with the added bonus of a cloud of powdered sugar that blew all over my kitchen when I picked up the handmixer.<br /><br />Not my best effort, but the happy smile I got from the kid made it all worth while.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-36317257536139773932007-01-09T22:26:00.000-06:002007-01-13T19:59:09.589-06:00Love the Reese's Big CupYou can keep your regular Reese's, your minis, even your Easter Egg and pumpkin incarnations. (Lalalala, I pay no attention to white chocolate and Nutrageous options.) Don't even bring me the fancy Long Grove Confectionary <a href="http://www.longgrove.com/acatalog/Individual_Chocolates.html">giant p.b cups</a>, as enticing as they may seem. Sometimes the best quality chocolate and the creamiest richest peanut butter filling is just overkill. (Not to mention $3.00 each.) <br /><br />Keep all those tasty but inadequate peanut butter chocolate candies, and serve me up a delicious <a href="http://www.hersheys.com/reeses/products/detail.asp?name=big-cup">Reese's Big Cup</a>! It's got a thick slab of that tasty peanut butter filling, enrobed with just the right amount of creamy Hershey's chocolate. The downside? Only one per package. But at the tasty price of 79ยข (look for the BOGOs at your local grocery store), it's a bargain.<br /><br />I should add that I have no objections to mini Reese's when used to make <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peanut-Butter-Temptations-II/Detail.aspx">this delicious treat</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-37750102247169965752007-01-07T00:41:00.000-06:002007-01-07T00:51:36.922-06:00Parve Duncan Hines on the Jewel shelvesYes, it was <a href="http://www.oukosher.org/index.php/common/article/6741">announced</a> back in October 2006 that Duncan Hines, which had previously reformulated their parve cake mixes to dairy, were going back to parve. Ever since that announcement, I've scanned the boxes every couple weeks to see if the new parve products were out.<br /><br />But tonight in my local Jewel in Skokie, I saw that the DH Deluxe Classic Yellow was marked parve. All the other mixes were still marked kosher dairy. I'm not a huge fan of cake mixes, but they are nice to have in the house in a pinch. And kosher parve is just that much better, as I can't imagine what dairy would be in a cake mix that would make any difference to the flavor or texture of the finished product.<br /><br />As long as I talking about my local Jewel, they just switched their entire store around. It's still taking me 10-15 minutes longer to shop. But they have added a much bigger kosher food section. It does not yet rival the Howard Jewel in Evanston, but it is expanded signficantly. If only they had more kosher meat options. Trader Joes has a better selection of fresh kosher meat than the Skokie Jewel. Hint, hint.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-84899974552866109652007-01-02T19:01:00.000-06:002007-01-02T19:09:35.893-06:00Caution: Brain in TrainingAfter reading <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/smart.html">"My 4-Week Quest: Be Smarter"</a> in <a href="http://www.wired.com">Wired 15.01</a>, I succumbed to the siren call of <a href="http://www.mybraintrainer.com">My Brain Trainer</a>. It is strangely addictive. I don't quite know my brain age, and one of the things I'm getting smarter about is knowing that my spatial visual memory is pretty bad.<br /><br />I am doing well training myself to remember long sequences of letters, and then recognizing whether this is a match in the next sequence of letters. But doing that same thing with black and white shapes - very hard.<br /><br />I'm hoping to become a Brain Master some day. Don't ask.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-33480576762776364142007-01-02T18:40:00.000-06:002007-01-02T18:59:46.122-06:00What is with kosher restaurants?As a preface, It's no secret to my close family and friends that I took a giant leap into kosher eating and cooking about 6 months ago. Even though I had not cooked traif (pork, shellfish, etc.) for several years in my house, I still ate it out, and even would carry it in. I always felt funny about keeping any kind of kosher, because it seems so hard to right and fully. And if you're going to do it, can you do some of it, but not all?<br /><br />After a lot of encouragement from my clergy and kosher friends, I gave up on cooking with milk and any kind of meat, so now we have either dairy meals or meat meals. I buy only kosher meat. I eat fish or vegetarian dairy when we go out. (Although I've been known to slip "off the wagon" and eat non-kosher meat. So sue me.)<br /><br />This has led me to explore of the great world of kosher dining. I personally don't care for kosher dairy restaurants, as I will eat vegetarian out, but we have friends who prefer to eat kosher when they go out, so we go too. Suffice to say, we have been less than thrilled with the kosher dining options we have, and we have a good number to choose from.<br /><br />The problem is Captive Audience syndrome. Kosher places know that they will always have a certain number of customers who have to eat kosher. Does this inspire them to serve the best possible food to this group in the most pleasant and helpful way? No, not really. The food at most kosher restaurants is mediocre, at best, and the service is just slightly worse. Put that on top of paying for kosher, which is always a little more (to a lot more) money than an equivalent non kosher place. But the mediocre places pack 'em in, so maybe I'm the idiot!<br /><br />The one exception we've found is <a href="http://www.taboungrill.com/">Taboun Grill</a>, located on <a href="http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=taboun+grill&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#">California near Devon</a> in Chicago. The service is good, the food is delicious, and not outrageously priced, either. So that's a keeper.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1167063134097724582006-12-25T10:07:00.000-06:002006-12-25T10:13:37.556-06:00Been a long timeI got so so tired of blogging on politics. It was a land of 1000 blessings when the Democrats won in the mid-term elections, but I just did not have the heart to write about the campaign and the media nonsense.<br /><br />So here I am back again, thinking of blogging on some new topics of interest to me. More of the personal, spirtual nature, related to Jewish practice and life, such as I sort it out. I'll be adding some new blog links to my blogroll, including <a href="http://www.jewschool.com">Jewschool</a> and <a href="http://www.jewlicious.com">Jewlicious</a>. Something about joining a synagogue is putting politics much closer to home. Anyone who's been there should know!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1149543712002415462006-06-05T16:36:00.000-05:002006-06-05T16:41:52.023-05:00Five Questions1. Why do prescriptions drugs cost so much, and why do their costs increases at exponential rates each year?<br /><br />2. Why is the United States the only industrialized nation that does not provide universal health coverage to its citizens? It makes no sense. We don't save money. We don't have better outcomes. We do have very wealthy insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.<br /><br />3. Why is a marriage amendment more important than health care, security, disaster preparedness, war, energy, education, and transporation policy?<br /><br />4. Why don't we have high-speed rail based in Chicago and radiating out to major cities such as St. Louis, Detroit, Des Moines, Louisville, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Memphis, Nashville, and Indianapolis?<br /><br />5. What is the deal with Rachel Ray? She bugs.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1139015848810167402006-02-03T19:17:00.000-06:002006-02-03T19:27:59.786-06:00Good article<a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060220/alterman">"Lies About Blowjobs, Bad. Wars? Not So Much."</a> from <a href="http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/">Eric Alterman</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1126365682989639352005-09-10T10:19:00.000-05:002005-09-10T10:21:24.040-05:00Very Moving This American LifeIra Glass & team knocks one out of the park. <a href="http://www.thislife.org/">Visit the site</a> where you can buy it now, or stream it next week.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1126364458210870072005-09-10T09:53:00.000-05:002005-09-10T10:00:58.406-05:00Surprise! FEMA sucks.From Spenser Hsu at WashPo: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/08/AR2005090802165.html">"Leaders Lacking Disaster Experience"</a><blockquote>Five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.<br /><br />FEMA's top three leaders -- Director Michael D. Brown, Chief of Staff Patrick J. Rhode and Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks D. Altshuler -- arrived with ties to President Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House advance operation, according to the agency. Two other senior operational jobs are filled by a former Republican lieutenant governor of Nebraska and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official who was once a political operative.<br /><br />Meanwhile, veterans such as U.S. hurricane specialist Eric Tolbert and World Trade Center disaster managers Laurence W. Zensinger and Bruce P. Baughman -- who led FEMA's offices of response, recovery and preparedness, respectively -- have left since 2003, taking jobs as consultants or state emergency managers, according to current and former officials.</blockquote>No wonder they were so concerned with PR. That's all these guys knew. Might as well have put Karen Hughes in charge.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1126202294470416282005-09-08T12:45:00.000-05:002005-09-08T13:20:32.176-05:00A questionWhen did accountability become known as "the blame game"?<br /><br />Gimme a break. The White House is expending a great deal of energy in redirecting blame elsewhere while patiently and repetitively insisting that this is no time to be "blame-gaming." Hey, it's a noun AND a verb. Handy.<br /><br />Well, here's a bunch of links on this topic:<br /><a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007057.php">Amy Sullivan, WashMonthly</A><br /><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html">Dan Froomkin, WaPo</a><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007059.php">Kevin Drum, WashMonthly</a><br /><a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001056930">E&P on the media HAMMERING poor Scotty</a><br /><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2125802/">Bruce Reed on the end of compassionate conservatism</a><br /><br />For those interested in facts, a timeline is being prepared and updated regularly to understand what happened when, where key admin officials were, and what the various statements and repspones have been.<br /><br /><a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/katrina-timeline.php">Katrina timeline</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1125846345668337902005-09-04T10:04:00.000-05:002005-09-05T06:04:14.926-05:00Times-Picayune Calls for ResignationVia <a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054586">Editor & Publisher</a><br /><br />Plus a <a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054570">round up</a> of editorial condemnations.<br /><br />Locally, the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0509040409sep04,0,2626968.story?page=2&coll=chi-newsopinion-hed">Chicago Tribune</a> has an odd editorial, which concludes, "rebuilding New Orleans as it was "looks to be folly:<blockquote>The hope here is that the city's residents, and the Americans who will help them recover, craft a master plan that preserves the city's brash spirit while protecting it from another disaster on this scale.<br /><br />Then New Orleans can reinvent itself--as a devastated Chicago did after 1871.</blockquote>The facing page reprint of an editorial that followed the 1871 Fire is called <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0509040408sep04,0,2233751.story?coll=chi-newsopinionperspective-hed">Cheer Up</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1125784772828880262005-09-03T16:56:00.000-05:002005-09-03T16:59:32.833-05:00"My Pet Goat" in the Bayou<a href="http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054581">Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher</a> gets medieval on BushCo: "Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1125763225527547992005-09-03T10:33:00.000-05:002005-09-03T12:01:20.956-05:00Bush Fires People for Disloyalty, Not IncompetenceIf anything were a better indication of the autocratic, dare I say fascist, inclinations of BushCo, it is their willingness to fire or marginalize competent people who disagree with Dear Leader but keep on incompetent cronies and kiss-asses who have FUBAR, and then added a big pile of FUBAR on top of that.<br /><br />The latest incompetent? FEMA Chief <a href="http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=100857">Mike Brown</a>, who is NOT doing a great job, who is clearly in over his head, and (see link) had a difficult time managing horse shows. He would probably appreciate being relieved of duty. Just show some leadership, Shrub, and FIRE HIM!!!!! Lincoln fired about 5 generals before finding Grant on the western reaches of the country.<br /><br />Leaders should not just expect loyalty. They should expect competence and accountability.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1125716423765984942005-09-02T21:58:00.000-05:002005-09-02T22:00:34.100-05:00Football fans show their heartPreviously, in the Deep South, many hotel had warned Katrina escapees that they would have to vacate their hotels for football fans who had booked their rooms months in advance. But CNN reports that many of these fans have opted to stay home, give up their rooms, and some have offered their tickes to evacuees. Menschitude is spreading. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/football.fans.ap/index.html">Story here.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1125703312658998002005-09-02T18:18:00.000-05:002005-09-02T18:21:52.663-05:00Relief Shows Up<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.impact/index.html">CNN</a> has the story.<br /><br />Looks like this Gen. Honore has the right idea:<blockquote>CNN's Barbara Starr, who is traveling with the three-star general, said Honore is "very determined to keep this looking like a humanitarian relief operation."<br /><br />"A few moments ago, he stopped a truck full of National Guard troops ... and said, 'Point your weapons down, this is not Iraq,' " Starr reported.</BLOCKQUOTE>Yes, please don't shoot the starving, thirsty, helpless victims.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1125696666501604482005-09-02T16:19:00.000-05:002005-09-02T16:49:46.030-05:00Faith-based Leadership Faces the MusicOur administration can no longer pretend that everything is great, that all is well, help is on the way, when the pictures and interviews say the opposite. Finally our beloved media, who fiddled while BushCo sashayed us into Iraq, cannot ignore the lies, deception and incompetence. I guess it's easy to let such things as Swift Boat lies slide--that stuff is all part of the fun and games of politics. But this disaster cannot be spun aside. It's not a game, and it's no longer fun.<br /><br />The media giant is waking up from a deep slumber, rubbing the Jesus dust out of its eyes, and seeing clearly. Politics ain't beanbag, as the great Mayor Harold Washington famously said. And politics has left a major American city devastated.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html">CNN documents the lies</a>, so far. They call it the disconnect. More like a chasm, a gulf, a vast expansive wasteland between reality and spin.<br /><br />Slate's Jack Shafer rounds up the <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2125581/">media "rebellion"</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8237361.post-1125695712383901062005-09-02T16:09:00.000-05:002005-09-02T16:19:06.936-05:00Dad Argues with Callous BarberMy dad braved a scissors-wielding barber. I'll let him tell the story (as communicated via email):<blockquote>I haven't been able to work on anything all week. One minute I'm so angry I want to explode; the next minute my eyes tear up. I can't remember when I've been this distraught. Maybe JFK's assasination, after which the world changed for the worst. <br /><br />I got into it with ... my barber, today. He's a typical working-class Republican. Also, I think, although I was unsure until today, a racist. We were watching the coverage. <br /><br />I said, "it's a shame our government cut funds on a levee system that might have saved New Orleans." <br /><br />He grunted. <br /><br />I ploughed on, "Well, I have to say, this is the worst performance by the federal government I've ever seen." "<br /><br />"You can't be everywhere," he said, "anyway, where were the local and state people?" <br /><br />I exploded: "The local and state people?!! You've got to be kidding. They don't have the money, the manpower, the troops, the ability to do anything. it's a federal responsibility, and they ducked it. And This president, this idiot, is the worst fucking president in the history of the nation. It's a disgrace that we're fighting a ridiculous optional war and can't find the means to deal with disaster right here at home."<br /><br />"Well," he said a propos of nothing (which sealed my feeling about his racism), "nobody has to live in New Orleans." <br /><br />"Yeah," I said, "and nobody has to live in Biloxi (where he goes to play golf every winter with his buddies), but they do, don't they? People live in all sorts of dangerous places. Does that mean we abandon them? The next time Chicago floods or gets snowed under, maybe we say, 'Oh, well, they choose to live there.'" <br /><br />I concluded, "the people get what they vote for, and this time the people got a fucking, Jesus-freak dimwit for a president. Maybe he'll pray us out of this mess."<br /><br />Do you think I was too subtle? If he hadn't been wielding the scissors, I might have been more direct.</blockquote>More direct? I think you did good, Dad. God knows what might have happened if you had run into Condi Rice while she was <a href="http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054110">shopping for shoes</a> yesterday.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0