For which I am truly thankful...

I have many, many things to be thankful for: my cup runneth over.  This is shaping up to be a very fine holiday, with the younger brother and a couple of in-laws and maybe a random friend coming over.  The turkey's in the oven, dinner ETA is 1 o'clock.  The pies are made and resting in undisclosed locations, safe from the sweet-teeth of the males in the household.  Here's the menu:

Turkey with traditional stuffing (Marcia Adams's "American Spoon Stuffing" with dried cherries, apples, rasins, Madeira, plus all the usual stuff.)

Warm Roasted Beet Salad with goat cheese and walnuts.

Flemish Carrots (Mom's recipe, meaning completely fool-proof.  Mum was not the best cook, but I managed to survive the Octopus Phase (think stewed pencil erasers,) the "A little nutmeg is good so more must be better" Phase, the Beef Kidney à l'Orange phase (the original recipe was excellent, then fell victim to my mother's Rule of Cooking: "Following Recipes is for Wimps"), the Beef Heart phase, the Other Organs phase, the Never Ending Soup Phase (one pot in which all leftovers and plate scrapings got dumped, add water, and boil.  Just keep adding stuff and boiling through out the week until someone from the health department comes to throw it out) the Pickled Pigs Feet Phase, etc.  There were two things my mother made well: Flemish Carrots and Brazilian Black Beans.  She never told me how to make the latter, and hers were the best I'd tasted outside of Brazil.  She thought that the critical skill for me to learn was boiling rice, so she taught me that one cooking lesson over and over.  When I left home, I got a goddam rice cooker for free with a coupon and never looked back.  However, I make Flemish carrots as an homage to Mom every year.  This is how you make them: Grate a quantity of carrots.  Put them in a saucepan with a small amount of water and a teaspoon of sugar and cook on low heat until done (10 minutes or so.) Pour some heavy cream on the carrots and stir, cook a bit longer: they'll absorb the cream.  Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.  It tastes like dessert.  In fact, I found  a recipe for an Indian dessert that was remarkably similar and is pudding-like. 

Mashed potatoes (Simply Potatoes Garlic.  Yum.)

Homemade gravy from h/m stock and pan drippings.  My favorite thing to make.  I have been known to spoon the cold, congealed gravy directly into my mouth the Day After.

Cranberry Chutney: c-berries, apples, orange, celery, walnuts, and I'm afraid too little sugar this time.  Pucker up!

Sweet Potato Pie.

Derby Pie (like a Chocolate Pecan Pie, only with Wanuts and hooch- in this case, bourbon.  Buy American!)

Plus the usual appetizer stuff, drinks on the veranda, etc.

Oh yeah: As I was coming home from church on Sunday, I saw a flock of wild turkeys standing on the side of the country road near my home.  Right there- next to the road.  As harbingers go, it was a good one.  Magnificent birds.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

That Medieval Warm Period: An Inconvenient Truth

Friend Philo is sinking his teeth into the growing Global Warming Scandal.

This jewel came to my attention coincident with the "leaked" emails.  Aside: some very cute Finnish scientists on evidence.  Call me easy, but any guy who whispers sweet nothings about tree rings and lake sediment in a language that features double "u's" -with umlauts! has my attention.  Is it hot in here? 

Importantly, for those of us who are trying to understand who's who and why is the University of East Anglia so important, this video is careful to link the major players: Michael Mann (maker of hockey sticks,) Steve McIntyre (breaker of hockey sticks,) and Keith Briffa, the VIP scientist at the IPCC's (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Climate Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University.  This is the entity whose members have apparently colluded to pressure peer review journals, manipulate the data, shut out honest scientists, and generallly pedal junk that has cost societies around the world hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

I'm declaring today Celebrate Methane Day, or The Feast of Gore, whichever you prefer.  And here, an appropriate clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

And... for my line of "Hide the Decline" apparel:

If I were Blanche Lincoln

I would have done a barn-burner about how atrocious the ReidCare Bill is and announced tomorrow that I was switching parties.  Get Sarah Palin on my side, get the Rep challenger to back off with the help of my new best friends in the RSCC, and go for it.  She's going to lose her seat by staying put in the Democrat Party.

What a wimp.  I wonder what her price was.  As Charles Krauthammer says, if Mary Landrieu is worth $100M, Blanche "I've Always Depended on the Kindness of Democrats" Lincoln is worth $250M.

Quote of the Week

I really can't decide.  It's been a bonanza week for boners.  I like this one that Greg "Teh Resistance" caught:

“Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say yes to this proposal . . . and so as a consequence we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences.“

Do you suppose TOTUS is suffering a little jet lag?

Then there's Obama helping Holder (responding about to a question regarding those people who are offended taht KSM would be accorded full rights under the Constitution):

“I don't think it will be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him,” Obama told NBC’s Chuck Todd.

Whoa... having a flashback... I'm in a funky second-hand store in 73704, in the heart of Austin's hippiest weirdelicious-est zip code, and I spy a stack of bumperstickers (buck apiece) on the counter that read.: "Take my Civil Rights.  I'm Wasn't Using Them Anyway."  I'm sure that the proprietor is happy that they've been taken and given to KSM, but only as a tease in a show trial before he gets the Big Hook.

For the record: I am offended and I'm even more offended that this former Con-Law professor is making a mockery of due process and endangering the proper execution of justice, be it civil or military. 

Then there's Jon Kyl, shooting the Holder-fish in the barrel:

You have repeatedly said of your decision to prosecute KSM in Article 3 courts is that is where you have the best chance to prosecte, that your chances of success are enhanced in Article 3 courts and that you have access to all the evidence so you are in a better position to judge than those who are ignorant of that evidence are.  How would you be more likely to get a conviction in Federal Court when KSM has already asked to plead guilty before a military commission and be executed? How can you be more likely to get a conviction in an Article 3 court than that?

I know I feel safer.  Where are the fiscal hawks on this one? I bet we could fund a jillion abortions for what it would cost to bring KSM to trial.  A firing squad is all fixed cost stuff.  And think of the morale boost to the other detainees, "Oh say can you hear the crackle of the rifles?  By the dawn's early light, Khalid is rising to meet his 72 virgins in Paradise.  I wonder if you get that fabulous Chicken Surprise with Minted Peas and Mashed Potatoes in Paradise? Those stupid Uighurs just got beaches!  They don't even know how to swim! Bwahahahaha!"

Then there are those pesky sideshows: the economy and the Stimulus that is stimulating phantom economies in phantom places with phantom people.  David Obey had this to say about the completely crappy numbers that the Administration put out about how our tax dollars are being put to use:

The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the Administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes.

Credibility counts in government and stupid mistakes like this undermine it. We've got too many serious problems in this country to let that happen.

We designed the Recovery Act to be open and transparent and I expect the the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, who oversees the recovery act web site and data to have information that is accurate, reliable and understandable to the American public.

With all due respect to Rep. Obey: you didn't really design anything.  You and your colleagues rushed and squandered three-quarters of a trillion dollars, and at least a few billion are completely unaccounted for and probably much more than that has gone to line the pockets of the favored.  And remember: Joe Biden was put in charge.  This is what you can expect.

Barack Obama responds to this by calling it a "side issue," (@3:45) but only after saying, "I spend every waking hour- when I'm with my economic team- on this issue."  Follow up: do you spend sleeping hours with your economic team? 

I've been sitting here waiting for my text message from The One about his Afghanistan decision, but it looks like nuthin' till after Thanksgiving.  Surprise!

File under "Too Much To Hope For:" Tiny Timmy Geithner resigning.  Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas, natch):

“I don’t think you should be fired. I thought you should have never been hired.”

I'm going to crack a beer and call it a week.  A wee-week.  And put this on your desktop.  And send it to Obama's crackberry.

You know America's in Trouble...

...When, after the ChiComs do a street vendor round up to get these off the street, 600 American companies didn't hop right in and take up the slack.  Do you know where I can score an ObaMao tee?

A quick image search shows some nifty graphics, but I want the whole calligraphy thing for that authentic touch.

Previously Obscure Sib Cashes In on BO's Asia Trip

One of Barry's many half-siblings has come out with a "semi-autobiographical novel"  just in time for The One's trip to China.  It's not as disconnected as it sounds- this is the brother (we'll call him "Mark" because his other names are too hard to touch type) that lives in China. 

I found this out because I heard on Laura Ingraham this morning that Obama's handlers were gushing about the "perfect pictures" they got of Ghandi Martin Baby Jesus Obama on the Great Wall, which is the only wall he likes to visit, apparently (maybe they told him it was a campaign stop...) Anyway, I looked up the pictures on Yahoo! and found that a) Obama was not on any of its "Most Viewed," "Most Emailed," "World," "Politics" or any other list of subjects.  So I did a search.  I saw all of the pictures (yawn) but then saw something else.  When I clicked on it, this is what I read:

Obama's Half-Brother Makes a Name for Himself in China

I clicked and was transported to this Time Magazine article.  The article itself is only mildly interesting, although it cheers me to know that there's an Obama in the world who doesn't want to [exp. del.] me over because I'm a white American conservative.  More interesting was that the lead in for the news search: "Obama meets with Brother for 5 Minuutes in China." I guess Stan McChrystal should count himself lucky.  But my attention was diverted by what I guess is Time's twist on the stupid "maginifying glass" that websites are using now, where you get a snapshot of a specific topic.  Time's gimmick is to intersperse, between paragraphs, links of interest, all pointing to other Time articles.  The only problem is, the links don't really relate well to the topic at hand.  You can see examples in the article: paragraph discusses Mark's sojourn to China, helpful link asks if you want to find out more about Barack's mother.  Huh? 

So I was taken aback by this [Ndesandjo is Mark]:

Two things: The "backlashes" refer to missteps the President, Barry Jr., has committed in his political career, not the beatings Senior (or Junior, for that matter) meted out to his family, and secondly, TIME MAGAZINE HAS A TOP TEN LIST OF BARACK OBAMA'S SCREW UPS.

I nearly passed out.  I looked at the list and, because it was limited to 10, could not in any way be construed as exhaustive- more like a statistical sampling.  But it was there.

OK- back to work.  Logic beckons.

Holder On Trial, Part Deux

From MKHammer, WS Blog:

Asked by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) if the justice department had contingency plans, should by some technicality, KSM and others not be successfully prosecuted, Holder replied:

“Failure is not an option. These are cases that have to be won. I don’t expect that we will have a contrary result.”

The answer met with audible snickers in the gallery, perhaps from those who were under the impression that the very essence of our court system is that failure to prosecute is always an option.

"Well, that's an interesting point of view," Kohl said. "And, I'll leave it at that."

This seems to be the standard line from the administration on lotsa stuff, mostly agenda items that either haven't actually happened (the seriously bogged Pelosicare,) or Afghanistan, which is in permanent freeze-frame while Obama schedules his ditherectomy,  cap'n trade, jobs jobs jobs, and Gitmo- let's not forget that! etc., and so on, ad infinitum.  And, if all else doesn't work, create a bogus metric ("created or saved") AND CHEAT ON THAT.

This reminds me of something the British schools started several years ago.  It was deemed too hurtful to tender self-esteems to fail a student, so the new parlance became "deferred success."  So, "failure"is not an option, but [indefinitely] deferred success appears to be the SOP.

Holder on Trial

In front of the Senate Judiciary committee:

Graham: Can you give me a case in United States History where a enemy combatant caught on the battlefield was tried in civilian court?

[crickets]

Holder: "Hmm... I'd have to look at that... the determination..."

STOP THE PRESSES!! YOU MEAN TO SAY THAT HE DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW?!! I guess the consultations with his wife and brother weren't extensive.**

Graham: "We're making history here, Mr. Holder, I'll answer it for you.  The answer is no. [...]"

Holder makes it clear that he doesn't really have a "protocol."  Lindsay knows what he's talking about, and it shows here.  I could do with a little less of the "You're a fine man, you care about making America safe, blah, blah, blah."

**From The Newshour:

JIM LEHRER: Who did you consult while making this decision?

ERIC HOLDER: I talked to the prosecutors in the Justice Department, prosecutors from the Department of Defense, people on the staff here at the Justice Department, people at Defense, a whole variety of people, who shared ideas, thoughts, gave cautionary ideas as well, and, using all of that, came up with the decision that we announced just earlier today.

JIM LEHRER: Did you run it by President Obama?

ERIC HOLDER: Just informed him of the decision.

He's a person who believes that a president's supposed to have hands off with his Justice Department. He's a good lawyer. And there are times when I would like to involve him maybe a little more, but his view is that, in those things that are in the province of the attorney general, all he needs to be is informed.

JIM LEHRER: So, you just told him what your decision was; you didn't say, "What do you think about it, Mr. President?"

ERIC HOLDER: Nope. Told him last night -- or had relayed to him what I was going to do last night while he was on Air Force One on his way to Asia.

JIM LEHRER: Did you talk to anybody outside the government?

ERIC HOLDER: I talked to my wife...

JIM LEHRER: Yes? OK.

ERIC HOLDER: ... about what she thought. And I actually talked to my brother, who's a retired Port Authority police officer who served...

JIM LEHRER: Oh, is that right? Yes.

ERIC HOLDER: ... in New York, New Jersey, and who lost friends and colleagues on 9/11 in the towers, and talked to them about what -- was it appropriate to bring it in New York, the symbolic significance of it, the possibility of getting a good and fair detached jury.