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Looks like… 19 January 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, 2010 Mid Terms, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, WAR!.
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gazawomanflowerpot

In pictures: Gaza City, a scene of destruction as the Israeli offensive ends. A Palestinian woman salvages some of the family’s belongings from the rubble of their home [AP]

…a potted begonia made it thru. This time. One report I caught said that three large minarets had their tops blown straight off, at least in the area the camera was filming, one cemetery was blasted from the air and another, came under tank and bulldozer assault.

The Israelis left their calling card.

Patrick Cockburn in the Independent…

[T]he rebuilding of Gaza after the Israeli bombardment already faces unique problems and is likely to be the most difficult reconstruction project in the world. This is because of the sheer scale of the devastation, the economic siege of the Palestinian enclave by Israel and Egypt, and the attempt to exclude Hamas, the elected rulers of Gaza, from any role in the rebuilding.

The difficulties are all the greater because of the destruction of much of the tunnel system linking Gaza to Egypt. Israeli and European leaders talk of the tunnel system – by one estimate there are 1,100 of them – as if it was exclusively devoted to supplying weapons and ammunition to Hamas. In reality, “the tunnel economy” has been the way in which food, fuel and everything else has reached Gaza since Israel and Egypt sealed off the Strip 18 months ago, when Hamas drove out the rival Palestinian faction Fatah in 2007. Military supplies were always a very small part of Gaza’s imports through the tunnels.

“Everything from Viagra to diesel entered Gaza through the tunnels,” said one source. At one point before the Israeli attack, the price of petrol went down in Gaza because a pipeline had been threaded through one of the tunnels, all of which are privately dug and owned. Cooking-gas bottles are in short supply because they previously came in through tunnels that are now closed.  ..snip…

When I have read of tunnel systems in the past, in various places in the former Yugoslavia for one, they are used for everything.  Small things like hair color, dry goods, medicine, and of course weapons.

Everyone needs something..

woman-child-holes_gaza

A woman holding her baby sits at the entrance of a shrapnel and rocket damaged building [GETTY]

Angry Arab claims that some tunnels to Gaza, coming from Egypt, were large enough to bring in cows.  Much less chickens and other small size live stock.

I am sure we are all very relieved:

Israel says that it will have withdrawn all its troops from the Gaza Strip by the time Barack Obama is inaugurated today.

A first priority forthe UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) will be to bring in foodstuffs and medicines and rebuild its supply system stretching from the Israeli port of Ashdod to the Gaza Strip. Then it will try to restore the electricity, water and sewage systems wrecked by Israeli bombs and shells. Amnesty International yesterday accused Israel of war crimes, saying its use of white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas of Gaza was indiscriminate and illegal.

But other than boycott (very important) march, demonstrate, what can anyone do?  The governments will do nothing, or only what suits them… and the UN is simply able to supply food and supplies, small bits of refuge, to the most poor and, then, to manufacture words.  Witness, I suppose.

***

However, we should not fret.  None other than the same Independent – and I remember when they began, in 1990, declaring that while they might report on The Royal Family or on The Church of England or other religions as befitted reporting the news, the whole thing was dated and would be treated as such… says this, riding over a long extract from Bai:

This afternoon, when Barack Obama takes the Oath of Office, America’s 50-year quest to find a truly transformational leader will finally be over.

Make sure your ticket to Paradise is in your hot little hand.  Don’t be left out!

obamaepa-crowds_1241620i

Hundreds of thousands of Americans braved the cold in Washington to give a rapturous welcome to Barack Obama and his family at the star-studded concert [EPA]

Comments»

1. marisacat - 19 January 2009

whew. This is the caption to a photo of Bono at the concert. May his balls get tangled in knots for being so presumptuous:

U2′s Bono said Mr Obama’s election triumph was the fruition of “the Irish dream, the European dream, the African dream, the Israeli dream and also the Palestinian dream”

Some levels of presumption are just sacrilegious.

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2. CSTAR - 19 January 2009

In symbols: IDF → rubble.

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3. marisacat - 19 January 2009

The Guardian has a story up on the deaths in the Samouni family of al Zeitoun:

[T]hey left behind their own unique detritus: bullet casings, roasted peanuts in tins with Hebrew script, a plastic bag containing a “High Quality Body Warmer”, dozens of olive-green waste disposal bags, some empty, some stinking full – the troops’ portable toilets.

But most disturbing of all was the graffiti they daubed on the walls of the ground floor. Some was in Hebrew, but much was naively written in English: “Arabs need 2 die”, “Die you all”, “Make war not peace”, “1 is down, 999,999 to go”, and scrawled on an image of a gravestone the words: “Arabs 1948-2009″.

There were several sketches of the Star of David flag. “Gaza here we are,” it said in English next to one.

Helmi’s brother Salah, 30, had an apartment in the same house. He too was pulling out what he could, including an Israeli work permit once issued to his father. “They gave him a permit and then they came from Israel and they killed him,” said Salah. In the attack he lost both his parents, Talal and Rahma, and his two-year-old daughter Aza.

During the war, Israel banned journalists from entering Gaza. But the accounts of Salah and his neighbours outside the rubble of their homes yesterday corroborate the accounts from witnesses given in the days after the attack, accounts which led the UN to describe the killings at Zeitoun as one of the gravest episodes of the war and the Red Cross to call it, in a rare public rebuke, “a shocking incident”.

More than a dozen bodies were pulled from the rubble on Sunday, and one more yesterday, bringing the Samouni death toll to 48, according to Dr Mouawia Hassanein, head of Gaza’s Emergency Medical Services.

With more bodies being recovered each day, the death toll from Israel’s three-week war now stands at 1,360. On the Israeli side, 13 were killed. …snip…

100 to one.

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4. CSTAR - 19 January 2009

100/1

May the goddess bestow on these warriors sleepless nights for the remainder of their sojourn on earth.

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5. catnip - 20 January 2009

Booboo spaketh thusly:

The critique of OpenLeft isn’t that they are negative, but that they are using the wrong analytical frameworks and, thus, are coming to the wrong conclusions. It’s hard to generalize about a blog that has several different front-pagers with different worldviews, but if there is a commonality to OpenLeft it is a tendency to focus like a laser on the spoken or written word. I don’t want to characterize or reduce their analysis to liberal orthodoxy, but that is the lens thru which almost all OpenLeft’s analysis is done. Articles and transcripts are parsed, and wherever something is found that clashes with liberal orthodoxy, the result is an angry, concerned, or panicky post that seeks to explain why the deviation is a major threat or huge warning sign.

This is the wrong analytical framework for the times, although that might seem counterintuitive considering Barack Obama’s unique oratorical skills. But Obama’s unique genius is precisely his ability to use language to inspire a generation of supporters and disarm would-be opponents. The meaning of Obama’s words is not found in their literal meaning, but in the ways those words are received by their intended audiences. When Obama speaks to a right-leaning editorial board about his admiration for Ronald Reagan’s transformative presidency, he isn’t signaling that he wants to emulate Reagan’s policies. When he talks to the Washington Post editorial board about the importance of entitlement reform he is recognizing the Post’s interest and concern about the issue and showing them respect, not signaling that he will privatize Social Security. When he tells the Blue Dogs that they will be invited to hold a conference on fiscal responsibility, he’s telling them that they are an important part of the party and the conversation, not suggesting that he will suddenly adopt Pay-Go principles. When Obama says something gracious about George W. Bush he is keeping the Republicans from gaining some new rallying point, not telling us that he thinks Bush is truly a good man.

Obama uses language to unite people and to disarm them. If he occasionally says something true but harsh, he quickly apologizes. More often, he gives his ideological opponents the rhetorical benefit of the doubt. He shows people and their ideas respect…often more respect than they deserve. He studiously avoids creating lightning rods that can serve as oppositional organizing points. He reaches out to evangelicals, to the Republican leadership, to conservative commentators, to right-wing Democrats.

In the process of doing these things, he inevitably neglects to pander to those whom he most agrees with. Progressive criticism strengthens Obama precisely because it makes him look more centrist. He has succeeded in staking out the broadest middle we’ve seen in memory. He hasn’t changed any of his commitments (at least, not in any fundamental way) that he campaigned on, but he has blunted all criticism from the center and the center-right. This was the goal all along. Some call it moving the Overton Window. What was once considered radical (e.g., revisiting national health care, allowing gays to serve openly in the military) is now considered acceptable. Now we argue about the timing, not the substance.

Kool-aid spill on aisle 4!

Is Tuesday over yet? Mon dieu. On with the coronation already. Will there be ponies?

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6. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Blahgers really do reach back and pull it out. Good lord.

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7. marisacat - 20 January 2009

:lol:

When he talks to the Washington Post editorial board about the importance of entitlement reform he is recognizing the Post’s interest and concern about the issue and showing them respect, not signaling that he will privatize Social Security.

There is just nothing to say………………… :roll:

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8. catnip - 20 January 2009
9. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Merry Christmas……………

Some 2,000 Rwandan troops have entered the Democratic Republic of Congo to fight a Rwandan Hutu militia, the UN says.

For more details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

***

Found this at the Globe and Mail

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10. BooHooHooMan - 20 January 2009

ARIANNA: “WE ARE ALL BEING INAUGURATED”

Well fuck, Arianna- why didn’t you publish that earlier?
Any idea what it’s like trying to rent a pair of
pleather shoes now?

Get a load of this…the local chili dog “watch party” – the one I heard about at least – and declined citing bubonic plague in the family- It was cancelled LOL. The drop in the DC Inaugural Housing Market enticed a few of the local pilgrims to make the journey.

The “shared sacrifice” slobber and the willingness of rubes to ignore its relentless incrementalism leaves little room for optimism. I just ran through last weekends MTP with David Brooks. The Rahm was bad enough, But 40 some minutes into a 50 minute show , and I was ready to spit up. Brooks going on about how the stimulus ( all funded by bonds mind you) how the stimulus was only part of Obama’s arc, and that clearly by 2010 the shift would be made against “entitlements”.

People in the States understand little WRT the degree and precision in which they are targetted in a class war. It’s no wonder religious values of “tolerance” “cooperation” etc are used so cynically, and with such success, against incrementalists be they “Progressives”‘ or the largely mythical “Compassionates” coming at it from either Left or Right of center.. No, the “Religion” and “Values” and “Peace-Loving” Slobber is key for this to go on….

I would love to be wrong WRT Obama.
Buddimnat.
LOL.

And I realize I could ge gaphing here in the manner Taibbi recently describbled Friedman, LOL,
But Just for kicks I’ll review some predic’s of the last few:
I thought DK would be out of Biz by now
and that Markos would hold no influence.
They’re not and he don’t. LOL ..( I love bad grammar)
So Battin .500 …
I hate Baseball, but George Will and Olbermann could take note.

I thought Burris was “IN” and Caroline would soon follow to the Sen
He is, and She Will.
And I’m one of the least perceptive peeps around here.
So Battin .750 overall, cherrypicking notwithstanding. LOL.

Again, I’d love to be wrong about Obama, But Gahd,
even I can see Obama’s brass knuckleballs a mile away.
The guy’s a ringer.

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11. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Brooks was awful on MTP… and he burbled up the same regurgitated bird food on TNH on PBS…

Another white pre orgasmic male for ObRama. Sorry to be crude.

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12. marisacat - 20 January 2009

oh FFS… Uri Avnery.

It is impossible to understand the viciousness of this war without taking into account the historical background: the feeling of victimhood after all that has been done to the Jews throughout the ages, and the conviction that after the Holocaust, we have the right to do anything, absolutely anything, to defend ourselves, without any inhibitions due to law or morality.

Please. Go bomb BAVARIA.

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13. marisacat - 20 January 2009

The close of Avnery’s piece…

The Arab defeat in the 1948 war brought in its wake the fall of almost all the existing Arab regimes and the ascent of a new generation of nationalist leaders, exemplified by Gamal Abd-al-Nasser. The 2009 war may bring about the fall of the current crop of Arab regimes and the ascent of a new generation of leaders – Islamic fundamentalists who hate Israel and all the West..

In coming years it will become apparent that this war was sheer madness. The boss has indeed gone mad – in the original sense of the word.

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14. BooHooHooMan - 20 January 2009

12 and 13- Uri Avnery

In the end what do you get? You get Israelis. And More War.
90% support for the Gaza Atrocities and tepid criticism from the remainder. Few Exceptions.
Same as 90% of the Leftischers here in the U.S.
I’ve just laughed my ass off at the reversible bullshit that somehow the Left in Israel is more critical in the Promised Land or the much vaunted secularity of Jews here in the US, so disaffected they are WRT to Tel Aviv. A problem.

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15. BooHooHooMan - 20 January 2009

A woman just called into CSPAN from Cali and brought up the Bailout unapologetically used the term “Jewish Bankers” WRT Wall Street and the Bailout grab and noted Obama’s Cabinet is in the bag for AIPAC.

Whoa -Fuck! A second guy just called in going after AIPAC on Obs Happy Day. .LMAO_ called in before I could finish typing this comment and Said the same fuckin thingLOL. He said its all about AIPAC. AIPAC is key… he mentioned some website and they cut him off. LOL It wasn’t me, man. LOL -.-Yeh, well, maybe the ADL does have more and more people to worry about now…

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16. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Prescript! Listen up! Obsters going to church this am! About to leave Blair House!… and TD Jakes is the visiting pastor and will deliver the sermon…

SO GLAD I DID NOT VOTE FOR THE BORN AGAIN. (sorry to be a sour lemon drop!)

In other news!

It’s from PRess TV, which is Iranian..

Obama feels for us Israelis: Netanyahu

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:16:52 GMT

Barack Obama will become the US president later on Tuesday.
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu says Barack Obama is silent on the issue of Gaza because of his understanding of the “distress” of Israelis.

In his comments on Tuesday, the Israeli opposition leader strengthened the widely held belief in the Middle East that the US president-elect’s silence on the Israeli war on Gaza shows his tacit agreement with President George W. Bush’s stance toward the issue.

The United States, which blocked a UN Security Council resolution in the opening days of the recent war on Gaza, claims that Israeli military operations have been carried out in self-defense against the homemade missiles launched into Israel by Hamas as part of its “resistance to occupation”.

“I took away the impression that Barack Obama understood our distress very well as well as the cruelty of the enemies we face,” said Netanyahu, who has been tipped in the polls to become the next prime minister. …SNIPPY!…

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17. BooHooHooMan - 20 January 2009

Bill Daley is Glued to the Limo waiting for the ObLama.
Jesus can afford to be late to Church though ,right?

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18. marisacat - 20 January 2009

From The Note… ummm what “social repair”??????????????

“Obama’s challenge will be to translate the social repair that has occurred over the past decade into political and governing repair,” David Brooks writes in his New York Times column. “Part of that will be done with his inaugural address today. Look for him to emphasize the themes of responsibility, cohesion and unity. Look for him to reject the culture, which lingered in the financial world, of anything goes.”

Reminds me that princes of the church blame[d] pederasty and pedophilia on the laissez faire 60s.

I don’t think so…………………………

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19. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009
20. mattes - 20 January 2009

You guys are not just a tiny binny itsy bitsy….happier today??

I can only imagine what coffee between the Obamas and Bushes will be like today.

Bush came into office surrounded by protestors, and Obama with great expectations…and welcoming crowds of thousands.

I believe we are going in a better direction. :P

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21. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

US reaches deal on Afghan supply routes to troops

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The U.S. has struck deals with Russia and neighboring countries allowing it to transport supplies to American troops in Afghanistan through their territory, the head of U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

::snip::

U.S. officials have said that one likely route is overland from Russia through Kazakhstan and on through Uzbekistan using trucks and trains. Another possible route is via Azerbaijan across the Caspian Sea to the Kazakh port of Aktau and then through Uzbekistan.

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22. mattes - 20 January 2009

Latest:

According to the polls, Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to be the first Israeli to meet Obama in the White House. During Netanyahu’s first term in office, in 1996-99, his neo-conservative worldview led him to clash with the previous Democratic president. That occurred as Clinton’s ambition to push forth the Oslo process met Netanyahu’s ambition to bring it to an end.

Obama is surrounded by Jewish advisers who are very familiar with Israeli tricks and stalling tactics, especially when it comes to the settlements (have we mentioned “natural growth” yet?), but they would still want the new president to adopt the tradition of the “special relationship” with the Jewish state. Obama, however, has also been exposed to the school of thought, existing in both the administration and the American think tanks, that argues that the excessive closeness between the U.S. and Israel undermines America’s strategic interests in the Arab world.

Brent Scowcroft, one of the shapers of foreign policy under President George H.W. Bush, and according to Time magazine, a strong influence on Obama, has called for a fundamental restructuring of American policy in the Middle East. Scowcroft, who was the boss of the current (and incoming) defense secretary Robert Gates, and a friend of the new national security adviser, James Jones, is proposing that the “special relationship” be adjusted to a “natural relationship.” Perhaps such a change would be able to transform celebratory ceremonies into dry agreements.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1056944.html

Report: Sarkozy to host global summit on Mideast peace
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057116.html

Lieberman to Tibi: We must treat some Arab MKs like we treated Hamas
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057089.html

…..anyone have a good simple chile recipe??

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23. mattes - 20 January 2009

Part of the Condi and Livi agreement, war with Iran:

US-Egyptian Red Sea hunt for Iranian ship carrying 60 tons of arms for Hamas

January 20, 2009, 1:11 PM (GMT+02:00)
Iranian Fajr-5 rocket

Iranian Fajr-5 rocket

US and Egyptian warships were scouring the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea Tuesday, Jan. 20 to waylay an Iranian freighter carrying scores of heavy rockets for delivery to Hamas. DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report they were acting on intelligence that a ship loaded with an estimated 60 tons of arms to replenish Hamas’ depleted war stocks had set out from the Iranian Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas on Jan. 17.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5867

Agreement Aims To Cut Off Hamas Arms

A Senior State Department official says the Memorandum of Understanding which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will sign today is “basically designed to cut off the re-arming of Hamas in Gaza.”

The official said the MOU is “an important contribution to getting a durable cease fire.” Although it is worded in general language and short on specifics, the MOU does call for the sharing of intelligence, and it is designed to have the U.S. and Israel work with regional states to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza.

snip
The signing ceremony affords Rice a positive measure with which to conclude her four years as Secretary of State — and it may give Livni a political boost back home, where she is in a tight race to become Israel’s next prime minister.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/01/16/world
/worldwatch/entry4727233.shtml

blahblahblah:

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24. marisacat - 20 January 2009

You guys are not just a tiny binny itsy bitsy….happier today??

I am happy to be a sour lemon drop in life.

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25. mattes - 20 January 2009

….trying to cut out sugar myself….

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26. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

20 – mattes – Speaking for myself, I’m certainly relieved it’s not McCain and Palin heading for podium and Bible today. But I’m also glad the planet wasn’t hit by giant asteroids overnight!

I do hope your hopes – and the hopes of millions more – are fulfilled, at least a tiny binny itsy little bit, as time goes on. Hard to imagine the national “direction” could get any worse than it’s been, but given where that’s taken us to date, I’ve no plans to switch out the lenses on my reading glasses now.

But enjoy the moment if you can, I always say.

::Smileys doing the can-can go here!::

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27. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Chomsky.. long but well worth it, January 19, 2009…

The close…

Israel is deliberately turning itself into perhaps the most hated country in the world, and is also losing the allegiance of the population of the West, including younger American Jews, who are unlikely to tolerate its persistent shocking crimes for long. Decades ago, I wrote that those who call themselves “supporters of Israel” are in reality supporters of its moral degeneration and probable ultimate destruction. Regrettably, that judgment looks more and more plausible.

Meanwhile we are quietly observing a rare event in history, what the late Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called “politicide,” the murder of a nation — at our hands.

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28. mattes - 20 January 2009

President-elect Barack Obama is considering issuing an executive order to reverse a controversial Bush administration abortion policy in his first week in office, three Democratic sources said Monday.

“Mexico City policy”

The sources said Obama may use the occasion to reverse the “Mexico City policy” reinstated in 2001 by Bush that prohibits U.S. money from funding international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services. It bans any organization receiving family planning funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development from offering abortions or abortion counseling.

CNN
:P

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29. marisacat - 20 January 2009

mattes

that flips back and forth between R and D regular as sun up and sun down. In the US it is reported breathlessly and with drama. And even so all the obster mouthpieces can manage is “considering”.

More troublesome is the HHS new rules that Bush signed 32 days prior to leaving office. I have posted about it regularly since it was leaked in June. Much mroe restrictive. And will be harder to reverse. Medical providers, at all levels, may decline to provide care, as well information based not just on religioin or moral issues, but on mere preference. And may do so without writtne notice to an employer, as is required under current conscience exceptions. It won’t be jsut abortion. Or birth control.

I am sick to death of caging policy and caging HUMANS for forcing votes.

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30. BooHooHooMan - 20 January 2009

Get The Fuck OUT!

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31. diane - 20 January 2009

How quaint that the Israelis stopped the bombing in time for the proper Wall Street worship.

I don’t think McCain would have ever been allowed into office, just an inside joke, funny that the electoral college never comes up as a bad guy anymore.

Full disclosure, I voted for Obama in a moment of what if McCrank got in….we were so fully surrounded by the machine…Mars will likely be leaving another silent but deadly methane cloud off today in our honor, as it did in 2003.when we bombed the fuck out of the Fertile Crescent………..

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32. marisacat - 20 January 2009

out of where?

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33. diane - 20 January 2009

gotta run…the machine I work for just doesn’t leave the proper time to make worship…guess they figure the well bred do it so much better…………

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34. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Don’t miss it. Another Madoff confrere. A Jew to Catholic – conversion – version… ripping off the diocese. Down in FL… Don’t miss the pic. [thanks to an email]

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35. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Where would we be, without hats like that?!

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36. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Whoa . . . Poppy’s looking poorly, eh?

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37. CSTAR - 20 January 2009

34 35 Pics and hats…

I wonder if they wear those hats while they deflower little boys….

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38. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Aw shit, they took Cheney down a ramp. Was kinda hoping they’d just splatter him onto the steps there, to the cheering throngs.

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39. catnip - 20 January 2009

I might be feeling something resembling happiness (or at least surprise) today if I was assured that Obama would ban torture.

As for the “historical” part of this, MLK 3 was on Larry King’s show last nite:

L. KING: We’re with Martin Luther King III, the son of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., human and civil rights leader, and founder of Realizing the Dream Incorporated. Has the dream been accomplished?

KING III: An aspect of the dream with the election of President- Elect Obama achieved. But I would say we’ve got a long way to go before we really achieve the dream. My dad talked about triple evils of poverty, racism and militarism. Obviously, in relationship to race, a monumental step has been made with the election of the first black president. But poverty and militarism, they are at epidemic levels. Poverty at epidemic levels, militarism, we just yet don’t know how to learn to live together without destroying personal property.

He went on to say what great potential Obamalama has but people really need to get past this idea that he’s the second coming of MLK. Poverty? He’s more interested in helping the middle class. Militarism? Tens of thousands of more troops to Afghanistan. ‘Nuff said.

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40. bayprairie - 20 January 2009

22.

Pedernales River Chili Lady Bird Johnson

4 pounds coarsely ground beef (chili-grind)
1 large chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 teaspoons chili powder
2 (16-ounce) cans tomatoes
Salt to taste
2 cups hot water

In a large frying pan, brown meat with onion and garlic until meat is lightly browned; transfer ingredients to a large kettle.

Add oregano, cumin, chili powder, tomatoes, salt, and hot water. Bring just to a boil; lower heat and simmer, covered, for approximately 1 hour. Remove from heat. Skim off grease and serve.

Serves 12.

this recipe should be ok but i usually use 3 TBLS chili powder per pound of beef and i leave the tomatoes out. chili’s freestyle cookery of course. i also cook chili longer, and slower, than that. hour and a half minimum. also recommend you drain the meat well after browning. heehee. nobody should be asked to skim grease, that dates the recipe.

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41. catnip - 20 January 2009

38. Was kinda hoping they’d just splatter him onto the steps there, to the cheering throngs.

There’s still hope that he’ll accidentally fall over the balcony’s edge.

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42. catnip - 20 January 2009

Barack H Obama.

lol

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43. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Not too much applause for Ricky Saddleback, it seems. . . .

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44. bayprairie - 20 January 2009

5. boober’s a long-winded buffoon, isn’t he?

it goes without saying that blowjobs are the democratic “analytical framework” of the day. textual analysis? ha!

all good partay blogers polish the OB knob.

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45. bayprairie - 20 January 2009

They came from the District, the surrounding region and from across the country to watch Obama place his right hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution — 148 years after his historical hero and fellow Illinois political leader embarked on a mission to preserve the Union and end slavery.

worshipping a culture of occupation :::hattip madman:::

LIncoln Speech to Indians (excerpt)
March 27, 1863

“We have people now present from all parts of the globe—here, and here, and here. There is a great difference between this palefaced people and their red brethren, both as to numbers and the way in which they live. We know not whether your own situation is best for your race, but this is what has made the difference in our way of living.

“The pale-faced people are numerous and prosperous because they cultivate the earth, produce bread, and depend upon the products of the earth rather than wild game for a subsistence.

“This is the chief reason of the difference; but there is another. Although we are now engaged in a great war between one another, we are not, as a race, so much disposed to fight and kill one another as our red brethren.

“You have asked for my advice. I really am not capable of advising you whether, in the providence of the Great Spirit, who is the great Father of us all, it is best for you to maintain the habits and customs of your race, or adopt a new mode of life.

“I can only say that I can see no way in which your race is to become as numerous and prosperous as the white race except by living as they do, by the cultivation of the earth.

:::snip:::

The following is a list of the chiefs in attendance:

“Cheyennes.—Lean Bear, War Bonnet, and Standing Water. “Kiowais.—Yellow Buffalo, Lone Wolf, Yellow Wolf, White Bull, and Little Heart. “Arapahoes.—Spotted Wolf and Nevah. “Comanches.—Pricked Forehead and Ten Bears. “Apache.—Poor Bear. “Caddo.—Jacob.

as an aside all the cheyennes listed were dead in less than a year and a half, war bonnet and standing water were murdered at sand creek, and lean bear was murdered at ash creek.

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46. marisacat - 20 January 2009

needs a PROMPTER

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47. mattes - 20 January 2009

Marcat, I was trying to be funny with my sugar comment…not sure how it came across. :P

….I am sentimental….I feel happy today. And hope for change.

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48. marisacat - 20 January 2009

mattes…

don’t worry.. my “out of where?” was to BHHM… nto sure what he meant.

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49. catnip - 20 January 2009

“all are equal”

except Teh Gayz

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50. catnip - 20 January 2009

I had a twinge of sentimentality. Then I realized it was PMS.

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51. marisacat - 20 January 2009

they died for us in Khe San.

Okayyyyyyyyyyyyy.

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52. bayprairie - 20 January 2009

in 1868, at the council held at medicine lodge in kasnas territory, paruasemana (ten bears) spoke

There has been trouble on the line between us and my young men have danced the war dance. But it was not begun by us. It was you to send the first soldier and we who sent out the second. Two years ago I came upon this road, following the buffalo, that my wives and children might have their cheeks plump and their bodies warm. But the soldiers fired on us, and since that time there has been a noise like that of a thunderstorm and we have not known which way to go. So it was upon the Canadian. Nor have we been made to cry alone. The blue dressed soldiers and the Utes came from out of the night when it was dark and still, and for camp fires they lit our lodges. Instead of hunting game they killed my braves, and the warriors of the tribe cut short their hair for the dead. So it was in Texas. They made sorrow come in our camps, and we went out like the buffalo bulls when the cows are attacked. When we found them, we killed them, and their scalps hang in our lodges. The Comanches are not weak and blind, like the pups of a dog when seven sleeps old. They are strong and farsighted, like grown horses. We took their road and we went on it. The white women cried and our women laughed.

But there are things which you have said which I do not like. They were not sweet like sugar but bitter like gourds. You said that you wanted to put us upon reservation, to build our houses and make us medicine lodges. I do not want them. I was born on the prairie where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no inclosures [sic] and where everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls. I know every stream and every wood between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas. I have hunted and lived over the country. I lived like my fathers before me, and like them, I lived happily.

When I was at Washington the Great Father told me that all the Comanche land was ours and that no one should hinder us in living upon it. So, why do you ask us to leave the rivers and the sun and the wind and live in houses? Do not ask us to give up the buffalo for the sheep. The young men have heard talk of this, and it has made them sad and angry. Do not speak of it more. I love to carry out the talk I got from the Great Father. When I get goods and presents I and my people feel glad, since it shows that he holds us in his eye.

If the Texans had kept out of my country there might have been peace. But that which you now say we must live on is too small. The Texans have taken away the places where the grass grew the thickest and the timber was the best. Had we kept that we might have done the things you ask. But it is too late. The white man has the country which we loved, and we only wish to wander on the prairie until we die.

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53. catnip - 20 January 2009

He forgot Buddhists.

Asshole.

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54. catnip - 20 January 2009

:D

Maybe all of the Buddhists have left the country?

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55. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Actually he left Catholics – priests – and Jews – rabbis – out of the religoius line up… so Buddhists have some company. Of a sort… LOL.

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56. mattes - 20 January 2009

LOL…catnip!!

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57. mattes - 20 January 2009

This spoke to me.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.

…well, sure he could have said…humankind.

Here is the transcript:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/20/1261/02980/1004/686506

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58. catnip - 20 January 2009

For a country that rejected the monarchy, you have far more pomp and ceremony than we parliamentary types.

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59. NYCO - 20 January 2009

I waited for the shockwave of change to hit my house, but apparently it decided to stop for a drink somewhere in Georgetown.

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60. NYCO - 20 January 2009

Daily Kos TV debuts.

MY EYES! MY EYES!!!!!

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61. ms_xeno - 20 January 2009

#20:

NO.

I’m guessing there’ll be little in the way of protests for Golden Man from the supposed anti-war crowd. I mean, they’re “In” now. Or think they are. Apparently having your pocket picked to fund murder and your intelligence insulted is fine with a lot of people so long as it’s done by, y’know, the guy you’d “want to have a beer with.”

Anyway, turns out that all those years of protests were all along were big pep rallies for the Democrats, anyway. Screw that. I’d rather stay home and read comic books from the library.

But I use El Pato sauce for my chili base, so what the fuck do I know.

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62. catnip - 20 January 2009

This is the moment I’ve been waiting for: Bush – leaving.

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63. BooHooHooMan - 20 January 2009

LOL I posted the “get the fuck out” when they rolled BadHeart out of the White House. Go GO! I say!. (all the way over to Langley.)

I did like the fact that the crowd booed Bush and Cheney later on at the Capitol.

Oh I am glad to see them go but it IS quite fucked up,no?
How “happy” can one be in watching killers go FREE.

Still, and this is to mattes here-
It’s Quite another matter to believe what is being sold by one guy at the podium in league with the same 4 0r 500 people that have been toppling governments, funding death squads and exploiting people worldwide for the last 50 years…You can count on a few fingers the number of people on that Inaugural set who are genuine. I do not count Obama among them but he certainly brings in the crowds…

I was getting the vid feeds online and they crashed right before the Obama speech so I switched to audio. Frankly it is cut and paste themes from the primaries. Nowphrasingwithdrawaal fromIraq as Responsible withdrawal, whattawhen the fuck that means…

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64. mattes - 20 January 2009

bayprairie…the whole Native American thing leaves me very sad.

Many in american have na blood, and I suspected I did as well, but no conformation from family. Out of all the religions, I have always gravitated to the earth ones most. Always having felt uncomfortable in churches.

About two years ago I had my mtdna done, and surprisingly it came out haplogroup A, one of the 5 mtdna of native americans. So I turned out to be a mix between na and sephardic jew at a minimum. And by growing up between the states and mexico, it has left me a little confused. :P

I wish the history of NAs were made more of a part of our history. African americans have helped us break through the evils of slavery. And NAs have left a legacy, if not in culture…in dna.

I believe our constitution was influenced by the Iroquois Confederacy, and it’s never been politically acknowledged. I wish cable would replay When the West Was Lost, as I remember it was a wonderful series. One more program on the Holocaust and I am going to scream!!

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65. ms_xeno - 20 January 2009

I posted the lyrics to Kate Schutt’s “brokenworld” in my own space this morning. Hell, anything to cut through all the arsenic-laced syrup. WTF ?

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66. bayprairie - 20 January 2009

But I use El Pato sauce for my chili base

with the duck on the label?

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67. ms_xeno - 20 January 2009

More solace from SMBIVA:

I wondered about that — how far to the right will he go. Pretty far, certainly, as you note. But this seems more like the selective ignorance, officiousness and inability to understand already existing conviviality that one can kind in the typical asshole. He’s an asshole. He’d be a discredit to whatever ideology he adopted and whatever party he joined. — Al Schumann <a href="http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2009/01/barack_obama_the_libertarians.html"1/19/09

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68. ms_xeno - 20 January 2009

Yes, bay. I call it “Lazy Gringa Chili.” Onions, garlic, meat, a bit of all. Then beans on the side. Preferably not from a can. Now that I’m out of work, I have lots of time to plan these elaborate dinner parties, doncha’ know…

Red with red meat. Green with ground poultry like turkey. I almost lived on it back when I was a student. Everything old is new again… :)

(Mcat, sorry for screwing up that tag.)

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69. mattes - 20 January 2009

http://www.mexgrocer.com/brand-el-pato.html

…well, I am off to gather stuff for chile. Should last me all week. Thanks for recipe. I’ll see if I can get the pato, too.

My deep deep wisdom, all I know:

“When life is good…it can be so very very good. And when it’s bad….it sucks, the rest’s a mystery.”

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70. bayprairie - 20 January 2009

i know the duck! its a popular brand down here as well. beans on the side, i see. people i know line up and go to war with each other about putting beans in chili. i agree though, on the side, is proper.

but ive had it all kinds of ways and most of them work. woohoo.

my guilty secret is i like chili atop white rice.

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71. catnip - 20 January 2009

63. Frankly it is cut and paste themes from the primaries.

Exactly.

How “happy” can one be in watching killers go FREE.

For how long? Especially if either one dares to travel outside of the US.

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72. ms_xeno - 20 January 2009

catnip, my trick is to squander all my money on beans and then not travel. :p

bay, seems to me that in the old days, only the bodegas in Jersey City carried El Pato. By the time I moved out here, it was readily available at the Mega-Marts. A big break for me, as there’s only so much PB&J anyone should have to eat. ;)

My usual formula is two small cans to one pound of lean meat for chili. Or one can to one pound of lean meat for taco filling.

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73. catnip - 20 January 2009

Did Olbermann need a fainting couch? I don’t get MSNBC anymore.

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74. catnip - 20 January 2009

72. catnip, my trick is to squander all my money on beans and then not travel.

I just discovered last year that because I have lupus I’m not supposed to eat beans. Not that I’m a big bean fan to begin with but that was news to me. Luckily, cheesecake doesn’t have beans. ;)

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75. marisacat - 20 January 2009

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Former President George W. Bush Departs Washington en Route to Texas [1:22 p.m. ET]

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76. catnip - 20 January 2009

Brrrreaking on CNN: reports that a senator has collapsed in the luncheon.

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77. catnip - 20 January 2009

It might be Teddy.

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78. marisacat - 20 January 2009

old and creaky… so many possibilities to choose from.

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79. marisacat - 20 January 2009

it’s Byrd…

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80. catnip - 20 January 2009

Nope. It’s Teddy. Obama just confirmed it.

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81. marisacat - 20 January 2009

needs a teleprompter.

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82. catnip - 20 January 2009

Politico is saying that a witness described it as a seizure.

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83. marisacat - 20 January 2009

NBC is correcting now…………………………… it’s Teddy…

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84. marisacat - 20 January 2009

ABC calling it convulsions

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Sen. Ted Kennedy Suffers Convulsions at Congressional Luncheon [2:48 p.m. ET]

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85. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

MSNBC has Fineman on now saying Byrd had trouble eating, as dessert was being served, and was escorted out of the lunchroom early, and then a few minutes later, Teddy was rushed out, having convulsions.

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86. marisacat - 20 January 2009

It may have been both Kennedy and Byrd.

Old and creaky, so many to choose from.

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87. mattes - 20 January 2009

” that because I have lupus I’m not supposed to eat beans”…waaaa?? Tell me it aint so. I could live on beans/sourcream and rice…. Catnip, I have had some success with primrose oil.

Just turned tv on. This is sad.

Well, I know now why my last chile was not right. I forgot the chile powder….

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88. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Apparently Cornyn is going to insist on an upperdown vote for Hillary. Some TV head earlier noted that Hill approached Cornyn and exchanged some words, prior to lunch. . . .

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89. catnip - 20 January 2009

87. Tell me it aint so.

I ran across the info on a couple of web sites last year. No beans, alfalfa sprouts, processed meats etc.

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90. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Apparently Dodd is now saying that Teddy’s seizure was on the wane by the time they got him in the ambulance.

catnip – KeithO seems to be keeping sober, for now, but Tweety started to flutter when the Kennedy crisis broke.

Are black beans verboten, too?

It’s not exactly chili, but I make a black bean and vegetable stew (with red peppers, green peppers, fresh string beans, onions, tomatoes, and cilantro) that’s mighty tasty, and the secret ingredient is a healthy handful of ginger-and-soy-cured (sort of dried, quite salty) Asian black beans, along with the regular type, plus gobs and gobs of garlic and chili paste as the base is getting started. At the last minute, melt a few strips of Monterey Jack (or other) cheese in it, and then serve it with rice and fresh cilantro.

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91. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Black beans in moderation, perhaps?

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92. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

A quick Google brings up general warnings against just about everything mentioned in recipe above. Sorry!

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93. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Of course, some sites seem to be encouraging vegetables, en masse. Always so tricky to sift through the farm-and-pharm advisories.
:(

BTW – The new WH website has been up since just after noon.

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94. catnip - 20 January 2009

90. Are black beans verboten, too?

I think so.

92. A quick Google brings up general warnings against just about everything mentioned in recipe above. Sorry!

lol…well, I’ll always have crackers… :D

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95. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

I’ll always have crackers

I thought you were a buddhist!

::Reaches for hotline to super-secret Vatican confessional for ubercriminals messing with cookies::

Just stay away from those orange peanut-butter things, whatever you do. Apparently they’re all full of salmonella at the moment!

*

Obama got outta the limo and is doing the Prezidential walking thing. . . .

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96. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

On First Full Day, Obama Will Dive Into Foreign Policy

Last Thursday, in an interview with Washington Post editors and reporters, Obama criticized Bush for treating Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan as “discrete” problems. Under his watch, Obama said, policy in that region will be treated as a single, unified one.

“One of the principles that we’ll be operating under is that these things are very much related and that if we have got an integrated approach, we’re going to be more effective,” he said.

Incoming officials were still debating yesterday how involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian crisis should proceed during the first week. With a fragile Gaza cease-fire in place, the new administration plans to tread gingerly, working behind the scenes while allowing Egyptian and European initiatives to play out before taking a highly visible role.

Obama transition officials are acutely aware that the world — and especially the Israelis and Palestinians — will be watching to see what tone the new president takes. Sources said the initial emphasis will likely be on stepped-up presidential engagement rather than the specifics of a U.S. role, and empathy and aid toward humanitarian suffering.

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97. catnip - 20 January 2009

95. ::Reaches for hotline to super-secret Vatican confessional for ubercriminals messing with cookies::

Not that kind of cracker! ;)

(They stick to the roof of your mouth like little wafers of crazy glue.)

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98. Intermittent Bystander - 20 January 2009

Phew.

::Hangs up on Vatican.::

OatcaKes!

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99. marisacat - 20 January 2009

gnu post

LINK

…………… :roll: …………………

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100. Lip Service « Breakfast in the Ruins - 20 January 2009

[...] wasn’t the only one who noticed … I got home and found this comment by Bayprarie at Marisacat’s. She excerpted from Lincoln’s speech to the Indians, stinking with paternal scorn: “The [...]

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