11.08.06
Joe Galloway’s to-do list for the new Congress
Joe Galloway is the excellent military reporter for McClatchy Washington Bureau, and here he has put together a to-do list for the new Congress regarding DoD. Basically, he thinks it’s high time we got some answers:
Better late than never.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is gone, but there’s little time for celebration, even for those of us who long ago began calling for his removal. The damage that men do lives after them, and it’s time at last for an accounting. The nation’s voters have spoken, and it’s reasonable to expect that the Congress finally will begin to exercise some oversight of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after five years of serving as rubberstamp and doormats.
Can you spell “subpoena”?
For the Democrats who will soon take charge of the House of Representatives and perhaps the Senate, too, here’s a preliminary laundry list of some of the things that need doing:
- A comprehensive investigation of the pre-war intelligence on Iraq and how it was perverted, how the mine was salted, and by whom.
- A thorough investigation of what pre-war advice was offered by senior American military commanders on troop strength, equipment requirements and strategy and tactics. Did even one general ignore the bullying from on high and ask for more troops, and how did Rumsfeld respond?
-Why did the Pentagon send American troops into battle without enough armored vests, armored vehicles, rifles, ammunition, food and water? Who’s responsible for that debacle, which cost so much in blood and money?
- Where did our money go? Billions of dollars of taxpayer money disappeared down various rat holes in Iraq, forked over to contractors without even so much as a handwritten receipt. Who got the money? What did they do for it? This is a fertile field that can be drilled for years, with a steady stream of indictments, trials, and prison sentences. Read the rest of this entry »
Cool quick weather
From Lifehacker: type “weather.gov/93940″ (only with your ZIP code instead of mine) into the address bar and press Enter. Local weather forecast. Bob’s your uncle.
AP calls Virginia for Webb: my 2005 prediction held!
As I noted below, in the fall of last year, I sent myself an email to arrive in the future. It arrived yesterday and stated: “Democrats will regain the Senate and the House.”
I was right, as we now know. Good call, LeisureGuy, if I say it myself. 
Now—if I can figure out how to send emails to the past….
For the list-oriented who want something easier
I managed to get Samurize running, but—man! This is not and intuitive program. They must have done some sort of special negative usability testing to get it the way it is.
In the comments on Lifehacker’s post about it, though, I did spot Wallnote, which is much easier to install on your desktop (for Windows users) and does the same sort of job. Wallnote provides two little always-present areas: “Notes” and “To-Do”, and the info is actually kept at their Web site under your (free) account, but you can use it offline.
Election results vis-à-vis drug law reform
Via email from the Drug Policy Alliance:
As you probably know by now, Democrats have taken control of the U.S. House for the first time in 12 years, picking up at least 27 House seats from Republicans. And Democrats picked up at least five Senate seats and may win the other seat they need to take control of the Senate (Virginia is still undecided). Ten local marijuana law reform initiatives also won big yesterday. But voters rejected three important statewide marijuana initiatives, and approved a measure in Arizona that will undercut the state’s successful treatment-instead-of-incarceration law. What does all this mean for drug policy reform? Read the rest of this entry »
Special GOP word: “shrill”
I’ve noticed that the word “shrill” is used in public discourse only by members of the GOP and their sidekicks (conscious or unaware) in the media. It is used to refer to liberals who are too good at pointing out what the GOP is actually doing, as opposed to what it says it’s doing, or who point out the discrepancy between GOP words and GOP deeds, or who propose programs that help the poor or the working class. Some recipients of the “shrill” title are Paul Krugman, Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean.
The GOP is quick to label someone as being “shrill” even when the person is perfectly reasonable and pointing out (pesky) facts. So whenever you hear someone called “shrill,” listen up: they’re probably saying something worth hearing.
Beyond Nevada Prop 7
Where will the Marijuana Policy Project go next? I’m not sure, but I suggested that a California ballot initiative along the lines of Nevada’s Prop 7 might be a good effort: California is more liberal than Nevada, in many ways, and might well pass a well-constructed initiative. Of course, doing a California initiative is expensive.
Rob Kampia sent the MPP contact list this email today:
3 out of 3 state marijuana initiatives fail; 10 out of 10 local initiatives pass
Dear [LeisureGuy]:The Marijuana Policy Project’s initiative to tax and regulate marijuana in Nevada was defeated last night by a 44% to 56% margin.
While this is a huge disappointment to all of us, more than four in 10 Nevada voters actually voted to end marijuana prohibition entirely. This is huge progress since the 39% to 61% defeat of a similar ballot measure in Nevada four years ago.
This year’s attempt in Nevada was only the sixth time that anyone has attempted to pass a statewide ballot initiative to end marijuana prohibition in a state; the other attempts were in California in the early 1970s, Oregon in 1986, Alaska in 2000 and 2004, and Nevada in 2002.
Although we didn’t win yesterday, the results demonstrate the voters’ increasing willingness to reconsider our nation’s marijuana laws. And we achieved this strong finish despite intense campaigning by the White House drug czar’s office and the entire law enforcement establishment in Nevada.
The fact that we came close to victory while up against such powerful opposition is remarkable. And we’re not giving up: We’ll be back in Nevada to try again with another marijuana initiative in November 2008 or, more likely, in November 2010. The drug czar will keep trying to frighten people with lies, and we’ll keep telling the truth, and eventually the truth will win.
Sometime next week, I’ll email you a fuller analysis of what went right and what went wrong in Nevada.
——————————————————————————–
In other election news, voters in 10 out of 10 communities in Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, and Montana passed a series of local marijuana ballot initiatives by wide majorities. Read the rest of this entry »
For the list-oriented
The redoubtable and popular Gina Trapani provides an excellent writeup on a program that will display text files (i.e., lists) on your computer desktop. This is wonderful, since the problem with computer-based lists generally is that they are not readily visible. Take a look. (You know who you are.) It’s all free, natch.
UPDATE: For something a little—well, much—easier that does the same sort of job, check this out.
Anyone in Maryland looking to hire a moron?
Robert Ehrlich will be available. Good experience as terrible governor.
Crushing myths before they take hold
Glenn Greenwald does a good job of crushing the myths that are being erected after the GOP defeat:
The outcome of this election — even with the not-yet-fully-finalized Senate victories in Virginia and Montana — is as resounding and clear as it gets. For exactly that reason, all sorts of devastated Bush followers and confused and desperate media mavens are busy spawning myths about what happened — often, in the case of the mindless pundits, unwittingly, even unconsciously. Most Americans know exactly what happened here, but it is nonetheless vital that these myths be smashed from the start and the clear lessons of this election be safeguarded:
(1) This is a shattering and humiliating defeat for the Republican Party. The excuse that it is just run-of-the-mill, standard sixth-presidential-year impatience is pure nonsense. In the sixth year of President Clinton’s presidency, Democrats in the midterm elections gained seats in the House and there was no change in the Senate.
When a President and his political party are liked and their positions are in line with what Americans want, they win, even in the allegedly cursed “sixth presidential year.” By contrast, when a President is deeply unpopular and his party perceived to be rife with radicalism and corruption, they lose. And when that perception is particularly strong and widespread, they lose badly. That is what happened here, and there is nothing mundane about. These results are extraordinary, and every Bush follower knows it.
(2) This was a resounding and emphatic rejection of the core, defining premises of the so-called “conservative” movement and what has morphed into the grotesque Republican Party. Nobody doubts that Americans vigorously rejected George Bush and his signature policy — the invasion of Iraq. But it wasn’t only Bush and Iraq. Read the rest of this entry »
Java Logs even better
I’ve been a fan of the idea of Java Logs since they were first introduced: fireplace logs made of coffee grounds, which burn with a clean, bright, hot flame. Makes me wish I had a fireplace. Now they’ve introduced some improvements:
Better/Brighter Flames — most natural flame; Coffee has 25% more energy than wood and 3x the flame per unit of energy
No Chemical Odor/ Better Scent — has “NO CHEMICAL SMELL”; some people claim to smell a faint sweet aroma!
Reduced Emissions – Java-logs produce significantly fewer emissions than firewood:
- 10x Less Creosote (Safer for Chimney & Clean Burning)
- 10x Less Carbon Monoxide (Less Air Pollution)
- 6x Cleaner Particulate Matter (Source: OMNI Consulting Services, Inc.)
Environmentally Friendly (Recycle, Re-Use, Renew):
- Utilizes a Renewable, Natural vegetable wax
- 100% Recycled Packaging, Saves Trees
- Diverts 42 Million kg/year of coffee waste from landfills each year
Real Wood-Fire Sound — a soothing crackle sound lets you relax
Easy to light — With just one match you can light both sides of the wrapper, then sit back and watch your fire grow.
Burns 2-3 Hours — same amount of time as other 5-lb firelogs.
Do-it-yourself energy drink (homemade Gatorade)
This energy drink recipe should come in handy as we all exercise to get ready for the holidays:
We all work out, we all need re-hydration, we all buy Gatorade… wait, stop. EnerT, this simple do it yourself tea-based energy drink, may be a better (and cheaper) option.
An energy drink needs sugar (of some form), electrolytes (mostly sodium and potassium) to accelerate absorption, and may contain other ingredients. I opted for tea as caffeine has a beneficial workout benefit, and tea provides a low-level caffeine, striking my personally preferred balanced between ‘waking’ and ‘wired’. Any level of sugars under 8% is acceptable, but I find Gatorade to be overly caloric for those of us trying to balance increased workout performance with weight loss/maintenance.
EnerT Ingredients (32 oz or about 1 liter)
2 Tea Bags
6 level teaspoons sugar (24 grams)
A pinch of salt (0.5 grams)
2 oz lemon juice (about 55 grams)
30 oz boiling waterContains
100 calories
500 mg Sodium
60mg of Potassium (from the lemon juice)
Caffeine varies, est 100mg-200mg caffeine (depending on the tea used and infusion duration)Estimated Cost: 17¢/qt
Lemon juice: 10¢
2 Tea Bags: 6¢
Sugar, Salt, water, etc: 1¢Compare to Gatorade @ $1.29/qt
200 calories
440mg Sodium
120mg Potassium
No caffeineI use a lower potassium level as research indicates that potassium loss is secondary to sodium loss in hydration. You can add more lemon juice in, up to 4oz — if flavor allows. On the other hand, removing the lemon juice will still yield a good energy drink, but will reduce price by 66%
Free Web photo-album software from Win, Mac, Linux
Via Lifehacker, this looks good:
This gallery software makes web albums of your digital images. JAlbum aims to be the easiest to use and most powerful tool in this category – and free!
With JAlbum, no extra software is needed to view the albums, -just your web browser. Unlike “server side” album scripts, JAlbum albums can be served from a plain web server without scripting support and thanks to JAlbum’s built in web server, you can even share your albums straight from JAlbum. You can also share your albums on CD-ROM.
JAlbum runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and others and speaks 29 languages. Today JAlbum is mentioned over 6.000.000 times on the Internet (Google/Altavista) and this site has over 11000 visitors per day and a live community. I hope you find it your tool of choice for sharing images.
JAlbum is written after numerous disappointments with existing album software. With JAlbum you have full control of the look of the generated album, not just color theme and basic layout, still making an album is just a matter of drag and drop + a button click if you prefer to use one of the many existing looks. JAlbum will process your images, make index pages and slide show pages and even upload the final album to the Internet for your friends to see.
Interesting point about a multi-party system
The Wife is Canadian, and she said that the US two-party system has some drawbacks. When the Canada’s Conservative Party went all crazy the way the GOP has for the past few years, in the election people had more of a choice: they didn’t have to move all the way over to the Democrats, as in the US, but could move just a little bit: stay conservative but drop the crazy Conservative Party and move to a party still on the conservative side of the continuum, but not crazy.
The result was that just one election blasted Canada’s Conservative Party to smithereens—in fact, into the even smaller jonesereens. It took years for the Conservative Party to come back.
In the US, one can see that an Evangelical Conservative Party might lose big, while the Economic Conservative Party (true economic conservatism) could hang in there.
Long, slow cooking: drying fruit
I like long, slow cooking. Braising the most flavorful cuts of meat, cooking dried beans: long, slow cooking. People sometimes fret that it takes so much time, but of course that doesn’t mean it takes much attention: you start it and set your kitchen timer (and I love this one, which allows me to time four different things at the same time) and return when it’s done.
This little idea would work for a weekend afternoon at home—especially if it’s raining and one is staying indoors:
I oven-dry tomatoes all through late summer, when I can lay my hands on cheap and tasty specimens, and I like to apply that method to pears in the fall, too: the drying sublimates the pear flavor into a hauntingly sweet concentrate of itself. This does mean it is a good way to cut your losses on below-average pears, but for superb results you should of course use superb pears. The technique works best with fruits that are ripe but firm and not too juicy, so they will retain their shape and not drip all over the floor of your oven.
Not only are dried pears easy to make and delicious, but the resulting strips are also surprisingly versatile: they can be eaten as a simple snack (their texture, crisp at first but gradually turning chewy in your mouth, makes them quite satisfying), they can be served with cheese (especially washed rind and blue cheeses) or game birds, they can be added to scones, oatmeal cookies, and granolas, and they enter the preparation of berawecka, a dried fruit loaf that is traditionally made for Christmas in Alsace. And in my opinion, they make very pretty edible gifts, too.
My latest batch was made with Louise-Bonne pears, a variety I’d never seen or heard of before: these pears were tiny, their skin green and lightly freckled with yellow, their off-white flesh fragrant and acidulated, and they played along remarkably well in the drying game. (Check back on Friday to see what I did with them.)
2 large or 4 small pears, ripe but firm
Preheat the oven to 80°C (175°F) and grease an oven grid with vegetable oil.
Rinse and dry the pears. Core them while still whole using an apple corer
or an old-fashioned vegetable peeler. Cut the pears in thin slices lenghtwise with a sharp serrated knife so each slice is round with a hole in the middle like a big flat polo mint.
Arrange the slices on the prepared grid in a single layer (it’s okay if the slices touch, but they shouldn’t overlap) and bake for 4 to 4 1/2 hours, flipping the slices halfway through, until light brown and completely dry. Let cool completely and keep in a tin box at room temperature.
Learn to read at Starfall
Via Lifehacker. For those toddlers just ready to start reading, Starfall is a great site—so good, in fact, that some schools use it. The Younger Grandson will soon be ready for this, I imagine. It does require a broadband connection and audio capability. From their site:
The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service. We also provide writing journals and books at a very low cost that can be used with the website or separately. Teachers around the country are using Starfall materials as an inexpensive way to make the classroom more fun and to inspire a love of reading and writing.
Primarily designed for first grade, Starfall.com is also useful for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and second grade.
Drug war against marijuana continues
Prop 7 results: Nevadans voted “No” 56%-44% on Prop 7, to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana in state stores, much like alcohol is sold in some states. So the largely ineffective “war” against the sale of marijuana will continue after 80 years of failure. Prohibition seldom works when people actually want the product, and the nation wisely recognized this in the case of alcohol. After a disastrous period of alcohol prohibition, which led to the growth of organized crime, the experiment was ended. It’s hard to understand why the experiment in the case of drugs—especially drugs less harmful than alcohol—continues. But it does.
But were the citizens of Nevada correct? A clue: they also elected Jim Gibbons as governor…
