P.U.M.A., The Movement That Didn’t

Ok,  this will be my last comments on what I consider to be a very unfortunate aspect of the history of the last general election.  For those of you who don’t know what P.U.M.A. (party unity my ass) is,  they are a small (very small) group of Hillary Clinton supporters who two years after the fact nurse a falsely inspired  resentment that somehow the party nomination was stolen away from Mrs. Clinton and handed to Barack Obama.  They are easy to spot in case you don’t know how.  They brag on blogs two years after they fact that wrote Hillary’s name in when they voted in 2008, they pause in the middle of conversations and sigh and say things like “I was just thinking how it would be if Hillary had won”.  They say stupid things like “Well you know Bill would have put on a wet suit and dove down to stop the oil spill in the gulf” or every time an opening comes up on the Supreme Court they ponder if the president will nominate her.  They are also  fond of engaging in irony (though it escapes them) by pointing to Obama supporters and calling them “Obamabots”.   Now don’t get me wrong,  I by no means mean to imply that all who supported Hillary are P.U.M.A., just a small few who have decided to elevate the Clintons to deity status.    Also understand that  being  P.U.M.A. has nothing to do with the Clintons themselves.   Oh one other point, P.U.M.A will never admit to being P.U.M.A.

The fact of that matter was that after the last election many Ps (I’m tired of typing out P.U.M.A.) envisioned that they were going to become a power block within the DNC, very much in the manner of what has happened with the Teabaggers and the GOP.  It couldn’t happen and it didn’t happen, for a very simply reason, it was not in the best of interest of the Clintons themselves to be seen as alternate power center within the party.  The lesson of Teddy (god bless him) in ‘80 was not lost on either Bill or Hillary.   Hillary had a choice to make, she could either get on board or spend her remaining political career as a senator from NY lacking seniority within that body.  Fortunately for us, she choice the later and accepted the president’s invitation to become Sect. of State and is doing a bang up job of it.   But here’s the thing the the P crowd needs to start thinking about, we are swiftly coming up on the mid-term elections and after that the presidential election cycle will begin anew.  The Ps  are going to have to decide to side with this Democratic president or  side with the Republicans, the choice is yours.  Discussions of what happened in 2008 do nothing to advance a liberal (progressive) agenda, the re-election of Barack Obama does.

Diplomacy Works! ~ dnd

When Euna Lee and Laura Ling’s plane landed at Burbank airport Wednesday morning it was a tremendous relief for these journalists and their families.  The homecoming reception and statements were heartwarming.  However this episode sent a louder message: diplomacy works!

Negotiators tell us when two parties enter into negotiation, there is always a win-win situation.  The trick is finding it.  In this case Kim Jong-Il wanted to meet the Big Dog and we wanted the journalists back.  This of course oversimplifies all the back channel negotiations that went on, but everyone walked away with what they wanted.

Sure there were a few who criticized the effort.  Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton (now there’s a diplomat),  said it was a huge mistake:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR2009080401486.html

This is to be expected.  The success of this mission calls into question his position on dealing with the rest of the world.  But seriously, what were we suppose to do?  Call in the A-Team and have them bust Lee and Ling out of prison?  Let them rot in North Korea?  Diplomacy was the only reasonable course of action.  My guess is had it been Bolton’s daughter, he’d be whistling a different tune.

Will this lead to greater diplomatic efforts by the U.S.?  We can only hope.

DEMOCRATS!

Senator Ted Kennedy

Michelle Obama

Senator Hillary Clinton

Senator John Kerry

Former President Bill Clinton

Senator Joe Biden

Cookie Gate? Oh Paleese!, by Chef Sheila

Cindy McCain isn’t the only spouse of a presidential candidate to Pass a recipe of as her own. Bill Clinton, who entered Family Circle magazine’s 5th Presidential Bake-Off against McCain and Michelle Obama (who did not take credit for hers) before his spouse suspended her campaign, appears to have stolen one too….But who really cares?

Come On Folks. No one steals a recipe anymore. The only way to steal one is to put a patent on it. But if you do that, you can’t capitalize on it either and maybe make some bucks!.

I wouldn’t expect anyone to spend days and weeks like “America’s Test Kitchen” to make a Butterscotch Cookie recipe specifically for A silly presidential bake off that was for show and probably more likely, to sell a few Chocolate Chips and not a few magazines.

These Presidential Candidates and their spouses are like the rest of the country. Why in the world would these busy people go the distance when ya’ll are out there buying a dozen of your secret stash in your neighborhood store.

I’ll tell ya a little story about me and something I thought was an original thought…..so there I was in Mexico with the President. A little Time a little bite. I have the most marvelous brazed chicken I had ever had. So take with the complex flavors, I spent and hour savoring every bite and performing my favorite pass time of calculating by mouthfuls the ingredients. Did I ask for the recipe? Heck no, not much fun in that!

For a year after that I tried different American ingredients and I nailed down some semblance of the flavor I remembered, then I added more ingredients as I learned more about the region I had visited with the President, until it was a shadow of the original I had tasted. With every dinner, every catered event I used this dish, I received so many compliments! I really thought I had made something original. When a Master Chef I knew said there were no new recipes, I said, “I have one” and really believed it. Until one night at a dinner I was doing, the Mexican help had some before the dinner and complimented me on my “Mole” and how much it tasted like home. A Light Bulb moment in that.

So Cindy is forgiven and so is Bill. Lighten up Media and enjoy the cookies!

Michelle Obama’s Favorite Shortbread Cookies

The recipe comes courtesy of Mama Kaye, the godmother of both Obama daughters. Orange and lemon zest gives the squares plenty of citrus zing.
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar2 egg yolks2 tablespoons Amaretto (almond liqueur)1 teaspoon each orange and lemon zest3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)1/4 teaspoon salt1 beaten egg white Chopped nuts or dried fruit (optional)
Method: Heat oven to 325°.

Line a 17 x 12 x 1-inch baking pan with nonstick foil. In large bowl, cream together butter and 11/2 cups of the sugar.

Slowly add egg yolks, and beat well until smooth. Beat in Amaretto and zest. Stir in flour and salt until combined.

Spread dough evenly into prepared pan, flattening as smoothly as possible. Brush top of dough with egg white; sprinkle with nuts or fruit (if using) and with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake at 325° for 25 minutes or until brown, turn off oven and allow cookies to sit in oven (with door ajar) for 15 minutes. Cut while slightly warm.
Yields: 6 dozen 2″ x 3″ cookies

Why Courage Isn’t Really What We Want, by Killer Dog Nasty (aka Aging Hipster)

I. Introduction
Glittering generalities, we learned in High School Government class (God Bless my government teacher back in Jackson, Mississippi!) are as old as the Republic itself. When the property owning white men of the first Washington term were discussing politics, they threw out many words about the Father of our country. I’m certain that “courageous” was among them. As we count down the days to the end of George Bush’s presidency, both McCain and Obama supporters use the term in application to their candidate.

If we stop and really think about it, though, is political courage a “glittering generality?” What happens when a politician displays real political courage? Do we, as a people, really want political courage?

II. What is political courage?
By definition, courage is “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” In our times, particularly from 2001 to 2006, our current President’s stubbornness is often misperceived as courage. True political courage, for example, might have been realized by a withdrawal of troops from Kuwait after Hans Blix’s fruitless inspection. To be fair, it might have been displayed by President Clinton actually doing something about Social Security’s long term stability in 2000, instead of just talking about it.

III. Historical examples
In my own lifetime, I recall the candidacy of John Anderson in 1980 as my first encounter with political courage. Going up to New Hampshire in January of that year, Anderson made a show for himself by going in front of a gun convention and endorsing some forms of gun control, and was met by a chorus of booing and catcalls. While the other candidates at the forum denounced him, Anderson’s stunt made the news, and kept him in the spotlight all the way to a third party candidacy that gathered more than 6 million votes.

Walter Mondale’s disastrous attempt at political courage four years after Anderson led to his political annihilation. His statement that Ronald Reagan would raise taxes was proven correct in 1986, but it didn’t matter.

Ultimately, both Anderson and Mondale were rewarded with defeat.

Sometimes, political courage comes when a candidate actually wins and then attempts its use in governing. In two cases, this just led the electorate to conclude both leaders were flip-floppers or liars. George H W Bush’s agreement with the democratic congress to a tax increase partially led to his later undoing in 1992. This came after his famous “read my lips” pledge to not raise taxes. Bill Clinton’s popularity declined sharply after he rammed through a tax increase that was designed to balance the budget. In doing so, he paved the way for the GOP to enact a “contract on America.”

In both cases, the President displayed political courage instead of stubbornness. In both cases, they were rewarded with defeat.

IV. Political cowardice
The flip side of the coin is political cowardice, always in abundance, and usually always leading to disaster. Andrew Jackson’s life was saved by a group of Cherokee warriors at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in the War of 1812. He betrayed an entire nation of them later when gold was found in Georgia, making sure they were sent to Oklahoma. The beneficiaries of the betrayal were voters crucial to his political career. Later, the five Presidents before Lincoln allowed slavery to pull the country into war while the debate grew more extreme. The Whig Party died because it failed to confront slavery. Though the Spanish-American War was mostly smoke and mirrors, President McKinley knew it would help his Republican Party, and future President Theodore Roosevelt led a fabled charge up San Juan Hill with a band of barflies he had gathered in San Antonio, Texas. The list of leaders taking the easy way out is quite lengthy.

V. The results of political courage
The results are defeat and punishment. We love to reflect on political heroes and myths that just are not there. We ask our leaders and candidates to be bold and step out of the box.

When they do so, they go down in defeat.