Cogitamus

Happy Father's Day

"Independence Day" - Bruce Springsteen

Happy Father's Day to all. I was lucky enough to spend last weekend with mine, who is 80 now, but still remarkably healthy, vigorous, and sharp. Fortunately, I never had any of the angst with him that Springsteen remarks upon in this remarkable song. Just the opposite really.

And the reality of of getting older hits again today, as my own boy is a couple of hundred miles away visiting his girlfriend. He's hopping on a train later and returning on his own from Western Massachusetts. The time goes rather quickly. So I think I'm going to take Stanley out to the dog park for my father's day outing while it's still only 80 degrees (at 7:00 AM). We're heading for a beastly week here, with temperatures in the 90s every day.

Sorry for the light posting this weekend -- I had a number of commitments, a couple of which I'll post about soon I hope. In the meantime, have a wonderful day.

Alan Grayson is in the House

And his whip-smart (and ever-witty) thoughts and exhortations are often appearing in my In box, too. I'm publishing his latest e-mail in its entirety:

Dear Deborah,

In the New York Times for June 13th, the Pentagon proclaimed that Afghanistan holds almost one trillion lira - no, sorry, that's one trillion dollars - in hitherto-unknown mineral wealth.

Allow me to offer these revelations:

(1) Paris Hilton actually is Albert Einstein, with a wig. Think about it - you've never seen them together, have you?

(2) The Moon is made of green cheese. Specifically, a lovely Camembert, slightly fruity, that goes very well with cabernet.

(3) While you were at work today, someone broke into your house, stole everything, and replaced it with an exact duplicate (apologies to Steven Wright).

$1 trillion dollars in mineral wealth in Afghanistan. What a lame excuse for a lame excuse.

But the interesting thing is that the Pentagon felt it necessary to serve up this fevered imagining. Why? Because they say that they need another $33 billion for the war by July 4th, or, or, or, I don't know - they just say that they need it. And for once, Congress isn't falling all over itself to give the generals whatever they want. So get ready to hear about lithium in Afghanistan, oil in Iraq, and diamonds in your bathtub.

With 14 million Americans out of work, support for endless war is crumbling. People want an America that is #1 in health, #1 in education, #1 in quality of life, not #1 in number of foreign countries occupied.

Send an e-mail to your Member of Congress. Ask him or her to oppose the "emergency supplemental" for more and more war.

Hope. Change. How about some peace, for a change?

Courage,

Alan Grayson

P.S. I am the first Democrat to represent my district in 34 years. I depend on ordinary people like you to support my campaign. If you'd like to make a contribution, please do so here.

Friday Morning Open Thread

"Ring Ring" - Sleigh Bells

It's Friday kids -- which international conglomerate should we apologize to today?  AIG?

I didn't write about the extraordinary Joe Barton apology yesterday because it was hammered home so quickly by so many.  A truly jaw dropping moment, although as low-tech cyclist pointed out in comments actually of a piece with statements made by the House Republican Study Group, Michelle Bachmann, Limbaugh, and others.

If the folks at the DNC can't devise a powerful campaign message out of this, they are hopeless.  Perhaps they might want to hit on things like Limbaugh's solution to hungry children in America -- dumpster diving.  And the solution to the financial crisis -- leave banks alone.  And so forth.

This should not be a difficult campaign in which to drive home the fundamental difference of vision between the parties.  Give the people a choice and let the chips fall where they may.  I'm looking at you Mary Landrieu. 

So what's on everyone else's minds?   

Yeah, but do all of their Wives get one?

This one is for kathy and big bad wolf. 

Another one from the "you can't make this stuff up" category.  In Utah, where capital punishment via firing squad is still permissible, they are creating special commemorative coins for the firing squad members and others who assist in the execution. Oy! 

I wonder what these will fetch on ebay.  I assume that they will be gold given that this is Glenn Beck country. 

You're Going to Get Moby Dick

In more discouraging news regarding the world's oceans, the Japanese appear to be winning the battle to restart commercial whaling, which has been banned since 1986, through the use of bribery, foreign aid, and prostitutes.

This would be a horrible setback to the preservation of these magnificent animals.  (One Japanese whaling official described the Minke Whale as the "cockroach of the ocean.")  I have a few words to describe the official, but they would be unprintable -- even here.  

I find this sort of thing discouraging and inexplicable.  

Oh for F#ck's Sake!

At the Cogblog we give you Disney, donuts, and derision for all of your family internets needs.

The cause of my cursing -- as if I need one -- is the failure of the Jobs bill, which includes an unemployment compensation extension and a continuation of COBRA subsidies, to pass the Senate, losing by a vote of 45-52.  Not a single Republican voted for the bill.  More gallingly, a slew of Democrats voted against the bill due to concerns about deficit spending.  Just a little clue for our Democratic brethren -- no voter anywhere has ever cast a vote on the deficit.  But people without jobs -- sometimes they get angry and vote against incumbents -- or they sit on their hands and don't vote at all.  In addition to the usual suspects -- Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Evan "Fuckstick" Bayh (Dickless and Brainless - Ind.), Joe Lieberman -- Blanche Lincoln bravely sat out the vote -- still basking in the afterglow no doubt -- we also lost the votes of progressive god Russ Feingold, extraordinarily inconsequential plutocrat Herb Kohl (D. No one knows), Jim Webb, Bill Nelson, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor, Claire McCaskill, and Robert Menendez.  Robert Menendez?!  Really.  WTF!

This is bringing out my inner Jane Hamsher.  Don't these idiots understand that there's a recession going on out there?  Instead, they're going to insist on partying like it's 1937. 

Biegnets!

My niece's current favorite movie is Disney's "The Princess and the Frog." The music is great, and message of the movie is a good one for young women. Rather than resign herself and her fate in waiting for some Prince to come and make everything better, Tiana is a worker bee. She has dreams, but they are dreams she is willing to work to achieve.  That's good enough for me.  Tiana's biggest dream is to open her own restaurant, one of her signature dishes is the classic New Orleans Biegnet.  The first time I saw them I said "Oh Goody!  Fry Bread!"  The Spanish call them "Sopapillos."  It's all good.

I will be off the grid for the next few days.  I have some serious gigging to do over the weekend, I'm going to try and sneak in a tuna fishing trip too.  Busy hands are happy hands.

I Can't Wait to Hear the Republicans' Objections

Deborah just alerted me to the fact that the Obama Administration has reached a tentative deal with BP to put $20 billion (with a B) in an escrow account for victims of the Gulf oil spill.  The Fund will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, who handled the compensation fund for 9/11 victims and received nearly universal praise for his efforts.  

I think this is extraordinarily good news for the residents of the Gulf.  It should also be a major shot in the arm for the President's political fortunes.  As I noted in comments, I am puzzled as to why he didn't wait until after this was done to make his address from the Oval Office.

So how long until the Republican outcry starts about the mean old President victimizing a poor defenseless international conglomerate?  Oh hell, they have already started.  This seems like a really promising line of attack -- and I mean that in the way that proposing to abolish Social Security and Medicare is a really promising electoral strategy.  

We'll see how this thing shapes up -- confusingly enough both god and the devil are in the details.

Update:  And of course Fox News takes it to the next level.     

Bloomsday Open Thread

"The Whole of the Moon" - The Waterboys

Happy Bloomsday!  (The day chosen by Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath to get married on June 16, 1956 -- so it's a day for universal optimism.)   I wish I was doing a pub crawl in Dublin rather than grappling with the implications of the Pension Protection Act of 2006.

So what did you all think of the President's speech?  I did not see the whole thing and much as I hate to join the baying hounds of the media on anything -- especially Chris Matthews -- I have to admit that what I did see left me totally flat.  I agree with Kevin Drum's take on it -- there was a seeming lack of heft to the whole thing.  I couldn't quite figure out the sense of having the first address to the nation from the Oval Office be so brief and lacking in daring or specifics.  I'm still puzzled by the strategy for the whole endeavor, both from a political and policy point of view.  What say you?   

Coctelés Mariscos

My newest niece is a wonderful young girl. She has been a treasure and a very welcome addition to our family. You can read about her a bit here...

Asking For Vision (Day 1) Asking for Vision (Day 2) Asking for Vision (Day 3)  Asking for Vision (Day 4)

My niece is spending the night with me while my sister works a double shift at the prison hospital. It's the strangest thing. See, all California state employees are given furlough days as a cost cutting measure, the health care in the prison system is in federal receivership because of crappy care to the point of being considered cruel and unusual. There are federally set guidelines that specify the ratio of nurses to patients that must be met. When someone is on a furlough day the numbers in the wards don't change. After cutting folks hours back to cut costs they then have to hire others to come in on overtime at time and a half to meet the minimum staffings. Which, to my thinking says that this cost cutting measure actually increases costs by half again. I guess the hotshot accountants who dreamed that shit up must have started working in the state budget office after the collapse of Enron and Lehman sent them looking for work.

But...But Everyone Has Health Care, If They Can Get To An Emergency Room!

Not exactly.  So much for that Republican meme.

Myers, one of some 1.2 million Michigan residents with no health insurance, according to CNN, endured a month of unbearable pain in her right shoulder after she injured it while playing with her dogs in her backyard, according to WSBT TV.  The 41-year old woman took pain medication but was not able to see a specialist since she can't pay for health insurance. Last week, feeling desperate, she shot herself in the right shoulder.

"They said it would have to be life-threatening or imminent danger for them to do anything, so I was making it be imminent danger that something had to be done," she told WSBT TV.

So they treated the gunshot wound, but didn't do a thing for the original injury that prompted her to put a bullet through her shoulder.

Plus she might face charges for discharging a weapon within city limits.

Via Balloon Juice.

Jambalaya

I haven't been back to New Orleans since Katrina. I haven't had the heart. Now with the British Petroleum Spill, Cheney's Chernobyl, showing its full force and exposing all the lies about the size and scope of the spill, I imagine that it will be a very long time. Aaron Neville is a long time friend and sometime employer. He can't go home. Aaron has asthma and the mold and rot that still is there would kill him. I won't go until he can. From what I've seen so far what rebuilding that has been done is along the lines of the Epcot Center "NEWORLEENSLAND" version of what was a vibrant and vital place.

Here's the way I do the famous dish Jambalaya.  There are as many versions as there are cooks.  The basics of this version are what you would be having at the legendary Tipitina's.  But first, more music.

And the Wolf also shall Dwell with the Lamb

I know I pick on Glenn Greenwald a lot -- but there is a reason.  The guy is a historical and political illiterate, a magical thinker of the worst kind.  His most recent display of his utter intellectual immaturity is in an interview with Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic in which he posits that

the two-party system does not work in terms of providing clear choices.  No matter who wins, the same permanent factions that control Washington continue to reign.  That's true no matter which issues one considers most important.  At some point, it's going to be necessary to sacrifice some short-term political interests for longer-term considerations about how this suffocating, two-party monster can be subverted.

Yes the Democratic Party is a deeply imperfect vehicle for advancing liberal goals, but the notion that it is indistinguishable from the Republican Party is pure nihilism.  Now I understand that Glenn dwells on a higher plane than we mere mortals here in DC, but you know what, it makes a difference if the people entrusted with enforcing labor and worker safety laws believe in them or are fundamentally opposed to them, whether the folks that run the federally funded family planning program are in favor of government-aided contraception or against it, whether the people at the Environmental Protection Agency are committed to the environment or are industry hacks and so on and so on.  There is a huge governmental apparatus that has enormous sway over day to day life in this country and the notion that "the same permanent factions" are in control of it whether Bush or Obama is in charge is to show complete disinterest in actual governance.  

And what is to be our salvation from all of these corporatist Democrats who are impeding the golden age that is just on the horizon?  Why the good people out there in real America coming together across the ideological divide to fight for Miranda rights for suspected terrorists, and against wars and corporations:

I think the citizenry is becoming less and less defined by loyalty to one of the two parties, and these partisan divisions are breaking down, becoming much less clean.  We saw that with opposition to TARP, the general anger toward corporatist control of Washington, discomfort with our policy of endless wars, and the widespread disgust with incumbent power.  Far more important than Right v. Left is insider v. outsider (or politically powerful v. powerless).  That fact is becoming more crystallized, and the more that happens, the more the artificial barriers that divide citizens (Right and Left) will erode, the more apparent will be the commonalities.

As fucking if.  Seriously, this guy is a fucking child.  I have been observing American politics in a pretty intense way for over thirty years.  During that time I have tried to remain as lucid as humanly possible, to remain objective about conditions on the ground, notwithstanding my own lefty biases.  The idea that partisan divisions are breaking down, that there is meaningful common ground between liberals and the tea party set is a pathetic delusion.  Greenwald is frighteningly unformed as a political being -- beyond his civil liberties absolutism and his anti-corporatist rhetoric (although he supported the Citizens United decision), one struggles to find any kind of programmatic coherence in his world view.  Does he really think that Ron and Rand Paul are likely allies for those of us on the left?  Greenwald doesn't get bogged won in such details -- he is above that sort of thing:

When Jane Hamsher and I founded Accountability Now, to target incumbents who served corporate and Beltway interests rather than their constituents, we did so by forming a coalition with libertarians and others devoted to civil liberties protection.  There is much greater agreement across the ideological spectrum than our conventional political punditry wants to recognize.

No, there fucking isn't.  What agreement is there between those of us who want universal health care, greater protections for collective bargaining, a more progressive tax system, a government push for green energy, and the absolute defense of the Social Security and Medicare programs and the Randroids and paleo-cons with whom Glenn wants to make common cause?  How many of these folks are willing to stand up for a woman's right to control her reproduction or Greenwald's right to marry his partner and be an equal citizen?  How many will join us in trying to ameliorate the effects of poverty or of past racial discrimination?  None -- or virtually none. 

The business of cobbling and keeping together a majority to support the things about which we care is going to continue to be difficult, tedious, painstaking, and mundane.  There is not going to be some magical moment where our political opponents see the error of their ways and cease supporting policies that favor the wealthy and the corporate elite.  These people may be wrong, they may be delusional, but unlike Greenwald, they are fully formed political beings who know which side they are on.  And it ain't ours.

I recommend that you read this article by Michael Tomasky and gain a little bit of historical perspective on the liberal struggles of today and of yesteryear.  It's an excellent piece, possessing all of the important qualities that Greenwald's skin-deep diatribes lack. 

Why Any President Will Be Plagued By the Proverbial 'Black Swans'

Short version: if something doesn't happen for thirty years, people start thinking it's exceedingly unlikely.  But (a) there are a lot of very problematic 'somethings' out there, and (b) thirty years isn't a particularly big multiple of a two-term Presidency.  So if you're an incoming Democratic President that hopes to be re-elected, you'd better watch out for the misnamed 'black swans' - they'll kill you.

Today's text is from the book of McClatchy, chapter Obama, verse SAO:

"It's really important to understand you have decades of nothing going wrong," said one senior administration official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity as a matter of White House policy.

"The last time you saw a spill of this magnitude in the Gulf, it was off the coast of Mexico in 1979," a second senior administration official said. "If something doesn't happen since 1979, you begin to take your eye off of that thing."

Oops.

I'm not questioning the SAO's basic assumption: that if something doesn't happen in a good long while, that's probably an indicator that it isn't particularly likely to happen next year.  The problem is the jump to "you begin to take your eye off of that thing."

A probability lesson: suppose the fact that something hasn't happened in N years means that its likelihood of happening next year is 1/N.  So an oil spill that hasn't happened in 30 years had 1/30 chance of happening this year.

The problem, or one of them anyway, is that a two-term President is in office for eight years, and an eight-year timeframe is a considerably larger target for an unlikely event than a one-year period.  And we reflect that in the numerator of our formula by replacing the 1 with an 8.  (Technically, that's not exactly true, but close enough.)  So the oil spill that hasn't happened in 30 years has an 8/30 chance of happening on Obama's watch, which is a nearly 27% chance, which is far from trivial right there.

The other problem is that there are all sorts of bad things that haven't happened in a good while.  We haven't had a hostage crisis in 30 years either.  Or energy shortages and gas lines.  And we haven't had a Great Depression in 80 years.  So these things have probabilities of 27%, 27%, and 10% (=8/80). 

And we're just getting started, but even with that set of 'black swans,' their individual probabilities of afflicting a particular Presidency are hardly trivial, and the probability that at least one will happen in a given 8-year period is around 65%.

So this business of taking your eye off the ball because it hasn't happened in 30 years or so is dangerously misguided.  Hell, even if it hasn't happened in 80 years, you should still keep half an eye out for it, if its occurrence would be consequential enough to ruin your Presidency.  Really the only reasons to take your eye off these things is if there are causal, structural reasons why these things won't happen anymore, or if their potential ramifications have dwindled to triviality.

In the case of the oil spill, better regulation kept the worst blowouts from happening (maybe), but better regulation was conspicuously undermined during the Bush years.  And the ramifications were same as they ever were.

I think the Obama crew had better keep an eye on the possibility of peak oil, because it could really ruin the Presidency of a Democrat that gets caught not only unprepared for it, but having failed to really try to warn the public about the possibility.  If I were in his place, I'd be doing it low-key, but I'd still be mentioning in my speeches the real possibility that there may soon be less oil than there used to be, and that when it does, the price will go up radically.  And I'd be suggesting that we make major investments in subways, buses, and SUPERTRAINS so that $10/gallon gasoline doesn't catch everyone without any alternatives to driving long distances daily.

A Recession Economics Conundrum, Easily Solved

I know Brad DeLong occasionally checks in on this blog.  If you see this, Brad, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

For the past several months, people have been saying, "we need a way to stimulate the economy via greater deficit spending now, while at the same time, committing to lower deficits starting a few years down the road."

The problem is that it's always easy to say you'll pay somebody Tuesday for a hamburger today.  How do you get Congress to lock in a willingness to make difficult choices a few years from now?

Then I was reminded of this CBPP chart:

And my immediate thought was, isn't it obvious?  You spend enough additional stimulus money over the next couple of years to get unemployment down to, say, 6 to 6.5%, and then you stop.  Then most of that dark blue band near the bottom of the chart - the lingering effects of the economic downturn - should go away.  Since that band is about $300 billion deep, making it go away cuts the deficits in the out years in a way that's far from trivial.

There are painful ways to cut the deficit, and less painful ways to do so.  By far the least painful way to do so is by having a robust economy.  And the route to a robust economy for the rest of the decade (assuming we don't get hit by peak oil, which quite honestly isn't the way I'd bet) is by spending enough now so that people get back to work, save a little bit of a cushion, and then start buying normally again.

Doing that would increase the deficit over the next couple of years, and reduce it after that.  True, things would be even better if we got rid of most of the Bush tax cuts as well, but my point is that there doesn't seem to be a conundrum here: you can increase the deficit now, and substantially reduce it later, simply by spending to put people back to work now.

If I were a Democratic Congresscritter, first I'd be checking with real economists to make sure this idea makes sense, and then I'd be selling it for all it's worth.  It certainly makes a hell of a lot more sense than the wingnut idea that you can balance the budget by cutting taxes.

Saturday Morning Open Thread - World Cup Version

"The High Road" - Broken Bells

Nice song from the collaboration between James Mercer (the Shins) and Dangermouse (Gnarls Barkley).

Up in Massachusetts (about twenty degrees cooler than DC) to celebrate my Dad's 80th birthday.  Watching Argentina-Nigeria in the World Cup.  Argentina looks pretty impressive notwithstanding being coached by the dubious Diego Maradona.  The strange constant hum of the Vuvuzelas (the plastic South African horns) gives one the sense of a game being played in a bee hive.  

Amazingly (or maybe not so amazingly), the right wing nuts can't stand the biggest sporting event in the world.  Ironically, the biggest average crowds at any World Cup in history were in 1994 when the event was held in the United States, with just under 70,000 attending each game; the game has only grown in popularity here since.  They are showing games on big screen TVs in DC's Dupont Circle this year (and allowing bars to open at 7:00 AM which should give my day an added boost), a sign of how much the event has begun to permeate popular consciousness here.

It is puzzling to me that a game that is beloved in every corner of the world can be met with a kind of ideological opprobrium -- but then again, these people are batshit crazy.   

Graduation Commencement Tonight

I will be taking my turn at the baton while we do the endless repeats of that boring ass Elgar thing...

This song is boring

This song is long.

This so-ong is boooorrrrriiinnnnggg

This so-ong is llllloooooonnnnnggg.

Didn't know "Land of Hope and Glory" had lyrics did'ja?

What's on your weekend list of things you must do?

Keep that Wiener Away from that Goat - and other Observations

- No, it's not the response to Mickey Kaus's Senate campaign.  It's Anthony Wiener, who got his thumb gored by an Angora Goat today during a press conference denouncing mohair subsidies.  Beware political props with horns.   

- So the other day I was bemoaning the absence of opinion in mainstream American press confronting the need for change in our relationship with Israel, when lo and behold, the New York Times features an excellent, lucid, piece by Tony Judt today doing just that.  Please read it -- and then contrast it with the hysterical, blood-drenched work of the likes of Charles Krauthammer.  

- “Fighting Wall Street with one hand, unions with the other.”  This comment by Charles Schumer about Blanche Lincoln made my blood boil today.  Fuck him.  I want her to lose and lose badly in November.  As most of you know, I try to be pragmatic in my politics -- I understand that the Democratic Party is a broad coalition and not a labor or social democratic party.  But I am sick to fucking death of the idea that the labor movement is supposed to be the eternal good soldier, the provider of funds, the staffer of campaigns, the folks who walk the precincts and stuff envelopes and knock on doors -- and when we get betrayed by the likes of Lincoln we're supposed to smile, shrug, and accept that that's just the way it is.  We've got to send a message that we cannot be eternally taken for granted.  

- Speaking of unhappiness among labor, recent developments in China concerning striking workers and how the government is responding to them are fascinating.  I have been told for years by folks in the know that there was enormous unrest among Chinese workers, including wildcat strikes and acts of violence against management.  The Chinese government has typically kept these developments under wraps, completely blacking out media coverage of such events.  Recently, however, they have permitted coverage of strikes.  The Communist Party continues to engage in a very complex dance as they transform the "workers state" into an eastern, statist version of late 19th Century American capitalism. 

- Most importantly, on the verge of the start of the World Cup, everyone talks about Brazil as if it plays the most beautiful soccer in the world, but those of us in the know would vote for the Netherlands in this category.  Go Orange.  

*Cake or Death? II: Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon-scented Cream Cheese Frosting

When social girls come to America,
they bake their own cupcakes and sit on their flag**

Last weekend, the boys wanted me to bake for them. (Again.) And I was in the mood to try a new recipe. Something different--a spice cake, perhaps. But most of my dessert cookbooks and scribbled-on notecards were over at the apartment in St. Pete--what to do? Then I remembered something: I had brought my Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts over with me when school finished up a couple of weeks ago; it was probably still in my duffel bag.

Fast-forward a couple of hours, and we were mmm-ing our way through yet another plateful of sweet success, courtesy of the brilliant Moosewood cooks (and a little creative fiddling around by Mama):

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon-scented Cream Cheese Frosting

For the cakes:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup of unsulphured molasses
2 large eggs
3 rounded teaspoons ground ginger
1 scant cup crystallized ginger pieces, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup boiling water

For the frosting:
4 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup cream cheese, softened (I used whipped cream cheese)
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons pure lemon extract
tinted sugar for decorating (optional)

Preheat oven to 350º F (remembering to adjust according to your oven's idiosyncrasies). Line two muffin tins (the 12-cakes size) with paper cupcake liners.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light. Then add the molasses and eggs and beat until smooth. Switch to a wooden spoon, add the ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and flour, and stir gently until blended. In a small bowl or cup, dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water, then add this to the batter and mix until smooth. Stir in the chopped crystallized ginger.

Pour the batter into the cupcake liners--I use a small ladle for this--and bake for about 20 minutes; the cakes are done when they're slightly springy to the touch (don't over-bake them). Once you've removed them from the oven, let them cool for a couple of minutes, then gently lift them from the tins and let them finish cooling on wire racks.

To make the frosting, just cream the butter and cream cheese together with your electric mixer, sift the confectioners' sugar over it and beat until fluffy, then add the lemon extract and beat again until smooth.

Once the cakes are cool, frost them--I like the quick-and-dirty method of holding them upside-down and swirling them directly in the frosting bowl--and, if you like, sprinkle a tiny bit of tinted sugar on each one, for color.

Now brew yourself a nice pot of tea, sit in your own favorite chair, and savor the gingery-lemony sweetness of at least one of these treats before everyone gets home and "disappears" the lot.

* Cake or Death? I

** That's one of various dining room chairs I've painted with acrylics--mine is covered with three weathered-looking Union Jacks, inspired by David Bowie's Alexander McQueen frock coat, and Robert's features green bamboo against a crimson and white background, alla bandiera Italiana. Son Three is currently designing one in Early American Sharks.

Also at litbrit.

Debtors' Prison Returns to America

From the Minnesota Star Tribune

As a sheriff's deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer's purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home to Richfield after an Easter visit with her elderly mother. No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense -- missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. "They have no right to do this to me," said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. "Not for a stupid credit card." It's not a crime to owe money, and debtors' prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.

And, from Charles Dickens. . .

At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,'' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, ``it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.''

``Are there no prisons?'' asked Scrooge.

 ``Plenty of prisons,'' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

``And the Union workhouses?'' demanded Scrooge. ``Are they still in operation?''

``They are. Still,'' returned the gentleman, `` I wish I could say they were not.''

``The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?'' said Scrooge.

``Both very busy, sir.''

``Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,'' said Scrooge. ``I'm very glad to hear it.''

 ``Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,'' returned the gentleman, ``a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?

``Nothing!'' Scrooge replied."

``You wish to be anonymous?''

 ``I wish to be left alone,'' said Scrooge.

Yes, more free traders and deregulation types, trying to reach again for that "Golden Age of Personal Freedom" of the late 19th Century when honest business men could have deadbeats locked up, and the county could profit from their labor on the farms and roadways.

Watching America Roll By - Evening Open Thread

"California Zephyr" - Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar

Sweet, melancholy, road song named for the legendary cross country train by Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) and Jay Farrar (Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt). Quite likely the first song I've ever heard that uses the word "lachrymose." This is from a collaboration they did based on the Jack Kerouac novel, Big Sur, a record called One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur.  There's a documentary film of the same name. 

I hear "I'll take you home again Kathleen"
Sad in fogwinds out there that blow
Across the rooftops of eerie old hang over
San Francisco

Now I'm transcontinental
3000 Miles from my home
I'm on the California Zephyr
Watching America roll by

So what's going on with you?
  

Perhaps this is a Bigger Problem than Teacher Seniority in Layoffs

Amanda links to a Digby post about a USA Today article (kind of has a "Tinkers to Evers to Chance" quality) on the disturbing growth in child poverty in the U.S. during this recession.  As a result, twenty-two percent of children in the U.S. are now living in poverty, compared to 17 percent prior to the start of the recession.  I had to link to Amanda just for the pleasure of her quote on Robert Rector, the sub-human Heritage Foundation dude who is anti-abortion but pro-child poverty, quoted in the article:

Needless to say, Robert Rector considers himself “pro-life”.  You’re precious to him on a cellular level, but once you start breathing and feeling and eating through anything but an umbilical cord, you’re on your own. 

It seems to me that when we look at problems of performance in America's public schools that poverty is far more important than teachers unions and work rules and how onerous it is to actually have to have just cause to fire someone.

As my sister, an elementary school teacher in a public school system (and one of the hardest, most dedicated workers I've ever known) expressed to me, yeah, I'll be accountable for the kids' test scores as long as I can make sure that they have a reasonable bed time that is consistently enforced, that they have a quiet place set aside for doing their homework, that someone at home actually takes an interest in their homework, that someone feeds them a good breakfast every morning, and otherwise provides a loving and non-chaotic home environment -- then I'd be willing to take the blame for their academic failings.  

The fact that more than one in five American children lives in poverty is a disgrace (unless you work for the Heritage Foundation -- then it is a character building exercise).  But with respect to the education debate, people need to understand that most underperforming schools in the U.S. are serving neighborhoods in which concentrations of poverty are such that the number of impoverished kids may be well in excess of a majority.  And one can pretty much correlate the relative wealth of a school or school district with the way in which its students will perform.  As this April 2009 report by the McKinsey Company to which I've linked entitled "The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools" finds

Impoverished students are roughly two years of learning behind the average better-off students of the same age.  The poverty gap appears early and persists over the lifetime of a student; only 9 percent of the students in the nation's 120 "Tier 1" colleges are from the bottom half of the income distribution.  At the school wide level, moreover, schools comprised mostly of low-income students perform much worse than schools with fewer low-income students.

See pp. 12-13 of the Report.  Programs designed to eliminate teacher tenure or modify seniority rights or make it easier to fire teachers are basically cosmetic, feel good measures -- the educational equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  If we are truly serious about improving educational attainment across the board in this country, we would look at alleviating the causes and likelihood of child poverty, we would provide extra resources to schools with high concentrations of low-income students (including more experienced, not less experienced faculty), stop the scapegoating of teachers and their unions, and look at collaborative ways to devise strategies that will help overcome these very real hurdles confronting low-income children.   (And perhaps we should avoid teacher layoffs altogether.)  

And another thing

The confluence of recent events -- the Gulf oil spill, the flotilla fiasco, the revelation of our Mengele-like activities, the crappy jobs report, panicky stock market, persistent unemployment  -- is not making me feel inspired.  Now often times anger is a catalyst for posting, but lately I haven't been feeling so much anger as despair.  The lurch to the right that has characterized America's ideological direction over the last thirty years -- a process greatly accelerated under the eight years of Bush -- has left us so badly positioned to grapple with so many problems that it feels like there are more challenges than can reasonably be tackled.  But what the hell, here's what's on my mind:

- Does the mainstream American media just continue to get stupider as they spiral into utter irrelevance, particularly when it comes to the coverage of Obama?  The "Obama must get angry -- ooh he said "ass" thing is only the most recent example of epidemic insipidness.  Yesterday I had to hear Mara Liarson and Ken Rudin on NPR acting like the Joe Sestak and Andrew Romanoff job offer stories were major news items.  And when the discussion with hard-hitting host (sarcasm) Steve Inskeep made it clear that there just wasn't much to this story, Rudin, always willing to repeat Republican talking points, and Liarson, who works for Fox, resorted to the "yeah, but Obama promised that there would be no more politics in America."  Well, except Republican politics, which is always okay.  

- Speaking of the mainstream media, when will someone therein dare to assert the not unremarkable proposition that American foreign policy really needs to be designed to promote American interests?  Is there anyone on the networks or on the major op-ed pages who is willing to make the argument that a major reexamination of our relationship to Israel is the only thing that makes sense when the Israeli government and the Israeli people are hell bent on saying fuck you to the rest of the world?  Well Peter Beinart attacked the issue indirectly in an extremely important article (that was consigned to the pages of the New York Review of Books) that makes clear that the Israel of David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir is a thing of the past.  The U.S. needs to acknowledge that this change has occurred and adjust its policies accordingly.

- And pondering both of these two phenomena, leads me to this -- I hate the "this is Obama's Katrina, no it's his Iranian hostage crisis" meme -- two great lazy analogies that go great together -- but I am sure that the White House is reeling a bit from this sense of not being in control of events.  For all of the power vested in the presidency, the bottom line is that there are so many things in so many arenas that are outside of his control, that luck is sometimes an indispensable element.  Obama strikes me as someone who has the talent to frequently make his own luck.  And here, I think his ultimate good luck is going to be the quality of his opposition.

- Generally I'm a big fan of Ezra's but this attack on teachers unions and seniority the other day really ticked me off. First, there is almost the presumption that older teachers have less to offer than younger ones -- a typical bias of a young hotshot.  Believe me, when I was a 28-year old lawyer I thought I was quite special.  And I had my strengths -- I wrote fast and well, had a keen memory, and could work round the clock -- I probably worked 300 to 500 hours more a year than I do now.  But my 50-year old self would kick the ass of my 28-year old self without breaking a sweat.  Teaching is similar -- it's an art, not a science.  Experience matters.  The notion that it should be viewed as a detriment is facile nonsense.  And the quest for "objective metrics" of teacher performance is a fool's errand.  As is the notion that principals will administer layoffs in some perfect Platonic fashion, dispensing justice without favoritism or politics influencing them.  Anyway, I hated the tone of the whole piece.

- Quick election thoughts -- disappointed to see that Blanche Lincoln seems to have survived.  (Chris Matthews describes it as a crushing blow to organized labor and the netroots.")  I wonder to what degree organized labor and other activists will lift a finger to try to save her seat in the general election?  My guess is that their energy will be expended elsewhere. On other fronts Nikki Haley won, so we can rest assure that South Carolina will continue to entertain.

- Believe the hype- I'll end on a modestly happy note.  Pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg, made his major league debut tonight for the Washington Nationals and he more than lived up up to his press clippings: seven innings pitched, only two runs surrendered, and fourteen strikeouts, including the last seven hitters he faced.  He struck out eight of the last nine and, best of all, walked none.  His 94th and final pitch of the evening clocked in at 99 miles per hour.  I am looking forward to seeing this guy.

Early Evening Open Thread

"Tiger Lily" - Dean and Britta

sweet obscenity
bring her back to me
lost in her perfume
think i'm gonna sue
sweet obscenity
didn't i know it
didn't i call her name
stale cigarettes
crumble in your fingers
caught with a drink in my hand
edging to the door

Dean Wareham (ex Galaxie 500 and Luna) and Britta Phillips performing in my neck of the woods.  Wareham obviously listened to a whole lot of Lou Reed records growing up.  Collaborators who became a couple, I have just recently started to listen to some of their stuff, which I quite like.  Like a certain trust fund scumbag blogger, Wareham is a product of the Dalton School and Harvard (by way of New Zealand and Australia).  Phillips is an actress as well as a musician.

Politics is continuing to bum me out, but I am going to make myself write something tonight, after I have dinner, a beer or two, and take Stanley out for a stroll.  He and I celebrated our one year anniversary this week -- also the one year anniversary of my little heart attack scare.  The weather here is perfection right now.  (Incidentally, the Stanley link reminded me -- notwithstanding all the guffawing by right wing morons about global warming prompted by our severe winter weather, the temperatures here for the last three and a half months are way above average -- by several degrees.)

Speaking of hospital trips, I want to wish our friend Jim Benton best of luck with his knee surgery.  We'll be thinking of you.

Alright time to leave the office.    

Cat blogging, blast from the past edition ~ OPEN THREAD ~

When the world around me gets exceptionally horrible--and honestly, it's pretty bloody horrible out there these days (see our various posts below, or not!)--I want to be reminded of all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small.  I'm guessing readers feel similarly, so without further ado, I hereby present one of my favorite kitty pics, from the summer of 2005.  There are six--one of the girls (center front) is burrowing under the others, and that's Marley in the back, to your left (his five siblings were all adopted by loving families, don't worry).  Marles, whom you've seen on this blog before, has since grown (and grown and grown) up, and is now a thoroughly cuddly tough guy, weighing in at 21 lbs of muscle, fur, and catly love.

(I can't believe he's almost five.)

Bon Tuesday, everyone.