Apparently misunderstanding how a Friday night news dump is supposed to work, North Korea has re-declared war on the South.
Archives for March 2013
No plan
Doc Science wrote a post about Fred Kaplan, who wrote a book about David Petraeus. The book includes some things that we already know, but had damn well better not forget. Take for example what Isiah “Ike” Wilson learned.
His job in Mosul would be to help refine and execute the plan to stabilize Iraq. From his studies of military history at ever level, he knew that war plans by nature contained four phases. Phase I: Set the conditions. Phase II: Initial operations. Phase III: Decisive operations. Phase IV: Post-conflict stability operations. This was elementary. By the time President Bush made his May Day victory speech on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, the US military had accomplished Phases I through II, but Phase IV had yet to begin.
Looking over the cache of documents, Wilson realized–at first slowly, because he couldn’t quite believe this was possible–that there was no plan for Phase IV. He and Petraeus would have to devise one on their own. [p71]
I cannot get over the fantasy world that these people lived in. They really thought we could put a crown on Ahmad Chalabi and Chalabi would hand out oil contracts like candy. If you ran a shoe store like that, counting on the best caee scenario like nothing else could possibly happen, you would have an ex-shoe store. Too bad for us most neocons lucked out in the sperm lottery and never had to run a shoe store.
North Carolina’s Turn On The Rack
Back home in North Carolina, the Zandarparents inform me that new GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and the Tea Partified legislature are on a roll now that Democratic Gov. Bev Purdue is gone. She was the only thing standing between the Tarheel State and nonsense like this.
Two bills filed by Republican lawmakers seek to cut back early voting and eliminate same-day registration in North Carolina.
Senate Bill 428, filed by Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, would cut the early voting period from two weeks to one and would eliminate same-day voter registration.
House Bill 451, filed by Rep. Edgar Starnes, R-Caldwell, goes even further. In addition to cutting early voting and same-day registration, it would also outlaw early voting on Sunday and straight-ticket voting.
To recap, Republicans are happily running in NC on “We want fewer people to vote, and fewer people to be allowed to vote.” Nobody apparently sees the problems with this. They’re not even trying to hide the fact that it’s voter suppression anymore.
The GOP’s Deep Bench
The amazing thing to me about the Republicans is that as soon as one of them disgraces themselves, another bigoted douchebag gets upchucked into public view, and immediately does something like this:
Dr. Benjamin Carson, the famed Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, apologized Friday for his “choice of words” and use of examples in discussing gay marriage on Fox News earlier in the week.
During Sean Hannity’s show on Tuesday, when asked about the matter before the Supreme Court, Carson said, “Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.”
The comparison of gays to members of the North American Boy/Man Love Association and those who engage in bestiality set off a backlash of criticism in the media, online and on campus. There is now a petition circulating at Johns Hopkins Medical to have Carson removed as commencement speaker in May at the School of Medicine.
It’s an endless stream of assholes on that bench.
Friday Recipe Exchange: Pet Treats
Jack bravely volunteers to test the final product. Photo by JeffreyW
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From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
While I was debating between two topic requests for this week’s recipe exchange, a commenter at Balloon-Juice sparked a whole new idea. Pet Treats. So I asked for some ideas and those became tonight’s post. Thanks to ButchF, MattR, WereBear and JeffreyW for the ideas.
First from JefferyW – Cheddar Cheese Biscuits (recipe here)
And MattR gave us the recipe he uses for Peanut Butter Treats (recipe here)
Then I decided cat lovers needed equal time, so I contacted WereBear of Way of Cats, and asked for her advice on cat treats. Here’s what she told me:
Aw, so sweet of you to think of me and the kitties. Now that’s parity!
However, while dogs are gourmands, cats are fussy gourmets. So I can’t guarantee happy consumption. In fact, [here is] Why Cats Are Fussy (read here) …. because not all cats are going to like all things.
That said, here is my recipe for Chicken Liver Pate for Kitties:
1 cup chicken livers
2 tbsp butter or bacon fat
sprinkle of catnip (or parsley, sage, or basil, if cat likes the smell)Classically, pate includes onions, but these (and all bulbs!) are toxic to cats.
Melt fat in pan, and saute livers JUST until ALMOST done. Do not overcook or the pate will lose its silky texture. Then sprinkle the herbs of choice. (Test them via smell on our kitty, or kitties. A sharpening of attention is a good sign; aversion will be quite evident.)
Now cool a bit (livers will finish cooking here) and scrape all contents onto a cutting board (if chopping by hand) or into a blender or food processor. If our cat likes chunky, hand mincing is easy and quick; if our cat likes smoothness, we can blend.
Be sure it has cooled to being only warm before offering it to our cat. Part of the fun is making a fuss over how good it smells. Get them worked up! This is Dinner Theatre.
Leftovers can be dabbed onto a sheet of waxed paper or into ice cube trays and put in the freezer for an hour or so. Then they can be put into a freezer bag for easy treats next time.
So good, and so good for them!
Now I have to figure out how to explain to my cats that garlic is not good for them, because they go after anything I have that is extra garliky. Silly felines, garlic is for everyone else.
How about it? Do you make your own pet treats? Have any favorite recipes you want to share? But what I really want are lots of pet stories, because I know you have them! Hit the comments.
Now on to the featured recipe. This all started because ButchF said he makes dog biscuits every week for his dogs and they won’t accept anything else. I, of course, asked him to share the recipe.
Hunger Strike At Guantanamo Continues
ABC News/AP:
Prisoners taking part in an expanding hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay leveled new complaints about their military jailers Wednesday as a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross made a fact-finding trip to the U.S. base in Cuba.
In an emergency motion filed with a federal court in Washington, lawyers say guards have refused to provide drinking water to hunger strikers and kept camp temperature “extremely frigid,” to thwart the protest. A spokesman for the detention center denied the allegations….
They filed the petition after interviewing Yemeni prisoner Musaab al-Madhwani by phone Monday. He told them that guards were refusing to provide bottled water and telling prisoners to drink from tap water that inmates believe is non-potable. The lawyers say in their motion that the lack of drinkable water has “already caused some prisoners kidney, urinary and stomach problems,” in addition to the health effects of the hunger strike.
Along with their motion, they submitted an affidavit from Dr. Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and retired general, who believes that the hunger strike and lack of adequate drinking water “sets them up for gastrointestinal infections and a quick demise.” The doctor also said the 34-year-old al-Madhwani suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder linked to his torture while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan and could be worsened by harsh conditions at Guantanamo….
White House spokesman Josh Earnest say Obama’s team is closely monitoring the hunger strikes, but deferred to the Pentagon for any specifics.
“The administration remains committed to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo bay,” Earnest said, noting that legislation passed by Congress makes it likely that process won’t be quick.
Thomas Wilner, “counsel of record to Guantanamo detainees in Rasul v. Bush and Boumediene v. Bush, the two Supreme Court cases that established detainees’ right to habeas corpus”, in the Washington Post yesterday:
… But the cost to our nation is more than economic. Many who have been charged with protecting our national security, including former defense secretary Robert Gates, former national security adviser Dennis Blair, former CIA director David Petraeus and former secretary of state Colin Powell, have pointed out that Guantanamo actually hurts U.S. security. As Sen. John McCain emphasized during his bid for the White House, when he “strongly” favored closing Guantanamo, the prison is a negative symbol that serves as an important recruiting tool for terrorists. President Obama himself has said that Guantanamo has probably “created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.”
“There is also no question,” Obama said in a May 2009 speech, that Guantanamo has undermined “America’s strongest currency in the world” — our “moral authority.”
These Colors Don’t Run
Had to go to the airport to pick up a friend, and listened to a little of the Pittsburgh am talk, and this is apparently the issue driving local wingnuts insane:
A rainbow flag flying outside the City-County Building, Downtown, led Mary Ann Burkhart to take a stand.
Burkhart of Bethel Park took issue with a decision by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s administration to hoist the flag representing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community on Wednesday, when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for a second day on gay marriage.
“This is outrageous,” Burkhart said on Thursday. “What’s the message here? You can’t not speak up.”
Ravenstahl’s office received a few calls about the flag, a symbol of gay pride, that it said flew “in recognition” of the high court’s consideration of the federal law defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
Marissa Doyle, a Ravenstahl spokeswoman, said she was not sure if all the callers complained. She said workers took down the flag, which flew below the American flag and the city flag, after rallies on Wednesday in support of gay marriage.
Still, it left Burkhart seeing red.
“Lesbians, gays and transsexuals are honored … under a flag that many people have died for?” she said. “I’m crying for my country.”
Who will think of the fee-fees of our bigots? And the best part is she is not even from Pittsburgh, but Bethel Park.