Have at it.
What real bipartisanship means
I had forgotten how bipartisan George W. Bush was (from today’s Washington Post):
Bush made an early gesture to encourage bipartisanship: inviting members of the Kennedy family to the White House to see the movie “Thirteen Days.”
While we’re on this topic, just for the heck of it:
Joe Klein: The thing that Gore has to worry about is this—Bush is legitimately a decent, kind, sweet guy…I don’t think George W. Bush actually is a conservative. I really think that, you know, when he campaigned for governor, he campaigned in a bus that said “Opportunity” on one side and “Responsibility” on the other side. (via)
Tech Help- Printer Edition
I need a new printer. My HP LaserJet 5P, which has served me well for what feels like ten years, is finally dead and gone. It has pseudo died several times in the past, but I always managed to fix it.
At any rate, I am looking around and there just don’t seem to be many printers comparable to it. I don’t mind buying a color printer, but I don’t want to end up buying something that requires me to buy hundreds of dollars of ink cartridges every few months. I was quite happy with the printer I had, which was a little slow with the printing, but I could go several years without a new toner cartridge.
Any suggestions? I don’t want to spend a bazillion dollars, but I will pay for quality.
*** Update ***
Ugh. I guess I missed the premiere of Dollhouse last night. Will it be showing again?
The Balloon Juice Diet: Haddock a la Reine
Those of you determined to lose weight start dieting tomorrow will love this.
3 tbs butter
1 tbs salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of cayenne pepper
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1.5 lb haddock filets, cooked and flaked (I baked for 20 min at 330, with bread crumbs on top to capture flavor)
3 tbs dry sherry
2 large egg yolks
4 puff pastry shells
Melt the butter on low in a medium pan. Add flour, salt, paprika, nutmeg, cayenne pepper and stir until smooth and bubble. Gradually add cream and milk. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly.
Whisk egg yolks and sherry in a bowl, then add 1/3 of the hot mix. Return to the saucepan and cook for 2 min. Add fish and cook for 1 min. until hot.
Serve over baked pastry shells (brush them with egg yolks before baking, 375 for 10-12 min, for a nice finish).
Happy valentine’s day.
***update***
Forgot to quantify the flour. I added one tablespoon at the beginning and about another half tablespoon as the sauce thickened.
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A tale told by a wingnut, full of bricks and balls, signifying political failure
In 2007, when then-governor Eliot Spitzer announced his plans to allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses, I began receiving mailers like the one above from my county Republican party. Democrats I spoke with said that the fall-out from Spitzer’s plan would destroy Democratic chances in the 2007 county elections, that it would keep Democrats from gaining seats in the 2008 State Senate election, and that it spelled doom for Democratic candidates running in districts like mine (NY-29). In fact, county Democrats picked up two lej seats in 2007 (which led to the firing of the guy who masterminded the mailers), took over the State Senate in 2008 for the first time in over forty years, and gained two upstate Congressional seats, including mine.
Anti-immigration political tactics worked just as badly in Arizona:
McCain says that last year he saw how toothless the issue was in Arizona. “Congressman J. D. Hayworth had a pretty good opponent,” he said of the former Republican from Arizona, who lost his seat in the 2006 midterm election. “J.D. ran just on the issue of immigration, in a moderate but Republican district. Arizona State University is there, in Phoenix. And J.D. got beat by four points in the general election. There was a guy who was going to take Jim Kolbe’s seat”—an Arizona congressman who retired last year. “Jim was there twenty years, and had always carried the district well. The Republican candidate was another one where immigrant, immigration, anti-illegal immigration was his theme. He lost by twelve points. So I think there is a lesson in some of those elections when people use anti-immigration as a major part of their campaign. But I also know that it galvanizes a certain part of the Republican Party.”
Note that it’s a given that anti-immigrant politics are a terrible long-term strategy. This isn’t even about that — they don’t even work in the short term. So why did Romney and Giuliani choose to Tancredo themselves into ignominious defeat? I think it’s because they overestimated the power of things like the “brick brigade”, which formed to oppose McCain-Kennedy type legislation:
Advocates of tougher border security have sent thousands of bricks to Senate and House offices in recent weeks to make a none-too-subtle point with lawmakers about where many of their constituents come down on emerging immigration bills.
Leaders of the campaign, which has delivered an estimated 10,000 bricks since it began in April, said they had hit on the idea as a way to emphasize the benefits of a fence along the border with Mexico.
The same thing is happening again with the stimulus package. Despite polls showing its popularity and Obama’s overwhelming popularity, Villagers and Republicans alike are convinced it’s smart politics to oppose it because “the polls show one thing but the constituent calls to congressional offices against the stimulus are showing something else.”
Following the brick bridage’s marching orders was calamitous for the Republicans in 2008, not just because of the examples cited above but because McCain (who once co-authored a smart, fair immigration reform bill) lost the Latino vote by 2:1 largely because of this. So why is the GOP now taking orders from the silly putty and balls brigade? It could be fear of primaries, but look how Romney, Giuliani, and Tancredo did in those. And why does the Village seem to think this is all such a good idea?
Fool them once…
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Saturday Morning Open Thread
Let’s start the day with some pictures:
Claim your pets.
Not the Onion
This is amusing:
Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name as it tries to shake a reputation battered by oft-criticized work in Iraq, renaming its family of two dozen businesses under the name Xe.
The parent company’s new name is pronounced like the letter “z.” Blackwater Lodge & Training Center — the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training — has been renamed U.S. Training Center Inc., the company said Friday.
But not as funny as this:
The term “Religious Right” pops up every election cycle, but leaders often identified with the political movement say that while their constituencies remain strong, the catchphrase deserves a proper burial.
After Election Day, the BBC declared that times are uncertain for the Religious Right. In September 2008, Newsweek declared a Religious-Right Revival after Sarah Palin was nominated vice president. Even after the election, the term “Religious Right” or “Christian Right” appeared in recent obituaries as journalists searched for words to describe Paul Weyrich, cofounder of the Moral Majority, and the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, founder of Catholic journal First Things.
However, several politically conservative evangelicals said in interviews that they do not want to be identified with the “Religious Right,” “Christian Right,” “Moral Majority,” or other phrases still thrown around in journalism and academia.
I propose we rename the disease cancer, and I am suggesting we call it Puppybreathrosepetalcoolsideofthepillowdipinthelakecoolbreezesunnyday. After we re-brand it, no one will care if they die from it, amirite?