Damn, What A Great Idea

Because he’s proven to be such a Good Steward of our finances so far

(Reuters) – The Obama administration’s opening bid on Thursday in negotiations to avert a year-end fiscal crunch included a demand for new stimulus spending and authority to unilaterally raise the U.S. borrowing ceiling, a Republican congressional aide said.

The proposal, made by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to congressional Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, was seen as offering little the Republicans could agree to and was greeted with laughter, the aide said.

Let’s hear that again

Obama’s negotiators also sought the ability to raise the nation’s borrowing limit unilaterally. Currently, Congress must approve an increase in the debt ceiling, and it was an impasse over that issue that brought the country perilously close to default in 2011.

Good god.

MY Congressman, Mind You

…is already the MVP in these parts. He’s been talking THIS talk ~ and WALKING it ~ for as long as I’ve known him, and you’d experience the same straightforwardness if you ever had a chance to sit through one of his question and answer sessions. Other fancy, non-Redneck Riviera folks are just starting to catch on, like he was somethin’ new.

Jeff Miller could be MVP in Congress

Nothing in life is assured, but Rep. Jeff Miller’s Wednesday eruption against Veterans Affairs officials’ evasion of simple questions about waste and incompetence in their department could mean a prominent place for him in the history books.

…The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, which the Florida Republican chairs, has now received three wildly divergent estimates from VA of its total spending on such events, ranging from $20 million to $100 million in 2011.

The third VA figure of $86 million was presented at Wednesday’s hearing. Miller’s exasperation was clearly evident when VA’s No. 2 official, W. Scott Gould, couldn’t explain the variation among the estimates.

Instead of merely venting his anger, Miller responded to the VA obstacles by declaring, “The truce is over. Expect much more oversight from this committee.”

Miller was still fuming after the hearing, telling The Washington Examiner’s Mark Flatten that the committee “got the same old crap that VA has been giving us for two years, and I am tired of it.“

Perhaps to remove any doubt about his intention, Miller added that the committee “will be digging in every possible corner that we can for issues that are not being served for the veterans. If you have leadership within the VA that have arrogant attitudes, the veterans are not being well-served.”

I remember one time ~ at a Republican Executive Committee meeting, no less, a fellow stood up, whining about jobs going to China. Now, I KNOW he expected to hear the usual demogoguery of ee-ville firms who leave Americans workers in the street, but you know what he got from Jeff Miller? “Where’d you buy your last toaster?” Of course, the goober said WalMart. “What’d you pay for it and how long did the one before it last?” $13 and about 3 years, if that.

“Jobs,” Jeff said, “won’t come home until YOUR attitude changes. Remember when you paid good money for a quality product, that you took ~ that you COULD take ~ to a shop on the corner, where another fellow made HIS living repairing things? Once people wanted cheap $6 toasters and throw away everything, American manufacturing jobs were doomed. What are you willing to pay a premium for? Until you change THAT mind set, they’re not coming back.“

BOOM.

Nah. We’ve known he was a supah-stah for a long time.

And I pity the fools at the VA.

H/T Instapundit

Headline Of The Day

“Zurich To Open Drive-In Sex Boxes”

Port Strikes Starting To Pop Up

There’s potential in Portland and of course the big one set for December 29th here on the East Coast, but don’t think the folks on the Left Coast aren’t going to flex their muscles a bit

LOS ANGELES—Most of the nation’s largest port complex is shut down as clerical workers strike the Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals. Union spokesman Craig Merrilees says members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are picketing Thursday.
Port spokesmen say seven of eight Los Angeles terminals and three of six in Long Beach are closed. In LA, 14 ships in dock and in the harbor aren’t being serviced.
On Wednesday, dockworkers refused to cross clerical worker picket lines even though an arbitrator ruled the strike invalid.

The clerical workers have been locked in a contract dispute with more than a dozen shippers for 2 1/2 years. They claim terminal operators have been outsourcing their jobs overseas. Shippers deny that and say they’ve even offered to guarantee local jobs.

The issue?

At issue is the union’s contention that terminal operators have outsourced jobs to lower-paid paperwork pushers in the U.S. and places such as Costa Rica, India and Taiwan. A union release contended that 51 clerical jobs have been lost in the past five years.
The negotiating group for the shippers denied that any local union clerical jobs were outsourced and said in a statement that the 51 workers had quit, died or retired with full benefits in the past three years.
Their positions weren’t filled because there was no “business need,” said a statement from the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association.
In addition, the companies have offered to guarantee current union clerical workers their jobs for life, Berry said.
He claimed that the union wants contract language to permit “featherbedding”—the practice of requiring employers to call in temporary employees and hire new permanent employees even when there is no work to perform.

Unions turned out big and put Obama’s re-election over the top; they will expect to be rewarded.

“The Best Leaders…”

“…are the best servants.” ~ Manti Te’o

I love this kid.

If you’re unfamiliar with him and the backstory of the pep rally speech with the leis, it was the rally before the Michigan home game. A week and a half before, back home in Hawaii, his grandmother and girlfriend had died within hours of each other.

The Notre Dame fans wore leis for them. And for Manti.

The SPAM Catcher’s Cache Today

…is running heavily in favor of meeting lovely lady latinas, by a five-to-one margin.

Definitely an improvement over the “tutu” binge we went through for a few weeks.

Please! No Dancing in the Streets!

GDP Growth Pushed Up to 2.7%; Jobless Claims Slip

…While the growth pace was much quicker than the 2.0 percent rate the government estimated last month and the best since the fourth quarter of 2011, it was hardly a sign of strength in the economy given the boost from restocking and weaker consumer spending.

You might step on somebody in a soup-line.

Good God

One chart that truly says it all.

This is hope and change.

Look At The Data In This Study

And draw your own conclusions.

Clearly they were swayed by his clearly articulated policy.

Laser-like vision, you might call it.

83-59

What a glorious sight.

Where France Leads, Can We Be Far Behind?

FLASH: France says will vote in favor of Palestinian non-member status at U.N.

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) November 27, 2012

Ancient Chinese Secret

Who knew the Pilgrims were Chinese?

Deep Breath

Exhale.

Go Irish.

ths update: And it’s DONE.

UNDEFEATED 12-0 and we’re gonna roll some Crimson Tide into Red Tide toxic sludge.

Quote Of The Day

Perhaps of all time, in fact:

Donne, donne, eterni Dei, chi v’arriva a indovinar?

Spam Of The Day

Undeniably imagine that which you stated. Your favourite reason appeared to be at the net the easiest thing to remember of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed whilst other folks consider issues that they just don’t know about. You controlled to hit the nail upon the top as smartly as outlined out the entire thing with no need side-effects , folks could take a signal. Will likely be again to get more. Thanks

No side effects from our smartly hit nail.

Your “Black Friday” Public Service Announcement From the Mayor

In honoro of el Blacko de Friday, todos los shoppers will be que stopped y friskedo!

— Miguel Bloombito (@ElBloombito) November 23, 2012

Imagine That

Morsy started his term addressing full crowd in #Tahrir , now he is adressing a couple thousands supporters & #Tahrir is filled against him.

— ????? ????? (@Sandmonkey) November 23, 2012

Well, it’s not “spring” any longer, right? No point in the fakey-fakey “love freedom” stuff anymore.

I Watched This Horrible Slasher Movie Last Night

It was really really awful. I can not believe it was even allowed on the air, and I certainly can’t believe (and I am in fact quite ashamed) that I survived the at most 10 minutes of it that I did watch. It was this group of Barbarians from the North that descended upon this nunnery that was mostly inhabited by blind and disabled Sisters of Mercy and, well, you can imagine how the Barbarians had their way with them in the most graphic fashion. No amount of alcohol from Thanksgiving dinner could make this tolerable.

And then I realized I was watching the Jets.

DUCK!!!

It’s Thanksgiving.

Since our baby boy was far, far away, we decided to experiment with the bird of choice. And it turned out okay (Thank you, JESUS!), so we’ll share.
Otherwise, you would ne’er heard a peep. Nor quack.

Get and clean yourself your average Maple Leaf Farms 6 pound quacker, then gather the following brine ingredients, to include water in a large (6 qt) pot.

I used about half the OJ, 1/2 C salt and 3T+ of the pickling spices.
Got it all together in said pot…

…rolling boil, then let it sit and steep. I did overnight, right there on the stove.

Today major dad got some chips soaking and, since we’re going with a fruit theme, that’s the wood he used…

…while I introduced Monsieur Canard to his deeLIGHTFUL smelling brine.

The idea is to soak for 4-6 hours. We managed 4 1/2, flipping him every hour.

About 45 minutes into that last hour, major dad started his coals and got the Weber set up for smoking. When he said it was ready, I drained the duck, rinsed and dried it, then ran two very shallow slits down either side of the backbone (taking care NOT TO SCORE THE MEAT)…

…to allow fat to render down and around the meat and out the bottom, effectively basting the little devil the whole time he’s cooking (A little tip we learned 30 years ago on PBS from Madeleine Kamman). Out he went ~ with Scottie supervision, of course ~ to the smoker for a cold smoke (about 200°) of about an hour.

When he came in, the oven was preheating to 300°, but he almost didn’t make it, the smell was THAT divine and he was THAT pretty…

…but THAT raw. Breast internals were barely bumping 100° and for us, they need to be at 145°. This gives you a chance to crisp the skin…

…render off that additional fat, get your veggies going and make a sauce. I reduced a C of an Alessi pear balsamic to almost a syrup, then dropped in two huge tablespoons of imported black cherry preserves, and finished it with about a tablespoon and a half of a rich european butter.

After our traditional starters of major dad’s grilled scallops, my beer steamed shrimp cocktails and a salad, I also added seared brussel sprouts with gorgonzola cream and pecans to counter all the fruit in/on the duck. Plus I made some Sunnyside stuffing just ‘CAUSE.
It all worked.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

Quack. {8^P

A Brief History on the Spirit of Thanksgiving

At least, the spirit around here, aka “juice of the juniper berry”.

Gin used to have a stigma as being the drink that only drunkards drank.

The HORROR.

Times change.

ths update: leelu’s Vonnegut quote in the comments…

“…they had been swilling gin.”

…got us thinking.

Well, yes.

They had.

No possibility of plague here, and for that we are thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving, Swillers!

major dad and I are sitting home by our loneselves this year, so we’re experimenting, fare-wise. If we’re lucky (and she’s not…{8^P), Ebola’s adorable, beautiful bride will be by later to “torture” her FIL, so THAT’LL be like dessert twice-over!

Wherever you are, whatever you do, we hope your day is a good one.

My Aaron

**sniffle**

It’s Odd

But I feel very much like Grandma Walton waiting for John-Boy to walk up the driveway.

The CBS Evening News Calls Bullshit on Hamas

Bravo. First report of the newscast and this interview starts at 3:38.

Scott Pelley: …Charlie, the Israelis say civilians are being killed because Hamas militants are hiding among the civilians. What have you seen?

Charlie D’Agata: Well, Hamas will tell you, Scott, that that is absolutely not the case, but we know that it IS the case. Uh…the attack on the TV tower today, they were aiming at, uh, a person from the Islamic Jihad and, uh, people from that group had to admit that yes indeed that person was killed, hiding among journalists. We also know that these launchpads for these missiles that are sent into Israel every day are being discovered, and in some cases destroyed, near buildings, near mosques, near schools in these heavily congested areas. In one of the areas that we were at just yesterday, we could see the trails, the smoke trails, of four or five missilies being fired off, and it was literally just two blocks from where we were standing in this residential area.

Keep it coming.

ths update: I guess reporters at the Old Grey Lady should watch the CBS Evening News.

How to Have a State Department Hack

…for lunch. GOBSCHMACKINGLY enough, it’s an AP reporter doing the eviscerating. Oh, NICELY done!

MATTHEW LEE, AP REPORTER: You say that it would not be helpful for you to discuss any of your conversations that quiet diplomacy is the way to de-escalate that. Well, you have been doing your “quiet diplomacy” for almost a week. How’s it going so far?

VICTORIA NULAND, STATE DEPARTMENT: We are working hard with the parties that are working hard with…

LEE: Has it occurred to anybody that maybe being less quiet might get more results? Hrm? The squeaky wheel gets grease, that kind of thing?

NULAND: I’ll let the…

LEE: You’re being silent while people are dying left and right.

(H/T TRS)