The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

http://vimeo.com/35404908

Moonbot Studios, the animation studio behind this film, is gaining hype as "The Pixar of the iPad age." If this is any indication, the studio has earned the hype. To read more about Moonbot on The Atlantic and see more photos from the film:

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2012/02/the-pixar-of-the-ipad-age-goes-to-the-academy-awards-with-its-short-film/252703

Moonbot Studios:
http://www.moonbotstudios.com

Moonbot's description of the film:

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” was the winner of best animated short film of 2011 at the 84th Academy Awards...

The 'Mac' of all trades

Glenview woman reflects on naming famous burger, 45 years later
Alan P. Henry
January 30, 2012
http://www.glenviewlantern.com/Articles-News-c-2012-01-30-235637.114133-The-Mac-of-all-trades.html

Robalini's Note: Esther Rose is the mother of Konformist Kontributing Editor Scott Rose.

The next time you prepare to chomp into a Big Mac, take a moment first to thank Esther Glickstein Rose of Glenview.

She's the one who named it, and without her dogged persistence, the iconic sandwich may never have become a McDonald's product.

The story begins 45 years ago on a snowy winter day in downtown Chicago in 1967.

With ten dollars to her name, the 17-year-old Von Steuben High School graduate saw an ad for a secretary at McDonald's corporate headquarters. Poorly dressed and soaking wet from the commute into the LaSalle Street office, she was spotted in a hallway by a company official, who promptly hired her.

"I guess she felt sorry for me, the way I looked," said Esther, 65, who has lived in Glenview since 1978.

One day soon thereafter, the head of product development stopped by her desk, told her he was headed to a board meeting where they were going to name a new double burger product and asked for her suggestions.

"I just said off the top of my head, 'Big Mac, that's it!'"

He dismissed her idea and told her they were going to name it the Blue Ribbon Burger.

"I started laughing and told him that was a dumb name," she said.

He then told her, while he stood there, to write down ten reasons not to name it the Blue Ribbon Burger, and also to list ten other names.

She quickly typed ten reasons to nix their choice, and only one name: Big Mac.

The board chose Blue Ribbon Burger, test marketed it in Quad Cities, and it bombed.

A few months later, the manager said they were going to try again, this time calling it the Aristocrat.

She laughed, called it a "dumb" idea and again made the case for the Big Mac.

The board went with Aristocrat, test marketed it in Peoria, and it bombed again. The idea of a double burger dropped out of sight.

Fast-forwarding to 1972, Esther decided not to follow McDonald's out to its new headquarters in Oak Brook, got married and moved to Niles.

One day she walked into the McDonald's on Milwaukee Avenue in Glenview and there, on the menu, was the Big Mac!

Word spread over the years that the name Big Mac was Esther's idea.

Word also spread that McDonald's refused to compensate her, first arguing that she was an employee when she came up with the name, then many years later arguing that the statute of limitations had run out on a claim.

There were letter writing campaigns at several Glenview schools, supportive interviews with the likes of radio hosts Wally Phillips, Uncle Bobby, and Eddie and JoBo and, to this day, periodic stories on TV and in the news.

Maxim magazine even talked to her about a photo shoot using Big Macs in strategic places. "No, thank you," she said.

In 1985, McDonald's did finally send her a plaque, thanking her for her "contribution to the development of the Big Mac." But no money.

"I am not bitter," said Esther. "We've had so much fun with it. Over the years, people would say, 'there's the Big Mac lady.' And they'd want an autograph." She recalled that one fan letter was sent from New Jersey to the Glenview post office addressed to "Big Mac Lady."

But the events of forty years ago have played only a small role in Esther's life.

Her parents were among the very few members of their two families to survive the Holocaust, and came to America in 1948. Esther was eight when her mother died of cancer in 1955. But suffering only made her stronger.

"I pledged to make a good life for myself and make the best life for my children and pass a smile on to others," she said.

True to her pledge, Esther became a woman with many passions and interests, none of them requiring a toasted sesame seed bun.

At the head of the line are her two sons, Scott and Bradley, and two grandchildren.

In 2010, she received the Illinois Association of Park Districts Community Service Award in recognition of what is now 34 years of service supervising the Glenview Park District's adult volleyball program. A lifelong volleyball player, standing 5 feet 1 inch tall, she currently runs two programs a week for 28 players per class.

Theater is another of her passions. She is on the board of the Highland Park Players, which will soon be celebrating their 25th anniversary and has performed in numerous community theater productions.

A lifelong animal lover, she volunteers as an administrative assistant at the Heartland Animal Shelter in Northbrook, "where [she feels] most rewarded."

"I have never seen such dedicated people who come rain, sleet or snow to care for these animals and work so hard to find them a good home," she said.

One of her favorite quotes is: "Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." She followed that message as two of Heartland's cats, Petey and Delsie, now live with Esther.

Esther can also be found at the Glenview Library assisting people, golfing, making photo collages, and riding with her partner, Rick Metz, on his Harley. She's penned numerous short stories and produced a book of over 100 poems, too. Her latest fascination?

"Tap dancing," she says with an enchanting smile. "A teacher once commented about me, 'I try my best.' I may not be the best at many things, but I always try my best."

She also worked for 14 years as an advertising sales assistant for Gulf Publishing, and would love to pick up a similar post-time position today to help make ends meet.

Of course, in that regard, there's always the chance McDonald's may at long last make amends, too.

"It is not too late," smiled Esther. "If they still want to give me something I would love it."

We Must Free the Revolutionary Health Discoveries of Dr. Hulda Clark

Steven A. SwanDr. Clark Consultant

Over the past few years Big Medicine (i.e., the huge, multinational pharmaceutical companies as well as the beneficiaries of other high-profit medical modalities [surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, diagnostics, cancer research, etc.) and the corporate-controlled mainstream media (MSM) have effectively marginalized the revolutionary health-related discoveries and inventions of Dr. Hulda Clark, Ph.D., N.D. Big Medicine has done so using its vast financial resources to fund its many willing minions, including the mainstream medical research industry. The mainstream media has proactively aided and abetted Big Medicine. We must not allow this travesty to continue.

Dr. Clark’s Discoveries and Inventions

Hulda Regehr Clark received her Ph.D. in the biological sciences way back in 1959 when it was much more difficult to earn a doctorate degree than it is today. Her many years of subsequent research in this field led her to discover the two true reasons behind virtually every disease—1) that the increased number of toxins which we continually take into our bodies compromise our immune systems’ ability to protect us and directly cause some of our ailments and diseases, and 2) that our compromised immune systems are unable to repel foreign invaders such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc., which also can contribute to or directly cause some of our ailments or diseases by (among other things) manufacturing toxic chemicals of their own. These two factors working in conjunction with each other cause virtually every one of our ailments or diseases.

In addition to using traditional scientific methods to confirm these realities, Dr. Clark discovered another revolutionary method for doing so. Even though she was an expert in the biological sciences, her curiosity had introduced her to electromagnetism and the electromagnetic spectrum—from the largest radio waves to the smallest rays of ionic radiation. In conjunction with her research into this field, she took up the hobby of amateur (or ham) radio operation.

Her research into radio waves led her in 1988 to one of her most important breakthrough discoveries—that everything in existence, whether living or dead, animate or inanimate, produces and emits a radio frequency (RF) or a range of radio frequencies. Microscopic entities such as viruses emit a single radio frequency, whereas larger entities such as human beings emit a wide range of radio frequencies.

Using this information, Dr. Clark invented a device with which she could accurately identify substances or entities based upon the radio frequencies they emit. She also determined how to pinpoint the exact locations of these substances or entities within other entities, such as the human body. Astonishingly, using radio frequencies to identify substances is thousands of times more accurate than the latest analytical methods employed by scientific researchers today. It is also much quicker and much less expensive.

Using this information, Dr. Clark was able to identify the particular toxin or toxins responsible for causing any given ailment or disease. She was also able to identify any foreign invader or invaders which might be associated with that ailment or disease.

After Dr. Clark made these important discoveries, she studied many human ailments and diseases and ascertained the factor or combination of factors causing each one. Armed with that information, she was then able to articulate each one’s cure.

Dr. Clark realized that the first step to take to cure ailments and diseases is to reduce the flow of toxins into the body as much as possible. Once this feat is accomplished, our immune systems may recover to the point where they can remove many of the remaining toxins on their own. However this effort is seldom totally effective by itself so the next step is to proactively work to remove the toxins which have accumulated.

Dr. Clark’s many years of research also taught her how valuable herbs are in removing toxins from the body and in exterminating our foreign invaders. These insights led her to become a master herbologist. She also became a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (N.D.) during her career.

Dr. Clark’s research into radio frequencies also led her to discover that by subjecting our foreign invaders to their own frequency ranges for a few minutes at a time using a frequency range generator, they could be exterminated. Unfortunately this technique is not effective on all parts of the body because some of them are shielded from the frequency ranges. However using a frequency range generator in conjunction with the proper herbs to exterminate our foreign invaders is extremely effective.

The Dissemination of Her Revelations

Dr. Clark did not conduct her scientific research in a vacuum. Much of her research into specific diseases was prompted by the conditions of actual disease sufferers with whom she was acquainted. She assisted her first patient in 1963 and went on to assist many thousands more over the years.

Even though Dr. Clark had discovered the basic causes of and the basic cures for many diseases, there was much more to be discovered about each one. Dr. Clark subsequently focused her research efforts on discovering further information relative to the causes of and curing the disease that was killing a large number of people—cancer. She also focused her research efforts on refining the causes of and the cures for HIV and AIDS.

Dr. Clark did not want to wait the many years necessary for the mainstream medical research industry and government agencies to analyze and accept her revolutionary discoveries using their conventional methods (double-blind studies, etc.) because too many people (including the control groups in the studies) would needlessly suffer and die in the interim. So she decided to make her discoveries known directly to anyone who was interested in learning them. She did so by authoring books detailing the causes of and the cures for particular diseases and publishing them herself.

In 1993, Dr. Clark published two books. One of them was entitled The Cure For All Cancers. This book detailed the basic causes of and the basic cures for all types of cancer. The other book was entitled The Cure For HIV and AIDS. This book did the same for these two diseases.

Because of Dr. Clark’s many years of research, she possessed vast amounts of information regarding the causes of and the cures for many other diseases. This led her in 1995 to publish a book entitled The Cure For All Diseases. In this book she detailed the causes of and the cures for many diseases individually.

The Demonization of Dr. Clark

Even though Dr. Clark discovered a method for analyzing substances much more accurately and quickly than any modality in existence in the scientific community, which in turn allowed her to discover the causes of and the cures for virtually every disease, not surprisingly, these revelations were met with strenuous hostility from the mainstream medical industry, the mainstream scientific community (which is highly influenced by the mainstream medical industry), and the corporate-controlled mainstream media. The first two groups are much more interested generating profits and longevity for themselves than they are in helping individuals cure their ailments and diseases. All three of them did everything imaginable to try to marginalize Dr. Clark’s revolutionary health discoveries and inventions. However, undaunted by the tremendous opposition to her fantastic discoveries and inventions, Dr. Clark persevered.

In the ensuing years, Dr. Clark made further discoveries into the causes of and the cures for many ailments and diseases. Since one of her primary foci was on curing cancer, she published three subsequent cancer books over the years detailing her discoveries. The last one was published in 2007. In 2003, she updated her HIV and AIDS book. Although she never updated The Cures For All Diseases, many of the discoveries delineated in her subsequent books are applicable to many other diseases as well.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Clark wished to use her discoveries to actually help people cure their ailments and diseases. Early on in her career while she was living in Indiana, many afflicted individuals had learned of her ability to cure a vast number of diseases. So naturally they sought her help in to try to cure their own diseases. So she accommodated them.

On one occasion a couple of officials from the State of Indiana surreptitiously spoke with Dr. Clark about the contrived disease from which one of them was purportedly suffering. After meeting with them, Dr. Clark made her recommendations. She never heard from them again and subsequently moved to California.

Then in the late 1990’s (approximately seven years after that encounter and as she was becoming famous after publishing some of her books), Indiana justice department officials indicted her for practicing medicine without a license. (Do you think that they could have been put up to this by the profiteers of Big Medicine?) Dr. Clark was arrested in California and extradited to Indiana to stand trial. However when the judge realized how much time had elapsed since the initial encounter, he dismissed the charges against Dr. Clark and she returned home.

Helping Individuals Cure Their Ailments and Diseases

Because Dr. Clark possessed a doctorate in science rather than a medical degree, she was precluded from practicing medicine within the United States. However she was not precluded from practicing medicine in Mexico. She therefore established a clinic just over the border with California.

As with her research, her primary focus at the clinic was on assisting individuals suffering from cancer, HIV, or AIDS. Many of her patients were ones whom the mainstream medical industry had already given up hope. However Dr. Clark was willing to admit them and cure their diseases.

In addition to all of the time she spent conducting her other research, Dr. Clark also spent an enormous amount of time with each one of her patients. She would analyze their conditions using radio frequencies when they were first admitted; make recommendations and provide them with various supplements, medicines, and protocols to purge toxins from their bodies, exterminate any foreign pathogens and parasites and remove their remnants, if necessary, bolster their immune systems, etc. She would then spend an enormous amount of time monitoring the progress of each patient to ensure that the protocols were being effective. Another tremendous burden upon Dr. Clark must have been the fact that many of her patients were terminal cases with only short amounts of time to live if she were not there to save them.

Dr. Clark’s Detractors

As Dr. Clark became more famous, her establishment detractors became more vociferous. One group or individual after another decried her discoveries and inventions. They called her a quack and asserted that her discoveries could not be true and that her inventions did not work. However even in the face of all of this negative criticism, Dr. Clark persevered with her work.

Dr. Clark Violated a Cardinal Rule

Unfortunately in her zeal to help others cured their diseases before their time on Earth expired, Dr. Clark violated the first rule of life—one must first ensure one’s own health before helping others. She was so caught up in her research, in disseminating her discoveries to others, and in saving people’s lives that she neglected her own health. She worked seven days a week, she probably did not eat properly, did not get any exercise, did not get enough rest, etc. One can watch her condition deteriorate on videos in which she appeared over the years. In one speech she even remarked that one day she should take the time to regain her own health, but that she was finding it difficult to do so because she was working so hard researching four interrelated diseases—cancer, HIV, AIDS, and malaria. Finally in 2009 at the age of eighty, the time of this wonderful person ran out.

Her detractors seized the opportunity to marginalize her discoveries and inventions even more. They offered as proof that she was a charlatan the fact that she had declared innumerable times over many years that she could cure cancer and then she succumbed to cancer herself. However it was not cancer to which this amazing lady had succumbed, it was her neglect of her own health.

The Marginalization of Dr. Clark’s Revelations and Inventions

After Dr. Clark’s death, the popularity of her revelations diminished. This was largely due to the marginalization of them by her detractors. They did such a fantastic job that, not only was the mainstream public persuaded that her assertions about her discoveries were not true and that her inventions did not work, but many believers in alternative therapies were deceived into believing that she was a charlatan as well. The situation went from being that, at one point, many people were aware of her and talking about her and her discoveries to no one talking about them. At one point you could walk into any given bookstore or health food store and see a number of her books for sale. Now there are none of them on display. It was like she had never even existed.

Another reason that her cancer books did not gain universal acceptance in the first place was because they are relatively difficult to comprehend. This is because cancer is not caused by a single entity, it is caused by a number of entities working in conjunction with each other. As a result, in order to stop a cancer malignancy as well as shrink the tumor or tumors down to nothing, there are numerous steps one must take and numerous toxins to remove. Many individuals simply did not wish to or were unable to expend the time or effort to try to comprehend all of these steps. Further exacerbating the problem was the fact that Dr. Clark included a tremendous amount of scientific information in each book.

Fortunately, Dr. Clark Still Has a Large Number of Passionate Followers

Another reason that Dr. Clark’s revelations were not widely accepted was because the device she invented to analyze substances using radio frequencies is relatively difficult to master. However there are many individuals who have mastered it and who use it to monitor their own health as well as the health of their friends and relatives. In addition, many individuals who worked with Dr. Clark while she was alive continue to use and promote her revelations. There is also a solid core of many thousands of individuals who continue to use Dr. Clark’s revelations to keep themselves healthy.

Partial evidence of the number of individuals who use Dr. Clark’s revelations to keep themselves healthy is the number of testimonials made to her and her accomplishments after her death. These testimonials can be found on the Internet at http://inmemoryofdrhuldaclark.com. There are approximately 550 heartfelt testimonials there. More evidence of her continued popularity is the large number of individuals who still use and promote her remarkable discoveries and inventions on the Internet and elsewhere.

Summary

In summary, we should do everything within our power to stop the vested medical interests and the corporate-controlled mainstream media from marginalizing the revolutionary discoveries and inventions of this remarkable woman and preventing them from becoming widely accepted. This information has the potential of improving the health of virtually everyone on the planet. It is long past time for it to be freed from its confinement. Moreover, Dr. Hulda Clark should be recorded in the annuls of history as one of the greatest scientists and human beings who ever lived.

Copyright 2012 Steven A. Swan

Steven A. Swan is a longtime follower and user of Dr. Clark’s discoveries and inventions. He is now offering his expertise to others who might wish to learn how to use them to cure their own ailments or diseases or who might wish to understand them better.

Contact: contact@drclarkconsultant.com
Website: Dr. Clark Consultant.com (http://www.drclarkconsultant.com)

Apple’s Foxconn Auditing Group ‘Surrounded With Controversy’

Apple’s Foxconn Auditing Group ‘Surrounded With Controversy,’ Critics Say
Christina Bonnington
February 13, 2012
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/02/apple-foxconn-investigations
Following ongoing public outcry and organized protests at Apple stores last week, Apple has announced that an organization called the Fair Labor Association is conducting independent assessments of worker conditions inside the factories of Foxconn, its manufacturing partner in China.

The FLA audit began this morning in Shenzen’s “Foxconn City.” In the inspections, FLA representatives will interview thousands of factory employees about their living and working conditions, delving into topics such as compensation, health and safety, working hours, and the workers’ communication with management. The results of the inspections will be posted on the FLA’s website in early March.

“We were hoping for a quick response, but I don’t know if we were actually expecting such a fast response from Apple,” said Sarah Ryan, a human rights organizer at Change.org, one of two groups that orchestrated last week’s protests at Apple stores. “It’s especially exciting that these audits are going to be transparent and public.”

The FLA said the audits will be conducted by “a team of labor experts” composed of FLA staff and representatives from two accredited service providers, Openview and INFACT. They’ll be visiting another Foxconn facility in Chengdu, China in the coming weeks.
While encouraged by today’s Apple announcement, Ryan also conceded the FLA is “surrounded with controversy in terms of effectiveness and objectiveness.” Still, Ryan says Change.org recognizes Apple has an existing relationship with the FLA, and as long as its findings are open and transparent, that’s a good thing.
But another key advocate of the Foxconn workers was even less impressed with Apple’s Monday announcement. Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director of SumOfUs.org, told Wired, “We’re hopeful that this is a step towards the solution, but it’s not even close to the solution itself. The FLA does not have a great track record of conducting effective investigations.”

SumOfUs and Change.org co-sponsored a petition asking Apple to respond to allegations of Foxconn worker abuse, and to commit to developing “ethical” products. More than 250,000 people signed the petition, which was hand-delivered to Apple Stores across the globe on Thursday morning. A second petition, from Hong Kong group SACOM, takes last week’s protest one step further by outlining five specific areas in which Apple needs to improve, including ending the use of student workers and providing a living wage for factory employees.

Although knowledge of poor working conditions inside Foxconn has existed for years, after Apple’s record earnings in 2011, the issue struck a big nerve with much of the public. A New York Times piece that highlighted some of the dire conditions inside Apple’s Chinese factories motivated people to start taking action against the status quo.

The new FLA investigations, detailed in an Apple press release, appear to be a direct response to this outcry. Apple has conducted more than 40 supply chain audits of Foxconn since 2006 and over 500 audits of its factories total.

“We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a safe and fair work environment, which is why we’ve asked the FLA to independently assess the performance of our largest suppliers,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in the release.
“As an Apple consumer, I’m relieved to hear that Tim Cook is taking this seriously and is breaking ground in the industry with Fair Labor Association auditing,” said Mark Shields, the consumer who originally launched the Change.org petition, in a statement. “But Apple still needs to use some of their trademark creativity and problem solving to create a worker protection plan for new products — especially the upcoming iPad 3 — so that they’re proactively taking care of their workers.”

But for those looking for Apple (as well as other tech companies) to really change their ways, the FLA may not be the best company to perform these assessments, if its history is anything to go by.

Stinebrickner-Kauffman pointed out a site called FLA Watch that’s dedicated to monitoring the company’s well-publicized audits. It calls the FLA “a public relations mouthpiece” for corporations (particularly the apparel industry).

“The FLA was created in response to student protests around the sweatshop issue in the late 90s, specifically to monitor garment shops, with NIKE as a founding member,” Teresa Cheng, international campaigns coordinator with United Students Against Sweatshops (the organization behind FLA Watch), told Wired. “Ten years later, we see little to no reform of sweatshop conditions in NIKE’s supply chain, and no positive changes can be attributed to the FLA.”

Another veteran of the garment industry backs up Cheng’s opinion of audits.

“Reading that Apple has been auditing their vendors since 2006 does not mean anything,” says Sindy Sagastume, production manager for a fashion c'ompany called Aimee Lynn, which imports clothing for distribution to companies like Walmart, Target, and Sears. “Audits are truly a tool used by retailers in the US to make themselves seem to be socially compliant, but in fact does nothing to ensure factories are acting appropriately,” Sagastume told Wired.

So how much teeth does the FLA really have behind its audits? The organization has developed a code of conduct with which it judges workplace conditions, but all it does is investigate and report on working conditions; it doesn’t actually instigate any change itself. According to the organization’s website: “The FLA is a brand accountability system that places the onus on companies to voluntarily achieve the FLA’s labor standards in the factories manufacturing their products.”

In other words: The FLA is a reporting agency, not a policing agency. Any real change for Foxconn workers will come from either Foxconn itself, or pressure from the Chinese government or Apple.
“This is at best a decent first step,” echoed Stinebrickner-Kauffman of SumOfUs.org. “At worst, the beginning of a white-washing campaign.”

When asked to comment on its Foxconn investigations, the FLA supplied Wired with an official statement that mirrors the language of Apple’s press release. We will continue to reach out to the FLA for comment.

Libya: Militias out of control, says Amnesty International

Libya's fledging government is threatened by armed militias whose lawless behaviour risks jeopardising the country's stability and security, Amnesty International says. Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
16 Feb 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9084999/Libya-Militias-out-of-control-says-Amnesty-International.html

A year after the first demonstrations against Col Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorship, thousands of Libyans continue to suffer from the threat of violence and misrule, with militias perpetrating widespread human rights abuses.

According to Amnesty, at least 12 people have been tortured to death in rebel prisons since September. Despite the overthrow of the regime, Libya is still ruled by the gun.

"Militias in Libya are largely out of control and the blanket impunity they enjoy only encourages further abuses and perpetuates instability and insecurity," said Donatella Rovera, a researcher for the human rights group.

"A year ago Libyans risked their lives to demand justice. Today their hopes are being jeopardised by lawless armed militias who trample human rights with impunity."

Inmates at 10 of 11 detention facilities run by the militias had been tortured, Amnesty said. Prisoners said they had been suspended with ropes and cables, beaten with plastic hoses and subjected to electric shocks.

Amnesty also accused the interim government of failing to investigate suspicious incidents, such as the deaths of 65 Gaddafi fighters whose bodies were dumped in a hotel.

The government formed from the National Transitional Council, which spearheaded the uprising against the regime, was also criticised for not intervening against the expulsion of 30,000 residents from the town of Tawargha by Misuratan fighters.

Activists from a range of human rights groups claim that armed gangs are responsible for daily atrocities. "The government should protect the rights of thousands of people who are held without formal charges or access to an attorney," said Sarah Leah Whitson, of Human Rights Watch.

Diplomats have applauded the Libyan government's efforts to prepare for elections but acknowledge that frustration with its failure to stamp its authority on the streets has grown. "There has been very slow progress in binding the various factions into a central government worthy of the name," said one Western official.

The danger that the country could fracture into zones run by militias rose this week after a group of 100 brigades from the west of the country formed a political front in opposition to the current leadership, with its fighters staging a show of force in Tripoli.

Volcker defends ban on proprietary trading in comments to regulators

Former Fed Chair Volcker defends ban on proprietary trading in comments to regulators
February 13, 2012http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/former-fed-chair-volcker-defends-ban-on-proprietary-trading-in-comments-to-regulators/2012/02/13/gIQArIwVBR_story.html

WASHINGTON — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Monday issued a broad defense of a federal rule bearing his name that would prohibit banks from trading for their own profit.

Commercial banks backed by government deposit insurance shouldn’t be able to engage in speculative trading, Volcker said in a letter supporting the so-called Volcker rule.

“Proprietary trading is not an essential commercial bank service that justifies taxpayer support,” he wrote.

The letter was sent to the five regulatory agencies that have approved a draft version of the rule, including the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The rule is expected to be finalized by summer. Banks will then have until July 2014 to comply.

Congress directed regulators to draft the rule under the 2010 financial overhaul. It was a response to bets banks had placed on mortgage-backed securities, which hastened the financial crisis and led to taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Wall Street executives have opposed the rule. They say it would limit trading on behalf of customers and put them at a disadvantage with non-U.S. banks, which aren’t subject to the ban.

Banks, financial services trade groups and individuals have submitted hundreds of comments in opposition. Monday was the deadline for comments.

Tim Ryan, a lobbyist for the securities industry, called the rule “unworkable” and said it will slow economic growth.

The industry says the rule will reduce trading volumes, or the “liquidity” of stocks, bonds and other instruments. Banks won’t be able to trade with their own money and will likely cut back on trading for their customers to avoid running afoul of the rule. Lower trading will reduce demand for stocks and other securities, cutting into their prices.

Members of Congress from both parties have echoed the industry’s criticism. About 120 members of the House signed a letter asking regulators to drop the current proposal and draft an entirely new rule.

Volcker disagreed. He noted that excessive liquidity can increase risk by encouraging more trading.

“The restrictions... are not at all likely to have an effect on liquidity inconsistent with the public interest,” Volcker wrote.

Regarding the industry’s concerns about competition from overseas, Volcker wrote that they seem “superficial at best.” The rule’s bar on trading could make U.S. banks more appealing to many customers, he wrote.

Volcker indicated that small banks should be subject to less scrutiny under the rule. The vast majority of proprietary trading is done by a handful of large banks, he noted.

“At the end of the day, I feel confident that the restrictions imposed by the ‘Volcker Rule’ can be reasonably and effectively administered,” he wrote.

A 75th Anniversary for the American Dream

A 75th Anniversary for the American Dream, a 25-Year Anniversary for Me
Michael Moore
February 11th, 2012

On this day 25 years ago, in 1987, I became a filmmaker. It was around ten in the morning and the first-ever roll of Kodak 16mm film for my first-ever movie was loaded into my friend's camera to shoot the very first scene of 'Roger & Me.' I had no idea on that morning in Flint, Michigan what my life would be like after that, or what would happen to Flint, or to General Motors. It all felt fairly ominous, though -- after all, GM, which was posting record profits at the time, was closing its first Flint factory (the first of what would become many) and unemployment in Flint had officially been listed as high as 29%. Surely things couldn't get much worse.

That morning, 25 years ago today, a group of autoworkers had come together on the lawn of the soon-to-be-closed Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac assembly plant to raise their voices against the closing -- and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike, which had begun at that very factory. That strike, in 1936-37, was actually an occupation. Hundreds of workers took over the factories in Flint and refused to leave for 44 days until GM capitulated and recognized their union. The strike inspired thousands of other workers across the country to stage their own occupations and, before you knew it, in the years to follow, factory workers were paid a living wage, with benefits, vacations, and a safe working place.

The middle class and the American Dream were born 75 years ago today, on February 11, 1937, the day the Flint workers won their struggle. And for the next 44 years, working people everywhere got to own their own homes, send their kids to college and never worry about going broke if they got sick. That belief, that life would be good if you were a good citizen and a hard worker, now seems out of reach for nearly half the country which is either living in or near poverty. Perhaps people wouldn't mind it as much if the burden were being evenly shared. But everyone knows that's not the case. In a time of record personal bankruptcies, record home foreclosures, record family and student debt, there are a group of people having the best years of wealth and profit ever recorded in human history. And it is those very people who have made the decisions to export our jobs, to decimate unions, to make college unaffordable, to start wars and to pay themselves with gluttonous joy while paying little or no tax -- this is the 1% that has created the burden so many Americans (and people around the world) now share.

And so, 75 years after the victory in Flint, the battle is now being fought all over again. But this time it's not just about getting paid a dollar an hour, or having Sunday off, or reducing the chance of your hand being crushed in the metal stamping machine. This time, the stakes are even greater: Who is going to own America and control the basic functions of our democracy -- the richest 1% who buy the politicians to get what they want, or the 99% who don't have much these days and live in anxiety or fear of what's around the bend.

I believe that justice will win out again, in the end, just as it did 75 years ago today in Flint in 1937.

I have no special plans to mark this day of anniversaries other than to post a short story I wrote called 'Gratitude.' You may have read it in my book, but if not, here it is to freely download and enjoy:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/gratitude

If you'd like to hear me read it in my own voice, click here:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/gratitude-audio

It tells, in part, the story of that day I first placed that roll of Kodak film into a movie camera. I am proud of the town I was born in, and I'm proud of my uncle who participated in the Sit-Down Strike. I am grateful to those of you who have gone to my movies over the years, and I thank all of you who have been inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement to speak up on behalf of the 99%.

There's no turning back now. Onward!

Greek lawmakers approve austerity bill as Athens burns

Harry Papachristou and Yannis BehrakisSun Feb 12, 2012
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/12/us-greece-idUSTRE8120HI20120212

ATHENS (Reuters) - The Greek parliament approved a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second EU/IMF bailout and avoid national bankruptcy, as buildings burned across central Athens and violence spread around the country.

Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens as black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament.

State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were looted in the capital where police said 34 buildings were ablaze.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos denounced the worst breakdown of order since 2008 when violence gripped Greece for weeks after police shot a 15-year-old schoolboy.

"Vandalism, violence and destruction have no place in a democratic country and won't be tolerated," he told parliament as it prepared to vote on the new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a chaotic bankruptcy.

Papademos told lawmakers shortly before they voted that they would be gravely mistaken if they rejected the package that demands deep pay, pension and job cuts, as this would threaten Greece's place in the European mainstream.

"It would be a huge historical injustice if the country from which European culture sprang ... reached bankruptcy and was led, due to one more mistake, to national isolation and national despair," he said.

The chaos outside parliament showed how tough it will be to implement the measures. A Reuters photographer saw buildings in Athens engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky.

"We are facing destruction. Our country, our home, has become ripe for burning, the centre of Athens is in flames. We cannot allow populism to burn our country down," conservative lawmaker Costis Hatzidakis told parliament.

The air in Syntagma Square outside parliament was thick with tear gas as riot police fought running battles with youths who smashed marble balustrades and hurled stones and petrol bombs.

Terrified Greeks and tourists fled the rock-strewn streets and the clouds of stinging gas, cramming into hotel lobbies for shelter as lines of riot police.

The Billionaires' Brokered GOP Convention

Greg Palast, Truthout Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Plan is working.

Mitt Romney's biggest backer didn't want him to win.

We know that Paul "The Vulture" Singer, Romney's Daddy Warbucks, organized the "grassroots" campaign to replace Romney with Gov. Chris Christie back in September.

That flopped, so Singer and the billionaire boys' club that courted Christie moved over to Romney. Not that they had a choice. They knew Moonrocks Gingrich, who thinks he's running for Master Jedi, and Saint Santorum who thinks he's running for pope, would end up road kill in November.

But despite their million-dollar checks for Romney's campaign, the billionaires are handling the ex-governor with very long and slippery tweezers. The fact that Singer and the Koch brothers went on bended knee to Christie means they are just nauseated over Romney, a man losing a war with the English language and his own tax returns, carrying their standard against President Obama.

These billionaires are smart men. Devious men. I've followed them for years, and they do nothing in a straight line. The super PAC that Singer and the gang control, Restore Our Future, is supposed to be for Romney. But it's not; it's for Singer and Bill Koch. The future they want to restore is their own, not yours or mine - or Romney's.

Now, if your ultimate goal is to beat Obama and you need Christie to do it, you want the GOP race to end in a brokered convention. Then, the billionaires become the brokers. In the best of all worlds for these super PAC men, no candidate gets the 1,144 delegates needed to win. Restore Our Future can then restore the nomination to Christie (or, say, Sen. Marco Rubio, or both), someone who can win.

So, think about it. The Singer-Koch super PAC has access to more money than Fort Knox. It has raised over $30 million and has left as much as half sitting unspent. Yet, they didn't bother to run major ads in cheap media markets like Grand Junction, letting Romney go down in Colorado by less than 4,000 votes.

For a few bucks, they could have sealed it for Governor Romney this week. But they chose not to. Why?

By moving money in and out of selected primaries like a piston, Restore Our Future can shoo Santorum and Gingrich away from the nomination - and, with a bit of luck, the Romney campaign ends up in Tampa dead on arrival.

Then the Vulture and the Richie Rich Club can gnaw at Romney's political corpse and regurgitate the nomination for the cat's paw of their choice.

Greg Palast is the author of Vultures' Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Carnivores, released in the US and Canada by Penguin.

Support the Palast Investigative Fund and keep our work alive.

GregPalast.com

Robalini's NFL Picks: 2011 Season

Final regular season record: 73-60-7
Playoff record: 7-5
Total record: 80-65-7

Thanks for playing with me in 2011!

Turning America into Pottersville

Exclusive: The Republican presidential race has taken a detour into the “class warfare” that the party supposedly despises, with Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry tagging Mitt Romney as an elitist who got rich by laying off workers. But this spat misses the larger point of what the Right is doing to America, writes Robert Parry.
Robert Parry
January 14, 2012
http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/14/turning-america-into-pottersville/

For many years, it appeared that the Right wanted to take the United States back to the 1950s – when blacks “knew their place,” women were “in the kitchen” and gays stayed “in the closet” – but it turns out that the intended back-in-time-travel was to the 1920s, to an era of a few haves and many have-nots, not only before the Civil Rights Movement but before the Great American Middle-Class.

The Right’s goal has been less to recreate the world of “Father Knows Best” than to establish a national “Pottersville,” like in the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where the existence of the average man and woman was brutish and unfulfilling, while the 1 percent of that age lived in gilded comfort and held sweeping power.

Actor Jimmy Stewart finding himself in Pottersville in "It's a Wonderful Life"
That is the message ironically coming from the expensive ad wars of the Republican presidential battle, where frontrunner Mitt Romney has emerged as the personification of the 1 percent and has been attacked by rivals who – while supporting similar policies favoring the ultra-rich – have savaged his career as a venture capitalist, or as Texas Gov. Rick Perry puts it, a “vulture capitalist.”

Romney’s response has been telling. The former chief executive of the corporate takeover firm Bain Capital went beyond the Right’s usual lament about “class warfare,” terming the criticism of high-flying financiers who use layoffs to fatten their bottom lines “the bitter politics of envy.”

And, if there remained any doubt about Romney’s status as the nation’s “elitist-in-chief,” he added that it was wrong to have a noisy and open debate about the dangers of growing income inequality. He told Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” that “I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms, and discussions about tax policy and the like.”

In other words, keep the rabble from protesting their lot; leave these matters to the well-bred and the well-off, in their think tanks and their board rooms.

For decades, the Right has largely concealed this elitist agenda behind appeals to social conservatism and flag-waving patriotism. Many working- and middle-class Americans, especially white males, have sided with the economic free-marketers because the hated “lib-rhuls” supported civil rights for blacks, women and gays – and also questioned America’s military might.

Plus, many Americans have forgotten a basic truth: that the Great American Middle-Class was largely a creation of the federal government and its policies dating back to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. For many Americans in the middle-class, it was more satisfying to think that they or their parents had climbed the social ladder on their own. They didn’t need “guv-mint” help.

But the truth is that it was government policies arising out of the Great Depression and carried forward through the post-World War II years by both Republican and Democratic presidents that created the opportunities for tens of millions of Americans to achieve relative comfort and security.

Those policies ranged from Social Security and labor rights in the 1930s to the GI Bill after World War II to government investments in infrastructure and technological research in the decades that followed. Even in recent years, despite right-wing efforts to choke off this flow of progress, government programs – such as the Internet – brought greater efficiency to markets and wealth to many entrepreneurs.

So, not only is Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren right when she notes that “there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own,” it’s also true that government policies enabled large numbers of Americans to climb out of poverty and into the middle-class.

The Dick Cheney Example

Oddly, one of the best examples of this reality is the life of right-wing icon Dick Cheney, as he revealed in his recent memoir, In My Time. In the book, Cheney recognizes that his personal success was made possible by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the fact that Cheney’s father managed to land a steady job with the federal government.

“I’ve often reflected on how different was the utterly stable environment he provided for his family and wondered if because of that I have been able to take risks, to change directions, and to leave one career path for another with hardly a second thought,” Cheney wrote.

By contrast, in sketching his family’s history, Cheney depicted the hard-scrabble life of farmers and small businessmen scratching out a living in the American Midwest and suffering financial reversals whenever the titans of Wall Street stumbled into a financial crisis and the bankers cut off credit.

After his forebears would make some modest headway from their hard work, they would find themselves back at square one, again and again, because of some “market” crisis or a negative weather pattern. Whether a financial panic or a sudden drought, everything was lost.

“In 1883, as the country struggled through a long economic depression, the sash and door factory that [Civil War veteran Samuel Fletcher Cheney] co-owned [in Defiance, Ohio] had to be sold to pay its debts,” Cheney wrote. “At the age of fifty-four, Samuel Cheney had to start over,” moving to Nebraska.

There, Samuel Cheney built a sod house and began a farm, enjoying some success until a drought hit, again forcing him to the edge. Despite a solid credit record, he noted that “the banks will not loan to anyone at present” and, in 1896, he had to watch all his possessions auctioned off at the Kearney County Courthouse. Samuel Cheney started another homestead in 1904 and kept working until he died in 1911 at the age of 82.

His third son, Thomas, who was nicknamed Bert (and who would become Dick Cheney’s grandfather), tried to build a different life as a cashier and part owner of a Sumner, Kansas, bank, named Farmers and Merchants Bank. But he still suffered when the economy crashed.

“Despite all his plans and success, Bert Cheney found that, like his father, he couldn’t escape the terrible power of nature,” Dick Cheney wrote. “When drought struck in the early 1930s, farmers couldn’t pay their debts, storekeepers had to close their doors, and Farmers and Merchants Bank went under. … My grandparents lost everything except for the house in which they lived.”

Finding Security

Bert Cheney’s son, Richard, ventured off in a different direction, working his way through Kearney State Teachers College and taking the civil service exam. He landed a job as a typist with the Veterans Administration in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“After scraping by for so long, he found the prospect of a $120 monthly salary and the security of a government job too good to turn down,” his son, Dick Cheney, wrote. “Before long he was offered a job with another federal agency, the Soil Conservation Service.

“The SCS taught farmers about crop rotation, terraced planting, contour plowing, and using ‘shelter belts’ of trees as windbreaks – techniques that would prevent the soil from blowing away, as it had in the dust storms of the Great Depression. My dad stayed with the SCS for more than thirty years, doing work of which he was immensely proud.

“He was also proud of the pension that came with federal employment – a pride that I didn’t understand until as an adult I learned about the economic catastrophes that his parents and grandparents had experienced and that had shadowed his own youth.”

Like many Americans, the Cheney family was pulled from the depths of the Great Depression by the New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt, cementing the family’s support for the Democratic president and his party. The family celebrated when little Dick was born on FDR’s birthday.

“When I was born [on Jan. 30, 1941] my granddad wanted to send a telegram to the president,” Cheney wrote in his memoir. “Both sides of my family were staunch New Deal Democrats, and Granddad was sure that FDR would want to know about the ‘little stranger’ with whom he now had a birthday in common.”

However, Dick Cheney took a different path. Freed from the insecurity that had afflicted his father and earlier Cheneys – caused by the cruel vicissitudes of laissez-faire capitalism – Dick Cheney enjoyed the relative comfort of middle-class life in post-World War II America. He took advantage of the many opportunities that presented themselves.

Most notably, Cheney attached himself to an ambitious Republican congressman from Illinois named Donald Rumsfeld. When Rumsfeld left Congress for posts in the Nixon administration, he brought Cheney along. Eventually Rumsfeld became White House chief of staff to President Gerald Ford and – when Rumsfeld was tapped to become Defense Secretary in 1975 – he recommended his young aide, Dick Cheney, to succeed him.

Cheney’s career path through the ranks of Republican national politics, with occasional trips through the revolving door into lucrative private-sector jobs, was set. He became a major player within the GOP Establishment, building a reputation as an ardent conservative, a foreign policy hawk – and a fierce opponent of the New Deal.

Demonizing Guv-mint

The Right’s ongoing campaign to dismantle the New Deal also has hinged on the demonization of “guv-mint,” a darkening of attitudes that became more possible when many middle-class Americans lost their memory of how their families had moved into the middle-class.

In the 1960s and 1970s, middle-class white men in particular came to view the government as a force for helping the poor, women and minorities, while putting pressure on white males to change long-established attitudes. Plus, they were told that the government was taking their hard-earned dollars to give to the undeserving.

When these messages – along with a mix of patriotic hoopla and coded appeals to bigotry – were delivered by the personable Ronald Reagan in 1980, middle- and working-class whites rallied to the Right’s banner. It was time, they felt, to dismantle many government programs for the poor and to get tough on foreign adversaries.

But Reagan’s most important policy was slashing taxes, especially those on the rich. Under Reagan’s “supply-side economics,” the top marginal tax rate – that is what the richest Americans pay on their highest tranche of income – was more than halved, from 70 percent to 28 percent.

Yet, since the promised surge in “supply-side” growth didn’t materialize, one result was a dramatic rise in the national debt. Another less obvious change was the incentivizing of greed. Under presidents from Dwight Eisenhower (when the top marginal tax rate was 90 percent) through Jimmy Carter (with a 70 percent top rate), taxes had been a disincentive against greed.

After all, if 70 to 90 percent of your highest tranche of income went to the government to help pay for building the nation, you had little personal incentive to press for that extra $1 million or $2 million. So corporate CEOs – while well-compensated – were happy earning about 25 times as much as their average worker in the 1960s. A few decades later, that ratio on CEO pay was about 200 times what the average worker was making.

As the Washington Post’s Peter Whoriskey framed this historic development in a June 19, 2011, article, U.S. business underwent a cultural transformation from the 1970s when chief executives believed more in sharing the wealth than they do today.

Whoriskey described the findings of researchers with access to economic data from the Internal Revenue Service. The numbers revealed that the big bucks were not flowing primarily to athletes or actors or even stock market speculators; America’s new super-rich were mostly corporate chieftains.

The article cited a U.S. dairy company CEO from the 1970s, Kenneth J. Douglas, who earned the equivalent of about $1 million a year. He lived comfortably but not ostentatiously. Douglas had an office on the second floor of a milk distribution center, and he turned down raises because he felt it would hurt morale at the plant, Whoriskey reported.

However, just a few decades later, Gregg L. Engles, the CEO of the same company, Dean Foods, averaged about 10 times what Douglas made; worked in a glittering high-rise office building in Dallas; owned a vacation estate in Vail, Colorado; belonged to four golf clubs; and traveled in a $10 million corporate jet. He apparently had little concern about what his workers thought.

“The evolution of executive grandeur – from very comfortable to jet-setting – reflects one of the primary reasons that the gap between those with the highest incomes and everyone else is widening,” Whoriskey reported.

“For years, statistics have depicted growing income disparity in the United States, and it has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression. In 2008, the last year for which data are available, for example, the top 0.1 percent of earners took in more than 10 percent of the personal income in the United States, including capital gains, and the top 1 percent took in more than 20 percent.”

The old New-Deal-to-post-World-War-II notion had been that a healthy middle-class contributed to profitable businesses because average people could afford to buy consumer goods, own their own homes and take an annual vacation with the kids. That “middle-class system,” however, had required intervention by the government as the representative of the everyman.

The consequences of several decades of Reaganism and its related ideas (such as shipping many middle-class jobs overseas) are now apparent. Wealth has been concentrated at the top with billionaires living extravagant lives while the middle-class shrinks and struggles. One everyman after another gets shoved down the social ladder into the lower classes and into poverty.

Those real-life consequences are painful. Millions of Americans forego needed medical care because they can’t afford health insurance; young people, burdened by college loans, crowd back in with their parents; trained workers settle for low-paying jobs or are unemployed; families skip vacations and other simple pleasures of life.

Beyond the unfairness, there is the macro-economic problem which comes from massive income disparity. A strong economy is one in which the vast majority people can buy products, which can then be manufactured more cheaply, creating a positive cycle of profits and prosperity.

Instead, Mitt Romney — and even his Republican rivals who criticize his personal business methods — are intent to press ahead down the dark road of Reaganism toward some nightmarish Pottersville. Instead of a vibrant debate about whether this is the right way to go, Romney instructs the masses to keep their mouths shut with the only permitted conversations about the nation’s future restricted to “quiet rooms.”

For more on related topics, see Robert Parry’s Lost History, Secrecy & Privilege and Neck Deep, now available in a three-book set for the discount price of only $29. For details, click here.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’ are also available there.

Dear Andrew Sullivan: Why Focus on Obama's Dumbest Critics?

A major defense of the president exaggerates Obama's accomplishments and misses the point: his scandalous transgressions against rule of law.
Conor Friedersdorf
Jan 17 2012
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/dear-andrew-sullivan-why-focus-on-obamas-dumbest-critics/251528

After reading Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek essay about President Obama, his critics, and his re-election bid, I implore him to ponder just one question. How would you have reacted in 2008 if any Republican ran promising to do the following?

(1) Codify indefinite detention into law; (2) draw up a secret kill list of people, including American citizens, to assassinate without due process; (3) proceed with warrantless spying on American citizens; (4) prosecute Bush-era whistleblowers for violating state secrets; (5) reinterpret the War Powers Resolution such that entering a war of choice without a Congressional declaration is permissible; (6) enter and prosecute such a war; (7) institutionalize naked scanners and intrusive full body pat-downs in major American airports; (8) oversee a planned expansion of TSA so that its agents are already beginning to patrol American highways, train stations, and bus depots; (9) wage an undeclared drone war on numerous Muslim countries that delegates to the CIA the final call about some strikes that put civilians in jeopardy; (10) invoke the state-secrets privilege to dismiss lawsuits brought by civil-liberties organizations on dubious technicalities rather than litigating them on the merits; (11) preside over federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries; (12) attempt to negotiate an extension of American troops in Iraq beyond 2011 (an effort that thankfully failed); (14) reauthorize the Patriot Act; (13) and select an economic team mostly made up of former and future financial executives from Wall Street firms that played major roles in the financial crisis.

I submit that had Palin or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Rice or Jeb Bush or John Bolton or Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney proposed doing even half of those things in 2008, you'd have declared them unfit for the presidency and expressed alarm at the prospect of America doubling down on the excesses of the post-September 11 era. You'd have championed an alternative candidate who avowed that America doesn't have to choose between our values and our safety.

Yet President Obama has done all of the aforementioned things.

Pretend that you knew, circa 2008, that President Cheney or Palin or Rice or Rumsfeld or Giuliani would do all those things -- but that, on the bright side, they'd refrain from torturing anyone else, end Don't Ask, Don't Tell, sign a bank bailout, and pass a health-care bill that you regard as improving on the status quo starting in 2014. Would you vote for them on that basis?

I submit that you would not. And if they were elected, and four years later were running for re-election, would you focus on the stupidity of the least persuasive attacks on their tenure? Or would you laud their most incisive critics? I believe that you'd be among their most incisive critics.

Back to the present.

The Newsweek cover headline for Sullivan's piece is "Why Are Obama's Critics So Dumb?" It's entirely defensible to point out that many critiques of Obama are laughably disconnected from reality -- I've done that myself on many occasions -- so it's arguably a fair headline.

But the one I've chosen is fair too: "Why Focus on Obama's Dumbest Critics?"

No, Obama isn't a radical Kenyan anti-colonialist. But he is a lawbreaker and an advocate of radical executive power. What precedent could be more radical than insisting that the executive is empowered to draw up a kill list of American citizens in secret, without telling anyone what names are on it, or the legal justification for it, or even that it exists? What if Newt Gingrich inherits that power?

He may yet.

Over the years, Sullivan has confronted, as few others have, American transgressions abroad, including torture, detainee abuse, and various imperial ambitions. He's long drawn attention to civil-liberties violations at home too, as a solo blogger and as lead editor and writer of a blogazine. When I worked for Sullivan, he not only published but actively encouraged items I found that highlighted civil-liberties abuses by the Obama Administration, and since I parted ways with The Daily Dish, he and the Dish team have continued to air critiques of Obama on these questions.

But his Newsweek essay fits the pattern I've lamented of Obama apologists who tell a narrative of his administration that ignores some of these issues and minimizes the importance of others, as if they're a relatively unimportant matter to be set aside in a sentence or three before proceeding to the more important business of whether the president is being critiqued fairly by obtuse partisans.

Sullivan should reconsider this approach.

During President Bush's first term, Sullivan will recall the most unhinged attacks on him -- the comparisons to Hitler, the puppets burned in effigy, the comparisons to a chimp. There wasn't anything wrong with lamenting those attacks, just as there's nothing wrong with pointing out exaggerated and baseless attacks on Obama, which have spread through most of the Republican Party. But the priority put on rebutting the least persuasive left-wing critiques of Bush, and pre-election 2004 worrying about the flaws of the Democratic field, are part of what postponed the backlash against Bush's ruinous policies. The backlash should've been the priority all along.

The same is now true of Obama. Like President Bush, he is breaking the law, transgressing against civil liberties, and championing a radical view of executive power -- and he is invoking the War on Terror to get away with it. As much as it was in 2003 or 2007, it is vital in 2012 that there be a backlash against these post-9/11 excesses, that liberty-loving citizens push back so that these are anomalies that are reined in, rather than permanent features of a bipartisan consensus that can only end in a catastrophically abusive executive operating in an office stripped by successive presidents and their minions of both constitutional and prudential checks.

Beyond strenuously objecting to the focus of his piece and what it doesn't mention, and agreeing with some of Sullivan's points, I have important disagreements with others. "Where Bush talked tough and acted counter-productively, Obama has simply, quietly, relentlessly decimated our real enemies, while winning the broader propaganda war," Sullivan writes. "Since he took office, al Qaeda's popularity in the Muslim world has plummeted." But it's surely relevant that, according to surveys like this one from James Zogby in 2011, "After improving with the election of Barack Obama in 2008, U.S. favorable ratings across the Arab world have plummeted. In most countries they are lower than at the end of the Bush Administration, and lower than Iran's favorable ratings (except in Saudi Arabia)." And in the areas where Obama's drone strikes are killing innocent civilians, he is trading short-term terrorist deaths for the possibility that our policies will create more terrorists in the long run. It's a tradeoff some people consider prudent; but that's different from saying he is "winning the propaganda war." In fact, the predictable effect of some of his policies is to increase hatred of the U.S.

Says Sullivan, "Obama's foreign policy, like Dwight Eisenhower's or George H.W. Bush's, eschews short-term political hits for long-term strategic advantage." But there are cases when the opposite is true. When the CIA sponsored a fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan as a ruse to get bin Laden's DNA, the Dish cited commentators who argued that it was egregiously shortsighted, and quoted an infectious-disease specialist's fears "that disclosure of the CIA's vaccine ruse actually will turn out to kill more people than bin Laden ever did." The bin Laden raid itself, combined with the steady drone campaign in Pakistan, has done so much to destabilize Pakistan that its generals, fearful of American interference, are more frequently moving its nuclear weapons around the country in lightly guarded trucks, as reported by Jeffrey Goldberg and Marc Ambinder. Surely Sullivan should acknowledge that it is possible that the raid and drone strikes will ultimately turn out to be a case of sacrificing long-term strategic advantages for a short-term hit. (That might not be the case -- the point is that it's premature to give Obama credit. We're still operating in the short run.)

Says Sullivan, "From the start, liberals projected onto Obama absurd notions of what a president can actually do in a polarized country, where anything requires 60 Senate votes even to stand a chance of making it into law. They have described him as a hapless tool of Wall Street, a continuation of Bush in civil liberties, a cloistered elitist unable to grasp the populist moment that is his historic opportunity." Without getting into all the issues contained in that passage, it is in fact true that Obama represents a continuation of Bush policies on civil liberties! And in some respects he has gone even farther than Bush.

"Under Obama, support for marriage equality and marijuana legalization has crested to record levels," Sullivan writes. Yes, but no thanks to Obama, who opposes both marriage equality and marijuana legalization! This is the height of illegitimate Obama apologia: attributing to his credit policies he hasn't advanced because a change in public opinion happens to have coincided with his tenure. By this logic Bush also deserves credit for the increasing support for gay marriage during the aughts.

To Sullivan, this is the big picture story of the Obama Administration: "the president begins by extending a hand to his opponents; when they respond by raising a fist, he demonstrates that they are the source of the problem; then, finally, he moves to his preferred position of moderate liberalism and fights for it without being effectively tarred as an ideologue or a divider." Like the whole of his essay, it takes as its lodestar the two-party system and defines Obama as a centrist within it, as if the most coherent way to judge him is by comparison with other establishment politicians.

But centrism inside a consensus that is steadily eroding civil liberties, doing away with checks and balances, and increasing executive power is nothing to support, never mind something to celebrate. "Yes, Obama has waged a war based on a reading of executive power that many civil libertarians, including myself, oppose. And he has signed into law the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial (even as he pledged never to invoke this tyrannical power himself)," Sullivan states. "But he has done the most important thing of all: excising the cancer of torture from military detention and military justice. If he is not re-elected, that cancer may well return."

That sums it up, doesn't it?

Obama has transgressed against what is arguably Congress' most essential check on executive power -- its status as the decider of when America goes to war -- and he has codified indefinite detention into law, something that hasn't been done since Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. But at least he doesn't torture people! How low we've set the bar.

It isn't that I object to Sullivan backing Obama's reelection if his GOP opponent runs on bringing back torture. Is he the lesser of two evils? Maybe so. But lauding him as a president who has governed "with grace and calm" and "who as yet has not had a single significant scandal to his name"? If indefinite detention, secret kill lists, warrantless spying, a war on whistleblowers, violating the War Powers Resolution, and abuse of the state secrets privilege don't fit one's definition of "scandal," what does? If they're peripheral flaws rather than central, unacceptable transgressions, America is doomed to these radical, illiberal policies for the foreseeable future.

Stoner Cooking 1-30-12

The Darth Vader Burger

From BuzzFeed.com:

“Choose your side of The Force.” To promote the re-release of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” in 3D, the France- and Benelux-based fast food chain Quick is launching the Darth Vader Burger on a Sithy black bun. A less frightening looking (read: boring) Yoda Burger will also hit select locations through March 1.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mathieus/france-is-going-to-make-a-black-darth-vador-burger-8q4

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Stoner Cooking Special: Protein'd™ Cheese Sauce

From Unjury.com:

You Love Mac N Cheese. You also want to eat healthy. Eureka! Discover High Protein Mac N Cheese, with Delicious Protein'd™ Cheese Sauce from UNJURY® Protein.

Pour Protein'd™ Cheese Sauce on potatoes, chips, toast or English muffin, or cooked vegetables. Or use as dip for chips, fresh vegetables, or popcorn. You can even spoon it straight. It's that good!

For Adults:
The high quality protein in Protein'd™ keeps you from being hungry for hours. So it's great for weight loss. Higher protein is great for muscle maintenance.

For Children:
So many kids don't like meat. So they don't get enough protein to grow. Some kids would benefit from a little weight loss, and Protein'd™ Cheese Sauce can subtly add protein – which can help with weight loss...

http://www.unjury.com/store/protein/high-protein/mac-n-cheese/proteind-cheese-sauce

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Where to eat the heat
Thai, Korean, Chinese and Indian delicacies in L.A., Northridge, San Gabriel, Canoga Park and Inglewood.
January 12, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-critics-choice-20120112,0,5663762.story

If you're a fiend for the spicy, then you may have attempted to down an entire bowl of the Special 2 ramen at Orochon in Little Tokyo, which earns you a photo on "the wall of bravery." Or you've sought the experience of Jitlada's southern Thai specialties, including Chef Tui's Dynamite Special Challenge, covered in a chile sludge that packs so much heat your ears start to ring. (Thais say southern food is the ultimate of phet, or spiciness.) Where to find more of the burn? Here, from recent Find columns, are several ways to satisfy the capsaicin cravings.

— Linda Burum, Miles Clements, Betty Hallock and C. Thi Nguyen

Jangchung-Dong Wong Jokbal

Alongside the jokbal — braised pork shank — at this Koreatown restaurant, a fiery, salty, shrimp-based dipping sauce gives every piece added zing. You eat slices with sauce or wrapped in the accompanying lettuce with a chunk of raw garlic clove and a jalapeño slice. An even spicier celebration of porkiness, mae-un jokbal bokkeum, listed on the English dinner menu as pan-fried spicy pork hock, involves a trencherman's portion of jokbal. The slices are tossed with thick glossy garlic chunks, jalapeño and red-tinged perilla leaves, whose slight bitterness accents the meat the way Angostura bitters enhance a Manhattan cocktail.

425 S. Western Ave., Suite E, Los Angeles, (213) 386-3535.

Red Chili Restaurant

Put nehari down on your 500-things-to-eat-before-you-die list. This stewed beef, the color of red earth with sauce powered by a staggering quantity of ground chile and seasonings, is as popular for breakfast in Pakistan as Cheerios are here. Its garnish of chopped fresh ginger adds a brilliant punch of fresh sweet heat. It is with this dish and the house specialty, the saucy tomato-based chicken karahi, that you realize this cooking is more about the sauces. They're luscious and beg to be soaked up with rice or spongy nan.

18108 Parthenia St. (in Parthenia Center), Northridge, (818) 775-0733.

Taste of Chong Qing

You'll get your tongue seared with the strange electricity of ma la. But you'll also experience the delicacy of subtle fish dishes and fresh vegetables. And you'll get the burn and the elegance all at once, an experience so paradoxical to the senses that you might stagger out of the restaurant a little food-drunk. One of the best dishes here is the Sichuan-style fish with peppers: fillets of white fish floating in aromatic broth and covered with a bright, gorgeously green layer of chopped ... something. The something turns out to be a sort of culinary joke: a mixture of almost indistinguishable cooling green scallions, perky pickled peppers and searingly hot green chiles. Tip: The hot stuff is the heaviest, and if you cautiously turn a piece of fish on its side and give it a gentle tap, most of the serious burn will fall off.

172 E. Valley Blvd., San Gabriel, (626) 288-1357.

Valley India Cafe

The menu favors the spice-laden specialties of the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu regions of southeastern India: Coconut milk, fresh, pungent curry leaves and a healthy helping of chiles distinguish many curries. The crisp golden dosas here rival the best in Little India. The smaller, thicker set dosa are the size of a dinner plate with a soft, porous texture that makes a great sponge for sopping up voluptuous sauces, especially vegetable kurma, a creamy curry with green chile, cashew and coconut. Subdue the heat with the mild kothu parota, a street food of chopped, flaky griddle bread scrambled with egg and shredded chicken.

7257 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park, (818) 340-7500, http://www.valleyindiacafe.com/

Front Page Jamaican Grille

In every dish here, such as jerk chicken, goat curry and oxtails, the amped-up seasoning embraces the meat but doesn't trounce the flavor. But if all that flavor isn't enough for you, ask for the house-made hot sauce, a gorgeously blistering concoction of habaneros and herbs, blended and cooked into fiery perfection. To finish, try one of the drinks. The simplicity of the sorrel drink will soothe your tongue after all that heat, and pineapple ginger beer will give you a pleasant kick of fresh ginger behind some pineapple fizz. But if you like being taken to the edge of the precipice of gustatory possibility, order some of the restaurant's mega-hot reggae wings, and then top them off with the unadulterated ginger beer. That combination will knock you to the ground and then punch you in the face again. In a good way.

1117 W. Manchester Blvd., No. C, Inglewood, (310) 216-9521, http://www.frontpagejamaicangrille.com/.

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Cup O' Pizza
http://cupopizza.blogspot.com/

Welcome Pizza Enthusiasts!

If you've been searching for that perfect cup of pizza recipe, well then, look no further. What began as a dream inspired by "The Jerk," is now a reality! Subscribe and stay up-to-date on all the tasty developments. Stay cheesy, Pizza Fiends!

Love, Steve & Dave.

Cup O' Pizza Walkthrough

OK Gang, it's time we got around to showing how it's done.

We've spent many hours in our laboratory perfecting the hottest, tastiest, cup of pizza.

This Cup O' Pizza recipe is the quick and easy version, using store-bought ingredients.

Here's what you'll need (makes 4 cups o' pizza):

4 oven friendly coffee mugs

1 tube of pre-made pizza crust (we've been using the 13.8 oz Pillsbury Classic)
1 jar of pizza sauce
1 package of deli-style pepperoni
1 bag of mozzarella or pizza cheese
Olive oil and basting brush
Oregano


STEP 1: Pop open the delicious tube ofctriple-bleached goo, to which we owe our robust physiques!

STEP 2: Cut the dough roll into 4 equal sections. 1 section for each cup. Then cut each section down even further intoc3 sections, which will become the basis for our patented Flavor Layer Technology (TM).

STEP 3: Get that cat outta here!!

STEP 4: Coat your cups (or dough slices) with olive oil

STEP 5: Begin building your first Flavor Layer by dropping a section of dough into the bottom of the cup. Very good!

STEP 6: Add a large spoonful of sauce, a slice of pepperoni, some cheese, and a sprinkle of oregano and you've got your first layer. (This tutorial is the kid version, so experimenting with other classic ingredients is certainly encouraged.)

STEP 7: Repeat process on remaining dough layers. 3 layers per cup.

Mmm, now you're ready to load 'em into the oven.

STEP 8: Depending on your oven, you may need to tweak the following settings. Keep a close eye on your mugs the first time out, so you can make temperature adjustments accordingly. Here's what has worked for us.

Set your oven timer for 30 minutes and your oven at 425 degrees. In order to minimize the possibility of the mugs cracking due to a sudden change in temperature, we put the Cups O' Pizza in the oven during the preheat process, so they gradually warm up.

STEP 9: Seriously dude, get that cat out of here.

STEP 10: After 30 minutes, take a look at your cups...

PIZZALERT!

Because you've created what amounts to 4 big chunks of energy efficient pizza insulation, please allow them to cool down for at least 10 minutes before handing them off to a child or really hungry child-like friend.

BON APETIT!

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Menudo
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/menudo-recipe/index.html

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

3 to 4 pound tripe (be sure to include 1 piece of honeycomb)
6 garlic cloves, bruised but not peeled
1 tablespoon peppercorns
2 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 28ounce can white hominy
1 bunch cilantro, leaves chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
12 tomatillos, diced

Directions

Rinse tripe under cold running water and cut large pieces into 1inch squares.

Place the garlic, peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaves into a square of cheesecloth. Tie into a bundle. This is your bouquet garni.

Place the tripe in a large stock pot with 4 quarts of hot water, the bouquet garni, and salt. Bring to a boil and skim foam if necessary. Reduce the heat and cook at a simmer for 2 to 3 hours or until tripe is tender.

Add the canned hominy, liquid and all. Cook 15 minutes longer. About 10 minutes before serving, add the cilantro, green onions, and tomatillos. Remove the bouquet garni.

Garnishes may include mild red chile sauce, ground chile powder, oregano leaves, chopped onions, or lime wedges, or sliced radishes.

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Junk Food Makeover: Tater Tots
Bon Appétit
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/junk-food-makeover-tater-tots-214900318.html

In our column, Junk Food Makeover, we challenge culinary nutritionist Tricia Williams to recreate iconic snacks with more wholesome, better-for-you recipes.

The Challenge

Tater tots: the ultimate kid food. We'll take 'em straight out of the freezer bag, heat them up, and pair them with anything from gooey grilled cheese to creamy tomato soup. Or, we'll just dip them in ketchup and call it a day. But Thanksgiving and holiday parties have wreaked havoc on our waistlines, so we called up nutritionist Tricia Williams to transform Napoleon Dynamite's favorite snack into a wholesome side dish.

"I wanted to focus on two different textures to get the tater tot right: crunchy exterior, soft interior," Tricia said. "Crunchy was definitely the bigger challenge. Lately, quinoa flakes have become a staple for crispy texture in our kitchen--we use them like a traditional kitchen would use panko. We add golden flax meal to give it extra nutrition. All these healthy ingredients make these tots an anti-inflammatory (read: less aches and pains) mock-fried food. To ensure this snack would go over well, we kid-tested them on a bunch of 6-year-olds. What a hit!" Let's see what happens when we Bon Appetit-test them.

The Result

Although Tricia didn't nail the exact tater tot shape (more of a cylindrical, golden fritter), our tasters were mostly satisfied with the healthier version of the (usually) greasy snack. The texture was great--as Tricia said, crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Sure, it was lacking the flavor hit from fat and salt, but we didn't miss it too much, thanks to a healthy dose of smoked paprika. All in all, while these little potato balls weren't quite the real thing, their bite-sized popability and yummy flavor made them work well as a substitute. With some ketchup and a pinch more salt, we'd be happy with these as a snack. (Or, let's face it, accompanying that kids' menu item that still holds a place in our hearts, chicken tenders, it could be dinner.)

Makes about 50

INGREDIENTS
1 cup quinoa flakes (you can find them at bobsredmill.com)
1/4 cup golden flax meal (you can find them at bobsredmill.com)
Nonstick cooking spray
1/3 cup finely chopped small onion (from 1/2 small onion)
4 sweet potatoes or russet potatoes, peeled
1 Tbsp. kosher or sea salt, plus more
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
Freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine quinoa flakes and flax meal in a bowl; set aside. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray generously with nonstick spray. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Transfer onion to a bowl; set aside. Wipe out and reserve skillet.

Using the small holes of a box grater, finely grate potatoes to make 4 cups. Transfer to a colander and sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. salt. Massage salt into potatoes and squeeze out the excess liquid. Transfer potatoes to a medium bowl; add egg and mix well. Add reserved onion, cayenne, paprika, and garlic powder; season lightly with salt and pepper. The mixture should resemble a potato pancake mix but be on the dry side. Using your hands, form potato mixture into 1" balls.

Roll potato balls in quinoa flake mixture. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray lightly with nonstick spray. Working in batches, cook balls, turning occasionally, until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer tots to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cooked through, about 10 minutes.

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Lamb tagine with layered onions
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-food-of-morocco-20111208,0,854342.story

Total time: About 3 hours, plus cooling times

Servings: 6

Note: Adapted from "The Food of Morocco" by Paula Wolfert. She writes, "This is the Fes version of a famous layered onion tagine called qamamma. I love the way the onions are cooked down to a melting unctuous sauce then combined with tomatoes or raisins and/or honey. With my recipe you do most of the work 1 or 2 days in advance. Then on the day you serve it, you assemble and bake the dish, then switch the oven to broil, dribble over some olive oil, and cook until the onions turn crusty and lightly charred." Cubeb pepper is available online; additional white and/or black pepper can be substituted.

"The Foods of Morocco" by Paula Wolfert, Ecco Press, $45

La Kama spice mixture

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cubeb pepper (optional)

A good pinch of grated nutmeg

Mix the ground spices. Sift through a fine sieve and store in a closed jar in a cool, dark place. This makes a generous tablespoon of the spice mixture.

Saffron water

1/2 teaspoon crumbled saffron strands

1 cup hot water

In a warm (not hot) skillet, dry the saffron strands. Crush again, then soak in the hot water and store in a small jar in the refrigerator. This will keep for up to a week.

For longer storage (my favorite method), quadruple the recipe quantities above: pour the saffron water into a plastic ice cube tray and freeze into cubes. Once they are frozen, shake out the cubes and store in a freezer bag. Each cube will be equivalent to 2 tablespoons saffron water or a good pinch of dried saffron threads.

Tagine and assembly

3 pounds thick lamb shoulder arm chops, bone-in, cut into 9 or 10 pieces

Coarse salt

1 tablespoon La Kama Spice Mixture

2 tablespoons Saffron Water

1 tablespoon liquid honey, preferably a floral honey such as orange blossom, lavender or acacia

1 medium red onion, coarsely grated (1/2 cup)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

2 cups water

2 tablespoons clarified butter, divided

3 pounds onions, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick

Freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup golden raisins, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes and drained

2 tablespoons turbinado or other raw sugar

1 teaspoon ground Ceylon cinnamon

3 pita or Indian naan breads

1 tablespoon chopped parsley for garnish

1. One or 2 days before you plan to serve, trim the lamb of excess fat. Place the meat in a medium flameproof casserole and add 1 teaspoon salt, the spice mixture, saffron water, honey, grated onion and 1 tablespoon of the oil. Stir over low heat until the aroma of the spices is released, about 5 minutes: Do not brown the meat. Add the water, bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours, or until the meat is almost falling off the bone.

2. Separate the cooking juices and the meat. When the meat is cool enough to handle, pull out and discard the bones and trim off any fat or gristle. Cut the meat into 1-inch chunks and transfer to a storage bowl; you should have about 4 cups of meat. Degrease the cooking juices. Return the cooking juices to the casserole and boil down to a glaze. Add one-half teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon of the butter, the sliced onions and cinnamon stick; cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and golden, about 45 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the onions to a storage dish. Discard the cinnamon stick. Boil down the liquid in the casserole to about three-fourths cup. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat, then add the liquid to the meat. Up to this point the recipe can be prepared up to 2 days in advance. Cool, cover and refrigerate the meat and onions.

3. About an hour before serving, set an oven rack on the middle shelf of the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

4. Grease an ovenproof tagine or shallow baking serving dish with remaining butter. Spread the meat on the bottom and cover with the cooked onions and raisins. Scatter the sugar and ground cinnamon on top. Place in the oven and bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Switch the oven heat to broil, dribble over the remaining tablespoon of oil, and cook until crusty and lightly charred, about 5 minutes.

5. Reheat the bread in the oven for a few minutes. Split in half, then tear each half into 2 or 3 pieces. Spread about one third over a large serving platter. Spoon about half of the contents of the tagine on top. Repeat with another third of the bread and the remaining contents of the tagine. Top with the last pieces of the bread and a sprinkling of parsley and serve at once.

Each serving: 705 calories; 40 grams protein; 60 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams fiber; 34 grams fat; 14 grams saturated fat; 138 mg cholesterol; 27 grams sugar; 860 mg sodium.

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Two recipes from SimplyRecipes.com forwarded to me from Uncle Pers & Aunt Shlee:

Pinto Beans with Bacon and Jalapeños

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil, grapeseed oil, or canola oil
2 to 3 whole jalapeño chile peppers
2 to 3 thick-cut slices of bacon
2 cups of chopped onion
2 medium clove of garlic, minced
4 cups of cooked pinto beans (2 15-ounce cans, rinsed and drained)
Salt
1/2 cup, loosely packed, chopped fresh cilantro

Method

1 Heat oil in a medium skillet on high heat. Put the jalapeños in the pan and stir to coat with the oil. Let cook, turning occasionally, on all sides, until all sides are nicely browned (about 10-15 minutes, depending on how hot your burner is). Remove from pan. Cut away and discard the stem, core, seeds, and veins. Coarsely chop the remaining jalapeño flesh.

2 While the jalapeños are cooking, cook the bacon slices on medium low heat in a large skillet, until crispy. Remove bacon from the pan to a paper towel-lined plate. Pour off (do not discard down the drain!) all but 2 tablespoons of bacon fat.

3 Add the chopped onion to the pan with the bacon fat. Increase the heat to medium high and cook until translucent and lightly browned. Add the minced garlic and cook a minute more. While the onion is cooking, chop the cooked bacon.

4 Add the cooked beans, chopped bacon, and the chopped jalapeños to the pan and stir to mix. Sprinkle with salt.
Serve with chopped fresh cilantro, and steak and salsa.
Yield: Serves 4-6.


Asparagus Frittata Recipe

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound asparagus, tough ends snapped off, spears cut diagonally into 1-inch lengths
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese

Method

1 Heat olive oil into a 10-inch oven-proof frying pan over medium high heat. Add onions and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, about 3 minutes. Add asparagus, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, until the asparagus are barely tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Pour in eggs and cook until almost set, but still runny on top, about 2 minutes. While cooking, pre-heat oven broiler.

2 Sprinkle cheese over eggs and put in oven to broil until cheese is melted and browned, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from oven with oven mitts and slide frittata onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges.

Yield: Serves 4.

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Chicken Scaloppine over Broccoli Rabe
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-scaloppine-over-broccoli-rabe-10000000686181

Calories: 318
Calories from fat: 21%
Fat: 7.4g
Saturated fat: 1.7g
Monounsaturated fat: 3.3g
Polyunsaturated fat: 1g
Protein: 44.3g
Carbohydrate: 14g
Fiber: 3.9g
Cholesterol: 101mg
Iron: 2.9mg
Sodium: 577mg
Calcium: 102mg

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast cutlets
1/2 cup dry white wine 1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter
1 pound broccoli rabe (rapini), cut into 3-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
4 lemon slices (optional)

Preparation

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Combine breadcrumbs and pepper in a shallow dish; dredge chicken in breadcrumb mixture. Add chicken to pan; cook 3 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add wine, broth, juice, and butter to pan, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Stir in broccoli rabe; cover and cook 3 minutes or until broccoli rabe is tender. Stir in parsley and capers. Serve chicken over broccoli rabe mixture.
Garnish with lemon slices, if desired.

Alison Lewis, Cooking Light
AUGUST 2004