Thursday Reads
Posted: October 11, 2012 Filed under: just because | Tags: Claire McCaskill, Deb Butler, domestic spying, Elizabeth Warren, fundamentalist Christians and U.S. military, Glen Doherty, Joe Biden, Massachusetts Senate debate, Mikey Weinstein, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), morning after pill, NSA, Paul Ryan, pumpkin spice latte, rape, Scott Brown, SCOTUS, Telecom immunity, Thom Goolsby, Todd Akin, vice presidential debate 52 Comments
Good Morning!!
Fall is here, and suddenly, I find myself seeking out foods made with pumpkin, like pumpkin-apple muffins. I’ve never had a pumpkin spice latte, but I’m thinking of trying one. I found a recipe for pumpkin syrup on line.
Pumpkin Spice Syrup
INGREDIENTS
1½ cups water
1½ cups sugar
4 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground cloves
3 tbsp. pumpkin pureeDIRECTIONS
Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Toss in the cinnamon sticks and whisk in the remaining spices and the pumpkin puree. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, without letting the mixture come to a boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Strain the syrup through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth and store in your container of choice. Store in the refrigerator. Make sure that your refrigerator is working properly for preserving purposes. If not, you can look for refrigeration repair kingsport tn services online.
To make a pumpkin spice latte, combine 2 ounces of hot coffee or 1 shot of hot espresso (about 1-1½ ounces) with 5-6 ounces of steamed low-fat milk. Stir in 1½-2 tablespoons of the pumpkin spice syrup. Taste and adjust amounts accordingly. Top as desired with freshly whipped cream, ground cinnamon and drizzle with caramel sauce (optional – sort of).
I’ve also heard that pumpkin oatmeal is really good. I’m might try that with the leftovers. Now, let’s see what’s in the news this morning.
Yesterday, I posted about Romney’s crass exploitation of the death of former Navy Seal Glen Doherty in the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Last night I learned that Doherty was active in the fight to prevent right-wing fundamentalists from completely taking over the U.S. military. Mikey Weinstein, who has fought the good fight for years, wrote about it at Huffington Post.
I had the extreme good fortune, honor and privilege to work alongside Glen for years as a longtime member of the Advisory Board of the four-time, Nobel Peace Prize-nominated, civil rights charitable organization I founded and currently serve as president of called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). We currently are assisting over 30,000 American military personnel fighting against Christian fundamentalist religious extremism in our own armed forces. Glen selflessly served as a passionate, ’round-the-clock’ supporter of MRFF based on his fervent belief in its mission to protect the secular nature of the U.S. Military and the imperative this secular nature has to our national security. Separation of church and state in the United States military was not a trivial matter for Glen. It was his mantra.
Based upon our profound, mutual working experiences with MRFF, I’m truly fascinated about what Mitt Romney actually “learned about him”. During his chance meeting with Glen at that Christmas party a few years ago, did candidate Romney learn about his close personal and professional relationship with MRFF? Other fascinating learning opportunities for Mr. Romney regarding Glen’s deep support of and belief in MRFF and what we stand for may have revealed to him some very “uncomfortable” facts about the life of this true American Hero.
Please click the link and read the list of initiatives that Doherty supported. Of Romney’s shameful use of Doherty’s story for political purposes, Weinstein writes:
As informed citizens of the United States, we are all too aware of the rampant grandiose hyperbole generated as a result of our political campaigns. This absolutely disgusting, opportunistic travesty however was so much more, and so much lower, than the usual political ‘pablum’ that courses through our normal campaign emissions. This “performance” was simply naked and shameful exploitation of the life and memory of an actual American Hero. Romney did not “know” Glen. His insinuation that he somehow had a connection to Glen is disingenuous at best and a naked lie at worst. It is bold and bald untruthfulness. As Alfred Tennyson said, “A lie that is half truth is the darkest of all lies.” A timely and heartfelt apology is truly in order here.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch the Warren-Brown debate last night, but I read a good review of it at Dailykos by Joan McCarter. Apparently the moderator this time wasn’t an idiot.
What a refreshing Massachusetts Senate debate. From the beginning, when moderator Jim Madigan (thank you WGBY and public television), announced that the questions would be from and based on what the public had sent in, there was hope. When the first question was not about Elizabeth Warren’s heritage, but instead about unemployment and job creation, you knew we were in for a debate of substance.
Without that initial attack on Warren to set Brown up, he came off a little discombobulated. Brown was often scattered, incoherent, and thrown off by the time clock, resorting to mixing all his talking points on “bipartisan” and “job creators” into a mish-mash of word salad when he found himself with extra time. That was regardless of the question asked of him. He also failed in controlling the nasty, taking several cheap shots at “Professor” Warren, including blaming her salary and benefits as a Harvard professor for the spiraling costs of higher education.
This debate featured a far more Republican-sounding Brown that any of the previous debates. He railed about tax hikes, on his fealty to Grover Norquist, on the job-killing Obamacare. It was a bizarre juxtaposition to see the guy the tea party was so excited to get elected in 2010 and the “second-most bipartisan senator” fighting for the same brain. The results were bad for Brown.
Read the rest at the link. I’m still glad I didn’t watch it. Watching Paul Ryan tonight will be bad enough for one week.
In another hard-fought Senate race in Missouri, Claire McCaskill has released three new ads in her battle with Todd Akin. Each ad features a rape survivor talking about Akin’s anti-woman policies. Here’s one of the ads:
You can watch the other two ads at the above link.
There’s another terrific war-on-woman ad released by Deb Butler, a Democrat running for the North Carolina state senate. The ad features a transvaginal probe.
North Carolina state Senate candidate Deb Butler has released a new ad that slams Republican incumbent Thom Goolsby for supporting anti-abortion legislation.
“He wouldn’t dare show you this, but this is Thom Goolsby’s contribution to women’s health,” Butler says in the ad, holding a trans-vaginal ultrasound wand. “A medically unnecessary and invasive procedure that is now required by state law. He promised us his first priority would be jobs, but instead he’s following us into the doctor’s office.”
The New York Times offers Trip Gabriel’s Six Things to Watch for in the Biden-Ryan Debate. Gabriel predicts:
1. Biden will hit Ryan (and Romney) with everything he’s got.
Expect Mr. Biden, who is able to deliver cutting sarcasm without seeming angry, to continue to make up for Mr. Obama’s passivity at the first debate by accusing Mr. Romney of dissembling about long-held policies.
2. Biden will attack the Ryan budget.
Republicans and Democrats both rejoiced when Mr. Romney picked Mr. Ryan because the ticket was married to Mr. Ryan’s audacious House budgets with deep cuts in federal spending.
Although the budget, which Mr. Romney has largely endorsed, does not specify how programs will be cut, Mr. Biden will happily fill in the blanks by saying that an equal, across-the-board cut would mean eliminating 38,000 teachers and dropping 200,000 children from Head Start.
The remaining issues are Medicare cuts, the fiscal cliff, foreign affairs, and possible gaffes, especially by Biden. Of course we’ll have a live blog of the debate tonight.
The Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear a suit against telcoms who received immunity for spying on American citizens.
The Supreme Court has ended a 6-year-old class-action lawsuit against the nation’s telecommunications carriers for secretly helping the National Security Agency monitor phone calls and emails coming into and out of this country.
The suit was dealt a death blow in 2008 when Congress granted retroactive immunity to people or companies aiding U.S. intelligence agents.
Without comment, the justices turned down appeals from civil liberties advocates who contended this mass surveillance was unconstitutional and illegal.
This month the justices are set to hear a separate case to decide whether NSA officials can be sued for authorizing this allegedly unconstitutional mass wiretapping.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Ahhh, pumpkin season. I love all things pumpkin. Have you tried pumpkin butter? It’s delicious. Here’s a link to a simple recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-butter
Those ads are great. I saw the Deb Butler ad on O’Donnell’s show last night. He seemed visibly shaken by the sight of the transvaginal wand.
I’m lookng forward to tonight’s debate. Handling Ryan should be easy for Biden, at least easier than Palin & Biden did a great job with her.
I’ve eaten pumpkin butter, but never made it from scratch.
This from Recipe Girl:
Pumkin Spice Latte
1/2 c. whole milk
`1 tab. unsweetened canned pumkin puree
1 teas. light brown sugar
1 teas vanilla
1 cup hot brewed strong coffee
2 tab half half
1 teas grandulated sugar
whipped cream/ground nutmeg
In bowl, mix pumkin brown sugar, spice and vanilla…………micro 1/2 minutes – remove when milk is hot/frothy. Pour pumkin milk into a tall mug/glass, add hot coffee, pour in cream, 1 teas. sugar, stir, taste, add more sugar if you desire. Optional, whipped cream/sprinkle nutmeg.
Can us the non fat milke, fat free half and half…………make your own pumkin spice: equal parts ciannamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg.
My great grandmother’s name was Spicy………..
Luv pumpkin, was in starbucks, they have the pumkin spice latte………………….wow, was too sweet.
That’s why I thought I’d try making one myself. Besides, I can’t stomach their prices.
Going paperless with credit union, got me a couple free coupons.
Great links, BB. Thanks. Hope you, JJ, and other Skydancers are feeling better.
I’ve been busy writing lyrics to a new song, “Send in the Neo-Cons”, but I hope to be around for the Biden-Eddie Haskell debate.
Excellent Post BB!!!! Thank you.
As an added bonus Joe Cannon is knocking Mitt Romney’s socks off in an excellent expose of Mitt Romney’s 1st Debate LIES.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T4KZRdou2s&feature=player_embedded
That was just amazingly great!!!!!
This is awesome. Although it was hard to listen to Romney lie again!
That video needs to go viral!
Thanks for this.
I really think this was the best video yet on his LIES.
Can’t they just LEAVE TEH GAY, especially the dead gay, alone?
The FRC (Family Research Council) makes an absurd claim about the death of Sally Ride
“Our latest research into recent homosexual obituaries from San Francisco indicates that lesbians are dying on average around 60ish. Ride fits the pattern of lesbian deaths, but not that of married women’s deaths, which usually extend into the early-to-mid 80s. Is this proof that homosexual activity leads to an early death? No, of course not. Had she stayed married, Sally Ride might have died at the same age and of the same malady. But, on average, her death fits a consistent pattern suggesting that homosexuality is associated with an early demise.”
Struck down for her “sins”, no doubt, by the christofascist god. The mainstream christian community is nothing like the christianity I was taught as a child. Love thy neighbor, do unto others, judge not lest ye be judged, turn the other cheek. The christianity on parade these days is judgemental, mean spirited, hateful, greedy & glorifies ignorance. If they are really looking for the devil, all they need to do is look in the mirror.
I’m speechless!
The absurdity of these people is beyond comprehension! There is something really wrong with these people who concentrate on matters that have no bearing whatsoever on public policy or the public’s “right to know” when it comes to privacy or biologicial information.
The hatred this stuff churns up, along with the ignorance that is put on display and argued as if it mattered, is disgusting.
This woman’s achievements is all we need to know about her yet these evildoers will stop at nothing to smear another human being for reasons that are beyond my ability to understand.
What did this article manage to achieve beyond offereing another example of pure hate disguised as bullsh*t.
Whoever offers tv time for these groups to spread their diseased minds should be banned.
I am so sick of listening to diseased minds offer this crap as a means to “enlighten” an audience of morons who buy into their twisted theories.
WTF?!! Married women “usually” live into their 80s? These people are worse at math than they are at history.
I’m with you BB. That’s a line of BS I’ve never heard. The FRC is just full of these horseshit proclaimations that have no basis in anything but their homophobia.
I’ve know many old women, both gay and straight and I’ve never seen any trend of TEH GAY dying sooner than the straight, or the married living longer than the unmarried. The people I’ve known who’ve lived the longest were both unmarried women, one lived to be 103, one lived to 99.
That’s what they use to form their conclusions. If you start discussing actual numbers and facts with them then you are an elitist snob.
Family Sloppy Research Council. Their “databases” include “obituaries in the homosexual press” and surveys on the average age of people getting HIV tests!
Their idea of research science is so absurd they’d probably think creationism was a science. Oh wait, they do.
Idiots.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9923159
Mitt Romney’s tax mythology, made simple.
He did a great job of dissecting MItt’s tax myth and in the process made the math so simple that anyone who is interested can see that Mitt is lying.
Controversy, alleged bias of VP debate moderator: http://www.salon.com/2012/10/11/moderators_1991_wedding_guest_list_turns_into_vp_debate_side_issue/ Of course, it’s coming from The Daily Beast & then Drudge. This is important, how?
Rasmussen
10/8 – 10/10
1500 LV
3.0
Romney 47
Obama 48
Obama +1
Did you check out RCP’s Electoral College changes? Since the debate, they have moved 50 EC votes out of Obama’s column. YIKES.
Since the debate there has been a rash of right wing polls done by Gravis Marketing and even some by a pollster for Citizens United that got put in their averages. Gravis is even in this list again.
Here are the latest polls from the battleground states:
Colorado: Romney 48%, Obama 47% (CBS/NYT/Quinnipiac)
Florida: Obama 47%, Romney 46% (NBC/WSJ/Marist)
Michigan: Obama 49%, Romney 42% (Detroit News)
Michigan: Obama 46%, Romney 44% (Gravis)
Nevada: Obama 47%, Romney 45% (Suffolk)
Ohio: Obama 51%, Romney 45% (NBC/WSJ/Marist)
Virginia: Romney 48%, Obama 47% (NBC/WSJ/Marist)
Virginia: Obama 51%, Romney 46% (CBS/NYT/Quinnipiac)
Wisconsin: Obama 50%, Romney 47% (CBS/NYT/Quinnipiac)
Wisconsin state rep. Roger Rivard says his father told him “some girls rape easy.”
Romney claims Americans don’t die because they lack health insurance.
In the real world, 45,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have health insurance.
I really hate that sociopath!!!!!
NBC First Thoughts:
Perhaps the freak outs can finally stop? If not for the over the top reaction from liberals and the MSM, I would bet there would have been even less change at the margins.
I agree. I’m just hoping Biden comes through tonight. Obama also sounded very determined last night talking to Diane Sawyer.
Geez, I’ve been away so long. WordPress made me log in again. I’m sorry I missed yesterday’s post about Mitt Romney dropping in on the house party of Glen Doherty, who was killed in the attack in Benghazi. The part about Romney reintroducing himself several times to the same person drove home the point that he does not relate to people on a personal level and see them as human beings. It reveals so much about him. I’m reminded of stories about Bill Clinton and how he would remember minute facts about people when he met them a second time. My dad, who was a union president of a medium sized local union back in the 1950’s and 60’s used to tell the story about the time he met John and Jackie Kennedy when they were out campaigning. He met them once, briefly only to shake hands and say hello. Then a few weeks later there was another event where they were both present and not only John Kennedy but Jackie Kennedy called my dad by his first name when they saw him again. My dad was bowled over. He wasn’t a politician or national figure by any stretch of the imagination and this was long before the days of internet bios or any kind of briefings that would have refreshed their memories, but they remembered his name. That’s what a skilled politician does. That shows that you give a shit about people. Mitt Romney will never be that good because he has no empathy or compassion and he’s not good at anything other than bullying.
Exactly. That’s a great story about your dad. Kennedy loved to press the flesh.
What really impressed him was that Jackie remembered his name. JFK was the one running for office. She was quite politically astute in her own low key way.
I loved that story Janice…it was wonderful.
That is a great story, Janice.
Every video I’ve seen of Romney “interacting” with ordinary people shows how little he cares. People are just props to him.
“People are just props to him.”
Exactly!
He’s really contemptuous of we the commoners, the peons. We’re just good for attending to Mitt and Ann’s needs.
Sam Stein @samsteinhp
i predicted this, i think. per Fox biz “BREAKING NEWS: Issa to Hold Hearings on September Employment Numbers”
Let the biggest crook do it……………..go on Issa, just do it. We’ll let you.
Dana Milbank commits an act of journalism.
WaPo: Letting us in on a secret
Keystone Kops, the Three Stooges or someone from a Mel Brooks movie? Is that what the congress has come to? Wasn’t it republicans who outed Valerie Plame? Seems like there is a common behaviour that is threatening the security of the U.S..
Yes, Valerie was outed by the republicans, think Libby Scooter
Issa’s Committee Outs CIA In Libya Hearings | Crooks and Liars
Actually think Rover or Cheney, with Scooter Libby taking the fall for whichever one did it – INTENTIONALLY! I’m just grateful the guilty party went to prison for treason. Oh wait, that didn’t happen. And W pardoned the Scoot.
Apparently, there was a CIA rapid reaction force in the “annex” building. What part did they play, or not play, in defending the consulate etc? That seems an appropriate question but good luck getting it asked.
The CIA screwed up and revealed the location of their safe house and then yesterday Issa revealed it on live TV.
The safe house was a covert location for intelligence in Benghazi, and not same as the consulate office which has diplomatic standing.
Know the enemy. They just keep getting worse and worse.
Gentleman in Virginia Romney Office Has Novel Idea For Welfare Reform: Execute ‘Illegitimate’ Parents, Adopt Out Their Kids
But the “poor” women can’t get abortions so I guess if you’re poor you are not given a government issued photo ID to partake in sex. Spay & neuter ’em all, I tell ya’. That would solve all the problems, wouldn’t Mr. Russell? Oh, but then the rich kids would have fight & die in your neocon wars. What to do, what to do. It’s a real di-lemma.
Brilliant – the rich kids having to fight I mean. About time if you ask me. I remember the Viet Nam debacle too well. About time that the men (and they are largely men) sending kids to war should have to pony up their own kids to their wet dreams.
As far as murdering parents and stealing their kids (cause that’s what it is) – what the hell has happened to rational thought? And they want to stop teaching critical thinking in Texas? There is a deep sickness in the world that needs to be treated and by golly it needs to be treated PDQ.