Saturday, July 07, 2007

Pizza in the kitchen. Pizza in the kitchen.

This will be fun Sunday. Jess here filling in for Trina. Unless Blogger/Blogspot fixes their program, I'm not sure how we'll have titles for our features tomorrow. You currently cannot type in the "Title" field. I've repeated "Pizza in the kitchen. Pizza in the kitchen" as the first line of the post because most of the time Blogger/Blogspot will grab the first line if there's not title and make that the title.

Okay, Trina told me I could note this. I'm filling in for her because she asked me if I could last week. This past week has been a busy week for her including becoming a grandmother. That wasn't a surprise. It was a scheduled C-section.

She's really happy and so is Mike (who's out here with us) and the whole family.

This week, we all (including Trina) worked on this feature that went up Wednesday:


"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you must have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"

We're all pleased with it for a number of reasons. Those reasons include that we like the writing, that we reveal that The Nation spent the first six months of 2007 printing 181 more men than women in their magazine and that, despite a last minute info dump by The Nation, we were able to pull this together and do it so well. No one had an easy week. No one had time to spare. If you were becoming a grandmother, you especially were busy. But even though The Nation tried to screw us over and tried to screw over a feature that was announced in May (by waiting until the last minute to respond to it), we pulled it off. We were all exhausted. But we pulled it off.

If you're a regular reader of Trina's site, you're probably aware that she's busy on a slow week. This past week wasn't a slow one and we all told her she didn't have to participate. She'd already given time to writing the feature we thought we had completed. Then The Nation e-mailed and we had to redo the whole thing which meant starting from scratch. Trina insisted it was important and that she'd make time. She did.

I was happy to fill in for her, even before I knew why, but I told her I wasn't sure what to write. She said that some of you (I'm betting it was a very small group) liked the talk about what to do when you're a student and you've got no real cooking experience and are making do with the basics. I told her I could write about pizza and corn. She said she'd written about pizza and it had gone over well so go for it.

I don't eat meat so when I first went off to college and ended up living with Jim and Ty (who do eat meat), I was always eating my own thing most of the time. One time, Jim found a huge sale on cheese pizzas. Jim wasn't the only one who did shopping. But Ty and I stuck to the list. We'd all toss in our share for the groceries, draw up the list and then, depending on whose turn it was, go shopping. Ty and I always brought back what was on the list.

Jim always brought back nothing on the list. "I found a great sale!" he'd say when he walked in.
Some of those "great sales" may have been great economically but they didn't produce anything we'd want to eat. Jim never thought that far ahead. He just grabbed from the 'great sale.'

So when he brought back all these cheese pizzas, I was thrilled. Ty wasn't and after Jim saw that they were all cheese (I honestly think he hated shopping and grabbed the first thing he saw each time he went), Jim was ticked off too.

I said we could all enjoy and we did. We had olives (green and black), we had canned mushrooms, we had jalapeno peppers in a jar. (All due to "great sales" that Jim had found.) So it was just a case of propping up the pizzas before we cooked them by topping them with those ingredients.

They tasted fine, we were all eating them. I was proud of myself until my mother called and I mentioned it. She pointed out that there was nothing being added nutrient wise and suggested we start cutting up onions and including those and also switch from black pepper to ground red pepper (to add vitamin A). So we did that and they still tasted great (and they were still on sale if they were just cheese, by the way, we ate pizzas all the time in NY).

You can use that as is or if you're buying frozen pizzas (with meat or without) you can use that as well. It will dress up a frozen pizza and, if you're a college student, you may be stocking up the way we were and pretty much be stuck with the same things day after day, so that will spice it up and make it a little different.

Oh, I can add a tip. When we started living together, Jim didn't think we needed anything but popcorn and snacks. He would tell Ty and I that it was the same price to eat out as it was to eat in. It's not. But we tested his theory for a week. We were right (no surprise to most people) and he was wrong. But there are people who think that so if anyone reading does, try it out. Keep track of what you spend to eat out each week, then the following week, eat in and see how much it's costing to eat the same basic foods.

Now I mentioned that Jim was always finding "great sales" and that's how we ended up with cans of mushrooms and other things. He would come back with a sack of seven ounce cans of mushrooms. He would spend the entire grocery budget for the week on one item if he thought it was a 'great sale.' So we had those sort of things all in the cabinets. One time he stocked up on corn. Actually "corn," but let me wait on that a moment.

Can you eat corn every day of the week? Corn from a can? How about for two or three weeks? That's what Ty and I were facing. (Jim really could eat the same thing meal after meal and day after day.) So we'd all been adding to the green beans and Ty said we should do the same with the corn. We went with Jalapeno peppers here and that really worked. I doubt mushrooms or olives would have. But it really did make the corn taste better and different.

This great sale netted 48 cans of corn. Remember I said "corn"? All the labels were off. That's why they were on 'sale.' So Jim buys 48 cans. (Ty and I used to make jokes anytime it was Jim's turn to shop for groceries.) Turned out about ten cans weren't corn. We'd find that out only when we opened a can to cook it. "How do you feel about homeny?" Ty asked the first time. Jim swore it was just that one can. Ended up we had cream corn in there and potatoes as well. So 38 cans were corn. The other 10 were assorted.

My tip here is, if you have a roommate and split shopping duties, either get used to the fact that it's not going to be what you'd buy or get ready to do all the shopping yourself. (Ty still wonders if Jim screwed up on purpose hoping we'd finally say, "Jim, we'll do the shopping.")

Trina's for Dennis Kucinich and I think he's a strong candidate but I'm a Green Party member. She told me I should note something from them when I filled in. (She said that before I filled in last time but I didn't take her up on it.) So I'll note this:

GREEN FOR A CHANGE:
The 2007 Green Party National Meeting (July 12-15) will feature events with Ralph Nader, hip-hop artist Head-Roc and former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
> Register for the Meeting
> Purchase tickets for the Nader/Head-Roc event
> Online registration ends Friday, July 06 at 5 PM

That's next week. If you're not a Green, you probably didn't know about it. (If you are a Green or are interested, I screwed up because the deadline to register online has already ended!) But there are more parties than just Republicans and Democrats. Being aware of that, regardless of how you vote, is knowing information. There's talk that Cynthia McKinney (former Congress woman from Georgia and a Democrat) might run for president on the Green Party ticket. Did you know that? There's a whole world of politics beyond what the mainstream media focuses on and knowing about it (whether it results in a vote change for you or not) makes you a more informed person.

If Trina hadn't insisted I note something this time, I probably wouldn't have. I know the Green Party's been demonized. Nader cost Gore in 2000! That's the lie. Gore cost Gore. Nader won whatever votes he got. Gore? He lost votes not due to Nader but due to votes not being counted and you can blame the Democratic big whigs for that. They sent Jesse Jackson out of Florida immediately. Didn't want to make it about race, might not play well across the nation. But it was about race. African-Americans were disenfranchised. There's no question in my mind that Al Gore got the most votes in 2000 and should have been in the White House. But Bully Boy was ready to fight and Al Gore's people weren't. (I do make a distinction between Al Gore and his people paid to advise him. I believe, I could be wrong, without those weaklings around, he would have run a stronger campaign and that he would have fought for recounts.)

Joe Lieberman also cost Gore because when they were asking for recounts, Lieberman went on Meet the Press with Tim Russert and agreed (without checking it out with anyone) that "all" military ballots should be counted. Regardless of whether they followed the rules or not, regardless of whether they came in by the deadline. I'm remembering 537 as the number that put Bully Boy over. That may not be correct. But you better believe when Joe LIEberman announced that on TV, it was open season for ballot fraud. No other absentee ballots got that kind of leeway. None should have. This is a democracy. Every vote is supposed to count and every voter is supposed to be treated equal. If you vote absentee, you have to follow the rules. If you need a postmark, you ask for one (whether you're at a post office or on a carrier). If you're supposed to sign your absentee ballot, you do so. If your ballot is supposed to arrive by X and otherwise isn't counted, then your vote is not supposed to count. A lot of rules got tossed out the window thanks to Joe Lieberman.

For those who've fogotten, Joe Lieberman didn't just run for vice president in the 2000 election, he also ran for his Senate seat. They might want to address that, the ones who whine about Nader. They also might want to explore the idiocy of putting LIEberman on the ticket to begin with. That was 2000. Is LIEberman a Democrat today? No, he's not. He says he's an independent. Of course, he also said this week that he could see himself endorsing a Republican for the 2008 presidential race. Two presidential elections back the turncoat was on the Democratic ticket as the vice presidential nominee. Blaming Ralph Nader is real easy and probably allows a lot of people to ask the hard questions they should be asking.



And, finally, here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Friday:

Friday, July 6, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces the death of another US soldier, the US military flacks turn out to say "no" to withdrawal, Ehren Watada's pre-trial motions hearing is set to begin, Iraqi refugees face restrictions from one formerly open Western nation, US outlets play "Brendan Nelson who?", and more.

Starting with news of war resistance. Today, at Fort Lewis, pretrial motions were supposed to be heard in the court-martial of Ehren Watada. If the judge allows the court-martial to begin, it will start July 23. Yesterday, in San Francisco, a rally was held by supporters for the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq whose February court-martial ended in a mistrial call over the objection of the defense. Tim Ryan (KCBS) noted Ying Lee's statements on why a retrial should not be taking place, "As the first military officer in the US military to refuse to be sent to Iraq, he said the war is unconstitutional, it's illegal, it violates the Nurember principles and it violates the rule of law."

In other news of war resister, don't say this too loudly, we don't want to shock The Nation, but there's another war resister who's gone to Canada. Now The Nation, the AP and a whole lot of media want to pretend that war resisters just don't exist. So let's all speak in whispers because, otherwise, we might give them all heart attacks (or at least dirty drawers). Ross Spears, 19 years-old, in Canada from his Virginia military base. Michael Bhardwaj (Canada's CBC) reports on Spears decision and notes Ross Spears' attorney, Kourosh Farrokhzhad "is hoping Canada will fulfill its obligation to protect people who are wrongfully persecuted for their beliefs or their actions." Spears has settled in Ottawa as has US war resister James Burmeister who was noted in Monday's Iraq snapshot.


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

Joel Bleifuss deserves much credit for already having covered the issue of Iraq Veterans Against the War but he's also written "The New Children's Crusade" (note, that link is being given by a friend with In These Times and it's not working currently -- hopefully, it will work shortly) which opens with a look at Vincent J. Emanuele returning home to Chesterton, Indiana. I don't have time to hear the article read over the phone. We'll note it in Monday's snapshot.

Regardless, Iraq Veterans Against the War are completing their summer base tour. Showtime is filming the tour for a documentary. The last dates are: the Naval Sub Marine Base in Groton, CT on July 6th at 7:00 pm; and Fort Drum in NY on July 8th at 4:00 pm. They have really given their all and if you are in those areas, you should show your support by attending and you can hear about the efforts to surpress and silence them -- none of the efforts have worked. Last Friday, Adam Kokesh, Nate Lewis, Mike Blake, Sholom Keller and Steve Mortillo were harrassed at Fort Jackson for the crime of t-shirting with an alleged intent to be fully dressed. Saturday went smoothly, but Sunday was another story Kokesh, Lewis and Liam Madden. Writing at his site, Adam Kokesh discusses the July 1st arrest at Fort Benning which "is an open post, anyone with proper ID is allowed on base" but Nate Lewis and Liam Madden were arrested for approaching the gate on foot (not entering the base) and:

We raced to the gate and got there just in time to see Nate and Liam getting loaded into cruisers. One of the cops came out to where we were standing and explained "they had been arrested for protesting," and told us that if anyone crosses the line "in protest," they will be arrested. We have this on tape. Then the press showed up and wanted a statement, so I waited until they were set up and put a mic on me, and gave a statement to them and for the record to the documentarians who were with us, and our own camera for safety. I changed by shirt so it would be clear I was not protesting and went across to ensure that Liam and Nate were, "afforded the full protection of the law." You can see a video of that here.
Fortunately, Michael Blake stepped up and dealt with all of the press that came and really did a great job presenting our side of the story as opposed to the Army spokeswoman's story, which only identified me as a "third unidentified protestor." We've really seen some stupid coverage over this. (But that all pales in comparison to the lie the Marine Corps told about Liam Madden's response to the plea bargain that, "they were dropping the case because they had 'received sufficient indication' from Madden that he would no longer wear his uniform when engaged in political activities. They also determined that his statements did not warrant futher action.)

Further action? As a second Republican (Pete Domenici) has joined Richard Luger in calling for an end to the illegal war , Rick Lynch, who not all that long ago while being billed as "Maj. Gen." was also billed as "spokesperson," issues his own statement. CBS and AP report Rick Lynch says that there can be no withdrawal of US forces because that would leave "a mess" in Iraq which begs the question what term does Lynch think currently describes Iraq? The Getty Images photo with the story reports that the newly designed camo (2004) is really intended for both a younger person and a much thinner person. Study the photo and wonder if Lync's camo is the footy-pajamas version. If you doubted the overgrown boys who let others do the fighting weren't being sent out 'on point,' click here for the nonsense Maj. Gen Benjamin Mixon repeated on CNN.

Less attention, in the US, has been given to the remarks of Australia's Defence Minister Brendan Nelson. On Day Two, Kathy Marks (Independent of London) reports, "The Australian Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson has admitted that oil was a major factor in the government's decision to keep troops in Iraq, a unexpectedly frank confession that sent political commentators into a tizzy." Marks also notes that only 1000 Australian troops are in Iraq (Green Zone), the other 600 are "in the region." Rod McGuirk (The Scotsman) cites Hugh White ("Australian defence analyst") who judges the remarks as, "In the kind of washing machine of different arguments that they've been tossing around, the oil one has come to the surface, so to speak, accidentally." As to the clampdown in this country, it has nothing to do with the press refusing to allow some of those against the war early on to cry, "We were right!" No, the silence has everything to do with the fact that such a remark by a sitting member on the government of a coalition government should immediately trigger an international investigation because a war of choice on another country to take control of their resources is a war crime.

As the US government strong arms the puppet, Nouri al-Maliki, to push through the theft of Iraqi oil in the form of oil legislation that would turn over as much as 70% of the profit from Iraqi oil to foreign corporations, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) interviewed Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein (first woman to be president of a national union in Iraq, president of Electrical Utility Workers Union) and Faleh Abood Umara (of Federation of Oil Unions). From the interview:

AMY GOODMAN: Explain the law.
FALEH ABOOD UMARA: [translated] According to Article 111 of the Iraqi Constitution, which states that the oil and gas of Iraq are owned by the Iraqi people and they have the right to control it. But when you look into the details of the law, many of the articles of the law actually conflict with this preamble of the law, the most important point of which is the issue of the production-sharing agreements, which allows the international oil companies, especially the American ones, to exploit the oil fields without our knowledge of what they are actually doing with it. And they take about 50% of the production as their share, which we think it's an obvious robbery of the Iraqi oil.
We also object to the procedure by which these companies are given the contracts for exploiting the oil, because it allows the granting of the contracts with the aid of foreign advisers. We demanded that it's actually the Iraqi experts that need to be consulted with regards to the granting of the contracts.
In brief, there is hardly an article in the law that actually benefits the Iraqi people. But they all serve American interests in Iraq. And we know well that the law was actually written here in the United States, with the help of James Baker and Ms. Rice and the experts from the IMF. And it serves the interests of the American government and not the Iraqi people.
We're still negotiating with the Iraqi parliament and the Iraqi government, and we succeeded in halting the discussion of the law in the parliament until next October. And we hope that we will manage to modify some of the articles of the law. As regards to the strike, we actually declared victory last week.

and:

HASHMEYA MUHSIN HUSSEIN: [translated] It's more stable than other places in -- like in Baghdad, because they handed the security over to Iraqi forces security and the British forces were redeployed to the outskirts of the city. But the situation in Iraq, in general, and Basra, just like any other part of Iraq, suffers from the situation. It's not very good, especially economically. We have about 65% unemployment rate, and nine million Iraqis live in poverty. The services are really bad, especially electricity. So for every hour of electrical current, we have six hours of black out, and sometimes they skip the actual hour of electrical current. And this is really an adverse situation, because it's really hot and humid in the south.
AMY GOODMAN: And how did that compare under Saddam Hussein?
HASHMEYA MUHSIN HUSSEIN: [translated] The electrical situation was better under Saddam. At least during the night you would have a constant electrical current. And this situation is such, because of the sabotage and exploding the power stations in the center of Iraq.
AMY GOODMAN: How has life changed for women in Iraq, in Basra, where you are?
HASHMEYA MUHSIN HUSSEIN: [translated] As a part of the Iraqi society, they suffer like everybody else, but also there were laws that were issued under the occupation that specifically targeted women, especially Law No. 137, which canceled the old civil law and delegated all issues that have to do with civil law to the local communities and religious communities, religious authorities. We took this very seriously and went out in demonstrations until the new law was canceled, but it was reintroduced through the new constitution, and we now demand the cancellation of this article.
As far as women's rights are concerned, women are not completely suppressed. As you can see, I am right here in front of you. And we have 25% of the parliament members who are women, and we seek, we hope that it will soon become 40%. And this is a result of our struggle and determination that women in Iraq will have their rightful place.

Goodman also interviewed Iraq poet and novelist Sinan Antoon and we'll note that next week. Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that American planes destroyed three houses in "Al-Medea'ain area (south of Baghdad)," a Kirkuk roadside bombing that wounded two police officers and "two unknown missiles were launched upon Tisaeen Al-Jadeeda in downtwon Kirkuk and one of them hit one of the houses damaging it and injuring one resident in the area." Reuters notes 7 people (from the same family) from a mortar attack in Baghdad, 1 dead from a Baghdad roadside bombing, 1 Iraqi police officer killed by a hand grenade in Mosul (another wounded), and a Samawa roadside bombing that claimed 4 lives.


Shootings?Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 7 people were shot dead in Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier shot dead in Hawija and, in Mosul, a husband and wife were shot dead as they attempted to run from unidentified assailiants.


Corpses?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Mahmudiya.

And today the US military announced: "One MNC-I Soldier died of wounds received during combat operations in western Baghdad on Thursday." 3592 is now the total number of US service members to die in the illegal war since it began.

On PBS' NOW with David Brancaccio, which begins airing this week's new episode tonight in many markets (check local listings), they provide an update on Nour al Khal, an Iraqi translator, who has been attempting to receive asylum in the US. There are an estimated 4 million Iraqi refugees, internal and external. Karl Ritter (AP) reports that Sweden, one of the few Western countries that has been welcoming in the past, is now "tightening its asylum rules and will forcibly deport Iraqis who are denied refuge" after having received an estimated 18,000 "since 2006."





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