It's important and we'll start with it and make it our cooking thing for tonight.
I'll call her Tarina. (Since I'm Trina.) Tarina has a problem in that her oven (electric) has a thermostat that is way off. She knows how to cook what she usually does in it but has trouble adapting other things, specific complaint: potatoes.
If you are adapting, you can cook several baked potatoes -- as many as you have room for -- in the same time (and same temp) you would cook a meatloaf or an oven casserole in. Pierce the skins of the potato with a knife (straight through), wrap in foil and place in oven.
You can buy an oven thermometer -- a good one -- for less than $15.00. But I do know that these days, $15 is more than a lot of people have to spare.
I would also remind, if you're someone eating more potatoes these days because you can buy a sack of potatoes for relatively little money, that there are other ways to cook them besides baking.
You can boil them (with skins on or off) on the stove, for example.
On the topic of the economy, I want to turn to Stan who covered Barack's do-nothing approach:
Exactly when does he plan to work on the economy?
Neil Irwin (Washington Post) reports, "The economy is projected to add jobs this year at a pace too sluggish to make much of a dent in unemployment, according to a new White House forecast that suggests President Obama's advisers expect the jobless problem to be a fact of life throughout his term."
A fact of life?
A fact of whose life?
Not Barry O's. He's so Men's Vogue in his dress and though Michelle can't pull off fashionable (she slouches, pooches and looks ridiculous), that garbage she wears isn't cheap. And they have their 'Friday night dates.'
But the rest of us?
We're suffering.
And now this is from Liz Peek's latest column at wowOwow:
President Obama has invited Republicans to join him on February 25 to discuss health care. Let’s hope something comes out of that. Democrat Chris Dodd and Republican Bob Corker have pledged to find common ground on overhauling financial industry regulation. Another sign of progress. And – for a moment – we had consensus on a bipartisan jobs bill. Wonder of wonders, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee joined together to produce an $85 billion bill that would give employers tax breaks for hiring and also provide for the immediate write-off of equipment purchases of up to $250,000.
Astoundingly, having pushed for just such a package, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid then scuttled the bill, proposing instead a much smaller $15 billion program. Reid is on script: A successful bipartisan effort would dent accusations that the Republicans are the party of "No" – a story line the Democrats need to explain their lack of progress over the past year. As ever, Reid may be out of step.
Surely, we can do better than this. Our country is exhausted – from real financial anxiety and from the constant bickering among our political leaders. The monumental storms, which smothered the eastern seaboard this week, produced a near-total shutdown of the U.S. government; the stillness of a heavy snow extended mercifully to Congress, and even to the media. It brought home just how jarring the warfare on Capitol Hill has become.
Which only underscores how there is no movement on the economic front. For those who have forgotten, the economy allowed Barry O to squeak by. If the economy tanking hadn't been big news in the fall of 2008, Barry and John McCain would have fought it out but the economy gave Barry the bump. And he came into office knowing this problem. And he's done what? Nothing.
That's the reality.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Friday:
I don't believe Obama when he says we'll be done occupying Iraq and killing and being killed there by 2011 because that's not what we do. He'll withdraw some of the "combat troops" and "re-mission" the rest as "non-combat troops" (these operations include the physical protection "Americans and U.S. assets in Iraq" and "counterterrorism operations in which Iraqi forces would take the lead." That's all to say, they will still be killing and being killed.) We'll get a "lease" from the Iraqi government on some nice plots of land situated between some oil fields, kick up our feet, and have our "non-combat" frogs, our Blackwater toads, and our intelligence snakes go right on violently occupying foreign populations.
The legitimacy of the electoral process and the independence of Iraqi institutions have been thrown into serious question among both Iraqis and the international community. Sunni-Shia resentments have been rekindled, with such polarization evidently being seen as a winning electoral strategy in certain quarters. Sunni participation may well be depressed, though a full-out boycott is unlikely. The damage is likely to me measured in increments, not in a single apocalyptic collapse.
Layla Anwar (An Arab Woman Blues) offers this view:
BBC News notes, "As posters appeared across Iraq for Friday's start, the fate of more than 170 candidates is still undecided." Will anyone vote? Mohammed Abbas and Samia Nakhoul (Reuters) report that "[. . .] Iraqis living with only a few hours of power a day amid mounds of rubbish and pools of sewage are wondering whether to bother voting in a March election." Reuters also offers a look at some of the political parties vying for votes. BBC News' Gabriel Gatehouse decides today to report on the Sunday protest in Baghdad and he still can't get it right. It was an "angry crowd," he tells us and that's supposed to inform? From Monday's snapshot:
That shameless disgusting BBC so reminiscent of the colonial days of the British empire, still uses that same perfidious language and word twisting. BBC you hate Saddam Hussein because he would not bend over for your politicians. You only approve of those whom you can bugger. And some of us Iraqis will not be buggered.
And it seems to me despite all the information in your possession, you still hold that Ahmed Chalabi, the crook, the embezzler and the spy for Iran as a reference and a credible source of information. and that, despite the fact that your f**ked up nation is still inquiring into the " legality " of your going to "war" in Iraq.
You truly have ZERO shame and ZERO ethics.
FROM the market town of Khanaqin, on the Iranian border, all the way to Sinjar, near the border with Syria, a fortified line snakes across northern Iraq. To the east and north stand Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga, keen to reclaim land taken from them by Saddam Hussein more than two decades ago. On the other side of the line, to the west and south, are Iraqi regular-army troops sent by the central government in Baghdad to stop ancient cities along the Tigris river falling into what it fears may become a purely Kurdish sphere.
The two forces have come close to flat-out fighting several times, usually outside the cities where commanders act off their own bat. Last year an Iraqi army unit drove into the disputed, though mainly Kurdish, town of Altun Kupri and took up sniper positions on rooftops. When residents, supported by armed Peshmerga, started demonstrating against their presence, the Arab soldiers were told to shoot to kill. Bloodshed was avoided at the last minute by American troops stationed nearby.
Meanwhile Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) reports on the US military beliefs concerning the kidnapping of American citizen Issa T. Salomi by the League of Righteous:
But a senior US military leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, says the kidnapping appears to be a one-off incident possibly sparked by the Iraqi government's recent arrest of two mid-level members of the AAH, which US officials say is backed by Iran.
He said the group, which broke away from the movement of militant Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr after Sadr agreed to a ceasefire in 2008, appears to have further splintered after its leader Sheikh Qais al-Khazali renounced attacks on Iraqi forces and was released from US and Iraqi custody. The release was an apparent exchange for a British hostage and the bodies of three of his bodyguards and seen as key to reconciliation between the Iraqi government and Shiite militant groups.
"What I think has happened…is that there are elements within AAH that are not following any orders from Qais…. We believe it is that element out of that group that is pursuing their kidnapping campaign," says the senior U.S. official.
It's always interesting to watch the US military and US officials -- named and unnamed -- offer takes on what this or that group is in doing in Iraq -- you know, as opposed to what Iraqis think the groups doing in Iraq. For example, many don't buy the idea of a 'splinter group' -- or that al-Sadr 'ridded' his organization of the militias.
To stick with the US position presented in the article, so the League of Righteous allegedly felt shut out of the 'political process' and, in their anger/depression/rage, decided that they could best have a 'voice' and get their way via violence? Well wherever could they have learned that? From a US administration that ordered the US military to release the ringleaders of the organization despite the League's claims of responsibility (bragging, actually) for the death of 5 US service members in a raid on a base?
3 dead British citizens and 1 alive also proved to be very beneficial for the League.
Maybe that's why you have to be very careful about entering into negotiations with those who resort to violence? Concerned because of the message you send and the message the current US administration sent by releasing the ringleaders and others starting in June of last year was: Violence means you get your way.
One exchange hinted that the panel had access to secret documents revealing that George Bush planned to attack Iraq even if Iraq complied with inspectors and was in compliance with the crucial UN resolution 1441.
Sir Lawrence Freedman had asked Mr Straw: "Was there any point where Powell said to you that, even if Iraq complied, President Bush had already made a decision that he intended to go to war?"
When Mr Straw said this was not the case, "to the best of my recollection", and talked more broadly around the question, Sir Lawrence pressed him a few times on the issue.
Sir Lawrence Freedman said: "I was going to suggest you might want to look through your conversations and check."
"I will go through the records, because I think you are trying to tell me something," said Mr Straw.
Haiti, Americans' attention span for global crises is usually very
short. But is there a way to keep American audiences from tuning out
important global issues of violence, poverty, and catastrophe far beyond
their backyards? On Friday, February 12 at 8:30 pm (check local
listings), NOW talks with filmmaker Eric Metzgar about "Reporter," his
documentary about the international reporting trips of New York Times
columnist Nicholas Kristof. In the film, Metzgar provides fascinating
insight into how Kristof breaks through and gets us to think deeply
about people and issues half a world away.
Staying with TV notes, Washington Week begins airing on many PBS stations tonight (and throughout the weekend, check local listings) and joining Gwen are Dan Balz (Washington Post), Naftali Bendavid (Wall St. Journal), Janet Hook (Los Angeles Times) and David Sanger (New York Times). Meanwhile Bonnie Erbe will sit down with Melinda Henneberger, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Genevieve Wood to discuss the week's events on PBS' To The Contrary. Check local listings, on many stations, it begins airing tonight. And turning to broadcast TV, Sunday CBS' 60 Minutes:
Davos
Nowhere in the world can such a concentration of power be found than at the World Economic Forum's meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where the world's most powerful and influential people gather yearly to try to solve the world's most pressing problems. Scott Pelley reports.
Made In The USA
Could crucial parts of the equipment Iran is using in its uranium enrichment facility have come from the U.S.? American law enforcement authorities say sensitive devices and electronics that could be used in weapons of mass destruction are being smuggled into Iran. Lesley Stahl reports. | Watch Video
Pigeon Fever
It's been just over a year since Bernard Madoff's multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme fell apart. But, as Morley Safer reports, despite all the news about the Madoff scandal, similar Ponzi scams are still thriving. | Watch Video
60 Minutes, Sunday, Feb. 14, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.