Fitz and Christy!

Xaviera Hollander !

I just got caught up the threads today and please send my very best to Jane and her Mom, Christy. I am sending my prayers.

OT-
Tony Snow will be on many of the Sunday talking heads shows tomorrow. Did he just write a book? Does anyone know why he’s popular this weekend?

cathy 5 -

Yes. This is why:

http://www.bgladd.com/Just_a_Number.jpg

The blogger who outed the mayor of Spokane had implied that this was not just plain old hooker gate but Gay Jeff Gannon type hookergate.

Thanks for all the sympathy…. off to get ready for a party… (Teddy I will behave myself!)

Will look for the link later…. You can see why they want to cover this one up really fast if it is true!

both parties do it ! it’s bi-partisan ! don’t you remember Wilbur Mills and Fanny Foxe ?

Oh crap. It looks like those two soldiers were led into an ambush and kidnapped. Please, God help them.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/…..index.html

And bring them home, NOW!

EPU’d

VG asked
RevDeb- sounds *very*interesting. I’m not sure I am following the part about “in the public domain”- are you meaning that there is information from past or resent employees about Diebold’s nefarious activities that, had they been published in RS, would have made a suit impossible?

That’s what I thought I was hearing on RIng of Fire on AAR today. Did anyone else hear it?

Great picture BobbyG. Tell that to a mother, father, child that it is just a number!

Those numbers are flesh and blood Americans. They were someones son, daughter, father or mother. They have 2500 families out there who have a great big hole in their lives.

Listening to a Greg Palast interview on our local Air America Phoenix…. chilling!

What just happened to Bionic’s post. It didn’t sound like her.

Good Ol’ GOP family values.

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and prayers for Jane’s mom and family. Much appreciated. I’ll update when I have any news. And thanks everyone for your patience — I’ll be juggling a bit the next few days, so be kind, to me and each other, please.

Yes Christy, please tell Jane she and her family are in our thoughts and we send healing to her Mom.

You have shouldered the burden beautifully, Christy. Cannot be easy at all for either of you. I am thankful for it all.

Happy Father’s Day to Mr. ReddHedd in advance!

My best to Jane and her mom. And this means Jane will be incurring unexpected travel expenses, so now might be a good time to generate a little extra blog revenue by clicking through on some of those cute little blogads.

Well, finally Congress has got a gooper under oath making false statements (unlike Abu Gonzales). Wonder how they’ll try to spin this one? Any bets on how ineffectual and spineless our Dems will be in return?

Christy – you are really doing yoeman’s duty today! New threads every two hours. Yowza. Hope you get a good night’s sleep tonight. I’m going to a party in a little while – I’ll have a Margarita on your behalf.

Having a hard time not thinking about Jane and her mom…

JWR @17 – that’s a very good suggestion.

AND the limo company asked for an advance BEFORE the contract was awared. The story is totally amazing.

all those Tidal Basin hijinks and not a single $22M contract for anyone associated with the Argentinian Bombshell !!!

There is a special candle for healing and love burning in the Cricket home tonight for Jane and her mom.

oh crap *ilson -

“the Argentinian Firecracker“

Foghat!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I’m intrigued by the idea that Congress seems to be taking some of its oversight responsibilities seriously. Do you suppose there might be a correlation between the possibility that someone had illicit sex and Congress’ interest in overseeing the executive branch?

If the Bush Administration swears by it…..it’s a lie. That’s just gotta be Conventional Wisdom by now.

I tried to post the following on the preceeding thread but got an error message. If it later appears there, it will be EPU’d, so here goes:

Every state has its own election laws, but I imagine they have many similarities. My state is divided up into townships (rural) and precincts (urban). Each precinct is entitled to elect one precinct committeeman and one precinct committeewoman. Any registered Democrat can sign up to run for a precinct committee position.

The people elected to these positions (on the primary ballot) make up the county Democratic central committee. They vote to elect a county Democratic chairman or chairwoman, and other officers–vice chair, secretary and treasurer. These people manage the local Democratic party organization.

The precinct committee people (central committee members) also elect representatives to the congressional district Democratic committee, which in turn elects district officers. The district committee focuses on the congressional race for that district.

The district chairman or chairwoman serves on the Democratic state committee. The district representatives also elect additional members to the state committee. The state committee members elect a Democratic state chairman or chairwoman, who runs the Democratic party organization for the entire state.

My reason for giving you all this information, which may vary from the election laws in your state, is that at Yearly Kos I resolved to go home and DO SOMETHING about the political situation that exists in our country today.

In the past, I have held positions as precinct committeeman (by the way, where I live there is seldom any competition for these positions), member of the county Democratic executive committee, member of the district Democratic committee, and alternate member of the Democratic State Committee.

These positions collectively form the backbone of the Democratic party organization in the state, and are involved in recruiting candidates, raising money, and other important tasks. A few years ago, after extensive involvement in the party structure, I became burned out and did not run for reelection to any of these positions. My experience at Yearly Kos motivated me to get back into the game.

I came home with my mind made up to get back into the process by running for precinct committeeman. That Monday afternoon, I called the county election commission to inquire about the filing deadline, only to learn that it had been noon that day. I also learned, however, that the position was currently empty and no one had filed to fill it in the August primary.

I called the Democratic county chairman, and he agreed to appoint me to fill the vacancy. In the course of all this, my wife decided to join me, and the county chairman agreed to appoint her as precinct committewoman.

I realize this is just a small step, but it represents a recommitment on my part to be involved in the political process. It will, no doubt, expose me to candidates whom I will want to work for, as well as opportunities to be involved in voter registration and get out the vote drives.

I recommend that all of you who are able to do so find out how the system works in your state, and join your local Democratic party at the grassroots level. It’s a start. Collectively, we can influence how the process works at the same time we are helping to elect Democratic candidates to office. That’s how the conservative Republicans did it, beginning in 1964. Look at how well they succeeded.

Afterthought: How do you like that blog hate and anger, Karl Rove?

…and Wilbur Mills was Chair of the Ways and Means Committee — the most powerful position in the House short of Speaker! He was also the main man in creating Medicare…

Christy Hardin Smith @ 6:29 pm (#14) – My best to Jane and her mom. If FDL production falls to the level of mere mortals, we’ll try to endure.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..94558/7271

Here is the kos diary about Cunningham hookergate relationship with possible gay hookers.
It was the Washington Blade that outed the Spokane Mayor.

Is THAT the kind of firecracker that dubya used to blow up frogs? Do they have oil???

yuh- huh!

Gotta go firepups.

Going to see Neko Case here in Park City. Loved her guitar on Leno the other night with the sign that said “This machine kills fascists”

Classic!

neurophius: I have been the Democratic Precinct Committeeperson in my neighborhood for 20 years now. It’s fun to do, it’s a civic duty and smart politicians always court us !

LeisureGuy @ 6:41 pm (#20) – In my experience, that’s not an unusual request in government work. If most of the company’s business is coming from one contract, it can be hard to meet the payroll while there’s no contract.

Delayed contracts aren’t at all unusual, either.

Okay gang, so I was a little leery of the Saturday morning “getting to know you with recipes” thread, thinking that as female bloggers, it might make us seem a little too Martha Stewart. But I have to say, it’s been an awesome discussion — both with the recipe swapping and the talking about what’s going on in everyone’s life at the moment — and the amazing amount of de-lurking. So, I’m thinking about making it a more regular thing for Saturdays. What does everyone think?

Katymine#29….that post does not surprise me.
My partner has 1st hand info about that slimey world of ReTHUGlican closet cases. The word is Karl is known as Miss PIggy to all her leather masters…NO JOKE!

Christy#34…even though I only lurked, I got some great recipes…so PLEASE again…more…

Christy @ 34

Yes ! Yes ! Yes!

Re blog revenue, we can do more than just click thru the ads.

Right under the internet freedom ad, about which I now prudently choose to keep my opinions to myself, is a button for donating either thru paypal or directly by credit card. Now’s the time folks!

More recipes? Yes, Yes, Yes! It’s a fun morning thread. We all need fun.

Yes, Christy– please oh please! Like I said, I just got caught up with the threads and thank you for the chess pie recipe! I also remember the onion pie, tomato pie, bengali crab cakes, pakistani meatballs, the yummy desserts, the scones, etc. I so wanted to contribute and missed it. Food is a wonderful way to connect with one another and other cultures. It is perfect for FDL, bringing the world together with language and the art of civility. Thank you.

Christy, OT, I cleaned up C-drive, deleted all temp. internet files, still same problem. Also w/MSNBC, I get an enormous page, w/nothing organized as usual. Next time, it is fine. Nothing amiss w/any other sites. Thanks for any and all help!!!

Christy, 34

If we know it’s coming, we can prepare our finest cuisine ahead of time. Perhaps we can even “organize” it, ie sweets one week, veggie delights another, breakfast & bread another, etc.

Just a thought from someone who likes to organize things.

Deb

Just made a paypal donation. Now I must to the Margarita party.

Christy #24–Yes!

I certainly enjoyed the recipe thread — please eschew helpful household cleaning tips to avoid the Heloise aura. No holiday decorating tips either — Martha does that excessively !

shoephone-
Sounds like you already are there.lol

I am never going to catch up…
======
Christy, please let Jane know we are thinking about her, and sending all good thoughts and prayers for her mother.
======

Witha all the bad news, the sad news, the veins-popping-out-on-your-forehead news, this Shirlington Limo thing is just way too funny.

These are the kinds of things that happen when the little head is in charge, and the big head is just along for the ride (pun intended).

So, who would like to get a look at the actual bid? I, for one, would like to see if it was the condoms and the mini-bars that drove (another pun) the price up to 22 million. I mean, how many limos and drivers and such would you have to have in order to rack up that much expense?

Christy, I’ll be in and out tomorrow, but will try to check in as I can.

Made a recipe from Martha Stewart Living for tomorrow: Strawberries and Cream Cheesecake. You roast the berries in the oven with corn syrup; the roasting is supposed to intensify the strawberry flavor. Cheese is a mixture of cream cheese and mascarpone – really dreamy. If you’ve never had mascarpone, the only thing I could compare it to would be the taste of whipped cream with the consistency of cream cheese. You mix the roasted berries in part of the cheese mixture, and then put a layer of plain cheese mixture on top. It looks and smells great, but the test will be in the taste.

Saturday de-lurking: I counted something like 20 people commenting for the first time today.

The topic could be recipes or other items of personal interest, questions that help people get to know each other better like at yKos.

But yeah, great idea to do every week.

Oh – and a definite “yes” to more Saturday morning recipe swaps. I copied and pasted them into a Word document for future great meals!

And FYI, if anyone in the Baltimore/DC/Phila area ever wants to get together for a “covered dish” FDL supper, I’d be interested.

Grouchy Cowboy – Somebody suggested this link a few days ago for those having trouble locating the site:

http://www.firedoglake.com/index.php

Christy, I’ll go out and sit on the rimrock, and think healing and positive thoughts to Jane and her mom, and family. I think it helps, and it sure can’t hurt! Hanta Yo

Franco @ 36,

imagine if the Miss Piggy stuff is true

Had it been McAuliffe or Dean there would have been a well orchestrated whispering campaign ending in a crescendo of non attributed internet photos

A regular or semi-regular recipe thing for Saturdays? I think… GOOOOD idea. Though I must confess. I’m biased. I love food, and above all else, I love to cook. And there’s nothing in this world that pleases me more than when I see company smile and ask for another helping or two or three… And for me there’s nothing better than getting other folks’ ideas on what to do in the kitchen.

Christy#34,

Um, OK. I used to make “to die for” Gazpacho when I lived in L.A., eventually by the gallon after word got out ; ) So that will be mine.

My best to Jane and Mom.

I can imagine the fun Christy and Jane will have with “Miss Piggy”

Oh please, please. :-)

Sending Jane and her mom healing thoughts and prayers.

Miss Piggy can wait.

Christy … the personal is political! recipes and personal connections keep us grounded as a community that can work for change over the long haul.

RevDeb — no need to organize the main dishes. In my childhood, once of month there would be a “covered dish supper” at the church, and each family would simply bring what they liked best. The result was a wonderful buffet of every dish you can imagine. Next time, I’ll bring my favorite aunt’s green enchiladadas, New Mexico style. However, someone always organized the beverages!

Clicked through ads, made donation. Having just returned from caring for my own mom, I couldn’t be more sympathetic.

And because I was with my mom, no cable, and unfortunately, no FDL (same problem as cowboy, but now fixed at our server), so I felt completely out of touch with part of my world.

Can someone tell me what the “service desk” is? Hadn’t seen that before my link went dead. VG, you out there?

Oklahoma Kiddo– ditto your #53! It is the best part of humanity to provide for your family and guests, including those strangers that may appear at your doorstep. Both of my parents came from different cultures and taught me that. Give the best of the best to everyone who comes to your home. Funny, I am never hungry enough to eat when I cook and take care of others in that way– just full of smiles inside!

scarecro*

welcome back to the family! I only mentioned organizing so that I could have any hope of retrieving something later on. Oh, yeah the chesspie was where? when? dang, so many threads, so many cups of flour/sugar/butter, etc, where did it go?

That kinda thing.

VG and *ilson – left you something at the service desk at #4.

Dana – the service desk is behind the curtain. *g*

Rev Deb – I copied and pasted into a Word document, so I would be sure to have them when I wanted them. It was something like 20 pages!

JRW, Checked that link, but won’t work for me. I’m doing well with anonymouse, but I’d like to know what’s wrong. Thanks for the tip!!

cbl#52….True that!……The Miss Piggy name is a rumor, but the rest is FACT!

Anne,
And that’s only the first installment!!!!

Didn’t get the TrollHouse Cookbook, but I’ll bet this will rival it. (though the recipe for “kitty litter cake ” that was on a Kos thread long ago was more than memorable!

Christy 34 and many others:

I am not much of a cook, and recipes scare me. But I do think the recipe thing this morning added to the congenial atmosphere of the blog throughout the day (not that it ever isn’t, but moreso than usual). I’m all for that. Maybe I will get bold and try a few of the recipes.

Will check. Dana, I am hovering. The SD keeps FDL free of trolls and spam- that’s the aim, anyway.

What siun@7:13 said.

neurophius#66…I tried the crabcake recipe…it is a PHENOM……I love me some crab.

Catch you all later…. have a Cool evening!

I say yes to more recipes – that was fun, and a great way to get to know people. Next week, eggplant and olive tagine.

Grouchy cowby–My message to you was epu’d in last thread. The problem is probably your server, which is still pointing to the old address. Here is what I wrote to you:

I had the same message from CPanel. Finally, I discovered it was our server. Here is what our helpdesk said (they corrected the problem):

It appears that firedoglake.com switched service providers, and therefore IP addresses. One of our servers was inaccurately providing the old address. Your report pointed out the problem, which we have now fixed. So, thank you for that.

If for some reason you still get the old address, then your machine
has cached the old address. You can either reboot or open
Terminal.app and enter the following command: sudo lookupd -flushcache

HTH!

Just now catching up – from the King George thread, njr thank you for the Laura Rozen link.

al-Scooter your post 88 in that thread – a lot of thing to mull over in a pretty short. Thank you. Back to catching up

I have lots more recipes – and the beauty of it is that one set of instructions fits all!

What thread is the word on Jane & her family ?
Has the recpie exchange happened? I thought it was to be tomorow…..

Gonna toddle off to bed, kids…

Remember Jane’s mom in your prayers tonight.

Grouchy Cowboy – Following up on Dana’s 7:26 pm, if you’re on Windows you might try this:

Click the Start button, choose “Run” and type in “ipconfig /flushdns” (w/o the quotes) then click OK.

And if that doesn’t help, sorry. That’s all I got.

jayt– that was so clever! I was LOL and read it to my bud and he said, well that’s what I do when you are away visiting your family. That part about removing the lid to spare the cheese product made an enormous impact, I can tell you!

jayt- I laughed at your recipe. Sorta like my cooking these days. (AC is broken, it’s hot here). So maybe there could be a “convenience cooking” thread sometime? Best finds, and such. I have tried several brands of lasagne and they do differ. Tho how we’d communicate the brand names w/o getting too “commercial” / free advertising/ mentioning some Nestle product and someone comes back with the reminder about their infant milk scandal… ya know?

a day without TPM Muck, is a day without sunshine (of course, a day without FDL & y’all is a day without oxygen) but I check it a couple of times a day now –

many of us have been asking where our ‘Woodstein” is, and there they are, Justin Rood, Paul Kiel. Equally amazing is Marcus Stern who first broke the Cunningham story (a simple google of real estate records and some old fashioned reporter’s instincts) but Marcus broke the story in a very, very conservative SD paper. And now there are two more of cub reporters using actual shoe leather to uncover all this Wilkes/Wade/MZM mischief

Fly Little Woodstein Fly . . .

Piggies at the anti-terror trough:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06…..r=homepage

ruffian:

Christy Hardin Smith says:
June 17th, 2006 at 10:43 am

Gang – Jane’s mom has had to go back in the hospital. We’re going to need some patience over the next few days, since Jane will be travelling to see her and deal with things. And if you could see your way to some thoughts, prayers or whatever it is that you do in this situation, it would be very much appreciated. Thanks

>>>>>>>>>>>

That was from the Biscuit thread this a.m.

the recipe thread is the one this morning– Pull Up a Chair

VG – as a long-time veteran of the frozen food aisle – if it’s made by Stouffer’s, you’re good.

P.S. I wonder what they’ve got in all those other aisles?

I will swear by DiGiorno’s rising crust supreme pizza cooked directly on the oven rack and Stouffer’s Veg Lasagna– accompanied by good company and a yummy salad– delish!

jayt- we’ve got to get out more. I do like the corn souffle, tho. Cans are good too. One can baked beans, one can some other kind of beans without the sugar, two cans diced tomatoes with seasoning, cut up cooked sausage (that takes extra work, but well worth it). One of my fave wintertime meals- several servings.

Angie- thanks- I will try that.

Hey y’all. Missed the recipe swap…and just got finished with an emotional appeal to my apolitical wife that this shit is no longer a sporting event in which you try to pick the winning side.
I didn’t star tearing up until I multiplied 2500 deaths by 50 in terms of the people who were devastated by loss.
Missed you guys. Hang in there.

What the hell are we talking about?

I too like the idea of some sort of sharing. It doesn’t always have to be recipes, either. I’m curious about favorite nonpolitical authros and why, identifying political heroes, influential teachers (not names, necessarily, but what was taught…and how long did it take to recognize it), identifying important places and why (because our connections to particular pieces of land help us invest in protecting all land and water), poetry that speaks to our souls, first times that we realized that we could make a difference. The ideas go on….

T- at this point in the eve, I think it’s anything goes, as for topic.

And, the home stuff, you missed some great comments from Angie on that issue earlier. If Angie is around, maybe she can recap or give you links. If not, ask again.

Late Nite will be up soon.

I’m trying to figure out what Valerie/Joe(?) Wilson’s civil suit would look like, theories under which they might proceed, who are the defendants, and applicable statutes of limitation. State claims, federal – both?

My SOL alarm is pinging.

Christy – I liked the fact that the low key nature of the thread also created what seemed like a good place for people to mention more local candidates too (and delurk one for that matter) and be complimentary and say good things about candidates, programs, etc.

DO you think Rove gets his concern for the level of anger on the left when he sees things like, “add two eggs, beaten?

Thoughts and prayers for Jane and her mom (does Jane have far to travel?). Also huge prayers for the missing two soldiers – the thought they might have been kidnapped makes you frightened and worried for them, and their families have to be out of their minds.

PS – on the cloak&dagger, Wouldn’t an open revolt be, well – more open and revolutionary?

OK- Authors- Vonnegut!

Mary #73:

Thank you! Not only praise from Caesar, but that post was well-EPUed, so I never thought it’d see the light of day.

The events of this last week have made me borderline-frantic to work at some General Theory of What the Heck’s Going On Now.

Maybe I could reprise Harry Browne with How I Found Sanity in an Insane World. Until then, there’s FDL.

yeah, I did that too the evening that Snow said that, T, and stopped in horror. How many are in a family anyway? How many friends and acquaintances does one have? How many are affected by the dead, and the grievously mentally and physically wounded? How many lives are altered forever? How many will turn their backs and only remember 9/11 and their fear, not their responsibility?

How many victims over there? Then it becomes incomprehensible. Add in HIV/AIDS, Sudan, Darfur, malaria, etc.

Everybody else’s life is cheap to these monsters, eh? Not only our monsters, but monsters everywhere. I hate that we are lighting the way, now.

Mary — that ‘open and revolutionary’ part does seem a bit lacking.

I thought his fellow legal staff was about 5. You’d think a resignation or two would be noticed.

al-S: Being compared to a salad is the high point of my day. *g*

Authors: Am I really shallow and edging over the border into weirdness to claim Pratchett as one of my very favorites?

Thanks, VG.
Angie, nice timing.

This place is therapeudic.

Not a writer…thanks ya’ll for articulating my thoughts.

Peace.

Late Night upstairs.

There is so much in this…go back and read this, if you missed it.
Angie @ 94 8:10 pm

VG– thank you.

T– I wrote back to shooogarp at 77 on the last thread at 108, but Christy had powerful words at 87 that I found very helpful.

Take it slow and easy, she loves you because of who you are and may just feel helpless and hopeless.

NZ expat– I agree!

Mary at 96 — I’ve met Terry Pratchett a couple of times, and he’s wonderful in person. I adore his sense of humor — so, no, you aren’t anything but tasteful in your selection of quirky British humor. *g*

The Firedoglake Cookbook. I think I like the sound of that.

TeddySanFran, that reminded me to post this: 9/11 thefts not prosecuted after FBI misdeeds
http://www.usatoday.com/news/n…..fts_x.htm#

NZ expat,

I grew up in the Vietnam era, so as far as Iraq goes I’ve seen this movie before.

Influences? Bob Dylan – “Don’t follow leaders”

Now I want to be you Christy.

I think GWB is Rove’s inside joke with Pterry – One man, one vote.

Mary #96:

Being in your salad days isn’t at all a bad thing. At least, not from the vantage point of someone in his second cup of coffee after dinner days. *g back*

Yes just having a female hooker’s picture up is so traditional of you Christy. Just prior to prison “Duke” admitted he was very much The Duchess — which is a lot more than the queen who played him that movie has ever done.

Limo drivers areoften as not (clutch the pearls everyone) hustlers. I used to know Roy Cohn’s limo driver. He was the most beautiful boy in GAA. People would join up just to be near him. How Ken ended up working for Satan I’ll never know.

He’s dead too, now.

Another vote for Pratchett here.
I like Lois McMaster Bujold, that is my guilty pleasure. Space opera!

Christy… this is my first day here and I’m with the others who say bring on the recipes! As long as we can have Roast Rove, Pickled Cheney and Fried Rice!

Sure, more recipes, why not. I think the cookbook idea is a good one if we get enough.

On an unrelated matter, I take it no one get the Foghat reference?

thanks angie

You would have thought that the sudden resignation of a CIA Director linked to Fornigate would be big, enduring news. But it was a one-day story, if that, and was never taken up by the press.

David at 107 — You don’t know how long I searched for a lovely boy with limo photo, but I couldn’t find anything appropriate. And then, the above photo popped up — with it’s “Free Ride” language, and I couldn’t help myself. ;-)

Muck shows the letter on congressional letterhead is dated prior to the Department of Homeland Security inventing the idea of having a limosine service…

was this simple letter a strong arm nudge to create a need?
wondering if there is anything more on paper explaining Shirlington’s request for funds before the contract was signed?

delicious anticipation, all those “before” events in Muck’s chronology…

No one investigates sex and lying like Congressional Republicans. Too bad they’re too busy plundering to get involved.

Can’t…get…image…of…Duke…being…serviced…out of my head! :(

Stop the insanity!

barf barf barf

I think Jeff Gannon should get right on this story.

Hammer hammer hammer away at them…….

In comments released by his press secretary, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said: “If there’s a reference to a letter, [Cunningham] is involved and DHS has not been truthful. . . . Did somebody clean out the file?”
and
Rep. Bennie Thompson “It is unconscionable to think that the agency charged with tracking down terrorists cannot even track down letters of recommendation,” Thompson wrote.

P.S. Jane – hope our Mom is doing better!

All I can think is that those poor women, the employees of the Limo Co., could use some extra strength mouthwash. Blech!

Your Tax Dollars At Work