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Pot Luck

by: JayinPortland

Tue May 11, 2010 at 19:00:00 PM PDT


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JayinPortland :: Pot Luck
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Pot Luck | 43 comments
Que es lo bueno, y'all? (4.00 / 2)
Don't gimme no mess about my horrific grammar above.  I'm just trying to get into the whole Cuba thing...

;P

hola jay (4.00 / 2)
(that'd be pronounced- Ola Hay!)

washapPANeeng?
(o wait- thats cheech & chong!)

come firefly-dreaming with me....

[ Parent ]
Nada... (4.00 / 2)
I face a quandary.  I need dinner.  I would have to cook it, though, and it's getting late and I'm damned tired.  I have some asparagus, thinking of just eating it raw.  Why not?  Heh...
[ Parent ]
News Jersey... (4.00 / 2)
Election day today in many places back in the Garden State.  No surprises.  I'll have thoughts on that in a bit.

Just for the hell of it, here's a running pseudo-live blog on NJ news today.

First entry!

Former N.J. Assemblyman Van Pelt denies taking $10K bribe from FBI informant

OCEAN COUNTY -- For the first time since his arrest last July, former [Republican] Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt spoke publicly today about federal corruption charges against him by denying he used his political influence to help a corrupt real estate developer, insisting the $10,000 he accepted was a consulting fee.

Oh, easy enough mistake to make.  I mean, I'm sure many times, "consulting fees" are passed along via -

Captured on video tape accepting $10,000 in cash from Dwek on Feb. 21, 2009, Van Pelt said he was shocked when he received an envelope stuffed with $100 bills.

And that's not all -

Federal prosecutors contend the consulting claim is a ruse and that Van Pelt knew the money was a bribe. Supporting that claim, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig said in her opening arguments, are bank records showing Van Pelt deposited the cash in two separate transactions, which she argued was his way of avoiding bank notification requirements of deposits in excess of $10,000.

Well, maybe Mr. Van Pelt just forgot half the cash back in his office while he went to the bank?  Or forgot about it?  Maybe it was about safety, even!

I mean hell, I know I wouldn't want to carry around an envelope containing $10,000 in $100 bills.  Yeesh, a criminal might be tempted to rob me!

Van Pelt did not address that issue during his time on the stand today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Chao is scheduled conduct Van Pelt's cross-examination this morning.

Heh.

[FBI informant] Dwek testified that Van Pelt joked about calling himself Dwek's consultant before accepting the money.

But Van Pelt said today he laughed during that Feb. 11, 2009, conversation because he was uncomfortable asking a man he barely knew for a consulting job.

Oh, but he was comfortable enough to accept an envelope containing $10,000 in cash from "a man he barely knew".  And one who had just asked him to 'fix things' for him...

Cory Booker wins second term... (4.00 / 2)
As expected, Cory Booker easily won a second term as Newark Mayor today, 59 - 35.  He lost 1 of his 9 city councilmen though, and a second faces a runoff -

Just before 10 p.m., Booker declared victory and addressed a packed room at the Robert Treat Hotel. While his staff has delivered positive change, he said there is much more work to be done.

"We know we have difficult days ahead, but if I want to be in the trenches with any group of people in the United States of America, I want to be in the trenches fighting with my fellow residents of the city of Newark," Booker said.

In 2006, Booker won with a clear mandate of 72 percent of the vote, won a majority of votes in all of the city's wards and his slate of nine council candidates was elected.

Tuesday, one of Booker's most outspoken opponents, Ras Baraka, beat South Ward Councilman Oscar James II, a member of Booker's slate. And Booker's candidate in the Central Ward, Councilman Charles Bell, faces a run-off election against candidate Darrin Shariff. Booker also failed to win a majority of votes in the South Ward.

It's endlessly amusing trying to see the Star-Ledger create some kind of "uh oh" moment with tonight's results, though.  Obviously, Booker isn't gonna win 72% himself and win 9 of 9 city council seats every year.  Can you think of any other situation in which a 24-point electoral victory and an 8-1 or 7-2 majority on the city council is a let down?  Pfffttt...

Booker outspent Minor 20-to-1, yet Minor, a member of the city's old guard, was able to marshal an already vocal anti-Booker contingent along with dissatisfaction about crime and joblessness to bring out voters against a mayor who promised major reform and a new era for the city in 2006.

Lol, come on.  We have "a vocal anti-Sam Adams (our Mayor) contingent" here in Portland, too.  It's a few angry conservatives and some homophobes.  They're loud, and they lose.  And they're a clear minority of the overall population.  Just like Booker's "vocal" opponents are.

I mean, really.  It's "one person, one vote".  Not "one decibel (or degree of media attention), one vote".

I'm not even a fan of Booker, generally.  But this article sucked ass big time.  I mean, really.  This thing deserved to be in the opinion section, not 'news'.  Oh, and look at the byline!  "Star-Ledger Staff".  Yeah, why am I not surprised the person who wrote it doesn't want to attach their name to it?

[ Parent ]
Long Branch Mayor-For-Life wins again... (4.00 / 2)
Democrat Adam Schneider wins sixth term as Mayor of Long Branch, New Jersey -

LONG BRANCH - Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider won re-election tonight in a race that turned ugly last week when a witness in a federal corruption trial claimed to have bribed the mayor of the city.

Schneider beat Councilman Brian Unger 2,473 to 1,610 for a sixth term, according to unofficial results.

Interesting twist - Soloman Dwek, the failed "developer" and FBI informant at the center of last year's massive bribery scandal, claims to have bribed "the Long Branch Mayor", without naming names.  That would be Schneider, of course, since he's been Mayor there for over 20 years now.  No proof has come of that yet, though.  Yet...

Brian Unger, Schneider's opponent this year, is a Green Party member who's run for Monmouth County Freeholder (NJ's county commissioner system) in the past.

I always thought Long Branch NJ was where (4.00 / 3)
[ Parent ]
Beets on burgers? (4.00 / 2)
The subject came up on another board recently, and I've been thinking about it ever since.

It's apparently an Australian thing, putting beets on a burger?  Makes a lot of sense to me, though I've never tried it.  Think I will soon.  The beets should add quite a complimentary 'earthiness' to the beef.  Especially the good stuff I have in the freezer right now.

Foster Burger, a new burger joint just a few blocks from me, opened by two of Portland's best chefs, has a lamb burger with pickled beets on their menu.  I wonder how it would work with just a roasted beet slice?  I might try that here this week sometime...

plz (4.00 / 2)
let me know how it tastes!!

come firefly-dreaming with me....
[ Parent ]
imagination (4.00 / 2)
Imagination is a good servant, but a bad master. We are poorly served by imagination that limits our vision and precludes choices without our even being aware the choices exist. I am convinced that, for many (most?) of us, our food experiences are determined by convention. We put the same old things on burgers just because that's what we always put on burgers. Other burger adornments might bring us much pleasure, if we could only imagine them.

Great culinary inventions must come from people with habits of unconventional thinking, that is to say, rebels. That's why I am willing to occasionally willing to spend $60 for dinner. The nutrition isn't worth it, but the new ideas are priceless.

Not all new ideas are worthwhile. I still haven't figured out how to put rhubarb to good use as a vegetable. My experiments have been edible, but nothing worth reporting. I probably wouldn't use it on a burger.

[ Parent ]
Rhubarb and ginger... (4.00 / 1)
Have you tried mixing rhubarb and ginger yet?  I saw a food cart tweet today, can't seem to find it now, but their special of the day was an egg, ham and arugula sandwich with a rhubarb-ginger jam.

Meanwhile, I still haven't done anything with rhubarb yet in 2010.  Heh.  Looks like it might have to wait 'til next year!

[ Parent ]
ginger (4.00 / 2)
I use several spices as one tightly connected group: cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and mace. These go very well with rhubarb, either each by itself or in combination with one or more of the others. I like rhubarb by itself, I like rhubarb mixed with another fruit if I can taste both fruits - I haven't tried more than one other fruit so far, I fear my tastebuds would have an orgasm. For me, the key is to use the spices sparingly so they don't overwhelm the fruits.

My next combo will be rhubarb and apples.  

[ Parent ]
i used to (4.00 / 2)
make jam/jelly & sell it to family/friends & friends of them.
i once got a request for rhubarb/strawberry jam. when i made it up i used ginger & cloves. i had several jars which were not bought... it was delicious!!

come firefly-dreaming with me....
[ Parent ]
2010 over? (4.00 / 2)
That shouldn't be true. I'm not a rhubarb expert, but just based on childhood memories, I would think rhubarb should be harvestable all season, which is a reason I thought it would be a very nice crop for farmers market and CSA farmers.

Am I wrong about this? Does my memory fail me?

[ Parent ]
Not sure... (4.00 / 2)
Rhubarb was never really on my radar until this year, and I have a feeling that other new and shiny things will distract me if / when I do soon get around to deciding to pick up some rhubarb.  By the time blackberries and melons and all the rest of the summer characters reappear in a few weeks, I'm sure rhubarb will seem like old hat to me.  Justifiable or not, that's just the way I seem to operate...

;-P

I'm no rhubarb expert, either.  I know I've seen it well into summer before, but I can't quite recall how late or long.

[ Parent ]
not exactly scientific (4.00 / 3)
because this is the first year I am growing rhubarb. I was given a big hunk beginning of April. Plant looks "tired" now and stems aren't as red. I'll let you know how it tastes when I cut back next week.
[ Parent ]
Portlandness... (4.00 / 2)
Yeesh, what a day and a half -

This would be quite an eventful day anywhere, even if I was still back in Newark...

double duty? (4.00 / 2)
A city commisioner was police commish at the same time? A legislator was simultaneously a major executive branch figure?
[ Parent ]
Portland's city government... (4.00 / 2)
It's a City Commission form of government here, where all city bureaus (of which the Portland Police Bureau is one, along with Housing, Water, Neighborhood Involvement, Parks & Recreation and a thousand others) are overseen by one of the five elected city commissioners.  The mayor, and four others.  All five are elected citywide at-large.

Portland is the last large American city to continue to use the commission form of government.  I have mixed thoughts on it myself, but mine don't really matter since the last time a proposal was brought up to change the system, in 2007, it failed 76 - 24.  So we'll have this system here in Portland for quite some time to come...

[ Parent ]
The one difference... (4.00 / 2)
In re: the link above - the one difference between Portland and most of the remaining cities which still use a City Commission form of government, is that even though he or she is still a City Commissioner themselves, Portland's Mayor is elected directly for the spot, and they are 'higher-ranking' than the other four City Commissioners.
[ Parent ]
Double duty... (4.00 / 2)
Now REAL double duty (or double dipping, to be more precise...), is what used to be common in New Jersey government up until it was finally outlawed (but grandfathered in to allow those who did it to continue to do so until they retire, of course) just a few years ago.  Mayors allowed to serve as State Assemblymen or State Senators, and whatnot.

Even many of the best NJ politicians used to do that, and honestly they'd be crazy not to take advantage of such a ridiculous system, for retirement benefits & pay & etc...

And then of course, the scum of the earth also took advantage of that stupid system as well.  And the people of NJ will unfortunately still continue to have to foot the bill for those types for decades yet to come.

[ Parent ]
retirement benefits (4.00 / 2)
That's funny. Sad, but funny. I wonder what Rosie Sizer's "full benefits" will be.

Baltimore's former mayor, Sheila Dixon was indicted with evidence so damning she knew she had no chance of winning a court battle, even with a favorable jury pool. She resigned to preserve her $83,000 PER FUCKING YEAR pension!

I wonder how many people work one or two full time jobs and don't take home $83,000 after taxes. A bunch, that's for sure, and they aren't even criminals.

It's been said, though, that the wages of sin aren't what they should be, considering the overhead.

[ Parent ]
How many goodies... (4.00 / 2)
...can $83,000 buy from the prison commissary each year, btw?

Heh.  Oh, that's right.  Jail's only for 'the little people', isn't it?

[ Parent ]
Sharpe James... (4.00 / 2)
Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, who pretty much made a living being a crook, only ended up doing a year in federal prison.  He was just released not too long ago.

I have a friend who's spent about a year, cumulatively, in two different county jails in New Jersey for drug 'offenses' over the past decade.

Only in America, eh?

[ Parent ]
hey jay! (4.00 / 2)
Field of Dreams is For Sale!
let's buy it, okay?!?

come firefly-dreaming with me....
Can anyone spare... (4.00 / 2)
a dime?
[ Parent ]
Awesome! (4.00 / 2)
A (quite literal) farm-to-table restaurant (table-on-farm?), with one of the greatest films of all time playing on a big screen during dinner right, where it was filmed!
[ Parent ]
Field of Greens... (4.00 / 2)
Okay, that's the name for our salad!
[ Parent ]
lesbian hair? (4.00 / 2)
Politico Reports Kagan Is Straight

Why was anyone wondering about Kagan's sexuality? Is her hair the reason? Have the rightist extremists decided that short hair must be a public admission of a woman's homosexuality? Is that why all of the Maxim Magazine 2010 Hot 100 have long hair? Does Michele Bachmann have long hair because her wacko Minnesota constituents would think she was queer if she had short hair?

This is craziness.

Kagan is a 50 yr. old woman who (4.00 / 3)
has never married. She likes to play softball. That haircut. There are, apparently, no photos of her draped on the arm of a man. As Harvard Law dean she fought having military recruiters at the school because of DADT.

It all ads up, count. Those things are all on the "Is she a lesbian?" checklist.  

[ Parent ]
signifying (4.00 / 2)
To me, all that only signifies good sense. Now I guess we must conclude that anyone with good sense and good judgement must be gay. By "gay", I mean "not Republican".
[ Parent ]
Maybe she's lesbian? (4.00 / 1)
I do so hope she is!
[ Parent ]
Why would you hope that she is a lesbian? (4.00 / 3)
I would prefer that she be level headed and to hell with who she would prefer as a life partner.

Personally I couldn't care less whether she has a boy friend, has a girl friend, has kids, doesn't have kids, has 'straight' hair, etc.

What a bunch of bullshit reasons for being for or against anyone, especially someone who's going to be in a seat on the supreme court!

What I want to know is -
What's her actual track record on issues that any of us care about?

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

[ Parent ]
bullshit reasons (4.00 / 2)
Not all my reasons are highminded. Very honestly, I think it would be hilarious, or at least very funny.

As far as being level headed - granted, we self-select the people we know, and the people I know aren't necessarily representative of every body in the country. With that cautionary note, I will say that, among my self-selected groups of friends and acquaintances, the gays and lesbians are on average more honest, more level headed, more responsible, funnier, more intelligent, and have more integrity than the hererosexuals. I repeat, on average. At the very least, being lesbian wouldn't disqualify her in my mind, and could be a good thing.

Interesting comment about her track record. As I digest all the blowhard hot air about this (how can a high profile nationally renowned lawyer not have a track record?) it seems to me that the complainers are mainly chagrined that they can't predict how she'll vote. Either that, or they think she is too middle-spectrum.

[ Parent ]
One of the things I find interesting about her track record (4.00 / 2)
is her position on the military at Harvard in regard to the don't ask, don't tell policy.

I think, and I may be mistaken on this, but wasn't the military against DADT? Even though the military was compelled by congress and Bill Clinton, it was the military that got raked over the coals for implementing it. Did Kagan ban any of the members of congress who pushed that through, or Bill Clinton as the commander in chief for mandating that the military implement DADT from the campus? Or was it just the military?

My question after that is - was her treatment of the military due to a lack of knowleage as to who gives the commands to the military? Has her position on her former policy changed? If so how?

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

[ Parent ]
Military on DADT (0.00 / 0)
The military was strongly against anything that would lessen prohibitions on homosexuality. They probably were against DADT if they thought it was a liberalizing measure, but they were for it as an alternative to abolishing the prohibitions. I remember Frontline interviews with various generals and other command types. You literally could see that their sphincters were tightening up during the interviews.

The ban on homosexuality and DADT are different issues relating to Kagan's tenure at Harvard Law. Kagan receives criticism from the left because she did not put the school in the forefront of opposition to DADT, and because she rescinded the ban. For that matter, military representatives never were banned from the law school campus, they just couldn't use the career center facilities for a while, which is why the right criticizes her. Her opposition to military recruitment was because of policies against homosexuals in the military, not because of positions for or against DADT.

I certainly understand that many people were disappointed that Kagan didn't join the anti-DADT leadership. With regard to military recruitment, I think her role was very evenhanded. In the end, recruiters were allowed back into the career center because the university would have lost about $400 million otherwise, even though the law school itself did not receive federal money.

[ Parent ]
Do I need to clarify? (0.00 / 0)
I think I might not have explained that very well. Should I try again?
[ Parent ]
No, that'll do (4.00 / 1)
One of the things that really irritates me about how the media reports on things like this, and why I don't trust either the left or the right leaning media (which pretty much means all media both so called news and non news) is that none of what you just said about Kagan lifting the ban on military recruiting at Harvard has been mentioned. The ones on the left and the right both said she was the one who banned it.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.
[ Parent ]
All of the positive things you say about (4.00 / 1)
the gays and lesbians that you know, I can say as well about horse owners. But I don't think that sexual orientation or equine ownership should be used at all in criteria for selcting a suprememe court judge.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.
[ Parent ]
I agree. nt (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
I'm with Joanne.. (4.00 / 1)
why are the village idiots (main stream) so obsessed with her sexuality? Do Americans even care any more? Even Laura Bush is in favor of gay marriage.
[ Parent ]
She is straight, count. (4.00 / 3)
Sorry to break it to you. Despite what some people believe, there aren't any foolproof signs, not even a love of softball. There are straight women who play softball, and lesbians with long hair. And plenty in both camps who wear lipstick, or not.

In answer to the persistent rumors, the WH has stated that Kagan is straight. I find it hard to believe that the WH would have done this without Kagan's knowledge and approval. And, given today's "gotcha" climate I doubt that they would try to lie about this.

Given that the appointment of a lesbian to the Supreme Court would cause the heads of many rightwingers  to explode, I kind of wish she was a dyke.

Fun as that would be, I wish even more that I knew for a fact that Kagan was a leftwing populist. That is the kind of info I think is crucial when evaluating a court nominee.

Alas, it is not to be.

[ Parent ]
softball (4.00 / 2)
Everything you wrote is true. Everything. Nevertheless, I'm sure Sean Hannity discounts it all because k.d. played softball in college.
[ Parent ]
Pot Luck | 43 comments
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