Maybe it wasn’t such a horrible speech after all. I was cranky (having just shredded my right leg in a boneheaded trail mishap) and hungry (Herself was working late so I didn’t have dinner on the table pre-speech). After getting a meal and a few drams of Spanish vino into my system, I felt more kindly toward the prez and his little chitty-chat with the nation.
The recipe, pasta with salsa crudo and green beans, is from Martha Rose Shulman. Run it past the cranky-pants in your family and see if it doesn’t work wonders. I made mine with homegrown Portuguese beans and tomatoes from the gardens of two generous friends.
This is not to say, mind you, that I comprehend Obama’s fetish of continually extending olive branches to the Repugs only to watch them snatch them from his hand, toss them to the floor and piss on them.
Nor am I satisfied by his fondness for glittering generalities (“Our troops are the steel in our ship of state. And though our nation may be traveling through rough waters, they give us confidence that our course is true, and that beyond the predawn darkness, better days lie ahead.”).
And while I’m delighted to hear he wants to at least cut back on croaking our fellow Americans abroad and get cranking on the domestic economy instead, I’m still waiting to hear any details of how he proposes “to shore up the foundation of our own prosperity.” How many of us wonder whether the next paycheck we get will be the last? Just ’cause you’re paranoid, etc., et al., and so on and so forth.
And then there are the midterms. The more I watch the Obama “machine” in operation, the more I’m convinced these guys think they can take a page from the Repug playbook and blow off a sizable chunk of their supporters without consequences at the ballot box. The Repugs punk the Bible-thumpers every election year, and the Donks think they can do likewise to the lefty-loonies.
It’s a dangerous game. Sure, moving center-right to woo the independents and the handful of Repugs who aren’t yet completely unhinged may pick up a couple of loose votes. And it’s true that like the Bible-thumpers, lefty-loonies are not likely to hold their noses and switch their allegiance to the other side.
But a bunch of us, disillusioned once again, might just stay home on Election Day. And that’s really bad news, because the GOP’s whackjob base always turns out with a will, like a bunch of frat boys gleefully piling out of a van to beat up a longhair, nigra or queer.
Shit, now I’m cranky again, and I don’t feel like cooking. Happily, I still have some wine.
• Literary addendum: I almost forgot — one of the reasons I started writing this post was a recollection of Sinclair Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here.” Red Sinclair certainly thought it could, and anyone who read the book will recognize many of its characters hamming it up on today’s stage.
Mad Blog Media 
The good news is we are far from the Outer Banks.
Guy goes “Postal” at Discovery (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun.)
Geez, sorry everybody about the link. Honestly, I thought it would wrap.
Don’t worry, Hoss, I fixed it. And it looks like the cops fixed him.
this prez. has done more in an half term them bush did in two terms so cut him slack
Bromasi, I agree — but he’s doing a piss-poor job of selling his success. We lose the House and the Senate because these guys can’t sell their accomplishments — and the other side’s failures — and you can look forward to a flood of pointless investigations that will make the Clinton years look like a day at the beach and a gummint shutdown that will have Newt Gingrich jacking off until he wears that itty-bitty pecker of his down to a nubbin.
Again, just think what will happen if the Repuglican’s get control of ANYTHING? Now they can “just say no” as ol’ Ronnie-Ray’s wife used to tell the kids, but if only the whackos (those that are actually registered to vote that is) show up at the polls in November we’re in deep doodoo. They could vote in enough of the R’s to let them get their way and move the D’s into the “just say no” group – like when Dubya (well, really Dick Cheney) was in charge. Obamo and Co, unlike their counterparts on the other side, will not campaign on FEAR. So the rest of us need to keep reminding those not in the TEA Party to fear the results of apathy come November. Looks like a nice pasta dish, now invite some friends over for dinner!
Dinner looks great! If this journo/cartoon/online editor thing stops working, you could charge lost souls like me to come eat at your house. Cash only–subterranean economy, no taxes (makes for a bigger tip). Or maybe we can barter. Oh, damn, I have nothing to give and no skills. Let’s go with cash. And I can wash dishes.
As for Obama, I’m okay with the results so far, but it’s the message about the accomplishments that seems so weak.
I’m with Patrick regarding the olive branch. What a bucket of runny shit. Why bother?
When was the last true era of bipartisanship? Tip O’Neall? It isn’t coming back. Ronnie was the last Repug to acknowledge that, after 6pm, Repugs don’t have to be the 24/7 stinking pig-eyes that they are now.
Jeff, you’ll have a fine table at Chez Chien, not too close to the kitchen or the crapper. Service is spotty, alas — tonight’s meal, chicken quesadillas with a side of salad and calabacitas with corn and tomatoes, was shamefully late (the cook, a surly bastard, had been drinking, and a neighbor popped round for a chat).
Still, tonight’s meal turned out OK. Local squash and tomatoes, chile from the Western Slope, s’awright. Look for a pic’ tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, and I scored some fresh pork at the farmers’ market from Doug and Kim Wiley of Larga Vista Ranch. So you just know there’s gonna be some green-chile stew goin’ on around here. Something about the GOP and midterm elections always gets me to thinking about putting some pig to the torch.
OG, don’t quit the day-job and go into the restaurant biz. I cook for my pals at the local bike shop a couple times each year, bringing a home-made lunch (usually a pasta dish, freshly baked bread and a mixed salad) down to replace the usual fast-food “edible feces” bike shop guys normally ingest around midday. They always say “you oughta open a restaurant!” and I just laugh. A sure-fire way to make a small fortune, provided you start with a large one! We’ve had more than a few guys here in Sioux City try to make a go of serving up real, tasty food, only to get frustrated and give up. Too many folks in the USA will eat only what they see on TV, the crap pulled out of plastic bags and microwaved at Chili’s, Olive Garden and the other chain eateries. One of the most recent casualties spoke of a complaint from a diner about his wine glass not being filled to the top like at Olive Garden! There are just not enough folks around in the US with working taste buds — the masses have devolved to the point where salt-sugar-grease are the only flavors that register with most of ’em. Keep cooking, keep sharing the recipes but keep typing the smart-assed comments as long as someone will pay you — trying to compete with chain eateries in the US is an almost sure-fire way to financial ruin.
Larry, I hear you. A chef I know back in Weirdcliffe has lived a life full of pain. Samey same here in Bibleburg. One of our real innovators went blooey, saw his nifty eatery converted back into a fast-food restaurant (it had been a Jack In the Box before he remodeled it into a tony dinner spot, and now it has been revamped once more, as an Arby’s).
This place is a monument to fast food. Name the chain and we got it, in spades. Dozens of Mickey Ds, Burper Kings, Taco Hells, etc. The Olive Garden is considered fine dining here.
So, yeah, open a restaurant? Never happen. I’m not a good enough cook, and I’m sure as hell no businessman. I’ve been going backwards, financially speaking, since I quit newspapering in 1991. But slowly. Open a beanery and we’d be sleeping under a bridge inside a month.
I’m not so sure there are any political truths, maxims, or rules of thumb that are worth a hoot. Supposedly the extreme right wing voters can be counted to show up and pull a lever, but despite all of Palin’s encouragements in her home state, only 28% of eligible voters bothered to vote in the AK primaries.
All I know about the gourmet chef business is that, as soon as someone gets the tiniest taste of success, he ditches his whites for a job as a consultant. You either burn out and leave, or get successful enough to leave.