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Sunday, October 20, 2013
Tea Party Activist: It Was Worth 'Getting In The Ring'
Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express speaks at the National Press Club in 2011. Russo predicts the Tea Party will be re-energized for the 2014 midterm elections.
Alex Brandon/AP
Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express speaks at the National Press Club in 2011. Russo predicts the Tea Party will be re-energized for the 2014 midterm elections.
Alex Brandon/AP
It's been a tough week for the Tea Party and its supporters in Congress. The Affordable Care Act survived the Capitol Hill standoff largely untouched. President Obama and the Democrats stared them down and won. And fights with establishment Republicans revealed the depth of division within the GOP.
Public opinion polls show support for the Tea Party has fallen dramatically — to its lowest point ever. But Tea Party activists say that the movement isn't going away.
Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express, one of largest such groups in the nation, was philosophical about what many say was a losing battle to begin with.
"You fight every fight, you know, ideally to win," he says. "But sometimes, you know you have a long shot at it, but it's worth getting in the ring and giving it a shot, and that's what we did."
Russo also predicts that you'll see a re-energized and motivated Tea Party in the year leading up to 2014's midterm elections.
"I don't think you're ever going to repeat the huge wave of 2010, but I think it's going to be stronger than 2012," he says. "I think people are ginned up and saying, 'Look, we can't just keep spending money like drunken sailors.' "
Asked about falling public support for the Tea Party, Russo says polls go up and down.
But Tom Zawistowski, who heads the Portage County Tea Party group in Ohio, says such polls aren't to be believed because of the way the president, the Democrats and the media portray them.
Tom Zawistowski of the Portage County Tea Party in Ohio says his group is now focused on local elections next month.
Tony Dejak/AP
Tom Zawistowski of the Portage County Tea Party in Ohio says his group is now focused on local elections next month.
Tony Dejak/AP
"We don't have horns — you know, we're not from another planet," he says. "We're just like all the other people listening to your show. And we have our own life experiences and we see things in a certain way."
When asked what comes next for them, he points to elections coming up on Nov. 5. And he's talking 2013, not 2014.
"We're engaged with school boards, and we're out interviewing school board candidates, and we're talking to township trustees and city council members," he says. "Those are important people. They serve us as much as the guys in D.C., if not more so."
A major force behind the Tea Party has been the Washington, D.C.-based organization FreedomWorks. Matt Kibbe, the group's CEO, said on C-SPAN on Friday that it's the Republican Party — not the Tea Party — that needs to learn from this week's events in Washington.
"Everything's more democratized," he says. "And Republicans should come to terms with that. They still want to control things from the top down, and if they do that, there will absolutely be a split. But my prediction would be that we take over the Republican Party, and they go the way of the Whigs."
The Whig Party, of course, dissolved in the mid-1800s.
But there are also plenty of questions ahead for the Tea Party: Will it be able to recruit good candidates? Will it be able to raise money as it has? And how will the events of this week affect how general-election voters view the organization?
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Betty Buckley On Piano Jazz
Courtesy of the artist
Betty Buckley.
Courtesy of the artist
- "Stardust" (Carmichael, Parish)
- "Blame It On My Youth" (Heyman, Levant)
- "My Funny Valentine" (Hart, Rodgers)
- "Twilight World" (McPartland)
- "Fire and Rain" (James Taylor)
- "So Many Stars" (Bergman, Berman, Mendes)
- "Angel Eyes" (Matt Dennis)
- "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life" (Bergman, Bergman, LeGrand)
- "It Might As Well Be Spring" (Hammerstein, Rodgers)
On this episode of Piano Jazz, vocalist Betty Buckley and her musical director, Kenny Werner, join Marian McPartland in a session recorded in 2007.
Betty Lynn Buckley was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1947. Her singing career began at age 2 in church and dance lessons soon followed. She was raised on the music of Judy Garland and Della Reese, and became a musical theater devotee after seeing The Pajama Game. As a teenager, Buckley performed regularly — her first professional gig was a local production of Gypsy when she was 15. She continued to cut her musical teeth in summer theater groups and musical revues at the Six Flags Over Texas theme park.
In college, Buckley was runner-up in the Miss Texas competition, where she was spotted by a talent agent who convinced the 22-year-old to come to New York. Buckley landed her first gig almost immediately upon arriving. She played the role of Martha Jefferson in the musical 1776, which led her to other productions on and off Broadway.
Her most popular role came as Grizabella in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, in which she sang the enduring number "Memory." The performance earned her a Tony in 1982. Buckley went on to perform in Sunset Boulevard, Carrie: The Musical, and Triumph of Love to name a few.
Her success on the stage has led to appearances in several films, including Woody Allen's Another Woman, Roman Polanski's Frantic and Brian De Palma's 1976 Carrie.
Buckley has also starred on the small screen as Abby in the television series Eight Is Enough. Buckley had a recurring role on HBO's gritty prison drama Oz and guest starred in episodes of Monk, Law & Order: SVU, Melrose Place and Pretty Little Liars.
She has recorded 15 solo albums and appears on several original cast recordings. Her forthcoming album Ghostlight, produced by T-Bone Burnett, will be released in 2014.
Originally recorded April 10, 2007.
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Saturday, October 19, 2013
After Budget Fight, No Sign Of Cease-Fire
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to reporters following a meeting with President Obama at the White House on Oct. 2.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to reporters following a meeting with President Obama at the White House on Oct. 2.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
As it dragged on in recent weeks, the debate about the budget, the debt ceiling and Obamacare felt like an epic battle.
But now that it's over, there's reason to think it was actually only another skirmish during the long period of partisan warfare Americans have become accustomed to.
The polls, the pundits and certainly Democrats all suggest that the GOP's Tea Party wing got its clock cleaned. After shutting down parts of the government for more than two weeks, Congress on Wednesday approved a spending bill that included essentially nothing from the Tea Party's wish list.
But conservatives sounded anything but resigned in defeat.
"While the political debate has ended for the moment, like any prizefight there are many rounds," Republican Rep. John Fleming of Louisiana wrote in USA Today. "We must continue to fight on."
Congress has set itself new deadlines for dealing with both the budget and the debt ceiling early in the coming year. And the new law calls for high-level budget negotiations to take place between the House and Senate in the coming weeks. But no one seems terribly optimistic that they'll come up with a package that will please all sides.
"I view this as another skirmish, and there will probably continue to be more," says Craig Robinson, editor of The Iowa Republican, a news and opinion site. "What it shows, especially [at the moment], is there's a wide split among the Republican Party."
A Fractured Party
One reason to think there willl be more rancor ahead: festering Republican divisions. Conservatives who wanted more out of the budget deal did nothing to conceal their unhappiness. A clear majority of the House GOP conference — 144, to be exact — voted Wednesday night against legislation that reopened the government and averted a debt default.
Many continued to sound warnings about the dangers of a national debt that will soon exceed $17 trillion, while putting the blame on President Obama for being intransigent.
"With this ... deal, Washington Establishment wins, rest of America loses," tweeted GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas.
Republicans have also turned their fire on one another, using terms such as "lunacy" and "no intelligence" in describing their colleagues.
Those were comments from California Rep. Devin Nunes of California and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, respectively, who were critical of their own party's confrontational strategy. Republicans who favored taking a harder line have loudly complained that they were undermined by such commentary coming from their own ranks.
"It'd be a good idea if they stopped referring to other Republicans as Hitler appeasers because they opposed the strategy they put forward, which failed," Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and a longtime GOP activist, told National Review.
How To Reach Agreement
In theory, Republicans should be able to put this ill will behind them. Debate will turn from the shutdown strategy to questions of tax and spending levels — ground on which nearly all Republicans will be able to find agreement.
But the GOP argument has never been about numbers so much as about tactics. Republicans agree that the Affordable Care Act is a bad law and that the federal government should spend less money.
The question has been how far to push those beliefs when faced with a Democratic Senate and president. "Compromise is not treason," GOP Rep. Richard Hanna of New York, who supported the latest budget deal, said in a statement.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is already saying that another government shutdown is off the table. Meanwhile, more pragmatic Republicans still want their Tea Party colleagues to wake up and count the votes and realize they picked a battle they couldn't win.
As yet there's no sign, despite the plunge the party has taken in the polls, that harder-line conservatives are feeling very much tempered.
"Their emotional and electoral sustenance is coming from people who agree with them," says Andrew Rudalevige, a government professor at Bowdoin College in Maine.
"They can read the [national] polls, sure, but those are not their people," he says, referring to their generally conservative districts. "I don't think there's any reason to think the Tea Party folks are ever going to change."
Calling And Climbing Bluffs
Even assuming Boehner wants to take his party in some different direction, he has less leverage than leaders of the past. He doesn't have as many earmarks to give, and the threat of booting recalcitrant members off committees only seems to rile up their like-minded peers.
"The question is, can you have any negotiation here if you have, even on the debt thing, 144 members voting no, a clear majority of your caucus?" says Burdett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas.
For their part, Democrats appear emboldened by having taken a "no ransom" line against the GOP and its demands. President Obama has said repeatedly he's "happy" to negotiate anything with Republicans, but it's not at all clear that Democrats will want to give Republicans much more of what they want.
"Every time we contrast our priorities with Republican priorities, voters side with our priorities," Rep. Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told NPR's Renee Montagne Thursday.
Democrats will be further emboldened by the fact that they were ultimately able to block the GOP, says Lewis Gould, author of Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans.
The Tea Party Republicans may have an even greater desire to come away with something to show from the next confrontation, he says, but they've already overplayed their hand.
"They've sort of had their bluffs called," he says. "The next time would have to be, 'We are going over the edge no matter what — no business community and nothing else is going to stop us from going over.' "
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Cruz: Senate won't make same mistake in next fight
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said Saturday that the GOP lost the government shutdown budget battle because some congressional Republicans turned on others, but that he doesn't think they will make the same mistake during the next political impasse.
"I am hopeful that in the future the Senate will listen," Cruz, the tea party favorite and freshman senator from Texas, told a convention in Austin of the Texas Medical Association.
Cruz staged a more than 21-hour quasi-filibuster in the Senate late last month, helping spark a budget fight in the Republican-led House that partially shuttered the government in an attempt to sever funding for the nation's new health care law.
Then, with the country facing a debt default, leaders in the Democratic-led Senate brokered a deal to end the standoff — which Cruz dismissed as "selling the American people down the river."
"You don't win a fight when your own team is firing cannons at the people who are standing up and leading, which are the House Republicans," he said.
The deal sets up the potential for another budget showdown in January. Senate GOP leaders, however, have suggested that there won't be a repeat of the shutdown or a potential default crisis like in recent weeks.
But addressing reporters after his speech, Cruz would not say that another fight won't be coming.
"There will be plenty of time to consider the particular practical or strategic decisions," he said.
Asked if he was worried about retaliation from more-senior Republican leaders in the Senate, Cruz said, "I try very hard not to worry about the politics and the internal back-and-forth in Washington."
Many attendees gave Cruz a standing ovation at the end of his speech.
Some political observers now see Cruz as Texas' most popular Republican. But his approval ratings across the country may be slipping.
National polls have shown that while Americans in general don't love the health care law, they oppose defunding it — especially if it means shutting down the government. And many of Cruz's Senate colleagues have bemoaned the shutdown for tarnishing the GOP's image.
Cruz also took questions from the audience and was asked if ideology driving Washington could outweigh political pragmatism.
"The arguments I have laid out today have not been ideological," Cruz said. "These were the essence of practical."
- Politics & Government
- Government
- Ted Cruz
- government shutdown
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'Pulp Fiction' Castmembers Reunite for Quentin Tarantino's Prix Lumiere Award
LYON, France – Quentin Tarantino brought out the big guns – including Harvey Weinstein, Uma Thurman and Harvey Keitel – when he received the Prix Lumiere at the film festival here Friday night.
The Prix Lumiere, which has been awarded to Clint Eastwood, Milos Forman, Gerard Depardieu, and Ken Loach in the five years since its inception, was envisioned by Cannes and Lumiere film festivals head Thierry Fremaux to become the Nobel prize of filmmakers to honor their bodies of work.
At an exceptionally emotional tribute and award ceremony, which preceded a brief backstage government ceremony in which he was awarded the Commander of Arts and Letters by French culture minister Aurelie Filippetti, the director was honored by his longtime friends and creative collaborators.
PHOTOS: Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' NYC Premiere
Tim Roth got the evening off to a bawdy start with a few well-placed swears, but the mood soon turned more sweet and serious as producers Lawrence Bender and Weinstein took the stage. The famously demanding Weinstein credited Tarantino for both of his businesses success.
"My first company, Miramax, was the house that Quentin built, and my second company, The Weinstein Company, is the house that Quentin saved," he said, showing an uncharacteristic soft spot when adding that Tarantino is "tough minded and tough, but really one of the most compassionate human beings I know."
Keitel, who took the stage next, was moved by Weinstein's words and grew teary as he began to talk about the director. "Damn, I'm not going to make it through this," he said when composing himself, before comparing his relationship with Tarantino to a great romance. "I always felt we were meant for each other and nothing could keep us apart. Maybe if he had been a woman we could have gotten married, had kids," he joked. "Working with Quentin is like reading a great novel or hearing a great symphony or piece of music -- it changes you. You don't know how, but it has."
With a barrage of superlatives that required Fremaux to translate from her "terribly" hand-written speech on the back of the day's program, Thurman declared: "For all your wildness, your work always has aspirations for justice, freedom from oppression, courage, and most of all love and passion."
PHOTOS: 25 of Fall's Most Anticipated Movies
"You have been an explosion of dynamite in the art of cinema itself," she said, comparing him to Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the namesake of the Nobel Prize. "You invented your own dynamite, your 'cinemite.' May your legacy be your fearlessness and the flicker of light projected through the darkness of a movie house forever be your fuse."
"I don't have words for how I feel -- probably one of the first times that has happened to me," said Tarantino. He credited the actors onstage for bringing his characters to life, and Bender and Weinstein for backing him and his dreams throughout his career.
"I have always thought of myself as a lone wolf, but always because I never really had a family, but these people are my family. Their affection and respect is all I ever want," he said, just before Thurman presented him with the award.
He thanked the roaring crowd, the city of Lyon - where film was invented by the Lumiere brothers in 1895 - and France as well. "Cinema is my religion and France is my Vatican," he said, causing much confusion in the crowd. "I probably just insulted you a little bit with that but it was the best example I could come up with."
"I don't know where I would be if the Lumiere brothers' mother and father had never met," he said. "Probably somewhere selling 'Royale with Cheese.' "
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Bomb attack near Afghan capital kills influential governor
By Ahmad Sultan
PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A bomb attack on a mosque in Afghanistan killed the governor of a province south of Kabul, a friend of the country's president, on Tuesday as he was making an address on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, officials said.
Arsala Jamal was governor of Logar province, a strategically important province on the southern approaches to Kabul and home to one of Afghanistan's richest mines.
He had previously been governor of violence-plagued Khost province on the Pakistani border and the killing of such a senior official will raise new fears for Afghanistan's security as foreign troops prepare to leave by the end of next year.
"When the governor was giving a speech it detonated. He is martyred," said Jamal's spokesman, Din Mohammad Darwish. He said one other person had been killed.
No one claimed responsibility.
Jamal was a close friend of President Hamid Karzai and served as his campaign manager during his successful bid for re-election in 2009.
He had already survived at least one attempt on his life, when a suicide bomber in a car attacked him, killing his guards and a local official in 2007.
Darwish said the bomb had been planted inside the mosque and detonated remotely. Police initially said a suicide bomber had been responsible.
A group supporting Afghanistan's administrative development said it suspected Jamal's work to get the Aynak copper mine in Logar province up and running was the reason he was killed.
"Jamal... had done considerable work for the excavation of copper at the Aynak mine," the Independent Directorate of Local Governance agency said in a statement.
"These activities were not acceptable to the enemies of the country and that is why they martyred him on the first day of Eid al-Adha," it said. It did not elaborate on who it thought was behind the attack.
Jamal spent part of his life in Canada, where his wife and two children continue to live.
Taliban insurgents fighting to expel foreign forces have stepped up attacks on government targets ahead of the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
The Taliban have rejected government calls for peace talks and have denounced a presidential election due in April as illegitimate.
A Chinese consortium is running the Aynak mine under a $3 billion deal agreed in 2007.
It is Afghanistan's largest foreign investment project but Taliban attacks on the site have prevented work from getting going.
The Chinese investors in August demanded a review of the deal, putting the project at risk. Production was originally scheduled to start this year, but now is seen as unlikely before 2019.
The Taliban's elusive leader, in a message to mark the Eid holiday, urged his fighters to step up their fight against the government.
"My advice to all mujahideen is to stand up to the enemy firmer than before," Mullah Omar said in the message, distributed via email, referring to Muslim holy fighters.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Ron Popeski and Robert Birsel)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-attack-south-afghan-capital-kills-governor-064608942.html
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Tickled Pink: Fresh, Young Ginger is a Sweet Break from Gnarled Roots
Fresh ginger is juicier, sweeter and pinker than the gnarled, older roots more commonly available.
Laura McCandlish for NPR
That pink pile of pickled ginger that comes with your sushi is probably from China or Japan. And unless the slices are beige, chances are this garnish, next to the green wasabi, contains food coloring. So it's refreshing when you first see that cream-colored fresh "baby" ginger is naturally, yet shockingly, pink at its tips from where green stems shoot forth. The nude pieces naturally blush a faint rose (a pink that can be further amped up with raw beet) when brined in rice vinegar, as the Japanese do with this tender young ginger to make their now-ubiquitous sushi condiment, gari.
What's less omnipresent is ginger that was actually grown in the U.S. That, however, is changing. Asian countries, such as India, China and Nepal, produce much of the world's ginger. Steamy Hawaii is the only American state with real commercial cultivation of this coveted culinary and medicinal crop, though a bacterial soil disease and extreme wet weather has caused a significant decline in the harvest there.
So small, mostly organic, farms around the country are stepping up to fill the void by offering this delicacy — the juicy, mild, swollen ginger instead of those old fibrous roots — that's early-harvested come fall, in temperate states, just before the real chill sets in. Still, the last place I expected to find this tropical rhizome was in Maine. Yet several intrepid farmers are tending this young ginger in heated greenhouses and plastic high tunnels, with pretty decent results.
Perhaps no New England farmer has more ginger cred than native Mainer Ted Sparrow, who is 81 but too active to retire. Sparrow first learned about ginger cultivation working as a sugarcane industry consultant in Hawaii more than 50 years ago. Last year, his Sparrow Farm in Pittston, Maine, started selling fresh ginger (and its more floral cousin, turmeric), a perfect complement for the fresh organic cranberries the farm is known for. His wife and business partner Karen plans to incorporate their ginger into the not-too-sweet jars of cranberry sauce she cans for market.
Continental U.S. farmers harvest young ginger from mid-September into early November, just as those cranberries come on. So act fast. Otherwise, try Asian markets (mostly in April and May) for these new hands of "spring ginger," actually a fall crop as it is here, just over-nighted from sub-equatorial regions. Still, you'll find much fresher, gossamer-skinned specimens at the farmers' market now. North Carolina-based East Branch Ginger distributes its organic ginger seed (pieces of the rhizome wintered over in a heated greenhouse until mature) to about 40 states and into Canada, scrambling to keep up with the demand.
Laura McCandlish is a Corvallis, Ore.-based radio producer and food writer. She reports for NPR member station KLCC in Eugene and hosts a monthly food show on Portland radio station KBOO. She contributes to Edible Portland and The Oregonian's FOODday section. She blogs at baltimoregon.com.
"Baby ginger can't be grown that far afield and shipped many miles without it damaging or growing mold," says East Branch's Susan Anderson, who first tested ginger for Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine. "That's why you don't see baby ginger in the supermarket. It really has to be grown in a local radius to be marketed very soon after harvest."
This perishable ginger emerges about 6 months after planting, while grocery store ginger hardens in the ground for almost a year. Digging up a shock of rhizome growth branching off of an old "mother" root, Sparrow says growing ginger is similar to growing potatoes. They both grow from seed pieces of the mature crop, which
farmers pre-sprout before planting, then hill up with soil whenever fresh growth appears. Like new potatoes, young ginger has that almost translucent skin that rubs right off. It's less fiery and fibrous than gnarled roots—and easier to cook with—since no peeling is required. It's mild enough to even eat raw. The whole root freezes well, for grating into soups and stews throughout the winter.
The delicate flavor and texture is best for pickles, syrups (think cocktails) and quick stir-fries. Or preserved foods such as fermented gingered carrots and Korean kimchee. Gallit Sammon Cavendish, a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef who married an organic farmer in Maine, says she'd never seen young ginger before moving to the state, despite having cooked at the Waldorf Astoria and Café Daniel. She and her husband Chris just harvested their first ginger crop, which Gallit Cavendish is candying in a certified kitchen. Once the semi-perishable product passes inspection, the couple plans to sell their crystallized ginger at area markets.
Local, young ginger now graces Maine's finest restaurant menus and is even brewed into a line of kombucha. A mead — wine made with ginger's natural partner, honey — is in the works and will be released this winter by Maine Mead Works. The only barrier to culinary exploration is the $15 per pound cost of this labor-and-input-intensive, still rare but increasingly popular niche crop.
Japanese Pickled Ginger (gari)
The jar of organic, natural-colored ginger I bought is too cloying, tastes overcooked and is a product of China "where ginger began," the label says. It's more satisfying—and easy—to make your own. This recipe is adapted from pickled ginger recipes Linda Ziedrich developed for both her comprehensive The Joy of Pickling (Harvard Common Press, 2009) and a Fine Cooking article. Chris Churilla, an Oregon bartender, goes light on the salt when he pickles fresh ginger with apple cider vinegar and sugar. Jennifer Burns Levin, who blogs at Culinaria Eugenius, recommends adding a slice of raw beet to the brine to naturally color your pickles bright pink. My dad recently pan-seared some Maine-caught, sushi-grade yellowtail tuna steaks, the perfect vehicle for this ginger.
Japanese Pickled Giner (gari)
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Japanese Pickled Giner (gari)
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Makes about 1 cup
4 ounces fresh ginger (washed thoroughly but no need to peel if young and thin-skinned), sliced paper-thin with a mandoline or vegetable peeler
2 cups water
Several thin slices of raw beet (optional)
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus an extra sprinkle
1/2 cup rice vinegar (cider, white wine vinegar may be used)
2 tablespoons sugar (or more to taste)
Put the ginger slices into a bowl, barely cover them with cold water and let stand 30 minutes.
In a saucepan, bring the 2 cups water to a boil while you drain the ginger. Add the ginger and cook, stirring to soften, about 30 seconds. Drain the slices in a colander, tossing to make sure they don't retain water. (This blanching step can be skipped if young ginger is especially fresh and not fibrous).
Sprinkle the ginger (and the raw beet slices, if using) lightly with salt and put in a lidded jar, preferably first sterilized with boiling water. Add the vinegar to a non-reactive saucepan, and bring it to a boil, stirring in the sugar and salt until dissolved. Use a funnel to pour the hot liquid over the ginger, mixing well (it should completely cover the slices).
Tightly cover the jar, allow it to cool to room temperature and refrigerate. The pickled ginger, which is ready to eat after several hours, keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
Fresh-Cut Corn with Young Ginger and Plums
Chef Aaron Park of Henry and Marty restaurant in Brunswick, Maine, created this appetizer (or side dish) out of early fall produce he spotted at the nearby Bath Farmers' Market. He grabbed sweet organic corn, young ginger and "red hot" plums. He created an end-of-season succotash with Asian flavors. The fish sauce and ume plum vinegar were my additions, but I think Park, whose food often reflects his Korean-American heritage, would approve. Red bell pepper or fresh tomato could be substituted for the fresh plums.
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Serves 2 as an appetizer or side dish
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (Park used melted clarified butter)
2 tablespoons young baby ginger (washed well but no need to peel), minced
2 ears fresh corn, shucked and cut off cob (almost 2 cups raw kernels, can use frozen)
¾ cup fresh red plums, diced
1 tablespoon sake or Chinese Shaoxing rice wine
Asian fish sauce, to taste
Ume plum vinegar, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 to 3 cups baby kale or arugula (for garnish, optional)
Melt the butter in a sauté pan, cast iron skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the minced ginger and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add the corn and plums (if using bell pepper add before the corn) and stir-fry another minute. Deglaze the pan with sake and stir in a couple dashes of fish sauce and/or ume plum vinegar, to increase the dish's umami factor. Add salt (if needed) and freshly ground pepper to taste. Plate on a bed of baby kale before serving.
Crystallized Ginger (and Ginger Syrup)
I made jewel-like candied cranberries last year but had never attempted crystallized ginger. It's an easy treat that will wow guests and yield the added gift of ginger syrup for homemade soda and adult cocktails. At Ted Sparrow's Maine farm in October, ginger is dug up from humid greenhouses just as the cranberries are first being raked. That's how I decided to candy these two together. It gave the resulting syrup a nice blush, too. I gave some to a pregnant friend suffering from morning sickness, and have just been nibbling on them for dessert or as an afternoon pick-me-up. There's hardly a baked good that doesn't benefit from the addition of crystallized ginger. Candied Ginger-Cardamom Bars are a well-received favorite.
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Makes about 1 pint, plus 1 cup reserved ginger syrup
1 pound young ginger (I subbed in almost 2 cups fresh cranberries and 1 knob fresh turmeric for some of the ginger)
Water
1 cup sugar, plus extra sugar for coating
1 cup honey (or just use 2 cups sugar total, but I wanted honey-ginger syrup)
Salt, a pinch
6 pods green cardamom (also in ginger family), optional
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional; only add if you want to preserve the ginger in syrup and keep it from crystallizing)
Scrub any dirt off the young ginger. Using a mandoline, vegetable peeler or very sharp knife, cut the ginger into 1/8-inch coins. Put the ginger in saucepan, cover with the water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer at least 15 minutes, until tender. Remove the ginger with a mesh strainer or slotted spoon, reserving the water.
Add the sugar, honey and cream of tartar (if using) and pinch of salt to the reserved water, stirring over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add ginger slices and cook over medium-high heat until the syrup's temperature approaches (but stays just under) 225 degrees F (about the consistency of thin honey). Add the cranberries (if using) and remove from the heat and let stand for at least an hour and up to overnight.
Transfer the ginger (and cranberries) with a slotted spoon to a wire rack or large mesh strainer set over a tray, letting them dry in a warm place until no longer that moist. Reserve the ginger syrup for use in drinks. Toss the dried fruit in granulated sugar, shaking off the excess sugar (which is now ginger-flavored and also worth reserving). Crystallized ginger can be stored in an air-tight container for several months, but you'll probably gobble it up and chop it up to mix into baked goods long before then. If pieces are still too moist, they can be further dried in a 170-degree oven before storing.
Harvest El Diablo
Oregon mixologist Chris Churilla combines fresh ginger juice with bourbon, dried fig purée, sweet vermouth and bitters and in another cocktail with gin, lychee, lemon and coconut foam. I decided to go a simpler route, opting for a vintage Trader Vic's margarita called an El Diablo. I adapted this recipe from a new classic cocktail menu bartender Brandon Wise devised for Paley's Place in Portland, Ore. Next time, I'll make my own ginger beer or even a wild-fermented ginger "bug." Rick and Deann Groen Bayless's Frontera: Margaritas, Guacamoles, and Snacks (W.W. Norton & Co., 2012) encouraged me to replace the cassis with other red fruity liquors and homemade ginger beer (just ginger syrup and seltzer).
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Laura McCandlish for NPR
Makes 1 drink
1 1/2 ounces blanco (silver) tequila
3/4 ounces fresh lime juice (reserving lime twist or wheel for garnish)
1 teaspoon freshly grated young ginger (or to taste, optional)
1/2-ounce creme de cassis (or substitute Campari)
1 ounce ginger syrup (reserved from crystallized ginger) plus 1 ounce sparkling water (or substitute 2 ounces ginger beer)
Dash of Angostura bitters (omit if using already bitter Campari)
Ice cubes, to taste
Add all ingredients except sparking water or ginger beer and ice to mixing tin. Shake and double strain into Collins glass, filled with ice, to taste. Top with ginger beer or seltzer. Garnish with a lime wheel or twist and a dash of Angostura bitters (optional).
Ginger Switchel
Vinegary drinks—kombucha, shrubs—are all the rage now. I first learned about switchel, the old-timey thirst-quencher of which Laura Ingalls Wilder writes, from a recipe printed in the Thymes, the monthly newspaper published by the food co-op I belonged to in Corvallis, Ore. Then I first tasted this bracing "American heritage beverage," sweetened only with Vermont maple syrup, at a Food Book Fair reception. The brew mixes well with whiskey and rum, or into a Switchel Stout & Stormy. It soothes an upset stomach or sore throat, and is long known to farmers as haymaker's punch. This recipe is adapted from the Sagadahoc MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) chapter, which sells the nostalgic drink at the annual Common Ground Country Fair in September. Domenica Marchetti's post on American Food Roots also inspired me.
Makes about 1 average pitcher's worth
1 to 1 ½ quarts cold water
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses (or if too strong for your taste, use more mild honey)
2 tablespoons ginger-honey syrup (reserved from crystallized ginger)
1 tablespoon grated young ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1 lemon, freshly juiced, plus extra slices reserved for garnish
Pour all the ingredients into a pitcher or jug and stir or shake well until blended. Adjust water, acids, ginger or sweeteners, to taste. Serve over ice, with lemon slices or crystallized ginger as an optional garnish. Splash on a little sparkling water, if desired.
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Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander lands with mostly minor tweaks
Just like clockwork, here comes the latest release of Ubuntu: version 13.10 Saucy Salamander. Like April's Raring Ringtail, this update is mostly about fine tuning the things that already make Ubuntu the Linux distro of choice for many out there. Performance has been improved, especially in Unity ...Related Topics: constitution day blobfish Blurred Lines Lyrics whitney houston Conjuring
Adele's Driving Instructor Didn't Know She Was Adele!
Hold up and put that car in reverse!
Adele just passed her driver's test but despite her unbelievable success and global fame, her driving instructor didn't recognize her!
Believe it! While Adele gave celeb instructor Noel Gaughan a shout out on her personal website, he admitted he pays nearly zero attention to the media.
"I didn't know who Adele was so she started singing in her lessons. The problem was I didn't know any of her songs. She would sing some beautiful songs and say, 'You must know this one', but I don't really know many celebrities."
Except Adele isn't just a celebrity, she's a legend with a voice so powerful we wouldn't be surprised if it ended world hunger!
Oh well! Guess not every single person on the planet can be a fan??! HA!
At least she has her Grammys and her license to comfort her. LOLz!
Tags: adele, drivers license, funny, grammys, noel gaughan, tacky and true, wacky
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Friday, October 18, 2013
Christie: NJ will comply with gay marriage order
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he disagrees with it, but he will comply with a state Supreme Court ruling that makes same-sex marriage legal in the state starting Monday.
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak says in a statement that the governor "firmly believes that this determination should be made by all the people of the state of New Jersey."
But he says the state Health Department will help towns carry out Friday's state Supreme Court ruling.
The court denied the Christie administration's request to delay a lower-court order that the state recognize same-sex marriage beginning Monday.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Same-sex marriages will begin within days in New Jersey after the state's highest court ruled unanimously Friday to uphold a lower-court order that gay weddings must start Monday and to deny a delay that was sought by Gov. Chris Christie's administration.
"The state has advanced a number of arguments, but none of them overcome this reality: Same-sex couples who cannot marry are not treated equally under the law today," the court said in an opinion by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. "The harm to them is real, not abstract or speculative."
A judge on the lower court had ruled last month that New Jersey must recognize same-sex marriage and set Monday as the date to allow gay weddings. Christie, a Republican who is considered a possible 2016 presidential candidate, appealed the decision and asked for the start date to be put on hold while the state appeals.
The state's top court agreed last week to take up the appeal of the lower-court ruling by Judge Mary Jacobson. Oral arguments are expected Jan. 6 or 7.
In Friday's opinion, Rabner wrote that the state has not shown that it is likely to prevail in the case, though it did present some reasons not to marriage to move forward now.
"But when a party presents a clear case of unequal treatment, and asks the court to vindicate constitutionally protected rights, a court may not sidestep its obligation to rule for an indefinite amount of time," he wrote. "Under these circumstances, courts do not have the option to defer."
Rabner also rejected the state's argument that it was in the public interest not to allow marriages until the court has had more time to rule fully on the issue.
"What is the public's interest in a case like this?" he wrote. "Like Judge Jacobson, we can find no public interest in depriving a group of New Jersey residents of their constitutional right to equal protection while the appeals process unfolds."
On Thursday, some communities started accepting applications for marriage licenses from same-sex couples so that they would pass the 72-hour waiting period by 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Several communities, including Asbury Park and Lambertville, are holding ceremonies for multiple couples then.
Meanwhile, the gay rights group Garden State Equality said it was lining up judges who could waive the 72-hour waiting period. Also, the state's marriage law says there is no waiting period for couples already married to reaffirm their vows. Some couples wed in New York or other places that already recognize gay marriages are expected to do that.
Despite the uncertainty before Friday's ruling, couples — some of whom have been together for decades — have been planning to have ceremonies as soon as they would be recognized by the state government. Lambertville Mayor David DelVecchio said he's planning to lead one of the state's first legally recognized same-sex weddings, between Beth Asaro and Joanne Schailey. DelVecchio also performed the ceremony in 2007 when the couple became among New Jersey's first to be granted a civil union.
"The applications should be flowing and the licenses should be granted and people should be allowed to marry freely," said Hayley Gorenberg, a Lambda Legal lawyer who is working on the case. "The court has unanimously said my clients and the people of New Jersey don't need to wait."
The court did not address the question of what would happen to the status of same-sex marriages entered into next week if it later decides that the state does not have to grant the marriages.
Whether gay couples should have the right to marry in New Jersey has been the subject of a battle in the state's courts and Legislature for a decade. There has been a flurry of movements in both venues since June, when the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated key parts of a federal law that prevented the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions.
Since then, gay rights advocates have asked New Jersey judges to force the state to recognize same-sex marriage, arguing that the state's current policy of granting gay couples civil unions but not marriage licenses amounts to denying them federal protections such as Social Security survivor benefits and the right to file tax returns jointly.
Since July, gay rights groups have also engaged in an intense campaign aimed at persuading lawmakers to override Christie's 2012 veto of a bill that would have allowed gay marriage. To get an override, the Legislature must act by Jan. 14. The bill spells out details that likely would not be covered in a court ruling. For instance, civil unions would automatically be converted to marriages unless couples opted out and dissolved their civil unions, and there would be a religious exception that would allow not only clergy but also others such as caterers or florists not to be involved with gay weddings.
Thirteen other states, including most in the Northeast, recognize gay marriage.
Christie says he favors civil unions and says that allowing same-sex marriage is something that should be done only by a public vote, not the state's judges or lawmakers.
He didn't immediately comment on the ruling.
Sheila Oliver, speaker of the state Assembly, issued a statement blaming Christie for not having gay marriage sooner in New Jersey.
"It's a shame it took this long to get to this point and that it took a court fight for same-sex couples to gain equal rights," she said. "New Jersey could have had marriage equality already if it wasn't for Gov. Christie, who has done everything he could to prevent this from happening, including wasting money and time continuing this court battle."
___
Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill
___
Associated Press writer Samantha Henry in Newark contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/christie-nj-comply-gay-marriage-order-200118667.html
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Founder Stories: For Ping Identity's Andre Durand, Patience Is A Virtue
The motivation behind this show, Founder Stories, is to get inside the head of a founder to see what makes them tick, to unearth the wisdom they’ve collected through the trials of building something from scratch. My most recent guest, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Ping Identity, Andre Durand, is a serial entrepreneur who has the ability to step back from the day-to-day grind and reflect on what he learns about business and himself.
As someone who is — at times — impatient (that’s me), this conversation with Durand impressed upon me in powerful ways. For instance, he discusses how he viewed time as a founder at age 35, recalling the feeling of constantly being in a rush; yet 10 years later, now, he strives for patience in business. Surely, the success of Ping has afforded him this luxury, but there are lessons for young- and first-time entrepreneurs here, as well.
Durand is a repeat founder and possesses a great amount of wisdom that could help out first-time founders. He doesn’t blog or tweet much, or seek out too much attention, but his patience in building a company over 12 years provides a different kind of story for all of us to reflect on.
Editor’s Note: Michael Abbott is a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, previously Twitter’s VP of Engineering, and a founder himself. Mike also writes a blog called uncapitalized. You can follow him on Twitter @mabb0tt.
I consider myself a passionate technology entrepreneur and a student of life. I believe in people, ideas and the power of heart to overcome any obstacle. I am a patient creator of dreams, and strive to be an enabler of extraordinary. I have committed myself to growth and the growth of those around me, to adventure and the pursuit of excellence, balance and health.
→ Learn more
Ping Identity believes secure professional and personal identities underlie human progress in a connected world. Our identity and access management platform gives enterprise customers and employees one-click access to any application from any device. Over 900 companies, including 45 of the Fortune 100, rely on our award-winning products to make the digital world a better experience for hundreds of millions of people. Visit pingidentity.com for more information.
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Ford's Theatre in DC to reopen with private funds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ford's Theatre will reopen its doors and resume performances Wednesday, using private funding, even though the government shutdown has continued into a third week.
Theater officials announced Tuesday that the national historic site and performance space will reopen Wednesday. Theater trustee Ronald O. Perelman, the chairman and CEO of MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings Inc., donated $25,000 in emergency funding to pay for the theater's operations for the next eight days.
Ford's Theatre, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, is a National Park Service site. A private group runs the theater's programming.
On Wednesday, the theater will resume performances of "The Laramie Project," which is part of the theater's Lincoln Legacy Project focusing on diversity and equality. The production marks 15 years since Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was abducted and killed in Laramie, Wyo. Remaining tickets are $25 each.
The Ford's Theatre Society has been losing about $100,000 in revenue per week since the theater went dark at the start of the highly anticipated "Laramie Project" production due to the government shutdown, said spokeswoman Lauren Beyea. The show will run through Oct. 27, but will not be extended because the actors have other commitments.
An agreement was made to reopen Ford's Theatre after several states agreed to provide funding to reopen national parks in other areas. The National Park Service agreed to a similar arrangement for the theater.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fords-theatre-dc-reopen-private-funds-210722833.html
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Facebook for iOS updated, finally lets you edit comments, add photos to replies, and more!
Facebook for iOS has just been updated to version 6.6 which finally lets you edit comments you've previously left on someone's status, add a photo to a reply, and view the edit history in just a tap.
The web browser version of Facebook has let you edit comments for quite some time now. The Android app recently got the feature so it's nice to see the update was finally pushed out for iOS as well. Not only can you edit a comment, you can view the edit history in a single tap as well.
Other features in the update include the ability to add a photo to a comment and an option to add expressions to someone else's timeline. Aside from that, the update says it includes bug fixes as well.
If you happen to find any other new features, let us know in the comments!
- Free - Download Now
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Thursday, October 17, 2013
With U.S. government reopened, conservative groups dig in
By Gabriel Debenedetti
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The conservative wing of the Republican Party spent no time licking its wounds after failing to roll back Obamacare as part of the last-minute fiscal deal, and pledged on Thursday to redouble its fight.
"Giving up on the Obamacare fight is giving up on the American people. We're not going to give up," declared an email signed by Heritage Action executive Michael Needham.
Heritage Action was among a handful of groups leading the conservative Tea Party movement's campaign to defund Obama's signature healthcare law - a push that shut down the federal government for 16 days, nearly resulting in an economically disastrous default on U.S. debt.
In the end, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner blinked, and allowed a vote on a Senate plan that included a short-term increase in the debt ceiling and governing funding through January 15. The measure got 82 Republican votes - enough to secure its passage.
The Club for Growth, another staunchly conservative group, said it will direct it efforts through its political action committee.
On Thursday it endorsed Mississippi Republican State Senator Chris McDaniel in his race against Senator Thad Cochran, who voted for the fiscal deal and is up for re-election next year.
It is the third primary challenge to sitting lawmakers that the group has endorsed, and the second against a Republican.
"We'll have more," Club for Growth President Chris Chocola told Reuters in an interview. "The last couple weeks may have defined our opportunities a little bit better."
The government's partial shutdown ended shortly after midnight on Thursday, capping a standoff that left hundreds of thousands of federal employees without work.
The final agreement, crafted by Senate leaders Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Mitch McConnell, set up a budget fight that will likely stretch into early 2014.
The deal included no measures to roll back Obamacare, and Republicans widely viewed that as a defeat. But as the party tries to regroup, some leaders criticized the groups leading the effort to defund the president's program.
'RADICALNESS'
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch told MSNBC on Thursday that the Heritage Foundation - where Heritage Action is based - was "losing (its) reputation because of some of this radicalness."
Grover Norquist, the anti-tax advocate and president of Americans for Tax Reform, said that proponents of defunding Obamacare "hurt the conservative movement, they hurt people's healthcare, they hurt the country's economic situation, and they hurt the Republican Party."
Norquist, who had urged a one-year delay in Obamacare as recently as August, said the defunding movement had gone too far.
But Chocola kept up his criticism of Obamacare and the Republican leadership for ultimately agreeing to a deal.
"I don't know if it was a deal, it was an outcome. And it was a bad outcome," the former Republican representative from Indiana said.
Obamacare, he said, is "nothing more than a new entitlement. ... It's unaffordable, bad healthcare - which is a bad combination."
Chocola's Club for Growth has been the largest donor to Republican Senator Ted Cruz, whose 21-hour floor speech helped set the stage for the partial shutdown.
Heritage Action spokesman Dan Holler offered a similar assessment, saying his group will consider running advertisements if it sees opportunities to attack Obamacare.
He said the group intends to press lawmakers to explain their votes in favor of funding the law.
"If you're a Mark Pryor in Arkansas or a Kay Hagan in North Carolina, you had your chance" to oppose the deal, he said, referring to two Democratic senators up for re-election next year in conservative states.
"It's a liability for them, and it's something they're going to need to explain," Holler said.
Heritage Action is the political wing of the Heritage Foundation, the Washington-based conservative think tank run by former Tea Party Republican Senator Jim DeMint.
On Tuesday it helped scuttle a planned House vote by threatening to highlight lawmakers' votes on the group's closely watched scorecard. All but two of the 25 members with a score of least 90 percent on its card voted against the final deal.
Chocola said he was not satisfied with the vote, or even the options that were presented.
"Our position was, 'we're going to fight for the best thing offered.' And the only thing offered was Ted Cruz's position (to defund Obamacare)," he said.
The groups have not unveiled specific plans for the next budget fight.
Holler of Heritage Action said it was "too early to say exactly where the legislative leverage may exist in the coming months or what approach(es) would maximize that leverage."
(Reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Xavier Briand)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-government-reopened-conservative-groups-dig-230305985--business.html
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Growing Up Geek: Julie Uhrman
Welcome to Growing Up Geek, a feature where we take a look back at our youth, and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have the founder of OUYA, Julie Uhrman!Growing up, I was your typical tomboy. My twin sister and I were incredibly competitive and wanted to do ...
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A stunning new species of dragon tree discovered in Thailand
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Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Paul Wilkin
p.wilkin@kew.org
Pensoft Publishers
The newly discovered dragon tree species Dracaena kaweesakii from Thailand is characterized by its extensive branching. The new species reaches an impressive 12 m in both height and crown diameter, and has beautiful soft sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream flowers with bright orange filaments, all highly distinctive features. The study describing this exciting new species was published in the open access journal Phytokeys by an international team of scientists.
Dracaena kaweesakii is a relative of the beautiful Canary Island dragon tree Dracaena draco. It is an ecologically important species found only on limestone hills and mountains that are often associated with Buddhist temples in Thailand.
Dracaena kaweesakii is extracted from the wild for use in horticulture in Thailand and is one of the more popular species due to its extensive branching. Dracaena species in general are thought by Thai people to bring luck to households that have them, hence their popularity. A number of populations of D. kaweesakii are protected by proximity to temples or having been transplanted into their gardens. There is no direct evidence yet of over-extraction but sustainability studies are needed at population level to insure the protection of this beautiful species.
"Dracaena kaweesakii is thought to be endangered through having a limited distribution, destruction of limestone for concrete and extraction of trees for gardens," comments Dr Wilkin about the conservation status of the new dragon tree species.
###
Original Source:
Wilkin P, Suksathan P, Keeratikiat K , van Welzen P, Wiland-Szymanska J (2013) A new species from Thailand and Burma, Dracaena kaweesakii Wilkin & Suksathan (Asparagaceae subfamily Nolinoideae). PhytoKeys 26: 101. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.26.5335
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Share]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
[
|
Share]
Contact: Paul Wilkin
p.wilkin@kew.org
Pensoft Publishers
The newly discovered dragon tree species Dracaena kaweesakii from Thailand is characterized by its extensive branching. The new species reaches an impressive 12 m in both height and crown diameter, and has beautiful soft sword-shaped leaves with white edges and cream flowers with bright orange filaments, all highly distinctive features. The study describing this exciting new species was published in the open access journal Phytokeys by an international team of scientists.
Dracaena kaweesakii is a relative of the beautiful Canary Island dragon tree Dracaena draco. It is an ecologically important species found only on limestone hills and mountains that are often associated with Buddhist temples in Thailand.
Dracaena kaweesakii is extracted from the wild for use in horticulture in Thailand and is one of the more popular species due to its extensive branching. Dracaena species in general are thought by Thai people to bring luck to households that have them, hence their popularity. A number of populations of D. kaweesakii are protected by proximity to temples or having been transplanted into their gardens. There is no direct evidence yet of over-extraction but sustainability studies are needed at population level to insure the protection of this beautiful species.
"Dracaena kaweesakii is thought to be endangered through having a limited distribution, destruction of limestone for concrete and extraction of trees for gardens," comments Dr Wilkin about the conservation status of the new dragon tree species.
###
Original Source:
Wilkin P, Suksathan P, Keeratikiat K , van Welzen P, Wiland-Szymanska J (2013) A new species from Thailand and Burma, Dracaena kaweesakii Wilkin & Suksathan (Asparagaceae subfamily Nolinoideae). PhytoKeys 26: 101. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.26.5335
[
|
Share]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/pp-asn101713.php
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