November 25, 2003

Still looking for the perfect turkey?

There may not be one, for reasons that chef Sara Dickerman of Seattle's Harvest Vine restaurant lays out in this piece in Slate. But there are some good birds out there, as her cooking and taste-testing experiment reveal. And the results may not be what you think. Well, enough holiday spirit. Let's get to the real meat.

Posted by tbrown at 12:58 PM

There he goes again

“Terrorists need places to hide, to plot, and to train, so we're holding their allies, the allies of terror to account. (Applause.) Working with a fine coalition, our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever. (Applause.)” -- President Bush, in a speech yesterday at Fort Carson, Colo. ”Stronger and more deadly, the terror of the Taliban is back.” -- The Observer [London], Nov. 16 “Mullah Omar, the ousted leader of the Taliban, has urged Afghans to unite against the American military in the country, claiming that promises of democracy and reconstruction have not been fulfilled, the Afghan Islamic Press reported. The call came as the death toll among the occupying forces continued to rise.” -- The Independent [London], Sunday “RAZMAK, November 20 (Online): The Afghan base at the Khost airport came under heavy attack last night by Taliban Mujahideen who, instead of firing rockets and slipping in the forests, waged a continuous operation using heavy weapons.” -- Paktribune Online [Pakistan], Nov. 20 “The killing of a French UN relief worker Sunday in the Afghan provincial city of Ghazni underscores both the deteriorating security situation in much of the country two years after the ouster of the Taliban regime, and the degree to which the United Nations and aid workers in general have become targets in the ongoing 'war on terrorism' between US-led western forces and Islamic radicals.” -- Paktribune Online [Pakistan], Nov. 20 “If reconstruction of the country is to continue, governments must consider more seriously helping Afghanistan achieve security and stability.” -- Filippo Grandi, chief of mission in Afghanistan at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “Two years after Kabul was freed from the Taliban there's a sense of deja vu about Afghanistan. The striking comparison is not primarily with Iraq … No, Kabul today bears a strong resemblance to the Kabul of 1981. This time the men setting the model are American rather than Russian, but the project for secular modernisation which Washington has embarked on is eerily reminiscent of what the Soviet Union tried to do.” -- The Guardian [London], Nov. 13 The author of the Guardian piece hopes the U.S. and its allies succeed where the Russians failed, but makes it clear that we’ve got our work cut out for us. The president, meanwhile, presents our troops, who live daily with the life-or-death consequences of his actions, a fairy tale that all is well in Afghanistan, when in fact it is on the verge of slipping back under the control of the Taliban in some areas and local warlords in others. Thankfully, not all the speech was this disingenuous. Despite the administration’s lies about the necessity for the war and its blundering in the aftermath, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, both those benighted countries are better off now than they used to be for the reasons Bush delineated here: “Our mission in Iraq and Afghanistan is clear to our service members, and it's clear to our enemies. America's military is fighting to secure the freedom of more than 50 million people who recently lived under two of the cruelest dictatorships on earth. America's military is fighting to help democracy and peace and justice rise in a troubled and violent region. ... "The work we are in is not easy, yet it is essential. The failure of democracy in Iraq would provide new bases for the terrorist network and embolden terrorists and their allies around the world. The failure of democracy in those countries would convince terrorists that America backs down under attack. Yet democracy will succeed in Iraq, because our will is firm and our word is good. Democracy will succeed because every month, more and more Iraqis are fighting for their own country. People we have liberated will not surrender their freedom. Democracy will succeed because the United States of America will not be intimidated by a bunch of thugs." But our lofty goals will only be achieved with a lot more competence -- and honesty -- at the top than this administration has demonstrated.

Posted by tbrown at 11:45 AM

The trouble with ‘fanatical pacifism’

“Sure … there are doubtless many protestors who have intelligently thought out concerns about Dubya's policies who attend these rallies out of fervently held conviction. But a good dollop are there just for cheap kicks and have barely a clue what they're protesting against. … “Yes war is horrible. We must do our utmost to prevent it. But, of course, military action is sometimes an imperative.” -- Gregory Djerejian, Belgravia Dispatch

Posted by tbrown at 11:39 AM

The all-time champion pork-barrelers are … Republicans

So says a new report by the Democratic minority on the House Appropriations Committee. They base their assertion on the enormous increase in so-called “earmarks” – specific pieces of fat for specific members of Congress to take home to their districts (preservation of an outhouse at the Lawrence Welk Museum, for example). Here is Kevin Drum’s synopsis of the report. And here’s a link to the full report. The only good news is the shape of the curve in the opening chart depicting the increase in pork spending. It’s a parabolic curve, and in nature parabolic curves always end in crashes (take a look at a chart of the NASDAQ over the last 10 years). This practice will crash, too. But probably not until the current crop of spendthrifts has hobbled the economy with debt that will take decades for our children and grandchildren to pay off.

Posted by tbrown at 11:38 AM