Cross posted from Street Prophets

I confess to foodie tendancies – I love to prepare food for friends and family, over the years I have collected cookbooks (a.k.a. “food porn”) and I like watching cooking and travel shows on TV.  I believe that much can be learned about people from how and what they eat – and that, in fact, the first dinner table (which may have been a skin on the floor of a cave) was humankind’s first altar - where blessings were asked for the food and all sharing it.  How the career of Anthony Bourdain escaped my attention until recently is a mystery to me but I’ve been making up for lost time by greedily reading his written work and catching up on all his television programs.  Handsomely aging hipster, snarkmeister, Ramones fan and unrepentant consumer of meat, beer, and (until recently when the birth of his first child prompted him to quit) cigarette after cigarette, he is also a classically trained chef associated with the fine New York restaurant, Les Halles.  

Cross-posted from Street Prophets

The BBC reports:

Scores of people have died and much of the continent's most fertile farmland has been washed away in what is being described as a humanitarian disaster.

The UN said more rain was expected and warned that the need for food, shelter and medicine was urgent.

Some 17 countries have been affected in West, Central and East Africa.

English Al Jazeera reports that hundreds of thousands of people have lost their livelihoods and, in Ghana alone, a quarter million have lost their homes.

We are going to be hearing more about the B-52 that flew from Minot AFB, ND to Barksdale AFB, LA armed with five (or six) nuclear cruise missiles.  Expect it.

Congress needs to have the incident investigated.  Right now.

Cross posted from Street Prophets

Rick Perlstein blogged about Max Blumenthal’s film, Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour today.  Watching the film linked in his article left me feeling very disturbed.

It was filmed at a conference presided over by the Rev. Hagee in Washington, DC last week – at a hotel I think I recognize as being on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol.  The attendees were quite candid with Mr. Blumenthal – almost anxious to explain their view of the “End Times” and Islam (spoiler: they think Satan is behind Muslims).  Rev. Hagee had Mr. Blumenthal evicted from the conference after Mr. Blumenthal asked him a pointed question about Rev. Hagee’s book, Jerusalem Countdown.

The news of Scooter Libby’s sentence commutation has diverted attention from three rather large aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf and that so-called member of the “Axis of Evil” that, fortunately or unfortunately for it, sits atop one of the Earth’s largest supplies of oil.

Michael Gordon, late of the team of Judith Miller and Michael Gordon, who stenographed for the Administration in order to kick start the war in Iraq, is at it again.  This time he stenographs about Iran, saying that Iran, through Hezbollah, is helping insurgents kill our soldiers in Iraq.  (The article requires a subscription or I would post a link.)  Glen Greenwald calls him on it in Salon, Michael Gordon trains his stenographer weapons on Iran.  It seems it is déjà vu all over again.  Again.  And if this is not enough to tell us all that attacking Iran is a very bad idea, witness that Joe Lieberman is calling for war.  

Cross posted from Street Prophets

Iran has announced it is releasing the fifteen British naval personnel.  See here for the BBC story and here for the English Al Jazeera one.

They will be  home for Easter, God willing.

This is good news – for rumors have been flying that the US has been planning to attack Iran on Good Friday – see this report from the Jerusalem Post that was posted on afterdowningstreet.org.  Also, the USS Nimitz carrier group is on its way to the Gulf – ostensibly to relieve the USS Dwight D Eisenhower -- see this report, also on afterdowningstreet.org.  I hope this will relieve the tension and make an attack less likely for now.

Cross posted from Street Prophets

The Iranian President arrived in Nicaragua.  Today, he toured the slums of Managua with President Ortega and pledged Iran's help to eliminate Nicaraguan poverty.  From English Al Jazeera:

Cross posted from Street Prophets

The President of Iran has arrived in Venezuela in the first leg of a Latin American tour.  He and Hugo Chavez have decided to come together to fight U.S. Imperialism.  English Al Jazeera has the story.

Originally posted on Street Prophets

President Bush is hellbent on increasing the number of our troops in Iraq.  Sen. Harry Reid almost went along with it -- see Surge Protection.

This is not good news for our newly Democratic majority in Congress.  As Dave Lindorff writes on CounterPunch, Only the People Can Save Us Now; Sell-Out Democrats Walk Into a Bush Trap on Iraq:

[Crossposted from Street Prophets]

The American people spoke clearly at the time of the election -- it is past time to end the war in Iraq.  We want to bring our troops home.

Washington isn't listening.  A "surge" of 30,000 to 40,000 additional troops in Iraq is coming.  You think things are bad in Baghdad now...

While you are looking for the contact details of your Congressmember and Senators so as to clearly remind them of your viewpoint on this important issue, I will find you some quotes on what is going on.  As always, I urge you to read the essays I quote from in their entirety.

Cross-posted from Street Prophets

    Easter is a day for reflection and prayer for millions around the world.  There are many, many aspects to Christ's story.  Just one of them is the courage with which Jesus faced Imperial Power - setting an example for human beings for all time to stand up, trust in God, and do the right thing.

    I've been reflecting on this, because now, at this particular moment, there are seven retired generals (and counting) speaking truth to power - an unprecedented event in America's history.  I don't think there is any accident about the timing, folks.  I think these men are doing what they are doing right now, not only to begin a redeployment out of the nightmare that is the Iraq conflict, but in order to avert an imminent, "pre-emptive"  attack  on Iran, possibly involving nuclear weapons.

   

Mike Farrell is a longtime, progressive activist.  I just made a rather bold approach to him through his on-line forum on behalf of YearlyKos (I am working with the YK grantwriting team).  It would be great to have his support -- as a speaker, a donor, a networker with other well-known activists.

His forum appears to be rather new -- and it is a bit overrun with trolls.  The webmaster is now requiring registration as a remedy for this.  I just registered this afternoon.  I'm user 15 (Sara).

Dear friends, would you kindly wander over to his website and add some dKos sunshine, intelligent discourse and civility to shoo the trolls away?   Shall we draw Mr. Farrell's attention to our worthy cause?  Ask him to cross-post here?  He could be a really good friend to us -- and we to him.

Stan "Tookie" Williams' execution on California's Death Row has been set for one minute past midnight on December 13, according to Prof. Phil Gasper's article on CounterPunch today.  There is a shocking rush to kill the one person who has been most effective in curbing gang violence and membership.  This haste make no sense -- at this point, only extraordinary public pressure is going to put a brake on it .

Tookie Williams' story is one of extraordinary redemption.  A co-founder of the Crips, he was framed and imprisoned for murder.  In prison, he completely turned his spirit around.  From prison, he has deterred many, many people from gang life and saved countless lives.  His acts have earned Tookie Nobel Peace Prize nominations and other distinguished awards.

We imprison criminals, in part, so that they will turn around.  Here is one man who has turned around, in a spectacular, meaningful manner -- a shining example to whom kids on the street will actually listen.  Kossacks, Tookie's death is going to send a very, very bad message.