Monthly Archives: February 2009

12 February 2009

Yemen Again

By Nicki

At the end of last week, CNN reported that the charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, in custody at Guatanamo Bay for planning the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off the shores of Yemen.  The charges were dropped without prejudice so al-Nashiri could be charged again.  Part of the reasoning for dropping the charges is the four month moratorium that President Obama put in place on proceedings at the Cuba-based detention facility.

 

Today, NPR is reporting that Yemen is one of the big blocking points in closing Guantanamo Bay.  Unfortunately, a lot of the detainees at the detention camp are Yemeni citizens.  These detainees could not be returned to Yemen due to a weak stance on terrorists by the Yemeni government.  Extradition, even of a Yemeni-American, from Yemen is close to impossible.  The Yemeni government, unlike most governments around the world, trusts its citizenry.  A simple signed statement that a person will not participate in terrorism against Yemen is all that is needed to get even the most hardened terrorist out of prison.

 

As I said back in September of 2008, I have grave concerns over what is to come here in the US.  Yemen is at the core of this.  Back in October of 2000, the attack on the USS Cole in Yemeni waters took place.  In September of the following year, the largest attack on our homeland occurred.  Last September, the US Embassy in Yemen was the target of a car bomb.  I am praying daily that a fall attack on our homeland is not forthcoming.

1 comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

11 February 2009

The Governor Came to Town

By Nicki

Last week, Governor David A Patterson  was scheduled for a town hall meeting in Binghamton, New York.  He rescheduled for tonight so that he could go to Washington, DC to witness President Barack Obama and the signing of a child health insurance bill.

 

Tonight was the rescheduled town hall meeting in the gym at Broome Community College.  Questions were selected from many that were submitted in advance by moderator and local television personality Steve Craig.  Those individuals whose questions were asked did the asking themselves.  

 

The governor seemed to want to be sure that all in the audience and listening and watching on WIVT-TV or listening and watching on a live feed at pressconnects.com understood that the current fiscal disaster is dire and will take “shared sacrifice” to get out of it.  The problem is that the top of NY – both in government/public service and in income level – is not sharing in the current budget.

 

Questions asked ranged from concerns about natural gas drilling to taxing the rich more to nursing home cuts to nutrition program cuts to higher education cuts.  Governor Patterson answered most of the questions directly but, and in my mind he really needed to do this, he did not sell his budget at all.

 

This is the second time I have listened to the governor since he presented his budget to the state legislature in December of last year.  Both times I anticipated he would phrase his words in terms of the budget he proposed – explaining why his cuts and his increases were important, explaining why I should support them as a taxpayer in NYS.  Neither time has the governor convinced me that he understands his own budget enough to sell it.  Neither time I have hear him speak since mid-December has the governor convinced me that his budget is the only way or the right way.

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11 February 2009

Personalizing My Blog

By Nicki

I am slowly learning the finer points of photo resizing.  Generally, I do not do it if I have to change the proportions of the photo as it does distort somewhat but I wanted to replace the header on my blog with my own photo.  

 

Amazing!  A few clicks of the mouse!  There it is!  The sunrise on January 17th, 2009.

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5 February 2009

Getting the Most Out of Your Grocery Dollar

By Nicki

Everyone has been talking how job loss and recession effect diet – both the quality and the quantity of your diet.  The question remains, do you get the most out of your grocery dollar?  Below are a few small steps that take time, and sometimes planning, but will help you out as dollars get fewer or need to be stretched more.

 

If you buy fresh citrus fruit, what do you do with the skin?  Have you ever priced dried zest – lemon usually but also orange – in the grocery store?  It will cause you to have a coronary.  Before you cut or peel a piece of citrus fruit, zest it.  I have a grater that I use for this purpose.  I zest the fruit and then lay the zest out in a bowl or on a plate until it dries.  I, then, put it in a freezer safe bag and put it in the freezer.  In the dead of winter when I have a recipe that calls for lemon zest, I just open the freezer door.

 

My kids like rotisserie chicken.  It is expensive at the grocery so we do not buy it often.  I am, though, likely to buy a whole roaster and roast it myself.  That is the easy part of the money saving here.  The more intense, more labor intensive part of saving money comes with what you do with the bones to that chicken.  Whether you have roasted a chicken yourself or you have bought one at the grocery, do you keep the bones and make broth?  Containers of broth, off brand, at my local grocery cost almost $3.50 a container – not a can as I do not buy broth in cans.  You can take your bones from a chicken or turkey – I don’t do this with beef bones as I don’t serve beef all that often and it takes longer to get enough beef bones – and make your own broth.  My mother prefers freezing the bones and using several chicken carcasses to make broth.  I do not have a stock pot big enough for this.  I do, though, regularly, make broth.  If I am not making soup after making the broth, I will freeze it.

 

I will post again as I come up with additional ways to get the most out of your grocery dollar.

2 comments   |  tags: , | posted in Food and Recipes, Just my Thoughts

5 February 2009

Associate Justice Ginsburg Undergoes Cancer Surgery

By Nicki

Is anyone else out there seriously scared by this headline?  First and foremost, my prayers go to Justice Ginsburg and her family for a speedy and quick recovery.  Pancreatic cancer and surgery to help eleviate it are hard on a body at any age but at 75, any surgery is serious.

 

My panic at hearing this news, after prayers for the Justice, went straight to how can President Obama mess up a Supreme Court nomination right now.  He is still settling in to not being one of the law makers and being in the executive branch of the federal government.  He is still making bad choices in his nominees for cabinet-level positions.  How can he segway into making a good choice for Supreme Court?

 

Of course, GOP stalwarts played up the ability to influence the direction of the Supreme Court as an important part of the general election in 2008.  I do believe that this administration will appoint at least one, if not more, Justices.  I do not believe that it is in the best interest of the country, the best interest of the Supreme Court or the best interest of the administration for the President to have to look at this area of his responsibilities yet.

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5 February 2009

Avocados

By Nicki

In my previous post, I said that I was skipping today’s fish tacos.  The boys were raising a stink just seeing those on the weekly menu and asked why I didn’t wait until Lent to try them out.  Since I did not buy the fresh fish on Saturday with the rest of the week’s groceries, I have acquiesed and am dropping them from the menu.

 

Unfortunately, this leaves me with two ripe avocados in my house.  I do not normally buy avocados so need to know what to do with them.  I am thinking about making guacamole – something, in the past, I would have bought made.  I am also toying with just cutting them up and putting them in a zippie bag until I have more time.  

 

Problem is I don’t really know much about avocados.  If I cut them up and put them in the fridge, do I need to squirt them with some citrus juice to keep them from turning brown?

 

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

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5 February 2009

The Clean Eating Experiment

By Nicki

I have blogged about Clean Eating magazine previously.  I have one issue.  The new issue – March/April – is out on newstands now but I have not had time to go pick it up.  I keep reading the magazine and looking at the recipes.  I, then – just last Saturday, decided to take matters in my own hands.  

 

The magazine features a list of dinner recipes for one week that cost under or around $60.  I thought great!  This fits in my budget plus would give us a new variety of foods to eat.  Off I went to the local Giant to shop.  My total – I also needed some staples that were fresh out in my pantry so I am higher than $60 – was less than $80.

 

Well, the experiment started off bad.  Monday was suppose to be a really lovely Asian marinated turkey breast.  Being the frugal shopper I am, I did not buy fresh turkey breast but a frozen one that was on sale last week for $1.49 a pound – great buy for anyone needed a dinner and meat for lunches.  By Monday, the turkey breast, which weighed just over seven pounds, was not totally thawed.  Okay, I adapted.  I put the turkey breast into the marinade anyway and left it covered in the fridge to finish thawing and marinate.  We had leftovers from Super Bowl Sunday for dinner.

 

Tuesday, we had the turkey breast.  It was extremely delicious.  I may  use this recipe again.  I will definitely keep the marinade in mind when grilling season starts as it was fantastic.

 

Wednesday, I opted to have the Tuesday meal which was Portabello mushrooms and carmelized onions and red peppers rolled in flat bread.  My kids are skeptical of mushrooms in all forms so I made the entire items and left in the oven to keep warm so that when everyone got home around 5 I could just pull dinner out of a warm oven.  The boys ate two of the roll-ups – a separate post will be coming on the process as I took pics of everything but the finished product.  I ate two of the roll-ups.  I still have three in my fridge.  Anyone want to stop over and try them?  Normally, when trying a new recipe, I will make it exactly as written the first time.  This particular one I substituted creminis for the portabellos simply due to cost.  I could not justify, knowing in advance that the boys would not be happy if they found out there were mushrooms in the roll ups, the cost of portabellos.  The taste was very good.

 

Tonight is suppose to be fish tacos which  I am going to pass on.  I am thinking I will jump right to the Tortilla Soup.  More coming on that.

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4 February 2009

Questioning the Ability to Govern

By Nicki

I know there are those out there that will say that the title is misleading, that they are sure I am going to be discussing Obama. While we, as the citizenry that Obama is president for, should probably be questioning his ability to govern and while he is involved in some way in my newest questioning, I am not discussing President Obama. I am questioning the ability of NYS Governor David A Patterson to govern NYS.

Some of the actions of Governor Patterson have shown great insight. He worked hard and submitted, in troubled economic times, his budget several months early. By putting his ideas for the 2009-2010 fiscal year to the legislature in December, there is truly the chance that NY’s budget may be approved on time. Unfortunately, after this bold move, Patterson gave a State of the State address which should have been a platform for his budget – the increases in fees and taxes and the decreases in expenditures. It was not this platform that it should have been.

Then, the governor had the debacle that was naming a US Senator to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton. He botched this action in so many ways that I could write thousands of words on it.

Now, comes town hall meetings. Disgraced former-governor Eliot Spitzer did a polarizing thing his one January in office. He gave a State of Upstate in addition to his State of the State address. Patterson, to his credit, decided that this tactic was polarizing and is, instead, conducting a series of town hall meetings around the state to answer his constitueny’s questions regarding the state of NY and his budget proposals. I admire Patterson greatly for this, or I did until last night about 9:30 pm. That is when the email came telling me that the governor was postponing the Binghamton meeting – originally scheduled for this evening and which I was pre-registered to attend – to next Wednesday.

I am not upset that I will most likely be unable to attend next Wednesday. I am upset, seething is actually a better word to describe my thoughts on this matter, over the reason for the postponement.

Most in NYS, and many outside NYS, recognize NY as a leader in providing child health care. To that end, President Obama wants Governor Patterson to come to Washington for a bill signing. While I understand that all good Democrats cower and do as the President wants – especially when those Democrats are the governors of states that need federal money to help with budget and fiscal disasters, I cannot condone Patterson leaving the state and postponing his constituency for a photo opportunity. Neither NYS nor the federal government has the money to fund the “politics as usual” request. Patterson should grow a pair – insert your favorite term for male genitalia here – and tell Obama no.

2 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

3 February 2009

The Dominos Fall

By Nicki

Today has not been a good day for the Obama administration and some of the cabinet nominees.  Of course, there was the highlight of Vice President Biden swearing in Eric Holder as AG but that may be the highlight for a few days.

 

While it did not totally look like Tom Daschle would not be approved for Secretary of Health and Human Services, the nomination was in trouble.  If nothing else, if Daschle did not withdraw his name from nomination, the hearings would afford several days of the administration being “off message.”  On top of the off message issue, the questioning of Daschle’s ability to lead the Department of Health and Human Services would have delayed any ability of the administration to begin health care reform. 

 

Daschle withdrew his name from consideration just a short time ago.  He did what was best for the country, though not necessarily best for Tom Daschle.  Had Daschle used his brain back in 2008 when filing his tax returns, this would be a mute point. 

 

That big domino fell but was preceeded by a smaller domino.  Earlier this morning, Nancy Killefer had withdrawn her name from consideration for Chief Performance Officer.  Killefer had failed to pay $900 in taxes.  This is a small domino after now Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner’s tax bill.  Somehow Geithner managed to get through the confirmation process.  Unfortunately for them, Killefer and Daschle did not.

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3 February 2009

Reform?

By Nicki

Yesterday, as I was running to the 2 o’clock hour of CNN’s Newsroom, I was thrown with a report that the St Petersburg Times has a site that is keeping track of 26 pages of Obama campaign promises.  The more disturbing news, although I do not know why it is disturbing as it is politics as usual, is that the first campaign promise has been broken.

 

I have a hard time explaining to my first time voter son, who is currently enrolled in a NYS required Participation in Government class, how the good, the bad, and the ugly had already reared their heads in the new administration.  He did not see how the honeymoon could be over so soon.

First, I truly commend the Obama administration for trying to change “politics as usual.”  My problem, and one of the big reasons I was not an Obama supporter, is that those trying to make changes do not have enough knowledge of the system to do and have played the system previously and done so well.

 

I was excited to see that one of the first executive orders that President Obama signed was to initiate ethics reform.  Unfortunately, shortly after signing this order, Obama issued two waivers for it.

 

Is it reform if you immediately need to waive the requirements?

 

Is it reform if you set your goals so high that no one can achieve them?  I do not personally believe this is the case.  If the new president had brought new people to Washington to do the cabinet’s and the country’s business, those people may take longer to get going in doing this business but would not be tainted.

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