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Americans are - gasp! - cooking at home because of economy

This is not such a bad thing anyway. I did not grow up in a household that could afford to eat out more than a couple of times per year so now when I come back to the US, it surprises me how much people dine at the restaurant. What makes it surprising is how bad the factory food chains can be, yet people still go. Even here in Paris where the standard is much higher, I still prefer just buying good quality food (by bargain hunting, of course) and cooking myself or with friends. Lots of AMERICAblog readers do a lot of cooking, so what are your favorite food sites or specific food recipes that you can share?

A few sites that I like:

Simply Recipes. This is great a great comfort food, autumn meal though I like to add fresh, chopped Piments d'Espelette, when I can find them.

Chocolate & Zucchini. Best and easiest chocolate cake, ever. I once had a friend tell me it was better than his mothers chocolate cake. In France, such praise is rare.

Marmiton. (It's a French site) Lots of fast and easy recipes. Run a search (under recettes) for "Filet mignon de porc en croûte" and you will find a bunch of great versions of this meal. In French "filet mignon" is pork tenderloin, not beef. After trial and error I have my own adjustment that works. It's a puff pastry crust filled with the seared pork tenderloin, wrapped with ham slices, covered with slow cooked onions that melt in your mouth and then chunks of a creamy St Felician cheese. For me, Gruyere/Swiss cheese is too heavy when cooked.

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Russian stock market closed twice this week

Trading in Moscow was halted twice this week. Once because it dropped too much, too quickly and the second time after it reopened it increased too quickly. (The extreme movements up and down sound like Wall Street, to a degree and such extremes are signs of a troubled market.) So why does this matter to Americans or anyone else outside of Russia? Think back ten years ago when Russia had its last crash and was an basket case, looking for money from everywhere and looking for direction. Russia found its direction with Putin, with his hyper-macho attitude and dreams of returning Russia to its former glory as a world player.

To Russia's credit, Russia now has a growing middle class and anyone in IT knows just how important St Petersburg (and to a lesser degree Moscow and beyond) has become. In addition to that IT middle class, Russia has brought a lot of manufacturing into St. Petersburg with automakers from around the world setting up shop there. (St. Petersburg just happens to be Putin's home town, so it has profited enormously during the Putin years.) In recent years, Russians have become very visible in exclusive European places such as Monaco and the Alps, buying up property everywhere and driving their massive Rolls Royce's, Benley's, Maybach's and Mercedes Benz models that I never knew existed. The world luxury market (today) is highly geared towards the elite Russians who will pay whatever it costs, preferably at the highest possible price. This summer all the talk in the south (in France, not Alabama) was how the Russians owned the Riviera. One mansion was purchased for almost $800 million by a Russian billionaire but every exclusive house on the coast seemed to have been bought by a Russian. Obviously after the '98 crash and years of Putin making or breaking business executives, the new billionaires have planted their cash reserves outside of Russia. These are the people who have profited under Putin and who brought a certain flash back to Russia.

As the price of oil falls to "only" $100 or less and the Russian stock market slides into chaos, where is Russia headed? Putin his number two, President Medvedev, are still eager to flex some of Russia's former muscle though they may not have the money to do so. Re-building an old and creaky military, funding a failing banking system, handling a stock market that has lost half of its value in a few months, flexing muscle and keeping the dream of Russia's return sounds less likely than it was a year ago. If nothing else, this will make Russia less stable on the world scene and that is not good for any of us. Read More......

Obama really was on fire today

John had excerpts of the Obama speech earlier today. Watching the video is even better. Obama looks like he's having fun:



Our candidate is on a roll. The first line of the Washington Post article captures it perfectly:

Barack Obama unloaded on John McCain this morning at a rally in Daytona Beach.

And, I love the way Obama is using McCain's own words to eviscerate McCain. Read More......

Hillary speaks about Palin

Not sure she should have used the "change" word:

"I think that a lot of people were excited to see the Republicans have a woman on their ticket. We had a woman vice presidential candidate in 1984; the Republicans have one this year. I think that is something to be excited about because it is a change. But that's not reason enough to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket," she said, according to a transcript from NY1 News.

She also spoke of the way women are covered by the press.

"I think you have to ask yourself and it's a little exercise I'd like everybody in the press, and really all of us, to go through: Would the same thing be said about a man in a similar position and the answer 99 times out of 100 is no. I think it's been a long time since anybody covered what Barack Obama, Joe Biden, or John McCain wear or their hairstyle or any other personal characteristic like that."

Maybe. But I'm not sure you'd catch Obama, Biden or McCain wearing a bright red suit either. (And to be fair, we've harped on McCain's $520 Ferragamo 'Pregiato' Moccasins and how he looks like he's gotten awfully elderly recently). And another thing, Todd Palin didn't wear a $300,000 outfit to the convention. Cindy McCain did. Read More......

McCain confuses National Guard and Army

It's not a simple gaffe when it never happened before and now it's happening all the time. It's not a simple gaffe when it's your signature issue. This is like confusing Spain and Latin America. It's something so basic, especially to someone with an expertise in the area, that it's looking increasingly indicative of McCain's failing mental acuity. Senility, dementia? We don't know because the corporate media thinks it's impolite to ask. Yes, impolite to ask if our possible future president during war time is losing part of his mind. Read More......

Today's Taliban: "larger, better armed and more confident militia, capable of mounting sustained military assaults."

Bush and McCain ignored Afghanistan. This is the result:

Just one year ago, the Taliban insurgency was a furtive, loosely organized guerrilla force that carried out hit-and-run ambushes, burned empty schools, left warning letters at night and concentrated attacks in the southern rural regions of its ethnic and religious heartland.

Today it is a larger, better armed and more confident militia, capable of mounting sustained military assaults. Its forces operate in virtually every province and control many districts in areas ringing the capital. Its fighters have bombed embassies and prisons, nearly assassinated the president, executed foreign aid workers and hanged or beheaded dozens of Afghans.

The new Taliban movement has created a parallel government structure that includes defense and finance councils and appoints judges and officials in some areas. It offers cash to recruits and presents letters of introduction to local leaders. It operates Web sites and a 24-hour propaganda apparatus that spins every military incident faster than Afghan and Western officials can manage.

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Wash Post headline says it all

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Obama blasts McCain, a lot

This is really good. And I can just see McCain's head exploding:

The Democratic presidential nominee used McCain's own words to attack him as an opponent of federal regulation of the banking industry, said his rival's support for partial privatization of Social Security could jeopardize retirement security for many Americans and fought back on the question of which candidate has closer ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Speaking at Bethune-Cookman University at an event highlighting his campaign's efforts to appeal to women voters, Obama invoked the current financial crisis by taking aim at an article carrying McCain's name in the current issue of Contingencies magazine, published by the American Academy of Actuaries.

In it, McCain wrote, "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

"So let me get this straight -- he wants to run health care like they've been running Wall Street," Obama told the audience. "Well, Senator, I know some folks on Main Street who aren't going to think that's such a good idea."

McCain has attacked Obama this past week for ties to former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including in two television ads. But he said it's McCain whose campaign is replete with current or former lobbyists for the mortgage giants. He cited comments by the former head of Fannie Mae's government relations office, who was quoted in Politico as saying, "When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me."

"Folks," Obama said, "you can't make this stuff up."

On Social Security, Obama said, McCain's support for privatization would leave senior citizens at risk at a time when the stock market has plummeted. "I know Senator McCain is talking about a 'casino culture' on Wall Street -- but the fact is, he's the one who wants to gamble with your life savings and that is not going to happen when I'm president of the United States."

He said that if McCain had his way, "the millions of Floridians who rely on it would've had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week," although McCain has not called for full privatization of the system.

McCain is a notorious gambler, as in gambles with real money. So this is a cute jab that. Read More......

The "John McCain as Bob Dole" theme takes hold

Yesterday, Adam Nagourney from the New York Times established the emerging story line that new John McCain is actually Bob Dole:

These days, Mr. McCain sounds less like his old self than Bob Dole, another Republican senator who ran for president in 1996, sounded in the closing days of his campaign — speaking louder or repeating statements that he thinks might be overlooked.

Olbermann kept it up with a segment titled "McCain's 'Bob Dole Moment?'"



It's good.

Also, wanted to give a shout out and send good thoughts to Raquel in Pennsylvania. Glad to know she's a fan and hoping that we're doing our part (along with Keith O.) to distract her these days. Read More......

Anchorage Daily News: Palin "has surrendered important gubernatorial duties" to the McCain campaign

Palin has ceded control of Alaska to John McCain's campaign staff. That can't be good for Alaskans:

Gov. Sarah Palin has surrendered important gubernatorial duties to the Republican presidential campaign. McCain staff are handling public and press questions about actions she has taken as governor. The governor who said, "Hold me accountable," is hiding behind the hired guns of the McCain campaign to avoid accountability.

Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?

Apparently, the answer to the question is "Yes." Instead, Alaska's governor is speaking directly to the rest of America -- and, like her running mate on the Palin-McCain ticket, is lying to our faces. Read More......

AP: McCain lied again

McCain has no economic experience, other than running 1,000 or so banks into the ground as a result of his Keating Five scandal. And let's not even talk about Sarah Palin taking over America's economic crisis should McCain die in office or have to step down should his melanoma return. So what do you do when you have no economic experience while America faces an economic crisis? What do you do when your campaign manager made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a lobbyist charged with keeping regulators away from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the very problem that led to the crisis we face today? You lie. Repeatedly. And hope no one notices that your inexperience poses a danger to the country:

Obama has said he would raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year and would cut taxes on the middle class. McCain restated his claim that Obama had voted to raise taxes on people who make just $42,000 a year — a claim that has been widely debunked by nonpartisan fact check organizations.

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McCain admits he was responsible for deregulating banks

Markos and his diarist have a great find here. McCain admitting that he was responsible for deregulating Wall Street over the past decade. Nice. So now that we know that McCain's campaign manager was a lobbyist paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight off regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that McCain himself is now taking credit for deregulating Wall Street, I think John McCain has worked his Keating Five magic once again. Read More......

McCain wants our health care system to be like our banking system

Yes, you read that title correctly. There are so many reasons John McCain shouldn't be president. Put this one near the top of the list. Via Paul Krugman:

OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American [It's a pdf] in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.

Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

Okay. Our financial system was on the verge of collapse because there was not enough oversight and regulation. That's the kind of health care system John McCain wants for you.

John McCain doesn't understand how the nation's private health insurance system -- or doesn't understand how it works for most of us. He gets government run health care, which serves him well. Richard Kirsch, from Health Care for America Now (HCA), issued this statement about McCain's health care plan yesterday -- shortly before we knew McCain wanted the system to be run like the banking system. But, even before that, we knew that McCain was just plain wrong about health care:

McCain’s health care plan is a sham. But he wouldn't understand that because he doesn’t have to navigate the independent, unregulated, bureaucratic insurance market.

See, Senator McCain enjoys the government health care he keeps attacking. He has coverage through the Veterans Administration, which is government run, socialized medicine. He’s covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefit System, which is government paid for, regulated private insurance. And as a senior citizen, Senator McCain is eligible for Medicare which is government health insurance. All these allow McCain to “see [his] doctor fairly frequently” as he told reporters in March.

And yet he believes none of these solutions are right for the rest of America, many of whom can’t afford to see their doctor at all.

If McCain wants the health insurance system to be like the banking system, he wants a government takeover. Read More......

NYT: US was literally days away from a complete financial meltdown

How did the Republicans let it get this far? And just as importantly, how can America trust the stewardship of our country to an economic neophyte like John McCain? America can't afford the inexperience that John McCain brings to the table on economic issues. McCain's only financial claim to fame is sinking 1,000 banks. Well that's not entirely true. He also is now saying that he was responsible for deregulating the banking industry and leading us to the current disaster. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The Saturday cartoons are brutal this week. Brutally on target. Brutally, funny. Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps on giving to the cartoonists. And, they are especially harsh on the negative, lying campaign of the guy running with Palin.

The poem of the week is "Love Sonnet XI" by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. It's "a spicy one."

Enjoy...and then back to business. Read More......

Now that we own Wall Street and their problems, shouldn't we have some say on pay?

And who out there doesn't like the sound of "toxic debt" in our budget? Now that we're about to be the proud owners of hundreds of billions or even a trillion worth of rubbish from Wall Street, a very small details are coming out. It's still debatable whether we're actually paying an inflated or fair price or if we will ever see the dreamy returns (12% over two years, hooray!) on our AIG bailout. (People are hearing what they want to hear on AIG and I remain unconvinced so far.) Democrats have thrown in a good issue to this bailout debate, which is that we ought to control the level of executive compensation for firms involved in this oh-so-sweet, lifestyle saving deal.

That's not a bad starting point, but hello, has anyone looked at annual compensation throughout those companies? I have repeatedly said we are funding their lifestyle and yes, even if we cut back the money at the top, the money being made in this industry is well above the norm. What part of "they made a killing by selling trash" are people not understanding here? Even fresh out of school youngsters with no experience are easily raking in $150,000+ because there was so much profit from selling trash to the world. Why should everyone in America, who just financed tax cuts for the wealthiest and who fund oil-rich Iraq and who bailed out Freddie, Fannie and AIG, also continue to fund this money craze on Wall Street? This lifestyle of luxury goes so much deeper so let's quit pretending that we don't have any say in this, because we do.

We effectively own Wall Street's future so let's debate this through while we have their attention and some control. I'm not comfortable with former Goldman Sachs executive Hank Paulson making these decisions. He's a Wall Street insider who has a soft spot for his friends. He's not an elected official and should not make this call. I understand that greed is what makes Wall Street tick and to a large degree I'm fine with that. When proper oversight is present, the system generally works well for the US. However, when that greed becomes our collective problem, this is a completely different story. It is more than fair to ask "what are we getting out of our bailout and toxic debt purchase?" Rushing through this process to save their sorry asses is no excuse. The taxpayers of America have saved the day for the Wall Street spongers and free market phonies so now could not be a better time to have this discussion. Asking for our fair share back makes sense, but so does altering this dysfunctional system that is dragging us all down. Read More......

And now for the next phase of the Wall Street crisis

State budgets (and of course federal budgets) are going to be slashed, meaning program cuts and/or tax increases. It's unsettling to me that in the rush to bail out the system we've skipped past the big picture of what happens to everyone else. It's doubtful that anyone was really surprised at the failures of this past week and if they were, maybe it's time they move on. What nobody wants to talk about now that it's an election year is that yes, we can extend bailouts to a point, but what about the cost tomorrow? Just as it was bad judgment to give tax cuts during a so-called war, it will problematic to hand out tax cuts during these economic times.

So onto the latest phase from the state of Massachusetts, though it could be any state at this point. Golly, I guess those brave, fearless, rugged folks from Alaska can quit sucking our federal tax dollars and figure out how to live on their own with the windfall profit taxes that Palin set up. Don't call us, Alaska, we'll call you when we need money.

Governor Deval Patrick's administration is considering widespread emergency cuts in the state budget after tax collections plummeted by $200 million in the first two weeks of September, fueling fears of a deeper financial crisis as the nation's economic outlook worsens.

The precipitous drop puts the state's revenue far below what state officials had budgeted for this point in the fiscal year that began July 1, according to a Department of Revenue report. Moreover, officials expect the budget situation to worsen as the turmoil in the nation's financial markets weakens the economy, resulting in lower tax revenues for the state.

"The current economy and its impact on the state are going to complicate what's already been a challenging budget problem," said Leslie Kirwan, Patrick's secretary of administration and finance, who has grappled with consecutive $1 billion budget deficits. "We will be watching this very closely for the rest of the month."

The state anticipated it would collect about $1.1 billion in the first two weeks of September. Instead, it generated only $889 million, an 18.4 percent drop from the same period last year. Overall, budget officials hoped to end the month $80 million ahead of September 2007 collections, a threshold that now seems unreachable given the shaky economy.

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NY launches water turbine experiment

It's small but good to see NY starting the process of testing potential new energy programs.

On a recent morning, a crane sank a 16-foot rotor into the waters of the East River and divers swam deep to bolt it to the bottom. By early evening, as the northerly current sped up, the rotor began to spin, a big thunk sounded in the control room, a green light went on, and electricity began to pour into a nearby supermarket.

The scene represents an experiment in tidal power, using turbines that look like underwater windmills, and it is the first of its kind nationwide and one of only a few such pilot projects in the world.

"This is just the beginning of a project, but the project itself is emblematic of a whole new industry," said Trey Taylor, the president of Verdant Power, a small company that created the experiment and hopes to expand it to commercial use with 300 turbines in the East River that could power up to 10,000 homes in the city.

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Nashville is out of gas, literally

There was a panic, and everyone raced to the pumps. Now 85% of the city's stations are without gas. I'm waiting for the same thing to happen to the banks. We're are really screwed. Read More......

ABC: Palin may have lied in a court document re Troopergate

Yeah, thing is, lying to a judge, even in George Bush's America, is a lot more serious than simply lying to the American people. Palin and McCain can derail a lot of investigations, perjury isn't one of them. Read More......