Rick Santorum: No Right To Privacy in the Constitution, States Can, But ...

Now, this is the Southern Breakfast folks usually eat in the morning.

No one looked for Paula Deen's endorsement. She has collector grits.

Paula promotes instant grits?  Ah, come on.  Grits is corn.  She doesn't shuck her own grits?  Martha Stewart she is not.

Servings: 4 servings (click title to entry - thank you)

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients Add to grocery list

2 cups water
1 1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Quaker Grits, quick cooking, not instant 
1/2 cup butter

Directions

In a small pot, bring water, milk, and salt to a boil.  Slowly stir grits into boiling mixture.  Stir continuously and thoroughly until grits are well mixed.  Let the pot return to a boil, cover pot with a lid, lower the temperature, and cook for approximately 30 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add more water if necessary.

Grits are done when they have the consistency of smooth cream of wheat.

Serve with butter, fruit, or savory with a meal.

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen


Baked Garlic Cheese Grits (click here)

Ingredients

• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 cups regular grits
• 16 ounces Cheddar, cubed
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 8 ounces grated sharp white Cheddar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 4-quart casserole dish.

Bring the broth, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to a boil in a 2-quart sauce pan. Stir in the grits and whisk until completely combined. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the grits are thick, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the cubed Cheddar and milk and stir. Gradually stir in the eggs and butter, stirring until all are combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle with the white Cheddar and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until set.

Shrimp and Grits (click here)


Ingredients

• 2 servings cooked grits
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced tasso ham*
• 2 tablespoons diced leeks
• 2 tablespoons diced onion
• 2 tablespoons diced green peppers
• 20 medium to large shrimp, peeled and de-veined, with tails on
• 1 to 2 tablespoons white wine
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• Green onion tops, chopped
• *Cook's Note: Tasso is a Cajun ham and is often hard to find outside of Louisiana, but you can find it at some specialty gourmet shops or by mail order. If not, you can substitute salt pork, pancetta, or prosciutto, but you will have to beef up your seasonings, as tasso is very flavorful.

Directions

Cook grits according to package directions; set aside and keep warm.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add tasso and saute until crisp. Add diced vegetables and saute until onions are translucent. Add shrimp and saute for 30 to 45 seconds, or until pink. Remove from the pan and set aside. Deglaze the pan with a little white wine. Slowly add the cream and let reduce until thickened. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Divide grits among 2 serving plates. Line plate edges with shrimp (10 shrimp per serving). Pour sauce over grits. Garnish with green onion tops.

For a great wedding idea, use martini glasses to serve shrimp and grits, with the grits on the bottom and shrimp and sauce on top.

Romney needs to rely on his SUPERPACS. Seriously.

Poll: George W. Bush is more popular than Mitt Romney (click title to entry - thank you)

The State Column

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Former President George W. Bush is more popular than Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to a Bloomberg News National poll released Monday. Although Mr. Romney is the front-runner in the current race for the Republican presidential nomination by numerous measurements, including delegate count, and several national and state-level polls, the Michigan native has a lower net favorable rating than Mr. Bush among a sample of the voting age population.

Mr. Bush, whose job approval ratings sunk as low as 25 percent during his presidency, was an extremely unpopular president when he left the Oval Office. In fact, Mr. Bush’s job approval ratings peaked in the weeks after September 11th (climbing as high as 90 percent), before gradually falling throughout the rest of his presidency.

The fact that Mr. Bush has a higher net approval rating (45 percent) than Mr. Romney (42 percent) may reveal a lot about the current state of the Republican Party. Has Mr. Bush’s popularity improved over time or is Mr. Romney and the rest of the Republican presidential field an unsatisfactory group of candidates for American voters?

This is not for real. Doonesbury is not Blondie. Newspapers editors are worried about confusing an opinion with a comic? Do editors live on the same planet as everyone else?

MARCH 13, 2012 12:18AM 

So let's break this down. (click here) First, Jim Thompson, the Editorial Page editor for the Athens Banner-Herald, wrote Sunday in the "Editor's Corner" that he wouldn't be running the Doonesbury strip about the Texas ultrasound requirement because it would confuse his Georgia readers. Quote:

Given that the Georgia General Assembly is considering an abortion bill — House Bill 954, sponsored by Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, which would prohibit abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy — I made a unilateral decision not to publish the “Doonesbury” strips intended for publication this week. Quite simply, I thought there was a real possibility that readers might confuse the topic of this week’s “Doonesbury” with Georgia’s proposed abortion legislation, and I didn’t want to add any confusion to the ongoing concerns, pro and con, about House Bill 954.

This is Doonesbury.  This is what Doonesbury does.  Doonesbury is about political satire.  Have the nation's editors gone batty?

...“Editors believe (click title to entry - thank you) he has expressed that opinion in a manner that skirts, if not crosses, the boundaries of good taste expected in a family newspaper.”(Vacaville, CA Reporter)

“I am concerned about the graphic content.” (Rock Hill, SC Herald)

“The language in the original strips was not appropriate for a comic that could be viewed by children.” (Ogden, UT Standard-Examiner)

“The Texas abortion cartoons venture too far for the comics pages.” (The Press of Atlantic City)

“Went over the line of good taste and humor.” Oregonian)...

"Over the line of good taste...?"  What do these editors believe the legislators are doing?  In the entire landscape of the assault on women's reproductive rights, this cartoon is the least of the issue and brings comic relief to a sincerely tragic strategy to up end a woman's life by extremist state legislators.  

These comics are tame compared to what they should say.  I can't believe USA newspaper editors are running away from the fact women are being victimized by their own governments.  Talk about a war on women, where are the newspapers when women need them?

Housing Bubble 2 arrives to Main Street

The "Skyscraper Indicator" (click here), developed by Edward Dewey, in the 1940s, correlates human optimism to the number of high-rise buildings under construction. Simply stated, when people are very optimistic, they tend to express their feelings in massive construction projects, especially tall buildings, like skyscrapers, because they have a need to build toward the sky! Since this extreme optimism is reached at major peaks, in the economy, severe economic downturns usually follow; not just declines in real estate prices.  


The housing bubble was felt in 2007 in small measure, where was Paulson?  In China.  At any rate, the send wave to housing bubble dynamics have arrived to Main Street.


The housing EXCESS cannot be deconstructed.  What was built in optimism of million-billionaires everywhere is still on the market.  Their deflated value is now arriving to local economies in the way of lower property taxes.


...More than five years after real estate prices began to tumble, (click title to entry - thank you) Americans are finally starting to get property tax breaks on their devalued homes, a USA TODAY analysis finds....



...Property taxes generated $436 billion last year, about $66 billion more than in 2006 when home values peaked. Public schools get about 40% of this money. The rest flows to other local governments....


For the States that saw this coming action was taken.  For all the Republicans in the Federal Senate and House that didn't back the President in his Educational Initiative in the American Jobs Act, are contributing to economic decline.

Kan. House approves property tax measure (click here)

March 12, 2012

House members have approved a measure that provides Kansas cities and counties with $90 million in property tax relief while requiring public notification when property valuations increase.

The bill, approved Monday 101-23, goes to the Senate. It restores a city-county revenue sharing program that ran from 1938 to 2004, and it requires the local governments to use the money to reduce property taxes. The bill would share $45 million in both 2013 and 2014.

The bill includes a requirement that cities and counties lower their property tax rates when the overall valuation has increased. The intent is to end a practice that legislators called “stealth’’ tax increases when property values increased but tax rates didn’t.

Voter Suppression is real.

...Think about it. Why, in a shaky economy, (click title to entry - thank you) would Gov. Corbett be willing to shell out up to... 


$4 million to enforce an unnecessary law 


...supposedly designed to thwart voter-impersonation fraud - of which there is virtually none?

Not only that, it's no surprise that Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Mississippi - the states that passed the strictest laws since President Obama's election - are mostly red to the core.

Please. This isn't about policy. It's about politics. So much for small government....

The Pennsylvania Governor Corbett is anxious to sign the bill that oppresses the urban and poor vote.  Corbett is more red than red, he is Merlot Red, even the Pennsylvania Governor site is Republican Red.

He is more of a pundit than any pundit out there.  This is anti-American legislation.

Dennis Miller is touting how Girl Scouts have to show ID to sell Girl Scout cookies so why shouldn't a nation prove their identity at the polls.

Well, get this one, I walked into a Hilton Hotel on Sunday and stated I was a 'member' and they asked for my name, my address and then my signature, NOT my ID.  It was nice not having to dig through my purse to find an ID when I was tired enough to call it a day.  

As I walked to the car to get my overnight bag I realized that is what occurs when a person votes; name, address and signature.  Gee, it was interesting to realize a hotel chain interested in my comfort believed that was enough for them.  So much for Girl Scout Cookie salespersons or whatever.

Give me a break, this is voter suppression, plain and simple.

I am not buying the CBS/NYTimes Poll. According to others it is an outlier.

CBS News/NY Times	3/7 - 3/11	1009 A	41	47	-6
ABC News/Wash Post	3/7 - 3/10	1003 A	46	50	-4
Gallup	3/9 - 3/11	1500 A	49	43	+6
Rasmussen Reports	3/9 - 3/11	1500 LV	47	52	-5

The New York Times/CBS changed their structure.  A populous of opinion doesn't change that drastically overnight for any reason. There was not a major event occurring in that time frame to cause such outcomes. Gas prices have been horrible. The problem is speculation and everyone knows it. WALL STREET.


Wall Street is in New York, right? I mean if the opining are folks like Paulson I guess they are more unhappy than the rest of the nation.


Let's see what was the trauma last week?  Hmmmm.... Oh, yeah, Limbaugh.  Could it be the propaganda networks supporting Wall Street imagineering of the public be losing ground?  My, my, my.


If foreign policy appears to be the problem, it is ISRAEL.  


President Obama cannot appear to be confident he is assessing he Iran situation correctly, he needs to put forward the facts backing up that dynamic. He needs to make the people of the USA as confident about the Iranian assessment as he has been. He is painted as a diplomat rather than a general in his public image. When it comes to a potential release of nukes, it won't be tolerated and will make people nervous. Most Americans prefer to bomb Iran as a prevention rather than be confident otherwise. It is called fear.


If the fear exists it is because of the 'uncertainty' raised as a political tool by the right.  

Iraq had death sqauds. This soldier served three tours in Iraq. The location he chose to carry out his act may have been strategic.

Video: No change in Afghan Strategy, White House says (click here)

AP Video

Published Monday , Mar. 12, 2012 8:08 PM EDT

Last Undated Monday, March 12, 2012 8:10 PM EDT

After an American soldier allegedly killed 16 Afghan civilians, the United States says it won't alter its commitment to protecting Afghans.


A professional soldier, if they are to survive a mission that has no profound meaning studies his enemy, ie: Vietnam.  There was a lot of soldiers that considered themselves self-contained in their survival.  If there is a unit out of Seattle that is renegade, that is a culture, within the military defined by soldiers that solve their own problems.


"The only good soldier is one that is still alive."


The military leadership has lost the confidence of soldiers deployed at the whim of diplomats.


The mission of the USA is to train Afghan soldiers that was obvious when they found the corrupted Korans leading to this incident.  But, the presence of Christian soldiers is becoming a dominant issue for the Afghan people whom no longer believe they are safe.  It is time to move the training mission to Turkey and leave the people of Afghan alone.  Their own soldiers have to do the job and it is time they did.