Privileges In Politics
Posted by Michelle Moquin on June 18th, 2012
Good morning!
At salaries of $174,000 a year do our elected officials take office to serve the public or ?? What about power, prestige, and other benefits?
Last night on 60 Minutes
Until recently, America’s lawmakers could legally buy stock based on non-public information, but after Steve Kroft’s report aired, all that changed. Insider trading in Congress was legal when our piece “Insiders” was first broadcast in November. As Steve Kroft reported, members of Congress could use non-public information — gathered in the course of their work on the Hill — to make stock trades, and there appeared to be very little will to change that. After our piece aired, all that changed. In January, President Obama called for reform during his State of the Union address, and sponsorship for the STOCK Act, which had been minimal in the past, took off. In April, the STOCK Act was signed into law.
Yay Obama!
The following video originally aired on Nov. 13, 2011 and was rebroadcast last night:
******
Readers: Thought? Blog me.
May Rodney King rest in peace.
Cornell: Good memory. Yes, the big 5 is coming up in July. Thanks for the kudos and thanks for being a loyal reader. xo
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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June 18th, 2012 at 9:41 am
Flower Power on Your Plate
Flowers aren’t just beautiful to look at—many of them are delicious and nutritious! Why not add style, taste and nutrition to your meals at home with buds and blossoms?
But watch out!
Not all flowers are edible—and some varieties even can send you to the emergency room.
I put in a call to Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the nonprofit American Botanical Council in Austin, Texas, to pick his brain about which flowers to avoid, which flowers to eat and how to easily incorporate them into delicious dishes…
FLOWER 101
Let’s tackle the big questions—which flowers are safe to eat, and which are dangerous? Some common vegetables are actually flowers (or more precisely, flower buds) Blumenthal reminded me, citing artichokes, broccoli and cauliflower as examples. But if you want to get a little more adventurous, follow his guidelines…
Pick properly.
To be sure that they are free of pesticides and herbicides, grow edible flowers yourself from seed or buy organically-raised plants from a nursery or market. Or buy edible blossoms found in produce sections in some food markets.
Do not consume flowers purchased from non-organic florists, garden centers or nurseries. It’s also not usually a good idea to harvest wild flowers, because you typically don’t know what chemicals those flowers have been exposed to.
Plus, some flowers are beautiful but poisonous if eaten, potentially causing nasty reactions such as skin rashes or even dangerous heart disturbances (more on those flowers in a minute).
Harvest or purchase flowers the day you plan to use them, so they are fresh. Avoid any that are sticky, shriveling or shiny, because those are signs of decay.
Prepare the flower.
Remove stems, leaves and interior parts, such as stamens (the rodlike structures that stick out in the middle of the blossom), and wash the remaining flower gently.
You may want to snip off the white tips at the base of the petals, because they sometimes taste bitter.
Start slowly.
If you are new to eating flowers, try one variety at a time in small amounts (either a few petals or one blossom or bud) just in case you have a sensibility or allergy.
If you are allergic to pollen or ragweed, then you should be especially cautious, because you might also be allergic to flowers. When in doubt, consult your physician first.
Try these edible flowers:
Borage, carnation, chamomile, chive, chrysanthemum, dandelion buds, honeysuckle, jasmine, lavender, marigold, mint, nasturtium, pansy, red clover, rose, rosemary, violet.
Never eat these flowers:
Angel’s trumpet, azalea, buttercup, daffodil, daphne, delphinium, foxglove, hyacinth, lily of the valley, oleander, rhododendron.
HOW TO USE FLOWERS IN YOUR FOOD
Now, as for how to mix flowers into your meals, here’s what Blumenthal had to say. Since they’re natural plant foods, many flowers not only taste good—they often contain nutrients that enhance health.
Blumenthal said that for premium taste, try matching certain flowers with certain recipes…
Chamomile:
Most often the dried flowers are used in tea, but you can also sprinkle fresh chamomile flowers, which have a lovely apple aroma, on your salad.
Online, you can find recipes for chamomile pies and custards, too.
Chamomile tends to blend well in any lemon-flavored dishes. The daisylike blooms contain volatile oils that act as a mild sedative as well as muscle relaxants and tummy soothers.
Chive:
The oniony, peppery purple blossoms of this herb add punch to potato dishes or risottos. Chive flowers give your immune system a boost with vitamin C, iron and sulfur.
Dandelion:
Dandelion buds (which are tight and firm before they bloom) are packed with antioxidants (such as vitamin C, B vitamins and beta-carotene) that help reduce your risk for cancer and heart disease.
Enjoy their sweetness raw or steamed on their own, or add them to soups or scrambled eggs. If you’re feeling extra creative, search online for recipes for pickled dandelion buds. Just avoid the mature yellow flowers, because they’re bitter.
Nasturtium:
Like its close relative watercress, nasturtium has a tang that livens up pasta dishes. You can even make your own nasturtium pesto. These flowers are rich in vitamin C and iron, as well as lycopene and lutein, vitamin-A related carotenoid compounds that help reduce cancer and cardiovascular risk, protect skin from the sun’s damaging UV rays and help prevent age-related eye disease.
Source: Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council (ABC), an Austin, Texas-based independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to disseminating accurate, reliable and responsible information about herbs and medicinal plants. He is the editor/publisher of the quarterly journal HerbalGram.
June 18th, 2012 at 9:43 am
The crooks go to congress to take advantage of the ability to break the law to get rich.
June 18th, 2012 at 9:47 am
Why is it that Russia and now China has sent a woman up in space and we haven’t?
Lois
June 18th, 2012 at 10:00 am
Did you see the outhouse that was brought to the republican convention that had bullet holes in it.
This is just disgusting. The Right has totally ruined the respect this country used to have for the office of the President of our country because they don’t want to treat this black man as an equal.
And the white boy media is standing by quietly as if it is just politics as usual. When did the office ever get treated this way when it was held by a white boy?
Nancy
June 18th, 2012 at 10:20 am
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has announced that their estimates for home sales have been materially incorrect since 2007, and that they plan to restate the number of homes sales downward. Apparently the NAR derives their homes sales information from the Multiple Listing Services, the proprietary “want-ads” real-estate agents use to list houses for sale.
Their error stems from several causes, but one of the biggest is overestimating the number of people who sell their homes without a real-estate agent.
During the height of the housing boom many people skipped real estate agents, and their 6% commissions, opting to sell houses on their own.
I can see how some people would have decided to skip an agent back then. When I moved from CA to FL in 2005, I went on a weekend vacation with the family, left the house with a real estate agent for an open-house, and came back to nine bids, all well above asking price. I was amazed, but also wasn’t sure what the real estate agent did since my former house obviously sold itself.
NAR took the number of people who came to this same realization, and projected many people were selling homes without real estate agents. They ignored one small factor — the national housing collapse — and the apparently difficult to infer fact that when houses became harder to sell more people hired real estate agents.
They also used old Census data to project population trends and they didn’t factor in changes based on consolidation in the MLS market. In other words, they massively blew it.
June 18th, 2012 at 11:37 am
Lois
As of 2012, fifty-six women have flown in space, out of 525 total space travellers. By country of origin: 1 each from China, France, UK, South Korea; 2 each from Canada and Japan, 3 from Soviet Union/Russia, and *45* from the United States.
PrP
June 18th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Who ever comes up with information on where the next anomaly is DUE, first alert everybody else, so that we can ALL have an opportunity to attempt to stop it!!
Pooling our collective knowledge is out best chance to avert provoking the Emperor.
B
June 18th, 2012 at 2:24 pm
I hope everyone had a nice weekend… Let’s get right to it…
Congress calls for ‘complete, impartial, and fair investigation’ into WH leaks
“[T]here is no doubt in my mind much of it [recent leaks] flows from the White House,” said Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “The president has a leak problem, and I think it will take action from Congress to fix it.” More from Bob Maginnis’ story below.
Read more: New York Magazine: Leftists push Obama to go negative
Greece’s center-right party finishes first in parliament vote
“With 99.78 percent of the vote in, New Democracy had 29.66 percent of the vote, or 129 out of the 300 seats in the parliament. The Coalition for the Radical Left (Syriza), which was the source of much of the nervousness in Europe and Greece’s creditors, came in a close second with 26.89 percent, or 71 seats.” More below.
Read more: Bain Capital: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in a muddle
Socialist sweep of French parliamentary elections marred by Royal defeat
“More dramatic than Royal’s stunning defeat was the news last week that — despite support for her from Hollande and the Socialist hierarchy — the president’s current companion Valerie Treierweiler endorsed opponent Falorini via Twitter. The renegade endorsement was dubbed ‘the Twitterweiler affair’ in the French press and dominated discussion on the popular ‘France24 Debate.’” More here.
Make sure to read the related links and a great piece from Michael Barone. All below.
Have a great day!
-Adam
June 18th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Michelle, did you hear?
In response to her gag order, Michigan State Rep. Lisa Brown and at least nine of her fellow congresswomen will say the word VAGINA tonight more than 100 times on the state Capitol steps in Lansing while performing “The Vagina Monologues.” Awesome! It should be underway now.
/SB
June 18th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Way to go Ladies.
June 18th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
Walmart: Stop Profiting from Forced Labor in Louisiana
Started by: Ana Rosa Diaz, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.
My name is Ana Rosa Diaz. I’m 40 years old and I have four children. I came to the United States on an H-2B guestworker visa from my home in Tamaulipas, Mexico. I work in a small town in Louisiana with other guestworkers, peeling crawfish for a company called C.J.’s Seafood, which sells 85% of its products to Walmart.
Our boss forces us to work up to 24 hours at a time with no overtime pay. No matter how fast we work, they scream and curse at us to make us work faster. Our supervisor threatens to beat us with a shovel to stop us from taking breaks.
We live in trailers across from the boss’s house, and we’re under surveillance all the time. The supervisors come into our trailers without warning, and they threaten to fire us if we leave after 9 p.m.
The supervisor also locked us in the plant so we couldn’t take breaks. One worker called 911. After that the boss rounded us up at 2:30 a.m., closed the door to keep the American employees out, and threatened our families.
He said, “As a friend I can be very good, but you don’t want to know me as an enemy. I have contacts with good people and bad people, and I know where all your families live. I can find you no matter where you hide.” We were terrified.
We want to work. We need to support our families. But we also want to be treated like human beings.
We joined the National Guestworker Alliance and decided to go on strike. The boss refused to take back his threats against our families, so now we’re taking our demands to Walmart.
Walmart says it doesn’t allow forced labor by any of its suppliers. But Walmart is profiting from the forced labor we lived through right here in Louisiana. And now they’re trying to cover up what happened to us — while refusing even to speak with us.
Walmart needs to meet with us immediately, and to show its suppliers that it won’t tolerate forced labor. We’re demanding that Walmart:
1. Cancel its contract with C.J.’s Seafood to show that it won’t profit from forced labor in Louisiana.
2. Sit down with us, the striking workers, immediately as a first step toward a real investigation — rather than a cover-up.
3. Sign the NGA’s Guestworker Dignity Standards to prevent forced labor and guarantee civil and labor rights for guestworkers across the Walmart supply chain.