Nineteen days of Syrah
Craig Lee/The Chronicle, 2008
Failla's estate Syrah defies the odds.
Red wine may have great antioxidant powers, but its lifespan in an open bottle is modest. A couple days, perhaps four if you're lucky. Inert gas or vacuums might extend that, but only slightly.
Then a wine comes along to scuttle all that. I tasted the 2007 Failla Estate Syrah in early November as part of my final round of Top 100 tastings. Failla, the label of our 2008 Winemaker of the Year Ehren Jordan, highlights not only his love for Pinot but also intensely flavored, aromatic Syrah.
Typically, Failla's Syrah from Phoenix Ranch in Napa has been its standardbearer, a wine that I buy for myself almost every vintage. But this time, the wine from Jordan's estate parcel, a rough patch of coastal terrain out on the site of the old Gualala Ranch, performed a wonderous feat.
It is grown near a ridge line due east of Fort Ross, less than three miles from the coast. Largely out of necessity, the vines are dry-farmed in a dense one-meter-by-one-meter planting. It is a fierce, tough way to grow grapes, and that instantly comes through in the wine.
"When you don't water a vine, they actually become acclimatized to no water and they regulate themselves," Jordan pointed out when I called him.
If Syrah often is tinkered with, Jordan insists that "this is about as unmanipulated a wine as you can get." His meager harvest of estate fruit (just 136 cases worth) was fermented in whole grape clusters; foot-treaded; and then aged in about 40 percent new oak. That's not insubstantial, but there's nary an oak note to the wine.
Using whole clusters (which, yes, I'm partial to) can pump up a wine's aromas, and this is packed with intense white white pepper and sea salt, plus candied violet, huckleberry and musk. The nose pretty well slaps you across the face.
Really, though, the tannins (from both fruit and stems) are the story. They pervade every bit of this wine's presence, yet they're broad and fine and simply providing a titanium-strong backbone. While it's not a small wine (14.8 percent alcohol) it doesn't stumble in those steel-toed boots. It reminded me of the fiercest, most long-lived examples of Cornas. Clape, maybe.
After tasting the wine and writing notes, I left the Failla wine on the counter and ignored it.
Forward one week. Quickly doing a standard check before I dumped the wine, I poured a bit. Still fresh, still whomping with spice, still a chewy mouthful of elegant tannin. I couldn't stop drinking the splash I'd poured.
Roll forward another five days. Still all there. The fruit was a touch dented, but the wine's guts were intact. Its aromatic punch made it the wine that stuck in my mind at evening's end.
Nineteen days and counting. It was certainly starting to fade, but still compelling. This with nothing to protect it but a cork and its innate structure.
Quite simply, this doesn't happen to red wines. We often think of tannins' antioxidant qualities allowing a wine to age for years in the closed environment of the bottle. But when exposed to air, that timeline shrinks drastically. There was no dark magic afoot: the bottle was at San Francisco room temperature, the wine was in partial sunlight, not getting cooked but not being chilled. Here was simply an example of grapes' own composition working in their favor.
It turns out that Jordan is quite taken with the wine too, which happens among winemakers less than you'd expect. At a recent dinner with Larry Turley (for whom he makes Turley Zinfandels) the two not only finished one bottle but opened a second � a rare event, Jordan pointed out, at his dinner table.
Next time I hear a rhapsody for supple textures and softened tannins, I'll counter with this bottle. When a wine can pull off such a feat, its fearlessness deserves to be rewarded.
Posted By: Jon Bonn�</a> (Email, Twitter) | December 02 2009 at 01:30 PM
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Sounds like a great wine to try: The Cellarist : Nineteen days of Syrah
Monday, November 30, 2009
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Palin's Bus Hoax - The Daily Beast
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Sara D. Davis / Getty Images On her book tour, Sarah Barracuda pretends to be one of the people. But she's really winging across the country on a private jet.
As much of her entourage, including HarperCollins publicist Tina Andreadis, risked a collective case of White Line Fever, covering more than 3,000 road miles during the book tour’s first week, Sarah Palin herself seems to have remained above it all, apparently cosseted in the luxury of a Gulfstream II 12-passenger jet rented from Universal Jet Aviation of Boca Raton, Florida, at a cost of more than $4,000 per hour.
More than two weeks ago, quoting Andreadis, USA Today reported that Palin would be “making two and sometimes three stops a day, traveling in a bus painted with the cover of her book.” And just before the tour started, Palin herself said on her Facebook page: “I’ll post our progress from the road.” To further the illusion, the populist heroine gave televised interviews from the bus, including one to Greta Van Susteren en route to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
To further the illusion, the populist heroine gave televised interviews from the bus, including one to Greta Van Susteren en route to Fort Bragg.
Last week I was in The Villages, the fantastical Back to the Future-style retirement enclave north of Orlando, when Palin popped out the front door of the bus to greet the thousand or so worshipers gathered outside Barnes & Noble. I thought she sure looked good for someone who had been riding a bus for a week, changing diapers—as she said—all the way. Publicist Andreadis, by contrast, had the worn and harried look of someone who had been earning an honest living by riding a bus for a week.
It seems now that Palin hasn’t been on the bus, except for short hops between local airports and hotels and book-signing sites. Instead, as first reported by the Alaskan blog Palingates, she’s apparently been aboard UJT750, the Gulfstream American twin-jet that she first boarded at Westchester County airport shortly after noon on November 18, bound for Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the first stop on her tour.
The full activity log for UJT750 can be found here. The bottom line is that the plane’s goings and comings track Palin’s tour perfectly: from Grand Rapids to Washington, Pa. and then to Rochester, N.Y., Roanoke, Va., Fayetteville, N.C., Birmingham, Ala., and Jacksonville and Orlando.
On November 25, the plane carried Palin, her parents, her two youngest children and her Aunt Katie to Pasco, Washington, for Thanksgiving. And there it sat, at Tri-Cities Airport in Pasco, for four full days, which is a lot of inactivity for a plane that rents for more than $4,000 an hour. But it was Thanksgiving weekend and the Pasco-Richland area was where Palin wanted to be.
Palin apparently returned to New York Sunday night. At least UJT750 was scheduled to take off from Tri-Cities at 6:55 p.m. EST with an 11:30 p.m. arrival at Teterboro, N.J., anticipated. Her next signing is not until Thursday, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Presumably, she’ll fly to Fayetteville and then board her bus again for the short ride to the local Sam’s Club. Presumably, she’ll also fly over the much greater distances that separate the stops on the western half of her tour, which stretches from Dallas to Minneapolis. Will she continue to pretend she’s riding the bus?
I emailed Tina Andreadis and Jonathan Burnham, HarperCollins’s publisher, yesterday to ask:
--How much is Universal Jet Aviation charging?
--Is HarperCollins paying?
--Will Sarah continue to fly throughout the second half of the tour?
--Does anyone else ever ride on the plane with her?
--Can you give me a list of where she actually stayed overnight from Nov. 18 until her arrival in Tri-Cities?
--I assume she did not use her own name checking in: Can you comment on my information that she used "Sheeran," her mother's maiden name?
--In regard to the other plane used on Nov. 19-20 in Ohio and Indiana, was that supplied by [Billy Graham’s son] Franklin Graham?
Burnham did not reply. Andreadis wrote back: “Harper has no comment on the logistics of its tours.”
Oddly, Palin herself let the mask slip a couple of times on Twitter. At 9:48 p.m. on Nov. 21, she wrote, “Just got off flt.” A few hours later, she wrote, “Landed in VA.” Other than that, except for the side trip to Asheville, N.C., for dinner with Billy Graham—aircraft provided by Billy’s son, Franklin, and his evangelical organization Samaritan’s Purse—Palin has played along with the charade. Indeed, she may have insisted on the charade.
There is, of course, nothing the least bit inappropriate about flying from place to place on a book tour. Back in the day when publishers still sent non-celebrity authors out in public, I flew on all of mine. It’s the only sensible approach. And if someone will spring for an executive jet, all the better. On the other hand, nobody tried to pretend I was riding a bus.
What’s wrong in this instance is the apparent fakery created and sustained for the sake of building pseudo-populist appeal—and selling books. Sarah Palin and HarperCollins have consciously tried to give the impression that she is doing her book tour by bus when the evidence suggests she is not. At every stop, she’s been filmed getting off Big Blue looking rested and radiant. She dazzles onlookers and interviewers with her seemingly bottomless reserves of energy. And no one suspects she may secretly be hopping on and off her main means of transport, UJT750, and resting up in hotels.
Both Palin and the publishing house that has invested so many millions of dollars in her seem to have felt it would send the wrong message to let the “common-sense conservative” be seen winging her away across the country just like any other good old-fashioned Republican CEO.
The people with whom I spent 18 hours in The Villages last week, waiting for Palin, would not begrudge her the luxury jet. But they’re not going to like hearing they’ve been had.
Joe McGinniss is the bestselling author of The Selling of the President, Fatal Vision and Never Enough, among others. His next book, tentatively titled Sarah Palin’s Year of Living Dangerously, will be published by Broadway Books in 2011.
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Why should we be surprised? She never wore all those clothes that the Republican Committee bought for her, either, right?
Ark. Gov. Huckaby granted clemency to man sought in Sunday's police slaughter - Seattle Times
Originally published Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 5:45 PM
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Maurice Clemmons, man wanted for questioning, has troubling criminal history
The man sought for questioning in the execution of four Lakewood police officers was granted clemency in 2000 by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and released on bail just six days ago on a child rape charge in Washington state.
Maurice Clemmons
Maurice Clemmons, the 37-year-old Tacoma man being sought for questioning in the killing this morning of four Lakewood police officers, has a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health.
Nine years ago, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors.
"This is the day I've been dreading for a long time," Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for Arkansas' Pulaski County said tonight when informed that Clemmons was being sought for questioning in connection with the killings.
Clemmons' criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and at least eight felony charges in Washington. The record also stands out for the number of times he has been released from custody despite questions about the danger he posed.
Huckabee, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination last year, issued a statement tonight calling the slaying of the police officers "a horrible and tragic event."
If Clemmons is found responsible, "it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State," Huckabee said.
He added that Clemmons' release from prison had been reviewed and approved by the Arkansas parole board.
Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child. He was released from custody just six days ago, even though was staring at seven additional felony charges in Washington state.
Clemmons posted $15,000 with a Chehalis company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds. The bondsman, in turn, put up $150,000, securing Clemmons' release on the pending child-rape charge.
Clemmons lives in Tacoma, where he has run a landscaping and power-washing business out of his house, according to a police interview with his wife earlier this year.
He was married, but the relationship was tumultuous, with accounts of his unpredictable behavior leading to at least two confrontations with police earlier this year.
During the confrontation in May, Clemmons punched a sheriff's deputy in the face, according to court records. As part of that incident, he was charged with seven counts of assault and malicious mischief.
In another instance, Clemmons was accused of gathering his wife and young relatives around at 3 or 4 in the morning and having them all undress. He told them that families need to "be naked for at least 5 minutes on Sunday," a Pierce County sheriff's report says.
"The whole time Clemmons kept saying things like trust him, the world is going to end soon, and that he was Jesus," the report says.
As part of the child-rape investigation, the sheriff's office interviewed Clemmons' sister in May. She told them that "Maurice is not in his right mind and did not know how he could react when contacted by Law Enforcement," a sheriff's report says.
"She stated that he was saying that the secret service was coming to get him because he had written a letter to the President. She stated his behavior has become unpredictable and erratic. She suspects he is having a mental breakdown," the report says.
Deputies also interviewed other family members. They reported that Clemmons had been saying he could fly and that he expected President Obama to visit to "confirm that he is Messiah in the flesh."
Prosecutors in Pierce County were sufficiently concerned about Clemmons' mental health that they asked to have him evaluated at Western State Hospital. Earlier this month, on Nov. 6, a psychologist concluded that Clemmons was competent to stand trial on the child-rape and other felony charges, according to court records.
Clemmons moved Washington in 2004, after being released from prison in Arkansas, state Department of Corrections records indicate. That would mean he had gone five years or so before landing in serious trouble with authorities here, according to a review of his criminal record.
Clemmons started Sea-Wash Pressure Washing Landscaping with his wife, Nicole Smith, in October 2005. The license for the business expired last month.
Long history of trouble in Arkansas
News accounts out of Arkansas offer a confusing � and, at times, conflicting � description of Clemmons' criminal history and prison time.
In 1990, Clemmons, then 18, was sentenced in Arkansas to 60 years in prison for burglary and theft of property, according to a news account in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Newspaper stories describe a series of disturbing incidents involving Clemmons while he was being tried in Arkansas on various charges.
During one trial, Clemmons was shackled in leg irons and seated next to a uniformed officer. The presiding judge ordered the extra security because he felt Clemmons had threatened him, court records show.
Another time, Clemmons hid a hinge in his sock, and was accused of intending to use it as a weapon. Yet another time, Clemmons took a lock from a holding cell, and threw it toward the bailiff. He missed and instead hit Clemmons' mother, who had come to bring him street clothes, according to records and published reports.
On another occasion, Clemmons had reached for a guard's pistol during transport to the courtroom.
When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons' sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.
Clemmons served 11 years before being released.
News accounts say Huckabee commuted Clemmons' sentence, citing Clemmons' young age at the time the crimes were committed.
But Clemmons remained on parole � and soon after landed in trouble again. In March 2001, he was accused of violating his parole by committing aggravated robbery and theft, according to a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
He was returned to prison on a parole violation. But in what appears to have been a mistake, Clemmons was not actually served with the arrest warrants until leaving prison three years later. As a result, Clemmons' attorney argued that the charges should be dismissed because too much time had passed. Prosecutors dropped the charges.
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Comments (421)I'm as liberal as they come, but criminals like this should never see the light of day. Posted on November 29, 2009 at 5:56 PM by EvergreenStater. Jump to commentGee, a repeat felon, including child rapist, was set free to kill. I guess we needed the prison space for drug offenders, who are a real threat... Posted on November 29, 2009 at 5:56 PM by sage_commander. Jump to commentWHY THE HELL IS THIS MAN OUT OF JAIL?!?!? Whoever is responsible for allowing this man out of jail, should go to prison. I know people who are... Posted on November 29, 2009 at 5:56 PM by Gasoline. Jump to comment
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? USDA web site answers.
I happened upon this gem this morning when checking on the USDA's food safety web site ("Ask Karen") on a poultry question. Personally, I was pleased that the folks behind this web site a) had the sense of humor to include the question and b) relied on a scientific answer, and a citation for further information.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Answer Eggs existed long before chickens, according to On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. These all-in-one reproductive cells, incorporating the nutrients to support life, evolved about a billion years ago. The first eggs were hatched in the ocean. As animal life emerged from the water about 250 million years ago, they began producing an egg with a tough leathery skin to prevent dehydration of its contents on dry land. The chicken evolved only about 5,000 years ago from an Asian bird.
White House: State dinner crashers met Obama
White House: State dinner crashers met Obama
WASHINGTON - This time, the picture is the story. After the Secret Service insisted that President Barack Obama was never endangered by a security breach that allowed a couple to crash his first state dinner, the White House has released a photo showing that not only did the pair get close to Obama, they actually shook hands and talked to him. As the White House was disclosing that the Virginia couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, met Obama in the receiving line, a "deeply concerned and embarrassed" Secret Service on Friday acknowledged that its officers never checked whether the two were on the guest list before letting them onto the White House grounds. The White House released a photo showing the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held. Obama and reality TV hopeful Michaele Salahi are smiling as she grasps his right hand with both of hers and her husband looks on. Singh is standing to Obama's left. The Secret Service earlier this week had said the president was not in danger because the couple - like others at the dinner - had gone through magnetometers. But in light of their close proximity to the president, no such claim was made Friday. The Salahis were not on the guest list and should have been barred from entering last Tuesday's dinner on the White House South Lawn for the prime minister of India, said Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. Sullivan said the agency that protects the president is "deeply concerned and embarrassed" that procedures were not followed. "As our investigation continues, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure this is not repeated," Sullivan said in a written statement. "The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list," Sullivan said. "Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely. That failing is ours." Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin said officers at the checkpoint had a clipboard with names of the invited guests. Even though the Salahis names weren't on it, they were allowed to proceed. The officers should have called someone on the White House staff or Secret Service personnel before allowing them past the checkpoint, Mackin said. Earlier, Mackin said the Secret Service may pursue a criminal investigation of the Salahis. Sullivan said it wasn't good enough that his agency screened more than 1.2 million visitors last year to the White House complex and protected more than 10,000 sites for the president, vice president and others. "Even with these successes, we need to be right 100 percent of the time," he said. It is unclear what the couple told officers at the checkpoint that allowed them to go through the security screening. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully falsify statements on matters within the federal government's jurisdiction. "As this moves closer to a criminal investigation there's less that we can say," Mackin said. "We're not leaving any option off the table at this point." White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said the Secret Service will take appropriate action once the review is completed. "The men and women of the Secret Service put their lives on the line everyday to protect us. They are heroes and they have the full confidence of the president of the United States," Shapiro said. The Salahis lawyer, Paul Gardner, posted a comment on their Facebook page saying, "My clients were cleared by the White House, to be there." He said more information would be forthcoming. Several messages left at Gardner's law firm on Friday were not returned. Bravo Media has confirmed that Michaele Salahi is being considered as a participant in the upcoming "The Real Housewives of D.C." program and on the day of the dinner was being filmed by Half Yard Productions, the producer of the program. "Half Yard Productions was told by Michaele and Tareq Salahi that they had been invited to the State Dinner. We took them at their word and filmed their preparations for the event. Half Yard Productions had no part in planning their presence at the event," said Abby Greensfelder of Half Yard Productions. Photos on the couple's Facebook page they previously had gotten close to Obama. One photo, apparently taken in the days before Obama took the oath of office, shows the Salahis in a group shot with Obama and some of the musicians who performed at an inaugural concert. Other photos show the Salahis in the empty, glass-enclosed box from which the Obamas watched the concert and, according to the caption, "backstage with the Secret Service at the Lincoln Memorial during the Presidential Inauguration." ---- Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer
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Monday, November 23, 2009
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The restaurant cheese plate crisis
With the increasing supply of artisan cheeses throughout the United States, one might wonder why any restaurant presents anything but a carefully selected, thoughtfully plated cheese selection. Regretfully, cheese wizards from coast to coast are finding artistry sadly lacking in too many cheese plate production lines. For more, check out my post at WineAndFoodWorld.com.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sustainable fishing advocates aiming to curb bycatch kills
In yet another example of how industrial fishing operations endanger the future of fish, the waters of the Pacific now are dotted with man-made "reefs" known as "FADs" or "fish aggregating devices." Created as a response to calls for "Dolphin-safe tuna," these FADs appear to be doing far more harm than good.
For details and to follow Casson Trenor's reporting from a Greenpeace vessel over the next several weeks, go to http://www.sustainablesushi.net/2009/11/05/skipjack-seiners-and-the-sea/. His blog on keeping the supply of fish safe is well worth following at other times, too.
New Yorker cartoon pokes fun at foodies
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Another signal to run the other way:
Another signal to run the other way:
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
An observation about Americans
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Organic baby food recall
KCBS 740AM/106.9FM (@KCBSNews):10/19/09 10:15 PM
Plum Organics Baby Food Recall http://easyuri.com/38dd6
Sunday, October 18, 2009
If balloon boy was a hoax, why is it still dominating news?
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Why is the media obsessed with the baloon boy hoax?
I think the most remarkable -- and disturbing -- things about this "balloon boy" crap is how many AP journalists names are listed as contributing to the coverage. Wonder how many are assigned to health care or other stories that actually have an impact on people.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Japan chef creates Obama sushi
Click on the link to see pictures that are almost as remarkable as the Chia Obama. Monday, October 12, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
California govt needs reform
Get Off Obama's Back ...second thoughts from Michael Moore
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Michael Moore" <maillist@michaelmoore.com>
Date: October 10, 2009 2:53:17 PM PDT
To: dlevy@nasw.org
Subject: Get Off Obama's Back ...second thoughts from Michael Moore
Reply-To: maillist@michaelmoore.com
Get Off Obama's Back ...second thoughts from Michael Moore
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
Friends,
Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize. "No, I don't think so," I replied. I thought it was important to remind him he's now conducting the two wars he's inherited. "Yeah," she said, "but to tell him, 'Now earn it!'? Give the guy a break -- this is a great day for him and for all of us."
I went back and re-read what I had written. And I listened for far too long yesterday to the right wing hate machine who did what they could to crap all over Barack's big day. Did I -- and others on the left -- do the same?
We are weary, weary of war. The trillions that will have gone to these two wars have helped to bankrupt us as a nation -- financially and morally. To think of all the good we could have done with all that money! Two months of the War in Iraq would pay for all the wells that need to be dug in the Third World for drinking water! Obama is moving too slow for most of us -- but he needs to know we are with him and we stand beside him as he attempts to turn eight years of sheer madness around. Who could do that in nine months? Superman? Thor? Mitch McConnell?
Instead of waiting to see what the president is going to do, we all need to be pro-active and push the agenda that we want to see enacted. What keeps us from forming the same local groups we put together to get out the vote last November? C'mon! We're the majority now -- the majority by a significant margin! We call the shots -- and we need to tell this wimpy Congress to get busy and do what we say -- or else.
All I ask of those who voted for Obama is to not pile on him too quickly. Yes, make your voice heard (his phone number is 202-456-1414). But don't abandon the best hope we've had in our lifetime for change. And for God's sake, don't head to bummerville if he says or does something we don't like. Do you ever see Republicans behave that way? I mean, the Right had 20 years of Republican presidents and they still couldn't get prayer in the public schools, or outlaw abortion, or initiate a flat tax or put our Social Security into the stock market. They did a lot of damage, no doubt about that, but on the key issues that the Christian Right fought for, they came up nearly empty handed. No wonder they've been driven crazy lately. They'll never have it as good again as they've had it since Reagan took office.
But -- do you ever see them looking all gloomy and defeated? No! They keep on fighting! Every day. Our side? At the first sign of wavering, we just pack up our toys and go home.
So, at least for this weekend, let us celebrate what people elsewhere are celebrating -- that America now has a sane and smart man in the White House, a man who truly wants a world at peace for his two daughters.
Many, for the past couple days (yes, myself included), have grumbled, "What has he done to earn this prize?" How 'bout this:
The simple fact that he was elected was reason enough for him to be the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Because on that day the murderous actions of the Bush/Cheney years were totally and thoroughly rebuked. One man -- a man who opposed the War in Iraq from the beginning -- offered to end the insanity. The world has stood by in utter horror for the past eight years as they watched the descendants of Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson light the fuse of our own self-destruction. We flipped off the nations on this planet by abandoning Kyoto and then proceeded to melt eight more years worth of the polar ice caps. We invaded two nations that didn't attack us, failed to find the real terrorists and, in effect, ignited our own wave of terror. People all over the world wondered if we had gone mad.
And if all that wasn't enough, the outgoing Joker presided over the worst global financial collapse since the Great Depression.
So, yeah, at precisely 11:00pm ET on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. And the 66 million people who voted for him won it, too. By the time he took the stage at midnight ET in the Grant Park Historic Hippie Battlefield in downtown Chicago, billions of people around the globe were already breathing a huge sigh of relief. It was as if, in that instant, one man did bring the promise of peace to the world -- and most were ready to go wherever he wanted to go to achieve that end. Never before had the election of one man made every other nation feel like they had won, too. When you've got billions of people ready, willing and able to join a cause like this, well, a prize in Oslo is the least that you deserve.
One other thought. The Peace Prize historically has been given to those who have worked to throw off the yoke of racial discrimination and segregation (Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu). I think the Nobel committee, in awarding Obama the prize, was also rewarding the fact that something profound had happened in a nation that was founded on racial genocide, built on racist slavery, and held back for a hundred-plus years by vestiges of hateful bigotry (which can still be found on display at teabagger rallies and daily talk radio). The fact that this one man could cause this seismic historical event to occur -- and to do so with such grace and humility, never succumbing to the bait, but still not backing down (yes, he asked to be sworn in as "Barack Hussein Obama"!) -- is more than reason enough he should be in Oslo to meet the King on December 10. Maybe he could take us along with him. 'Cause I also suspect the Nobel committee was tipping its hat to all of us -- we, the American people, had conquered some of our racism and did the truly unexpected. After seeing searing images of our black fellow citizens left to drown in New Orleans -- and poor whites seeing their own treated no better than the black man they had been raised to hate -- we had all seen enough. It was time for change.
Thank you, Barack Obama, for giving us the opportunity to redeem ourselves. Now for the tasks ahead. We need you to do all that you promised to do. We need it. The world needs it.
My prediction for the future? You become the first *two-time* winner of the Nobel Peace Prize! Yeah!
Fred (that's Norwegian for "Peace"),
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
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Friday, October 9, 2009
Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!
I agree with some of @MMFlint / Michael Moore's comments below about President Obama's Nobel Prize. What do you think?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Moore <maillist@michaelmoore.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Subject: Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!
To: dlevy@nasw.org
Congratulations President Obama on the Nobel Peace Prize -- Now Please Earn it!
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Dear President Obama,
How outstanding that you've been recognized today as a man of peace. Your swift, early pronouncements -- you will close Guantanamo, you will bring the troops home from Iraq, you want a nuclear weapon-free world, you admitted to the Iranians that we overthrew their democratically-elected president in 1953, you made that great speech to the Islamic world in Cairo, you've eliminated that useless term "The War on Terror," you've put an end to torture -- these have all made us and the rest of the world feel a bit more safe considering the disaster of the past eight years. In eight months you have done an about face and taken this country in a much more sane direction.
But...
The irony that you have been awarded this prize on the 2nd day of the ninth year of our War in Afghanistan is not lost on anyone. You are truly at a crossroads now. You can listen to the generals and expand the war (only to result in a far-too-predictable defeat) or you can declare Bush's Wars over, and bring all the troops home. Now. That's what a true man of peace would do.
There is nothing wrong with you doing what the last guy failed to do -- capture the man or men responsible for the mass murder of 3,000 people on 9/11. BUT YOU CANNOT DO THAT WITH TANKS AND TROOPS. You are pursuing a criminal, not an army. You do not use a stick of dynamite to get rid of a mouse.
The Taliban is another matter. That is a problem for the people of Afghanistan to resolve -- just as we did in 1776, the French did in 1789, the Cubans did in 1959, the Nicaraguans did in 1979 and the people of East Berlin did in 1989. One thing is certain through all revolutions by people who wish to be free -- they ultimately have to bring about that freedom themselves. Others can be supportive, but freedom can not be delivered from the front seat of someone else's Humvee.
You have to end our involvement in Afghanistan now. If you don't, you'll have no choice but to return the prize to Oslo.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.comP.S. Your opposition has spent the morning attacking you for bringing such good will to this country. Why do they hate America so much? I get the feeling that if you found the cure for cancer this afternoon they'd be denouncing you for destroying free enterprise because cancer centers would have to close. There are those who say you've done nothing yet to deserve this award. As far as I'm concerned, the very fact that you've offered to walk into the minefield of hate and try to undo the irreparable damage the last president did is not only appreciated by me and millions of others, it is also an act of true bravery. That's why you got the prize. The whole world is depending on the U.S. -- and you -- to literally save this planet. Let's not let them down.
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Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Breaking News: CBO Says Senate Health-Care Bill Would Reduce Deficit
Begin forwarded message:
From: "The Washington Post" <newsletters@email.washingtonpost.com>
Date: October 7, 2009 1:28:30 PM PDT
To: dlevy@nasw.org
Subject: Breaking News: CBO Says Senate Health-Care Bill Would Reduce Deficit
Reply-To: "The Washington Post" <newslettersTUNMY9.276529@email.washingtonpost.com>
News Alert - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/SFBD1U/5161X/NJQC5K/O1QAKI/1CH2M/UP/t
04:22 PM EDT Wednesday, October 7, 2009
CBO Says Senate Health-Care Bill Would Reduce Deficit - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/SFBD1U/5161X/NJQC5K/O1QAKI/X8UOA/UP/t
A bill drafted by the Senate Finance Committee would cost $829 billion over the next decade, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said today, and meet President Obama's goal to reduce the federal budget deficit.
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com - http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/SFBD1U/5161X/NJQC5K/O1QAKI/1CH24/UP/t
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Sunday, October 4, 2009
MacPhail's excellent pinots featured in SF Chronicle profile
Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle includes a profile of winemaker James MacPhail, who is making some of the best Sonoma Pinot Noirs that I have ever had. I especially agree with Jon Bonne's characterization of MacPhail's Goodin vineyard Pinot as darker and richer than typical, but absolutely delicious. Here's the link to the article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/02/FD5L19TVS5.DTL&type=wine.