All Together Now

There is no such thing as "grey rape".

Fuck you very much.

Chang'e

This is your moment

With Super Tuesday coming up I though I would pass this on...

Senator Clinton is hosting a Monday Night conversation and is asking people to go to this site and ask her a question.  It will be aired on both the Hallmark Channel (not something I usually watch) and at HillaryClinton.com. Sounds like it could be a great opportunity to find out what she's all about.

I know I'll be there!

Hey, am I endorsing too much?

Is the Apocalypse Nigh?

Did I hear this right?  Is this really what she said?  ZOMG!

A little Robot Chicken to calm your fears.  Don't forget to stock up on bottled water...

Just so we don't forget

In all the hullaballo surrounding the very important question of WHO gets to move into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. next January, let's not overlook who we send to DC to work with her(or him)

The following senators' terms expire this year.
Check them out & see who's worth re-electing, and who needs to get fired.

Democrats
Baucus, Max (D-MT)
Biden, Joseph R., Jr. (D-DE)
Durbin, Richard (D-IL)
Harkin, Tom (D-IA)
Johnson, Tim (D-SD)
Kerry, John F. (D-MA)
Landrieu, Mary L. (D-LA)
Lautenberg, Frank R. (D-NJ)
Levin, Carl (D-MI)
Pryor, Mark L. (D-AR)
Reed, Jack (D-RI)
Rockefeller, John D., IV (D-WV)


Republicans
Alexander, Lamar (R-TN)
Allard, Wayne (R-CO)
Chambliss, Saxby (R-GA)
Cochran, Thad (R-MS)
Coleman, Norm (R-MN)
Collins, Susan M. (R-ME)
Cornyn, John (R-TX)
Craig, Larry E. (R-ID)
Dole, Elizabeth (R-NC)
Domenici, Pete V. (R-NM)
Enzi, Michael B. (R-WY)
Graham, Lindsey (R-SC)
Hagel, Chuck (R-NE)
Inhofe, James M. (R-OK)
McConnell, Mitch (R-KY)
Roberts, Pat (R-KS)
Sessions, Jeff (R-AL)
Smith, Gordon H. (R-OR)
Stevens, Ted (R-AK)
Sununu, John E. (R-NH)
Warner, John (R-VA)



You can find your Representative here
The House website wasn't as cut-and dried easy to find who was elected when, but when I get a chance to do some looking, I'll try to post a link.

Crushing on My Other Boyfriend

I so need to work promotions for this soda campaign!

*Update*  apologies as I am new at working with video here!  I will fix it!  I will fix it!

The Nail on the Head

And I think Clinton hit it!

Did anyone else get to see tonight's Democratic Debate on CNN?  I happen to have had the luck of being detained...err...in a waiting room while it was on.  For the first time, I think, I have gotten to see the subtle differences between the two front runner platforms.  

At casual glance, which I am pretty sure is what a majority of American voters today are giving this race, Clinton and Obama are fairly equal...not a whole lot going on politically that is crazy different.  It is a matter of subtleties...and as RQ pointed out to me earlier today, it's a matter of mandates as well.  The biggest differences in their plans are in Health Care.

And even that isn't huge on the surface.

On the surface, they both want to cap premiums, and widen coverage.  They want to make sure that children and the poor can get insurance.  They want to make sure that health care is accessible, and that if your local clinic or hospital closes that you will still be able to receive care.

Obama wants to "maintain our choices".  He wants to allow people who already have private insurance to continue to enjoy what they have (and in theory that is fine and dandy).  He doesn't want to make his health care plan mandatory.  At quick glance that sounds good...who doesn't love having the choice to choose?

But the problem comes w/ the guesstimate of 15 Million people who would "choose" to not have insurance under his Health Care Plan.  The people who already can't afford insurance would still possibly not be able to afford it, and now it looks like they are simply "choosing" to not buy it.  Then later if they become ill and have to receive emergency room treatment, there seems to be a system of fines or penalties designed to have the recipient pay arrearage for the coverage they should have had.  He wants the people who would deem themselves as not needing insurance (because they are young and healthy, 18-25 y/o who think they are invincible) to be able to be covered under their parent's plan until 25.  There is a big difference between not being able to afford insurance and not having the sense the creator gave you when she split ya to see that everyone is mortal.  Now we have people being covered because of privilege and the ones who desperately need insurance still out in the cold.  But did I hear him correctly?  Did he say he doesn't think that 15 million is accurate?  Some one correct me please!

It doesn't make sense if it isn't mandatory.

Now that I have paid attention, I see the difference.  Clinton's plan, while more expensive in theory (still cheaper than what we are pissing away on health care now, more than any other country) covers everyone.  Say it together now, EVERYONE.  And that is the first step to becoming a healthier nation.  Basic health care, for men and women, that is affordable and accessible to all.  This also means stopping companies from "cherry picking" healthy clients, and eliminating disqualifications for pre-existing conditions.  She even wants to push to make medical records electronic, so that no matter where you are, there your medical history will be!  She wants truly universal health care.

And in Senator Clinton's words, you can't call yourself a Democrat if you aren't willing to fight for Universal Health Care.

Preach it sister!

And I think today is the day I have finally drawn the line.  I will gladly support any candidate on the Dem side over the Rethugs...but twelve gods I hope it's Clinton.

Seriously.

And also, thanks to Red Queen for the invite to write here!  I hope this babble makes more sense than it feels like it does.

Science is Cool!

This is awesome news. I must admit to being a wee bit of a geek about cell workings. My favorite part of science class was drawing cell diagrams and I love finding out about the awesome things our cells can do. (Yes I am a dork, shut up).

A few years ago (in a botany class of all places. I have the world's largest black thumb but for some reason I thought botany would be like a romantic Merchant ivory film where we spent hours drawing pretty pictures of plants and their parts. Instead we had to ACTUALLY GROW THINGS! I can't do that.) I saw a film about how cancer and HIV are the flip sides of the same coin. Normal, healthy cells will kill themselves when they've outlived their usefulness. This is called Programed Cell Death. In cancer, the suicide mechanism gets shut off and the cells that should be dead build up into tumors. In HIV, cells that are healthy commit suicide for no reason. So it makes total sense that cancer and HIV research has a lot in common.

But HIV is a smart virus. It adapts so that drug therapy becomes less effective and it acts a bit like a cancer when it gets into microphage cells, making them live much longer than they are supposed too rather than killing them off so that there is always a residual pool of HIV in the body.

So along comes the drug miltefosine, which is already used to treat leishmaniasis, an parasite infection caused by sandfly bites. Miltefosine kills microphage cells and may work to deplete residual HIV pools. Because miltefosine is already approved for use in humans, testing can be fast tracked to see if it will work in HIV patients. Yay!

RQ Cooks plus how the poor get their party on

So payday isn't till Thursday and the fridge still hasn't been restocked since our little electricity debacle. I'm scrounging around to keep us fed this week and resorted to the poor man's meat- beans!

I have this awesome recipe for Cuban black bean soup, but I was missing one key ingredient- a large can of tomatoes. So I did what any good cook will do and improvised. I used a large can of enchilada sauce instead and it turned out quite tasty. I also skipped the sherry vinegar and a few other things cause I don't follow directions well. Sue me.

So Cuban Black Bean Soup (spicy and vegan till you add the cheese- woot)

vegetable oil
1 pound black turtle beans, washed and picked over but not soaked
2 stalks of celery, diced
1 large yellow onion
2 carrots, diced
1 28oz can of enchilada sauce
2 bay leaves
pepper
salt
dash of favorite hot sauce (I like Tapatillo)
cheese, sour cream and/or chopped scallions for garnish

Preheat oven to 325. In a stock pot, sweat onions, celery and carrots in oil for about 3 minutes. Throw in enchilada sauce, beans, bay leaves and dash of hot sauce. Bring to boil. Cover pot and braise in oven for 2 hours.

Puree about 1/3 of the soup in a food processor (or if you have one of those handy immersion blenders, use that and know that I am JEALOUS AS ALL GET OUT)

Add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with cheese and scallions.

Now- how the poor get their party on.

Being friends with a whole bunch of poor struggling artsy types, we've decided to have a Soup Swap Party at my house next Saturday. Everyone brings a big pot of their fav soup and some take home containers. Then we all get together with some wine (okay a shitload of wine) and taste soups and take leftovers home so for the price of one meal we get many. I think I'm going to do Cheddar Chowder. It's equal parts cheese, potatoes and bechamel sauce and 100 percent rich yummy goodness. I'll post the recipe next week.