Secrecy In The Cloud | Talking Points Memo

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asian slaw

very similar to below, but with cabbage. this would be a good candidate for some chiles (dried or fresh).

head napa cabbage, finely minced/shredded
1 large shallot (you could probably use 2 if you're up for it)
2 lemon cucumbers, diced
1 bunch cilantro

dressing:
1/2 c fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 c fish sauce
palm sugar (or regular sugar) to taste (try about 1 tbsp)

I always try to mince the cabbage up ahead of time and salt it to get some excess water out. Otherwise, it gets a bit watery.

thai cucumber salad

Ingredients:

Salad:
2 large cucumbers, quartered, seeded and sliced (about 2 cups)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1 cup of shallots, minced
1/4 cup of coconut flakes (optional)

Dressing:
about 1/4 cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons lime juice
about 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
about 1 tablespoon of palm sugar (white sugar is OK, reduce to 1/2 tablespoon)

She Also Goes to Brasseries, Looking for Lingerie.

Customer, after studying menu: Do you have turkey sandwiches?

Cashier: We're a Turkish restaurant, not turkey restaurant. We have lamb. (pointing towards large spinning leg on spit)
Customer: That's not turkey. (walks away)

--Bereket Turkish Restaurant

more food

Salt-Encrusted Potatoes

Ingredients
• 1 pound fingerling potatoes, washed
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup Kosher salt
• 2 garlic cloves, skins on
• 1 cup Italian parsley, washed, leaves only
• 1 cup cilantro, washed, leaves only
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Method
1. Put the potatoes, water, and Kosher salt into a pot and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. With a wooden skewer, test to see if they are tender. Pour off most of the water, reserving as much salt as possible.

2. Lower the heat and keep a watchful eye on the potatoes. The goal is to let the water evaporate so the potatoes are coated in salt. Be careful not to burn the salt or the potatoes. Cook another 3 to 4 minutes, then remove the potatoes and let cool.

3. Use a kitchen towel to wipe the excess salt off each potato, leaving only a light dusting of salt on each. Clean the potatoes one by one so the skins don't break.

4. To make the dipping sauce, start by putting the garlic cloves on a skewer. Char them on an open flame. Brush off the blackened skins and roughly chop. Place the parsley and cilantro leaves, the roasted garlic, black pepper, and olive oil into a mini-blender and puree to a smooth consistency.

5. Pour the sauce into a small bowl. Serve the potatoes and sauce at room temperature.

via

Tonight's Dinner

Here's a recipe I found for moose stew that I edited for personal preference. Thanks for the meat, Ernie!

First, shoot a moose ( or caribou, or deer, or cow).

Sift together 1/4 cup flour with 3/4 tsp salt, a few grains cayenne, dash of thyme, nutmeg, cloves. Put flour mixture in a large bowl or bag and add about 1 pound of moose round steak cut into one-inch cubes. Cover meat with flour mix.

Cook a mess of chopped bacon in a dutch oven to render its fat and sear meat all over. Add three thinly sliced onions. When meat and onions are well-browned, add 1 tblsp Worcestershire, 0.5 cups red burgundy [they say the cheaper the better, and that better be true. I have some royally shitty wine to use up], 5 clove garlic [the original said 1. hahahaha], tomato paste, chopped parsley or celery tops. From what I took from the Cook's Illustrated on goulash, make sure some tops of the meat are sticking above the liquid level in order to get some browning on the meat.

Cover pot and set in a 350 degree oven until tender. Add salt and pepper to taste, and mushrooms [no mushrooms this time, unfortunately]. Best if made a full day before and reheated. Serve over egg noodles.

Important: Obama sells out country to big pharma

From Ezra Klein:

There's been a lot of skepticism about the White House's strategy of cutting deals in which industry players voluntarily promise to save money over the next 10 years. The skepticism is simple enough: If the pharmaceutical companies are willing to save $80 billion as a favor to Barack Obama, that suggests there's a lot more than $80 billion that could, and probably should, be saved. As Nancy Pelosi told me, "The minute the drug companies settled for $80 billion, we knew it was $160 billion. Right? If they're giving away $80 billion?" A few minutes later, she suggested that maybe those agreements weren't inviolable. "The president made the agreements he made," she said. "And maybe we'll be limited by that. But maybe not!"

A front-page story in today's New York Times suggests that her optimism was misplaced. Billy Tauzin, head lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry, hasn't liked some of the cost-saving measures moving through the House. In particular, he's worried about provisions that would allow doctors to negotiate prices with Medicare. So he sat down with a reporter and gave up the game. The deal that the pharmaceutical companies made with the White House wasn't simply to offer up $80 billion in savings. It was to offer up $80 billion in savings so long as the White House promised to protect them from anything that would extract more than $80 billion in savings.

Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion.

Drug industry lobbyists reacted with alarm this week to a House health care overhaul measure that would allow the government to negotiate drug prices and demand additional rebates from drug manufacturers.

In response, the industry successfully demanded that the White House explicitly acknowledge for the first time that it had committed to protect drug makers from bearing further costs in the overhaul. The Obama administration had never spelled out the details of the agreement.

"We were assured: 'We need somebody to come in first. If you come in first, you will have a rock-solid deal,' " Billy Tauzin, the former Republican House member ...

Too Big A Taboo?

The most important takeaway from the whole Gates thing...

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Too Big A Taboo?

You might remember that bizarre story of the Democratic fundraiser out in the San Diego suburbs where an out of control Sheriff's Deputy ended up pepper spraying and throwing to the ground a group of harmless middle aged Dems and taking a couple of them into custody. This Gates story, while it adds the potent addition of race, in many ways gets at a similar issue. Police officers don't get fancy wages. But they put themselves in harm's way for us everyday. And they deserve our respect and our appreciation. But they also work for us. And you do have these cases where people get arrested or knocked around for basically nothing, or at worst mouthing off a bit or not being deferential enough.

Along those lines, TPM Reader NL has this to say ...

I was taken a little aback when Obama used the word "stupidly" last night to describe the actions of the Cambridge Police. Even if his statement could have been worded more carefully, I think the whole controversy brings up an issue that needs to be discussed and is very rarely discussed in a public policy sense. I am not referring to racism. I am referring to the power of the police. With good reason, we praise our police officers on a local, state, and national level. They put their lives on the line for us everyday. No one can doubt the nobility and honor of the profession. It is seldom publicly acknowledged or debated that the police wield great power in the lives of everyday citizens. A decade ago, I worked as an attorney in a fairly large Public Defender's Office. My clients were indigent and many of them were people of color. So, I know a little about police power as well as how persons of low income and color are treated in our criminal justice system. For me, though, the issue is not about race only. It is about the power the police have to arrest someone whether or not a crime took place. Sure, mistakes will happen, and most officers will try not to make an arrest if it is unnecessary. We all know (maybe not Prof. Gates) not to anger a police officer. I had so many cases in which someone cursed at an officer or made a gesture to an officer and ended up spending the night in jail. Prof. Gates spent four hours in jail. Even though his charge was dropped, I'm sure that time in jail for a law-abiding citizen was utterly horrendous. There simply is no reason to arrest someone for hurting your feelings or making an ugly gesture at you. It is not against the law in most contexts. In addition, I can assure you that most people who walk into a court room in a case in which it is the officer's word against him or her (a law-abiding citizen) is at a superior disadvantage. An overwhelming majority of judges simply will not believe the law-abiding citizen over the police off...