Hi friends. Today was a hot beautiful day here in the peninsula (midwest Bay Area). I'd imagine it got up to 100F which is a little hot for the garden. I took some photos today I'd like to share.
First I'd like to start with a request for your help. My friend Martin W, aka Alpolitics on dKos is taking a well deserved vacation with the family. He needs (and I would love to see) a few crossposts over to his site the Progressive Electorate. It's focused on elections, politicians and issues. Please come on by and crosspost something you've written, either recently, or something you wish had gotten more attention. There is no 3 paragraph rule so your diaries can be a link and a comment. It would be amazing if we could leave a nice little present at the Progressive Electorate in the form of ten to fifteen crossposts.
Here's a tiny rose I took a picture of, as I skillfully maneuvered the camera to avoid the thorns.
UPDATED 4X- This is going great!!
One crosspost so far, by JayinPortland.
Menu Labeling Bills In Congress
Two menu-labeling bills are currently in Congress. To be totally honest, I don't think either of them are strong enough; but there's one clear choice of the two. One is a weak, bare-bones, Applebee's and McDonald's-friendly bill introduced by Tom Carper ("D"-DE) and Lisa "Daddy Appointed Me To The US Senate" Murkowski (R-AK), which is being pushed by industry lobbyists, corporate Democrats and Republicans; while the other was introduced on Thursday by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).
Great diary and I'm so happy to see it crossposted.
Lenny, my ten month old kitten, was lying on the ground today to beat the heat
That's odd to see because since I got him his scratch tower he's been reluctant to give up that territory
Hunter was pooped after the short walk we went on today. I would have been too had I been wearing a fur coat in this warmth.
My country club is replacing the greens to a hybrid bent grass. Which is much nicer to putt on. In the background you can see Lake Merced (both the lake and the golf course).
The Olympic Club, San Francisco, CA
These are famous old palm trees. Rumor has it Jack Nicklaus was eager to see these on his first arrival to the OC.
So many nice old trees, pretty but dangerous, if you hear a crack sound from above start running.
Back home the golden marguerite flowers have been my favorite to photograph this year.
Now to the garden, this four year old navel orange tree has yet to produce a fruit. This year it has many small ones forming, I'm hopeful they will last this year. I put tanglefoot on the base of the trees and the ants seem to be leaving it alone. (now they're just going for my artichokes)
Snap peas in the background are ready to eat! These are fantastic and easy to grow, pest resistant.
Here's an overview of my main space, with grapes wine and table, strawberries, swiss chard, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, celery, tomatoes, artichoke, romaine lettuce, oregano, and all sorts of beans and watermelons that are behind those.
Here's the right hand side. You can see more types of tomatoes, many are heirloom and others are cherry tomatoes. Fennel, a radish here or there, carrots, onions.
This is very special. Tomatoes growing from seed from last years crops!! So awesome to see. I reached down to pull a weed and it was a tomato plant, now it's six inches tall and there are five or six more inch tall tom. plants. I'm hoping it's a black cherry variety that was my superstar last year.
The Swiss Chard does not seem to be enjoying this mini heatwave.
MMmmm delicious.
Here are my favorite pictures I've taken in the past in a slideshow. Please share your pictures with me in the comments.
Have a great evening and please help me out by visiting and/or crossposting at the Progressive Electorate
UPDATE 1: This diary is crossposted at the Progressive Electorate, and will be updated (I hope) to highlight any crossposted blogs that people post on P.E.
UPDATE 2: Thanks so much to slinkerwink for the second crosspost (not by me) over to the Progressive Electorate. Slinkerwink discusses the Unions excellent efforts and a surprising stance by Senator Ron Wyden on a public option for healthcare reform.
The unions such as the AFL-CIO and AFSCME, are ready to go to the mattress for us to defend the inclusion of the public option in health care reform. They stormed the halls of Congress last week, pressuring Senators and Representatives to keep the public option in any health care reform bill.
And to that, I say, THANK GOD FOR THE UNIONS!
Here's more behind the jump, including what Members of Congress said to these union members behind closed doors:...
When Ken Allen, the union's Oregon state chair, came out of a meeting with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) he told a gathering of fellow union members outside that the senator "wants to force everyone to buy health insurance and has no public section of his health care bill to cover the uninsured. We pushed him very hard on a public plan and he wants to tax our health benefits." The union members booed. Allen promised that unions in Oregon "will put the whoop on" Wyden to shift his positions.
Unions Ready To FIGHT For The Public Option In Health Care by slinkerwink! TY!
UPDATE 3: MinistryofTruth was very kind to add to the crosspost quilt a blog called Reality - No bid contracts at cost plus are why they tortured this great piece starts with David Waldman's comments about contractors that tortured for profit.
So, how do you grow an economy based on financial smoke and mirrors with decreasing real wages and tax cuts only for the rich? You invade a country of course! Privatize it's state industries, auction it off at a tenth it's value, cut state spending and taxes, encourage industry to invest, and let your buddies like Halliburton, KBR and others charge you ten times what they should with cost-plus no bid contracts for stuff our soldiers used to do professionally. Adding insult to injury, instead of buying the best armor we could for every soldier in the FOB, we hired a contractor who called a guy who called a guy who hired a subcontractor to build half a country for maximum profit.
Al Giordano from the Field was kind enough to let me add his post to the Progressive Electorate.
Huntsman to China: It's About Romney
Crossposted with Permission from The Field
By Al Giordano
When, a day before the 2008 Tsunami Tuesday primaries, Michelle Obama visited with top apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, eyebrows were raised. What was the Obama campaign doing reaching out to Mormons, some said, who have long been a reliable voting bloc for Republicans? Mormons for Obama had, in fact, been formed a year before that, even as former Mormon Bishop Mitt Romney was pursuing the Republican nomination for President.
The nomination, yesterday, of Utah Governor Jon Huntsman to be US Ambassador to the People's Republic of China - like Romney, a handsome and articulate boy-wonder billionaire of that faith - has those eyebrows wagging again...
UPDATE 4: Jill Richardson (OrangeClouds115 on dKos) and founder of La Vida Locavore c-posted a diary about a great new liberal radio network that she is working on.
If you know anything about me, you know that I am addicted to liberal radio. I love it because they cover the issues I care about, and I love it even more because it's all I've got. I can't watch TV because it gives me migraines. Some days when my head hurts it even hurts to read. So my most reliable and least painful form of news and entertainment is radio.
About the time I moved to San Diego from Madison, I got word that the Madison Air America station, The Mic 92.1, was going off the air. After listener protests, they actually stayed on the air. But that was a predictor of what was to come. San Diego lost ITS Air America radio station less than a year later. At that time, I was working in Dallas - another city that had lost its Air America station and had no progressive talk. My parents live in Chicago, a city with a crappy Air America signal that totally dies at night. And my grandmother lives in Phoenix, a city that lost its Air America station when some crazy Christians took it over, or something like that. They got a new station on the air at some point after that, but even that has gone under now. The casualty list is a long one.
Thanks Jill!
UPDATE 5:
Norm in atmore from Left in Alabama posted an amazing diary about this 'great' Nancy Pelosi controversy. Unreal diary!
No, the claim - the very most they can claim- is that seven years ago she was told that these techniques were in use and did nothing to stop them. That's the worst case scenario for Pelosi. If true, it would further lower my already low opinion of her, but what else would it really mean? When such briefings take place, they are done in a very specific way. Pelosi, as the briefee, was allowed no staff in the room, no ability to take notes of the proceedings, no access to the notes taken by the briefer. She was required to sign an oath to reveal nothing that she was told in the meetings. So, her ability to legally "do anything" about the policy was decidedly limited.
But, beyond that, Pelosi says that this is not what she was told. She says she was told only of their plans to have such techniques authorized and was never told that they were already in use. So we have a "he said-she said" moment. But I see it more as a "he said-she said-who cares?" moment. Because what Nancy Pelosi did or did not know- what Nancy Pelosi did or did not do - has no bearing on the historical fact that America became the latest in a proud line of torturers, joining China under Communism, Japan during WW II, and so many others from Genghis Khan to Adolph Hitler.