I so want to write something jeremymc worthy or, failing that, ErrinFDELETE MY FUCKING ACCOUNTish --- or even Troll Armada-y.

But it's late and my brain is all tuckered out and my ass hurts from sitting on it working all day, not to mention my eyes! my eyes! So I just don't have it in me.

So this will be, at best, a mediocre GBCW. But that's no excuse for you to fall down on the job with your booing and hissing and jeers from the peanut gallery and snark and recipes and whatever ya got to throw at me!

There's something about flying down a blacktop mountain road with a logging truck on your ass and a semi charging straight at you that's perfect for a mournful old country song:

And now as evening lays its shawl
Across the shoulders of my life I have defined
I couldn't tie my life together
With the guitar strings and a poet's heart full of pride

But somehow I land unscathed at the foot of that mountain, only to look out into the meadow before me, with its redbuds and dogwoods and fields of wild onions, all memory of my brush with Death by Crazed Trucker vanished.

And so it was just another hillbilly joyride in a land where there are no housing covenants, much less building codes, and where wild onions are considered the stuff of the gods and a meal fit for kings.

Why is the Oklahoma Democratic Party holding a fundraiser for Chad Smith, the Republican (and proud of it) Cherokee Chief who masterminded the ouster of the Cherokee Freedmen from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma?

My name is Marilyn Vann I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. I am descended from Cherokee Freedmen and Cherokee by Blood ancestors. My citizenship status was stripped March 3, 2007. By the vote of my people under the urging of my government, my Nation has violated the Treaty of 1866 and placed the government-to-government relationship with my tribe as odds with the United States. In doing so, my nation has stated it had the right to violate treaties, placing the powers of all Tribes in peril of judicial precedent that could reduce tribal sovereignty. My Chief, Chad Smith has defended the actions of stripping my citizenship and that of other Freedmen based upon a number of untruths for the purpose of gaining support in Indian Country.

Huge sigh of relief.

I've been trying to rally the Okies --- although now it appears the Arkies need to be in on this --- and maybe everyone else --- re: a move in Oklahoma to define manure from CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) aka factory farming aka (in this instance) the poultry industry (Tyson, Simmons, et al) as nonhazardous.

And, while trying to compile info on our extraordinary AG, Drew Edmondson, and on the details of the lawsuit Oklahoma has against Arkansas because of all the shit from the poultry industry there, I ran into this:

OKLAHOMA CITY — A compromise bill classifying animal waste as a non-hazardous substance "as defined by state law" was overwhelmingly approved by the Oklahoma Senate on Tuesday.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who had opposed an earlier version of the bill as "an aggravation" to his lawsuit against Arkansas poultry companies, gave his blessing to the compromise plan.

more below ...

This is the second time I've posted this and, unfortunately, I haven't had time to do any kind of research on this or find out if anyone is yet organizing to fight this. And I won't get a chance to do so for several days.

But I'm trying to make sure every dKossian from Oklahoma knows that a bill by Don Justice which defines animal waste as non-hazardous has passed the Senate Rules Committee. This is infiltration by Tyson, et al, plain and simple, although Justice is pawning it off as commonsensical:

"There is a real concern among the agriculture community that animal waste could be lumped in with nuclear waste. If that happened it would be devastating to the state and the industry," said Justice, R-Chickasha. "I know that in the rural areas when you’re hauling livestock there are times when the manure spills out. We certainly don’t want too see having to rope off those areas and coming in to treat that material as hazardous. This is a practical thing – it’s just something we need to clear up before people misunderstand and misidentify."

Most of us have at least passing knowledge of the Irish Potato Famine, a catastrophe of epic proportions during which one to one and a half million died from starvation and disease.

What many may not know is that there are important lessons to be learned from it --- because, you see, the Potato Famines in general, and the Irish Potato Famine in particular, are classic examples of the dangers of monoculture and dependence on a single food source, and the importance of biodiversity.

Okay, truth: there are so many other things to do, I didn't write a diary for this week. In fact, other than cooking food for the dogs so that I can sneak meds into one of the pups without their knowledge, I haven't even done much cooking myself.

Okay so I did finally make maracatu's Baigan Achari,or eggplant caviar --- which is to die for.

And I did make my best ever batch of faux goat cheese, and am currently nibbling on a nice cauliflower dish made by steaming, then dumping the florets into a covered crockpot with some (avert your eyes, oh yee phobic) CILANTRO, cooking for a few minutes, then adding chicken broth, a dash of Bragg Liquid Aminos (much better than soy sauce), a touch of grated ginger and a pinch of garlic --- and horror of horrors, a teaspoon of sugar (just enough to give it a slight sweetness).

This is going to be a very quick and dirty diary, but I've been meaning to do it for days now and simply haven't gotten the chance.

But I want to direct all Okies' attention to a bill by Don Justice which passed the Oklahoma Senate Rules Committee, and defines animal waste as non-hazardous. This is infiltration by Tyson, et al, plain and simple, although Justice is pawning it off as commonsensical:

"There is a real concern among the agriculture community that animal waste could be lumped in with nuclear waste. If that happened it would be devastating to the state and the industry," said Justice, R-Chickasha. "I know that in the rural areas when you’re hauling livestock there are times when the manure spills out. We certainly don’t want too see having to rope off those areas and coming in to treat that material as hazardous. This is a practical thing – it’s just something we need to clear up before people misunderstand and misidentify."

Heck, we here on dKos could have told him that years ago.

But enough with the "told ya so!"s, especially because ... T. Boone also states alternative energies will replace petroleum, which, if he's not talking about corn-based ethanol and the like, but is talking solar and wind and the like, is a good thing.

The question is, why on earth did he wait til now to spill the beans?

Not much more below the fold ...

I once had a secret so shameful that, for years, I kept it carefully tucked away in the darkest corners of my mind, where it festered and multiplied, untouched by the cleansing light of day.

Over time, my secret grew to such proportions that I feared any public establishment or social engagement which might bring me face to face with its source. I knew no relief; my secret alienated me from the company of my dearest companions, leaving me isolated. Alone. Fearful.

Trapped.

And then, by chance, redemption came in the form of a curative substance which relieved me of my loathsome burden. And this evening, as a measure of my faith in you, dKossians and faithful What's For Dinner?ers, I am revealing my secret and the form of redemption which rained down upon me like cooling rains in the drought.

One of the silliest notions about cooking is that turning out a delicious meal is a formidable task, requiring exotic ingredients and expensive gadgets and obscure techniques and hours of work and ghees and grand flourishes.

But, if the property "delicious" were dependent on saffron and "don't try this at home!" techniques, there'd be no human race because we would have perished from starvation and malaise eons ago.

Really, it's just common sense. Anyone who's ever toddled out to their tomato garden on a summer evening to munch on freshly picked tomatoes wrapped in fresh basil or thyme knows there is nothing any cook can do to improve that flavor.

Earlier this afternoon, dKossian jdawg1077 posted Climate change weather.com blog being freeped which called for our help in supporting The Weather Channel's Dr. Heidi Cullen against a freeper attack.

And raines' earlier diary, Sen. Envi. Cmtee. Comm. Dir./Swiftboater attacks Gore, Global Warming with Holocaust, makes it pretty clear this is no accident.

As jdawg1107 noted, Dr. Cullen:

... has been writing about the dangers global warming and climate change.  There has been a link on Drudge all day today to a recent blog posting, and the featured responses thus far are beyond ignorant in regards to the facts and the science.

Methinks she could use a little bit of back-up, not to mention encouragement from those of us who actually are concerned about our planet's welfare

It's been going on for days now and predicted to continue through tomorrow. For miles around, everything is coated in layers of ice. Transformers are blowing, trees toppling over, supermarket shelves empty, cars lay abandoned, flipped in ditches.

But so far, temps in my community have hovered around 35. Even odder, satellite shows that the massive second wave of the storm got here --- and immediately began breaking up, starting somewhere over the home of a well known local conjuror.

As they say, thank the lord and the Indian medicine men! We may be the only people for miles around with electric and tolerable temps!

And what better to talk about when catastrophe threatens than food? Especially exotic food - something like India Indian food.

Because thanks to Madhur Jaffrey and Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff, I've been transformed into a virtual whirling dervish of Indian cooking.

And I've discovered this extraordinarily flavorful, diverse and healthy cuisine is easy to make. Really.

Let me begin by saying that I'm not trying to supplant Frankenoid's Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.

It's just that, even though it's the beginning of January, I just ordered seeds for spring and am getting to rearrange my home for starting them.

And I'm really, really excited about it. Winter's okay, I suppose, but every spring and summer --- and to an extent, fall --- I get to work on turning this place (which was buried beneath a foot of trash when I bought it) into one big fat garden.

And I still have a long way to go. And sometimes, I really do question my sanity --- whatever possessed me to think that I could turn a few acres which had been totally neglected for gawd knows how many years into a garden paradise? But that hasn't stopped me yet!

It's as simple as that.

I called a friend to wish her a Merry Christmas because I'd promised her I would, and it all spilled out. I don't remember how or why, but she was regaling me with stories of going out to buy even more stuff to give to everyone and to cook and to eat, and there it came, there it was, I blurted it right out:

Well, you know, I mean, I'm just really pretty uncomfortable with a lot of this stuff, especially the present thing. I mean, I love the idea of presents, but it's gotten so weird and these days, I have people who can barely feed their kids giving me presents and what the hell do I need with a box of chocolates anyway and I just don't get it.

I think Christmas used to be a good idea which has gone completely out of control.

You know, if you haven't yet seen What the Bleep?, don't bother. I can't remember how I first heard of the film, but I'm very annoyed no one warned me it's nothing more than an infomercial for Ramtha. Gah!

And because it's the night before Christmas Eve and I'm too lazy to do it all over again, here's a review I wrote about it over on Amazon. WARNING: Proceed with caution! Written under the influence of HOLIDAY CHEER!

Of course, we all want to believe we're "ambitious gods," we all want to believe we're the center of the universe, In Complete Control of the Uncontrollable, yadda yadda yadda yadda.

And boy, does promoting such an egocentric, adolescent view of our world sell! We lap it up. It feeds our ego, gives us the warm fuzzies, makes us happy  ...

continued below the fold

I'd hoped to make this first in a series on ousting Oklahoma's infamous practitioner of doofustry a tidy compendium of relevant background information.

Unfortunately, a number of other things have required my time and attention, so it isn't nearly as comprehensive as I'd hoped.

In addition, I'm posting this first one on Sunday morning, and will post the next two around this same time.

After the beginning of the year, however, the series will shift to Sunday evenings.

For now, there's no time to waste, I figure, no time like the present to get motivated and mobilized to oust that greedy sucker. Because that's the bottom line, the entire purpose: mobilizing sentiment for ousting James Inhofe in '08.

Every teacher I know (including me) is in an absolute frenzy of grading right now.

Me, I feel like griping about it, especially since I hit my first plagiarized paper just a few moments ago. The worst thing about it is that I was giving the student a chance --- she was flunking the course, so I gave her an extra credit option --- a four page expository essay on the topic of her choice, with Works Cited page.

Well, she plagiarized the whole danged thing. And there's little that makes me grumpier than a plagiarist.

So I decided to come to dKos to see if there's any other teachers on here so we could grump at one another about it.