Squarestate - Front Page

Even worse than Maes.

wade norris — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:58:31 GMT

The Arizona Governor's debate starts out with this painful to watch opening by Governor Jan Brewer.

And it ends with this full on attack of Governor Brewer by her Democratic opponent and by all the reporters covering the debate - specifically about the her claim that there are
"beheadings in the desert"

In light of the Republican Candidates for governor in Colorado and Arizona, it is hard to believe that the Republicans are supposed to be taking back power from Democrats this fall.

If You Care about Clean Energy, You Should Care About Midterm Elections Too

NRDC Action Fund — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:46:44 GMT

August has passed without any major town hall eruptions, but that doesn’t mean it is a quiet time in American politics. Midterm-election campaigns are heating up, and it’s becoming clear that these races could determine what gets accomplished in the next Congress.

This includes what we do -- or don't do -- on clean energy and climate solutions.

Comprehensive climate legislation may be off the table right now, but the tenor and outcome of these elections will still have an enormous influence on our energy future. They will decide when we succeed in generating millions of green jobs and cleaning up our energy supply.

I urge all of you who care about these issues to get active in this campaign season. Candidates need to know that clean energy and global warming matter to voters - matter so much, in fact, that some lawmakers will lose their jobs because they didn't act boldly enough.

Go to campaign events, write to your candidates, and let them know that clean energy is a top priority for you. Whatever you do, don't sit this one out. We need your voices, and here is why.
Lawmakers Need to Be Held Accountable. Back in July, the Senate decided not to vote on a clean energy and climate bill. This abject failure rests in the hands of Senate Republican Leadership and a small cluster of Democratic Senators, and they need to pay a price for blocking legislation that could have generated 2 million jobs.

NRDC is launching an accountability campaign targeting six Senators who could have made a difference with this bill, but declined to take action. These ads include a "Ticker" tracking the tons of global warming pollution dumped into the air and the number of jobs the Senate could have created in each state since the Senate refused to act on July 22. Already the ads have attracted national and local media attention and turned the heat up on these failed leaders.

The NRDC Action Fund urges you to conduct your own accountability efforts. Find out where your senators stood on the climate bill and tell them what you think about their position.

If there is an election in your state, find out what the candidates are saying -- or failing to say -- about investing in clean energy and confronting climate change. Go to campaign events to make sure your voice is heard out loud. It's time to remind lawmakers that clean energy supporters are a force to be reckoned with.

The Fossil Fuel Industry Isn't Letting Up. We need all the citizen power we can generate given the following numbers: In 2009, the oil and gas industry spent $174 million on lobbying the government. In just the first six months of this year, the industry spent another $75 million.

These deep pockets have purchased considerable influence in the campaigns. Last week, the New Yorker published a devastating expose about oil giant Koch Industries. According to the article, David Koch founded an astro-turf group called Americans for Prosperity. In addition to hosting more than 80 events opposing climate legislation, the group has vowed to spend $45 million more before the midterm elections.

Some of this money pays for attack ads like the one criticizing Representative Betsey Markey because she supported climate legislation - legislation that would have brought 30,000 jobs to Colorado and generated opportunities for farmers in her district. Markey is facing a competitive race this season, and these kinds of misleading attacks will make it even harder unless we stand up and set the record straight.

We will never match the oil industry in funding dollars, but we can use the tools of average voters to keep the pressure on: rallies, letters to the editor, social networking, calls to campaign headquarters, persistent questions about where the candidate stands on clean energy.

This Election Could Shape the Agenda for Years to Come. Remember the pivotal Congressional elections of 1994? Newt Gingrich's cronies stormed into Washington and turned health care reform into an issue lawmakers wouldn't touch for 16 years and kept climate legislation off the table for the entire time they were in power.

We cannot afford to let the same thing happen again with clean energy action. If Congress stalls on climate solutions for the next several years, the impacts of global warming will get worse and America will postpone the creation of 2 million new jobs.

It doesn't have to be this way. If we make clean energy a big enough campaign issue, and if we remind candidates that climate solutions are good for America's workers, our economy, and our national security, we can restore comprehensive clean energy action to a top legislative priority.

This blog originally appeared at The Markup.

November 2010 - Looking Into The Abyss

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:17:07 GMT

Nietzsche said"

"When we look into the abyss, searching for monsters, the abyss looks into us as well"

Right now we are staring the abyss in the face and there are indeed monsters there. This abyss is the elections this fall. The chance that radical Republicans will take over the House and perhaps the Senate has grown. The affect of constant lies from Fox News and Talk Radio have energized the Republican base. The limp leadership from the White House and from Majority Leader Reid has demoralized the Democratic base.

The passing of many of the Lefts long term wish list items, barely and with tons of ridiculous and galling compromise has created a situation where the Right is fired up and the Left is angry at its own leadership. The conditions are in place for a wave election and the wave is not likely to go the way that we Liberals are going to like in any fashion.

It would be one thing if we didn't have a clear cut difference between the parties, but it really is very stark. The fact is the Republicans have embraced their inner radical. The proposals that their marquee candidates are espousing would, in any other time, force them into ignominious defeat. Now they are accepted and even pushed by their "Know Nothing" base.

Black is white, up is down in the radical Republican base these days. Somehow the TARP bailout is the fault of the president elected two months after it was enacted and not the sitting president. Somehow tax cuts which have contributed hundreds of billions to the debt and to our deficit need to be preserved and paid for in reductions in social safety net programs.

We are in a situation where the possible Chair of the House Ways and Means committee is pushing a deficit reduction plan that not only does not reduce the deficit it continues and accelerates the transfer of the tax burden from wealth to work. Rep. Paul Ryan is the man who will try to make this a reality if Republicans retake the House this fall.

The craziness goes much further though. Rep. Darrel Issa is already saying that he will unleash a flurry of subpoena's to investigate the Obama Administration. This is not because there is any evidence of wrong doing (unlike say the last Administration which lied us into a trillion dollars worth of war, captured and tortured people world wide, provided tons of no bid contracts to companies which had direct ties to the VP or outed a CIA covert agent for political reasons). It will be the late 90's all over, though of course this time the economy is in the crapper and there are no adults left in the Republican party to curb the excesses.

All this is before we get started on the Constitutional nonsense. The radical Republicans are just dying to take a red pen to the founding document of our Republic. The good news here is that the process is so long that even if they manage to pass, say a repeal of the 17th Amendment's direct election of Senators, getting it past the States will be a near impossible task.

All this leaves out their neo-Hooverite ideas about how to bring the nation out of the worst economic crises it has seen in eight decades. Those of us who are just barely hanging on with unemployment can rest assured that it will end and there will be no support from the Federal government. After all, we've got to make sure that folks like Tiger Woods and Wall Street traders don't have to pay any more in taxes. Putting a roof over our heads or food on the table must take a back seat to them being able to save a few hundred thousand more dollars, at least that is what the radical Republicans think.

After a bad accident we often think "If I had only done X". Well, we all know what the X is that we have to do this cycle. We have to work our asses off to get Democrats elected. I know there are lot of folks reading this who are rolling their eyes about now. I can't really blame them, the Democrats have not done a good job with the large majorities we gave them in 2008. They have been weak-kneed and lily-livered in the main. Worse if we help them to hold on to their majorities they are not very likely to learn the lesson that being too moderate, that by being too willing to compromise and being unable to reign in their own more conservative members is the reason they are in trouble.

Yet they are our best, and really only hope. The choice is between them and the denizens of Crazy Town. For all that we would like (desperately love) to have a more affective and liberal Democratic caucus, the way they are now is so much better than what we will get under the Republicans we have to support them. If there were a viable third choice at this point we could probably take it. The thing is this is binary, it is either what we have with the Democrats or what we will suffer if the Republicans take over.

It is time to step up for your country. This is not an intellectual exercise, this cycle is going to decide the course of the nation for the next two years, at least. We don't have a margin for error. If the Republicans can enact any of their agenda, the consequences will handcuff the next Congress and probably the one after that. They have made it abundantly clear that they will do nothing to for the vast majority of the people. Their idea of liberty is being free to starve in the street because your job was outsourced and you have to compete against 5 other unemployed workers for a part time minimum wage job at Staples.

This is not about holding our noses, though there will be an element of that. This is about keeping bat-shit crazy people from running the country. If we can hold on to majorities in the House and Senate, things will not get actively worse. That is not the case if we lose control.

So, there is the abyss, the monsters are there and they are nuts. They have told us in no uncertain terms what they will do if we let them out. The choice is ours. We can bitch our majorities to death and pay the cost or we can avoid a catastrophe. The way to do that is to get out and work for a campaign. Pick a candidate and do everything you can to make sure that a Democrat wins in your Congressional District or in your Senate race. Talk to all your Democratic and Independent friends and neighbors. Badger them to vote and vote for the only sane group of leaders in this contest.

There is always the chance that we will lose anyway. There is that chance in any election, but if we get out and work, bust our asses for the next 62 days, we can say that we tried to keep the nation from self-destructing under the pressure of a political party that has lost touch with reality and given in to radical reactionary policy. Don't let the abyss find monsters in you. Act now and for the next two months to prevent your country from falling to those who will not act to help you or the vast majority of the nation.

The floor is yours.

Hi Square State - Meet Don Beezley

Broomfield County Democrats — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:32:27 GMT

Hello Square State. We haven't posted here before, but we thought you'd enjoy this. Before Don Beezley was the Republican nominee in House District 33, he told the unvarnished truth about his vision for Colorado, and his vision is, in a word, bizarre.

The Broomfield County Democrats launched a website today www.BizarreBeezley.com, dedicated to educating voters about the real Don Beezley. We could say more, but we'll let Mr. Beezley speak for himself. Each of the following are direct quotes, fully sourced at www.BizarreBeezley.com:

I don't believe in municipal or county government. It strikes me as 100% superfluos [sic] in all its functions. Police and courts can be handled at the state level, supplemeted [sic] with private solutions. Nothing else the cities or counties do is valid except for recording property titles. If someone (non-libertarian) wants to argue about streets, the state level could handle that too.

That's right friends, Mr. Beezley does not believe the government should provide roads. Mr. Beezley also has thoughts on Coloradans with disabilities:

I used to own small restauarants [sic] shortly after ADA was passed. When building out a new one, the existing bathrooms were off in dimensions by a few inches. Rather than risking a lawsuit under the newly energized ADA, I spent $5,000 to redo the bathrooms (on a small budget with no money). Prior to that, it had been a pleasure to help a disabled person out with a tray, a door or whatever. After that, I could only think, "you better use my d*** bathroom!" when someone rolled in. ADA took other human beings from being someone with a challenge whom it might be a joy to help, and turned them into a burden. An enemy. [our emphasis]

And this is just the beginning.
Mr. Beezley's musings on crime include the belief that all drugs should be legalized...as well as prostitution.

Stop manufacturing violent criminals with unjust laws against actions that may be morally questionable but are no one's business (drugs, prostitution, etc.).

How should governments respond when their citizens' are killed and injured by natural disasters? Mr. Beezley says by doing nothing at all. But you ask, what should the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, huddled in the Superdome, have done for food? Mr. Beezley has an answer for that too:

I suspect if Dominos had gotten a call, they might have found a way to get it there!

There is much more where that came from at www.BizarreBeezley.com. Now there's nothing that says Mr. Beezley cannot be an extreme libertarian. He's an American, and he's free to believe that all cities and counties should be abolished, that Coloradans with disabilities should be stripped of their rights, and that when tornadoes rip through Colorado, the government should turn a deaf ear.

What would be wrong, would be running for election and misleading voters about his views on how our society should be in Colorado. Mr. Beezley has no right to conceal the type of legislator he will be simply because he knows it will be wildly unpopular. We sincerely hope that he does not.

ACLU And CCR File Suit Against Gov For Targeted Killings

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:04:46 GMT

In the movie Witness, there is a scene where a little Amish boy, who has witnessed a murder, takes the gun of the detective who is there to protect him from a chest of drawers. He is caught by his grandfather who sits him down for a talk. The grandfather asks if the boy would use this gun to kill. The boy says that he would only kill a bad man. The grandfather asks "How will you know who is the bad man?" This is the central point of our system of justice, we don't just assume that someone is a bad man before punishing them, we have an elaborate process designed to require proof of actions before we punish.

Unfortunately our trauma with terrorism has eroded this system. Today, as you read this, there is a list of people around the world who are targeted for death. They are suspected of being involved with terror plots, and some of them are your fellow citizens. If they are found anywhere in the world by our forces they will be killed. Not captured and brought to trial, not attempted to be captured, but killed out right.

The Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed suit challenging the legality of this policy. There is an Islamic cleric named Anwar Al-Aulaqi who has been implicated in both the Fort Hood shootings and the Fruit of the Boom bomber plots. He has made many anti-American statements including the active encouragement of terrorism.

Mr. Al-Aulaqi is believed to be in hiding in Yemen. He is a citizen of the United States and he has been on so-called "kill list" for months. The issue here is can the United States use lethal force in a country which is not at war and is far from any of the existing battlefields? There is no doubt that under some circumstances deadly force can be used, but they are mostly involving situations where the person being targeted is fighting back, as in a shoot out during a capture attempt.

The other acceptable time that deadly force can be used away from the battlefield is preventing an imminent attack or loss of life. Say you knew that someone was taking a backpack bomb to a crowded market. U.S. and International law allows for you to kill that person if there is no other way to stop them. Even when the threat is immediate, this is considered to be the last resort.

A big issue in this case is the way in which names are added to list, as well as the amount of time which names stay on the list. As you might expect the nature of the process by which names are added is secret. The CIA is in charge of this list and the operations which would result in someone on it being killed. It is very troubling that this process has no oversight. It resides completely in the perview of the Executive Branch. Up to this point they have basically said "Trust us" in terms of making sure that only bad people wind up on this list.

Sadly, when we are talking about an American citizen (even one accused of the heinous crime of terrorism) trust us can never be enough. I tend to think that Mr. Al-Aulqi is piece of human garbage. I won't shed a single tear when he is gone from this world. That said, I'm not willing to grant the Executive Branch the unlimited power to declare citizens enemies and then send our covert operations teams out to kill them. You might remember a recent Administration that took the powers they had and extended them up to and including declaring citizens enemy combatants and then holding them (and torturing them) for years without access to lawyers or even being charged with a crime. This would be just and extension of that and very, very dangerous one at that.

The law suit that the CCR and the ACLU have filed challenges the power of the government unilaterally and secretly add a person to a "death list". Vince Warren of the CCR sums it up pretty well:

"The United States cannot simply execute people, including its own citizens, anywhere in the world based on its own say-so," said Vince Warren, Executive Director of CCR. "The law prohibits the government from killing without trial or conviction other than in the face of an imminent threat that leaves no time for deliberation or due process. That the government adds people to kill lists after a bureaucratic process and leaves them on the lists for months at a time flies in the face of the Constitution and international law."

The Founders were clear; they did not want the enormous force of the State to be wielded against the individual without due process of the law. This was for the protection of the individual who is at a huge disadvantage in power. It also helps to prevent mistakes. Right now the CIA and people in the Executive Branch make the call based on intelligence data. As we all know too well, intelligence data can be wrong or be spun in politically expedient ways. This is the same kind of process which had us detaining people in the Guantanamo Bay prison as suspected terrorists. We have since released many of them, after finding that they were not actually terrorists of any kind. When we are talking about execution we should have a process that is less likely to be in error, there is no giving back a life once it is taken.

If our intent to kill those who would plan, advocate and help those who would commit terrorism against our nation can not survive the process of law, then it is pretty clear that we should not be killing those people. The idea of get them before they get us is one of preemptive vengeance. That is not the American way; we don't deal in vengeance we deal in the law, and the ideal of Justice.

Yes there are people who will kill Americans without a second thought. We don't owe them anything. We do, however, owe ourselves the standards that have protected and guided us as a nation for 234 years. The standards of due process and equal justice before the law, in open courts. These standards allow the accused to confront witnesses against and evidence against them with their own. These standards and the ideals behind them are torn asunder when the Executive Branch, not the Judicial, decides that a citizen is to be killed, without an immanent threat and without the processes of the law.

It is easy to say we will only kill the bad men. It is much harder to know, with the certainty that is required for execution; just who the bad men really are if we do not follow the process of law.

The floor is yours

Arson And Reported Gun Shots At TN Islamic Center Site

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:45:23 GMT

The anti-Muslim whirlwind continues to be reaped in the United States. For all that the Sarah Palins and Rudy Giuliani's of the world think that the fight over the Park51 Islamic Center is confined to Manhattan the reality is that it is spreading and getting more and more violent. This weekend the site of new Islamic center outside Nashville was fire bombed. No one was hurt but some very expensive construction equipment was destroyed. Then when some of the members of the group building the mosque were looking at the site, they heard shots fired and reported it to local police.
Liberals (like myself) often worry about the slippery slope. We spend a lot of time telling folks that if we go down path X it could lead to result Y. Some of the time we are flatly wrong about it but not always and sadly not often enough. The growing fervor about the construction of Islamic community centers and mosques is a good example of where we seem to be right about the slippery slope.

It has always been the case that when this nation is at war we have dehumanized our opponents. In the North the Southern soldiers were Rebels, during WWI the Germans were called Huns, and then in WWII Kruats; the Japanese were called Nips; the Vietnamese were called Gooks or Slants. These were probably terms that were used by a minority of racist or bigoted folks already, but in a time of war they get pressed into service. All of this makes it easier for young men to go and kill other young men. If they are "other" then they can be assigned all kinds of heinous traits which justify the actions of our soldiers.

The problem with this tacit is in long wars it bleeds into the general population. It spreads and can become mainstream in the national consciousness. After all, even Doctor Seuss drew racist cartoons during the Japanese interment period. Take a look at this one below.

To his credit, he did express regrets about these cartoons later in life. Still at a time of war this was acceptable enough to print in the LA Times.

Which brings us to the problem of anti-Muslim fervor today; the Right in this nation has been told by Talk Radio and its radical hate mongers that we are at war with all of Islam. That 1.5 billion practitioners of that faith are constrained by their religious tenets to bring Islam to whole world by any means necessary. The fact that this is not true, has not stopped them from purveying this slime. As an atheist is rather galling to me to have to defend any religion, but this meme of monolithic intent is so ridiculous that I have stand up for Islam right now. There are many, many points of view as to what the requirements of the Qu'ran are. Just as there is interpretation of the Bible (all versions), Torah and the Bhagavad Gita there are differing schools of thought on the holy book of the Muslims.

Still it does not matter to those who have internalized the message of war with Islam. They are willing to use terms like "rag head" and "camel jockey" to demonize their fellow citizens, who happen to be Muslim.

Hate is a very dangerous emotion. It is possible for it to start out rationally, but it almost always progresses to the irrational. Once you hate a person or group of people it is easy to be intellectually lazy and accept any negative stereotype presented about them. In this way hate grows and consumes those who engage in it. After the 9/11 attacks and nearly a decade of constant war in predominately Muslim nations it is easy to see how some of our less mentally rigorous citizens have come to the place where their hate has overrun their reason.

Acts of bigotry or racial violence almost always include a component of praise seeking. The number of people who will say racist and bigoted things is always going to be larger than the subset which will act out on those ideas. However the more socially acceptable bigoted speech is the higher the percentage of those who think they will be praised for their violence becomes.

This is the slippery slope we find ourselves on today. As many of the national figures on the Right find it acceptable to compare Muslims in general to Nazis (I am looking right at your pudgy face Newt!) and even some leading Democrats fall for the bogus sensitivity argument and say so on national TV the Overton window on acceptable bigotry against Muslims grows. This means the size of the population who might act out violently grows as well.

The issue of the Park51 Islamic Center and the other buildings is not one that we can just shrug on and look away. It goes to basic freedoms in this country. When churches of Christian religions are fire bombed there is a serious outcry. As it should be. However when a minority religion like Islam suffers the same fate you can find comments in local news story praising the action and telling American citizens to go home. It is good that the newspaper removed these comments and there are those that argued against them but the fact that there were folks who would advocate further terror in public is a sign of how far the window has moved.

There are those among us who will never be tolerant. They do not want a pluralistic nation where many cultures are welcome, as long as they respect the rights of other cultures. They can't be reached and I would not spend a minute trying to do so. However there is a large group of Americans who can be reached. Standing up for the rights of Muslims to build wherever zoning permits is not about liking or disliking their religion, it is about standing up for one of the founding ideals of this nation. The premise that everyone should be able to be as involved in religion as they choose, whether that is deeply or not at all.

More importantly it is the core principal that democracy can only function when it protects the rights of disliked minorities. If we start to give in on that issue then we truly are on a slippery slope, where your Constitutional protections are only as strong as the majority group you happen to belong to. This is not what the Founders wanted. They were clear about the importance of all people having the same protections. The whims of a King, even a King mildly restrained by a Parliament taught them what being on the wrong side of the majority was like and they insisted that their descendants would not suffer it.

Standing up for the rights of Muslims is the right thing to do, not because I am of their faith or even like their faith. It is the right thing to do because it is the American thing to do. Standing up for those who would be oppressed by the majority is about as American as it gets.

The floor is yours.

Amendment 63 - The Health Care TABOR Amendmenet

Just Anita — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:07:29 GMT

Amendment 63 - as marketed by reactionaries from the Jon Caldara camp at the Independence Institute is misleading; asserting it promotes choice for Colorado's concerned citizens. Let's really look at what Amendment 63 will do in light of the federal coverage mandate by 2014.

Insurance coverage vs Health Care?

The US adopted a federal insurance based system in 1973, ratcheting the controls of the insurance industry to write, regulate, and request federal funding to support their industry. As such, a private system of health care management organizations - HMO's and PPO's - and insurance coverage products were created. The feds would pay a share to the insurance industry, employers would pay additional funds to the insurance industry, the taxpayer would pay a share to the insurance industry. That's a lot of shares - to the tune of 17% GDP - that kept a lot of shareholders and insurance executives happy for decades. Further, the industry was self-regulating doing what's best for the taxpayers.

Health Care transitions

HCR is transitioning the nation from an insurance industry controlled system to a care based system with options that will range from private insurance to State and federal care based opportunities. Reforms are creating a variety of choices for citizens to choose from, based on an individual's socio-economic situation. In otherwords options to fit within a budget - no freebies outside qualifying benchmarks.

Amendment 63 is misleading

Amendment 63 convolutes the intentions of HCR. HCR is effectively rolling back insurance industry controls to federal tax dollars - incrementally - and returns those funds to the State through the Department of Health and Human Services. The Act - as written - is essentially State's rights' legislation. Each State has opportunity to secure - and expand - programs for health care, such as Medicare/Medicaid/Chip programs, and create new ones as more federal funding becomes available in this transition for it's citizens. By the time the federal mandate for "coverage" takes affect in 2014, the majority of State's - the smart ones - will have programs in place that will negate the affects of any federal mandate. A Federal mandate becomes moot, if a State has programs available for all citizens to access care and/or coverage.

Colorado is moving forward with real choice

Colorado is effectively working toward it's goals of being a care based system with qualifying programs for those who are currently without insurance or care based opportunities. This could mean a variety of options, such as stand alone private insurance coverage, and public options within an insurance pool, and/or State care single-payer programs. That's a lot of choices. If Amendment 63 passes, Colorado will essentially opt itself out of opportunities to move from an insurance based system, and reduce our choices to insurance coverage only options. Essentially, Amendment 63 protects the insurance industry's stronghold at the State level, keeping choices within the industry, instead of creating care based opportunities. It's a layer of State initiative attacks designed to protect the insurance industry's right to our tax dollars.

Amendment 63 another TABOR

Amendment 63 - and it's proponents can be thanked for TABOR, and we all know what that's done for Colorado taxpayers and our budget. Add Amendment 60, Amendment 61, and Amendment 101 to the ballot, and it's clear what proponents are trying to do to our State. It's a disastrous proposal created by a tunnel-visioned group of reactionaries with Jon Caldara waving his "I hate taxes" pom- poms, and rallying around anything Anti-Obama. There's nothing informational about the Independence Institute's take on HCR - just a group of pedigreed progenies proned to tantrums; claiming they represent taxpayers rights. Save it! For those of us who understand our taxes pay for services, infrastructure, sanitation, education opportunities, quality medicines, and care when we're sick, we're more inclined to watchdog accountability - instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Amendment 63 - another reactionary TABOR style proposal. VOTE NO on Amendment 63.

Sunday Bread - Sourdough Pumpernickel

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:45:12 GMT

Happy Sunday Bread Heads!

This week we're going to handle a request and keep going on the sourdough breads. Sourdough Pumpernickel is one of the great sandwich breads of all time. The dense crumb and complex flavors make this bread more than just the base for some meat and cheese, it makes it part of the overall meal.
As with all the sourdough breads it begins with a starter. If you have not made your sourdough starter yet, now is the time! I have posted it twice, so I am just going to skip it this time, you can find it in the links at the bottom of this post if you are looking for it.

My wife is not a huge fan of rye bread, she does not like the licorice (in fact hate is so much she even thinks the word is stupid) so this recipe is pretty mild. However if you want to pump up the licorice flavor, you can add caraway seeds (I'll provide the instructions) .

This bread starts with a sponge that has to develop for 8 -12 hours so you will want to start the night before and let it grow while you sleep.

Sourdough Pumpernickel

Ingredients for the Sponge:

1 cup starter
? cup molasses
? cup potato water (from making the mashed potato for the dough)
2 cups whole wheat flour (stone ground is preferred but if you just have regular in the house, you can use that without too much difference in the final product)

Ingredients for the Dough:

1 cup boiling water (yeah, boiling, we're not pouring it on the yeast so don't panic)
? cup corn meal
1 cup mashed potatoes
1 package (2 ? teaspoons) dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoon cooking oil
2 tablespoons caraway seeds (optional)
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups rye flour
? cup (approximately) white flour
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water

Baking pans: 1 sheet pan, greased or covered in parchment paper

Method:

Start by making you potato. Peel and cut up one medium sized potato. Boil for 10 minutes in 3 cups of water. Reserve ? cup for the sponge. Drain the rest of the water and mash the potato thoroughly. Place the mashed potato in an air tight container and refrigerate until you make the dough.

In your large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer combing the starter, molasses, potato water and whole wheat flour. Mix thoroughly. Cover will plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours or until the sponge has doubled in volume.

Dough Method:

In a small bowl pour the boiling water over the corn meal (I told you it wouldn't be a problem!) and using a whisk stir them together. Add the mashed potatoes and stir to combine. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Add the yeast, salt, cooking oil and caraway seed (if you're using it) to the sponge. Then add the corn meal mixture. Using a wooden spoon or the flat paddle attachment of your mixer stir until the ingredients are well mixed.

Add the rye and whole wheat flours a ? at a time, stirring the whole while. This dough is pretty big and heavy. If you have a 4 quart stand mixer like I do, you are going to just barely be able to make this dough in the mixer. You will have to watch it carefully. If the dough is already pulling away from the sides of the bowl, you can skip the white flour, but test it to be sure. If it is sticky, just add sprinkles until it is tacky but not like glue.

You will not be able to knead this dough in a mixer, it is just too heavy. So, this is going to be a workout, but not too much of one. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead with the push-turn-fold method. This dough is a great example of "coming alive" the dough will start out stiff and thick but as you work it the developing gluten will start to make it more elastic and smooth. You really will be able to tell when it "wakes up" and becomes a real dough. Knead for 8 minutes or so.

Place the dough in a large greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 3 hours (you read that right, even with the new faster rising yeast this one takes a long time) or until it has doubled in volume.

When the dough is risen turn it out onto a very lightly floured work surface and punch it down. Divide the dough into two halves and form into balls. Set each ball on the baking sheet with at least 5 inches between them. Flatten the top, slightly by, by pressing down on it with your palm. Using a sharp knife cut a tic-tac-toe pattern in the top of each loaf. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise until the loaves have doubled in size, at least 1 hour.

Twenty minutes before baking, set a rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat it to 375 degrees.

Immediately prior to baking, paint the loaves with the egg wash. If you are using the caraway seeds, sprinkle the rest of them over the loaves. Slip them into the hot oven to bake for 1 hour.

The loaves should be dark brown and shiny when done. Test for doneness by turning one over and thumping it with a forefinger. It should be hard and sound hollow. If it is not done, return to the oven for five more minutes.

Cool on a wire rack. Don't slice into this bread until it has had a chance to completely cool.

So there you have it, Sourdough Pumpernickel, rich in texture, with a slightly sweet and slightly sour flavor. Absolute heaven as the base for a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich.

Next week we'll be baking a Whole Wheat sourdough, so if you have not made the starter, now is the time! Oh! If you have made your starter be sure replenish is with ? a cup of flour and ? cup of milk. Just stir it in and then set the starter on the counter or under the oven light for 24 hours. This will assure that you have enough starter and that it is still sour when you go to use it next week.

The flour is yours.

Silt - Simply Irresistible Little Town

nicky — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:14:31 GMT

After reading the Denver Post article of 8/24 regarding Silt, I had to stop and gather my thoughts. When television news became the easy way to get your news, we knew at a certain level that it was quick sound bites but we also knew we could trust Cronkite, Burroughs, and a few others. But we knew that for in-depth intelligent analysis you went to the paper. Unfortunately, at least with local news that's no longer the case. This article has little to no investigative merit. The reporter seems to take peoples word for how things are, to be the truth.

The article says Mayor Moore "treats his town's $1.7 million budget the same way he does the well-worn wallet he pulls from his jeans". He is also quoted as saying the town was "over budget by $275,000". First off, what is the budget figure. $1.7M is the projected revenue but $2.0M was the projected expenditure. Now Mayor Moore voted for this budget knowing we were going into the town's reserves. This had been discussed at Board meetings from Sept thru final approval in Nov 2009. In Colorado you must legally have a balanced budget and our budget is balanced by using our reserves. If Mayor Moore objected to using the reserves, he had 3 months to state those objections and he could of voted against the Budget in November.

The article then says the personnel cuts ousted anyone who disagreed with Moore. This is simplistic. The quotes from the "opposition" all specify them not him. Attorney Duran, Administrator Suerth and Community Planner Carmoney all had disagreements with at least 2 of the newly elected trustees or Mayor, and/or their families. The Deputy Town Clerk had a run in with at least 1 of the newly elected trustees. When it was suggested that since New Castle and Rifle have gone to contract labor with their Building Inspectors and we should eliminate that position also, the newly elected trustees didn't want to hear it. In my opinion, he hasn't done anything to annoy them.

"Moore predicts that within the next year Silt will have a grocery store and a bank." He predicted the same thing the last time he was elected. It was one of the running slogans of his 2006 campaign. Alpine Bank has always said when we get a grocery store they will come to town, so all we have to concentrate on is getting the grocery store.

When is a sidewalk a bike trail? We just voted to put in a bike trail between 3rd and 7th on Grand. I believe this might be the sidewalk promised by SOS. Now, I have no objection to putting in bike paths instead of sidewalks. They are less expensive and accomplish the same purpose of getting the children off the streets. But, we have to remember that the maintenance falls to the town and needs to be annually budgeted.

In the article, the Mayor touted the open space and conservation easement we are purchasing. This is a great opportunity for river access, bird watching, nature trails, etc. I'm glad that with the contractual vote recently taken the Mayor voted with the rest of the Board, because he had consistently voted against this acquisition including as recently as our April 26th meeting, when he was the sole nay vote on the Town's approval to spend the $40,000 cash match necessary for all the grants. I would like to also point out that the previous trio of Suerth, Duran and Carmoney were the moving force behind the Town's getting involved with this opportunity.

Again, he talks about the grant for the Town's new solar panels without giving credit to the previous administration. It was Administrator Suerth who attended the CLEER meetings and recommended the Town spend the $1,000 cash match for the grants.

I would enjoy an investigative reporter doing articles but I am tired of reporters reporting opinion for fact. The minutes of our meetings are available online or at the Town Hall. Without much digging a reporter could find out our budget is 2M not 1.7M, it is balanced by law, our hiring freeze did not effect the police department or the hiring of a 7th officer (in a quote five-officer department), we weren't heading for bankruptcy and we are not on track to having a balanced budget by not using our reserves.

I think we have a great town. I think we have a lot of room for growth and I think if the residents and Board work together we can make sustainable growth happen. We have tough times ahead but together we'll come out stronger and stay "irresistible"

Ken Buck Crashes Romanoff's Party But Won't Take Questions???

Fong — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:57:20 GMT

This evening Andrew Romanoff held a birthday party in part to help retire his campaign debt and for some reason, Ken Buck, in a classless, antagonistic move crashed the party. Attendees who wanted to take the opportunity to question Buck's policies (and sanity) say Buck wouldn't answer any questions.

Who the f#(k does this prick think he is to walk into a hornets nest and then thumb his nose at honest questions?

What a coward. I wonder if Buck will ever prove Norton's questioning his manhood wrong. So far it seems that's the only thing she's been right about.

Beyond Washington: The Oil Industry Buys Influence

Heather TaylorMiesle NRDC Action Fund — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:24:16 GMT

I worked on Capitol Hill for a long time, and I do not consider myself naive about the inner workings of Washington. But even I was surprised by two revelations this week exposing the amount of money the oil industry is spending to buy political influence.

The first eye-opener came from recently released lobbying numbers. The OpenSecrets blog reported that the oil and gas industry poured $174 million into the political system in 2009. That's eight times more than the green groups.

What did the oil and gas industry get for its money? A handful of Senators who blocked all attempts by the Senate to pass a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill that would have made fossil fuel industries start cleaning up their global warming pollution.

This week's second revelation made that difference abundantly clear. Jane Mayer wrote an investigative piece in the New Yorker about the brothers David and Charles Koch who run Koch Industries -- the biggest corporation you've never heard of -- and who have spent more than $100 million on anti-government causes.

Koch Industries owns oil refineries and 4,000 miles of pipeline, and was named one of the top 10 air polluters in the nation in a 2010 UMass-Amherst report. The Kochs' political donations are often aimed at promoting their libertarian views, but they also directly benefit their own profit margins. They have donated millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that fight environmental regulation and seed doubt about climate science. In fact, a Greenpeace report called them a "kingpin of climate science denial." And though green groups tend to paint ExxonMobil as the worst of the worst when it comes to lobbying against climate legislation, Koch outspent even ExxonMobil.

One of David Koch's pet projects is the group Americans for Prosperity, a group he founded and funds but positions as a grassroots movement. An ad for one of its training sessions for Tea Party activists says, "The voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests. But you can do something about it."

But when Americans for Prosperity hosts at least 80 events protesting climate legislation, is it really acting in the interest of average Americans or the interest of oil industry donors?

When it funds an attack ad against Representative Betsey Markey from Colorado because she supported climate legislation last summer that would have brought 30,000 jobs to her state, who is it benefiting?

And when the group pledges to spend an additional $45 million before the midterm elections, is that money really coming from grassroots activists, or from deep corporate pockets? These fat cats pretend to fraternize with the ordinary folks who dangle tea bags from their tri-cornered hats, but, in fact, they are just using activists to put a populist face on their industry agenda.

Manipulating other people's fears about the economy when you are a billionaire -- I would call that the depth of cynicism. But considering those billionaires are getting in the way of climate solutions, clean energy and green jobs in America; I have to instead call it dangerous.

Is It Time For Class Warfare?

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:02:34 GMT

Those who read my posts (and there are a lot more of you than I ever thought there would be) know that I am not really a fan of divisive politics. This comes from the teachings of my Mom, who spent her political career reaching out to Republicans to get things done in Washtenaw County. Her argument was always that while you might hammer your opponents in today's fight, you're probably going to need them to get tomorrows work done. It is generally good advice, but it is predicated on the premise that your opponents want to get things done and really are working for the best solution for everyone.

Sadly Mom's good advice can not be used right now. There has been too big a shift in power in the nation for us to look at the Republicans as any kind of honest partner in anything. The efforts of the folks like the ultra-wealthy Koch brothers have shifted our discourse so far to the right that things which would have had politicians thinking about spending more time with their families in the past can be said with a straight face and taken as serious.

At a time when the wealth of this nation is once again concentrated in the hands of a few and the rest of the nation suffers because of it, the idea of class warfare has to be revived and considered. I hate the term "class warfare" mostly because I don't like the meme of war when it comes to politics, any kind of nod to the acceptance of political violence, even rhetorically is dangerous in my mind. Still, in this case it is accurate.

The Koch brothers, Rupert Murdock, the Coors Family, and other old-ish money Right Wing folks have used the power of money to push an agenda that helps them and their fortunes grow but does nothing for the people of this nation over all. They are the source of the deregulatory push that has us recalling more than a quarter million pounds of lunch meat and a quarter billion eggs. They are the folks who helped muddy the water about cigarettes and climate change. All so they would not have to spend some of their incredibly massive profits to make their products and the production of their products less harmful.

This kind of power can only be overcome by the power of the people. The thing about the power of the people is it only works when they are united. The old slogan does not read "The people, fractious, will never be defeated", hell, that doesn't even rhyme.

One problem we face is the way the tax code is written. The idea that we are going to increase taxes on folks making more than 250,000 a year just feels too close to home. Almost no one you know makes that kind of money, yet, it is close enough that we many of us can imagine it. In my work life I have made 100,000 one year. I did it selling cars, not working in an office (and yeah there is a giant gaping whole in my soul from it). It was a hell of a lot of money and I can imagine what it would be like to make twice that.

Even folks who make somewhere between $50,000 and $75,0000 a year feel like they could get to this level. Even though they are not likely to, even though they don't know anyone who makes that kind of money, they think about it and feel like it is attainable.

This makes it hard for us to talk about making the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. If you think that you are going to be in that group, well you don't want to do something that would hurt you later. What is needed is to start talking about the top brackets being in the 1 million dollar range and above. Even the most optimistic middle class worker does not see a day when he will be making a million dollars a year from his or her job.

Looking at it this way puts the fight in the proper perspective. The other thing we need to start doing is talking about the earnings of the ultra-wealthy in ways that everyone can grasp. A million dollars a year is a lot of money, but really it is hard for many people to intellectualize a million. Take a moment and try to imagine a million pennies or a million cars or even a million slices of bread. Very few things that we deal with in our lives come in million packs so we don't have a good grasp of what that number means.

However, everyone has had a regular pay check, so if we say that we want to raise the taxes of those who make $38,461 every two weeks, 79,000 a month (which is the same as 1 million a year) then it comes into focus just how far away most of us are from being hit by these taxes. It is hard to defend a tax break for people who make more in month than most households make in an entire year.

This is the type of number we have to start using and talking about if we want to bring people together. Folks like Joe Wurzelbacher the famous "Joe the Plumber" like to think that letting the tax cuts for the top 2% of earners expire is going to impact them. To get them to wake up we need to throw a little cold water on their day dreams of avarice.

The other component of the new class warfare is getting the unemployed to band together. The job situation in this nation makes each person looking for work see all the others as competition. If there are five people for every job opening, then that is four people you have to beat out for that job. This robs us of the cohesion that the unemployed should have. As long as we are fighting each other, we won't be fighting the very folks who will off shore 10,000 jobs for a .5% increase in revenue.

There are 14 million unemployed and under-employed adult citizens in this nation. If they all turned out and voted for one party it would be a wave that would dwarf 2006. These votes can be had, if the Democrats will focus on two things, first that the Radical Republicans will not act to create jobs. They want the "market" to do that. They have voted against every single action that helped the recession so far and would continue to do so if in power. Democrats need to stand up and say if the market won't create jobs then it is the job of the government to do so.

The second thing is to say that the ultra-wealthy are going to help pay for these jobs. They make more two weeks than you make all year, and we are going to make them pay 5% of everything over 79,000 a month to help put the people of this country back to work.

This is the win/win the Democrats need. It puts the working folks (better known as 98% of the population) on their side and puts the screws to the folks who have had it so good for so long. It also has the long term affect of reducing some of the power of the ultra-wealthy to influence the debate.

As I said before, I don't like this kind of politics. It has its dangers mostly in stoking anger of one group of Americans against another. But there comes a time when we have to deal with what is not what we would like to believe. There is a line from Young Frankenstein:

"A riot is an ugly sink, unt, I think that it is just about time dat ve had vone!"

Class warfare is an ugly thing too, but it is just about time that we start to engage in it. The fat cats and ultra-wealthy have been doing so for years, now it has to be our turn.

The floor is yours.

Minority Leader McConnell, Can We Talk?

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:26:11 GMT

Minority Lead McConnell, can we talk a minute? You are an educated man, so it is probably pretty hard to say some of things you say when defending the tax policies of the Bush Administration and arguing for their continuation. Perhaps your time in Washington has taught you the skill of being able to say any kind of nonsense but really, Senator, you have to know in the back of your mind that enacting legislation to extend the tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy (that 2% of the nation who makes more than $250,000 a year) is going to bring our nation to its knees.

I don't know you Senator, but I have to think that you don't really want to face what 3.2 trillion dollars in additional debt will do to our nation. You would have to cut or end social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. While that might appeal in an ideological sense, the reality of starving elderly baby boomers, indigent children wearing rags in the streets of our nation is one that even you will not want to see on a daily basis.

Worse, there is a mood of anger in this country which your allies on Fox and Talk Radio have stoked to a level I have never seen in my 43 years. It may be good politics to have your base spun up to the point where some of them are talking about political violence if they don't get their way at the ballot box, but anger is a fire and fire is not always controllable. If you put the nation in to bankruptcy, that anger is going to spread in unpredictable ways. Riots and violence in the streets of Kentucky or California or ever Washington D.C. is entirely possible. That anger would be directed at the government you are part of. Desperate people don't always think rationally and when someone lights a match in a powder room, the explosion affects everyone near by.

What you are asking for is to extend tax cuts to those who are not really affected by the economic downturn. When you have millions of dollars (and lets be clear most of the folks in the top 2% are not just living pay check to paycheck) a temporary reduction in the amount they earn from investments is not going to be that important. Likewise when the majority of your earnings comes from investments, an increase in the tax paid on that money is not going to be missed, except on a balance sheet.

This is very different from the experience of the vast majority of Americans. I don't know how often you get to talk to some of the 8 million people who have lost their jobs during this recession but things are dire for them. Applying for job after job after job, even for work they did when they were starting their careers or when they were in college, and not getting hired is hard in a way that you can not imagine.

It is easy to say that there will be more jobs if we keep the tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and borrow another 3.2 trillion dollars, but there is no evidence that this will happen. In the ten years these tax cuts have been in place there is a net loss of jobs. Even at the height of job creation in the Bush Administration there were only 3 million new jobs. Compare this to the 22 million new jobs created by the Clinton Administration, while raising taxes. The level of taxes in the Clinton administration is what the we are talking about for the ultra-wealthy, not the Regan level or the first Bush administration level, but merely a return to what we had when President Clinton presided over the largest economic expansion in history and balanced the Federal Budget.

Maybe it is an issue of large numbers that is the problem. 3.2 trillion dollars is 3,200 billion. Three thousand two hundred billion dollars which you and your fellow Republicans want to add to our debt to give the comfortable more comfort. The cuts that will expire at the end of this year have already added 2.7 trillion dollars to our debt. That is money we barrowed and have to pay interest on. Right now that interest is low, but it still consumes all the taxes paid to the Federal Government for the months of January and February. One sixth of the federal revenue is consumed by the interest on the tax cuts you put in place a decade ago. Isn't that enough?

I have to say Sen. McConnell, talking like this money generates jobs or does not have to be paid for in massive and punitive cuts in the budget makes you look like a fool. The times when this nation has prospered the most are the times when we have had relatively high tax rates. You know it and yet you have continued to preach that there will be better times if we let the rich be richer and everyone else takes the scraps from their table.

By allowing the tax breaks to expire, as yourself voted to do in 2001 we will bring much needed revenue to the government. It will allow us to spend more to stimulate the economy directly instead of relying on business. This will promote job growth and put millions of Americans back to work. This has to be goal of any lawmaker who actually supports the people of this country.

Senator McConnell, it is time to stop being a partisan hack and start being a patriot. You have had all the advantages that this nation can provide. You live a life of privilege and comfort because of the policies that allow people to get a good education, to work a good job and aspire to something more. Keeping tax rates artificially low for the ultra-wealthy undermines these policies and results in less opportunity for those not as privileged as you and your family are now.

Mitch, it is time to be the man you dreamed of being as a boy. You know the man that stands up for the weak and unfortunate. You remember those dreams, the ones where your actions make things better for many and you are not vilified as a moron who can't add or understand that money which is not collected is the same as money spent.

It seems unlikely to me that you or Minority Leader Boehner will take these steps. You have lost your way. You have been seduced by the power. It has corrupted your ability to actually judge if a policy is going to work or not, even given the ample evidence of the last 8 years.

Still, you might want to think about what an America where citizens starve to death or turn to crime or violence will be like. This is where your policies will take us. Is it really worth it to be in charge of a nation that is no longer a shining city on the hill but instead just another place where the wealthy thrive and everyone else suffers? Is that really the America you want?

The floor is yours.

Blue Dog John Salazar: Aiding Koch Empire, hurting The President

Zappatero — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:14:01 GMT

John Salazar (D?-Pueblo/Gunnison), brother of Colorado's semi-beloved, former Senator and current Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, has been recently found to be aiding and abetting a land swap deal for one of the Koch Brothers up here in Colorado.

Locals don't like it. Partly because the recipient of the favors, Bill Koch, can't be trusted, and partly because Salazar is pushing this tricky land swap that veers far and wide of the normal process:

[S]ome staffers at the Bureau of Land Management worry that Koch will be getting land with much higher value because of its potential for energy development. They also complain that there was very little opportunity for public input and scrutiny of the deal. There were no public hearings specifically devoted to gathering public comment, as there are with most proposed government land swaps.
"I'm not very pleased about it. It doesn't look like a very good deal for me or other people in this area," said Tony Prendergast, a former Forest Service ranger.

John Salazar wouldn't push a deal that doesn't follow normal procedure just because Koch is his largest donor, would he?

The trade was initiated more than two years ago by Koch - the world's 316th richest man, according to Forbes, and Salazar's most generous campaign contributor.

The Koch Brothers are also prime funders of The Tea Party:

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry - especially environmental regulation.

Is that the type of citizen John Salazar should be going out of his way to support? Does the petty fact that his campaign relies on Koch cash override his duty and responsibility to all his district's citizens, and the amazing natural resources therein?

These views dovetail with the brothers' corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a "kingpin of climate science denial." The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies-from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program-that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.

I'm too old to think that a congressman couldn't be swayed by some campaign cash and overlook the hideous history of the man he's doing favors for.

But am I too naive to believe he'd even forget he was a Democrat one day when Mike Stark happened to have a video camera rolling:

Make sure you watch the whole video so you can compare John Salazar's commitment to fiscal conservatism and those like Koch, and his wishy washy words about whether he was a Blue Dog and a Democrat. I hope Koch Empire Cash didn't pay for his little bout of forgetfulness.

Sunday Bread - French Chocolate Sourdough!

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:36:55 GMT

Happy Sunday Bread Heads!

This week we're going to make French Style Sourdough Bread. The idea for this bread comes from a great bakery deli just tucked away off the main campus of the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), Zingerman's Deli. They make a Chocolate Sourdough bread that is out of this world. It also cost $10 bucks plus shipping so I decided to see if I could replicate the recipe and share it with you.

This bread is all about technique. None of them are hard in and of themselves, but you have to do them all in order to get the fine crumb, the hard crust and the proper proportion of sour and sweet flavors that make this bread such a joy to eat. Being that this is a sourdough it also lets us kick off a few weeks of sourdough recipes since once you have the starter there is no reason not to bake sourdough bread.

Last week I gave you a starter recipe. I am going to give it again since it is an integral part of the bread. Without further adieu, let's bake!

Sourdough Starter

Ingredients:

1 cup 2% milk (non-fat is okay if that is what you have in the house, don't use whole milk)
3 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 cup flour

Method:

Sterilize a 1 ? quart glass, ceramic, rigid plastic or stainless steel container by putting it in boiling water for 5 minutes. Wipe dry with a clean clothe.

While the container is being sterilized, heat the milk to between 90 and 100 degrees (just lukewarm). Remove from the heat and whisk in the yogurt. Pour into the warm bowl and tightly cover. I like to use a container that has an air tight lid, as this is the easiest way, but plastic wrap and a rubber band will get you the same affect.

Place in a warm place (90 degrees) and let stand for 24 hours. The best place for this is your oven with the light turned on. Place the bowl so it is close to the light. After a day the mixture should have curdled. It should be more dense than the milk, but not quite as dense as the yogurt was. If the mixture has a light pink tint to it, the milk broke. Discard the mixture and start over.

If everything looks good, gradually stir in the flour until the starter is smooth and even. Recover the bowl and return to the oven for five days. If you need to use your oven in that time just set the starter near it on the counter and as soon as the oven has cooled down return it to its place under the light.

After five days take the starter out and open the lid. You should have a good strong sour smell and the starter will be thick and bubbly. You can now store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. Be sure to let it return to room temperature before using.

To replenish your starter, add ? cup of milk and ? cup of flour to the starter. Stir until smooth and then place in the oven near the sponge. When the sponge is ready, put the starter back in the refrigerator. This will keep a good sour flavor and make sure there is plenty of starter for other recipes.

French Chocolate Sourdough Bread

Ingredients for Sponge:

1 cup Sourdough Starter
1 ? cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
2 ? cups bread flour (for this recipe don't use all purpose. We need the extra protein for lift)
2 teaspoons sugar

Ingredients for Dough:
2 package (4 ? teaspoons) dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
? teaspoon baking powder (unlike most recipes don't cut this down over 5000 feet)
3 cups bread flour
3 ? oz Bittersweet Chocolate (be sure to buy a good chocolate it makes a huge difference)
1 egg white beaten with 1 tablespoon of water

Baking Pans: 1 sheet pan, 1 broiler pan

Special Equipment: 1 Pizza Stone

Method:

To make the sponge; in a bowl combine the starter, water, flour and sugar. Stir well and then cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place the bowl in your oven with the near the oven light. Let stand for 24 hours then stir down. Let stand for another 24 hours, then it is ready for baking day.

Scrape the sponge into a large bowl or the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Add the yeast, salt and baking soda. Stir to combine. Stir in the flour, ? cup at a time, adding more only after all of the flour is absorbed. If you are doing this by hand the dough will get quite shaggy and you may need to work the last bit of the flour in by hand instead of with a wooden spoon. Once all the flour has been absorbed, turn the dough out onto a well floured work surface and let it rest for 10 minutes.

If you are doing this in a stand mixer, use the flat paddle and once most of the flour is incorporated, switch to the dough hook attachment. When all the flour has been absorbed, turn the machine off and let the dough rest for 10 minutes. This will prevent it from climbing the dough hook.

Knead the dough, by hand or by stand mixer for 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic at this point. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cove with plastic wrap. Place in the oven with the light on.

To get the light crumb we want, we'll have to beat this poor dough up a lot. Let it rise undisturbed for 20 minutes. Then turn back the plastic and punch it down. Repeat this step every 10 minutes for rest of an hour (you'll punch it down a total of 5 times).

After the fifth time, cover the bowl and let stand in the oven for 1 hour or until the dough has more than doubled in size.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead for about 30 seconds to get any air bubbles out. Press the dough out with your fingers until it is a disk about 12" in diameter. Break the chocolate up into pieces. I use a choclate bar that has lots of little places to break the chocolate, but you could just cut any bar into ? inch to ? pieces. Spread the pieces evenly over the dough. Press them into the dough so they hold in place.

Fold one side over 2/3rd of the dough then fold the other side over this to make a three layer roll. Knead the dough with a strong push-turn-fold method for about a minute. This will evenly distribute the chocolate in the dough. If there are any pieces that stick out, push them back in.

Form the dough into a ball and place on sheet pan or a peel covered with parchments paper. Cove the dough with a clean tea towel and lets sit in a warm place until it has doubled in volume, about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.

Twenty minutes before baking, set your oven rack to a middle position, and place your pizza stone on it. If you don't have a pizza stone you can still make this bread, it just gives it a little extra lift.

On a rack below the pizza stone set a broiler pan. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees twenty minutes. Five minutes before baking, pour 1 ? cups of hot water in the broiler pan. Be reasonably careful of the steam this will generate.

Right before baking, slice a tic-tac-toe pattern in the top of the loaf with a sharp knife. Paint the entire loaf with the egg wash. Be sure to keep the reminding egg wash you will need it!

Using the parchment paper slide the loaf onto the hot pizza stone or place the sheet pan on the rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the loaf from the oven and paint the entire thing with the remaining egg wash. Bake for another 10 minutes or until the loaf is shiny brown and gives a good hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Be careful there may be bits of hot melted chocolate on the surface of the bread, don't burn yourself!

When the bread is done, move it to a wire rack to cool completely. Don't cut into this loaf early!

When it is done slice and enjoy! This bread is just the right combination of sweet and sour. It makes fabulous toast and freezes really well. If you find it getting a little stale, you can refresh it by putting it or a hunk of it in a 325 degree oven for 8 minutes.

I know this seems like a lot of work, and it is, but the rewards from French Chocolate Sourdough are well worth the effort!

Next week we'll be killing two birds with one stone and making a Sourdough Pumpernickel!

The flour is yours