On the Contrary

Vine:  Well I have just come in from the vineyard, thinning the Syrah.  The picture on the left gives you some idea of the rapid growth that is occurring in the vineyard especially if you compare to my last weeks posting.  For those of you that want to know what growing grapes involves, this is one of those extremely important tasks to focus growth on well-positioned and strong shoots.  I have been getting up every morning at 5 am to be in the vineyard so I can be out of the vineyard by 10 am or so to he out of the heat and the sun of the day.  What you want is that each of your spurs produce two well positioned (top of plant and growing up) fruit bearing shoots. Think of a T, with the cordon forming the top of the T.  On each side of the trunk on the cordon, you want 5-6 spurs out of which you want two fruit bearing shoots to grow.  But the grape plants are very unruly and they will push out buds that grow into shoots all over the plant, and will push out multiple shoots at one connection point (node).  You want to remove all of these excess shoots, break off one of the doubles since this weaken the joint and makes the two shoots compete for nutrients, and remove non-fruit bearing shoots (you can see the flower clusters that will produce the grapes).  So you must walk along each row, and do some choosing at every spur.  It is time consuming, sometimes frustrating, and tedious. This gets further complicated since many times your strongest shoots are either doubles (two shoots out of the same node) or are poorly placed so that pulling them up through the wires (trellis) could and will break them off.  In some cases, growth is weak and then right next to it you have a very strong shoot, but with no fruit bearing clusters.  So you are trying to thin the growth, pick the best choices for fruit bearing shoots based on strength of growth and location, and sometimes leaving non-fruit bearing shoots to reposition your spurs next year.  The picture on the right shows a single spur and some of the jumble of shoots.  The picture below on on the left shows the same spur thinned.  It is a long tedious task but I have finished in the Syrah.  The lower vineyard Syrah is the worst because it is all terraced so you are working on a steep slope and yes I fell on my ass more than once.  Next I will tackle the head trained Grenache and then the Mourvedre.  In the meantime I need to walk the Syrah about every three days, break off any new growth, and push the shoots through the wires as they grow.  And you just thought I sat on the porch and sipped wine.  Next up after that is mowing down the vineyard, and then beginning Spring spraying for powdery mildew.  The fun just never stops.

Ron Mansfield, my vineyard adviser, told me a story about a couple who recently planted a vineyard (last year) and the plants (bushes really) needed to be thinned to strong shots to grow up the stake to later be thinned to one (the strongest) to form the trunk of a head trained vine.  He had gone out to give them a lesson in how to thin the plant and pick the two shoots (and tie them to the stake).  Then left them to their work.  While he was out there they were telling him about their plans to do some traveling in June and I laughed and said, they don’t get this yet, you don’t travel in June.  He said it got better.  They called the next day to see if Ron would “back them up” if they couldn’t get all the work done.  It is a lesson for all you out there that are thinking about your own vineyard.  It is hard work, albeit rewarding work, but the work doesn’t care about your schedule.  If you are planning to do everything yourself, I would not exceed 1500 plants which is what I have.  And understand that some tasks you really will need help because it won’t wait for one or two persons to get around to it.  Heavy equipment won’t help.  That is pruning in the spring, and harvesting in the fall.  Both tasks have a window of optimum performance and needs to be done by a crew who can complete it in a very short time.

Wine: We have an event up here this weekend (Rock and Rhones) which is one of my favorites and I wrote about it two weeks ago if you are interested.  But this is my time to replenish my wine cabinet and since I belong to many wine clubs, most of my work is simply picking up my shipments at the different wineries.  So I thought I would do that so that during the event at many of these wineries I would not have the additional task of picking up wine.  My wife is always suggesting that we buy more wines we are unfamiliar with and generally I would agree with her, but one rule of thumb is that good wine is usually not cheap.  Good wines up here are usually $20-$32 and of course I get a growers or club member discount which makes getting my wine fix locally even more attractive. So I pick up about four cases (of course I added some additional bottles to my shipments) and I thought I would give you some recommendations to come up here and taste so here they are (sorry, no whites):

Holly’s Hill

2007 Mourvedre Classique (Disclaimer – Some of the grapes are mine)

2005 East Slope Syrah

2007 Tranquille

Miraflores

2006 Petite Sirah

2004 & 2005 Syrah 2006 Zinfandel

Any Year Methode Ancienne Syrah

David Girard

2005 Mourvedre

2006 Syrah Gamay Noir

2006 Syrah

Narrow Gate

2007 Petite Cuvee

2006 Petite Sirah

2006 Syrah

Donkey and Goat

2006 Four Thirteen (Disclaimer-2 of the 4 varietals are my grapes)

2006 Syrah (Vieilles Vignes, Mednocino)

2006 Fenaughty Vineyard Syrah

I have a suggestion for you.  Sometimes if a winery is tasting several vintages of say Syrah ask to do some side by side tasting.  For instance pour a Miraflores 2004 Syrah next to a 2005 and compare.  Do the same thing with different growing locations.  For instances at Holly’s Hill ask to taste the Hilltop Syrah along side the East Slope (same vintage).  You will be amazed at what you can learn.  Carpe Diem.

President Obama’s best spokesperson is President Obama.  He reaffirmed our values in his speech today at the National Archives and made all the arguments compellingly.  Maybe it is the 24/7 news cycle that gives a voice to the outrageous fear mongering of the Republicans.  But the air was cleared  today and if people listened to his words, they will see what cowards the fear mongerers are.  It was nice to see someone stand up for our values and refute the Republican noise machine.  If only our Democratic Congress could find their backbone and stand tough with our President.

It was reported yesterday that President Obama met with liberal human rights groups yesterday and got an ear full about his approach to the detainees.  When I heard that headline I thought to myself, how come we never hear about a conservative human rights group?  Does give one pause for thought.  At any rate the meeting was suppose to be off the record but it is reported that they told him he was being seen as adopting many Bush era policies and he did not appear to be happy to hear that.  And then there was the denial.  He did not ask for all the problems he inherited.  He was trying to save the economy.  There are so many things that need his attention and he does not want to have the nation distracted.  All the flaps about torture, who told who when, and the Congressional investigations were distracting his Attorney General.  No, I am not kidding, this was the reported gist of the meeting.

Apparently these groups pushed back.  The pointed out that if he would start an investigation this would reduce and focus the work of the Attorney General.  He rejected that.  When challenged why he would not prosecute one person to show this type of behavior regarding torture would not be tolerated, he flatly rejected that idea and said no one was going to be prosecuted.  That is probably the most disturbing part of this.  Even though the Attorney General was there at the meeting, President Obama seemed to be speaking for him.  Unless I have forgotten my civics class back in high school, the person who decides about prosecutions is the Attorney General, not the President, or we are back to an imperial presidency.

I think the President has entered the bubble.  He is in the grasp of group speak and he has lost his way.  He has lost touch with the American people and has become too full of himself.  He is listening to the generals instead of reading the Constitution.  Whenever you start making decisions that let your agenda be more important that your Constitutional duties to enforce our laws, you have lost your way.  America cries out for leadership, but it would seem that none of our elected officials understand the tough love we crave.  If we could finally have a Democrat who stood up and said, “this is right, this is wrong” and stood for something against the tide of public opinion and fear, it would be a relief to all of us.  It really would start real change.  But what we are seeing is backsliding.  I expected it by the gutless wonders who inhabit the halls of Congress, but I did not expect it from our President.  I now understand how insulating that bubble can be.  The President will make a statement about the fate of Guantanamo today and we will see if there will be more equivocating and backsliding.

I and many of my fellow Americans understand that the choices may have some unpleasant consequences.  I watched our great Senators whine about not in my backyard regarding housing the terrorists.  I saw one mental moron say we could not afford to give these people the rights that are afforded Americans such as habeas corpus.  Yes, living by our ideals may have some unpleasant consequences, but you either believe in the stuff or you don’t.  Being afraid, and deciding that some people do not get the same rights as others is to say, “We hold these truths to be self evident for those we decide to confer these truths on, if they don’t frighten us.”  Apparently only some people are born with unalienable rights.  That is not the country I love and respect.  Please Mr. President, gut up and do the right thing.  It is like being a parent.  If you are trying to be your child’s friend all the time, you lost your way as a parent.  Please don’t lose your way as a President.

President Obama took on the issue of abortion directly, sort of, this weekend at his address at Notre Dame.  I am still trying to understand how people could object to having the President speak at an institution of higher learning which should respect a diversity of ideas, but then there are a whole bunch of people who don’t believe there should be a diversity of ideas.  He definitely took the high ground in saying we want to give people support by trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies and we should work together on that.  Of course there are a whole slew of folks who think any form of birth control is baby killing.  Remember how our last President yanked funds from family planning clinics?

Then if someone finds themselves pregnant he wanted to give them the support (read services here) they need to keep the child or put it up for adoption.  The problem with that solution is that most Democrats have no problem with it, but the conservative right is the last group that would vote to raise their taxes for anything.  Isn’t this the welfare queen they so hate?  You can’t have it both ways can you?  And of course providing them with support whether they are in high school with in school day care, or day care so they can work or get ahead suffers the same fate.  These social conservatives will be the first to say why reward these wayward, bad people.  Do you remember, “why should we reward law breakers?”  It is just another form of the same sin and punishment view of life.  In other words they like the idea that all life is precious, but they are unwilling to invest in that life once it is “saved”.

And here is where there is no common ground:  While we would like to work with social conservatives to prevent unwanted pregnancies, social conservatives want to use government to force their views on us.  The end game is that we must accept their religious convictions on when life begins.  Pro-choice supporters will not interfere in your life whether you have an abortion or choose not to, but anti-abortion people want to make that choice for you.  That is where we have nothing in common.  They think they have the moral high ground and the reality is they are the antithesis of democracy, intolerant to other points of view.  When you understand this, you know that there is little hope of any reconciliation.  Working with us to prevent unwanted pregnancies would be consorting with the enemy.  It was a noble gesture on President Obama’s part, but the reality of their politics will not allow them to compromise.

In the world of don’t ask-don’t tell, more and more brave and loyal Americans are being thrown out of the military, ending their careers and at a great loss to the American military and the American people in order to keep a smaller and smaller segment of our population safe from gay thoughts.  President Obama promised to overturn this policy and he has done nothing.  If good Americans were not being sacrificed at the alter of political expediency, I guess we could wait a little longer.  But waiting is ruining lives and I am tired of looking for political courage.  Is there a man in the house who can keep his word when the going gets rough?

Speaking of the lack of political courage, the Democrats reacting to the fear campaign the Republicans have waged about releasing terrorists into our society, voted down funding to close Guantanamo.  I watched Senator Reid turn himself into a pretzel trying to convince others they were doing the right thing instead of pandering to the political winds.  It is no wonder Democrats have never been able to hold onto power since their lack of political courage or backbone is always on display.  If you are being congratualated by Mitch McConnell for doing the right thing, you have probably done something very very stupid.  The Republicans have no ideas and want to return to yesterday and you nitwits cannot even stand up for good ideas if you might catch some flack.  I would kill for a Democrat who would call their bluff.  Is there no one out there who can look into the vacant eyes of a Republican and say, “Make my day?”  Apparently not.

If this is leadership, change is not going to happen anytime soon.

I was invited to a dinner (barbecue) on Sunday and about half of the little town of Placerville was there.  Placerville is a funny little town with a real social pecking order, one I have never been part of.  I remember one year at a local gathering when one woman high up in that pecking order asked me, “and just who are you?”  Nobody.   I wasn’t rich, I wasn’t politically connected, and I certainly could not do anything for her so I was nobody.  Actually at the time, I was a lower level bureaucratic lackey working for the federal government, somebody to be pleasant to, but let’s check out the room and see who is really here that is important.  If you are not one of the movers and shakers (and movers and shakers is a relative term in this very little conservative community), someone you went to high school with, or go back 30 years, well, you just don’t really count for anything.  That’s okay, because I have made a few good friends here and there are always exceptions, but all I am saying is the social scene is, well, stunted.  Intellect or diversity is to be avoided as one might say something inopportune or impolitic for this conservative little town.

But I wasn’t at the party for more than a few minutes when the host was telling me how Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had caused the housing bubble and meltdown.  And he had seen a YouTube video of President Bush warning about Freddie and Fannie.  So I said to him, “Did you see Alan Greenspan’s testimony before the House Banking Committee when Henry Waxman asked him if Freddie and Fannie were the cause, and after stammering, he replied, No”.  Of course I knew he hadn’t seen it.  But he wanted to have breakfast with me so he could “explain it to me Lucy”.  So I did a bad thing this morning.  I sent him the video of the hearing along with an analysis of “Flat Earthers” trying to pin the blame on Freddie and Fannie by Dean Baker of TruthOut.org and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.  I sent him some recommendations for reading including George Cooper’s The Origin of Financial Crises, and Paul Krugman’s The Return of Depression Economics. I also sent him a couple of economic blog recommendations like the Baseline Scenario where real economists discuss the current trends in economic thought about our problems.  No I don’t think he will read any of it.  My frustration is that I do and it doesn’t count for anything.

I guess my selfish little point here is that I take the time to really understand an issue.  If you have read my blogs, Micro and Macro Economics you will know I do my homework.  And that is what is so frustrating when I engage in these discussions.  They haven’t.  Let me give you another example from the party.  A friend of mine made an off-handed remark that anything government manages they screw up.  Now the fact that I dedicated 31 years of my life to the federal government, or that I worked with some truly professional folks both in the military and in the Corps of Engineers, some who died trying to protect the public was totally lost on him.  And of course the discussion was about a single payer health care system.  So I said, what do you think Medicare is and it is about 30% less expensive to operate than private insurance firms.  He said he didn’t believe it.

There you have it.  If you don’t agree with the facts, just ignore them.  So I am thinking why do I bother.  These are nice people and I enjoy their company, but when it comes to their understanding of the real issues that are facing this nation, they have been selectively listening to their favorite radio talk show host, and have read nothing.  They have not taken the time to challenges their beliefs or dial into other experts and consider their opinions.  They are all fans of junk science and don’t really understand the difference between it and real honest to god research and peer reviewed findings. They select their facts to suit their political beliefs (I am not going to pay no stinking taxes to the government that screws everything up) than to let the real facts inform their politics.  If they can find one fruit loop with a PhD to agree with their opinion, well, then there you have it.  As Susan Jacoby, in her insightful book, The Age of American Unreason, put it so well, we have multiple sources of our news these days and we can just pick the one that agrees with our political opinion.  It saves all that thinking and questioning stuff which is so bothersome.  So why should I bother anymore?

So I don’t think I am going to.  First off, it is rare that we are standing on neutral ground.  I read voraciously.  I challenge my ideas by reading people who don’t agree with me, and as an engineer, I am always looking for “root causes”.  That is lost on them and I might as well be “the man on the street” whose opinion is based on the same sort of selective myopia that they participate in.  It has been a long time since I have found anyone who can discuss issues on a level that is really intellectually challenging to me.  That, I am afraid, is a function of where I live.  In other words, I start thinking where do you start with this argument since they have not really examined it themselves.  They have choralled some opinions that supports their beliefs and they are not going to listen to any others.  There is no use asking if they have read this or that because they haven’t.  If you reel off facts and figures from well established and proven studies, they just refuse to believe it.

So I am not going to try anymore.  I will just be one of those people who nods and smiles and talks about the weather.  And in a few years I am going to move somewhere where intelectual stimulation is not just in a book, newspaper, or PBS.  Isn’t that sad?  Well I still have my blog and once in a while my son challenges me, so I guess life isn’t so bad after all.  There is still wonderful jazz and a good glass of wine.  Eventually they will see the light.  Then they will think it was their idea.

I know that your aggressive agenda for this country is important for us to rebound and we must move forward on it, but to push aside the issues of torture and the treatment of the detainees as an inconvenient distraction will simply hinder any hope for progress on these or any other issues.  Our conduct during the last eight years has stained our American soul.  It has tarnished everything we mean when we say we are Americans.  As I read our great Constitution and the debates leading up to the Bill of Rights, I know that waving due process, treating our enemies without rights, and degrading humans through torture and abuse violates everything we have stood for.  As I contemplate that we did these acts, I no longer know who I am as an American.  It doesn’t matter what the justifications are, we have lost our way and the answer to redeeming our soul is not to move on and take the attitude that what is done is done, but to face these issues head on.

In order to heal ourselves we have to face our demons.  Right now, as evidenced by the political turmoil, we are still in denial.  We are still having arguments about whether it was justified, failing to understand that if we can justify it, we no longer hold dear to the principles of the Constitution.  We are no longer the Americans who stood for liberty and justice because if you start classifying who deserves liberty and justice and who doesn’t, it doesn’t exist anymore.  The debate has become a political football that further demeans us and trivializes our values.  Facing the reality of what we did will have severe consequences, but the consequences of not facing up to and living with our actions will forever demean us as a people.  There are some tough times ahead, and we must bear the consequences to restore ourselves.

First and foremost we need a real investigation to explore in a fully public way the whole sordid mess.  The focus of this investigation is to get at the facts, not partisan politics or prosecution.  To put the political sniping out of its misery, we have to release all the facts.  If laws were broken and we are a nation of laws, then those who broke them must face their crimes.  There will always be mitigating circumstances regarding their punishment, but if we violated international law and our own laws, then these transgressions must be exposed and those responsible held accountable.  If you don’t carry out this responsibility of your office, you are simply setting us up to repeat this nightmare in another time, in another place, when someone thinks the ends again justify the means.

Second, you must release all documents and pictures related to our treatment of the detainees.  Without the full truth and impact of what was wrought by these misguided policies, then we will never face the full impact of our actions.  I understand that this puts our international relations and our military at risk of reprisals, but to continue to hide the full impact of our actions simply degrades our ability to ever lead as a nation who stands for the principles of liberty and freedom.  Our men and women in uniform know they are fighting for our principles and this puts them at risk.  It is time we stood up for those principles to make their sacrifices meaningful.

Third close Guantanamo and do not restart the military tribunals.  Guantanamo is a symbol to the world, and quite frankly to most of us here at home, of our trampling on the human rights of others.  It also is a gross violation of your own Christian principles.  It is a continual reminder that among the very guilty, we also punished the very innocent without thought or caring, and where for many the punishment did not fit the crime.  Military commissions, no matter how you tweak them, will never provide the full measure of protections or justice that open public trails will.  They will always be seen as kangaroo courts no matter how you white wash them and will again sully our very soul and the principles for which we used to hold so dear.

I understand the downside.  I understand that some of these men who have committed grave crimes may have to be released because the evidence we have is so tainted.  I understand the difficult politics of incarcerating some in the United States.  I understand that some may return to the battlefield.  I also understand that in our own criminal justice system we release people every day who we know will be repeat offenders.  But in our society, Mr. President, we don’t prosecute people for what we think they will do, only for what they actually do.  Any other choice denies one’s hope for redemption that is basic to our fundamental beliefs.  Our basic principles are sometimes difficult to live with and sometimes exact heavy penalties, but that is what made us special and to make an exception, any exception, is to no longer have those principles.

So finally Mr. President, I beseech you to enter the fray and lead us in the right direction.  Letting politics as usual drive the train or doing the politically expedient thing will not resolve this blot on our soul.  Without your leadership to make the hard, but necessary decisions, we will have left a cancer on our national character that will only slowly grow.  And like a cancer that is in remission, sooner or later we will have to do something about it.  If it is later, our choices will be severely limited.  Please Mr. President, I want to be a proud American again, but in order to achieve that, we must hold ourselves accountable for our failures and be a model for the world as someone who really does stand up for our values and face the consequences.  Everything you hope to accomplish will be tainted if we don’t deal with this cancer.  Please lead us through these difficult times by showing us the true American character.

It is truly ironic that the Republicans want to put Nancy Pelosi on trial for not objecting to torture when she learned of it.  These are the people who think torture is okay and have been defending it and then they want to criticize her for her lack of political courage.  I also find it somewhat amusing that we have the Republicans telling us that the intelligence agencies would not mislead us.  They are no different than any other agency or company and when they want to do something, they will put the best face on it, i.e. spin the briefing.  Said another way, not tell any untruths, but omit salient facts.  Anybody remember yellowcake uranium?  Anybody remember the cherry picked intelligence that sent us to war in Iraq?

Statements that “notes” from the briefings indicate the CIA told the “Gang of Four” about using waterboarding are highly suspect as you can bet the notes were written after the fact and reviewed to make sure their asses were covered.  If they thought they might have omitted a mention of actually torturing people they could just add it later.  These are the guys who destroyed videotapes of torture to cover their asses remember?  Also note that ex-Senator Bob Graham from Florida backs up Nancy’s story and also pointed out that they indicated he was briefed three times and they later found that to be erroneous.  Their record keeping is mighty convenient.

All of this is not to say she did or did not know. Personally I have found the Democrats lack of a spine over the last 9 years truly disappointing. All of this is really beside the point.  For the Republicans this is a great opportunity to side step the real issue of who authorized and carried out torture, or even more salient, was torture used to get misinformation.  The issue around Nancy Pelosi is what could she have done about it had she known.  Or said another way and more importantly, is the Gang of Four really Congressional oversight and what could they do if they objected?  In a New York Times op-ed piece, Congress’s Torture Bubble, Vicki Divoll, a former deputy counsel to the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, and general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2003, wrote that there was nothing they could really do without support from all of Congress and they could tell no one about what they heard.  They could not even consult their staff about the administration’s claim of legality for the torture they were conducting.  You also have to remember at the time, and this is the great Republican argument about using torture because we were all so scared, that to dissent from the Administration was to be labeled unpatriotic.  So fighting on this would have probably been political suicide although in my mind better than going along with it.

In 2003 when there was no disagreement that the new Gang of Four were notified of the actual interrogation techniques being used, Jane Harmon did sent a letter to the CIA and the Bush administration saying she objected and the administration told her to go piss up a rope.  Well not really, but the effect was the same.  So when the Republicans stop all their displacement tactics, the real question is how do we restore Congressional oversight so that it is meaningful.  Ms. Divoll discusses this in some length in her op-ed piece and I won’t repeat it here except to say that there must be an effective way to ensure a balance of power.  There was some things they could have done then, so nobody is squeaky clean in this thing, but the real issue is not who went along with it, but whose bright idea was it.

One last thought.  Many are clamoring for a special prosecutor to investigate the wrongdoing and our violation of the Geneva Conventions.  I think this would be a great mistake.  As soon as you appoint a special prosecutor, the lid clamps down tight on the information and we are left in the dark about what really went on.  Think about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  Heard anything lately about his pay to play investigation?  The real issue is for us, you know, we the people, to know what went on, why, who authorized it, and what if anything was gained from it.  This is only going to come out in an investigation that is fully visible to all of us.  Whether this is a truth commission or other form of non-partisan look at what happened is not really important.  Then if there are violations of law, they can then be pursued in the criminal justice system.   If the Republican argument that these were extraordinary times, then these can be evaluated as mitigating factors that effect the sentence, but not whether we enforce the law.  Note that Diane Feinstein is investigating this behind close doors so we the people can be protected from the truth.  I have a fundamental problem with that approach.

Are you paying attention Mr. President?  It is time to wade in and take control of this by doing the right thing, not the easy thing.

Vine: Spring work in the vineyard is in full swing.  I finished a herbicide spray, going after weeds and unwanted growth along the rows using a backpack sprayer to spot spray the evil demons.  When it is wet (a couple of weeks ago now), the big weeds can be pulled out by hand, but now that we are starting to experience typical Northern California weather (dry till October), Roundup® is essential.  One of my friends wants me to go all-natural and hoe these weeds out, but for one guy on three acres it would be an all consuming job.  What I find is that if I spot spray and stay ahead of it, it minimizes the use of the herbicide, and keeps the really repugnant weeds out of the vineyard.

The next chore is some initial thinning of the new shoots.  While it is too early to thin to two shoots per spur, the plant is putting out new buds and shoots in all sorts of unwanted places including at the base of the trunk.  The good news is that most of this new growth can be easily rubbed or broken off.  One needs to be a little careful and not get over exuberant in thinning because between now and when the canes start to harden and get pushed up through the wires, some will break off due to wind or other acts of violence.  So I don’t want to limit my choices too early.  You also want to see which shoots are producing grapes and are growing hardily.  But there are obvious choices for removing like on the trunk, base of the trunk, or out of old wood that would not produce grapes anyway.  The only exception to that is that sometimes the growth out of last years new wood (spur) is weak and you may want a new spur especially if it is better positioned.  Then you would leave that shoot even though it will not produce grapes this year, but will next year.  Remember the rule, grape producing shoots usually only grow out of last year’s new wood.  Note on the picture on the right, there are two well positioned new shoots growing out of the spur.  If you look closely you can see a grape pod on the shoot on the left.  You can also see some unwanted buds on the cardon (horizontal trunk of the syrah) that will need to be removed.

Walking through the vineyard removing unwanted shoots gives you a chance to really look at each plant and see how it is growing.  Right now the shoots are growing at about an inch to two inches a day, and with the forecast 90° weather next week, I could be up through the first wires by the end of next week which means lots of work for me.  The vineyard is full of ladybugs right now and they are eating all sorts of bad critters.  The cover crop is slowing starting to turn brown and die out. No it is not from lack of water because the soil is holding plenty of moisture.  It is just their cycle. I have to wait another two or three weeks until the seed heads have fully developed before mowing the whole vineyard so I get a good dispersion of seeds for next year.  It won’t be long before I will have to do one of my other dreaded chores, which is spray for powdery mildew (sulfur).  More about spraying and irrigation next time.  See, isn’t owning a vineyard glamorous?  Its hard work if you love the plants.

Wine: Well for wine this week I have a recipe selection for you which goes well with a high acid white.  We have a local fisherman who fishes in the bay and ocean and then sells fresh fish on Saturdays at our local outdoor market.  During the winter, he will tell you (via internet) what is available this week and you can order.  This week we ordered fresh shrimp and monk fish.  Candace was craving shrimp so here is a very simple and excellent recipe for a quick and simple fresh green bean and shrimp dinner.   The green beans can be fixed several ways and this time I added mushrooms.  Basically you trim off the stems of the green beans, and then boil them for no more than five minutes and then immediately remove them from the heat and soak them in ice water to stop them from cooking.  Dice a couple of shallots and several cloves of garlic.  Just before you are going to serve the shrimp, brown the shallots in a large sauté pan for about 2-3 minutes.  In a separate pan cook the mushrooms in some olive oil and butter (the mushrooms will produce juice which you don’t want in the sauté pan).  Throw in a pinch or two of the garlic and a touch of white wine and cook until the mushrooms are just turning soft.  In the meantime, add the rest of the garlic to the sauté pan and cook for only about a minute over medium heat to release their flavors.  Then turn the heat to high and add the green beans and mushroom and cook about 2-3 minutes, tossing frequently, until the beans are hot and the flavors have been absorbed.  The alternative to the mushrooms is to grate about a teaspoon of lemon zest and add it with the green beans instead of the mushrooms and it gives the whole dish a fresh crisp flavor.

For the shrimp, it is really easy.  Heat the oven to about 400°.  Put the shrimp (shell removed and deveined), on a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil and coat in olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.  Then simply roast them about 6-8 minutes and they are ready.  Serve with a high acid white wine like a Sauvignon Blanc or a blend of Viognier and Roussanne.  I would recommend the Tamarindo from a Donkey and Goat, a 2007 Roussanne from El Dorado.  Yes I know, in the picture there is a red.  I am incorrigable.  Carpe Diem

Note:  If you click on the pictures (they are all high resolution) you can zoom in to see any details that might interest you.  Clicking multiple times will zoom your view.

Nancy Pelosi has accused the CIA of misleading/lying to Congress.  John Boehner has now stepped forward to say that he can’t imagine the intelligence services ever misleading Congress.  I guess WMD and our invasion of Iraq and the total misrepresentation/stifling of the real intelligence just slipped his mind.  Do you get it yet Mr. President.  This is spiraling out of control and hurting you.  START THE INVESTIGATION.  Nancy may or may not be complicit, but that is not the point.  We need to get to the facts and you right now are part of the problem.

Yesterday we had some very interesting testimony on torture when a former FBI interrogator who actually participated and led the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that they got good intelligence from Zubaydah until the CIA showed up with their harsh techniques and amateur hour contractors, and shut him down.  Even more interesting was Senator Lindsey Graham’s attempt to impugn the witness when he asked about the claims by a former CIA agent that within two minutes of water boarding Zubaydah, he was telling them everything he knew.  As the ex-FBI agent pointed out, the trouble with this was that the former CIA agent had retracted his statement after admitting he had never been part of any of the interrogations.

What should disturb everyone is that Lindsey Graham apparently didn’t know this and his only intent in the hearings was to protect the past administration instead of getting at the truth.  Anyone who has read Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side already knows all this, but apparently the people who run our government don’t have time to get the facts.  What is sad about these Republicans is that they so want to believe torture works and therefore justified, they can’t look at reality.  Ex-Vice President Cheney has been beating the drum of effectiveness and claiming there are memos that show how well it worked, which Republican ditto-heads have been repeating every chance they get.  There are memos alright, self-serving and mostly inaccurate memos written by the CIA to justify their program and satisfy their bosses, but there is very little truth in them, which might I add, will come out if the memos do.

Even more interesting was the testimony of Former State Department counselor Phillip Zelikbow.  Mr. Zelikbow, a card carrying member of the Republican Party, was an advisor to Condi Rice in the Bush administration and he wrote a memo, yet to be disclosed because we aren’t adult enough to read it, laying out the legal errors in Yoo’s and others finding for the legality of torture.  He tale is one of how his views were suppressed and the memo ordered to be destroyed.  Oh no, they weren’t shopping for the legal justification to do the illegal.  Just like weapons of mass destruction, they weren’t looking for any other answers and the truth is what they already knew, not the reality swirling around them.

So as the truth is finally getting out, the President Obama took a giant step back yesterday when he announce that he was bowing to the pressure of the military to not release the photos of torture at other prisons besides Abu Ghraib.  He had the audacity to say that those responsible for this treatment of prisoners had been dealt with.  Now I can understand the argument that more photos could inflame Muslim hate and result in further attacks on U.S. forces, but to say that the guilty have already been punished is a giant lie and fails to examine how this pervasive abuse of prisoners was systemic, not a few bad apples.  Sooner or later we have to examine our moral failure as a society, and the leaders who took down this road, instead of continuing to blame this on a few scapegoats.  I am deeply disappointed that President Obama has failed in his role as our leader and took the easy way out.  Hopefully the courts will prevail and the bandage covering this wound will be ripped off so it can be treated and healed, not left festering.

Sadly it just isn’t on the torture front that President Obama is falling down.  His failure to confront the banks is leading to a continuing and festering wound in our economy.  The idea that we could just restore the banks to their past “health” is a recipe for disaster which is now becoming quite obvious.  As more and more people are losing their jobs, and shortly thereafter, their homes, President Obama looked the other way as the bill to allow Judges in bankruptcy court to modify loans went down to defeat.  This was a failure of moral courage to fight the banking industry not only by President Obama, but by the 12 Democrats who also voted against the bill.  You know how the Republicans voted.  Then there is the watered down bill of rights for credit card holders.  Ask your self why there is a waiting period of 9 months before even these water down protections go into effect and it tells you everything you need to know about the continued arrogance of the banking industry and their control of Congress.  The fact that this Congress, including 27 Senate Democrats, couldn’t tighten these regulations, but could add an amendment to allow visitors to national parks to openly carry loaded firearms tells you who these morons represent and it is not us.

I have written before that until the banking industry feels the pain that the rest of us are suffering because of their incompetence and unethical behavior, nothing will change. Right now they are just trying to restore where they were before the fall and at our expense.  If nothing changes, then we are just bailing water on the Titanic. Well it is obvious that nothing is changing and nothing is getting fixed.

Whether it is facing up to our immoral and unethical behavior on torture by treating we the people as adults and letting us know what really happened through full and open disclosure, or by realizing that bankers and their mentality of Master of the Universe got us where we are today and they need to be brought down, President Obama seems to be failing badly.  What we wanted was leadership and moral integrity driven by what should be, not what is politically expedient.  What we are getting is compromise to nowhere.  Just think about health care reform.  Why is the single payer system off the table?  What about gays in the military?  Are we just seeing Republican-lite?  This is not change.  It is a milder form of a trip to nowhere.

Mr. President.  It is time to take charge.  We need a full investigation by an independent prosecutor on torture we we need to release all the memos and pictures.  We need to break-up the banks so they are not too big to fail, or some rich they can buy their way with Congress.  We need real relief in this country and one of the ways to make the banks feel the pain is real bankruptcy/mortagage/credit card reform.  And you better than anyone should understand that making gays second class citizens by your neglect is just as bad as being part of their persecution.  Can we get on with what you promised?