The New York Times Book Review assigned Stanford history professor David Kennedy to review Paul Krugman's new book, “The Conscience of a Liberal.” It is an extremely negative review. I have not read the book so can not comment on it but I did read the review. And I found it inconsistent to say the least. For example, after chiding Krugman for being, in Kennedy's words, “factually shaky,”  he then writes:

For this dismal state of affairs the Democratic Party is held to be blameless. Never mind the Democrats’ embrace of inherently divisive identity politics, or Democratic condescension toward the ungrammatical yokels who consider their spiritual and moral commitments no less important than the minimum wage or the Endangered Species Act, nor even the Democrats’ vulnerable post-Vietnam record on national security.

Ummm, that all sounds factually shaky to me. What is the basis of Kennedy's statement? A fact or 2 to support this sweeping claim, especially from someone throwing stones, might have been in order. Kennedy continues:

As Krugman sees it, the modern Republican Party has been taken over by radicals. “There hasn’t been any corresponding radicalization of the Democratic Party, so the right-wing takeover of the G.O.P. is the underlying cause of today’s bitter partisanship.” No two to tango for him. The ascendancy of modern conservatism is “an almost embarrassingly simple story,” he says, and race is the key. “Much of the whole phenomenon can be summed up in just five words: Southern whites started voting Republican. … End of story.”

A fuller and more nuanced story might at least gesture toward the role that environmental and natural-resource issues have played in making red-state country out of the interior West, not to mention the unsettling effects of the “value issues” on voters well beyond Dixie. . . .

Again, this seems factually shaky to me. A few facts to support his view on this. As far I can see, Kennedy replaces his opinions for Krugman's. Fair enough. But not fair enough when a reviewer is decrying factual shakiness.

Now this part just seems plain dumb to me:

For all that he inveighs against the evils of partisanship, Krugman astonishingly concludes by repudiating the chimera of “bipartisan compromise” and declaring that “to be a progressive, then, means being a partisan — at least for now.”

What is astonishing about that? Krugman's point is that faced with a Republican Party that will not engage in bipartisanship or even nod a progressive goals, there is little choice for anyone looking to advance a progressive agenda. Krugman has made the commonsense, almost obvious, observation that when the Republican Party has definitively eschewed “bipartisanship,” it is impossible to embrace it. Indeed, in Kennedy's words, it takes two to tango.

Kennedy's misunderstanding of this simple and obvious insight leads him to write silliness like this:

Indeed, at times he seems more intent on settling his neocon adversaries’ hash than on advancing solutions to vexed policy issues. “Yes, Virginia, there is a vast right-wing conspiracy,” he writes, a sentence that both stylistically and substantively says much about the shortcomings of this book.

But this is the whole point. You can not “advance solutions to vexed policy issues” without settling partisan hash, thanks to the takeover of the Republican Party by the most extreme movements in our country. And here's the funny thing – Kennedy AGREES:

That assorted wing nuts have pretty much managed to hijack the Republican Party in recent years is scarcely in doubt.

But Kennedy fails to address Krugman's thesis that to “advance solutions to vexed policy issues,” today's extremist Republican Party must be defeated and the Republican Party must be remade in order to allow for the much desired “bipartisnship” that Kennedy, following the High Broderism, desires against all odds.

In short, the review is pretty lousy.

Over at Latino Politico (Man Eegee’s blog) a few years ago Nanette started a tradition of a Sunday Blog Tour that James now carries on when he has the time. I thought it might be fun to start that tradition here at Docudharma and see how it goes. I’ll try it this morning and if I have time on subsequent weekends, I might make it a regular effort. There is lots of amazing writing going on at smaller blogs, especially those addressing international issues and those focused on specific communities of color. I’d love you all to hear their voices and maybe join in their conversations. We all have so much more to learn.

So, lets start out the tour with a look at a great piece at Latino Politico about the news that the materials being used to build the Great Wall of Amercia were actually made in China. Man Eegee gives us the “low down” on how this whole fiasco is wrecking havoc, not only on the human beings in the area, but on ancestral graves and the environment.

Nezua, over at “The Unapologetic Mexican” tells us more about the growing prison/industrial complex and a march that will be going on next weekend to protest one of the most egregious of these places in Texas, the Hutto Prison Residential Center near Austin.

If you’d like to learn more about this expanding prison/industrial complex, Xicano Power has a great diary from back in March about Privatized Prisons for Immigrants. Here’s a quote to give you some idea of the scope and the “players.”

By the fall of 2007, the administration expects that about 27,500 immigrants will be in detention each night, a gain of 6,700 over the current number in custody, according to a 2006 New York Times article. Who is going to cash in on this, and who is ultimately going to pay the price? Under the push of Bushes social Darwinism, with its “toughness” on “illegals” as its battle cry, the war profiteers in this home front is the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the Geo Group (formerly the Wackenhut Corrections Corporation) – the two biggest prison operators – and now Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton (the makers of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center) are enjoying the spoils of war. Analysts state, profit margins are higher at detention centers than prisons.

Back to the Unapologetic Mexian for a minute, I’d suggest you also check out an amazing diary Nezua wrote this week about Death in the Passing Lane. In it, he bares his soul about his journey growing up caught between his white and brown heritage.

Carmen D has a great diary over at “All About Race” addressing the growing proliferation of nooses and a rise in the regurgitation of racial hatred.

Jill, over at “Jack and Jill Politics,” takes on a big story in the African American community this week, the one about Dr. James Watson, Nobel scientist (scroll down to the second post), saying he was:

inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa because all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.

Go check out the new digs for Citizen Orange designed by Nezua. You’ll have fun just checking out all the cool stuff on the site. His focus is on Guatemala and immigrant issues – a whole new take on orange.

Finally, just because I’ve run out of time, I’d suggest you take a look at a blog I recently found called Intercontinental Cry. It covers stories from around the globe about the struggles and rights of indigenous people. Fascintating place!!

That’s it for me. I’d love it if people would add interesting voices you have found around the blogs this week. After all, I’ve really just scratched the surface. 

Given the political climate lately, with talk of Bush never leaving office and declaring WWIII, I’ve been thinking about shifting the gears of this series towards basic disaster planning and survival techniques. These days, my Bushista survival kit includes beer and wine. Many years ago I made beer and wine at home. The beer was pretty good, but that blueberry elderberry batch, 20 gallons of the stuff….. shivers. It still gives me shivers, because it was so hideously bad!

Down below I’ll provide the basic required equipment, materials and instructions for homebrewing beer, plus lots and lots of links from more expert sources than myself. Clink Clink!! I’ll write one about winemaking in coming weeks.

Equipment

Beer making kits: Pre-fabricated kit purchased from a supplier and a Put it together yourself beer kit

· Cooking pot, at least 5 gallon sized
· Food grade 5 gallon plastic bucket with lid
· Glass water jug (carboy), 5 gallons
· Airlock to let carbon dioxide out and keep air from getting it
· Rubber stoppers 
· Hydrometer: A device used to measure the density of the beer before and after fermentation, which will help you evaluate your brew and enable you to determine the final alcohol content
· Thermometer: One that can be used in hot liquids with a range of at least 40- 180 oF.
· Surgical tubing and racking cane for siphoning
· Sanitizing solution (bleach or commercial solution)
· Bottles
· Bottle caps
· Bottling stick
· Capper
· Bottle brushes

Ingredients

Basic beer consists of four main ingredients: water, barley malt, hops and yeast.

Water: Use good drinking water. If your tap water is too chemically, purify it first.

Barley Malt: It is the main ingredient in beer, since it is the source of fermentable sugar, and also contains many minerals and vitamins that help the yeast to grow. You can purchase barley malt extract as a syrup or powder, which is ready to use right away.

Hops: The flowers of the hop plant contain acids which add bitterness to beer to balance the sweetness, as well as acting as a natural preservative. It is primarily a flavoring agent. Historically, other herbs were used to acidify beer such as, mugwort, heather, and wormwood.

Yeast: Yeast organisms feed on the sugars and exude alcohol and carbon dioxide. Yeast is what makes beer bubbly and makes you say, mmmmmm beer. There are many different kinds of yeasts, which can be categorized as ale yeasts or lager yeasts.

Ale yeast is the most commonly used by home brewers. Ale yeast is top fermenting, meaning that it concentrates near the top of the fermenting beer. Because it thrives in warmer temperatures, usually between 60 to 75 oF, ales can be fermented at room temperatures without any temperature controlling equipment. Examples of beers fermented with ale yeast include Pale Ale, Nut Brown Ale, and Stout.

Lager yeast is a bottom fermenting yeast that ferments at lower temperatures, usually between 45 to 60 oF. After the lager is fermented is is often allowed to condition in the fermenter at very low temperatures (usually between 35 to 45 oF) for 2 to 8 weeks. This process is called lagering. Examples of beers fermented with lager yeast include Pilsner, Marzen, and Bock. http://www.breworgan… source

Instructions

Directory of typical beer recipes
Including lagers, pilsners, bocks, ales, stouts, meads and ciders

Directory of Organic beer recipes

Brewmaking chart (pdf) for recording your process in case you make a great batch and want to remember how

Here is a synopsis of the brewing process:
1. Malted barley is soaked in hot water to release the malt sugars.
2. The malt sugar solution is boiled with Hops for seasoning.
3. The solution is cooled and yeast is added to begin fermentation.
4. The yeast ferments the sugars, releasing CO2 and ethyl alcohol.
5. When the main fermentation is complete, the beer is bottled with a little bit of added sugar to provide the carbonation.

Overview of instructions

Here is a link to a site that provides a full and detailed description of the entire process. How to Brew

Virtual Organic Brewing Class with pictures

Suppliers & More Info

Brew Monkey – Don’t spank your beer monkey (Directory of Suppliers by State)

Seven Bridges Cooperative: Brew Organic (Instructions and Supplies)

Northern Brewer (Supplies)

BYOB (Supplies)

Williams Brewing (Supplies) beer wine coffee

Homebrew (Instructions and Supplies)

Mt. Bottle Brewing Co. (Instructions and Supplies)