More Egomaniac Tyrants Revealed…

MPs expenses: Sinn Fein claimed £500,000 for second homes The scandal of how absent Sinn Fein MPs have milked the Parliamentary second-home expenses system for nearly £500,000 can be revealed. By Andrew Alderson, David Barrett and Alastair Jamieson 09 May 2009 The five MPs, who represent the political wing of the IRA, have not even taken up their Parliamentary seats and yet they have rented three London properties from the same family at rates well above the market norm. The partys two best-known figures, Gerry Adams, the party leader, and Martin McGuinness, Northern Irelands deputy first minister, jointly claimed expenses of £3,600 a month to rent a shared two-bedroom flat in north London. A local estate agent, who knows the properties, said a fair monthly rent for the flat would be £1,400. The three other Sinn Fein MPs together claimed £5,400 a month to rent a shared, modern town house, which the estate agent said would rent on the open market for around £1,800 a month. At other times some of the MPs have stayed in a third property, another two-bedroom flat. The Telegraph has made a series of explosive revelations about MPs expenses that have rocked Westminster, including more disclosures today about senior Labour and Conservative politicians. More details will be published over the coming days. The five Sinn Fein MPs have claimed more than £310,000 in five years from the public purse by submitting receipts from one man, an Irish landlord living in London, and his family. Immediate neighbours of the three north London properties, which are all part of the same development, could not recall seeing any of the five MPs when shown photographs of them. The five MPs denied acting improperly last night. They insisted the money had been legitimately claimed and that they did regularly travel to London for work, when they used their rented properties. The MPs say their rent includes parking, housekeeping and utility bills. However, there were calls last night for an investigation into our disclosures. Owen Paterson, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, said: This needs to be looked at by the House [of Commons'] authorities. Any possible breach of rules should be investigated by either the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner or the Fees Office [responsible for finance and administration]. All MPs have to operate within the rules, or the spirit of the rules. Mr Paterson said the rules need to be changed, and would be reformed under a Tory Government. It is absolutely inconceivable that a Tory-dominated House of Commons is going to vote for allowances for MPs who dont turn up. This papers investigation revealed that some of Sinn Feins MPs have rotated between the three properties, in some cases moving from one property to another then back to the first for no obvious reason. The MPs have submitted rudimentary rent receipts to the Commons authorities to support their expenses claims. Neighbours of the three-storey town house where three MPs - Michelle Gildernew, Pat Doherty and Conor Murphy - claimed expenses last year, could not recognise the politicians in photographs shown to them by The Sunday Telegraph. One resident, who did not want to be named, said that the yellow-brick house was a rental property where young professionals appeared to come and go. One resident, who helps run the development, said of the MPs: They do not live here. I have never seen them, although I do recognise from the photos that they are something to do with Sinn Fein. The Sinn Fein MPs also have identical televisions and stereo systems. Receipts submitted to the Commons authorities show that in 2004, two of the flats, each rented at the time by two of the MPs, were equipped with Samson 28-inch widescreen televisions, each costing £329, and DVD Sony cinema surround systems, each costing £230. The invoices were made out in the same handwriting, with one of the flats also charging for a three-seat settee, costing £795, and Venetian blinds, costing £485. The three properties have been rented from three members of one family, which this newspaper is not naming. The landlord and his family own at least 12 properties in the area. He and his wife live in a town house close to the rented properties. When contacted yesterday, the landlords wife confirmed that the family owned all three properties. She said that the Sinn Fein MPs were currently renting two of the three properties, but they had also been renting the third. They alternate [between the properties], she said. She refused to answer any detailed questions about the rental arrangements between the family and the Sinn Fein MPs. My husbands business affairs are his affairs, she said. Since MPs second-home expenses figures were first published in 2004 for the period covering 2001/2, the five MPs have claimed £437,405 under the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) system, which helps MPs to meet the cost of running a second home, and which was last year worth up to £24,000 per MP. The five each claimed £21,000 of ACA in the last financial year, just short of the maximum permitted. Earlier this year, it emerged that Sinn Feins MPs claimed a total of £662,660 of taxpayer-funded allowances in 2007/8, including travel costs, offices and staff salaries. The Sinn Fein MPs have never taken up their seats at Westminster because it would involve swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen. However, in 2001, as part of the Northern Irish Peace Process, they were given permission by the Government to start claiming Parliamentary expenses, prompting cries of treason and shame in the Commons when the decision was announced. A Sinn Fein spokesman in Belfast responded to questions from The Sunday Telegraph on behalf of all five of the partys MPs. He said: It is widely known that Sinn Fein MPs travel regularly to London on Parliamentary business and utilise the accommodation that we rent when there. We do not purchase properties at public expense and therefore do not profit from the expenses claimed as of right. The rent we pay on these properties are all inclusive of parking, utilities, housekeeping etc and therefore you are not comparing like with like. Each MP said that he, or she, only ever claimed for one property each year: I feel no duty to repay anything that I have legitimately claimed and to which I am entitled under the same rules as all other MPs. If the rules are changed then I will abide by the new rules. Sinn Fein is unique in that we are the only political party that voluntarily publishes our financial accounts annually in the interest of openness and transparency. If only other parties would do likewise then the public might have more confidence in their public representatives.

The Williams Kiddos

Just wanted to share some favorites from a session we just finished editing.Love this image of her skipping along the rocks...It was tough to get a serious face......when really they actually were such hams!Our faves are always the images showing love and interaction like the next few images.Isn't this weather just delightful? I heard that tomorrow is going to be quite a contrast, but it sure is a sweet taste of Spring to have such nice weather.It's funny how the warm weather prompts everyone that it's time for portraits this time of the year. We got from zero calls average per day to about a dozen or more. =) Honestly, if we got more than that, we'd probably have to hire an administrative assistant.Food for thought... How long has it been since you had professional portraits done? Time flies! I was thinking recently that photography is, in one sense, a luxury item because it's easy to put off or buy cheaply. In reality, though, I think photography and photographs are among the most valuable things in our lives, when you remember that they top the list of things you would most likely think to save in a house fire.Hope you all had a great St. Patrick's day! Holly and I did date night with Ted's Cafe Escondido's fajita chicken enchiladas and a full pint each of their queso and salsa. We have yet to finish the enchiladas. =)... All Photos © Christian Sangree, Prints Charming Photography

Wildlife Gardening Group Lesson Plan

I will be doing the following lesson plan with my girl scout troop this week. We aren't going to be earning a specific brownie try-it but I am going to look for some sort of fun patch to go along with the theme of Wildlife Gardening. Please note: all information is from National Wildlife foundation's Garden for Wildlife Page.Introduction to Topic:Read: The Missing Sunflowers by Maggie SternAsk:What things in Simon's garden attracted wildlife? (Answer: Sunflowers)Why did the squirrel want the sunflowers? (Answer: For food.)Food is just one of the things that animals need to survive. What are some of the other things animals need? (Answer: Shelter, space, water)Explain: Today we are going to talk about what things we can do in our own yards to attract wildlife. That means we will be looking at what we can do to offer different types of animals food, water, shelter and space in our own back yard.Activity 1:Ask: Where would an animal find food in our backyards? (Answers: Seeds from a plant • Berries • Nectar • Foliage/Twigs • Nuts • Fruits • Sap • Pollen • Suet • Bird Feeder • Squirrel Feeder • Hummingbird Feeder • Butterfly Feeder) Explain: Everyone needs to eat! Planting native plants or hanging feeders in safe places are two easy ways to offer food in your habitat.Make a bird feeder. We will make the bagel bird feeder and the strung cheerios feeder.Activity 2:Ask: What are sources of water for animals? (Answer: Lake • Stream • Seasonal Pool • Ocean • Water Garden/Pond • River • Butterfly Puddling Area • Rain Garden • Spring )Explain: Wildlife need water for drinking and bathing. The easiest water source to install in your garden is a bird bath. Be sure to change the water 2-3 times per week during warm weather when mosquitoes are breeding, so that any eggs laid in the water don't have time to hatch.Make clay pot birdbaths.Activity 3:Explain: Wildlife need places to hide to feel safe from people, predators, and bad weather. Ask: Where are some areas that animals find shelter? (Answer: Wooded Area • Bramble Patch • Ground Cover • Rock Pile or Wall • Cave • Roosting Box • Dense Shrubs or Thicket • Evergreens • Brush or Log Pile • Dead Trees or Hollow Logs • Burrow • Bird, Bat or Bee house • High Grass Areas like a Meadow or Prairie • Water Garden or PondActivity: Hang Mason Bee House in the backyard.Activity 4:Explain: Space is the amount of room an animal needs. The amount of space an animal needs depends on what type of animal it is. A bear needs a square mile or more, while a meadow mouse needs only a fraction of an acre. They need this space to be able to have enough food and water and to have a place to bear and raise their young. If there are too many of one type of animal in a certain area, the animals will have to compete for food. Many habitat features that serve as shelters are also an animal's space. For butterflies to live, they need to have a space to lay their eggs where the eggs can hatch into caterpillars and the caterpillars can survive. Then they also need plants nearby where butterflies can get nectar once the caterpillars go through their metamorphosis. Plant host plants for caterpillars and butterflies. (We will plant sunflower seeds and cosmos seeds as they are favorite plants and flowers for the American Painted Lady, one of the most wide-spread butterflies in the world and a common butterfly in NC, in the larvae and adult stages.)Concluding Activity:Hike-While on a hike we will look for areas that would make good habitats. We will look for sources of water, food, and shelter.

Mexican Street Tacos

Because Ive been dreaming of the street tacos I had while in Mexico, I decided to put that bag of masa Ive had in my cupboard since the last time we attempted making our own tortillas to good use. Its been a while because lets face it  San Diego is a hop-skip-and-a-jump from the border and there are plenty of places to get authentic tacos here. I just never order them. Im more of a carnitas person so cant tell you much about how good the tacos are at our favorite Los Dos across from Albertsons on Turquoise in Pacific Beach. Its on my agenda to find out, though. In the meantime, I treated myself to a tortilla press to the tune of $17. It makes me smile about this cooking hobby I have, because that sum could purchase quite a few packages of perfectly fresh corn tortillas if you know when the delivery guys stock the best ones at the market. But the woman in Puerto Vallarta made it look so easy: Make a ball, put it on the lower plastic covered plate, press, and peel. Voila! Yes, well, lets just say that after watching me try a few with less than completely desirable results, my husband was gnashing at the bit to step in and finish the rest with no trouble at all. Go figure. Perhaps its a math thing. And the taste? Would they compare favorably with the El Cisne taco cart in Puerto Vallarta? I say definitely. Mexican Street Tacos My Way For the tortillas& 2 c. masa de harina 1-1/3 c. water 1 big pinch kosher salt In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients until a soft dough begins to clump and you can make a ball that is smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. While the dough is resting, prepare the filling ingredients. To prepare the tortillas, make a ball a bit smaller than a golf ball. Place between sheets of plastic wrap on the press and mash. Peel from the plastic and place on a medium hot griddle or cast iron skillet about one minute per side. They dont need to brown. Remove to serve as you make them, or stack on a warm plate and keep covered. Makes 18-20 tortillas. For the filling& 2 c. shredded chicken 1 c. shredded cabbage sliced radishes sliced cucumbers chopped green onions chopped cilantro quartered limes salsa verde 1 avocado, mashed with the juice of 1/2 lemon, salt, and pepper Optional: fresh roasted corn Mix and match the fillings to your preference. Bare bones is meat, a sprinkle of beans (which I forgot!) and cabbage. Notes: Masa de harina is corn flower or powdered corn meal. La Pina is a popular brand sold in the baking section of your market, but its also available in bulk in specialty stores. I used left over chicken we ate the night before. To do your own, roast a young chicken at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Fill the cavity with quartered lemons, whole cloves of garlic, and sprigs of thyme. Rub the exterior with olive oil and sprinkle with a Southwest or Mexican spice blend of your choice. Mine has salt, garlic, chili powder, and cumin in it. Cabbage? Absolutely. Its crunchy and flavorful  much more flavorful than iceberg lettuce which youd never see in one of these tacos. The salsa verde we like is made by Embasa and comes in small cans. Its a tomatillo based salsa. You can make your own as I have often in the past  and it doesnt take more than 20 minutes  but this is supposed to be easy, right? I squeeze 1/2 lemon over the radishes and cucumbers and sprinkle on some salt. The extra flavor is nice. If you dont want to put this in the tacos, then its a garnish thats great for cooling down the heat if you use spicy salsa. Guacamole isnt what I was going for here. In fact, the sauce used at El Cisne was much more thin, most likely mixed with Mexican table cream. Its pourable. But I love a nice avocado with a squirt of lemon eaten right out of the shell, so why mess with it? The corn isnt something Ive seen on tacos, but were addicted to it right now. Its perfect for a meal like this whether you put it in the tacos, or eat it as a side. The flavor is amazing. Scrape it off a fresh cob into a clean medium hot cast iron skillet. Allow it to caramelize a bit by letting it sit. It will stick, but not much. Salt and a squirt of fresh lime juice if you want makes it perfect. Other bits and pieces& Zoe of Zoe Bakes, the awesomely talented chef and co-author of Artisan Bread in 5-Minutes a Day tagged me some time ago for Dancing Deer Baking Companys Sweet Home Initiative and Ive been waiting for the perfect opportunity to pass it along. If you havent heard, theres a give away connected to it from Le Creuset! Dancing Deer Baking Company’s “Sweet Home” initiative: Dancing Deer’s Sweet Home Initiative raises money for scholarships to help educate homeless women and end family homelessness. As a part of this initiative, our CEO, Trish Karter, will be riding her bike 1,500 miles from Atlanta to Boston, visiting family shelters in each city to raise awareness about this issue. She’ll also be recording stories from the women she meets along the way, asking them about their experiences. One question she’ll ask them are what foods remind them of home. (See more here.) Tacos remind me of home just like so many of the other recipes Ive written about from my childhood. It was one of those treat meals we didnt have as often as others but always looked forward to. Weve always fried our store-bought tortillas in oil first, but not until crispy. No, ours were soft and filled with ground beef, shredded cheddar, chopped tomatoes, and yes, iceberg lettuce. To this day, thats pretty much how we make them, although my husband tried to get me to use a taco seasoning mix in the beef for years and finally gave up. Ive added avocado, vary the cheese from time to time, have to include cilantro and salsa now. Finding out my mother was making tacos for dinner was even better than looking forward to pizza. Maybe it was the informality of spooning whatever we wanted into the tortillas, or trying to see who could eat the most. We were all skinny waifs with seemingly bottomless pits for stomachs, so my brother and I could eat six. I wince thinking of it. Ive probably left you little or no time, but Im passing this tag on to Judy of No Fear Entertaining, Haley of Appoggiatura, and Ben of Whats Cooking? What droolworthy recipes remind you of home? Thanks to Kristin of Dine & Dish, I have recently matched with a new blogger, Maia of Dessert-o-licious in the Adopt a Blogger event. And just for the sake of comparison, dont my tacos look just as yummy as theirs? Well? Okay, so my plates a bit messy, but still. And sure, theirs are carne asada. Ill work on it, okay? Mine Theirs Related posts:Mexican Bread Pudding with Berries: Baylesss Mexican Kitchen Ive given Rick Bayless a thorough work over and...Mexican&Erm&Welsh Rarebit When it comes to cheese, I guess I tend to...Mama Mia! Greek Night In Theres a Greek bistro not too far from where... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

An exclusive first look at J.Crew's new Men's Shop

If J.Crew is gunning to become an old boys' club, it's on the right track. The brand is set to open its second NYC men's-only outpost, The Men's Shop, this week, just a stone's throw from its existing Liquor Store shop and with a similar retro, sepia-toned style. The space, formerly a newsstand, doesn't have the broken-in aesthetic of the Liquor Storeyet. The reclaimed knotty-pine fixtures are untreated, encouraging them to weather quickly; in the meantime, the mood is set with vintage decor, from magazines and books (for sale) to pencil sharpeners and staplers (not so much). But atmosphere aside, the clothes are the highlight. The front of the Men's Shop will stock what menswear director Frank Muytjens calls "the always list." In practice? A mix of the Crew menswear, third-party apparel, and exclusive merch from trad-friendly lines. Think outerwear from Mackintosh and Barracuta; footwear from Red Wing, Sperry, Alden, and Colchester, a revived brand of deadstock canvas sneakers. The back is devoted to J.Crew's first-ever Suit Shop. All of the suiting optionsmany of them previously catalogue-onlyare here, with a new, high-end Italian fabric line set to debut later this year. While there won't be a tailor on the premises, we were assured that one would be on callnot on one of the red phones ubiquitous in all of J.Crew's other stores, but, in keeping with the theme, on an antique rotary. The Men's Shop, 484 Broadway, NYC, 212-343-1227, jcrew.com Click for a slideshow > JOSH PESKOWITZ Photo: Steven Torres

Anthony Zuiker's 'Level 26' marks origin of the 'digi-novel'

Anthony Zuiker, creator of the hit TV series CSI and its two spinoffs, says his new multimedia "digi-novel" will launch a "revolution in publishing for the YouTube generation."Level 26: Dark Origins, to be published by Dutton Sept. 8, is the first in a series in which each book will be supplemented with 20 videos, or "cyber-bridges," featuring actors playing characters from the novel.The series, written with Duane Swierczynski, features a rogue investigator who hunts serial killers.The title refers to 25 levels used by law enforcement to classify serial killers. Zuiker vows to introduce readers and viewers to level 26.After every 20 pages or so, readers will be able to go online to watch a three-minute video. The videos are designed, Zuiker says, "to embellish the novel and drive readers to the next book."Dutton's Brian Tart, who signed Zuiker to a seven-figure, three-book deal, calls the idea "unprecedented mainly because of the quality" of the videos Zuiker is directing, which star Daniel Buran (CSI) and Bill Duke (Cold Case).Two of the videos, recently previewed for the media, were as slickly produced as any network TV episode.Publishers are using websites and low-budget videos, but mostly to promote books, not as part of the book itself.Zuiker coined the term "digi-novel" (for digital) but isn't the first to combine text and video.Scholastic, the children's publisher, uses a website to add to clues in its best-selling series The 39 Clues and has a multimedia ghost-story series.Patrick Carman's Skeleton Creek, released in February, is split into two parts told by two characters: one through the text and the other via videos on a website.Zuiker, 40, brings TV experience to what he calls "a triple platform": books, videos and an interactive fan website, designed by the creators of lonelygirl15, the popular teenage blogger who turned out to be fiction.He says that he lacks patience to read a 400-page book, but that his 384-page debut, "in the style of James Patterson," will be more than "just a book on the shelf. You can watch the story on film and log in to unlock deeper levels of the experience."Tart says Zuiker's novels "have to stand on their own as books, and they do. But publishers need to experiment with new ways of engaging readers. Books were a primary form of entertainment when there were only a couple of TV channels and no Internet."

Blues Britannia on BBC4

BBC4 continues its love-in with all things British and musical with a new theme - Blues Britannia.Kicking off on Friday 1st May, the mini season offers up a new documentary called Blues Britannia – Can Blue Men Sing The Whites?, which looks at the British love affair with blues from the 50s to the 1970s. Contributors include Keith Richards and Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones); Paul Jones and Tom McGuinness (Manfred Mann); Chris Dreja (The Yardbirds); Phil May (The Pretty Things); John Mayall (The Bluesbreakers); Jack Bruce (Cream); Mick Fleetwood and Bob Brunning (Fleetwood Mac); Ian Anderson and Mick Abrahams (Jethro Tull); Dick Taylor (The Pretty Things); and jazz trombonist Chris Barber. The doc is in three parts - Born Under A Bad Sign focuses on the arrival of American blues in Britain in the late Fifties and the first performances here of such legends as Muddy Waters and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Sittin' On Top Of The World charts the birth of the first British blues boom in the early Sixties, with groups like The Stones, The Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, The Animals and The Pretty Things, while Crossroads looks at the second blues boom of the mid-to-late Sixties. That's followed by a weekend of documentaries and concerts including Blues At The BBC, Blues On Later...With Jools Holland, and new films on Peter Green and Bobby Bland. The first of those looks the most interesting and follows directly after the documentary, with footage from The Beat Room and A Whole Scene Going from the Sixties, The Old Grey Whistle Test in the Seventies and The Late Show in the Nineties.Check out the BBC website for timings - them set that recorder.BBC Four website