Here is a recipe for stew that everybody seems to like.

Brown 2 lbs stew beef in oil, seasoning liberally with paprika, along with a scattering of salt and pepper.

In Dutch oven or crock pot, combine:

• Stew beef
  
• 1 can MSG-free French Onion Soup
  
• 1 can Guinness
  
• 3/4 cup hot water with three beef boullion cubes, -or- 3/4 cup hot water with Lipton onion soup mix or equivalent
  
• one small can of tomato paste
  
• shake in some Minute Tapioca
  
• vegetables - you can buy a bag of frozen "stew vegetables" and/or add potatoes, carrots, onion, lima beans, whatever else you want
  
• tsp paprika
  
• Tbsp tumeric
  
• salt and pepper to taste.

If in crock pot, cook on low 8 hours, or low 4 hours and high 2 hours. If in Dutch oven, heat to boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 3+ hours. Serve with crusty bread.

Some organization -- the Campaign For Liberty? -- should organize a slate of 100 candidates for Congress to run in 100 districts throughout the country in 2010. All with the same platform, perhaps called the Common Sense ticket, insofar as its platform would square with the principles discussed in Thomas Paine's pamphlet. The name would also allude to a return to republican (small 'r') roots and the ideals on which America was founded.

These 100 candidates' districts might be chosen according to ease of getting on the ballot, those that include college towns or younger voters, or, more pie-in-the-sky, quality of major party candidates. They would campaign almost exclusively online, and together, sharing a network of like-minded bloggers, Tweeters and others who would spread their message. They could also target colleges and universities.

It is unlikely any of the 100 wold win seats in Congress, but acknowledging that, the candidates could be Everymen and Everywomen, not politicians, lending credence to the ticket's approach and giving it a built-in excuse for losses.

Mobilize liberty-minded social media and blogs, work for as much buzz and as many votes as possible, then add up all the votes after Election Day, and show the media and the country in the aggregate how many people are really out there wanting to endorse the principles of smaller government, individual responsibility and liberty. The goal is to get coverage after Election Day that amounts to "look what this movement did without any experienced candidates and campaigning primarily online" -- sowing the seeds for future, more traditional campaigns centered around its principles.

It could work.

I suppose you're wondering what I think the GOP should do to rally voters in the 2010 elections. I've given it about a half an hour's thought; I think we've learned pretty conclusively over the last few years that it hardly matters which party a Congressperson (or President!) belongs to. But here are a few of the things I would do to sell my stagnant, bereft-of-ideas party to the country:

FEDERALISM:

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEUTRALITY on social issues. Sure, back when the Republicans had control of Congress and a guy was winning close elections to the presidency who looked like Their Man, social conservatives enjoyed a greater sense of power than if they elected people who simply promised not to be contrary to their values. Those heady days are over, and the GOP could pick up both SoCons and libertarians by promising to let states and the people decide things a federal government has no business deciding.

REMOVE ABORTION FROM FEDERAL COURT JURISDICTION. I want Roe v. Wade to go away because it's a pus-filled blister on the ass of constitutional jurisprudence; I realize people like me are outnumbered by opponents of abortion, but this way we all win. Article III, Section 2 allows Congress to make such exceptions and remove issues from federal jurisdiction. I believe Dr. Paul has introduced a bill or bills to this effect.

MILITARY/SECURITY:

STRENGTHEN OUR ARMED FORCES by consolidating/closing half our overseas bases -- choosing from ones outside the Middle East and South Korea would probably be smart -- and reallocating personnel in such a way that fighting men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq aren't pulled in for multiple tours. Save billions. Make a bold statement against empire. Yes we can!

STRENGTHEN LOCAL POLICE and relieve overcrowding in our prisons by ending the war on drugs. In times marked by of recession and terrorism, we can't afford to futz with nonviolent offenders doing harm to no one but themselves. (Is how you could spin it, if you wanted.)

ECONOMY:

NO ONE IS TOO BIG TO FAIL. Failure is how the market redirects capital to businesses that sell things people want to buy. No more bailouts.

3-YEAR EXEMPTION FROM MOST FEDERAL REGULATIONS for small business startups launched by unemployed or underemployed persons. Cultivate innovation, grow the revenue base, put people to work.

PENSION GUARANTEES: The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation should be directed to liquidate a sizable percentage of its Treasury bonds and invest them in state and local bonds. Diversification is a great hedge against loss, and it infuses much-needed capital into state infrastructure and projects. There's a state out west that could use some shoring up, I've heard. The PBGC is running a gargantuan deficit as it is (who isn't!), before even considering the huge obligations of GM and Chrysler, so you may as well put its investment dollars where they're needed.

COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE REFORM centered on tax exemptions for the purchase of insurance and health care savings accounts, with vouchers to help lower income people. Get this out there before the administration and Congress actually start implementing their "free" universal health care plans.

REPUDIATE CENTRAL BANKING and rein in the power of the Fed to "manage" interest rates and the economy. Booms and busts aren't a fact of life, they're a result of artificial (mis)management of the economy.

I don't know a parent of a Georgia public school student who won't join my complaint that schools teach 1) what is likely to be on the standardized CRCT tests in April, and 2) strategies for taking the standardized CRCT tests in April. I am genuinely worried that by teaching to the test schools are abdicating their responsibility to teach kids what they're going to need to know not to pass a test, but to succeed in higher education and the workforce. A lot of other people are worried, too, and it is certainly not a problem only in Georgia.

There are a number of problems with the public education system here and in every other state: Rewarding teachers for tenure and degrees rather than performance; inequities in funding among urban, suburban and rural schools; a sometimes intolerable emphasis on issues important to educators and policymakers rather than to future college students and workers (I recently attended an elementary school "science fair" where every single project had something to do with saving the environment). And these are details you only consider after you concede to some extent that government ought to be running schools in the first place.

But combined with a historic power-grab in Washington these last few months, one problem that sticks out like a sore thumb is schools' reliance on federal funding to supplement their operating revenue. On balance, only about 7-9% of funding for public schools in Georgia comes from the federal government, although, that does not include $760 million from the stimulus bill. This is enough though to fundamentally alter how schools operate, that is, with an eye toward perpetuating that revenue source rather than making education decisions that will be best for students' futures.

Arguably, and only after a cursory review of the basics of funding and the Georgia constitution, reliance on federal funds violates the law. The Georgia constitution states: The provision of an adequate public education for the citizens shall be a primary obligation of the State of Georgia. Public education for the citizens prior to the college or postsecondary level shall be free and shall be provided for by taxation.

Ignore for a moment that something "provided for by taxation" is not "free." Consider instead what "and shall be provided for by taxation" means. Its obvious meaning is that Georgia residents will be taxed to fund public schools. But isn't an equally obvious reading that public education must be funded by taxation, that is, by Georgia residents paying taxes to the state of Georgia and its counties which will then be used to operate schools? Why else begin the passage by stating that the state is primarily obligated to provide education? Is accepting federal funds -- in the case of the "stimulus package," funds not even provided for by taxation, but rather by the stroke of a pen raising the national debt ceiling and basically inventing money out of thin air -- even constitutional? If your angle is not how to get as much money as possible from as many sources as possible, but rather who is supposed to pay for and be responsible for education, doesn't that passage mean that the federal government should not be involved in funding schools in Georgia?

Following today's Hubble repairs and nearly eight hour long spacewalk on Twitter was a blast today. Here is a great picture of the shuttle and Hubble against the sun: The sun is really, really big.