From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
Some Enchanted Morning
Kossack "Land of Enchantment" lives in---surprise!---New Mexico, grows an orchard, and is a fan of permaculture. She's a long-time activist who takes up causes "in binges", mostly on behalf of mining, Native American and environmental issues. More recently she helped coordinate and raise money for the Netroots Nation scholarship program last year. Oh, and she was also at the original Woodstock festival and once worked at the World Trade Center.
With Republicans trying to rewrite the history of both the Great Depression and the New Deal at every opportunity, she's done an exceptional job setting the record straight with her vivid and highly-recommended diaries on the subject. They're well worth revisiting. But first, "LoE" takes a turn in the C&J beanbag chair for the latest installment in our Library of Congress-snubbed interview series, Yes, We're All Staring At YOU!
Cheers and Jeers: How long have you been blogging and what originally brought you to Daily Kos?
Land of Enchantment: I’m part of the Katrina cohort. A friend started encouraging me to join in after I noticed funny results in on-reservation black box voting machines in 2004. But it took the unfolding catastrophe in New Orleans for me to take the plunge. That was September 1, 2005, at the height of the horror. I signed up right off, not realizing you could read the site without doing so.
Barack Obama has been in office for 100 days as of Wednesday. How's he doing?
Not bad. Early on I decided I liked the tone and cadence of his voice, and that's still good. "Most Liberal Senator" notwithstanding, Obama ran as a centrist, and I supported him not because his views matched mine. I just figured he could accomplish more that I would like than any of the other candidates because of organization and leadership qualities. That's still true, too.
I like the international, am nervous about the economy and the wars, and am delighted at science being back in favor. Plus, the organic garden at the White House rocks! I sleep a lot better at night than I would had John McCain kicked off from round 5 of cancer, leaving the wicked, failed sportscastress of the north in charge. Good to keep things in perspective.
What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Johnny Clegg & Savuka (banned in apartheid South Africa) or Woody Guthrie (putting the Depression era to music) or Jim Pepper (for spirituality.) I ain't got much use for real-life rodeos, but inexplicably like songs about 'em. And other western stuff, too. Or a sensational voice singing anything. And so on. People who hang around in jotter's world know I have wide and eclectic taste in music.
You've written some amazing diaries about the New Deal. How would you compare the mindset of the country during the 1930s with where our collective heads are today?
Nobody darns socks or saves wrapping paper any more, like my granny did. Too many kinds of knowledge have been forgotten. Not enough people know how to start seeds. Perhaps thanks to Sesame Street and cable news chatter, people expect instant results as if the whole world were their lottery ticket. We need less urgency and more lingering in our daily lives. On the plus side? The internet has changed how we know things, and how we can find things out. At least there's that. (And thanks for the compliment.)
What should the president be asking of us in terms of sacrifice and contributing in our own way to the recovery?
And, one might add: What should we be asking of ourselves? Small bits of local self-sufficiency. Get rid of covenants and ordinances against clotheslines, fer chrissakes, and make it cool to use the things. Anyone with a patch of ground should plant a fruit tree or three. We need to start weaving the threads of fraying local economies back together again. We need a manufacturing base. And where's the modern equivalent of the CIO when we need it?
The Republicans have been engaging in a campaign to re-write the history of the New Deal era. Which of their lies is the most egregious to you?
Pick just one? I did especially get a kick out of Congressman Steve Austria (R-OH) who blamed FDR's New Deal policies for causing the Great Depression. Never mind that the Great Depression had been underway for well over three years before FDR ever came into office. The rest of 'em are pretty much all just variations on the same theme.
What's the one book every Kossack must read?
I hardly ever read books any more. The short essay Thinking Like a Mountain by Aldo Leopold is terrific. As to books: In the last decade, the one that comes back to my thoughts most often is Barbara Tuchman's Distant Mirror. Not that many people would actually want to wrap their minds around 704 pages on 14th century France, even though the era's plague, crusades and "companies" run amok are remarkably analogous to our current day. A lighter alternative might be Laura Esquivel's novel The Law of Love because it's fun. In near future Mexico City, the past reincarnated lives of politicians running for office are fair game on the campaign trail.
Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
Green Chili Apple Cake---I like food that bites back. I also pay attention to what's in season, by which I mean stuff I can step outside and gather. It's almost asparagus season now. I like to chop it up into black bean sauce stir fry. (For the meat: shrimp, scallops, chicken, rattlesnake, whatever.)
Of all the issues on the Democrats' agenda for America, which one would you most like to see progress on?
Climate change. All the other uglinesses---war, famine, rape, plunder, annoying neighbors, athlete's foot, torture, etc.---are terrible, but they've been with humanity throughout all of recorded history. I spent quite a bit of time scuba bumming around the Caribbean in the 80s. Witnessing a few episodes of coral bleaching put me on to it, before Al Gore's Earth in the Balance was published. That's a pretty good book to recommend even now. By the way, how come zero environmental diaries made the Daily Kos Rec List on Earth Day?
No waffling here---dogs or cats?
Dogs. Mine's a border collie mix from the pound. There's a cat, too, but only because the dog can't be bothered to kill mice.
I have room for one more question, but I gotta take this call. (It's Biden---he finally found the secret door to Cheney's undisclosed location and wants to talk about fumigation methods). Please ask and answer the final question yourself.
You haven't been around much lately, LoE. What's up with that?
I had shoulder surgery earlier this month, and have been having a rough time of it. For one thing, I had no idea how much general anesthesia can mess with your mind. Not just emotionally, but cognitively. And for how long. Fact is, I dropped out. I don't usually take the mosh pit approach to blogging, preferring to write about topics other than myself. But when BiPM appeared like an angel to invite me to do this, I decided to make an exception. I'm in serious need of hugs and support, folks, and it's hard to imagine a better place than C&J to turn for that. So I'm hurling myself into the kiddie pool this morning, in a shameless quest for kind words.
Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, April 27, 2009
Note: Today's C&J will be sung by Susan Boyle.
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By the Numbers:
Days `til Obama's 100th day in office: 2
Days 'til the Cumberland County Snowplow Rodeo in Cape Elizabeth: 24
Maximum altitude from which a Predator drone can distinguish a person's facial features on the ground: 5 miles
Annual number, respectively, of car accidents in which "drowsy driving" is the cause, and deaths from those accidents: 100,000 / 1,500
(Source: USA Today via The Week)
Average lifespan in Andorra: 85
Countries with citizens who have a higher average lifespan: 0
(Source: CNN)
Percent chance that Texas can split up into five smaller states without approval of the U.S. Congress: 0%
(Source: Jed Lewison)
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And now..."Pimping Pittsburgh!"
Brought to you by the Netroots Nation Convention August 13-16:
Downtown Pittsburgh has one of the most compact city downtowns in the United States---only 255 acres. No part is much more than a 15 minute walk from any other part. In 1784 surveyors employed by the heirs of William Penn laid out the city. They hastily created two different street grids, on parallel to the Allegheny River and the other parallel to the Monongahela River. These two grids 'collide' a little haphazardly at Liberty Ave., the spine of downtown.
---From Pittsburgher Ltleredd
Perfect place for our convention, then, seeing as Kossacks sometimes collide a little haphazardly, too.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "This has literally meant the difference between life and death for a lot of animals."
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CHEERS to the meteorology of marriage. Today's the day....and I am frightened. The gathering storm has finished gathering its storminess and, today in Iowa, same-sex couples will start getting gay-married, unleashing a torrent of fire and brimstone and twisters upon the Hawkeye State!!! Oh, wait---scratch that. The Weather Channel says it'll just be cloudy with a 50 percent chance of rain. But...of that 50 percent there's still a 20 percent chance that the rain will come in the form of frogs. So, as you head to City Hall today to become husband & husband and wife & wife, we'd just like to say two things: 1) "Mazel Tov!" And 2) Take a sturdy umbrella. Just in case.
JEERS to gathering storms that are, like, REALLY gathering storms. Okay, here's what I know, as of this morning, about the swine flu breakout: contrary to popular opinion, pigs can fly, and the tiniest ones are flying up people's noses and making them either sick or dead. (For the first time in eight years, I feel comfortable sending you to a government site for accurate information and updates.) I wish I could be more helpful but, you see, I've been dealing with a concurrent health situation: apparently trees have learned how to grow inside peoples' lungs. So here's the theory I worked on all weekend: if we can figure out how to grow enough trees inside a swine flu victim's lungs, we can then use lasers to cut them down so they land on the viruses and smush 'em. Then we extract the trees and use them to build low-income housing. If my million-dollar research grant application is approved, I'll bolster my theory with pie charts.
CHEERS to Coretta Scott King. Today is the 82nd birthday of the late Mrs. MLK. Said she: "Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated." No wonder I see so many Republicans walking around on crutches.
P.S. I bet if she were alive today she wouldn’t think of charging the folks creating her husband's Washington, DC memorial $800,0000 for licensing fees, the way her greedy kids did. I guess some apples do fall far from the tree.
JEERS to carpal tunnel syndrome. Twenty eight years ago today, Xerox introduced the Star 8010 system, the first commercial computer system to use a mouse. We've been clicking our way into wrist braces ever since. R&D: You're fired.
CHEERS to plotting the revolution over barbequed ribs. Many thanks to the roughly twenty people (including first-timers "mommaK" and "liz dexic") who joined us in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Saturday for our spring New England Kossacks meetup at the Muddy River Smokehouse. There was general agreement that Obama's first 100 days were a success and that the conservative movement was writhing like a slug under a magnifying glass on a sunny day (which it was---and hot). And when the server brought the check, we all seceded...from our money. Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! Memo to self: send that one to Rick Perry.
CHEERS to U.S. Grant. And happy 187th birthday to #18, the larger-than-life general who helped win the Civil War and then spent eight shaky years as a crony-coddling president. But at least he had this going for him (from the book Rating the Presidents):
[H]e kept his own religious values and practice to himself. In the larger view for the country, he believed in a strict separation of church and state, stating in his seventh annual message to Congress: "Declare church and state forever separate and distinct; but each free within their proper spheres."
Pay your respects here. It'll drive James Dobson crazy.
CHEERS to getting your money's worth. Fans who showed up at Portland's Hadlock Field yesterday were treated to an "offensive extravaganza" between the Sea Dogs (our home team) and the Connecticut Defenders. During the four-hour slugfest, "The Sea Dogs led 5-0. They trailed 12-5. They led 15-12 after a 10-run sixth inning. And they trailed 19-15 after Connecticut's seven-run eighth." And check out these numbers:
35---Combined runs by the Sea Dogs and Defenders, a Sea Dogs franchise record
43---Combined hits by the two teams, a Sea Dogs franchise record
399---Pitches thrown in the game, 240 for strikes
Meanwhile, in the majors, Boston swept the Yankees three games to zip. Not that we're counting.
JEERS to poopy pants. Forty four years ago today---when I was just a babe---a patent was granted to R.C. Duncan for Pampers disposable diapers. The sad part is, it's just a matter of time before I'll need them again. (But we admit they do make a lovely chapeau and rain bonnet.)
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Five years ago in C&J: April 27, 2004
CHEERS to nabbing the Negative Nabobs of Najaf. More fighting overnight, and let's check the scoreboard: United States---43. Insurgents---0. I'd hate to be in the locker room during Muqtata al-Sadr's halftime rant. "You eeeeediots!"
CHEERS to church-state separation. Supreme Court rejects appeal of lower court ruling that prohibits mealtime prayers at taxpayer-funded Virginia military college. You can tell the decision was correct by the veins bulging from Antonin Scalia's forehead.
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And just one more...
CHEERS to the Yoda of the right. Ever wonder where modern-day Republican politicians go to learn how to deliver their talking points in the proper, party-approved speaking style? It's not easy---your inflection must have the right ratios of outrage, bitterness, self-pity, bullying and umbrage. I really shouldn't spill the beans, but...they meet in an undisclosed parking lot every Monday afternoon to take lessons from this mystery consultant. The secret: hairballs and diaphragm control.
Oh, and farewell, Bea Arthur---hilarious even when she goofed. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"So necessary is Cheers and Jeers to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that's on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that flies in the air, we need to have C and J as part of the fundamental lifecycle of Earth."
---Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
4/22/09
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