From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
Some Turkana with Your Morning Tropicana?
Kossack Laurence Lewis moved back to his home state of Oregon after spending a couple decades in the state directly to its south (one of the Dakotas I think). According to his bio he's "a lifelong political activist [who] first stuffed envelopes while in grade school, walked precincts for local candidates while in junior high, and his first paying job, in high school, was on a Congressional campaign." In addition to writing for the Left Coaster and Docudharma, he's been a fixture on the Daily Kos recommended diaries list as Turkana. Earlier this month he was tapped, along with Brooklynbadboy, to be one of two new Featured Writers on the front page here. This morning he goes through the traditional C&J rite of passage---a seat in the beanbag chair for the latest installment of our 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?
Laurence Lewis/Turkana: I came to Daily Kos for the waters. I was misinformed...
Actually, I was traveling in Europe for much of 2004 and 2005, and used the tubes to stay in the loop. Daily Kos was one of the sites where I lurked. I finally registered while recovering from a knee injury, in 2005. I didn't start participating on a regular basis until I was back in the States. It was my first regular participation in a blog, although I was on IRC in the early '90s.
You were just promoted to the front page as a DKos Featured Writer. What went through your mind when you got the call to join the wide-margineers?
I blanked, did a double-take, and then realized that The End Is Nigh. Seriously, it was just very gratifying and exciting. If you care about the issues, you want to have some impact on them. This site has an impact, and it will, more and more, as more and more people turn to us rather than to the traditional media, for news and information.
Following politics and current events these days is like drinking from the proverbial fire hose. Which issues are front and center in your mind?
Climate change is the most important issue humanity has ever faced. Nothing else comes close. Arms proliferation and disarmament come next. Other prime issues are war, human and civil rights, institutional bigotry, economic and legal justice, health care, the dangers of kleptocracy and theocracy, and a failed traditional media.
What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
With a guitar in my hands, I can conquer anything. When going through chemo for Hodgkin's Disease, they told me I might develop a numbness in my fingers and toes, and that it might be permanent. It was unthinkable. I played guitar, every day. Even wrote some songs. Even when I was so weak that just reading made me nauseous, I continued to play guitar. I did develop some numbness in my toes, and some of it remains, but my guitar saved my fingers just as my fingers saved my sanity.
I listen to so many types of music, my list of favorites could go on forever. In my twenties, I went to over a hundred Dead shows, and also hit every Hot Tuna/Jorma show I could. I never missed John Lee Hooker. In my thirties, I began subscribing to the San Francisco Symphony. I am in awe of Michael Tilson Thomas. My first child's middle name is Miles. I also love the current music scene in the Pacific Northwest, including The Decemberists, Pink Martini, Laura Gibson, Brandi Carlile, Nick Jaina, Loch Lomond, M. Ward, and others.
Would you care to take a moment to vent about the BP-Transocean-Halliburton oil disaster? If no, you may use this space for a fine haiku.
This diary. Or this haiku, by Issa:
Climb Mt. Fuji,
Oh snail!
But slowly, slowly.
What's the one book every Kossack must read?
Kossacks are very smart people, and they can read three: T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets. Ionesco's Rhinoceros. And then Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.
Conventional wisdom says Democrats are going to get thumped in the midterms this November. What's your take on how things will shake out?
It's still the economy, and we're still stupid if we don't understand that. Jobs, jobs, jobs.
We're our own worst enemies, at times, mostly because we too often fail to stand for what we're supposed to stand for. But the Republicans sometimes are our best friends. Because no matter how angry people get at the Democrats, they only have to look at the alternative. We're going to lose seats, but I don't think we'll know until after Labor Day whether we'll really lose the House.
Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
My crab & shrimp fettucine draws raves. My blackened salmon salad also scores well.
In addition to being a Recommended-diary regular, you're also a contributor to Docudharma and The Left Coaster. But I also noticed your personal blog, The Great Rift Valley which is like eye candy for the soul. What's the story behind it?
Heh...I love the description---thanks!
I love photography. I love art. I love prehistory and history. I love the outdoors. I love travel. They mix well, and I love writing about them. I started that little blog as a repository for links and other resources, but have since turned it into a photo blog. Once my life settles down, I hope to post a lot more photo diaries on Daily Kos, about prehistory, history, and art. Some of my favorite photo/art posts are these on Van Gogh and Cezanne, and this one on Amsterdam.
No waffling here: dogs or cats?
Cats. Sensual, mischievous, affectionate, and a little sinister. And you can't train them, but they will try to train you. Unfortunately, I'm very very allergic to them.
I have one question left, but I've got an appointment with my doctor and I gotta round up a few dozen chickens to pay for it. Please ask and answer the final question yourself.
What's the difference between a duck?
One leg is both the same.
Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, May 24, 2010
Note: I have now seen Avatar the way it was intended to be seen: on a spectacular 2-D screen with Dog-Spittle-From-Dog-Barking-At-Commercials-With-Dogs-In-Them and Years-Of-Caked-On-Dust Enhancement. Visually it looked a little gray and spittly...but I must compliment the Na'vi on their fluency in Klingon.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the start of the Memorial Day weekend: 4
Days `til the Mackinaw Island Lilac Festival: 18
Amount New York State estimates it lost last year from people smuggling in cigarettes from states that have lower taxes on them: $1 billion
(Source: Bloomberg via The Week)
Average price increase for round-trip Memorial Day weekend airline tickets compared to a year ago: 16%
(Source: Travelocity)
Average number of lies a man tells per year, according to a study in Britain: 1,092
(Source: The Big-Boobed Pole Dancer Times)
Increase in city fees for nude dancing in Portland, Maine: $1,300 to $1,350
Increase in pinball game fees: $135 to $140 each
(Source: Portland Daily Sun)
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Your Monday "Nevada Nugget"
Brought to you by the Netroots Nation convention in Las Vegas July 22-25 STARRING: Al Franken! Brian Schweitzer! Elizabeth Warren! Richard Trumka! Rep. Alan Grayson! And fountains fountains fountains!
Some laws you'll want to be aware of when you're in the Silver State:
>> Driving a camel on the highway is illegal
>> Mothers must have a state license before giving their daughters a perm
>> In Eureka, men with mustaches can't kiss women.
>> Wearing a mask is required when walking around the streets of Elko
>> Reno says: No sex toys allowed
---From various prestigious web sites
Oddly, those are the same exact rules our neighborhood association adopted last week. So far we've collected $20,000 in fines for violations of the last one. Which is surprising because the fine is only $1.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Attention Allentown, Pennsylvania! There is a heartless bastard prick on the loose in your city who gets jollies from tossing dogs out windows. Wally says: Go fetch!
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CHEERS to the sweet cluck of success. How do you know when you've succeeded at positioning your opposition---say, Nevada Senatorial candidate Sue Lowden---as a chickenplucking fool? When this happens:
State election officials on Friday added chicken suits to the list of banned items after weeks of ridicule directed at Republican Senate candidate Sue Lowden.
The millionaire casino executive and former beauty queen recently suggested that people barter with doctors for medical care, like when "our grandparents would bring a chicken to the doctor." Democrats responded by setting up a website, "Chickens for Checkups," and by sending volunteers in chicken suits to her campaign events.
Under the new rule, chicken costumes will be banned along with political buttons, shirts, hats and signs within 100 feet of polling places.
But never fear, Dems: It doesn’t say you can't stand there and hold up real chickens. Sometimes loopholes are your friend.
JEERS to the dumbest thing said all weekend. Monica Crowley on The McLaughlin Group yesterday (I heard it with my own ears---the subsequent bleeding has mostly stopped):
"[Rand Paul] is now the third-biggest victory [after Scott Brown's win in Massachusetts and Sen. Bob Bennett's loss in Utah] by the tea party movement, which I argue is no longer just a movement, it's actually mainstream America at this point."
Methinks someone was hitting the mimosas a little too lustily at brunch before airtime. Even the Texas School Board is rolling their eyes...
JEERS to Oilpocalypse---Day 34. Unfortunately, you know the script by now: "Our top story...another day of absolutely no progress in the Gulf of Mexico." The gusher continues. The shoreline looks like it's got a chocolate-milk mustache. BP is defying a government order to use less toxic dispersants...and so far getting away with it. The White House is in the tricky position of not wanting to appear to be moving too slow, but also not wanting to appear uber-inept by trying something too quickly that will bring a load of bricks down on their heads if it fails; it's the fine line between "They're not doing enough!" and "Oh my god, they did WHAT???!!!". As for the wildlife (the most innocent victims of all this), they're doubling their efforts to fix the problem permanently. Now if y'all will kindly step into their one-way rocketship, they'd be much obliged.
CHEERS to reaching out and touching someone. On May 24, 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the first telegraph message: "What hath God wrought'." Unfortunately he got a teenager on the other end and it was just talk talk talk talk talk...
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Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!
This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man. John Cole at Balloon Juice asks: Is there anyone out there who honestly thinks that David Gregory has the chops to aggressively confront Rand Paul in the same manner that Maddow did? Anyone?
No.
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!
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FUCK OFF to the Parents Television Council. Those right-wing assholes at Brent Bozell's fucking place are getting their shitters in a fucking twist again, this time because they don't like the fact that the upcoming William Shatner comedy series is called---[Gasp!]---$#*! My Dad Says (which the network promos will pronounce, "Bleep My Dad Says.") Oh, how fucking pathetic...the cocksuckers are bitching about "bleep." Really, shitheads??? You're fucking going after "Bleep" now??? Fuck you! Kiss my ass and get a fucking life you goddam meddling morons. But before you do, would you mind taking a crack at cleaning up the language on the internet? The gossip sites are almost fucking unreadable these days.
CHEERS to Monsters of Mass Deception. On May 24, 1933 the Loch Ness Monster was "sighted" for the first time. And promptly pulled over and arrested by Arizona police for looking foreign.
CHEERS to friends in loopy places. Sarah Palin says her pal Rand Paul is learning what it's like to be her. Yeah...careless, evasive, and all-too-willing to bail when the going gets tough. Thanks for the reminder, Ma'am!
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Five years ago in C&J---May 24, 2005: the Gang of 14 "saves" the filibuster!
CHEERS to America, the Victor. Howard Dean said it best on Meet the Press: "One of the great geniuses of American democracy, unlike most of the democracies in the world, [is] that minority rights are protected [by the filibuster]. 48 percent of us didn't vote for President Bush, but we still have some say in shaping the agenda of the country." Because moderates had common sense on their side, we live to fight another day.
JEERS to Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, and William Pryor, Jr. They're still frighteningly extremist judicial nominees, and now their confirmation is assured. C'mon down, you three...your spiked gavels are waiting at the front desk.
CHEERS to the losingest losers in Loserville. That would be Dr. Bill "My Goose Is Cooked" Frist and Dr. James "I'll Be The One Cooking It" Dobson. Says Jimmy D: "This Senate agreement represents a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans and a great victory for united Democrats." United Democrats---I like the sound of that.
[5/24/10 Update: Gee, I wonder if the Republicans who were threatening to "go nuclear" five years ago would be screaming "takesie backsies!" today if they'd been successful. I'd ask 'em except I know they have an aversion to "dealing in hypotheticals." And consistency.]
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And just one more...
CHEERS to blowout preventers having nothing to do with oil. Hard to swing a dead cat in a roomful of standup comediennes without hitting one who, at some point in their routine, jokes about the shape-shifting self-torture device known as Spanx, which controls what Wanda Sykes calls "My Esther Roll." Well, now dudes can get into the act with ManSpanx. $55 gives you all this and more:
>> It sucks to suck in, and now you don’t have to thanks to high-stretch cotton for maximum comfort and containment.
>> Lose the love handles with an ergonomic, tapered shape that provides powerful body control.
>> Go all day and night with 36 gauge stitching that provides fabric longevity and durability.
>> Fuhget about it. With flat-lock side seams that remain invisible under clothing, you’ll forget you have it on.
Just make sure you use two hands when you're taking it off. If it goes flying across a room it can knock over lamps, vases or, in our case, a row of Hummels. (It was the Beer Hall Putsch set. A fortune down the drain...)
Have a nice Monday. Pet judiciously. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
[The Texas School Board has] ignored historians and teachers, allowing ideological activists to push the culture war further into our classrooms. They fail to understand that we don't want liberal textbooks or conservative textbooks. We want excellent textbooks, written by Bill in Portland Maine."
---Texas Rep. Mike Villareal (D-San Antonio)
5/21/10
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