Cheers and Jeers: Monday

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Since our series Yes, We're All Staring At YOU! debuted, Barack Obama has climbed steadily in the polls. After today we expect him to jump by at least two more points. In this week's installment, we talk politics, biscotti, and more cowbell with a Recommended-Diary favorite, RenaRF:

Cheers and Jeers: How long have you been blogging and what brought you to Daily Kos?
RenaRF: I came to Daily Kos after Kerry's loss in 2004. I was crushed---believe me---and a friend of mine who had also volunteered for Kerry suggested that I might find like-minded souls at Daily Kos, and suggested that it would be an excellent way to re-motivate and vent. She was right! My arrival at Daily Kos also marked the start of my life as a blogger.

You've lived in the D.C. area all your life and you work with the federal government. Based on what you've seen, are lower-ranking federal employees in shock over what's happened over the past eight years?
The level of shock depends on the area of government. I have a lot of contacts at FEMA, and following Hurricane Katrina, they were definitely shocked. I also know a bunch of folks at Homeland Security, and while I wouldn't characterize them as shocked, I would say they operate with a great deal of frustration, having to deal with bureaucracy that prevents them from doing what they know should be done for the sake of safety. Elsewhere, though, lower-level folks are often untouched by political changes at the top of cabinet-level agencies.

As a Virginian, how excited are you over the prospect of having two Democratic senators from your state...Jim Webb and, soon, Mark Warner?
I am OFF THE RAILS psyched. I really put myself out there for Webb. The level of satisfaction that Webb won by the slimmest of margins---.38%---brought home to me how every single door knocked actually wound up mattering. The opportunity to deliver Virginia---which hasn't voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate in my lifetime---for Obama almost makes for sensory overload. It is what makes me get out and knock on those doors every weekend.

What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Either the Red Hot Chilli Peppers or maybe Alanis Morisette. Thinking of the GOP horde makes me want to sing/scream "You Oughta Know" in their face. But some good funk or R&B puzzles the Goopers and is equally successful in its own way in keeping them at bay.

You went into the studio to record a new CD last week.  How did it go and did you use enough cowbell?
You never have enough cowbell. Everyone knows that. I've been performing live with our band for eight years now, but doing studio work is something else altogether. So I chalk that up as a very new experience. The best thing about this CD is the quality of the other musicians in my band as well as the genius of the songwriting some of them have delivered. There's something just...special, I guess, about original music with your own name on it. Plus a bonus is no one ever really figures out if you've screwed up.  ;)

What's the one book every Kossack must read?
Jeez. That's hard! I'm not going to go all cerebral here, but I think every Kossack should read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It's not very often that I find a novel that really makes me re-evaluate the way I have always perceived the world and man's place in history, and Ishmael did that for me. For some totally fun non-life-altering reading, I recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. A charming book.

Virginia has become an important swing state.  You think Obama can crush McCain like a grape there?
"Crush" is relative. A half a percentage point win by Obama in Virginia would constitute a "crushing." From 1900 to 1948 Virginia voted for a Democrat in all but one election. From 1952 to now, however, Virginia has only voted once for a Democrat---Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Turning Virginia blue again---finally---is a crush regardless of margin.

Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
...bunch of baked goods. I don't cook actual food---like dinner and stuff---but people literally line up for my homemade tarts, cookies, fudge, biscotti, and cakes. Seriously.

What's the secret to successful blogging?
I think it's a few things. First, it helps if you write relatively well. The more clearly you can get your own point of view across, the better you are going to be at blogging. The second is to be certain that you provide appropriate sources if you're writing about something that's not strictly personal in nature. The third is to try to be respectful of others. I try, but I admit my temper sometimes shows. I would also say that reading other bloggers helps a lot.

No waffling here: dogs or cats?
Cats. Although I love dogs (I just don't have a dog schedule)---I love all animals. But I have three cats: two brother boys who are 16 months old and one very stately senior citizen kitty, Grady, who is slightly north of 18 1/2 years old. I adore them all...often more so than actual people!

I have one question left, but I have to go find an ATM and make a $700 billion withdrawal.  Please ask and answer the final question yourself...

How many pairs of shoes do you have?
Well, I've kind of lost count. But the last time I bothered to count them, it was around 140 pairs. I have entire categories of shoes---there are boots, both dress and casual as well as weather-related. There are summer shoes, divided into work categories and casual categories. There are winter shoes with the same division as the summer shoes. Then there's the entire community of band-singer shoes, which occupy a closet of their own. Finally, there's the athletic shoe category. And yes, I wear them all. Eventually.

For the love of god SOMEBODY BUY SOME STOCK TODAY!!! Um...please? Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Cheers and Jeers for Monday, October 13, 2008

Note: There's been a slight change to the Declaration of Independence.  Our unalienable rights are now fear, indifference, and the pursuit of cheap shit at low prices.  Please make a note of it.

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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the general election: 22
Days `til the Romp & Stomp Grape Harvest Festival in Lincolnville: 5
Percent of Kossacks who thought there was a greater than 50-50 chance President Bush would strike Iran before the 2006 mid-term elections: 47%
Percent who didn't: 32%
(Source: C&J poll, Fall, 2006)
Average price of a new house in 1925: $7,809
Number of hate emails conservative columnist Kathleen Parker got from fellow conservatives after publishing a column critical of Sarah Palin: 12,000
(Source: Christopher Buckley, who is voting for Barack Obama)
Amount Sarah Palin approved for an "academic" conference to dispel the idea that climate change is affecting polar bears: $2 million
(Source: Think Progress)

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Monday Brain Dropping by George Carlin:

I have a suggestion that I think would help fight serious crime.  Signs.  There are lots of signs for minor infractions: No Smoking, Stay Off the Grass, Keep Out, and they seem to work fairly well.  I think we should also have signs for major crimes: Murder Strictly Prohibited, No Raping People, Thank You For Not Kidnapping Anyone.  It's certainly worth a try.  I'm convinced that Watergate would never have happened if there had just been a sign in the Oval office that said, Malfeasance of Public Office Is Strictly Against the Law, or Thank You for Not Undermining the Constitution.

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Puppy Pic of the Day:  "A tisket a tasket...now take the damn picture already!"

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CHEERS to hearing from the other side.  Ask any Democrat how the McCain campaign is doing and they'll tell you it's overmatched, dysfunctional, incoherent, incompetent, toxic and doomed.  But C&J knows that being fair and balanced means airing the views of our opponents.  So please welcome today's special guest columnist, neocon and conservative godfather Bill Kristol, who is here to talk about the McCain campaign from way over on the other side of the political spectrum:

[John McCain's] campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s.  The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources, and the candidate and the campaign are in sync.  The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional.  Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic.  If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed.

Harsh words, I know.  But sometimes we Democrats need to hear the truth.  Be strong!

JEERS to America's most vicious hockey mom.  Gee, what a fine example to set for the children.  Sarah Palin abused her power by firing a guy who wouldn’t fire a guy she wanted fired for family reasons.  And since the scandal doesn’t have anything to do with sex, the traditional media and the American public promptly swept it under the rug.  But it ain't over yet, according to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff:

[T]here could be more land mines ahead.  Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethics complaint against herself with the State Personnel Board, arguing that it alone was capable of conducting a fair, nonpartisan inquiry into whether she fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten, who had been involved in a messy custody battle with her sister.  Some Democrats ridiculed the move, noting that the personnel board answered to Palin.  But the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel.  McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles.  Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and the counsel's report could be released soon after.  "We took a gamble when we went to the personnel board," said a McCain aide who asked not to be identified discussing strategy.  While the McCain camp still insists Palin "has nothing to hide," it acknowledges a critical finding by Petumenos would be even harder to dismiss.

Which reminds me: if you donate to a Republican candidate this week, they'll send you a bumper sticker with their new slogan: "Everything We Touch Turns To Shit."

CHEERS to chattin' over chowdah.  A quick shoutout ("Hi!") to the 20 folks---about half of them new faces---who parachuted into Portland, Maine on a gorgeous autumn Saturday for our latest New England Kossack meetup.  As usual, the time flew by too fast and the liquor went down too easy, but at least the IQ of Portland rose for a few hours until we tapped our fourth keg.  Thanks to my partner Michael for tracking the RSVPs and making the reservations.  Stay tuned for our next one---we're thinking of renting a stadium.

JEERS to lost souls.  Y'know that lady from whom John McCain grabbed the microphone after she declared Barack Obama was "An Arab"?  Her name is Gayle Quinnell, and she typifies the low-information Republican automaton.  I say this only after hearing that, even after her candidate corrected her, she still believes what she wants to believe:

After the rally, Quinnell was unrepentant. "You can't trust Barack Hussein Obama because he is a Muslim and a terrorist," she said.

Josh Marshall adds:

She got the idea from a pamphlet she got not from the McCain campaign but from a fellow volunteer at the local McCain headquarters, where she's a volunteer.  She's been sending the pamphlet to people in her area.  And she thinks that McCain really knows that Obama's Arab but didn't want to get into it with her on camera.

She was about to say more, but she accidentally walked off the edge of the earth.  (Someone really needs to put up a guardrail there...)

CHEERS to naval gazing.  233 years ago today, the Continental Congress said, "Sure, why not?" (more accurately, "Sureth, why noteth?") to arming two ships with cannons.  Little did they know that they had just formed the United States Navy.  Today, of course, Congress would give the (no-bid) cannon contract to McDonnell Douglas, tack on twenty billion dollars in pork, and label anyone who didn't vote for it a terrorist appeaser.  See?  We learn as we go.

CHEERS to an Axis of One.  Iran is apparently now our only remaining enemy in the world.  Over the weekend we took North Korea off the ooga-booga terrorist evildoer list, downgrading its status to "Pain In The Ass."  John McCain denounced the move, while his running mate Sarah Palin welcomed it and questioned McCain's judgment.  They're so cute when they're fighting.

JEERS to celebrity (non-)power.  On October 13, 1957, entertainment titans Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra introduced a new car on ABC-TV.  The hour-long special was a big ratings hit.  Unfortunately, the car they were hawking was the Ford Edsel.  And not even God coulda moved that thing.

CHEERS to the occasional flash of journamalism.  A working definition of frustration: when the traditional media covers a story by simply parroting opposing viewpoints without bothering to actually check on, and report, their validity or lack thereof.  It's lazy, it's irresponsible, and it happens too often to be accidental.  So cheers to the McClatchy news service for using facts to derail a Republican attempt at rewriting their own sorry history:

As the economy worsens and Election Day approaches, a conservative campaign that blames the global financial crisis on a government push to make housing more affordable to lower-class Americans has taken off on talk radio and e-mail.

Commentators say that's what triggered the stock market meltdown and the freeze on credit.  They've specifically targeted the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the federal government seized on Sept. 6, contending that lending to poor and minority Americans caused Fannie's and Freddie's financial problems.

Federal housing data reveal that the charges aren't true, and that the private sector, not the government or government-backed companies, was behind the soaring subprime lending at the core of the crisis.

Now that they've blown that one out of the water, which of the remaining 29,450 GOP lies should they tackle next?  Noodle on that as we type all the options into an upcoming C&J poll.  It should be ready around 2011.

CHEERS (if we must) to the owner of the stiffest upper lip since Churchill.  Margaret Thatcher---`The Iron Lady'---gets 83 candles in her kidney pudding today.  She led Britain from 1979 to 1990, spending her time breaking the trade unions, invading the Falkland Islands, and drooling over Ronald Reagan.  On that last point please allow me to issue a Special Comment:

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Ick.
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Good night and good luck.

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Two Years Ago in C&J: October 13, 2006...

LORD `O MIGHTY to bawdy ballots.  A Michigan county has to fork over $40,000 to fix a typo on 170,000 ballot sheets being used in the November 7 election.  The misspelled word is "public."  The missing letter...is L.  Actually, more words like that and you might increase turnout.

CHEERS to Tom Oliphant.  An election-year tidbit from the former Boston Globe columnist (loosely transcribed from the Al Franken Show yesterday) bodes well for our team on two counts:  

"One marvelous statistician who has directed polling at CBS taught me once to always look to the numbers that don't change.  In this cycle, what amazes me are the number of incumbent Republican senators whose `will vote for' numbers don't go above 40 percent repeatedly.  We're taught that's an early sign of death.  It's amazing to me how many candidates can't even get above 45 percent.  Plus...the key to any off-year election is intensity, which are progressive advantages at this point instead of conservative ones.  So the numbers showing the intention of voters are very different than they were the last three cycles."

Just keep repeating, "I'll believe it on November 8th.  I'll believe it on November 8th..."
[10/13/08 Update: A lot of parallels between '06 and this cycle. Just keep repeating, "I'll believe it on November 5th..."]

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And just one more...

CHEERS to Columbus Day.  In honor of his day I wrote a poem:

In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  
He brought along smallpox and other disease,
and passed it to the natives with the greatest of ease.

Eat yer heart out, Robert Frost.

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Oh, and congratulations to Paul Krugman and his shiny new Nobel Prize in Economics.  It couldn't happen to a nicer liberal.  Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:

"How dare they boo Bill in Portland Maine!"
---Sarah Palin
10/11/08

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