Cheers and Jeers: Monday

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

WHAP!!

That the feeling I often get when I open one of Kossack One Pissed Off Liberal's diaries. Also known by the nickname OPOL, he describes himself as "a 60's survivor, Woodstock alumnus, a human rights/anti-war/prison reform/anti-drug war activist, an artist/poet/writer, a dharma bum, a freedom-fighter and an original Southern hippie." He also blogs at Docudharma.
 
Today the Recommended-Diaries stalwart takes a seat in the C&J beanbag chair for a grilling in our never-ending series, Yes, We're All Staring At YOU!

Cheers and Jeers: First things first--how many houses do you own?
One Pissed Off Liberal: I don’t remember, but that’s not unusual for people in my income bracket. I’m still middle class, though, at $4.99 million a year.

How long have you been blogging and what brought you to Daily Kos?
Almost two and a half years now. Stumbled across it at work, recognized some kindred spirits and some folks who had more than the usual two brain cells to rub together and thought I’d hang around and get into some conversations.  

Keith Olbermann says that the first thing he does before writing one of his Special Comments is "get really pissed off." Isn't this your modus operandi for writing your diaries, and have you considered suing Keith for stealing your proprietary creative process?
The second part of your question seems to assume the answer to the first part of your question and you are so right...at least in part. Sometimes I start pissed off, sometimes I end pissed off, and sometimes I’m not pissed off at all. And I’ll forego suing Keith if he’ll just fork over a few bucks every now and then.

What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Anything by the MC5, John Lennon, Bob Dylan or Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

What's the one book every Kossack must read?
Crashing the Gate would be too easy...maybe something like...Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 by Hunter S. Thompson or The End of America by Naomi Wolf. I know, I know, you said one...so sue me.

I'll have my lawyer email you the paperwork when we're done with this interview. So what are your most vivid memories of attending Woodstock in 1969?
Sitting on the hood of a New York State Trooper’s squad car surrounded by a seething mass of blissed-out hippies and smoking some extraordinary red Indian hashish...with the State Trooper, who was buggin’.

Which Republican and Democratic politicians are you pissed off most at? Who really gets under your skin?
Any Republican and most Democrats---starting with Pelosi. When Pelosi took impeachment off the table she screwed America, and not in a good way. Virtually all of our mainstream politicians are crooks, sell-outs or traitors.  It’s amazing that we continue to put up with it.

You've been a political activist since the 60's. What are the biggest pros and cons you see to netroots activism?
The pros are the instantaneous communication it allows and the unprecedented access to information (what we would have given for the Internets back in the 60s!). If there is a negative, it may be that the net has served as something of a pressure relief valve that has aided the ‘regime’ by bleeding off significant amounts of our outrage, and reducing our numbers in the street. It has been alleged, and can be argued, that the net gives the neo-fascists a convenient way to manage what dissent they can’t crush outright (via infiltration, provocateurs posing as sympathizers, etc.). It’s enough to make you wonder when ‘progressive’ websites oppose impeachment or kiss the asses of people like Nancy Pelosi.

Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
Paella...no kiddin’, it’s not bad, though I haven’t made it in a while.  I make a pretty mean spaghetti marinara too.

What do you do for fun when you're not workin' the blogs?
I hike in a nearby national forest, go to museums and lectures, dine out, go to movies, read books, smoke pot and hang out with cool people.

You're against the War on Drugs. But if we wave the white flag of surrender, won’t the free market swoop in and start installing heroin vending machines in our schools?
Various options lie between prohibition and some sort of laissez faire drug extravaganza.  Treating drugs as a law enforcement issue exacerbates the worst aspects of the problem.  Virtually all of the violence associated with drug trafficking, for example, is a direct result of prohibition.  If draconian drug laws or godawful prisons were ever going to change anything, they already would have.  I think we need to treat drugs as a medical issue and find ways to intelligently manage the fact that people are going to use them.  I can envision a system where adults are allowed to purchase pharmaceutical grade drugs at pharmacies with counseling and medical supervision as appropriate.  I think we need to focus on harm reduction.  In my opinion we should end prohibition, regulate production and supply much as we do alcohol (no vending machines, no kiddies and no bathtub meth), and focus our anti-drug efforts on education and treatment on demand. Bottom line is that we should acknowledge that people have always used drugs and always will, then manage the problem intelligently.

No waffling here: dogs or cats?
Dats. Since when has there been a no-waffling rule in this country?

I have one question left, but Michelle Obama needs me to baby-sit the kids for a few hours. Please ask and answer the final question yourself...

Do we really want someone who would have a wild-eyed radical leftist Kossack as a babysitter for our first lady?
I guess we do.  :-)

And please allow me to close with a quote from your last interview---of one of my favorite kossacks:

What is needed is "an enormous shift in the entire power structure of our country."
---OrangeClouds115

Next week: a Kossack who enjoys all-you-can-eat buffets, but never eats all he can eat. Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Cheers and Jeers for Monday, September 8, 2008

Note: Anyone know how to get a family of aphids out of my navel?  Y'know...without hurting their feelings?

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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the general election: 58
Days `til the 11th annual MDI Garlic Festival in Bah Habah: 5
Number of U.S. intelligence-agency employees: 100,000+
Number of them who are private contractors: Approx. 40,000
(Source: Portland Press Herald)
Pairs of loons in the 119 New Hampshire lakes that were included in the latest survey: 240 (Up from 224 last year)
(Source: Loon Preservation Committee)
Number of visits to public libraries between April 2007 and April 2008: 1.3 billion
(Source: American Library Association)
Number of times librarians said "Shhh!" during the period: 6 billion

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Monday Brain Droppings by George Carlin:

My family and I are doing our bit for the environment.  We've volunteered to have 60 metric tons of human waste stored in our home.
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The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant.  Every table had an argument going.
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When you sneeze, all the numbers in your head go up by one.

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Puppy Pic of the Day: Synchronized snoozing

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CHEERS to the tube d' boob.  Just our opinion, but Obama and Biden were cool, crisp and quick-witted yesterday on, respectively, ABC's Let Me Interrupt You Every Five Seconds with George Stephanopoulos and NBC's We Miss Timmeh.  Meanwhile, there's a full slate of cathode-ray goodness today as Michelle Obama (and the Jonas Brothers!!!) kicks off the new season of Ellen, Keith Olbermann interviews her husband on Countdown, and Rachel Maddow's new primetime show debuts at 9.  If those don’t float your boat, catch the first in-depth interview with Sarah Palin on cable access channel 2 from 3:15 to 3:16.  AM.

JEERS to the state of things.  I was just skimming through headlines in the weekend editions of our local paper to see how things are purring along in Bush-McCain Land:

Economy growing nowhere fast
Job loss grips the heartland
GMAC to close offices, jobs
Auto sales down
Paper mill lost $57 million since '04
Jobless rate at five-year high of 6.1 percent
Wall Street loses heart with joblessness report
Nevada's Silver State Bank 11th to fail this year
Continental to charge $15 for first checked bag
Mortgages in trouble reach record 9 percent in June
Companies look to share rising health-care costs with employees
And this minor development from yesterday: US government takes over mortgage giants [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac].

On the bright side, Garfield managed to eat another pan of lasagna while Jon wasn't looking.  That cat walks the walk, man.

CHEERS to turning the tables.  So the Republican campaign slogan for 2008 is, "Drill Here, Drill Now."  Of course, they don’t bother to mention that they're talking about drilling in areas that require new leases, which would take about three years to secure.  Maine U.S. Senate candidate Tom Allen is out with a new energy ad that, in addition to alternative energy, calls the Republicans' bluff with this line: "Pressure oil companies to drill now where they hold leases."  I like it---it calls for immediate action while suggesting that the oil companies are being slow and lazy.  So it has the bonus of being entirely true.

HUZZAH to Maine's #1 hero.  Happy 180th birthday to General Joshua Chamberlain.  He held Little Round Top against overwhelming odds during the battle of Gettysburg, helping save the north from the south George Allen.  Pay your respects here.  Bonus cheers to Jeff Daniels' credible portrayal of Chamberlain...the best thing about the otherwise awful Ted Turner movie, Gettysburg

CHEERS and JEERS to the monster of the Caribbean.  Good news: Hurricane Dwight Eisenhower weakened after making landfall in Cuba, and it may not give C&J's winter retreat, Key West, the thrashing that was predicted.  Bad news:  It's still crushing everything in its path, and no one really knows what it'll do once it spins into the gulf.  And with that out of the way, let's spin Pat Roberton's Giant Throbbing Wheel of Blame and see who's responsible for this catastrophe:

[Bip bip bip bip bip bip...bip bip...bip...bip...DING!]

Congratulations, left-handed gay feminist grocery-store baggers---this one is all your fault!

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Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man.  The Associated Press asks:  McCain-Palin becoming Palin-McCain?

Yes.

Now back to Cheers and Jeers.

Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

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JEERS to free passes.  Thirty four years ago today, President Ford granted an unconditional pardon to Richard "I am not a crook except Monday through Sunday from 6am 'til midnight" Nixon.  C&J acknowledges it perhaps maybe kinda sorta served as medicine to heal the country.  But seeing Tricky Dick behind bars would've been mighty therapeutic.

CHEERS to a shaky debut.  Yesterday's Maine Sunday Telegram published several letters to the editor on the nomination of Sarah Cheney for vice president.  Apparently we're not as stupid as John McCain thinks we are:

Ah, yes, American politics never ceases to entertain.  However, choosing a woman with little or no experience as Sarah Palin from a state whose population is less than most major U.S. cities is one of the most cynical, jaded and frightening choices in our history, even worse than that of Spiro T. Agnew and Dan Quayle.

We know what some of her values are---Pro-life, pro-gun, pro-big oil, pro-earmarks, pro-war. There will not be time to learn any nuance to any of those, or if she values the Constitution. There will not be time to assess her talent and skill. She is a huge gamble.

John McCain is telling us that, in a dangerous world, he would leave this nation in the hands of a person he's only met once---or twice depending on who you believe.

There was one supportive letter.  Hiram Ledendorfer of Vassalboro is smitten by her wattle.  Well, aren’t we all!

CHEERS to sticky situations.  On September 8, 1930, a banjo player named Richard Drew created Scotch Tape.  We hear the Bush Administration never slices civil liberties out of any document without it.

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Two Years Ago in C&J: September 8, 2006...

CHEERS to whatzisname (as if anyone cares).  A Senate panel said "Naaaah" to renewing John Bolton's license to berate, badger and belittle the U.N.  Shortly after he got the news, he was caught stabbing the Ambassador from Madagascar in the thigh with a pencil.  You don't wanna know what he would've done if he'd been in a sour mood.

CHEERS to turning a new corner.  Look, everybody!  Iraq just took control of its own military.  Now that they've "stood up," we can "stand down," right?  Right?  Right?  Right?

>>>2 years later...<<<</p>

Right?  Right???  [tap tap] Is this thing on?

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And just one more...

CHEERS to the final frontier.  On September 8, 1966 the first episode of Star Trek aired on NBC.  It was regularly beaten in its time slot, and its high-water mark was 52nd among all series that year.  But for all its phaser'ing and photon-torpedoing, it was decidedly anti-war:

Kirk: Well, there it is...war.  We didn’t want it, but we've got it.
Spock: Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.
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Spock: You Earth people glorified organized violence for forty centuries---but you imprison those who employ it privately.

Yeah.  We're fickle that way.

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Oh, and if you want to redecorate your home to look like the convention stage at Mile High Stadium, start here.  Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:

"I left part of me here in Cheers and Jeers.  You have one of the best hospitals in America in Cheers and Jeers.  They have my gallbladder."
---Joe Biden
9/3/08

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