From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Armando: Behind the Laughter in Front of the Tears
Armando is the human roller coaster of Daily Kos. In 2003, he was a Fighting Clarkie accusing kos of pro-Dean bias. In November 2004 he was named a Guest Blogger (precursor to today's front pagers). In 2007 he left/was kicked out for bad behavior. In 2011, he returned to form the "Discussing the Law" Group at Daily Kos. This month he returned to the front page as a Featured Writer and is co-host of Daily Kos Radio, with David Waldman (Kagro X), on SiriusXM Channel 127 Saturdays between 10 am and 1pm. After having been stood up by me two Saturdays in a row, he finally conducted a fair and balanced interview last Saturday, during which several circuits were blown after thousands of callers demanded more Milli Vanilli. This morning, for the first time in our universe's 6,000-year history, Armando's intellectual and emotional tires get kicked in the latest installment of C&J's 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?
Armando: Since 2003. I came to Daily Kos in the Fall of 2003 to ignite the Dean-Clark wars. Think any one remembers those?
This month Kos announced that he'd tapped you to be a Featured Writer for the Great Orange Satan. What topic will you be focusing on most?
Political strategy.
If you were all-powerful---and I'm not saying you're not!---what are three things you'd do to fix the fucking economy?
One, use Fannie and Freddie to create a Home Owners Loan Corporation. Two, Borrow two trillion dollars and spend it on infrastructure, job training and extending funding for social safety net programs---unemployment insurance, emergency health care coverage, etcetera. And three, start a war. Just kidding! Borrow another two trillion to invest in green energy.
What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Queen, "We Are The Champions"? No, wait, Helen Reddy (I Am Woman)? No, wait, The Bee Gees, "Stayin Alive"? No, wait...The Gap Band---Party Train.
As a blogger, you've been labeled controversial, acerbic, flinty, short-fused, rude, hard-headed, stubborn, bad-mannered, churlish, boorish, abrasive, vulgar, wild, scurrilous, uncivil, savage, brutish, curt and crude. My question: what does it take to melt Armando's heart, Armando?
Brian's Song.
What's the one book every Kossack must read?
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.
Drawing upon your experience as a seasoned and successful writer, what are some Armandos and Armandont's for writing a really good blog post?
Do reason through your arguments in the writing. To the degree that you have evidence to support your point of view, present it. Don't insult the reader...at least not until the comment thread.
Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean…
Congri---black beans and rice cooked together.
What advice would you give President Obama during the proverbial 30-second elevator ride?
Run the 2008 General Election campaign again. It was surprisingly partisan. People forget that.
You and David Waldman kicked off Daily Kos Radio on Sirius/XM a couple weeks back. How's it going and are you hoping to make it a long-term commitment?
David is a prima donna, but I am a team player! No, seriously, it has been great great fun. Except for a certain writer of a Daily Kos humor column canceling on us, it's been a terrific experience. I'll do it as long as they let me. Maybe longer. I'm thinking of barricading myself in the studio…
No waffling here: dogs or cats?
Dogs.
I have one question left, but my corn dogs are gettin' cold. Please ask and answer the final question yourself…
What do you see DailyKos being in a second term of an Obama Administration?
An interesting and exciting place. President Obama, having run his last political campaign, will ease the burden of flag rallying and allow us to focus on the political world, especially the Democratic Party, post-Obama. Should be a hell of a discussion.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, August 29, 2011
Note: Hey, everybody within catapult distance of Portsmouth, New Hampshire! Pull out a Sharpie cuz you got a Kossack meetup to put on your calendar. It's happening Saturday afternoon, October 22nd, from 1-4 at the Portsmouth Brewery. On the to-do list at this one: eating, drinking, catching up, and hurling insults at Belgium JUST CUZ WE CAN! Please RSVP to my lovely and talented partner, Michael, at Cuckolds04103 [at] gmail.com, so we can get a headcount. Hope to see you there!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks: 13
Days `til the Hatch Valley Chile Festival in New Mexico: 5
Congress's current approval rating (not kidding): 12%
(Source: AP-GfK poll)
Weight of the stone blocks used to create the "Mountain of Despair" and the "Stone of Hope" at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial: 1,764 tons
Square feet of stone used at the site: 50,000
(Source: USA Today)
Rank of Maine, Alaska and Oklahoma among states in terms of having the highest divorce rate: #1, #2, #3
(Source: Census Bureau data)
Number of heads of the 54-member African Union who bothered to show up for a famine relief conference last Thursday: 3 (Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Djibouti)
(Source: The Portland Press Herald)
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Last respects
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Irene-a-palooza:
CHEERS to false advertising. Yes, it was a behemoth. Yes, it caused power outages and flooded coastal areas and rivers and streams. Yes, we lost a wicked witch (of the east, natch.) But, on the whole, Irene chose to pull one or two of her punches and she lumbered off without destroying absolutely everything. And that can only mean one thing: the gays, feminists and pagans have gotten fat and lazy, dammit. Okay, all you deviants: suit up and hit the practice field. It's gonna be a long day.
JEERS to water everywhere. Here in Portland it was awful---seriously awful. The surging waters spilled over and made a huge mess of things. It was virtual panic for a while and we barely prevented the house from washing away. I'm not talking about the storm. I'm talking about filling the bathtub (as I was told to do, so we could have something to flush the terlet with if we lost water pressure) and then getting distracted by you dirty fucking hippie bloggers on my computer and then remembering too late that the bathtub was filling and…you can fill in the rest, and it's funnier if you picture me as one of the three stooges using the dog as a mop. So far the downstairs neighbors haven't complained. I think I may have drowned 'em outright.
CHEERS to cheers. If you watched the Irene coverage this weekend, here's what you heard from the east coast governors:
"FEMA is doing a fantastic job."
"FEMA has been completely prepared."
"…workin' right alongside our own state and local disaster teams."
"A thousand times better than four or five years ago."
"Gimme an F! Gimme an E! Gimme an M! Gimme an A! What's that spell? FEMA!!!! Whoooo!!!!!" [performs several cartwheels across parking lot] "FEMA is FABULOUS!!!" [Pulls down pants] "Pucker up, Irene! It's FEMA time and we're getting' our FUNK ON!!!!"
That last one was Chris Christie. I think that was the sleep deprivation talkin'. Seriously…Nice job, guys.
JEERS to the oddest elf in the world. Y'know, when we watch the Republican debates, Ron Paul always comes off looking like the sane one in the room. It's like, "Wow, I can't believe he's saying something about Iraq (or whatever) that sounds reasonable in front of a GOP base that thrives on senseless evangelical jibberjabber." But when he's off the stage, he goes back to being the crazy uncle's crazy uncle, as when he suggested that the template for responding to natural disasters like Irene should mirror Galveston circa 1900. And in other news: hydrogen producers planning big comeback in dirigible industry.
CHEERS to the sequel. Following Irene on the Hurricane list is Jose. He's just like me: distant and aloof. Mommy, can we keep him?
JEERS to deferred dedications. Yesterday was supposed to have seen the official dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in D.C., coinciding with the date of his "I Have A Dream" speech. It got called off because of Irene. But I didn’t forget---in fact, I commemorated the occasion with a slightly-modified MLK speech of my own: "Basement didn’t flood! Basement didn’t flood! Thank God Almighty my basement didn't flood!"
And a couple more...
CHEERS to the Ass-kicker in chief. Overheard this morning at al Qaeda headquarters:
Al Qaeda #1: Helen, where's #2? We're supposed to be having a crush-the-infidel strategy session now, he and I."
Receptionist Helen: "Ya really wanna know?"
Al Qaeda #1: "Of course!"
Receptionist Helen: "He's over there. And over there. And over there. And over there…"
Point goes, again, to Team Obama. And our condolences in advance to current al Qaeda #3 on his recent promotion.
CHEERS to famous firsts. Where does the time go??!! Three(!) years ago, I posted my first-ever reference to Sarah Palin:
JEERS to adults who prove every day they're not smarter than a fifth-grader. Steve Doocy of---you guess it---Fox News says Sarah "Who?" Palin is a fantastic choice for vice president. He thinks she's got the chops she needs to handle foreign affairs because... Um, because... Because Russia is in her backyard. Which I guess means that if McCain wins, Steve Doocy will be a shoo-in to be appointed Ambassador to Pluto.
To show you how naïve I was then, I thought Doocy's comment was an isolated bit of dumbosity. But soon after, the entire Republican machine swung behind the idea that Palin was a national security expert because she could---in the soon-to-be-immortal words of Tina Fey---"see Russia from my house!" It was all downhill from there. She has since gotten crushed in a national election, resigned as governor because "only dead fish go with the flow," had two forgettable books ghost-written for her, and embarked on, and abandoned, bus tours during which she rode the coattails of publicity generated by others. And she will never go away. What did we on the left do to be so lucky?
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Five years ago in C&J: August 29, 2006
HALF A CHEER to Jay Carney. On Monday, Bill in Portland Maine came out of a 48-hour exile to report on a lie told by the TIME magazine reporter on The McLaughlin Group. Well, Mr. Carney has apologized in the nick of, um...time. But Carney failed to answer the real question: why did the magazine devote 31 times more ink to [extradited Jon Benet Ramsey murder suspect] John Karr's champagne flight than they did to Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's ground-shaking ruling against the Bush administration's illegal wiretapping activities? Until we get this resolved, the blogswarm stays on high alert. [8/29/11 Update: Wow---I completely forgot about that diary, in which I took a future White House Press Secretary behind the woodshed and made him cry "Uncle." No wonder he never returns my calls.]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Great Moments in Meta. Well, it's official. The "diary" is dead…long live the "Post." After a remarkably pie-fightless discussion over what we should officially call what we write on this blog, Kos has decided that they will be called "posts" now instead of "diaries." The move became official Thursday when Jotter stopped publishing his daily "High Impact Diaries" diaries and switched to his now-daily "High Impact Posts" posts. And added a special comment that even got a rec by the now-elusive but still-lurking Meteor Blades:
I gladly embrace the new nomenclature. Why wait for the official update? Out with the diaries, in with the posts.
No more posting a diary, now we will publish a post, and post a comment to a post. I think that's right, anyway. […]
Should high impact diaries be replaced by Toastie Posts? Puissant Posts? Pitiful Posts for train wrecks?
This should be fun.
His Post is a dumb as a post.
Everything he writes is compostable.
Spots stops posts
You know what else? Super Sugar Crisp is made by Post---tell me that's not an association that's good as gold! So post it is and post will it forevermore be. If you find yourself forgetting, you can jot a reminder on a square piece of yellow paper with a line of sticky stuff on the back. I'm totally blanking on what they call those things. Diary-It Notes, I think.
Have a nice Monday. Oh, and Canada? Take my hurricane…please. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Bill in Portland Maine Rejects Climate Change In Desperate Attempt To Be Cool
---Wonkette
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