Are you a 'good news first' kind of person or a 'bad news first' kind of person?

Well, I like my good news above the fold, so I'm going to go ahead and say it. I got a job offer, and I'm taking it.

I decided a while back to leave my job as a print news reporter because the salary it provides, along with the pay my wife gets for teaching, adds up to us being the world's two least successful gold diggers.

In seriousness, the money wasn't enough even after trying to tighten the belt in every way we knew how -- and we're better than average at saving and saying no to things we want. Besides that, there's the little boat anchor, Droogie Jr., to think about.

Many years ago, the late Harry Reasoner had an opinion piece on a TV program.  This very witty newscaster observed that he disliked labels.  He felt that labels were too constraining. He said that by labeling him or anyone else, it reduced that person to one dimension.  And by any stretch, Harry Reasoner was anything but one dimensional.

Follow me over the jump for some thoughts--maybe even a rant--on this not particularly weighty topic.

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga’s "Taking On The System" is the playbook that state bloggers, community activists and Democratic activists should read to not only take on the system, but to replace it with a better one.

As someone who joined Daily Kos in the summer of 2004, many of the stories Markos – or kos as he’s known on the site – recounts are familiar. The success of our neighboring Virginia state blog in recruiting and pushing Jim Webb – now Senator Webb, of course – is a well-known story to those of us residing in blogtopia.

What kos does well throughout the 275 pages is to show how to influence the gatekeepers, shape narratives about the opposition candidate and the candidate (or cause) you support, and use creativity and truth telling to counter the right.

I know this is not news to most of you, but if I had a nickel for every time I've added "Barack" to a tag, I'd donate it to the DSCC. After all, there is also Michelle Obama, so the tag needs a first name.

McCain has a first name, too: John, if you're talking about the candidate. It's especially relevant lately since we seem to have a lot to say about Cindy McCain, who deserves her own tag.

Bush on the other hand gets a first name AND a middle initial: George W. Bush, to keep him clearly distinct from his father, George H. W. Bush.

Nobody gets a title: Hillary has been First Lady and Senator, Bush has been Governor and pResident (and there's a confusing Governor Bush, to boot).

More over the fold -

Your regularly scheduled forum for asking questions about how this place works.

I'm as huge a fan of this site as the next reader but there are some things about DKos that need to be updated and/or improved. I'll go down them, in no particular order:

OMG guys, did you know that Obama is going to pick his VP choice soon?  You know what would be HILARIOUS??  A FAKEOUT!!!!  Wouldn't that be SO FUCKING FUNNY??

I'll keep this simple.

Obama is blowing it.

Faced with sinking polls and highly effective attacks from Mclame, he pretends all's well and no sweat.

In San Fransisco he promised donors he'd win.

Our guy is living in a bubble and doesn't even know it.

All his latest ads are ineffective.  He's always playing defense.  It makes him look weak and wimpy.

A quick twitter like diary to commemorate the fact that after ... 3 months ? .. of being a kog I got enough mojo to see the hidden comments tab.

Oh joy! I dedicate this achievement to my mamacita who sudffered through hours of labor to give birth to little old me, and to all the kogs who rated my comments up!

With my newly minted TU status I will proceed to hide the repugs and crazies who dare to comment in this site. And engage on pie wars with the best..

All kidding aside, I'm happy to see I don't need a single digit user id to be TU. Democracy happens here. Thanks guys and girls!

Is it just me, or is everyone totally freaking out right now?

Everywhere I turn there is a new diary, editorial or blogpost lambasting Senator Obama for not hitting back hard enough, losing Saddleback, getting outspent during the Olympics, and (here’s my favorite:) being too calm. Since all of a sudden being hotheaded and temperamental is presidential...

And then today, out comes the Zogby Poll, showing McCain up by 5 points, and the Chicken Littles are out in force.  Hence, I feel compelled to write my first diary to say the following  to my hyperventilating brethren:

Chillax. Brother Obama has got this sh*t.

Take the dog for a walk, play with your kids, go to the park and do pastoral dances, change the channel and watch some Olympics, read Taking On the System...

Why am I so confident?

I'm concerned. No, not about the election. About you. You're running around on this site annoying the shit out of people. Either that, or you're being annoyed by the people who are annoying.

Take a breath, and think for a second. What was the last thing you enjoyed to such a degree that it could be said that you savored it?

In Douglas, Wyoming, there is a museum created to honor the "jackalope", a mythical creature that is a hybrid between the jackrabbit and antelope. While nearly all sane people believe that the jackalope is a fictional creature, there are those who still believe, and some who have actively devoted themselves to hunting these fierce creatures:

Here at DKos, I feel like I am on a similar search- the hybrid between the Chicken Little and the Ostrich.

--if you're writing the same diary that 100 other kossacks are writing each day. That is, complaining about the state of the race.

If only they would listen to you, a Ph.D in armchair quarterbacking!

If only they did things this way instead of that.

I'm a communication researcher (read: lowly graduate student) and have been doing some occasional work that looks at Daily Kos.  I generated these graphs the other day and - at the risk of making MetaJesus cry - thought they'd be nice to share with the community.  They show changes in the popularity of various tags here since May 2007.  It's nothing you don't know already, assuming you've been around for awhile, but they're neat graphs in that you can see visually what's happened with some prominent topics of conversation on the site.  It's also a nice before-and-after snapshot of the primaries.

Graphs and captions after the jump!

To all the naysayers, chicken littles, psychological Obama staffers and the what if crowd, here is MHO of what I have become accustomed to when reading the Kos.

Obama's not black enough.

Obama's too black.

Obama's got a pastor problem.

Obama threw his pastor under the bus.

Been checking my cell phone every few hours and no message.

Sometimes I get that sensation of a buzz or 'ghost ring' as it is called.  Slide the cover and alas no message.  This is like crack for a political junkie having to know what will happen next.  Am I the only one in a tizzy over the speculation?  

When will the suspense end?  

AP reports Saturday will the moment Obama and his VP pick will make a formal announcement.

I think I speak for most of us when I explain how I feel regarding this election. Physically feeling...as in the surges of blood that rush to my head or the bowels that churn when I read or see something that suggests even remotely that Obama might not win the election for some reason or another. A poll, a 'gaffe', whatever.

This week has been full of that yucky feeling, with crappy polls and completely freaky John McCain exposure, not to mention cringe-worthy dialogue from the talking heads and traditional media (although, I suppose this is par for the course). I still feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about McCain's applause lines last Saturday. God help us all should he become president.

This brings me to the Chicken Little/Ostrich Wars that have popped up lately around here.