Since Bill in Portland Maine's Diary seems to have disappeared, I'm going to take up the slack as best I can until his diary is restored, or until I figure out what's going on. Please bear with me.
Update [2004-8-6 12:21:57 by maxomai]: Well, Bill's diary is there, but C&J for Friday isn't. I'm guessing this is a one-shot deal for me. Glad to be the pitch-hitter!
Cheers and Jeers starts in the Extended Copy section... [Swooosh!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!]
(Can you turn down the gong? I have a headache. Thanks!)
Days 'til 2004 Olympic Games:
7
Days 'til Republican Convention:
24
Days 'til General Election:
88
Days 'til Alan Keyes loses to Barack Obama by 50 points:
88
Days 'til Kerry's inauguration:
167
Days 'til I can find Bill's diary again:
??
JEERS to the latest explosion of violence in Iraq. Al-Sadr's forces are in full rebellion against the puppet government, which once again raises the spectre of civil war. Caualties number in the hundreds. Al-Sadr is calling for a cease fire; will the US take up his offer? Of course, the American media is ignoring this. Hey, anything to get the deregulation they were promised by the Republicans. Thankfully, we have the British media taking up the slack.
CHEERS to Lieutenant Commander George Elliott. Yes, he was one of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who signed an affidavit claiming all sorts of things about Kerry's military service. Well, earlier today, he retracted his statement and apologized, calling his signature a "terrible mistake." Oops!
CHEERS to Bill Frist for his praise of Kerry's leadership in the Senate. "'The Kerry-Frist bill is a huge step forward,' said [current Majority Leader Bill] Frist. 'It further validates U.S. leadership in the global effort to end devastation many countries face in the fight against HIV/AIDS'." -- Office of Senator Bill Frist, press release 7/12/02. (source) By the way, this contradicts the GOP lie du jour (which was repeated on Ed Schultz's show by a caller) about Kerry's Senate leadership, specifically that he didn't have his name on anything significant.
JEERS to Katherine Harris, who claimed that the government foiled a terrorist plot in Carmel, Indiana, to disrupt the power grid. It later turned out that nobody knew what the hell she was talking about. Katherine, you did your part to screw America and got a Congressional seat for it. Just sit tight and enjoy, okay?
JEERS to the lousy economy. The latest: 32,000 jobs were created in July. The unemployment rate dipped to 5.5%; again, this reflects that fewer people are collecting unemployment. Given the paltry job numbers, it's likely because the money ran out for these folks, rather than because they found gainful employment. The underemployment rate is still unreported by the major media.
JEERS to voter registration fraud. It seems that someone is re-registering Democrats in precincts where they don't live, effectively taking them off the voter registration rolls.
CHEERS to Alan Keyes, who accepted the GOP's nomination to go against Barack Obama in Illinois' Senate race. Keyes is going to lose very badly, and the media are already trashing him (2) (3), but the debates should be most entertaining.
CHEERS to Let's Talk America, an attempt to start discussion between the left and right wings of this divided nation. Ironically, I heard about this group from one of my favorite conservatives, Bob Barr. Although he and I disagree on some things (e.g. pagans in the military, an issue on which I personally took him to task), there are matters where we agree which are just as important.
CHEERS to Wal-Mart workers in Quebec, who managed to unionize their store.
Feh to my old high school. They're so proud to have a football team now after years without one. I'd rather have Brother McCabe back.
CHEERS to skeletoncrew for some of the links!
What are you cheering or jeering today?