Click for Red Cross Statement on the Moore tornado
People who wish to make a donation to support the Red Cross response can visit redcross.org, dial 1-800-REDCROSS or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
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From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
In Like A Bully, Out Like A Baby
What kind of classless jerk shoves a hair-on-fire letter in front of a state budget committee at 5 O'clock on a Friday afternoon, prompting the committee to hold an emergency meeting on a Sunday to fix a problem that turns out to have not been much of a problem at all?
Maine state Sen. Dawn Hill (D)
took on our governor's big
mouth Sunday---and won.
If you guessed Maine Tea Party Republican Governor Paul LePage, give yourself a jar of delicious Maine blueberry jam. Yes, the big jerk acted like a big jerk again. But then he got a taste of his own medicine, threw a tantrum, and gave our weary state a good laugh at his expense.
The emergency meeting itself was in response to the governor's warning about funding for a program here called MaineCare. In reality, LePage was trying to force the legislature to pass a budget on his timetable (i.e. NOW!) by crying wolf. But during the meeting, LePage's own finance commissioner shrugged off the problem, calling its solution "not rocket science, nor is it impossible." As they were wrapping things up after doing some routine bipartisan exploratory surgery on MaineCare, a hulking red-faced brute in the room grabbed an open microphone to demand time to bully and badger them in person. It was Governor LePage.
That's when the committee chairwoman, Senator Dawn Hill, did something remarkable: she looked the Governor straight in the eye and told him to go to one of Maine's lovely beaches and pound sand:
When Hill told him that she didn’t want to inject politics into the meeting, he said, “Are you saying that the governor of the state of Maine is not welcome to address the Appropriations Committee?”
“Governor, quite frankly I’m not saying that, but we hadn’t expected you, and what we had to accomplish today was accomplished,” said Hill, adding that LePage was welcome to speak with anyone on the committee at another time. “It’s best to end it on a high note, and I think that’s where we were.”
During his outburst (which, from the sound of it, embarrassed the Republicans on the committee as much as it amused the Democrats), LePage blurted out, "There's no politics! I'm a pragmatic person! I don’t play politics!" This from the guy who chose as one of his
first acts as governor ripping down a mural commemorating the labor movement from a government building and stashing it in an undisclosed location for political reasons.
Now folks are speculating about how LePage will retaliate for Sunday's public shaming. Through the grapevine I'm hearing chatter about tying certain shoelaces together and leaving bags of flaming poo on certain doorsteps. To be continued, I'm sure……………
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Note: If you have an umbrella, leave an umbrella. If you need an umbrella, take an umbrella.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Father's Day: 36
Days 'til the Tupelo Elvis Festival in Mississippi: 16
Percent of all tornadoes that occur in the world that happen in the U.S.: 80-90%
Average number of severe thunderstorms in the U.S. per year: 10,000
(Source: USA Today)
President Obama's approval rating since the three non-scandals hit, according to a new CNN poll: 53%
Baggage and reservation-alteration fees raked in by the airlines last year, a record: $6 billion
Estimated amount by which federal tax revenue will increase if the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) gets repealed: $35 billion
(Source: Harper's Index)
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
You got it. This was "Fast and Furious", only on a bigger scale! They got away with it, giving guns to the cartels, and they thought they would get away, with arming the rebels, with guns and missles! Rand Paul asked Hillary, and she did her deer, in the headlights look, " what do you mean"? EVERYONE knows, Stevens was working with the C.I.A., arming our enemies. Hillary reduced the security, and her, and Obama, refused to send help. That's TREASON!
---Commenter boys3 at the Michelle Malkin blog
All together now: 1…2…3…
C, las,sy,!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: In Moore, Oklahoma, a happy reunion....
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If only drones could eliminate
this kind of terrorist threat.
JEERS to not-so-subtle hints about who's in charge of this galactic orb. Moore, Oklahoma becomes the latest reminder that we are mere ants on this increasingly-angry planet. All I want to say in the wake of the Twistergeddon is this: Oklahoma is a red state with red-state politicians and not a single county voted Democratic last year. Oklahoma raises a helluva ruckus about deficits and taxes and the evils of big government. And now they really, really need money and big government to help them in the wake of the tornadoes---for rescue, for rehabilitation, for rebuilding.
Well, you know what this big-government liberal Mainer thinks? I think you Okies should get a ton of money and manpower and whatever the hell else you need to make it through this horror show….and you need it NOW, no strings attached and especially no bullshit "budget offset" requirements from Washington. I didn't need to think about it for a second, because that's another second spent not getting help where it's needed. But good luck fighting congress members from your own party (I'm lookin' at you, Eric Cantor) who probably will waste valuable time haggling with you for that aid. I sure hope I'm wrong. Oh, and I also want to say to us non-politician types, since I have your attention: help out: chip in.
P.S. More nasty weather is predicted for today. That's just rude.
CHEERS to shiny happy people. The latest Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment is out. And either things genuinely feel better in this country, or this country's been smokin' some good weed:
The preliminary May reading of the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters consumer sentiment index jumped to a reading of 83.7, well up from 76.4 in April and the best reading since July 2007, according to news reports. Economists polled by MarketWatch expected a 77.5 reading.
As a result of the new numbers, the index has been upgraded from "Meh" to "Cupcakes!" (Don't ask---it's a weird index.)
The only surviving photo of the
1832 Democratic convention.
CHEERS to partying parties. On this date in 1832, the first Democratic National Convention got under way in Baltimore. The top issue was Andrew Jackson's contempt for the Second Bank of the United States. And there was this curious
factoid:
[T]he Summary of the Proceedings notes that a delegation was sent to ask Charles Carroll of Carrollton to attend. At that moment in time, he was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll declined, citing ill health. (He died later that year.)
But the highlight was Martin Van Buren's Veep speech, delivered while sucking helium from red, white and blue balloons. "His voice doth emit a humorous tone. Guffaw, I say! Guffaw!" Wild times.
JEERS to the non-scandal du jour. In the latest attempt to morph President Obama into President Nixon circa Watergate, it was "revealed" yesterday that Fox News's James Rosen was spied on by the Justice Department. Sounds terrible, and is certainly worth looking into, but here's an interesting take on it from a reader at TPM:
"Ain't no mountain 'round here.
Just this little ol' mole hill."
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Everyone seems up in arms about surveillance of Rosen’s phone calls and building entries. Do reporters actually think that phone calls they receive on State Department phones within the State Department building are private? Even when the originating call is also a State Department phone in the same building? Do reporters think that the State Department isn’t going to check when you badge into and out of the State Department building when they know that someone in that building leaked top secret info to you?
Basically, Rosen was being leaked top secret info and he did not follow even the most basic procedures to protect the identity of his source. Everyone compares it to Watergate… but that would be a more apt comparison if [Woodward and Bernstein] had repeatedly met “deep throat” in his White House office.
Fearless prediction: this kerfuffle takes a long walk off a short pier.
CHEERS to making hissssstory. Some guy in Florida caught and killed the biggest snake Florida has ever seen. As soon as he heard the news, Governor Rick Scott immediately checked his pulse and then breathed a huge sigh of relief.
CHEERS to broads at the ballot box. Ninety-five years ago today, in 1918, the House of Representatives passed the amendment that gave women voting rights. Some of the white-hairs at the Country Club are still fuming in their scotch.
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Five years ago in C&J: May 21, 2008
CHEERS to gettin' lucky in Oregon and Kentucky. No surprises in yesterday's primaries. Hillary won in the "Weed grows in this state like a weed" state (3 million votes to 7), and Barack easily won the "You Want Hemp? We Got Hemp!" state. Now it's off to Montana and South Dakota, where the gloves will come off. Mainly because the voters' fingers have finally thawed out.
P.S. Reminder to Pat Buchanan and all the other trouble-making pundits who keep suggesting Obama can't win the general election:
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: But the question is, do you think Senator Obama can do that? Can he win?
SENATOR CLINTON: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Settled.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the junior senator from Minnesota. Happy Birthday (and many blessings on your camels) to Al Franken, who turns 62 today. Is anyone surprised that he's a low-key, hard-working, smart-as-a-whip, solidly progressive United States Senator? Yeah, me neither---and, oh, how that still makes Bill O'Reilly seethe---Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!! As Al succinctly wrote in his classic bestseller, LIES and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them:
Happy Birthday, Al.
Yes, I am a liberal, and I'm proud of it. It's a term we need to reclaim. Because I believe that most Americans are liberals just like me. Most Americans believe in helping people. And most Americans believe that the government has a role to play---to create opportunity, to protect the environment, to provide for the common good. ...
While it might not seem like I'm changing the tone when I accuse my friends on the right of being liars, my hope is that, if we keep calling them on their calculated dishonesty, their dishonesty will lose its effectiveness. Then O'Reilly and company will have to resort to Plan B: name-calling. Which, I think, will expose them for what they are. Stupid bastards.
Franken, the only sitting senator who can
draw a map of the USA from memory (Republicans are still trying to get the shape of the earth right), is currently working to fix our bogus---read: rigged---
credit rating system with his usual plain-spoken candor:
“Minnesotans lost their jobs because the credit rating agencies didn’t do the only job they’re supposed to have, the only job they had, which is to give accurate, objective ratings to financial products,” he said.
The current system also allows Wall Street firms to choose---and then pay---the credit ratings agency that will award them the highest rating, an inherent problem that Franken seeks to eradicate. … Franken argues that eliminating problematic relationships through an independent board would address the conflicts of interest, heighten transparency, and clean up the credit rating system. “It all goes back to this conflict of interest. It would be like a figure skater bribing the judges and they’re all giving 10′s,” Franken said.
Yesterday I stopped by Al's
Facebook page to see what he'd posted recently, and the site's Billy-stalking algorithm helpfully offered me some suggestions for
"Similar Pages You Might Like." They were: Rand Paul, Governor Jan Brewer, John Boehner, Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio, and "Paul Ryan is a Douchebag." Take a wild guess which one I clicked.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"I don't normally read Bill in Portland Maine. I don't largely because it's sort of largely the same column for the last eight years."
---Robert Gibbs
5/20/13
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