From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE
A Courtin' We Will Go...
'Bout freakin' time is all I can say. Them wheels o' justice sure could use some WD-40. Prop. 8 arguments today, DOMA arguments tomorrow. Whee!!! Bring on the Olsonator!!! Bring on the Boiesinator!!! Bring on the DOMAnator!!! Let's do this thing!!!
But first…a little pre-SCOTUS business. It's important to me that I have an accurate and up-to-date assessment of what the Good Lord thinks about all this gay marryin' hullabaloo, and there's no one more qualified to tell me than Saint Ralph Reed, aka Time Magazine's "Right Hand of God." I was pleased to see the Christian Coalition's Boy Wonder on Meet the Press Sunday, because I knew he'd whip out his trusty Bible and start a' thumpin and a' preachin' about the evils of teh sodomites and their wicked, deviant lifestyle. Bring on the God, Right Hand Ralph!
REED: I wouldn't build a house on one poll. That same ABC News/Washington Post poll that everybody's made a big deal out of this week, just a couple of months away it was 51/47 for same-sex marriage, and against. Basically a jump ball.
In other words, pay no attention to the current poll because the previous poll was more of a jump ball. For the record, many other polls are showing
the same momentum in favor of marriage equality. But so what? Bring on the God, Right Hand Ralph!
REED: [Voters] have, after all, voted in 31 state referenda and initiatives for traditional marriage, only three have they voted the other way. So this thing tests very differently at the ballot box than it does in a poll.
Four, actually: in November Minnesota turned back a Constitutional amendment initiative, and marriage equality was approved by voters in Washington state, Maine and Maryland. Translation: pro-equality forces ran the table on Election Day 2012. But so what? Bring on the God, Right Hand Ralph!
REED: The issue before the country is do we have a compelling interest in strengthening and supporting the durable, enduring, and uniquely complementary and procreative union of a man and a woman. And…it's better for children, and all the social science shows that.
DAVID GREGORY: Although the American Academy of Pediatrics disagrees. They think it's good.
REED: And the American College of Pediatricians came out the other way. […] The verdict of social science is overwhelming and irrefutable.
You're kidding me. The American "College" of "Pediatricians" is a
sham organization that doesn't pass the laugh test, the right's favorite "social science" report on gay parenting turned out to be
"Bullshit," and let's not even go into marriages among the elderly or couples who aren't capable of having kids or just don’t want to have any.
Oh, Right Hand Ralph, you disappoint me. You had a golden opportunity---on Meet the Press, no less---to bring God's wrath down on teh gays, and you took a pass??? A little free advice, buddy: stay away from lightning storms. After your sorry appearance Sunday, I don't think you're on the Old Man's A-list anymore.
Cheers and Jeers does its thing below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Note: Due to a flat tire on the bakery truck, today's DKos pie fight will have to be waged with last week's leftover pies. This may result in serious facial disfigurement, but on the bright side we're offering 15% off all procedures in the C&J reconstructive surgery tiki hut. I'll get things started: "Obama rocks." "No, Obama sucks." Y'all can take it from there. Have fun. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til public enrollment in Obamacare begins: 189
Days 'til the Freret Street Festival in New Orleans: 11
Drop in car thefts in Massachusetts since the mid-70s: 88%
(Source: The Boston Globe)
Percent of the U.S. population that is foreign-born: 13%
Percent of the U.S. population that was foreign-born in 1913: 15%
(Source: Harper's Index)
Amount Mike Bloomberg plans to spend on ads pressuring senators in 13 states to sign on to robust gun massacre-prevention laws: $12 million
Number of new national monuments President Obama announced yesterday: 5
(Source: The Washington Post)
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
Since becoming an adult, I predict presidential elections by feel. The only one I've missed is 1976---Carter over Ford. This year, my feel-o-meter says Romney by a comfortable margin.
Ordinary (not activist) Democratic voters who wept with joy when Obama was elected see him now as worse than Nixon (!). These voters aren't in love with Romney but they're definitely out of love with Obama.
---Commenter Vt71 at RedState, Oct. 2012
All together now: 1…2…3…
Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Tuesday yawn
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You must be at least "this" tall
to be Speaker of the House.
CHEERS to speakers you won’t find at Best Buy. Happy birthday (and many blessings on your camels), Nancy Pelosi! The former and future Speaker of the House turns 73 today. When I think about all the things she got done when she wielded the gavel versus her orange chain-smoking successor, it almost boggles the mind. And this year she wants
to get you and me a present:
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi marked the 20th anniversary of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act in Boston by pushing for federal legislation that would require businesses to allow up to seven paid sick days a year.
The 1993 law offers 12 weeks of unpaid leave, which workers can use to care for a new baby or sick family member or to recover from an illness. ... The law applies to workers hired by companies with 50 or more employees, who work more than 1,250 hours a year and who have been on the job for at least a year. Labor activists say that excludes more than half the workforce. Pelosi said federal laws should guarantee that workers can earn paid time off.
Now I kinda feel bad that I hired Dennis Hastert to jump out of her cake today. (He's the only person we could get on short notice, and the poor guy literally works for cab fare these days.)
P.S. Leader Pelosi will be at Netroots Nation in San Jose this June, and you can submit questions via the twitter hash tag #AskPelosi. There will be a lot of questions, so please limit yours to ten characters or less. (Mine: Hey, 'sup?)
CHEERS to makin' up and makin' nice. Where does the time go? Thirty-four years ago today, on March 26, 1979, Israel's Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat signed a historic peace agreement that is still holding up today (if a bit more shakily under the new Egyptian guy). Said Sadat of the mediator, Democratic President Jimmy Carter: "[He is] the man who performed the miracle. Without exaggeration, what he did constitutes one of the greatest achievements of our time." Interesting bit of trivia: the three of them had to duck into the Oval Office, where it took them 45 minutes to untangle their hands:
I know---
Awkward.
JEERS to premature noshing. As if parents don’t have enough to worry about, here's another child-rearing red flag:
Switching your baby to solid food
too quickly can lead to a malady
called becoming a baby zombie.
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Most mothers may be starting their infants on solid foods months sooner than specialists recommend, mistakenly believing their children are old enough to graduate from breast milk or formula---but many say they’re simply following doctors’ orders, according to a study published today.
Parents should wait until their little ones are at least 6 months old before offering them solid foods, say many child-nutrition experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. But researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – who surveyed 1,334 new moms---discovered that almost 93 percent of those women had introduced solid foods to their infants before 6 months…
Wasn't a problem for me. I went straight from formula to Bacardi.
CHEERS to royal visitors. Prince Harry will be touring the U.S. in May. I'm told he'll keep his clothes on this time around. Well, thanks for bugger all.
CHEERS to Tuesday morning fun! Let's play a game I created three years ago this week…you'll love it! I call it President...or Hand Towel? The rules are simple: just watch the clip below and then decide whether Bill Clinton is a president…or a hand towel:
If you guessed president and hand towel, you win an extra helping of disgust at George W. Bush. Lucky you.
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Five years ago in C&J: March 26, 2008
JEERS to getting grounded. Attention, travelers! Yesterday a federal appeals court ruled that the airlines have the right to stick you in one of their tubular, winged germ incubators and leave you sitting on the runway for lord knows how long without food, water and fresh air. In other words, it's business as usual. Now shut off your effing portable electronic devices and tell your bladder to quit sniveling.
JEERS to unexpected departures. Whoa...a giant sheet of Antarctic ice the size of Connecticut has just left its parent ice shelf. It's coming to New York to make it as a dancer. I just hope its prepared to wait on tables for the first three to five years.
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And just one more…
Going the way of the buggy whip?
JEERS to signs of the times. Yet another bit of anecdotal evidence pointing toward the man-made
baking of the planet. Here in Maine ice fiishing is taking a hit:
The state's largest annual ice-fishing derby on Sebago Lake has been called off four times in the past 12 years because of unsafe ice, and organizers are considering whether to cancel it permanently. … The Sebago Lake derby has drawn as many as 5,000 anglers to sample the lake's famous togue fishery and is an economic boost to the region, but one in three cancellations over 12 years are not great odds when holding an event that takes eight months to plan. An apparent warming trend in recent years in southern Maine is having its impact on many outdoor winter sports that rely on cold temperatures, including ice fishing.
Yeah, real tragic, said fish.
Have a Tuesday. Any Tuesday will do. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
George Stephanopoulos: Karl Rove, can you imagine the next presidential campaign, a Republican candidate saying flat out I am Bill in Portland Maine?
Karl Rove: I can.
---This Week
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