From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE
Meanwhile, Last Night in Portland…
Our City Council apparently saw the writing on the wall in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on abortion clinic buffer zones, and voted last night to overturn an eight-month-old ordinance requiring protesters to stay 39 feet from the entrance of a clinic here:
The City Council’s 7-1 vote came less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a 35-foot buffer zone around clinics in Massachusetts violated the free-speech rights of anti-abortion demonstrators. The court said other restrictions are constitutional, but did not spell out exactly how communities should balance the First Amendment rights of protesters with the safety concerns of patients seeking treatment at women’s clinics.
So now the protesters…er, "sidewalk counselors"…are free to snarl and yargle-bargle so close to the clinic doorway that patients will be able to smell what they had for lunch. But, as with the Massachusetts clinic that was the focus of the Supreme Court case, alternate solutions are in the works:
The Supreme Court's super-huge buffer zone
remains constitutional because because.
Councilor Cheryl Leeman called the repeal “a legal bump in the road. ... Please know that we still have the same concerns and that we are not going to let go of this issue,” Leeman told members of the audience. “We will just re-craft (the ordinance) so that hopefully it will pass legal muster.” …
[Planned Parenthood vice president for public policy Nicole] Clegg said Planned Parenthood will continue to provide “greeters” and escorts outside the Congress Street facility. In the meantime, her organization is urging Portland city officials to look at other “tools” to make sure that
those traveling to Planned Parenthood’s facility for any reason feel safe, she said.
As they say: to be continued.......
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Note: Researchers say psychedelic mushrooms may have positive and long-lasting effects on anxiety, depression and self-esteem. And if you don't believe me, maybe you should have a chat with the happiest little six-foot salamander in judge's robes chugging liquid time from a beer hat made out of colorful smells, just as soon as it finishes convincing the skeptical Ruth Bader Ginsburg pancake on our ceiling that it's true. Because it is.
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10 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Major League All-Star Game:
7
Days 'til the
North Dakota State Fair:
10
Portion of Mainers getting prescriptions for long-term, extended-release opiate medications written for them by doctors, the highest rate in the country:
22-out-of-100
(Source:
The Portland Press Herald)
Percent chance that Fox News is now airing advice on the proper way for a wife
to be subservient to her husband:
100%
Amount spent in the U.S. on yoga in 2004 and 2012, respectively:
$3 billion, $10.3 billion
(Source:
Yoga Journal)
Percent of Americans who believed in 2006 and 2014, respectively, that Bill Clinton was our worst post-WWII president:
17%, 3%
(Source: Quinnipiac poll)
Percent chance that Obama's current "worst post-WWII president" number (33%) will drop like a stone once he leaves office:
100%
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
Succinctly---immigration (both domestic and foreign) and left wing educational brainwashing have made it a kinder, gentler world for delusional psychotics, misfits, psychopaths, paranoid schizophrenics and just your run-of-the-mill incompetents and petty thieves.
Also Delusional psychotic Barack Obama was REELECTED
Delusional psychotic Hillary Clinton is the CW favorite to be our next president.
If they can get there, so can Gore–or Charles Manson or Bowe Bergdahl or the bum off the street for that matter.
---Commenter Midee at the Hot Air blog
All together now: 1…2…3…
Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day (via Thinking Fella): Backyard fun…..
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CHEERS to going humanitarian on the haters. One of our C&J "Who won the week" poll candidates this Friday will no doubt be Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who is spearheading an effort to take care of two thousand child refugees flooding into the U.S. from Central America. Good for him:
Judge Clay Jenkins
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Jenkins said the move to provide shelter to the children, who are staying in holding facilities, was neither a political issue nor an attempt to enter an immigration debate. “Children deserve to be taken care of compassionately and they’re here now and we have to take care of them in this country so we want to do in Dallas County what we can do to help the federal government with that responsibility,” he said.
Jenkins said he even shared his plans with his 8-year-old daughter. “She said, ‘But Daddy these aren’t people, they’re children,’ and she asked when I told them that we’re going to move them here, she asked, ‘How many are going to be at our house, and can I have little girls?’” Jenkins said he answered no but said they could visit them and play with them when they come.
We'll respect Jenkins' wish to keep politics out of his humanitarian effort, which is backed by the faith-based community and opposed by the NIMBYs. But since you probably already guessed, we'll just confirm that, yeah, there's a "D" after his name. Good guess, you!
JEERS to the circle of life, minus the life part. Here's an update on what's happening in Israeli-Palestinian relations:
So it goes...
Palestinians were killed out of revenge for killing Israelis, but not before Israelis were killed out of revenge for killing Palestinians, but not before Palestinians were killed out of revenge for killing Israelis, but not before Israelis were killed out of revenge for killing Palestinians, but not before Palestinians were killed out of revenge for killing Israelis, but not before Israelis were killed out of revenge for killing Palestinians, but not before Palestinians were killed out of revenge for killing Israelis, but not before Israelis were killed out of revenge for killing Palestinians, but not before……
Coming tomorrow: Part 2 in our 235-part series.
CHEERS to a pleasant jaunt to the Great White North. On July 8, 1958, President Eisenhower began a trip to Canada, where he spent some face time cavorting with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and his liberal socialist death-panel-loving soulmates in Parliament. I could watch old newsreels like this all freakin' day long…
By the way, it was during this summit that Ike uttered his most famous words: "What does a five-star general have to do to get a Molson around here, launch an invasion?" Fortunately Diefenbaker kept a second pair of underpants in the trunk of his car.
JEERS to not living up to expectations. I can see now why I got the fracking and mining rights to these joints so cheap:
US scientists said Thursday two distant Earth-like planets, which some believed might be able to harbor life, do not actually exist and that astronomers were confused by a star’s sunspots. The controversial pair of planets, Gliese d and g, some 22 light years away, were once believed to be in the Goldilocks zone---not too close and not too far from the star, where the potential exists for water and perhaps life.
In response to the news that humans wouldn't be leaving this planet anytime soon, Mama bear and Papa bear bought Baby bear a taser. It incapacitates
juuuust right.
JEERS to losing a reformer. Among those the world can thank for bringing reforms---if temporarily---to the former Soviet Union is ex-foreign minister Eduard Shevardnaze:
Shevardnadze with either
James Baker or Liberace.
As Soviet foreign minister, the white-haired man with a gravelly voice was the diplomatic face of Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalizing policies of glasnost and perestroika. Following the wooden Andrei Gromyko,Shevardnadze impressed Western leaders with his charisma, his quick wit and his commitment to Gorbachev's reform course.
"He made a large contribution to the foreign affairs policy of perestroika, and he was a true supporter of new thinking in global affairs," Gorbachev told Interfax Monday.
Shevardnadze died yesterday at the age of 86. Figures---one day after I finally learned how to pronounce his name.
CHEERS to six degrees of That Guy. Check this out: Footloose starred Kevin Bacon; Kevin Bacon starred in JFK; JFK was released the same year as Pyrates starring Kevin Bacon; Pyrates was followed by A Few Good Men which starred Kevin Bacon; and Kevin Bacon guest-starred in the "Bacon and Eggs" episode of Will & Grace in which he parodied his dance moves from...Footloose starring Kevin Bacon, who turns 56 today. Took me four hours to piece all that together. My brain hurts.
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Five years ago in C&J: July 8, 2009
CHEERS to the Wasilla Dreamkilla. Faces were long and frowny at the sparsely-attended teabag parties across the country on July 4th. Sarah Palin's sudden and sense-not-making resignation as governor of Alaska had so boggled their brains that they nearly forgot what they were protesting (I believe this time it was the high cost of Fig Newtons). Why did Sarah do it, do ya suppose? I can't say as I much care because she was never, ever, ever going to be a serious challenge to Obama or anyone else on the federal level. But we can't say Toodle-oo without at least giving her a parting gift for bringing us so much joy and laughter also. We're fresh out of Samsonite luggage, so she'll have to do with this instead:
By Sanjeev Saikia
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the winner of its annual Sitting Duck Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor that pokes fun at the most ridiculed newsmakers in the United States.
Palin beat out Democrat Rod Blagojevich, the ousted former governor of Illinois allegedly caught trying to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat.
Saturday morning's above-the-fold headline in the
Portland Press Herald proclaimed:
Republicans baffled by Palin resignation. Yeah…in addition to science, fiscal responsibility, minorities, open-mindedness, honesty, conservation, courage, escalators and seriousness.
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And just one more…
Back to the basics, and
no Jar Jar Binks in sight.
CHEERS to positive reports from the galaxy far far away. Director Kevin Smith, whose love of the original
Star Wars trilogy is so great that he titled one of his flicks
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back with cameos by Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, got to visit the set of the latest reboot. And what a relief to hear that director J.J. Abrams is kickin' it old-school for
Episode VII:
"I saw uniforms; I saw artillery that I haven't seen since I was a kid. I saw them shooting an actual sequence in a set that is real---I walked across the set; there were explosions---and it looked like a shot right out of a fucking Star Wars movie," he said. … So anyone out there wondering if he's going to pull it off: He's pulling it off. He showed me cut scenes; he showed me sequences, images, pictures. I cried, and I hugged that guy. … And I was like, 'Honestly dude, you’re doing it. You’re making my childhood again. You’re doing our Star Wars.' What I saw blew me away."
I was 13 when the 1977 original came out, and nearly every penny of my allowance went into the coffers of the Lucas empire, which later struck out more than it struck back with the middle trilogy. But now that the franchise is out of George Lucas's tin-eared control, all I can say is, "May the
Squeee! be with us." In 528 days. Not that I'm counting. My protocol droid does that.
Have a partly sunny Tuesday with 20 percent humidity and plenty of yummy drinky. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
After months of anticipation, delays, and terrifying rumors about riders being accidentally launched into the air during test runs, Bill in Portland Maine has finally unveiled real, actual footage of real, actual human beings riding his new monster C&J kiddie pool waterslide.
---MTV.com
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