From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
"Always the Tallest Guy in the Room"
Don’t forget to say "Happieth Birthdayeth" to George Washington today---284 years old and still alive! (Disclaimer: actual aliveness limited to the hearts of his countrymen. See warranty for details.)
From the day he took office, Washington knew that corruption and special interests would be a fact of life in the halls of power. (Today Republicans would obstruct him at every turn because "We’re still troubled by all the unanswered questions about that cherry tree” and then hold 18 months of committee hearings.) President Obama, meanwhile, has followed in the footsteps of the Father of our Country:
As president, he was particularly sensitive to the diverse interests of the new country and fervent in his efforts to prevent its fragmentation. [...]
He promoted roads, canals, the post office---anything and everything that would bind the different states and regions together. ... Never taking the unity of the country for granted, he remained preoccupied throughout his presidency with creating the sinews of nationhood. … Washington, more than anyone, promoted the sense of Union that Lincoln and others would later uphold.
---From To the Best of My Ability, edited by James McPherson
Roads. Canals. Postal service. Or as the 2016 GOPers call them: handouts for the takers. But thank god the lamestream media was on the case to call Washington out on his caliphatic socialist takeover agenda designed to destroy the soul of America:
[H]is critics believed he wanted to become another "King George." ... The Philadelphia Aurora, one of the major opposition papers, in 1796 editorialized: "If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington. If ever a nation was deceived by a man, the American nation has been deceived by Washington."
---From Rating the Presidents by William Ridings, Jr. and Stuart McIver
Washington wasn't perfect. He lied at times. He schemed at times. He could be a hardass. There was that whole owning other human beings thing. But considering he didn’t have much of a POTUS playbook to work with, and no predecessor whose brain he could pick over an evening of bowling and beer, he did okay. Now shine up yer buckles and pay your respects to "#1" here. And then go take advantage of his awesome mattress sales.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, February 22, 2016
Note: Let's bring compassionate waterboarding back to the White House. Vote Trump 2016!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Super Tuesday primaries: 8
Days 'til the National Maple Syrup festival in Brown County, Indiana: 12
Minimum number of copies of the late Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird that have been sold since 1960: 40 million
Percent chance that 9th and 10th-grade English teachers assign To Kill A Mockingbird more than any other book, according to a Fordham Institute study: 100%
Number of states that would be allowed to enact their own GMO labeling on foods under a Republican bill set to be voted on in committee Thursday: 0
Release date of Blade Runner 2 with Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling: 1/12/18
Percent chance that Richard Branson's new space tourism craft SpaceShipTwo was christened Friday by having his 1-year-old granddaughter break a tiny bottle of milk over its nose: 100%
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NEW Monday feature: “Meet Me in St. Louis!”
Brought to you by the 2016 Netroots Nation Convention (July 14-17), where submissions for panels and workshop ideas are now being accepted through March 11. One of the pics you'll want to take in STL is the Old Courthouse framed inside the Gateway Arch. And then pop inside for a look at the place where two infamous cases were tried:
1) In 1846 the slave Dred Scott sued for his and his wife's freedom as they had been held as slaves in free states.
All of the trials, including a Missouri Supreme Court hearing, were held in Old Courthouse. The case was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford, which ruled against the Scotts, saying they did not have grounds as citizens to sue.
2) In 1872 Virginia Minor attempted to vote in a St. Louis election and was arrested. Her trials, including the deliberations before the Missouri Supreme Court, were held in this building. The United States Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett (1875) upheld the male-only voting rules, as the Constitution did not address voting rules, which were set by the states.
Sorry to say, rules prohibit bungee jumping from the dome. :-(
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
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CHEERS to pulling the lever and coming up WIN-WIN-WIN. It was a happy weekend for Hillary Clinton as she won the Nevada caucus by a decisive margin---53% to Bernie Sanders' 47%. A few details:
Clinton took 71 percent of the vote among caucus-goers age 65 and older, and 55 percent of female voters.
She also won six-in-10 voters who attended graduate school. While Clinton lost the Hispanic vote to Sanders, she won the overall nonwhite vote because of strong support from black voters. Among caucus-goers who said they were looking for a candidate with the right experience, Clinton won 91 percent of the vote. … Clinton also won six-in-10 voters who said their top issue is health care.
The biggest loser from Hillary's win isn’t Bernie---it’s Mike Bloomberg, whose threat to be an independent spoiler now looks decidedly more unthreatish. Meanwhile on the Republican side, the South Carolina primary contest featured a tough battle between an unstable extremist, an unstable extremist, an unstable extremist and an unstable extremist. The winner: the unstable extremist. Who coulda guessed?
P.S. A post-mortem tweet from Saturday night after Jeb announced that he and his exclamation point were going bye-bye. This was in response to The Hill’s article Ten Moments That Doomed Jeb Bush’s Campaign:
With any luck his mom will un-ground him by Thanksgiving.
CHEERS to a fine sendoff. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral was Saturday, and it featured all the pomp and solemnity you'd expect:
In the front section sat every sitting member of the current Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas a close friend of Scalia and a longtime conservative ally on the bench, participated in the service, reading from the book of Romans.
The four other Catholic members of the bench---Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Anthony Kennedy and Justice Sonia Sotomayor---were joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. The last to arrive was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a longtime family friend of Scalia, who once said they were an "odd couple" and he counted her as his "best buddy" on the bench. Retired Justices John Paul Stevens and Justice David Souter were there.
In the front section sat Vice President Joe Biden, who served for years on the Senate Judiciary Committee chairing confirmation hearings of federal judges, and his wife, Jill.
A sturdy casket holds the remains of Scalia, who was later buried in his robe with his head lovingly nestled on top of the murder weapon.
CHEERS to free handouts. White House photographer Pete Souza has been snapping mini-masterpieces for seven years, and whichever shutterbug follows the next president around is going to have some seriously-big shoes to fill. Pete snapped this on Thursday:
Say it with me: So distant! So aloof! So bored with the job! Impeach!
JEERS to shuteye denied. A new CDC study breaks down our grand republic state-by-state to reveal which of us enjoy the most sleep. Getting the least amount: Hawaii, Alabama and Kansas. Getting the most sleep: South Dakota, Minnesota, and whichever state Ben Carson happens to be in at the moment.
CHEERS to calling in the civil-liberties cavalry. As the FBI ramps up pressure on Apple to create a way of hacking into "just one phone, honest you can trust us," the maker of the iPhone is getting iLawyeredUp. Big time:
Tim Cook, the out gay man who leads the world’s wealthiest company as CEO of Apple, Inc., has hired Republican lawyer turned gay rights hero to represent the company against government pressure to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorist. [...]
Ted Olson and his law partner Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr, are best known to LGBT folk for successfully challenging California’s Proposition 8, a voter initiated law that banned gay marriage in California, before the Supreme Court. They are also known for successfully arguing on behalf of George W. Bush in the Supreme Court case that decided the 2000 presidential election.
Cook has said that obeying the order sets a dangerous precedent and could compromise the security of billions of customers. [...] “The U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create.”
This’ll be interesting. By the way, on the Too Dangerous to Create (TDTC) scale, the iPhone back-door idea falls between “chihuahua-raptor hybrids” and “position in President Trump’s cabinet for Sarah Palin.”
ZOOM ZOOM to little boys in their internal-combustion toys. The Daytona 500 happened yesterday. The event featured professionals (including winner Denny Hamlin, in the squeakiest of squeakers) expending a lot of fuel to go 'round and 'round in circles but not actually get anywhere, while occasionally bumping into walls, catching fire and watching their wheels fly off, and if innocent bystanders get scraped up, well, that's rugged individualism, so no refunds. They shoulda called it the GOP 2016.
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Ten years ago in C&J: February 22, 2006
JEERS to achieving a new level of chutzpah. Okay, let me get this straight: some Malaysian muckety-muck paid Jack Abramoff $1.2 million to get a little private face time with President Bush in hopes of influencing him? I guess that explains our new federal holiday: National Palm Oil Day.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Massachusetts liberals. Ted Kennedy was born 84 years ago today and it goes without saying that he is missed on every imaginable level we can think of. And with the full-court liberal push for an increase in the minimum wage at the federal, state, and local level (Maine will have a $12/hr. referendum question on November's ballot) this is a perfect time to revisit one of Ted's finest displays of righteous bellow:
Pay your respects here. Today in the Daily Kos cafeteria: the Bernie vs. Hillary meta wars will be waged with Boston cream pies.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
24 pictures that prove that there is nothing Bill in Portland Maine won’t sit on.
---Buzzfeed
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