From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Questions, Questions…So Many Questions
Signature gatherers have been swarming our fair state for the last several months in the hopes of gathering enough names to get a slew of referendum questions on November's ballot. By far the most obnoxious clipboard wielders were the ones lured into action by the promise of between seven and ten bucks per signature for a petition initiated by a real sleazeball who wants lightning to strike twice for him:
Although it’s not unusual for high-priced, contentious ballot campaigns to come under scrutiny, the casino bid is unique because it seeks to benefit one man: Shawn Scott, a gambling operator who cashed in [to the tune of $51 million] and quickly departed Maine after bringing gambling to Bangor in 2003. … The proposal would authorize Scott to apply for a license to operate slot machines and table games at a facility at an unspecified location in York County.
The jury's still out on whether there are enough valid signatures to move this piece of garbage onto the ballot. Word is that duplicate and fake names are being tossed out left and right.
But as columnist Mike Tipping writes in Saturday's Portland Press Herald, there's plenty of good news for progressives this year, with no less than five questions that look to be winners: increasing the minimum wage to $12/hr., legalizing recreational marijuana use and setting up "a regulatory framework for stores and growers and a 10 percent tax on all marijuana sales," expanded background checks for all gun transfers, more funding for public schools, and ranked choice voting. Says Mike:
Maine voters have never before had an opportunity to vote “yes” on so many progressive measures in one election. … From what public polling is available on these initiatives, they all appear to be very popular, most with support in the range of 60 to 70 percent of likely voters.
Voter turnout in presidential years is remarkably consistent here, so we could have a lot more than just a Democratic successor to Barack Obama to crow about come November 8th. I know, know…my lips to God's ears.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Note: From this point forward all Americans must submit to random tests of their love for America. Your name was chosen today. Please fart the National Anthem into this cup and send it in. You'll be notified of your results by drone if you fail.
---President Trump
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til season six of Game of Thrones: 30
Days 'til the Sapsucker Festival at the John James Audubon Center in PA: 11
Percent chance that you'll see sapsuckers wearing seersuckers at the festival: 0%
Number of cities where there will be protests today in favor of Apple's fight against the federal government over iPhone privacy: 30
Number of 387 U.S. metro areas surveyed that have a jobless rate under 3 percent (Portland, Maine is one of them) according to The Portland Press Herald: 25
Number of applicants for NASA's next astronaut class, a record: 18,300
Number of applicants who will actually be selected to become astronauts: 8-14
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
The commenters at Town Hall bid a fond farewell to Jeb Bush:
“Bush's backers are tired of watching their millions disappear down the toilet. Pity it took them this long and this much money to figure out that nobody but them wanted another Bush in the White House!”
“Jeb Bush is a doofus ,to be a good candidate he needs a lot of de-doofus-izing therapy.”
“How's that ‘I don't need the base’ working for you, Jeb?”
“I have become convinced that if either Obozo, the Hildebeast, or Comrade Bernie names the next accepted justice of the Supreme Court, the second amendment is toast and most of the first amendment as well -- pastors will be put in prison for calling homosexual actions sinful, and the Fairness Doctrine will be restored, pushing conservative talk radio off the air. (Thus both freedom of speech and freedom of religion will be gone with the wind.)”
All together now: 1…2…3… Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
...and belated happy birthday (Sunday) Congressman Lewis.
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CHEERS to "a full recovery." Yesterday's punch-to-the-gut moment happened when I opened up the worldwide interwebs and saw that effing cancer had caught up with 62-years-young Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO). But it sounds like they caught it in plenty of time:
I very recently learned that I have breast cancer.
It was detected through a regular mammogram. It’s a little scary, but my prognosis is good and I expect a full recovery. I will be in St Louis for the next 3 weeks receiving treatment. During this time my staff will continue to assist Missourians and I will be posting on my Senate website (McCaskill.senate.gov) how I would have voted on any matters that come before the Senate during my absence---which I’ll also enter into the Congressional record. Additionally, I’ll be submitting questions in writing for any missed Senate hearings.
Send any spare positive vibes you have her way. And Biden: row faster on that cancer moonshot, man.
JEERS to America: land of the gun, home of the gun nuts. What happens in the wake of the multiple shooting in Newtown Aurora Binghamton Tucson Santa Barbara Charleston Lafayette, Roseburg, Kalamazoo, Michigan (7 killed and one wounded by a good guy with a gun right up until he became a bad guy with a gun) is depressingly predictable: gun control advocates will wisely suggest that this might be a good time to review our federal and state firearms policies so that our nation's shameful record of gun violence might be improved upon. The president will pop a few more veins (and gray hairs) in his head, balanced out by the NRA which will respond by scaring politicians into looking the other way by informing them that, "We'll be scoring you on your response." Meanwhile right-wing bloggers and numbskull pundits will insist that if only more the victims had been packing Glocks, they would've been able to return fire Rambo-style and no one but the gunman would've been harmed. Like I said, predictable. Depressingly.
CHEERS to memorable moments in shutterbugging. On February 23, 1945, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they attached an American flag to a section of pipe and raised it like a middle finger to the Japanese troops hiding in the caves below them. The Pulitzer-winning photo taken by Joe Rosenthal actually shows the second flag-raising. Here's the first.
This morning C&J raised the stars & stripes in honor of the 71st anniversary of the event. Tomorrow we'll go back to flying the universal symbol of distress: an upside down wallet.
CHEERS to Republicans who know how to read a constitution. Here's how this has worked for me over the decades: when a Supreme Court justice dies or quits, the sitting president nominates someone new, after which a Senate committee does some grilling and takes a vote, followed by the entire Senate taking a vote. And yeah, I always cringe when it's a Republican president doing the nominating, but that's life and that's how it works. So I don’t even know what to make of the current Republican leadership's vow to not give sitting president Barack Obama's nominee (whoever it ends up being---no white plume has come out of the smokestack yet) a committee hearing. That's nuts. But there are a few folks on the GOP side who disagree with Mitch McConnell's obstruction. Mark Kirk of Illinois is one of them:
"I recognize the right of the president, be it Republican or Democrat, to place before the Senate a nominee for the Supreme Court and I fully expect and look forward to President Barack Obama advancing a nominee for the Senate to consider," Kirk wrote in a Monday op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times. […]
"I also recognize my duty as a senator to either vote in support or opposition to that nominee following a fair and thorough hearing along with a complete and transparent release of all requested information," he continued.
"The Senate’s role in providing advice and consent is as important and significant as the president’s role in proposing a nominee."
Here's how much the Republican party has devolved back toward the primordial ooze: what Kirk said above is now considered radical. And this is why we drink.
JEERS to inartful dodgers. Ohio Governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate John Kasich dipped his quill in his Kool-Aid and signed a piece of parchment that defunds Planned Parenthood in the state for reasons having to do with not having reasons to do with anything. Afterward he said that the move wouldn’t hurt him because he could chalk up his initial success at the voting booth during the 1970s to Republican "women who left their kitchens." Which happened right before their Republican husbands "installed their kitchen-door deadbolts."
JEERS to really crappy odds. On today's date in 1836, three thousand Mexicans attacked 182 Texans at The Alamo. A firsthand account:
It was intense.
Brandishing his assault rifle, General Ronald Reagan and his second-in-command, Colonel Rick Perry, took turns picking off the attackers as Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz loaded and fired the two functional cannons.
After Democrats fled in panic, Louie Gohmert and members of the Tea Party Patriots arrived in the nick of time to save the day. The surrender ceremony was conducted on a battleship, followed by a ticker tape parade. That's why today San Antonio is the capitol of the United States and God hates Democrats.
Um, Texas school board textbook committee? I think we need to have a little chat.
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Ten years ago in C&J: February 23, 2006
JEERS to Port au Preznit. For god's sake, Mr. Bush, there are just so many ways you can scramble the rational part of my brain before it shuts down (that's your goal, I'm sure). The latest: the president vigorously defends turning our ports over to the United Arab Emirates...but later claims he didn't know a damn thing about it. If utter cluelessness qualified as a high crime or misdemeanor, this guy would be breaking large rocks into small ones at Leavenworth.
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And just one more...
CHEERS to a fitting swan(-dive) song. He had it all: blue-blood pedigree, money, elbow patches, a designated wingback chair in the legacy lounge, money, fanboy Lindsey Graham, money, money and money. But it just wasn't enough---the third time was not the charm for el dynasty Arbusto. While the family drowns its sorrows in scotch down at the club, please join Randy Rainbow as he gives the Jeb! campaign the heave-ho…
Once more, for old time’s sake: please clap.
Oh, and---[Toot!]---Happy Birthday to Netroots Nation Executive Director Raven Brooks! (And many blessings on your camels.) Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
The Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool is the perfect place for travelers keen on frigid temperatures and total darkness
---The Week
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