From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Happy Birthday, America's Crown Jewels
The National Park Service turns 100 today, and Mainers have a big reason for celebrating: yesterday President Obama up and created a new 87.5-thousand-acre national monument called Katahdin (kuh-TAH-din) Woods and Waters:
It is the 25th executive order Obama has issued to create a monument since 2011. The monument is the nation’s 151st since 1906, according to a National Park Service listing. Of the nation’s 58 national parks, 36 began as monuments, including Acadia National Park. […]
Located east of Baxter, the monument is expected to increase employment in the Katahdin region, where two paper mills have shuttered since 2008. The closures represent a direct loss of approximately 430 manufacturing jobs. The last mill, in East Millinocket, closed in 2014.
[Land donor and founder of Burt's Bees Roxanne] Quimby’s dream, as she said when she launched her campaign in 2011, was to achieve a kind of parity with Gov. Percival Baxter by donating land to the National Park Service in 2016---her gift to the nation that helped make her a millionaire. She began buying land in 2001.
As it happens---and keep this factoid handy for when it comes up on Jeopardy!---the national monument designation comes 100 years after Sieur de Monts---later to become Acadia National Park---was designated a national monument during NPS's inaugural year. And while Obama's designation is a humiliating defeat for our idiot governor Paul LePage (he says ISIS immigrants will set up training camps there and form an evil alliance with their friends the "ziki flies"), my congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D) is thrilled:
This is an exciting and historic day for Maine.
The creation of a new national monument will bring economic development to the area and benefit all of Maine. It will bring millions of visitors to this beautiful and special part of our state, and at the same time preserve traditional uses like hunting and snowmobiling. The American people owe a debt of gratitude to Roxanne Quimby for this incredible act of generosity. She worked hard to build a great company from the ground up, and the first thing she did when she sold it was to figure out how to give back to the people of Maine by donating this land. Generations of Americans will benefit from her gift.
See also Walter Einenkel’s post from yesterday. We hope you enjoy your new monument, America. C’mon up and visit us sometime, and bring lots of money along for the ride. And now here it is...your Moment of Moose:
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, August 25, 2016
Note: Ah-ooo-gah Ah-ooo-gah and so forth. C&J Withdrawal Alert: this column will not appear next Monday, as we will be getting “banned” by “administrator” for “peeing” on a “server.” Back Tuesday morning through the secret door underneath the kiddie pool. Oh, and my new identity will be “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Man.” ---Mgr.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the first Clinton-Drumpf debate at Hofstra University: 32
Days 'til Austin Pride: 2
Jump in new-home sales last month, the highest since 2007, according to the Commerce Dept.: 12.4%
Jump in enrollments in the federal government's student loan re-payment plans in the last two years, according to the Dept. of Education: 110%
Time it takes for the new Tesla Model S car to go from 0-to-60mph: 2.5 seconds
Percent increase in tequila shipments by volume from Mexico to the U.S. between 2010 And 2015, according to Bloomberg: 30%
Number of alcohol imports that were higher than tequila during that period: 1 (Cognac)
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
It seems to me that most of the media have a very odd take on the Clintons. You look at all those "scandals," and there is no there there. It's nonsense.
Even the worst of it, the money-raising in '96, was so patently the problem of both parties. Shall we ever forget Haley Barbour explaining that sitting on the deck of a junk in the Hong Kong harbor with a Chinese businessman caused him to have not the slightest apprehension about accepting foreign money?
Clinton was smart, able, articulate, graceful and humorous, and he busted his tail for a Middle Eastern peace and a lot of other important things, some of which he didn't get. Life will be duller once Elvis has left the building.
---December 2000
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Puppy Pic of the Day: A duck and his dog
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CHEERS to counterpunching. The assault on the Clinton Foundation by the right-wing Associated Press is the latest attempt (because the "Hillary health crisis" swiftboating is failing miserably) to paste an "equal" scandal on the Democratic candidate to balance the myriad scandals dogging the Trump campaign on the right. But it's not getting much traction, either…because Team D isn’t keeping its powder dry:
Hillary Clinton's campaign went on a full-court press against a familiar opponent Wednesday: the media.
Ripping into an Associated Press report finding that more than half of the people outside the government who met with her as secretary of state donated to the Clinton Foundation, top-ranking officials with the Democratic nominee's team accused the media and critics of "cherry-picking."
"Well, because they took a small sliver of her tenure as secretary of state, less than half the time, less than a fraction of the meetings, fewer than I think 3 percent, the number they've looked at of all the meetings," chief strategist Joel Benenson told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day." "This is a woman who met with over 17,000 world leaders, countless other government officials, public officials in the United States. And they've looked at 185 meetings and tried to draw a conclusion from that."
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, long-time Clinton ally James Carville, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon and Benenson have all offered up passionate defenses of the Clinton Foundation in the past 24 hours.
Today Hillary herself goes on big-time offense as she exposes the Trump campaign's embrace of the neo-Nazi (or at least neo-Nazi-"ish") ideology that provides its energy. The Trumpers are gonna be jumping up and screaming “That’s a LIE!” so loud at her through the TV I just know they're gonna get strudel all over their jackboots.
JEERS to our angry planet. An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Andy Richter scale shook Italy yesterday 65 miles north of Rome. The death toll is estimated at 159, but you know it'll go beyond that as the rubble gets lifted. (Just before posting I saw a headline that said 252.) It's the latest natural disaster that includes our own flooding down south, tornadoes in the midwest and wildfires out west…plus the ongoing droughts and zika warnings. Oh, and this just in: an iceberg the size of Delaware is about to split off of Antarctica. If the International Space Station posts a classified ad for a cabana boy, I call dibs.
CHEERS to throwing the bums out. Nine weeks after D-Day, on Aug. 25, 1944, Paris was liberated by the Allies during World War II. However, in his famous liberation speech Charles de Gaulle barely mentioned America or its other allies. Gee, thanks a lot. (But please don’t remind the Republicans in Congress or they'll change the cafeteria menu back to freedom fries.)
CHEERS to McCrory in McFreefall. Oh, if this bastard goes down, I'm not sure my heart will be able to take it. We take you now to North Carolina…
Two polls released Wednesday show Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper stretching his a lead over Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in the North Carolina governor race.
Monmouth University Polling Institute found Cooper leading McCrory by 9 points: 52 percent to 43 percent. […]Cooper has a 3-point lead in an average of the four most recent polls: Monmouth, Marist/Wall Street Joural/NBC, Public Policy Polling and Civitas Institute.
Also released Wednesday was a CNN/ORC poll that showed Cooper up by 6 points among registered and likely voters.
According to USA Today---and this should come as no surprise---McCrory is cratering because North Carolinians are mad at how he pissed away millions of dollars in revenue (including next year's NBA all-star game) and an Outer banks-sized chunk of goodwill by declaring war on the state's LGBTers, and lashing out especially at the transgender community for having the gall to exist. By the way, Cooper's campaign site is here if you want to look around and maybe toss in a few bucks to help boot McCrory, who always looks like he's trying to squint out a couple more letters on an eye chart. Let me help you out with that, Pat: the first letter is F and the second is U.
CHEERS to loving the smell of jail bars in the morning. Well, damn…
Glenn Beck and two of his staffers face jailing for contempt after refusing today to name the alleged sources that led them to wrongly accuse a Saudi man of being behind the Boston Marathon bombing.
Golly, that's too bad, said nobody.
CHEERS to beautifully warped minds. Happy birthday to Director Tim Burton, who turns a sprightly 58 today. Ed Wood and Beetlejuice remain two of our all-time favorites, but all of his flicks are feats of imagination that boggle the Billy mind. (Although his last one, Big Eyes, didn't quite gel, though---an unexpected misfire, but still watchable.) But if I were stranded on the proverbial desert island and could only have one Burton DVD, it'd be no contest---Mars Attacks!
And this just in: 28 years after they made the original, apparently the gang's getting back together for a sequel to Beetlejuice. But only if we all say it out loud three times.
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Ten years ago in C&J: August 25, 2006
OH MY HEAVENS to Armor of God pajamas. The marketing copy says they'll "help your children to depend on God to protect them from their fears, doubts, and uncertainties at night so their sleep can be restful and peaceful." And no, no...they're not joking. I especially like the trapdoor in back, so the kiddies can purge themselves of the "Demon Doody." Don't forget to flush it all to hell, kids.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the "Lion of the Senate." As time goes on, fewer and fewer of us 'Muricans will remember that Ted Kennedy owned that title for much of his 47-year career there. So I'll keep bringing it up, especially on his birthday and also on today's date---the seven-year anniversary of his passing from brain cancer at 77. With a little assist from President Obama, who said at Ted's funeral:
"The world will long remember their son Edward as the heir to a weighty legacy; a champion for those who had none; the soul of the Democratic Party; and the lion of the United States Senate---a man who graces nearly 1,000 laws, and who penned more than 300 laws himself."
To mark the occasion, a couple snips of vintage Ted:
On the Iraq war: "There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud."
On health care reform: "This is the cause of my life---new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American---North, South, East, West, young, old---will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege."
Obamacare is now in full effect, and I imagine that card-carrying 5-digit UID Kossack Ted would be pleased over the numbers, but also impatient to improve it. For the first 45 years of my life Ted Kennedy was always in Washington, "voice bellowing through the Senate chamber, face reddened, fist pounding the podium, a veritable force of nature" (Obama's words again). He was both a battering ram and a master of jiu jitsu. (Watch him tear into Donald Rumsfeld here.) And also a guy you'd never turn down having a beer with. Even though I'm not from Massachusetts, he still felt like "my" senator. His "vim ahnd vigah" are sorely missed. Cheers, Ted. And say hi to your brothers---they were pretty good, too.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“I know that if Bill in Portland Maine got out of the kiddie pool, our world would be the worst place. I don’t think we could imagine how bad it could get.”
---Cher
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