Red Cross Flood Relief Site
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE
Meanwhile, Five years Ago…
I should say upfront that I'm not a big Mort Zuckerman fan. We don’t exactly run around in the same billionaire circles, seeing as his billions are measured in dollars and mine are measured in dust bunnies. Nevertheless, every May I revisit this U.S. News column, in which he seethes over how the economic fortunes of the U.S. cratered under the watchful eye of George W. Bush and his flying monkeys in Congress:
The American public, not to speak of its elected officials, has been stunningly indifferent to our reckless fiscal course of the past five years. Maybe it's because our focus has been so much on terrorism, but the numbers are terrifying, too. President Bush inherited a budget surplus estimated at $5.6 trillion over 10 years. He has converted that giant plus into a giant minus---deficits estimated at $5 trillion over those same 10 years. Talk about a U-turn!
Funny how later, with the election of a Democratic president, the indifferent Republican rabble suddenly woke up, donned their dusty tri-corn hats, and demanded action because deficits matter!!! But I digress. Back to Mort…
It is scandalous the way our politicians have compromised the nation's fiscal health. And it is morally outrageous that President Bush has succeeded in making matters worse by getting congressional support for extending capital gains and the dividend tax cut. These primarily benefit the well-to-do---at a time when middle- and lower-income families face soaring costs of housing, medical care, and gas prices, not to mention jobs with no health coverage or even access to unemployment insurance. So, do our elected officials try to increase the minimum wage? No. Do they try to cut taxes for the poor or provide more medical care? No. What do they do? They give even more tax benefits to the wealthiest.
It took Democrats to raise the minimum wage, extend unemployment benefits, cut taxes for the poor, kick-start green energy and provide more medical care.
For Republicans to define themselves as fiscal conservatives after five years of profligacy is hypocrisy on stilts. No matter how cynical you are, it is difficult to keep up with such irresponsibility.
Today the GOP continues to cling to that self-definition, and the media continues to "catapult the propaganda" (Bush's words, spoken six years ago this month). Witness last Sunday's TV lovefest, with Republican guests outnumbering Democratic ones 8-to-1 on the major talk shows, and zero opportunities for Congressional Progressive Caucus members to discuss their eminently more sensible budget. Nope---it's all Ryan all the time and everyone else can suck on it.
Bush tried to gut Social Security. The current GOP-led House actually voted recently to gut Medicare. A long-overdue tax hike on the rich is off the table. Taxpayer subsidies for oil companies already awash in profits are sacrosanct. New abortion restrictions, killing Public Broadcasting and repealing the repeal of 'Don’t ask don’t tell' suddenly replace "Jobs Jobs Jobs" on their radar screen. The debt ceiling is a toy. Oh, and their Big Responsible GOP Spending Cut Bill increased spending by billions. Heckuva job!
Zuckerman's phrase "hypocrisy on stilts" seems almost quaint now. This is thug economics. If Republicans really love America and want the republic to thrive, there's only one feasible option they have: build a fortress of solitude somewhere and "go Galt" before they cause our economy to go belly-up.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Note: The Rapture arrives in four days. I look forward to the You Tube videos of people who are inside when it happens and end up not in Heaven but just stuck to the ceiling. Mostly on account of it'll be hilarious.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til summer: 35
Days `til the Celtic Beltane Festival near Hartville, Ohio: 4
Power of the Shuttle Endeavor's rocket boosters that propelled it yesterday: 15 million horsepower
Year Endeavor replaced Challenger: 1992
(Source: CNN)
Number of new air traffic controllers the Dept. of Transportation plans to hire by 2019: 11,000
Number of weather disasters in 2011---a record---that have cost more than $1 billion: 5
(Source: USA Today)
Cost of the Seagrave Marauder II fire truck that Portland, Maine just took delivery on and dubbed "Engine 5": $580,000
(Source: The Portland Press Herald)
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"Meet Me in Minnesota!"
Brought to you by the Netroots Nation '11 convention in Minneapolis June 16-19 (which now has an official group here at Daily Kos.) If you're feeling pretty, have I got news for you...
Minnesota is known for its abundance of lakes, the Mall of America, and Minnesota nice (dontcha know)! But who would have known our claim to fame is also . . . underwear? A few decades ago, the Twin Cities was home to Munsingwear, a former father of all underthings.
Underwear: A Brief History, an exhibit at the Minnesota History Center, opened on Saturday, in conjunction with the release of Susan Marks's new book In the Mood for Munsingwear. … You can check out the exhibit on display until September, which features 50 pieces from the Munsingwear collection—including clothing such as the union suit, women’s undergarments made by Vassarette, and men’s briefs—as well as company advertisements and photos.
---mspmag.com
Looks like I might have to change my itinerary a bit.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "He's amazing to watch work because he has made a snarling, growling dog that was baring its teeth so submissive that it wet itself."
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CHEERS to government competence. Another day, another eye-popping deluge down south. But at least it sounds like the folks in charge are helping, not hurting:
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of the leading critics of the Obama administration’s response to last year’s Gulf oil spill, says things are going much better as his state deals with flooding along the Mississippi river. “This has been a joint collaborative effort,” Jindal said in an interview Monday night on CNN, noting that federal agencies like FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard are working well with the state and parishes to coordinate a response.
And bless Politico for adding, at the end of their story, that Jindal "…is now seen as a potential VP contender." In times like these, laughter is the best medicine.
CHEERS to crankin' up the volume. The sound on my teevee was turned up to 11 yesterday morning when the Space Shuttle Endeavor lit a fart and went whooooosh into space: the final frontier. I can sum it up in three words: Spec Tac Ular. Meanwhile, specific congrats are in order:
After every launch an award is given to one of the teams, according to Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach, and today's honor was given to the combined APU repair/test team. "It was an outstanding countdown, lots of pats on the back in the lobby of the LCC (launch control center) afterwards when we were eating our beans and corn bread (a traditional post-launch snack)," said Leinbach. "Endeavour's on orbit safely and it's going to perform a great mission and we'll see her back here on June 1."
And then Endeavor will spend its retirement at the California Science Center in Los Angeles with a trophy Cessna ten years its junior. ("If this cargo bay's a rockin'…")
JEERS to really long numbers. As of yesterday, America hit its debt ceiling: $14.292 trillion. Republicans are, of course, going to practice economic terrorism on Americans---liberals, conservatives and everyone in between---by holding a debt-ceiling extension hostage. But for now the Treasury Department says it has emergency measures in place that will prevent us from defaulting on our debt until August. I'm no Paul Krugman, but I believe the technical term for these stopgap measures is "yard sales."
JEERS to the big non-announcement announcement. Some millionaire who never had any intention of running for the presidency announced yesterday that he had no intention of running for the presidency. In other news, yesterday this URL became available for 50 cents. I see price gouging is still alive and well.
CHEERS to Adam and Steve & Adeline and Eve. Happy Anniversary, Bay Staters!! Same-sex couples started getting married in Massachusetts seven years ago today. And just in time to mark the occasion, the author of the famous book Heather Has Two Mommies is out with a wedding story for kids called Donovan's Big Day:
[Lesléa Newman] left "issues" out of Donovan entirely. The young boy has only the problems any child might face while attending a wedding of any sort. He has to dress up, keep clean, and not fidget. Most of all, he has to make sure to hand his moms their rings at the proper moment. […]
Newman found inspiration for Donovan from watching same-sex couples in her home town of Northampton, Massachusetts, go to City Hall for marriage licenses on May 17, 2004, the first day they legally could. "There were many, many children present that day---children of those couples, children as bystanders...participating in all the joy," she recalled.
In the book, everyone lives happily ever after. And, oh, how that pisses off the bigots.
CHEERS to lending a helping hand. The first food stamps were issued 72 years ago, thanks to the compassion and wisdom of Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Over the weekend, Newt Gingrich referred to President Obama as the "food stamp president." Old man must be going soft---comparing your rival to FDR is quite the compliment.
CHEERS to pleasant interruptions. Former President George W. Bush recently revealed what he was doing when he got the call that Osama bin Laden---the terrorist mastermind in whom he lost interest unusually fast ("I'm truly not that concerned about him" he said in 2002)---was dead: "I was eating soufflé." Now, I don’t coddle to foo-foo French food like Bush does, so I had to look up what a soufflé is. Elitistapedia tells me a pastry made with egg whites and cream. And stuffed with crow.
JEERS to crooks on parade. 38 years ago, the televised Watergate hearings began. We'll leave it to your own imagination how Fox News and Rush Limbaugh would've spun events in favor of Saint Dick---we don't have the stomach to go there ourselves.
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Five years ago in C&J: May 17, 2006
CHEERS to self-destructing automatons. In early June, the Senate---having been activated by James Dobson's remote-control (800 AA batteries required)---will consume weeks of valuable time on two matters of grave national importance:
The Senate has scheduled a June 5 vote on a constitutional amendment to define marriage as exclusively between a man and woman, and it is also expected to take up a constitutional amendment making it a crime to burn the American flag. Neither is expected to win the two-thirds vote needed for passage.
In response, the public will smile the uncomfortable smile that says, "You're nuts," and start counting the hours `til November 7.
CHEERS to sneak previews. On The Chris Matthews Show last weekend, Howard Fineman revealed that, around Labor Day, the Democratic leadership will unleash something called "The Plan," a document that will present the party's, um, contract with America. Fineman says it will play defense as well as offense (i.e. what the party plans to do and what it doesn't plan to do), to help preempt ambushes by Karl Rove and his minions. I can sum it up in three words: "We ain't them." [5/17/11 Update: Lest we forget, four years later Glenn Beck revealed a blueprint for world domination, which he also called…"The Plan." Step One, apparently, was "Make people dislike you so much that your sponsors and viewers desert you, thus causing you to get kicked off your TV show." Brilliant.]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the mane event. Over in Iraq, some U.S. Marines adopted a donkey, whom they named 'Smoke," as a mascot. And they liked him so much that they figured out a way to bring him stateside:
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International announced Smoke's arrival in New York on Thursday. … The donkey will live and help Wounded Warriors Family Support, an organization founded by Ret. Marine Col. John Folsom, commandant of Camp Taqaddam when Smoke showed up, the SPCA said. …
"People just couldn't believe we were going to these great lengths to help a donkey because donkeys in that part of the world are so low down on the totem pole," said the society's Terri Crisp, who negotiated the donkey's passage from Iraq to the United States. "Donkeys are not viewed as a companion animal. They're viewed as a work animal."
Aha! This gives me an idea for how we can leave Iraq and Afghanistan quietly, without arousing suspicion: two at a time via troops in donkey suits (whoever gets the back half would get hazard pay). What they'll do is secretly clip clop their way through Turkmenistan, around Kazakhstan, into Russia, across Poland and, finally, end up in Germany, where they'll be "adopted" and flown home. It's the perfect plan. Y'know why? Because it's simple.
Have a Terrible Twos Day. Throw a tantrum like you mean it! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"All the factors say go, but Bill in Portland Maine tells me no."
---Mike Huckabee
5/14/11
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