From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
The Awesomeness of Trickle-down Economics
Let's stick our finger into the time-space continuum and whisk our senses back to the United States of America circa late August, 2005, four-and-a-half years into the first "CEO presidency," when trickle-down economic policy was in full gusher mode:
Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows. ...
Total income listed on tax returns grew every year after World War II, with a single one-year exception, until 2001, making the five-year period of lower average incomes and four years of lower total incomes a new experience for the majority of Americans born since 1945. … Many Americans are also paying a larger share of their health care costs and have had their retirement benefits reduced, adding to their out-of-pocket costs.
The Bush administration's response to the fact that millionaires were making out like bandits while the middle class was getting the short end of the economic stick?
"Not a very interesting story."
Your choice, Americans. If you feel our country needs to return to---and, in fact, double down on---the policies that encourage results like the above, then (romney)-Ryan-NORQUIST-ROVE-KOCH-ADELSON is your dream ticket on steroids.
If not, there's a guy who, despite lockstep opposition and filibuster madness from Republicans, saved the auto industry, kept us out of a 30's-style depression, improved the health care system, expanded innovation and economic opportunity, kept taxes low, and as a bonus made the world much less safe for terrorists. I hear there'll be a lever for him in the voting booth, too.
Your call.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, August 20, 2012
Note: If you pet David Gregory's hair it purrs. Film at 11.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Labor Day: 14
Days 'til the Cat Video Film Festival in Minneapolis: 10
Years since CO2 emissions have been as low as they are now, thanks to more natural gas usage instead of coal: 20
(Source: Energy Information Administration)
Percent of Americans who say they pay off their full credit card balance each month: 58%
(Source: AARP study via USA Today)
Percent chance that Facebook is the worst-performing stock of the last three months: 100%
(Source: CNBC)
Genome of Darwin's finch, which was just sequenced: 1,041.33 MB
(Source: Mom's basement)
Percent chance that “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan” is an anagram for “My ultimate Ayn Rand Porn.”: 100%
(Source: Balloon Juice)
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NEW! "The President is Distant and Aloof and I Can PROVE it!"
I tell you the President is distant and aloof---here's proof!!!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "Oh, yeah, baby. Ohhhhh yeahhhhhh…."
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CHEERS to the best opening sentence you'll read all day. Politico gets the credit:
The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff---and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses.
In fairness, most of the Republicans, including esteemed intellectual Ben Quayle, didn't take their clothes off when they took they took their plunge. Not that they weren't willing to. They just expected to walk on water.
CHEERS and JEERS to notes news. The music world is getting tossed and turned on the seas of, um, tossyturniness lately. Here's a rundown so you'll be up to speed at the water cooler:
In Russia if she floats she's a hooligan.
> In Russia a trio of female punk rockers were sentenced to two years in prison for "hooliganism." I went to look up what exactly Russian law means by hooliganism, and it said "Two years in prison, you dumb American." On the bright side, it was fun to watch the media learn how to say and print "Pussy Riot" without fainting.
> Bolstered by their newfound confidence in picking on people who have opposing opinions, Russia now plans to target none other than Madonna for supporting gay rights. Careful, Putin: America has seen what happens when divas get angry. You don’t want to see what happens when divas gat angry.
> Paul Ryan says he was just as influenced by the band Rage Against the Machine as he was by atheist abortion-promoter Ayn Rand---a lot! But Rage member Tom Morello, in an editorial for Rolling Stone, says thanks but no thanks:
"I clearly see that Ryan has a whole lotta 'rage' in him: A rage against women, a rage against immigrants, a rage against workers, a rage against gays, a rage against the poor. Basically the only thing he's not raging against is the privileged elite he's groveling in front of for political contributions."
Hey…that'd sound great with a backbeat and some cowbell.
> Another group, the Silversun Pickups, has told the Romney campaign to stop using the song Panic Switch because they can't stand Romney. The money quote: "We were very close to just letting this go because the irony was too good. While he is inadvertently playing a song that describes his whole campaign, we doubt that 'Panic Switch' really sends the message he intends." (Caveat: except in the smoke-filled back rooms, where the despondent GOP string-pullers are freaking out.)
> Mitt Romney's dog Seamus and punk band Devo: together at last.
And this just in: RNC changes its convention theme song from "Holding Out For A Hero" to "Taps." Full story tonight on NewsCenter.
JEERS to bamboozlin' the old folks. Here's the first thing I saw and heard when I turned on the TV Saturday to watch Paul Ryan lie to gullible Republican retirement-home denizens in Florida:
[Paul Ryan points his finger at the audience]
"Is there a medic on the way? Okay, good."
I'm still not sure if he was calling on emergency assistance for someone in the audience or for the campaign he just joined. Meanwhile, today (romney) and RYAN will be campaigning together in New Hampshire, and word is we'll see a lot of joint campaign events because apparently RYAN energizes (romney) so much. That's a bit like saying James Garfield was energized by Chester Arthur. Everything's relative.
Uncle Walter on the deck of the
U.S.S. Constitution in 1997
CHEERS to takin' the old gal out for a swim. America's oldest warship, the three-masted 1797 heavy frigate U.S.S. Constitution, bristling with rows of gleaming second-amendment remedies against tyranny (or, in non-Sharon-Angle-speak, "cannons"), went out
for a rare sail yesterday in Boston Harbor. The ship, which was given its name by George Washington, could only be taken out if the weather cooperated perfectly, which it did, and a lump-in-your-throat time was had by all who gathered to watch. The ship got up to a speed of 3.1 miles per hour. And the water skier who rented it for the day got a refund.
JEERS to bad edukashun. Memo to Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO): if you want to lose your election to Claire McCaskill this way, we won’t stop you from doin' it. But we'll still go on record as saying your mind is the Le Brea Tar Pits of stupid:
I'm sure his concession
speech to Claire McCaskill
in November will be cordial
Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy.
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
I'm trying to figure out how that works. I guess the teeny FBI office in your vagina dispatches cop cars to surround the rapist-spermies' pregnancy-production hideout and---to use the catchphrase that will live on in political campaign lore---
shuts that whole thing down. ("You're surrounded! Give yerselves up! Don’t make us come in there after ya!") But what I wanna know is, what's the difference between "legitimate" rape and "illigitimate" rape? The answer, best as I can tell, is: Todd Akin is an idiot.
CHEERS to do-gooders of yore. As part of his 'War on Poverty,' President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act 48 years ago today. It included funds for vocational training, loans to farmers and businessmen, establishment of a domestic version of the Peace Corps, and community action programs. Or, as modern-day Republicans call them: Ick, Blech, Yuck and Feh.
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Five years ago in C&J: August 20, 2007
JEERS to the little man in the big codpiece. Just a quick reminder of the day the Big Lie was exposed by the liar himself:
President Bush: The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.
Reporter: What did Iraq have to do with that?
President Bush: What did Iraq have to do with what?
Reporter: The attack on the World Trade Center.
President Bush: Nothing!!
Now that we've cleared that up, we now return you to
our regularly scheduled GOP Terrorporn.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to feasting on fresh meat. The addition of Paul Ryan to the (romney)-RYAN ticket was like throwing chum to sharks. Here's David Letterman's first Top Ten salvo from last week: "Little Known Facts About Paul Ryan"...
Safe!
10. He's only the 32nd white guy to become Republican vice presidential nominee.
9. Was runner-up on Season 3 of "The Bachelorette."
8. Always shampoos once, conditions twice.
7. Got his start in Congress as John Boehner's tanning boy.
6. Claims to be "a lady in the streets, but a freak in the sheets."
5. Like the rest of America, wonders what Romney is hiding in his tax returns.
4. Has a good feeling about this Jennifer Aniston marriage working out.
3. Eats nothing but plants, berries and small turtles.
2. Even before working at Oscar Meyer, had reputation for "driving the weinermobile."
1. Born in Kenya.
I was a bit worried that Mitch McConnell's life might be in danger because of #3, but then I read the word "small." Dodged a bullet, Yertl.
Have a blast thinking about how great it is that you're currently in the process of getting Monday over with. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Ryan Lochte, joined by fellow Olympic swimmers and friends, saved the best for last and spent the day at a private cabana by the secluded Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool.
---New York Daily News
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