From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Friday Margaret and Helen Blogging
The intertubes' snarkiest 80-somethings weigh in on the you-know-what video:
Ladies, Mr. Romney would like you to take
personal responsibility for your lives, please.
See, here’s the problem. Some of those 47% people are like me---old and eligible for Medicare. Some of those people are like my grandson---smart and taking out loans to get through college because his dad doesn’t have a company to give him right now. Some of those people are even military families just trying to make ends meet. But some of those people---those 47% who think they are victims and expect the government to take care of them---are Staples employees who work full-time and are just trying to put food on the table for their families. We call them the working poor.
An entry level job at Staples pays between $7 and $9 an hour. If you do the math, that’s between $15,000 and $19,000 a year. The poverty level in America for a family of three is $18,530. As long as those hard-working Staples employees believe in birth control and don’t have any kids, they can stay just above the poverty level. Success! […]
The party of Jesus sure has gotten pretty far off track. They forgot one of his basic rules. I think it was something about the least among us…otherwise called the 47%. Vote for the other guy. I mean it. Really.
And speaking of the other guy (what a segue, Bill---you
nailed it!), go check out the Obama collectibles---and tons more cool stuff---at the
annual Netroots Nation auction site. They're still putting new items on the block, so check back throughout the weekend. There might even be a scratched and dented GOP presidential campaign up for bids soon. (Private jet and arrogance not included.)
Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Friday, September 21, 2012
Note: It is with great regret the we must announce that today's note has died from uncertainty. Our condolences to surviving siblings Memo, Flyer and Laundry List.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Biden-Ryan debate in Danville, Kentucky: 20
Days 'til the Northwest Chocolate Festival in Seattle: 8
Mitt Romney's Favorable/Unfavorable rating: 38% / 43%
(Source: NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll)
Expected obesity rate in Mississippi by 2030, up from the current 35%: 67%
Expected obesity rate in Maine by 2030, up from the current 28%: 55%
(Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Rank of toothpicks among the items Americans choke on most: #1
(Source: Some web site on the internet)
Number of meanings the word "run" has in English: 175
(Source: Thesaurus.com)
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NEW! Friday Joe Lieberman Wanker Walk Countdown:
Joe Lieberman will end his Senate reign of error in 116 days.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Yep, their noses work in the water, too.
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CHEERS to Loser vs. Liz. Last night Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown hemmed and harumphed his way through a debate he didn’t want to be at. (Thanks for clearing his path to Boston, Harry!) The Wall Street darling's opponent: champion of the middle class Elizabeth Warren. Both traded enough jabs to make their supporters whoop. But in the end, as E.J. Dionne points out, Brown's cheap shots may have cost him:
Strange---we couldn't find a pic of Scott
Brown with his arm around Mitt Romney
My hunch is that whatever points he scored off Warren were more than wiped away by a tone that Rep. Barney Frank, a Warren supporter, accurately described on Rachel Maddow’s show as “snarky.” In his effort to derail Warren in a debate, Brown may have undermined one of the most important aspects of his get-along-with-everybody brand. … There was something strange, even offensive, about Brown’s making an assumption about Warren’s background on the basis of her skin color.
Yeah, a real Prince Charming. If last night proved anything to Massachusetts voters, it's that Warren can stand up to a bully. Next debate is a week from Monday. That is, if something doesn’t pop up to prevent Brown from attending. Like an untied shoe. Or a hangnail. Or the dog ate him.
JEERS to getting going when the going is getting toughing. A massive, huge, really large and, some say, giant bulbous wave of panic set in yesterday when it was announced that Tim Pawlenty was leaving the Romney operation as co-chair. Within moments the questions started flying from inside Mitt's camp: How will this impact the campaign? What happens now? Is it all over? Tim who?
CHEERS and JEERS to moolah matters. I admit I don’t know a portfolio thingamabob or a fiduciary whirligig from a hole in the ground, so I rely on headlines to keep me just informed enough on how things are going economically to keep me from panicking and fleeing to my secret underwater safe room. (Pay no attention to that hatch in our basement floor---it leads to nowhere, I tell you!) Here's a few from this week---as usual, there are some green shoots but also plenty of brown weeds:
Payday for a lucky 47 Percenter
> Economy's bottomed out
> Maryland is richest state; Mississippi poorest
> World trade growth to plunge below 20-year average
> Americans regaining wealth lost in recession
> Facebook is up 30% but still risky
> Jobless claims drop, but hiring remains slow
> Mortgage rates at record low again
> Microsoft saved $7 billion on tax loopholes
> Bill Gates still richest American by far
> Apple fans line up around the globe
Oh, and also this:
Grocery Giant Kroger Adds Clothing. Lemme guess: the Lady Gaga meatgown collection.
CHEERS to Autumn---Day 1. At 10:49am EDT tomorrow morning the autumnal equinox will get its groove on and steal summer's mojo. Right on cue the flannel shirttails will be flappin' in the breeze, the leaves will start turning, and New England will take on an unabashedly old-fashioned Currier & Ives feel. I love it. Still, the transition to The Nippy Side makes everyday life more of a challenge. Biggest pain: putting on ten individual pairs of Gore-Tex toemuffs anytime the dog has to go out to pee. Tonight we'll observe our usual solstice tradition: a bowl of steaming clam chowder. In a dirty LL Bean boot.
Pleasant dreams...
CHEERS to America's favorite literary boogeyman. 65 skulls go on the cake of
Stephen King, born September 21, 1947 in Portland, just steps from where I live. (Okay, several tens of thousands of steps, but still!) King is an unabashed Democrat who isn't afraid to speak his mind, as he did
last year:
“You know what? As a rich person, I pay 28% taxes. What I want to ask you is, why am I not paying fifty? Why is everybody in my bracket not paying fifty? The Republicans will say, from John Boehner to Mitch McConnell to Rick Scott, that we can’t do that because, if we tax guys like me, there won’t be any jobs. It’s bull! It’s total bull!”
And this is cool: a few years ago he told
Entertainment Weekly that Daily Kos is one of his must-read blogs. So, Steve, in honor of your day, I promise to not only bless your camels, but to also feed all unnecessary adverbs to the rabid St. Bernard chewing a hole through my front door. And today's special in the C&J watering hole: half-off Redrum and Cokes!
CHEERS to home vegetation. Nice cool weekend coming up here---our cue to fire up the teevee for some couch time. On HBO's Real Time, Bill Maher talks with Salman Rushdie, Chris Matthews, radio host Roger Hedgecock, filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, and TIME economic writer Rana Foroohar. New DVD releases include likely Oscar bait The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the horror flick The Cabin in the Woods. Joseph Gordon Levitt hosts SNL, which will no doubt do ha-has with the Romney tape. Your MLB schedule is here. The NFL schedule is here. (The Patriots will say "Nevermore" to the Baltimore Ravens---Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!) On 60 Minutes: President Obama and Mitt Romney get grilled. And the Emmy Awards are Sunday, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. (Please please please let this be Petticoat Junction's year!)
Don’t forget to catch the best weekend morning shows, Up! With Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry. And here's your Sunday morning lineup, with my EXCLUSIVE predictions of how the pundits will frame the Romney campaign:
Meet the Press: Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) vs. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R); roundtable with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, senior Romney adviser Bay Buchanan, Joe Scarborough, David Brooks and Dee Dee Myers. Consensus: Romney is running on empty!!!
This Week: David Axelrod vs. Reince Priebus; roundtable with Nicolle Wallace, Robert Reich, Ann Coulter, Jorge Ramos of Univision and Melody Barnes. Consensus: Romney is running on fumes!!!
Face the Nation: The Big Dawg! Bill Clinton, wielding the finest in scalpel technology, carves up Republicans like a side of roast beast. Roundtable with David Corn, who broke the "47%" story, Peggy Noonan, David Gergen, John Dickerson and TIME editor Richard Stengel. Consensus: Romney is running on life support!!!
Bill Moyers & Company (link): Former FEC chairman Trevor Potter on why the agency is such a toothless waste of money; Laura Flanders, Arun Gupta and Marina Sitrin on the Occupy movement one year later. Consensus: Romney is running out of options!!!
Gov. Scott Walker on his
way to the Fox News studios
Washington Week: John Dickerson (CBS), Gloria Borger (CNN), John Harwood (NYT) and Sam Youngman (Reuters) Consensus: Romney is running for the exits!!!
Fox GOP Talking Points Sunday: Robert Gibbs; Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). Consensus: Romney is WINNING!!!
Happy viewing!
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Five years ago in C&J: September 21, 2007
CHEERS to blessed silence. This week 43 members of the Senate voted to continue suspending habeas corpus, repudiating once again the wimpy surrender-monkey morals of our Founding Fathers (they wore stockings for god's sake). For the foreseeable future, we won’t have to hear those jerkoff detainees and their slick lawyers whining in some silly courtroom: "They hooked a car battery to my testicles!" "They ripped my beating heart out of my chest and showed it to me!" "I was taken from a nursing home in Boca---I need my pills!" Tell it to Allah, Gramps.
JEERS to Stephen Colbert: Environment Killer. Yesterday we received our WRISTSTRONG wristband in the mail. It came in a cardboard box that was 11 inches long, 10 inches wide and 4 inches deep, stuffed with wads of brown paper and sealed in a yellow envelope. Um, Stephen...you do know that you're just playing an Earth-pillaging conservative on TV, right?
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And just one more…
CHEERS to `The Way Life Should Be.' Nineteen years ago today, my partner Michael ("Common Sense Mainer" here on Planet Orange) and I arrived in the liberal paradise known as Portland, Maine, having escaped the rust-belt hamlet of Saginaw, Michigan (motto: "No Smiling: It Scares the Children").
If only the trees were the right
height, this place would be perfect.
We had no jobs, only a smidgeon of savings, and an apartment that gave us barely any heat but did give us a January heating bill of $318. Nineteen years later we're still here and we have nothing but kinds words for our home (if you don't include the choice ones we have for seven months of winter and our teabagger governor). Portland is constantly making Top 10 lists for awesomeness: most livable city, best place to retire, great place for dogs, the arts, food, working, playing, drinking, vacationing and
yadda yadda yadda, oh, we hate to boast.
So, yeah---nice digs. Later tonight we'll observe our annual good luck tradition of releasing a Maine lobster into the wild. I hope this one fares better than the last 18 and makes it across the turnpike...
Have a great weekend! See ya in the fall! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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