From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Little Gay Billy's BIG Gay Newsapalooza!!!
I'm here, I'm queer, read this with your morning beer:
Best sign of the month. And maybe the year.
I hate to quote Dick Cheney (who supports same-sex marriage), but his phrase "last throes of the insurgency" comes to mind when I think about the clumsy (but
not coincidental) pile-on of states proposing laws that would make it legal for conservative Bible-thumping businesspeople to openly discriminate against LGBT customers. They really are desperate to get a win on the board, no matter how extreme or unconstitutional. The latest attempts happened yesterday in
Georgia and
Indiana. Meanwhile, as we wait for Governor Jan Brewer to make up her mind on the "license to discriminate" bill, the roar of the pro-veto crowd is
now deafening.
I just hope the homophobes know that they're forfeiting nearly three years of their lives in the name of hetero supremacy. That goes for all the conservative American meddlers who so proudly provided assistance to the Ugandan government as they crafted one of the worst anti-gay bills anywhere and signed it into law yesterday. If it's the right-wing's goal to make religion look toxic and vindictive, they're succeeding beyond their wildest dreams.
Meanwhile, this is great great great (via email from AFER):
Herring
On Monday, February 24, 2014, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring and Clerk of Court for Norfolk Circuit Court George E. Schaefer, III filed notices of appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Bostic v. Rainey, the legal challenge to Virginia's laws prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying. Should the Fourth Circuit uphold the District Court’s decision, similar laws throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia may also be found unconstitutional.
Fearless prediction: It will and they will. Woo hoo! Expedite! Expedite!
Meanwhile, marriage equality has come to Illinois. Well, to Cook County, including Chicago, anyway. Just home to 5,200,000 people. No big whoop.
Good news for transgender rights: the haters in California couldn’t get enough people to sign onto a referendum that would repeal protections for transgender students. They were apparently "thousands of votes short."
In sports: Jason Collins played in his first NBA game (with the Brooklyn Nets) since coming out, NFL hopeful Michael Sam made his first press appearance since coming out, and openly bi speedskater Ireen Wust was the most-medaled competitor at the Winter Olympics---two gold, three silver.
Finally, Eclectablog's Chris Savage has a nice write-up on Equality Michigan's annual awards banquet in Detroit. No doubt the attendees are on pins and needles today, as a trial gets underway that challenges Michigan's ban on gay marriage. Could wedding bells be ringing in time for the July Netroots Nation convention in Detroit? Stay tuned.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Note: This is a test of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio: "USA! USA!" This concludes this test.
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11 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Easter:
54
Days 'til the
Vancouver Ukulele Festival:
11
Miles of the Mississippi River that were closed due to an oil spill Saturday:
65
Percent of new electric capacity added in the U.S. in January that came from renewable energy sources:
99%
(Source:
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
Minimum number of flight cancellations since December 1, the highest since records started being kept in 1987:
81,000
(Source: FlightAware)
Age of the
zircon crystal found on a ranch in Australia:
4.4 billion years
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
I believe that Boehner will be gone way before next January. If enough true Americans choose to exercise their responsibility to evict corrupt politicians at Operation American Spring on May 16 in DC, Boehner WILL be gone and on the road to impeachment, as will Obama, Biden, Holder, McCain, McConnell, Reid, et al. It is time, patriots, to come to the aid of your country - if not now, then when? if not you, then who? Get up off your couches and out from beyond your keyboards and join us!!!
---Nebraskaf at World Net Daily
All together now: 1…2…3…
Chaaaaarge!!!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Ready to be scritched
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"You really want a cig, don't ya?"
"Mr. President, you have no idea."
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MEH to a big waste of time. The House is back in session this week and they've got a lot on their plate, by which I mean food because lord knows they don’t have any legislation in the oven. Meanwhile, today President Obama has a
private Oval Office meeting with Speaker Boehner. On their published agenda: discussing important legislative goals, including immigration reform and raising the minimum wage (Obama), and cutting spending and mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds (Boehner). On the
actual agenda: discussing how long they need to sit around not talking about the published agenda so that people will believe they actually talked about it. So far the leading time on Intrade is 21 minutes.
CHEERS to bowing out while you still got some kick in ya. Boy, that was a mighty run. After 59 years in Congress, Michigan Rep. John Dingell---a Democrat's Democrat's Democrat---is retiring from politics. Says Chris Savage:
John Dingell’s time in office crosses six decades. His fingerprints can be found on some of the most transformative legislation in our country’s history:
• The Clean Air Act
• The Civil Rights Act
• The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
• The Endangered Species Act
• The National Environmental Policy Act
• The Pollution Prevention Act
• The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
• The Energy Policy and Conservation Acts of 1975 & 1976
• The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”)
Plus: Dingell remains the only member of Congress who skateboards to work every morning. It's gonna be awful quiet when he's gone.
JEERS to gaseous emissions. Down in Ogunquit, Maine, a resort is in hot water because of what happened when they failed to install important detectors throughout the building. They say excess carbon monoxide is to blame for making 21 people feel "dizzy, lightheaded and nauseous." Several were even taken to the hospital for therapy. Officials say they haven’t seen a reaction to a big ball of gas like this since our governor gave his last speech.
CHEERS to being a fly on the wall. One can only imagine what really happened on February 25, 1793, when George Washington held his first cabinet meeting at his estate at Mount Vernon. But one thing is certain: Hamilton was convinced that Jefferson's mother wore combat boots, and Jefferson was positive that Hamilton would be best served by irrigating his nose with a rubber hose. I believe the president sent them both to bed without supper.
JEERS to the most overused lie on earth. With all the attention being paid to the oil spill at the southern end of the Mississippi River, the coal ash deluge in North Carolina's Dan River, and the chemical spill in West Virginny's Elk River, you may have missed the little leak at the government's underground nuclear waste dump at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico. But don’t worry, they say that everything is….say it with me…."perfectly safe."
Officials concede that the first-ever known release of radiation from one of the underground waste storage tunnels more than a week ago is very serious. But they insist the elevated amounts of radiation that have been detected in and around the plant offer no more risk than a dental X-ray or an airline flight. But not everyone is convinced. One resident questioned how officials could make such assertions when so many samples have yet to be analyzed and so little is yet known about what happened.
For some reason, the leak of byproducts from the production of nuclear weapons may be threatening Oklahoma residents, but
"One expert in Albuquerque tells NewsChannel 4 that Oklahomans shouldn’t panic 'yet.'” Because it's...perfectly safe.
CHEERS to on-the-job restitution. A popular Pennsylvania sports bar chain---Chickie's and Pete's---got smacked by the U.S. Department of Labor with an
$8 million fine for stealing employees' tips and refusing to pay the minimum wage their employees' are entitled to. Said the owner of the chain: "Our employees are the backbone of our company, and they deserve our respect and appreciation." But only, apparently, when the boss gets caught breaking their employees' backbones by not giving them respect or appreciation.
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Five years ago in C&J: February 25, 2009
History.
CHEERS to rockin' the House. President Obama made history last night by being the first black president to
address a joint session of Congress. He offered a sober assessment of the way things are (shitty), presented a strong and sensible outline for how to rebound (duct tape, $20 trillion in unmarked bills), and even left himself some time to bat around the Republicans like a cat toy. The verdict on Obama's speech from Congress: 67 outbreaks of applause and 37 standing ovations. Also, for the first time ever during a presidential speech, the Supreme Court justices started a wave. But I think we could've done without Scalia yelling, "Mardi Gras, whooo! Looka mah tits everybody! Looka mah tits!!!" Yes, that was a bridge too far.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Deep Thoughts...by Jack Handy. Jack is a long-time inspiration of mine. Like Stephen Wright, he can cram more beautiful, bizarre absurdity into a sentence or two than most people can in a thousand. His books, which I've dog-eared to death, have a place of honor on my bookshelf. Without further ado, here are a few of our favorite Deep Thoughts to celebrate his 65th birthday:
The next time you go to the doctor, go ahead and bring in a stool sample. They might need it. Better go ahead and bring some for the dentist, too.
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You know what will really make a woman mad? Just run up and kick her in the butt. (P.S. This also works with men.)
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I hope they never find out that lightning has a lot of vitamins in it, because do you hide from it or not?
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I remember one day I was at Grandpa's farm and I asked him about sex. He sort of smiled and said, "Maybe instead of telling you what sex is, why don't we go out to the horse pasture and I'll show you." So we did, and there on the ground were my parents having sex.
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If God dwells inside us, like some people say, I hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting!
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Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess was why several of us died of tuberculosis.
Have a deep Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Of anyone that could save us from Global Warming, like Superman, or any other superhero that comes to mind, who would have thought that Bill in Portland Maine would come to the rescue?
---Design&Trend
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