From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Carter's 2002 Nobel
Peace Prize photo.
Happy #90 to #39!
If you don’t count George Washington's fake choppers, Jimmy Carter owns the most famous set of presidential teeth in history. That Jimmy grin was what the country wanted after the Watergate mess. And although his one term isn't considered a rousing success, he kept us out of war, focused our attention on energy policy, kept us out of war, was at the helm during the creation of eight million jobs, brokered peace between Israel and Egypt, and kept us out of war.
Oh, and for the record, let's repeat one more time: he never said "malaise."
Strange but true: the House of
Cultures in Berlin is nicknamed
"Jimmy Carter's Teeth."
Carter's post-presidency is where he really shines, and he warrants every accolade we can throw
Daily Kos member 81380's way. It's astonishing what he's accomplished: from fighting diseases in Africa to building homes with Habitat for Humanity to shining a damning spotlight on the terrible way women are treated around the world. And kudos for throwing the occasional jab at the right-wing freak show, as he did in his anger-tinged speech during the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington
last year:
Keepin' it real in badass shades.
"I believe we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to the new ID requirements to exclude certain voters, especially African-Americans. I think we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to the Supreme Court striking down a crucial part of the Voters' Rights Act, just recently passed overwhelmingly by Congress. I think we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to unemployment among African-Americans being almost twice the rate of white people and for teenagers at 42 percent. I think we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to our country being awash in guns and for more and more states passing "stand your ground" laws. I think we know how Dr. King would have reacted to people of the District of Columbia still not having full citizenship rights.
And I think we all know how Dr. King would have reacted to having more than 835,000 African-American men in prison---five times as many as when I left office---and with one-third of all African-American males being destined to be in prison in their lifetimes."
His motto at the Carter Center (where you can leave a birthday message) says it all:
"Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope." In the pantheon of Most Excellent American Role Models, he owns a prime piece of real estate.
Happy 90th birthday, Jimmy. I'm toasting you today with---what else?---an ice-cold Billy Beer.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Note: I'm posting today's C&J from the East Room of the White House. My thanks to the Secret Service for leaving the key under the mat last night when they went to Denny's.
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10 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Thanksgiving:
57
Days 'til the
Warner Fall Foliage Festival in New Hampshire:
10
Percent of Americans who favor sending ground troops into combat against ISIS forces in Iraq or Syria:
38%
Percent who oppose that idea:
60%
(Source: CNN poll)
Minimum amount that Florida's Green Bank will pay all employees to
ensure they're earning a living wage (17% will get an immediate raise to reach that level):
$30,000
Percent of annual candy corn production that will be eaten between now and Halloween:
75%
Percent chance that Sunday's couch gag on
The Simpsons was the weirdest one yet:
100%
(Source:
io9)
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 185 (including 3 False Christs and 2000 years of Any Day Now). Soul Protection Factor 12 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: The eyes have it
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The House tea party caucus is
always dressed for Halloween.
CHEERS to October. Busy month ahead! Fall kicks into high gear for leaf-peepers and cider-lovers; Barack and Michelle Obama celebrate their 22nd anniversary Friday; It's LGBT History Month and the 11th is Coming Out Day; we re-open the "Columbus was a hero/Columbus was a genocidal maniac" debate; full moon and lunar eclipse are on the 8th, with a solar eclipse to follow on the 23rd; United Nations Day is the 24th; Daylight Saving Time for European Union countries ends on the 26th; and a High Holy Day for gays (and, according to unsubstantiated rumors, small children)---Halloween---looms large. This year I'm dressing up as the scariest person I can think of: President Ben Carson. Heads-up, pancreas---here comes
another ten-pound bag of candy corn!
JEERS to staying power. Oh, Afghanistan, we just can't quit you:
To be continued...
The longest war in American history will last at least another decade, according to the terms of a garrisoning deal for US forces signed by the new Afghanistan government on Tuesday. Long awaited and much desired by an anxious US military, the deal guarantees that US and Nato troops will not have to withdraw by year’s end, and permits their stay “until the end of 2024 and beyond.”
Side-effect warning for the military-industrial complex: if your erection lasts less than four tours of duty, see your appropriations committee.
P.S. Afghanistan's new president just took the oath of office. His name is Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and he's already making changes there. Topping the list: the giant pallets of cash the Afghan government gets airlifted from the U.S. for graft and bribery purposes will now be delivered in thousand-dollar bills instead of hundreds because less shrink-wrap means less waste and a healthier environment. Quite the visionary.
JEERS to snoopy snoops. The FBI recently informed Mitt Romney that a foreign country was secretly reading his emails. When Mitt asked how they tracked down the country doing it, the feds said they just followed the snoring.
CHEERS to a mighty wind. Happy to see more encroachment on Big Oil and Big Frack's turf by Big Solar and Big Wind. Last week in California, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell made a big announcement:
Turn, Turn, Turn...
The plan released Tuesday recommends designating a total of 2 million acres as appropriate sites for future solar, wind and geothermal projects. Another 4.9 million acres under the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would be among the areas set aside as conservation areas, if the draft plan is adopted. Jewell's release of the plan opens a period of public comment through January. Renewable-energy developers and conservationists said they would be studying the more than 8,000 pages to learn exactly how areas were designated and under what rules.
California is on track to meet a state goal of having a third of its energy come from renewable sources by 2020.
Then there's a project under consideration that would use giant hollowed-out salt caverns to "store wind" that would be compressed and used to run the turbines when the wind isn’t blowing. They say it would allow the wind farm to consistently generate
twice the power as Hoover Dam. Not to be outdone, the big oil companies announced their own big idea. They call it more oil.
JEERS to today's cars. Call me a nostalgic fool, but none of them have the simplicity or the...um...blackness of the Model T, which was introduced 106 years ago today. Cost: $825. Place in automotive lore: priceless.
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Five years ago in C&J: October 1, 2009
CHEERS to government takeovers of...chemicalcare! Every now and then I get a little chill down my spine---the good kind---when I read about yet another excellent decision by the Obama administration. Like this:
Maine's governor thinks
chemicals are hilarious!
Tens of thousands of chemicals found in everyday items, from toys and cell phones to food containers and medical devices, would face high levels of federal scrutiny and control under a set of guidelines unveiled Tuesday in San Francisco by President Obama's top environmental official [Lisa Jackson].
The effort to rewrite how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluates and enforces the use of potentially harmful chemicals marks the most significant overhaul of the nation's chemical policies since the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.
The agency would've made the announcement sooner, but first they had to wake up enforcement officials from their eight-year, Rip Van Winkle-like slumber. (Trimming their beards alone took a week.)
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And just one more…
CHEERS to people who don’t suck. Every Friday our C&J poll asks, "Who won the week?" It has become such an extraordinary weekly polling event that Gallup, Pew, Rasmussen, Quinnipiac and PPP have all named commodes in their washrooms after it. The WWTW poll is a little reminder that all is not lost on the third planet from the sun. And right on schedule, the gold chalice winners for the third quarter of 2014 are ready to take a collective bow. I'm especially happy to see so many protest marches and demonstrations on the list---and I expect that to continue. The envelopes, please…
July 11 The BBC, which will no longer give climate-change deniers a platform for their misinformation.
July 18 (Unofficially, since we were off) the Netroots Nation attendees in Detroit who joined the march to protest water shutoffs in poor neighborhoods.
July 25 President Obama: expands "My Brother's Keeper" program, signs LGBT employment non-discrimination executive order, steady hand on world events, confirms Iran has backed off uranium enrichment.
Winners receive the
Holy Grail filled
with Thunderbird Wine.
August 1 Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for her floor speech lashing out at corporations that renounce their U.S. citizenship to dodge taxes but still enjoy U.S. public services.
August 8 The doctors and medical aid workers on the front lines of the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
August 15 The peaceful protesters in Ferguson, the journalists who covered the riot police attacks from the scene, and Capt. Ron Johnson.
August 22 The peaceful protesters in Ferguson, Attorney General Eric Holder, Capt. Johnson, and the journalists covering the killing of Michael Brown.
August 29 Whoever made the secret recording of Republican leaders and candidates sucking up to the Koch brothers at their annual luxury retreat.
September 5 The fast food workers and their allies in the home-care industry who went on strike for a higher minimum wage
September 12 Senate Democrats, who all voted YES on a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
September 19 Strike Debt, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, for purchasing $4m in student loan debt for $100,000.
September 26 The Colorado high school students who walked out of class to protest a proposed right-wing history curriculum that would promote patriotism and authority-worship while downplaying civil disobedience.
Who will bring home the gold in the fourth quarter? If I had to predict, I'd say probably not ISIS, Congress or the Secret Service. Stay tuned!
Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
According to a French study released Monday, dolphins are attracted to Bill in Portland Maine. Platonically, of course.
---Time.
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