From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Molly on Midterms
One can only imagine the kind of hay Texas' own Molly Ivins would've made of two Tuesdays ago. But I found some post-election nuggets from midterms past that show, if nothing else, we've been here before:
1998:
Unfortunately, anyone who knows state government, and especially who has watched national issues descend to state government, knows full well what disasters lie in store. Big money, bigger money than folks in Little Rock, Pierre, Tallahassee, Baton Rouge, Albany, etc., have ever seen descends on these state capitals like a reaping machine. For a player like tobacco, used to spending millions in D.C., the state capitals are a candy store, and nothing costs more than 2 cents by their standards. They can buy bills through 50 state capitols cheaper than they ever dreamed of getting one through in Washington. It's pitiful to watch.
2002:
As a veteran of many an electoral defeat at the polls, may I remind you of the proper Texan attitude toward slaughter at the polls. A few years before Billie Carr died this September at age 74, a friend called to ask how she was doing. "Well," she said, "They just impeached my boy up in Washington, there's not a Democrat left in statewide office in Texas, the Republicans have taken every judgeship in Harris County, and yesterday, I found out I have cancer." Pause. "I think I'll go out and get a pregnancy test because with my luck, it'll come back positive." […]
One reaction to electoral disaster should be avoided at all costs: it's that annoying radical mantra, "Things have to get worse before they can get better." The only possible response to that bit of specious thinking is, "Not with my child's life." It is indubitably true things are about to get worse---Paul Krugman quotes a junior official at the Heritage Foundation on the mood of business lobbyists: "optimism bordering on giddiness." They all have their wish lists ready, and it's Christmastime for the special interests. The only recourse is to fight them smart and hard. Giving them enough rope to hang themselves with just means we all hang along with them. Sharpen wits and man the battle stations. No time to waste feeling sorry for ourselves.
And
2006:
Well, it's been rank---racist, sleazy, lying and full of insinuating scare tactics. Thank God it's over.
I didn't know until this week that
The Nation released a book of the articles she wrote between 1982 and 2007 for the magazine. You can
get your copy here. Hell, if someone unearthed notes she'd scribbled on a gum wrapper I'd buy it.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, November 13, 2014
Note: Today is Thursday the 13th. Stay alert---it might be a Friday in disguise.
-
9 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til The Obamacare exchange goes live for the 2015 period:
2
Days 'til the start of
Christmas at the Newport Mansions:
9
Percent of Republicans who want their leaders to obstruct Obama no matter what:
66%
Percent of Democrats who want our leaders to obstruct Republicans no matter what:
43%
(Source: Pew Research via
Greg Dworkin)
Percent chance that Scotland generated enough wind energy to power all the homes in that country in October:
100%
(Source:
Think Progress)
Percent chance that the Gulf of Maine cod population has collapsed so completely that emergency restrictions will basically end cod fishing for the foreseeable future:
100%
(Source:
NOAA/The Portland Press Herald)
Busiest online shopping day of the year, aka
Singles Day:
11/11
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Veterans Day marchers
-
CHEERS to love in the Sunflower State. Once again, the LGBT community rides to the good-news rescue. Yesterday the Supreme Court opened the doors to the marriage-certificate line at City halls all across the great state of---I hope you love the smell of red states going blue in the morning---Kansas! A federal judge also struck down South Carolina's gay-marriage ban, but licenses won’t be issued there until the 20th. So here's the current marriage-equality map, which looks to me like Oklahoma and Kansas are having a little roll in the hay if you squint:
I have to say: I never thought of Oklahoma as a bottom. Don't forget to respect each other in the morning, you two!
CHEERS to the new rock star. Nicely done, Europe. The Space Agency Made Up Of Foreigners Who Talk With Funny Accents landed their Philae probe on a comet yesterday:
Ha ha. Comet. That's funny.
The event served as the climax of a $1.3 billion mission that was launched more than 10 years ago and involved a 4-billion-mile (6-billion-kilometer) journey to the comet. The car-sized Rosetta spacecraft reached its rendezvous point in August. Since then, the mission team has been mapping the planned trajectory for the 220-pound (100-kilogram) Philae lander, which is about the size of a washing machine.
[T]he Rosetta mission is aimed at deciphering the chemistry of the early solar system. Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko is thought to preserve leftovers from the solar system's formation 4.5 billion years ago---and a detailed analysis of the comet's ice and dust could provide fresh insights into those origins.
Not to be outdone, NASA plans to send a probe to the coldest, densest, most desolate chunk of rock it can find. They say they'll be ready for landing just as soon as they figure out Senator Inhofe's nap schedule.
JEERS to Governor George "Blood and Guts" Patton. That appears to be how Missouri Governor Jay Nixon views himself. This week he stepped up to a microphone and told the residents of Ferguson---aka the enemy, seeing as they're blah and all---that if they raise a tut-tut after the grand jury refuses to indict officer Darren Wilson for the obvious murder of Michael Brown, he'll crush skulls now and take names later.
Governor Jay Nixon's
driver's licence photo.
“The Guard will be available when we determine it is necessary to support local law enforcement,” Mr. Nixon announced in a news conference at a state highway patrol headquarters here, standing beside law enforcement leaders from the St. Louis area. […]
Some of the larger departments have purchased new riot gear, undergone thousands of hours of additional training and met with community, schools and religious leaders. State officials have provided the three departments with new communications equipment so they can coordinate their responses. And the officers were prepared to work extended hours and cancel vacations.
Meanwhile, the lily-white yahoos in Nevada who
pointed their weapons at law enforcement officials with intent to kill last April are still free, still considered patriots, and still toting guns wherever they go as law enforcement officials give 'em a wink and a nod. Obvious conclusion: those unarmed black people in Ferguson is troublemakers!
JEERS to stupid damn wars. On this date in 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial---a vee shape which points at the State Department---was dedicated. Our suggestion for the shape of the future Iraq War Memorial: a "W" on a spindle that points in the direction of wherever Chimpy McFlightsuit is at any given moment.
CHEERS to a really long life really well lived. Civil rights attorney John Doar has died. His mark in American history is indelible:
John Doar (right) and U.S. Marshals
escort James Meredith to class at the
University of Mississippi.
Doar was a hands-on advocate for the voting and education rights of the black community. Leaving Washington to travel to the turbulent South on behalf of the federal government, Doar managed to become a figure of trust for black students and leaders. […]
In 1962, he escorted James Meredith into the registration building at the University of Mississippi, where he faced off with the state's governor, Ross Barnett, who stood in their way. … When three civil rights advocates were killed in 1964, Doar acted as lead prosecutor in the case, convincing an all-white jury to issue guilty verdicts for some of the suspects — the first convictions in the state of Mississippi for a violent crime committed by whites against blacks, Doar told C-SPAN. The case inspired the 1988 film Mississippi Burning.
Doar was 92. Condolences to his family and friends. Got a feeling a larger-than-average penthouse awaits him in the hereafter.
CHEERS to getting a clean bill of health. New York is now Ebola-free. So is Maine. So is Texas. So is America. So if you're looking for something to be irrationally afraid of, I'm afraid you'll have to move on to something else. Mine is fear of you moving on to something else to be afraid of. Whatever it is, please make sure it fits in a hazmat suit.
-
Five years ago in C&J: November 13, 2009
CHEERS to taking care of Job #1. And that would be jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Apparently Democrats just woke up and realized there's a mid-term election next year:
Senate Democrats will take up a new job-creation bill in the wake of the 10.2 percent unemployment rate, Majority Leader Harry Reid told his colleagues Tuesday. ... Reid said he was looking at an initiative focused on job creation "and that our caucus will take it up," [Senator Ben] Cardin said.
Among the expected national projects: roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and President Obama's long-sought U.S.-Kenya Chunnel. Mmmm...I love the smell of gigantic red-hot titanium drill bits in the morning.
-
And just one more…
Happy 14th Blogiversary!
CHEERS to the Gandalf the Grey of Bloggerland. Happy anniversary to Josh Marshall's
Talking Points Memo, which turns 14 today. You can re-live the birth of this progressive supernova in
his early posts during the 2000 Florida recount, although it might cause your blood pressure to spike. Josh and his now-supersized crew provide no-frills original reporting with just enough analysis and snark to help us make sense of politics, and nothing the righty blogs offer comes close to TPM's objectivity, accuracy and speed. During election seasons TPM is a daily must-click destination, and it's been great seeing the site take off over the course of 14 trips around the sun. Of course, they're no Great Orange Satan...then again, no one's perfect.
Oh, and on this date in 1789 Ben Franklin wrote, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." As if to underscore his point, he died five months later---two days after April 15th. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
What has a red bow, no mouth, and the most hardcore fans around? It's Bill in Portland Maine, of course.
---Catherine Garcia
-