I saw this last night on twitter and thought it said everything about reacting to evil with grace and heart:
There's a lot of people here in Maine this morning who are plenty upset at the grand jury's decision, and we're sending positive thoughts to Michael Brown's family and to Ferguson. This state is the whitest in the country, but we sure as hell know what went down last night. Justice was not served. Not even close.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold...
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Note: If you need an angry drunk relative for Thanksgiving, take an angry drunk relative for Thanksgiving. If you have an angry drunk relative for Thanksgiving, leave an angry drunk relative for Thanksgiving.
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17 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the start of Hanukkah:
21
Days 'til the 10th annual
Sandstone Ice Festival in Minnesota:
17
Decrease in violent crime last year, the lowest level since 1978:
4.4%
(Source:
The Chicago Tribune)
Number of women in Congress:
100
Percent of parents who say they'd be comfortable with their sons playing football:
55%
(Source:
The New York Times)
Average tax rate for the top 400 taxpayers in 2010:
18%
(Source: IRS)
Percent of Americans whose #1 request for a holiday present is a gift card:
62%
(Source: National Retail Federation survey)
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
You would think this weather would be the nail in the coffin of the global warming myth. ---Brian
You'd think so, but since when do liberals let facts get in their way? ---Ken
Brian, not that Hag of Benghazi is directly related to Glo-Bull Warming (I stole that) but as being relative to the undead ideology of liberalism and all their disproven theories. The dismissiveness that comes so easy to the petulant liberal. ---William
---Comment thread at Town Hall
All together now: 1…2…3…
Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: In Finland obedience contest, a golden retriever goes rogue…
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"Don't forget to turn left at
Albuquerque, Frank. Frank?
Are you listening to me?!!"
CHEERS to gettin' outta Dodge. Thanksgiving is looming like a 20-pound platter of mashed potatoes, and the airlines predict that
46 million travelers will scream, curse and smell kinda gamey between now and next Tuesday. (Plane occupancy is "expected to be at the highest level since 2007," so prepare for lots of seat-back kicking.) Meanwhile Triple-A also says nearly five percent more of us will be on the roads compared to last year, with a little under 41.3 million expected to venture at least 50 miles from home. If you'll be among them, please be safe and practice proper driving etiquette: the right hand is for texting and the left hand is for flipping the bird.
CHEERS to confronting the bullies among us. Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The United Nations provides a little reminder that…
Ban Ki-moon: one of the coolest
UN Secretary-Generals ever.
> Violence against women is a human rights violation.
> Violence against women is a consequence of discrimination against women, in law and also in practice, and of persisting inequalities between men and women.
> Violence against women impacts on, and impedes, progress in many areas, including poverty eradication, combating HIV/AIDS, and peace and security.
> Violence against women continues to be a global pandemic.
> Violence against women and girls is not inevitable. Prevention is possible and essential
Just as pink is worn for breast cancer awareness and purple is worn for LGBT Spirit Day, this year, the U.N. urges everyone to wear and/or display orange between now and December 10 to show support for the fight to prevent violence against women. On this site I don’t think that'll be a problem.
Say it ain't so, Saint Ronnie!
JEERS to Reagan's
Katrina Monica Watergate Reagan Moment. On November 25, 1986, the
Iran Contra "Affair" busted wide open when #40 appointed the Tower commission to find out what the $#!!#$ was going on. It later resulted in this public admission from Reagan:
"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not. As the Tower board reported, what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages. This runs counter to my own beliefs, to administration policy, and to the original strategy we had in mind."
Eleven people ended up getting nailed, but George H.W. Bush pardoned them all before he left office. Some of the Iran-Contra figures, like Elliott Abrams and John Negroponte, would pop up again in the Bush II administration despite the black stains on their names. Because truly scurrilous help is so hard to find.
FAREWELL to Chuck Hagel. The old soldier didn’t die and didn’t fade away---but he did get his ass fired by President Obama. Hagel was the first enlisted man (he fought in Vietnam) to become Defense Secretary. I always respected him as a Republican who had a spark of common sense in him, but if he wasn't getting the job done, out ya go. As for his replacement, Obama could make a little history. But, ugh, I am so sick of seeing the "h-word." They should just change the position back to "Secretary of War" and drop the pretense:
The next SecDef?
(Spoiler: maybe!)
[Michèle] Flournoy is considered hawkish on defense issues, which would play well with a Republican-led Senate confirmation process, and she’s experienced. She was undersecretary of defense for policy from February 2009 to 2012, and she led President Barack Obama’s 2008 Defense Department transition team. …
Harvard educated, she’s co-founder and CEO of the Center for a New American Security, a nonpartisan think tank funded largely through donations from defense contractors. CNAS declined a request for comment on Flournoy’s potential candidacy.
True Fact: after confirmation, all new Secretaries of Defense take the oath of office by raising their right hand and placing their left hand on an intercontinental ballistic missile owner's manual.
CHEERS to the agency we love to hate. Happy Birthday to the Department of Homeland Security---please try to curb your enthusiasm. President Bush signed legislation creating the bureaucratic behemoth 12 years ago today. (Quick---name the original nominee to be the second DHS director after Tom Ridge. Yep...a crook recommended by Rudy Giuliani named
Bernie Kerik. Vetting's fun!) Thanks to DHS, the first thing I do before I start my morning is go to their
website for news of any fresh terror attacks (not including ones by the U.S. financial sector or House Republicans), just in case I need to pull "Old Bessie," my Civil War-era mortar, out of the garage and load up the old gal with my secret mix of shrapnel and Alpo. Most days I don't, so I just
duct-tape stuff as needed and then sit in my safe room snorking extra-strength Maalox while waiting for someone to spring the freedom traps I got set around the house. Vigilance!
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Five years ago in C&J: November 25, 2009
JEERS to tots in trouble. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning, um, consumers (really!) about the dangers of baby cribs made by a Canadian company called Stork Craft Manufacturing. 1.2 million of them are being recalled because the sliding panel on the side can come loose and allow the toddler to wriggle out, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Investigators say they first suspected something was wrong when they saw the turnout at the first teabagger rally. Good catch.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to something that looks really awesome on a resume. President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to several recipients yesterday. The awards are given out for "An especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." This year's gaggle:
Dancer/Chroeographer Alvin Ailey (posthumous), author Isabel Allende, Tom Brokaw, Slain civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, scientist Mildred Dresselhaus, Congressman John Dingell, Ethel Kennedy, Native American writer/activist Suzan Harjo, Congressman/Judge Abner Mikva, Hawai'i Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink (posthumous), Mexican-American Congressman Edward Roybal (posthumous), Pro golfer Charles Sifford, economist Robert Solow, Stephen Sondheim, Meryl Streep, Marlo Thomas and, from my old stomping grounds of Saginaw, Michigan…Stevie Wonder!
This from Dingell more or less won the internet yesterday:
Each honoree gets the medal, a ribbon, a tie clip, and command of their own infantry division. Congratulations, by the way, to Congressman Dingell, who later won the Oval Office game of Duck, Duck, Goose. Figures---I put all my money on Streep..
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Dinesh D'Souza wants to give spoiled brat Bill in Portland Maine a spanking
---Mediaite
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