From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Happy Birthday, Howard!
From signing the first civil unions bill in America that paved the way for the marriage-equality movement, to being ahead of his time on health care reform and bunch of other issues, Howard Dean’s been an important reality-based voice at critical times over the last dozen or so years. Today's his birthday. He turns hfrrhrrfrrhrr years old.
Howard first showed up on my radar when he grabbed a microphone at the California State Convention in 2003 and woke the Democratic party establishment up from its Bush-kowtowing stupor. I practically know this by heart:
"WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS...what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting the President's unilateral intervention in Iraq.
WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS…why the Democrats in Congress aren't standing up for us, joining every other industrialized country on the face of the Earth in providing health insurance for every man, woman and child in America. […]
As Paul Wellstone said---as Sheila Kuehl said when she endorsed me---I am Howard Dean, and I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party! [...]
The only way that we're going to beat George Bush is to say what we mean, to stand up for who we are, [and] to lift up a Democratic agenda against the Republican agenda. Because if you do that, the Democratic agenda wins every time.
With that speech he gave a powerful acknowledgement to people like us who knew something was very wrong in our party, but couldn't break through the exalted DLC types and their Republican-lite bullcrap.
Of course, we all know Governor Dean got bumped out of the '04 race for, among other things, saying "yeah" in Iowa at a higher volume than is allowed in polite political society. (We're a very sensitive republic, you know.) He then went on to become the chairman of the DNC, and unleashed a radical strategy that would give the Democratic party an active, robust presence in all 50 states.
Despite his strategy getting tossed in favor of triangulation-as-usual (how'd that work out in 2014, current DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz?), Howard is still fighting via Democracy for America, speaking out on MSNBC, has a near-perfect attendance record at our Netroots Nation conventions, and is a proud card-carrying Kossack. I may never have found Daily Kos if not for the link on his 2004 campaign web site. I don’t agree with him on everything and he’s said a few facepalm-worthy things over the years, but he’s one Democrat who will always be on my A-list. Happy Birthday, Howard. And many happy returns.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Note: A reminder that Saturday is World Peace Day. As soon as I find out which world they're talking about, I'll let you know.
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Hunger Games: Dumpster Diving for Meatloaf and Cabbage Pt. 2: 3
Days 'til the Downtown Boise Tree Lighting in Idaho: 11
Portion of Americans who are sickened each year by food-borne diseases, according to AP: 1-in-6
Number who die from them: 3,000
Commerce Dept. estimate of the increase in retail sales for October: 0.1%
Labor Dept. estimate of the drop in producers prices in October: 0.4%
Percent of a dog's day spent lying around awake, according to Parade: 30%
Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
Marco Rubio is having a tough time getting love from the base, including the kiddies at Hot Air...
Rubio’s attack on Cruz is: Hey, Cruz is a lying scumbag hypocrite like me! Rubio is pathetic. ---portlandon
Go get your shoeshine box Marco.
---madhess
Rubio spent all of his political capital on passing Schumer’s amnesty. Now, he is in debt, just like his credit card bills.
---Redstone
I may actually stay home if it’s Rubio. ---Judgedredd
All together now: 1…2…3… Ouch.
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
And the ASPCA Dog of the Year is…. <---Click now! Click now OMG OMG!!!!
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CHEERS to the grownup in the room. As Republicans use the Paris attacks to unleash every xenophobic neocon warmonger fantasy rattling around in their heads, President Obama took a moment at the G-20 summit to make something clear to the armchair warriors: he's the effing commander-in-chief of this effing country, so eff off:
Mr. Obama said he would intensify targeted airstrikes and assistance to local ground forces in Syria and Iraq, but it will take time to cripple the terrorist group. He dismissed critics who faulted his approach, accusing them of trying to profit politically from the episode. … [H]e said large numbers of American troops on the ground would repeat what he sees as the mistake of the Iraq invasion of 2003 and would not help solve the terrorism problem around the globe. … Victory over terrorist groups, he said, requires local populations to push back “unless we’re prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries.”
Mr. Obama grew especially animated in rebuffing suggestions by some Republican presidential candidates, governors and lawmakers that the United States should block entry of Syrian refugees to prevent terrorists from slipping into the country. … Without naming him, Mr. Obama singled out a comment by former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, one of the Republicans seeking to succeed him, for suggesting the United States focus special attention on Christian refugees. “That’s shameful,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s not American. It’s not who we are. We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.”
Whoa---Obama neutered him, thus confirming my suspicion: Barack can fix Jeb.
P.S. Three days after the attacks, France sends a middle-finger salute to the terrorists:
CHEERS to smooth sailing (so far). The 2016 Obamacare enrollment season is underway, and not wanting to be a total procrastinator I decided to log on at healthcare.gov and check out my new options. Like last year---but unlike 2014, remember that?---it was a piece 'o cake: smooth, glitch-free, and it was especially helpful that a lot of last year's sign-up info was archived so I didn't have to start from scratch. And it sounds like most people are having the same experience:
In all, 543,098 people selected plans for 2016 on HealthCare.gov in the first week, which began Nov. An unknown number signed up on the other 13 Obamacare exchanges run by individual states and the District of Columbia. For coverage to go into effect — and be officially counted — customers need to make their first month's premium payment. … "Whether shopping for health insurance for the very first time or re-enrolling in their marketplace coverage, people are ready to get covered," [DHHS Secretary Sylvia] Burwell said. "Consumers are coming to HealthCare.gov, having a smoother experience and finding plans they can afford." … Open enrollment runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31.
Charles Gaba (aka Kossack Brainwrap) has his latest update here. Speaking for myself, it looks like I'll pay maybe 10 bucks more a month for the same "silver" plan I signed up for earlier this year. If I make it fifteen they'll add in-ambulance movies and free in-hospital nose plugs during meals.
JEERS to the trapped rat. When Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson claimed over and over---based on sources that were "better than the White House's"---that the Chinese were active in Syria, the White House knew he was lying, the other candidates knew he was lying, the Chinese knew he was lying, you and I knew he was lying and he knew he was lying. The only question was how he was going to try and tiptoe out of the corner into which he'd painted himself. Now we know: clumsily…
Ben Carson backtracked Monday on claims his foreign policy “sources are better” than President Barack Obama‘s, telling reporters, “that was tongue in cheek.” Carson said the suggestion that he has better sources than the president was intended as a joke, adding it “would be very alarming” if his campaign had access to superior foreign policy advisors.
See? It was all just a joke! Very funny! Although not quite as funny as this joke: Knock knock. Who’s there? Ben Carson. Ben Carson who? Ben Carson for President.
CHEERS to disorder in a big jerk’s court. Well, at least this has a happy ending. But what an emotional ordeal for the married lesbian couple in Utah who adopted a child and then, during a routine hearing, had their custody rights taken away by a right-wing activist judge on the grounds that lesbians make poor parents. Thanks to massive public pressure that hit him like a ton of bricks, Judge Scott Johansen not only overturned his decision but, as I write this, is actually running in his robe and Buster Browns west on I-80 as fast as he can to get as far away from the case as possible. But he's not out of the woods yet:
On Monday, the Alliance for a Better Utah asked the Utah Legislature to begin impeachment proceedings against Johansen and launched a Web-based petition on change.org. "If Judge Johansen wants to act like Judge Judy, then he should get a reality TV shot," Josh Kanter, the founder and board president said in a news release. "Judge Johansen should be impeached and removed from office."
If Judge Johansen wanted to act like Judge Judy, he would've engaged brain before pounding gavel.
JEERS to the hunchback of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Forty-two years ago today, in 1973, Richard Nixon uttered his immortal words: "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." And to prove he wasn't a crook, Gerald Ford shielded him with a "full and unconditional pardon" after Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. The less you think about it, the more it makes perfect sense.
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Nine years ago in C&J: November 17, 2006
CHEERS to making history. It's official---Nancy Pelosi is now the first-ever woman Speaker of the House and the first Democratic Speaker in 12 years. My gift to her: a pea shooter for use during Bush's State of the Union speech. (If you hit him behind the left kneecap he'll go down.)
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And just one more…
CHEERS to cleansing your cosmic soul.
The Leonid Brezhnev meteor shower is putting on a display of Leonidiousness that peaks tonight:
It occurs when Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which, like all comets, litters its orbit with bits of debris. It’s when this comet debris enters Earth’s atmosphere, and vaporizes, that we see the Leonid meteor shower. In 2015, the peak night of the shower is expected from midnight to dawn on Wednesday morning (November 18). … The waxing moon will set in the evening hours, so moonlight will not obstruct this year’s Leonid shower. Also, it’ll be fun to look for the planet Jupiter, which shines in front of the constellation Leo this year. […]
In recent years, people have gotten the mistaken idea that you must know the whereabouts of a meteor shower’s radiant point in order to watch the meteor shower. You don’t need to. The meteors often don’t become visible until they are 30 degrees or so from their radiant point. They are streaking out from the radiant in all directions.
Everyone agrees that meteor showers are beautiful, unite Americans in a common activity, and make lots of people happy and curious about the universe and the wonders of science. And in other news, Republicans in Congress plan to introduce a constitutional amendment banning all future meteor showers.
Have a nice Tuesday, and thank you for putting up with the DK5 layout glitches, especially th. . . . . . . . . . e spacing
issues. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“Here's my promise---Bill in Portland Maine will not be in my cabinet.”
---Bernie Sanders
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