From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
In Our Dreams
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Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Note: I spent all day yesterday weighing the evidence, interviewing advocates and opponents on all sides, making last-minute fact-finding trips to Academia, and spending time talkiing with regular Americans at cafes, bus stops and bars. I've made my decision: vanilla.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Mother's Day: 32
Days `til the Texas Crawfish and Music Festival in Old Town Spring: 9
Percent of Americans who think it's important for President Obama to try and improve relations with Muslim countries: 81%
Michelle Obama's approval rating in June of 2008: 48%
Percent approval now: 76%
(Source: Washington Post-ABC News poll)
Mainers who said they had no religious affiliation in 1990: 11%
Percent who had no religious affiliation in 2008: 25%
(Source: Maine Sunday Telegram)
NCAA Women's Basketball Final: UConn 76 Louisville 54
(UConn won all 39 of its games by double digits. Wow!)
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 163 (including 4 gogs and 1 amazing carpenter's card trick). Soul Protection Factor 16 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "Medic! We need a stretcher!"
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CHEERS to Green Mountain wedding bells. This is not shaping up to be a very good month for the conservative fundies who keep waiting for something---anything!---cataclysmic to happen as a result of gay people getting married. As of today they have a new den of sin and depravity to keep an eye on, thanks to an override of the governor's veto by the Vermont House and Senate. John at Americablog is a wee bit excited:
This is huge. On many levels. First, Iowa and Vermont both making marriage legal within days of each other, that creates the sense of a trend. Second, in Vermont, the legislature made marriage legal. Not the courts, the legislature. Why does this matter? Because Republicans have been arguing for years that the problem with gay marriage is that THE COURTS are making these decisions, rather than the people via their elected representatives. Well, today the people made the decision to legalize same-gender marriages through their elected representatives. What will Republicans say now?
My guess is something like, "Rassa frassa rassa grumble frassa grumble." They're so adorable when they speak in tongues.
CHEERS to a pleasant diversion. After circling Iraq for a bit to drop leaflets that read: Insurgents and al Qaeda: You fuck with me, I fuck with YOU. Sheriff BHO, the president piloted Air Force One to a three-point landing at Camp Victory yesterday, where he was greeted as a liberator:
"As long as I'm in the White House, you are going to get the support that you need," Obama said. He stressed the next 18 months "could be a critical period. ... It is time for us to transfer to the Iraqis. They need to take responsibility for their country."
"It makes me feel like he actually cares to where he'd come out here and talk to us," said Army Spec. Joshua Tisdale, 24, of Pekin, Ill., who's in his second tour and has been at Camp Liberty for three months.
Can this president do no wrong?
JEERS to this president doing something really really wrong. With all due respect, if you're gonna look our troops in the eye and tell 'em how important it is that they're fighting for our Great American Ideals, you lose something in the translation when you---a former constitutional law professor---move to the right of Dick Cheney. Jonathan Turley:
In yet another break with its campaign promise to fight to restore civil liberties and privacy, the Obama Administration has made a breathtaking claim of state secrets to block a public interest organization from suing the government for illegal surveillance. There is not a scintilla of difference in the legal position of President Obama and the position of President Bush in trying to quash any effort to challenge unlawful surveillance by the government.
More from Glenn Greenwald:
"[T]he Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and---even if what they’re doing is blatantly illegal and they know it’s illegal---you are barred from suing them unless they ‘willfully disclose’ to the public what they have learned."
Now, we know that this administration isn't full of dictatorial goons like the last one. My guess is they're keeping the lid on this, for now, because they don’t want to peel off resources from the budget battle to fend off an inevitable Republican assault. (Boehner's always scanning the horizon for new targets.) Or maybe they don’t want to piss off the CIA so early, I dunno. But my money says this gets resolved in time. Until then we should remind them at every opportunity that they're being buttheads. I'm thinking bus signs.
CHEERS to Passover. This evening our Jewish friends will celebrate their exodus from Egypt which, if memory serves, was led by Charlton Heston and Cecil B. DeMille. A highlight of the holiday is the seder which, contrary to popular belief, is not affiliated with Sam Seder---unless it's Sam Seder's actual seder, in which case it gets...complicated. Do yourself a favor---skip the new South Beach Diet low-carb Matzoh. You'll be burping it up for hours. And if you can't wait 'til sundown to get in the Passover spirit, enjoy a few rounds of Jewpardy. Based on the number of questions I got right, I would be a terrible Jew.
JEERS to sleeping with the enemy. So the morning after President Obama returns from a trip that will likely cause an uptick in his approval ratings, Matt Lauer and the wise programming elves at the Today Show decide that the very first guest to come on NBC and talk about it---underneath a graphic that reads, "Is Obama Apologizing For America?"---is "Laura Ingraham from Fox News." What...the...[expletive deleted]??? I guess Hannity was too busy. (He gets cranky if he doesn’t get enough beauty sleep.) Oh, and for those of you keeping track, a liberal host from the peacock network will appear on Fox & Friends around...[flipflipflip]...um, the first of Aintgonnahappen.
CHEERS to getting your wish. In Minnesota, the Coleman campaign insisted on having disputed ballots counted. A three-judge panel said, "Fine." The disputed ballots were indeed counted. And yesterday, having widened the gaping hole in its hull, the S.S. Normie slipped beneath the waves. Now let's see how long they can hold their breath.
CHEERS to the accidental First Lady. Happy Birthday to Betty Ford, who turns---wow!---91 today. She gained fame in an era that many Americans can vaguely remember---namely, a time when the GOP had a smattering of class. But even then, she was a delightful thorn in her party's tuckus:
Throughout her husband's term in office, she maintained high approval ratings, though some on the far-right of her own Republican Party strongly opposed her on more liberal social issues. Betty Ford was noted for raising breast cancer awareness with her 1974 mastectomy and was a passionate supporter for the Equal Rights Amendment. Pro-choice on abortion and a leader in the Women's Movement, she gained fame as one of the most candid first ladies in history, commenting on every hot button issue of the time from sex to drugs.
Her most enduring legacy, of course, is the Betty Ford Center. I hear they're opening a new wing for blogging addicts. Those interventions are gonna be rough.
JEERS to asses on fire. The first fire escape was patented 243 years ago today---a wicker basket lowered by a pulley and chain. It was followed shortly thereafter by the first product recall and class action lawsuit.
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Five years ago in C&J: April 8, 2004
CHEERS to drinking games. Take a swig of your favorite moonshine every time Condi makes a claim at the 9/11 Commission hearings---express or implied---that Iraq invasion was necessary in the "War on Terror." Don't plan on driving anywhere this afternoon.
CHEERS to the humor of Donald Rumsfeld. The latest knee-slapper: "We're trying to explain how things are going, and they are going as they are going." But are they `known goings' or `unknown goings,' Don?
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And just one more...
CHEERS to the bald and the beautiful. This is kinda cool---the Biodiversity Research Institute in Gorham, Maine (a suburb of Portland) has installed an "Eaglecam" 70-feet up in a white pine tree on the coast to keep a 24-hour watch on the home of "the most successful pair in the state. They have nested at this site for 13 years, and raised 20 offspring." Actually, that might soon be 21:
A bald eagle in coastal Maine has laid an egg live on Web camera. If all goes well, the egg is expected hatch around May 6, Institute officials say. They say the eagles are expected to lay one or two more eggs over the next three to six days.
You can watch streaming video---or still images that refresh every 15 seconds---here at the Institute's web site. Catching 'em at home is kinda hit or miss (he works as a fire spotter during the day and she volunteers with Regurgitated Meals On Wheels). But feel free to spy on 'em anytime. Thanks to the Bush and Obama administrations, you don’t even need a warrant from the FISA court!
Oh, and as a special treat: rocket launchers for everyone!! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Cheers and Jeers is not recommended for people who are prone to panic attacks or those who suffer from anxiety. Some surgical patients may also experience the symptoms of C&J withdrawal syndrome on the day of surgery, because they are told not to read anything.
---CNN Health Minute
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