From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
Addressing Future Frankens, Past Franken meets Present Franken
I've been re-reading Senator #60's books, and I came across this bit from 2005's The Truth (with Jokes). It comes from his final chapter, A Letter to My Grandchildren---October 2, 2015.
It begins: "Dear Barack, Hillary and Joe III..." and looks back at the rise of the post-Bush Democratic party:
Would you believe that our universal health care system, the "fourth rail" of American politics, didn’t exist until 2009?
When your Granddad started his radio show back in '04, I thought the biggest problem in America was dishonesty in public discourse. I had spent a great deal of time and effort combating it. But as I learned, day by day, about all the problems facing our country, I started detecting a common thread. Whether it was the crisis in veterans' benefits, the causes of bankruptcy, the pressure on corporate pensions, or the health of our nation, there was one root cause. It wasn't Ann Coulter, as bad as she was. It was the fact that America, unlike every other developed nation in the world, didn’t guarantee that every one of its citizens would have access to health care.
At the time, America spent a far higher fraction of its income on health care than any other industrialized country, but got far less in return. In terms of health status and patient satisfaction, the U.S. was at the very bottom. And Americans were the fattest people on earth.
Why hadn’t we fixed the problem? It wasn't that Americans didn't want universal health care. For decades, opinion polls had showed that large majorities of Americans supported it. But since the 1940s, every time universal health care had been proposed, the special interests---the drug companies, the insurance companies, the for-profit hospitals owned by the Frist family---had killed it.
Now the game had changed. Government was finally aligned with the special-est interest of all: the people. And the people got what they wanted and needed.
This sent a message to the special interests: You're not so damn special anymore. Get over yourselves.
Just one of the many reasons that I'm glad he's in the thick of it. And I hope he's right.
P.S. The House seems to be on the right track, anyway. Yay.
Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Note: Set your rat traps! Dick Cheney's gone into hiding and he could be lurking anywhere.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Sarah Palin officially vacates the governor's office in her pursuit of proving that she's not a quitter: 11
Days `til the 17th annual Vermont Brewers Festival in Burlington: 3
Rank of restaurants among industries with the highest number of employees who say they don't fear getting laid off: #1
(Source: USA Today)
Percent chance, respectively, that a Hawaiian Airlines flight and a Comair flight will arrive on time: 90.3% / 65.7%
Rank of Hawaiian Airlines and Comair among 19 carriers monitored for on-time performance: 1 & 19
(Source: Transportation Dept. via AP)
Number of News & Documentary Emmys Fox News received yesterday from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: 92 0
(Source: KingOneEye)
Forecast high in, respectively, Baghdad and Kabul: 105°/ 92°
(Source: Weather.com)
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 167 (including 2 Tribulation Temples and 1 really short warning). Soul Protection Factor 24 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Friendly reminder
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Soniapalooza, Day 2
JEERS to bigots who just can't help themselves. I'm sure a lot of people hear the bullshit coming out of the mouth of Senator Jeff Sessions and say, "Well, he is from Alabama, what do you expect?" And that would be doing a huge disservice to the many progressives and otherwise sane people who live there. But jeez...he sure is terrible poster child for the south:
Had you voted with Judge Cabranes, himself of Puerto Rican ancestry, had you voted with him, you could have changed that case. So in truth you weren't bound by that case.
Yeah, those shifty Puerto Ricans...they always travel in gangs, snapping their fingers as they walk, like the Sharks in West Side Story. At least when Sessions tried to name-drop a second time in the hopes of tarnishing Judge Sotomayor's reputation, the person he named was---unbeknownst to him---in the chamber and quite prepared to sing her praises. Final outcome: Sotomayor gets to help herself to the all-you-can-eat dessert bar at Country Buffet. Sessions gets the towel-snap line in the Senate cloak room.
CHEERS to the wisdom of our neighbors. Margaret Wente is a columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail, and I might be inclined to tell her to stay out of our bid'ness...but, doggone it, she hits the bullseye:
Sonia Sotomayor, a Latina who grew up in a Bronx housing project, is a shoo-in for the Supreme Court. Barack Obama knew exactly what he was doing when he picked her. She is a symbol of Hispanic aspirations in a country where Hispanics are an increasingly powerful political force. She's known for her ferocious drive and work ethic and, despite what you may hear, she appears to be a moderate. She represents the American dream in action. The Republicans hate her.
Sarah Palin was the most scarily incompetent vice-presidential nominee in the history of the United States. She graduated from the University of Idaho, where she majored in communications (still not her strong suit). She represents the Peter Principle in action. The Republicans love her. ...
People who argue that Sarah Palin is good for America while Sonia Sotomayor is a threat are obviously out of their minds. They are determined to drive their own party off a cliff into oblivion. And they're succeeding nicely.
And they make it look so easy.
JEERS to Orrin Hatch. Yesterday as he was wrapping up his questioning, the Utah Republican took a moment to express his SHOCK and DISGUST over something EVIL and OUTRAGEOUS that People for the American Way (PFAW) might have written about Frank Ricci. (I was so shocked I almost fell asleep reading it.) Hatch went on to say that such outrageous remarks have NO PLACE in these hearings...which is why he injected them into the hearings even though nobody else had injected them or had any intention of injecting them into the hearings. And that, class, is what we call a straw man argument. Now that you've had some book learnin'...let's tap a keg.
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The rest
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CHEERS to Arch rivals. President Obama attended the 80th All-Star Game last night in St. Louis, which should've brought the National League good luck because their record is 4-0 when the president has thrown the first pitch. Not this time---the American League---[yawn]---won 4-3, thanks to MVP Carl Crawford's home-run-robbing catch in the seventh inning. But the NL won the chaw-spitting contest, so...call it a draw?
JEERS to Mr. Wrong-O. Bob Novak reported this little nugget a year ago, and got all our hopes up:
Democratic insiders are certain that Sen. Joseph Lieberman will be kicked out of the party’s caucus next year and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned. Lieberman’s Democratic colleagues willing to accept his support of Sen. John McCain for president consider his speaking to the GOP convention as the last straw.
Not only did he give a speech at the Republican convention praising McCain (and, let's not forget, Sarah Palin) as the last great hope for the Republic, he was allowed to remain in the caucus and only lost a single sub-committee chairmanship and his key to the executive washroom. (He continues to chair the Homeland Security committee, which makes me feel really really un-homelandsecuritized.) In return he's come out against the public option in health care reform and continues pressing for us to throw more bombs around in the Middle East. With friends like these...
CHEERS to nailing Stephen. Hooray...finally the infallible host of The Colbert Report gets caught making a molehill out of a mountain. From an email he sent to Mark Sanford's press secretary, Joel Sawyer, just before the scandal broke:
If the governor is looking for a friendly place to make light of what I think is a small story that got blown out of scale I would be happy to have him on. In person here, on the phone, or in South Carolina.
Will we ever trust him again?
CHEERS to pleasant surprises. Thirty eight years ago, on July 15, 1971, President Nixon caused a stir when he announced he was leavin' on a jet plane to visit China wearing nothing but argyle socks and a cape. His mission: "To find the golden bedpan of the Yangtze and use it to smite my enemies." Fortunately Pat was there to lock him in the bedroom until he sobered up.
JEERS to not-so-funny games. See if you can spot the headline that doesn’t belong here:
>> Man robs bank
>> Thug steals candy from baby
>> Arsonist sets fire to homeless shelter
>> Goldman Sachs earns highest profits in world history during severe recession by taking citizens' bailout money and loaning it back to them at a profit as Wall Street executives and CNBC pundits achieve simultaneous orgasm.
>> Geezer kicks puppy
Frankly, I'm stumped.
JEERS to Vatican vitriol. 804 years ago today, on July 15, 1205, Pope Innocent III decreed that Jews would be doomed to perpetual servitude and subjugation because they killed Jesus. His pronouncement was immediately followed by: "Ow! Who threw that?!!"
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Five years ago in C&J: July 15, 2004
CHEERS to heroes on the schedule. Howard Dean will speak on opening night of the Democratic convention. Good. We need a reminder---yet again---that we're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore.
JEERS to the politics of fear, part 349. Pennsylvania senator Rick "Dick" Santorum arguing for the Defense of Marriage amendment: "I would argue that the future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance. Isn't that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?" Memo to Tom Ridge: better goose us up to "Orange"---this sounds serious.
[7/15/09 Update: Speaking of Level Orange, Obama is thinking of taking away one of America's most generous fountains of amusement: the color-coded terror-threat alert system. That makes me blue.]
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And just one more...
CHEERS to going above and beyond. A week ago in C&J we set a mini-goal of raising $1,000 toward the $50k needed for this year's Netroots for the Troops campaign. Yesterday we got some good news from the bean counters:
On Wednesday July 8th, the day you did the NFTT C&J, we raised $3,451.00. That is simply outstanding!
Now, if I was a typical fundraiser-type, I'd say something like, "That's great but we can do BETTER---so now let's DOUBLE it!!!" That always frustrates the hell outta me when people do that because it dilutes the feeling of success and makes me feel like I'm being played. No---I set the goal and you blew the doors off it. For today at least, let's all strut around like peacocks and bask in our collective awesomeness. (I should add: stuffing peacock feathers up yer hiney is optional. And, trust me, very painful.)
Have a nice Wednesday. I'd warn you to stay out of trouble but I can see I'm too late. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
The Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act would ban the creation of human-animal hybrids. Human-animal hybrids are defined as part-Bill in Portland Maine, part-animal creatures, which are created in laboratories, and blur the line between species.
---The Sam Brownback/Mary Landrieu Human-Animal Hybrid Prohibition Act of 2009.
7/10/09
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