Cheers and Jeers: Monday

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE

Six Months Later...

Six months ago, Barack Obama took the oath of office---twice---and became our nation's 44th president amid a recession bordering on a depression, record-low consumer confidence, two undeclared wars, crumbling infrastructure, and a tarnished reputation around the world.

So...how's he doing? Here's my scorecard:

The Good: - Signing an order to close the Guantanamo prison within a year - Signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - Re-authorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program - Allowing states to determine their own vehicle emissions standards - Efforts to help save the American auto industry - Decent cabinet picks - Sonia Sotomayor - The Cairo speech and outreach to the international community - Not interfering with the turmoil in Iran - The First Pooch - Green shoots! - Inspiring and energizing African-Americans - Honoring the timeline for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq's major cities - House passes climate-change bill - Allowing federal funding of stem cell research - Taking a pragmatic stand on the Israel/Palestine conflict - His buoyant personality, sense of humor, energy and optimism - First Lady Michelle Obama - HAVING A VALID U.S. BIRTH CERTIFICATE, YOU BOOGER-EATING FREEPER MORON SHIT-FOR-BRAINS DROPPED-ON-YOUR-HEADS-AT-BIRTH BOTTOM FEEDERS!!!

Ahem. [Straightens tie]

The Bad: - Lots of talk but no action on gay civil rights - Refusal to investigate documented lawbreaking and war crimes by the previous administration - Not delivering the Executive Branch transparency as promised - The "Special Olympics" wisecrack on The Tonight Show - Bailing out the "too big to fail" banks without much transparency or accountability or additional regulation - Spending too much time pitching woo to Republicans who have no intention of reciprocating - An unemployment rate that, while not his fault, was underestimated - Turning a mostly-deaf ear to progressive economists - No end in sight to our military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan

The Yet-to-be-Determined: - The effects of the $787 billion stimulus and pushing through another one if necessary - The renewed surge in Afghanistan - Health care reform - Homeland Security reform that includes ditching the color-coded threat alerts - Inviting me to the White House to help weed the vegetable garden

So, in my opinion, a generally positive but often troubling start. For reasons I can’t understand, a true progressive agenda with real reform is still treated as somehow toxic. Obama frequently opts to stand in the middle of the road where, as Jim Hightower says, there's "nothing but yellow stripes and dead armadillos." No doubt it's partly because our party is more ideologically-fragmented than the other side, but it's still frustrating.

With Bush/Cheney you knew you were getting a radical conservative agenda hellbent on making the rich richer and their cronies cronier. But Obama/Biden? I'm not sure yet. Maybe we'll have a better handle on 'em in another Friedman Unit.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Cheers and Jeers for Monday, July 20, 2009

Note:  The only way C&J isn’t getting posted today is if it has a complete meltdown.

-

By the Numbers:
Days 'til Barack Obama's birthday: 15
Days `til the Philadelphia Zoo Summer Ale Festival: 5
Number of states in which the jobless rate is over 10 percent: 15
Unemployment rate in Michigan and North Dakota, which have, respectively, the highest and lowest unemployment rates in the country: 15.2% & 4.2%
(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Number of fire boats Portland, Maine has had since it got its first one 113 years ago: 4
(Source: Portland Daily Sun)
Years Walter and Betsy Cronkite were married: 64
(Source: Portland Press Herald)
Percent chance that someone will publish a book called James Inhofe's Energy Saving Tips: 0%

-

And now..."Pimping Pittsburgh!"  

Brought to you by the Netroots Nation Convention August 13-16.  In a word..."Oops":

An evening view of the city's Downtown skyline offers more than just a beautiful blend of old and new architecture towering over glistening moonlit rivers.

If you look high atop the 33-story Grant Building, you see the red neon lights flashing, in International Morse Code, a one-word message:

"P-I-T-E-T-S-B-K-R-R-H"

They say it's been fixed and that the lights now flash the correct word: "B-O-O-G-E-R."

-

Puppy Pic of the Day:  "He authorized torture, he went to war for bogus reasons, he wiretaps without warrants, he pulls my ears...  Am I goin' too fast for ya, Mr. Rocketman?"

-

CHEERS to telling it the way it was.  Whoever coined the phrase "trust but verify" forgot to add an asterisk with this disclaimer: "Unless you're watching Walter Cronkite."  He was the personification of verification, and now he's gone at the ripe old age of 92.  Johnny Carson did a bang-up impression of him shortly after Cronkite's last broadcast.  In addition to his titanic journalism bona fides, we envy him for enjoying an active retirement that lasted 28 years.  We should all be so lucky.

CHEERS to decoratin' the homestead.  To help facilitate the housing turnaround, the Space Shuttle Endeavour brought up a cargo Bay full of stuff from Home Depot, and over the weekend they helped the folks at the International Space Station build a porch.  Too bad they forgot to bolt down the rockin' chairs.

JEERS to ceding the moral high ground.  Word over the weekend that the Taliban has captured one of our soldiers---Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl of Idaho.  I hope they don’t water-torture him.  Or sic dogs on him.  Or strip him naked and smear feces on him.  Or make him endure sleep deprivation or prolonged heat or cold or stress positions or slam his head into a wall or stick him in a box with insects or make him stand on a crate and hold wires that are connected to a car battery or put him at the top of a naked human pyramid.  Or accuse him of knowing where a "ticking time bomb" is located and use any form of violence they feel is necessary to extract the information out of him because, hey, that's what Jack Bauer does.  Because, if they do, what can we say?  "Don’t do that, it's torture?"  "We don’t condone that kind of thing?"  "Where's your humanity?"  "Follow our example?"  Seriously...what can we say?  As long as the people in the previous administration who authorized torture remain uninvestigated and unpunished, we can say...nothing.  Care to reconsider, Obama?

CHEERS to keeping score.  Looks like Sonia Sotomayor will be comfortably confirmed by the Senate.  In addition to 58 Democrats and 2 Independents, she has the support of Dick Lugar, Mel Martinez, and Maine's Olympia Snowe.  And wherever Snowe goes, Susan Collins is likely to follow.  Yipping and yapping behind her.

-
-

Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man.  Chris at Americablog asks:  Goldman Sachs: tone deaf, politically stupid or foolish?

Yes!

Now back to Cheers and Jeers.

Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

-
-

CHEERS to "One Small Step for...Whooooaaaa Shiiiiit!!!"  Forty years ago today, at 10:56 pm eastern time, John Kennedy's vision to have a man on the Moon by decade's end was realized when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on a heavenly body not named Earth.  One of the great but unheralded stories from July 20, 1969 was recounted in the underrated movie, "The Dish," which chronicles the role the Parkes Observatory in Australia played in broadcasting the iconic images from the moon.  This scene---which includes a glimpse of Cronkite's exuberance during the moonwalk---reminds us of how the world was united in awe that day.  Next: Mars, bitches?

JEERS to the Big Squander.  Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall reminds us that the Republican Congress---marching in lockstep for the worst U.S. president in history---passed a huge and irresponsible 1.35 trillion dollar (WOW!!!) tax cut eight years ago last month.  Democratic leaders called it right:

"Democrats want tax relief that goes to every taxpayer," Gephardt said. "This bill does not do that." The minority leader said the middle class will not benefit enough from the tax cut and the wealthy will reap unfairly high benefits.

New Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, has said Congress will eventually be forced to revisit the tax cut, which he argues is too large, too generous to the rich and too expensive.  "I just know that at some point that reality is going to come crashing down on all of us and we're going to have to deal with it," Daschle said Wednesday.

Are we having fun yet?

CHEERS to weekend warriors.  At age 44, I was this close to becoming the oldest competitor to win the Diaper Derby at the Yarmouth Clam Festival.  Instead, the title went to 17-month-old Charlie Padwe of Falmouth.  Lesson: don’t stop to go poopies halfway down the stretch no matter how big you think your lead is.  If you need me for anything today I'll be on the porch knockin' back shots with Tom Watson and yelling at the kids to get off the lawn.  The usual Monday routine.

-

Five years ago in C&J: July 20, 2004

JEERS to getting fooled.  Turns out Iran, not Iraq, was the big supporter of al Qaeda terrorists, including 10 who orchestrated attacks on 9/11.  So...anyone up for another military "liberation?"  I mean, since we're in the area...  Anybody?

CHEERS to convention preparations.  Meet Swifty the DNC donkey.  We like him---he's got Kerry's chin.

-

And just one more...

JEERS to newspapers that run at the speed of tortoise.  So I wrote a letter June 23rd to the editor of the Portland Press Herald about the upcoming "citizens veto" vote on marriage equality and how right-wing groups are already descending on our state to scare people into overturning the law.  They sat on it for 24 days.  Finally, after I'd assumed my 15-year 100% published-letter streak was dead, they finally ran it last Friday. Here's a snip that sums up the situation here:

The side that wants to uphold the Legislature's fair and thoughtfully considered marriage bill will do the hard work at the grass-roots level, neighbor-to-neighbor, community-by-community, and probably get outspent in the process.

And the other side? They'll stick their thumb on the scale by swinging open the doors to carpetbaggers---experts at spreading propaganda---who don't give a damn about Maine or the people who live here.  They just want another trophy for their wall.

You can read the rest here.  And yes, I'm sending a bill to the Catholic diocese that's running this show.  They burned my chaps.

Have a nice Monday.  We hope it's better than this guy's.  Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

-

Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:

"I think Bill in Portland Maine is a flawed character.  He can be quite selfish and really manipulative.  He's not all sweetness and light."
---Daniel Radcliff

-