From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
A Plan…and a Pic!
First, the plan. After Maine voters added marriage equality to our already existing non-discrimination law last year, there were murmurings of, "Ooookay…what's next for the LGBT movement here?" Yesterday our state's largest LGBT advocacy group, EqualityMaine, released a five year plan that answers the question with a definitive, "Plenty!" Says executive director Betsy Smith:
"There has been tremendous progress for our community in Maine, from adoption, non-discrimination and anti-bullying laws, to our historic win on marriage last year, but across Maine LGBT people---especially youth, elders and transgender Mainers – still face bias, discrimination and hardship every single day. Our work isn’t done until equality is real for every person in every town in Maine." The five-year plan, in brief:
√ Build community among and empower LGBT people in rural Maine
√ Create a more inclusive, supportive, and affirming climate in Maine for LGBT, questioning and gender non-conforming youth
√ Ensure LGBT elders are safe, healthy, connected in the community, and free from discrimination
√ Ensure transgender and gender non-conforming people are safe, healthy and free from discrimination and bias
You can
read the full plan here. I like the objectives. I hate that it's 2013 and they're still on the to-do list. Equality's work is never done.
And now, a pic. I was sorting through my photo archive yesterday and came across one I meant to post a couple weeks ago. Gives me the googlies:
Progress. It's what's for breakfast.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Note: If you can guess today's secret C&J mystery phrase, you'll win a box of popsicle sticks. Some may even have popsicles attached!
-
"Hello, New York!!!"
-
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the
Major League All-Star Game:
6
Days 'til the 35th annual
Mississippi Watermelon Festival in Mize:
9
Increase in factory orders in May:
2.1%
(Source: Commerce Dept.)
Number of people who are planning to take a cruise in 2013, up 3 percent from last year:
21 million
(Source: cruisemarketwatch.com via
USA Today)
Percent of American adults who agree with the Supreme Court's decision to declare a key component of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional:
56%
(Source: Washington Post-ABC News poll)
Number of Popsicle sticks that are sold every year with Popsicles attached to them:
2 billion
Percent chance that Popsicle sticks are made of birch:
100%
(Source: Popsicle)
-
Mid-week Rapture Index: 183 (including 3 Popsicle sticks and 1 bully pulpit). Soul Protection Factor 24 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Shlorpy Shlorpy...
-
CHEERS to judicial sanity. In Wisconsin, Governor Ultrasound (not to be confused with Virginia Governor Ultrasound or Ohio Governor Ultrasound or any of the other Republican Governor Ultrasounds) saw his war on womens' health snap like a popsicle stick this week. In a word: restrainingorder:
Thanks, Judge Billy!
-
-
U.S. District Judge William Conley granted the order following a hearing in a lawsuit filed Friday by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin and Affiliated Medical Services. It alleged the [hospital admitting privileges] requirement would unconstitutionally restrict the availability of abortions in the state, violates the U.S. Constitution’s due process guarantee and unconstitutionally treats doctors who perform abortions differently from those who perform other procedures.
“Moreover, the record to date strongly supports a finding that no medical purpose is served by this requirement,” he said.
But not all is lost in Puritanville. The forced ultrasound provision still stands. A victory for Wisconsin's biggest pricks.
Maine's new logo,
thanks to our guv.
-
JEERS to Tea Party values. While sucking on a popsicle stick, Maine Governor
Paul LeVaseline vetoed a bill that would seek to
prevent companies that make kid-related products from poisoning their customers with harmful chemicals, despite a compromise proposal that would slash the cost by nearly two-thirds. That he would be so pigheaded about such common-sense---and overwhelmingly approved---legislation comes as no surprise. He's been buying veto-pen ink
by the barrel:
Monday's slew of vetoes brings LePage's total for the current legislative session to 82---33 more than the record of 49 set in 1977 by independent Gov. James Longley.
Just a wild guess, but I think we've found the mythical line between governmental restraint and being a jerk. And crossed it, oh, about 33 times.
CHEERS to the best medicine popsicle sticks can buy. As you probably know, Teresa Heinz Kerry inconvenienced us all by earning a one-way trip to the hospital over the weekend. The first thing I said when I heard the news was, "With Popsicle Stick as my witness, ye will get better!" Then I clicked my heels three times and guess what? She got better:
The Kerrys with grand-
son Alexander in Feb.
[H]er condition is improving, and doctors have ruled out some of the scarier possibilities.
A spokesman for Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that while his wife, 74, remains at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital after falling ill with seizure-like symptoms, physicians have ruled out a brain tumor, stroke or heart attack as the underlying cause.
I can also bend spoons with my mind.
CHEERS to the 44th state. On July 10, 1890, Wyoming---the "Popsicle Stick State"---joined the union:
Look! There's an "unincorporated community"
in Wyoming named after moi!
It's home to Yellowstone National Park, the Grand Teton, and Dick Cheney. Oh well...two outta three ain't bad.
CHEERS to timely toodle-oos. Sure it's a trial balloon. But at least it's the good kind. President Obama, tired of Hamid Karzai sticking his popsicle-stick-like finger in America's eye, is thinking of taking off his friendship bracelet and shouting, "See ya! Wouldn’t wanna be ya!!!" If he makes good on his alleged threat to pull out of Afghanistan entirely by next year, that would mean we'd have no combat troops fighting in any wars for the first time in nearly 13 years. Or, as the American public likes to call it: "Shhh! Don’t interrupt me with things I'm not paying attention to anymore while I'm watching Duck Dynasty!!!"
Money makes this
go round and round...
-
JEERS to money money money money MONEY!!! That's the goal of both the U.S. and the European Union this week as a
(hardly)-free trade agreement gets hammered out. Things are slow-going at the moment. So far all that's been traded is a platter of wienerschnitzel for a bag of popsicle sticks. Plus there's another bug in the ointment: Europe says it's cheesed off at the new revelations that we've been eavesdropping on them at the highest levels. It didn't help matters when our representative said in response: "Yeah, we hear ya loud and clear. Well, mostly loud and clear but sometimes a little fuzzy when the cleaning crew is vacuuming next to the microphone hidden behind the Monet." Memo to the White House from the head negotiator: send more popsicle sticks.
-
Five years ago in C&J: July 10, 2008
JEERS to kicking James Madison in the teeth. Yesterday 69 Senators, having scrambled their brains with popsicle sticks, subverted the Constitution and passed the new FISA law, which will now go to President Bush's desk for signin'. (We hear Vladimir Putin sent a lovely congratulatory bouquet to the White House). Your communications devices will be working intermittently today due to the fact that all the telco executives are celebrating by turning their uplink dishes into punch bowls.
Miss ya, Ted.
-
-
CHEERS to Ted Kennedy. At least George Bush didn't get everything he wanted yesterday. The President and his Medicare-hating goons thought they had the Dems by the short end of the popsicle stick, when the crazy (like a fox) old Massachusetts liberal walked in, raised his arms and bellowed,
"Yippee Ki Aye, muthufukkahs!"
"I return to the Senate today to keep a promise to our senior citizens and that’s to protect Medicare. Win, lose or draw, I wanted to be here. I wasn’t going to take the chance that my vote could make the difference."
Did it make a difference? You bet---his vote now makes the bill veto-proof. Oh, and guess who was the only senator to miss the vote? Yep...McCain. He was too busy telling his town hall audiences how America isn't meeting its quota of death and destruction around the world. Naturally, his minions applauded.
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to hot popsicle-stick-on-popsicle-stick action. You made it this far into today's obnoxious column, and now you will be rewarded with Miles and Andre's awesome popsicle stick bomb. So cool...
Oh, that reminds me: if you said the secret C&J mystery phrase was "oogum snoogum," you win!
Have a cold, frosty, fruit-flavored Wednesday that's attached to a thin stick of wood. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
When it comes to getting through Cheers and Jeers, at least for us, the popsicle is an undisputed necessity.
---Cassandra Landry
Metro
-