From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
Hey, we're going to be brief in our intro to make way for election posts. I've been meaning to invite you to join us in the Cheers and Jeers chat room some evening. So...consider this your invitation.
C&J'er Baldwiny started the C&J Cafe "back in the day," and it's taken on quite a life of its own. To get there, simply click here to go to the home page. Read the opening paragraph very carefully, then click "Join This Group." Be sure to let us know your dKos user ID in the "Comment To Owner" form. We need to know who you are to approve you. If you have questions, just ask. If all else fails, email me and I'll put you in touch with someone who can help walk you through it. Over 200 folks are already registered.
It's a spontaneous labor of love and community, formed by friends who share a Progressive/Democratic viewpoint. We rant, rave, cheer, jeer and---heh heh---plot. I will never cease to be amazed at how C&J---and Daily Kos, to which we owe our existence (and sanity)---has taken on such a life of its own. Hope to see you in the Café soon!
Now...what's all this talk about elections. Did we miss something?? Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Note: Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem! (Stand aside, plebians! I am on imperial business!)
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By the Numbers:
Days `til Veterans' Day: 2
Days `til the Yearly Kos Convention in Las Vegas June 8-11: 211
Bush's approval in the latest Pew Research poll: 36%
Percent of Americans who believe the U.S. and British governments lied to justify the Iraq invasion: 43%
Percent who think the Libby indictment is a big deal: 79%
(Source: Pew Research poll)
Number of holiday shopping catalogues being sent out by retailers this year: 18 billion
(SmartMoney via The Week magazine)
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Your Puppy Pic of the Day: "Yeah, she may be a ball and chain, but she's my ball and chain..."
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Election results:
CHEERS to mandates for man daters (or...new wules for wooing women, although that doesn't have quite the same ring to it). In Maine, voters overwhelmingly (55-45) told the Christian knuckledraggers that a gay rights law was a pretty good idea. For the first time in my 41 years, I now cannot be fired; denied housing, credit, or a room at a hotel; or be turned away from a college or university strictly because of my sexual orientation. Unfortunately, I happen to be a loud, incompetent, bed-breaking, intellectually-challenged nincompoop with twenty maxed-out credit cards. Shit.
P.S. New England is now the only region in the country where every state has a gay rights law in place. First again.
CHEERS to California voters. With the defeat of all the ballot initiatives last night, they've ensured that the most enduring legacy of Arnold Schwarzenneggar between 2003 and 2007 will be as Prince Hapi in Around the World in 80 Days. Oh, let's just say it together: "Girlie Man."
CHEERS to real science. Good news from Dover, Pennsylvania where, as Kos said, "Eight sane Dems swept out eight crazy fundamentalists" on the school board in a defeat for the creationism crowd. Next: Santorum...and his little dog, too!
CHEERS to pummeling the pachyderms. In New Jersey, Doug Forrester got clobbered (53-43) by Democrat Jon Corzine. Meanwhile, In Virginia, Tim Kaine defeated Jerry Kilgore...seen here being consoled by his buddy, President George W. Cinderblock. Everything he touches...
The Rest:
CHEERS or JEERS to Olympia Snowe. The New York Times calls her the Best Hope for Fiscal Sanity in Washington:
In the next day or so, Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, will decide the final shape of the tax bill moving through the Senate Finance Committee. Fiscal sanity hangs in the balance. The committee has 11 Republicans and 9 Democrats; if Senator Snowe votes no, the tie vote will defeat the tax package.
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Many [Republican] lawmakers insist that they cannot spend an additional $3 billion for adequate heating subsidies this winter for low-income people. And that is where Senator Snowe comes in. A rare Republican voice for fiscal responsibility, she voted against the Senate's version of the bill on spending cuts, in large part because it did not provide adequate heating aid. Now, lo and behold, it appears that the committee's leadership may add to the tax package a new $500 tax credit to be used, presumably, to offset heating costs.
A tax credit is a bad way to deliver heating aid. It won't help the poorest people, who have no tax liability, and will be available to people who don't really need it.
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By refusing to support another round of tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers, Senator Snowe could limit the committee's tax package to the few items that everyone agrees need to be passed---like extending beyond this year the law that gives middle-class taxpayers much-needed relief from the alternative minimum tax. Heating aid for the needy must be financed separately, and soon.
It's not politics to hold the needs of the poor hostage to the demands of the rich. It's blackmail.
Trust me, Senator---black is not your color.
JEERS to American Thugratocracy. It was one year ago that we stormed into Fallujah to put down the insurgency...and one year since the apparent implementation of the new Rumsfeld doctrine: if we can't win the hearts and minds of the people there, by God we'll use phosphorus bombs to turn their hearts and minds into goo. Forget bird flu...this is enough to make me sick for a lifetime.
P.S. Memo to the mainstream media: I know you don't want to hurt yourself in the stampede to report on these hideous atrocities. So maybe start with one paragraph in the fashion section and work your way up. Take your time---you wouldn't want to sprain your pinky.
CHEERS to former Senator Bob Graham. Diary entry #2,347,421---11/9/05---7:16am: Happy Birthday to Me. Happy Birthday to Me. Happy 69th Birthday Dear Myself. Happy Birthday to Me. 7:17am: Flushed. On to breakfast!
JEERS to back-slapping with the enemy. Ahmed "Dick" Chalabi is in Washington to hobnob with Republicans over how swell Iraq is going. Meanwhile, Think Progress has a list of his deeds of death, deceit and destruction that is literally---we printed it out and measured it---as long as my arm. I thought we were supposed to fight the enemy over there so we wouldn't have to see their sorry-ass faces over here.
CHEERS to speaking up. Major General John Libby is Maine's top military guy. He just got back from visiting his National Guard troops in Iraq and is not happy about how his 152nd Maintenance Company is being shuffled around:
"Three years in . . . it's inexcusable to have brought a maintenance company over there to do anything but maintenance," Libby said. "It's particularly galling to me when I strip myself of full-time mechanics and they get there and they're in a tower." Libby, speaking with reporters Thursday, said switching assignments on the unit hurts his ability to recruit and retain soldiers for the Guard.
But what really caught our eye was this little bombshell...
With the latest deployment, about 80 percent of the Maine National Guard will have been deployed during the current conflict. Those soldiers cannot be made to return under current rules that limit to 24 months guardsmen's active-duty obligation, he said.
"The Maine National Guard is just about out of the fight, as the overall National Guard is," he said. That poses a problem for the long-term presence of the Army in Iraq, he said. The National Guard and Reserve make up almost half of the 133,000 troops now in the country.
"Two years from now, where is that 133,000 going to come from? We're flat out of troops in the National Guard," Libby said.
Enough bullshitting, young Republicans. This is your fight...so shut up and sign up! (We promise we'll put a yellow ribbon magnet on our car just for you.)
JEERS to America's old allies. On this date in 1980, Saddam Hussein declared war against Iran. And we couldn't start selling weapons of mass destruction to him fast enough. Hooray...for...us?
CHEERS to shooting yourself in the ass. (Via Crooks And Liars) Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert demand...DEMAND!!...an investigation into who leaked the fact that the United States has set up secret torture chambers in eastern Europe. Turns out the leaker was a friggin' Republican Senator. Oh yes, please...let the investigation begin.
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One Year Ago in C&J: November 9, 2004...
JEERS to The Odd Couple. Ahmed Chalabi--who sat next to Laura Bush at this year's State of the Union address---and Shiite madman Muqtada al-Sadr are teaming up to be Iraq's first duly-elected leaders. Throw some popcorn in the microwave, kids...and let's watch this train wreck together.
CHEERS to European visitors. The Euro keeps getting stronger vs. the not-so-almighty dollar, making vacations to the USA more affordable than ever. Kinda makes me wish we hadn't scared `em off by electing George W. Ferretface last Tuesday.
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And just one more...
JEERS to car bombs of the avian kind. So, okay, you're a bird. And you're tired of being vilified in the media. You want to send a message that says, "Hey humans, tone it down." What do you do? Well, this appears to be Phase One. If they go to Phase 2, no mall parking lot will be safe.
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Floor's open. What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless Testimonial:
"We do not cheer and jeer!"
---President Bush
11/7/05
