From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
"Hey…Love Yer Sig."
Just sitting here drumming my fingers waiting for the robed oracles to reveal how maniacally they took a chainsaw to the Affordable Care Act. (Thursday, we hear.) Seems like a good time to go trolling undercover in random DKos diaries for the pearls of wisdom known as "sig lines," which you can create in your user profile. Searching 'em out is addicting, in part because they often accompany some long and thought-provoking comment threads I'd otherwise have missed. Here are a few I bumped into yesterday:
Regulate banks, not vaginas (Ministry of Truth)
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Conservatives need to realize that their Silent Moral Majority is neither silent, nor moral, nor a majority. (Nominalize)
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We're not perfect, but they're nuts! -- Barney Frank (Tamar)
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I am from the Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party (LeftHandedMan)
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I vote Democratic because I am a woman with self-respect, who rejects bigotry of all kinds, subscribes to science, believes in universal health care, embraces unions, and endorses smart internationalist foreign policy. (Delilah)
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Arizona: Remember the good old days, when we were just known as the Grand Canyon State? (AZ RedWingsFan)
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I'm already against the next war. (Knucklehead)
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“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” ― George Orwell (David W)
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It's not a fake orgasm; it's a real yawn. (sayitaintso)
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"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously." -- Hubert H. Humphrey (Candide08)
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Chicago--Proud Home of the 1908 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs (Jeff Y)
And the winner of this round from Lefty Coaster as a reminder of what's at stake in November:
"We don't need someone who can think. We need someone with enough digits to hold a pen." ~ Grover Norquist
If I didn’t pick your sig line, please don’t take it personally. It's just the fulfillment of a vendetta I've been plotting against you for several years. I wish I could remember why. Oh well...bwoo ha ha, anyway.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Note: No apologies were issued to anyone during the writing and publishing of this column. We apologize for the inconvenience. (Doh! Okay, except for that one.)
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Bastille Day: 18
Days 'til the 20th annual International Mango Festival in Coral Gables, Florida: 18
Percent of Americans who want "only small modifications to the 2010 Affordable Care Act": 43%
Percent who want the ACA to be left intact and repealed, respectively: 15%, 34%
(Source: Bloomberg News poll)
Average per-gallon price of gas, down 47 cents from its high in April: $3.47
Expected date by which gas is expected to hit 3 bucks a gallon: 10/31/12
(Source: USA Today)
Number of styrofoam cups people throw away every year: 25 million
Time it takes for each one to break down: 500 years
(Source: EPA)
Number of commercial flight diversions to the Bangor, Maine Airport since 2004 due to terrorism threats, mechanical failure or other issues: 627
(Source: WCSH News)
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
If Mitt Romney’s campaign adopts the following slogan, then, and only then, I will cast my vote for Romney in November. Yes, my vote is for sale, and this is the pricetag. SEE WHAT FREE MEN CAN DO. That’s a line I picked up from “Fallen Angels", and I just thought of it watching TRON:Legacy as Sam Flynn base-jumped off the Encom skyscraper. … They should adopt it because it’s a winning slogan; I can feel it.
---Commenter hram at the Michelle Malkin blog
All together now: 1…2…3…
Awesome!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: What? You mean humans make snap judgments based on irrational assumptions like what kind of dog you own? Shocking.
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CHEERS to defying expectations. Wow. Yesterday the Supreme Court said to Governor Jan Brewer and her xenophobic ilk in Arizona: "The Feds can handle immigration enforcement on its own just fine, kthxbai." The more I hear about it, the more it comes off as a huge win for the Obama administration and the Hispanic community that was targeted by the tea party. Says constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley:
The invalidation of the [three] provisions does not bode well for states and cities in passing a host of laws involving illegal immigrants. Ruled preempted are (1) Section 3 making it a state crime to be here illegally; (2) Section 5(C) making it a state crime for undocumented immigrants to apply for a job or working in the state and (3) Section 6 allowing state law enforcement officials to arrest without a warrant any individual otherwise lawfully in the country when they have probable cause to believe the individual has committed a deportable offense.
Or, as Lawrence O'Donnell explained last night: the only thing to survive the Supremes' test is a part of the so-called 'papers, please' provision, which is "hanging by a thread" and will almost certainly be overturned eventually. No wonder President Obama says he's
"pleased.". Sadly, the Court wasn't able to toss out the biggest hunk of deadweight in this fight: Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
CHEERS to justice served. In other law enforcement news, Friday night Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky found out that he's going to jail for the rest of his life. (As a convicted serial child molester, don’t be surprised if the other inmates see to it that the rest of his life is on the short-ish side---they're not real fond of that particular brand of criminal.) But the look-the-other-way'ers and cover-up'ers aren't out of the woods by any stretch, so this cloud of awfulness will continue to swirl over the school. Memo to the University's legal team: try not to live down to your profession's reputation when you're dealing with the victims, 'k?
JEERS (or CHEERS) to crying "Poor" (or not). I got two conflicting messages almost simultaneously over the weekend. First was this email from Obama staffer Stephanie Cutter:
For the first time in modern American history, the incumbent (that's us) will get outspent in a re-election campaign---by some estimates as much as 3-to-1. Four months to go in this election, and we have a huge fundraising deadline coming up in less than a week---any day we're not chipping away at that disadvantage, we're falling behind.
Yikes!!! The Obama campaign is literally turning its pockets inside out and looking under the sofa cushions just so it can keep the bumper stickers rolling off the presses. Or…is it? At the same time I got that email, Howard Fineman was saying this on
The Chris Matthews Show:
"The new conventional wisdom is that the Republicans are going to greatly out-raise Barack Obama in terms of money. Don’t believe it. I think the Obama people are 'poor-mouthing' a bit. They've got more big donors this time than last time."
Who's right? As usual, probably a little of both. The Sheldon Adelsons of the right are more numerous, sure, but I find it inconceivable that the Richie Riches of the left don’t understand that four (and possibly eight) years of Romney means a third (and possibly fourth) term for the Bush-era string pullers. Everyone…
to the sofa cushions!
CHEERS to gastronomical greetings. On June 26, 1963, JFK delivered a speech in then-West Berlin where he said, famously, "Ich bin ein Berliner!" Over the years many people have erroneously said that he was calling himself a jelly doughnut, but that is not true---he was referring to himself as a citizen of Berlin. Unfortunately, things later turned awkward when, after his speech, he said he was so hungry he could eat half a dozen Frankfurters.
JEERS to the deafening silence. And now a word from Republicans on the great news about falling gas prices, which are expected to reach $3 or less by election day, freeing up roughly $114 billion in savings that consumers can spend on things besides gas, thus giving the economy a little shot in the arm:
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And they mean it!
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Five years ago in C&J: June 26, 2007:
CHEERS to the Airing of the Grievances. If you're near Portland this Thursday, you should stop by Portland High School (on Cumberland Avenue) between 4 and 11. All five FCC commissioners will be there for an open forum on media consolidation. Gee, with our top TV stations and one local newspaper owned by out-of-state corporations, and our radio stations dominated by Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, Gallagher, Ingraham, Savage, Drudge, Carr and Boortz (and zero liberal shows since Air America got booted from the airwaves), I can't imagine what we'll have to talk about.
JEERS to sub schlubs. Paula Zahn is on vacation next week, and CNN has picked her replacement. It makes you wonder what deep, dirty blackmail-worthy secrets Glenn Beck has on "The Most Trusted Name in News" that keeps him stuck to their shoe like chewing gum? My guess: Blitzer porn. [6/26/12 Update: Five years later, Beck has been booted from both CNN and Fox News. Today he spends his time planning a right-wing version of Glee via his subscription-only internet show. Can't wait for the Anita Bryant-themed episode!]
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And just one more…
CHEERS to U.S. Mint-y freshness. Woo-hoo!!! It's finally here! Three years into the state quarter program celebrating our country's national parks, the most important entry in the "America the Beautiful" series gets its official launch at 9:30 this morning. Behold Maine's tribute to Acadia National Park. It features Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, which President Obama visited with the family a couple years ago. This is only the second quarter in U.S. history to show a traditional lighthouse, the first being Pemaquid Point Light on the 2003 Maine quarter. By the way, do you know what lighthouse keepers have for breakfast? Eggs in beacon. (Borscht Belt, here I come!)
Have a great Tuesday, debt bathers! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
You can sleep in Bill in Portland Maine's bedroom for $50K
---Zillow
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