From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Now This Guy I'd Walk Over Hot Coals For:
The 2004 Democratic National Convention was held in Boston eight years ago this week. Howard Dean, who ignited the lefty blogosphere (he's the reason I found this place), wasn't our nominee. But when he walked onstage Tuesday night, July 27, he did us all proud:
"America's greatness rests on far more than the power of our arms. Our greatness is also measured by our goodness. It is in the capacity of our minds, the size of our hearts, and the strength of our democracy.
History will be kind to this guy
As I've traveled America, I've seen that strength. I've seen it in the people I've met and their desire to take our country back for the American people. I saw it in a college student in Pennsylvania who sold her bicycle and sent us a check for $100 with a note that said, "I sold my bicycle for democracy." I saw it in a woman from Iowa who handed me $50---all in quarters. She saved it from her monthly disability check, because she wanted to make America well again. And I saw it in the 19-year-old from Alabama who had never been involved in politics before he got in his car and drove up to Vermont, because he didn't feel like he was being heard in Washington.
He was just one of so many. They learned that politics was too important to be left to the politicians. […] We're not going to be afraid to stand up for what we believe. We're not going to let those who disagree with us shout us down under a banner of false patriotism. And we're not going to give up a single voter, or a single state. We're going to be proud to call ourselves Democrats, not just here in Boston. We're going to be proud to call ourselves Democrats in Mississippi, proud to call ourselves Democrats in Utah and Idaho. And we're going to be proud to call ourselves Democrats in Texas.
Never again will we be ashamed to call ourselves Democrats. Never. Never. Never."
You can
watch it here, including the nearly three-minute roaring standing ovation he got.
Oh, and some obscure feller with a funny name made a bit of a splash there, too. Whatever happened to him?
Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Friday, July 27, 2012
Note: The British Olympic Committee would like to apologize to everyone who got splattered with flying bits of haggis during the opening ceremonies. They had no choice---the kidney pudding catapult malfunctioned. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til election day as of this Sunday: 100
Days 'til the Huckleberry Festival in Trout Creek, Montana: 14
Number of sitting U.S. senators in history who have been indicted: 10
Number of them who were Republican: 8
(Source: Fox News)
Total number of Olympic medals won during the Summer Games by, respectively, France, Germany and Britain: 633 / 659 / 725
Number of medals won by the United States: 2,302
Number of medals Michael Phelps needs to become the all-time highest winner, displacing Russian gymnast Larysa Latynina who won 18 between 1956 and 1964: 3
(Source: Parade)
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NEW! Friday Joe Lieberman Wanker Walk Countdown:
Joe Lieberman will end his Senate reign of error in 172 days.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Just another day at the beach…
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CHEERS to what happens when a Massachusetts Yankee Pisses in King Arthur's Court. For Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney it was
death by a thousand self-inflicted cuts: spilling beans about MI6, mislabeling the United Kingdom as the "Nation of Great Britain," strapping the Queen to the roof of a lorry, stabbing the Olympic organizers in the back, forgetting a bigwig's name, questioning the stiffness of their upper lips, and not understanding the hilarity of misusing the word "backside" in a land where Benny Hill made a cottage industry out of bum jokes. It got so bad that Romney wouldn't even let the press speak
to his horse. Heck, Howard Dean was nearly speechless about it last night on MSNBC---he managed to say "worse than Bush" before dissolving into convulsive laughter. So, having thoroughly pissed off one nuclear nation, Romney heads off to another: Israel. Memo to the U.S. Immigration Service: if he marvels that the Wailing Wall is "the right height," revoke his passport.
JEERS to blowing natural gas up our ass. Disappointing to hear that the EPA has ruled that the water is safe in northeastern Pennsylvania fracking country. Although it's interesting that one resident there says, "They recommended that we don’t use or drink the water, but told us they can't go public with that." Really. Tell ya what: let's pipe that water to the EPA inspectors' homes and see how they enjoy living with it. How 'bout it, EPA inspectors? Wouldn’t that be a swell way to show you stand by your rulings with absolutely no reservations? Aaaaaand…cue the crickets.
"Hey, kid. Can ya catch me a break?"
CHEERS to the end of the end. It was all over for Tricky Dick on July 27, 1974, thanks to a 27-11 vote by the House Judiciary Committee to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Nixon who, said ABC News's Tom Jarrell at the time, was
"presumably still in his swim trunks" while on vacation in California when he heard the news. Meanwhile, then-VP Gerald Ford just couldn’t help but play a little game of up-is-downism:
Ford: It's interesting that every Democrat on the committee---north and south---voted for the article. ... It tends to make it a partisan issue.
Reporter: Even if one-third of Republicans voted for it?
Ford: Well, the fact that every one of the Democrats voted for it, I think, uh, lends credence that it's a partisan issue, even though some Republicans have deviated.
...said the Republican who later unilaterally exonerated the Republican crook. But, hey, what's a little hypocrisy among friends?
JEERS to hounding the wrong guy. Sixteen years ago today, in 1996, domestic right-wing terrorist nut Eric Rudolph detonated a pipe bomb at the Summer Olympic games in Atlanta. The blast killed one person and injured over a hundred more, but it could've been worse if security guard Richard Jewell hadn’t found the bomb and tried to move people out of harm's way. The hero was later pilloried in the press and by the late-night gaggle (Leno called him the "Una-doofus") when it became known that the FBI considered him a suspect. Then, when his name was officially cleared, they moved on and dumped his reputation by the side of the road like a rodent carcass. Wikipedia reminds us of what the media should've learned:
Jewell's case became an example of the damage that can be done by reporting based on unreliable or incomplete information...
Mr. Lesson From The Past, meet Mr. ADD. (Right,
Mr. Ross?)
Janeane Garofalo and dear old Dad
in 'Mystery Men,' out on Blu-Ray
CHEERS to home vegetation. TV-wise, this weekend I'll be on the couch with both of my remote controls---the one that controls the TV and the one that
CONTROLS THE MINDS OF THE OLYMPIC ATHLETES BWOO HA HA…ha ha…um…ha. All things London are
here at the NBC site. Otherwise it's a quiet weekend. New DVD releases include mostly forgettable stuff, but there's the Blu-Ray of the cult classic
Mystery Men. Your MLB schedule is
here. On
60 Minutes: repeats of the excellent segments on Vincent van Gogh and families living out of their cars. And here's your Sunday morning lineup, now with C&J's EXCLUSIVE Supreme Court Justice Tally:
Meet the Press: Blessed summer relief---it won't be airing because of the Olympics. Supreme Court Justice Tally: 0
"I dunno, let me check. Anyone seen Amanda Hugginkiss?
I need Amanda Huggin... Hey, stop that!"
This Week: Battle of the surrogates! Obama's guy Robert Gibbs vs. Romney's guy Kevin Madden; roundtable with Donna Brazille, George Will, Dana Loesch and Ruth Marcus; Jonathan Karl interviews Dick Cheney, who informs him: "You use Evian skin cream, and sometimes you wear L'Air du Temps, but not today." Supreme Court Justice Tally: 0
Face the Nation: Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor!!!!! Supreme Court Justice Tally: 1
Bill Moyers & Company (link): Karl Marlantes is a highly-decorated Vietnam veteran, Rhodes Scholar, author, and PTSD survivor. He'll talk about what civilians need to understand about the minds and hearts of our servicemembers as they return to civilian life. Supreme Court Justice Tally: 0
Washington Week: Dan Balz of the WaPo on Romney's British blunder; Laura Meckler of The Wall Street Journal on Romney's dishonest hacking up of Obama's "You didn’t build that" remark; Robert Barnes of the WaPo talks about voter suppression efforts that designed solely to help get Mitt Romney elected; Jeanne Cummings of Bloomberg peeks into the bigwigs who are taking advantage of the Citizens United decision. Supreme Court Justice Tally: 0
CNN's State of the Union: Romney campaign surrogate Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) is given the unpleasant task of spinning the candidate's disastrous European tour into a tale of COURAGE! and HEROISM! Democratic Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) tries to respond in between laughing jags. Ken Goldstein of Kantar Media, Ron Brownstein of CNN and Time's Michael Scherer discuss the political ad wars. Supreme Court Justice Tally: 0
Fox GOP Talking Points Sunday: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia hawks his book; roundtable with Chip Saltsman, Juan Williams, Liz Marlantes, Kim Strassel. Supreme Court Justice Tally: 1
Golly, only two Supreme Court justices? I
told you the lamestream media had an anti-jurisprudence bias. Happy viewing, anyway.
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Five years ago in C&J: July 27, 2007
CHEERS to the first entry in our new series: Fresh Pluckings From The C&J Commode Of Wisdom...
Any former Reagan administration official who agrees with the Bush administration is a hero who honors the Gipper's proud legacy. Any former Reagan administration official who disagrees with the Bush administration is either mentally unstable or a traitor, and in either case deserves to be abandoned on an ice floe.
You are now wise. Five dollars, please. Wash your hands.
CHEERS to crash 'n smash. Over in Hanover, Germany, police were called after several people heard a big crash in the middle of the night. The culprit: a guy who got fed up with his balky computer and heaved it out his window. No charges were filed because, in the words of the police: "Who hasn’t felt like doing that?" In other news, Bill Gates has removed the Hanover Police Department from his Christmas card list.
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And just one more…
Yes, it will respect you in the morning.
If it doesn't kill you first.
CHEERS to red meat that's
not the political kind. On tomorrow's date in 1900, while trying to piss off his reportedly-vegan neighbor, Louis Lassen reportedly invented the
humble hamburger. Which brings me---with apologies to Jimmy Kimmel---to today's
Moment in Unnecessary Censorship, courtesy of
Arizona Republic food critic Howard Seftel:
So roll up your sleeves, stack up a bunch of napkins and pick up one of these juicy, beefy [Bleeeep!] that deliver a surge of happiness.
So happy birthday to the hamburger, for 112 years the quintessential representation of America's diet until the next Republican gets elected president when it will be replaced with cat food. (And, yes, I
would like fries with that.)
Have a great weekend! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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