From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Good Point
Michelle Obama Friday in Wausau, Wisconsin:
Michelle Obama with
her absentee ballot
"As my husband has said, this election will be even closer than the last one. That is the only guarantee. And it could all come down to just a few battleground states like right here in Wisconsin…states that could be decided by just a few thousand votes. … But when you take that number and you spread those votes out across this entire state, across hundreds of cities and thousands of wards, it becomes smaller. So when you break it down, it turns out that just a handful of votes in every ward could make all the difference in this election. That could mean just one vote in a neighborhood, just a single vote in an apartment building or in a dorm room.
And you can also tell people that they don’t have to wait until November the 6th to cast their ballots, because you can do it early. On Monday, I led by example---I mailed in my ballot early. I voted for Barack Obama, just in case you were wondering. [Applause.] And I did it because I want to spend Election Day really working to turn out the vote. And that’s something that you may want to think about doing.
Early voting is important because it gives you that convenience, truly---especially students with busy schedules, families with busy lives. You wake up on Election Day, you might have a cold, babysitter, kid's sick, it's raining, car broke down---I mean, I could go on---toilet overflowing. [Laughter.] There are so many ways to mess up a day when you don’t have a lot of time."
As MinistryOfTruth
wrote yesterday, "If we vote, they lose." A banked vote is a vote in the bank. So vote and git 'er done.
By the way, when I have my early ballot in front of me, I'm going to take my marker and make a tiny line bisecting the oval next to the president's name. Then I'm going to fill in one half for Barack and Joe, and the other half for the First Lady. I'm kinda sweet on her.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Note: Whistle while you work Hitler is a jerk Mussolini broke his weenie now it doesn't work. That story, plus the Bayside neighborhood gets a new skate park and a chilly weekend ahead, tonight on Newscenter.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til we turn our clocks back an hour: 11
Days 'til the 2012 South Carolina Pecan Festival in Florence: 10
Number of states in which unemployment dropped in September, including swing states Ohio, Colorado and Iowa: 41
(Source: USA Today)
Average monthly raise in Social Security checks starting next year: $19
Average monthly Social Security payment: $1,131
(Source: The Portland Press Herald)
Amount in gold bullion that singer Art Garfunkel and two other people are offering to the first researcher(s) to cure blindness by 2020: $2 million
(Source: The Baltimore Sun)
Percent chance that Halloween is one of the top three deadliest days for pedestrians: 100%
(Source: Parade)
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 185 (including 3 Occults and 1 act of subtlety). Soul Protection Factor 18 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: I admit it…this pic uncorked my waterworks.
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Trump on his morning walk
CHEERS to the silly season. We're smack dab in it, now that the debates are over and the professional publicity pirates are coming out of their glass towers to grab some cheap publicity. We've got a twofer today! Donald Trump will allegedly unveil his
October Surprise, which he promises "…is gonna be yooj, baby…YOOJ!" (My guess: I think his hairpiece is endorsing Gary Johnson.) And Gloria Allred is allegedly
going to court in Boston today to try and get some damning Romney skullduggery unsealed. So, between the two, you know what that means: the media will be changing its diapers twice today.
JEERS to an abrupt change of direction. Change.org can do anything it wants, as far as I'm concerned. But what a shitty way to go about embracing the dark side:
Another change FAIL.
Change.org, the online social movement company founded on progressive values, has decided to change its advertising policy to allow for corporate advertising, Republican Party solicitations, astroturf campaigns, anti-abortion or anti-union ads and other controversial sponsorships.
Change.org did not plan to reach out to its base of progressive users about the change. "[W]e have no plans to proactively tell users about the new design or our new mission, vision, or advertising guidelines," reads one document. The press was to be kept similarly in the dark. "We are not planning proactive press outreach on the rebrand but are queuing up positive press profiles to launch around Oct. 22," reads the FAQ in the document, urging staff to keep things confidential.
Because nothing says "change" like embracing the party whose stated mission is to "stand athwart history yelling STOP!" Genius.
CHEERS to World Peace...or something like it. Happy United Nations Day! On October 24, 1945, the United Nations charter took effect. Their mission:
To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war; to reaffirm faith in human rights; to promote social progress and better standards of life; to practice tolerance and live together in peace and unite their strength to maintain international peace and security.
And then…lunch.
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Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man. Over at Media Matters, Simon Maloy asks: If criticizing the commander-in-chief for actions taken in the name of the United States constitutes "apologizing for this nation," then aren't people like Mitt Romney and Jennifer Rubin, who have spent the last four years doing little beyond that, serial America apologists?
Yes.
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
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JEERS to messin' with the wrong woman. Republican Senator and likely 2016 presidential contender Marco Rubio apparently doesn't appreciate the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and he's not afraid of looking like an (even bigger) ass to prove it:
“Just because they call a piece of legislation an equal pay bill doesn’t make it so,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “In fact, much of this legislation is, in many respects, nothing but an effort to help trial lawyers collect their fees and file lawsuits, which may not contribute at all whatsoever to increasing pay equity in the workplace.”
The 2009 law makes it easier for women to sue their employers if they’re being paid less than men for doing equal work. Rubio said he supports the principle but opposes the Ledbetter legislation as a way of achieving it.
And in other news, Bill in Portland Maine adds "Be there to videotape the moment when Marco Rubio runs into Lilly Ledbetter at a cocktail party" to his bucket list.
CHEERS to Great Moments in Saying Stuff. On October 24, 1861, the first coast-to-coast telegram was sent from Justice Stephen Field in California to President Lincoln in Washington, D.C. Message: "I farted." Reply: "Thanks for sharing."
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Four years ago in C&J: October 24, 2008
YIKES to endorsements from Hell. Looks like al Qaeda has made up its mind. It seems they would very much like to see John McCain in the White House. They support his stand on the second amendment. They praised his tax plan as being the right medicine for the right illness. And they know that Barack Obama will re-engage America's brain after eight years of President Game Boy and completely fuck up their network, cave by cave. That plus they love the plumber guy. [10/24/12 Update: I'd ask Al Qaeda's leadership what they think about Obama's first term, but they're a little busy right now getting whapped with shoes by 72 virgins in the afterlife.]
CHEERS to the defection election. Well, this is interesting. A growing number of prominent Republicans have broken free of their party's tractor beam and are planning to vote for Obama. The latest to jump ship (in addition to Colin Powell, Christopher Buckley, Ken Adelman and others): former Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson, Barry Goldwater's granddaughter CC, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld. Defections so far from the left: this lady. A fair swap.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the essence of this little rag. Five years ago today, just days after the DKos community swarmed to make C&J my full-time gig via voluntary donations and monthly subscriptions, the Portland Press Herald published an article about it. (It's no longer online, unfortunately, although I'm not complaining too loudly because the photo they used made me look pregnant.) The stuff about me didn’t mean diddly compared to the stuff about you, and it's always humbling to repost reporter Dieter Bradbury's take on the kiddie pool:
Me showing off
my military might.
Cheers and Jeers resonates with its readers, who live from coast to coast and fiercely compete to be the first to post a comment in response to Harnsberger’s blogs. Most say they gravitate to Cheers and Jeers because it’s a welcoming place, free of the sniping and personal attacks that characterize many political blogs.
"It is a real community," says Mercedes McCarter [aka mcmom], who has been reading and commenting on Cheers and Jeers for two years. "People celebrate the good in others’ lives, and are there to provide support, emotional and practical, for those who are having tragedy or illness in their lives."
Today C&J---now speeding headlong toward its ninth blogiversary in December---remains DKos's equivilent of the Free Parking space on a Monopoly board: a place where you can slip in and take a few deep breaths before you head back out into the craziness. And I don’t say it enough:
thank you for splashing. Now someone c'mon over and massage my bunions. Hello? Hello??? Shit.
Have a nice Wednesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Minnesota Lawyer Convicted of Contempt in Skipping First Day of Trial to Go to Cheers and Jeers
---Jonathan Turley
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