From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Tonight is the End of the World
And by end of the world I of course mean the end of the fifth annual Netroots Nation Holiday Bazaar online auction which comes to a crashing halt tonight at 10 ET. The auction's an easy way to get some holiday shopping done and support a great cause (proceeds support the programs and events sponsored by Netroots Nation). There's a plethora of unique treasures, gifts, keepsakes and edibles for anyone on your holiday list, including:
• Jewelry and other sparkly things
Alien ornaments!!!
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• Artwork, including paintings, prints and greeting cards
• Holiday-themed keepsakes and collectibles including ornaments, candlesticks, greetings cards and an official MLB Tigers "D" tile.
• Yummies for your tummies: fudge, bacon toffee, pumpkin bread, peppermint bark brownies and more.
• Snazzy wearables
• Winter readables, including one autographed by Jimmy Carter, who spent four years occupying the most powerful office in the universe.
• Handmade soaps and organic spa collection.
Lots more---dozens and dozens of goodies on the virtual auction block.
A brief word about the C&J duckie/lobster/lighthouse cookies, which are available for bids here and here. They were made Saturday by a posse of nearly half a dozen registered Kossacks at the BiPM household over a period of eight hours. We'd like to thank the Portland Fire Department for saving our house twice, as well as various neighbors over a three block area for donating all the raw materials, which we realized we needed when we looked up cookies on Wikipedia.
Bid early and bid often, because the Netroots Nation Holiday Bazaar online auction ends tonight at 10.
Meanwhile Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, December 9, 2013
Note: Some people say I buy my own hype. That's crap. I rent.
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22 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Festivus:
14
Days 'til the
Great Sardine & Maple Leaf Drop in Eastport, Maine:
22
Decrease in the trade gap between September and October:
5.4%
Increase in new homes sales in October after a 6% drop in September:
25%
(Source: Commerce Dept.)
Increase in online sales during "Cyber Monday" compared to last year:
17.5%
(Source: IBM Digital Analytics via The Washington Post)
Percent of World Net Daily readers who voted that Nelson Mandela was a "violent communist revolutionary who never
should have been released from prison":
66%
(Source:
TPM)
Percent of adults who say they've had a holiday gathering ruined by a relative:
79%
(Source:
USA Today)
Totally Random NFL Score
New England Patriots 27 Cleveland Browns 26
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Since it's Monday, some fresh doggy fail…
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JEERS to things that go "Snap! Crackle! Pop!" besides Rice Krispies. I'm talking about, of course, power lines, tree limbs and vehicle air bags, thanks to a nasty fall storm (winter doesn't start for 12 days, kids). Here's the latest weather map from the NOAA and its commie socialist office of information distribution:
The green spots in Kentucky are Rapture watches.
Today it's Maine's turn (mostly inland) to bear the brunt of it, but nothing like you poor folks down south and west of us. If you see someone running around shouting "global cooling," remember the golden rule: make sure they have heat and electricity and they're otherwise okay, and only then administer the wedgie.
CHEERS to returning to terra firma, USA. After a successful trip that included only one major right-wing freak-out over a comment they took out of context, Vice President Joe Biden strapped on Jetpack Two and rocketed back to the U.S. after a successful Asia trip that was overshadowed a bit by Nelson Mandela's passing. Joe was no shrinking violet:
Joe even had time in
Asia to photobomb.
Biden Jr. reminded [Chinese leaders] that he had first been there in 1979, as a young senator, to meet Deng Xiaoping, the reformist Chinese leader. He told President Xi Jinping, 11 years his junior, that he had met enough world leaders to take their measure.
The message was anything but subtle: Joe Biden was not born yesterday, and he is no stranger to Asia. Given the tension, finger-pointing and mutual suspicions that he confronted on every stop of his weeklong tour of the region, Mr. Biden’s political instincts, honed over four decades of experience, came in particularly handy this week.
Before he left, Biden traveled to the border between North and South Korea, where he secured
the release of an American prisoner with nothing more than a flinty-eyed scowl. Wish he had that effect on Congress.
JEERS to compassionate conservabuttheads. As income inequality unnecessarily continues squeezing more and more Americans (even those with full-time jobs) through the holes in the safety net, we're reminded that on December 9, 1983, Attorney General Ed Meese claimed that people go to soup kitchens "...because food is free and that's easier than paying for it." Could Reagan pick 'em or could Reagan pick 'em.
CHEERS to flippin' the switch. Last Friday the Obama family lit up the National Christmas Tree. This one here:
They had to put a shield around the part of the tree that faces Congress so the tea party caucus wouldn’t get distracted by another shiny object.
Elders dispensed common
sense. So she got fired.
CHEERS to the #1 cause of hairy palms. On this date in 1994, Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders
got the boot by The Coward Bill Clinton after having the gall to suggest that teaching kids about masturbation might help prevent the spread of AIDS. "Education, education, education," she said. "The only way we are going to get around this disease is with education. We have no vaccine, we have no magic drug. All we've got is education." For that kind of language I'm surprised they didn’t lock her up and throw away the key. (After all, it would've been politically-expedient. Right, Bubba?)
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Five years ago in C&J: December 9, 2008
CHEERS to the new guy. Time to check in with the whirligig-toting number crunchers at CNN/Opinion Dynamics to get the latest stats on America's first African American Arab Muslim Christian Marxist terrorist celebrity-paller-arounder mostly-non-smoker president. In a word: Wow:
"Hey, kid. Want
to be a czar?"
79 percent approve of Obama's performance so far during transition, with 18 percent disapproving. Obama's approval rating is 14 points higher than the approval rating for President-elect George Bush in 2001 and 17 points higher than President-elect Clinton's rating in 1992, CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. Obama's current approval rating is also more than 50 points higher than President Bush's current approval rating, which now stands at 28 percent.
Obama job approval rating of 79 percent---that's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster," Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst. "To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster."
So that's why the color-coded terror-alert level never dropped below 'Yellow' all this time. It all makes sense now. Sorry I ever doubted you, Chertoff.
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And just one more…
Go, Pete!
CHEERS to sweet sounds. The Grammy Awards were announced Friday night and you can check out the
full list here. It was great to see Pete Seeger's name on the list one more time, although it's not for his music but for Best Spoken Word ("The Storm King"). Also in that category…
America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't---Stephen Colbert
Carrie And Me---Carol Burnett
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls---David Sedaris
Still Foolin' 'Em---Billy Crystal
Meanwhile, my all-time favorite composer, John Williams, got his 63rd Grammy nomination for his
Lincoln score. For those of you keeping score, that's just one score and four shy of four score and seven.
Have a nice Monday. (Friday's the 13th so don't forget to air out your Teflon bloomers.) Floor's open... What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Disney secures rights for future 'Bill in Portland Maine' films
---Today.com
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