From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Important Update
In keeping with the values of love, compassion and heart-blessing they talk about from sunup to sundown, the nation's conservative movement wants everyone to know that they have nothing against LGBT Americans. Well, except…..
Gays are into child rape.
There's an activist homosexual agenda in every branch of government.
Feel the love. (And the itch?)
Thanks to President Obama's employment non-discrimination executive order, cross-dressing federal agents are preparing to bust down your door.
LGBT rights + Game of Thrones = sexual anarchy.
Gays are infringing on straight people's right to prevent gays from having equal rights.
Gay people are gay because of the putrid-smelling demon spirit inside them.
The "homosexual movement" is destroying America.
And of course gays are---wait for it---the same as Nazis!!!
But other than that, it's all love and compassion and gays should stop being so intolerant of intolerance. It just ain't neighborly.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Note: I will now make today's date disappear: 7 - 2 + 9 - 14 = 0. Now that's sorcery!
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9 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the start of
Shark Week!!!:
12
Days 'til the
Illinois State Fair:
9
Amount being spent by outside groups to influence this year's midterm elections:
$2 billion
(Source:
The New York Times)
Percent of women voters between 18 and 55 who say they’d be more likely to support a candidate who opposes allowing employers to drop birth control coverage:
57%
Percent who believe that elected officials who support the Hobby Lobby ruling are focused on the “wrong issues and priorities”:
71%
(Source: Hart Research Associates via
Think Progress)
Number of consecutive months during which employers have added over 200,000 jobs:
5
Number of consecutive months Maine turnpike traffic has increased, a streak not seen since 2006:
5
(Source:
The Portland Press Herald)
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
10 bucks a month [for a Sarah Palin TV subscription] is a bit much. Lower the price to what I can afford and I will watch. Cover stories like the eligibility of Obama to hold the office of President as he is not a Natural Born Citizen as well as others who are not Natural Born Citizens such as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Bobby Jingle.
---Commenter Lazrs at the World Net Daily site
All together now: 1…2…3…
Jingle 2016---All the way!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Just Max
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CHEERS to Granite State voting. A bit of good news from last week that seemed to slip through the cracks in our eyeballs: a New Hampshire judge struck down a bad voter law that…
...added language to New Hampshire's voter registration form that required registering to vote to sign an affidavit stating they are subject to the state’s residency laws, which include obtaining a New Hampshire driver’s license and registering their car in New Hampshire. … “Today is a good day to be a New Hampshire voter,” said Gilles Bissonnette, staff attorney for the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union. “In striking down this law, the court recognized that constitutional rights, especially the most fundamental right to vote, are essential to a functioning democracy."
The ruling, which targeted Democrat-leaning out-of-state students, means that that Republicans have one less thumb on the scale come election time. Out of politeness, I'll refrain from suggesting where they can stick it.
CHEERS to getting hot and steamy. As Mother Nature continues to siphon water out of the west like nobody's business, those wacky kids at MIT appear to have latched onto a new no-fuss method of removing salt from ocean water by converting sunlight to steam. It's a, um…a sponge:
MIT's sponge. Do Not Eat.
The setup developed by MIT consists of a layer of graphite flakes and carbon foam beneath that. It’s porous, which enables the disc to float on water, and the dark color of the graphite attracts maximum energy from the sun. The end result is a system that converts 85 percent of incoming solar energy into steam---far more efficient than previous methods.
“Basically, if you heat up the whole volume of the water, you don’t raise the temperature very much,” Gang Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, told ThinkProgress. “However, if you only heat up a small amount of water, then the temperature rise could be high.”
To put this new technology in perspective, it's nearly the same amount of steam generated when you shout "Benghazi!" in a room full of Fox News viewers.
They also waste money on
lame, confusing artwork.
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JEERS to partisan wolves in non-partisan sheep's clothing. Hey, did you hear about all the great things the group "No Labels" has done to foster harmony and bipartisanship in Washington? Neither has anybody else because it never happened. If you have the stomach for it,
Yahoo! News has a story up about how No Labels is just
another right-leaning millionaire's club. Besides getting most of their money from the tuxedoed elite, only four percent of their $4.5 million annual budget goes toward fulfilling their stated mission and they're as transparent about their donors as mud on a windshield. There's a label for these guys, all right. Fakes.
CHEERS to words I never (ever!) expected to hear from a Virginia governor. Yesterday a federal Appeals court in the fourth circuit---affecting not only Virginia but West Virginny and the Carolinas---ruled that marriage among same-sex couples is a constitutional right. Given that Virginia has historically been among the most hateful toward the LGBT community, this statement from Governor Terry McAuliffe (Democrat!) is pretty damn amazing:
“I am overjoyed by the news that, as a result of today’s ruling, Virginia will become a state where two people who love each other can get married regardless of their sexual orientation. This is a historic ruling for our Commonwealth, and its effect will affirm once again that Virginia is a state that is open and welcoming to all.
I want to thank Attorney General Mark Herring for his leadership in this case, and all of the men and women who fought for years to make this day a reality.”
The usual caveat applies: the ruling is stayed pending appeal and yadda yadda yadda, but fat chance that'll succeed, since this is the 29th pro-equality ruling in a row. Oh, and also yesterday, the 4th circuit got a new judge when
Pamela Harris was OK'd 50-43. One sure sign that she'll be a fair and impartial judge: Republicans hate her.
CHEERS to the first ringy dingy. A hundred years ago, on July 29, 1914, transcontinental telephone service began when someone in New York called someone in San Francisco. The conversation ended with the successful sale of a couple hundred bucks worth of term life insurance, a Thighmaster, and a donation to Woodrow Wilson's reelection campaign. Smooth sales rep.
JEERS to FAQ LOL. Sarah Palin unveiled a glorified You Tube channel over the weekend. To get the essence of the new venture into mama grizzlydom, all you need is to go to this line from her
"frequently asked questions" page:
Every time I try and watch a video, a payment form comes up
Setting aside for the moment that that's not a question (she lost Alex Trebek already)… What a surprise---turns out freedom isn't free anymore. It'll cost you a hundred bucks or more per year to watch Sarah engage in her demolition derby with the English language. By the way, in her introductory video Palin says, "This is a news channel." In the distance, PolitFact's head exploded.
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Five years ago in C&J: July 29, 2009
JEERS to Pretty Boy Einstein. Saturday I clicked on a link on the ABC News page that announced: ABC'S STEPHANOPOULOS: Bottom line on Obama's health care setback. Cool! I've always entrusted my health insurance-reform news and analysis to the pundit with the most luxurious hair and whitest teeth. So I clicked on the link and this is how the video began:
Stephanopoulos
Interviewer: We saw this deadline slip. How big a blow is this for Obama?
George S.: Um...it depends. We don’t know yet.
Excellent. We now know that we don't know. Anything less and I'd head to my backyard bunker.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Balloongate. Ha ha ha…we can laugh about it now, right? Ten years ago today, on July 29, 2004, the exclamation point that was supposed to cap John Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic national Convention in Boston turned into an expletive-filled question mark when producer Don Mischer, not realizing his voice was going over the air, yelled:
"Jesus! We need more balloons. I want all balloons to go, goddammit. I want more balloons. What's happening to the balloons? We need more balloons. What the fuck are you guys doing up there??!!"
Astonishingly, the republic survives.
Have an inflatable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
If the wayward denizens of “Cheers and Jeers’” rose up and demanded their own starring vehicle, it would probably look something like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” an alt-“Avengers” in which a ragtag band of misfits and mercenaries make the world a safer place almost by accident.
---Variety
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