From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
"Say what?"
Once again it's end-of-the-year list season. It's an addiction---we can't help but collectively start wrapping up the previous twelve months in neat little boxes: Best, Worst, Top, Bottom, Winners, Losers The Departed, The Elected, The Meaning of it All and, of course, "The Quotes." I'm a big fan of 'em, and I've come to look forward to the annual top ten list that Yale librarian Fred Shapiro assembles each year.
It would've been nice if this year's top utterance hadn't been a man's last words, but it's hard to argue with the power sparked by Eric Garner's plea to the policeman who was snuffing the life out of him with an illegal chokehold:
"I can't breathe." A related phrase, the Ferguson protest chant "Hands up! Don’t Shoot!", was third on the list.
Other notables: Chris Christie aide Bridget Kelly's "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" text….Kansas Senator Pat Roberts' "Every time I get an opponent, I mean, every time I get a chance I'm home"….and this bit of maturity from venture capitalist Tom Perkins: "I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi (Germany's) war on its 'one percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the 'rich.'" What a sweetheart.
You can see the full list at the link above. For shits and giggles, here are a few of my own picks:
"Let me say this to anyone who is listening at Citi[group]. I agree with you: Dodd-Frank isn't perfect. It should have broken you into pieces."
---Senator Elizabeth Warren
Posner SMASH
voter ID laws!!!
"There are areas of official life in the United States that are similar to Russia. For example: disbursement of protest, and the way American prisons are run, which is pretty tough."
---Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova
"There is only one motivation for imposing burdens on voting that are ostensibly designed to discourage voter-impersonation fraud, and that is to discourage voting by persons likely to vote against the party responsible for imposing the burdens. … [Photo ID laws are] highly correlated with a state's having a Republican governor and Republican control of the legislature and appear to be aimed at limiting voting by minorities, particularly blacks."
---Conservative Judge Richard Posner, in his dissenting opinion on Wisconsin's de facto poll tax law
"Mr. President, you need to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities."
---Michele Bachmann, spreading holiday cheer at the White House Christmas party
"You're very good at English"
---Rep. Steve King to Erika Andiola of the Dreamer-led DRM Action Coalition, who was raised in the U.S.
"I have to constantly push back against this idea that somehow the Keystone pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the United States or is somehow lowering gas prices. Understand what this project is: It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. And it doesn't have an impact on U.S. gas prices."
---President Obama
I don’t know exactly what 2015 will bring, but I'll take a wild guess and say it'll be loud and obnoxious. This is, after all, America. Our colors may not run, but our mouths sure do.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Note: NewsCenter sucks, Eyewitness News rocks. That story plus sports and weather tonight on Eyewitness News.
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4 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the last
Colbert Report:
2
Days 'til the
Festival of Lights boat parade in Honolulu:
4
The last year that the wealth gap between whites and blacks was as wide as it is today:
1989
The last year that the wealth gap between whites and Hispanics was as wide as it is today:
2001
(Source: Pew study of Federal Reserve Data)
Years since all five Great Lakes had above-average water levels, which was achieved in September:
15
(Source: NOAA)
Drop in oil prices since June's peak of $107 a barrel, according to AP:
47%
Number of Beatles who never wrote/recorded a song specifically about Christmas:
1 (George Harrison)
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Tuesday Point-Counterpoint from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
Cheney is an embarrassment to the nation. You should watch the interview, he was barely lucid and at one point actually tried to suggest that the force rectal feeding was done for "medical reasons." Cheney didn't even have the decency to express REGRET that 25% of the people we tortured, and one of he one's we k illed, were innocent of ANY wrongdoing and had no information to share. He OBVIOUSLY is devoid of ANY capacity for MORAL reasoning.
---Commenter Smidge75 at Fox Nation
No…Barack Obama is!
---Commenter dpro at Fox Nation
All together now: 1…2…3…
Good comeback!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: New arrival
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CHEERS to the new doc on the block. Ordinarily, the confirmation of a Surgeon General is greeted with all the excitement of watching Donald Trump's hair glue dry. But because the NRA was so opposed to the nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy, and because Senate Republicans vowed in their not-so-secret 2009 meeting to block all Obama business, yesterday's successful confirmation is a cause for fireworks. So who is this guy? Here's a quick bio from the White House---see if you can spot the unfortunate error:
Of course the teabaggers
are freaking out over him.
He is the co-founder and president of Doctors of America, a nonprofit of thousands of physicians and medical students working together to improve the health of our nation by ensuring everyone has access to affordable, high-quality health care. He also co-founded VISIONS Worldwide in 1995, a nonprofit focused on HIV/AIDS education in India and the United States.
He is still a practicing physician, serving as Hospitalist Attending Physician and Instructor in Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School. He will be the first Indian-American to serve as Surgeon General.
He's actually co-founder of
Doctors For America, not Doctors
Of America. Not a big deal, I guess, except that the White House has identified him as co-founder of a group with the acronym "DOA." Oops.
At least it's a hybrid bus.
JEERS to the republic of roadkill. For those of you keeping track of the latest carnage, Dick Cheney threw
George W. Bush under the bus, the Senate
threw the CIA under the bus, President Obama threw
the New York City police force under the bus along with
Chuck Hagel, but Chuck Schumer threw
Obama and the entire Democratic party under the bus. So the forecast for your morning commute if you take public transportation: bumpy.
CHEERS to Menorahpalooza. Following tradition, today at sundown I become what my neighbors fear most: a lapsed Episcopalian brandishing a dreidel and a platter of my homemade latkes. If past portends present, I'll take out several windows, some lampposts and a hedge with the former, and make the old lady across the street use her supplemental dental insurance with the latter. We trust things will be a little more peaceful where you are. Oh, and this…
My mother once gave me two sweaters for Hanukkah. The next time we visited, I made sure to wear one. As we entered her home, instead of the expected smile, she said, "What's the matter? You didn't like the other one?"
Happy Channuka, Channukah, Chanuka, Chanukah, Chanuko, Hannuka, Hannukah, Hanuka, Hanukah, Hanukkah, Kanukkah, Khannuka, Khannukah, Khanuka, Khanukah, Khanukkah, and Xanuka!!! But don’t say all that too fast or your uvula might end up in the ER.
They might have to
scale back to this.
JEERS to the insensitivity of the American moocher. In the face of withering fire from
Senator Elizabeth Warren and pissed-off Americans left, right and center, Wall Street billionaires are defending their strong-arm tactics to get a chunk of the Dodd-Frank law repealed by saying they're opening themselves up to disaster with the rest of us. In fact, they say that if their now-taxpayer-bailout-protected derivatives trading scheme goes south, they could lose so much money that they'd end up as mere millionaires. And, trust me, they had to suppress a
major gag reflex to let their minds go there.
CHEERS to civil disobedience...with pinky extended. We hope you remember to throw a few bags of Earl Grey into the ol' woodchipper today, the 241st anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. That was the day in 1773 when rebellious colonists dumped a few hundred chests of tea into Boston Harbor. It was an act of defiance against the British Crown for imposing taxation without representation. Which is exactly what the modern day "tea party" is all about, plus racism, birtherism, secessionism, misogyny, Islamophobia, homophobia, and making the rich as comfortable as possible...but minus the taxation without representation part since they do have taxation with representation. (Hint: they're called "representatives.")
No tax breaks for you if you
can't follow the golden rule.
CHEERS to the separation of bamboozler and state. The
Ark Encounter theme park being built in the town of Gullible, Kentucky has hit a snag. Turns out they plan to discriminate in hiring, so they're
not getting their generous tax breaks. That's an $18 million hit. The park's founders say they'll continue building, but there will be one minor change: the 510-foot wooden ark nestled among lush foliage will now be a dinghy on cinderblocks. And for a buck extra, the founder's kid will spritz you with a Super Soaker.
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Five years ago in C&J: December 16, 2009
CHEERS to CERN International Speedway. The Super Hadron Collider in Switzerland just broke a record for smashing protons together---50 thousand of them at the highest energy ever. Naturally the scientists there will tell you they're working on the project for its exciting potential to change everything we know about how the universe was formed. But, c'mon, let's be honest...they're really just there to see protons crash.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the Fabulous Ludwig B. When I was 10 (circa 1974), me and a busload of 5th grade classmates went to see the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. It was the first time I'd ever heard classical music played by a live orchestra. When the first notes of Beethoven's 6th 'Pastoral' symphony started playing, it was love at first downbeat and I've been waving my lighter and throwing my underwear on the stage at concerts ever since. Today is Beethoven's 244th birthday. In his honor, enjoy Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray in the classic Argument to Beethoven's Fifth:
Have a tuneful Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Barbara Walters names Bill in Portland Maine least fascinating person of 2014
---CBS News
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