From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE
[Sigh] That darn First Lady is...
So distant.
So aloof.
So humorless.
Heh. Or so the idiots on the right would have you think. Michelle Obama's been an awesome First Lady. Tomorrow's her birthday. I thought I'd let you know in case you haven't gotten her anything yet. I have no idea what she wants or needs, so I went the safe route and got her bagpipes.
Your west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Friday, January 16, 2015
Note: Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes, eyes and ears and mouth and nose, plus Gwen with sports highlights and Dave's weekend forecast tonight on NewsCenter.
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8 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the next full moon:
18
Days 'til the
Coralville Brrr Fest in Iowa:
8
Amount arts and culture contributed to the U.S. economy in 2012:
$698 billion
(Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis)
Percent of pedestrians who survive getting hit by a car going, respectively, 20mph and 45mph:
90%, 35%
(Source: AARP)
Predictably-low percent of Republican women and men, respectively, who hope a woman is elected president in their lifetime:
20%, 16%
Shockingly-low percent of Democratic women and men who do, respectively:
69%, 46%
(Source: Pew poll)
Number of chickens in America, if you don’t count the ones in Congress:
8,463,194,794
(Source: FiveThirtyEight.com)
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Dogs in Cars: Miami
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CHEERS and JEERS to dollars (if not sense). As we end another week (raise your hand if you're happy that January is now over half over), here's a quick snapshot of economy/money headlines, good and bad, we flagged this week:
> U.S. back at helm of global economy
> Job openings rise 2.9 percent, most since Jan. 2001
Also: December showed an uptick in
generic money-related stock photos.
> Aetna to increase minimum wage to $16
> December retail sales down 0.9 percent
> Consumer prices down 0.4 percent in December
> Arctic explorers retreat as oil prices take a dive
> Texas braces for another oil bust
> GM sets global sales record
> Obamacare has fewer people struggling with medical costs
> U.S. airlines eager to fly to Cuba
> Foreclosures fell in 2014 to levels before housing bust
> Obama pushes for paid sick/parental leave for workers
And in product tie-in news:
The Lego Movie---the cleverest kids flick I've seen in a long time---
got snubbed for an Oscar nomination in the animation category. WTF? For that I wish upon the Academy the worst pain imaginable: stepping on Legos in the dark at three in the morning.
CHEERS to the Big Appall. Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall reports that New Yorkers say they still love the NYPD in general, but not their tantrums:
It doesn't help that they turned
to face a Dunkin' Donnuts
New York City voters disapprove of police officers turning their backs on the Mayor at police funerals by 69% to 27%. 77% think police union President Pay Lynch's "blood on his hands" remarks were "too extreme" and no racial or gender subset of the population considers the comments "appropriate."
Though there are big differences across the city's racial groups 47% of New Yorkers say [Mayor Bill] de Blasio's actions since he began his run for Mayor show he supports the city's police. 37% say the opposite.
And 98 percent of New Yorkers also say, hey, leave some doughnuts for us.
JEERS to messing with The Precious. On January 16, 1919, the tenacious temperance twits in Wyoming became the last ones necessary to ratify Prohibition, which went into effect on January 16, 1920:
Ye can teek me freedom, but
ye can't teek me daiquiris!!!
Many Prohibition groups, called “dries”, were church-based, mainly Protestant denominations. The anti-Prohibition groups, or “wets”, tended to be mostly Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Lutherans from Germany. Both major political parties had wet and dry factions. [W]hen Congress convened in January, 1917, the mandate was clear: regardless of party, dries outnumbered wets in Congress by 2-to-1.
The result: a huge spike in organized crime. The stock market crash of 1929 led to the eventual repeal of the 18th amendment on the premise that reviving the legit liquor industry would create jobs. So you might say that in a weird way the banksters toppled the gangsters. Then again, that's the way they topple everything.
CHEERS to feeding the liberal agenda. A reminder that Netroots Nation is now accepting proposals for panels at the 10th annual convention (Phoenix, July 16-19). Says Raven Brooks:
Each year, we ask for your help in developing and organizing the sessions you’ll attend at Netroots Nation. Your submissions help us create an inclusive agenda for our conference each year while also helping shape the national dialog for progressives in the coming months. Our goal is to highlight the work you are doing around the country, from national campaigns to issue organizing in your home state, as well as to shine a light on things happening in our host state of Arizona.
Deadline for submissions is February 18.
Click here for the guidelines and submission form. By the way, if all the hotel rooms sell out, you can shack up at whichever of the four Arizona homes owned by John McCain doesn't have a Studebaker in the driveway.
JEERS to turning a deaf ear. On tomorrow's date 54 years ago, during his farewell address in 1961, President Eisenhower warned us all against the rise of the "military-industrial complex." Every year, as his warning appears ever more prescient, I believe this speech ranks right up there with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address or FDR's Four Freedoms speech:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Let's see how that's working out: We
did let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties and democratic processes. We
did take it for granted. And we the ignorant and apathetic citizenry
did not compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty are now fighting like rabid dogs. But, hey, other than that?
Thumbs up!
Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!
CHEERS to home vegetation. Just a few odds and ends on the tube for this weekend. On HBO's
Real Time, Bill Maher's guests are Atul Gawande, Wes Moore, Kathryn Bigelow, Josh Barrow and Josh Gad. New
DVD releases include
Gone Girl and yet another
Mummy movie. Your
NFL playoff schedule is here (the Patriots will "break" the Colts and the Packers will "ground" the Seahawks), NBA action
is here and the NHL schedule
is here. SNL returns with host Kevin Hart. And Sunday on Downton Abbey---are you sitting down?---a misplaced tea cozy leads to
murrrrrder. Now here's your Sunday morning talking head lineup. Please hold your applause until Bobby Jindal becomes president of the United States:
And here are the lineups for the Sunday morning shows, which will be so thick with terror porn that Dick Cheney will be popping nitroglycerin tablets under his tongue like candy:
Meet the Press: Charlie Hebdo Editor-in-Chief Gérard Biard; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who faints dead away whenever someone whispers French in his ear; White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer advises; roundtable with teabagger Matt Kibbe, tree hugger Katrina vanden Heuvel, fact gatherer Carol Lee (WSJ), former press tamer Robert Gibbs, Capitol reporter Kelly O'Donnell and former RNC bullshitter Michael Steele.
All books by GOP candidates
look exactly the same.
This Week: Director of Europol Rob Wainwright on terrorism; Mike Huckabee hawks his new book no one will read; roundtable with Matt Dowd, Jennifer Granholm, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Fusion’s Alicia Menendez.
Face the Nation: British Prime Minister David Cameron sounds like that Downton Abbey guy; Sen. Marco Rubio hawks a book his wife begged him not to write because she'd feel obligated to read every…fucking…draft; White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer offers advice; blither blather with CBS News senior security contributor Michael Morell (CBS News), freelance Dem adviser Stephanie Cutter, Michael Gerson (WaPost), Mark Halperin (Drudge's tuchus), and Nancy Cordes (CBS News).
CNN's State of the Union: They haven't updated their guest list, but we hear that a 2016 Republican candidate's new book will hawk its new book about life as a candidate's new book.
Fox GOP Talking Points Sunday: Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Ben Cardin (D-MD); another gay marriage debate between winning attorney Ted Olson of Americans for Equal Rights and losing hate group president Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (as in, research on grifting for maximum dollarage); roundtable with Kimberly Strassel, George Will, Juan Williams and Evan Bayh. No new books will be hawked, but lots of Goldline scams will.
Happy viewing!
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And just one more…
Hi, Ben. What's up?
Oh, right. Kite.
CHEERS to Ben Franklin. The
Founding Father, publisher, diplomat, philosopher, and the only American to invent more things than Ron Popeil turns 306 today. He has a few words for the wreck that has become the Republican party:
For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. ... When you're finished changing, you're finished.
More like Founding Hippie.
Have a great weekend! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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