From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
"I Gave You ONE Job...!"
Not that anyone needs more proof that the current steward of Maine's executive branch is the most foul-mouthed and incompetent of all the sitting governors, but I feel a certain obligation to document the atrocities. This one's a doozy.
If there's any justice, the future
portrait of LePage in the state
house will only be this big.
Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta, which bills itself as a "center for best practice, treatment, education and research, for individuals with serious, persistent mental illness, and co-occurring substance use disorders," received millions of dollars from the federal government for its operations. Then it lost its federal certification a couple years back because the place had become
dangerous and dysfunctional.
The Department of Health and Human Services, led by LePage crony and generally incompetent human being Mary Mayhew, failed to make things right, and Riverview's re-certification was denied. She could've appealed the decision but she missed the deadline. So then she went to court to demand re-certification and the judge told her to go pound sand. (Southern Maine, it should be noted, has many beautiful beaches on which to pound sand. Come visit us and bring your money!)
So now---Ta-daaa!---Maine taxpayers are on the hook for $20 million in spent federal funds that have to be paid back. The Portland Press Herald editorial board dropped the hammer thus and so…
This appears to be what happens when people who are hostile to government try to run one. LePage and Mayhew can complain all they want about regulation and bureaucracy, but as the people in charge, they have a responsibility to do more than complain.
What would they say about a government agency that pumped millions of dollars into a hospital where patients were unsafe? Wouldn’t they rail about wasteful government spending? Wouldn’t they demand accountability?
In the immortal words of P.J. O'Rourke: "The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." We would add two words: "by design."
P.S. State House Speaker Mark Eves has filed a federal and state lawsuit against Gov. LePage, who threatened to drown a charter school in the bathtub if it didn't fire Eves. Ever the lunkheaded bigmouth, LePage loves to admit he did it, so his chance of losing seems pretty high. And then we might be looking at impeachment, since a lot of Republicans in the legislature, after being constantly harangued and lied to by LePage last session, have lost that lockstep feeling. This fall the leaves may not be the only things turning on him.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Note: C&J Pharmaceuticals reminds you to ask your doctor if asking your doctor is right for you.
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4 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Women's Equality Day:
8
Days 'til the
Blackberry Arts Festival in Coos Bay, Oregon:
4
Number of people who die from air pollution in China every day:
4,000
(Source: UC Berkeley study)
Portion of U.S. workers who now need a license to do their job, up from 1-in-20 in the 1950s:
1-in-4
(Source:
The Week)
Expected pairs of L.L. Bean boots that will be sold this winter, up 50k from last winter:
500,000
Pairs of Bean boots made during its first run in 1913, of which 90 were returned:
100
(
The Maine Sunday Telegram)
Number of original series Netflix and HBO, respectively, have in production:
36, 23
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
The geniuses at Instapundit weigh in on voter rights:
Instapundit Express: when you
need a dose of dumb really fast.
Passing a civics test doesn't do boo to guarantee you have any common sense. A much better solution would be what the Founders thought reasonable: let a man vote who has sufficient wit, common sense, and the ability to work amicably with his neighbors to acquire a certain amount of property. Best possible guarantee that someone is neither a social parasite nor a dreamer. Whether he knows the lawyerly definitions of his governing institutions is secondary.
---CarlPham at Instapundit
I'll go one better. Americans should have pass such a civics test to get a driver's license.
---Neuces
Anybody with a decent education (this, of course, eliminates anybody who got out of high school anywhere in the last 20 - 40 years) could pass such a test. What it would do is show how lousy a job the teacher unions do in teaching these days.
---Formiz
All together now: 1…2…3…
Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Click on me...
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CHEERS to the After-POTUS Show. Long and interesting article in The New York Times that tries to piece together what President Obama has in store once President Clinton moves into the White House. There's, of course, a lot of nitty gritty about the Obama library, but also some thoughts on what kinds of issues he'll champion:
Also on his agenda, we
hope: a badass goatee.
Mr. Obama’s recent visit to a federal prison indicates, advisers say, a likely emphasis on criminal justice reform after he leaves office. His eulogy for one of nine African-Americans killed at a church in Charleston, S.C., is a forerunner, they say, of a focus on race relations. Diplomacy with Iran and Cuba could serve as the foundation for foreign policy work. […]
In an interview on the website Tumblr last year, Mr. Obama was asked what he expected to be doing in 10 years. The president took more than 30 seconds to respond, in a manner that suggested he had not yet settled on a good answer. “I haven’t projected out 10 years,” he said, offering his standard promise to remain engaged in policy-making until his last days in the Oval Office. “I know what I’ll do right after the next president is inaugurated. I’ll be on a beach somewhere drinking out of a coconut.”
Memo to Michelle: if you catch him painting self portraits in the bathtub, call an intervention.
Happy Birthday Rosalynn!
CHEERS to the Lady from Plains. Happy birthday to former First Lady
Rosalynn Carter, who gets 88 candles on her cake today. I can only imagine how she's dealing with Jimmy's cancer diagnosis (with strength and courage would be a guess with probably 99% accuracy), and we hope they spend the day with lots of memory sharing and hand holding as they follow their usual tradition by cranking up the Studebaker and going on a multi-state bank robbing spree, followed by that whopping 88 percent discount at Denny's.
JEERS to "a slight delay." Air traffic and inconvenienced air passengers had something in common over the weekend: snarling…
"This is your captain, Clippy, speaking..."
Thousands of air travellers at airports on the East Coast had their flights cancelled or delayed over the weekend, an incident that federal air safety regulators blamed on a technical problem at a Washington-area traffic control center. […]Angry travelers whose flights were delayed or cancelled took to social media dubbing the malfunction as "Flypocalypse."
A software glitch canceled or delayed nearly a thousand flights. FAA officials say that things should be working better now that they've finally finished downloading their upgrade to Windows Vista.
JEERS to shoveling, shoveling, shoveling. The New Hampshire-based tree bark readers at the Old Farmers' Almanac are out with their winter forecast, and it looks like I may be forced to wear long pants in a few months:
Meanwhile today's hurricane
map looks clear as a bell..
Don’t say we didn’t warn you. The 2016 Old Farmer’s Almanac forecasts an unusually harsh winter this year for most of the nation. [It]warns the U.S. should prepare for extremely cold temperatures and lots of snow this winter. It says the Northeast can expect below-normal temperatures, the South will have above-average snowfall, and the Midwest will have less snowfall, but temperatures will be below-normal. The Pacific Northwest will see their biggest snowfall in mid-December, early to mid-January and mid to late February.
Also in the forecast: a 100% chance of idiots shouting "Global cooling!" at the sighting of the first snowflake. (Take your heart pills, George Will---you know how excited you get.)
CHEERS to getting the gang back together. Phew! For a while there I thought 2006's For Your Consideration was going to end up being the last of Christopher Guest's mockumentaries. My movie hall of fame includes all of 'em, from Spinal Tap to Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman. With comedy pros like like Fred Willard, Michael McKean, Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Eugene Levy, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey and Jennifer Coolidge, there hasn't been a dud in the bunch. And next year Guest will be spoofing the world of mascots in…um…Mascots:
“Welcome to all the drama, intrigue and occasional excitement of the 8th World Mascot Association Championships, where a group of ‘unusual’ men and women, with big heads and furry suits, compete to win the prestigious Gold Fluffy Award and be crowned best mascot in the world.”
Without seeing a frame of footage I can already tell you who I'm rooting for: the rubber ducky.
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Ten years ago in C&J: August 18, 2005
JEERS to the creep of the day. Imagine, ladies, if you thought you could never have a baby, finding out that you could, and then having your boss---Celia Ebert of Piedmont Management Associates---say this to you:
"If you get pregnant, you will have to move because I am not putting up with any babies around here and you also won't have a job...The guys and I do not even hire single mothers because of the problems. I know you have some great delusion that you will be a great mother, but you won't---you can't even take care of your dog."
If you just put your fist through your monitor,
don't read this story. And sorry about your monitor.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to getting Burn'd. 95 years ago, on August 18, 1920---a whopping 144 years after the founders wrote that "All Men Are Created Equal"---the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote, was assured passage when Tennessee's legislature became the 36th in the nation to approve it. It's a great story, and one that would have cable-news gums a' flappin' for days if they'd been around back then. The pro-suffragists wore yellow roses on their lapels, the anti-suffragists wore red ones, and it looked like the reds were going to win. Until.......
Harry T. Burn had
very pinchable cheeks.
...the legislators squared off for the third roll call. A blatant red rose on his breast, Harry Burn---[at 25] the youngest member of the legislature---suddenly broke the deadlock. Despite his red rose, he voted in favor of the bill and the house erupted into pandemonium. With his "yea," Burn had delivered universal suffrage to all American women. The outraged opponents to the bill began chasing Representative Burn around the room. In order to escape the angry mob, Burn climbed out one of the third-floor windows of the Capitol. Making his way along a ledge, he was able to save himself by hiding in the Capitol attic.
The sore losers were, naturally, the forebears of modern-day Republicans. And what prompted Burn to vote for progress? A
letter:
Thanks, Mom.
Dear Son: Hurrah and vote for suffrage! Don't keep them in doubt! I notice some of the speeches against. They were bitter.
I have been watching to see how you stood, but have not noticed anything yet. Don't forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the "rat" in ratification.
Your mother
She always did know best.
Have a nice Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“Look up in the sky! There’s Bill in Portland Maine! He’s got his own flying kiddie pool. Have at it, baby!”
---Greta Tarbell
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