Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

"Perverse" and "Very Strange" Indeed

Why do we poke fun at the Very Serious People who are taken So Very Seriously by other Very Serious People? Hmmm...

USA Today, Monday:

President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove.

Bush has had dismal ratings through most of his second term. His approval rating hasn't reached as high as 50% since May 2005. He's been steadily below 40% since September 2006.

"Dean of the Washington Press Corps" David Broder, February 2007:

Bush Regains His Footing

It may seem perverse to suggest that, at the very moment the House of Representatives is repudiating his policy in Iraq, President Bush is poised for a political comeback. But don't be astonished if that is the case. ... [J]ust as Clinton did in the winter of 1995, Bush now shows signs of renewed energy and is regaining the initiative on several fronts. ...

He has been far more accessible---and responsive---to the media and public, holding any number of one-on-one interviews, both on and off the record, leading up to Wednesday's televised news conference. And he has been more candid in his responses than in the past.

Powerline (TIME's 2004 Blog of the Year) co-creator John Hinderaker, July, 2005:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

Ah. That's why.  [poke poke]

By the way, if you participated in yesterday's C&J coin-toss poll, moments ago we flipped a penny in front of three witnesses (partner, dog and cat). Winner: Heads. Damn.

Live from the east coast, the west coast-friendly edition of Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville! [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Cheers and Jeers for Friday, April 25, 2008

Note:  Will no one Wang Chung with me tonight?  I mean, besides George Will?

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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's: 4
Days 'til the Democratic National Convention in Denver: 122
Rise in inflation over the past year: 4.3%
Rise in average salaries over the past year: 3.4%
(Source: Parade)
Rolls of toilet paper that 10 million Zimbabwe dollars will buy you: 2
(Source: Newsweek via The Week)
Number of baseball players implicated in last year's steroid scandal because they paid by check: 16
(Source: Harper's Index)
Length of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Thick Republican Skull: 123 minutes
(Source: TheRaider.net)

And from the Department of Hopeless Security:
Days the color-coded federal terror alert system has been in place: 2,236
Days spent at terror alert level Blue or Green: 0

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Puppy Pic of the Day: Whoaaaa!  Nice dreds!!

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CHEERS to drubbing the "Dean".  I hate to pick on David Broder twice in the same C&J, but...naw, who am kidding?  I love it.  Yesterday, his syndicated column in the Portland Press Herald had him in full concern-troll mode (and echoing the beltway blatherers in general):

For battle-weary Democrats, the big news out of Pennsylvania is pretty simple: Their nightmare continues. ... [S]o many Democrats are praying for this divisive primary campaign to end.  They sense, correctly, that the longer it goes on, the better it is for John McCain.  The Democrats have to resolve this somehow.  The longer this goes on, the greater the costs in November.

Battle-weary?  Nightmare?  Better for McCain?  Bullshit, said the Press Herald in an editorial directly across from Broder's column:

[T]here's a truth about U.S. politics that tends to get overlooked in the dust and uproar of the nominating process.  Many Americans---perhaps even most of us---will only begin to pay attention to issues and candidates once Labor Day rolls around.

It may be difficult for political junkies to believe, but many people do not live their lives hanging on the outcomes of primary races. ... They will begin to ponder the race in the fall, when only one candidate in each party will be standing before them.

Yeah.  A hopeful, innovative, resourceful and inspiring Democrat vs. an angry, outdated, befuddled, carbon-copy Republican.  Can't wait.

JEERS to red states states in the red.  Ohhhhhhhh....... not good:

The finances of many states have deteriorated so badly that they appear to be in a recession, regardless of whether that's true for the nation as a whole, a survey of all 50 state fiscal directors concludes.  ...  By mid-April, 16 states and Puerto Rico were reporting shortfalls in their current budgets as the revenue those budgets were built on---typically, taxes---fell short of estimates.  That's double the number of states reporting a deficit six months ago.

Meanwhile consumer confidence is at a 26-year low.  At times like this it's tempting to believe that things can't get any worse.  But remember there was a time not so long ago when Sylvester Stallone made a movie with Dolly Parton.  We survived that.  We'll survive this.

OUCH! to paying the piper.  Did you feel the earth move Wednesday?  Me neither, but "Tax Freedom Day"---the day on which Americans have earned enough to pay off their tax obligations for the year---came and went anyway.  The next financial milestone comes when Americans earn enough to pay off their credit card debts.  "Plastic Freedom Day" will arrive on... [flip flip flip flip] ...December 31.  11:59pm, to be precise.

CHEERS to must-see TV.  This weekend (9pm tonight in most places), the one man I'd hoped would be the first to interview Pastor Jeremiah Wright in the wake of the "GDA" dustup---Bill Moyers---will be the first to interview Pastor Jeremiah Wright in the wake of the "GDA" dustup.  A partial transcript is here.  If you listened to the Big Media blowhards today, the most shocking revelation regarding the relationship between Wright and Obama is: "He's a politician, I'm a pastor."  Ha!  Stick a fork in...something that isn't Barack Obama.  (I vote strudel.)

P.S.  This weekend Obama will appear on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.  He'll need three things to survive it: his wits, his sense of humor, and a large can of Glade.

JEERS to not taking a hint.  A team of federal prosecutors has twice tried---at a cost of millions of dollars---to put away the six stooges who have a dozen brain cells among them and were "plotting" to bring down the Sears Tower and Miami's FBI headquarters by...er...using their secret eye-lasers or something.  Here's the Fed's track record so far: Trial #1: Mistrial.  Trial #2: Mistrial.  So, apparently having nothing to do around the office but shoot spitwads at each other, they're goin' at it a third time.  But this time they have a surefire strategy.  Meet the new lead prosecutors.  Oh, that's just unfair.

CHEERS to closet Democrats.  I could be wrong (yeah, right!), but I always thought Jenna Bush was secretly on our team.  She smokes pot, parties all night, favors legalizing same-sex marriage, and has never drowned a basket full of kittens for the sheer thrill of it.  This week on CNN's Larry King: One Foot in the Grave, the elder Dubya daughter said she didn't know who she was voting for.  (Or, as the grammar police say: "for whom she was voting."  Well, foo foo!)  Better still, she said it while she was sitting hip-to-hip with her mother.  Maybe we should all pitch in and buy her a wedding present after all.  Like maybe a crate of Obama bumper stickers.

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Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man.  Kossack JohnKWilson asks: Can anyone save Ben Stein from looking like an idiot in his new pro-creationist documentary, Expelled? Anyone? Anyone?

No.

Now back to Cheers and Jeers.

Gong!  Gong!!  BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!

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CHEERS to Kodak moments that would even make Kodak shit.  Eighteen years ago today, the Hubble space telescope was placed into orbit by the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery.  Click here to view crystal-clear images of galaxies far, far away.  Democrats see the wonder of an evolving universe and maybe even intelligent life.  Republicans see potential oil fields and Christian converts.

JEERS to frightful misunderstandings.  The most uncomfortable moment of the week---by far---was John McCain's visit to Gee's Bend, Alabama, where a gaggle of gospel-singing grannies grabbed his hand and pulled him into a community center.  His barely-masked expression of terror was understandable, though.  He thought he was being admitted to "the home."

JEERS to Slipperyhands McButterfingers.  Wow!  A fan sitting in the upper bleachers at a Red Sox/Rangers game caught a foul ball...with one hand!  And 30 seconds later he dropped it.  As soon as President Bush heard the news he immediately appointed him his new Secretary of Catching Things.

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One Year Ago in C&J:  April 25, 2007...

CHEERS to class acts.  Students at Baghdad Technology University hung a banner in support of those at Virginia Tech which reads: We, the students of Technology University, denounce the attack at Virginia Tech. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims who faced a situation as bad as Iraq’s universities do. The sanctity of campuses must be protected around the world.  They added: "By the way, does your cafeteria meatloaf suck as bad as ours?"

JEERS to the whiniest first lady in history.  Laura Bush on the Iraq violence she sees on the teevee: "No one suffers more than their president and I do. ... And it's hard, it's absolutely hard!"  She then added: "Garcon!  Refresh my Perrier, it's gone tepid again."  How does she muddle through the day...

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And just one more...

CHEERS to C&J's nominee for Centarian of the Year.  Happy 100th birthday to Edward R. Murrow.  He had more journalistic integrity in his pinky than many in the gaggle of journalistic misfits who appear on TV and radio today.  Unfortunately chain-smoking snuffed out his life prematurely at 57.  Hear excerpts of his W.W. II and McCarthy hearing reports here.  He broke the mold.  (But Keith Olbermann channels him nicely.)

P.S. Once more for old time's sake: Good night and good luck.

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It's the LAST April weekend of the Bush administration!  How could we not enjoy it???  Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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