From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
It's Netroots Nation Auction Time!
Woo Hoo, it's back!!! Karen Kolber and her crew are prepping for the annual Netroots Nation auction which starts Thursday, August 15th. Proceeds go to keep costs related to the annual convention (Detroit next July) low and also help fund regional events throughout the year. Right now they're accepting donations of items that will be lovingly placed on their own unique online auction block for perusal by the netroots masses. If you can rustle up some items to donate, they'll love ya to pieces.
This original JFK campaign hat is
on the block. I want it. I shall win it.
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To donate an auction item: make a note
right now to go through your earthly possessions and find things that'll make people go "Oooh!" and/or "Ahhh!" but preferably not "Gaahhh!" (Do
not go through other people's stuff unless you're absolutely sure you won’t get caught, especially if you're taking conspicuous items like blimps or $136 million worth of jewelry from a luxury French hotel. We can't emphasize this enough.) Think political memorabilia, CDs, books (signed or not), clothing, pink flamingos, pet toys, trips, crafts, services (must be legal in at least a handful of states), games, electronics, random Jonas brothers, small islands, etc.
Also FOOD. Cookies, cakes, pies, gooey butter bars, fudge and candy in massive quantities.
Once you've rounded up your donations, click here to send in a description (with a photo or link to a photo, if possible).
If you have questions or need help uploading your item, don't hesitate to e-mail Karen Kolber at Karen [at] netrootsnation.org.
Thanks for lending a hand. Which reminds me: please, no body parts.
While you're rounding up your treasures, Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Note: Today is your last chance to celebrate Christmas in July. Tomorrow: Festivus in Augustivus!!!
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2 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Obamacare exchanges go up:
62
Days 'til
Lollapalooza in Chicago:
2
2012 cost, in terms of dollars and amount of carbon dioxide sent into the air, of natural gas "flaring" in North Dakota:
$1 billion / 4.5 million metric tons
(Source:
Think Progress)
Jobs eliminated by local governments between 2008 to 2012:
500,000
(Source: Time)
Rank of George among most popular U.S. baby names in 1911 and 2012, respectively:
#4, #166
Number of baby Georges born in Maine since 1960, only 14 of them between 2001 and 2012:
995
(Source:
The Portland Press Herald)
Days it takes for taste buds to regenerate: 10
(Source: Parade)
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 184 (including 4 Kings of the East and 1 very specific angry god). Soul Protection Factor 34 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Best walkies ever...
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CHEERS to a full slate. Well, bend me over and smack me with the key to the executive washroom! The National Labor Relations Board is back, baby! This is what happens when Harry Reid stands up to the filibuster-abusing senate Republicans:
Back in business!
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After a contentious fight over some of President Obama’s nominees, the Senate confirmed five members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). On Tuesday, the Senate voted to clear all five nominees---Harry Johnson III, Philip Miscimarra, Nancy Schiffer, Kent Hirozawa and Mark Pearce.
Republicans agreed to hold up-or-down votes on the NLRB nominees as part of a deal to avoid Senate rule changes limiting the minority's right to filibuster executive branch nominations. Two of the NLRB nominees confirmed were GOP picks---Johnson and Miscimarra---and Schiffer, Hirozawa and Pearce were Obama's nominees. … The NLRB settles labor disputes within the United States for businesses and protects workers’ rights.
Mark it in the history books: Republicans actually compromised on something. Hope they didn't break a nail.
JEERS to violating the prime directive. Here in Maine, our environment is our sacred brand identity. Anyone who fucks with our image as leaders on clean air and clean water and responsible stewardship of our natural resources should be rode out on a rail. What I'm trying to say is, our tea party governor Paul LePage and his fossil fuel industry-loving (and lobbying-for and pretty darn evil) DEP chief Patricia Aho should be rode out on a rail. Look at what these weasels are trying to get away with…and how:
Patricia Aho is in charge
of protecting Maine's envi-
ronment. She sucks at it.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is seeking to weaken one of the state's key anti-smog regulations. … Critics say the changes would effectively remove Maine from a 13-state regional effort to control cross-border ozone pollution, undermining a project that has reduced smog in Maine. …
The DEP has not scheduled a public hearing on the changes and posted notices on its website so inconspicuously that environmental groups monitoring such proposals didn't see them until last week. … "The notice was buried on the DEP's Web page," said attorney Ivy Frignoca of the Conservation Law Foundation. "This goes to the whole issue of a lack of transparency." …
Ron Severance, who served as division director at the state DEP's air bureau for 15 years and is now retired, said the proposal is shortsighted and bad policy. "From a practical point of view, it's going to mean a worsening of public health," Severance said. "It's going to allow higher levels of ozone back into the state again."
Remember: you can't spell asshole without Aho. (And we can't spell LePage without throwing up.)
CHEERS to a little help from our friends. On July 31, 1777 (gosh, it seems like yesterday), the Marquis de Lafayette was made a major-general in the American Continental Army. He said that, even though we had to "go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time," the British Army was "in the last throes of the insurgency, if you will" because we had "turned a corner," and promised that after we won the War of Independence---based on a sensible "time horizon"---we'd be "greeted as liberators with sweets and flowers." Crazy French. Where do they come up with this stuff?
JEERS to the drastic measures. I'm now boycotting MSNBC until they knock it off with their Anthony Weiner twitterpation obsession. And We've had a blackout here in C&J for days now, instead posting either craaaazy cats or singing dogs. Today I'm feeling a tune coming on:
Nice vibratto.
CHEERS to the adventures of The Unsolvable Problem Whisperer. I'm not quite ready to forge a Nobel Peace Prize for Secretary of State John Kerry, but this makes we want to keep my smelting tools handy:
The secret to successful diplomacy? Mimosas.
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Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would convene again in the Middle East within two weeks and that their goal would be to work out a comprehensive peace agreement within nine months that would lead to an independent Palestinian state.
“The parties have agreed to remain engaged in sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues,” Mr. Kerry said at the State Department, flanked by Tzipi Livni, Israel’s justice minister, and Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.
“Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months,” Mr. Kerry said. “We all understand the goal that we’re working towards: two states living side by side in peace and security.”
Then he dropped the mic and walked off the stage.
CHEERS to retroactive wedding bells. Happy anniversary to former First Kid Chelsea Clinton, who exchanged "I dos" with Mark Mezvinsky in Rhinebeck, New York two years ago. I still remember that day. There were tears and wailing about where has the time gone and lip-quivering verses of Sunrise, Sunset and anguished cries of "Don’t take my baby!" Thank goodness Hillary was there to snap Bill out of it.
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Five years ago in C&J: July 31, 2008
JEERS to Republicans on crack. Yesterday morning on CNN Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison---who, by the way, was the last sitting U.S. senator to be indicted before Ted Stevens---told me through my TV that if Bill Clinton hadn't vetoed a bill to allow drilling in ANWR, we wouldn’t be dependant on oil from the Middle East right now. She also told me that if we drill in every nook and cranny in America, we won't have any more energy-related crises when the oil finally starts pumping...in 2020. The CNN anchor then expressed his admiration for her "really good point." For this I gave up sixty seconds of really good porn. Dumb Dumb Dumb.
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And just one more…
Fucking grifters
JEERS to Jesus's lying liars. This is a late follow-up to a story I promised to follow up on, so please forgive my tardiness. One year ago this week I read that there was going to be a big fundamentalist Christian gathering last September in Philadelphia. It was called the
"America for Jesus: The Awakening" rally, and their aim was to "save America" from "moral depravity" by, most notably, praying away the gay marriage. They had no doubt they would prevail. I was skeptical, but being the open-minded gay lapsed-Episcopalian liberal I am, I was willing to let the "Awakeningers" wield their Jesus-approved power and influence in the hopes of diaper-changing our soiled republic. But I also issued this challenge:
Here's the deal, "America for Jesus." If voters defeat at least two out of three gay marriage questions on the ballot in Maryland, Maine and Washington state this November, that means Jesus sides with you. But if voters say "Yes" to at least two out of three of the gay marriage questions, that means Jesus sides with us [Pinky shake] Done. We'll post results on November 7. (I'll try not to gloat. Much.)
So here I am, nearly eight months late, with the results. Voters said "Yes" to marriage referenda in Maryland, Maine and Washington. That's three-out-of-three for Team Hippie. As a bonus, a conservative-concocted referendum in Minnesota to add "one man/one woman" into the state constitution failed. So that's, believe it or not, four-out-of-four for the unwashed commies. We won't include the successful gay-marriage laws that have since passed in Minnesota, Rhode Island and Delaware, or the return of marriage equality to California after the Supreme Court refused to overturn an appeals court decision striking down Prop. 8, or the death of DOMA. But if we
were to include all that, the score would currently be:
Team Moral Depravity: 9
Team America For Jesus: 0
Well, now. I'm guessing that'll make for some awkward conversation in the afterlife.
Have a morally depraved Wednesday! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
In the past three years, Bill in Portland Maine has been called to 79 incidents involving people trapped in handcuffs. "I don't know whether it's the Cheers and Jeers effect, but the number of incidents involving items like handcuffs seems to have gone up."
---CNN
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