From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE
Netroots Nation starts in only 16 15 14 13 weeks!
News and announcements while the butler continues packing our steamer trunks for the June 7-10 convention in Providence:
- The scholarship drive has begun!!! Mary Rickles is here with the good news:
We're partnering again with Democracy for America and America's Voice to offer scholarships to Netroots Nation. This is your chance to tout what you're doing to make your community a more progressive, inclusive place. It's our chance to ensure that activists and organizers---regardless of age, background, economic situation or geographic location---are able to participate, too. And because the scholarship covers the cost of registration and lodging, it's also a great way to help make sure you have the resources to be there.
Here's what former scholarship winner Brandon Greene had to say about his experience:
"Netroots Nation was incredible! The dialogue and building that happened there has continued since I left and inspired myself and others to start an online group of progressive thinkers/activists of color. I can’t say enough about the experience!"
We're looking for people who will expand our community with fresh ideas and energy. Will you join us?
It's easy to apply to become a scholar in the Class of 2012, or to nominate someone you think deserves a spot on the list. Click here to get the ball rolling.
- The "Grab A Booth" contest is still underway, and we've attracted a diverse gaggle of worthy nominees who are hoping to win a free booth at the convention. Right now they need one thing to make it over the top: your votes. (It's like a Republican primary except the candidates are cool, smart, rational and don't bump into walls.) Contest ends next Wednesday---the top 3 vote-getters win. Click here to check 'em out and give 'em some luvins.
- Thanks to everyone who supported the Netroots for the Troops fundraiser a couple weeks back, including guest writers Elizabeth Warren, Sen. John Kerry and Gov. Howard Dean. The NFTT drive---which pays for the items we'll be packing and shipping off to servicemembers in Afghanistan and also delivering to wounded vets in Providence---is off to a great start with $15,000 in donations. If you'd like to add to the total, click here to chip in. If you're going to Netroots Nation, be sure to join us when we pack the boxes---it's a pretty incredible experience.
- Devious deeds update: I hired a mole to infiltrate Adam B's world, gain his trust, and extract the questions he'll be asking at this year's pub quiz. (See highlights of last year's near-riot here.) Unfortunately all it returned with was a belly full of grubs. Gaaahhh!!! I must hev zeez qvestions!!!
- Nuts and bolts-type stuff: To register for the convention, click here. For official hotel info, click here.
This is worse than waiting for Santa Claus. Hurry up, June.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, March 8, 2012
Note: Here's a neat trick. Turn your clocks ahead two hours right now. Then you can turn them back an hour Sunday morning when Daylight Saving Time kicks in. While everyone else is complaining about losing an hour, you'll actually gain an hour! [Tap Tap] That's using the ol' bean!
-
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the 138th Kentucky Derby: 58
Days 'til the Flushing Walleye Festival in Michigan: 1
Today's expected high in Portland, Maine: 62
Number of words the average American takes in every day: 100,000
Number of gigabytes of data that equals: 34
(Source: Time)
Update via Neapolitan: "100,000 words does NOT equal 34 gigabytes of data; that would only be about 5.5 megabytes. No, the [original report] says: Consumption totaled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, corresponding to 100,500 words and 34 gigabytes for an average person on an average day. Content being video, audio, computer games, and so on."
Length of time you'd have to fart before you produced enough gas to equal the energy of an atomic bomb: 6 years, 9 months
(Source: Some web site that uses rainbow pixels so it must be right, right?)
Percent chance that Rick Santorum is "our man": 100%
(Source: First Love Band)
-
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
A lot of busted heads and broken lives went into making the eight-hour workday a reality. Think how mad [Great Southwest Strike organizer Martin] Irons and all those other fighters would be at us for letting the corporations get away with mandatory overtime and 60-hour workweeks, month after month.
The thing about corporations is that they never give anything away out of the goodness of their non-existent hearts. As economist Milton Friedman put it, the only social obligation of a corporation is to make money. Workers still have to fight for a decent life.
Solidarity forever!
---2000
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: You are so hired…
-
CHEERS to the real victor of Super Tuesday. Mitt Romney won more states and more delegates, sure. But none of his rivals are quitting, the upcoming contests in Kansas, Alabama and Mississippi probably won’t win him any first-place medals, and Steve Benen at the Rachel Maddow blog informs us that---please try not to gloat yet---"Obama got more votes in Ohio than Romney last night." Okay, now you can gloat.
CHEERS to iPadding your resume. Apple added a few wrinkles to its signature gizmo---"the new iPad" is what they're calling it, not iPad 3---yesterday. Among the features of the "quad-core GPU, 4G" device:
The new iPad’s display was upgraded to a 2048 x 1536 Retina display with more than 3.1 million pixels, and is powered by Apple’s A5x processor, which remain dual core for CPU functions, but features quad-core graphics.
At 0.37 inches and 1.44 pounds, the new tablet is slightly thicker and heavier than the previous iPad 2 version. An updated camera dubbed the iSight camera has been added to the tablet’s back panel. It features the same optics as the camera in the iPhone 4S with a 5MP chip and 1080p video-recording capabilities with video stabilization and temporal noise reduction.
The device has
two cameras on it. So now you can take a picture of yourself taking a picture! Reminds me of when they gave G.I. Joe his kung-fu grip. Technology blows the mind.
CHEERS to shuttle diplomacy. On March 8, 1854, U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry reached Japan during his second trip there. He came back with the Kanagawa treaty and a runner-up trophy from the karaoke finals.
JEERS to the Assassin-in-Chief. I swear some days I think the guy in the Oval office is Dick Cheney wearing an Obama mask. Apparently Congress granted the president extra authority to go after evildoers a few days after 9/11, and the Executive Branch has decided it has the right to vaporize American citizens without giving them their day in court. Yes---the president can, he claims, legally shoot you, hang you, stab you, toss a toaster into your bath, or send a drone down your gullet. Constitutional professor Jonathan Turley is, to put it mildly, alarmed:
Obama has replaced the constitutional protections afforded to citizens with a “trust me” pledge that Holder repeated yesterday at Northwestern. The good news is that Holder promised not to hunt citizens for sport.
Holder proclaimed that “The president may use force abroad against a senior operational leader of a foreign terrorist organization with which the United States is at war---even if that individual happens to be a U.S. citizen.” The use of the word “abroad” is interesting since senior Administration officials have asserted that the President may kill an American anywhere and anytime, including the United States. Holder’s speech does not materially limit that claimed authority. He merely assures citizens that Obama will only kill those of us he finds abroad and a significant threat. […] This is precisely why the Framers rejected the “trust me” approach to government.
I'll say one thing: when Obama said he was gonna give Americans more presidential bang for their buck, he wasn't kidding. (That's a joke, sir. Please put down the bazooka.)
JEERS to a helluva burp. Holy solar flares, Batman! The sun---it is angry. And it's belching radiation that could mess with stuff here on earth. Experts say it might affect GPS systems, power grids, high-frequency radios, and even shut down machines. And in other news, Mitt Romney is spending a quiet day at home. Very quiet.
CH'CHING! to George McNugget. A Nebraska woman sold a chicken McNugget bearing the likness of George Washington on eBay for $8,100. His legacy has now been slightly revised to: First in war. First in peace. And delicious dunked in honey mustard sauce.
-
Five years ago in C&J: March 8, 2007
CHEERS to the new up-armored Nancy. The Speaker and other House Democrats are attaching a measure to a military spending bill that would pull our troops out of Iraq by September, 2008, and redeploy them to that other war---what’s it called again?---oh yeah, the war on terrorism. The plan was, of course, blasted by Republicans who called it "failure at any cost." And they, of course, speak from experience.
CHEERS to shrewd moves. See, by not paying his parking tickets, Barack Obama has just endeared himself to everyone from entitlement-addled millionaires to rednecks with confederate flags on their trucks. Not to be outdone, Hillary promptly started ripping the tags off of mattresses.
-
And just one more…
GAAAAHHHHHH!!! to…[Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp Stomp]…spiders!!!!!!!!! Sorry 'bout that. You can put me down now.
Have a nice Thursday. Stay classy, Virginia. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Santorum to Bill in Portland Maine: Please go away
---Steve Benen
3/7/12
-