From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
The Mother, Father & Crazy Uncle of All Netroots Nation Updates!
Maybe it's just a nasal mirage, but I swear I can already smell the authentic Rhode Island jonnycakes, pizza strips and hot wieners from here as the countdown to the Netroots Nation convention hits the two-weeks-and-counting mark. Here's this week's update, packed with goodies:
- More speakers have been added to the lineup, including America's Most Accurate Prognosticator, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. In addition to keynoting on Saturday morning with the AFL-CIO’s Rich Trumka, the Agenda Project’s Erica Payne and National Worker's Alliance director Ai-jen Poo, he'll be available to sign copies of his new best-seller, End This Depression NOW! Reading my tea leaves, I predict that he'll show up in his Birkenstocks again like he did a few years ago in Austin. Now you know why some people say I'm America's Most Shallow Prognosticator.
- Updated list of speakers: Elizabeth Warren, Van Jones, NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sen. Jack Reed, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. Mazie Hirono, Darcy Burner, Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. David Cicilline, Rep. Jim Langevin, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Cecile Richards, White House LGBT liaison Gautam Raghavan, Eric Greigo, Lori Saldana and Diane Ravitch. Brainpower---we gotz it.
- Did somebody say panels? You'll find 'em all here.
- Parties and special events are gonna be bustin' out all over at NN12, including:
> Opening reception by Planned Parenthood Federation of America
> "Welcome to Providence" block party hosted by Mayor Angel Taveras and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
> "Raise a Glass to the Working Class" sponsored by the AFL-CIO
> The Waterfire welcome celebration. Total zen coolness.
> The Daily Kos 10th Anniversary party at Whiskey Republic
> The Day of Service at Roger Williams Park
Full list here. Not on the list: sleep.
- Bully---one of the most timely and talked-about movies of the year---will be screened Thursday afternoon. In attendance: director Lee Hirsch, online activist Katie Butler and National Education Association VP Lily Eskelsen. Eskellent!
- "Vengeance is mine!" sayeth Adam B about this year's Chairman's Pub Quiz. I believe that's also what the Klingon commander said in Star Trek III right before Kirk kicked him off a cliff.
- The Sunday morning interfaith service will take place on, um---[Flip Flip Flip]---Sunday! Click here for info. Service organizers ramara and loggersbrat welcome your suggestions and feedback.
- Netroots for the Troops thanks Mechanix Wear, Inc for going above and beyond this year by foregoing their discount and making an outright donation of 300 pair of work gloves. Says NFTT director Tony Gattis:
"That means the most expensive item we put in our care packages will not have to be purchased. Based upon what we have paid for gloves in previous years that equates to a $6000 donation and has the effect of $12,000 because that $6000 can now be spent on something else."
Saturday, June 9 is when we'll prep the packages at Netroots Nation for shipping to our troops in remote combat areas overseas and VA hospitals here at home. If you'll be there we invite you to join us. And if you can spare a few bucks, contributions are still being accepted for this labor of respect and support for our servicemembers.
- To register for the convention, click here.
- To stay in the loop, get on the email list and follow NN12 on Facebook and twitter.
Other than that…it's totally quiet.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, May 24, 2012
Note: Just a quick heads-up that C&J won't appear within the virtual pages of this online hippie magazine Monday on account of it's a holiday. Back Tuesday with a fresh C&J that'll we'll be writing on, er, um…Monday.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Summer Olympic Games in London: 64
Days 'til the SWINE Festival ("Where cork meets pork!") in Ankeny, Iowa: 9
Increase in month-over-month new home sales for April, better than forecasters expected: 3.3%
(Source: CNN)
Amount gas prices have fallen in Maine over the last month: 19 cents
Percent of Americans who said in 1998 they personally knew a family member, friend or acquaintance who is gay: 59%
Percent who say they know someone who is gay today: 71%
(Source: ABC News-Washington Post poll)
Percent chance that Rachel Maddow's idea of perfect happiness is "Loud bar, good band, cold beer, ride home": 100%
(Source: Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire)
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
"If you grew up white before the civil rights movement anywhere in the South, all grown-ups lied. They'd tell you stuff like, "Don't drink out of the colored fountain, dear, it's dirty." In the white part of town, the white fountain was always covered with chewing gum and the marks of grubby kids' paws, and the colored fountain was always clean. Children can be horribly logical."
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Update on Pirelli, the five-month-old footless service dog-in-training.
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CHEERS to anticipation. Hooray! Only one more day 'til the start of the Memorial Day Weekend and then it'll be July 4th and then back-to-school and then Election Day (Obama landslide) and then Thanksgiving and then Christmas 'n Hanukkah 'n Festivus and then Happy New Year 2013! and then fucking winter and then spring and then only one more day 'til the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Ah, the joy of having been around the block a few times.
CHEERS to getting dressed down in front of the troops. Despite his dumber-than-rocks U.N. speech as Secretary of State defending the imminent invasion of Iraq, Colin Powell is still one of the most trusted leaders/thinkers in America. So it's a huge, devastating blow to the Romney camp when Powell explains to America that Mitt is a dumber version of George W. Bush:
"When governor Romney not too long ago said 'The Russian federation is our number one geo-strategic threat,' well, come on, Mitt, think! That isn’t the case. … How could you say that? Look at the world, there’s no peer competitor to the United States of America."
Jeebus---that's how you treat a child right before you send him to bed without supper. But, hey, toss another awesome bumper sticker based on an unforced Romney error on the pile:
"Come on, Mitt…THINK!!!"
---Gen. Colin Powell
At this rate our poor jalopy's gonna run out of room for 'em all.
CHEERS to the original texter. On May 24, 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the first telegraph message: "What hath God wrought." The telegraph went on to become an indispensable communications device that wowed the world. On the downside: no camera, no apps, and it took six months to play a round of Angry Birds.
JEERS to losing the narrative. Gah!!! So how long have we known that government spending under President Obama has actually been at historic lows? Because all I've been hearing for the last three and a half years---morning, noon and night---is that government spending under Obama is OUT OF CONTROL AND WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE OF SOCIALISM!!! How did we let the lie make it halfway around the world while the truth was putting on its shoes? (Hat tip: Mark Twain.) I'm no political consultant, but I play one on a blog so I'll offer this advice gratis: they should make a campaign ad breaking the HUGE news that Obama is, in fact, more fiscally responsible than the last four presidents and it's not even close. And use a flashing blinky light. The folks, they love the blinky light.
CHEERS to Monsters of Mass Deception. On May 24, 1933 the Loch Ness Monster was "sighted" for the first time. And promptly pulled over and arrested by Arizona police for looking foreign.
CHEERS to …[Click!]…the couch potato's…[Click!]…best friend. C&J bids a fond farewell to Eugene Polley, who died at 96. He invented the TV remote, whose main purpose, of course, is to drive your spouse stark-raving mad. After an elegant funeral, he'll be laid to rest between two sofa cushions.
JEERS to a boring fact boringly told. The President of the United States is an American citizen. Glad we cleared that up. For the eleventy billionth time.
CHEERS to jump-starting the jalopy. 113 years ago, the first auto repair shop opened in Boston. Followed by the first auto repair bill-induced cardiac arrhythmia.
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Five years ago in C&J: May 24, 2007
JEERS to President Alloverthemap. Did you see Bush's press conference? Now he's picking fights with himself. He says the occupation of Iraq is making America safer...but that we're not safer because we're still in Iraq. He says we'll happily leave Iraq if the Maliki government asks us to...but we can't leave because then America will go up in smoke. I never thought I'd suggest this, but what we need---badly---is a President Czar. I suggest someone in a white coat with access to a straightjacket.
CHEERS to the Stork Express. Mary Cheney had her baby yesterday. Within seconds of Samuel's arrival, the infant told the nurse to go fuck herself. Yep...that's the Cheney bloodline, all right.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Robert Allen Zimmerman. You know him better as Duluth-born Bob Dylan, and today we wish him a happy 71st birthday. No one in my conservative family listened to Dylan when I was growing up (it was classical, showtunes, Bread, John Denver and The Carpenters in our house, which is why I think I'm somehow related to Ned Flanders), and I don’t remember anyone playing him when I went to college in the early 80's. So, Dylan never made it on my mix tapes, sorry to say. But I'm smart enough to know a living legend when I see one. And today he's gonna be a busy Bob:
[H]e’ll celebrate his special day with a rare break between concert runs, [and] an impressive list of other musicians will take the stage to pay tribute to his inestimable legacy.
We’re talking about this year’s Dylan Fest, which Rolling Stone reports will take place over two nights (May 24 and 25) at New York’s Irving Plaza. The bill features an eclectic all-star lineup that includes a house band anchored by Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and guest performers such as Boz Scaggs, Cory Chisel, and members of the Strokes, Dawes, and Guster.
“There are very few artists that wouldn’t list Bob Dylan as a major influence,” Chisel explained to RS. “‘Time Out of Mind’ remains one of the single most important pieces of art in my life. The fests are the highlight of my year.”
His Wikipedia entry is like a museum---you could
get lost in it. Many blessings on your camels, Bob. And thanks for
Blowin' in the Wind. Best. Fart. Song. Ever.
Have a nice Thursday. Tomorrow we break out the Slip 'n Slide! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Iowa GOP platform endorses Bill in Portland Maineism
---Think Progress
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