From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Only >>> 10!!! <<< Weeks 'til Netroots Nation!
And there's news:
• The Netroots Nation scholarship competition is underway. You can enter yourself or someone you think is deserving of free admission and hotel accommodations at the June 20-23 convention
by clicking here.
• Panels panels Panels!!! After sifting through 512 submissions, the schedule is set, says Raven Brooks:
Our final list of 80 panels includes some timely topics like the current immigration fight and climate change, plus campaigns and issues from our host state of California. This year we’re also including some topics not often touched on by the traditional media, including transgender issues, mass incarceration and drones. There are also 40 tactical, hands-on training sessions led by some of the top trainers in the progressive movement.
Your submissions helped us create an inclusive and engaging agenda---one that we believe will help shape the national dialog for progressives in the coming months. Thank you to each of you who submitted an idea for consideration.
You can check 'em out yourself by
clicking on this magic internet tele-portal.
•
Moderator Zerlina Maxwell is still taking questions for the special NN13 Q&A session with
past and future Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Send 'em via twitter at
#AskPelosi.
• Via San Jose State University (Go, Fighting Spartans!), the Top Ten Reasons to Love San Jose.
• To register for the convention click here and for official hotel info click here.
• Follow NN13 on Twitter here.
Other than that, I got nothin'.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, April 11, 2013
Note: Punch a banker, get a jail sentence. Punch a hippie, get applause. That's the D.C. way, kid.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Star Trek: Into Darkness: 36
Days 'til the Philadelphia Science Festival: 7
Increase in overall Amtrak ridership and the Downeaster (Portland to Boston) route, respectively, during the first half of the current fiscal year: 1%, 5%
Number of riders on the Downeaster between October and March: 256,000
(Source: The Portland Press Herald)
Senator Mitch McConnell's approval rating among Kentucky voters according to the latest PPP poll: 36%
Time the Dalai Lama starts his day: 3:30am
Time the Dalai Lama's downstairs neighbors start yelling at him to turn down his Def Leppard workout CD: 3:35am
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Last year, America got a pay cut. Wages for the average worker fell, after adjusting for inflation -- the first such drop in 10 years. That means the standard of living for most Americans is in decline.
The country becomes less and less fair, and equality of opportunity grows farther away ever day. Again, I don't think Republicans are doing this because they are mean, but because they have convinced themselves that people shouldn't be "dependent" on government, that it's bad for their moral fiber. Only corporations and the super-rich should get welfare and subsidies.
As economist John Kenneth Galbraith put it, "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
---April, 2005
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Tyranny
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CHEERS to Gun Fight at the Cloture Corral. Today Sheriff Harry Reid will call out the 14 Republican senators who are most obstruction-happy toward new responsible-gun-ownership laws and send 'em packing, thus clearing the way for law order to return to Dodge City:
"Fooled ya, LaPierre. This gun
is made out of black licorice."
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Under the Manchin-Toomey agreement, background checks will occur for sales conducted at gun shows, online, and through public advertisements with full record keeping, which advocates see as essential for enforcement and tracing crime guns. Friend-to-friend and family sales will be exempt from the requirement.
[T]he new agreement builds momentum for reform and may come as a blow to the 14 conservatives who have pledged to block debate of any new gun regulations.
You know what I always say: the only way to stop a bad senator with his lips glued to Wayne LaPierre's ass is… Actually, that's as far as I ever get because that visual forces me to excuse myself to go puke.
JEERS to strange bedfellows. Well, this is an interesting situation:
"The United States supports the rebels fighting to topple the evil al-Assad regime in Syria! That tyrant must be stopped!"
"We also support the rebels fighting to topple the al-Assad pigdog in Syria! That tyrant must be stopped!"
"Wait…who are you?"
"We are al Qaeda!"
"Well, gosh a'mighty, we are the United States of America. Ain't this awkward."
"Yeah. Kinda."
Small world.
Nipple of mass destruction.
CHEERS to the calm before the storms. Atlantic hurricane season starts in 51 days, and the meteorological elves at Colorado State University are out with their
2013 forecast (this link is a pdf). They're predicting a "Holy Shit!" year: 18 named storms and 9 actual hurricanes...four of them major. But more important, check to see of your name is on the
2013 storm list:
Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin,
Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid,
Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor,
Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien,
Tanya, Van, Wendy
Remember the meteorological Pottery Barn Rule: if a hurricane named after you breaks it, you buy it.
CHEERS to landmark legislation. 45 years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law, one week after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. The following housing issues became no-no's:
1) Refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his race, color, religion or national origin.
2) Discrimination against a person in the terms, conditions or privilege of the sale or rental of a dwelling.
3) Advertising the sale or rental of a dwelling indicating preference of discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.
Or as Senator Rand Paul calls it:
Blah blah blah. That is, until he gets called out on it, when he changes his tune to, "I never said 'Blah blah blah.'"
The patient recovers.
CHEERS to mutts on the mend. Yesterday C&J's new puppy Haley got her hoo-ha plumbing removed, and the patient is resting comfortably after taking her handful of morning medications. In fact, she's asking me if she can do a little liveblogging. Sure:
This is so groovy, man. If you wave your paw in the air it paints a rainbow. I mean, seriously, why is the government suppressing our rainbows, man? It's so sad. Also I just want to say that Jerry Garcia lives right here, man---right in this ol' dawg heart 'o mine. Y'know I'd love to give you the peace sign but with paws it just comes off looking like Heil Hitler.
Oh wow, it’s Old Yeller in a Buick Regal. That's gotta be chased. Stay based, peeps.
I think maybe we'll lower the dose.
CHEERS to fondling your balls. The Masters golf tournament starts today in Augusta, Georgia. Defending champ Bubba Watson is going for his second green jacket. I thought about becoming a pro, but the magic dissipated when I found out they didn't allow liquor on the course during tournaments. And I had to walk. And practice. And there's a buncha rules. Sounds too much like work.
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Five years ago in C&J: April 11, 2008
JEERS to the boy who cried "Hacker!" If you were paying attention the day of the Connecticut primary in '06, you know that Joe Lieberman's web site crashed and burned...and his goons immediately blamed the Ned Lamont campaign for orchestrating the meltdown. But now we know the truth, courtesy of an FBI investigation: the site blew up because Lieberman's web people were born with the stupid gene. If you're computer-savvy, this may make your eyes bleed (via the Stamford Advocate---link no longer operative):
"Miss me yet?"
"No. Whoever you are."
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According to the FBI memo, the site crashed because Lieberman officials continually exceeded a configured limit of 100 e-mails per hour the night before the primary. "The system administrator misinterpreted the root cause," the memo stated. "The system administrator finally declared the server was being attacked and the Lieberman campaign accused the Ned Lamont campaign. The news reported this on Aug. 8, 2006, causing additional Web traffic to visit the site. "The additional Web traffic then overwhelmed the Web server. ... The server that hosted the joe2006.com Web site failed because it was overutilized and misconfigured."
I'm sure an apology from Joe Lieberman is on the way. It'll arrive around the time he's able to walk down Joe Lieberman Boulevard in Baghdad alone without Kevlar.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the Big V! Bad news: Dirty Fucking Hippie Kurt Vonnegut died six years ago today at 84. (As he would say: "So it goes.") Good news: he left behind plenty of food for thought, including:
Smart humor has a liberal bias.
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
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I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours.
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Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
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Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
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1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.
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Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.
And my favorite, which I've adopted as a personal motto:
I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.
He shoulda been a pope.
Have a nice Thursday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Daily Kos holds its breath as Bill in Portland Maine prepares to release new Cheers and Jeers
---The Guardian
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