From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Auction Paddles at Dawn
The first Spring Fling Auction sponsored by Progressive Congress News starts in a few minutes this morning at 9 EDT. For the uninitiated, Progressive Congress…
…was built at the intersection between the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and the progressive movement to connect the progressive movement, ideas, and Congress. Founded by the leadership and staff of the CPC and key leaders in the progressive movement, the board includes a broad cross-section of the progressive community in the United States and the leadership of the CPC. Like the CPC, Progressive Congress focuses its efforts around four key policy areas:
- Peace and global security;
- Energy independence and environmental sustainability;
- Civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights;
- Public health, education and economic opportunity.
Darcy Burner (swoon!) is the president and executive director of Progressive Congress, and the board members of its two main offshoots include Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Raul Grijalva, Kos, Pam Spaulding, Mike Lux, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Howie Klein and Jim Dean.
Progressive Congress News, the sponsor of the Spring Fling Online Auction, provides a cool news aggregation service to help busy congressional staffers cut through the clutter to find the news that actually relates to policy. The service, by the way, is open to everyone---you can sign up for free updates in 11 policy categories here.
Says organizer Beth Becker (aka Kossack Spedwybabs), "Money raised from the auction will help cover the cost of keeping over 700 congressional staffers informed by covering the costs of Salsa (the program used to manage the email blasts) as well as some administrative overhead. We do this all as a volunteer effort."
So what's up for bids? Lotsa cool stuff. British election memorabilia, limited-edition wooden Easter Eggs used for the White House Easter Egg Roll, Easter chocolate, an actual Votomatic voting machine from Florida 2000 (with hanging chads!), one of Rep. Raul Grijalva's famous doodles, lunch for you and three friends in D.C. with Darcy Burner, one of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer's bolo ties, autographed books, wearables and a lot more.
Bid early, bid often...Bid here.
P.S. Howie Klein has a couple extra items up at eBay: a rare Neil Young print and a Morrisey gold record.
P.P.S. Auction items can be added throughout the week. If you have something you'd like to donate, click here. It's the same platform as the Netroots Nation auctions, which means it's easy to be a part of it.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, April 11, 2011
Note: I fear the Amish are close to springing their trap. Vigilence!!!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Passover: 8
Days `til the Fishermen's Festival in Boothbay Harbor: 18
Minimum amount retailers will spend this year to fight retail crime: $12 billion
Number of Americans who live within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant: 3 million
The last year a nuke plant went online in the U.S.: 1996
(Source: Time)
Increase in, respectively, male facelifts and botox treatments in 2010 from the previous year: 14%, 9%
(Source: LA Times)
Percent of Americans surveyed by Newsweek who don’t know that senators serve six-year terms: 61%
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NEW! "Meet Me in Minnesota!"
Brought to you by the Netroots Nation '11 convention in Minneapolis June 16-19. This week's installment courtesy of Kossack legendmn:
During February's "Creating Change" conference in Minneapolis, many of the visitors commented on the Minneapolis Skyway System, a system of enclosed pedestrian bridges connecting numerous buildings downtown. This really comes in handy in a city with 5 months of bone-chilling winter every year. From wikipedia:
The extensive system is renowned as the largest continuous system in the world, and is compared alongside the underground cities of Canadian cold weather cities Toronto and Montreal.
The system forms a network of climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that link sixty-nine full city blocks over seven miles (11 km).
For those visiting Minneapolis in June, it can be a little tricky to navigate, so here is a handy map for you. (PDF document)
And don’t forget about the Netroots Nation scholarship competition going on now. Winners get free hotel accommodations and a pass to the convention. Deadline is this Sunday, April 17th. Good luck!
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Puppy Pic of the Day (via mjbleo): Best buds
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WHATEVER to dollars and nonsense. Well, that was anticlimactic. Congress and the president agreed to finish out 2011 with a budget that pisses off both the right and the left. And here's a little test for ya: who wrote this comment on a blog, a liberal activist or a tea party activist?
"I don't like it, but at this point, let's just get something done, let's get on with it and then work very, very hard on 2012 budget---and we also have the debt ceiling to deal with."
It could be either, right? (For the record, it’s a teabagger.) Now, of course, comes the debt ceiling, which the media is promoting as THE BIGGEST BATTLE EVER! And then will come the 2012 budget showdown, which the media will promote as THE BIGGEST BATTLE EVER! Followed by the 2012 elections, which the media will promote as THE BIGGEST BATTLE EVER! I'm sensing a pattern here. And, given the predictable theatrics surrounding these BIGGEST BATTLES EVER, buying into it less and less.
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 2011 forecast. They're predicting a somewhat nerve-wracking year: 16 (up from 15 last year) named storms and nine actual hurricanes...five of them major. But more important, check to see of your name is on the 2011 storm list:
Arlene, Bret, Cindy, Don. Emily, Franklin, Gert, Harvey, Irene, Jose, Katia, Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rina, Sean, Tammy, Vince, Whitney
Remember the meteorological Pottery Barn Rule: if a hurricane named after you breaks it, you buy it.
JEERS to messy things that people too easily forget are messy. Apparently there might be a cease fire in Libya. Good news, if true. But this morning I have an idea for the next time a bunch of rebels really, really, really, really want our assistance to overthrow their dictator. Seems to me we need to put the terms in writing, just so we're clear:
We, the undersigned rebellion, do hereby affirm that we understand revolts are messy business---i.e. chaotic, bloody, smoky, risky, dangerous, and fraught with inevitable confusion and collateral damage.
We further understand that incidents of "friendly fire" are also an inevitable part of armed revolt and/or warfare of any kind. Just as some of our freedom fighters will hoist their rocket launchers the wrong way on their shoulders and blow up some of our fellow fighters standing behind us minding their own business, so too will the allies participating in this action blow up some of our stuff by mistake and kill some of us accidentally, especially when we shoot our guns at the sky in jubilation.
Shit happens. We get it.
Signed,
[Your Rebel Name Here]
And if they don’t get it properly notarized, lord help 'em.
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Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man. Over at Crooks & Liars, Karoli asks: What is David Gergen smoking?
Crack.
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
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CHEERS to landmark legislation. 43 years ago today, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 into law, one week after Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down. 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.
Also prohibited: throwing darts at the ReMax balloon. Killjoys.
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Five years ago in C&J: April 11, 2006
JEERS to the Leaker-in-Chief. If I'm understanding this correctly, in 2003 President Bush authorized the spilling of false information to the media to justify sending our troops into harm's way in Iraq, which so far has cost the lives of nearly 2,400 American soldiers and almost 10,000 wounded. The message is clear---the next person who sets up shop in the Oval Office must drink, smoke and philander. Clean living clearly leads to insanity.
CHEERS to making your presence known. Yesterday hundreds of thousands of people participated in more immigration reform demonstrations. (Dean's statement about them is here.) For the record, my family emigrated here illegally from Switzerland. Spooning our way under the Atlantic was a bitch.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the master of the mashie and the sultan of the spoon. Tiger Woods came close, but in the end it was Charl Schwartzel who won the Masters golf tournament and his first "green jacket." Our condolences to second-place finishers Jason Day and Adam Scott, who limp away from Augusta with only $432,000 each. Some days it's all you can do to pay the rent.
But try to have a nice Monday anyway. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
According to a new Harvard study, "Partisan taunting" accounts for more than a quarter of all the communication made by Bill in Portland Maine.
---Talking Points Memo
4/8/11
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