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From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
WANTED: Warm Bodies for Hot Time
The countdown to the Netroots Nation convention in Minneapolis continues: 44 days and a rapidly-diminishing number of hours, minutes and seconds to go.
We know that Russ Feingold will be the opening night keynoter, and word is Senator Al Franken is also a go.
We also know that the Netroots Nation '11 agenda has been announced. You can peruse the panel descriptions here. Specific dates, times, moderators and panelists will be updated in the coming days and weeks, so bookmark it and check back from time to time.
And, most important, we know that volunteers are needed to make everything run smoothly. Shanna Ingalsbee is the Volunteer Coordinator for this year's event, and she needs a few good men and women:
There are three main areas where we need the most volunteers:
- The registration desk, the Netroots Nation booth in the exhibit hall, and the bookstore.
- Pre-convention help stuffing the registration bags and putting the name badges together.
- Post-convention help to pack up and clean up.
We can also offer free registration for those volunteers willing to put in enough time---donate four hours of your time and get the rest of the day free.
Besides helping to make the convention run smoothly, spending some time as a volunteer is a great way to meet people, especially if it's your first time at Netroots Nation. To raise your hand across the miracle of the internets, contact Shanna via email at:
volunteers@netrootsnation.org
If you have your own blog, feel free to cross-post this info so we can get the word out. The more the merrier, I say. (I also say that about orgies, bottles of beer on the wall and waffles.)
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Note: Steve Martin will be on Ellen today and Conan tonight, in case you perhaps want to tape it via the miracle of sound-and-picture-capture technology that no longer involves tape. Cuz he's funny. Late Update: And Rachel Maddow matches wits with Jon Stewart tonight on The Daily Show. I won't have any room on my recorder's hard drive, but I promise I'll whip up some awesome pencil sketches of it. (Message: I care!)
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Mother's Day: 5
Days `til the Northern New England Home, Garden and Flower Show in Fryeburg, Maine: 10
Number of extra copies of the May 2 "Osama is Dead" edition printed by The New York Times: 165,000
Percent chance that the "West Point of Pakistan" is located a mile from where bin Laden was living: 100%
Percent of Americans who in September of 2010 thought bin Laden's capture was likely: 30%
(Source: CNN/Opinion Research)
Increase in profits during the first quarter for Exxon: 69%
Percent of respondents to an American Express Spending and Saving Tracker survey who say they prefer to get cash as a wedding gift: 52%
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
I would have liked for one of those in the press to have asked Obama yesterday: “You admit that you were born a British subject. Please name the countries for which you have been a subject or citizen.” “How many times have you been adopted? We know about the adoption by American Indians, but were you also adopted by Lolo Soetoro? If so, was your name legally changed to Barry Soetoro or another name? If so, when did you legally change your name back to Barack Hussein Obama?”
---Commenter RedPill at the Michelle Malkin blog
All together now: One…two…three… Classy!!!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Welcome home…
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CHEERS to boffo reviews. "Classic." "Brilliant." "Textbook operation." "Clean hit." "Deftly handled." "One for the books." Those are some of the terms used to describe "Operation Geronimo," which sent Osama bin Laden into the hereafter, thanks to Navy SEALs given the green light by President Obama. I kinda hope Osama's spirit somehow ends up getting stuck in Cheney's house, where he spends his time as a really clumsy ghost who keeps knocking over lamps and playing piano with his butt. That'd be like hell for all of them, and thus a satisfying coda to the saga. But beyond the whooping and flag-waving, there's the stark reminder that OBL wasn't really in charge of much anymore (as evidenced by the fresh shuffleboard scores on his patio chalkboard and New York Times crosswords piled up next to the cat's litter box.) There are still lots of lunatics out there, and as Chris Matthews said last night on Hardball: "You can’t just kill terrorists, you have to kill the reason they want to be terrorists." Great---so when do we leave Iraq and Afghanistan?
JEERS to the Worst Ally in the World. WTF? Turns out bin Laden was hiding---or should I say, "hiding" while making really drama-queenish quotation-mark gestures---not in a cave but within camel-spitting distance of a military academy in a swanky area---Pakistan's version of Bel Air, if you will---where retired officers spend their days rockin' on their porches sipping cosmos. And yet, Osama was able to build and move into a fortress without anyone noticing. "Whoops, our bad," said the head of Pakistan's military. "You should really invade us for being a safe haven for terrorists and…oh, no, that wouldn’t work, would it, seein' as we've got all these nukes an' all." No, but consider yourselves finger-wagged. Sternly.
CHEERS to "Things That Stick" for $400, Alex. One hundred years ago today, after being declared unconstitutional in four states, Governor Francis McGovern signed the first workers' compensation law to withstand judicial scrutiny. Guess which state he governed. Yup, good guess---Wisconsin:
In its 1911 report on worker’s compensation, the Wisconsin Industrial Insurance Committee appointed by the 1909 legislature stated that the objectives of the Wisconsin Worker’s Compensation Act were to:
1) Furnish certain, prompt and reasonable compensation to the injured employee.
2) Utilize for injured employees a large portion of the great amount of money wasted under the present (liability) system.
3) Provide a tribunal where disputes between employer and employee in regard to compensation may be settled promptly, cheaply and summarily.
4) Provide means of minimizing the number of accidents in industrial pursuits.
To mark the milestone, labor leaders will honor the day by doing everything they can to prevent Governor Scott Walker from getting wind of it and destroying it. (Someone should take him to Chuck E. Cheese's---he can get lost in there for hours.)
JEERS to Mitch Daniels. The Indiana governor says he's going to sign a bill de-funding Planned Parenthood in the state. File that under "Scummiest way to inform everyone that you're running for president."
CHEERS to pushing back. This is fun---seniors are yelling back at Republicans at town hall meetings. Good for them. Seems they know that the budget Republicans voted on (and, let's not forget, approved) is nasty swill for the young'uns:
Some experts say GOP policymakers may have overlooked a defining trait among older people: concern for the welfare of the next generations. "I remember the days when we had poor farms and elderly people on welfare, before we had Social Security and Medicare for seniors, and I'm afraid it will lead right back to that situation," added Dotson, from the village of Cleveland in rural southwest Virginia.
Another nagging worry for seniors may have more to do with self-interest: If Congress can make such a major change to Medicare for future retirees, what's to stop lawmakers from coming back and applying it to everyone currently on the program?
[Raises hand] Ooh! Ooh! I know! A Democratic House majority! (I never met a softball question I didn’t like.)
JEERS to getting pummelled in the provinces. Ugh…apparently you Canadians aren’t paying close enough attention to the U.S. in terms of where conservatism eventually leads. [Circles ear with index finger] But, what the hell, it's your country and you can break it if you want to, I guess:
Canada's Conservative Party was riding to a definitive victory as results from national elections came in early Tuesday. Preliminary results also showed that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper would remain in power for the third time and also showed that a left-leaning political party, the New Democratic Party, would be propelled to the historic position as the country's official opposition.
I just hope the NDP isn't the same as Blue Dogs here, cuz that would be not good. Meanwhile Stephen Harper will remain Prime Minister, which means, I believe, that a bunch of investigations against him can proceed forthwith. But the bottom line seems to be: conservatives have an outright majority. Oh…..Canada. [Facepalm] Have we taught you nothing?
CHEERS to the shining city on a hill. Happy 209th Birthday to Washington, D.C., incorporated May 3, 1802. (These old maps are cool---and I hear you can see Russia from the Washington Monument!) I was going to send everyone who lives there a gift basket filled with representation to go with your taxation, but Congress says it can’t deliver such an item on certain days---namely Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So instead I'm sending you a lovely Lincoln Memorial snow globe. (As a special bonus, when you shake it, the little plastic Glenn Beck figure falls down the steps.)
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Five years ago in C&J: May 3, 2006
CHEERS to David Shuster. Seems like every night the MSNBC reporter shoots a new fish in the Republican barrel. The latest: definitive proof that outed CIA agent Valerie Plame was working on Iranian nuke intel...and now we learn through Shuster that Dick Cheney's office was "aware of the sensitivity of Plame's work." This calls for immediate action: a blogger ethics panel.
JEERS to over-milking your coverage. Last night: Continental jet blows a couple tires on takeoff. Cable news networks cut to LIVE! BREAKING! COVERAGE! Jet lands safely in Houston and crews go back to their doughnuts and poker. But the cable news networks continue to list every possible scenario of what "might" have happened had something gone wrong. When they got to "gremlin on the wing" that's when my shoes started flying.
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And just one more...
JEERS to Wankerrific Moments in Self-importance. Sometimes an op-ed column is, not unlike an Ed Wood movie, so bad that it achieves a special place in the archive of eye rolling. Couple weeks back, for example, was Charles Krauthammer Day, celebrating the day 8 years ago when he wrote this about WMDs:
"Hans Blix had five months to find weapons. He found nothing. We’ve had five weeks. Come back to me in five months. If we haven’t found any, we will have a credibility problem."
Well, I'd like to designate today "Richard Cohen Day," and dedicate it to Krauthammer's cellmate at The Washington Post. On May 3, 2006, Cohen went into a little tirade against Stephen Colbert's routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner---now considered a courageous and often gut-busting classic. Cohen defended his ability to gauge what's funny and what's not with perhaps the most wince-worthy opening paragraph of the decade:
First, let me state my credentials: I am a funny guy. This is well known in certain circles, which is why, even back in elementary school, I was sometimes asked by the teacher to "say something funny"---as if the deed could be done on demand.
Even elementary school kids know that if you have to convince us that you're funny by telling us you're funny…you're not funny. Funny how that works.
Oh, and to commemorate his 92nd birthday, here's the one and only Pete Seeger to play us out. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"For 18 years I have resisted talking about Bill in Portland Maine. I am not going to start now."
---George H.W. Bush
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