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From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Countdown: 9 Days to Netroots Nation
Some odds and ends as the awesomest progressive blogger convention gets closer:
- It's never too late to register (unless you've waited like a silly goose until June 20th to read this). Click here to peruse the fine options.
- Volunteers are needed for the registration desk, the NN Booth in the exhibit hall and the bookstore, as well as pre-convention registration-bag assembly and post-convention cleanup. They'll even give you a break on registration---if you put in four hours you get the rest of the day free. Email Shanna Ingalsbee at volunteers [at] netrootsnation.org and she'll shower you with happy sparkly details.
- Howard! Howard! Howard! The Guv will be there:
In spite of some setbacks, and in contrary to what the 'hate wing' of the Republican party may say about us, Progressives are deeply committed to our shared values because we know what we believe. We believe in community. We care about our neighbors and we help each other. We believe in security. We will create a secure future by funding schools and investment in green jobs over bombers and missile defense our military doesn't even want. We believe in liberty. We will fight discrimination everywhere it exists and deliver on the promise of equality for all Americans.
We do have the power to change to world. Let's recommit ourselves to that change this year in Minneapolis.
With vigah!
- Kossack Vicki---Goddess of Key West and Distributor of Fine Wine and Spirits--- has created her annual handy Netroots Nation schedule in Google Something Something. To see a different day's events, just click on the tabs at the bottom of the page. (Yes, the after-parties are listed, too.) Thank ya, ma'am.
- From Chris ("Eclectablog") at Netroots for the Troops, which will be packing up several hundred care packages and sending them to our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq Saturday (6/18) from the convention:
If you will be attending Netroots Nation this year and would like to be part of the NFTT activities, I need to hear from you soon. On Saturday morning, in particular, the day of the care package assembly, we will need "all hands on deck."
I am also looking for two assistants to help with volunteer coordination. Finally, if you know of any other folks that would like to be involved, please pass this information along to them.
Email eclectablog [at] gmail.com if you can help out. People who participate never, ever forget the experience. Oh, and big CHEERS to everyone who helped NFTT raise nearly $40,000 so far.
- Hot off the press from Nolan Treadway:
On Friday (June 17), we'll take a look at how to break down economic barriers that keep too many Americans from moving ahead, particularly young people, women and communities of color. Leading thinkers Melissa Barnes, Rha Goddess, Liz Shuler and Anat Shenker-Osorio will help us understand how income inequality affects people's lives---and what we can do to break down those barriers.
On Saturday morning (June 18), Sen. Al Franken and a host of labor leaders---including AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, UFCW President Joseph Hansen and economist Bob Kuttner---will discuss how to save the middle class, the bedrock of progressive infrastructure.
Then Saturday afternoon, Van Jones will speak at our lunchtime keynote about the unique opportunity we have to create a new hope-based national movement to defend the American Dream.
Michael and I have already started packing. Light this year. Only 22 steamer trunks.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Note: Nostradamus predicted that a note would appear at this very spot at this very moment. I'm still waiting. What a fraud.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Keith Olbermann debuts Countdown II on Current TV: 13
Days `til the Slugburger Festival in Corinth, Mississippi: 30
Incidents involving people shining laser pointers at airline pilots in, respectively, 2005 and 2010: 300 / 2,836
Maximum fine being requested by the FAA for the assholes who do it: $11,000
(Source: The Portland Press Herald)
Percent of home loans that were more than 30 days past due in April: 8%
Percent of them that were a year ago: 16%
(Source: LPS Applied Analytics)
Year that sales of compact discs peaked: 2000
Stanley Cup Finals
Boston 8 Vancouver 1
(Vancouver leads series 2 games to 1)
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
The only way I could trust Donald Trump again...is if Palin endorses him and they team up to take our country back.
---Commenter "Roger" at the ABC News's "The Note" blog, upon reading that Sarah Palin and Donald Trump were eating together in New York City
All together now: One…two…three… Classy!!!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "Yeah, I'm a hugger---so sue me…"
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JEERS to the great unraveling. It's a well-worn script, and yesterday it played out with all due predictability: Politician (male, of course), thinking with the wrong head, engages in lewd sexual conduct. Politician lies about it. Time passes. More damning evidence emerges. Politician, now pinned into a corner, emerges to give tearful confession at press conference. Traditional media explodes in orgasm that feels so good they hope it never ends, and will do everything the possibly can to keep it from ending. (Jobs? Debt ceiling? America spiraling into chaos? Boring.) And the star of this particular show: Rep. Anthony Weiner, Democrat of New York. The big swig of water he took just before he spoke said it all: I have screwed up big time. And cue the confession (Cliffs Notes version):
"The picture was of me…and I sent it. I came here to accept full responsibility for what I've done. … I am not resigning. … It is a deeply regrettable mistake. … It was deeply hurtful to the people I care about most. … We have no intention of splitting up."
He joins a list of fallen angels that's as long as my…arm. And here's where his transgression (assuming the shoes are done dropping---a risky assumption, I know) doesn’t reach the level of the typical GOP scandal: Anthony Weiner doesn’t run around moralizing about how everyone---yes, everyone---needs to live within impossibly narrow, conservative-religion-based do-as-I-say-or-you'll-go-to-hell-and-your-mama-won't-love-you-no-more parameters while engaging in that very activity himself. (Who was the holier-than-thou governor, again, who went missing and told an aide to say he was "hiking the Appalachian Trail" when he was really in Argentina cheating on his wife?) Weiner's main transgression is being a lunkhead with a huge ego and a raging libido who played the odds and lost. In other words, he's a punk who thought he was above it all. He's also a terrific congressman, and this doesn’t come close, in my opinion, to being an offense for which he should resign. I hope he finds forgiveness from his wife and family, but that's not my business, it's his. So get back to work, Weiner, you stupid, thoughtless man. We need you in Congress because, well, you're a smart and thoughtful legislator.
P.S. Think Weiner's the only one in America doing what he did? Hardly. A new poll by Harris Interactive for Playboy reveals that "16 percent of adults have "sexted" someone on their phone with an explicit message or photo." Doesn’t excuse what he did…it just shows that he's got---whoa!---a lot of company.
CHEERS to throwing your hate in the ring. Speaking of dicks, failed former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum made it official yesterday: he's bolstering the economy by keeping America's fact-checkers workin' overtime as he makes his run for the White House. Santorum's vision for America: more sick, more poor, more hungry, and special parking spaces for blastocysts. He swears on his well-worn Bible that he's "In it to win it." If by that he means getting his butt kicked by every candidate not named Gingrich, I like his chances!
JEERS to eye-rolling moments in history. 81 years ago today, in 1930, The New York Times took a huge step forward in the civil rights movement. I do believe the earth shook and audible gasps were heard across Manhattan when the editors agreed to start capitalizing the `N' in "Negro." It's been smooth sailing ever since.
JEERS to little "accidents." On Sunday Fox News ran a story about Sarah Palin, and accompanying it was a graphic of Tina Fey. The network quickly apologized for the slam. And Tina Fey accepted.
CHEERS to bad news for gaybashers. Oh, the Henny-Penny crowd just keeps looking dumber and dumber. Contrary to what they (The Family Research Council, et al.) predicted, the training of our troops on the integration of openly-gay servicemembers is going smoothly. How do I know? Because I read it on some lefty loony hippie website. Oh, wait, no, I read it on the U.S. Army's new DADT-repeal web page, and this tidbit is interesting:
A spokesman for the Army Chaplain Corps said about three-fourths of all chaplains have taken Tier-1 training on the subject. Tier-1 training is for counselors and professionals such as personnel officers, recruiters, lawyers and chaplains.
Only one chaplain of the 2,900 in the Army asked to leave the service due to pending repeal of the law, said Lt. Col. Carleton Birch, strategic communications officer for the Army's Chief of Chaplain's Office. He said that chaplain left before the training began, and the remainder have benefited from an "open and honest discourse" that the training forum provides.
So much for the mass exodus that the conservatives swore would happen with 100 percent certainty. I'm sure they're real sorry.
CHEERS to pissing on the King. On today's date in 1775, "United States" was chosen to replace "United Colonies" as our official name (beating "Bubbaland" by one vote). By the way, if you need some parchment at bargain basement prices, there's a hundred thousand boxes of "United Colonies" stationery in the Independence Hall supply closet. Thanks for the heads-up, management, you twits.
JEERS to the takeaway message. By now you've heard that only 54,000 jobs were created last month, which was way below the economists' fancy schmancy forecasts. Some might say this means we're slipping back into recession because Obama's remedies aren't strong enough. Others might say this means we're only now getting a true perspective on just how big the bag of shit George W. Bush left us holding was. But to me it means something a bit more fundamental: we need a bunch of new economic forecasters.
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Five years ago in C&J: June 7, 2006
JEERS to textbooks of mass destruction. A quick reminder that 15 of the 19 terrorists involved in the 9/11 hijackings were schooled in Saudi Arabia, and guess what? Why, that lovable Land-O-Oil is still churning out mean little bastard thugs who hate us:
An eighth-grade text, for example, teaches that "the Jews are apes...while the swine are the Christians." A 12th-grader learns the value of jihad (holy war) in language that shows jihad as a violent struggle against Jews, Christians and Muslims who don't follow the conservative Wahhabi version of Islam that Saudi Arabia officially adheres to.
Instead of apples, students leave hand grenades on the teacher's desk. Sweet.
CHEERS to bleary-eyed election watchers. Those who stayed up 'til the wee hours saw "from the middle of nowhere" organic farmer Jon Tester beat John Morrison in the Montana senate primary...and Francine Busby come thiiis close to knocking off Brian Bilbray in the California 50th (but not before scaring the pants off the Republican powerbrokers back in D.C.). Not a clean sweep...but not exactly chopped liver, either.
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And just one more...
OOOH!!! and AHHH!!! to floating on a Cloud. Apple made its BIG announcement yesterday, and it was delivered by none other than Steve Jobs himself. I have no fricking clue what he's talking about, but whatever it is I GOTTA HAVE IT NOW!!!!!!!!! I think:
The biggest change Apple revealed was its iCloud strategy, which replaces its MobileMe subscription service, which was plagued by inconsistency. The new iCloud service is free, and it automatically synchs document, photo, music and book applications across multiple devices. Users who buy books on one device or computer, for example, will automatically have access to those same books on their iPhone, or iPad.
Meh. That sounds boring. ("Santa, Santa! I want a service that automatically synchs document, photo, music and book applications across multiple devices that I sign into with my identification information! Please can I have one????" "No way, kid---you'll synch yer eye out!") Besides, Microsoft already owns my soul. Meanwhile, this morning I'm officially announcing my own technological discovery, which was achieved on Sunday afternoon at the CVS Pharmacy across the street: I now have my very own cell phone. My partner Michael wants me to be reachable at Netroots Nation, so I relented. There were a bunch of models to choose from, but I ended up going with the LG320G. It had me at "Built-in Drunk-Dial Feature."
Have a decent Tuesday. Don't park here. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"Hello, C&J! I predict that a note will appear at this very spot at this very moment. This is that note. Not bad, huh? Ciao…and Booger!"
---Nostradamus
1555
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