From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
All the Netroots Nation Fall A_ction is missing is…U!!!!
See what I did there? Took me six hours to think that through. I trust my Pulitzer is already in the mail.
How cool are these?!!
Yes---only 48 hours until Karen Kolber fires the starting bazooka to kick off the eagerly-anticipated
Netroots Nation Fall Auction, which runs through next Tuesday. The proceeds allow Netroots Nation to bring you top-notch programming at the annual national convention (San Jose June 20-23) and regional conferences, as well as support the well-received New Media Mentors program.
The items up for bid come from the community at large, and they're accepting them right up through Wednesday.
To donate an auction item: go to the official Bidding for Good donation page and fill in the details. Netroots Nation will contact you once they've reviewed your item(s). If you have questions, e-mail Karen Kolber at: Karen [at] netrootsnation.org.
Homemade butter bars
(Extra gooey!)
I can't confirm this, but I'm told that anyone who donates something will get a cosmic credit good for two extra inches of height in your next life. This will come in especially handy for me when I return to rule the gnat kingdom.
If you run your own blog, please remind your readers of the auction, too. "The more the merrier," as Rick Santorum once said right before he retracted his statement after failing to understand at the time that the subject was orgies.
On behalf of everyone at Netroots Nation---Thank U!
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, September 17, 2012
Note: President Obama travels to Cincinnati and Columbus, and as a transplanted Ohioan I'd like to be the first to give him a rousing Buckeye State welcome: "Um…Hi." (Yeah! Nailed it!)
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the first presidential debate between Obama and (romney) at the University of Denver: 16
Days 'til Maine's 161st Fryeburg Fair: 13
Percent of Americans who approve of the way President Obama is handling immigration issues: 64%
Percent who disapprove of his handling of immigration issues: 30%
(Source: Bloomberg poll)
Average monthly savings from buying a home in the largest 100 U.S. metro areas vs. renting, assuming a 3.5% rate, itemized deductions, and minimum 7-year residency: $771
(Source: USA Today)
Percent chance that a household making $250,000 a year is part of the middle class: 100%
(Source: Mitt Romney)
Minimum number of phases of water, 19 of which are forms of ice: 22
(Source: Wired)
Totally Random NFL Score
N.Y. Giants 41 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34
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NEW! "The President is Distant and Aloof and I Can PROVE it!"
I tell you the President is distant and aloof…and so is that distant and aloof wife of his. Click here for shocking proof!!!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: It's the world's new canine overlord, by Zeus!
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CHEERS to the brittle parchment of liberty. Today is Constitution Day! 225 years ago, on September 17, 1787, the U.S. Constitution was signed by delegates from 12 states. And you can thank a wily West Virginia Democrat for keeping it top-of-mind:
The boogers stuck to it are
the Dred Scott, Bush v. Gore
and Citizens United rulings.
Constitution Day became a national observance in 2004, when Senator Robert Byrd passed a bill designating September 17 as the day for citizens to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution and learn more about our founding document. Senator Byrd once said, "Our ideals of freedom, set forth and realized in our Constitution, are our greatest export to the world." … In honor of Constitution Day, all educational institutions receiving federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the U.S. Constitution.
It should be noted that Republicans care just as deeply about the Constitution as Democrats, and pledge to fight for every single word...during Democratic presidencies.
Antidote to bullhorn bans
CHEERS to the return of the 99 Percent. My, how time flies when you're fighting income inequality. Today is the one-year anniversary of the Occupy movement, which started humbly enough in lower Manhattan (at the behest of a Canadian magazine editor, go figure) and turned into a worldwide phenomenon. It may be fair to say that, without their willingness to get ambushed, pepper-sprayed, beaten, shot, dragged, bloodied, cuffed, mocked and jailed (none of which the tea partiers were willing to do), the press and the politicians may have yawned and moved on. But here we are a year later and income equality is a major campaign theme, from the Obama camp right on down the ballot. (And what a target we have in the ultimate 1-percenter, Mitt Romney.) Anyhoo, thousands are
gathered in Zuccotti Park today, where the movement poinked up out of the ground and started a chain reaction a year ago. C&J's message for them this morning: [
Finger waggles UP!]
JEERS to the poorest richest nation on Earth. Speaking of income inequality, the Census Bureau released its annual poverty report and a staggering 15 percent of us are at or below the poverty line, including 22 percent of our nation's kids. Democrats are appalled by the numbers, but Republicans say they've got a foolproof plan for making the numbers shrink to zero: eliminate the Census Bureau's annual poverty report.
CHEERS to 5773! Happy Hebrew New Year, everyone! Rosh Hashanah began yesterday at sundown, and as Sean Connery would say, "Shofar sho good…"
Rosh Hashanah promises everyone a second chance, even if it’s their hundredth one. The New Year also carries the promise of a new you. We are invited to see both ourselves and each other in light of that promise. In fact, Rosh Hashanah teaches that with a bit of work, there is no past that cannot be overcome, and no person who does not deserve the opportunity to do so.
Even though the C&J household isn’t of the Jewish faith, we blew a ram's horn outside our neighbor's bedroom window at 3am anyway. Because we refuse to change our daily routine just because it's Rosh Hashanah.
JEERS and CHEERS to the fires of freedom scorching the pant legs of civility. Here's what's happening in the Middle East from what I can tell: a small percent of ideological hotheads are acting like blithering idiots over some anti-Islam movie that even Ed Wood would call a flaming piece of garbage. But, at the same time, a huge swath of the people over there and over here are embarrassed by the actions of their/our extremists, and at this point we can only hope cooler heads will prevail. In the interest of peace, I offer this as a public service message to our Muslim friends in the Middle East as a way of dealing with insults without, y'know, killing people and making a big huge fiery mess:
There's a U.N. summit coming up this week, and they'll be using it in force. Watch and learn.
73 orbits around the sun---
and boy are his arms tired.
CHEERS to the Bush appointee who woulda been Chief Justice if I'da had anything to say about it. Happy Birthday to former Supreme Court Justice
David Hackett Souter, who turns 73 today. He was appointed by George H.W. Bush, who thought Souter's rulings would lean towards the "right." Fortunately, Souter interpreted the word to mean "correct," not "conservative." And it sounds like he might be a fan of Thoreau's penchant for simplicity:
According to Jeffrey Toobin's 2007 book The Nine, Souter has a decidedly low-tech lifestyle: He writes with a fountain pen, does not use e-mail, has no cell phone or answering machine. While he was serving on the Supreme Court, he preferred to drive back to New Hampshire for the summer where he enjoyed mountain climbing. Souter also has done his own home repairs.
Hope you’re enjoying your retirement, sir...and thanks for not quitting during 43's reign, thus sparing America from having an "Associate Justice Alberto Gonzales." Your Presidential Medal of Republic Preservation is in the mail.
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Five years ago in C&J: September 17, 2007
CHEERS to scooping out the rot. It ain't perfect, but the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act---ironically signed into law by one of the least honest and open government leaders in U.S. history---helps put the brakes on sleaze and corruption in the Senate. Our favorite line from Adam B's summary: "The K Street Project is dead." Funeral services have been cancelled due to the overwhelming stench of the corpse.
JEERS to the "merry-go-round toward extinction." TIME's Nancy Gibbs has a concise roundup of the ways in which Planet Save Us is turning into Planet Betray Us:
By 2050, 40% of the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean could be gone, a loss that wasn't supposed to happen for 100 years. [...] The 2008 Old Farmer's Almanac predicts that the coming year will be the warmest in a century. [...] The World Conservation Union released its annual red list of threatened species and warned that a "global extinction crisis" looms as sprawling cities press deeper into habitats once left alone. [...] When the winter freeze comes later in China, a disease-carrying water snail will have all kinds of new opportunities to make people sick.
And we wonder why UFOs hover just long enough for us to get a fuzzy photo, then zip off to find
intelligent life.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to another letter from Billy's mailbag. Portland has a pretty good free newspaper called The Daily Sun. They're all over local news like butter on lobster, but sometimes their proofers need to clean their glasses. Ahem:
Editor,
When I opened my copy of the Portland Daily Sun Wednesday, I saw two articles that gave me a feeling of deja vu. The first was an AP story about John McCain's senate re-election bid, and the other was about a new nuclear arms agreement between the United States and Russia.
Two clues led me to believe these were really old stories. First, I Googled them and discovered they were actually from March of 2010. And second, the story about McCain's re-election campaign said that Sarah Palin still had star power.
Sincerely,
Bill Harnsberger
Portland
The editor responded: "Printing goofs, ouch!" Yeah…I know the feeling.
Tread lightly and maybe we'll make it through Monday with our hides intact. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Bill in Portland Maine is not qualified to be President of the United States.
---Armando
9/15/12
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