From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
9,587 9,586 9,585 minutes 'til Netroots Nation!!!
I'll manually update the above number every minute until the convention starts unless I fall asleep. Now here's the latest from NN13:
• Have A Ball(park)! When they opened PNC Park in Pittsburgh for us in 2009, it instantly became one of the highlights of the convention. So you're in for a
real treat this year:
The Alliance for American Manufacturing has reserved San Jose Giants Stadium (home of the San Francisco Giants’ minor league team) for a night of batting practice, dancing and revelry. Enjoy burgers and hot dogs, then try your hand at batting practice. Doors open at 7 p.m. Batting and shagging until 10 p.m.; dancing from
9:30 p.m. until midnight.
I know San Jose has a lovely
rose garden, but for my money nothing beats the smell of freshly-manicured ballpark grass.
• Kossack Vicki has released her annual world-famous, easy-to-read and essential spreadsheet of all the NN panels and events. Print it, memorize it, eat it, then speak no more of it.
• For the seventh year in a row the Anarchy 101 workshop has been cancelled due to lack of organization.
…9,584 minutes…
Barney will be in rare form.
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• A short list of VIPs who say the convention won’t be the same if you don’t show up: Howard Dean, Senator Jeff Merkley (OR), Barney Frank, Sandra Fluke, Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Atrios, Lizz Winstead, Senator Tom Udall (NM), Jeremy Scahill, the DKos front-pagers in Smurf costumes, Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL), House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the CA State Assembly John Perez, Amanda Marcotte, Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Joel Silberman, Zach Wahls, Joan Walsh, Darcy Burner...lots and lots more.
• Netroots for the Troops is 90% of the way toward reaching its goal of $15,000. The money is used to pack and ship care packages to our troops in forward outposts in Afghanistan. C'mon, let's blow the top off the thermometer---please click here now and make a tax-deductible donation. Packing day is Saturday, June 22 at Netroots Nation, and you're invited to join the gang on the assembly line. You can just show up or sign up via Eclectablog's diary.
• Attendees: Coffee breath will clear a room faster than Mitt Romney singing America The Beautiful. Pack those Altoids!
• Volunteers are always a huge help at the convention and it's a great way to meet people. To help the Netroots Nation staff, (registration desk, NN exhibit Booth, assembling name badges, etc), email Eric at volunteers [at] netrootsnation.org.
• Follow NN13 on Twitter here and on Facebook here. All the cool kids are doing it.
• To register for the convention, click here.
…9,583 minutes…
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, June 13, 2013
Note: It's Thursday the 13th. Or as Friday the 13th calls it: a cheap knock-off.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til student loan interest rates double: 18
Days 'til the 31st annual Polish Fest in Milwaukee: Jeden!!!!!
Amount the 14 states that plan to reject the Medicaid expansion when the ACA kicks in will collectively lose in federal funds: $8 billion
Number of avoidable deaths estimated to be caused by rejecting the Medicaid expansion: 19,000
(Source: RAND corporation study via Paul Krugman)
Percent of the 26,000 respondents from around the world in a BBC survey who have a favorable impression of Germany, the U.S. and Pakistan respectively: 59%, 45%, 15%
Percent chance that the electronic cigarettes being introduced in August by tobacco giant Philip Morris will be produced in China: 100%
(Source: AP)
Percent chance that I will be surprised if there ends up being a recall of Philip Morris's Chinese-made electronic cigarettes because they contain unhealthy levels of lead, cadmium, poisoned dog food and/or bits of rotten drywall: 0%
NBA Finals:
San Antonio Spurs 2 Miami Heat 1
Stanley Cup Finals:
Chicago Blackhawks 1 Boston Bruins 0
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom you can decide you don’t much care for. Is the person who prescribes your eyeglasses qualified to do so? How deep will you be buried when you die? What textbooks are your children learning from at school? What will happen if you become seriously ill? Is the meat you're eating tainted? Will you be able to afford to go to college or to send your kids? Would you like a vacation? Expect to retire before you die? Can you find a job? Drive a car? Afford insurance? Is your credit card company or your banker or your broker ripping you off? It's all politics, Bubba. You don’t get to opt out for lack of interest.
---October, 2002
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Puppy Pic of the Day: The tempus…it fugits.
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CHEERS to Cheers and Jeers, your one-stop source for breaking news. For those of you who want an update on the NSA scandal, here ya go.....
Just push the little silver button, right after I flip open my phone-cam.
CHEERS to accident prevention. Y'know, we hear about so many conservative victories in their Bible-based war on women's reproductive rights that it gets truly depressing. But once in awhile the forces of science and common-sense win a big one, and that's what happened this month when the green light was given to make emergency contraception available without a prescription or age limit. That will mean, among other things…fewer abortions! And that makes the conservatives sad and angry. I will never understand these people. Never.
CHEERS to the anti-Clarence Thomas. On June 13, 1967, in an act of courage and brilliance, Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. His 24 years on the bench worked out very well for America, and his previous work wasn't chopped liver, either:
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After amassing an impressive record of Supreme Court challenges to state-sponsored discrimination, including the landmark Brown v. Board decision in 1954, President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In this capacity, he wrote over 150 decisions including support for the rights of immigrants, limiting government intrusion in cases involving illegal search and seizure, double jeopardy, and right to privacy issues. Biographers Michael Davis and Hunter Clark note that, "none of his (Marshall's) 98 majority decisions was ever reversed by the Supreme Court." In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson appointed Judge Marshall to the office of U.S. Solicitor General. Before his subsequent nomination to the United States Supreme Court in 1967, Thurgood Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases he argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of the government. Indeed, Thurgood Marshall represented and won more cases before the United States Supreme Court than any other American.
Until his retirement from the highest court in the land, Justice Marshall established a record for supporting the voiceless American.
And no one ever---ever---found a pubic hair on his Coke can.
JEERS to the un-democratic process. All eyes will be on Iran tomorrow as elections---well, okay, "elections"---are held. Mahmud Ahmadinnerjacket isn’t in the running this year (term limits) so it'll be one of these guys. We got no dog in this hunt, so we'll just say: may the candidate with the all-powerful Mullahs' thumbs on his scale inevitably win!
JEERS to the definition of sanctity in a right-wing marriage. Nine years ago, Rush Limbaugh's wife filed for divorce after 10 years. (He wanted to start having sex with the lights on, and she bolted like a filly in a lightning storm.) He's currently on wife #4. And with God as my witness, I am so sorry for that visual.
CHEERS to today's edition of "They Say That Like It's A Bad Thing." Today's softball is provided by the right-wing and wrong-all-the-time Family Research Council, which tweets:
Congressman: Anti-gay Soldiers Being Singled out for Punishment
This has been another edition of
"They Say That Like It's A Bad Thing."
CHEERS to puttering around with the mashie and the flat stick. The first round of the U.S. Open golf championship starts today at Merion Golf Club in Ardmor, Pennsylvania:
Toughest hole on the course.
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Established in 1896, Merion Golf Club enjoys the distinction of hosting more USGA championships (the 2013 U.S. Open will be its 18th) than any other club in America. It has been the site of several iconic moments in the game's history, including Bobby Jones completing the "Grand Slam" in 1930 with his U.S. Amateur triumph, and Ben Hogan winning the 1950 U.S. Open 16 months after surviving a near-fatal automobile accident.
The pros, including a newly-reinvigorated Tiger Woods, will use their superior course-management skills to knock in shots 'til they end up at the 18th hole. Meanwhile, I'll be using my inferior liver-management skills to knock back shots 'til I end up on the floor at the 19th hole.
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Five years ago in C&J: June 13, 2008
CHEERS to the Squeegee of Truth. Learning a hard lesson from John Kerry's late and lackluster response to the swiftboat campaign four years ago, Barack Obama's team (and what an efficient team it is) has set up a tough, rapid-response site to help keep the right-wing slime off their windshield. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign doesn’t have, and will never need, a site like this. But we sure wish he'd create one to help us keep track of all his contradictory statements. Then again, a site that big might break the internet.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to Uncle Arthur. Today is late comedian Paul Lynde's 87th birthday. Regular readers know I boast about him because he and I share the same hometown---Mt. Vernon, Ohio---and also a general distrust of politicians: "They talk in generalities and lies, and I think they’ve caused all our grief---and hope Nader never lets up on them. They’re so awful, they’re really funny. I hate thinking this because my dad loved politics." Here are some 70's-era zingers from the Center Square who, as Peter Marshall once said, "made the world safe for sissies":
"Paul Lynde for the win..."
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Peter Marshall: When Richard Nixon was vice president, he went someplace on a "good will mission," but instead wound up being stoned and shouted at. Where did this take place?
Paul Lynde: Pat's room.
Peter Marshall: Nathan Hale, one of the heroes of the American Revolution, was hung. Why?
Paul Lynde: Heredity.
Peter Marshall: Pride, anger, covetousness, lust, gluttony, envy, and sloth are collectively known as what?
Paul Lynde: The Bill of Rights.
Peter Marshall: The Great White is one of the most feared animals. What is the Great White?
Paul Lynde: A sheriff in Alabama.
And who can forget Uncle Arthur…
Master of subtlety, that one.
Have a great Thursday. Squint real hard and you can see the weekend. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"Reading Cheers and Jeers as a task is very, very complex for the human brain. Because we do it over and over, it becomes normal for us. But there is still a complex set of activities attached to it."
---Psychologist Elizabeth Waterman
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