From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Wanted: Good Ideas for Great Time
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Just a quick reminder that the doors to the
Netroots Nation convention in Detroit open in 183 days. An independent estimate by the Independent Estimate Institute confirms that 90 percent of the nation's problems will be solved by the crazy lefty attendees. Nate Silver pegs it at 89 percent but what does he know?
In the meantime, the only thing standing in the path of liberal world domination is an agenda, and that's where you come in. NN14 is now soliciting ideas for panels, speakers, training sessions and film screenings.
"Your submissions will help us create an inclusive and engaging agenda for our 2014 conference, while also helping shape the national dialog for progressives in the coming months," says NN14 Executive Director Raven Brooks. "This coming year will help shape our nation's future, and you can help ensure sure it's a progressive one."
Harry Truman signs the U.N. Charter, an
idea first proposed at Netroots Nation '45
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Think grassroots organizing…civil rights…voting reform…climate change and green energy…messaging…recruiting progressive candidates and helping them win…protecting our social safety nets from the corporate barracudas…immigration…how to explain things to Republicans
real slow…and etcetera. What's near and dear to you that you'd like to create a buzz over?
It's easy to submit an idea. Click here for the guidelines and submission form. The deadline for entries is February 19th.
Please note that I've already called dibs on the panel titled, "So You've Turned the Whole World Gay and Sealed Humanity's Doom. What Now?" (Hint: it's all good.)
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, January 15, 2014
NOTE: Today is "Take Your Note to Work Day." Here's my little feller, Note, Jr. with today's note. Take it away, Junior. note: Poo poo pee pee ha ha! NOTE: A chip off the old block, ain't he! One day I expect he'll make it onto a refrigerator at Harvard.
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14 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the start of the Chinese New Year (of the Horse):
16
Days 'til the 36th annual
SnowDown Safari So Good Festival in Durango, Colorado:
14
Years since
Saturday Night Live had a black female cast member, a streak which ended with the hiring iof Sasheer Zamata:
6
Rank of the U.S., Pakistan and China among countries that pose the "greatest threat to peace" in a WIN Gallup poll of 66,000 people worldwide:
#1, #2, #3
Number of people indicted in a fraud scheme to funnel $20 million in 9/11-related disability payments to former NYC police and firefighters:
106
(Source: Time)
Percent chance that the IRS "scandal" is now dead as a doornail to everyone except Darrell Issa and Fox News:
100%
(Source:
Steve Benen/Maddowblog)
Expected high today in Kabul, Afghanistan:
44°
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Mid-week Rapture Index: 183 (including 4 Liberalisms and 1 spooky hand of God in space). Soul Protection Factor 24 lotion is recommended if you’ll be walking amongst the heathen today.
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Dissecting the doggie paddle
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CHEERS to the latest broadside raked across the S.S. I'm Not A Bully. While reporters wear down their shoe leather and their pencils to expose the Bridgegate affair in all its repugnant detail, Bruce Springsteen makes a three-minute appearance with Jimmy Fallon and ratchets the scandal up a notch by bringing it down to earth. Hat tip to Kossack translatorpro for the link:
And a catchphrase is born: "Hey, Christie! I gotta take a leak!!!"
CHEERS to the new kid on the bench. This is what filibuster reform looks like, folks:
The Indiana Jones
of appeals judges.
The Senate confirmed one of President Barack Obama‘s key judicial nominees on Monday, completing an overhaul of the country’s second most powerful court into one dominated by Democratic-appointed judges. The Senate voted 55-43 to confirm Robert Wilkins to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That gives Democratic appointees a 7-4 majority on the politically influential bench.
Excellent. That's a big box checked off on Obama's to-do list. By the way, do you know what Robert looks like without the robe? Why, "rt," of course.
JEERS to that D.C. Court of Appeals I was just praising. I have to hope this is temporary, because otherwise it might end up taking five hours for Daily Kos to load on your 'puter. This, to me is the definition of terror:
Clogging soon in a series
of tubes near you.
To cut to the chase, the court says the FCC simply doesn't have the authority to force Internet Service Providers to act like mere dumb pipes, passing data through their tubes with a blind eye and sans preferential treatment. … Net neutrality advocates fear that without rules in place, big companies like Netflix, Disney, and ESPN could gain advantage over competitors by paying ISPs to provide preferential treatment to their company's data. For example, YouTube might pay extra so that its videos load faster than Hulu's on the ISP's network.
If the ruling stands, that means a bunch of vultures in suits could slow some lanes of online traffic to a crawl in the name of greed and spite. That creaking sound you just heard was Chris Christie popping a woody.
CHEERS to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today is the civil rights titan's 85th birthday. Some words of advice for President Obama, who made a bit of a leap in fulfilling King's dream and who starts his sixth year in office on Monday:
"Televised bowling sucks."
"Big time."
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
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The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character---that is the goal of true education.
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A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.
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Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
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The time is always right to do what is right.
And my advice to Obama, slightly adapted from King's: "Judge me on the content of my character, not the underwear on my head." I'm guessing he'll spend another year not finding that one particularly helpful.
JEERS to the corporate overlord mailbag. Delivered via papyrus spritzed with a curiously strong licorice scent:
Dear Charleston, West Virginia:
It's come to our attention via a Rand-McNally map in one of our Freedom Hummers that your city is situated downstream from our 4-methylcyclohexane methanol storage tanks. All we can figure is that we were holding the map upside-down when we chose the location for said tanks and, well…hey, stuff happens.
So while we're cleaning up our perfectly harmless Freedom liquids that you've been told to stay at least a thousand yards away from at all times, we'd appreciate it if you'd moved your city upriver from our Freedom tanks. Cardboard boxes and rental flatbed trucks are available at our Freedom courtesy kiosk. (And please: help yourself to the licorice jar!)
Wishing you a Freedom day,
Your Nameless, Faceless Friends at Freedom Industries
Proudly distributing chemicals produced by Koch Industries since 2008
P.S. Our 4-methylcyclohexane methanol is now headed downriver to Ohio and Kentucky and Indiana. Cities in those states should move, too. We hear Montana is beautiful.
And you people said they didn't care.
5 years ago already???
CHEERS to the 'Miracle on the Hudson.' A hundred and fifty five airline passengers got a shock five---
five!!!--- years ago today when al Qaeda-trained birds, each having been promised 72 virgin chicks in Paradise, flew themselves into the engines of Flight 1549 as it took off from LaGuardia, leaving it crippled with no way to keep it aloft. To give you an idea of the freakish nature of the event, and the skill of pilot Chesley Sullenberger in landing the craft, consider
this:
"This is only the fourth time in the jet era" that pilots have intentionally put an airliner down in water, said Todd Curtis, a former Boeing safety engineer who runs the AirSafe.com website.
"Sully" is
back in New York this week to mark the occasion and say a few words. Nothing prepared, really. He'll just wing it.
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Five years ago in C&J: January 15, 2009
JEERS to closing the barn door after the horses bolt. FDIC to the rescue! Months after $350 billion of our tax dollars went out the door willy nilly, the federal agency says, if it's not too much trouble, they'd appreciate it if banks would maybe consider tracking where our bailout money is going. Besides, it'll be fun:
The explanations the FDIC is asking financial institutions to provide will allow banks "to tell their stories," said Wayne Abernathy, an executive vice president of the American Bankers Association. "I think bankers will respond to that favorably because I think we've got a good story to tell," he said.
It begins: "Once upon a time, in the Land of Make Believe..."
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And just one more…
CHEERS (oh, why not?) to The Great Distraction. The 13th season of American Idol premieres tonight with judges Whatsizface, Whatserface and Whatsizface, new contestants eager to warble their hearts out…but no Randy Jackson, bringing the "Yo dawg" era to a merciful end. I'm actually amazed that I remember the name of last year's winner (Pat Boone). But in my mind the all-time champ remains: civil rights activist General Larry Platt and his 2010 rallying cry for disgruntled old people, Pants on the Ground.
Francis Scott Key, eat yer heart out.
Have a nice Wednesday. Full moon tonight so get yer butt out in the back yard and wink at Neil Armstrong. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Preservative in C&J Kiddie Pool Responsible for Mysterious Rash
---Science World report
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