From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
12 Weeks 'Til Netroots Nation 2014!
Your weekly update on all things Detroit, which I shall now read aloud with perfect diction while drinking this glass of water:
• The annual Netroots Nation/Democracy for America
scholarship competition is going on now through May 12th. The five applicants with the most votes overall will automatically win a scholarship
covering the cost of registration and lodging. The remaining 25 spots will be chosen by a selection committee. For more details,
click here. (You can also nominate someone you believe is deserving of a scholarship at that link.)
• This sounds very cool:
1937 Woolworth strikers
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Join the AFL-CIO and the Michigan Labor History Society on Wednesday, July 16 (the day before Netroots Nation kicks off) for a tour of some of Detroit’s historic sites: where Martin Luther King Jr. first delivered “I Have a Dream"…the last stop on the Underground Railroad…the site of the Woolworth’s sit-down strike of 1937…Cadillac Square…the newspaper strike of 1996. The tour starts at Cobo Center and will wrap up with a drink at the Anchor Bar with the organizers from the 1996 newspaper strike who will share their stories. The tour is free, but space is limited.
To reserve your spot,
Click here.
• The list of the forty training sessions is up. They range from data and analytics to field organizing to mastering social media. Take a look. Coming soon: the list of panels and keynoters.
• Last June, regular NN attendee Chris Savage of the legendary Michigan-based Eclectablog wrote about how and why the 2014 convention came to be in the Horseless Carriage City. The crux:
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Why Detroit? Because Michigan represents the future of our country if we don’t regain political control of our state governments. Michigan is a majority Democratic state that is run by Republicans due to gerrymandering and unethical political games that give them power they do not deserve to represent a citizenry that disagrees with them on most things. […]
Because many of the issues that progressives are passionate about are in full display in Michigan in general and in Detroit in particular: Immigration. Women’s reproductive freedom. Collective bargaining and right to work. Marriage equality and civil rights for the LGBT community. Environmental concerns. All of these issues and more are playing out in sharp relief in Michigan.
By the way, Eclectablog is hosting a
10th Blogiversary party on May 1 in Ypsilanti with guest Lizz Winstead. Congrats on your first decade, Chris.
• We hope you'll join us at the Daily Kos/C&J eat-'n-greet in Detroit on Wednesday evening, July 16th. To add your name to the RSVP list, email Navajo. We'll keep you posted with updates by screeching into your driveway at 3am and hollering detauils through a bullhorn.
• Registration and Hotel info are here and here.
• Follow NN14 via Twitter here.
Synchronize your watches: the convention starts in 84 days. Bring comfortable shoes.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, April 24, 2014
Note: A quick heads up that there will be no C&J Monday as we'll be spending a big chunk of the weekend on the road. (Funeral, unfortunately.) But we'll be back bright and early on Tuesday to openly wonder where the hell April went.
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2 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til Cinco de Mayo:
11
Days 'til the
Petaluma Butter & Egg Days Parade and Festival in California:
2
Minimum number of child-neglect and -abuse cases filed in Arizona since 2009 that have been closed without investigation:
6,551
(Source: Harper's Index)
Increase in sales of gun silencers in 2013:
37%
Current wait to register to buy a silencer:
9 months
(Source:
CNN)
Percent of Americans who support the Affordable Care Act requirement of employer-sponsored insurance covering the full
cost of contraception:
69%
(Source:
Journal of the American Medical Association)
Number of Tesla cars delivered to China Tuesday, the first of the electric vehicles to be sold there:
8
(Source:
AP)
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
During the past two years, we have gotten several studies of the economic impact of the eighties, all of them grim. The latest studies show that 60 percent of the wealth created in the decade went to the richest 1 percent of Americans. An additional 14 percent of the wealth went to the richest two percent. And yet another 20 percent of the new wealth went to those in the richest 20 percent, leaving 6 percent of the new wealth to be spread among the remaining 80 percent of Americans.
[Vice President Dan Quayle] says the answer is two-parent families, but according to a study done by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, based on Census Bureau data through 1989, two-parent families are having to run harder than ever just to stay in place. Their income in inflation-adjusted dollars rose 8 percent between 1979 and 1989. That includes all income levels. It was a rate of growth one half of that in the seventies, one fourth of that in the sixties, and one fifth of that in the fifties.
---May, 1992
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Another critical reason to save our trees…
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CHEERS to "the blogging godmother to a generation of new voices." The online political hippie world is exploding with glee this morning, thanks to the news that "Digby" will need to clear a space on her mantel for her Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis. The Hillmans are awarded for "investigative reporting and deep storytelling in service of the common good," and they've been around for 64 years. For her part, Digby (aka Heather Parton) took the news with bemused grace:
This is her.
Who would have thought that could ever happen when I started this ugly little blog 11 years ago? I couldn't have seen it coming, that's for sure. [M]any, many thanks to the generous readers who have supported this blog all these years. That support is what allowed me to stay independent and do this on my own terms which is a very precious and unusual gift in this life. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this thrilling day possible for me.
I met Digby at Netroots Nation in Pittsburgh a lifetime ago, and I found that her blogging personality matches her in-person one like a hand in the proverbial glove. What you read is what you get. Best advice I ever got: stay on Digby's good side.
What Christie will look
like while he's listening
to LePage ramble on.
JEERS to bullies in my backyard. It only makes sense that if you're a toxic governor you would invite another toxic governor to speak at a rally for your re-election campaign. That way you can get your toxicity all over each other and it won't really tarnish either of you. Thus New Jersey's embattled hothead Chris Christie will be in Portland May 7th to raise money for embattled hothead
Paul LePage. The two have a handshake deal for the event: LePage won't mention the Bridgegate scandal and Christie won’t mention that Medicaid expansion
is a really awesome idea. I just hope they're meeting downwind from our house. I hate the smell of burning toast.
P.S. Governor LePage, who fancies himself as a great anti-welfare-fraud crusader (he's practically running for re-election on it), recently vetoed legislation that would require him to submit an annual report on his efforts and their results. Of course he did---he knows that fraud is so miniscule up here that he could write his report on a gum wrapper and have room left over. Such a straight shooter, that one.
CHEERS to grippin' and grinnin'. President Romney started his Asia tour yesterday, stopping first in Japan, where he was greeted by U.S. Ambassador Herman Cain, and... Nah, just kidding, that's in the parallel universe! President Obama landed in Japan yesterday, met U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, and is charming everyone to pieces. Here's his schedule for today:
Obama is leaning slightly forward? He's
bowing to the Emperor? Impeach!!!
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In the morning, Obama meets with Emperor Akihito of Japan at the Imperial Palace and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan at Akasaka Palace.
In the afternoon, the President participates in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Abe. Later, President Obama delivers remarks at a youth and science event with students at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, then visits the Meiji Shrine. In the evening, President Obama attends the Japan State Dinner and delivers remarks.
Then he'll fly to South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. His luggage will fly to Thailand, Myanmar and Australia.
CHEERS to easy layups. Today is national Pig in a Blanket Day. Or, as it's also known: Rush Limbaugh's nappytime.
True Fact: All telescope pics
are developed at Fotomat.
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CHEERS to our big eye in the sky. Twenty-four years ago today, the Hubble space telescope was placed into orbit by the crew of the Space Shuttle
Discovery. When the first
mind-blowing photos were revealed to we Earthlings, Democrats saw the wonder of an evolving universe and the hope of discovering intelligent life one day and harnessing our collective strengths for the good of the cosmos. Republicans saw potential oil fields and the hope of discovering millions of new suckers on which to foist reverse-mortgages and other toxic assets. Meanwhile, Hubble's brother Kepler recently laid its eye on
an earth-like planet in the so-called "habitable zone." It's pristine, its climate seems to be just right, and the lands and seas haven't been ravaged by the fossil fuel industry and unfettered industrialization.
Said the Koch brothers: "That's okay---we'll fix that."
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Five years ago in C&J: April 24, 2009
CHEERS to the "Oops" heard 'round the blogosphere. My head is spinning over the way torture has suddenly grabbed the spotlight and dominated the headlines recently. (GOOD!!!) While Republicans try to justify the damning revelations by suggesting that torturing detainees was necessary to obtain critical information, Fox News's Shep Smith coins a memorable catchphrase:
I love his little "Oops" a few seconds after the F-bomb. That sound you hear is a gaggle of former Bushies lawyering up. Goody.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to toting the tykes. Today is the 21st Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. It's a time to show the kiddies how Mom and Dad's productivity gets cranked up to the max, while their paychecks do not. What fun! I believe I speak on behalf of the entire nation when I say to children of the military personnel who control our nukes: please don’t push any blinking red buttons or turn any keys. Well, unless the code's been authenticated, of course, duh.
Have a nice Thursday. 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 has now made Glenn Beck the voice of reason."
---Jon Stewart
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