From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
10 9 8 7 Weeks to Netroots Nation!
Yup---we're under the 50-day mark as the countdown to the big convention in Detroit continues. Here's your weekly dose of info, starting with an important…
•
Time change! The
Daily Kos/C&J Meet 'n Eat 'n Greet at
Vicente Cuban Cuisine on Wednesday, July 16 will start half an hour earlier
at 5pm. We absolutely, positively want to see you there, but to get past the orange velvet ropes you need to let us know you're planning to join us. To get your name put on the A-List (I always like you best), let Navajo know via kosmail
by clicking here.
• Volunteers are always needed, wanted, lavished with praise and held up as pillars of society. If you can spare a few hours to stuff swag bags, tend the registration booth, assemble name tags, etc., drop Eric Thut (yes…that Eric Thut) an email at volunteers[at]netrootsnation.org.
• Space is limited for this cool event on Wednesday the 16th:
1937 Woolworth strikers
-
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.
• Fun Fact: The Detroit area is represented by three congresscritters, all dependable Democrats---John Dingell in the 12th District, John Conyers in the 13th District, and Gary Peters in the 14th. Dingell is retiring from politics after 59 years, Conyers has been serving for 49, and Peters will likely succeed Carl Levin as Michigan's next senator.
• Have you seen the list of panels yet? You can check 'em out here. Here's the diversity breakdown this year:
•
Registration and Hotel info (rooms are going fast) are
here and
here.
• Follow NN14 via Twitter here.
If you write for another blog, please help catapult this info so we can get the word out to as many people as possible. The more the merrier, I say. (I hear that's also true about orgies, bottles of beer on the wall and waffles.)
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, May 29, 2014
Note: Just a heads up that there will be no C&J this Monday (or next Monday) due to delayed-by-weather cottage-opening up north in an area blissfully free of internet access. Back Tuesday covered in dust bunnies, cobwebs, dead flies and sawdust. Kiss me, you fool!
-
3 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the midterm elections:
159
Days 'til the 21st
Celebration of Lupines in New Hampshire's Franconia Notch area:
3
Median CEO pay last year:
$10.5 million
Number of years CEO pay has been that high:
0
(Source:
Think Progress)
Percent of Americans who believe that Karl Rove's attacks on Hillary Clinton are bullshit and they hate his guts:
66%
(Source: Washington Post-ABC News poll)
Revenue expected to be generated in Pennsylvania from gay-marriage-related services over the next three years, in addition to the $5.8 million in tax revenue:
$92 million
(Source: Williams Institute analysis)
Rank of fishing, camping and boating among activities that people are engaging in when they're struck by lightning:
#1, #2, #3
(Source:
io9)
-
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
Look, all of law is a process of drawing lines on slippery slopes. The difference between misdemeanor theft and felony theft is one penny. The difference between misdemeanor and felony drug possession is one gram. For that matter, the difference between a pig and a hog is one pound.
We're always drawing distinctions, and it is necessary to do so---hunting rifles, OK; .50 caliber rifles, don't be a fool.
---May, 2005
-
Puppy Pic of the Day: Six weeks
-
CHEERS to giving an old cliché a new workout. Back in 2009, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) funneled millions of dollars from anonymous donors into Maine to overturn our brand-new marriage-equality law---an effort that succeeded due to vicious fearmongering---and I couldn’t help but think of the old adage, "He who laughs last laughs best." Three years later, a citizens referendum re-passed the law, which was good for a hearty guffaw in NOM's direction. And yesterday we almost choked on our schadenfreude:
NOM president Brian Brown has a
good reason to start bawling...again.
The state ethics board voted unanimously Wednesday to impose a $50,250 fine on the nation’s leading organization opposing gay marriage, a decision that could affect how nonprofit organizations attempt to influence Maine elections. … Fred Karger, a gay-rights activist from California, filed the complaint against NOM with the Maine ethics commission in 2009. Karger said NOM effectively laundered its donations to conceal the identity of its donors. “NOM definitely picked the wrong state to break the law,” Karger said.
The $50,250 fine proposed by the ethics commission’s staff would be nearly twice the largest previous ethics penalty against a state political action committee.
Feel free to join in. [
Clears throat] HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!! And NOM lived miserably ever after. The End.
JEERS to back-benchers. President Obama's West Point speech yesterday on foreign policy and military intervention was completely on-point. I know this because Charles Krauthammer thinks it was literally pointless. Sorry, creepy warmonger…World War III denied.
P.S. West Point graduate W. Higginbotham, I found the hat you threw in the air yesterday. It's on our roof. Remind me to never challenge you to a grenade fight.
CHEERS to the other star-spangled banner. On May 29, 1916, the official Flag of the President of the United States was adopted by executive order. This is interesting:
Moments after the
steamroller accident.
In 1945, Truman ordered the Presidential Seal and Flag redesigned. He did not like the way the eagle's head faced the arrows of war.
He believed that the president, although prepared for war, should always look towards peace. He had the head turned toward the olive branches.
By the way, the first thing President Obama did upon taking office? Send the flag to the laundromat to wash Bush's boogers out of it.
JEERS to letters from the C&J mailbag. Sent via What-Were-You-Thinking???!!! Post:
Dear Stupidest Pakistani Relatives on the Planet,
Hello! How are you? Getting stupider by the second is my guess, seeing as you just stoned your pregnant wife/mom/relative to death.
I hear what you did fits your definition of an "honor killing." I can only conclude that you people also have the stupidest dictionaries on the planet, too.
A pox on your penises, you fucking idiots.
Sincerely,
Billy…and several billion of my friends
Needless to say, no little hearts dotting the i's on this one.
CHEERS to affairs of states. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th original colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution. And on May 29, 1848, Wisconsin became the 30th state to become "one of U.S." (See what I did there? Huh Huh?) In the C&J cafeteria today, the best of both: hot wieners with cheese, snail salad with cheese, jonnycakes with cheese, and coffee milk with cheese. Please add 50 cents for extra cheese.
CHEERS to the end of and era. Did you know that today is technically a holiday? Yup…it's "End of the Middle Ages Day." To mark the occasion, all GOP flag pins will be lowered to half-lapel.
-
Five years ago in C&J: May 29, 2009
JEERS to the Sonia witch trials. There is a wing of the Republican mob that's convinced itself it's still living in 1692 Massachusetts. In the last 24 hours, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been called "racist," "wild-eyed judicial activist," "Hispanic chick lady," "cold-hearted ideologue," "hack," "affirmative action pick," "reverse racist," "lacking intelligence," "Latina woman racist," "bigot," "a hothead," an Obama pick (don’t ask), and even...um..."Maria" (nice one, Huckabong.) And straight out of right-wing field is National Review's Mark Krikorian, who wants to boil her in oil because she pronounces her name funny. The only way this could get any more bizarre is if Dick Cheney showed up at the Senate hearings with his water-torture board. (It's mahogany...very classy...doubles as a coffee table in his den.)
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to my adopted grandmother. Here's the late, great Maya Angelou to, um, clap us out…
She'll be missed. With a capital M.
Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Humans Traded Bill in Portland Maine For Brains, Study Says
---Design & Trend
-