From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment
Normally you'll find just under the fold my weekly reminder that, even eight years after she left us, Molly still rules the universe. But not today. This deserves some time up top. There's a documentary called Raise Hell in the works from director/producer Janice Engel, who says…
Janice Engel
Three years ago, I learned, there had never been a film made about Molly Ivins. I couldn’t believe it. To me, she was and is an American icon in the vein of Mark Twain. She was hilarious and used a razor sharp wit to speak truth to power and give voice to those that didn’t have one. Who does that today? Molly was a pundit before there were pundits - a populist to the core. At the height of her popularity, nearly 400 papers carried her column. She appeared on national television and radio programs and lectured all of the country. I couldn’t imagine Molly Ivins just becoming a footnote in history so I set out to make this documentary.
Check out the progress of the film here:
Janice wants to raise $75k through a Kickstarter campaign to finish the film, and she's well over halfway there. The chance to be a backer of a movie---a real labor of love---about Molly is totally awesome. So if you've always wanted to put "feared and respected co-producer in the motion picture business who makes or breaks careers" on your resume, just click here and toss in a few bucks. There's a whole laundry list of kick-ass rewards depending on the size of your donation.
We'll keep an eye on the progress of Raise Hell and post updates. Can't wait to see its release.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, June 25, 2015
Note: After an emergency meeting with the United Nations General Assembly, I have agreed to accept a vacation day this coming Monday in exchange for canceling my plans to vaporize the planet's gravitational field. May this serve as a template for future peace negotiations throughout the world and, indeed, the universe. Back Tuesday.
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3 days!!!
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the
Seattle LGBT Pride Parade:
3
Days 'til the
National Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan:
9
Percent chance that last month was, globally, the hottest May in 136 years of record keeping:
100%
(Source: NOAA)
Amount paid for Picasso's "Women of Algiers" painting at auction:
$179 million
Amount paid for Adolf Hitler's 14 "middling" sketches and paintings at auction:
$450,000
(Source:
The Washington Post)
Number of Republican congressmen who have been removed from House committees for voting against fast-track authority on Obama's Pacific trade agreement:
4
Percent of employers who say they don’t mind workers showing up late as long as they get their work done:
16%
(Source:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
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Puppy Pic of the Day: A reminder that tomorrow is Take Your Dog to Work Day. If you operate a steamroller, keep one hand on the steering wheel at all times.
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CHEERS to our new digs. Looks like Daily Kos 4.0 is soon to be retired in favor of the spiffier, zippier and tangier Daily Kos 5.0, and they're looking for beta testers like you to help find the glitches:
Daily Kos 5.0 WILL!!!
With your help, Daily Kos will load much faster, be able to handle much more traffic, share more widely, and be kinder on the eyes. We'd love to have your feedback and your help in exercising the new software. We encourage you to run through all the usual actions you take on Daily Kos: Post stories, comments, recommend posts and comments, and so forth.
Since the new software is housed on what we call a "sandbox," what happens on beta stays on beta. Most rules of the site will be relaxed there so you can really run the software through its paces, and you don't have to worry about anything breaking. In fact, we want you to try!
To get there, just
go here. But be sure to click your heels together three times and say "There's no place like Kos." Otherwise you'll end up as a dust mite in Donald Trump's hair. (Needless to say, that's the #1 glitch they're currently working on.)
True fact: Roberts unlocks the front
door every morning in his bathrobe.
CHEERS and/or
JEERS to another day of decisions, decisions, decisions. Here we go again! After an excruciatingly long Tuesday and Wednesday, it's finally time for more Supreme Court rulings to dribble out. Monday they gave us raisins and Spiderman, so for the love of all that is sacred, we deserve some blockbuster action today. The opinionators start opinionating at 10, and they may include pronouncements on gay marriage, Obamacare subsidies, lethal injection and whether the guy who cut Alito off in traffic the other day should pay by having to come clean the bottom of his backyard pool
WITH HIS TONGUE!!! As always, the best place to get the fastest results and early analysis is SCOTUSblog, either at their
website or
twitter feed. And to lower your blood pressure as you're waiting, we recommend you pet a kitten.
[Swoon!]
CHEERS to the Wise Latina. Speaking of the Supremes, happy birthday (and blessings on your camels) to Supreme Court
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who turns 61 today. She'll mark her sixth year on the bench in August, and I think she's done a fine job so far. She's not John Roberts, who promised to be an impartial "umpire" but now walks every pro-business batter who shows up at the plate; or Clarence Thomas, the porn-addicted serial tax dodger with the wife who's a walking conflict of interest; or Samuel Alito, the State of the Union mumble-grumbler; or Antonin Scalia, who never met a Koch brother he didn’t fluff and thinks nothing of flipping off those who displease him. So, in honor of your birthday, Your Honor, we got you the best present we could think of: a summer off from sitting next to those weirdos starting next Tuesday.
CHEERS to patching up a hole in our democracy. Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Congressman John Lewis (the closest thing America has to our own modern-day Gandhi) are re-introducing a new addition to the Voting Rights Act that will help restore the enforcement measures the Supreme Court took away:
The legislation, titled "The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015," would force any state that has had 15 or more voting rights violations in the last 25 years to be subject to federal preclearance for any change in voting procedure or law. That criterion would initially subject 13 states to preclearance: New York, California, Arkansas, Arizona, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, according to a copy of the legislation obtained by the Washington Post. Those states would be able to free themselves of the preclearence provision by going 10 consecutive years without a voting rights violation.
Key to any Voting Rights Act fix, however, will be gaining the support of congressional Republicans, who control both the House and the Senate.
In response Republicans grinned and said they'd
love to vote on it. Moments later they started replacing the voting machines in the House and Senate with Diebold units. How subtle.
Liberals are even better at
creating an accurate GOP logo.
JEERS to the slow pokes. As the defense of the Confederate flag continues to crumble among Republicans faster than Pickett's line at Gettysburg, I had this deep thought that cuts to the heart of the difference between liberals and conservatives in this country. Namely, this is one more big issue among dozens where liberals have been totally on the right side of history for as long as anyone can remember:
Confederate pro-slavery flag bad! Don’t fly pro-slavery Confederate flag! And we've waited patiently for the slow-as-molasses conservatives---the foot-stompers who "stand athwart history yelling 'Stop!'"---to finally catch up. And this is true on so many issues: Social Security, health care, minority rights, public education, LGBT rights, the bogus 'drug war,' the environment, the economy…pretty much everything. At the moment they've finally crossed the
Confederate pro-slavery flag bad finish line. Hooray. Break out the bubbly. Congratulations, GOP---you've evolved all the way up to April of 1865.
Cavorting with a hate group. How classy.
JEERS to a microscopic ripple in the pond. Yesterday Bobby Jindal, using camera work that would be
right at home in Fellini's world, announced his run for the presidency. Or as it's better known: his run for the vice presidency. Or as it's better known: his political farewell tour before he takes a cushy job on K Street or Wall Street. Some predictions in life are easy pickins.
WHOOPS to pissing off the wrong people. On June 25, 1876, General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry met their Waterloo at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana. Moments after the shooting stopped, a corporal arrived on the scene with an urgent message from HQ: "Duck!" Fate is a cruel master.
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Ten years ago in C&J: June 25, 2005
CHEERS to Ted Kennedy. For asking Donald "Dick" Rumsfeld: "In baseball, it's three strikes, you're out. What is it for the Secretary of Defense?" (Watch it here.) Rumsfeld's response: "Gosh, that's a [whiff!!] really good question [whiff!!] and I'll [whiff!!] get back to you just as soon as I [whiff!!] can."
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And just one more...
CHEERS to U.S. Minty freshness. It's a paaartay!!! Big doings in Asheville, North Carolina this morning as the latest "America the Beautiful"-series state quarter makes its debut:
An iconic scene from the Blue Ridge Parkway was selected to be represented on the 28th coin released in the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program. … The 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway connects Shenandoah National Park to the north with Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the south. The Blue Ridge Parkway travels the crests, ridges, and valleys of five major mountain ranges, encompassing several geographic and vegetative zones ranging from 600 to more than 6,000 feet above sea level. It provides visitors with many varied vistas of scenic Appalachian landscapes ranging from forested ridgetops and mountain slopes to rural farm lands and urban areas. It is known nationally and internationally for its designed landscape as a scenic motorway.
The design on the back shows one of the parkway's tunnels. To signify that the coin was issued during the governorship of Pat McCrory, there's no light at the end of it.
Have a numismatictastic Thursday! Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
Life in C&J Kiddie Pool Doomed, Everybody Panic. Or Go Shopping, Whatever
---Wonkette
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