From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Netroots Nation Reminder: Panel Submissions Deadline Loometh!
Morning. Hope your weekend was decent. The grand poobahs behind the Netroots Nation convention (St. Louis July 14-17) wanted me to remind you bright and early today that there's an important deadline this week: submissions for panel-discussions and training sessions are due this Friday. And this year you and I will have a bigger say in what gets chosen, says Raven Brooks:
This year, for the first time, we are opening up voting for panels and trainings to the public. The submissions can be viewed and voted on at our web site. When the voting period closes on March 11, the top 10 panels and top 4 trainings with the most votes will automatically get a spot at Netroots Nation 2016 in St. Louis.
As always, our goal is to highlight the great work being done by activists around the country, from national campaigns to local issue organizing, as well as to shine a light on what’s happening in the St. Louis area. You can submit on any topic, but here are a few things we’re looking to highlight this year:
- Conversations about racial justice and dismantling structural racism
- Panels that promote bridge-building between activists and organizations
- Sessions that integrate cutting-edge tools and techniques
The deadline to submit is Friday, March 11. If you have questions, please feel free to email us at panelsNN16 [at] netrootsnation.org.
The link for all the panel submission info is here, including access to voting for the panels you’d like to see at the convention. And if you're in town the evening before the convention starts, please join us for the Daily Kos/C&J welcome party---you can RSVP at the Connect! Unite! Act! Posts. 129 days and counting. Not that we're counting.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, March 7, 2016
Note: Last night, CNN chose as one of its debate moderators an anchorman who once openly wondered if the Malaysian Airlines jet that disappeared a couple years ago had gotten sucked into a black hole. Or as he’s better known: part of CNN’s A-team.
-
By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Michigan and Mississippi Dem primaries: 1
Days 'til the Maine Boatbuilders Show: 11
Number of jobs created in February, according to the Labor Dept.: 242,000
Expected average per-gallon price of gas over the summer (versus around $3.60 each summer between 2011 and 2014), according to the Energy Dept.: $2.08
Distance from earth of the farthest galaxy discovered so far, according to a recent discovery by the Space Telescope Science Institute: 13.4 billion light years
Rank of Washington, Montana, Vermont and Maine among states that report UFO sightings most frequently, according to the National UFO Reporting Center: #1, #2, #3, #4
Percent chance that March was named for the Roman god Mars, who is most famous for inventing the Snickers bar: 100% (Source: Zeus)
-
Puppy Pic of the Day:
1 mama + 6 female pups + 11 male pups = 1 new record
-
CHEERS to dueling candidates behind dueling lecterns. This is what I remember from last night's debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Flint, Michigan:
"I agree with you."
"I agree with you."
"Not all the time, but most of the time. Y'know?"
"I know."
"Great.”
“Hey, I got an idea. Let's go snap some pics of tiny baby hands and post 'em in Trump's twitter feed with lots of LOLs."
"I'm feelin' your bern, man."
How will our party survive such savagery.
P.S. Maine had its caucuses over the weekend. No big surprise that Ted Cruz won the GOP race and Bernie won the Democratic race. But check out these numbers:
Unreal. I just wish our Ds had turned out in that proportion when our idiot governor was up for election. And re-election.
JEERS to contractual C&J obligations. I wade into the right-wing muck so you don't have to. Some thoughts on the weekend's CPAC (Conservatives Pouting At Clouds...I think) convention. Sorry to put you through this but I gotta park it in the archives:
• You can meet some of the attendees here, including the…pro-pot advocates and the gay dudes???
• After going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, in the end Trump decided he just couldn’t come.
• Marco Rubio, who seems to come in second-place in absolutely everything (although congrats on that stunning Puerto Rico win, little Marco), came in second place in the straw poll, which was won by Ted Cruz. Trump came in a distant third, followed by a surprisingly-strong showing for Cruz's lip booger.
• Marco Rubio said that Donald Trump is nothing like Ronald Reagan. But Phyllis Schlafly says that Trump smells like Ronald Reagan. I think I know who wins this fight. I also think I know I’m gonna throw up.
• No firearms were allowed inside the convention hall, because even conservatives know how unstable conservatives can be.
• Ironically, the majority of the fake plastic fetuses the anti-choice groups gave away to attendees ended up in the trash.
• As usual, every speaker exploded in rage over what a hopeless cesspool America is…and then closed their speeches with "God bless this exceptional nation of ours."
All in all, though, it seemed like it was a sleepy affair this year---more yawning press coverage than fawning. Even Sarah Palin couldn’t be bothered to go and put on a display of her patented brand of derpy performance art. I guess they're saving their energy for next year when they have a new Democratic president leading them down to their next circle of insanity.
CHEERS to the original plastic diva. 57 years ago, the Barbie doll made its debut at the American Toy Fair in New York. Today she's a billion-plus-dollar-a-year industry, thanks in part to collectors editions like Zombie Bride Barbie. (If someone wasn't stoned when they came up with that, I'm the Easter Barbie.) And good on Mattel for making her come in more shapes and sizes this year---long overdue. As I recall, when I was a kid my job was to distract Barbie so Ken and G.I. Joe could sneak off for some clandestine cuddle time. Their garden wedding was beautiful. Until the barn owls snatched 'em.
-
-
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man. Democratic House Rep. Suzan DelBene asks during a stupid GOP-led hearing to rail against abortion rights: “Do you think ideology should shape the rules about scientific research?”
No.
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
-
-
CHEERS to rimshots with your rubber chicken. The Castro brothers (the American ones, not the Cuban ones) and Vice President Biden delivered some rhetorical karate chops to a certain Republican presidential candidate over the weekend at the annual Gridiron Dinner:
Biden
"Ted Cruz? An inspiration to every kid in America who worries that he’ll never be able to run for president because nobody likes him."
"I told Barack, if you really, really want to remake the Supreme Court, nominate Cruz. Before you know it, you’ll have eight vacancies."
The Castros
Rep. Joaquin Castro: “Why do people take such an immediate dislike to Ted Cruz?”
HUD Sec. Julian Castro: “Probably because it saves time.”
It's a reminder that President Obama will have one more chance to skewer the Republican field at the White House Correspondents dinner next month. Heads-up to the cable networks: with so much material to work with, he may go long.
CHEERS to Pa Bell. 140 years ago today, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent---#174,465---for a communications device that has a diaphragm inside it. Bell called it the telephone. Republicans called it a slut.
-
Ten years ago in C&J: March 7, 2006
CHEERS to clawing your way through Spring Break. So everyone's all atwitter about the recent discovery of a fuzzy lobster off Easter Island. We can assure you it's just a Maine lobster on vacation. We all bundle up like that from October through June.
-
And just one more…
CHEERS to a four-legger's best friend. Tears were shed over the weekend with news that Tricia Wyse LeFevre---aka Daily Kos's beloved animal rights activist and "Pootie Queen"---died in a North Carolina hospital Saturday morning. Tricia was the driving force behind the daily "pootie diaries" (and, for canine aficionados, "Woozle Wednesdays"), a lengthy strip of LOL pics that served as a welcome oasis on the Rec List amidst all the pie flinging.
I think bfitzinAR said it best in her diary that broke the news:
It’s hard to even start on how and why she was so important. …
She created a space where people could bring their joy in their pets, their questions about pets, and their sorrow at the loss of their pets. She created a safe space where we could come when the stresses of our personal lives became overwhelming. She loved our community, kept track of us, let everyone know when one of us needed help or sympathy---and put it on the top of every diary that she would defend the Peeps under any circumstances.
And don’t miss bubbanomics' tribute posted in classic Pootie Queen style (or the many others that Meteor Blades archived yesterday). One of the nicest things this community did for Tricia was to pay her way to attend the Netroots Nation convention in Providence four years ago. Michael and I were there when she arrived at the hotel---yes, wearing her leopard-print cat ears---and until the moment she left five days later she was treated like the royalty she was. Fair to say that was the highlight of what was a very challenging life for Trish. The C&J community sends our condolences to the family Trish leaves behind---including husband Joey and daughter Franki---and her legions of friends and fans. If there's an afterlife and the pearly gates are guarded by a cat, I can guarantee this: she's getting one helluva a penthouse suite.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
-
Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“Adjusting to space is easier than adjusting to the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool for me.”
---Astronaut Scott Kelly
-