From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
T-Minus 11 Weeks and Counting to Netroots Nation
The elves behind the progressive event of the year are busy dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s for the July 14-17 convention in St. Louis. Here's the latest:
• The NN16 organizers have published their list of "40 hands-on training sessions on topics ranging from data and analytics to field organizing, dismantling structural racism and more." Mary Rickles tells us that it's the most diverse training slate yet: 74% of the trainers are women and 64% are people of color. And, yes, the legendary Joel Silberman is returning with his must-see seminar Presence and Authenticity: How to Be a Media Star. For the complete list of training sessions, click here.
• Ever since a demonstration of my teleportation prototype went disastrously wrong (hey, gimme a break, I was only three), I've given up the techie life. But if you're a gadget guru, you'll be glad to know that the fast and fun Great Netroots New Tools Shootout is returning for its fourth year with partner New Media Ventures. Says Raven Brooks:
"This is your chance to (re)introduce the Netroots community to your voting, organizing, campaigning and/or make-the-world-a-better-place technology solution.
Select presenters will have 5 minutes to make a live pitch. Attendees vote on their favorite new feature/product, most innovative use of technology, and favorite startup technology. It's a great way to get the inside stories on how these tools are being designed and built, the impact they’re already having on campaigns and organizations, and what they can do to help you become a more powerful and more effective activist and leader."
Deadline to get your application in is May 23rd. Sign up by clicking here.
• There are already fifty people who have RSVP'd for the annual Daily Kos/Connect-Unite-Act/C&J Eat-'n-Greet at the Peruvian-style restaurant Mango which is just a stone's throw from the convention hall. To add your name to the list, email Navajo and then circle Wednesday, July 13 on your calendar. We'd love to see you there for our traditional pre-convention kickoff party. I promise to behave for at least the first ten minutes.
• Volunteers are needed for a variety of jobs before and during the convention. Attending the registration booth, filling the swag bags (Try not to scratch the Rolexes), assembling name badges, etc. If you can spare some time, drop Eric Thut an email at volunteers [at] netrootsnation.org.
• Registration and official Hotel info are here and here.
• Follow Netroots Nation via Facebook here and Twitter here.
And since we have 11 weeks to kill, Cheers and Jeers argle bargles below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, April 28, 2016
Note: For temporary relief of constipation, ask your doctor if contemplating a Trump presidency is right for you.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Indiana primary: 5
Days `til the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival in Louisiana: 8
Amount of Middle East oil export revenue lost last year due to lower prices, according to the International Monetary Fund: $390 billion
Amount they're expected to lose this year: $500 billion
Airline reports of unruly passengers out of 9.6 million flights last year, according to the FAA: 82
Number of crimes that could be prevented if the minimum wage was raised to $12/hr. according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers: 500,000
Support/Non-support among Hoosiers for an LGBT civil rights bill in Indiana, according to pollingreport.com: 58% / 36%
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
"You know, that man could be president someday."
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Puppy Pic of the Day:
In honor of the blanket of snow we got here Tuesday, please click…
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JEERS to the dick in the dock. What a legacy Dennis Hastert will leave behind when he eventually kicks the bucket: the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in U.S. history---just two heartbeats away from the presidency. That's really something to be proud of. Or it was until this hit the fan:
Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Wednesday admitted to sexually abusing teenage boys during his time as a high school wrestling coach in a Chicago suburb before his career as an elected official. […]
Judge Thomas Durkin sentenced Hastert to 15 months in prison, a $250,000 fine, along with two years of supervised release on the condition that he get sex offender treatment. Prosecutors had recommended a six-month sentence. Durkin called Hastert a "serial child molester" and said he must not contact any of his victims. […]
One of the men who has accused Hastert of sexual abuse years ago identified himself in the courtroom Wednesday before Hastert spoke. The man, previously known only as "Individual D," identified himself as Scott Cross, 53, who lives in Chicago and works in finance. He has a wife and two children.
Hastert wasn't sentenced for the sex-predator awfulness (the 3-year statute of limitations is pitifully short), but rather for breaking banking rules that he helped pass in his futile attempt to keep the scandal under wraps with hush money. Last November the money scheme was enough to get his portrait removed from the House hallway. In light of the new revelations, they should put it under the Rotunda and burn it.
P.S. A reminder of what former House majority leader Tom "The Hammer" DeLay said in his letter of support for serial child molester Hastert last weekend: "He is a good man that loves the Lord. He doesn't deserve what he is going through." True---he deserves much worse, and I'm betting the Lord will oblige.
CHEERS to toting the tykes. Today is the 24th annual 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.
JEERS to adding a new deck chair to the Titanic. Ted Cruz---who needs to win 119% of all the outstanding delegates to clinch the GOP nomination---made it official yesterday: if he ends up on the ballot in November his running mate is going to be a woman who stiffs her campaign workers, fires her employees by the thousands (and thousands!), drives major companies into the ground, opposes wage parity, wants health insurance taken away from low-income people, believes ISIS is a bigger threat to America than global warming, and wants Planned Parenthood prosecuted for what they're clearly doing in those "baby harvesting" videos that she can describe in detail but can't actually produce. But she draws the line at calling for gay people to be stoned to death. Clearly this can only mean one thing: by picking Carly Fiorina, Ted thinks he’s moving to the middle.
JEERS to words that bite back. Forty-nine years ago today, on April 28, 1967, General William Westmoreland said that the U.S. "would prevail in Vietnam." The producer of Laugh-In replied: "Hey, quit stealin' our jokes."
CHEERS to pigskin fever! Round 1 of the NFL draft is today. But don’t tell Ted Nugent. Anytime he hears the word "draft" he shits his pants.
CHEERS to #5. Happy 258th birthday to President James Monroe. He creeped people out by wearing his revolution-era clothing and a powdered wig at a time when doing so was long out of style. He also told Europe and Russia to keep their paws off the west and then sucked up to the AARP by snagging Florida. And then this (From Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents by Cormac O'Brien):
Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford once came calling on the president with a stack of patronage recommendations, all of which Monroe rejected.
Enraged, Crawford threw a temper tantrum and demanded to know whom Monroe intended to appoint; the president replied it was none of Crawford's damn business.
Crawford snapped and actually advanced on the chief executive with his cane raised, calling Monroe a "damned infernal old scoundrel." Monroe then stepped to the fireplace, seized a pair of fire tongs, and chased his secretary of the treasury from the Executive Mansion.
Historians call it "The night Monroe went mad." Fox News calls it "The inspiration for The O'Reilly Factor."
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Ten years ago in C&J: April 28, 2006
CHEERS to erectile function. Well it's about time. Construction trucks rolled in to Ground Zero yesterday and started building the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower in New York City. One small hitch: due to a slight delay in rivet shipments, it won't be completed until Wednesday.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to a hot cuppa STFU. Every morning my partner Michael drinks his Folgers from one of the greatest pieces of political memorabilia ever: our Obama birth certificate coffee mug. Yes, it was five years ago this week when President Obama released his long-form birth certificate to shut up the conspiracy crowd---headed by likely Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump---saying: "we don’t have time for this silliness." Moments later, in the least-surprisy surprise of the day, the birthers cleared their calendars for more silliness:
"It would be a big mistake for everyone to jump to a conclusion now based on the release of this document, which raises as many questions than it answers.”
Today we'll mark the anniversary the way we usually do: by beating our head against the wall.
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:
Authorities say the green water flowing in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool that caused some panic and drew a response from multiple agencies was the result of a prank.
---AP
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