From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
10 9 8 7 Weeks 'til Netroots Nation!!!
Zoinks! Zounds! Only 49 freakin' days! The latest:
- The discounted block of hotel rooms is now SOLD OUT…but there are still rooms available at the non-discounted rate, and some discount-rate rooms may open up if there are cancellations. Please read this update from Nolan Treadway for details.
- The NN12 panels were announced last week, and you can check 'em out here. Sadly, my anarchy panel was rejected because my submission was too disorganized.
- Catch pre-convention NN12 panel previews LIVE via "Spreecast." It's like a super-pumped-up live interactive webcast. Click here for details. The first Spreecast is
next Thursday, April 26 TONIGHT at 6pm ET. It'll star members of the panel called The Battle for Congress: Q&A on the 2012 Elections, including Daily Kos Contributing Editor Steve Singiser and Political Director David Nir.
- The Round 2 Scholarship period has ended, but… you can still try for one via the Raise the Future program.
- The Netroots for the Troops campaign assembles care packages at Netroots Nation for our troops in remote combat areas overseas and VA hospitals here at home. The donation link is here. And check out the dazzling hand-made NFTT quilt that'll be on display at Netroots Nation: it's pretty doggone purty. Kudos to Kossack BeadLady and her crew of quilters.
- Michael and I RSVP'd this week to join the the day of service crew at Roger Williams Park on Sunday, June 11th. Among the dignitaries who'll be helping us give back to the Providence community: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. Jim Langevin, Rep. David Cicilline and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras. Join us! Click here to RSVP.
- To register for the convention, click here.
- To stay in the loop, get on the email list and follow NN12 on Facebook and twitter.
My NN12 super diet is going great, by the way. My freezer has already lost ten half-gallons of Friendly's ice cream and a dozen Stouffers French bread pizzas.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Thursday, April 19, 2012
Note: ELEVATOR BROKEN. PLEASE USE WICKER BASKET ATTACHED TO STRING AFTER LEAVING EVERYTHING TO ME IN YOUR WILL. ---Mgt.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC: 137
Days 'til Blacksburg Fork and Cork in Virginia: 9
Average rise in health care per employee in 2012: 6%
Average percent of the total that employees will pay for: 23.7%
(Source: The Portland Press Herald)
Estimated number of radical right-wing "patriot" and militia groups in, respectively, 2010 and 2011: 824 / 1,274
(Source: Southern Poverty Law Center via TPM)
Average number of texts sent by a teen on any given day: 50
Percent of all texters who send at least 100 texts a day: 31%
(Source: The Boston Globe)
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Your Thursday Molly Ivins Moment:
I am a great admirer of John Maynard Keynes, who first pointed out that government needs to spend money during recessions, but there is a difference between frittering money away on tax cuts for the rich and using the public's money for public purposes of lasting benefit to all.
If Congress wants a public works program, here's one suggestion. Somewhere between one third and one half of all the public schools in America are between dilapidated and falling apart (many of them in rural areas as well as inner cities). This is not a problem addressed by mass testing. To put money into schools is a sound investment of public money. It pays off in the future, and you don’t have to do it again for quite some time. That would in turn give the ever-pressed school districts more leeway to hire more and better teachers.
---August, 2001
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Puppy Pic of the Day: As Michelle Obama would say: "Let's Move!!!"
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CHEERS to doing your civic duty. Hey, if you live in North Carolina, today is the start of early voting for your May 8 elections. The ballot includes the nefarious "Amendment One," which would enshrine discrimination against gay people into the state constitution. The group Protect NC Families has some voter info here, some volunteer info here, and today's early-voting kickoff events here. The important word to remember when you vote is: "AGAINST." Although I understand that AGIN' may also be accepted.
JEERS to traitors in our midst. Some things in life are unforgivable. Like, say, abusing pets. Or mixing stripes and plaids. Or, worst of all, running for re-election in Red Sox Nation and accepting money from the scum-sucking New York---[Ptoo!]---Yankees:
Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) did. Brown last month took the maximum $2,500 from Randy Levine, the president of the New York Yankees, according to newly released campaign finance records. “We’re happy to accept Randy Levine’s donation,” said Brown campaign spokesman Colin Reed.
And we're happy to accept Brown's immediate resignation. Mighty Scotty has struck out.
CHEERS to a good thumpin'. On April 19, 1775---a day after Paul Revere & Co.'s famous ride---our War of Independence began with a brief skirmish at Lexington, an engagement at Concord's North Bridge, and guerrilla warfare as we chased the redcoats---Really, guys? Red? Bright red? Lemme guess: your uniforms were designed by a committee---back to Boston:
Because the Americans never formed a firing line the inexperienced British had little to shoot at. This style of flanking and shooting from behind trees, walls etc. destroyed the British morale, and they broke ranks while retreating towards Lexington. The British suffered badly, nearly 20 percent casualties, but more importantly, this action led to the siege of Boston and the start of the Revolutionary War.
And today we're still fighting wars. Against the Taliban, women, Easter, religion, secularism, fast food, guns, drugs, freedom, terror, lady parts, education, capitalism, culture, liberals, conservatives, Hispanics, blacks, gays, Grandma, the 99 percent and the 1 percent. Oh…and Christmas. Can’t forget the war on Christmas, right Fox?
JEERS to playing hunger games. So earlier this month I read a nice story about government actually doing what government should do: provide for the public welfare. In this case, it was my good buddy Meteor Blades (yeah, I can name-drop with the best of 'em) revealing that in 2009 the federal food stamp program reduced the poverty rate by eight percent. That's excellently cool---a federal program that works. So naturally---NATURALLY!!!---Republicans have to try and drown it in the bathtub:
House Republicans have passed their budget that includes slashing food stamps in an effort to save billions in cuts to the Pentagon. Politico reports that the changes mean "an average family of four would face an 11 percent cut in monthly benefits after Sept. 1 and, even more important, tighter enforcement of rules would require that households exhaust most of their liquid assets before qualifying for help." The Associated Press adds that elegibility changes would knock 3 million people off the program completely
Can you believe these hucksters? Even when they know that their batshit ideas are going to go under the microscope of public scrutiny, they just keep on trottin' out the austerity and puttin' guns before butter. How can you tell the difference between a Republican and pink slime? The pink slime isn’t wearing a flag pin.
JEERS to the number 17. As of today that's how many years it's been since Timothy McVeigh parked a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The explosion killed 168 people and injured hundreds. We hope you'll pause a moment today and pay your respects. One person who probably won't is Ann Coulter---she'll be too busy writing "jokes" like this:
"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."
Republicans love her because she's their deep thinker.
JEERS to punishing the poor. Republicans claim that drug testing welfare recipients will SAVE MONEY! and SNARE DRUG USERS! and REDUCE APPLICATIONS! Except, y'know…
[A] Florida law requiring drug tests for people who seek welfare benefits resulted in no direct savings, snared few drug users and had no effect on the number of applications, according to recently released state data.
Naturally, since the results don’t save money in the slightest, Governor Rick Scott will stop this invasive and demeaning practice, right? Wrong. It was never about saving money---it was all about funneling money to his drug-testing company buddies. The demeaning part was just a happy side benefit. Awesome job, Florida voters. When you elect an idiot, you don't mess around.
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Five years ago in C&J: April 19, 2007
CHEERS to the beginning of the end. Alberto Gonzales goes in front of Congress today. C&J would ask only one question of our illustrious Attorney General before adjourning for drinks at the bar: "Would you like a cigarette and a blindfold, sir?" Thanks for the memories...don’t let the Mayflower moving van door hit your ass on the way out.
JEERS to bad ideas. In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, the right-wing talking point appears to be: let's give every college student a standard-issue revolver as part of their freshman initiation packet. That way, if they hear shots fired, they can return fire and ask questions later. Gee, that would've worked out swell at Kent State, huh.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the legacy of Evolution Man. Charles Darwin---the poster child for the theory of evolution---started out as a single wriggly cell in 1808, evolved into a fully-grown human being, and died on this date in 1882. His legacy:
Influenced by the ideas of Malthus, he proposed a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring. Gradually, the species changes over time.
[T]he logical extension of Darwin's theory was that homo sapiens was simply another form of animal. It made it seem possible that even people might just have evolved---quite possibly from apes---and destroyed the prevailing orthodoxy on how the world was created. Darwin was vehemently attacked, particularly by the Church. However, his ideas soon gained currency and have become the new orthodoxy.
Pay your respects
here. And in other news, Ted Nugent is being investigated by the Secret Service this week after
making death threats against President Obama and members of his cabinet. He would be proof that evolution also works in reverse.
Have a nice Thursday. Here's good 'ol Dick Clark to play us out. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
The One True Wanker Of The Decade: Bill in Portland Maine
---Atrios
4/17/12
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