From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...
The Cat Herder
If I was the logistics director for Netroots Nation, and realized that the big event in Pittsburgh was only 38 days away, I would calmly and cooly take several deep, cleansing breaths as I purchased my airline tickets with which to flee the country. Thankfully, Nolan Treadway is the logistics director, so you can rest assured that the event is in far more capable hands than mine. After all, he has four years in convention sales under his belt, and worked his tail off on the previous NN/Yearly Kos conventions.
Nolan got his Bacehlor's degree in business from Michigan State (Go Spartans...Raaaahrrr!!!), and earned a master’s in public policy from the American University School of Public Affairs in Washington, DC. He'll need all the intellectual and intestinal fortitude he can muster to survive his grilling in our C&J interview series, Yes, We're All Staring At YOU!
Cheers and Jeers: How long have you been blogging and what originally brought you to Daily Kos?
Nolan Treadway: I first heard about Daily Kos at a DFA meeting shortly after the '04 election. So the next day I checked out this website and it was pretty much downhill since then. It was Will Easton who mentioned it at the meeting, he was President of San Francisco for Democracy at the time.
You're the logistics director of the Netroots Nation convention. With the big event only a month and a half away, how's everything shaping up for Pittsburgh?
Things are shaping up very well! The folks in Pittsburgh are really great and excited to host us and we've got some great panels and speakers lined up---and literally more being confirmed every day. If you didn't catch it a couple weeks ago, check out ETinKC's diary on the venue.
What criteria went into the decision to hold the convention in Pittsburgh this year?
Honestly, Pittsburgh has a unique combination of great factors that basically made the choice for us. The venue itself is wonderful and price competitive. The Convention Center is the largest LEED certified convention center in the United States, so their sustainable focus was a big plus for us. On top of all that Pittsburgh is an amazing city that has a unique culture among its people. Not to mention a great union town and rust belt city that is reinventing itself to lead the 21st Century economy. Probably a lot of the same reasons Obama was pushing for the next G20 meeting to take place there, as it will this September.
How many people do you expect to attend this year, and can people still register for Netroots Nation?
Oh yes, people can still register. We're expecting about 2,000 people, which is the same number we had in Chicago ('07) and Austin ('08).
What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Radiohead. Although, totally unrelated---I'm frequently inspired by the thought of Woody Guthrie's guitar on which he wrote "This Machine Kills Fascists" (even if that grossly overstates anything I do).
What's the one book every Kossack must read?
My favorite book is 1984, but I'd imagine this crowd is already quite familiar with that one. I'm not the most prolific reader, but "Round Ireland With a Fridge" is one of the books that has made me laugh out loud more than any other.
President Obama is heading into his sixth month as president. What's the biggest thing he's doing right and what's the biggest thing he's doing wrong?
I think his biggest strength is his popularity and the fact that most people really think he is a smart guy and they trust him to make good decisions. I think his biggest weakness is the teabaggers. No, just kidding. I think that he doesn't seem to want to be as bold as he could be. He somehow feels the need to give credence to ideas that have failed when the American people are clearly hungry to leave those in the past. He hasn't really gotten into passing big legislation, so it remains to be seen what will happen when push comes to shove.
Finish this sentence: In the kitchen I make a mean...
Prep cook. My fiancee is a genius in the kitchen so I'm best at complementing her by chopping veggies.
No waffling here: dogs or cats?
Dogs. No question.
If I promise to keep it just between you, me, and the million daily visitors to Dkos and their friends and family and the media...can you give us a juicy scoop about the convention?
In honor of Bill-O everyone is getting an orange loofah in their registration bag*
*not actually true.
Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, July 6, 2009
Note: Here's something new we learned over the weekend. It's actually pretty easy to play Yankee Doodle on the fife with your butt. Step one: Pick out the burly fifer in the Fourth of July parade and make fun of his "girly stockings." After that, it's mostly a matter of using your diaphragm.
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the grilling of Sonia Sotomayor begins: 7
Days `til the 7th annual Greater Portland Festival of Nations: 19
Drop in scores for a test covering material delivered during a psychology lecture that was interrupted by a 30-second ringtone versus one that wasn't: -25%
(Source: L.A. Times via The Week)
Age of the Sony Walkman this year: 30
Number of years in the last 14 during which Sony has lost money: 1 (2008)
(Source: Portland Press Herald)
Senate seats Democrats have picked up since 2006: 15
Senate seats Harry Reid apparently needs before he can overcome Republican opposition and get serious bills passed: 100
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Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
Is Teh Gubmint really going to GPS track everybody's car in the country ? Hey President Jihadist, why not just implant a microchip with a ‘bug zapper’ feature in every American’s arse ?
Better yet Obama, go for broke and put ‘heart plugs’ in everyone like The Harkonnen’s did in the Dune series.
---Commenter Kenny S at Red State
All together now: One...two...three... Classy!!!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: "'Yo, Adrian?' Golly, that's original."
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CHEERS to the Wasilla Dreamkilla. Faces were long and frowny at the sparsely-attended teabag parties across the country on July 4th. Sarah Palin's sudden and sense-not-making resignation had so boggled their brains that they nearly forgot what they were protesting (I believe this time it was the high cost of Fig Newtons). Why did Sarah do it, do ya suppose? I can't say as I much care because she was never, ever, ever going to be a serious challenge to Obama or anyone else on the federal level. But we can't say Toodle-oo without at least giving her a parting gift for bringing us so much joy and laughter also. We're fresh out of Samsonite luggage, so she'll have to do with this instead (via benny05):
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the winner of its annual Sitting Duck Award, a tongue-in-cheek honor that pokes fun at the most ridiculed newsmakers in the United States. Palin beat out Democrat Rod Blagojevich, the ousted former governor of Illinois allegedly caught trying to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat.
So long, Sarah, and thanks for all the moose and turkey carcasses. And for abandoning your constituents also. Classy all the way.
P.S. Saturday morning's above-the-fold headline in the Portland Press Herald proclaimed: Republicans baffled by Palin resignation. That's in addition to science, fiscal responsibility, minorities, open-mindedness, honesty, conservation, courage, escalators and seriousness.
CHEERS to words of worldly wisdom from Joe Biden. Remember earlier this year when our vice president got in "hot water" for cautioning people that air travel could be risky because it was one way that viruses like H1N1 were spread? People laauuughed and laauuughed, he was such a kook, that Biden. Well, suck on this, naysayers:
In a startling measure of just how widely a new disease can spread, researchers accurately plotted swine flu's course around the world by tracking air travel from Mexico. ... Scientists have long assumed a relationship between air travel and spread of the virus. But the new research for the first time confirmed the relationship, said Dr. Kamran Khan, who led the study.
Memo to the media: you can retrieve your knives from his back during normal business hours.
CHEERS to The Decider. C&J has a rule that says we can never jeer someone on their birthday, no matter how vile or despicable they are. But there is nothing in our bylaws that says we can't alter certain song lyrics. Ahem...
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, George W. Bush, you scum-suckin', torture-luvin', incompetent-crony-hirin', 9/11-warning ignorin', Constitution-shreddin', classroom sittin', bogus-war-startin' America killer,
Happy birthday to you.
He's 63. Which means we've likely still got 20+ years to show him the inside of a courtroom. (I hear the Hague is lovely in the spring...)
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Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!
Time now for another Proud Moment in Punditry, in which we celebrate the wisdom of the beltway's best and brightest. Today's honor goes to Gloria Borger, whose entry in the "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" segment on The Chris Matthews Show yesterday confirms her status as a cocktail party A-lister:
"A leader of the Republican party will finally emerge in the next year. I'm not gonna tell ya who it is 'cause I have no idea."
Brilliant! Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda... GONG!!!
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CHEERS to haulin' ass in the heartland. This is good news for train lovers and air-travel despisers. The initial plans for high-speed rail in America are taking shape. Here's one example:
Conducted by transportation planning firm TranSystems, the study proposes operating the high-speed trains on a corridor serving Kankakee, Champaign-Urbana, Decatur and Springfield, Ill., complementing 110 mph train service already proposed in other parts of Illinois and the Midwest. Trains could make the trip between Chicago and St. Louis in a little more than two hours. ...
The association is urging the state of Illinois to request $10 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars to conduct a detailed alternatives analysis and environmental study for the Chicago-to-St. Louis route. ... It would cost about $12 billion to upgrade the corridor to handle 220 mph trains, according to the study.
For comparison, that's like traveling at the speed of a Cessna 350 Corvalis. But smoother and with an 80-foot-long bar in the middle. If you build it, I will come.
CHEERS to greenbacks. On July 6, 1785, Congress officially agreed that the unit of U.S. currency would be called the "dollar." Or, as we call it today, judging by our bank accounts and 401(k)s: "endangered species."
CHEERS to fun with math. Today's lesson is the transitive property.
Sonia Sotomayor = advisor to the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.
The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund's opposition to judicial weirdo Robert Bork's nomination in the 1980s was wise and good.
Therefore Sonia Sotomayor = wise and good.
Tomorrow we'll use the Republican party as an example to demonstrate division.
Five years ago in C&J: July 6, 2004
CHEERS to the next Vice President of the United States. As youthful and energetic as Dan Quayle was, with one important addition: a brain. Kudos to John Kerry, who kept his lid so tight on Veepstakes that Tupperware wants to talk about product placement in the campaign. First order of business: Let him sniff one of Cheney's socks...then unhook his leash and let him go.
CHEERS to General Sir Michael Rose. Former commander of UN's Bosnia force comments on the 7 minutes during which Bush sat stone-faced in a classroom on 9/11: "Here is...a deeply inadequate man whose mind is frozen with indecision and fear. It is a look I know well---if he had been a subordinate commander in battle I would have immediately relieved him of his command." Extra kidney pudding for you, sir.
And just one more...
JEERS to the party of personal irresponsibility. On July 6, 1854 the Republican Party held its first convention in Jackson, Michigan. Back then, they really were the party of ideas:
We believe that slavery is a violation of the rights of man---as a man---we vow at whatever expense, and publicly proclaim our determination, to oppose by all the powerful and honorable means in our power, now and henceforth, all attempts, direct and indirect, to extend slavery in this country, or to permit it to extend into any region or locality in which it does not now exist by positive low, or to admit new slave states into the Union.
Today the Republicans' de facto leader is Rush Limbaugh, who got fired from a TV gig for making racist comments, and whose listeners get the giggles when he plays their favorite song, Barack the Magic Negro. Meanwhile the GOP base thinks the awesomest gift for any occasion is the Obama monkey doll. The founders must be so proud.
Have a lovely Monday. Explore your spiritual side. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
"Whatever pie you like, Bill in Portland Maine will make it and it will be the best pie you have ever eaten."
---President Obama
7/2/09
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