I just got off the phone with my friend, the one with the brain tumor.
“I got you a present,” I said and we both started laughing, because the last present was so spectacular (a tiara to wear after her first round of chemo).
“Do you want to know what it is, or do you want to be surprised?”
“No, no surprises.”
“It’s a cheesy wig. I got it so you’d have something to hold the tiara up.” We both started laughing again.
The Land of Cancer: You take what jokes you can get!
I only go to NN when someone else is picking up the tab, but fortunately, I’ll be there this year. (It’s in Minneapolis.) I have to say, if you can afford it, it’s well worth the trip. You get to meet a lot of your favorite bloggers, but more important, you get to meet and talk with activists from all over the country, who are more than happy to share their strategies.
If you’ve been feeling like you want to get involved but you’re not sure where to start, this is a great place to begin. (Plus, you know, fun!) Check out Adam Bonin’s Daily Kos post today:
During the conference, there are scores of blogger-generated panel discussions bringing together grassroots activists with leaders and experts in their fields. Simultaneously, it’s a social conference — putting faces to names you’ve only seen only, an annual reunion of this large and dispersed community taking place at parties, in the exhibit hall and hotel lobby, all over the place. We’ve had pub quizzes and karaoke contests, batting practice at PNC Park and raucous concerts, dance parties and a Teamsters-led barbecue. It is fun.
This year, Russ Feingold will be our Thursday night keynote speaker, and we’ll be rolling out more big names in the next few weeks. (Yes, Sen. Franken will be back.) What we need is you.
If you’ve never been before, well, we’ve all been first-time participants. Don’t be afraid. We take care of first-timers and lurkers, and within your first hour in the Twin Cities you will find your friends. As always, we’ll hold regional and affinity caucuses to make sure you find the communities where your friends are. And you should strongly consider helping Netroots for the Troops, a group of dedicated volunteers we’re honored to have with us who dedicate their time towards fundraising for, and at our conference packing hundreds of care packages for our armed forces around the globe.
It has been my honor for the past three years to serve as Chairman of the Netroots Nation Board of Directors, and to help guide our full-time staff to delivering for you an incredible experience. We will not let you down.
If you’ve joined us before, now is the time to sign up to join us in the Twin Cities in June. If you’ve never been, what’s stopping you?
Please register today, and book your hotel, and we’ll see you in Minneapolis June 16-19. If you have any questions, ask away.
Hmm. As I was just saying recently, imagine if we as a country defined national security as the health, well-being, education and gainful employment of our citizens, and not as the ability to deliver bombs on targets.
I’m not surprised that someone else agrees — only that it’s two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saying so:
On Friday, April 8, as members of the U.S. Congress engaged in a last-minute game of chicken over the federal budget, the Pentagon quietly issued a report that received little initial attention: “A National Strategic Narrative.” The report was issued under the pseudonym of “Mr. Y,” a takeoff on George Kennan’s 1946 “Long Telegram” from Moscow (published under the name “X” the following year in Foreign Affairs) that helped set containment as the cornerstone of U.S. strategy for dealing with the Soviet Union.
The piece was written by two senior members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a “personal” capacity, but it is clear that it would not have seen the light of day without a measure of official approval. Its findings are revelatory, and they deserve to be read and appreciated not only by every lawmaker in Congress, but by every American citizen.
The narrative argues that the United States is fundamentally getting it wrong when it comes to setting its priorities, particularly with regard to the budget and how Americans as a nation use their resources more broadly. The report says Americans are overreacting to Islamic extremism, underinvesting in their youth, and failing to embrace the sense of competition and opportunity that made America a world power. The United States has been increasingly consumed by seeing the world through the lens of threat, while failing to understand that influence, competitiveness, and innovation are the key to advancing American interests in the modern world.
Courageously, the authors make the case that America continues to rely far too heavily on its military as the primary tool for how it engages the world. Instead of simply pumping more and more dollars into defense, the narrative argues:
By investing energy, talent, and dollars now in the education and training of young Americans — the scientists, statesmen, industrialists, farmers, inventors, educators, clergy, artists, service members, and parents, of tomorrow — we are truly investing in our ability to successfully compete in, and influence, the strategic environment of the future. Our first investment priority, then, is intellectual capital and a sustainable infrastructure of education, health and social services to provide for the continuing development and growth of America’s youth.
My goodness! The conservatives who elected noted Republican hypocrite Rep. Paul Ryan don’t sound all that happy with his extreme proposals, do they?
During a town hall meeting in Milton, a constituent who described himself as a “lifelong conservative” asked Ryan about the effects of growing income inequality in our nation. The constituent noted that huge income disparities contributed to the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and thus wanted to know why the congressman was “fighting to not let the tax breaks for the wealthy expire.”Ryan argued against “redistribut[ing]” in this manner. After the constituent noted that “there’s nothing wrong with taxing the top because it does not trickle down,” Ryan argued that “we do tax the top.” This response earned a chorus of boos from constituents:
CONSTITUENT: The middle class is disappearing right now. During this time of prosperity, the top 1 percent was taking about 10 percent of the total annual income, but yet today we are fighting to not let the tax breaks for the wealthy expire? And we’re fighting to not raise the Social Security cap from $87,000? I think we’re wrong.
RYAN: A couple things. I don’t disagree with the premise of what you’re saying. The question is what’s the best way to do this. Is it to redistribute… (Crosstalk)
CONSTITUENT: You have to lower spending. But it’s a matter of there’s nothing wrong with taxing the top because it does not trickle down.
RYAN: We do tax the top. (Audience boos). Let’s remember, most of our jobs come from successful small businesses. Two-thirds of our jobs do. You got to remember, businesses pay taxes individually. So when you raise their tax rates to 44.8 percent, which is what the president is proposing, I would just fundamentally disagree. That is going to hurt job creation.
[donate]
Our local chapter of USUncut shut down a BofA branch yesterday:
Why weren’t you there? I can’t stand up that long, my ankle’s still too weak. I’d be there if I could. Why not go to one of tomorrow’s events?
San Francisco:
GE tax hoax:
Is it just me, or are you shocked, too, when courts now rule in favor of our civil rights? This is England, of course, but still. It’s encouraging:
The high court has ruled that the Metropolitan police broke the law in the way they “kettled” protesters at the G20 demonstrations in 2009.
In a landmark judgment on Thursday, high court judges found for protesters who had claimed police treated them unfairly. It also criticised the use of force by officers.
In the case, the court heard that officers used punches to the face, slaps and shields against demonstrators who police chiefs accept had nothing to do with violence. The judgment does not strike down the police tactic of kettling or mass detention, but it will be seen as a rebuff to the Met.
The judgment places limits on the use of kettling. It says: “The police may only take such preventive action as a last resort catering for situations about to descend into violence.”
The case concerned the G20 protests in London on 1 April 2009, during which Ian Tomlinson, a bystander, died after being struck by an officer. Police in charge of the protest ordered a Climate Camp to be kettled and then cleared, but officers were left to decide how much force they should use.
Video shot on the day showed demonstrators trying to avoid being beaten by raising their hands in the air and chanting “this is not a riot” at police clad in helmets and riot gear. Officers on the videos are seen to strike demonstrators, who cannot be seen to be engaged in violence.
Sends out a fake press release from G.E. with a little help from the Yes Men.
UPDATE: I think GE made them take it down.
Since our Democratic leadership is useless, we simply have to go around them, as the labor movement has done. It’s alive and growing in Washington State, as thousands slept over for a third night to protest proposed budget cuts:
OLYMPIA, Wash. – Thousands of union members from all over Washington poured into the state Capitol Friday, calling on lawmakers to “put people first” by ending corporate tax breaks and painful cuts to public programs.
The protest was by far the largest of four days of boisterous demonstrations in Olympia over spending cuts legislators are considering in order to help close a looming $5 billion budget deficit for the next two-year cycle.
Buses began arriving at the Capitol hours before the noon rally, carrying musicians, iron workers, firefighters and others concerned about the scarcity of jobs, the rising cost of college and the security of their pensions. The Washington State Patrol estimated 7,000 people gathered outside the main legislative building, while labor group leaders put the figure closer to 12,000.
Protesters said they hoped the demonstration would serve as a powerful reminder to lawmakers of who their decisions are affecting as they work to craft the state’s next two-year budget. The House plans to vote Friday or Saturday on a budget plan that includes $4.4 billion in cuts, while the Senate will introduce its own proposal next week.
“We need to remind them that we need changes right now, not later,” said Tim Haslett, an electrical worker and father of five from Seattle who has been unemployed for most of the past two years. “I’m trying to do everything I can to pay for my youngest daughter to go to college next year, but I don’t know how I’m going to be able to do that if there are no jobs.”
“We do not have a budget deficit,” Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council, one of the rally’s main organizers, told the crowd. “We have a social services deficit, we have a jobs deficit, we have a revenue deficit, and we have a deficit of leadership.”
Six to go — recall petitions for Wisconsin Republicans! If you can, please give a few bucks.
