Where is my Kindle? Where is my i-Phone?

Via Tosh.0

The #NN11 Double Album Podcast from The Professional Left

It's a long one this week! The end is a segment recorded on the drive home that didn't make it on to any other podcast.

The button above is available in the Cafepress Store.  The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the podcast.  Thanks for your listenership and support!  We really appreciate it:

Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help. And don't forget you can listen to our archives for free with no downloads or registration at Professional Left.

Eric Cantor Proves He's A Good Republican...

Deficit hypocrisy is an easy segueway from his previous stimulus hypocrisy, the end.

One way we might wake up the Christianists on Bachmann

Yeah yeah Taibbi says they'll vote for her because they hate our freedom elitism.

Not if she cuts their Medicare.

And she can't put some sort of imaginary asterisk on her vote.

SEIU and AFSCME and every liberal blog out there. Let me be your Roger Ailes (lulz). The message of the year is,

Bachmann voted yes.

You know who would make a GREAT USAir Flight Attendant?

Sharron Angle.

Football Player gets kicked off of USAir flight for baggy pants due to quote, "dress code"; old white guy bare middriffed bulge-y crotched cross-dresser (yeah, that's him in the second pic) gets seated on USAir flight in spite of other customer complaints, those customers told there was "no dress code".   Whatever. Story via Field Negro.

I'm picking on Sharron Angle because I already had the first photoshop.

PS.  Okay.  Apparently, Naked Midriff Grandpa Cross-Dressers on a Motherfucking Plane is a thing.

We haven't seen the last of Newt Gingrich.

h/t Bill Scher at The Liberal Oasis podcast.

Are the Gingrich's changing their position on...glitter!?!

Now that the fundraising part of the Gingrich campaign has also gone south, maybe now Callista will order that they go back to Nick Espinosa and order more glitter.

Free gum isn't free at #NN11

One of items in the "goodie bag" at Netroots Nation was a packet of Dentyne Ice. I went to find out who the folks who gave us that were, and discovered it was a group called "Public Notice." I thought it was kind of weird that their twitter handle was @BankruptingAM rather than Public Notice, but whatever. I tweeted:

Thank you so much, @BankruptingAm, for putting the Dentyne Ice in the #NN11 swag bags. I think they're trying to tell us something, DFH's.

The tweet account for BankruptingAM says they are "an educational project that explores the policies hindering economic opportunity and growth in America."

Call me crazy****, but somehow that didn't sound like a progressive organization to me. Then Friday night DG and I watched Real Time on the hotel's HBO. There was a woman on the panel, smiling open-mouthed between Ross Douthat and Chris Matthews (yeah) in a bright pink golfing dress or something.

She struck me and a couple other P2 women on twitter as, you know, a lower-rent Monica Crowley. We kind of, you know, immediately hated her in a very "why do I feel this way?" sort of way.  And it turns out she's the director of the outfit that put the gum in the goodie bag.

Teh Google is our friend. TPM Muckraker:

A former Bush administration PR specialist has launched a new non-profit designed to raise the alarm about what it sees as "over-spending" in Washington -- but is staying mum on how the group is being funded.

How much you wanna bet the "focus" of the "educational project" is not "tax cuts for billionaires"?

And OF COURSE her funders are secret but not secret, right, David Koch? But whoever funds her gave every hippie at Netroots A PACK OF BREATH FRESHENING GUM and a chance to win an iPad. Winning!

***"Call me crazy" is the standard sentence opener and intellectual property of Katherine Jean Lopez at National Review Online. When she sues me for infringement, my attorneys will be sure to send her a piece of gum.

More podcasts from Netroots Nation #NN11

....are up. You can see the list here.

We had a wonderful time. Thank you so much to those who contributed money to make this possible.

We're driving back to The Castle today, and then I head back to The Cornfield Monday.

And back to the "formal" podcasts next week. :D

Podcasting (raw) from Netroots Nation 2011 #NN11

Driftglass took this picture of me (and his toes) while I was putting the podcast up.



We're having fun and learning stuff. More later.

A quick note on the saving of Catherine Ferguson School

I know it freaks us progressives out to see public schools become charter schools, even when it means saving a really really important and cool institution like Catherine Ferguson in Detroit. 

Charter Schools in and of themselves are not bad things. 

Two of my three children are enrolled in a charter school.  The sponsors of my kids' charter are a benevolent, single family foundation, and not a for-profit corporation looking to charge a school district for the privilege of making a profit off of cutting school corners like teacher's pay.

The charter school my children attend is still part of the public school district.   They have a slightly longer school year, and required parental participation to guarantee continued enrollment.  These are not unreasonable bars to set. 

I think any time a parent has to fill out one piece of paper to get their child into a better school, you've already self-selected a higher quality of student, period.  It's called the "I have a parent who gives a shit and can perform a parental function like writing down a home address on a form" test. 

Some parents can't fill out a form.  Hell, some parents don't have an address.  There are school districts in the United States of America, I learned tonight from the head of a mofo teachers union, where one in five children are HOMELESS.   One in five.  Homeless.

If you try to tell me that a teacher who has 30-35 kids in her budget-cut classroom, and 20 percent of them are homeless?  That that teacher and her union are selfish for wanting a pension when she gets old?  What are you, a republican governor or maybe... something worse?



Don't forget that whenever Chris Matthews or some other fuckwad says "teachers' union,"  that is a smokescreen so they do not have to talk about CHILDREN and POVERTY in THE UNITED STATES.  Our country that we love so very much, Sarah Palin, you stupid git.  Freedom!

Things are going to be different for Catherine Ferguson (including union representation) but I trust the principal when she says she's confident in the school's charter holders.  For me, the smell test for charter schools is, does the charter holder want to turn a school around or do they want to turn a profit on a school?  In the second case, they must be stopped from touching a public institution.

With Howard Dean at #NN11

Shown:  Fran / Blue Gal, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, and DFA Communications Director Levana Leyendecker.

I sat next to Levana at a DFA lunch today and she's terrific.  We're having a really great time.  Podcast some time tomorrow, and it will be a rough cut, folks. 

We're at Netroots Nation!

The good news:  We're here! 

The not-good news:  My laptop was damaged in transit.  DG says he can fix it after the weekend, for now we're sharing his. 

We've found a solution for the podcast, to use a digital recording device Driftglass brought with him. 

Because I probably won't be tweeting my whereabouts on an hourly basis, be aware that I'll be volunteering at the Democracy for America booth from around 2 pm until 4 pm Thursday, June 16.   Stop by and say hello! 

And Driftglass and I HAVE A BABYSITTER so we can attend the opening activities and Russ Feingold speech Thursday night. 

I'll be posting pictures as I can this weekend, too. 

The great unanswered question from last night's GOP debate

What IS that dripping down lil' Ricky's leg?

click image for larger and better

Made for Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars for tonight's debate open thread.

Our Weekly Podcast - The Professional Left

The button above is available in the Cafepress Store.  The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the podcast.  Thanks for your listenership and support!  We really appreciate it:

Thanks again to Frank Chow for the graphic and Heather at Crooks and Liars Video Cafe for their help. And don't forget you can listen to our archives for free with no downloads or registration at Professional Left.

NEVER gets old.

I never thought this video, which I made a couple years ago, would have ANY legs.

Hey you guys know what I look like. If you see me with a really REALLY tall guy at Netroots, COME UP AND SAY HI.

And thanks for being a fabulous patron of the blog arts with a five dollar contribution to my fundraiser. If you were with me face to face, you would generously hand me a five dollar bill, and say thanks, right? You still can.

PS. Sad news: Driftglass had to put his stepdad in hospice this week. We'll still make it to Netroots, but family needs mean I'm driving the Springfield to Chicago part of the trip without him. The kids are great travelers, and are already packing their art supplies and books for the car trip. Gotta love it.

Podcast up later today.

All Newt Needs is a Makeover.

Thanks for contributing five bucks (I KNOW times are tough) to my personal fundraiser.

Give?

It turns out I really can't skip my own fundraiser, asking my readers to give five bucks. I'm so grateful for your (please keep it modest in these tough times) support of my writing and broadcasting.

A fan on twitter pointed out that I don't post regularly, and that he liked my solo work. Thanks! But I'm also the person keeping Mike's Blog Round Up staffed, Crooks and Liars open thread done, and The Professional Left Podcast sounding good. More people follow me on twitter than read what I write here, by a factor of four. Thank you for being here.

I feel like Donald Sutherland lecturing about Milton. I finally just throw up my hands -- "this blogging queen thing is MY JOB!" And it is....and I really love it.

And I'm for a while longer a single mother. Of three dynamic children. Who need food and clothes and so forth. They're gone for part of the summer -- I think I may be painting the interior of The Castle during that time. Wish me luck!

I'll never forget the fellow single mom who wrote on her five-dollar contribution, "pay your bills." She gets it.

Thank you.

Look who's showing off the Tea Party 3000!

click image for larger

Based on a comment from Susie Bright, that Palin/Bachmann is not a step forward for women in politics -- they are simply filling the corporate spokesmodel/PR job that is always given to girls.


And h/t to Kevin on Twitter, who said, "I could just see Mrs. Palin using a DeLorean to travel back in time, personally witness Paul Revere's ride, and STILL get it wrong."

Our Weekly Podcast - The Professional Left

Links for this episode:

As Physicians’ Jobs Change, So Do Their Politics.

Administration Opposes Challenges to Medicaid Cuts

“Why Medical School Should Be Free”

The button below allows listeners to throw a contribution specifically towards the podcast. We're asking listeners to buy us one gallon of gas for our drive to Netroots Nation.

Thanks for your listenership and support of our podcast work!  We really appreciate it:

Open Letter to the DSCC

Dear "Joe Biden" and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee:


I am in receipt of your letter dated May 23, 2011, 9:03 a.m. Wow, when you guys show up to work you get things done first thing, doncha?


Anyhoo, since the words "Joe Biden" were on the envelope, I figured on a breezy, readable tome of about five or six trips to the crapper. Imagine my surprise at opening the envelope to a two page letter that tells me in the first paragraph that "there is no time for partisan politics" and that "our cards on the table" include "working with Democrats and Republicans alike to move the country forward."


Really? Which Republicans have YOU been talking to?


Then you talk about "some of today's politicians" who want to "bring us back to the past."  You mention your "proven plan to create jobs" once and Social Security and Medicare not at all? 


Excuse me, DSCC, but is your fundraising letter some sort of logic puzzle I'm supposed to work out before I send you a check?  


Here, consultant-fee free, is the letter that would get me to write you a check for five bucks: 

June 2, 2011  9:02 a.m.

Dear Fellow Democrat:

Paul Ryan and the Republicans told lies for two election cycles about how the Democrats want death panels and that health care reform was a secret plot to "kill Grandma."  

Once they won back the House, they passed nothing but abortion legislation, oh, and a plan, for real, that will force seniors into the private insurance market and give yet another tax cut to billionaires.

Our plan is to create jobs jobs jobs by re-building roads and bridges and our power grid and railroads and schools (here at home, not in Afghanistan).  And on the Medicare thing?  We plan to hand the GOP their balls on a spoon. 

Won't you help? 

Thanks for all you do,

Joe Biden

You're welcome.

PS. A reader, LH, reminds me that I didn't have an April fundraiser for this blog. I only do that four times a year, and the podcast / Netroots Nation contest / Blog Against Theocracy and / Spring Break all got in the way. Thanks for putting clothes on my back. I appreciate your support, folks.