Above: Attendees snap pix and take vids as former president Bill Clinton gives the welcoming keynote address at Netroots Nation 2009 in Pittsburgh.
I thought PSB'ers might like a glimpse of the action at this year's Netroots Nation (formerly the YearlyKos convention). At first it seemed like attendance was down, which would be understandable given the economy. On the contrary, I'd say it's up, although there was more "trickle in" because the agenda has been expanded to cover a full three days+ rather than 2+. More below the fold.
the last of the video we shot at yearlykos (i believe). this is the entire breakout session for barack obama, held at the chicago convention right after the presidential forum.
trying to get all the old stuff off my desk before the new year. i have a couple of videos to upload from yearlykos, the first of which is this one, the complete presidential forum at yearlykos.
to me, this seemed the most relaxed and humorous debate of the ones i've seen.
it's in mp4 format, which you can apparently download and play on your video ipod from the google page...
daniel biss was the only candidate to attend the illinois blogger's caucus at yearlykos. but that may have been because he probably would have attended even if he hadn't been a candidate. this is video of his remarks to the illinois blogger's caucus.
on sunday, daniel officially kicks off his campaign against elizabeth coulson. he will be joined by congresswoman jan schakowsky, county commissioner larry suffredin, mwrd commissioner debra shore, state representative lou lang and other community leaders at his campaign's kick-off rally. rally will be for about one hour at hibbard park (3000 Glenview Road, Wilmette, behind the Wilmette Community Recreation Center). details can be found here.
as you will hear in the video, daniel has been leveraging the fund-raising website actblue as a vehicle for enhancing the credibility of his challenge to this republican incumbent. speaker madigan had targeted this seat in 2004, backing michelle bromberg before pulling out in the last week or so because that campaign wasn't catching on. some interpreted that to mean that coulson could not be beat.
this is unquestionably a challenge. coulson is a formidible opponent. but 2004 saw the netroots energized to elect john kerry, and there wasn't a lot of afterthought about other democrats running for office. many campaigns, congressional, state-wide and local expressed almost resentment that they weren't able to catch some of the excitement aimed at the presidential. we are more sophisticated now.
two candidates for congress from il-14 sponsored the celebration of netroots candidates held after the friday sessions at this year's yearlykos. but only one of them took advantage of that opportunity. video from this follows:
bill foster actually spent quite a bit of time at yearlykos. he attended the regional blogger's caucus as well as other sessions in order to meet with local and national bloggers and make the case for his candidacy. he was warmly received at both the netroots candidates celebration and the regional blogger's caucus.
both jotham stein and john laesch made appearances at the netroots candidate's celebration. neither made it in time to be introduced to the entire audience, wandering in afterward (lolapalooza was in full form by friday evening).
There is money out there to be had. That's a message that came through loudly and clearly at YearlyKos. Blogads, which we use as our advertiser medium is only one method to channel ads to the blog. And even within Blogads we are members already of three ad networks: Advertise Liberally, 50-State-Blog-Network and Blogginois. Our rates are typical for a blog our size. And besides ads, we could if we wanted, simply ask for money. But why?
Simply put, to hire help. At some point in the growth of this blog it will become inevitable that people will get paid to run and manage the blog. That's a big imho.
During YearlyKos I had two in depth conversations about hiring help. One was a matter of fact nuts and bolts one mostly discussing the kind of person we might want to hire. But the second was a straight on philosophical one resisting the very assumption that hiring help is something we would even want to do.
One of the most amazing things that I learned about at YearlyKos was the enthusiasm of Lurkers. I confess here and now that I have held a prejudice about lurkers that they just want to take without giving. Typing it out like that makes me realize how harsh a prejudice it was. Well I got my eyes opened at yKos. It was simply stunning to me how many lurkers I met. And each one with an eagerness and enthusiasm for progressive politics that easily matches my own. Indeed I am now able to recognize my own inner lurkerness.
Sadly this was the last ever YearlyKos. No more any more. Now they are to be called the Netroots Convention. From the start Markos has maintained a hands off approach to the eponymous event and now it's official.
I would have liked to have attended the fisrt and I probably would not have attended this one either had it not been in Chicago. However, it was such a fun and stimulating event that I will be more willing to leave town for the next.
Yesterday John Edwards marched with the hotel workers who have been picketing the Congress Hotel since 2003. I got an email about it while I was at the Yearly Kos convention at McCormick Place, and it seemed like too good of an event to miss, so I decided to duck out of the convention and go march with him. An hour before the event I went over to the John Edwards booth, rounded up three other Edwards supporters, we grabbed a cab and headed over.
Here is my best photo from the event, which I took while marching in the picket line with John:
More photos, and more info, and a poll below the fold.
(On the eve of Yearly Kos 2007, I thought it time to put this back on the front page. The event is now set for 6PM on Friday at the M/X Lounge in the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Hotel. Click the link to the event on DFA link for more details and to RSVP. - promoted by Jim in Chicago)
Yearly Kos, the annual Daily Kos users' convention is coming to Chicago August 2-5. I realized this provides a great and unique opportunity for Al Gore supporters to get together in person and brainstorm ways we can encourage his entry into the race. I have posted an event on DFA-Link for this purpose.
Please note you DO NOT need to attend the YearlyKos Convention to participate in this meeting. I put the convention site as the placeholder location for the meeting on DFA Link, but the final location will probably be a downtown hotel.
So if you are interested in encouraging Gore to enter the race, please RSVP here:
yearly kos, the netroots convention that emerged out of the dailykos community, named dan seals, the best chance illinois has for turning a red congressional district into a blue one, one of it's six "future leaders."
yearlykos will highlight its future leaders at its future leaders panel. this panel will be held at the main convention hall on friday, august 3rd, and will be a moderated discussion between the netroots and these future members of congress. other participants will be darcy burner (WA-08), larry grant (ID-01), scott kleeb (NE-03), eric massa (NY-29), gary trauner (WY-AL).
John Laesch attended Yearly Kos and, by all reports, seems to have garnered quite a positive response. Plenty of good diaries over at big orange about him. Let's keep up the positive vibe!
