I’ll be leaving shortly for Chicago to attend the Yearly Kos Convention. I know this is going to be an amazing event because I know who is going to be there. I’m going to meet dozens of people that I only know through user names and email addresses. I’m going to meet people that I haven’t seen since last year’s Yearly Kos…people like Kid Oakland, who are inspirational on so many levels. This is truly a bloggers’ conference. Some people that have ill feelings toward the Daily Kos site resent the publicity that this conference gives to Markos Moulitsas. That’s a big mistake. Whether you like or dislike Markos, whether you agree or disagree with his politics, this conference completely transcends both his personality and his site.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at speaker’s list and the the schedule. The blogging phenomenon has morphed into an actual force in American politics. And with the Democrats poised for staggering gains in the ’08 elections it is time to move from pissing and moaning about Republicans to thinking and strategizing for a new progressive agenda.
Five Democratic presidential contenders will attend Yearly Kos. None of them will attend the Democratic Leadership Council’s conference in Tennessee next week. We’ve come a long way baby.
But we have only just begun.
Sounds like it’s going to be good.
Earlier this evening I saw this “airport blogging” post at Buckeye State Blog
http://www.buckeyestateblog.com/airport_bloggin
Looks like there should be a nice range of convention coverage available for those who aren’t able to attend.
Lets say that I can ignore Kos. The only problem I have with Yearly Kos convention is that his name is in it. I would like to see something like Yearly Bloggers Convention.
By keeping his name in it, it promotes him and his place.
To be honest, the burqa thing still bothers me. If he had said “where is the white hood when you need it”, or “where is the swastica when you need it” I know that a lot of people would not go. But he is given a free pass on the Burqa.
Yeah, I am with you on this. But, I am of what they like to call the far left contingent. I am far left of Daily Kos, and while I believed for a little while that Kossacks would accept people like me, it was made (and is
regularly made) clear that people left of center were (are) not welcome.
I do appreciate that some semblance of people powered politics is happening. I would go to something without Kos’ name. While I love what y’all are doing, I cannot support Kos. He and/or his minions have stepped over the line too many times.
Have a great time, BooMan! I mean that. And make sure to tell us all the dirt! ;>)
after being treated poorly by the ykos folks last year, and after being dumped off his blogroll this year (after 5 years of nothing but support for dkos), i really had no desire to support anything with the brand “kos” attached.
(plus, mrs. skippy and i are already slated to travel across country in two weeks for a wedding; it would have been economically hard to schedule two cross-country trips in the same month).
still in all, i wish i could see a lot of my buds and friends whom i met last year in vegas.
i wish i had the wherewithall to create skippycon 08!
you didn’t blow up the bridge in Minnesota did you?
Isn’t that rather flip of you, Boo?
from making the “cross that bridge when we come to it” joke.
And good for you for that.
.
Construction flaws on infrastructure only happens in third-rated nations. Spending money on arms, rather than health care or Katrina victims.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Federal investigators were on their way to probe the cause. Pawlenty said the bridge in central Minneapolis was among tens of thousands across the United States found ‘structurally deficient’ but said it had passed recent inspections.
POOR MARKS
Pawlenty said a U.S. Transportation Department report in 2005 designated the bridge as structurally deficient and likely in need of replacement. On a scale of zero to nine, with zero meaning ‘failed,’ the bridge’s superstructure was rated at four, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
Pawlenty said the bridge had passed inspections in 2005 and 2006 and was not slated for replacement until 2020.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."The US is so rich that it can’t afford to bury it’s power lines, as is the norm in European countries, stringing them along telephone poles instead. Thus, whenever there is a big storm, there are widespread power outages, like in a third-world country.
But it’s not a problem, since the wealthy have back-up generators.
Hello, my friend!
This is just awful, awful. The American Society of Civil Engineers issued their Infrastructure Report Card 2005 and our “infrastructure GPA” was a “D.” I remember that it was given a D in 2003. Pathetic.
Our priorities are so screwed up. The husband and I looked at the news reports regarding this tragedy and we said to each other, Our nation is literally falling apart.
What more has to happen before we get our priorities in order?
Just want my position to be clear: I don’t oppose anyone going there, specially people like BooMan and Kid Okland, since they present a different view than the DK’s.
Sounds much better. I admit that I can’t get past the name having Kos in it, it just turns me off in a very major way.
I believe the convention is going to transcend Kos(that is my hope anyway) and will continue on over the years to be a great progressive force.
And on a really odd note given that I can’t even post at Kos I’ve been getting strange emails the last month advertising a Kos Convention Yearbook….wonder how I got on that list as I can’t even post at Kos and wouldn’t if I could…
why can’t you post?
Have no idea Boo…think it was a technical glitch many years ago but when I tried to contact Kos about it all my emails etc were ignored..anyway that is what I assumed. Now I don’t care and wouldn’t post there if I could as I said…and no that isn’t why I don’t care for Kos-it’s the attitude especially starting with the pie wars.
I’m leaving tomorrow (well, later today) morning for Chicago — There are some incredibly brilliant people writing on DKos (and here too!). The guest and speaker list at YKos is just amazing. This conference really does feel much bigger than just DKos. I’m going to listen and learn, meet new people, and hopefully run into a few I’ve met before.
(I’m not especially good at meeting new people. But my experiences meeting others in the blog community have been pretty good, so that makes me feel more optimistic.)
And I have family in Chicago, so this trip gives me an excuse to visit them too!
I’m bringing my BooTrib t-shirt!
Have a great time! Last year was so much fun!
Beware the orthdoxy.
And the anti-orthodoxy orthodoxy too.
Today’s Kos is tomorrow’s Neo-Kons.
Just as it has always been.
Bet on it.
AG
“Bleh???”
Mad Magazine?
Lame out front.
AG
P.S. I got yer “bleh” right here!!!
Think different. See further. Say BLEH.
The Bleh generation, technically, is a state of mind. ‘Bleh’ expresses an intense frustration, the fact that life is not easily livable, that you don’t expect anything more from this world. Though, it can’t be connected to the ‘no future’ movement, and either to any punk or goth movement. The Bleh generation is someting unique, something that truly goes to the essence of the emotional base of today’s society.
Bleh doesn’t reject this world, actually bleh doesn’t reject anything. But bleh doesn’t accept anything either.
All is bleh, and bleh is ill.
And here too.
“Bleh”, eh?
“…soft, moody, self-absorbed American lefties.”
Have fun at the Kos Konvention.
“Bleh.”
Possibly the most disgusting comment that I have ever gotten.
As Toshiro Mifune’s ronin character says so disgustedly in the Kurasawa film Sanjuro (I think it is that one, anyway…one of Mifune’s films, for sure.) when he saves a weak man and his family from the bad guys:
“I DESPISE the weak!!! Go away!!!”
But of course…he despises the bad guys even more.
“Bleh???”
Go away.
Weak.
ooooooh .. I love the smell of Mifune in the morning … !
…all that from one word?
Powerful word.
.
Open Left by Jenifer Fernandez Ancona
An inspiring story behind 17 of the bloggers who will descend on Chicago starting today, and given the conversations about diversity in the blogosphere that we’ve been having here, I thought it was worth spreading around a little more.
Oakland blogger Paul Delehanty, who writes as kid oakland on
Daily KosBooMan [Oui] and founded Blogs United, began organizing regional caucuses for the 2007 YearlyKos Convention when he ran into many bloggers who would bring great regional, gender, ethnic and economic diversity to the convention, but who could simply not afford to go, or just weren’t connected to the event.…
Nurturing multi-racial coalitions like these is just the kind of movement-building that we desperately need right now. The Chicago Voices program is an example of the kinds of things that can be achieved when diversity is seen as a strength, and a priority.
As Paul says, “Outreach is an active, ongoing, constant thing. Our movement is only as strong as the diversity of voices we bring to the table, and sometimes we have to break down walls to get there.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Have a great time, BooMan. I enjoyed it last year but won’t be attending this one. 2008?
Have a good time and keep us posted on the good stuff. I was there last year, but the past couple of months have been a whirlwind, and I need some downtime.
“None of them will attend the Democratic Leadership Council’s conference.”
Bill Clinton is no fool. If you fooled them once you can fool them twice. Hillary is so DLC/AIPAC there is no way she will ever get out from under this blanket by nonattendance. It is just more snookering by the centrist faction, and Kos Mouslatinis, or whatever his name is, is buying into it lock, stock, and barrel. But what does he care so long as the advertising dollars continue.
Now is not the time to suck up, Booman. Now is the time to offer a real alternative for the Left who want to remain Left.
Kos Mouslatinis sounds like a trendy umbrella drink. Make mine a double.
Isn’t it the one with pomegranate juice in it? LOL
Stop following, start leading. That goes for Knoxville as well, who wants to have your recipe. On the blgosphere it is now called Kool Aid.
Drink to your hearts’ content.
The reason for your comment remains unclear. I come to the blogosphere, read a bit, post a few of my own things and go back to my real life. My real life efforts are directed at what I deem worthy of my time, nothing more or less. I’ve never taken direction from Kos Mouslatinis, BooMan or anyone else. Blogs are useful for organizing and reading about poorly covered stories. As to establishing some kind of mind control over a large swath of site members, well, I don’t think so. I’m well aware of the kos police, I’m just not convinced that the existance of such individuals indicates that Kos Mouslatinis has mind control over a large swath of his readers. Nor will I ever be. Yes, he can ban members, but he can’t control their actions.
Personally, I read postings there and many other places. None of these sites exerts some kind of pull upon my actions.
Bannings of Kos members restricts content and thereby exerts censorship, and thereby exerts some influence on what you get to read over there.
So QUIT KIDDING YOURSELF. If the viewpoint is not there you are not subject to it and therefore are not free to read what you might.
Indian professor: knowledge is like an onion. It exists in layers, but one can never know where in the onion he lives. Only the fool believes he lives in the last layer. Don’t be a fool. What we know is being manipulated all the time, and Kos is doing his best to restrict proPalestinian viewpoints. You are not reading them because they no longer exist.
Have a good time Boo….It is an interesting list…not as many bloggers as I would like….mostly Politicos….If they ( Kos)are smart they would embrace more mainstream bloggers, and realize that we are a Political Force too….even without DC Contacts and Fancy DC jobs or roles….I am sorry but the list is a bit full of same old same old….I want to meet people like you, Rude Pundit, Skippy and TPM…etc…But please go and report back to us….I am just a humble blogger so I will never get to such an event- but want to know how it does the Change that Hopefully comes in 2008….