Spoiler alert: BIG MONEY lost.
Netroots Nation doesn’t get started until later this morning, but I wanted to put up a thread for suggestions, comments and questions. Heteroflexible Pasty White DougJ (or whatever he’s calling himself these days) is in charge of the meetups so I’m sure he’ll be posting about that later today. In case you want to play at home, they’re live streaming a lot of events. I couldn’t find a concise list anywhere online, so I pasted the list of sessions and links to the streams from an NRN email after the break.
FOLLOW AT HOME GUIDE FOR FRIDAY, 6/8
The following keynotes and panels will be streaming live. All times are eastern time. Full descriptions of each session are available here.
10:30am – 11:45am
- Take a Walk, Scott: Post-Mortem of the Wisconsin Recalls
- Blogging for Transgender Equality: History, Challenges and Progress
- Combatting Criminal Justice Violations: Challenging Assumptions and Winning Campaigns
- What Progressives Can Do to Stop the War on Public Education
12:00 – 1:15pm
3pm – 4:15pm
- Citizens United, Super PACs and the Fight for Our Democracy
- Bold Progressive 99% Candidates in 2012
- Your Phone Is Political
- Saving Public Transportation: A Matter of Social Justice
4:30pm – 5:45pm
- That Will Never Work: What Progressives Can Learn from OWS
- Iran 2012: Iraq 2003 All Over Again?
- Mobile Organizing for 2012: From Elections to Occupy, Anti-Fracking to Arab Spring
- Big Decisions: A Discussion of Recent and Upcoming SCOTUS Cases
Also, panel and keynote pages will be updated with tweets, video and pictures after the sessions.
cat48
Netroots is whining to the Boston Globe about all the things Obama didn’t do. They’re not giving to him, probably won’t work for him, and might not VOTE for him. Give them a message for me…….DIAF.
Linda Featheringill
Very informative post about NN. I’m working today but might be able to carve out an opportunity to watch some of it.
Have fun.
Kay
If you see Laura Clawson (I have no idea who she is or what she looks like, but that’s your job, mistermix, to find her among the throngs of people there) tell her I love Daily Kos Labor very much.
Raven
Here’s the Providence newspaper take.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Hey, mm, here’s something you and Doug can interrupt: the “Future of Journalism Summit” being held at the Marriott in Providence a few blocks down. This is where they are giving out the Breitbart award.
Raven
@Kay: Here she is. The google is your friend.
Kay
@Raven:
Thanks. Now if we could only get that photo to mistermix somehow… :)
dr. bloor
@Raven: Avoid the Projo at all costs. It will make you stupid.
mistermix
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): That does look interesting. I’m sure there are dozen O’Keefe wannabees stalking that place looking for DFHs trying to crash their party.
Raven
@dr. bloor: You haven’t seen anything until you’ve read the Athens Banner Herald.
PeakVT
I might check out the public education panel later, if I have time and energy. Perhaps the right wing attack can be stopped before it induces a death spiral in this area.
burnspbesq
Meanwhile, back in the real world, yet another U.S. district court has held Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional, in Windsor v. U.S.
Three interesting features to this case. First, it’s a tax refund suit, that challenges the IRS’ refusal to allow the estate tax marital deduction when a decedent leaves property to a same-sex spouse. Second, the court decided the case on plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment. Third, and perhaps most important, the court claims that it got there by applying traditional rational-basis analysis.
This is a BFD.
There is a link to the opinion on the front page of the SDNY website.
http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/
rlrr
@burnspbesq:
the court claims that it got there by applying traditional rational-basis analysis.
Which means wingnuts will automatically disagree…
burnspbesq
@cat48:
I’ll sign on to that message.
burnspbesq
@rlrr:
The opinion’s takedown of the supposedly rational alleged bases is pretty sweet. Boehner’s lawyers are getting their asses kicked worse than the Duke football team.
Gin & Tonic
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
If it’s really at the Marriott, and not the Marriott Courtyard, that’s actually a bit more than “a few blocks.” It’s a fairly long and not all that pedestrian-friendly a walk. The Marriott is not really in the downtown core.
Ben Cisco
@cat48:
This is either the best Lou Holtz sandbagging imitation ever, or a really fucked up stance to take. Dare I ask which?
cat48
@Ben Cisco:
I don’t know who you’re accusing of sandbagging, me or them. Here’s a link to the article:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2012/06/07/frustrated_liberals_want_more_from_obama/?page=full
slag
I understand that conventions are known for this kind of thing, but really guys…on the first day? Show some restraint, why donthcha.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@cat48:
LOL, and that Boston Globe article notes that polls show something like 93 percent of dem Obama voters are ‘enthusiastic’ about voting for him again. More enthusiasm than the wingers for Romney. Tempest in a Chamber Pot, NRN. They are getting some media attention for the whinging, however, gotta give em that.
Mark S.
In global warming news:
This shit is getting too depressing to even make the “Al Gore is fat” joke. Most of the comments on the article are from dipshit wingnuts talking about sunspots and how it was warmer in the Jurassic Age.
Clime Acts
@cat48:
You do know this is Netroots Nation, not Obama Nation, right?
You seem to believe that NN attendees are somehow obligated to back BO. Why would you think that?
Why would you expect members of a Progressive organization of any kind to actively support a Center Right politician?
SatanicPanic
@Mark S.: It is getting a bit too depressing to snark on. Which itself is sad because wingnuts talking about the dinosaurs is great snarking ground.
Mark S.
Nate Silver releases his first presidential election forecast and . . . tl,dr. Here’s the money quote:
I had been feeling a little pessimistic about the election this week, so this is good news.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Clime Acts:
Because the core mission of Daily Kos is to elect Democrats.
Period.
Now, the unofficial mission has always been to “elect more…and better” Democrats. Often each mission element contradicts each other. The problem from a cursory glance at Teh Orange is that it’s all about firebaggers trying to take down Obama. That’s true for a large chunk of the loudmouths who dominate the Wrecks List.
It’s not at all reflective of the actual Front Page writers who will often write nuanced criticisms of something the administration has done but ultimately are onboard with the main mission of the site.
I gave the Villagers too little credit. I figured they’d find the one panel which bitched about Obama’s lack of firebaggin’ purity but perhaps Markos learned from last year and kept those asshats out of the official agenda. But nope, the Villagers have their meme ready and went in to find NN attendees who would give them the opinions to match the story they wanted to write which is the usual DEMS IN DISARRAY crap.
burnspbesq
@Clime Acts:
First, do no harm.
There is no credible progressive candidate. The range of options is center right or radical right. If you don’t see this choice as a no-brainier, then your mental processes are irreparably damaged.
Stuck in the Funhouse
Peggy Nooner’s, full in her cups.
Yep, what we need is mo Red State models of soaking up the tax dollars of affluent Blue States, to help feed the peasant non union southern chain gangs breaking rocks for the Aristocats on a hot tin roof.
I figure by election day, Peg will be stumbling down Park Avenue sucking on a bottle of Southern Comfort babbling something about we won’t haz nice things until that nigger’s gone.
burnspbesq
A really good analysis of the legal and moral issues involved in the use of drones.
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/david_luban_obama_drones_just_war_theory.php
burnspbesq
@Stuck in the Funhouse:
That seems most implausible. Southern Comfort? Really?
magurakurin
@Clime Acts:
because the alternative is a raging lunatic.
But maybe that appeals to you…
Stuck in the Funhouse
@burnspbesq:
metaphor, my son, metaphor
negative 1
If anyone is around in the Biggest Little this weekend there is a Waterfire tomorrow. Kind of like a street fair, I always found them to be really cool.
Clime Acts
@Mark S.:
But what has been particularly encouraging is how President Obama and the national Dem party has been hitting this point relentlessly, and laying out in detail how Republican obstructionism in service to the fossil fuel industry has firewalled any GW legislation.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, as rlrr notes, the wingnuts will disagree. Because anything rational has an inherent and unmistakable liberal bias.
Villago Delenda Est
@Clime Acts:
This has been true since the reign of Ronaldus Magnus, when one of his first acts was to get those commie solar panels off the roof of the White House.
A far cry from the days when Dwight Eisenhower would mock Texas oil men.
Villago Delenda Est
@magurakurin:
“Nach Hitler, uns“
Valdivia
@slag:
that made me spill my coffee. Thank you!
eric
@Mark S.: let me make another point to pick you up…be glad that the race “tightened” now rather than later, so you have avoided the Obama is sinking and Romney is rising stories. The race will be close in the national polls till the very end, so those stories can’t happen now. The state polling is what matters and Obama is solid but not dramatically ahead there, so the “sky is falling” stories can’t take hold there either. All told, this is where things will stand and you will have a battle between the best campaign apparatus ever assembled with one of the best campaigners ever against the richest and most bile driven campaign ever. enjoy
Linda Featheringill
@Mark S.:
Global warming:
This spring was rather warm rather suddenly. 5+ degrees F is a big difference and will have a major affect on crops.
And the Earth doesn’t care how much Al Gore weighs [or even how much you and I weigh].
Sigh.
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
That’s it in a nutshell. Whatever one’s beefs with Obama, the prospect of a Romney presidency–and the likelihood of his nominating one or two justices to the Supreme Court–is far, far worse.
magurakurin
@Villago Delenda Est: I guess technically that did work. The German communists got their chance in East Germany in the Soviet Block after Hitler. There is that small matter of 10’s of millions of deaths, a shattered world, and the Holocaust.
But I’m sure it will work out even better this time.
Chyron HR
@Clime Acts:
I salute your tireless effort to make the exact same argument that Fox News does.
(Of course when you do it, it’s “from the left”, so that’s totally different.)
eric
@Linda Featheringill: the earth would care if we weighed as much as the sun…so there, your science is rebuked and Al Gore’s fatness is once again relevant. Ha!
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@burnspbesq:
Last I checked, progressive has progress as its root. And Obama’s made significant progress over the last 3.5 years, even against the “he’s not white and not a Republican” brigade.
I point out the presidents I remember running the country:
Reagan
Bush 1
Clinton
Bush 2
Obama
Obama’s so far left of the rest of the group he’s an outlier.
magurakurin
@Chyron HR:
(Of course when you do it, it’s
“from the left”“from your ass,” so that’s totally different.)fixed it.
burnspbesq
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I don’t buy Clime Act’s framing, but I was playing along for purposes of discussion.
FWIW, I think the characterization of Obama as center-right is fundamentally inaccurate, but I don’t think I would go so far as to call him center-left, and anyone who self-identifies as progressive will not accept that Obama is a progressive.
eric
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): the fundamental flaw of progressive political thinking (as opposed to progressive policy thinking) is the belief that there is some silent mass of progressive voters just waiting for a candidate they can believe in. The sad reality is that we are not so progressively inclined and progressive politics is further undermined by the entrenched interests that prefer a dumbed down and, if necessary, disenfranchised electorate.
The other gripe I have with so-called progressives is that they are often unwilling to enthusiastically support a non-progressive Obama because it makes them seem like one of the misinformed masses who cant see how reactionary he is on military and civil liberty policies.
SatanicPanic
@burnspbesq:
I identify as progressive and I accept Obama as a progressive. So there.
burnspbesq
@SatanicPanic:
I believe that makes you an apostate, or worse, a heretic. Jane Hamsher and Matt Stoller will be along any time now to stone you.
Mark S.
@Linda Featheringill:
One of my earliest memories as a kid was my mom taking me to Chaco Canyon. Only years later did it occur to me that it was rather strange that so many people were living in what now is the middle of a huge desert. What the hell were these people eating?
As our conservative friends like to remind us, this was the Medieval Warm Period. To make a long story short, global warming is going to be really bad for the western US. It’s going to be really hot and dry, and the land’s going to be even more marginal than it already is. It breaks my heart, because that’s where I grew up.
eric
@Mark S.: think of the California water wars that will emerge…good times
SatanicPanic
@burnspbesq: Worse, they will write a sternly worded blog post and co-sign a petition with Grover Norquist condeming me.
FWIW I think Obama is probably personally center-left, but there’s no place for that in our political system, so his actions end up closer to just plain old centrist. Whatever that means. But I don’t know what’s in his heart, I’m not his personal biographer.
Oh, I’m just joking about being a “progressive”, that term has already gone to the dogs. I prefer liberal, which draws exactly the right amount of heat.
eric
@SatanicPanic: I think that his pragmatic deal making sensibilities make him appear more “right” than he is…after all, he did come out and publicly say that he thought gays and lesbians should be allowed to get married. last time i checked that is plain old Left. His use of drones, well that used to be plain old right, though now it is center.
Ben Cisco
@cat48: I meant THEM, sorry if I was unclear.
cat48
@eric:
Unfortunately, we’ve been attacked on US soil on 9/11, so I think anyone elected will be more conservative w/Military than most Liberals would like. The underwear bomber setting himself on fire over Detroit, trying to takedown an Airliner full of people, ensured that Obama would be severely conservative when it came to Defense.
ruemara
@burnspbesq: I’m very progressive. Obama is more progressive than the very progressive local dems I get to see in governing action on a daily basis. I don’t get this bullshit. He may not be as progressive as me, but he’s more progressive and EFFECTIVE than you can get with the constraints of our governing system.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@eric: And that I think is a flaw of the thinking of those who consider themselves “left” now. Democratic presidents of the 20th century were never afraid to use force. Wilson in WW1, Roosevelt in WW2. Truman approved dropping the atomic bomb, and sent most of the Troops for Korea. Johnson – I’m including him to be complete – didn’t know when to not use force. Clinton in Serbia.
amk
Ah, so many navels, so little time to gaze.
cat48
@Ben Cisco:
Good to know. It was discouraging to read because I thought they were going to be more positive this year.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@eric:
Check some more. Clinton had a standing kill order on OBL since the mid to late 90’s, and at one point prior to 9-11, had what most of his aids thought was Osama square in the sights of a missile armed drone, but declined to give the order to fire, for fear of taking out some oil sheiks from the Arab Emirates, that were hanging with OBL on some kind of hunting safari, or another. He later launched a bunch of Tomahawks that blew up some villagers and rearranged some rubble, but missed OBL.
What about basic democratic policy gave us Vietnam and Korea? It was democrats that brought us the horrows of My Lai and The Phoenix Program. And other fire and brimstone policies of the Cold War. Aside from the anti war left, a very small slice of the donkey pie, democrats have lurved their warring, at least going back to Woodrow Wilson, and his rampaging around Mexico and other places, trying to bring murrican values and democracy to those he thought needed it. The democratic party was the birthing place of the now neocon blood grifters. Scoop Jackson and all that.
Obama is trying to set a new doctrine, rightly or wrongly, to refocus warmaking to be fed through UN filter, and going after AQ has long since been stamped for approval by that world body.
Jewish Steel
I think you’d all enjoy my NN panel:
The Taxonomy Of Obama: Progressive Fascist Or Center Right Jimmy Carter? Dreams And Disillusion.
Mnemosyne
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
I think a lot of people misunderstood liberal opposition to the Iraq War and thought it was because liberals were pacifists, not because the Iraq War was a stupidly conceived, poorly planned disaster.
Now there are a lot of disillusioned pacifists (and some isolationists) weeping about how liberals have let down the Democratic Party when, as you point out, Democratic presidents have probably been better known for their wars than for anything else.
IMO we need to GTF out of Afghanistan but, again, that’s because it’s a pointless waste of time, money and lives that’s been dragging on for over a decade with no results, not because War Is Bad.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Or, This!!
Linda Featheringill
OT but important to me:
The Daughter Unit, unemployed for a looooong time, has snared a temp-to-perm job, starting this coming Monday!
Big sigh of relief here.
We have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for a while, making full use of food pantries and free evening meals around town, and worrying about whether the rent check will bounce. But now, if this pans out even to a modest degree, we should be able to crawl out of the hole we’re in.
Maybe the economy is getting better.
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Linda Featheringill:
Good news, Linda!!
FlipYrWhig
I think Obama is a progressive who’s strapped to a Democratic party whose median politician is much less progressive than he is personally. And I continue to think that the executive power/terrorism stuff for which he is excoriated by the blogosphere left is chiefly a product of finding ways around a risk-averse Congress that likes to punt on those issues and a Justice Department dealing with an already-shit bed on terrrorism cases.
FlipYrWhig
@FlipYrWhig: And, that said, it’s appropriate to call out bad acts and bad policies when they occur. But a lot of the most vocal critics would prefer to allege that Obama is himself a bloodthirsty sadist. Feh.
Patricia Kayden
So if in an election year, the purpose of NN is not to support the Dem Presidential candidate, what is the purpose of NN? Why bother featuring Dem candidates at all, such as Elizabeth Warren? So NN is okay with a Republican in the White House given matters like Supreme Court appointments, marriage equality, women’s access to abortion and contraception, etc? Isn’t Obama much closer to NN’s position on crucial issues than the Republican alternative?
I’m exhausted by Progressive moaning about Obama not doing enough. He’s done a lot. I’m sure if he’s re-elected he’ll do more. Give me a break.