Tag Archives: Netroots Nation

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas closed this year’s confab with the answer to one of the week’s hottest topics. Netroots Nation 2011 will be in Minneapolis. (The last five: Las Vegas, Chicago, Austin, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas.) I had a blast during my one visit to Minneapolis, back in 2005 for the InterPride conference. Unfortunately, Netroots 2011 will take place in …

During Sen. Harry Reid’s appearance at Netroots Nation, four undocumented students in caps and gowns approached the stage to stand in silent protest for the passage of the DREAM Act, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors bill that would provide conditional permanent residency to students that have no arrest record, have graduated high school, and have been in …

“You know, after reading your blog all these years, I expected you to be all aggressive and assholish. But after watching you all week I’ve decided you’re really kind of sweet and polite. It’s totally fucking disappointing, dude.” – A drunken Netroots Nation attendee, speaking to me at the Stonewall Democrats’ poolside closing party at the Mirage.

Former Tuscon city council member Rodney Glassman is considered the leading Democrat in the campaign for John McCain’s U.S. Senate seat. (That doesn’t mean he’s necessarily got a chance.) Glassman opposes marriage equality, as you’ll see in this clip from Netroots Nation when he dodges a shouted question from the audience.

The audio here is better than the clip I posted yesterday. The initial shouts of objection to Reid’s first response are from the GetEQUAL table.

UPDATE: The live stream is concluded. Franken opened with the “NeVAHda vs. NeVEHda” controversy. Preceding him was Tarryl Clark (Michele Bachmann’s opponent), and Linda Chavez-Thompson, candidate for Lt. Governor of Texas. Fantastic night!

Sen. Harry Reid’s opening remark at his keynote address at Netroots Nation recognized Lt. Dan Choi, who was sitting next to me in the front row. The entire room gave Choi a standing ovation. Later during the question and answer session, the moderator presented Reid with Choi’s West Point ring. Reid promised to return the ring to Choi upon the …

UPDATE: The Reid live stream is concluded. Sen. Al Franken will take the stage shortly for the closing keynote address.

Obviously referring to GetEQUAL’s protests, Pelosi said, “I would target [politicians] in a positive way. This is America, show your appreciation to those that are with us.” More about Pelosi’s speech at LGBT POV. (Video by Good As You’s Jeremy Hooper.)

With a mention of DADT.

I started the day early at a breakfast with openly gay Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet, who is running for Congress against Rep. Mary Bono-Mack. (I’ll post my Q&A with Pougnet a bit later.) Then it was off to the grand hall to catch the tail-end of Van Jones‘ brilliant morning keynote. After that was the “Organizing For Equality in …

Today’s luncheon at Netroots Nation is sponsored by MoveOn.org. And before one can enter the cavernous convention ballroom, agents from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will stop you and demand identification. “Joe, you don’t look like you’re from around here. This ID is unacceptable. I’m going to have to ask you to step aside and be photographed for our records.” …

We continue to be plagued with spotty and slow internet access here at Netroots Nation, much to the anguish of digital activists and writers who came prepared to tweet, Facebook, and live-blog every waking moment. You can still follow the action at the Twitter hashtags #NN10 and #LGBTNN10, where attendees with smartphones are providing minute-by-minute coverage.

Here’s some of the LGBT contingent here at Netroots Nation. No time to label all the photos, but you should recognize a lot of these folks. Follow along on Twitter at hashtag #LGBTNN10.

Netroots Nation 2010 officially opened this morning and of course, interwebs access here is completely borked, hence my radio silence for the last few hours. Paid access in the hotel rooms is extremely slow and the free wifi in the convention center just isn’t working at all. Several thousand very frustrated bloggers and digital activists are wearing out their refresh …

“I’m very perplexed on the administration’s continued defense of DOMA in the courts. The Justice Department is not required to defend laws passed by Congress — they have a history of doing it but it’s not a requirement. Their ultimate duty is to defend the Constitution of the United States and if Congress passes a law that is discriminatory and …

Twice yesterday my pronunciation of Nevada was corrected by a local. They’s touchy about that here. T-shirts and bumper stickers on that issue abound.