Markos Must've Forgotten To Send My Invitation

Here's something light after my last post.

This weekend is the first annual Yearly Kos, a liberal circle jerk convention of top bloggers and Democratic party leaders in Las Vegas, gathering to strengthen the netroots connections and their ties to the Democratic party at large. I don't know if any of this root-connecting will have bloggers turning in clusters, but despite my earlier indifference to the gathering, it seems like it was a very big success for everyone involved.

Vegas was a great choice too, as its the perfect metaphor for the Democrats in this election year... full of wide-eyed hope, rolling the dice with the odds stacked against them, just hoping not to go home empty-handed again.

The convention seems to be getting mostly positive press from both sides and it seems a great opportunity for Democrats to finally do what Republicans have long realized is important... connect with their base. As Adam Nagourney writes in the NY Times, "the blogosphere has become for the left what talk radio has been for the right: a way of organizing and communicating to supporters." Hopefully he means that in a good way. Topics being discussed at the convention's panels and discussion include the power of the internet, the future of the Democratic party, and the failures of duty of the mainstream media. I don't what what impact, if any, this will have long-term, but it's clear there is a movement for change and organization and message here. Too bad it had to come from bloggers and not from the Democrats themselves, but hopefully they're taking notes.

Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid even used the convention to announce a new proposal-

Americans won't be fooled by future intelligence failures if Congress will enact stiffer reporting requirements for the president and the intelligence community, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Saturday.

Reid, in prepared remarks for the YearlyKos Convention of bloggers in Las Vegas, said his proposed legislation is critical as the Bush administration steps up its diplomacy with Iran...

..."All of us as Americans need to review how the Bush Administration cherry-picked and hyped the case for war with Iraq to sell it to Congress and the American people, so we can make sure it never happens again," Reid said.

Reid's proposed bill, called the Iran Intelligence Oversight Act, would require an updated national intelligence estimate on Iran, with an unclassified summary made public....

An excellent idea, but anything involving 'oversight' will be dismissed by President Bush.

C-SPAN has streaming video online ('YearlyKos Convention') of the highlights, starting with the excellent Plamegate discussion panel (featuring Joseph Wilson, reporters Murray Waas- who just did another great article on the story- and Dan Froomkin, and many of the bloggers who have been covering the story on a regular basis). That panel was 90 minutes long; I had only intended to watch a part of it, but it was so good, I sat through the whole thing. LinkTV also has clips, including the foreign policy panel and an excerpt of a speech by cartoonist Tom Tomorrow.

Crooks and Liars also has video of Markos being interviewed on 'Meet The Press'.

ThinkProgress has a good writeup: The Media Descends on YearlyKOS

Not that the media still can't be condescending, of course.

[PS- I am going to Comic Con in San Diego next month. I wonder if Wesley Clark will be there too? I would like to have a lightsaber battle with him; I know I'd lose, but I think it'd make for good C-SPAN.]

[PPS- While the cool-kid bloggers are having their party, some election year advice from Craig Crawford:

After a rare week of good news for President Bush -- saving a California congressional seat and killing a top terrorist -- Democrats now must consider the possibility that November's midterm election will occur in an environment where Iraq is looking up and Republican scandals are fading away. What then? Despite advice from some party consultants that the best campaign strategy would be to keep the slate clean of a specific agenda, Democrats might have to take more initiative...

...House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., did lay out some objectives last month in a memo to supporters, saying her first priorities in a Democratic-controlled 110th Congress would be raising the minimum wage, implementing all the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, cutting subsidies for oil companies, reducing student loan rates and making prescription drugs more affordable.

Last week's news from San Diego and Baghdad prove that Pelosi might want to build on that memo and give Democrats a specific platform to run on.

Perhaps they can start with Arianna Huffington's advice- "It's the national security, stupid!"]