Yearly Kos Takes Vegas By Storm
1,000 bloggers, assorted Democratic party leaders and candidates and the national press, including Maureen Dowd, Adam Nagourney and Dan Froomkin, are all in Las Vegas for Yearly Kos.
By all accounts I've read, the Plame panel was outstanding (great job, Jane and Christy, Murray Waas, Joe Wilson, Larry Johnson and Empty Wheel.)
Markos is totally the rock star of the blogosphere, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. Even Elisa and Ari are there (old picture.)
Mission Accomplished Man, aka actor Will Keenan, is making them all laugh.
And who's live blogging? Skippy!
Here's more from the San Francisco Chronicle:
On Thursday, a couple hundred "Kossacks," as they call themselves, sipped Buds and Heinekens and listened as retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark stood on a chair at the Hard Rock Casino and addressed them without a microphone. On Friday, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner offered an "open bar, free food and thrill rides" at his swank gig dubbed "Blogosphere at the Stratosphere (Casino Tower Hotel)" that was whispered to cost more than what most bloggers make in a year. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack will be more low-key, focusing his efforts on a panel discussion today on education.
And again here:
Two years ago, the first bloggers credentialed to cover the Democratic National Convention in Boston were treated as a novelty, guests at the restricted club where mainstream media reporters and politicians hobnob.
This weekend, in a sign of how new media is reshaping politics, some of the nation's top Democratic politicians are flocking to the first major offline convention inspired by a political blog, the Berkeley-based Daily Kos.
That's right. In 2004, there were only 20 or so progressive bloggers with creds to cover the Democratic convention in Boston. Markos, Atrios, Ezra, Matt Yglesias and I were among them.
How hot is Yearly Kos?
California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is scheduled to address the three-day conference Friday. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Democratic National Committee Chairman Dean will have microphone time, as will 2008 presidential hopefuls such as Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner. Another probable presidential candidate, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, will appear at a panel Friday and had a reception Thursday night at the Hard Rock Casino.
The Yearly Kos buzz is so hot that some Democrats, like first-time politician Charlie Brown, are coming to Vegas without a spot on the schedule. He came just to work the room as he prepares to take on Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, in a conservative Sacramento-area congressional district in the fall.
The liberal radio network Air America will beam live from the convention, as will dozens of bloggers. And in a telling sign of the new media times, more than 120 credentialed media organizations are expected, including a crew from "60 Minutes," CSPAN and several documentary films.
Major kudos is due Yearly Kos organizer Gina Cooper:
The twist about Yearly Kos, though, is that it isn't a Moulitsas vanity project (though it probably won't be hard to find a copy of Moulitsas' new book, "Crashing the Gate"). It was organized by two dozen volunteers, led by Cooper, a 36-year-old former schoolteacher who lives in the tiny Sonoma County town of Forestville.
Cooper said Moulitsas has been a supportive "consultant" to the convention, advertising it on his site and acting as a sounding board for ideas. Although Moulitsas will address the gathering, and his wife will lead a caucus based on her fledgling "Mother Talkers" blog, Cooper said with good humor, "I don't tell him how to run his blog, and he doesn't tell me how to run the convention."
Instead, the convention lineup was crafted democratically -- blog readers suggested and debated whom they wanted to invite....
Yearly Kos rocks. It's netroots at its finest, and the party leaders and MSM have finally figured out, ignore them at your peril. What's net roots? People power. Grass Roots to the Nth degree. It's here. Embrace it.
As for Markos, here's a picture I took of him at the end of the Democratic convention -- I suspect he'll be in the same state Sunday. He may be great, but he's mortal.
You can watch today's events on C-Span or Air America Radio.
More coverage: San Antonio Statesman; Alternet; Las Vegas Sun; Washington Post; New Hampshire Union Leader.
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