Markos Moulitsas

Just got home from Netroots Nation.  It was a very good event this year.   It had very little tension.   Calm.  Workmanlike.  In part a reflection of how this is the first gathering of the netroots since the historic 2008 elections, which rid the country of the force that in many ways brought the netroots to life, the failed conservatism of the early 21st century.  Amazingly 2000 or so people attended, as many as last year.  And Pittsburgh was a wonderful host city, pretty, clean, impressive.

NDN had a strong presence this year.  Not only were we a major sponsor of the event, but we managed a panel on the coming Millenial Age with Mike Hais; offered a screening of the incredible film about immigration, 9500 Liberty; participated on a panel about race, Beck and Dobbs; and I was fortunate enough to address the whole gathering in the moments before President Clinton's remarkable speech on Thursday night (NN has already loaded the Clinton speech up, and you can watch it here). 

A big Saturday night shout out to Raven Brooks and the whole NN team for pulling off another great gathering.  I, like many others, already have NN 2010 in Las Vegas July 22-25 on my calendar.

If you're headed to Denver, don't do anything you don't want to read on a blog or see on YouTube.

According to a recent article by the Wall Street Journal's Amy Schatz, a super sharp member of the Fourth Estate, the Netroots -- bloggers, citizens armed with camcorders, people on Facebook -- are going to be a big presence at this year's party conventions. 

The Big Tent, a two-story, 8,000 square-foot structure is being erected in Denver to house bloggers, new media, progressive leaders and others coming from just about everywhere. Google is a sponsor of the Tent and will offer massages, smoothies and a candy buffet. YouTube will have a kiosk for convention-goers to upload their videos. What does all this mean? Amy talked to Simon for her report:

"There's no such thing as off the record anymore. There's no such thing as private moments anymore," says Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of NDN, formerly the New Democrat Network, and the New Politics Institute.

"We saw that with 'macaca,'" Mr. Rosenberg said, referring to an incident in 2006 when a videographer recorded then-Sen. George Allen using a term often considered derogatory to some ethnic groups. "This is the condition of life now in the new media age."

AFP also wrote about the Netroots at the conventions in a story that moved across the wire today. In it, Technology Correspondent Glenn Chapmann quoted Simon's foreword to "Crashing the Gate," a must-read by Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong for anyone who wants to understand why the Netroots took hold so quickly, deeply and strongly:

"This new politics is disruptive, upsetting old arrangements and displacing people invested in the old ways," Simon Rosenberg, president of progressive think tank NDN wrote in a forward to the book "Crashing The Gate."

"It is literally crashing the gate of the old system ... and to that I say, 'Amen.'"

The New Yorker's Hendrick Hertzberg took a fascinating look at Robert Kuttner's upcoming new book on whether U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has the right stuff to be a "transformative" president if elected.

The book’s premise is not only that Obama will be elected President but also, and mainly, that his character and talents—in combination with the manifest failures of conservative rule and the manifold crises it has created, exacerbated, or ignored—give him a fighting chance to lead the country into a deep and lasting era of positive change. (As it happens, there are signs that Obama understands this and is preparing to seize the moment.) Kuttner, in concise chapters written with great vigor and clarity, shows what the change could look like if Obama is bold enough to go for it and the gods continue to smile on him.

Thanks to Hertzberg for citing Simon's recent blog post (click on "signs" in Hertzberg's piece).

NDN Green Project Director Michael Moynihan recently talked to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about energy issues.

Michael Moynihan, an energy expert at NDN, a think tank in Washington aligned with Democrats, said the candidates needed a far more robust plan for solar power.

"On this issue, I think that Americans are ahead of the candidates of both parties," he said.

To read more about the potential of solar, check out Michael's recent paper here.

Finally, Simon talked to the Washington Times' all-star, Christina Bellantoni, about whether Obama's vacation hurt him. The short answer is, "doubtful."

Thanks to our friends at FORA.tv, we now have video from last week's event in San Francisco with Daily Kos founder, Markos Moulitsas. Check it out below:

The Bay Area is known for its great exports to the rest of the nation -- Sourdough, Rice-a-Roni, Ghirardelli and Cable Cars to name but a few, but it's also a great political town and the adopted home of the founder of one of America's first and most influential bloggers, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos.

We are very excited that this Thursday evening, June 5, Markos is taking time out of his busy schedule to join Simon at a forum for a freewheeling discussion about all things political in 2008. With the primaries coming to a close today, Simon and Markos will have a great deal to talk about.

Markos is an old NDN friend, having first appeared at one of NDN's conferences in 2003. In 2006, Simon wrote the foreword to Crashing the Gate, the critically acclaimed book authored by Markos and Jerome Armstrong.

The forum is scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency, Room Pacific D, 5 Embarcadero Center, in San Francisco.

Seating is extremely limited, so if you'd like to join us, RSVP early by clicking here.

We hope to see you there for what promises to be an entertaining and informative evening.