Let me reiterate what I say in the title.  This is one person’s perception.  

Let me put that into context.  I have attended all three conventions, and organized and led at least one panel at each.  I also write this as a long-time member of this community and someone who lives in the National Capital region and is somewhat politically active here.  That sentence is offered solely to perhaps help readers understand some of what I will offer.  While this is my perception, my observations, my analysis, I hope that this diary can provide an occasion of conversation, where others can provide evidence supporting or gainsaying what I have offered.  After all, I was but one of 2,000 attendees, and only saw a small fraction of the sessions.

So please join me below the fold.

    Simple question.

    ...I may be missing something, but it seems that besides reliable fireplug Howard Dean and a few pundits, there seems to be a serious lack of political--I didn't say "star"--firepower at the upcoming NN.

    Especially compared to last year, when practically every Dem candidate came to the forum.

    If Barack Obama wants to Sister Souljah the netroots by refusing to attend Netroots Nation, that's a serious problem. After all the netroots did for him. (But how much will they do for him in the future if he doesn't pay appropriate respect? And I don't mean a "special videotaped message" from him, either. He can keep that for himself, I wouldn't want to see it.)

    So his absence (and maybe even the absence of others, including a New York senator, a former North Carolina senator, a present Nevada senator and majority leader, etc.) would be a serious comedown from previous conventions. Would the first Netroots Nation even be worth attending? One wonders.
       

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    You couldn't make it up.

    In Joe Wilson's nastily-named HufPost Smears and Tears: How Obama's National Security Week Turned Into the Mendacity of Hype, he opines,

    ...In fact, the then-First Lady was told the plane was diving to land to avoid possible sniper fire. Whether there was or not is irrelevant. ...

    Huh?
    If false claims of Iraqi WMD and of Iraqi uranium purchase in Niger are bad, maybe a false claim of sniper fire isn't too good either??

    And to think this guy took up space at YearlyKos 1.

    Of the many critical comments to the HP article, see, e.g.,

michiganfan ...

Jesus Christ, Joe! Stop it!

Every time you post a pro-Hillary article here, you further destroy your own reputation. ...
So, just stop it!

You used to be a hero to me, but now your "kitchen sink" smears against Obama have destroyed all of the goodwill you had built up with your opposition to the war.

...Posted 09:55 AM on 03/27/2008

    You used to be a hero to LOTS of us, Joe.

Ok, I'm a bucks-up Kossack. We're out there, accidental millionaires true to our values.

I met John Laesch at the first Kossack Convention, and my son and I decided to give him our entire candidate contribution budget.

John took the battle to Denny Hastert, and tied up the Meat Puppet and his money so other Dems could win.
Now Hastert's leaving early.

If you want to give to the gutsy veteran who represents us best, and have a chance to win a piece of history, this is your chance.

Click here to give and enter

You could give a few dollars and have a chance to win the Yearly Kos 1 Banner

NOTE: This is meant to be constructive engagement and not criticism.  This is also meant to provoke discussion, not to be an opportunity to say "I remember this event before it was cool"

I'm sitting here this morning at Yearly Kos, after having a number of conversations last night with various attendees.  I have some thoughts about what we're seeing as a loss of the uniqueness and specialness of the event, due to a variety of factors, mainly the loss of connective tissue and the spatial vastness of the venue.  My thoughts on the flip.

There we were in Las Vegas last year.

Me and my new friend at the top of the Stratosphere. (And they say Chicago is the 'windy city'!)

Actually, I hadn't seen this incredible photo of me and sidepocket's better half (waving hi guys!!!) on top of the world until a couple of days ago when they arrived in my inbox.

A little blurry was the explanation for its delay.

Hey, you can see our smiles, can't you? That's all that matters, then!

It's quickly become my favorite of all the pics in my collection from last year. A collection I wanted to share once more with everyone as we embark upon another stratospheric gathering of hearts and minds. As I wrote last year in my post-convention photo essay, We Were ALL at YK2006.

And we're ALL going to be there together, again, this year...

Apologies in advance to dial-up users, there's a ton of photos here.

I gotta say, I'm sick and tired of all this BO bullshit.  In looking through my comments, I noticed that lately I've been posting mainly in YR-related diaries.  

Yeah.  I'm that excited.  I've never been to Chicago without an adult supervision.  I've never seen the sites of Chicago, instead being stuck with old relatives who want to say, "Don't you think she looks like Aunt Helen's baby?"  Nevermind that Aunt (pronounced "ain't") Helen's "baby" is 40 years older than me.  Or neighbors who say, "Hey, are you a Williams?  You got that Williams butt (or cheeks)."  So, I'm more than looking forward to hanging out with people who not only share my political views, but won't recognize my lineage via my ass.

Last year, I volunteered to help put together YK.  It was a lot of work and I'm still stunned we pulled it off.  I promptly left the YK organization (don't laugh) to spend time with my family.  Believe me, everyone in my household is grateful for that.

Got the pics below...  

    As the train that is YearlyKos 07 bears down on us I would like to share some photographs and memories from YearlyKos 06.

    All of us who came to Las Vegas took a gamble. The gamble paid off in spades. For me it was a life altering experience- amazingly fun, interesting and breathtaking. The folks who spent a year planning and obsessing to create this event have my gratitude for giving us an experience that's right up there with the likes of Woodstock- a new wrinkle in our American culture. Everyone is still trying to puzzle out what it all means, but for sure the powers that be took notice and are variously worried or delighted at the prospect of another meeting of some of the most astute minds that reside in the blogosphere.

    Seeing and meeting some of the people we have come to know in the Dailykos community was like a novel coming to life, all the characters were suddenly three dimensional. What a high to hear and converse with some of my most admired diarists and hear so many of our most valued and revered political minds. They honored our community by being there.

Note: One pleasure of planning Ron Shepston's (aka CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream) campaign rollout for CA-42 has been assembling a wonderful collection of diarists who are either part of the campaign or willing to lend their reportorial expertise to helping people understand the district.  We've planned to include our fellow Southern Californian, occams hatchet among them.  OH put together a brief diary last week to promote Ron's announcement diary.  I had wanted him to write a full one for this week but have found out that -- tragically -- he has left for a vacation.  So I'm re-running this one, which got too little attention, because OH belongs in our series and this is the only way I have to give him his own special day.

Oh yeah: donate here.  I'm sure he'd want you to.  So: here's occams!

I’ll never forget it: it was my first full day at YearlyKos I, the inaugural event last year in Las Vegas. I was still in a bit of a fog, having spent half the previous day driving in from L.A., and my mind reeling from the experience of actually meeting many of the living, breathing, flesh-and-blood humans who gave life to their corresponding blog personae.

I’ll never forget it: it was my first full day at YearlyKos I, the inaugural event last year in Las Vegas. I was still in a bit of a fog, having spent half the previous day driving in from L.A., and my mind reeling from the experience of actually meeting many of the living, breathing, flesh-and-blood humans who gave life to their corresponding blog personae.

I hadn't planned to go to yearlyKos in Las Vegas last year for a variety of reasons.  But I changed my mind at the very last minute due to a confluence of events.  At that point I was a lurker and while I enjoyed reading the site I didn't consider myself a part of the community.

After returning from the convention I wrote an excrucatingly long diary about the experience of attending.  I thought I'd share some pieces of it for those of you who are wondering whether it would be worth it to go, whether it's just for dKos stars, or whether it sounds better than it actually is.

One of the panels w/ David Johnson, Markos, Jerome Armstrong and David Sirota.

well, actually I can't answer that question for you.   But maybe I can entice you.

If you go to yearlykos, you might get to meet all kinds of interesting people.   Some of them will be blog celebrities.  Some of them will be real celebrities.   You might be able to have your picture taken with them.  They might be able to have their pictures taken with you.

Come along and see some examples of what I experienced in Las Vegas last year.

WARNING - VERY PICTURE INTENSIVE

The Truth was Yearlykos 2006.  UnConventional is, of course, the book that was produced from that event.  Original produced as an e-book, it is now available in print as a fundraiser for Yearlykos 2007.

I am one of the many - some well known, some not so well known - who make an appearance in the book.  In this diary I hope to whet your appetite by sharing my appearance, telling you a bit more about it, and urging you to consider buying it.

After all, if you can't get to yearlykos, it is one way you can actually find out what some of us look like - if you dare, keep reading below the fold!

If you had the misfortune of missing last year's YearlyKos Convention, words alone cannot describe the magic of the experience: the extraordinary panels, wonderful people, political and blogging celebrities, eye-opening workshops, inspiring speeches, lavish parties, and just all-around fun.  Describing the experience would take an amalgam of words, photographs, personal stories, recountings of the events day by day, and insights from some of your favorite Kossacks.  It would take, in a nutshell, exactly what has been done in UnConventional, the official and unparalleled chronicle of the first of what promises to be a long series of exciting gatherings of bloggers and political activists.  UnConventional first came out in e-book form last year, but has just become available in print form: you can either have it shipped to you sometime in late July, or simply pick it up at the YearlyKos 2007 Convention in Chicago if you are coming (and I hope you are--if not, register today!).

Raven Brooks and the unConventional team pulled it off, and unConventional, the eBook about YearlyKos 2006, is now available in print.

unConventional pairs some outstanding photography of YearlyKos 2006 with personal essays from an entire array of Daily Kos users and other progressive figures. It turned out to be a great effort: those of you who purchased the eBook version know how wonderful it looks visually, and how remarkable some of the essays in the book are. (I wrote a number of pieces for the book, including an introduction and conclusion that I personally rank as two of the best things I've ever written.)

For some examples of the photography from the book, go here and here and here; for an excerpt from the introduction, go here; to buy it, go here.

This is being done as a fundraiser: proceeds from the sales of the book go to funding future YearlyKos events. You can have it shipped to you, or you can pick it up at YearlyKos '07 in Chicago. Whatever the case, be sure to have your copy in Chicago.

Seriously, buy this book. The pre-sale price is $35: it goes towards a good cause, it's expected to be a very limited run, and it will be an enduring reminder of the first YearlyKos Convention ever held.

So, finally, after much wrangling, the YearlyKos Convention organizers are publishing the YearlyKos 2006 photo essay book ("UnConventional"), in a hardcover print edition.  Yes, a real book, as opposed to the eBook version that's been available so far.  

UnConventional features professional photos of your favorite Kossacks ( including Orangeclouds115, Clammyc, Nyceve, McJoan, and Kos himself), and of your favorite politicians and progressive heros (including Wesley Clark, Barbara Boxer, and Howard Dean).

It also features essays from Kossacks and bloggers about how they became progressive people, and a killer introductory essay from Hunter that really should be published in the New Yorker.

More info, including how to order the unConventional print edition, at the link here and below the fold:

    It was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Meteor taught the band to play...no, that's The Beatles. But more to the point, today is the

    FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF TEHHH YEARLYKOOOOOOS!!! !!!!

    (wikipi entry here-o)

    Wonder when one of those "dum fook" front pagers will notice that it's one year ago today, and SAY SUMTHIN about it. . .

    I myself had a real good time there, tho will not go into details for fear of boring people. I will say that it was a great experience in people power, bloggery, and a return to more democracy in America. (Thx to Dean/Warner/Boxer/Reid/etc. for attending)
    The hotel buffet was not bad either, though my gut almost busted kos I ate so much.

    Now if we could just get George "Jedi Democrat" Lucas, and a few others (maybe that Al Gore guy, not to mention Kathleen Sebelius, Jimmy Webb, maybe Clint Eastwood who opposes the Iraq war...) to come to YK '07...

    Happy anniversary YK06! And may there be many more!!!