Democrats Flocking to Vegas As Blogs Flex New Muscle

LAS VEGAS - Could these laptop-strewn hotel hallways be the 21st-century equivalent of the smoke-filled rooms of yesteryear?

The largest-ever gathering of liberal bloggers, which got underway at a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip yesterday, is attracting a parade of Democratic Party leaders and potential 2008 presidential candidates, convinced that the so-called netroots have become a political force too powerful to be ignored.

About 1,000 bloggers from across the country are expected to attend the four-day event, dubbed YearlyKos, after the Web's most popular liberal blog, DailyKos.com.

Ms. Cooper, 36, a former high school teacher from Sonoma County, Calif., said Democratic politicians aware of the Web-as-kingmaker buzz have been clamoring to grab speaking slots. "People want that netroots branding, and who can blame them," she said.

Senate Minority Leader Reid, Senator Boxer of California, and the chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, all plan speeches to the online activists.

http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=34162

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"Mr. Trippi noted that DailyKos and other sites get a million or more page views a day. "We have a bigger readership than the New York Times combined," he said. Still, the veteran political organizer said, candidates and campaigns are struggling to figure out how to deal with the blogosphere.

"Some politicians and press secretaries have no problem returning the New York Times's phone call but wouldn't think of answering an e-mail question from a blog," he said."

well they better figure it out or they gonna be goners

Try LISTENING!!!!

http://alternet.org/story/29788/

" In recent polls by the Pew Research Group, the Opinion Research Corporation, the Wall Street Journal, and CBS News, the American majority has made clear how it feels. Look at how the majority feels about some of the issues that you'd think would be gospel to a real Democratic party:

1. 65 percent say the government should guarantee health insurance for everyone -- even if it means raising taxes.

2. 86 percent favor raising the minimum wage (including 79 percent of selfdescribed "social conservatives").

3. 60 percent favor repealing either all of Bush's tax cuts or at least those cuts that went to the rich.

4. 66 percent would reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

5. 77 percent believe the country should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment.

6. 87 percent think big oil corporations are gouging consumers, and 80 percent (including 76 percent of Republicans) would support a windfall profits tax on the oil giants if the revenues went for more research on alternative fuels.

7. 69 percent agree that corporate offshoring of jobs is bad for the U.S. economy (78 percent of "disaffected" voters think this), and only 22% believe offshoring is good because "it keeps costs down."

8. Over 65% of all Americans believe that the Invasion of Iraq was a mistake.


The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

Head of nail, meet hammer! (That is: YOU NAILED IT!)

:applause:

Try listening - WHAT a concept!?!?

:hi:

C-Span 2 televised the CIA leak panel led by Jane Hamsher of firedoglake: Joe Wilson, emptywheel of TNH, Christy Harden Smith of firedoglake, Froomkin from the NYT or WP, Murray Waas, a terrific panel! Or, if you want to know what's happening, check out firedoglake, photos, blogging and comments to and from Vegas.

is not very interesting, or at least not the part I caught.

Don't they know their place? Only shut-ins and pimply-faced computer nerds read those things.