Netroots Nation auction: Pick a tie for Markos Moulitsas

By GottaLaff

Netroots Nation is coming up. From July 22-25, there's a big meet up, and this year it's in Las Vegas and Al Franken is the keynote speaker.

Netroots Nation amplifies progressive voices by providing an online and in-person campus for exchanging ideas and learning how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate. Through our annual convention and a series of regional salons held throughout the year, we strengthen our community, inspire action and serve as an incubator for ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere.

They're having an auction, and one of the items is this:


Wait, what? Why pick a tie for Markos? Because when he pops up on Countdown, as he is wont to do, Twitter goes all a-Twitter over his choice of ties, so Netroots Nation decided to have some fun with that.

And you thought March Madness was a basketball tournament. Not for Netroots Nation.

The tradition continues with our Spring On-line Auction, the proceeds of which support the important work we do, including our annual Convention and our regional Salon Series.

So let the bidding madness begin! [...]

Through donating items and generously bidding, you help us offset the cost of the Convention and our regional salon series. And for this we thank you.

CSPAN covers this event, and it has become a pretty darn big deal.

Al Franken to keynote Netroots Nation convention

By GottaLaff

Worth the price of admission:

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, will headline the upcoming Netroots Nation convention, organizers announced Thursday.

Netroots Nation is the most prominent gathering of liberal bloggers each year. The three day convention begins July 22 in Las Vegas and Franken will deliver the keynote address on July 25.

I'm trying to figure out a way to make it there this year. Now I have an even bigger incentive.

Previous keynote speakers have been Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Nancy Pelosi. Franken's in good company.

Video- President Bill Clinton Keynotes Netroots Nation Pittsburgh, Part 1

The way the man does a speech is unbelievable. Both Gotta and I watched the whole thing last night and were mightily impressed. The other parts are here, and thanks to FDL for getting it up so fast.

An Unlikely Potential Guest At Netroots Nation: Arlen Specter

By GottaLaff

Pressure cooker time:

Okay, so here’s a sign that Arlen Specter may really be sweating the looming challenge from netroots hero Joe Sestak: Specter, a longtime Republican until this year, is considering making an appearance at Netroots Nation next month. [...]

Meanwhile, Sestak adviser Joe Langdon says his boss will be there. For Specter to attend Netroots Nation and take questions alongside Sestak would be a real sign of the times and make for some good — and very valuable — political theater.

Bill O'Reilly equates Netroots Nation with Nazis, Klan

By GottaLaff

Billo the Clown, as Keith Olbermann refers to him, isn't funny, despite the clown label. Actually, O'Lielly's never made me laugh, but he does makes me nauseous regularly.

Remember when Al Gore made a surprise visit to Netroots Nation? Billo equates Gore and Netroots with the most despicable mass murdering bigots in history:

[H]is appearance has caused Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly to declare that Gore has “gone off the deep end.”

On his radio show today, O’Reilly claimed that Gore was now associating himself with the most “hateful group in the country.” “And I’m including the Nazis and the Klan in here,” said O’Reilly.” He then claimed that attending Netroots Nation was “the same as if he stepped into the Klan gathering”:

O’REILLY: Al Gore now is done. He’s done. Ok. He is not a man of respect, he doesn’t have any judgment. The fact that he went to this thing is the same as if he stepped into the Klan gathering. It’s the same. No difference. None. K, he loses all credibility with me. All credibility.

Listen here:

[...]Before the YearlyKos conference last year, O’Reilly compared it to “a David Duke convention.”

But O’Reilly exposes the hyperbolic shallowness of his name calling when he claims that “these Daily Kos people” are worse than “the Nazis and the Klan,” but then assures his audience that they won’t “come to your house and hurt you.”

Note to O’Reilly: The Nazis and the Klan actually hurt people.

Speaking of hateful types, Billo, why are you even allowed to speak, let alone on the public airwaves? Oh yeah, that pesky First Amendment. Speaking of free speech, apparently he thinks sharing ideas is equivalent to torturing and gassing innocent people. I'll give him this: When O'Lielly opens his oversize swamp of a mouth to share his vile, toxic spew, I suppose we could draw the same parallel.

Barack Obama Video Address at Netroots Nation

Al Gore's Surprise Appearance At Netroots Nation

Al brings the cute. Via AmericaBlog. When I find the whole speech I'll post it, this is just the set up for the surprise.

Harold Ford heckled over Fox, FISA, Obama discussion

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: I updated in my original post, too, that Phil Gramm has been officially kicked off the McSurrogate campaign.... per CNN and Rachel Maddow.

Harold Ford got heckled at Netroots Nation (where Cliff is right now):

Former congressman Harold Ford was billed as a sheep amidst the wolves when he was booked for an appearance at the Netroots Nation conference here in Austin. And while for the most part the DLC head and self-described 'centrist' Democrat received a cordial welcome among the progressive audience, there were a scattering of hisses, boos, and the occasionally unruly heckle during his discussion of FISA, Obama and Democratic politics more broadly.

Appearing alongside DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas - in what has become a series of appearances for the two since they butted heads during a Meet the Press appearance last year - Ford pushed back against the notion that Obama had abandoned the netroots on the FISA fight.

If you have a hard time hearing the video, go here for the transcript.