First: This year, it's not all shoes. (Though it still mostly is.)
We sure did miss Bill in Portland Maine and Common Sense Mainer.
Thanks to the inimitable, sleep-deprived navajo, we did have those masks (on inflatable dolls) for the C&J dinner she stepped up to organize in their absence.
Three cheers for navajo!
Most of you have been here (to the shoe diary) before, since this is the fourth annual entry in the series. Three years ago in Chicago, it was a fresh idea. Now it's a ritual tradition. I didn't put all the pictures in - there were too many and some were blurry and my notes were imperfect. Besides, I wanted to get it posted, plus not crash browsers.
I was a little worried, after so much bitterness and rancor and full-out hatred here on Daily Kos this year, that the atmosphere at NN might be tainted. Thank goodness, that wasn't the case. The worst offenders mostly all stayed home, and Daily Kos was a smaller part of the whole of the biggest crowd yet. Plus, I guess, people are less inclined to full-bore boorish behavior in person. So, good on that!
Old Friends
This guy came directly to the Exhibit Hall, suitcase and all, before even checking into his room. In past years, I've left him out of the shoe diary. Then, when he says "What about me!", I've added it in the comments. This year, I decided to feature him, and let someone else raise a fuss. And there's lots of people left out, including most of the dK FPers, even kos, and plenty of people included in previous years. Navajo brought a whole trunk of shoes, in her quest to win this diary's "best shoes" poll this year. And I'm only picturing one of those many pairs of black shoes. (But the diary's way long anyhow.)
Last year, I encouraged this Kossack to come to Pittsburgh. We even carpooled and shared a hotel room. She did up her feet this year with this diary in mind.
First row table, center aisle was "Kitsap River & Friends", where I kept dropping by to take pictures of the stage. I wonder if she paid for that real estate, or what she had to do, because navajo had problems with her reserved SF Kossacks tables getting usurped and ended up in the third row of tables this year.
I ran into these two the first day. Hung out with her at the pool for awhile in the afternoon. Too long, it turns out, because that insane Las Vegas heat knocked me down a bit. I needed to lay down for awhile.
Yet another year has gone by without a caucus for Woodstock Rock Festival alumni. But this guy & I visited anyhow, even without that venue for an excuse to do so.
This guy's always on task, always getting something done. Last year, I took pix of the NNFT boxes getting loaded. I meant to this year as well, but got distracted by the panels on foreclosure and on working optimally on policy with progressives in Congress, which was a really good session. This year, I don't think I walked into a single dud of a panel. Well done, organizers! And, well done, NFTT, too.
This fellow New Mexican and I got to chat a bit with Sen. Udall before the filibuster panel. Plus, she could usually be found at Kitsap River's front-row table. TFLS always seems to have snazzy pedicures, too.
Digby's not exactly an old friend, though I have long been a fan of her insightful writing. Turns out, she's pretty into shoes, and has heard about having her feet posted in a previous shoe diary. So there you go: I do tons of work to help bring Pombo down, more recently on the New Deal. But what am I known for? The friggin' shoe diaries! Life isn't fair!
This guy isn't so well known at dKos, but he worked for Jerry McNerney's (successful!) campaign to unseat the noxious Richard Pombo (CA-11) four years ago. We were both delighted that Pombo's attempted return to Congress this year, in CA-18 where Radanovich is retiring, failed. He came in third in the primary. Sweet! America's The world's a better place with Pombo and power separated from each other.
So, we reminisced as veterans of a successful struggle against the odds. But he also wanted me to meet the candidate he's working for this cycle. I'm ready for two Democratic women representing North Carolina in the Senate, aren't you? Go, Elaine!
Speaking of Senate races, Kentucky would probably have been a pickup opportunity if Jim Bunning hadn't been pushed into (overdue) retirement. This guy has a forceful presence, and would certainly be immeasurably better than expletive deleted Rand Paul, who formed his own board to certify himself as an ophthalmologist. I guess that means he's got lots of initiative; in the Senate that character trait could be a source of real mischief. He might be funny as a character in the right movie, but as a Senator? Yikes! Go, Jack!
The Main Stage
Last year, while we were in Pittsburgh in July, this guy had been in Senate for like 15 minutes, after that amazing, protracted recount. Thorough and calm like they could only do it in Minnesota. He announced that we'll be in Minneapolis next year. He had some other stuff to say, too, but I'll skip that 'cuz it's been covered elsewhere.
This guy (right) extracted a promise from me that I wouldn't say what his job was, who he worked for. I'm keeping my promise, knowing perfectly well that, in case you're curious, y'all know how to use Teh Google.
Two years ago, as a candidate, Jeff Merkely proudly showed off his worn shoes, like that famous Adlai Stevenson pic from the 1950s. He's gotten new shoes since then, from what I could tell. Here, he's on a panel about the continuing foreclosure crisis with Elizabeth Warren.
She was dynamic on the big stage over lunch, before this panel. I hope Obama will have the good sense to appoint her to run that new consumer protection agency on finance. (Though I won't be holding by breath...)
Oh, The Irony
This (left) was going on right down the hall. No kidding!
On the first night, there was another dynamo. This guy doesn't really have three feet, it just looks that way. He's famous for bringing his Border Collie with him everywhere. Mebbe the dog was in the Green Room? I didn't hear he came along to the Montana caucus, but I'm told the Governor did. I'm sorry to have missed that.
Speaking of the kinetic, Van Jones didn't hold still much either.
I hadn't heard of Majora Carter before, but I have now. Unlike a lot of the other big stage speakers, she could be found in the hallways and the crowd, too. She didn't stick to the exclusive backstage world.
I hadn't heard of Linda Chavez Thompson either, but what a firecracker she is! I've got no idea what her chances of getting elected as Lt. Governor of Texas are, but I'm definitely rooting for her. I think the Lone Star State would be smart to elect this retired union organizer. She's the real deal! And so short she needed a riser to be seen over the main stage podium on the final night.
Merkley wasn't the only Senator at NN10 in Vegas. The junior Senator from NM, Tom Udall, showed up to talk about filibuster reform. What he calls the "Constitutional Option." He's got some great ideas, and I'm thinking we'll see some good improvement when they go in. Doesn't propose to eliminate the filibuster entirely, good thing because Dems will probably be in the minority again someday (hopefully not too soon.) But these changes will make it harder work to stage a filibuster, and so will keep them to relatively rare special circumstances, rather than the default filibuster the Republicans throw at damned near everything these days. I've seen Udall in a cowboy hat before, but he kept it to the boots this time around.
It was an excellent panel all around.
Including dKos's own David Waldman, also proprietor of Congress Matters:
I'm quite pleased with the improvement of having Tom Udall as Senator, instead of the guy he replaced ("Pajamas" Pete Domenici, whose son didn't have much luck running for Governor of NM in the Republican primary this year), so I'll include a portrait of him, too. Go, Tom!
I slipped out of that panel to the one on immigration, through the back-door shortcut between Brasilia 4 & 6 (reminding me of a game of Clue). And, no kidding, I walked in just as kos (whose feet I neglected to photograph this year) was saying that none of it matters without filibuster reform in the Senate. And here I could have sworn I walked into a different panel. That's Raul Grijalva, one of my favorite members of congress, to the left of kos. (Physically and politically, both?)
Oh, I kinda thought I'd group the various Senators together in this diary. Not doing a great job of it, having flat out neglected to include the Majority Leader. I've always thought of my Senators as pretty soft spoken and retiring, but Reid makes Udall look like a real go-getter. I wish Reid hadn't seemed so passive on stuff like "you need 60 votes", but from what I've heard quoted later, I'm thinking the Senate's likely to take up some rules changes to break the Republican Senate filibuster logjam. Damn straight! About time! It's been a more effective way of shutting down the government than what Gingrich & al tried in the 90s.
Harry Reid's son Rory is running for Governor of Nevada this year. Gibbons, the current Governor, is noxious. (He was a major Pombo ally back in the day, and he's personally deranged, too.) The Reids were one of several family relations I photographed in Vegas.
Kossacks, too.
And jnhobbs's daughter Sarah, who lives in Vegas, turned up as well:
It was fun meeting Julie Gulden, too, who made her first foray into meeting us all in person. She seemed to be having a blast. But just to be safe, she brought her daughter along with her.
First Time Kossack Attendees
One of the most anticipated attendees had to have been mcmom. McJoan (mcmom's daughter, if anyone doesn't know that!) said she had a swell time and I believe it. It was great to meet her, and I think all the other Kossacks felt the same way.
Here's some other first-timers (alphabetical by username):
Sobermom had to give up her registration a coupla years back. That was the first year DFA ran the scholarship program (after kid oakland launched it the year before), and I helped out a little. Including making sure that her registration got passed along to someone who wouldn't have been able to come otherwise.
These three have been to NN/YK before. But I think I neglected to post their shoe pix ever before:
I missed pico in Chicago, so only met him for the first time this year. Had a good time hanging at the pool with him and srkp23, except it was too hot! And cskendrick dropped in for a dip, and showed off a bunch of scars from his recent brush with death.
I told Hunter I've been missing his rants of late, that I've even been looking up old ones for relevant passages. He chuckled and said that they are a little generic, and small edits, like new names filled in, would enable many of them to be recycled today. Especially the dKos meta, methinks. I'd still love to see some!
Odds and Ends
Here's a couple of pix from the panel on the BP gusher. More cowboy boots, from a guy who's commentary (and upcoming book, no doubt) is very informative on many relevant aspects. I'm glad he showed up to share some of his knowledge and experience with us. (Not entirely unlike Joe Wilson showing up in Austin.)
This woman is entirely for the shoes. She might not even know about the origin of using orange as our emblematic culture, from here on the GOS:
This woman gave me her card, but I seem to have lost it. I'm terrible with little slips of paper - nothing new! I'm still seeing sessions from NN10 on the C-SPAN channel(s), as well as all their other useful and informative programming. Thanks to the folks at C-SPAN, though it would be nice to see a little more programming from the Left, and not quite so much of the RWNM.
My Conference Favorite
Congressman Raul Grijalva is the head of the Progressive Caucus in the House. I was rooting for him to head the Department of the Interior. (Ken Salazar was a bit of a disappointment.) But he'll do good work in the House, too, or anyplace else he ends up. I was noticing him taking notes during the panel on working with progressives in the House.
Turns out this is what he was doing:
Ran into him in another panel's audience. He's a fan of my Congressman - Ben Ray Lujan - as am I. Watch for Rep. Lujan to end up in leadership in the future, unless he runs for the Senate whenever Bingaman retires. (I hope he stays in the House.) And, too, it turns out that Grijalva's wife is from nearby here in Taos County, so it's a almost like we get an extra House member. Both of whom I like a lot.
So Long, Adieu - All Too Soon!
Except for the Exhibition Hall, there wasn't really anyplace to linger and hang out and loiter. In other places, hotel lobbies have some lounge area that's served us well for general crossing of paths at YK/NN. In Vegas, it's all filled with slot machines and other gambling paraphernalia. So these are the people I happened to run into on my way out the door - so I got to say goodbye to somebody.
I thought about putting this picture above the fold. I like the shadows. But put it here, because we crossed paths on the way out the door.
At Chicago YK, this was the first person I met and he helped me out like a big brother. So it was fitting that he was the last person I encountered on the way out the door. After his brush with death earlier this year, it was great to see him going strong again.
Finally, looking forward: Our very own exmearden is pretty durn sick herself. The chemo's wreaked havoc on her nails, as you can see:
Next week, she's going in for some major surgery. With a little luck, it will knock that rare, aggressive heart cancer back. Give her some more years of life. So, everyone keep her in your thoughts, and send your own brand of prayers, love, and best wishes her way!
Love ya, Exme. I'm so glad you were able to join us in Vegas, and go out dancing, and all of it.