Live from Minneapolis...it's Saturday afternoon!
- Join us for the 4th annual Daily Kos Party at Netroots Nation. This year, the big finale party will be held on Saturday, June 18 at the Fine Line Music Cafe. Located in the heart of Minneapolis' famed entertainment district, only blocks from the conference center and hotels. Featuring the "music ambassador of Minneapolis" DJ Lori Barbero. Lori is a Minnesota native, record producer, and longtime drummer of Babes in Toyland. She'll be rockin' the turntables and the dance floor all night long. With an open bar and special guests, the Daily Kos party will wrap up the Netroots Nation convention in style. Ages 18+, doors open at 8:00 PM and space is limited, so don't be late! Special thanks to Minneapolis-based Warecorp for sponsoring our good time.
- Netroots Nation has already had quite a few highlights. To see what you've been missing if you're not here with us in Minneapolis, check out the website or Twitter hashtag #nn11.
- I would like to join Arjun Jaikumar in thanking the Right Online conference, which always stalks Netroots Nation, for supporting the fine union establishments they choose to share with us.
- Now that Texas Governor Rick Perry is mulling a run for the Presidency, it might be a good time to point out just how eager he is to see innocent people get executed:
Perry denied Willingham a stay of execution, an action that may have been forgivable in retrospect had the governor expressed a sincere desire to review the facts of the case given the overwhelming post-execution evidence that Texas made an irreversible mistake. On the contrary, Perry frustrated an investigation by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, replacing three of its members days before the board was set to discuss a report that cast serious doubt on the evidence used to send Willingham to the lethal injection gurney. The meeting was canceled.
Rick Perry: the candidate for those who thought that George W. Bush was too compassionate and cerebral.
- Deep thoughts from Atrios:
I guess we'll continue to maintain this fantasy of "bailing out Greece" instead of "bailing out people who lent money to Greece."
They lend money at a premium for a reason. It's the risk premium.
- Looks like Pimpmaster J got permission from mommy—I mean, probation judge—to attend Right Online and troll Netroots Nation:
A federal judge yesterday essentially gave conservative provocateur/probationer James O’Keefe permission to crash this weekend’s Netroots Nation convention, a gathering of the kind of political progressives that O’Keefe delights in skewering.
Since O’Keefe needs judicial approval to travel outside New Jersey (due to his federal conviction for last year’s harebrained scheme targeting Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu), yesterday he filed a U.S. District Court motion seeking permission to spend this weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The major takeaway? One of the right's "rising media stars" is a parolee who needs permission from a judge to travel; and the other is a lying fraudster who makes up crap to score political points from a gullible media establishment. Note: nobody who fits into either of those two categories will be giving a keynote at Netroots Nation.
The second major takeaway? Don't feed the trolls. You'll only feed their "look at me, I'm being oppressed by deranged liberal persecutors" narrative.
- The United Farm Workers are asking for your help. A bill that would protect them from unbearable conditions is on the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown, and the UFW wants you to sign a petition supporting it. Word is, Governor Brown would take notice of 100,000 signatures in support of farm workers. Can you help out?