A daily series, Connect! Unite! Act! seeks to create face-to-face networks in each congressional district. Groups regularly socialize but also get out the vote, support candidates and engage in other local political actions that help our progressive movement grow and exert influence on the powers-that-be. Visit us at Daily Kos every morning at 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time to see how you can get involved. The comment thread is fun and light-hearted, but we're serious about moving the progressive political agenda forward.
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The orange pinpoints are the location of each organized group of Daily Kos readers.
If you'd like to join a group, click on a point and a box will pop up showing contact links.
If you'd like to start a group, contact navajo for instructions.
View Interactive Map of Daily Kos Regional Communities in a full screen version.
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Are You (or Were You) a Tree-Climber?
Is it safe to assume we're all tree-huggers here? Have you also ever been a tree-climber?
Because I didn't have any private spaces at home and because I was a tomboy I spent a lot of time up in trees. I always had a favorite climbing tree no matter where we lived. I'd read, scratch my initials into the bark, spy on my neighbors, and sometimes hammer a board in between two branches for my "tree-house." I was never afraid and never fell out. Trees were my refuge, and who knows, maybe they were the source of my preference for the big picture or the higher view on events.
It sort of broke my heart to have the 100 foot tall Soquel redwood tree out front cut down, but the idiot who put it there 40 years ago (I counted the rings) planted it without regard for underlying plumbing or septic system. Then he put a nice brick and cement patio around it that's been buckling upwards the past few years as the roots spread. You don't have to be a plumber to see that sh*t don't flow uphill. Alas, as the redwood grew ever larger it became clear it had to go, before it started damaging the house's foundation as well as its plumbing and drainage.
Worst of all, after months of researching I realized I couldn't give the wood away even if I paid to cut down the tree myself. It was hard finding a tree service who could -- or would -- manage its removal, stump and all. I was quoted astronomical prices and told that I needed a truck with a crane or cherry picker to lift it out, but no one was willing to bring one down our winding narrow road.
I finally contacted an aborist through HomeAdvisor.com, a free service that deserves the plug. Within 45 minutes the middle-aged hispanic owner of a local tree service was at my house promising complete removal, "As if it had never been there." I believed him.
And so he arrived at the appointed hour with several trucks, a chipper, a stump grinder, and a crew of five with an arsenal of chainsaws. This was looking serious. First they lopped off the lower branches and then made a criss-cross nest of them to catch the larger branches and trunk pieces as they fell. Then the owner climbed all the way to the top and one-handedly chain-sawed through the Christmas-tree sized top, while his crew used ropes to direct its fall to the narrow driveway below. All day long I admired that man's fearlessness and skill climbing that tall tree. If you look closely you can spot him waaaay up there in each picture. The young guys were just there for sheer muscle, as they fed the chipper, sawed the trunk into rounds and loaded them into trucks. Then the base and roots were devoured by a giant stump-chewing machine, everything was cleaned up, and 7 hours later they were gone and it was almost uneasily quiet.
I felt a little queasy about the whole thing for a couple of hours, while simultaneously goggling at the vast expanse of blue sky above and feeling vast relief at no longer having to deal with the fire hazard from the tree's endless dry detritus. This was not its native environment.
And part of me wished I could have climbed to the top of that tree with him, and spied on all my neighbors.
When's the last time you climbed a tree?
Let's Build Communities!
Our team is here to provide support and guidance to new and existing volunteer leaders of each regional and state group, helping them with recruiting, organizing and executing social and action events.
We invite you to join in this effort to build our community. There are many ways to pitch in.
If there isn't a group to join near you, please start one.
Instructions on HOW TO FORM A NEW DAILY KOS GROUP
List of All Existing Meatspace Groups
Where the Kogs Are: Index/Directory of the 130+ Localized Daily Kos Groups
THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY
Colorado: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern
Washington: Sundays, 3:30 PM Pacific
Event Organizers! Please contact wink from Netrootsradio.com by KosMail to schedule airtime with them to live broadcast the date of your Event. Wink & Justice will then promote it on The After Show radio program!
Wednesday, August 26th
Houston Kos Meet-up
TIME: 7:00 PM
LOCATION: Barry's Pizza
6003 Richmond Avenue • Houston
ORGANIZER: Send Chrislove a kosmail to attend
RSVPs:
1. Chrislove
2. Blood
3. Delilah
4. suesue
5. jmbar2
6. cosette
7. htowngenie
8. JJR1971
9. scott5js
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Maybees:
suesue daughter
suesue son-in-law
Blood guest
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Latest diary: Houston Area Kossacks: Meetup Scheduled for Wednesday, August 26
Saturday, September 26th
Dallas Kos Meet-up
TIME: Noon
LOCATION: Ojeda's Mexican Restaurant
4617 Maple Avenue • Dallas
ORGANIZER: Send Andy T a kosmail to attend
RSVPs:
1. Andy T
2. Catte Nappe
3.
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Maybees: |
Latest diary: Dallas Kossacks Round Up and Meet-Up!
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Daily Kos Connects Asheville
LOCATION: US Cellular Center in the Banquet Hall
87 Haywood Street • Asheville, North Carolina
Grow our network, unite our progressive communities, help win elections!
Join us for a day of progressive strategizing and camaraderie with Big Orange flavor. In a day-long seminar, learn how our Connect! Unite! Act! team used the Daily Kos forum to help affect change in North Carolina state politics. Participants will focus on organizing from the ground up. You'll also get a chance to meet the blog's founder, Markos Moulitsas and some Daily Kos writers, such as Joan McCarter, Meteor Blades, Denise Oliver-Velez and others.
8:00 AM - Registration and continental breakfast
9:00 AM - Presentations, panels and Q&A's begin
Noon - Free lunch provided
1:00 PM - More presentations, panels and Q&A's
5:00 PM - After party at nearby Lexington Avenue Brewery, 39 North Lexington Avenue. You'll need a wristband from the day event to get in.
$30 registration fee required for Saturday's events
Seating is limited to 200.
Parking at US Cellular
Pre-Events:
Friday, September 25, 2015
12:30 PM - 2:30 PM, Church opens at noon
St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church,
44 Hildebrand Street - 2.5 miles from Crowne Plaza; 0.6 miles walking distance from Crowne Plaza shuttle drop-off near US Cellular
Rev. William Barber II, president of the NC NAACP, will welcome Daily Kos to Asheville and speak about the Moral Monday Movement, blessing by Reverend Edwards, introduction by Denise Oliver-Velez, vocal performance by Yara Allen • No charge for this event but donations to the church are welcome
Friday, September 25, 2015
3:00 - 4:00 PM
Rev. William Barber II, president of the NC NAACP, was was inducted into the traveling exhibition of 52 inspiring portraits of courageous Americans titled Americans Who Tell the Truth on September 19, 2015. Please join us as we walk through this superb gallery of amazing Americans documented in portraiture by famed artist, Robert Shetterly. YMI Cultural Center, 39 S. Market Street
(0.5 mile walk from St. James AME Church)
$10 donation suggested for this labor of love
Friday, September 25, 2015
5:30 - 8:30 PM
No-Host Mixer, The Bywater, 796 Riverside Drive
(2.5 miles from hotel and US Cellular)
Post-Event:
Sunday, September 27, 2015
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
No-Host Brunch, Crowne Plaza, 1 Resort Drive,
Overlook Restaurant
Logistics:
Hotel providing the best rate:
Crowne Plaza, 1 Resort Drive
Double-bed rooms available:
Thursday, 09/24/15 - $129.00 plus 11% tax
Friday, 09/25/15 - $209.00 plus 11% tax
Saturday, 09/26/15 - $209.00 plus 11% tax
Reservations: 888-211-7755
Mention KOS as the group code.
Hotel Airport Shuttle cost:
14.5 miles from AVL Airport
Hotel Shuttle to/from AVL Airport $20 per person, each way.
Flight details must be provided to hotel 72 hours in advance notice for arrivals, 24-hour notice for departures.
Hotel Shuttle to US Cellular $5 per person, round-trip
Drop-off location is 0.2 mile walk from US Cellular
Questions? Need a scholarship? Send me a kosmail.
Saturday, October 3rd
Seattle & Puget Sound Kos Meet-up
TIME: 1:00 PM
LOCATION: Columbia City Ale House
4914 Rainier Ave. S. • Seattle
ORGANIZER: Send John Crapper a kosmail to attend
RSVPs:
1. John Crapper
2. John Crapper's SO
3. bleeding blue
4. momomia
5. Penny GC
6. doingbusinessas
Max. Occupancy: 24
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Maybees: |
Latest diary: S&PS Kos - It's Time for a Meetup!
navajo's Last Minute Trip to DC
by navajo ♥ for Connect! Unite! Act!
Here are two photos of the readers who took up a last minute invitation to join navajo for dinner or drinks, many thanks, what a pleasure to meet them all in real life!
Reston, VA - Thursday, August 13, 2015
L-R: Diana in NoVa, JamieG in Md, Elizabeth Amy Miller, Edward Adams, NinthElegy and navajo
Washington, D.C. - Saturday, August 15, 2015
L-R: navajo, mollyd, Edward Adams and mimi
by navajo ♥ for Connect! Unite! Act!
Outstanding leadership in Colorado forced Daily Kos to make a personal appearance.
We had a terrific event in Denver on Sunday, July 26th with 50 readers of Daily Kos. Read the details about it
here.
A special thanks to Leftcandid and ColoTim for leading the Daily Kos Denver group! Leftcandid spent several hours after the event inputting all the email addresses collected. These two are determined and that's why we made this trip happen!
If you'd like to join Denver Kos, please kosmail Leftcandid.
The following evening, Monday, July 27th, we had 30 readers attend. Read the details about it
here.
Another very successful event, great food, drink and conversation! We both gots lots of hearty handshakes and thank yous.
If you'd like to join Pikes Peak Region Kos, please kosmail thanatokephaloides.
Durango, which is 314 miles from Colorado Springs, was our final destination. Our early evening venue was the beautiful home of
nzanne and her husband. It was very generous of them to host. We had 32 Durangotangs attend.
What a pleasure to visit beautiful Durango! A special thanks to Thinking Fella for setting such a great example of leadership by winning a seat with his local Democratic Party Executive Committee! Yes! Go Local!
Durango had the largest collection of readers with user names:
L-R: Thinking Fella, mnguitar, COMTNGRL, Meteor Blades, nzanne,
Gary Norton, navajo, Merry Light and Warkman
If you'd like to join Four Corners Kos, please kosmail Thinking Fella.
The entire state of Colorado has almost 50,000 subscribers to our Daily Kos emails. We can't wait to tap into that more. We've got a lot of organizing ahead of us for Colorado. Leaders, please step up!
We've declared this road trip a great success and look forward to doing some more around the country. It's important to unite entire states in addition to cities and towns. I hope you'll contribute in some way to this effort.
by AndyT ♥ for Dallas Kossacks
AndyT had his largest event ever, 28 people in Dallas! Here's one photo:
Please visit AndyT's diary for many MORE photos! Enjoy! You can still REC it. You can join Dallas Kossacks by sending a Kosmail to AndyT.
by ZenTrainer ♥ for Nashville KosKats
Clockwise from bottom right: Anonymous L, Anonymous M,
Patrick is Lucky, Zen Trainer's water, Jon Sitzman, Al Fondy
You can join Nashville KosKats by sending a Kosmail to ZenTrainer.
by GreyHawk ♥ for Boston Kossacks
Mad Mary, CwV, a snapshot via his blog of gmoke, GreyHawk, HawkWife, Knockbally
You can join Boston Kossacks by sending a Kosmail to GreyHawk.
navajo maintains the above event list. Kosmail her if you have any diaries
about your event or if you have changes or additions.
EVERYONE is welcome, tell us what you're working on,
share your show and tell, vent, whatever you want.
This is an open thread. Nothing is off topic.