Too often, local governments avoid the media attention that state and national governments do. And, yet, many of the decisions made by school boards, city councils and county commissions are often the ones which affect our daily lives the most. With reduced scrutiny, some local governments make decisions on behalf of the public without the necessary input to make the right decision for the community, and may even lapse into excluding the public from participating at all.

Crossposted at VoteBrianSayrs.com

Netroots Nation is now underway in Second Life and it's shaping up to be an incredible event. You want to be there, especially this evening when Howard Dean and Wes Clark speak. These guys are the most visible leaders of democratic wing of the Democratic Party. What they say is important.

Dean and Clark are on at 5:30 Pacific Time (8:30 Eastern).

Hat tip to Land of Enchantment for those amusing shoe diaries and for inspiring me to beg and cajole shoes pics from my progressive friends and allies in Second Life.

Can't get to Austin this year? We have got a deal for you. Free. No registration fees, no hotel fees, no travel costs. Food, of course, is on you. Also, no sore feet, no sore backs. Bad hair days are possible, but that's a matter of taste.

Over the past year, we've been busily building community in Second Life. And for months we've building a great environment and planning a concurrent week of events, with a score of programs streamed in from Austin. We plan, we dance, we talk politics, we attend public affairs programs, we dance. We watch old movies and listen to political speeches.  Then we discuss. We post diaries here. We read, we rec, we comment. Sometimes the music is live, sometimes our DJs stream it in. Did I mention we dance?

Dance this way for pics and schedule highlights.

Well, the erstwhile binary elves of Netroots Nation in Second Life have kicked it into overdrive to make sure that Netroots Island, home of most of the venues for the in-world component of Netroots Nation, is properly gussied up for the impending festivities.

And I'm here to report that their efforts have paid off, in spades.  The place looks absolutely fantastic.

They don't have Lower Foldistan in Second Life...yet.  So let's go there together now....

Last year, we had a great time getting folks together in Second Life to participate virtually at YearlyKos. We also learned a lot about making an event like this effective, and are thrilled to announce NetRootsNation in Second Life.

We will have live video streaming in, at four locations, of the ballroom events, including the Howard Dean keynote on Thursday.  We've also got a whole lot of exciting, entertaining and educational panels and social events on the schedule that will take place entirely inworld.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

With the days before NN starts down to just two, Many people are already traveling to Austin.  Some will not be able to make it.

This short diary is a quick check-in for anyone who will be attending Virtually instead.

I'm currently running for Spokane County Commissioner in eastern Washington, so I'm pleased to report that I've seen a great deal of progress on the Netroots Nation Island--including progress on my booth!

C'mon down to Netroots Nation Island and visit!  Get a spiffy avatar and meet some truly great, hardworking folks in the progressive cause.  They had the kickoff party last night and now is a good time to get over there if you haven't gotten your game on and signed up for Second Life.  It's a good, supportive place to go to practice walking around and getting used to the chat features before the main event, the Netroots Nation 2008 event in Austin, Texas, taking place from July 17-21.

This will be my last diary entry on Dkos -- I've been neglecting my own blog, The Accidental Environmentalist, to do the Dkos diary in support of Netroots Nation in Second Life 2008, and now it's time to get back!  I've enjoyed writing about the event and hopefully getting people interested enough to sign up for Second Life and check it out. See you there!

So I won't be in Austin for Netroots Nation, and I'm sure I'm not the only one -- I'm sure there are many of you out there who are thinking, I'd love to go, but because of the time / money / distance, it just wouldn't work out. However, I've found the next best thing -- I will be in Second Life for Netroots Nation!

You can look at updates by going here.  The schedule for Netroots Nation in world can be found there. You can get Twitter feeds, see other people in SL publishing diaries on Dkos, and subscribe to the blog through RSS or by email.  It's a great entry point for many people interested in finding out more about the event and how they can participate.  And you can always email me at tmgnordlie@gmail.com!

Hey! Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and more importantly through nominations made at TopComments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks. Include your username so we can credit you, and send 'em in by 9:45pm Eastern to ensure they make the final diary.

These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But we hope they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.

Please come in and make yourself at home...

Faerie Fire

"fairy-stories are not in normal English usage stories about fairies or elves, but stories about Fairy, that is Faërie, the realm or state in which fairies have their being." JRR Tolkien

We are taught somewhere that people have a "sexual orientation" and a "gender." We are taught that some people are "gay" and others "straight." We are told these are facts. And endless arguments come about from these supposed facts. But that's not in fact the truth.

WARNING: YouTubery and pictures await within.

WARNING: The pictures should be reasonably safe for work. If you want NSFW Moody-pics, you'll have to meet me inworld and ask. Nicely.

WARNING: Logorrheic. That means wordy to those of you with a California public-school education.

About a year ago, we were coming to the realization that I was just too broke to attend Yearly Kos 2007. But, on the site, they said that they were going to have the convention simultaneously in a virtual space called Second Life. I had heard of Second Life, in a "No thanks, I have a First Life" kind of way, but I wanted to meet people and help out, and the first Yearly Kos was history, and even Moody Loners want to make history sometimes.

The site urged me to set up a Second Life account early to register in-world.

So, I did.

Tonight's installment of the Virtually Speaking interview series takes place at 6pm Pacific/9 pm Eastern.  

Tonight we are picking mcjoan's brain about everything that's happening on the political scene.

We'll also quiz her on what it was like to moderate the Yearly Kos Presidential Debates

How strange that my first diary here turns out to be a Top Comments diary, given the amount of writing I've been doing here in recent weeks.  But I was fortunate enough to strike up conversations with the delightful TC crew in va dare's brilliant TC essay on Racism in Appalachia and other places, and was thrilled at the invitation.

Of course, they've had a devil of a time getting emails to me about mentoring me through the process the first time, because I've taken a short unplanned break from dKos by immersing myself in Second Life.  Anyone who's a SL regular will tell you about their first week or so being a rather obsessive and sleep-deprived time.

Follow me into Lower Foldistan for more.

So I was doing my usual hippipay surveys to earn dough for my second life account, when I stumbled upon an interesting little question:

"Help lower energy costs!"

 
"Oil Prices Reach $100 a barrel. Now Natural Gas Prices Are Rising.
Let Washington know you support access to America's onshore energy resources by sending this letter to the US Bureau of Land Management."

Read below for the link to the letter and please comment on who is behind this pushy little scheme?  

On Saturday March 1st, dozens of Obama supporters held a major march and rally.  We survived serious attacks and emerged triumphant.  But it was not easy.

As we assembled to walk the 5 minutes between two SIMS (essentually virtual towns or neighborhoods) we noticed a tremendous lag.  Then came the attacks.  Individuals using weapons to blast marchers into the air and send our march off course.  I found myself hit several times, eventually disappearing into the ground.  

After logging off, I got back and decided to forego the march and teleport straight to our rally.  That's when the billboard attacks began.