Okay, so this is really late in coming - but I just got this picture in my email of a group of Wisconsinites at YearlyKOS. This was taken at the Upper Midwest Regional Caucus.

Howdy and a thank you to all the participants.

Wisconsin at YearlyKOS

This is a rough edit, but I know that some of you would like to see these clips from YearlyKOS. This is the footage from Saturday, including the Saturday lunch panel, the Presidential Forum, and the John Edwards breakout session. Click Play below to view the video.

YearlyKOS is just about over.

I realize that I haven't actually said much of substance while I was here.  IWay too much going on to have a lot of time to blog. It was 3 of the most invigorating days of my life. I've met so many intelligent, well-informed people, I don't know what to say.  I didn't agree with all of them about everything, but what a great bunch of conversations. Some of the panels and workshops were wonderful, and I'm taking away a lot from the convention, including a lot of contacts.  It was great to be able to meet and talk to a lot of the A-list bloggers.  It was also pretty exciting that some of them had actually read this site, and some of them even knew who I was. 

Anyway, I'm a little tired at the moment.  I intend to clear my head by going to see the Simpson's movie, and have dinner.

Keynote Crowd FridaySince I really needed to get a little sleep, I ended up late for Wesley Clark's keynote speech this morning - I saw about 1/2 of it, and it was a very good speech, mostly around the issue of not letting the Bush administration continue to say that people who object to the war need to reframe the issue. It's not that we're doubting the generals, it's that we're doubting Bush's policies.

It has been an inspiring couple of days. I've met lots of interesting people - bloggers, Democratic Party folks, candidates, and many more. I'm kicking around a lot of ideas at the moment, mostly revolving around tech infrastructure for progressives, but also a lot of other things. Also - I am probably going to start up a Drinking Liberally group in the Eau Claire/Dunn County area, so look for news on that later.

There was somewhat of a flap last night when there was an announcement that Hillary will be giving her speech tomorrow afternoon, but won't be here for her breakout session. YearlyKOS's office says it's a scheduling problem, and I'm inclined to believe that, despite the arguing going on at DailyKOS last night and today.

If' you'd like to see what's going on at YearlyKOS, there is live streaming video available here.  Look for attending Wisconsinites.

I'm back at my hotel. Howard Dean (in person) and Richard Durbin (via video) gave great speeches tonight for the opening keynote talk. Dean's speech in particular met with a lot of approval from the audience. Part of his speech was the announcement of the work that will be going on within the Democratic party to ensure voter rights during the next election.  

Following is the press announcement:

August 2, 2007

Contact: Karen Finney/Stacie Paxton - 202-863-8148

It's been a long day. The states caucuses were really kind of interesting. I was mostly quite surprised that the Upper Midwest caucus was so heavily attended by Wisconsinites (I'll have a picture of all the Wisconsin people sometime soon).

There was a fairly serious discussion in the Upper Midwest caucus about working together more effectively as progressives. Im hoping that some good work will come out of that. For the moment, I'm setting up an email discussion list for folks who are interested in creating a more vibrant grassroots community in this part of the country. More on that later, and how you can participate.

I'm in a session for the Agony and Ecstasy of state and local blogging. Hey - I'm an expert on Agony. Interesting discussions starting about local blogging (as I keep looking at my battery monitor). This is starting late because many of the panel members couldn't find the room. I can understand why.

Some discussion going on about community blogging, real journalism, etc.

I also recently went to two panel discussions about funding the netroots movement, building a network of progressive entrepreneurs. 

Well, here I am at McCormick place.  Haven't been in the hall here for quite a few years. At the moment I'm watching what amounts to the rushes for the new film Crashing the States - filmed during the 2006 election cycle.  Basically a film about the netroots movement and bloggers.  Those guys!