After Southwest and the appeal of alcohol conspired to keep me up far too late, I’m now fully caffeinated and starting to comprehend what’s going on around me.  Caught the early session on connecting to major donors and am now in a panel discussing the building of a donor base.  Yes I’ve got dollar signs in my eyes this fine Thursday.  Have already crossed paths with tons of your favorites here at Calitics- Julia, Jen, Brian, Bob, cmanaster have all made appearances so far.  Eden from McNerney’s camp, Matt Lockshin, kid oakland, and then all the “stars” like Bowers, Stoller, Singer, Adam Conner, etc.  Everyone still has sleep in their eyes, but this is a heckuva warmup already.

People are spread all over the HUGE convention center, so until there’s actual “analysis” getting churned out, everyone can jump in here to drop questions, comments, impressions, dirty jokes, offers to underwrite my travels. Whatever works.  I’ll have insight I swear, but it’s early.

flip for updates

10:54am: how do we make giving a lifestyle like tithing (democracy bonds?), how do we make the results tangible and concrete?

11:13am: “The Agony and Ecstasy of State-Local Blogging.” Bobby Clark, Matt Singer, Wendy Norris, Julielyn Gibbons and Justin Cole speaking.  Brian, Julia and a roomful of others are out for it. Anybody have thoughts on the agony and ecstasy of state and local blogging? maybe?

On the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sunday paper, there was an articleabout the YearlyKos Convention.

  The second annual gathering of the Daily Kos political blog starts this week in Chicago, and here’s all you need to know about how influential the YearlyKos convention has become: Five top presidential candidates are going — including front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though the Kos bloggers don’t like her that much.

Analysts say the community of liberal online activists — the “netroots” — has become not only a coveted constituency for the left but a legitimate threat to conservatives, who trail Democrats in online campaigning and fundraising. (SF Chronicle 7/30/07)

And Calitics will have a big contingent at this year’s YearlyKos Convention. Julia Rosen, Lucas O’Connor, Dave Dayen, Bob Brigham, Dante Atkins (hekebelos) and myself will all be there. It should be a fantastic opportunity to network, talk about all the cool things Calitics is doing with Calitics en espanol and the Calitics show, and get more great ideas. In the interim, we won’t be doing a Calitics show this week.  We’ll be posting occasional stories about the event as time permits. And, since the presidential candidates are going to be there, we’ll try to get some video of that on the site.

Anything else you want to hear about from Chicago? Did I miss anybody on the list of attendees? Want to be on the Calitics trivia team? Leave a comment.

[UPDATE By Julia]  Well, why don’t I just use this thread to do what David, Matt Ortega and I were discussing last night.  The three of us are moderating the CA/HI regional caucus that Kid Oakland put together.  What issues would you like to see discussed at that meeting?  Keep in mind that we only have an hour and time will be set aside for the candidates.  Oh and yes Brian you missed at least two, Matt O and Jenifer Ancona.

I’m posting this for David Brown, a Link TV producer who is making a documentary of YearlyKos. Here’s an opportunity for 15 minutes of blogosphere fame!

(Feel free to spread the word!)

Letter to YearlyKos attendees,

I am producing an hour-long documentary for Link TV on the historic YearlyKos 2006 Conference.  In addition to airing the show this fall on Link TV national satellite channel, we will stream many new clips at LinkTV/YearlyKos and distribute the program on DVD.

We are seeking additional footage of the YearlyKos conference – panels and parties that we missed or any memorable or illuminating moments.  We’re also interested in blog entries that are unique, funny or especially striking visually, including innovative video blogs. Please send links to any blogs that you would recommend.

If you have footage or resources, we would greatly appreciate receiving email links, DVDs or videos (mini-DV or VHS) by mid-July if possible. Label anything you send clearly, and DON’T SEND YOUR VIDEO MASTERS UNLESS WE ASK IN ADVANCE. All contributors will receive on-air credit and have their websites identified as cross promotion.

Please email comments, resources, ideas or links to [email protected].  Check out the video coverage already posted at LinkTV/YearlyKos.  Thanks!

David L. Brown
Producer,
Link Media
[email protected]

www.linktv.org