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There’s big trouble in little Progressivetown, folks. That’s trouble with a capital T, which rhymes with We, as in We (meaning Daily KOS) won’t be going to Netroots Nation next year because it’s being held in Arizona. Netroots Nation announced two days ago that Phoenix, Arizona would host its 2015 conference. I wish the conference the best, but it will unfortunately take place without Daily Kos’ attendance or assistance. I made very clear in the wake of Arizona’s passage of SB 1070 that I would not be setting foot in the state, nor spending a dime in it until the...

The bankrupt city of Detroit has a water problem. The city is trying to collect over $90 million dollars in unpaid water bills. As part of that effort, thousands of residents have had their service cut off. On Friday, in conjunction with the Netroots Nation conference, a rally and march were held to protest the service interruptions and demand the water be turned back on regardless of any money owed. Congressman John Conyers spoke to the crowd at the march, demanding that corporations pay up what they owe so that residents who owe can have their bills covered.  "We're gonna fight...

VIDEO Our campaign to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for President in 2016 is gaining huge momentum. Warren came to Netroots Nation in Detroit and #ReadyForWarren was there to greet her in style alongside thousands of grassroots progressives. Americans of all stripes are calling for a leader who will fight for an America that works for all of us, not only the wealthy and the well-connected. Join us. http://ready4warren.com. Filmed at Netroots Nation 2014 in Detroit, MI. Song written and performed by Jessie Murphy & friends. Video produced, directed, and edited by The Self Agency.

The Daily Kos has come a long way since the days when  they merely rejoiced in being easily bribed at their YearlyKos conventions (now renamed Netroots Nation) by presidential aspirants such as Mark Warner who plied the Kossacks with free sushi and expensive liquor at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas in 2006. Yes, they have moved up in the world to the point where they perceive themselves as king, or rather queen, makers. Not only have they basically endorsed the presidential candidacy of Elizabeth Warren, they have even provided her with a campaign song, Run Liz Run. Oddly enough, even...

Should the Democrats nominate Elizabeth Warren for President in 2016, as a draft-Warren movement, some liberal pundits and enthusiasts at this week’s Netroots Nation convention believe? Should Republicans nominate Ted Cruz, who has kept his options open with frequent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire? In some ways, Cruz and Warren are mirror images, and the cases for and against them are surprisingly similar. But there are also some critical differences.Before 2008, the idea of a presidential contest between two first-term Senators in their (by then) fourth year in Washington would have seemed ridiculous; in 1988, Dan Quayle was roundly...

On the second day at Netroots, which was held in Detroit, Michigan, about 300 attendees at this liberal conference took to the streets to protest the proposed water-shut-offs. The city has begun cracking down on residents who haven’t been paying their water bills; 42,000 have seen their water turned off since July of 2013. The Atlantic reported on July 17 that residents are paying plumbers $30 to turn their water back on illegally. Although, while Netroots participants were there to be the voices for these people, the folks affected are remaining quiet: Residents targeted by the shut-off campaign have been...

It took a little while to realize that Sen. Elizabeth Warren was standing right in front of us. RootsCamp, the annual “unconference” that sequesters thousands of hopeful progressive activists in the Washington Convention Center, kicked off with an hour of punchy, concise speeches. Almost none of the press had arrived in the plenary ballroom when the freshman Massachusetts senator, the one they keep writing will-she-run-for-president tales about, got up for an unscheduled 9-minute address. “I wanted to be with people who get things done!” said Warren. No one had announced her name, and she didn’t give it—none of that was...

Pelosi: Snowden in Moscow airport 'he can stay there' By GINGER GIBSON | 6/30/13 8:58 AM EDT House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended her criticism of leaker Edward Snowden and suggested he may not have any more substantive information about the surveillance program. “We have to know what is it that he has. And I don't know that he has that much substance,” Pelosi said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “He may know something about the machinery. I don't know that he knows that much about the content. But I think that anybody thought he was a hero to begin...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was booed onstage Saturday when she said former government contractor Edward Snowden broke the law by leaking classified documents on National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs. Speaking at the NetRoots Nation conference in San Jose, Calif., Pelosi told the audience to reject comparisons between President Barack Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, on their oversight of surveillance programs. The top House Democrat said Obama is poised to reveal "in another few days, a few more proceedings" of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Pelosi received the loudest boos and heckles from the...

Where have all the progressives gone? You say you haven't seen hide nor hair of them over the past four or five days? You're wondering where they all are? Did they commit mass hara-kiri after the Wipeout in Wisconsin? Have they all moved to France (where they don't wear underpants)? Have they retreated into OMB (Occupy Mom's Basement)? No, the reason you haven't seen the progressives around much lately is this: The progs were dense in Providence. A dense concentration of them, I mean. In Providence, Rhode Island. They were all there for "Netroots Nation 2012," the seventh annual...

A panel at the recent Netroots Nation event, a gathering of liberal and pro-abortion bloggers and activists, is getting not-so-flattering attention for giving a standing ovation to women who had abortions. The panel reportedly focused on the bogus “War on Women” allegations — where conservatives and pro-life advocates are accused of opposing women’s rights because they stand up for de-funding the Planned Parenthood abortion business or conscience rights for religious groups — and it featured Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. Melissa Clouthier, a conservative blogger, attended the panel and reported on how one member urged attendees to applaud women...

Yesterday afternoon at Netroots Nation in Providence, RI, I attempted to ask the embattled Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) about his campaign, specifically his record as the deciding vote for Obamacare. Ohio voters passted an amendment to their constitution outlawing the Democrats' health care law by a wide margin in 2011: Ohioans overwhelmingly rejected the healthcare mandate provisions of Obamacare. They did this by handily passing an amendment to the state’s constitution that reads, in part, as follows: No federal, state, or local law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in...

Howard Dean likens Mitt Romney, GOP to Ahmadinejad during liberal ‘Netroots’ conference By Josh Peterson - The Daily Caller 10:18 PM 06/09/2012 Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean wasted no time comparing GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and the Republican Party in general to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the progressive Netroots Nation 2012 conference Saturday in Providence, R.I. “When people say that Mitt Romney wants to take us back to the ’50s, they’re not talking about the 1950s, they’re talking about the 1850s with the Know-Nothing Party,” said Dean. The Know-Nothing Party, also called the American Party, was a U.S....

President Obama taped a surprise video message for activists attending the progressive Netroots Nation conference, telling them that "change is hard, but we've seen it's possible." "Change is also doubling down on clean energy and enacting historic fuel efficiency standards, changing our entire trajectory after decades of inaction," Obama continues. "Change is the fact that for the first time in history you don't have to hide who you love to serve the country," he adds, referencing the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." "At this make or break moment for the middle class, we face our most important fight yet..."

Wisconsin shadow hangs over NetrootsBy CHARLES MAHTESIAN | 6/10/12 7:08 AM EDT PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Last year, the liberal Netroots unleashed their ire on President Barack Obama for short-shrifting the progressive causes they thought he’d champion in the White House. This year, they had a more pressing matter on their minds: a fear that Republicans, backed by the boatloads of cash that helped Scott Walker win in Wisconsin, could make even more gains up and down the ticket — and perhaps even beat Obama in November. There wasn’t any time or appetite for airing the left’s frustrations with the president....

The conservative blogosphere has yet to move past the death of patron saint Andrew Breitbart, but it will get a major jolt this month from an equally provocative hero: Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee has committed to delivering the keynote address at Right Online, the annual gathering of conservative bloggers and online activists organized by the Koch-backed non-profit group Americans for Prosperity Foundation. The June 15-16 conference will be the first time the event is held on a different weekend and in a different city from the liberal online activism conference upon which...

If I’d told you three years ago that conservatives would be leading the left in the realm of online politics, I would have been laughed out of the room. Now we’re dominating so thoroughly that the left is running scared — literally. One of the key drivers of the left’s online dominance used to be the Netroots Nation Convention, an annual gathering of several thousand left-wing bloggers. Started in 2006, the convention provides attendees with networking opportunities and trains them to more effectively organize and mobilize “progressives” through the Internet. Realizing that conservatives had some catching up to do, and...

Paul Grimaldi Email Journal staff and wire reports PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- More than 2,500 progressive political activists will come to Providence in June 2012 to take part in the annual Netroots Nation conference. But the group of progressive bloggers wants no competition for attention when it comes to town. The conference's organizers have taken steps that would keep a conservative group's traditional counter-event at a distance. Raven Brooks, Netroots Nation's executive director, said Tuesday the progressive group has a non-compete clause in its contracts with the Rhode Island Convention Center and two Providence hotels. The conservative group RightOnline has staged...

Organizers of the liberal Netroots Nation conference to be held in Providence in summer 2012 have taken steps to keep a traditional conservative counter-event at a distance. The conservative conference RightOnline, a project of the Virginia-based group Americans for Prosperity, has staged its convention in the same city around the same time as Netroots Nation since 2008. Raven Brooks, Netroots Nation's executive director, said Tuesday the group had a noncompete clause in its contracts with the Rhode Island Convention Center and two Providence hotels. "Good luck finding a venue in 2012," he tweeted over the weekend, in reference to RightOnline....

So the KOmmies of Daily Kos just held their annual NUtroots Nation convention this past weekend. This one was held in Minneapolis. Just think: Five years ago, NUtroots Nation was held in Las Vegas, where potential presidential candidates hosted fancy soirées for the KOmmies, complete with chocolate fountains and impressive ice sculptures. Now this year, the KOmmies are in Minneapolis, they're stuck with Obama, and no one is lining up to buy their votes. How the mighty have fallen! From chocolate fountains to lutefisk. From ice sculptures to ice fishing. And worst of all, from Obamassiah to Bush Lite....