PoliticsWest blog @ Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas

Kos on Obama's FISA backflip

The blogosphere’s hyper-vigilance on civil liberties led to a depth of disappointment with Sen. Barack Obama over his support of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with retroactive immunity for telecom companies' domestic surveillance. Obama’s shift, following his earlier opposition, generated howls of protest on the left, some of whom perceived a move to the center (or the right, depending on your perspective) by Obama for the presidential election.



“Clearly, he changed his position,” said Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of the Daily Kos (and namesake of Yearly Kos, the precursor to Netroots Nation). “I clearly think he was trying to head off attacks. That doesn’t mean he’s moving toward the center. That means he made a decision to take ‘something off the table,’ hoping that maybe Republicans don’t attack him for being weak on national security.”



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VIDEO: Pink precedes Pelosi A Code Pink protest of House Speaker Pelosi, prior to her appearance Saturday morning at Netroots Nation in Austin.



10:05 a.m.: All roads lead to Obama

Gore and Pelosi wrap up, with Pelosi making the last of numerous pleas to elect Barack Obama president in November.

10:00 a.m.: Power shortage

Energy, like politics, is local. At the back of the cavernous space where Gore and Pelosi are speaking is a dearth of electrical outlets to power the laptops that are legion at Netroots Nation. Bloggers are scurrying around trying to keep their screens from dimming. One blogger unplugged an unattended laptop from an outlet and plugged his own laptop in. The owner of the unplugged laptop returned to find the juice flowing elsewhere. “Sorry I needed the power," said the unplugger. “I needed the power, too," said the unpluggee.

 

9:55 a.m.: Renewables within 10 years?

Speaker Pelosi, questioned whether she would support Gore's goal of producing all electricity via renewable sources within 10 years, said, “I salute him for that challenge. It is absolutely possible to do so."

9:25 a.m.: Meat eating and climate change

In response to a question from the audience, Al Gore acknowledges that meat-eating has an effect on climate change and that it may not have gotten as much of his attention because - he eats meat.

9:20 a.m.: Gore's drill

“The idea that we can drill our way out of this is so absurd…” said Gore of the proposal to increase domestic oil production. "When you’re in a hole, stop digging.”

9:10 a.m.: Al Gore in the house

Al Gore makes a surprise appearance and is now speaking about his book, "The Assault on Reason."

9:00 a.m.: Abortion and contraception

“If you don’t like abortion, you should love contraception," said Pelosi, regarding federal funding of abstinence-only programs. "Is that hard to understand? As a mother of five children in six years, I think I can speak with some authority. As a devout Catholic, it’s wrong, it’s ideological, it’s catering to a radical right-wing view and it should be stopped.” 8:50 a.m.: Pelosi's policy vision

“Remember four words: science, science, science, science.” She said her priorities were basic biomedical research, an innovation agenda, building infrastructure and the clean energy economy." 8:40 a.m.:Heat on FISA

Speaker Pelosi is explaining the Congressional passage of the FISA telecom immunity bill. Here's a background piece from The Hill on Netroots activism on FISA and other issues.

8:30 a.m.:An appeal to evangelicals

Speaker Pelosi describes global warming as an issue of the environment, the economy, national security - and as a moral issue. “It is a moral responsibility. We work with the evangelicals to protect God’s creation.”

8:20 a.m.: Here's the Speaker

Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett touts the Democratic agenda before introducing Speaker Pelosi. Pelosi gets a standing ovation. "Thank you for that very warm welcome," she says. "I hope that spirit continues during our Q&A."

8:10 a.m.: No protests

Before Speaker Pelosi hits the stage, moderator Gina Cooper makes an announcement that any organized protests will result in the program being stopped and the protesters escorted out. She does give the crowd ten seconds to make their feelings known, which results in one shout: "Where's our &%#$@ impeachment?"

8:00 a.m. (MST) Saturday: Awaiting Pelosi

Expecting an appearance at Netroots Nation by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Earlier, hundreds of people were crowded outside the doors of the venue, including members of Code Pink, the anti-war group. One costumed protester wore a pink cape with the phrase, “Use Your Super Powers To End The War.”

 

 

 

11:40 p.m. (MST) Friday: French toast for friendship

Hal Bidlack, running as a Democrat for Congress from a Colorado Republican bastion (the fifth congressional district, including Colorado Springs) was one of about two dozen candidates greeted tonight by several hundred partisan activists at a candidate celebration at the Netroots Nation convention in Austin, Texas.

Afterward, Bidlack (a retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col.) told PoliticsWest how he previously e-mailed his three GOP rivals – who are locked in a tough primary fight – to suggest getting together for breakfast as a precursor to setting a civil tone for the general election campaign, and possible debates.

“Call it pancakes for peace, or French toast for friendship,” said Bidlack of the breakfast idea. Watch the video below to hear the response he got from incumbent GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn.




11:00 p.m. (MST) Friday: A Nevada Derby

Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado are three interior Western battlegrounds in the presidential election, which raises the profile of competitive House and Senate races in those states.

 

Jill Derby lost her bid for a Nevada congressional seat in 2006 by less than six percentage points. After a stint as Democratic state party chair, she stepped down from that post for a rematch with incumbent Republican Dean Heller in the 2nd congressional district (largely beyond Las Vegas) that is no longer a lock for the GOP.

“In my district, we’ve cut the Republican registration advantage by 40 percent, way more than I lost by last time,” said Derby. Watch the video below.



5:15 p.m. (MST) Friday: Milblogging

RockRichard is the blogger name of U.S. Army veteran Richard Smith, who was deployed to Afghanistan with his unit in 2007 and returned home this April. Smith was on a panel today at Netroots Nation, where he and fellow milbloggers described efforts to report on military policies, represent veterans issues and support candidates. "We are a very powerful voice in that we understand what's going on, on the ground better than the traditional media does, even with their embedded reporters," said Smith, based in Huntsville, Ala., and who writes at VetVoice.com. Watch the video below.




10:50 a.m. Friday: Flying with Diana DeGette

[I typed the item below on my handheld in-flight and am posting from the Austin airport near the "Salt Lick Taco Bar."]

To get in the mood for Netroots Nation, I brought along Rep. Diana DeGette's recent book, "Sex, Science and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason." Amid the recounting of policy battles, there is some juicy Colorado political gossip.

DeGette, a Democrat, recounts her first session as a state legislator in 1993 when she sponsored the so-called "bubble bill" that kept anti-abortion protesters eight feet away from those entering clinics. It passed the House and, writes DeGette...

The bill then went to the Senate floor, where even Bill Owens, an ultra-conservative pro-life senator who went on to become governor in 1998, realized he had to vote with us. He came up to me on the Senate floor and said, "Diana, I'm voting for your bil because it's just comon sense." (Not incidentally, I knew at that moment Bill Owens was running for governor. Such were the vagaries of state politics and playing to both sides of an issue.)

Gov. Owens (whose two terms ended in 2007), if you're in blogshot of this item, please confirm, deny or recount your own version of DeGette's gotcha.

 

10:07 a.m. Friday: awaiting takeoff

Well, not yet "from" there. I'm actually on Concourse C of Denver International Airport, ready for the Southwest flight to Austin, where Netroots Nation is underway. About 2,000 bloggers, most of the progressive persuasian, have gathered there this weekend. I'm already sort of there, having signed up for the Twitter feed, which sends me short-text updates. Here's the one I got this morning...

Netroots_Nation: #NN08 coffee for attendees is available on the 4th floor compliments of the ACLU

Could that be All Coffee Lovers United? More likely the American Civil Liberties Union...