Thursday Keynote Netroots Nation

Sitting here in the hall, listening to an organizer from the United Steelworkers (who's hilarious), waiting for the Bill Clinton keynote. The cocktail hour was sponsored by AFSCME, and they actually played the famous "we're the $%@^&! union" video to kick off the session. Good stuff.

There's a certain uneasiness this year, as everyone wants to get things done with the majorities we have in Washington. For all the talk of conservatives awakening a "sleeping giant" with their teabagger protests, there's a progressive block ready to howl, and I hope it readies itself this weekend.

More if my battery can stand it...

...Judd Legum, running for the Maryland House of Delegates, is now speaking. His website here.

...Debra Bowen coming to the stage. The only Secretary of State who needs her staff to keep her off of Twitter and Facebook.

Bowen mentioned a project to create a Wiki at the Secretary of State's page to use social networking toward participatory democracy. "Voters deserve transparent and verifiable elections... 'Just trust us' is not the basis of a viable democracy, just check out Iran."

...Bowen talks about the correlation between voter confidence and voter participation. Also, she is talking about how she isn't co-chairing anyone's Presidential campaign while running Presidential elections.

...New Democrat Network leader Simon Rosenberg introducing Bill Clinton speaking. I expect Clinton to get a rousing ovation.

John Futterman, the Mayor of Braddock, PA, is speaking. He is really an amazing success story, turning a steel town in the Monongahela Valley into a green oasis in Western PA. The guy looks like a pro wrestler, and he's building green enterprise zones all over the Mon Valley. I'll have a special post about a certain factory in the Mon Valley next week.

The County Executive of Allegheny County, a Democrat running for Governor, Dan Onoronda (sp?), is up.

...Onoronda talks about the story of Western Pennsylvania, how they moved away from the steel economy, invested in the people, and transformed the entire region. It's really a great untold story, based entirely on good government investment, that ought to get out there.