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!)

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For those following along (and those who aren't), here's the next piece of the Energize America presentation as it was presented at YearlyKos.  In this piece, Jerome a Paris tackles the origins of the plan and how it was put together.

What follows is the first part of the Energize America presentation that was given at YearlyKos.  This text was prepared by Jérôme Guillet, better known to readers of many blogs as Jerome a Paris.  

Each of the slides in the presentation has a link to a larger version, so don't wear out your eyes trying to make out the tiny text.  

There are five parts in all, ending up with my cheerleading / pitch session to get you all fired up about helping move the plan forward.  But for now, take it away Jérôme!

What follows is the first part of the Energize America presentation that was given at YearlyKos.  This text was prepared by Jérôme Guillet, better known to readers of many blogs as Jerome a Paris.  

Each of the slides in the presentation has a link to a larger version, so don't wear out your eyes trying to make out the tiny text.  

There are five parts in all, ending up with my cheerleading / pitch session to get you all fired up about helping move the plan forward.  But for now, take it away Jérôme!

[Also posted as a diary at The Big Orange.]

As all those Kossacks congregate today and over the weekend in Vegas, I will be trying to find various ways to avoid grading this stack of papers (with a stack of exams to follow next week -- stupid quarter system).  I had tried to convince myself over the past weeks and months that I would find a way to go, but with the end of the academic year, a cross country move coming up in less than a month, and a down payment on a house (first time buyers!) that makes any kind of extra expenditure such as this weekend would have been very difficult to justify, I find myself still here, regretting already not going to what I am convinced will be an historic gathering.

So I will purchase the AirAmerica stream, and I will cram as much of the C-SPAN coverage as I can fit onto a videotape (TiVo ... hopefully after the move), and I will stare at all the folks whose nyms are so familiar (and many who aren't) and marvel at the thought of Kos and Atrios and Jane Hamsher all in the same location with Howard Dean and Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer, etc.

Blaming Bush for our problems is like blaming an accident on the chrome dog on the hood of the Mack Truck. - Rick Overton

As Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart prove nightly, satire is often the sharpest tool for combating, the slings and arrows of the not-so-sharp tools in this administration.

The Senate is investigating profiteering on oil and gas. The important questions are: 1. Which oil companies are raking in huge profits? And 2. How big contributors are they? - Will Durst

Laughing Liberally is a concerned group of hilarious dyed-in-the-wool lefty political comedians who are taking their progressive laughs on the road to Los Angeles, Sat., June 3; the YearlyKos Convention in Las Vegas, Thurs.-Fri., June 8-9; Boston, June 15-17 & 22-24 and possible future stops in other states all in aid of those of who need a laugh or two to get us through until the next election, indictment or impeachment.

 Over the past year so I've had the incredible good fortune of helping put the YearlyKos convention together.  My role has been limited - and focused on giving advice on what lawyers and other professionals to use, what kind of topics and subjects would be popular with the Daily Kos community, and also doing some writing and engaging in discrete mission critical tasks when necessary (I'd tell you more, but then I'd have my security clearances revoked).  

In any event, I remember back about 14 months ago when I first started getting involved, that I was struck by how BIG the plans were.  The original conception of YearlyKos was going to be along the lines of a super-meet-up, with all the Daily Kos readers from across the country gathering together for a "happy hour-dinner" in a central location and having a giant group hug.  Remember, we were a bunch of volunteers with no discernable experience in putting together a convention, or really in putting together any kind of social event larger than a dinner party.  And we had no money whatsoever.  So doing it small seemed logical at first.  Bu then, out of nowhere the YearlyKos organization got taken over by a bunch of half-crazed nutjobs with REALLY REALLY big plans.  And when I say big plans, I mean renting out an entire hotel, getting the biggest name politicians in the business to come speak , and organizing panel discussions of world class experts.  Not only that, the plan was not just to do this once, but to set up a self-sustaining organization that would do these conventions, of this size, year after year after year, and to also provide tools and resources for progressive bloggers to amplify their voices and influence our national conversation.

Exciting news!  In addition to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Governor Mark Warner, Ambassador Joseph Wilson (Mr. Valerie Plame), and countless others, two additional longtime Kossack favorites will be speaking at YearlyKos, the totally off the hook convention and festival scheduled for June 8 - 11, 2006 at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ladies and Gentlemen, below the fold, I am pleased to reveal that the following TWO blogosphere and political superstars will be featured speakers and honored guests at YearlyKos.

Yearly Kos is pleased to announce that legendary cartoonist and blogger Tom Tomorrow will be a featured speaker at the First Annual Yearly Kos convention, taking place June 8 through 11, 2006, at the Riviera Hotel and Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.