This week our friends at Democracy For America are announcing another round of winners for their Netroots Nation scholarship contest. If you weren’t on the list of winners and you can’t find the money/time/energy to get to Pittsburgh August 13 to 16 for the convention, don’t despair…there is another way!

For the third year in a row we’ll be taking advantage of the rich multimedia capabilities of Second Life to bring you live streaming audio and video from Netroots Nation right to your own computer monitor. Through Second Life we’re able to bring you not only streaming video, but also real time discussion and participation in the panels from the comfort of your own home, exclusive online panels and information displays from nonprofit organizations, online retailers and great progressive companies. Oh, and did we mention it’s free?

Join us over the fold and we’ll walk you through the particulars of how to participate and how to support our work with sponsorships.

I know, I know, you have questions. We’ll get through some basic stuff in this diary, and if you have other questions please feel free to drop them in a comment and one of our volunteers will respond.

What is Second Life?

Second Life is all kinds of things for all kinds of people. In short, Second Life is Web 2.0 on steroids. Second Life is an online virtual world made up of “residents” from all over the world. Through our internet connections we can come together to chat, discuss issues, share streaming media content, share information, sell products, and best of all, party. You interact with the Second Life universe through an online version of yourself known as an “avatar.” Your avatar will walk, run, and fly through Second Life and interact with other avatars through the software’s built-in chat software. While in-world you can watch online videos and listen to music, too, and we’ll be taking advantage of this technology to stream panels live from the convention in Pittsburgh.

How does it work?

The free, multi-platform Second Life software connects you to the virtual world. To get started, simply go to SecondLife.com and click on “Get Started.” You’ll be prompted to give a little bit of information about yourself, choose a basic look for your avatar, and download the software.

Once you’ve successfully done that, we’ve set up a Welcome Center where you can learn how to move around, how to watch videos and hear audio, and how to customize your Second Life avatar with free clothing and accessories. From there you’ll join us either in the Netroots Nation Arena or the Netroots Nation Ballroom where you’ll be able to watch the action on huge video monitors while interacting with other Second Life residents.

Second Life is *not* a light-weight application: You will want a relatively recent computer with a nice graphics card and a good broadband connection for the highest-quality SL experience. The good news is that Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux OSes are all quite well supported. You can find the official requirements at the SL website.

We hope to be able to stream large portions of the real life Netroots Nation into NNinSL, so you can watch and, in several cases, interact with real sessions even if you cannot make it to Pittsburgh.  More information will be forthcoming as we get closer to August, but we strongly recommend that you try it out in advance to get your bearings so that you can get the most out of the conference and not be overly distracted by the mechanics of how to get around, talk, and find events.

Why is this better than watching the videos on UStream?

So if you join us “in-world,” what can you expect to see, hear, and experience at NNSL? While the agendas for neither NN nor NNSL are finalized yet, during last year’s convention, many events in Austin were streamed into Second Life including six keynote events, another half-dozen panel discussions, a multi-faith service conducted by Street Prophets founder Pastor Dan, and a both-worlds meet-up that brought together Second Life users and attendees in Austin. We also provided unique SL-only content, including an additional four panels, several social gatherings including dances, and a documentary film screening.

Therein lies the difference. Beyond offering you live, streaming video, we’re also offering you the opportunity to connect with other convention-goers through online discussions. We will have NNinSL staff on both sides of the convention and we’ll be offering you the opportunity to ask questions and interact with the discussion panels in real time, as the panels unfold.

This year, we are expanding our focus to include content and events year-round rather than just during NN, beginning with live music events last winter and our own Inaugural Ball, continuing June 20 at 5:00 PDT with another documentary, the Second Life premiere of Kristen and Marshall Thompson’s moving A Soldier’s Peace, their chronicle of his walk for peace that covered the length of Utah, followed by an in-world interview with Marshall. After the interview we’ll be having live music and a wonderfully eclectic DJ. If you want to get a sense of what NNSL is all about ahead of the conference, join us at the Netroots Nation Arena this Saturday at 5:00 PDT.

Sounds great! Anything else?

YES! In addition to the events we’re bringing you from the Netroots Nation Arena and Netroots Nation Ballroom, you’ll be able to stroll through Exhibitors’ Row and check out wares and informational displays from all sorts of great progressive organizations and companies. If you or your organization are interested in being a part of Exhibitors’ Row, email us and we’ll get you set up. Our staff of expert Second Life builders will even help you with getting your booth set up.

Here’s the hard part of our pitch, so we’ll make it as quick and painless as possible: while we’re pleased to offer Netroots Nation in Second Life absolutely free for participants, the truth of the matter is that we do incur substantial costs in doing so. For starters, the folks at Linden Labs (the company that runs Second Life) do charge for the privilege of owning the land on which the NNinSL setup sits, to the tune of a couple thousand dollars a year. We are authorized to raise funds through the Netroots Nation organization (which raises money through its parent organization BloggerPower.org), so if you’re so inclined we’d love to have your support.

Awesome! I’m in!

Great! First and foremost, go to SecondLife.com and sign up for a Second Life account. Download the software, then log in! Click on this link and Second Life will “teleport” your avatar to the Netroots Nation area. The first thing you’ll encounter is our greeter, which will get you signed up for our in-world mailing list. Then follow the black arrows to the Orientation Area and go through the steps. By the time you’re finished you’ll be ready to join us August 13-16 for Netroots Nation in Second Life!

In the meantime, follow us on Twitter for updates, join our Facebook group (Netroots Nation in Second Life) and check out our website.

That’s it from us. What questions do you have?

Some days it seems that we could set up a whole separate section here, maybe call it “Yankee Watch”. At the risk of piling on, there's another story today.

It was less than a month ago that Douglas vetoed the legislation to require Vermont Yankee to maintain financial assurances for its eventual decommissioning:

“Rather, H.436 threatens our economic recovery by unnecessarily increasing electric rates for consumers and businesses.  Further, this legislation substitutes an objective process with political calculations, it breaks a promise made by the state of Vermont to a private entity and it exposes taxpayers to certain litigation.”

 Today it turns out that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency actually responsible for the safety of nuclear power plants (or, in the parlance of the Douglas administration, an “outside agitator”), takes a different view.

MONTPELIER — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will notify the owners of Vermont Yankee and 25 other nuclear plants today that they have shortfalls in money dedicated to dismantling the reactors once they're no longer operating.

And who had it right on this issue?

Well, in addition to the General Assembly, it was GMD's own Maggie Gundersen:

Governor Douglas would rather add a tax burden of $1,000 to each and every Vermonter (yes, every man, woman, and child) than to tell ENVY it is time to fill the fund.

 So as Maggie said last year, read the table, read the news, and then repeat after me. “Thanks, Jim.”

VT Yankee’s sprung another leak, which isn’t really a surprise to me.  THIS is the surprise (from a Susan Smallheer piece in the Rutland Herald):

Stephen Wark, a spokesman for the Department of Public Service, said the recent inspection by the NSA team did not inspect the pipe per se, but general criteria such as the “design bases, maintenance, corrective actions and walk down of some areas.”

Hey, I’ve got an idea.  When dealing with parolees, instead of looking at their actions, let’s just ask them about their life philosophy.

Maybe when we inspect restaurants, we shouldn’t look at the actual food they store, but the overall structure of their storage areas.

Or, how about… when we inspect airplanes, we don’t look at the planes themselves, but interview a few of the mechanics, look at their instruction manuals and take a quick tour of the hangar.

It’s so much more efficient.

Remember a ways back when I re-posted this dKos diary from Turkana which made the case that much of the real venom behind many of the right-wing attacks on Obama (as compared to, say, Clinton) was fueled by garden variety racism? It was a good conversation that evoked a range of responses – including this angry, hyperbolic, and completely dismissive reaction from Charity:

my dear left-wingers, you have yourselves to blame.

You know hatred, boy, do you ever.  You have hated for the past 8 years.  Some of you even forgot how not to hate and are still spewing hate on a daily basis toward anyone who dares disagree with you.

After Obama was elected, I read time after time on conservative blogs how we had to resist doing what the left did for the past 8 years.  The hate.  The screeching.  The inability to formulate coherent sentences.

Unfortunately, some of us can’t resist emulating what has become the standard in political thought.

So, if anyone on the left wonders why the level of discourse is so base, so visceral, compared to the past, it’s not because he’s black (with or without scare quotes), it’s because you lowered the bar.

(The party of “personal responsibility” heard from, yes I know.)

So imagine my surprise this week when I try checking out the right-wing sites she links to at She’s Right and right away find this gem entitled “Punk-Ass President” from Massachusetts blogger Hotspur at “New England Republican” (after the flip):

I can see him in baggy Jeans, with lipstick teardrops under both eyes, and his baseball cap on sideways.

Don’t ef with Streetdog B.  He’ll be President someday in a national flight from reality, but he’s still just a punk.

I’m sure he talks about Hillary and Ted Kennedy the same way. What were we thinking?

I would also note that this post came from Massachusetts, not Alabama. Yet another case-in-point that writing racism off as an exclusive problem of ignurnt sutherners is a dangerous canard.

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

The 6th Annual DemocracyFest is coming soon! July 17th-19th in Burlington!

Full Event ticket price will increase to $65 on July 1st. Get yours today for only $55! http://www.DemocracyFest.net

DemocracyFest is a political festival for liberal/progressive activists which features trainings, speakers and entertainment; teaching people how to make a difference and have fun doing it! Prior DemocracyFests have been held in Massachusetts, Texas, California, New Hampshire and Virginia. Over 4,000 activists have been trained to help on campaigns and make a difference in their communities.

Speakers and trainers this year include Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Mike Gravel, Gov. Madeleine Kunin, Mayor Bob Kiss, Sen. Doug Racine, Sen. Hinda Miller, Rep. David Zuckerman, Rep. Sandy Haas, Rep. Michael Fisher and Dr. Deb Richter. Plus there will be entertainment by musicians Rebecca Padula, Emma’s Revolution, Bobby Kendes and Axiomatic, comedy by Rep. Jason Lorber, film screenings, book signings, many tabling organizations and vendors, silent auction, children’s’ activities area, and much more! Check out our schedule of events as it develops! http://www.DemocracyFest.net/S…

Full weekend tickets are only $55 until July 1st and include: – All trainings, entertainment, and speakers on Saturday and Sunday. – Dinner on Saturday. – Breakfast on Sunday. – Semi-Guided Tour of Burlington and Welcome Party on Friday. – Children under 14 free with adult ticket purchase. – Free parking, or transportation to and from Burlington Airport. – Priceless interaction with activists from across the nation.

Single day tickets are also available for $30 until July 1st when they will increase to $35. http://www.DemocracyFest.net

Hope to see you there!

It's great to see good, progressive legislators getting exposure. Sue Minter's been in the legislature for five years now and she has really distinguished herself. Here's a piece from the Waterbury Record about Sue and her work.

“Sue is a very passionate legislator,” said Tom Stevens, a Democrat elected to replace Dostis last fall. “She cares deeply about what she is working on, (and is) diligent in research and professional in demeanor. I know when I hear from Sue on news from her committee that the information is going to be good, well-thought-out and accurate.

Minter’s hard work has paid off, Stevens said. Her name has been floated for leadership positions in the House, and she is now on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, the key budget committee.

Follow the link for the rest of the story.

Good going, Sue. 

Peter Welch will be the primary guest on Vermont Public Radio on Friday, June 19, on the noontime show Vermont Edition, which will be hosted by Bob Kinzel. According to their site’s blurb (also heard on promos):

Congress is tackling a comprehensive health care reform bill. Congressman Peter Welch discusses the prospects for this legislation and his support of a climate change bill that includes the controversial cap-and-trade provision.

He’s been a busy guy. Wonder where Peter is vis a vis Howard Dean’s proposals.

No mention of the recent war supplemental vote. Perhaps someone from here would and could call in to ask about that, too.

NanuqFC

Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

For those who may have missed it, the Obama administration is in damage control mode after several significant Democrats have indicated they will be boycotting an upcoming GLBT-focused, $1000-a-person DNC fundraiser featuring Vice President Biden. The boycott (and rumored demonstration) is a result of the frustration felt by many gay activists who feel that Obama is breaking his campaign promises to them on a host of issues. That frustration turned to anger in the face of a recent brief from the Attorney General’s office supporting the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” – even going so far as to invoke incest (if not by name) to deliver its crude, plainly bigoted message. The timing of the fundraiser simply adds insult to injury, suggesting that Obama, AG Holder, and the DNC can denigrate the GLBT community but still expect to treat them as (as Kos put it) an ATM.

And now comes word that a prominent Vermonter, scheduled to be honored at the event, is joining the protest. From Newsweek’s “Gaggle” blog:

Gay rights activist David Mixner and HRC National Field Director Marty Rouse aren’t the only high profile names to register dismay over the Justice Department’s pro-DOMA legal brief by pulling out of a DNC fundraiser scheduled for next week. We’ve learned that Vermont Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, who shepherded the first marriage equality bill through the VT legislature and spent time stumping for Obama during the campaign’s fledgling days, also plans to boycott the event. Shumlin, who is not gay, had been scheduled to be one of the fundraiser’s honored guests but decided to drop out after last week’s DOJ memo

Some folks might recognize the name of the Human Rights Campaign Field Director, Marty Rouse. Rouse did a lot of consulting for Democratic candidates and caucuses in Vermont (including the Vermont Democratic Party proper) during the late 90s and into this decade. He worked closely with Shumlin during that period.

In Shumlin’s letter withrawing from the event, he writes:

By defending DOMA and making reference to horribly inaccurate and deeply hurtful stereotypes about gay and lesbian Americans, the Administration has chosen discriminate against a minority group that we all have a responsibility to be more courageous in defending. This action will only serve to sow the seeds for further hatred and division against the only minority group left in America that politicians can publicly discriminate against and see their approval ratings rise.

Some might be inclined to dismiss this move as grandstanding, but the realty is that Shumlin stands to build significant alliances and contacts at the event – particularly as an honoree – that he is taking a pass on by not attending (contacts that could be invaluable during a run for Governor). Of course, he’ll curry favor with others, but the point is, to simply write this move off as cynical would be… well, cynical. This is a big deal.

Shumlin’s complete letter is below the fold.

Dear Andy,

Further our recent telephone conversation, I was looking forward to seeing

you next week in DC for the DNC event with Vice President Joe Biden, but

after learning how the Administration and the Department of Justice is

choosing to defend DOMA, I am writing to let you know that I am canceling my

participation in the upcoming event.

As an early and strong supporter of Barack Obama I am shocked and

disappointed at the level of insensitivity that the Department of Justice

has shown towards gay and lesbian couples and their families.  By defending

DOMA and making reference to horribly inaccurate and deeply hurtful

stereotypes about gay and lesbian Americans, the Administration has chosen

discriminate against a minority group that we all have a responsibility to

be more courageous in defending. This action will only serve to sow the

seeds for further hatred and division against the only minority group left

in America that politicians can publicly discriminate against and see their

approval ratings rise.  My disappointment in this has led me to the

regrettable decision not to be a participant in the DNC event.

I am proud Vermont made history in how we enacted marriage equality – not

through a court order but through legislative action.  The tides of history,

love and justice came together in Vermont and I look forward to witnessing

this movement swell across the nation as all of America’s citizens are

granted equal rights.  It is my hope that the Obama Administration will

actively support what we did in Vermont – grant marriage equality to all

under the law – nothing more and nothing less.

Andy, I appreciate your hard work on behalf of the DNC and I make this

decision with regret.

My Best,

Peter Shumlin

{Cross-posted to Broadsides

All the organizations that claim to contest the present order themselves have all the puppetry of the form, morals and language of miniature States about them. None of the old lies about “doing politics differently” have ever contributed to anything but the indefinite extension of Statist pseudopodia.

                                                    — From “The Invisible Committee”

Beware of the professional activist, my friends. For they will lead you to policy slaughter and barely bother to conceal their complicity. Winning doesn’t matter to them. Change doesn’t either. Because the paycheck (plus benefits!) is what makes their slumbering efforts feel good.

Their “cause” is just another minor bump in their daily road: take out trash, pay bills, shop for groceries, feign outrage over [insert issue] and then go to sleep. Risk nothing. Quit when it gets hard or uncomfortable. Passion is sanded down to dull edge, whereby simply showing up rings their bell of attainment. Check it off.

When a doctor sleeps through surgery we call it malpractice. But when a professional activist sleeps through an action and misleads a movement we applaud their “effort.” Worse, we marvel at the failure of the professional: “Wow, that took courage.”

Sorry, but losing doesn’t take courage. It only requires not winning. And that’s easy.

The professional activist is hardwired to lose because losing keeps them in business. They celebrate the longevity of their involvement and the age of their organizations as if to spotlight their ineffectiveness: 10 years! 20 years! Send more money! Keep it going! Why? Because they haven’t accomplished anything yet. And it’s a good “job.”

Many years ago I coined the term “Activist Malpractice” in an essay of the same name. I wrote it to put a spotlight on professional activist organizations who would whip up the necessary fear and loathing toward dangers like toxic pesticides and rBGH and then settle for “solutions” like labeling the products that contained these toxins and/or agreeing to 20-year (and toothless) “phase-outs” of carcinogenic pesticides.

But wait, didn’t they say these things were killing animals and people and destroying the environment? Yes, they did. And just as quickly they turned the page and “celebrated” the mere introduction of legislation that they knew wouldn’t pass, ever be enforced and/or save one of the lives they told us these products were claiming.

But they kept their jobs. Got applauded from their largely-disengaged membership. Kept getting their phone calls returned from Capitol Hill. And sent out a new round of fundraising letters for the “next” not-so-great “effort.” We called it “doing bad and feeling good about it.”

This cycle of activist malpractice works most perfectly when it exists within the paradigm of our modern culture’s manufactured disengagement. You know, the one that says: You are helpless without an expert. Or, in the case of the professional class of activists, the one that says: Send us your money and we will solve the issue that we just scared you about. Who knew $25 could solve global warming!?

Because the professional activist needs its followers to be disengaged so that their charades can continue unabated.

Thoreau once counseled his fellow citizens in this manner: “Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.” Today’s professional activists have changed that around a bit: “Let your checkbook help us lubricate the machine.”

And around and around we go, resulting in global warming activists cheering the changing of your light bulbs, health care activists cheering “the public option,” anti-war activists cheering “timetables,” and so on. The only true “winners” in any of these “causes” are the professional classes of activists, lobbyists, legislatures and regulators who’ve found that their own personal economic stimulus is based on your fears and lack of true engagement and expectation. Sucker.

Which brings me to the issue of the week (for me, at least) and a current case of activist malpractice: All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs). As readers will know from my two previous posts (here and here), the State of Vermont is now proposing that ATV riders have access to state lands, including our forests. It’s an absurd idea that is certainly opposed by a vast majority of Vermonters, not least of which are the hikers, birders and campers who enjoy the non-motorized nature of – well – nature. Imagine that.

But the professional organization that is claiming to lead the grassroots charge against the new ruling is the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC), a group that claims to be the state’s “largest, most effective” environmental group. Oh yeah, it also claims to be the “oldest” such group, too (see above reference to age and effectiveness).

Like any good activist organization, VNRC does an admirable job of describing the dangers and problems of the issue at hand. ATVs, they report, are loud, smelly, destructive to the environment and dangerous to both the riders and those who are forced to encounter such machines in the so-called wild. As a result of these clear and present dangers of ATVs, VNRC issues an alert to its members: Danger, danger, they declare, the big-bad Republican Governor (Jim Douglas) and his Agency of Natural Resources are threatening our public lands! And I’m sure the fundraising solicitations went out with even greater haste.

But then comes the activism. And down go the expectations.

First, the VNRC’s Jamey Fidel told the Vermont Press Bureau on the day of the public hearings on the issue that his group was “not necessarily” opposed to the first new ATV trail on public lands that was being proposed. But what about all the death and destruction they whipped us up about? Nevermind. Because they’re now being professional. But keep sending those checks!

Worse, when the hearing finally happened, VNRC showed just how atrophied its grassroots muscles have become: Out of 250 people in the room, an estimated 15 were opposed to the new rule – and probably about two were associated with VNRC (both employees). Nice showing. But keep sending those checks!

Unfortunately, it gets worse. At the hearing, the VNRC’s Fidel got his chance to testify and he more than blandly reads and otherwise mumbled through a thoroughly passion-less recitation of the documented problems with ATVs and the hurried “process” by which the ANR has reached its decision (read: give me more time to raise money!).

Next up to testify: Fidel’s VNRC colleague, Jake Brown, the group’s communications director. And he begins with this: “I’ve owned an ATV for eight years and I ride it as much as I can on the weekends.” Sorry, but you can’t make this stuff up.

Memo to the VNRC staff: Have your “communications director” read your documentation on the environmental threats of ATV use, please.

And what’s that feeling I’m having: Oh, that’s the grassroots rug being pulled out from under me. Thanks, VNRC. Where do I send my check?

It’s called “activist malpractice.” Pure and simple. They raise money to protect the environment and they cower like scared sheep when the opportunity to truly protect it arises. They scare the public with the facts and then they fold like a cheap suit when it comes to the solutions. They scare the public enough to raise some cash about the dangers of ATV riding by day, and then mount an ATV by night and the weekends to frolic in the benefits of their “labor.” Shameless.

Ironically, I approached Fidel at the hearing to ask him a few questions. Specifically, I asked him if he thought Brown’s boasting of riding an ATV on weekends undercut his testimony about the environmental destruction of the so-called sport. His reply: “Not at all.” Of course not – just keep sending the checks!

But Fidel wouldn’t allow me to ask any more questions because he was “busy.”

“Call me at my office and I’d be happy to talk with you about it,” he told me.

“Tomorrow?” I inquired.

“No, I’m going on vacation tomorrow. Call me the week after next when I get back.”

The public comment period for the new ATV rule ends on June 22nd. Don’t count on the VNRC to be generating oppositional comments because its point-person on the issue is on vacation. But keep sending those checks!

Activist malpractice, indeed.