Just wanted to let everyone know that we're streaming the "Ask the Speaker" session at Netroots Nation live.  It features Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gina Cooper and Jeffrey Feldman.  The Speaker will answer some of the tough questions posed at askthespeaker.org.

You won't want to miss this because we've got a surprise guest coming as well.

update: The surprise guest is Al Gore! Enjoy!

Click here to watch live.

We hope everyone out there is as excited about attending Netroots Nation '08 in Austin as we are about organizing it.  In the few weeks that we've had registration open we've had a huge response from the community resulting in some early stats unheard of in conference organizing.

I've just got a few updates about registration rates and various other items for everyone to consider as the holiday season gets in full swing and politics takes a back seat to family, friends and gifts.

A book was recently published called The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics (buy at Amazon.com or find a local retailer) by Matt Bai, a journalist that recently has been writing for The New York Times Magazine. I finished reading it recently and I wanted to invite all of you to discuss the central question, and I'd hope you will consider reading it as well.

One of the many things that made this an enjoyable read is the fact that this book documents our shared political history. There are certainly some familiar names in the book, but at the edges of the story are all of us, the activists participating in this people-powered movement.

Make the jump to see an excerpt of what I'm talking about:

Pontificator put up a link for everyone to take a feedback survey on the 2007 YearlyKos Convention that included some questions on future Netroots Nation conventions as well.  It got recommended but has now scrolled away. Consider this the evening edition for anyone that missed it.

I'd like to invite everyone to take our feedback survey here. Participating in this survey is important so we can continue to make decisions that are in line with what our community wants. If you have the ability to post this in other places please do so.

Last night we got some good news, Congressman Jerry McNerney will be attending our San Francisco fundraiser this coming Friday June 1st. This will be his second appearance since he was at the DC fundraiser not too long ago as well.

If you are anywhere near the bay area on Friday, June 1st then this is an event you really aren't going to want to miss.  We interact with each other daily online, but it is pretty rare that large groups of people actually get a chance to get together and talk.  Outside of the actual YearlyKos Convention in Chicago from August 2-5 this year there just aren't many opportunities.

So don't let this one slip away, just go here and register without delay.

We're organizing a fundraiser to benefit The YearlyKos Convention and you're invited!

The event will feature many of the folks you know and love such as Brian Keeler, The Calitics crew, Hunter, Gina Cooper, Kid Oakland, Markos, Navajo (Join SF Kossacks), the San Francisco and Oakland (check their blog) Drinking Liberally chapters, SusanG, and other Left Coast luminaries. The only way you're going to get that many people together is possibly at the convention itself!

But wait, there's more...

We're organizing a fundraiser to benefit The YearlyKos Convention and you're invited!

The event will feature many of the folks you know and love such as Brian Keeler, The Calitics crew, Hunter, Gina Cooper, Kid Oakland, Markos, Navajo, the San Francisco and Oakland (check their blog) Drinking Liberally chapters, SusanG, and other Left Coast luminaries. The only way you're going to get that many people together is possibly at the convention itself!

But wait, there's more...

BloggerPower.org is holding an online fundraising drive to benefit the YearlyKos Convention. Our goal is to raise $20,000 by April 10th, 2007. Will you help ensure that The YearlyKos Convention is a success this year by donating?

As our news clips page shows the 2006 YearlyKos Convention was a huge success.  However, it was only successful because people like you believed in us enough to support us financially, registered to attend and volunteered your time.

I noticed a very interesting item over at ValleyWag today about the Drudge Report's traffic stats.  Translation, Matt Drudge is scamming his advertisers! (Note: for those of you that haven't read this site, it is basically a gossip rag for the Silicon Valley, but stick with me)

Advertising rates are generally set based on how many impressions of an ad you offer (see CPM).  In web terms this translates to page views.  As the number of page views on your site goes up you can charge more for your ads.

So how is Drudge scamming his advertisers?  Follow me over the fold and I'll explain.

Originally published at TechPresident.com

Almost all of the 2008 presidential candidates post news in some form on their web sites, whether they are press releases or collected news articles.  Many candidates now also post speeches and host blogs on their site.  The goal of all of these things is to give you the potential supporter, activist, blogger, or political reporter more information about that candidate's position on the issues, inform you of events, or communicate campaign news.

So how does RSS help take a candidate's information distribution machine to the next level? Let's talk about some of our primary information consumers and how RSS can benefit them.

I want to win this farce of an auction.  I thought this was an open auction for all progressives to bid on cool merchandise. Instead, I keep getting outbid on the stuff I really want. Now that I want to win, fair minded progressives would simply let me win that DailyKos User ID 100,000 I've been craving. Instead eBay will give me no such option. Like some sort of cult, I was welcomed in freely but am now being forced to bid against everyone to win. I do not want to simply bid on other items like cookies of mass destruction, or 4 15oz drinking liberally beer steins. Since Kos won't allow me the decent option of letting me win the 100,000 UID (just about every blog DOES let me do whatever I want), then somebody here needs to give that account directly to me. To deny me that account as my very own account is unacceptable.

Originally posted at TechPresident.com

One thing to watch this presidential campaign cycle will be the usage of YouTube by presidential candidates.  YouTube allows a presidential candidate yet another avenue to engage potential supporters and voters, and it does so for an incredibly low price tag.  All one needs is a digital video camcorder, a computer and an internet connection.  The YouTube community doesn't demand the high production values that a TV audience requires.  Another important aspect of YouTube is the viral aspect of it, particularly among an increasingly active and growing demographic, young voters.

In the 2006 election we saw some usage of YouTube by politicians and political organizations, mostly to redistribute ads that originally aired on TV or were intended for TV.  Ads were posted from both Democratic and Republican groups but I feel that there are two ads which without a doubt had a much larger impact on the electorate because they were uploaded to YouTube.

[Frontpaged by Hunter]

UnConventional, YearlyKos: Citizens, Focus and Action, an in-depth eBook covering the first YearlyKos convention is available NOW.  A team of four brilliant photographers led by Mona Brooks along with an editorial staff led by Hunter of Daily Kos fame, documented every aspect of the convention, from caucuses to keynote speeches, from volunteers to political heavy-hitters, so many Kos bloggers, and more.

The book combines complete convention coverage with personal essays about why so many of you are here--Kossack personal stories about what being a progressive means (with beautiful portraits to boot, so you can finally see how fabulous the people you communicate with on dKos look in the reality-based world!).

But enough talking, let's take a look at some of the pictures below the fold.

I've been kicking around an idea for a while to post on the topic of technology, specifically how it can be applied to politics in a practical and innovative fashion.  I hope to make this an ongoing series, but we'll see how that goes.

For the inaugural topic I wanted to discuss a new service launched by Yahoo called Pipes.  It sounds geeky, but the point of it is that it really isn't, it is a powerful tool for everyone.

Tim O'Reilly has a good post about this over at his blog.

There has been plenty of good news coming out of both houses of Congress recently, so this might surprise you and if you care about consumer's fair use rights then you'll want to take action and call your senators on this one.

Ars Technica has a good piece on it, and an bipartisan coalition of Senators is introducing a bill called the Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act (PERFORM).

A new bill introduced in the US Senate this week would force satellite, digital, and Internet radio providers (but not over-the-air radio) to implement measures designed to restrict the ability of listeners to record audio from the services. Called the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act" (PERFORM), the bill is sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Hot off the presses at FreePress.net we learn that Senators Dorgan and Snowe have introduced something they are calling the Internet Freedom Preservation Act which effectively codifies Net Neutrality.

U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced legislation Tuesday that would ensure that Internet use – by consumers, content providers, and businesses — remains free from interference by broadband service providers.

Bob Geiger has a nice piece up on his site about the Iraq war hearings which begin tomorrow.  I thought it was worth sharing here too.

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), the new Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has announced a tentative schedule for hearings to investigate the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war and to examine further options to free the United States from that quagmire.

"The purpose of these hearings will be to seek an answer to the question currently dominating the national debate: what options remain to secure America’s interests in Iraq? Where do we go from here?" said Biden.

I just noticed this today but it looks like another good and long overdue piece of legislation being introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

Many Democratic Senators joined Leahy in reintroducing a bill creating criminal penalties for war profiteers and cheats who would exploit taxpayer-funded efforts in Iraq and elsewhere around the world.   The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 builds on earlier efforts by Leahy, who is also a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, to crack down on this type of rampant fraud and abuse.

Here's a link to the release.