JABbering Stooge

The Infamous “Fuck Panel”

About to be Rickrolled…

GNB has a decent an excellent summary of the happenings at the panel on tone in the blogosphere. Check it out. I can’t add too much to what has already been said, except to say that everyone had a good time mocking the permanently-clinched sphincters of our media overlords and the right-wingers they serve. That, and a personal highlight: after the panel, I was able to recommend to both Jesse and Digby that they go see Esther’s Follies, comparing it favorably to Capitol Steps.

The panel also managed to draw several blogging celebrities, including (but not limited to) Jeffrey Feldman and Digby’s coblogger dday. Even the Great Orange Satan™ himself put in an appearance:

dday was off-camera to the right, behind “Mr. Thinker”

I know what you’re thinking, and no, Kos was not falling asleep in that picture — his wife was whispering something in his ear (though he would later admit that he was running on about three hours of sleep that day).

A Conversation With Don Siegelman

Sam Seder interviews Gov. Don Siegelman

I’ll give Sam Seder credit: he’s a very good interviewer. I think some in the media could stand to take a few lessons from him. And for his part, Don Siegelman did a good job of communicating his side of the story. While most of the attendees were already intimately familiar with the story, it’s good both to rehash it for the media covering the conference and to use as a jumping off point for figuring out what to do with the information we have. I’ve already covered the biggest news from the panel, the website that Siegelman was promoting at every opportunity (contemptforrove.org), and the fact that the political persecution of Siegelman has cost him $2 million is nothing to sneeze at, either. Even though he has slightly more resources than the average person due to his time in public office, defending himself from trumped-up charges has nearly bankrupted him. It’s a sobering thought.

Seder and Siegelman took an opportunity for one-one one time with attendees

Meeting John Dean

After watching the Great Orange Satan™ mop the floor with with DLC chair Harold Ford over a catered lunch (not that it was much of a lunch, mind you — it was the same bland sandwiches that you could pay highway robbery prices for at the concession stands just outside the convention hall), I had some time before I had to be at the next panel, so I stopped by the Progressive Book Club booth over at the exhibit hall. After a brief chat with the folks from GNB who were volunteering at the booth, I took advantage of the fact that John Dean was doing a book signing at the time and purchased a copy of Broken Government so that I could have something other than my program for him to sign.

When I got up to him, I told him that I enjoyed watching him on Countdown, and he replied that he enjoyed going on the show because Keith Olbermann is “damn smart” in his opinion. I then mentioned the fact that I wasn’t even born yet when Watergate occurred, to which he replied that I didn’t miss much.

“So I’m told,” was my reply. And that was that.

Fighting for Progressive Values in Texas

Our initial hosts for Round 2 of kvetching about the sorry state of Texas politics were Paul Scott and Randall Terrell — Equality Texas’ Executive and Political Directors, respectively — along with NARAL Texas’ Executive Director Sara Cleveland. The bulk of their time was spent telling their favorite war stories from the National Laboratory for Bad Government before giving the floor to State Rep. Senfronia Thompson (who was in the audience at the time). In introducing Rep. Thompson, Paul quoted a portion of the speech she gave during the House floor debate of the constitutional amendment to make homosexuals tenth-class citizens.

Rep. Thompson speaks about the need to turn Texas blue

At about this time, the final panelist, Texas Freedom Network’s Deputy Director Ryan Valentine came in to discuss his valiant, but ultimately futile, effort to keep the State Board of Education honest vis a vis the ridiculous Bible classes that the Texas Legislature has foisted on Texas schools. In response to my question about TFN’s Freedom of Information requests to state schools for their Bible class curricula, Valentine said that while there was some natural delay and some dragging of feet, particularly in the smaller, rural districts (mainly because the rural districts weren’t aware of Texas’ sunshine laws), none of it was so egregious that they felt they had to complain to the Attorney General. (Not that he would’ve done anything with it, even if they had felt the need.)

Marketing and Monetizing Your Blog

To be honest, this was probably my least favorite panel, as it was devoted almost exclusively to the ins and outs of putting ads on your blog — something that I won’t really need to consider until I get more than two people to look at my blog (a highly unlikely prospect at this point). My time would’ve been better served by going to the “Progressive NASA and Space Policy Under a New Administration” panel.

With the afternoon’s events done, I decided to call it a day. Besides, the really interesting stuff wouldn’t happen until Day 3, so I’ll pick up my narrative there.

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