As you may know, progressive bloggers and activists gather once a year for a huge national convention called Netroots Nation:
Netroots Nation amplifies progressive voices by providing an online and in-person campus for exchanging ideas and learning how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate. Through our annual convention and a series of regional salons held throughout the year, we strengthen our community, inspire action and serve as an incubator for ideas that challenge the status quo and ultimately affect change in the public sphere.
The fifth annual gathering of the Netroots (formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention) will be held July 22-25 at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Netroots Nation 2010 will include panels led by national and international experts; identity, issue and regional caucuses; prominent political, issue and policy-oriented speakers; a progressive film screening series; and the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date.
The Daily Kingfish will be represented! Keep reading below...
I am awfully proud to have the opportunity to represent the Daily Kingfish and the larger Louisiana progressive community this year at the conference. I was the only Louisianan to win one of the conference scholarships from Democracy for America, though I hope I will meet other folks from the state while I'm there (if you are going to be there, let me know).
Scholarship winners got involved in politics for all kinds of reasons. One said: "My Senator voted for torture. It was my first post." Another said: "[It] was the importance of the youth vote in 2006 and 2008. The media was getting the story WRONG and they needed to be corrected." And another said: "The seeds were planted by both my Radical Chicano father as well as my Hippie mother back on the earlier days of my life. But they did not sprout until around 2006 ..."
Many have their own blogs, or they post on blogs operated by others. Some have extensive political experience; others next to none. The majority are young, but there is a sprinkling of older activists as well. And that activism spans the gamut of causes, among them: antiwar, pro-choice, pro-immigrant, anti-racist, LGBTQ, party politics, media reform and criminal-justice reform.
As you may know, progressive bloggers and activists gather once a year for a huge national convention called 
