Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

Connect with like-minded folks and talk with others from your community in our identity, issue and regional caucuses.

Created, nurtured and developed in the Blogosphere, Energize America (www.ea2020.org) has developed innovative approaches to move forward toward a prosperous, climate-friendly society. EA2020 is working at the nexus of the blogosphere, citizen activism, local governance and Congress. This panel will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of this effort, while setting out an agenda for progress.

With the VoteVets.org Body Armor Ad in 2006, military veterans assumed a new role in shaping American military policy. That same year, nine Iraq veterans ran for Congress and two won seats. This panel will discuss how Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have organized themselves politically in 2008 to further challenge the very policymakers who sent them to war in the first place.

With the current administration nearing its term limit, U.S. science policy may soon be relieved of a number of ideological and religious constraints. Restructuring U.S. science policy will look at three key areas likely to benefit under either a McCain or Democratic administration: science education, biotechnology and climate change. Attention will be paid to recent and pending legislative changes in all three areas, and potential grassroots and Netroots responses. Each speakers is tasked to provide a picture of how U.S. science policy might appear a few years from now, assisted by ideas from an interactive audience.

Military blogs (milblogs) have played an increasingly important role in not only the dissemination of battlefield information in real time, but also in shaping how Americans view the troops and the wars in which they’re fighting. In recent years, milblogs both supportive and critical of the war effort in Iraq have sprung up across the blogosphere. Some, like VetVoice and Blackfive, have even evolved into online communities for troops and veterans. This panel will explore the implications of milblogs on military policy by discussing them with three veterans who blog and a traditional media military reporter.

This panel will look at the ways the Netroots has changed campaigns for the U.S. House and consider where the biggest opportunities for further change lie. Current and potential impacts on press, fund-raising, strategy and organizing will be discussed.

Election officials and lawmakers make hundreds of decisions affecting everything from voting rights to what equipment is used to tally votes. Join California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and top election protection advocates for a discussion about how we can continue protecting and expanding the rights of every voter along the entire spectrum of the electoral process.

This panel will explore how the progressive populist uprising in which the Netroots plays such a central role is fighting the right at the state level. This state-level battle is a major focus of David Sirota's new book "The Uprising," which chronicles how progressives in the Montana legislature are taking on some of the most powerful bastions of the conservative coalition and winning. It is also the reason why the Progressive States Network exists. The panel will use real-world case-studies to show how state legislatures are some of the most important arenas in which the progressive uprising is unfolding.

From illegal detention policies to outsourcing torture and mercenaries, the Bush administration has worked systematically over the last seven years to violate U.S. and international law. Legal advocates and journalists have uncovered the facts and identified those responsible. So what will accountability look like? What must the courts and the next administration do in its first 100 days to make things right?

This multi-faith service will be led by Pastor Dan.