But it was good to see you on Daily Kos today.
I’ve learned what a ‘Tip Jar” is.
I’ve learned what a “Troll” is.
What a nice, productive day it was.

From MoveOn.org:

At the meetings we’ll nail down Rep. Peter Welch’s position on escalation of the war in Iraq-it’s one more way we can show that the vast majority of Americans are opposed to this plan. And we won’t stop there.

We want to make sure the change we voted for is real-on all the important issues. This is the window of time to help frame the political agenda. There are four lobbyists in Washington for every one member of Congress, and they’re working all the time to block real progress on our energy and health care crises. But there are a heck of a lot more of us-and if we make very clear what we want, and hold our representatives’ feet to the fire, we can make sure the new Congress does what it was elected to do.

Here’s the generic petition MoveOn is circulating in advance of their sit-down. Obviously it’s not just Welch they’re talking to, so feel free to share the link with folks outside of Vermont.

Damn! Okay, thing is, my 2-year old has decided to take 2 hours to get to sleep over the last couple weeks, so my blogging has suffered. Here, then, is a rapid fire list of updates – most of which probably deserve full diaries, but what’re y’gonna do, y’know?

Don’t forget the “Bring the Troops Home” rally in Montpelier this Saturday. At 10 am, folks are gathering at City Hall, at 10:30 am there’s a march to the statehouse with a rally, and at 1pm, a showing of ‘Sir, No Sir!” with speaker Liam Madden. Check vtimpeach.com for details

Montpelier resident and political regular Jon Anderson is also interested in retiring Rep. Francis Brooks’ seat, which amends my previous diary on it. That makes four people interested in three slots for gubernatorial presentation. Guess that Dem committee meeting will have to be more than 2 minutes after all. Here’s the Times Argus piece which confirrms Charlie Phillips has backed off, but completely blacks out confirmed candidate Cary Brown and likely candidate Matt Levin. What gives? Based on their other reports on the matter, you have to wonder if the Times Argus editorial board has picked their own candidate…

The Progs have an official blog called the Prog Blog (not to be confused with ProgBlog). Surprised it took them so long. With only a handful of electeds, it’s an ideal medium for them, although as an official “institutional” blog, its impact may be limited. We’ll see.

Speaking of institutional blogs, VNRC has refitted their website through the good work of Union Street Media (thanks guys). It now allows for comments and user story submissions. Currently there’s a poll up on their organizational/environmental priorities. By all means, go vote.

You’ve probably read Allen’s piece on O’Reilly’s continuing obsession with Vermont, which can be found here. What you may not have seen is this first-person account of a Shaftsbury-area dKos frequenter’s encounter with this Fox-hackery. Check it out here.

Middlebury College’s “DigitalBridges2007” conference on Saturday, Jan. 27, from 9:15-6:45 will be focusing largely on blogging and other social networking tools. Among the panelists is Karl Frisch, director of media relations for Media Matters. I can’t find a clean website with info (ironic, no?) but click here for an email contact. Looks like a lot of fun, actually, with workshops all day.

Nationally, Sidney Blumenthal at Salon has an interesting profile of John McCain that’s worth a quick read (it’s short). Here’s the choice bit:

McCain’s political colleagues, however, know another side of the action hero — a volatile man with a hair-trigger temper, who shouted at Sen. Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor to “shut up,” called his fellow Republican senators “shithead,” “fucking jerk,” “asshole,” and joked in 1998 at a Republican fundraiser about the teenage daughter of President Clinton, “Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.” As recently as a few months ago, McCain suddenly rushed up to a friend of mine, a prominent Washington attorney, at a social event, and threatened to beat him up because he represented a client McCain happened to dislike, and then, just as suddenly, profusely and tearfully apologized.

My editor, Paula Routly, went to the screening of the Nader documentary “An Unreasonable Man” at the Mountaintop Film Fest last week. Said it was great. Nader spoke to the audience afterwards via video feed. Here’s Paula’s report on it, which is buried in a column called Scene@, which appears in the calendar section of this week’s Seven Days.