Go ask Nancy; I think she knows

I’m here at Netroots Nation (of course) at the ‘ask the Speaker” event. Nancy Pelosi will be here for about 2 hours answering questions from all these grassroots activists. Gina Cooper (the charming / kick-ass organizer of the conference) is introducing the event.

One item – any  organized disruption  will end the event and the offenders will be thrown out of the conference.

Congressman Lloyd Dogget goes onse. Lots of standing ovation.He seems to know what he’s talking about re-blogging. Calls out the party last night , the local bloggers (well, state bloggers.) Pot-shots at Delay, Gingrich, Bush-Chicanery administration. Now he’s boosting Nancy Pelosi. It’ll be interesting to see how she’s recieved.

OK, she’s onse now with universal standing ovation.Jokes about “I hope I’ll get this warm a reception throughout”. She’s settng herself up for a lot of applause lines.Talks about youth. Talks about how the war isn’t over and uses the whole “60 votes / veto dodge”. Of course, leaving Iraq requiers defunding the war, not passong ay bills. We ended Vietnam through specifically *not* passing any bills, tom defund the war.

Read on for more questions and answeers. Ned Resnikoff is also liveblogging the event.

Update: Al fucking Gore is here! And the crowd goes wild

Q; Why not inherent contempt?
A; Backhanded talk. Pelosi conflates holding Miers in contempt with doing it to Buah. Talks about what little the house has done. Talks about putting Miers in court, but how the judges are appointed by Bush. Ergo, we must elect Barack Obama. She’s been pushing that a lot.

Q: FISA/Telco Immunity
A: Blames Senate Democrats. Talks about how we need a Dem. President. (Sense a pattern?) Talks about how she thinks the final bill was better than the Senate one. Unsatisfying.

Q; What is your vision for government?
A: Equal access to healthcare, Personalized, universal care. Innovation “Remember four words: Scence Science Science Science.” Infrastructure. Energy Security. And we need to elect Obama to do that.

Q: Should we bail out GM?
A: Nope.

Q: What about pensions for workers?
A: There’s a difference between bailing out sharheolders and helping pensioners.

Q: Abstinence-only education is wrong.
A: Yes it is. And I will get rid of it.

Q:But Abstinence-only education isstill being earmarked.
A: Which is why we need mr epro-choice democrats. (Sense a theme)

Q:Broadband is good!
A:Yes it is. So is Net Neutrality.

Cheers!

Q:Why do troops have to beg for care packages?
A: Yeah it sucks. But we passed the GI bill!

Q:Well why aren’t you doing something about it?
A: I’ll look into it.

Q:Energy
A:Funny you should ask that, Becausehere’s AL FUCKING GORE!

Liveblogging will cease as I give Al my full attenntion.

OK, he’s done with a speech (which I’m sure you’ll be able to see online soon). They’re taking questions. Al Gore doesn’t want to be inan Obama administration. Some enviro-talk. Code Pink hecklers get escorted out.

[Note – There was a question about computer waste storage. Computre waste is very toxic. But not waste from the One Laptop Per Child. Because it is energy efficient, green, and its waste isn’t nearly as evil. Woot]

Pelosi – challenge to have 100% carbon-free electricity by 2010 is possible. But when we did the energy stuff last year, senate nixed it.So elect more Democrats, especially a Democratic President.

This is interesting. Al Gore goes out of his way to compliment Pelosi, then says that even if democrats control the House, Senate, and White House, then we’ll still have problems. Special Interests, etc.

This alludes to the clash of partisanship vrs ideology that’s been playing out behind-the-scenes at the whole planet.

Al Gore on nuclear power – even if the environmental and logistical problemswere magically solved, you’d still have two problems. 1. Nuclear proliferation is tied to nuclear plants. We don’t want dangerous countries to get their power frm nuclear power. 2. Nuclear plants are huge, and expensive to build. Simply uneconomical.

and its over!