Poverty @ Netroots Nation

Many of my fellow bloggers have gone to Netroots Nation for the weekend; ironically, I suppose, I lack the funds for the trip.

It's too bad; Netroots Nation is one of the best known coalitions of progressively-minded activists in the country and certainly the best known for those of us who use the web and media for our work.  The annual conference is taking place in Pittsburgh this year, a city I'd love to visit some day.

So let's pretend I'm at NN, and take a look at a few of the key convenings I'd be joining on behalf of Poverty in America:

• "New Orleans on the Brink" - sort of a public chiding and strategy on how to walk back from the reality that "progressives and the netroots have largely abandoned the cause of New Orleans as a political and moral issue".  Featuring rockstar fair housing activist (and guest blogger Kate Scott's boss!) and mayoral candidate James Perry and frequent photo supplier and investigative blogger Karen Gadbois.
• California: How Process Creates Crisis - Breaking down the political morass behind California's collapse.
• @FDR: Is there a new New Deal?  - We hoped the stimulus would be the first sign.  We've wondered if Obama's domestic policies will rival LBJ's aggressive agenda.  Some fear, including me, that they won't.  Check out New Deal 2.0.

There's also a panel on rural organizing, on-line organizing, and the role of race in the Obama Administration - which is just an attention-getting means to have people come discuss immigration, mass incarceration, and racial profiling - tough topics to take on.

I'm disappointed to have found so few panels using the keyword "poverty" versus "economics."  The panels described above reflect important conversations, but it'd be nice if the progressive community could embrace the reality of poverty at home outside of exotic locales like New Orleans - as we're apparently able to do when it comes to the developing world.

(Photo from 2008 NN panel featuring Digby, Paul Krugman, Atrios, and Rick Perlstein, from the Democracy In Action photostream)