EJS President Eva Paterson will join a panel organized by Alliance for Justice on “The Corporate Court: Your Rights vs. Corporate Interests” and Keith Kamisugi and Taz Ahmed will co-chair the Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus at the gathering.

Every year, the Netroots Nation convention provides progressive activists and candidates for office a forum to strengthen the online community and grow the progressive movement while inspiring action and growing new ideas to affect change.

EJS is proud to again invest in the success of this year’s Netroots Nation and support their efforts to advance progressive change.

Panel: “The Corporate Court: Your Rights vs. Corporate Interests”
Saturday, June 18, 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Room L 100 H in Minneapolis Convention Center

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Nan Aron (Alliance for Justice), Dahlia Lithwick (Slate), Eva Paterson (Equal Justice Society) and Carl Pope (Sierra Club) will address the growing influence of corporations within the American judicial system, particularly in the Supreme Court.

Under Chief Justice John Roberts, an activist conservative majority on the Court has aggressively weakened or eliminated consumer protections and workers’ rights, while restricting the ability of everyday Americans to use the courts to find justice.

With several important Supreme Court decisions expected this summer, and with conservatives continuing their long-planned efforts to capture the judicial system, the panel will examine what’s at stake for the American people and our democracy, as well as the need for progressives to pay significantly increased attention to the courts and the selection of judges.

Here’s Facebook links to the panel, our AAPI Caucus and to Eva Paterson’s new Facebook page.

As a prosecutor, litigator, and trial and appellate judge, Judge Sotomayor brings more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in 100 years, and more overall judicial experience than anyone confirmed for the Court in the past 70 years.

We applaud President Obama on his successful nomination and laud this momentous step forward for the Court and our country.

Share with us your thoughts about our newest Justice at ConfirmSotomayor.org.

Judge Sotomayor’s nomination and confirmation will be among our discussion topics at a Netroots Nation panel next week at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

EJS is coordinating a session on “The Myth of Post-Racial America” on Thursday, August 13, from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

Panelists include Rinku Sen, President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC); Rich Benjamin, Senior Fellow at DEMOS; Annabel Park, director/producer of the upcoming documentary film “9500 Liberty” and moderated by Keith Kamisugi, EJS Director of Communications.

Save the session date and info on Facebook.

EJS is coordinating a session on “The Myth of Post-Racial America” on Thursday, August 13, from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. Panelists include Rinku Sen, President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center (ARC); Rich Benjamin, Senior Fellow at DEMOS; Annabel Park, director/producer of the upcoming documentary film “9500 Liberty” and moderated by Keith Kamisugi, EJS Director of Communications. Save the session date and info on Facebook.

Netroots Nation 2009 will include panels led by national and international experts; a progressive film screening series; practical training sessions and workshops; and the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date.

Past gatherings have included a Presidential Leadership Forum that drew seven Democratic candidates, a surprise visit from Al Gore; an interactive Ask the Speaker session with Nancy Pelosi; and hundreds of panels, roundtables, training sessions, workshops and keynotes.

Contact Keith Kamisugi (kkamisugi@equaljusticesociety.org) for more information on this session or the conference.

Scholarships Available for Bloggers Covering Immigration Issues

As progressives across the country begin strategizing and organizing around comprehensive immigration reform, there’s no better place to connect than this summer’s Netroots Nation convention. With nearly 100 training sessions and panels to choose from, it’s vital that those who write about immigration are well-represented in Pittsburgh.

Do you know someone working at the intersection of new media and immigration, who blogs on the issue, and who needs some help getting to Netroots Nation? If so, tell them to apply for a scholarship!

This year, America’s Voice, an organization committed to supporting a vibrant and independent pro-migrant blogosphere, will send eight immigration bloggers to Pittsburgh to attend the convention. The scholarship includes registration, a travel stipend and shared hotel accommodations.

The America’s Voice and Netroots Nation scholarship selection committee will rely on several unique factors to select contest winners. Above all, we are interested in hearing your personal story and your personal connection to the issue, what drives your work, and why you would like to attend Netroots Nation.

It’s also important that we select people who are not only passionate about blogging and/or online activism, but who bring a unique and underrepresented perspective to the Netroots Nation convention.

The answers that you submit in your application are private, but if selected as a winner, we may ask to publish some of your answers on our website.

Apply now to be a America’s Voice/Netroots Nation 2009 Scholar.

Since time is short and we want to let winners make their travel arrangements, all applications are due by Monday, July 20. Selections will be posted online by August 1, but winners will be contacted via email as soon as they are selected.

The fourth annual gathering of the Netroots (formerly known as the YearlyKos Convention) will be held August 13–16 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pa.

For those of you in Northern California, join us on Friday, April 17, at the Netroots Nation’s Bay Area New Media Summit + Celebration in San Francisco. Learn how to use new media to promote your cause or organization.

Netroots Nation 2009 will include panels led by national and international experts; a progressive film screening series; practical training sessions and workshops; and the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date.

Past gatherings have included a Presidential Leadership Forum that drew seven Democratic candidates, a surprise visit from Al Gore; an interactive Ask the Speaker session with Nancy Pelosi; and hundreds of panels, roundtables, training sessions, workshops and keynotes.

Watch President Obama’s video address to last year’s Netroots Nation convention.

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 origin of Netroots Nation is traced to a time when a tremendous and growing number of citizens gathered every day in the virtual world to raise their collective voice and proactively influence their government. That group is broadly called the Netroots and has since grown to include progressive organizations and politicians who use new media technologies to communicate with their constituents.

The convention rebranded to Netroots Nation in 2007 in an effort to more accurately reflect the makeup of its audience and mission of implementing programs that teach and empower Netroots communities to affect change in the public sphere.

Netroots Nation is committed to fostering a legacy of environmental stewardship. We believe we have a responsibility to not only green our event, but to use our gathering to educate others about sustainability issues. Netroots Nation 2009 will be held at the first and largest certified “green” convention center in the world (Gold LEED certified) and will incorporate green practices such as minimizing waste and donating leftover food to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible.

Netroots Nation is a project of Bloggerpower.org with the generous support of the Netroots Arts and Education Initiative (NAEI).

If you’d like more information on Netroots Nation and how you can participate in shaping this year’s agenda, contact EJS Director of Communications Keith Kamisugi at kkamisugi@equaljusticesociety.org or at 415-288-8710.