We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos. Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain. We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.

One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.

Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at topcomments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.

These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But hopefully they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.

Please come in and make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fold...

Welcome back to Austin, TX for the very first Camp Obama of the general election cycle! There are also sessions in Los Angeles today, and in New York City next weekend. The focus of this Camp Obama is to train people who can commit 5 weeks of their time to solid volunteering. These folks will become leaders wherever they go, and some of them might work with all of you when you find your way into an Obama campaign office this election cycle. It’s really exciting to be part of this grassroots organizing. I’m looking forward to hearing about what brings these folks in to participate.

Join us in Austin below the jump for photos and session recaps, to be updated throughout the weekend.

Important: There are Camp Obamas scheduled next weekend for Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. More info below!

That's right, 73 years ago today, at 3:30 p.m. EST, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act, perhaps the greatest cornerstone in our government's efforts to provide for our citizenry and honor the contributions we each make to society.

We can never underestimate the importance of Social Security to the fabric of our society, and though the original bill (and its present incarnation) are far from perfect, we should all thank Roosevelt for having the progressive values and widsom to protect those who are retired, disabled, or unemployed. The Great Depression was particularly hard on the elderly. As our own economy slides into an increasingly bad recession, it's worth remembering that the government can take care of its citizens, all of them, if its leaders care enough to do so.

That's why I was so happy to read Barack Obama's strong statement affirming his support of Social Security, and why I'm so afraid of what McCain might do to it.

Howdy, Kossacks in the greater New York metropolitan area. Tonight we're having a meet-up in honor of the visits by captainlaser and myself to town. I'm posting this in casperr's stead as she is indisposed.

Important!
Due to the potential for rain tonight, we have a two-part plan. Take down all the info and act accordingly.

Fair-Weather Plans:
Where: New York Milkshake Company
342 E. 47th Street (bet. 1st and 2nd in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza)
When: 6:30 p.m. start time
Other: The phone number there is 347-535-1918

Foul-Weather Plans:
Where: Keats
842 2nd Ave (bet. 44th and 45th)
When: If/when rain reaches critical mass.
Other: The phone number there is 212-682-5490

To add a bit of local flavor, I will note that I am posting this from the Apple store on 5th Avenue.

More below.

Greetings from New York City! Today casperr and I met up to hang out and help at Obama Summerfest in Central Park. I came north from Austin to visit my old home for a few weeks, and when casperr mentioned the event I had to join in. The event was organized by ObamaNYC, one of the many fantastic grassroots groups working hard to organize here in the city. It was a ton of fun, and for those of you not lucky enough to be there, casperr and I wanted to share!

Photos and a recap below.

Welcome to the start of our 24-hour fundraiser for Glenn Nye, Democratic candidate for Congress in VA-02! Over the next 24 hours, bloggers, campaign volunteers and people who know Glenn will tell us why it’s so important to help him pick up this seat.

Glenn’s opponent is Thelma Drake, a Bush-loving Republican who is one of his staunchest supporters in Congress. When Thelma found out that Glenn’s Q2 fundraising kept pace with hers, she called in to Karl Rove join her for a big-ticket fundraiser.

Thelma may have Karl Rove raising money for her campaign, but Glenn Nye has us! And while we all might not be able to pay $100 for the "privilege" of eating dinner with Karl Rove, we can all kick in a few bucks to Glenn’s ActBlue page. So join us below!

Update: Please head over to Part 6, posted by sccs.

Starting tomorrow at noon Eastern time right here on DailyKos, a group of bloggers, grassroots organizers, campaign volunteers, and the candidate himself will take part in a 24-Hour Fundraiser for Glenn Nye!

Who’s Glenn Nye? Why are we raising money for him? And what does Karl Rove have to do with all of this?

All that information and more, plus your daily ration of Top Comments, below the jump.

This is a diary about how to run a voter registration drive. Specifically, it’s about how I run the all-volunteer voter registration drive for the Travis County Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign. It is intended to help all of you set up your own voter registration efforts, whether it’s you and a friend on a street corner, or a group of eager individuals at a community event. Read it, print out the text, email the link, however you think it can help. The key is for everyone to start registering voters.

To conduct a voter registration drive, you need three things:

• Volunteers
• Locations
• Supplies

I’m going to cover each of these three aspects below. In the coming weeks, my fellow voter registration all-star casperr and I will post a few more diaries to help you all get involved with voter registration.

This is good timing, because today marks a major milestone in our Austin Vote for Change efforts: tonight we will register our 1000th voter. More on that, too.

Thank you, Netroots Nation!

Thank you so much for coming down to Austin for Netroots Nation and taking the time to visit our community and meet our local activists. As someone who is both a blogger and a local volunteer, it has been really exciting to watch my two favorite groups of people interact and inspire each other. You’ve all inspired me to keep working harder, too.

But now that you’ve enjoyed our city, our Shiner, and our strong commitment to progressive change in Texas, I have one request: help us Turn Texas Blue!

Hey, y’all. Netroots Nation is upon us, and I wanted to offer an early welcome to Austin, the Democratic capital of Texas. We’re so excited to have you all coming down to convene in this crucial election year. I hope some of this information helps you settle in and enjoy your trip!

Here’s what I’ll cover in this diary:

• Fun Parties and Events at Netroots Nation
• Food, Nightlife, and Tourism
• Airport Transportation and Getting Around Austin
• Other Austin Resources

Before you join us here in Austin, join me down below!

Markos, you wrote last week that you were withholding $2,300 from the Obama campaign, claiming that your individual donation didn’t matter. As if you aren’t the proprietor of an influential blog devoted to electing Democrats. As if you aren’t one of the key forces behind "people power" taking back our politics. As if many, many of your users, the ones who frequent your website and generate your ad revenue, aren’t struggling to make donations 1% the size of that.

You wrote:

At the end of the day, I'm pretty irrelevant in the whole affair. Obama is going to raise a ton of dough and win this thing whether I send him money or not.

What if even a fraction of your immense readership follows your lead? Maybe you need a refresher course in people power. I’m challenging the users of this website, thousands of people who are, in your words, "pretty irrelevant in this whole affair," (if you believe that or not!) to donate $2,300 collectively.

No matter what anyone says, we all matter, when we work together.

The new Rasmussen poll shows what I've been feeling for a long time now -- the race in Texas between Barack Obama and John McCain is tightening. McCain can't assume that the Lone Star State will love him with votes like they did Bush, even though McCain seems to love him some George W. Bush.

It's so exciting to be on the ground here in Texas helping in this historic election. Obama's rising support is also a great boon for Senate candidate Lt. Col. Rick Noriega. Plus, the Obama campaign has committed tremendous resources to Texas -- a reported 15 staffers, a good number of Obama Organizing Fellows, and even assistance building the infrastructure to help recapture the Texas House of Representatives. It's not just a 50-state-strategy any more. In these parts, it's a 254-county strategy.

But wait, there's more! Best of all, it's how YOU can help Obama close that gap in Texas. Dig your spurs into the flanks of the Republican party, and send them running once and for all.  

Today Americans came together across the nation to talk about Barack Obama at a Unite for Change event. I hosted two such events here in Austin, TX, where people showed up to learn how we’re going to elect Barack Obama this November.

There were over a dozen events across the city, and many more around Central Texas. Some folks held pool parties, others barbecues. My group gathered at a local coffee shop, Flightpath, where my precinct organized during the primary. Originally I’d just scheduled one meeting for noon, but when it quickly filled up to forty RSVP’s on my.barackobama.com, I added a second at 3 p.m. That one filled up too. The list of names was largely new to me, which was exciting—it’s always great to see more people involved in taking our country back.

More party pictures, observations, and ways you can help below.

Yes, the FISA bill stinks. No, we shouldn't protect corporations. I agree. Yes, it's not a "compromise" at all -- I agree, it's a capitulation to the White House and the Right Wing.

Of course it is. The Right Wing designed it that way. They set a trap. But it's not just the Democratic leadership that fell into it -- many of you all did, too, through your quickness to weaken your support of Obama, if not abandon him entirely.

See, the Right Wing's greatest success on this might not be letting the President break the law -- he does that anyways! -- but getting activists to think they're being betrayed, thus eroding one of Obama's biggest advantages.

A bit more on the flip, plus some added bad news as a bonus.

I just received an email (as most of you probably did!) from Steve Hildebrand, deputy campaign manager for Obama, as follows:

Today, I am proud to announce that our presidential campaign will be the first in a generation to deploy and maintain staff in every single state.

The network of volunteers and the infrastructure built up during the historic primary season -- on behalf of all the Democratic campaigns -- have given us an enormous and unprecedented opportunity in the general election.

We need to register new voters and bring people back into the political process. We need to reach out to Independents and Republicans who know that our country cannot afford another four years of George W. Bush's disastrous policies.

More about what this means on the flip.

WELCOME TO AUSTIN!

So I hear y’all are coming down to Austin in a few weeks for the Netroots Nation convention, and I reckon you might wondering what there is to eat, drink, see and do while you’re here. Though I’ve only lived here for about two years, I’ve come to really love Austin. It’s a great city, and I hope you all get a chance to see some of it while you’re down here.

To that end, I’ll be posting a few diaries over the next few weeks to get you excited about coming to Austin, and give you a sense of what’s around. They will cover food, nightlife, tourist attractions, shopping, and basic getting-around info.

Join me for the first one below the jump!

Obama supporters, tomorrow night we celebrate the final two contests of this long primary campaign. Could it be that five months ago to the day we were watching in exuberant surprise as Obama ran away with the Iowa caucus? Finally, the end to this primary season is here, and that means you have one main responsibility:

TIME TO PARTY!

Across the country, grassroots groups are organizing returns-watching parties and posting them on my.BarackObama.com. Find your event, and make plans to go lift some glasses and even pop a few corks for our nominee, Barack Obama.

More on the flip.

I'm a rarity in modern society: I’ve never owned a car.

I grew up in New Jersey, but we didn’t get our drivers licenses until age 17, at which point I was done with my junior year of high school. I knew I wanted to go to college in New York City, so owning a car for fifteen months seemed moot. After college I moved to Chicago and then back to New York, never needing a car. Now, I’m even surviving here in Austin without a car. True, I do a good degree of carpooling and my fair share of swearing at the absent public transit. But, I’m living proof that it can be done. It’s just that our society isn’t yet widely set up to accommodate this choice.

Tonight, let’s talk about the choice to go carless, and how it can (or can’t) work for you.