So I've done some crack reporting and figured out why it's so damn hard to plug in a computer here at YearlyKos. The problem is these nefarious unions. The McCormick Convention Center is, unsurprisingly, operated by a series of labor groups who, working hand in hand, rip apart the building and put it back together to fit the needs of whichever group happens to be renting space here. So for YearlyKos, the teamsters, and the plumbers, and the electricians all come in to haul partitions, and divert piping, and... lay wiring. One catch is, of course, that the more wiring you need, the more you have to pay. The other, less obvious catch, is that any wiring you try to do yourself—running extension chords and power strips across the room—might well violate your contract and cost you a big fine.

So the result is a lot of dead laptop batteries. At a frickin' blogger convention. The netroots may be big and powerful, but they're not that big and powerful. So here's my counterintuitive scoop for the day: unions are single-handedly destroying the communicative power of the very people who are here to help unions have a stronger voice in politics.

Sources in John Edwards' campaign assure me that the consulted with the relevant union officials before installing power strips in their campaign booths.