Cost of College Reduction Act

On a recent trip to Washington DC I decided to see if I could talk to a few of our notable Representatives in Congress. Rep. George Miller was not only available but eager to talk with me about the outreach the Committee had done in the first 100 days of the New Congress in 2007 to work with students on how we can make higher education easier and more manageable for students.

Some friends who work on the Hill told me that he was a great guy, and very forward thinking when it comes to technology and outreach, but I had no idea he would be as engaging and eager to talk about the needs of students and ways in which we can continue our work after Election Day. It was a true honor, and I certainly look forward to seeing what is possible in the 2009 Legislative Session.

Crossposted from Wiretap Magazine

• At Pushback, Kay Steiger identifies a huge problem with how a part of the College Cost Reduction Act is being administered. Under current administration, students who opt to go into public service won't be informed that they are eligible to receive debt relief on their loans until 10 years after they begin making payments, effectively nullifying the program and its incentive to provoke public service. The Project on Student Debt is running a petition here.
• US News has an interesting piece analyzing the wisdom of McCain and Obama's respective strategies of targeting the elderly and youth in swing states. More on this later but wanted to call it to your attention.
• I'm super skeptical of celebrity spokespeople, but Rosario Dawson (a founder of Voto Latino) did a good job today on "Morning Joe," an MSNBC program that has been about telling an accurate story about the youth vote this cycle.
• The Hip Hop Caucus reports that Nas, MoveOn, and Color of Change are outside Fox News today protesting racism in the network's coverage.
• Daniel Klein recaps our panel at Netroots Nation over at the YP4 blog.
• Some humor for you.

A few interesting posts from the third week of July:

• Justin Krebs of Living Liberally writes on Open Left, describing the recent reading initiative that brings together Harry Potter-lovers and social activists across the country. HP Alliance -- a group founded by 20-something Andrew Slack -- in conjunction with Genocide Intervention Network are publicizing the subtle political messages of J.K Rowling's fantastical series. With Podcasts, free concerts, and Myspace pages, HP Alliance asserts that Rowling's renowned novels actually take strong progressive stances on the injustices of tourture, the right to trial, the value of diplomacy, and the significance of racial equality and workers' rights. Slack is certain that there is power in numbers, and the large community of Harry Potter readers can do a lot to "fight...the dark arts in the real world." -- I always thought that there was an eerie resemblance between Cheney and Voldemort.
• Today marks the start of the Young Democrats convention in Dallas -- the event that Obama was criticized for not attending weeks ago. Speakers will include Gen. Wesley Clark, John Edwards, and Mike Gravel, and the convention will provide young dems with numerous training opportunities.
• The Times conceded more coverage to the Obama campaign's "innovative fundraising techniques" yesterday, in an article describing the innumerable less-than-$10 donations Obama is collecting from t-shirt and key-chain revenue. At the moment, no other campaign is known to have listed paraphernalia sales as donations. Obama's official campaign store is said to be responsible for several hundred thousand dollars of campaign contributions, and, according to David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager "still get[s] people wearing your hats and displaying your bumper stickers."
• I thought Jam Band Fan or Taliban? was funny, but recently, a newer -- and I think more subversive -- guessing game has reached the net. Name My Vote allows participants to guess peoples' political parties based solely on one photograph. I did some impressive "political profiling" and correctly matched 5 democrats and 3 republicans, but I failed to identify the independents. The game basically ends up being a more subtle version of "Hot or Not" and is an equally-guilty pleasure.
• Andrew Golis at TPM Cafe looks at Campaigns like the Bono-endorsed (RED) and asks, "what if an entire generation of youthful idealism is being channeled into conspicuous consumption?" Personally, I think, if the government fails to provide social services -- as the Bush Administration has so clearly failed -- there is nothing wrong with corporations teaming up with non-profits to fulfill that role.
• Anastasia Goodman of the Huffington Post reports on a highly-upsetting JFK School of Government study, which concluded that "28 percent of teens pay almost no attention to daily news and that an additional 32 percent are casually attentive to a single source only." This sort of political apathy is inexcusable during such an integral election year! I recently visited some of my camp friends from Connecticut -- one of whom had never heard of Barack Obama, while the other had clearly been listening to Fox News, citing Obama's madrasas experience as reason for rejecting his candidacy. I was desperately biting my tongue, trying not to ruin the weekend with political Sturm und Drang. As Goodstein writes, "It's essential that the next generation of citizens be informed and more importantly, engaged with what's going on in the world beyond their 50 friends on MySpace."
• Education and Labor Democrats have put together a video for YouTube about the recent passaage of the Cost of College Reduction Act. In the video, Joe Courtney - who was elected by 63 votes this year, riding a wave of youth support - explains the bill.