Harry Potter

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.