Building Campus Progress and other efforts so we can empower young progressives to take back America. And lots of other issues.
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I'm full time at the Center for American Progress running Campus Progress.
Bio:
http://www.americanprogress.org/aboutus/staff/HalperinDavid.html
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/p/David_Halperin/311175
Ramya Raghavan left the Campus Progress staff this week after two years here. Thousands of young people across America know Ramya because she did an amazing job working on Campus Progress's communications, media, outreach, organizing, issue campaigns, events, trainings, etc. Because I am temporarily sidelined, recovering from a bike injury, and because Ramya is headed to San Francisco to work at YouTube, I will type no more but will let this homemade video (made for Ramya's going away party), do the talking.
The Supreme Court took one of its many wrong turns this morning, this time with a decision that will make it harder for people to vote. The result means we all have to work harder than ever to promote voting this year. Luckily, some terrific organizations are revving up. Some of us from Campus Progress were lucky enough to join Rosario Dawson, Maria Teresa Petersen (both pictured below), and others for an event on Saturday to support Voto Latino, which has been doing great work with new technology and young people since its founding in 2004. We’re also glad to be working with HeadCount, which signs up voters at concerts and festivals – we at Campus Progress are not averse to these kinds of events, and we’re discussing new ways to work together. Our good friends at Rock The Vote also deserve a mention, as well a voter registration button on our home page – they are doing a fantastic job this year. Every one of us knows someone who really seems engaged and smart and all, yet somehow did not vote when last given the chance. Point them in the direction of these organizations, or march them to a voter registration table or polling place. Elections and change – they go together. Please vote.
He had "other priorities in the '60s than military service." But our Vice President got to play one on TV the other day at CPAC, where his defiant remarks seemed to borrow freely from Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessup.
CampusProgress.org today features 4 new interviews with leaders in the struggle against global warming -- Majora Carter, Van Jones, John Passacantando and Guster's Adam Gardner. We're highlighting this issue because, as we speak, over 5000 young people are gathering a few miles from here for Powershift, a major conference aimed at taking a stand for a future based on clean, renewable energy. You can read our press release on this issue after the jump. Read More »
Speaker Pelosi held an event at the Capitol yesterday to sign and send to the President very important legislation to make college more affordable. Here's an excellent quality cell phone shot of the Speaker, Senator Ted Kennedy, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Joe Courtney, and others -- all leaders in this effort to stop the shameful government handout to lenders and use the money to help students afford college. There’s also video of the event.
None of this would gave happened without the efforts of young people, through Campus Progress's Debt Hits Hard Campaign, through our Campaign for College Affordability coalition, and other efforts, to demand change. The efforts of New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a number of journalists, our own Pedro de la Torre, and others to investigate and expose bad practices and shady dealings between lenders and financial aid offices were also critical.
The work is by no means done. College is still out of reach for far too many young people. One area that needs reform now is private loans, the ones not guaranteed by the government. Lenders need to present clearer information to students about loan terms – and about the fact that students are better off obtaining all the federally guaranteed loans they can before seeking private loans.
Right now you can weigh in on this debate, expose more bad behavior, good behavior, or other key facts about financial aid and the loan industry, get your work noticed, and potentially win $2500 to pay tuition or pay off student loans. It’s our College Affordability Essay Contest – deadline October 29. Enter now!
This week two long-time Campus Progress staff members are departing for new challenges. Keisha Senter, who has been with Campus Progress for nearly three years, since our launch, first building our events operation and then recently as deputy director, is leaving today for the Clinton Global Initiative. Ben Adler, who worked for two years on CampusProgress.org, first as associate editor and then as chief editor, went to Politico.com. Emily Hawkins, who also was with us from the start, and led our outreach, campus publications, and issues work, left earlier this summer for a leading campaign for public office. These were our senior staff members -- all in their 20's. They did an amazing job, and we will, and I will, miss them a lot. But Campus Progress will continue to grow and thrive because of everything they and others did to build this thing. With some of our great veteran staffers still in place, and with a whole bunch of talented new team members on board, we are more excited than ever to work with you all out there -- on our programs in activism, journalism, and events -- to help make your voices heard and change this country forever. Check out the links on the right side of our homepage to see how you can get involved.
President Bush announced today that he would leave the Bush White House, effective August 30. He cited his desire to spend more time with his family. At a tearful event in the White House Rose Garden, Bush told reporters, "If Karl can leave, why shouldn't I be able to?" Shaking his head, he added, "This was all Karl's idea." Bush said he would remain a consultant to White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, "as my times permit." Bolten was not available for comment.
Fifty years ago tomorrow -- July 6, 1957 – two music-crazed teenagers met for the first time, at a “Garden Fête” in Northern England. Paul McCartney, 15, checked out the band performing there, led by John Lennon, 16. Afterward, the younger boy showed the older one a few songs on the guitar. Lennon was impressed, and asked McCartney to join up. The rest is … you know.
What made them revolutionary? Certainly Lennon and McCartney’s remarkable talents as songwriters and vocalists. But also, like their heroes Elvis and Little Richard, it was their determination, much of the time, to break through barriers – through musical genres, fashion trends, social niceties. Once the leering Rolling Stones showed up, the Beatles were seen as the cuddly, safe franchise, but the Beatles were radicals, pushing the envelope, unveiling a bold surprise every few months. And they did it in service of an excellent cause: Occasional cranky fit aside, their basic message was -- love and peace. They made that message cool. And they did it all before any of them turned 30.
With Samuel Alito replacing Sandra Day O'Connor last year, the Supreme Court's right wing is a solid four person block, and this term Justice Kennedy has lined up with them in most of the key cases. It's bad news, including today for equality and opportunity in education.
Thanks again to all the students who stood with us to speak out against the nominations of the smiling, All-American ideologue John Roberts and the most right wing federal judge in America, Samuel Alito.
About the only campaign promise that President Bush kept was to appoint Justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas, and a range of conservatives who now have split with Bush on other issues continue to praise the Roberts and Alito confirmations as a key accomplishment by the administration.
Progressives, and other supporters of a reasonable interpretation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, have a lot of work to do. They need to persuade elites about the bankruptcy of the right wing vision of the law. They also need to persuade the public on the controversial hot-button issues that underlie critical Supreme Court decisions -- issues like free speech, government surveillance, detention of alleged terrorists, criminal justice, tort lawsuits, and discrimination/ affirmative action. Until the public sees that a right wing Supreme Court is undermining their values and interests in the day to day world, voters won't see Supreme Court appointments as an election issue, nomination battles will continue to favor the conservatives, and the right wing extremist block may grow even bigger.
A friend of ours, journalist James Hillis, today publishes on Logo TV's website AfterElton.com the second part of a pathbreaking series on "Gay Newsmen." Part one is also still available. It's a window into changing attitudes and lingering phobias toward gays and lesbians in the TV news world. A number of TV reporters come out for the first time to Hillis in these pieces. My guess is that you will be reading more about it all very soon.
With gas prices up to a record $3.18, and summer around the corner, it's time to cue up our favorite alternative energy video and time to look for solutions, starting with the Campus Climate Challenge.
Staff members described a celebratory mood inside the World Bank's headquarters near the White House, with people embracing, singing songs and hoisting flutes of Champagne.
It being Friday, your Campus Progress team will be heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to party with these boisterous Frenchmen.
Our friend Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), says:
We're coming down to the wire on a campaign to encourage public comment on the Real ID proposal, and we need folks to tell the Department of Homeland Security that it is a really bad idea.
Real ID will create a massive national ID system without adequate security or privacy safeguards. It will become more difficult for people to get licenses, and it will become easier for identity thieves to access the personal data of 245 million license and cardholders nationwide.
More than 50 organizations and 100 bloggers have joined this effort. But we only have until May 8 and we need your help.
The disclosures surrounding the Bush Administration's firing of eight U.S. Attorneys around the country keep getting worse. Claims that these top federal prosecutors were poor performers have added insult to injury; in fact the circumstances appear to reflect badly not on the fired prosecutors but on the Administration that fired them: One prosecutor was fired to make way for a Karl Rove protege; one had spearheaded the political corruption investigation around former Rep. Duke Cunningham, etc. The latest comes from the fired U.S. Attorney in New Mexico, David C. Iglesias, who says that two members of Congress, so far unnamed, tried to pressure him to hasten an investigation of Democrats just before last November's election. Iglesias suggested that his refusal to do so may have led to his termination.
Not enough yet for cable news to push aside Anna Nicole for three minutes? Well, the Washington Post told us this morning:
Iglesias, 49 and the son of a Baptist minister, is a Navy Reserve commander whose role as a defense lawyer in a famous military hazing case was the basis for the Tom Cruise character in the movie "A Few Good Men."
Time for the White House and the Justice Department to 'fess up -- they ordered the Code Red.
Campus Progress tonight attended the DC premiere party for a new film by Alexandra Pelosi, "Friends of God," which will be shown soon by HBO, Campus Progress's sometime and future partner on events. It was a glitzy crowd for Washington, i.e. the usual old media and politics folks, plus Moby. The film will make some waves, as to be expected from a piece that features people named Pelosi, Falwell, and Haggard. If you think that the notion that people and dinosaurs lived at the same time died with The Flintstones, then you have been sheltered, and you owe it to yourself to see this film and consider the issues it raises.
Many people in that room told Campus Progress that they genuinely sensed that Washington has woken up to the idea that young people are voting, and young people are ready to hold their leaders accountable, and will no longer stand for politicians taking them for granted. The student loan rate cut and minimum wage votes were first steps. There can be real change on Iraq, Sudan, global warming, health care and other issues, if young people stay engaged, speak their minds, and press for results.
Campus Progress holiday greetings to Becky Brasington Clark of Baltimore! Ms. Clark sent the Washington Post a letter to the editor complaining about the Post publishing a photograph that "was an insult to two distinguished public servants." "What's the point," she asked, "of aiming the camera at [Tom] Daschle's shoes and [Lee] Hamilton's midsection?" We're not sure what the point was, but Senator Daschle's heel was pointed at our strategically-placed {Campus * Progress} logo sign (also featured prominently in the CNN and C-SPAN coverage of the event). So we thank Senator Daschle and Representative Hamilton for doing the great event, we thank the Post for the photo selection, and we thank Becky Brasington Clark for writing the letter that got our event and logo in the paper again.
The dwindling group of us who still subscribe to those "print" newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post are familiar with the lame foreign nation giant ad or "special advertising supplement," generally on the occasion of a U.S. visit by the maximum leader: "The great nation, of Azerbaijan: Making Democracy and Trade." Or "His Excellency; The Sultan of Brunei Visting, USA - Making Democracy and Trade." Preferring to spend their money on U.S. weapons systems to shelling out for a PR firm that might be able to write something remotely persuasive or grammatical, these generally repressive countries produce absurd, text-heavy ads that convince absolutely no one that the country in question is doing much on human rights or economic opportunity for the masses.
Lately, Kazakhstan has been spending all its money at The Washington Post, trying to get the upper hand on that pesky Borat. Borat is Bugs Bunny to Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev's Yosemite Sam, who keeps shooting himself in the feet. After a series of ads taking a tone of outrage and homeland pride, the latest ad tries, just barely, to change things up. The headline is "Who Needs Borat? Here's the Kazakh President," and indeed there's a big photo of Nazarbayev, though he looks quite wary, as if fearing Borat's next move.
The text and the headline are actually a reprint from an article by Nazarbayev in the U.K. magazine The Spectator. Obviously the headline made more sense as an editorial fluorish in the conservative British magazine, and it's not clear whether importing it to this Post ad is just negligent auto-pilot or a concerted effort to signal a new strategy. The text is mostly the same old blather about how wonderful Kazakhstan is, along with some pushback on Kazakhstan's progress toward freedom, criticizing Western advice on democratic change, "some of it from individuals who had been in my country for only hours," as "spectacularly gauche."
But the best part of Kakakhstan's advertisement is a three-sentence opening which, according to the ad, is reprinted from the Spectator's "introductory note": "In this exclusive article, Nursultan Nazarbayev presents a different picture of his homeland to the caricature of Sacha Baron Cohen's film. It is thriving, optimistic nation. We like!" Jagshemash!
Tonight -- in between the Campus Progress southern tour and a trip to California that starts in 3 hours -- I went to Constitution Hall in DC, the same place where Campus Progress friends Foo Fighters recently played, to see Campus Progress friend Ted Leo and Campus Progress nearly-friend (it's a long story) Death Cab for Cutie. So here's my question: Ted's bass player always has a microphone set up, and he frequently moves his mouth to near the microphone, but as far as I know, he never actually sings. Why bother set up the mic? What's going on?
Ramya and I had a great day, starting in Knoxville and then spending most of the day in Nashville. We got some barbeque and went to the Ernest Tubb Record Store and some stores with souvenirs like raccoon hats. Then we got to Fisk University in time to hear a speech by Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. We got to talk with Fisk President Hazel O'Leary, with our advisory board member Charity Draper, and with William Campbell, the student president. William, who attended our conference last summer (as did Charity), organized our event today. We had a great session, with lots of discussion about how Campus Progress and Fisk students can intensify efforts to work together. Then we were off to have dinner with friends who now work for Al Gore's effort to fight global warming - Roy Neel, Jenny Clad, and Kalee Kreider. We're excited about continuing to work with this team. By 8 pm we are at Vanderbilt, where Corey Ponder is leading the effort to launch one of our first Campus Progress chapters. We met with students already involved in the chapter, other interested students, and faculty advisor Mark Dalhouse.
We already support a publication, Orbis, and a living wage campaign at Vanderbilt, and we're excited to deepen our ties there. At every stop we're giving away a couple of Campus Progress t-shirts to students who can answer questions like: How many states did Richard Nixon win in 1972? The fall leaves are beautiful, we've avoided car accidents and tickets, we're telling people to text "DEBT" to 30644 (you should, too). What more could we want?
If you watched last night's "Studio 60," and you still can (though it's not that good), you heard a reference to a comedy sketch featuring our friend Pat Robertson as a weatherman. Just for the record, Campus Progress forecast this skit last winter. Stay tuned for more premonitions here.
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