Warning: not serious blog post, neon colors and loud noises to follow. I'm going going back back to Cali Cali on Friday to visit my brother in LA and get my eat on in Tehrangeles, Koreatown, and Little Armenia. If there's one thing my brother and I do together besides eat food whose names we can't pronounce and make fun of hipsters shopping for $600 limited edition kicks at Undefeated, it's listen to M.I.A.

Guess what, freshman conservative college student? In a couple of weeks you’re going to have your liberal campus and its professors shove more crap down your throat than Rosie does her gullet during Chili’s Monday Night Nacho Monster Blowout Special, that’s what.

In his weekly column over at Townhall.com, Doug Giles lists ten tips for young conservatives to survive college, “the Liberal’s madrasah” where “purveyors of the anti-American propaganda” deliver “the liberal Kool-Aid crunch” in every classroom. Giles warns:

Your values, for the next four years, will be violated much like Linsday Lohan’s nose, liver, Mercedes and panties have been for the last five years.

Interesting imagery Giles uses to make his point.

“I do not want to become another African American/Black stereotype. Most of us men are labeled as thugs, because of our long hair, dreads, dark clothing and the music we listen to. If we are driving a luxurious car most people assume that we either bought it with illegal money or we stole. … I don’t want to be added to someone’s death statistic.”

This is the opening of an essay written by Antoine Tate, 16, who is going into his senior year at a large, predominantly black and low-income high school just outside D.C. in Prince George’s County, Md. This summer Tate participated in the College Summit program, a four-day workshop at Howard University about applying to college.

Hillary Clinton was in the house - the Center for American Progress - to discuss the early education bill she is introducing with Bob Casey. She gave a compelling speech about why universal pre-K is so badly needed and impressed me by backing up rhetoric with facts and a touching anecdote or two.

Interesting report in today’s Times on the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri where “work study is not an option as it is at most campuses; it is the college’s raison d’être.”

Is there a link between being in a frat and popping a cap? That’s the question some are investigating after a Yale fraternity brother allegedly fired a handgun inside the Beta Theta Pi house last week, leading the Yale Police to discover he was in possession of two illegal assault rifles and nine other firearms.

Students, working families and just about everyone besides corporate lenders were worried yesterday that Congress’ efforts to make college more affordable would be thwarted by a few senators who put the greed of banks over the needs of students. Fear no more! 

The Nelson-Burr Amendment, which would have taken about $3 billion in aid to students and given it to banks in the form of excessive subsidies, failed by a vote of 36-61. See how your senator voted here.

The Senate passed two other amendments on the higher education bill which should give students even more reason to cheer. Sen. Lisa Murkowki’s (you go Alaskan Republicans) amendment to redirect $176 million to the college access partnership grant program passed 73-24. And Ted Kennedy’s amendment to extend need-based Promise grants passed 52-45.

We all cheered last week when the House passed the College Cost Reduction Act, the largest increase in student aid since the G.I. Bill. The talking points should sound familiar by now: the bill would make college more accessible and affordable by increasing need-based grant aid, cutting interest rates in half on Stafford loans, and expanding loan forgiveness. The best part: this would all come at no added cost to taxpayers, since the bill’s benefits would be funded by cutting excessive government subsidies to corporate lenders, who were fattening their wallets on the backs of debt-ridden students.

“No taxation without representation!” You heard them cheering it at protests in the 60s and 70s – 1760s and 70s that is. You’ve read the slogan on D.C. license plates. Today, you get to shout it out in solidarity with a bunch of voting rights advocates.

An unintended consequence of the student loan investigation has finally cropped up. After controversial scandals of financial aid officers taking bribes from student lenders made headlines and led to a few university administrators getting canned, the higher ed world has been debating what regulations must be put in place for financial aid officials “to offer sound, dispassionate advice to prospective borrowers, and to make sure that students have access to the lender of their choice, as federal law requires.”

Self-promoting is wack. So I’ll pen this blog post as an explanation of why I’ve been absent from the blog for a few days. Eh, that’s a lie, this is self-promotion usually reserved in the progressive world for the likes of Mark Green (I’m a big fan. I just call ‘em like I see ‘em.)

Since I walk to work, I rarely get a chance to read the Washington Examiner which I imagine I would if I took the Metro. But I got a chance to see yesterday’s paper, which reported that the D.C. Council took a major step in preventing “payday lenders” from exploiting the desperation of low-income workers. The Council passed a bill restricting payday lenders from charging absurdly high interest rates that often trap consumers in an endless cycle of debt.

I'll be back to update this in a few, but I just wanted to give a heads up for you all to turn on C-SPAN where Rep. George Miller is going CRAAZZZYY, ruffling feathers and violating all sorts of rules of order.

Long story short: a few Republicans introduced an amendment which could essentially kill the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, "the largest investment in higher education since the GI Bill – at no new cost to taxpayers."

Miller went on a roll, tearing into Republicans as the chamber cheered him on: "Why don't you like the fact that we're trying to make college more affordable [and other sound bitey quotes]? Are you proud? Are you proud of this amendment that will KILL THIS BILL?!"

I wish I had set up a live blog for this. Miller's redder than a tomato and he looks like he's about to choke on his vehement outrage.

UPDATE (3:54 PM) - Miller's back on the mic. Will he restore the Congress to its role as a great political theater for eloquent orators in the tradition of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster??

UPDATE (3:58 PM) - No, they get him off the stage quicker than Rabbit gets booed in his first shot at freestyling in 8 Mile.

UPDATE (4:01 PM) - THE BILL PASSES! 273-149!

Shit! It needs 291 to be veto-proof, as Pedro reported this morning.

Stay tuned... 

An article in yesterday’s New York Times chronicles the battle over expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Doctors, consumer groups, many state officials, and a broad bipartisan coalition in Congress want to see more children covered under SCHIP. Meanwhile the Bush administration stands staunchly opposed to the program’s expansion, deriding it as a step towards government-run healthcare, which some believe will be costly and add unnecessary bureaucracy.

Big ups to Bill O’Reilly for giving me the heads up that lesbian gangs are terrorizing America, raping young girls, indoctrinating children in the homosexual lifestyle, and beating the crap out of unsuspecting males. Since O’Reilly’s shocking June 21 report, I haven’t dared venture outside alone. I fear for my parents in Philadelphia where O’Reilly reports that “a lesbian gang called DTO, Dykes Taking Over, are allegedly terrorizing people as well."

Here’s O’Reilly, in the words of Radley Balko, “proving once again that when you're a conservative talk show host, the plural of anecdote is panic!”

Because I didn't get a chance to take George W. to a Broadway show for his 61st on Friday...

Are you like me? Are you still kicking yourself for missing out on Grand Old Party Friday night? If I had known I could have paid $70 to enjoy “a top-shelf bar” with “young Republicans between the ages of 21 and 35,” I would have been all up in that rocking my finest seersucker. To make up for missing out on GOPalooza’s night “to celebrate what’s right,” I snubbed Al Gore’s Live Earth concert Saturday to hit up a cookout in a house with four former White House interns. When I walked in the front door and saw two Young America’s Foundation posters – one with a glory shot of the president, the other with the phrase “I Love Capitalism” – I knew I had arrived.

Since the Know Your Right Wing Speakers bio on Michael Medved just went up, I thought I’d hop over to Medved’s site to see what the latest from the Mustachioed Madman was. A fresh blog post from Medved was there to greet me and it did not disappoint. He begins:

The latest example of political correctness run amok involves the BBC describing the Islamists who planned bombings in London and Glasgow as arising from “the disfranchised South Asian community.”

Medved goes on to claim the terms “South Asian” and “Indian” are “misleading.” He denounces “[t]he refusal to use the words “Muslim” or “Islamist” to identify these terrorists,” and continues: “But of course, they’re all Muslim.”

This isn’t all that shocking coming from Medved, who calls Islam “a primitive religion” and insists there is “a violence problem in the Muslim world because that is an inherent problem in Islam.” What is shocking is that President Bush invited this guy to the White House talk to him about Middle East affairs. Glad the president’s talking to the experts.

The latest from Medved is by no means as ridiculous as Michael Savage’s comments which Cara dutifully reported yesterday, but it just reinforces the need for progressives to reclaim the airwaves from rabid right-wingers.