Campus Progress Blog

Lobby Day with Campus Progress Action

Tommaso — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:09:13 EDT

On Wednesday, July 9, 2008 join the Campus Progress Advocacy Team, progressive partner organizations like the Energy Action Coalition and U.S. PIRG, and fellow young people from around the country for a lobby day on Capitol Hill that you won't forget. Choose from one of two issues to lobby about:

1. Tell Congress how they can make a difference in the economic lives of young people - college affordability, health care, jobs, etc.

2. Press Congress to work for an end to global warming and toward a clean energy future!

Never lobbied before? Don't worry. We'll provide the skills, materials, and schedule the appointments. Just e-mail us your name and the address where you are registered to vote and come ready to make your voice heard on the issues that matter to you!

9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
The Center for American Progress
1333 H Street NW, 10th floor
Washington D.C.

This event is free and open to all young people interested in turning their progressive values into action.

Campus Progress Testified in Congress on Credit Cards & Student Debt

pdelatorre — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:35:41 EDT

Campus Progress’s Erica Williams, along with the PIRGs and several other organizations, testified at the House Financial Services committee today on credit cards and student debt.

You can read her testimony here, and watch the hearing here.

Turning Down Money for Abstinence-Only

sekai.no.kakumei — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:42:29 EDT

Sex education has been a hot topic in the government and schools for years: do we teach abstinence-only, which includes inaccurate scientific information and scare tactics, or comprehensive sex education, which discusses condoms and, *gasp*, sex. The Bush Administration has been promoting abstinence-only education from the start, despite a study done by the Mathematica Policy Research group in April 2007 showing that participants of abstinence-only programs started having sex and had the same number of partners as non-participants. According to an Associated Press article released today, more states are dropping funding for abstinence-only education, and it’s sending a message.

John Edwards, Ryan Gosling, M-1, Adrienne Maree Brown: what else could you ask for?

Thomas Coen — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:00:30 EDT

That's right. On July 8 in Washington DC over 1000 young people from across the U.S. will gather to organize, network, and learn from some of the country's top activists, artists, journalists, and policy makers.

Take it from me, if you only go to one conference, one event, this year, the Campus Progress National Conference is one to go to. Every year I'm more and more impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of the attendees, the breadth and depth of the discussions led by the speakers, and just by the fun atmosphere (and great food). But don't take it from me, hear what John Edwards has to say:

Don't wait, spots are filling up fast, so apply today!

Barack Obama at 2006 Campus Progress National Conference

halperindavid — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:08:28 EDT

See this great clip of Senator Obama speaking at Campus Progress's 2006 National Conference, discussing the challenges of community organizing. There are still spots available for this year's Campus Progress National Conference, set for July 8 in DC. Watch the video, see how great the conference is, and apply today.

Giant Coffee Bean for Justice

pdelatorre — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:25:07 EDT

The University of Houston Students for Fair Trade, who have received a Campus Progress Action Grant, were featured in the Houston Chronicle yesterday for their long running and energetic campaign make all coffee sold on campus fair trade certified.

Check it out:

Students carrying a giant replica of a coffee bean stormed Chancellor Renu Khator's office at the University of Houston on Monday, the latest skirmish in their two-year campaign to force the school to offer only fair-trade coffee in a library kiosk. […]

The student government association last year approved a resolution supporting the proposal. Letters and other documents distributed by the student group indicated Aramark plans to install a Starbucks in the library, building the kiosk with $60,000 in student fees. (Starbucks buys some fair-trade coffee but not exclusively.)

And the winner of the iPod is...

Zach Pentel — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:12:45 EDT

Congradulations to Eric Probola who won an 8GB iPod Nano for his participation in the most recent Campus Progress Reader's Survey. A big thank you to everyone who participated in the survey and offered their insight - with your input, we can make CampusProgress.org an even better place.

Keep your eye out in the future for more contests and surveys with great prizes.

Want to know what to do in DC? Social Capital is what you need!

Thomas Coen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:13:29 EDT

Looking for fun after your first day on the Hill? Scavenging for free food to survive your low-pay or no-pay Beltway job? Seeking the loudest concerts and the coolest art shows? Curious about what really goes down at the Heritage dorms, Smith Point, and other right-wing hideaways? Social Capital is what you need.

Check out the newest part of CampusProgress.org!

Social Capital connects you with other young, progressive DC denizens looking for a good time. Whether your passion is breaking a sweat in a game of pick-up soccer on the Mall, going to shows at the Black Cat or 9:30 Club, hitting the wonky lecture circuit, or hunting down an open bar, Social Capital is your one-stop source for filling up your social calendar—and for up-to-the minute blogged accounts of intern snafus, random overheard chatter around DC, and interviews and portraits of some of DC’s most memorable characters, and more.

Check out Social Capital today!

Seymour Hersh to keynote National Youth Journalism Conference

Thomas Coen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:29:39 EDT

Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, whose storied career includes award-winning reporting on war and the arrogance of power from Vietnam and Watergate to Abu Graib, will keynote Campus Progress and The Nation's National Youth Journalism Conference.

Sy has some amazing stories to tell and it's an honor to have him speak at our conference. Check out this amazing clip of him at last year's Campus Progress National Conference:

Less nonwhite students at Michigan, Feds reviewing Princeton for racial bias

Lee — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:04:26 EDT

One and a half application cycles after the state of Michigan banned the use of race in admissions, underrepresented minorities at the University of Michigan will make up 10.5 percent of the incoming freshman class, the Michigan Daily
reports. Last year, which was only partially affected by the ban, the number was 10.8 percent, down from the 2006's 12.6 percent. Always looking on the bright side, university officials are "delighted" that this year's decrease was not more drastic.

Princeton University said the Education Department broadened its investigation of possible discrimination against Asian-American applicants.
In 2006, federal officials began investigating a claim from a student that Princeton rejected him because of his race and national origin. The student, 19-year-old Jian Li, initially enrolled at Yale University and is now at Harvard. Princeton says it didn't discriminate against Mr. Li

U.S. Supreme Court guarantees habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo Bay detainees

Preston Mitchum — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:43:47 EDT

The Bush administration opened Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba shortly after the “terrorist” attacks of September 11th to hold ‘enemy combatants,’ people suspected of ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban. This prison has been harshly criticized for the detentions themselves, aggressive interrogation tactics, and torture that were conducted there

In a reproach to President Bush’s administrative and supposed “anti-terror” policies, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba deserve habeas corpus. In order words, the detainees must know the reasons they are being held. Furthermore, the prisoners have the right to appeal to U.S. Civilian Courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment without charges. Of course, President Bush disagreed with the Courts’ decision and even suggested the he may seek further laws that could keep terror suspects detained in various prison camps, as his lame duck presidency comes to an end. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has repudiated his executive decision on Guantanamo Bay several times, our great President seems to not get the clue of what the American people truly wants.

Writing the opinion of the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy said “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times." As if anyone was shocked, Justice Antonin Scalia dissented in saying "this will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." I disagree with Scalia’s comments and believe the reason so many Americans are being killed is because the Bush administration fallacies on terrorism. Not only do they bring misleading notions to the forefront, they take hundreds of people, detain them, torture them, and act as if there hands are clean because they put them on a naval base not directly on U.S. territory. Furthermore, hundreds of prisoners were released because lack of evidence, but this torture camp was still active. Our government continues to have “bloody hands” and I am glad the U.S. Supreme Court came to this deeply divided decision.

Bush has argued the detentions are needed to protect the nation in a time of unprecedented threats from al-Qaida and other foreign terrorist groups. The president said Thursday, "It was a deeply divided court, and I strongly agree with those who dissented." He said he would consider whether to seek new laws in light of the ruling "so we can safely say to the American people, 'We're doing everything we can to protect you.' If the administration were truly doing everything to protect the American people, it is my belief that we would not be in this predicament in the first place. Doing everything you can to protect the American people would be to actually investigate and find people who are harming American values, not to find anyone who wears a head scarf and “looks like a Muslim,” whatever that may mean.

Chief Justice John Roberts criticized the decision of the court for striking down what he considers “the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.” I am so sure that the prisoners detained are thanking the United States for the generosity our government has given them, especially when they use interrogation tactics, a.k.a. torture tactics that they pretend don’t exist.

Either way, I have not been to thrilled with recent decisions of the Supreme Court (mainly Baze v. Rees), but I am pleased to know that the Court decided to grant habeas corpus rights to the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and recognizing a rule of law established hundreds of years ago – the right for a court to determine whether a prisoner is being detained lawfully.

For reference: Senator Barack Obama was in support of the Court’s decision, while Senator John McCain expressed his disapproval of the Court’s decision

Majority Opinion: Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, John Paul Stevens, and Stephen Breyer

Dissenting Opinion: Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito

Campus Progress Action Launches New Pushback Blog

Rob Anderson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:50:01 EDT

Campus Progress Action today launched its new blog, Pushback. Pushback is written and edited by a diverse group of eighteen young people from around the country, from Rashi Kesarwani, a Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker and journalist; to Masoud Shafaee, an American University law student who is a contributing writer to a Farsi publication; to Lisha Arino, a student and investigative reporter at Seton Hall University. At a time when young people are increasingly making their voices heard on politics and issues, Pushback will be one of the first blogs dedicated solely to letting “Millenials” speak for themselves. Pushback’s bloggers will discuss everything from politics to art and fashion, making Pushback the place to go to understand what this new generation really thinks. The posts will be thoughtful, the content will be provocative, and the bloggers will be accessible, regularly interacting with and responding to Pushback’s readers.

“Pundits have declared 2008 ‘the year of the youth vote,’” said Rob Anderson, editor of Pushback. “And they are right: Young people voted in record numbers in the presidential primaries, and that trend will likely continue in the general election. But journalists and conservatives continue to dismiss young people as apathetic slackers or naive idealists—and, worse, they rarely seek out the voices of young people themselves. With Pushback, we’re hoping to change that. At Pushback, young people will explain for themselves what they really want when it comes to politics, issues, and ideas.” A series of short videos on the site allow visitors to get to know the Pushback bloggers better.

Pushback is a project of Campus Progress Action. Campus Progress Action, part of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, works to strengthen progressive voices among young people nationwide and to empower new generations of leaders. Campus Progress, the partner organization of Campus Progress Action, runs a daily web magazine, CampusProgress.org; supports youth publications and issue campaigns; and has held over 500 campus and community events.

View the Pushback blog here.

View the Pushback launch video and meet the bloggers here.

CP1 Classics: Gas Pricez

halperindavid — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:28:28 EDT

With gas prices over $4, and, let's face it, way more than $4 at most of the gas stations near most of us, here's a Campus Progress classic -- the notorious Gas Pricez video. The Youtube link from our otherwise highly informative CP.org page is dead, but it lives on here.

Divided Politics Join to Save the Environment

sekai.no.kakumei — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:14:47 EDT

A new ad featuring Reverends Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson has been airing, with both men advocating for climate change. While there’s a great message behind it, it seems they make a bigger point in the ad to highlight their political difference. Maybe that’s needed when two opposing sides appear together to fight for a common issue. But does it work?

THe Next Netroots

Kay Steiger — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 13:35:19 EDT

A panel on netroots at the NCMR today talks about what happens if people supported by the netroots actually get into office. They talked about how the role will shift from watchdog to accountability. There's no doubt the netroots has done a great job of shifting to the debate. As Duncan Black, "the godfather of the netroots" as Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks dubbed him noted about how far we've come, the political debate used to "Range from The New Republic on the left [laughter] to the Free Republic on the right."

The favorite subject of big-media bashing turned up. Baratunde Thurston of Jack and Jill Politics and an Obama supporter noted that the talking heads were "dangerously unqualified to talk" and that "cable news is a terrible place for an idea." Additionally, Gina Cooper of Netroots Nation acknowledged the homogeneous nature of the convention, then known as Yearly Kos. (It's a claim that Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake has spent some time disputing.) She thought that now bloggers will begin to have to address some of its own internal problems.

Live Blogging -- Day 2 at the National Conference for Media Reform

Thomas Coen — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 12:14:41 EDT

*** UPDATE 9:20PM CST

For anyone hanging out at home right now, you should check out the live broadcast of tonight's keynote plenary. There are some great speakers and acts including a former producer of the Daily Show. An editor of The Onion is cracking up the audience right now. I'll update if anything really interesting happens.

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For anyone who hasn't seen enough analysis of the historic Democratic primary yet, I checked out a panel discussion on Coverage of Race and Gender in the 2008 Campaign.

Yet, I really wanted to see the perspectives on this panel that were unfiltered by the mainstream people, that provided a variety of perspectives and views that is incredibly difficult if not impossible to find on CNN, Fox, or any other major news outlet. An intelligent discussion of race and gender campaign coverage --that's what I was looking forward to.

The panelist quickly agreed that, as Roberto Lovato summed up, the hatred and abuse of Black people and women is alive and well in the main stream media.

The panelists pointed blame squarely at the ingrained media institutions that continue to perpetuate and manufacture racism and sexism. Laura Flanders brought up the economical arguement for the sorry state of the coverage of race and gender in the campaign: the Media are multinational, global corporations. Flanders says flatly that "The most restrictive force in America is power" --not race or gender -- and "The media has become the most restrictive power in our democracy."

Bill Moyers on the State of Media Today

Kay Steiger — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:11:12 EDT

Bill Moyers spoke at the National Conference on Media Reform early this morning. His message was more motivational than investigative. His message was peppered with language that sought to empower attendees. "You are not alone," he said, after a demonstration in which he asked each person to stand up and meet the person on either side. It was a new role for a man who has produced "Buying the War" and other investigative documentaries produced by public media. But there was still a strain of more typical Moyers-style criticism. "We now know," he said, "that a neo-conservative is someone who sets a house on fire and then six years later boasts that it cannot be put out."

Moyers is something of a lifelong maker of public media, there at its inception and a survivor of the many attacks on its editorial independence for being "too liberal." He highlighted the nature of web media today, where the line between editorial and advertising is becoming blurrier and less defined. Already, he noted, advertisers are buying keywords in news articles ("Do we think they'll buy keywords like 'health care reform'?") It is something Moyers said is being called "communi-tainment." Moyers is right to point out the failings of for-profit media, but it is also certain that a true democracy needs not just public media, not just non-profit media, not just commercialized media, but all of these. When they are in balance, they will call one another out on their failings.

Reforming Election Coverage

Kay Steiger — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:56:24 EDT

I'm in the panel on the election at the NCMR in Minneapolis. The panelists widely acknowledge there are a lot of problems with media coverage and the election. David Sirota, author of the new book The Uprising, noted that people are panicking over the disastrous process of the Democratic primary -- even though it is in at the basic sense of the word democratic. Robert "Biko" Baker of the League of Young Voters performed a spoken word poem about disenfranchised, working-class, youth of color that are largely left out of the youth vote surge. He noted that some of his friends are among the fallen in Iraq, but more of his friends are among the fallen of hopelessness and economic insecurity.

In the end, the panel is acknowledging that the diverse pool of candidates in the presidential election has shamed many members of the media into acknowledging that isn't own pool isn't so diverse. More women and commentators of color (and those that overlap between the two categories) are filling the ranks of the talking heads -- something that was long overdue. But in the end, we want media that reflects the composition of America.

Live Blogging --National Conference for Media Reform

Thomas Coen — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:05:15 EDT

***UPDATE 2:00PM CTS

I'm sitting in on a panel discussion about How Independent Media Creates Change with an all-star cast of panelists -- Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake.com, Daisy Hernandez of ColorLines,and Jefferson Moreley of Center for Independent Media, moderated by Tracy Van Slyke of the Media Consortium.

Robert Greenwald led things off by pointing out two Fox News reporters sitting in the front row of the auditorium. Apparently, Fox is covering over a day of the conference. Greenwald had harsh words for the folks at Fox for their smear tactics in the past when covering some of the wonderful speakers at the NCMR. So, if you want to see some interesting spin of this conference, be sure to follow the coverage on Fox News. I wonder how they'll frame the conference, particularly appearances by Dan Rather, Naomi Klein, Arianna Huffington, and others tomorrow night.

Jane Hamsher, who's speaking now, just bashed Fox News too over the false rumors they spread concerning Barack Obama's religion.

More to come...

Taking back our future

Tommaso — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:26:19 EDT

For too many years previous generations have allowed our pollution economy to continue to exacerbate social, economic and environmental inequalities in the world. It is time for our generation to take a stance and protect our future from droughts, floods, stronger storms, spread of tropical diseases, and, yes, the death of the polar bear.

The Energy Action Coalition, of which Campus Progress is a partner, launched PowerVote, a campaign to build a 1,000,000 youth movement to stop the most pressing issue of our generation

Check out this cool youtube video and witness the passion and enthusiasms of students involved in this movement.