lobbying

Just a reminder, Power Shift '09 starts tomorrow. 10,000 young climate and energy activists will descend on DC for three days of training, planning, and direct lobbying. If you haven't checked it out, yet there might be some tickets for sale at the door if you live in the DC area.

The Senate is preparing to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. This is a chance to strip some very harmful law from the act which prevents students with drug-related convictions from receiving financial aid. Students for a Sensible Drug Policy have a novel video modeling what it's like to do the activism:

I think this is probably a really smart thing to do: video yourself doing a little lobbying, and I hope it works. This rule is one of the most counterproductive, knee-jerk pieces of "law and order" legislation out there. It was passed in 1998 under Clinton and is a particularly good example of how ineffective and culturally insensitive his "third way" really was. Check out the personal story from Jesus' General, who got busted hooking up some informants w/pot in 1979: