RNC

Still no word on data from CIRCLE . . . sorry. Waiting on them for my post-election recap.

• Rolling Stone skewers the Senate in The Senate Caves.
• Peter Levine - Director of CIRCLE - splashes some cold water on the idea that party identification forms early and hardens for life. Yikes, let's hope not.
• In the past I've had real disagreements with Courtney Martin's reading of today's youth activism, but she does us all proud in this op-ed for the Women's Media Center.
• The RNC tried to pull ahead of the DNC in the race for Facebook friends. It backfired hilariously. Full story at Tech President.
• Campaigns and Elections has released a list of Rising Stars Under 35. A few are familiar. Most are not. What do you think of the list?
• Apparently, in his quest to craft a "better" GI Bill than the one offered (and recently passed) by Jim Webb, John McCain didn't actually consult many veterans. You stay classy, McCain.

Stuff you should know and see that I won't be blogging in depth:

• Looks like we have another YEO! John Tyler Hammons, a 17 year old freshman at the University of Oklahoma was elected the mayor of Muskegee, a town of 38,000 people. He ran on a good government platform and won in a run-off against the former mayor, capturing 70% of the vote. Way to go John. - The Politico
• Young evangelicals continue to abandon Bush and the GOP over Iraq and the economy. - Huffington Post
• The Godfathers of GOTV testing and research, Gerber and Green, have a new book out pimping Peer to Peer as the best form of organizing. Direct mail and robo-call consultants everywhere are not happy. - Campaigns and Elections
• Two articles say that Obama will need the "senior vote" if he is to beat McCain. I tend not to agree. There are more voters under 30 than over 65, and in some contests we are already performing on par with their turnout. It all depends on how many new young voters show up in November. - Democratic Strategist
• Obama is the king of voter-generated music tributes. - The Politico
• Republicans held a fashion show on the National Mall to show off their new convention swag. This was my favorite photo. And no, this is not a joke. - Minnesota Monitor

Who at the GOP thought it was a good idea to bring back MC Hammer pants? And I'm pretty sure that if that little girl were a lib'rul, we'd hear wingnuts screaming about flag desecration.

We may have a couple big announcements here over the next couple days. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's what's going on around the interweb.

• Free Exchange on Campus rips apart this glossy poster that you can get free from Young America Foundation. Mine is already in the mail.

  

• Just when a new survey by the ONE Campaign finds that:
  

  More than nine in ten Democrats (93%) and 84% of Republicans agree that when millions of children around the world are dying from preventable diseases and hunger, we have a moral obligation to do what we can to help. Similarly, Democrats (90%) and Republicans (85%) agree that it is in keeping with the country’s values and our history of compassion to lead an effort to solve some of the most serious problems facing the world’s poorest people.

  When it comes to addressing these issues, Democrats (86%) and Republicans (67%) agree that it is important for Presidential candidates to discuss their plans for addressing global hunger and poverty issues in this campaign. Additionally, eight in ten Democrats (81%) and Republicans (80%) agree that the next president should keep the commitments made by President Bush to prevent and fight the spread of AIDS in Africa.

  - members of the Republican National Convention tried (and failed) to remove the party's support for One Vote '08, the ONE campaign's program to move issues of global poverty into the US election. Yet another awesome bit of strategery from Republicans, and one that the kids, I'm sure, will love.

• Live Earth wants your feedback on what they should do next.
• The Uptake reports that the DNC in Denver next year will be the most open convention ever, with just about everything streamed over the web. Very soon there's going to be a big push to get young people elected delegates to the DNC. It might be interesting to see if a couple of those young folks would consent to broadcasting their entire convention experience - even the process of getting elected a delegate - a la Justin.TV. Or at least get a crew together and cut a short documentary. If it came out more Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, I'd watch it.

Your national security state at work.

From these operations, run by the department’s “R.N.C. Intelligence Squad,” the police identified a handful of groups and individuals who expressed interest in creating havoc during the convention, as well as some who used Web sites to urge or predict violence.

But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped “N.Y.P.D. Secret,” the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.

These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.

In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities. A police report on an organization of artists called Bands Against Bush noted that the group was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets, the report said, there would be political speeches and videos.

“Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda,” said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003. “Police departments in above listed areas have been contacted regarding this event.”

It wouldn't surprise me to find MFA, myself, or people I know in those files. Sometimes thinking about where we're at as a country can get a little abstract. Seeing Bands Against Bush listed in this article today hit me a lot harder than a blog or article about the latest administration scandal ever could.