"Yo man. Let me get this straight. You work five hours a week and they pay you 50 G’s?"

It wasn’t a rhetorical question. Calvin, who as far I know answers only to "Hot Rod," was expecting an answer, and I wasn’t sure what to say – especially since I was pretty sure that Hot Rod didn’t even know that I don’t teach in the summers.

"Dawg, I’m in the classroom five hours, but I spend a lot more time preparing for class. It’s just like out here, baby (I shove the basketball into the pit of his stomach); I only teach your ass for about an hour, but I spent years perfecting those pretty moves."

Hot Rod chuckles at the lie. I play hard, have a passable jump shot, and am a willing passer, but at 35 my quickness and jumping ability ain’t what they used to be, and they never used to be all that good. As Mister Señor Love Daddy likes to say, "that’s the truth, Ruth," but I’m not complaining – far from it. I get to hoop three or four times per week, which isn’t too bad considering that, my conversation with Hot Rod notwithstanding, teaching is just one of several professional activities that I and other university faculty juggle. But I’m getting ahead of my story.

on a conference call this week to NY grassroots leaders, The NY Democratic Party announced the launch of the DNC's new voter file program. The new software program will lay the foundations of political campaigns across the country for years to come

Finally, College Democrats of NY are a PAC and are on Act Blue! Plus, we've had great success expanding our operations and have increased our total number of college democrat chapters.

I am reporting this press release about an alleged academic freedom case in Red Oak, Iowa. I have not been able to find any corroboration of the case. However, I have a reasonable trust for Common Dreams and the details given of the case are credible to me given my own experiences and those of others I am aware of. If the facts of this case are true, it is disturbing. Also disturbing is the lack of public interest in such cases.

Please forgive me as this piece doesn't directly pertain to politics.  

I wrote this essay a few weeks ago about an encounter that made me think about my career path and life as a writer.  After reading numerous beautiful diaries/comments from writers and journalists here on Daily Kos, I was inspired to share.

So here it is, for what it's worth.  Hopefully this will serve as a tribute and reassurance to my fellow aspiring writers, as well as those who may have changed in profession but not in spirit.  

I love solutions that address multiple issues at once, so it’s fitting that this tidbit of good news out of Ohio is the first diary from this Ohioan.

Wonkette summedup Jonah Goldberg's column today in LATimes as a "paean to the God of shit" and that pretty much sums it up.
Here's how the column starts:

There's a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to run afoul of the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery.

And I honestly can't claim that the column gets any better from there on.
Mr Goldberg claims that because Obama's plan for college loans comes with "strings attached", it constitutes "involuntary servitude".
Go figure!

This is dumb enough but it goes further.. much further..

Today my daughter turns eleven.

Wow, it seems like just yesterday that she was born.  As a matter of fact, I’ll never forget the day that I found out she had been conceived.  November 5th, 1996.  Election day.  What a day.  I was so excited to be voting for the first time and then to find out I was having a child.  Actually, that part scared the shit out of me.  You see, I hadn’t voted before that day because I wasn’t legally old enough.  I had just turned eighteen.  Old enough to vote, but way too young to become a father.

I really need to take a moment to vent.  I just walked out of a Macroeconomics final and it was a total load of crap.  Before I go on let me explain that I am an excellent student.  I take my GPA very seriously.  In the spring I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I was trending toward a B in microeconomics.  I buckled down and worked my butt off and came out with a solid A.

I had heard that macro was much easier, but I wasn't taking that for granted.  I went into this five week summer session expecting to work hard, and expecting to get a good grade.  Right now I would be lucky to get a C and here is why:

for all that Obama claims that his movement comes from the ground up at a grassroots level, it is truly his inspiration and message of hope from the top-down that has had a trickle down effect from the top of grassroots organizations to the very bottom of local leaders. How his change has made an impact with college democrats and young democrat organizations

in this diary entry, I talk about the latest state of affairs for NY College Democrats. We're in the process of trying to obtain PAC status.

In NY and across the country, political college groups are fighting the school's student association and the administration for money and rights. How student interests need to be represented to make sure the little guys doesn't get screwed.

As President of NY College Democrats, one of the daily challenges facing my organization is getting more college students to register to vote and go to the polls on Election Day. I disect the reasoning below:

I'd say this notion of a "Knowledge Economy" is a subversive elitist campaign translated to mean, "The American Dream now comes with an IQ Test, administered by us. Do you have your application fee?"

This is my second diary entry so let me preface by saying i was overwhelmed by the 11 responses to my first diary entry. I thought that with the thousands of diary entries on Daily kos, no one would read my entry. Thanks to all that did and left comments.

Today i talk about the challenges of fundraising for a grassroots organization in NY and a surprise i got in the mail yesterday

Hey folks, my name is Dan Levin and I am the 2008-09 President of the NY State College Democrats. In an effort to speak for the voice of college students in the Great State of NY, I've joined the Daily Kos network to reach out to college students.

Sorry if this isn't a particularly long or well researched diary, but a thought just came to me that I haven't heard voiced over the last week or so.

Perhaps no other domestic social issue divides the two major political parties more than hate crimes and hate crime legislation.  You'd be hard-pressed to find an issue with such consistent party-divided voting records as the ones that occur regarding hate crime legislation.  In 2000, for instance, the U.S. Senate voted on the "Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 2000", a hate crime amendment (S. Amdt. 3473) meant to beef up an already existing federal hate crime law sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy. The amendment vote had 44 of 45 Democrats voting for the measure (only West Virginia's Robert Byrd opposed it) whereas only 13 of 55 Republicans voted for it (one Republican abstained).  The amendment fell short by three votes to move it closer toward passage.