Read it here.

President Bush yesterday vetoed a $35 billion expansion of a popular children’s health insurance program, a move that left him as politically isolated as he has ever been and had even Republican allies questioning his hard-line strategy.

Bush advisers said they remain hopeful that they can secure an extension of the 10-year-old program with a lower price tag, saying they want to open negotiations soon.

The Tennessee delegation left for Columbia, S.C. via several carpools and a couple airports. For some of us it was an easy 4 to 5 hour drive, but for some it took more like 12 (driving from D.C.). By 1 p.m. everyone had arrived safely at the University of South Carolina (USC was the host site for the convention).

A few delegates arrived in S.C. in time to attend the CDA National Council meeting (the NC is similar to an executive committee or legislative body of some organizations) where Tennessee cast the tie-breaking vote in the NC elections. What is it with close elections and Tennessee being put on the spot?

There were a few other closed sessions that day for state federation officers and chapter presidents; I’ll not go into the mind-numbing details (you’re welcome).

Margaret Franklin, Kristen Spires, and Charlotte Kimsey.

But at 4 p.m. Thursday it came time for the convention kick-off and what many students had been waiting so restlessly for: Senator Barak Obama.

Following the kick-off festivities, several delegates attended the base-vote constituency caucus meetings (African American, Asian American & Pacific Islander, Disability, GLBT, and Hispanic) to elect caucus officers and plan the coming year’s events/programs.

All of Thursday’s official business wrapped up by 9 p.m., and from there several delegates attended gatherings hosted by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Day 2: Friday, July 27

The morning started off bright and early for delegates attending the breakfast meeting for the CDA Faith Caucus (yes, we have one), where students heard remarks from Rev. Romal Tune.

The rest of the day was spent attending training workshops on a wide range of topics. Here is a peak at the trainings delegates attended:

• Psychology of Making the Ask
• Earned Media and Press Outreach
• Getting Support from State Parties and Allies
• New Media Organizing Tools
• Managing Chapters, Writing Plans

All that lasted from roughly 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., when the block party began. The event consisted of a street fair with food, games, and live entertainment.

Margaret Franklin, Adam Green, Caitlin Elledge.

A lot of the excitement this evening surrounded John Edwards scheduled appearance. The students seem to like Edwards’ preference for rally-style events rather than the indoor events that keep you from crowding around a stage to see the candidate up close and personal. Many students remarked afterwards that this event showed Edwards at his best.

Day 3: Saturday, July 28

Here’s a quick overview of Saturday morning’s early activities: Women’s Caucus meeting, briefing on how to become a delegate/alternate at the 2008 DNC Convention.

Late morning gave us what was supposed to be a host of speakers, but with Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Senator Mike Gravel canceling, we heard from House Majority Whip James Clyburn and Senator Hillary Clinton.

TFCD Vice President Caitlin Elledge with Hillary Clinton

Clinton gave a flawless delivery and was more on message to students than in past speeches to CDA (my personal opinion). The only problem she encountered was a protester who was successful in walking all the way down the center aisle of the ballroom to within 30 feet from Clinton. The students reacted quickly, drowning out her screaming with chanting and cheers. She was removed, but remained in the building to talk with students, media, et al. She threw away her sign but it ended up being a prop for dozens upon dozens (dare I say hundreds?) of photos.

Trent Thompson of the Alabama Delegation.

The afternoon began with continued training workshops and moved on to a Q&A session with candidates running for national CDA offices. The elections began around 5 p.m. Sunday, but did not take as long as expected (only two races were seriously contested). Sam Hodge (MO) and Kyle Schulberg (MA) deserve honorable mention for their election victories. [Note: Tennessee has gained bellwether status with CDA internal poltics in recent years.]

CDA closed with remarks from the eloquent S.C. state Rep. Bakari Sellers and Jamie Harrison, chief of staff to Rep. James Clyburn, and afterwards a cake and ice cream reception.

Day 4: Sunday, July 29

We hated to leave beautiful Columbia, S.C. and USC, but with summer classes, exams, internships, and you name it, our mid-morning departure was inevitable. Again, some of us drove, some flew, and some joined caravans back to their D.C. summer internships.

But our return journeys were not with out excitement. The Chattanooga delegation (along with one TSU delegate) took a unintentional “short cut”. I’ll not go into details; I’ll just post this following picture (Hint: Look at the terrain).

]]> http://www.tfcd.org/2007/08/01/tennessee-students-attend-national-college-democrats-convention/feed/ 0 http://www.tfcd.org/2007/02/20/tennessee-federation-of-college-democrats-to-hold-2007-spring-conference/ http://www.tfcd.org/2007/02/20/tennessee-federation-of-college-democrats-to-hold-2007-spring-conference/#comments Wed, 21 Feb 2007 02:07:04 +0000 Administrator http://www.tfcd.org/2007/02/20/tennessee-federation-of-college-democrats-to-hold-2007-spring-conference/ NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Federation of College Democrats would like to announce plans to hold its 2007 Spring Conference in Nashville on March 31st. The purpose of the conference is to organize and train chapters and to develop a statewide strategy for strengthening the infrastructure of the College Democrats in Tennessee.

“College Democrats are coming out of the wood work on Tennessee campuses like I’ve never seen before,” said Alex Youn, TFCD President. “We hope to have the most productive conference in the history of our organization.”

“This conference will provide the tools necessary for local chapters to grow and prepare for the coming elections.”

Participation from all College Democrats chapters across the state is encouraged. Those who attend will have the opportunity to participate in breakout sessions on a variety of issues, including: chapter development, fundraising, and voter registration.

The summit will be held on Saturday, March 31st. We ask that all those attending plan on staying in Nashville from 9 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

To attend the summit, we ask that you visit the following website and complete the registration form:

http://www.tfcd.org/2007-spring-conference/

For more information, please contact:
Adam Green, Communications Director [agreen@tfcd.org]

About the TFCD

The Tennessee Federation of College Democrats is a group designated to unite, lead and coordinate chapters of College Democrats of America on college campuses throughout Tennessee.

President Bush tonight will try to change the subject — and will fail.

That’s the consensus of the Washington press corps, which is nearly unanimous today in describing a badly weakened president desperate to boost his standing by talking about anything but Iraq.

Register Now!

This particular DNC meeting is exciting because it will attract all of the Democratic Presidential candidates for 2008. In 2003, when CDA took part in a similar event, numerous presidential candidates specifically addressed the College Democrats and students got to see all of the speeches before the DNC. This is a very exciting opportunity and we hope that you can attend!

The DNC meeting will be held at the Hilton Washington Hotel at 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW. We have a room block at the George Washington University Inn at 824 New Hampshie Ave NW. This is a short metro ride away from where our meeting will be held. The room rate is 129.99 a night and each room can fit four people. The phone number for the hotel is 1-800-426-4455. Please call the hotel to make reservations.

We will be sponsoring a lobbying day Thursday, February 1 and the Leadership Summit programming will begin in the evening. The summit will end Sunday, February 4 in the afternoon.

We encourage you to fly in to Reagan National Airport in Washington DC so that you can take the Metro to the hotel.

Register Now!

UT Democrats numbers rise
The Daily Beacon
2006.09.05

News and notes from the campaign trail in Tennessee
AP Newswire
2006.09.07

College Democrats dominate campus politics
By: Heather McPherson
Source: utcecho.com

Although both sides of the political spectrum are represented on UTC’s campus, student Democrats have had a more prominent presence for the last several years.

Democrats and Republicans have organized groups on campus, but most people agree that the College Democrats have been the most noticeable political force at UTC. The College Republicans group is not registered with the school, but it does exist.

“The College Democrats are probably the ones I’ve seen more of,” said Will Williams, director of student rogramming and organizations.

He also cited a pro-life group as being active, but all other clubs — Republican, Green and Libertarian — have disappeared from the university’s radar.

“Most people really don’t know we’re here,” said David Goldman, president of the College Republicans for fall 2005 to spring 2006. “But come fall, we’ll have a regular meeting place [and] we’ll make sure the times we meet on a regular basis are well-known.”

Most political groups agree that the struggle is that people join and work at election time, but don’t want to do anything on an ongoing basis.

“When there’s a big presidential election, everybody’s really active and then it dies down and someone has to restart it about every three years,” said Meredith Preston, president of the College Democrats. “But we’ve actually been going about two to three years now.”

Robert Swansbrough, faculty adviser to the College Democrats, said the secret to a lasting political group is a core of highly committed members.

When the College Democrats elected Preston last year, she vowed to not allow the group to become inactive again.

“We’re actually trying to start a sort of scrapbook for the new people coming in so that if it does die down [again], people have the resources … so they don’t have to start from scratch,” she said.

The Republicans are truly starting from scratch to re-establish themselves.

“The group is young,” Goldman said. “This semester was just a lot of organizational [planning] [and] getting us to where we want to be.”

The club has re-ordered their leadership, begun writing a new constitution, and re-addressed its most basic functions.

Goldman said they decided to do a lot of this after attending the Tennessee College Convention.

“It was a learning experience,” Goldman said. “What we came back with was the feeling that we needed to be involved on the state level and with other presidents of other groups … all the different College Republican groups. We need to be in contact with them and work with them.”

Both groups agree that it’s important for everyone to get involved in political groups.

“College students may feel that the political involvement and political issues really don’t pertain to them and they don’t really have a stake in the issues, but everybody has a stake in political issues,” Goldman said. “Being able to organize [people] in a group makes your voice just a little louder for those in power.”

Swansbrough agreed. “One of the things I’ve found over the years, thinking back during the Vietnam era when I was in graduate school, was that so often college students feel impotent — powerless — because they don’t get involved,” he said. “Politicians really want to attract young people to vote, but the way to really woo and influence lawmakers is to be active, involved and have [the] opportunity to express your views.”

Meeting time and place may vary next year, but currently the College Democrats meet at 4 p.m. on Thursdays in Fletcher Hall. The Republican group meets at 6 p.m. on Thursdays in the UC.

The purpose of the College Democrats is to support the philosophy and candidates of the Democratic Party and to support all efforts to increase student participation in Democratic affairs, according to the group’s constitution.

“[Our purpose is] to get people more involved and get more people aware,” Preston said. “We just want people to be educated on issues and know how they can help. And our primary purpose is to help get Democrats elected.”

The Republicans responded with a more global goal.

“The purpose of the UTC College Republicans is to be an outlet for students to get involved with issues and campaigns that will make a positive impact within the community, state and entire nation,” Goldman said.

“As a group, our mission is to spread our conservative philosophy and core principles for the advancement and empowerment of society. An essential goal of the group is to serve as an environment where our members can develop professional business and leadership skills with the intention of being productive and thoughtful citizens and public servants.”

Though many of the students in both groups are political science majors, other majors are represented as well.

Preston said the College Democrats include environmental science students, English students and a few graduate students. The Republicans have many medical and business students, Goldman said.

For more information on College Democrats, contact Adam Green at Adam-Green@utc.edu.

For the College Republicans, contact Ronald Noe at Ronald-Noe@utc.edu.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 13, 2006, 12 p.m.)– American Red Cross relief continues in the Nashville area, with two Service Centers now open in Sumner County.

The Red Cross Service Centers serve as hubs for Red Cross relief efforts. There, clients may meet with a Red Cross caseworker to have emergency financial, mental health and other needs met. Service Centers are open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Those needing assistance may visit either of the following Service Center locations:

Gallatin – 670 Nashville Pike (Former Big Lots building)
Hendersonville – 393 East Main Street at Bonita Parkway (In Hazel Path Commons)

Two stationary Emergency Aid Stations remain open, where clients may receive mental health support, first aid, financial assistance and bulk items including rakes and shovels, gloves, flashlights, trash bags, paper towels, prepackaged snacks and bottled water. Clients may visit the following Emergency Aid Stations, which are open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.:

Gallatin — Corner of Water Street and Hwy 109
Goodlettsville — Baker’s Chapel Church, 206 New Brick Church Pike
(Aid station locations are subject to change daily. For updated information on Red Cross assistance, call 250-4300.)

In addition, Emergency Response Vehicles and bulk distribution vans are canvassing the affected areas, delivering hot meals and supplies. Roughly 200 Red Cross workers have been working around the clock to meet clients’ needs, and including serving more than 15,500 meals and snacks to those affected.

Those wishing to aid in Red Cross relief efforts by giving a financial donation or volunteering their time may visit www.nashvilleredcross.org, or call 1-800-HELP NOW.

The Nashville Area Red Cross serves ten counties in Middle Tennessee as a humanitarian organization, led by volunteers, that provides relief to victims of disaster and helps people prevent, prepare and respond to emergencies. The Red Cross is not a government agency. The United Way supports Red Cross efforts in Cheatham, Davidson, DeKalb, Dickson, Sumner, Robertson and Wilson Counties.

All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from the American people. You can help the victims of the Tennessee tornadoes and thousands of other disasters across the country each year, by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Please call 1-800-HELP-NOW or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). Contributions to the Disaster Relief Fund may be sent to your local American Red Cross chapter or to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, DC 20013. Internet users can make a secure online contribution by visiting www.redcross.org. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation.

###

Sunday, April 30th at 5:00 p.m.
Cooter’s Place
2613B McGavockPike
Nashville, TN 37214

Foxes in the Henhouse is a hard hitting treatise that national Democratic leaders are lauding as a stunningly complete political blueprint for future Democratic success. Senator Bob Kerrey, who knows a little something about winning in red states, has written the foreword. This long-needed account documents the Republicans’ rise in the South and Midwest, while it exposes the hypocrisy that marked their ascent. It then offers a thorough, detailed and logical take no prisoners plan to kick them out in many cases by turning their perceived strengths into glaring weaknesses.

“Rural strategists” Dave “Mudcat” Saunders and Steve Jarding have become famous for securing Democratic victories in places they shouldn’t have – in the reddest of red states. Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a longtime veteran of politics in Virginia, has served as rural liaison and senior adviser for Mark Warner’s successful Virginia campaign in 2001, senior advisor to Senator John Edwards, and senior advisor to Senator Bob Graham of Florida. As a self-defined “enlisted man,” Mudcat has used his meteoric rise as a national political strategist as an example to inspire rank-and-file Democratic soldiers all across America. Mudcat’s unique qualifications to help Democrats win in southern and rural America stem in part from his vast connections, knowledge, and work in the cultures of those areas.

For information, please visit www.foxesinthehenhouse.com or www.simonsays.com.