Hello and Welcome to a brand new College Democrats website – and with the site a new blog and videos with stories from across the country, a newsletter to let you know what we are up to, and podcasts that you can listen to on your way to class.

CDA is expanding upon its efforts in hopes to truly get input from across the country. If you have a story, a video, or a podcast from your campus that you want to share, let us know. We hope to feature as many stories as possible from schools from all fifty states. Keep checking back for daily updates, download our podcasts and spread our videos on Facebook and MySpace. Keep up the momentum, mobilize the vote, and get ready for November 2008!

Check out CDA National Council Chair, Iraq War Veteran, and Bowdoin College Senior Alex Cornell du Houx's front page featured blog post about his views regarding the disastrous, war in Iraq. Click here to read it.

Also be sure to check out National Political Affairs Director and Truman State Senior Sam Hodge's remarks on the Housing and Urban Development Secretary, and on the cronyism mentality of the Bush Administration. Click here to read it.

Finally check out CDA National President Lauren Wolfe's commentary on the 2007 National Convention, and on the increasing importance of the youth vote. Click here to read it.

During the Convention, Senator Edwards will be bringing his campaign directly to us. Senator Edwards has shown a commitment to engaging the youth of America and our issues. And we are very excited that he is joining us in Columbia. To learn more about the John Edwards for President Campaign, visit http://johnedwards.com

For more information on CDA '07 please visit us at http://convention.collegedems.com

Sign up now to take advantage of the low-price early registration and to secure your place to see Senator Edwards.

Be on the lookout for more convention announcements.

In addition to our own Facebook, YouTube and Podcasting efforts, the College Democrats hope to have an impact on other progressive new media efforts!

Let's begin with what is most relevant to us students, the widening Student Loan Scandal. Remember when your school gave you information about how much school could cost you, and then showed you a list of student loan companies? Well, the companies listed are no accident, they've paid a lot to be on that list. In fact, they've paid the people handing you the list. Many financial aid officers were given a 2% cut of the interest accrued off your college career. Some were even flown out to exotic vacation destinations on your dime while you were writing a PoliSci term paper. As of right now, the investigation is headed by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and so far 6 Universities have fessed up (partly): Syracuse University and the University of Pennsylvania, just to name a couple. And the companies involved are some of the top sellers in the industry, Sallie Mai and Citibank currently top the list. Student loans are a big, $85 billion dollar industry, and it looks like the comfortable relationship between financial aid officers and student loan lenders have resulted in an artificial hike in fees at the same time as the price of college tuition has skyrocketed - not to mention the Republican's own raid of our Student Aid last year. That's very, very, very bad news for us.

But it isn't just the students suffering from this increasingly bleak "who you know" culture. The unquestioned king of insiders remains Karl Rove, who has recently been found to have been using governmental agencies to form a significant branch of Republican re-election efforts. Let me say this again with more effect: YOUR TAX DOLLARS ARE BEING USED TO RE-ELECT REPUBLICANS!!! Fortunately, because we have a Democratic Legislative Branch now (best Christmas gift ever), we now receive federal probes into these activities. And what's come out hasn't been pretty. Seems that at the end of January the General Services Administration housed a talk on "how we use GSA to help our candidates in the next election." It is increasingly evident that this has been going on for awhile. Remember the seemingly impossible Republican ascent in 2004? Well, this might help explain how it's possibility was driven by some very cynical internal deals in a manipulated government.

It reminds me of Enron, back when the companies former employees were given a brutal reminder of this insider trading. As College Democrats, we must address the Student Loan Scandal on our campuses, but we also have to keep in mind that we all have a bigger battle to fight for our lives and for our country. We must make Democracy fully accessible to everyone, and we must make companies, like those involved in the Student Loan Scandal, fully transparent to those investing in their products. We all deserve better.

Martin Luther King was shot a month ago. He died, too. So it goes.

And every day my Government gives me a count of corpses created by military science in Vietnam. So it goes."

Those words were among the concluding lines of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," finished within days of Robert Kennedy's assassination.

Every college student in the 1960's and 1970's was at least familiar with Vonnegut, if not within an arm's reach of one of his 14 novels at all times.

From the NYT:

Mr. Vonnegut shed the label of science fiction writer with "Slaughterhouse-Five." It tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, an infantry scout (as Mr. Vonnegut was), who discovers the horror of war. "You know -- we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves," an English colonel says in the book. "We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. My God, my God -- I said to myself, 'It's the Children's Crusade.'

Kurt Vonnegut died Wednesday night in Manhattan at the age of 84.

So it goes.

Yesterday evening, MoveOn.org hosted a Virtual Town Hall Forum for the Democratic Candidates for President in 2008. I just finished "watching" the Internet audio provided by PoliticsTV.com, but you don't need to leave to see them for yourself! Continue reading this thread, and you'll find all of the broadcasts embedded as video, although the recording is simple audio with static screen shots, stock photographs, and sponsor credits.

I encourage everyone to either purchase or rent this DVD this week. While the film's performance at the box office did not accurately portray its cinematic beauty, the film is indeed worthy of cinematic praise. While the film did not bode well at elite award shows in America, it received extensive accolades at independent film festivals abroad. One festival attendee stated: "the film reminded me of the America I miss."

This film and more importantly the message and legacy of Robert Kennedy are vital to a generation long deprived of the aggressive idealism and inspiring eloquence found in the late Senator. RFK's powerful words and actions put forth in the midst of social turmoil and war are just as relevant today as they were in 1968. The lessons attained from noting Robert Kennedy's role in history are lessons our country can't afford to disregard.

The following is a tribute to Robert Kennedy. The speech within the video was the eulogy delivered by Senator Ted Kennedy at RFK's funeral.

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy

November 20, 1925 - June 6, 1968

"The Widening College Loan Scandal."

When the coast was clear, Ahmed recovered the body of his best friend and buried him with his own hands.

I wanted to write some eloquent argument against the war, with some passing trite comment about Bush, Cheney, and Rove... but in the end I couldn't. I just borrowed a story from one friend (name changed) who has gone through hell these past few years. He's one of the lucky ones; he managed to find a way to study in the US. Countless Iraqis his age are now selling their own bodies so that their families can eat. One day I asked him what America had to do in Iraq. He stared at me, tears welling in his eyes:

"Get the [expletive deleted] out."

And I know that he is right.

CDA President Lauren Wolfe invites YOU to South Carolina, July 26th-29th, to engage with College Dems from across the country.

Want to train with the best? Want to have fun while networking with fellow College Dems? Want to learn how to get involved in the 2008 Election?

Listen to the latest CDA podcast here for all the details.

Check out this podcast, on which Lauren talks about our upcoming convention. Click here for the MP3, or click here to subscribe in iTunes.