'Obamania' at Jefferson-Jackson

This photo is not Photoshopped in any way – we promise!

Illinois Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama came to Richmond Saturday to speak at the Virginia Democratic Party's 2007 annual Jefferson-Jackson fundraiser dinner. Twelve VCU Young Democrats were there to hear the story behind The Audacity of Hope (spoiler: it turns out to be a line from a pastor's sermon in Chicago), as well as take in the sights, sounds and flavors of the evening.

The mood in the hall was exuberant as 3,000 Democrats filled the room ("Isn't this where they hold the auto show?" Senator Obama joked at the beginning of his speech). At one point, as Senator James Webb was describing "how honored I am to speak to you not as your candidate, but as your senator," he thanked the crowd and called us his "margin of victory" (though he won by nearly 10,000 votes when all the counting was over).

Senator Obama was certainly the highlight of the evening, but I also had the chance to meet S.R. Sidarth, the original "Macaca" who was the target of former Senator George Allen's scorn that fateful day he uttered that word (Virginia thanks you, Senator Allen, and Mr. Sidarth as well for being there to capture the whole thing on tape).

Iraq activism update

For those of you for whom bringing our troops home safely from Iraq is a top priority, you might be interested to know that we've scheduled a screening of Patricia Foulkrod's documentary, The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War for our next meeting day, Thursday, February 15 February 22 (time and location TBA). An important part of educating people about the Iraq war is to show them the situation on the ground as it is experienced by the heroes serving there.

Along the same vein, you might also like to know that Democracy for America and True Majority are co-sponsoring a week-long screening of The War Tapes (pictured above), a similar documentary. No events are currently scheduled for Richmond, but you can help change that by signing up to host a screening. If you do, e-mail us at blog@vcuyd.org, and we'll add it to our calendar.

Update (2/13): The meeting and screening have been postponed until next Thursday due to lack of room availability in the commons. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Update (2/17): DFA has generously provided us with 'The War Tapes' on DVD, so we will be watching that instead. They have also provided us with postcards to write our representatives.

Block the vote

Jess & I just came back from a General Assembly House of Delegates subcommittee meeting that nixed a bill relating to the voting rights of college students. I wish I had recorded the exchange that took place, but basically it went something like this:

Delegate A: The Constitution says we should treat all people equally, including college students.

Delegate B: But what if college students actually voted?

Delegate C: Students should not be able to vote because they don't pay taxes.

Huh? Last time I checked, students do pay taxes: sales taxes and income taxes especially come to mind. But what tripped up Delegate C (Delegate David Albo, unfortunately from my former home district in West Springfield) was that a student could potentially register to vote in a different locality than their car was registered. So? That's no different from any other adult over age 18. It's the state's responsibility to enforce tax law, and there's no reason to deny someone the basic right to vote.

Concern was also raised about out-of-state students, but another piece of legislation allows the state to compare voter rolls with other states to avoid double voting. Again, no different than other adults.

Delegate B was worried about – get this – college students actually voting. Falling back on an unfair stereotype, he was afraid that some fraternity could hold a kegger and get a bunch of their friends together to register to vote (if only that were true) and actually get someone elected to city council (the horror!).

It's discrimination and disenfranchisement pure and simple. No, Virginia, voting rights aren't important here.

Welcome

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