Slattery makes it Official

Jim Slattery has four stops in Kansas today: Topeka, Overland Park, Kansas City, and Wichita. At each, his speech begins, "My name is Jim Slattery and I am running for the United States Senate."

Slattery's reason for candidacy:

• The future of our economy is unstable and uncertain.
• Our reliance on foreign oil has created a national security crisis -- and a budget crisis for Kansas families.
• And our nation is engaged in a tragic and costly war.

The bulk of Slattery's words focused his statement, "We can do better. We must do better." Unlike many politicians, only three simple promises were made:

• I will be an independent voice for Kansas in the U.S. Senate
• I will always put the people of Kansas ahead of any political party.
• And, I will use every ounce of God-given energy and strength to address the problems facing our country.

Slattery contests incumbent Pat Roberts, a career politician who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee and is responsible for U.S. military involvement in Iraq.

Support Veterans' Education Benefits Today

Today, over one hundred Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans will converge on Capitol Hill in a call for immediate legislative action to pass the "Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act," a bill that will expand the educational benefits for the men and women who serve in our military receive. Please join them virtually by signing a petition supporting the bill and take action online to help it pass

Dear YD,

As both a student and a veteran, I know first hand how important veterans' benefits, especially educational benefits, are to our service men and women coming home from overseas.
Educational support not only keeps our military strong, it also helps our nation fulfill the promise we make to always stand by every man and woman who puts on the uniform in service to our nation.

Unfortunately, the way we currently dispense educational benefits to veterans is based on a law designed for peace-time service - a law that insufficiently handles all the veterans currently serving in wartime - and does not provide adequate support to those who are lucky enough to receive it.

Please join me in supporting a new bill being offered by Congressman Harry Mitchell (D-AZ) and Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) to modernize the way our country provides educational assistance to our veterans: "The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act."
The education of our nation's veterans is a cost of war.

Sign the petition today to support a 21st Century GI Bill.

After World War II our nation began offering educational assistance to millions of returning veterans, helping their transition to private life through the "G.I. Bill." Returning veterans received assistance paying for their books, fees, tuition, training costs and other important expenses. This educational investment helped educate a generation of heroes, but that wasn't all it did. The WWII G.I. Bill sparked tremendous economic growth and expansion, provided opportunities to millions who otherwise may have not been afforded them, and strengthened our families, our communities, and our nation.

For less than the cost of fighting in Iraq for one week, this legislation significantly expands educational benefits to our veterans and has the potential to strengthen our economy when it is in desperate need of help.

The 21st Century GI Bill will:

• Make benefits available to all members of the military who have served on active duty since 9/11/2001, including activated reservists and National Guard.
• Provide benefits for tuition, housing, and books for up to 36 months of education for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
• Link amount of benefits to amount of time served on active duty.
• Increase amount of time after leaving active duty to collect educational assistance to fifteen years compared to ten.
• Allows additional payments for tutorial assistance as well as licensure and certification tests.
• Create a new program in which the government will agree to match, dollar for dollar, any voluntary additional contributions to veterans from institutions whose tuition is more expensive than the maximum assistance provided.

It is time that we start keeping the promises we give the men and women in uniform. Please support this legislation in any way you can.

Thank you for your support,

Cole Hickman

Chair, Young Democrats of America Veteran's & Military Affairs Caucus
President, Young Democrats of Arizona

Sign the petition today to support a 21st Century GI Bill.

Community Corps

I'm liveblogging from a 3rd district meeting at JCCC about the community corps program. It's a great program to help us reach out to swing voters in our neighborhoods. Lindsay Gentry, Field Organizer for the 3rd district is presenting. The foundation of the program is that each volunteer contacts 25 voters in their neighborhood to talk to them about the upcoming election. 

A little election math:

Research shows that for every 11 voters we contact face-to-face, we produce a vote. The program is designed that we contact each voter 3 times. Therefore

(25 voters x 3 contacts ) / 11 contacts per vote = 6 votes produced!

Everyone who participates has the possibility to produce a solid six votes. That may not seem like a lot, but remember that Gene Rardin won by two votes. You can make the difference. For more information, contact the State Party, your local field organizer, or one of the KYD officers.

Random updates

Hey kiddos, A few things to make you aware of:

Service Opportunity! 

If you're in the Emporia area next week and have some freetime, why not help build a playground? A totally non-partisan group is helping to put together a community playground and is looking for volunteers. This is copied from an email I recieved:

Better yet, get someone who hasn't signed up yet to listen. We are still short of volunteers, about 200 short. And we desperately need volunteers for the morning shifts on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I know, people work for living. But in a community of 25,000+, surely there are folks who would be available to work on a worthwhile project such as ours. I feel comfortable guaranteeing that once people come and work at the site, they'll find they're enjoying themselves so much and discovering how critical they are to this project that they'll volunteer to come back again. What we have to do is get people to come once. Can you help with that? We are at the crunch point. Could you ask one person to volunteer? (One who hasn't volunteered already, of course.) Just one. If everyone asks one person, and half of those sign up, we'll have exceeded our recruiting goals and be in fantastic shape to build this playground.

If you're interested in helping, contact Mike Dorcey at 620-794-3476 for more information. The site is located in Lynn county.

And now for something completely different: 

An Indiana Republican running for Congress made an unusual campaign stop last week at a National Socialist Worker's Party (read: NAZI) birthday celebration for Adolf Hitler. I can't make this stuff up. This is just one of the many reasons we're Democrats. We have souls.

Attack of the Red States!

Jim Slattery and our other races are getting more notice on the national blogs. Check out this piece from Daily Kos on the Kansas and Oklahoma Senate races.

Keith Olbermann: The Commander and Chief Test

Again Olbermann is the man. This gives the absurdity of Sen. Clinton's argument no validity what so ever! We need someone that gives a care about the American people and that will reverse the W Presidency and bring hope and peace to our world once more, that is the true Commander and Chief Test.

Jim Faris

Join the Young Voter Revolution

Slattery denounces Washington incompetence

Jim Slattery finally unveiled his campaign for the U.S. Senate on Saturday, telling a partisan audience that the time had come to end the “breathtaking incompetence” in Washington.

Slattery, a former six-term congressman from Topeka, decried the run-up to the war in Iraq, America’s faulty health-care system, the failure to more aggressively address the environment, and runaway spending that he termed “generational robbery.”