In groundbreaking news, President Barack Obama will be joining the blogosphere with his new website, change.gov. When the President of the United States has his own blog, you know that internet blogging is a big deal. Instead of the yearly state-of-the-union address, we can now look forward to more regular updates on his personal website. I don’t know whether he is going to be writing it himself (I’d imagine he is mighty busy) but it is still a huge breakthrough in the way that politics, the government, and media interact.

It’s my own personal belief that the internet is the leading democratic institution out there. Anyone can find an outlet for their opinion and a forum for their interests. It’s very cheap to publish, and inexpensive to use, so it opens the doors wide open for anyone and everyone to take part. As witnessed by Obama’s super-successful grassroots campaign, he is a master at reaching out to the public in a way that they can relate to. Hopefully change.gov will not be the last of its kind.

Welcome to the Blogosphere, President Barack Obama!

The findings of the survey are super surprising. Despite the fact that 74% of students polled say that there is diversity on their campus, the findings show that two thirds of students reported incidents of harassment and use of racial slurs on campus in the last year.  For more on our findings read our full report on Prejudice on Campus.

This points to an unfortunate truth on college campuses and across the nation in general: diversity does not necessarily lead to tolerance. Although we live in a multicultural nation, people’s attitudes, perceptions, and tolerance of others’ differences can be downright intolerable.

This survey couldn’t have come at a more poignant time, as the country undertakes a presidential election that may indeed elect the first African-American president. Although most students said that race would not affect their vote, the number of non-white respondents who said that race did matter in their vote was double that of white respondents. These findings may contradict what some reporters are speculating might be a Bradley Effect, where white voters say they will vote for a black candidate, but on election day switch their vote to the white candidate.

This last Wednesday, on “The Daily Show with John Stewart”, John Stewart poked fun at these predictions by speculating that Barack Obama, who is of mixed race, may not know who to vote for come election day: “Your white half will all of a sudden decide, ‘I can’t do this’.” Obama certainly seemed amused at the idea that he might secretly wish to vote for McCain. If you want to see if the survey predicts your vote, read our report on Prejudice on Campus.

Kudos to all of you who filled out this groundbreaking survey, but don’t let your voice end here. Go out on November 4th and VOTE!

After months of scrutinizing the Obama campaign for his association with political activist Bill Ayers, now Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of University of Idaho is the one who has found herself stuck in the middle of a social networking scandal.

Ivy league educated Alaskan Sen. Ted Stevens was convicted yesterday after being charged with seven felonies for lying on financial disclosure forms, and could face a maximum of 35 years in jail. He is 84 years old, and is the most senior Republican Senator.

I actually had the opportunity to meet Stevens multiple times in the summer of 2004. I grew up in Alaska and I had a student internship Washington, D.C. for the other Alaskan Sen., Lisa Murkowski. I remember meeting him in his office and being shocked at his appreciation for taxidermy paired with the general vibe of hostility that I got while being there.

My opinion of him only solidified when I saw clips of him referring to the internet as simply a “series of tubes” (um… what?!) in 2006, but, we’ve had ourselves some ignorant politicians before, so even that is forgivable.

What’s not forgivable is the hypocrisy of Alaskan Republican politicians, like Palin and Stevens. Palin’s claim to fame is that she is a “reformist,” and she is constantly attacking Obama for who he has associated with in the past. But, here she is, honoring a relationship with someone was convicted for corruption!

Ayers and Obama served on the same panel on an education board at one point, but their ties pretty much stop there. But, it was Stevens whose endorsement helped lead Palin to victory in the 2006 gubernatorial election, and he has said that they have “worked together for a long time.” He spoke in a campaign commercial on her behalf just two years ago, and she served as the director of the “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service” group until as recently as 2005.

Stevens  is adamant about his innocence, is trudging forward, and continues to work to be elected for another term as Senator. Palin refused to comment on whether or not she will vote for Stevens in the upcoming election next week and was hesitant to state that he should resign, which to me reveals her intention to vote for him and her loyalty to her felon friend. Felons can’t vote in the general election, but if reelected next week, Stevens will still hold one of the country’s most powerful leadership positions.

Ted and Sarah. These two popular politicians have made the state of Alaska’s regard for ethics go from powerful to puny.  Who’s “palling around” with the bad guy now, huh Palin?