To start, I’m flattered to be asked for my help like this; I really appreciate it. However, there are far more qualified people to ask than I. Perhaps the Student Government of the college has an official “historian” or someone well-versed in writing constitutions. I’m very confident there’s plenty of help to be found on the campus itself.

Regardless, I’m more than happy to offer my help. In this instance, however, there isn’t a formula for producing a perfectly polished document. Writing a bullet-proof constitution for an organization is inherently a very customized task, one that needs to be fine-tuned to the organization’s needs and goals. I can’t possibly pretend to offer any truly targeted advice for an organization I’m not a member of. It’s a personal journey, and with time, any group that cares enough can pen the guidelines for a system they care about.

There are some basic guidelines to follow, for sure. For example, you must define all of your terms, layout your articles logically, and keep the document internally consistent. This doesn’t even come close to scratching the surface. I recommend learning by example.

My two favorite constitutions are United States Constitution and (selfishly) the Dover High School Student Council Constitution. The former document has guided our nation to where it is today, arguably, very successfully. The latter document was written over the span of a year by seven different people and has since been easily amended twice. Every sentence, article, and punctuation mark was placed where it was for a reason. If you reverse-engineer both of these examples, you’ll learn more than enough to do a great job.

Look those two documents over, read up for advice on Google, and never be afraid to take your time. Rushing something as fundamental as a constitution will only lead to problems down the road.

And finally, good luck!

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This is a repost of my second blog post for the New Media, New Politics? class I’m taking this semester at Tufts. I voice concerns in this post that should be keeping Americans awake at night.

Remember, the class requires posts that essentially discuss other blogs’ actions and reactions in the political arena, which is why I link to many different sites and write in an unorthodox format. Nonetheless, I feel the content is useful.

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In recent weeks, the left-of-center blogs’ primary focus was to progress their political agenda by helping elect candidates who support their values. It’s easy to forget that they’re still able to write dozens of posts a day during non-election season. The last few days have been a partial taste of that phenomena, grouped around the looming bailout of US financial firms on their last legs.

Regardless of where one stands on the Bush administration’s proposed measures, most can agree that they’re unprecedented. Headed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, now a household name, the Bush administration is proposing a bailout in the amount of $700 billion. This sum may or may not faze you, but it certainly has some left-of-center bloggers up in arms.

The Democracy Now! blog, a popular liberal blog based on the prominent liberal radio program of the same name, quoted Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders yesterday:

For years now, they’ve told us that we can’t afford — that the government providing healthcare to all people is just unimaginable; it can’t be done. We don’t have the money to rebuild our infrastructure. We don’t have the money to wipe out poverty. We can’t do it. But all of a sudden, yeah, we do have $700 billion for a bailout of Wall Street.

After coming across that quote on the Democracy Now! blog, I was surprised when it wasn’t reposted on one of our canon left-of-center blogs. Who better to advocate the ideology and goals of the left-of-center blogs than the first self-described socialist to be elected to the U.S. Senate?

Even considering spiking oil prices, the McCain campaign’s lies and Mr. Obama’s access to the media, the Bush Administration’s proposal is the most urgent news story of the week. If you’re not yet convinced, the devil is in the details.

At least one left-of-center blogger flushed out these details today. Ezra Klein writes a detailed post on the “five worst problems with the bailout bill“. Although his criticisms are too detailed to properly quote here, Mr. Klein’s focus is the bill’s implementation. The attacks range from the economic principles the bill evokes to mend the crisis, to its giving Mr. Paulson “almost unlimited power with virtually no oversight” on his journey.

After taking a few minutes to read Mr. Klein’s post, you may still wonder why I claim this issue supersedes anything else involved in the Presidential election this week. Simply put, the economic effects of this proposed legislation will be felt for decades, and like many other legacies of the Bush Administration, it is precedent-setting. It fundamentally changes the power of the Treasury Secretary, a position appointed by the President. Even if we could assume 100% trust in Mr. Paulson, no one can predict the potential ethics violations and financial exploits of future Presidential appointees.

It’s safe to assume that the bailout will dominate press coverage for several days. It remains to be seen to what extent Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain will get in on the hoopla for political gain.

Returning to my sense of urgency, I hope that either or both candidates use their political clout to derail the fast-track this proposed legislation is on right now. If this legislation passes “as is”, we may be left wondering what happened to the principle of checks and balances that our founding fathers held so dear.

Speaking of classes, I’m taking six this semester (calculus, physics, engineering graphics, philosophy, computer science, and an unorthodox politics class). As time goes on, I’ll give some more details.

My favorite class this semester, by far, is a course I’m taking called New Media, New Politics?

The premise of the class is to monitor prominent online blogs’ coverage of the 2008 Presidential election and write blog posts tracking changes, themes, or interesting elements of those blogs’ coverage. Needless to say, add politics and social media together and I’m captivated.

I fully encourage you to subscribe to the class blog. You may learn something. So far, I’ve written one post, but I’ll be writing many more in the weeks ahead, especially as we get closer and closer to the election.

Yesterday, I went to a Barack Obama rally in Hew Hampshire with the Tufts for Obama group. It may have been one of the greatest days of my life. I was fortunate to finally see Barack in person, something I’ve wanted for a long time (2004, actually).

He gave a very different speech on Saturday – a speech that aligns with his new aggressive advertising strategy. Although it’s not a mandatory watch, I highly recommend 17:00 minutes and onward, with special emphasis on 30:15-31:50.

After the rally, I canvassed in New Hampshire, which was a lot of fun. There’s a lot of work to be done to get Barack elected, so if you haven’t yet, register to vote and get involved as much as you can. We can do this.