Very impressive. I like the logo and the feel of the site, and I love the message. The site does indeed look young and progressive. These guys clearly rock the house.

It looks like they are planning podcasts. Is this true? Geeks like me need some good, local political content to listen to while running. And not the machine-read VC Star podcasts (thanks for trying, but they are unlistenable).

Keep up the good work YPD!

Mark
http://conejovalleydemocrat.wordpress.com/

Thanks for the post, Brian. Yes there is a Young Republicans of Ventura County group and they appear to be pretty financially successful for a young political group, or so their FPPC MidYear statement reports.

Yes we will be doing videos and podcasts and Brian Mack was the genius maker of that site, so send kudos along to him on his blog.

Any suggestions or comments, send them along to YPDofVC@gmail.com.

Thanks again,

Heather

Looks like VC is turning from Red to Blue!

Go get them kids. It is about time the Dems are active in our community. The right wing nuts need to get out of town now that they have destroyed the Republican Party nationally.

Surfs up. See you at the pier.

I would hardly say that 49% of the Senate and 46% of the House is a "destroyed" party . . . What did you think of the Democratic Party after '94?

Owen, when the Rep. Gov. says the party is failing and registration is dropping by the hundreds of thousands and both Houses are in the hands of the Dems, I would say the party is failing.

Owen,

Not to gang up...really...but have you seen the most recent registrations for Ventura County, specifically in the 24th CD and 19th SD? The gap is closing, in part due to people registering as DTS but also people straying from the Republican party.

Although, what ARE the Dems in the House and Senate getting done???

Do we care nothing for precision in language?? Yes, the Republicans suffered losses, but of a small magnitude. That hardly qualifies as "destroyed." Moreover, you said that the party has been "destroyed" nationally, and then Heather cites me local statistics. Ignoring that disconnect, the shift in voter registration may be due simply to changing demographics.

I know plenty of Republicans, and they're all dissatisfied with the Party leadership because they're not holding true enough to the central principles. In essence, they're mad because they're not Republican enough, quite the opposite of what you're implying.

Heather, I feel your pain. We held Congress and the White House, and our politicians didn't do much to please us either. It just goes to show that politicians, no matter the party, are more or less the same . . .

That is just logic to turn young people away from using government to solve problems.

Some, but not many, problems can be helped by government.

The Young Progressive Democrats of Ventura County are really focused on LOCAL statistics until the local dynamics have changed, then we will move outward.

I think that problems can be helped by government; however, until defunct and corrupt leadership on both sides of the political party system is reformed, that isn't going to happen. That is locally, regionally and nationally.

Brian, you should post a story about how the two top GOP supporters of the electoral college reform initiative backed out...hmmm, I wonder why. And, you should put stuff up about the initiative to change term-limits....the beloved Dantona won't stand a chance if term limits pass. How about the fact that FPPC reports large contributions from Blue Cross of California to the Democratic Party -- isn't it a conflict of interest to support universal health care and then take large contributions from health insurance companies?

My point is that young people understand that government is vital to solving problems but only if the political parties stop being so shady -- on both sides. Our mission is to build leaders within the Democratic Party based on what is right for the country, not the current Party line (quote: Brian Mack).

Heather,

You sound like you might be a prospect for CAPC membership.

Brian Mack for President of this organization. This gal leaves a trail of enemies everywhere she goes.

KeithJai Sun SpriArt -- you are my only enemy and you won't even insult me using your real name!

I have no enemies and I am not the one running against Brian Mack.

Seriously, you need to grow up and stop attacking people for speaking their minds. If you want to support Brian Mack, how about fessing up your real name, paying young dem membership dues (of course, you have to be a democrat for that) and coming to a meeting.

Sorry Brian (Dennert)...I just realized that we never really answered your question on what projects we are working on.

1) County-wide school outreach: we are starting Democratic clubs in every college and high school in the county. In the ones that already have a club, we are partnering with them and providing the resources they need to be more successful in terms of cultivating leaders on campus. We also are offering internships for doing statistical polling on and around campus, every semester.

2) Getting youth involved through fun yet political activism: we combine a fun activity with a piece of political activism. So, we had a SICKO movie night...we went out to dinner, saw SICKO and signed petitions in support of Universal Health Care. Through this we have an active membership list of over 800 people.

3) Community education: we provide an open forum for issues and candidates to come and speak and we have meet-ups around things people are really concerned about, like our meeting on Rocketdyne, our presidential candidates discussion, etc.

4) Charity: we are beginning to look at organizing drives for charity. We have done a food drive, we have begun organizing a fundraising event for SIDS, and we continue to look at other ways to put our Democratic values into action.

Have I made enemies with those projects? We also take other projects under our wing, such as an Economic Refugee project and others that our membership are involved in.

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

"government is not part of the solution, but part of the problem"

You are right, some things can be helped by the government, at least as it is structured now. Defense and the enforcement of contracts come to mind - and, as you stated, not much more.

"Our mission is to build leaders within the Democratic Party based on what is right for the country, not the current Party line"

I don't understand what that means. If you pay no mind to the party's principles, why are you in that party? Are you just using them for money and organization?

Sorry Owen, when I said that I meant that while we hold the values and principles of Democrats and Progressives, we don't always cow-tow to what Party Leadership tries to mandate. Oftentimes, it is anti-Democratic when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it.

For instance, we don't endorse candidates just because they are Democrats, like typical Democratic clubs do. Many of our members are very upset with people like Dianne Feinstein right now and other Democrats in the area refer to that as an "unwarranted criticism" JUST because she is a Democrat. We actually put our principles and values above political party affiliation.

And, I pray I never hear the words "I am from the government and I am here to help"...our government needs reform but our Political Parties needs reform before we can get to that. I seriously sometimes wonder how it got this way.